U.S.,EU leaders divided on new sanctions against Russia in hasty meetings

Xinhua) 09:10, March 26, 2022

* Three intensive summits in two days -- U.S. President Joe Biden squeezed his schedule for Thursday and Friday when he rushed to Brussels to shake hands, pose for pictures and tried to coax a display of unity with European partners, but he nonetheless failed to talk them into more sanctions against Russia.

*Despite a seemingly unanimous tone against Russia across such transatlantic partnerships, geopolitical concerns and different interests are at play, making it difficult to balance the demands of various parties.

* Statistics show that currently, over 40 percent of the EU's natural gas and 25 percent of its oil consumption come from Russia -- a reality that makes the EU's following the U.S. ban on Russian energy imports unrealistic, despite mounting pressure from Washington.

BRUSSELS, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Three intensive summits in two days -- U.S. President Joe Biden squeezed his schedule for Thursday and Friday when he rushed to Brussels to shake hands, pose for pictures and tried to coax a display of unity with European partners, but he nonetheless failed to talk them into more sanctions against Russia.

U.S. President Joe Biden attends a press conference at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, March 24, 2022. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

Following the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit and G7 gathering, the summit of the European Council came last on Thursday and continued on Friday, during which the Ukraine crisis was the major focus.

Despite a seemingly unanimous tone against Russia across such transatlantic partnerships, geopolitical concerns and different interests are at play, making it difficult to balance the demands of various parties.

NO NEW SANCTIONS COMING

The European Council summit on Thursday failed to agree on additional sanctions against Russia, despite Biden's presence -- a reflection of different positions among members of the European Union (EU) as they become increasingly wary of consequences of such actions given existing challenges they face due to the Ukraine crisis.

Leaders attend the European Council meeting in Brussels, Belgium, March 24, 2022. (European Union/Handout via Xinhua)

While Biden was busy "showcasing unity" at Thursday's summit, the White House announced new sanctions against the Russian State Duma and a number of what it called "oligarchs" as well as several financial institutions and their leaders.

By contrast, EU leaders, after an exchange of views with the U.S. president on transatlantic cooperation in the context of the Ukraine crisis, concluded that the bloc would not impose more sanctions against Russia.

"The European Union has so far adopted significant sanctions that are having a massive impact on Russia and Belarus, and remains ready to close loopholes and target actual and possible circumvention as well as to move quickly with further coordinated robust sanctions," the bloc said in a press release.

Speaking to reporters ahead of the EU summit, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he did not expect EU leaders to agree on additional sanctions on Thursday, while stressing that the Netherlands would support such extra sanctions.

Acknowledging the massive fallout of existing EU sanctions on Russia, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis cautioned that the EU may also bear the brunt of these sanctions.

"We should be very careful to ensure that any measures we implement do not end up being more painful for European citizens than for Russia," he said ahead of the EU summit.

A staff member hangs a U.S. national flag before U.S. President Joe Biden arrives for the European Council meeting in Brussels, Belgium, March 24, 2022. (Xinhua/Zhang Cheng)

Greece's stance is echoed by Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, who told the press that any possible new sanctions should hit Russia harder than the EU.

"The basic rule is that sanctions must have a much greater impact on the Russian side than on the European side. We don't wage war on ourselves," De Croo noted.

Mitsotakis also pointed out the focus should instead be shifted on the implementation. "We should now focus on making sure that there are no 'leaks' in terms of the implementation of sanctions, that all the countries that are part of this alliance are participating in the sanctions," Mitsotakis said.

Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel also ruled out new sanctions until Russia "crosses another line." "If we want to have new sanctions, we need to have them as a reaction to something," he said.

UNREALISTIC PATH

Although the United States and the EU announced a task force on Friday to reduce Europe's reliance on Russian fossil fuels, several European countries, including Germany, remain reluctant to announce drastic measures against Russia's energy for fear of aggravating supply disturbances.

Various politicians and experts have said the expectation that Europe could cut itself off Russian energy entirely looks too sanguine.

Rutte said that time is needed to diversify European energy imports before a Russian energy import ban could happen.

"It takes weeks or months before you can switch countries like Germany or certain Eastern European countries from Russian oil to different oil supplies. In the case of gas, it takes even longer. Coal could go faster," Rutte said.

Photo taken on Feb. 25, 2022 shows diesel and gasoline prices displayed on a screen at a gas station in Frankfurt, Germany. (Photo by Armando Babani/Xinhua)

Statistics show that currently, over 40 percent of the EU's natural gas and 25 percent of its oil consumption come from Russia -- a reality that makes the EU's following the U.S. ban on Russian energy imports unrealistic, despite mounting pressure from Washington.

"But Biden will have to be wary of making promises his administration can't keep," said U.S. news portal Politico on Monday in an article. "The sheer scale of Europe's gas needs in a market that is already running tight on supply will create a huge hurdle, as will the U.S. government's relatively small influence on short-term issues in the energy markets."

The EU has no realistic path to replace all of the Russian natural gas it needs even if the U.S. boosts exports or other states divert shipments, former Texas industry regulator Ryan Sitton told Sputnik.

Photo taken on March 10, 2022 shows the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia. (Xinhua/Bai Xueqi)

"There's no way to just completely remove Russian gas from the European market -- it makes up far too large of a portion of the amount of gas that they use," Sitton said.

"Western countries could decide to direct their gas to Europe and that will supplant some of the Russian gas but, practically speaking, there's not a realistic way to replace all of it," said Sitton.

(Web editor: Xian Jiangnan, Bianji)
Austin Rankin, sophomore political science major at Northwestern Oklahoma State University, has been named a 2022 Campus Compact Newman Civic Fellow.

Campus Compact is a Boston-based non-profit organization working to advance the public purposes of higher education. The organization's 2022 cohort of Newman Civic Fellows is comprised of 173 students, including Rankin.

"The Newman Civic Fellowship award is about using the strengths of a diverse community to battle political polarization and promote social change," Rankin said. "This is one thing that I hope to do through events involving the various cultural clubs on the Northwestern campus.

"It is through these activities that I plan to open up a dialogue about political polarization, differing cultural attitudes and the importance of appreciating differing opinions."

The Waynoka native is heavily involved with the Northwestern Student Government Association and had a resolution passed unanimously through the SGA Senate recently.

He is also the founder and president of the Collegiate 4-H Club on campus.

"Austin Rankin is emblematic of the kind of student the University is proud to put forth for this type of honor," Dr. Aaron Mason, professor of political science, said. "His commitment in and out of the classroom demonstrates his scholastic abilities as well as his leadership potential. We are confident that his participation as a Newman Civic Fellow Award winner will serve to further express his abilities and talents."

Rankin said he sees the Newman Civic Fellowship as a great opportunity to open a dialogue between different cultural clubs such as the Black Student Union, the Spanish Club and the Native American Student Association. He added that his primary goal is to start a conversation at Northwestern that enables students from all backgrounds to begin understanding and appreciating the different circumstances that unite each other.

"Simply put, progress dies in silence," Rankin said. "My primary objective is to create an atmosphere of honest reflection and open-mindedness at Northwestern."

The Newman Civic Fellowship, named for the late Campus Compact co-founder Frank Newman, is a one-year experience emphasizing personal, professional and civic growth. Through the fellowship, Campus Compact provides a variety of learning and networking opportunities, including a national conference in Boston, Massachusetts, of Newman Civic Fellows in partnership with the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate. The fellowship also provides fellows with access to apply for exclusive scholarship and post-graduate opportunities.

"We are proud to name such an outstanding and diverse group of students Newman Civic Fellows," Bobbie Laur, Campus Compact president, said. "Their passion and resolve to take action on the wide range of issues challenging our neighborhoods and communities is inspiring and deeply needed. We cannot wait to engage with them through this transformative experience."
For over 30 years, the Woods County Economic Development Committee (WCEDC) and the Alva Chamber of Commerce have played host to the Lt. Governors Turkey Hunt. Although several hunts like it are held in Oklahoma, Alva usually has one of the most successful.

On Wednesday, the Alva Tourism Tax Committee was asked for funding to help with the event. Alva Mayor Kelly Parker and WCEDC member Dr. Kay Decker spoke to the committee on behalf of the event, set for April 20-22.

The Covid-19 pandemic caused cancellation in 2020, and attendance was down last year. The attendance is still less than usual but Alva is expecting representatives of 15 entities, some as individuals and some as groups. Not all of them will be hunters. For those who do come to hunt, Alva offers local hunters to guide them. There are also meals at night which are attended by over 100 people.

Staffing for the event is handled through WCEDC and the Alva Chamber with lots of volunteers pitching in. Lt. Gov. Matt Pinnell plans to attend the April 21 dinner after visiting the Woodward hunt being held the same day. The turkey hunt puts people in local hotels for two nights while promoting economic development and showcasing the area.

Connor Martin made a motion to fund the event for up to $2,500, the same amount as last year. Melinda Barton seconded, and the motion passed unanimously. The tourism tax funds are expected to be spent on merchandise and keepsakes for the guests. Other expenses of the event will be paid by sponsorships and $1,200 from the Oklahoma Business Roundtable.

Planning the Budget

Committee Chairman Norville Ritter welcomed Scott Kline to his first meeting. Kline is filling the vacancy left by the passing of Dr. Charles Tucker.

Alva Business Manager Angelica Brady filled in as the secretary for Wednesdays special meeting. She provided figures for this years budget and recommended keeping to the same budget for the next fiscal year beginning July 1. She said revenue was a little shy this year but the committee was on target on expenses.

Parker said hed recommend that the committee members look at goals and consider recruiting the types of events theyd like to see in Alva since some types of tourism are better than others. Decker said she has been working with the citys newly hired grant writer, and they plan to go back two to five years on sales tax collection records for Alva to try to correlate sales tax with tourism events.

That would be awesome, said Ritter.

The committee members voted to approve the same budget as last year of $155,000.

A video of the meeting may be viewed at http://www.AlvaReviewCourier.com.
LIBERTY, Mo. (AP)  A man who runs a little-known, low-budget radio station in suburban Kansas City says he is standing up for free speech and alternative viewpoints when he airs Russian state-sponsored programming in the midst of the Ukrainian war.

Radio Sputnik, funded by the Russian government, pays broadcast companies in the U.S. to air its programs. Only two do so: One is Peter Schartel's company in Liberty, Missouri, and one is in Washington, D.C.

Schartel started airing the Russian programming in January 2020, but criticism intensified after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Schartel said people accuse him and his wife of being traitors to the U.S. and occasionally issue threats. Some critics say he is promoting propaganda and misinformation, but Schartel maintains most people who call to complain haven't listened to the program.

"Some will talk to me, but others will still call me a piece of whatever," he said. "What I am thankful for is we are still living in a country where they can call me up. Even if they aren't thinking about free speech they're exercising that right."

Radio Sputnik is produced by the U.S.-based branch of Rossiya Segodnya, a media group operated by the Russian government.

Its content prompted the National Association of Broadcasters to issue an unusual statement on March 1 calling on broadcasters to stop carrying state-sponsored programming with ties to Russia or its agents.

The statement from NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt said the organization is a "fierce defender" of free speech but that given Russia's unprovoked attack on Ukraine, "we believe that our nation must stand fully united against misinformation and for freedom and democracy across the globe."

During one recent broadcast of "The Critical Hour" that aired on Schartel's KCXL, the hosts and their guests echoed false and unsupported claims about Ukraine's government. They repeated Russian state media lies about the Russian military's attacks on civilian targets and its destruction of entire neighborhoods, as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin's baseless claim that his enemies in Ukraine are Nazis.

The Kansas City Star said in an editorial that Schartel is putting his financial needs above ethics by spreading Russian propaganda.

"Much like the National Association of Broadcasters, we advise KCXL to drop all programming that paints Putin in a positive light. The Russian president is no victim; he is for sure no war hero," The Star wrote.

Schartel acknowledged that he initially accepted the Radio Sputnik contract because he was struggling to keep KCXL afloat. The station operates out of a dilapidated, cluttered building. He said he stopped taking a salary months ago, though he does nearly all the work.

Schartel's Alpine Broadcasting Corp. is paid $5,000 a month to air Radio Sputnik in two three-hour blocks each day, according to a U.S. Justice Department Foreign Agent Registration Act filing in December 2021.

KCXL's other programming includes shows that are heavily religious, offer opinions across the political spectrum and promote conspiracy theories. One program, TruNews, has been criticized by the Anti-Defamation League for spreading antisemitic, Islamaphobic and anti-LGBTQ messages.

Schartel said he airs programs that are not commercially viable and don't depend on advertising, which he contends influences news reporting. He said he is promoting free speech by providing a platform for people who otherwise aren't heard.

Roy Gutterman, director of the Tully Center for Free Speech at Syracuse University, said all radio station owners in the U.S. have a right to air whatever content they want.

"It this station thinks it's going to make a mark in Missouri by playing Radio Sputnik, they have the right to do so," Gutterman said.

The Federal Communications Commission, which regulates licensing of radio and television broadcasts, does not censor content unless it intentionally endangers public safety or is found to be obscene, indecent or profane.

Radio Sputnik listeners hear discussions not only about Russia but also current issues in the U.S. and other countries. The theme throughout the broadcast is that U.S. policies intentionally damage the U.S. and other countries while benefiting other corrupt governments, the rich and big business.

The deal that brought Radio Sputnik to the small Missouri station was brokered by RM Broadcasting, based in Florida, which is run by Anthony Ferolito. He signed a similar deal in 2017 with Way Broadcasting, which agreed to lease WZHF-AM's airtime in Washington, D.C., to RM Broadcasting.

Because of his contracts with Rossiya Segodnya, the Justice Department required Ferolito to register as a foreign government agent in 2018, citing a 1938 law for people lobbying for or acting on behalf of a foreign government. Ferolito lost a lawsuit over the registration.

Ferolito did not return messages from The Associated Press, but RM Broadcasting said in a statement that the company stands with Ukraine and all victims of oppression and aggression. It said RM Broadcasting is dedicated to freedom of speech.

"The public is explicitly notified throughout the broadcast day of the source of the material, so that people can make an informed decision on whether to listen or turn the dial  and that freedom of choice is the ultimate underpinning of our republic," the statement said.

Gutterman, of Syracuse University, noted that state-produced content from countries not friendly with the U.S., including Russia and China, is already available on some cable stations and online, although some providers have dropped Russian content since the war began.

"Modern media has changed the radio landscape we grew up with," he said. "Even if stations drop it, people can find this content."

For his part, Schartel doesn't think the uproar over the Radio Sputnik broadcasts will last.

Russian state-controlled RT America, the television counterpart to Radio Sputnik, closed its U.S. branch this month and laid off most of its staff. Schartel said that likely means his contract won't be renewed when it ends in December.
It seems to me that the point of the super partisan congressional January 6 Commission is to tar former president Donald Trump with inciting a riot (insurrection for the hyperbolic), an issue they raised and lost in the second impeachment battle. Perhaps they hope to persuade the Department of Justice to institute some cooked-up criminal charges against him for his comments on January 6. If Im right about their objective, this week the Supreme Court in a unanimous opinion seems to have dealt them a setback.

The Trump remarks on January 6, 2020

Here are the words in tweets and before an open assembly of his supporters that most set off his political enemies. They are clearly the words of an elected official critical of some other elected officials and urging a legislative remedy.

"States want to correct their votes, which they now know were based on irregularities and fraud, plus corrupt process never received legislative approval. All Mike Pence has to do is send them back to the States, AND WE WIN. Do it Mike, this is a time for extreme courage!"

We will never give up. We will never concede. It doesn't happen. You don't concede when there's theft involved.

He asked the attendees to "walk down" to the Capitol to "cheer on our brave senators." and to "fight like hell" because if they didn't, they wouldn't "have a country anymore." (He did this in the context of an effort to persuade the vice-president to delay the electoral vote count until the legislatures in the contested states could more fully consider the claims of vote fraud).

Trump tweeted Pence "didn't have the courage to do what should have been done."

He called for people to "support our Capitol police and law enforcement." He added that people should "stay peaceful" and that officers are "truly on the side of our country."

"I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order  respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!"

I read these comments to reflect his view -- and that of his supporters -- that the election was lost by fraud and that, it was his belief (right or wrong) that the law permitted the vice-president to delay the vote temporarily to allow legislatures in the contested states to reconsider their electoral votes in the light of new evidence.

You may read these comments otherwise, though I think you would have a hard case to make if you believe these words to be tantamount to encouraging an insurrection or a coup detat.

Houston Community College System v. Wilson

In any event, this week a unanimous Supreme Court in Houston Community College System v. Wilson would seem to present a considerable hurdle to any suggestion that President Trump lacked the right to address his followers, complain about election fraud, and urge a temporary halt to counting the electoral votes. The Volokh Conspiracy is always a worthwhile source of information on constitutional issues. This week Professor Josh Blackman explains on that site the ruling that came down on March 24.

Justice Neil Gorsuch entered the unanimous opinion in the case. He wrote that not only do elected officials retain the right of free speech but that retention is important if they are to carry out the wishes of their constituents.

The relevant facts in that case involved an elected college board member who was often loudly and litigiously at odds with the other members who censured him and, finally, deemed him inappropriate to retain his elected board membership. For procedural reasons relating to the way in which the case reached the Supreme Court, all the Court had before it was the verbal censuring of David Wilson, not the exclusion from office. On the sole issue before them, the Court made clear that just as Wilson had the right to complain of the boards doing, the board had a free speech right to respond with censure.

Our case is a narrow one. It involves a censure of one member of an elected body by other members of the same body. It does not involve expulsion, exclusion, or any other form of punishment. It entails only a First Amendment retaliation claim, not any other claim or any other source of law. The Boards censure spoke to the conduct of official business, and it was issued by individuals seeking to discharge their public duties. Even the censured member concedes the content of the censure would not have offended the First Amendment if it had been packaged differently. Neither the history placed before us nor this Courts precedents support finding a viable First Amendment claim on these facts. Argument and counterargument, not litigation, are the weapons available for resolving this dispute.

The short form precis of this decision is that elected officials are free to criticize each other under the Constitution.

Blackman argues, and the Wilson case supports his contention, that while the First Amendment does not preclude some restraints on the free speech rights of civil servants, the same kind of restraints are simply inapplicable to elected officials. This strikes me as self-evident.

The Court, as I noted, did not deal with the boards exclusion of the offending member from his elected position. But it would be inconsistent to say the board member had a constitutional right to criticize the actions of the other members, and yet allow them to retaliate against him by preventing him from taking office for having exercised that right.

Maybe someone should slip the opinion to the hacks running the January 6 Commission.
Christianity has been intricately intertwined with the history and development of America and greatly contributed to its strength. Judeo-Christian morality, in fact, has been the compass and one of the most powerful influences on Western society. So, the Marxists see Christianity as the main obstacle to overthrowing Westphalian principles of sovereignty. To them, the church is the most crucial institution to conquer to usher in the New World Order. They know that if the churches fail  especially in America, which represents the phenomenal success of capitalism and individualism  the entire culture, including politics, will move to the Left.

Most Americans will be surprised to learn that an unholy crusade to infiltrate the bastions of Christianity and co-opt churches in the revolution began more than a hundred years ago. It is now threatening to gain critical mass.

This danger is the subject of a new film, Enemies Within the Church, produced by Cary Gordon, Trevor Loudon, and Judd Saul. It chronicles the destructive infiltration of the churches and the injection of wokeism -- Marxism, social justice, Critical Race Theory, gender fluidity  into church doctrine. The choir of radical Left ideology, having targeted and gradually co-opted the media, Hollywood, Big Tech, the unions, and the political parties, set its sights on penetrating and controlling the churches, a difficult, long-term endeavor. And, as the film explains, the communists eventually succeeded in penetrating the Bible colleges, seminaries, and pulpits of many denominations to push Christianity in the direction they want.

The two-hour 12-minute movie traces this insidious attack on the churches to as far back as the days of the Bolshevik revolution, when American communists and socialists began plotting to upend the Republic. It attempts to answer the question of how America has devolved from the philosophy of the Founding Fathers  that the individual gives the state the right to exist  to a statist or communist Weltanschauung. It references 20 years of research by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) that determined that Americas strength lay not in its military or its government but in the churches.

In his book Civilization, Niall Ferguson mentions the words of a CASS scholar, We have realized that the heart of your culture is your religion: Christianity. That is why the West has been so powerful. The Christian moral foundation of social and cultural life was what made possible the emergence of capitalism and then the successful transition to democratic politics. The Chinese rightly concluded that the Bible is anti-Marxist and anti-statist, and to destroy America from within, the infiltration of the church was essential.

America was founded on Mosaic Law, which G-d gave the Israelites through Moses. A key concept deriving from this is that human rights come directly from the Creator to the people, who can choose government representatives to protect these rights. As Mosaic law established the principles that the Jews could do anything not specifically denied to them, the new American government, which codified the Ten Commandments into its Constitution, applied that principle to the idea that individual states can do anything not specifically denied to them.

The film cites the first attempt to transform the church, initiated by a Communist group founded in 1907  the Methodist Federation for Social Action, whose purpose was to redirect the focus of the church to the suffering of the working class. The organization supported labor unions, tarred capitalism as unchristian and advocated an economic system based on central planning. It also spoke for the erasure of privilege and discrimination based on class or group identity.

The film also exposes another influential subversive  Dr. Joseph Fletcher, a graduate of the Berkeley Divinity School and a self-proclaimed democratic socialist who taught at the Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, MA, and the Harvard Divinity School from the mid-1940s to the seventies. His work in the church centered on social justice and workers rights. Fletcher helped establish Planned Parenthood, the Soviet-American Friendship Society, and the Society for the Right to Die. He became a leader in the field of bioethics, which he used to justify abortion and euthanasia. In 1966, contrary to church doctrine and teachings, he wrote Situation Ethics, advancing the idea that there is no fixed morality, morality depends on the situation or circumstances  a justification for abandoning the Bible. He was one of the most influential pastors in the U.S. and actively supported the Communist Party USA (CPUSA)  the main Soviet front of the day. He transformed the church to accept the idea that ethics are flexible, and eventually abandoned Christianity for atheism.

The film also details another major subversion achieved by the communists  the radical transformation of the conservative Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA. Through the 1970s, infiltrators succeeded in changing the institutions focus from understanding and communicating the Bible to changing social structures supplanting the fundamentals of the Christian faith with Neo-Evangelism or direct engagement with the culture.

Another selling out of the Gospel documented in the film is the 1973 Chicago Declaration on Evangelical Social Concern, signed by 53 evangelicals, among them Carl F.H. Henry, Frank Gaebelein, Jim Wallis, John Perkins, Rich Mouw, and Ron Sider. The declaration attacked the materialism of American culture and the maldistribution of the nations wealth and services. It called for the rebalancing of trade and international inequities, the rethinking of American values, and the equitable redistribution of resources. If that sounds familiar, it is because its an early version of what the social justice warriors demand today.

Enemies Within the Church features interviews with traditional theologians who are befuddled and angered by the move away from Biblical justice, defined by G-d, to social justice, defined by man. They are taken aback by the representation of Jesus as a socialist. They say that while G-d holds us accountable for our moral choices and actions as individuals, social justice warriors demand our accountability for the actions of our government and for overall fairness and equitable outcomes in society. They note that pastors now liberally use terms like intersectionality, critical race theory, and white privilege and have brought BLM into the church.

Today, seminaries typically teach that what is central to understanding G-d in America is race, because racism is central to America. As one theologian put it, the Church has swapped the Biblical vision for a just society with a humanistic, relativistic, false gospel  changing the truth into a lie. Race reconciliation, liberation theology, the concept of a White Jesus  these were never a part of Christianity. Instead of all people being created in the image of G-d, accountable for their own sins, the social justice gospel harangues Americans that designated groups bear responsibility for the sins or actions of individuals.

The subversion of the Church has meant that religious terms have been redefined and recontextualized. The film shows how seminaries have now become places to deconstruct Christian truth, thereby leading people away from G-d and Christ. One heretical doctrine thats gaining ground  antinomianism  claims that Christians are exempt from the obligations of the Ten Commandments and that feelings are more significant than facts. Churches are now embracing LGBTQ in contravention of Christian doctrine and pastors are even repenting for past Biblical positions that rejected homosexuality. Traditional clerics maintain that without the law of G-d to lean on, situationalism fills the void: right and wrong are decided not by ethics but by the cynical evaluation of the potential consequences of a decision.

The creators of Enemies Within the Church present a scenario in which Christianity has been deconstructed and subverted to facilitate the takeover of the nation. Shorn of its moral teachings, the Church now hardly resembles what it once was. But there is hope. Networks of pastors are organizing to contest what is happening on the nations pulpits and in its seminaries and religious colleges. The film is an attempt to strengthen their resolve and grow the ranks in the fightback to restore Christianity  and thus the nation  to its original and intended form.
When leftists used to say George W. Bush was loose-cannon cowboy, the defense was that, if true, it kept the worlds bad guys off balance. In 2022, we must ask whether Joe Bidens dementia persona does the same thing. Is he lost in the dim recesses of his own mind, leaking secret plans, or just bloviating? That question came to the fore in Poland, when Biden threatened Putin. The instant White House walk-back must still have left Putin wondering.

The occasion for this outburst was a speech that Biden gave at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland. The speech got off to a good start, with the speechwriter cleverly using the Warsaw venue to quote Pope John Paul II and his statement, Be not afraid and laud Solidaritys and Lech Walesas role in ending the Soviet Union. Then it got silly when Biden said, It reminds me of that phrase of philosopher Kierkegaard: [F]aith sees best in the dark. No one believes that Biden has ever thought about Kierkegaard.

Days after warning of food shortages, Biden explained, This battle will not be won in days or months either. We need to steel ourselves for the long fight ahead. Joe Bidenprophet of doom.

Image: Biden in Warsaw (edited). YouTube screen grab.

Laughably, Biden said that, despite the Cold Wars end, the battle continues against the forces of autocracy: Its hallmarks are familiar ones: contempt for the rule of law, contempt for democratic freedom, contempt for the truth itself. Strange words from the most corrupt man ever to occupy the office, a compulsive liar, and the president under whom the January 6 detainees have languished for over a year in jail, without bail or functional access to attorneys.

Biden spoke of Zelenskys Jewishness. However, Zelensky, while his grandfather was a Holocaust survivor and he lost ancestors to the Holocaust, is genetically Jewish only. He admits that his upbringing was not Jewish, he married a non-Jewish woman, and his children are Christian. Nothing wrong with any of that but theres strong evidence hes no friend to Jews or Israel, so lets not pretend. Ukraine's protection does not depend on Zelensky's faux-Jewish identity.

The speech went on and on, with Cold War platitudes, half-truths, self-aggrandizement, and boasts about destroying Russias economy and stealing the private wealth of Russian citizens, even though America is not at war with Russia. As a result of these unprecedented sanctions, the ruble almost is immediately reduced to rubble.

There was the creepy echo of Bidens story about the kids playing with his hairy legs: I didnt have to speak the language or understand the language to feel the emotion in their eyes, the way they gripped my hand, and little kids hung on to my leg....

And of course, he yelled, mumbled, and stumbled. Grandpa Simpson was on full display.

Biden wrapped up the speech by touting clean energy, ignoring (a) that Biden has been begging Iran, Venezuela, and the Saudis for their dirty energy and (b) that there will never be enough clean energy to go around as long as leftists reject nuclear energy.

Then, just when he seemed finally to be done speaking, Biden casually threw in a spontaneous threat to overthrow or even assassinate Putin: For Gods sake, this man cannot remain in power.

So is regime change in Russia the official policy of the U.S. government?  Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 26, 2022

Once again, the call went out: Clean up in Aisle Biden! Almost instantly, a White House official rushed out the announcement that The Presidents point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. He was not discussing Putins power in Russia, or regime change.

From a White House official after Biden's speech: The Presidents point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. He was not discussing Putins power in Russia, or regime change.  Tarini Parti (@tparti) March 26, 2022

WARSAWPresident Biden appeared to call for Vladimir Putins ouster in a speech Saturday, saying the Russian presidents invasion of Ukraine had ignited a new battle for freedom between democracies and autocracies.https://t.co/Bl6lY03lcS  Tarini Parti (@tparti) March 26, 2022

According to Mika Brzezinski, a woman who inspiringly proves that stupidity and lack of character are no bar to success in America, Bidens confused and confusing outburst proves hes another Reagan:

Like Reagan, Biden Is keeping tyrants guessing.  Mika Brzezinski (@morningmika) March 26, 2022

Normal people, though, ask whether Biden was speaking from a place of dementia, revealing state secrets, or just messing with Putin. The problem is that there is no good answer to any of those questions. Ultimately, while its in the best interests of the combatants, the Ukrainian people, and world stability and freedom from famine to end the war quickly, Biden seems to be heaping coals on the fire:

Russia is trying to end the war in Ukraine as quickly as possible.



Washington is trying to prolong and enlarge it and involve more people in it.



Which one of these poses a greater threat to Americans?  Pedro L. Gonzalez (@emeriticus) March 26, 2022

No country in history has ever fared well with an insane or a dangerously senescent leader at the helm. Will America really be any different?
In 2006, Saad Gaya-- and more than a dozen other radical Islamists planned to detonate bombs throughout Toronto, Canadas largest city. Blessedly, the plot was foiled in a national security operation. Gaya was arrested while unloading what he believed to be ammonium nitrate for making truck bombs. The al-Qaeda-inspired plot was purportedly to target the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Parliament, Canadas spy agency, and a military base, among other venues. Gaya and his accomplices planned to take political hostages. And behead various Canadian leaders including the Prime Minister.

In 2009, Gaya pleaded guilty to the commission of an offense for a terrorist group. He was sentenced to serve 18 years in prison. However, he was released on parole after only 10 years, finishing his sentence in 2020. Not bad for a guy that was involved with a plot to blow up bombs all over a metropolis of 6.2 million souls and decapitate its leaders.

And today? The Law Society of Ontario has decided to allow the convicted terrorist to become a licensed lawyer! You read that right. How could this happen, a sane person might ask? Well, the Law Societys Tribunal decided he was presently of good character, finding him eligible to become a lawyer based on its assessment of his remorse and conduct since his offense. The Tribunal stated, Clients, and our society as a whole, will benefit from Mr. Gaya becoming a lawyer. Well, I guess its preferable to him blowing up Toronto and beheading Canadian leaders.

Ironically, Gaya embarked on his legal career shortly after leaving prison, and recently graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School at York University. He is currently listed as an articling student with the firm St. Lawrence Barristers LLP. (Articling is a professional rite of passage for junior lawyers, a job akin to a practicum position. It's an opportunity for them to hone their skills before starting practice.)

Gaya is obviously a great guy who only brieflyand in his youth, mind youflirted with blowing places up and beheading people. I mean, give him a break, its not like he walked through the Capitol Building or something.

Or misgendered someone. There oughta be a law!

For the good of society, lets hope he doesnt bomb as a lawyer.

Photo credit: YouTube screengrab
Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson could not define the word "woman" while under questioning recently from Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.). This led Blackburn to quote the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's majority opinion in U.S. v. Virginia: "Supposed inherent differences are no longer accepted as a ground for race or national origin classifications. Physical differences, between men and women, however, are enduring. The two sexes are not fungible. A community made up exclusively of one sex is different from a community composed of both." After reciting this, Blackburn asked Jackson, "Do you agree with Justice Ginsburg that there are physical differences between men and women that are enduring?"

Jackson  clearly struggling with this eternal puzzler  replied: "Um, senator, respectfully, I am not familiar with that particular quote or case, so it's hard for me to comment."

Blackburn then asked Jackson, "Can you provide a definition for the word 'woman'?"

To this, Jackson responded, "Can I provide a definition? No. I can't."

Blackburn: "You can't?"

Jackson: "Not in this context. I'm not a biologist."

This is as if Jackson had been asked if she could provide a definition for the word "tractor" and answered: "No. I'm not a farmer." Or if she had been queried, "Can you give us a definition for the word 'pants'?" and replied: "No. I'm not in the apparel industry."

Worse, actually, because Jackson is a woman. This, as President Biden himself stated, is one of the two main reasons why she was nominated.

In the interest of comity and clarity, I hereby offer several clues that you are likely a woman:

*You possess breasts and a vagina

*You urinate while sitting down

*You have given birth

*You like to shop at Target

*You watch the Hallmark Channel frequently

*You have been hit on by Bill Clinton

*You know the difference between ecru and beige

*You often use the term "patriarchy"

Just kidding about a couple of those, ladies. But seriously, as I've often stated, if we get to the point where we can no longer determine what a man or a woman is, we are not long for this world.

Rather than face that conclusion, we should return to Genesis: "Male and female He created them."

That we can no longer recognize this first  and most basic  of all facts does not render it less true.

Image via Libreshot.
The U.S. State Department is not yet prohibiting American citizens from going overseas, but its advice regarding international travel generally discourages visits to foreign countries and makes absurd categorizations regarding which countries are least safe to visit.

In preparation for the next leg of a solo motorcycle trip around the world, I pulled up a State Department map that categorizes where overseas travel is most "problematic."

My motorcycle is currently in Greece, and the plan for 2022 is to loop around the entirety of the Mediterranean basin before heading south into Africa from Morocco. I hoped the map would highlight the countries that I should most carefully research before entering, but what I discovered is that the State Department's attitude regarding foreign travel is that it really shouldn't be done. Virtually nowhere is safe, it seems, if it is not within our national borders.

Here is a screen shot of the map:

This image is so small that it is hard to identify individual countries, but if you open up this URL, you will be able to view this same map at full-screen size.

The legend in the upper right of the map identifies four different colors that specify the level of risk associated with each individual country by assigning one of the following colors:

Cream = low risk, referred to as "Exercise Normal Precaution"

Yellow = moderate risk, referred to as "Exercise Increased Caution"

Orange = high risk, referred to as "Reconsider Travel"

Red = excessive risk, referred to as "Do Not Travel"

There are only three countries in the whole wide world that the State Department deems as safe and as low risk as the United State  and they are Senegal in West Africa, Rwanda in Middle Africa, and Djibouti in East Africa. Three other African countries get categorized as low risk (Togo, Angola, and Zambia), but they are compromised by a cross-hatching that indicates that certain internal regions require increased caution. But that is it; those six African countries are the only ones that the State Department identifies as low-risk. No countries in Asia, Latin America, or even Europe can be visited without worrying about bad things happening.

Well, gosh, it will be nice to visit Senegal, I suppose  but are there no other places in the world where we might travel worry-free?

Let's move up the scale and become a little adventurous. Let's see what is available to us in the way of countries that the State Department considers to be only moderately risky (the countries in yellow).

Oh, my! Now we have an additional ten options! They are the island of Montserrat in the Caribbean; the countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, the Congo Republic, and Namibia in Africa; and the three Asian countries of Kuwait, Nepal, and Bhutan. Unfortunately, even when we've steeled our resolve enough to visit a moderately risky country, there are still very few choices  and none in Europe.

There are over fifty countries in Europe, and the State Department advises you that all but four are no-go zones. Those four are Ireland, Belgium, Slovakia, and Bosnia. Even those four, the State Department claims, are high-risk countries where a prudent traveler should "reconsider" before taking such a daring step.

The world contains roughly 200 countries, but the State Department will have us believe that fewer than twenty are appropriate destinations for the average American. When we have our federal government insisting that virtually the entire world is unsafe for travel, it is hard to believe that such scare-mongering is accidental or unconscious. This is particularly so when we begin to consider some of the ridiculous conclusions one might reasonably arrive at by looking at the map.

Here are some of those absurdities.

A visit to Switzerland is as risky as a visit to Ukraine. A visit to Libya is safer than a visit to Greece.

Even though the ongoing volcanic eruption of Mount Sufriere on tiny Montserrat has forced the permanent displacement of over half the country's residents to off-island locations, that country is one of only four in the world that is as safe as the United States. Much, much safer it is than Canada, which the State Department considers too dangerous to visit.

Africa is the safest continent.

New Zealand  where the death rate from COVID is one of the lowest in the world, where life expectancy is in the top twenty of all countries, where the overall crime rate is below the global average, where natural disasters are relatively rare  is considered by the State Department to be too dangerous to visit.

The point is that the U.S. State Department has no coherent basis upon which it presumes to categorize the level of risk one must expect upon entering any given country. This is not surprising: there is no objective way to compare different types of risks. A pandemic (like COVID) is one thing, political unrest another.

One cannot help but suspect that the State Department is trying to curtail the natural right that all humans have to freedom of movement. Our constitution explicitly guarantees this right to citizens, but it does not and cannot do so for movement beyond the boundaries of the country.

The State Department is like any other bureaucracy: a collection of officials who as individuals exercise greater or lesser amounts of power in specified domains. Power is little more than being able to tell others what to do. The best way to expand that power is to extend the list of activities that are prohibited. For now, the State Department is authorized only to "advise" us about where we should not go, but how long will its power stay there?

Image: njrfalcon1 via Pixabay, Pixabay License.
It was a simpler time, or maybe we always say that when we look back at the past. Back in the spring of 1978, the Yankees went into spring training as the reigning kings, the Dallas Cowboys were Super Bowl champs, and the politics of President Carter was about to hit a wall.

Over on the Billboard Top 100, it was The Bee Gees 24/7. In fact, from Christmas 1977 to May 1978, a song by The Bee Gees was # 1 on the charts. We had not seen this kind of chart domination since The Beatles in 1964. During the streak, their compositions were also recorded and put on top of the world by younger brother Andy.

What made all of this so amazing is that no one expected success like that from Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb, the trio of brothers. After all, the band couldn't buy a hit on U.S. radio just four years earlier. Like the cat with whatever number of lives, the brothers kept recording, releasing, and finding a new audience for their songs.

It was their family story that always appealed to me. They were more than talented musicians. They were brothers who started singing a long time ago, as written by Juliet Bennett Rylah:

Early on, the three brothers showed a strong connection to music, singing in perfect harmony with one another. By the mid-1950s, the boys were borrowing their older sister's records  Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, Tommy Steele  and miming to the music using fake guitars they'd made out of boxes. This hobby would lead to the brothers' very first public performance in 1956 at The Gaumont, a nearby movie theater where children were allowed to pantomime songs on stage before Saturday matinees. The brothers practiced with two neighborhood friends, Paul Frost and Kenny Oricks, calling themselves The Rattlesnakes. Yet just before their big debut, the sound tech dropped and shattered Leslie's record. Though only Barry had a real guitar, they decided their debut would not be thwarted. They went on and sang the song with only Barry's strumming for musical accompaniment. What song it was, exactly, no one can remember, but Robin recalls that the kids in the theater loved it. "We were sort of an instant hit," he said. The theater manager was so impressed that he sent them to another movie house down the street to play the song again. From that moment on, Barry said all the brothers cared about was getting discovered. "It was the feeling of standing in front of an audience that was so amazing. We'd never seen anything like it. We were very young, but it made an enormous impression. We didn't want to do anything else but make music." The brothers renamed themselves Wee Johnny Hays and the Bluecats, and went on to mime and sing more songs in local theaters. When the family decided to emigrate to Australia, Barbara recalled finding the boys performing for their fellow passengers on several occasions over the course of the five-week journey. The Gibbs arrived to their new home in 1958. By this point, the family had grown to include baby Andy Roy, born on March 5 of that same year. While Hugh was making a living in Queensland as a photographer, Barry, Maurice, and Robin made a serendipitous trip down to the Redcliffe Speedway in 1959. Toting along Barry's guitar, they asked permission to play between races. They played their own compositions, which caught the attention of racing driver Bill Goode. Goode contacted his friend, DJ Bill Gates, and told them about the three young songsters.

Eventually, they became The Bee Gees, or Brothers Gibb. They signed with Robert Stigwood and had international hits in 1967 when Barry was 20 and the twins were 18. They wrote ballads like "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart," classics like "To Love Somebody," and super-tunes like "Massachusetts"  and even Elvis recorded "Words," one of their other great compositions. Then they hit the jackpot with the music of "Saturday Night Fever," and that takes us to the spring of 1978.

Only Barry is around these days. Maurice died suddenly in 2003. Robin died of cancer in 2012. Turn on any oldies station, and you are likely to hear one of their songs. I don't know what their songbook is worth, but it will keep generations living well.

Nineteen seventy-eight was a great year to be The Bee Gees and a good one to distract us from gasoline prices and Ukraine.

PS: Click for my videos and podcasts at Canto Talk.

Image via Flickr, public domain.
Lately, when we think about whats happening to Americas military under Biden, weve been focusing on the Pentagons obsessions with race, LGBTQ+++ issues (especially transgenderism), womens rights, and political wrong think (i.e., conservativism). That obsession has consistently put progressive social policy ahead of military cohesion and readiness. However, Jim Webb, who was a Marine infantry officer while in Vietnam, then the Navy secretary under Ronald Reagan and, lastly, a Virginia senator during the Obama years, has written an op-ed about a different concern: The potentially damaging, purely operational changes Marine commandment Gen. David Berger intends to impose on the Corps.

Webb raises the issues in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece. Bergers proposed changes including (1) eliminating infantry battalions, (2) reducing the number of Marines in the remaining battalions, and (3) eliminating two reserve-component battalions, 16 cannon artillery battalions (to be replaced by 14 rocket artillery battalions), all of the Marine Corps tanks, and multiple tilt-rotor, helicopter, and attack helicopter squadrons.

From the outside looking in, that seems like a very significant force reduction. It turns out that this isnt just an uninformed lay persons perception. Marines are also worried about Bergers plans:

Among Marines there are serious questions about the wisdom and long-term risk of dramatic reductions in force structure, weapon systems and manpower levels in units that would take steady casualties in most combat scenarios. And it is unclear to just about everyone with experience in military planning what formal review and coordination was required before Gen. Berger unilaterally announced a policy that would alter so many time-honored contributions of the Marine Corps.

The thing about the Marines is that theyre meant to be an all-purpose fighting force that can move quickly and go anywhere and do anything, fighting both on land and at sea. According to Webb, though, Bergers unilateral decision-making will dramatically reduce the Marines unusual flexibility, turning them into a sort of generic, low-level fighting force associated with the Navy.

Image: Marine Commandant Gen. David Berger. Public domain.

And then there are the politics of the whole thing. When word got out about Bergers plans, a lot of retired senior officers tried to talk with him about what was happening. When they were stalemated, rather than quietly going away, these same officers pushed back hard:

Recently, 22 retired four-star Marine generals signed a nonpublic letter of concern to Gen. Berger, and many others have stated their support of the letter. A daily working group that includes 17 retired generals has been formed to communicate concerns to national leaders. One highly respected retired three-star general estimated to me that the proportion of retired general officers who are gravely concerned about the direction of the Corps in the last two and a half years would be above 90 percent.

As far as Webb and these other retired officers are concerned, Bergers planned changes are so momentous they never should have been done without a full review and debate in various Pentagon offices and even congressional oversight. Indeed, I gathered that Berger may have used the breakdowns in governance because of COVID (such as congresspeople running away in fear) as an opportunity to bypass this oversight.

Webb closes his essay by noting that, had Berger gone through channels and been open about his changes, including explaining either their necessity or the benefit to be derived from them, 90% of retired generals would have supported him. (After all, at least on paper, Berger has huge amounts of both practical and theoretical knowledge and experience about the Marines.) However, writes Webb, the realities of brutal combat and the wide array of global challenges the Marine Corps faces daily argue strongly against a doctrinal experiment that might look good in a computerized war game at Quantico.

Maybe these retired officers are simply reflecting the discombobulated times in which we live and are overthinking things. On the other hand, given the lefts hostility to a military that fights to protect America, and given the severely woke Pentagon under Austin and Milley, Im inclined to believe that any big changes imposed on the military during the Biden administration should be presumed damaging and, therefore, must be closely scrutinized and, if necessary, fought at every turn.
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A police officer outside a property in Globe Road, Bethnal Green, east London, where a mother was stabbed to death while her children were at school. The alarm was raised on Thursday afternoon when the 40-year-old mother failed to pick her children up from school, and officers attending the address found the woman with stab injuries. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Picture date: Saturday March 26, 2022.

A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a mother-of-two was stabbed to death while her children were at school.

The victim of the attack in Bethnal Green, east London, has been named as 40-year-old Yasmin Begum, who was from the local area.

The Metropolitan Police said a 40-year-old suspect was detained on Sunday in Stratford and remains in police custody.

Yasmin Begum was a 40-year-old mother from the local area (Metropolitan Police/PA)

A post-mortem examination carried out on Saturday established the cause of death as multiple sharp force injuries, police said.

Officers were called to Globe Road shortly after 4pm on Thursday after school staff raised the alarm when Ms Begum did not arrive to pick up her children, Scotland Yard said.

The mother was found with stab injuries and pronounced dead at the scene.

Detective Chief Inspector Laurence Smith, leading the investigation, said: My thoughts are with Yasmins family and friends at this incredibly difficult time. I want to reassure them that we are working around the clock to get them the answers they deserve.

It is heart-breaking that yet another woman has been killed. All women and girls have the right to feel safe, at any time, day or night, in public or at home, and we will do everything we can to find those responsible for this.

Tackling violence against woman is one of the Mets top priorities. Police officers, including forensic specialists, remain at the scene. We will continue to carry out door-to-door inquiries and local people will also see additional police in the area.

We are appealing for any witnesses, or anyone with any information, to contact us. No matter how insignificant you think your information might be, please dont hesitate to get in touch. It could be key to this investigation.
Marion Wood and Michael Williams celebrate (The National Lottery/PA)

An NHS worker has said she will not quit her job after winning her share of 1 million with a friend.

Marion Wood, 60, an NHS worker at Northampton General Hospital, won the Lotto prize with her friend Michael Williams, 67, a retired construction worker.

Ms Wood said her initial reaction was to exclaim: I dont know what a million in numbers looks like.

Working through Covid in the NHS has been tough, she said.

The amount of work has increased and, unfortunately, I have lost many family and friends.

However, work has kept me going, I love my job and I wont be leaving even after this amazing win.

Ms Wood and Mr Williams matched five main numbers and the bonus ball in The National Lottery Lotto draw on March 12.

Marion Wood and Michael Williams won 1 million together (The National Lottery/PA)

Originally both from Wales, they had a cup of tea in stunned silence after realising they had won.

Im a big tea drinker, so we had a cup of tea and sat in stunned silence as we absorbed what had just happened, said Ms Wood.

I didnt tell a soul at first, I just carried on as normal holding on to the lucky ticket wherever I went.

I kept the ticket in my diary, which I keep in my purse, until the lady from Camelot visited to check it and confirmed that Michael and I actually were big winners.

Asked what they would do with their winnings, Ms Wood said she may treat herself to some jewellery to remember how I felt when I won, while Mr Williams plans to buy a car and some rugby memorabilia, as well as treat his family.

Whatever we do well be wise and make things comfortable, its an amazing amount to enable Michael and I to have security at this time of life, said Ms Wood.
Gatwick Airport is set to welcome thousands more passengers every day in the summer, with numbers reaching pre-pandemic levels, bosses predict.

The Sussex airport has reopened its south terminal, with flights increasing from around 300 to 570 a day from Sunday.

The move is the equivalent to opening a medium-sized airport overnight, meeting the expected high demand for summer travel this year.

Chief executive Stewart Wingate said 80,000 passengers will travel through the airport on Sunday, reaching well over 150,000 per day by July.

He told the PA news agency: Weve had a lot of restrictions over the last two years associated with the pandemic.

Passengers arrive at the south terminal of Gatwick Airport in West Sussex (Gareth Fuller/PA)

The good news is, as we stand here today, coming back into the UK theres no passenger locator form, theres no requirement to test, so its actually very similar to how it was pre the pandemic to travel through the airports.

Were going to ramp up very, very quickly over the next two or three weeks and well be busy throughout the summer period and very close to the 2019 volume levels.

Some flights will move from the north to south terminal ahead of the summer getaway (Gareth Fuller/PA)

Theres absolutely no question that theres strong demand, we know that by talking with our airlines.

Its pent-up demand, people who havent been able to travel now really want to travel.

The terminal had been dormant since June 15 2020 to reduce costs during the coronavirus pandemic.

Its shops, cafes and other facilities have undergone months of refurbishment, updating and cleaning ahead of the reopening.

British Airways, Wizz Air and Vueling are among the airlines switching their operations from the north to the south terminal between Sunday and Tuesday.

One passenger, who was on their way to Madrid in Spain via the south terminal on Sunday morning, said: Im excited to finally travel again, I think its a good thing the terminal is opening up.

People will want to travel, theres been too many camping holidays over the past few years. Im sure everyone just wants sun and different culture.

Gatwick Airports chief executive Stewart Wingate (Yui Mok/PA)

Other early flights leaving from the reopened terminal were bound for Naples in Italy, Oslo in Norway and the Spanish island of Majorca.

Gatwick advised passengers to check which terminal their flight is departing from before heading to the airport, to arrive early as terminals may be busy, to make sure their passport is still valid and to check foreign travel advice for their destination countries.

Mr Wingate added: Opening up a facility of this size is really hard work.

Behind the scenes over the last two or three months weve been making sure that all the facilities are in good shape and that all the systems are working.

Im pleased to say that al the early flights got up in time.
Police searching for a prisoner who escaped custody dressed only in underwear and socks say he may have shaved his beard and head.

Dorset Police are renewing an appeal for information as they carry out extensive searches to find Kyle Darren Eglington, 32.

The force said it received a report at 11.12am on Saturday that Eglington had made off from a court prisoner transit van in Hardy Road, Poole, having assaulted security officers.

It was reported that he was only wearing underwear and socks when he fled the van, police added.

Eglington has been described as white, five feet 11 inches tall and of medium build, with dark brown hair and a beard.

Dorset Police said on Sunday that their search continues with the help of a National Police Air Service helicopter and the British Transport Police.

Enquiries have revealed he may have been in the West Howe area of Bournemouth in the early hours, the force said.

Officers believe that Eglington may have shaved his head and beard since he escaped.

He was remanded in custody after being charged with robbery in relation to an incident in Bournemouth on Thursday and appeared at Poole Magistrates Court the next day.

Chief Inspector Neil Wright said: I would like to reassure members of the public that we have a number of officers carrying out searches and other enquiries in a bid to locate Kyle Eglington as soon as possible and return him to lawful custody.

We believe that he may have changed his appearance significantly and will therefore look different to the latest image we have for him.

I would urge anyone who sees Kyle, or a man matching the description given, to please report it to us.

There is nothing at this time to suggest he poses a risk to the general public, however, we would urge people not to approach him and to please dial 999 immediately.

Dorset Police said anyone who sees Eglington should dial 999 while anyone else with information should call 101 quoting incident number 26:244 or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused the West of cowardice as his country fights to stave off Russias invading troops, making an exasperated plea for fighter jets and tanks to sustain a defense as the war ground into a battle of attrition.

Speaking after US President Joe Biden said in a lacerating speech that Russian President Vladimir Putin could not stay in power  words the White House immediately sought to downplay  Zelenskyy lashed out Sunday at the Wests ping-pong about who and how should hand over jets and other weapons while Russian missile attacks kill and trap civilians.

Ive talked to the defenders of Mariupol today. Im in constant contact with them. Their determination, heroism and firmness are astonishing, Zelenskyy said in a video address, referring to the besieged southern city that has suffered some of the wars greatest deprivations and horrors. If only those who have been thinking for 31 days on how to hand over dozens of jets and tanks had 1% of their courage.

Ukraine's ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova, said on NBC's Meet the Press that her country had heard Biden loud and clear.

Now, it's all up to all of us to stop Putin while its still local in Ukraine because this war is not only about Ukraine," she said, but "an attack on democracy.

Russias invasion of Ukraine, now in its 32nd day, has stalled in many areas. Its aim to quickly encircle the capital, Kyiv, and force its surrender has faltered against staunch Ukrainian resistance  bolstered by weapons from the US and other Western allies.

Zelenskyy signed a law Sunday that bans reporting on troop and equipment movements that haven't been announced or approved by the military. Journalists who violate the law could face three to eight years in prison. The law does not differentiate between Ukrainian and foreign reporters.

Britains Defence Ministry said Russias troops are trying to encircle Ukrainian forces facing the two separatist-held areas in the countrys east. That would cut the bulk of Ukraines military off from the rest of the country.

Moscow claims its focus is on wresting the entire eastern Donbas region, which has been partially controlled by Russia-backed separatists since 2014. A high-ranking Russian military official said Friday that troops were being redirected to the east from other parts of the country.

The leader of one separatist-controlled area of Donbas said Sunday that he wants to hold a vote on joining Russia, words that may indicate a shift in Russias position. Leonid Pasechnik, the head of the self-proclaimed Luhansk Peoples Republic, said it plans to hold a referendum on becoming part of Russia in the nearest time.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends an interview with some of the Russian media.

Russia has supported the separatist rebels in Luhansk and neighbouring Donetsk since an insurgency erupted there shortly after Moscow annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014. In talks with Ukraine, Moscow has demanded Kyiv acknowledge the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, accused Russia of seeking to split Ukraine in two, like North and South Korea.

The occupiers will try to pull the occupied territories into a single quasi-state structure and pit it against independent Ukraine, Budanov said in a statement released by the Defense Ministry. He predicted that guerrilla warfare by Ukrainians would derail such plans.

A Ukrainian delegate in talks with Russia on ending the war, Davyd Arakhamia, said in a Facebook post the countries would meet in Turkey beginning Monday. However, the Russians then announced the talks would start Tuesday. The sides have met previously with no deal reached.

Ukraine says that to defeat Russia, the West must provide fighter jets and not just missiles and other military equipment. A proposal to transfer Polish planes to Ukraine via the United States was scrapped amid NATO concerns about being drawn into direct fighting.

Local resident Valentina Demura, 70, reacts next to the building where her apartment, destroyed during Ukraine-Russia conflict, is located in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine March 27, 2022.

In his pointed remarks, Zelenskyy accused Western governments of being afraid to prevent this tragedy. Afraid to simply make a decision.

So, who is in charge of the Euro-Atlantic community? Is it still Moscow, thanks to its scare tactics? he asked. Our partners must step up their aid to Ukraine.

His plea was echoed Sunday by a priest in the western city of Lviv, which was struck by rockets a day earlier. The aerial assault illustrated that Moscow, despite assertions that it intends to shift the war eastward, is willing to strike anywhere in Ukraine.

When diplomacy doesnt work, we need military support, said the Rev. Yuri Vaskiv, who reported fewer parishioners in the pews of his Greek Catholic church, likely because of fear.

Referring to Putin, he said: This evil is from him, and we must stop it.

Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov confirmed Russia used air-launched cruise missiles to hit a fuel depot and a defense plant in Lyiv, about 45 miles (75 kilometers) from the Polish border. He said another strike with sea-launched missiles destroyed a depot in Plesetske just west of Kyiv, where Ukraine stored air defence missiles.

People demonstrating in support of Ukraine gather outside the Houses of Parliament, amid Russias invasion of Ukraine, in London, Britain, March 27, 2022. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls

A chemical smell lingered in Lyiv on Sunday as firefighters trained hoses on flames and black smoke poured from oil storage tanks hit in the attack.

A security guard, Yaroslav Prokopiv, said he saw three rockets destroy two oil tanks but no one was hurt.

Russias back-to-back airstrikes shook the city that has become a haven for an estimated 200,000 people who have fled bombarded towns and cities. Lviv, which has largely been spared bombardment, also has been a waystation for most of the 3.8 million refugees who have left Ukraine since Russia invaded on Feb. 24.

In a dim, crowded bomb shelter under an apartment block near the first blast site, Olana Ukrainets, a 34-year-old information technology professional, said she couldnt believe she had to hide again after fleeing from the northeastern city of Kharkiv, one of the most bombarded cities.

We were on one side of the street and saw it on the other side, she said. We saw fire. I said to my friend, Whats this? Then we heard the sound of an explosion and glass breaking.

A Ukrainian service member inspects remains of a destroyed Russian T-72 tank, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in the recently liberated village of Lukianivka, in Kyiv region.

In his video address, Zelenskyy angrily warned Moscow that it was sowing a deep hatred for Russia among Ukrainians.

You are doing everything so that our people themselves leave the Russian language, because the Russian language will now be associated only with you, with your explosions and murders, your crimes, Zelenskyy said.

Along with the millions of people who have fled Ukraine, the invasion has driven more than 10 million people from their homes, almost one-quarter of Ukraines population. Thousands of civilians are believed to have been killed.

While Russias advance on Kyiv remains stalled, fighting has raged in the suburbs, and blasts from missiles fired into the city have rattled the St. Sophia Cathedral, a 1,000-year-old UNESCO world heritage site that is the heart of Ukrainian spiritual and national identity.

Vadim Kyrylenko, an engineer and conservator who is the most senior manager remaining at the church, said a strike nearby would be a point of no return for our landmark because it is very fragile and vulnerable.

Pointing at the cathedrals golden domes, Kyrylenko said the cross atop the central one toppled a month before the outbreak of World War II.

The cross on the left fell a month before this war, he said.
The Ulster Unionist Party leader has accused unionist and loyalist organisers of anti-Northern Ireland Protocol rallies of stoking tension in the region.

In a lengthy statement on Sunday, Doug Beattie said that his party will not be involved in rallies that he said were raising tensions in Northern Ireland.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson was among those who addressed a rally against the protocol on Friday, alongside TUV leader Jim Allister, Baroness Hoey, Ben Habib and Jamie Bryson in Ballymoney, Co Antrim.

It was the latest in a string of protests against the post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland, which are fiercely opposed by unionists and loyalists.

Mr Beattie said on Sunday that the anti-protocol rallies were adding to tensions, alluding to a security alert in Belfast on Friday which led to the Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney being evacuated from a peace event.

The UVF is suspected of involvement in the incident, which was condemned by politicians from across the political spectrum.

Police are still investigating the incident.

Mr Beattie said: There are many issues that face the people of Northern Ireland and the most pressing and immediate now is the cost-of-living crisis including fuel poverty.

PSNI officers at the scene of the security alert on Friday (Liam McBurney/PA)

It is important that politicians focus on this issue which the Ulster Unionist Party has been highlighting since last year.

The Northern Ireland Protocol remains a political issue that cannot be ignored and we have repeatedly stated that it needs to be replaced with a solution that works for everyone.

It is leading to real societal harm. This includes terrorists back on our streets doing what they do best, terrorising an already beleaguered society.

There are also media reports quoting UVF sources that they intend to escalate their terrorist activities in the coming weeks.

It is now clear that anti-protocol rallies are being used to raise the temperature in Northern Ireland and adding to tensions that now see a resurgence in UVF activity.

The Ulster Unionist Party will not be part of raising tensions or the temperature by bringing people onto the streets with an intent to harness anger.

As a party we will continue to engage in all community-led meetings where we will answer our critics. As the party leader I will make myself available, where possible, to explain my rationale for dealing with the protocol.

But I will not add to the raising of tensions that others seem intent on doing.

The statement comes with only weeks to go before the Assembly elections in Northern Ireland, in which the UUP will be hoping to compete strongly against Sir Jeffreys DUP.

Mr Beattie does not mention the DUP or name any individuals in the statement.

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson speaks during an anti-protocol rally in Ballymoney, Co Antrim (Liam McBurney/PA)

Mr Beattie said that his party will continue to urge the EU and the UK to make progress on finding solutions to some of the issues caused by the protocol.

He also said that triggering Article 16, which would suspend some elements of the post-Brexit arrangements in place for Northern Ireland, could be legitimate.

We believe that triggering Article 16 would be a valid use on any aspect of the protocol that is contributing to the cost-of-living crisis.

But he warned: The protocol is a political problem and it will be dealt with through political solutions.

What we cannot allow is for a small group of individuals with the loudest voices to lead politicians by the nose in doing their bidding.

The statement from the UUP leader prompted a swift response from Mr Allister, who accused Mr Beattie of directing a slur against him.

In a statement he said: I refute and deplore the UUP leaders slur that peaceful and necessary protests against the Union-dismantling Protocol are raising tensions.

Every protest I have attended has been utterly peaceful.

Thus to adopt the tone and approach of opposing such protests is not just to echo the rhetoric of the pro-protocol brigade but is to slight the thousands of concerned unionists who have attended these peaceful protests.

If Doug Beattie put real effort into opposing the iniquitous protocol, then he would be serving unionism better.

Facing up to the constitutional peril of GB being decreed and treated as a foreign country by the protocol, with goods originating there being subject to foreign customs checks, would be a suitable starting point for a UUP that has been lacklustre in its opposition to the protocol.
JERUSALEM  Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the U.S. is not trying to topple Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite its harsh condemnations of Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Blinken spoke a day after President Joe Biden said of Putin during a speech in Warsaw: For Gods sake, this man cannot remain in power.

At a news conference in Jerusalem, Blinken said Bidens point was that Putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else.

He said the U.S. has repeatedly said that we do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia, or anywhere else for that matter.

In this case, as in any case, its up to the people of the country in question. Its up to the Russian people, Blinken said.

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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:

 Zelenskyy warns that Russia is sowing a deep hatred among Ukrainians

 My personal tragedy: Ukrainians brace for an attack on Odesa

 Ukrainians have been welcomed in Hungary but an Afghan student was not

 War shakes Europe's path to energy independence, climate goals

Go to https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine for more coverage

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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

KYIV, Ukraine - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has again urged the West to provide Ukraine with warplanes and air defense missiles.

Speaking in a video address early Sunday, Zelenskyy said that our partners have all that, and its just collecting dust. And in fact its necessary not just for Ukraines freedom, but for the freedom of Europe.

Zelenskyy warned that the Baltic states, Poland and Slovakia could eventually face a Russian attack just because they will have kept in their hangars just 1% of all NATO warplanes and 1% of all NATO tanks. Just 1%! We arent asking for more and we have been waiting for that for 31 days!

He said that our partners must step up their aid to Ukraine.

The president said that Ukraine cant shoot down Russian missiles with shotguns and machine guns that have accounted for the bulk of supplies. And we cant unblock Mariupol without the necessary number of tanks, other armor, and warplanes. All defenders of Ukraine know about it.

He added that the United States and all European politicians also know that.

___

DOHA, Qatar  The head of the International Monetary Fund is warning that the global economic strain caused by Russias war in Ukraine could stoke civil unrest in the Middle East and beyond.

Speaking at the Doha Forum in Qatar on Sunday, Kristalina Georgieva said Russias invasion and the resulting sanctions on Moscow have forced the worlds poorest to bear the worst of the crisis as they grapple with inflated food costs and scarcer jobs.

Georgieva hinted that the current situation evoked the lead-up to the 2011 uprisings known as the Arab Spring, when skyrocketing bread prices fueled anti-government protests across the Middle East.

When prices jump, and poor people cannot feed their families, they will be on the streets, she said. One thing we know about trouble in one place, it travels, it doesnt stay there.

Georgieva called for greater global cooperation to fill the gaps in commodity and energy supplies.

Please, work together, she said. Oil producers, gas producers and food producers today are in a position to help reduce this uncertainty.

She cited Ukraines importance as a top wheat exporter in urging a swift resolution to the war.

The faster the tanks are out, the faster the tractors will be in, she said. We need by July the harvest in Ukraine to contribute to the stability of food prices.

___

NEW YORK  The Russian military says it has struck Ukrainian military facilities with long-range missiles.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said in statement on Sunday that the air-launched cruise missiles hit a fuel depot and a defense plant in Lviv near the border with Poland a day earlier.

Konashenkov said another strike with sea-launched missiles destroyed a depot with air defense missiles in Plesetske, just west of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.

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ODESA, Ukraine  The Black Sea port of Odesa is mining its beaches and rushing to defend its cultural heritage from a feared Mariupol-style fate in the face of growing alarm that the strategic city might be next as Russia attempts to strip Ukraine of its coastline.

The multi-cultural jewel, dear to Ukrainian hearts and even Russian ones, would be a hugely strategic win for Russia. It is the countrys largest port, crucial to grain and other exports, and headquarters for the Ukrainian navy.

Bombardment from the sea last weekend further raised worries that the city is in Russias sights.

Residents say Russian President Vladimir Putin would be insane to take Odesa with the brutal approach that has left other Ukrainian cities in ruins. Once a gilded powerhouse of the Russian empire, Odesa includes one of the finest opera houses in Europe and the famed Potemkin Steps between the city and the sea, featured in Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisensteins 1925 silent film masterpiece Battleship Potemkin.

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LONDON  The Russian military appears to be trying to encircle Ukrainian forces fighting in the separatist regions in the eastern part of the country, Britains Ministry of Defense says.

Russian forces are advancing southward from the area around Kharkiv and north from Mariupol, the ministry said in an intelligence briefing released Sunday morning.

Battlefields in northern Ukraine remain largely static, with Ukrainian counterattacks hampering Russian efforts to reorganize their forces, the ministry said.

In an earlier briefing released overnight, the ministry said Russia continued to strike targets across Ukraine, including many in densely populated areas, the ministry said.

Russia is relying on stand-off missiles launched from within its own territory to reduce aircraft exposure to Ukrainian anti-aircraft fire, the ministry said. But it said limited stocks of these weapons will force Russia to revert to less sophisticated missiles or accepting more risk to their aircraft.

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LVIV, Ukraine  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy angrily warned Moscow that it is sowing a deep hatred for Russia among his people, as constant artillery barrages and aerial bombings are reducing cities to rubble, killing civilians and driving others into shelters, leaving them to scrounge for food and water to survive.

You are doing everything so that our people themselves leave the Russian language, because the Russian language will now be associated only with you, with your explosions and murders, your crimes, Zelenskyy said in an impassioned video address late Saturday.

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KYIV, Ukraine  Ukraines nuclear watchdog says that a nuclear research facility in Kharkiv again has come under shelling by Russia and the fighting makes it impossible to assess the damage.

The State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate said that the neutron source experimental facility in the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology came under fire Saturday.

Ukrainian authorities have previously reported that Russian shelling damaged buildings at the Kharkiv facility, but there has been no release of radiation. The newly built neutron source facility is intended for the research and production of radioisotopes for medical and industrial needs. The International Atomic Energy Agency has said that the nuclear material in the facility is always subcritical and the inventory of radioactive material is very low, reducing the risks of radiation release.

Kharkiv has been besieged by Russian forces since the start of the invasion and has come under repeated shelling of its residential buildings and critical infrastructure.

Ukraines nuclear facilities have been threatened by the Russian invasion.

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LVIV, Ukraine  The governor of the Lviv region says a man was detained on suspicion of espionage at the site of one of the two rocket attacks that rattled the city on Saturday.

Maksym Kozytskyy said police found the man had recorded a rocket flying toward the target and striking it. Police also found on his telephone photos of checkpoints in the region, which Kozytskyy said had been sent to two Russian telephone numbers.

Rockets hit an oil storage facility and an unspecified industrial facility, wounding at least five people. A thick plume of smoke and towering flames could be seen on Lvivs outskirts hours after the attacks.
While President Joe Bidens administration has been seized by the global response to Russia's war on Ukraine, another foreign policy crisis looms ahead over the Iran nuclear deal.

Talks to revive the accord have been on pause for over two weeks now, but the sides remain close to finalizing an agreement. Without one, the administration has warned Iran is just weeks away from having enough fissile material for a nuclear bomb.

But the top U.S. partners in the Middle East are largely opposed to a renewed deal, with Israel rallying concern among its new Arab partners under the banner of the Abraham Accords, the Trump era deals that established diplomatic and economic ties between Israel and several Arab countries.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken walked into that minefield this weekend, arriving in the region for four days of meetings, including a historic summit with Israel and three of the Abraham Accord countries -- the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco -- as well as Egypt.

MORE: 'End game': Iran nuclear talks nearing resolution or nuclear crisis, US warns

In Jerusalem Sunday, he will meet Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and other senior officials, seeking to reaffirm the U.S. commitment to Israel while assuaging Israeli concerns over a renewed nuclear deal. But Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid warned Sunday that Israel "will do anything we believe is needed to stop the Iranian nuclear problem -- anything."

The 2015 deal, signed by Iran, the U.S. and other world powers, placed restrictions on Iran's nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. But former President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. in 2018, reimposing severe U.S. sanctions that were meant to drive Tehran to negotiate a new deal.

During his term, it never happened, and instead, Iran took its own steps out of the deal -- enriching more uranium, to higher levels, and with more advanced centrifuges.

PHOTO: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, walks by U.S. and Israeli flags, at Ben Gurion Airport, near Tel Aviv, Israel, March 26, 2022. (Jacquelyn Martin/Pool via Reuters)

It is now enriching uranium up to 60% purity, a short technical step from 90% weapons-grade, with U.S. officials warning for weeks now that Iran is just weeks away from enough enriched uranium for a bomb. At that point, Iran would still have to complete several complicated, technical steps to build a nuclear warhead, but reaching that nuclear threshold would be deeply alarming.

During the 2020 campaign, Biden pledged to rejoin the nuclear deal if Iran returned to "strict" compliance, saying he'd then launch follow-on talks on other issues.

But nearly a year after negotiations began in Vienna, Iran's nuclear program continues to expand, while the delegations have not yet reached a deal. Iran's negotiators haven't even agreed to meet the American delegation, led by U.S. special envoy for Iran Rob Malley. Instead, negotiations have been conducted indirectly -- the U.S. and Iran meeting separately with the remaining parties to the deal: France, Germany, the United Kingdom, China and Russia.

While talks initially made progress last spring, they were halted in June ahead of Iran's presidential elections, where Ebrahim Raisi, a more hardline cleric closely tied to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, took power. Months of Iran's delays ended in November, but those resumed talks at first brought deep skepticism about reviving the deal.

MORE: Biden embraces Trump accords, but struggles with his withdrawal from Iran nuclear deal amid growing threat

In recent weeks, however, all the sides have made clear they are close -- prompting a flurry of Israeli activity to rally opposition.

Last Monday, Bennett traveled to Egypt for a historic summit with Egypt's strongman leader Abdel Fattah el Sisi and the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammed bin Zayed, UAE's de facto ruler. It was the first time the three countries' leaders met -- with talks focused on a joint defense strategy against Iran, according to Israel.

The State Department said the U.S. welcomed the meeting, and Blinken will have his own summit on Monday, with Israel, UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, and Morocco -- as well as a key meeting with Sheikh Mohammed in Morocco.

If there's any U.S. concern about the growing anti-Iran coalition, it's not public -- with the Abraham Accords a rare Trump era policy fully embraced by Biden's team.

"When it comes to the most important element, we see eye to eye. We are both committed, both determined that Iran will never acquire a nuclear weapon," Blinken said Sunday alongside Lapid at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

For his part, Bennett is keen to avoid a public spat like the one between former President Barack Obama and his predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu, who addressed a Republican-controlled Congress in 2015 to lobby against the deal, infuriating the White House.

PHOTO: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken waves as he boards a plane, en route to Israel, at the Warsaw Chopin Airport, in Warsaw, Poland, March 26, 2022. (Jacquelyn Martin/Pool via Reuters)

Instead, Bennett and Lapid, who is supposed to succeed Bennett as prime minister in a power-sharing deal, have taken to emphasizing their points of agreement with the Biden team. When Lapid and Blinken met last month in Munich, both men emphasized their "shared goal" -- preventing Iran from ever obtaining a nuclear weapon.

But that's what made Bennett and Lapid's recent vocal opposition to some parts of a potential deal so striking. The two released a statement over a week ago, condemning what could be part of an ultimate deal, de-listing Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from the State Department's foreign terrorist organization list.

"The attempt to delist the IRGC as a terrorist organization is an insult to the victims and would ignore documented reality supported by unequivocal evidence," the two men said. "We believe that the United States will not abandon its closest allies in exchange for empty promises from terrorists."

MORE: Rocket hits Green Zone, US Embassy in Iraq: 'We're still assessing the damage'

During a joint press conference, Lapid affirmed Israel's belief that the IRGC is a terrorist organization, while Blinken declined to say whether he considered it one: "The IRGC is probably the most designated organization in one way or another in the world," he said.

But he argued that an Iran without the nuclear deal would be an even greater threat to the region: "An Iran with a nuclear weapon -- or the capacity to produce one on short notice -- would become even more aggressive and would believe it could act with a false sense of impunity."

Biden administration officials have said those follow-on talks would address issues like Iran's ballistic missile program or its support for proxy forces like Hezbollah, which threatens Israel from Syria and Lebanon, or the Houthis, which threatens Saudi Arabia and UAE from Yemen. Just on Friday, a Houthi attack on Saudi oil giant Aramco's facilities caused two storage tanks to set fire in massive blazes in Jeddah, although there were no casualties. Saudi Arabia retaliated with a strike in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, on Saturday.

But analysts say those talks are increasingly unlikely, with Iran refusing to engage the U.S. even in nuclear negotiations. Either way, critics like Bennett say a revived deal will mean new funds for Iran to project strength across the region and menace its adversaries, none more so than Israel.

PHOTO: A man extinguishes a fire following air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition, targeting the Huthi rebel-held Yemeni capital Sanaa on March 26, 2022. The retaliatory strikes came after the Iran-backed Huthi rebels fired on targets across Saudi Arabia. (Mohammed Huwais/AFP via Getty Images)

"Trying to reach an agreement that prevents Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and addresses their attacks on our key partners is an effort worth pursuing. But we need to consult our partners and realize that Iran has not changed -- and, with the recent attacks in northern Iraq and Saudi Arabia, they do not intend to change. We need an agreement that works for everyone, not just an agreement for the sake of having an agreement," said Mick Mulroy, a former top Pentagon official and now an ABC News national security analyst.

In recent days, however, Blinken and his team have changed their tune slightly, with the current two-week pause in talks seeming to cause some alarm about a deal's likelihood.

"The deal is not just around the corner, and it's not inevitable," Malley said Sunday at the Doha Forum.

Still, Blinken pressed the case with Lapid and others that without a deal, Iran would be more dangerous as it's able to race toward a nuclear weapon with little insight to its program.

Even as the U.S. says it's preparing for that world, Blinken will press Israel and Arab partners for alternatives to keeping a nuclear weapon out of Iranian hands, should diplomacy fail.

"We've long discussed ... alternatives with our partners in the region," State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Tuesday, adding, "For obvious reasons we haven't detailed publicly what that might look like, but it is not for lack of planning on our part."

But at some point, Israel may take those alternatives into their own hands, with the specter of an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities growing, after years of Israeli sabotage.

"Israel and the United States will continue to work together to prevent a nuclear Iran," Lapid said next to Blinken Sunday, but added, "At the same time, Israel will do anything we believe is needed to stop the Iranian nuclear problem - anything."

Blinken meets Israel, Arab partners as looming renewed Iran deal rattles ties originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
World leaders talk before taking a group photo Thursday during a NATO summit in Brussels. From left, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, President Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron. (Doug Mills / New York Times)

The war in Ukraine, which just entered its second month, shows no sign of ending soon.

Russias huge but incompetent army has been stymied in its attempts to seize the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and other cities. Ukraines defenders have put up a heroic fight, but civilians in besieged towns are suffering a terrible toll. Neither army appears ready to quit. Each side thinks it still has a chance to outlast the other.

That, diplomats say, is why the chances for a cease-fire look so dim  even though, oddly enough, the ingredients of a deal to end the war are in plain sight.

In recent talks  some public, others private  officials from both countries have suggested possible compromises.

Ukraines Volodymyr Zelensky has offered one public concession: Hes willing to abandon his quest for membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which Putin initially said was the reason for the war.

"We are told that we cannot enter [NATO]," Zelensky said recently. It is true, and it must be acknowledged. He has suggested that Ukraine could accept formal neutrality, but only if the United States and other countries guarantee its security against another invasion.

Putin may have tacitly lowered his ambitions, too. He initially demanded the "denazification" of Ukraines government  his pejorative term for replacing the democratically elected Zelensky with a pro-Russian president. In recent weeks, Russian officials have stopped mentioning that demand.

A top Russian general made it sound as if Moscow has scaled back its military aims, too.

In an official briefing on Friday, Army Maj. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi, the equivalent of a deputy chief of staff, claimed that Russia never intended to seize Kyiv. Russian forces, he said, will now focus on gaining full control of Donetsk and Luhansk, the two regions in eastern Ukraine where pro-Russian rebels have declared independence.

But Putin has other, steeper demands. He has insisted that Zelensky accept Russias annexation of Crimea, which Russian troops seized in 2014, and recognize the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Zelensky and his aides have rejected those land grabs and have demanded that Russia withdraw from all of Ukraine. But they have offered what one former diplomat called a creative compromise: While they wont agree formally to Russias annexation of any part of their country, they will promise to pursue reunification only by peaceful means.

The two sides have been talking sporadically, but they remain far apart on those key issues.

There is no consensus, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said last week. The negotiation process is very difficult.

The underlying problem, current and former U.S. officials said, is that Putin still appears to believe his forces can win.

Putin doesnt sound as if hes decided to settle, Alexander R. Vershbow, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, told me. He hasnt given up hope that his forces will regroup. So now, instead of fighting everywhere in Ukraine, they appear to be focusing on one or two fronts, to see what more they can get  a kind of salami-slice strategy.

Meanwhile, he added, Ukraines forces are running low on the antiaircraft and antitank missiles they used to great effect in the wars opening weeks.

The Ukrainians have been heroic, but they cant go on forever, he said. They need a faster supply process. ... That, more than anything else, will contribute to a decision by Putin to negotiate.

Meanwhile, he said, its not too early for U.S. diplomats to consider what the elements of a peace settlement should be  because some of them will involve pledges from our side.

The hardest part will be security guarantees for Ukraine, he said.

The United States and its allies won't provide the sort of defense guarantee that NATO membership brings, he said, but they should consider formalizing their current security relationship with Ukraine: guarantees of military supplies, intelligence help and economic aid.

It could include limits: no foreign bases in Ukraine, no offensive weapons that could threaten Russia. But the Ukrainians should have the right to a robust army that will receive assistance from other countries when they need it.

Aid to Ukraine, as well as sanctions on Moscow, may be needed for years  a daunting prospect for European countries that depend on Russia for gas and oil.

But a full-scale peace agreement will be difficult to negotiate, in part because of those insoluble territorial disputes, Vershbow warned.

They might just revert to a state of no war, no peace. ... It could leave the two countries in a long-term, low-level conflict. Thats the most depressing scenario, but maybe the most likely one.

Neither side will triumph. Both sides will be damaged, battered, angry and resentful. The hard part will be ensuring that whatever truce they negotiate can be made to stick  to ensure that this isnt just the first chapter in a much longer war.





This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
After four days of alliance building, emotional interactions with refugees and words about the need to fight for democracy, one sentence at the end of President Joe Biden's speech in Poland threatened to overshadow all of it as he deals with the most significant foreign policy crisis of his presidency.

For Gods sake, Biden said of Russian President Vladimir Putin, this man cannot remain in power.

Biden's aides quickly tried to walk it back, insisting the president was not promoting regime change when he spoke to a packed courtyard in the Royal Castle in Warsaw on Saturday.

"I think the president, the White House, made the point last night that, quite simply, President Putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said hours later in Jerusalem.

"As you know, and as you have heard us say repeatedly, we do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia or anywhere else, for that matter, he said.

Thomas Schwartz, a historian of U.S. foreign relations at Vanderbilt University, said Biden may have said what he believes, but it was not smart policy to say it aloud.

When Biden ad libs, there is trouble, he said. The administration needs to be more disciplined if it wants to get a negotiated settlement.

Analysts warned that Bidens remark could ripple across the NATO alliance as Western leaders try to get Putin to end the war in Ukraine. In a worst-case scenario, the Russian leader could expand the conflict on the grounds that he is protecting his country's interests.

Bidens comment could cause Putins paranoid inner circle to crack down further on dissent in Russia, they said.

Lindsey Graham called for Putin's assassination: Even discussing it brings danger to US, experts say.

President Joe Biden says Russia's Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power" in a speech at the Royal Castle on March 26 in Warsaw, Poland. Biden visited with the Polish president and U.S. troops stationed near the Ukrainian border, bolstering NATO's eastern flank.

In Russia, this comment will be viewed as direct interference in Russias internal affairs and play into Russian propaganda that the United States is a hostile power, said William Pomeranz, acting director of the Wilson Centers Kennan Institute, a think tank dedicated to Russian and Eurasia research.

Putins advisers probably viewed Bidens statement as the president speaking out loud what they already believed was U.S. policy, said Heather Conley, president of the German Marshall Fund, which promotes cooperation and understanding between North America and Europe.

Bidens earlier statements that Putin is a war criminal and the State Departments formal determination Wednesday that Russian troops have committed war crimes hurt any chances of face-to-face conversations with Putin, Conley said.

Bidens comment that Putin cannot remain in power makes it almost impossible for the two leaders to speak, she said.

After meeting Saturday with refugees from Mariupol, a city in southeastern Ukraine that has been relentlessly shelled, Biden called Putin a butcher.

This month, when Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., suggested Putin should be assassinated, the White House made clear that regime change is not U.S. policy.

That made Biden's comment Saturday all the more striking.

Some analysts said Bidens remark is unlikely to change Putins calculus on the war in Ukraine.

Indeed, it will only confirm that he has no path to retreat, Pomeranz said. The Russian people will ultimately decide the fate of Vladimir Putin, although obviously, it is unlikely to happen as a result of an election. Nevertheless, it appears that Putin is headed to a major military defeat and catastrophic economic collapse, a combination that is usually fatal even for an autocratic ruler.

Republicans back Ukraine in the war: Why is there support for Russia on America's far right?

A crowd attends President Joe Biden's speech about the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the Royal Castle on March 26 in Warsaw, Poland.

Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, said the White Houses attempt to walk back Bidens remark is unlikely to placate Russia.

Putin will see it as confirmation of what hes believed all along, Haass wrote on Twitter. He called the comment a bad lapse in discipline that runs risk of extending the scope and duration of the war.

Our interests are to end the war on terms Ukraine can accept & to discourage Russian escalation, Haass wrote. Todays call for regime change is inconsistent with these ends.

After Bidens speech, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told The Associated Press that its not up to the president of the U.S. and not up to the Americans to decide who will remain in power in Russia.

Only Russians, who vote for their president, can decide that, Peskov said. And of course, it is unbecoming for the president of the U.S. to make such statements.

Tom Nichols, an expert on U.S.-Russian relations at the U.S. Naval War College, called that a whatever" response from Moscow.

Which is about right and about all the whole thing warrants while the goal here is to end a war of Russian aggression, Nichols tweeted.

President Joe Biden visits with members of the 82nd Airborne Division on March 25 in Jasionka, Poland.

Garret Martin, an expert on trans-Atlantic relations at American University, said Putin already believed that the United States is out to get him, but Moscow could use Biden's comments to argue to Russians that Americas real goal is not helping Ukraine but undermining the Russian government.

In the battle for narratives, maybe it helps Putin domestically a little bit, Martin said.

In his speech, Biden appealed to Russians: This war is not worthy of you, the Russian people.

The American people stand with you and the brave citizens of Ukraine who want peace, he said.

'A bad deja vu': Under the crush of Western sanctions, Russians fear a return to dark economic days

Martin said other aspects of Bidens speech and trip will have longer impacts, particularly the solidarity that Biden helped build among allies.

While the Putin 'cannot remain in power' line will get the most attention, don't be distracted by it, David Rothkopf, author of National Insecurity: American Leadership in an Age of Fear, wrote on Twitter. It was the overall thrust of the speech and the degree to which Biden and our allies are backing it up that matters the most in a historical sense.

The United States and its allies have never been more unified in an approach to an international security crisis in the post-Cold War era, said Timothy Naftali, a presidential historian at New York University. Biden deserves some credit for that, he said.

Understandably, the president let his emotions get away from him, Naftali said. It is hard to imagine any modern state would want to be led much longer by anyone who intentionally bombs and starves out civilians.

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden's comment that Putin can't remain in power prompts concern
The humanitarian crisis continues to grow in Eastern Europe.

The U.N. says more than 3.7 million refugees have now fled Ukraine since the invasion began, and more than 10 million have been displaced. That is nearly a quarter of Ukraine's population.

Most Ukrainian refugees have crossed into Poland while others have gone to Romania, Hungary, Moldova, Slovakia, and other European nations.

Joining Newsy to talk about the widespread damage caused by the Russians, is Ukraine's former Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelyan, who enlisted in the Territorial Defense Forces in Kyiv when the war began, and has been fighting for his country ever since.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin during a recent pro-war rally in Moscow. (Sergei Guneyev / Associated Press)

As fighting raged across Ukraine and one of the country's top military leaders warned that Russian forces may seek to split the nation in two, U.S. officials scrambled Sunday to clarify President Biden's off-the-cuff condemnation of Russian President Vladimir Putin a day earlier, saying regime change in Moscow is not on Washingtons agenda.

Bidens dramatic declaration Saturday  For Gods sake, this man cannot remain in power, a reference to Putin  has prompted a frantic effort to walk back what appeared to be a White House endorsement of pushing the Russian leader out of office.

We do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia, or anywhere else, for that matter, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken told reporters in Jerusalem on Sunday.

Later, asked by a journalist in Washington whether he was calling for the removal of Putin, Biden replied "no."

Bidens remarks at the end of a rousing, pro-Ukraine speech in Warsaw, where he also described Putin as a butcher, prompted an outpouring of criticism at a moment when some fear the Russian invasion could escalate into a larger, even more catastrophic conflict. Now in its second month, the war has turned into a grinding ordeal as Russian forces continue to besiege the north and south of Ukraine while counteroffensives have pushed Russian soldiers back from advancing on the capital, Kyiv.

The fighting has displaced more than 10 million people, almost one-quarter of Ukraines population, and has pushed more than 3.7 million refugees out of the country, according to the United Nations. A recent report from the Kyiv School of Economics estimates $63 billion in damage to the nation's schools, homes and other infrastructure since Putin launched his invasion in late February.

Bidens comments made a difficult situation more difficult and a dangerous situation more dangerous, Richard Haass, a veteran U.S. diplomat and chairman of the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations, wrote on Twitter. French President Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, warned against verbal "escalation" with Moscow.

The concern is that Biden's remarks played into Putin's worldview that the West  with its NATO expansion and economic sanctions  wants to destroy Russia.

But in a sign of the politically delicate position he finds himself in, Biden on Sunday also faced criticism from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who knocked him and other Western leaders for lacking the courage to commit fighter jets and tanks to Ukraine out of fear that it could lead to a wider war.

Ukraine, Zelensky said in a video address, has asked the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and its allies for weaponry to help repel Russian forces but Western leaders have repeatedly equivocated.

Ukraine cannot shoot down Russian missiles using shotguns, machine guns," Zelensky said in a speech early Sunday in which he also alluded to the besieged southeastern city of Mariupol, where images of shell-battered apartment towers, hospitals and shopping centers have come to epitomize the destruction wrought by the war.

Ive talked to the defenders of Mariupol today. Im in constant contact with them. Their determination, heroism and firmness are astonishing, Zelensky said. If only those who have been thinking for 31 days on how to hand over dozens of jets and tanks had 1% of their courage. In an interview with the Economist published Sunday, he said many world leaders "are afraid of Russia."

In his video address, Zelensky said that the war  which Putin has said was launched in part to protect Ukrainians with blood ties to Russia  was having the opposite effect: stigmatizing a language that has long existed alongside Ukrainian as a native tongue for many Ukrainians, especially in the east and south.

Russia itself is doing everything to ensure that de-Russification takes place on the territory of our state, Zelensky said.

In recent days, Russia has said that it is focused now on consolidating gains in the contested Donbas region, home to two pro-Moscow breakaway republics.

Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, said that Russia's goal may be to split Ukraine in two, like North and South Korea.

The occupiers will try to pull the occupied territories into a single quasi-state structure and pit it against independent Ukraine, Budanov said, although he predicted that guerrilla warfare by Ukrainians would derail such plans.

Leonid Pasechnik, the leader of the self-proclaimed Luhansk Peoples Republic in the Donbas, said Sunday that he may hold a referendum on his territory becoming part of Russia.

I think that in the near future a referendum will be held on the territory of the republic, during which the people will ... express their opinion on joining the Russian Federation, Pasechnik said, according to Russian-state media organization Tass and other outlets.

Britains Defense Ministry said Russian forces appear to be attempting to encircle Ukrainian forces arrayed against pro-Russia separatist fighters in that region. Zelensky told the Economist that Russia has blocked the flow of Ukrainian supplies to wide swaths of the country's southeast, where invading forces have kidnapped and in some cases killed the mayors of multiple cities.

Still, fighting and shelling have continued in other parts of the country.

Russian troops Sunday continued battling for control of several key urban centers, including Kharkiv in the northeast and Mariupol in the south. In the village of Oskil, outside Kharkiv, shelling killed seven people, including two children, according to local officials.

Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said on the messaging app Telegram that although Russian forces have entered his city, Mariupol remains "under the control of Ukrainian armed forces."

"There is a Ukrainian flag flying over the city," he said.

Ukrainian forces have put up stiff resistance in other urban areas, including in Kyiv. Ukrainian military officials said Sunday that some Russian troops had been withdrawn to regroup in Belarus, a Moscow-friendly country 60 miles north of Kyiv.

The western city of Lviv, a hub for the war-displaced multitudes that has otherwise been largely spared from the war, was hit Saturday afternoon by a pair of Russian airstrikes. Many residents speculated that the volley of missiles, which hit a fuel depot and a military installation, was intended as a message to Biden, who was in nearby Poland when the attacks occurred.

With these strikes the aggressor wants to say, 'Hello,' to President Biden, Andriy Sadovyi, Lviv's mayor, said late Saturday.

No one was killed in the two strikes in Lviv, authorities said, despite the proximity of residential districts to the targets. Both volleys appeared to hit their objectives with precision.

Lviv appeared calm Sunday as people attended church services, stopped at busy cafes and restaurants, and strolled in the streets of the cobblestoned historic center. But the attacks were another reminder that the war was not just isolated to the embattled environs of Kyiv, about 300 miles to the east, and to beleaguered cities in the faraway south, east and north.

Of course it makes one nervous  this conflict is not a video game any more, said Borys Babelashvili, 59, a shop owner who was walking his dog in the esplanade facing the citys 19th century opera house. Its natural to be worried. But one has to go on with ones life.

Nearby, two displaced families from the war-battered city of Kharkiv, Ukraines second-most populous after Kyiv, said they heard about the strikes after arriving here by train late Saturday. That Lviv was now in the crosshairs of Russian cruise missiles wasnt a welcome development. They had already experienced too many air and artillery attacks in Kharkiv.

I hope the war is not following us here, said Natasha Barsukova, 17, who was traveling with two siblings and her mother. No, we dont feel safe in Lviv either. We are moving on.

The two families  two women and four children  were planning to leave the next day for Duesseldorf, Germany.

Still remaining in Kharkiv are the childrens fathers who, as military-aged men, are barred from leaving the country. Such separations are the norm in Ukraine now, as men bid goodbye to departing friends and family members who daily escape besieged areas on foot, and in cars, buses and trains for the relative safety in the country's west and beyond.

McDonnell reported from Lviv and Linthicum from Mexico City. Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson in Washington contributed to this report.

For the record:

11:26 p.m. March 27, 2022: An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken as Anthony.



This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
A Cabinet minister has distanced the UK from Joe Bidens apparent call for regime change in Russia when he said in an impassioned speech that Vladimir Putin cannot remain in power.

Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said whether to overthrow Mr Putin for his invasion of Ukraine is up to the Russian people after the US Presidents apparently unscripted call caused the White House to scramble to row back on the remark.

In a highly-charged speech in Warsaw, Mr Biden appealed to Russian people directly, with comparisons between the invasion of Ukraine and the horrors of the Second World War.

For Gods sake this man cannot remain in power, he said of the Russian president at the close of his speech. He earlier described Mr Putin as a butcher.

As multiple rockets struck the city of Lviv near the Polish border in the west of Ukraine, Mr Biden pleaded: If youre able to listen  you, the Russian people, are not our enemy.

But a White House official tried to argue that the US presidents point was that the Russian leader cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbours or the region.

He was not discussing Putins power in Russia, or regime change, the official said, before reports in the US suggested the remarks in question had not been scripted.

US president Joe Biden delivers a speech at the Royal Castle in Warsaw (Petr David Josek/AP/PA)

Interviewed on Sunday, Mr Zahawi said it is for the Russian people to decide how they are governed but suggested they would certainly do well to have someone who is democratic and understands their wishes.

I think thats up to the Russian people, he told Skys Sophy Ridge on Sunday.

The Russian people, I think, are pretty fed up with what is happening in Ukraine, this illegal invasion, the destruction of their own livelihoods, their economy is collapsing around them and I think the Russian people will decide the fate of Putin and his cronies.

But he declined to criticise Mr Biden, unlike Tobias Ellwood, the Conservative MP who chairs the Commons Defence Committee, who said Mr Putin will now spin this, dig in and fight harder.

Asked if Mr Biden was wrong to issue the call, Mr Zahawi replied: No, what Im saying to you is the White House has been very clear on this, the president gave a very powerful speech on this and I think both the United States and the United Kingdom agree that its up to the Russian people to decide who should be governing them.
The White House scrambled to row back Joe Bidens declaration that Vladimir Putin cannot remain in power, insisting he was not calling for a regime change.

In an impassioned speech in Warsaw, the US president appealed to Russian people directly, with comparisons between the invasion of Ukraine and the horrors of the Second World War.

For Gods sake this man cannot remain in power, the US president said at the close of his speech of the Russian president he earlier described as a butcher.

Mr Biden pleaded if youre able to listen: you, the Russian people, are not our enemy, as multiple rockets struck the city of Lviv near the Polish border in the west of Ukraine.

But a White House official tried to argue that the US presidents point was that the Russian leader cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbours or the region.

He was not discussing Putins power in Russia, or regime change, the official added, before reports in the US suggested the remarks in question had not been scripted.

US president Joe Biden delivers a speech at the Royal Castle in Warsaw (Petr David Josek/AP)

Mr Biden warned we need to steel ourselves for the long fight ahead as he conceded the battle will not be won in days, or months either.

He told European nations they must end dependence on Russian fossil fuels, but said sanctions had been sapping Russias strength and have reduced the rouble to rubble.

In the UK, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said sanctions on oligarchs, banks and businesses could be lifted if Mr Putin ends the war and commits to no further aggression.

With the Kremlins troops struggling, her comments will be seen as a possible incentive for Mr Putin to cut his losses and broker a deal with Ukraine.

(PA Graphics)

She told the Sunday Telegraph: Those sanctions should only come off with a full ceasefire and withdrawal, but also commitments that there will be no further aggression.

And also, theres the opportunity to have snapback sanctions if there is further aggression in future. That is a real lever that I think can be used.

Her remarks fit with those of her US counterpart Antony Blinken, who has said the travel bans and asset freezes are not designed to be permanent.

The secretary of state said the sanctions could go away in the event of an in effect, irreversible withdrawal of Russian troops.

Moscow has given an indication it could scale back its offensive to focus on what it claimed was the main goal, liberation of Donbas, the region bordering Russia in the east of Ukraine.

The brave Ukrainian resistance is a front in a larger fight: for the essential democratic principles that unite all free people. These principles are essential for a free society, but have always been embattled. Every generation has had to defeat democracys mortal foes.  President Biden (@POTUS) March 26, 2022

But Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky warned he would not give up territory in peace talks as he noted that his troops have delivered powerful blows to invading forces.

Tobias Ellwood, the Conservative MP who chairs the Commons Defence Committee, described Mr Bidens comment hinting at regime change as unwise.

He warned the Russian president will now see regime change as Mr Bidens wider objective, adding: Putin will spin this, dig in and fight harder.

Mr Biden stopped at RAF Mildenhall, a base in Suffolk that supports US military operations, on his way back to Washington so that his Air Force One jet could refuel.
MILTON, Ga.  The Milton City Council signed a memorandum of understanding with the State of Georgia March 21 to join a $26 billion National Opioid Settlement with four major drug firms for their roles in creating and fueling the opioid epidemic.

The first of the two settlement agreements are intended to resolve all the opioid litigation brought on by states and their local political subdivisions against the nations three largest pharmaceutical distributors  McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen  and opioid manufacturer and marketer Johnson & Johnson.

The settlement requires the companies to provide substantial funding for opioid treatment and prevention and to implement significant industry changes that will help prevent a similar crisis from ever happening again.

According to the Office of the Attorney General, Georgia and its local governments stand to receive approximately $636 million under the settlement, which will be distributed among state and local governments over a series of years pursuant to a Memorandum of Agreement.

Of that amount, Milton City Attorney Ken Jarrard said at the March 21 City Council meeting 75% will be put in a state-administered trust, and 25% will be allocated directly to local governments.

While the final settlement amount remains contingent on the number of local governments that choose to opt in, Jarrard said the citys portion could be sizable, ranging from several hundred thousand dollars to as much as seven figures.

Jarrard said the city could use the funds on a number of prevention and mitigation efforts, including purchasing resources and offering additional training for first responders and faith-based communities interested in helping people who suffer from opioid use and disorders.

Let me just suggest to you, in this respect, that city management will be able to use this, I am very comfortable, in a way that is meaningful to the citizens and residents of Milton and in a way that affects what we dont like to think of but certainly issues we have, even in Milton, Jarrard said.

The next step is for Georgia to adopt a litigation bar by June, stating that no other governments may sue the four pharmaceutical distributors and manufacturer on their own, Jarrard said.

City Councilman Paul Moore said he didnt see a downside to Milton opting in.

Moore said the money is there, and it could be used to address the devastation wreaked by the opioid crisis by funding programs to support fire, police and other emergency personnel.

I think this, as sad as the situation is, is an opportunity for us to capitalize on things that might not have otherwise been available to us, Moore said.

Milton police Lt. Andrew Noblett told the Milton Herald in an email March 24 the city has not been hit as hard by the opioid epidemic as other communities, but its still something the department deals with regularly.

Noblett said all officers and public safety partners in Milton carry the life-saving opiate-reversal drug Naloxone or Narcan because police officers are often the first to arrive on the scene of a medical call.

So far this year, Noblett said, Milton police officers have yet to administer the drug, but it was used in one case last year.

He said officers participate in the Drug Enforcement Agency Prescription Drug Takeback every April and October and recently received a free drug collection unit from a program sponsored by CVS Pharmacy and The Partnership at Drugfree.org. The receptacle will be placed in the lobby for citizens to drop off unused and unwanted prescriptions as well as over-the-counter medications.

The program offers citizens a way to dispose of items that may lead to opioid or other prescription drug use or substances that could contaminate water supplies without proper disposal.

This newly created program will be implemented at the Milton Police Department in the next few weeks, Noblett said. We realize that its often not the person who is prescribed the medication who may abuse it, but others who may have access to it. By providing a safe place for people to drop off their unused medications, we are taking steps toward reducing overdoses in our community and our nation as a whole.
Pope Francis call for peace between Russia and Ukraine and throughout the world was done in many languages in Asia. The expression of closeness to the victims of the war in Europe echoes the many conflicts in Asia, from Myanmar to the Philippines.

Milan (AsiaNews)  Churches in Asia experienced with great intensity last Fridays consecration of the world, in particular Russia and Ukraine, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Despite different time zones, many dioceses accepted the invitation to join the pope in prayer at the same time as he led the solemn act in St Peter's Basilica.

In order to encourage global participation of the faithful, the Vatican posted a prayer written by Pope Francis in 36 languages, including many languages spoken in Asia.

In addition to Hindi and Chinese, the prayer was available in Korean, Thai, Farsi, Malayalam (language spoken in Kerala), Japanese (edited by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Japan to standardise some terms commonly used by Japanese Catholics).

In other places, local Churches provided the translation; for example, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Apostolic Vicar Bishop Olivier Schmitthaeusler together with a group of faithful prayed the rosary and the act consecration in Khmer at the shrine of Our Lady of the Mekong River, Queen of Peace.

In Nazareth, at the Basilica of the Annunciation, where, according to an ancient tradition, the angels announcement to Mary took place, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, performed the act of consecration at the end of the solemn Mass.

Here in the Holy Land, we know what war is, the prelate said, we feel how it enters peoples hearts and becomes a way of thinking, creates deep divisions and frustration, erects physical and human walls, destroys prospects for trust, vision and peace.

Precisely because of this, because we know what it all means, because we have experienced it on our skin, we will pray for those peoples, for their rulers and above all for the little ones of the Gospel, the mothers, the children, the elderly left homeless, alone, at the mercy of incomprehensible violence, dictated by human calculations that are narrow-minded and without perspective.

May the Virgin of Nazareth, who became the Mother of Jesus here in this place, intercede for them and for all those in the world who are suffering these same situations.

In his address on this occasion, Archbishop Cardinal Charles Bo of Yangon looked at the wounds that offend Ukraine and brutalise Myanmar.

As Pope Francis consecrates Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, he tweeted, we also join the prayer of consecration and our complete trust in the Virgin Mary in the midst of the escalation of the conflict and the threat of the use of weapons of mass destruction in Myanmar.

In Mumbai (India), a service was held at 9.30 pm at the Basilica of Our Lady of the Mount (Mount Mary Church) to coincide with Pope Franciss act at the Vatican. About 80 religious men and women as well as lay people joined the prayer led by Auxiliary Bishop John Rodrigues, who is the shrines rector.

In his homily, the prelate invited the faithful not to give in to despair, but, as Saint Paul urges, to look into themselves and convert their hearts. He prayed that religious and world leaders may come together on the path of peace.

For his part, Card Oswald Gracias led a 30-minute Eucharistic adoration that was broadcast live on the archdiocese's YouTube channel.

In a letter to the archdiocese, he called on the faithful to join the Holy Father in his prayers to bring peace to a world that is seeing more and more violence, and in this war that threatens to engulf other countries in a spiral of violence.

In the Philippines, Archbishop Cardinal Jose Advincula of Manila led a celebration at 6 pm in the cathedral to which many ambassadors had been invited. At midnight local time, in parallel with the pope in the Vatican, a prayer took place in individual parishes.

"We are gathered here, the prelate said, to mourn the lives torn by the madness of man in many wars, including in our beloved Philippines. We are united in contrition, asking for God's forgiveness and mercy so that we may really learn to behave with one another as brothers and sisters.

(Nirmala Carvalho contributed to this article)
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The two companies will continue to collaborate on digital healthcare solutions

AstraZeneca has sold its AMAZETM disease management platform and entered in to a collaboration agreement with Huma focused on scaling digital health innovation to help improve patient outcomes. The companies shared ambition is to improve clinical outcomes by deploying digital health solutions that bridge the gap between patients and clinicians, which only widened due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

AstraZeneca has invested in the development and clinical validation of the patient-centered AMAZETM disease management platform since 2020 to improve the care of patients with chronic diseases. The company has conducted two clinical studies in heart failure and asthma at a leading US academic medical center and a community practice, with the goals of improving patient engagement, care-team communication, and clinical outcomes while reducing healthcare costs.

The AMAZETM platform shares critical data with clinicians on patient health progress and enables healthcare providers and patients to message each other through the app. Patients can also get alerts concerning their daily logs, and receive reminders, air quality notifications, disease education, medication details and more.

Ruud Dobber, Executive Vice President and President, BioPharmaceuticals Business Unit, AstraZeneca, said, "We are very excited to be working more closely with Huma across our digital health initiatives. We believe digital can expand access to healthcare, advance clinical research, and identify existing gaps in care. Additionally, with this innovative partnership, we will bring a combination of technology along with expertise in research and drug development to global decentralized clinical trials advancing the science of "right patient, right therapy, right time."

Together, AstraZeneca and Huma are committed to leveraging their technology and expertise to broaden the AMAZETM footprint and launch companion applications, increase decentralized clinical trials, improve patient engagement, as well as clinical outcomes while reducing healthcare costs.

Dan Vahdat, CEO of Huma said, Our track record of scaling innovation has set the stage for this important partnership with one of the worlds largest biopharmaceutical companies. I am excited to have AstraZenecas support to build upon our 10-year experience of delivering digital-first solutions across healthcare and clinical trials. The combination of pioneering leadership, global-reach, deep medical knowledge and digital innovation will enable our award-winning platform to help more people live longer, fuller lives."

Digital technology, such as AMAZETM, can transform healthcare delivery. Its ability to quickly send key insights on patient health to clinicians, despite potential obstacles due to a pandemic, can help every patient live life without limits.

Karan Arora, Chief Commercial Digital Officer, AstraZeneca, said: " This collaboration marks an important moment as it is a first for AstraZeneca in the digital health space as well as in the industry for chronic diseases. With Huma, we are accelerating AstraZenecas ambition to achieve earlier diagnosis and treatment for patients with chronic diseases so they can lead better, more fulfilling lives."

About AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca is a global, science-led biopharmaceutical company that focuses on the discovery, development and commercialization of prescription medicines in Oncology, Rare Diseases and BioPharmaceuticals, including Cardiovascular, Renal & Metabolism, and Respiratory & Immunology. Based in Cambridge, UK, AstraZeneca operates in over 100 countries, and its innovative medicines are used by millions of patients worldwide. For more information, please visit www.astrazeneca-us.com and follow us on Twitter @AstraZenecaUS.

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Three friends and business partners travel all the way deep into Oklahoma to find what they were informed to be the barn find of a lifetime. A 1969 Dodge Charger was waiting for them. While the car would turn almost any gearhead into a very competitive bidder or a determined buyer, what they didnt expect is to find an American icon that represents a precept.The guys meet with the owners brother who tells them what theyre about to see. The Charger is a R/T four-speed bought 35 years ago. Priorities shifted and the car was always delayed because other things appeared to be more important. It sat still for 17 years waiting for someone to take it out and stretch its legs. Now it needs some work done, but it's not going to dissapoint!The brothers wouldnt consider selling the car, but the one that bought it developed melanoma thats incurable. Wishing to put everything in order before the disease got the best of him, he trusted his brother with the sale of the Charger. The man only asked that the car should find responsible, passionate owners that could give it the life it deserves or, at least, a good purpose.The boys that traveled to see and maybe buy the car wanted initially to use it for parts, but now theyre ready to restore it to its previous glory. They want to offer the former owner a chance to see it running in all its splendor.Cars are cars, but projects with purpose are by far better, said one of the buyers.Now you can watch how the barn find they were hoping for turns into a garage find, as the owner calls his 1969 Dodge Charger about to be sold. He even tells a story about how he did a first gear "monster" burnout with a big smile on his face.The Charger is brought back to life right in that garage! Yes, it starts!If youre reading this, then remember to take care of your passions and soul from time to time. Were not on this planet forever. The video down below will surely provide you with some inspiration on this aspect.
A constant source of mysteries and wonder, planet Mars is slowly shedding its secrets for us. As per NASA itself, we have learned so much about Mars after over 50 years of exploration with spacecraft, things the people before us never dreamed possible.Mars is at the receiving end of the largest number of missions we humans have devised as part of our space exploration programs. The relatively large number of technologies we have sent there over the years might give the impression we pretty much know all there is to know about the place, and what we dont know, we can make educated guesses about.But thats far from the truth, and as NASA once again says, talking about the exact photo seen as the main of this piece, there are some features that continue to be mysteries.The snapshot of an alien world youre looking at now came our way courtesy of the HiRISE camera. It was snapped at the end of last year, from 299 km (186 miles) above the surface, and shows an undisclosed region of the world.Its a depression there, collapsed in itself through some mysterious process that left behind features that look like the steps of Roman arenas. Its similar to patterns seen on glaciers that sit atop volcanoes after a small eruption has melted some of the ice, but this particular area has no obvious process to remove some of the ice to form these depressions.Many of the tens of thousands of images HiRISE sent back already are accompanied by the word mysterious. Chances are well not be able to solve all these mysteries anytime soon, so were left with just being amazed, and giving places such as this, meanings we can comprehend.
F1 and McLaren fans were visibly upset after the stewards decided to apply a three-place penalty on Daniel Ricciardo and gave him a penalty point too. Up until now, he had no such sanction. His racing team was also obliged to pay 10,000 ($10,985).After seeing the video, talking with both drivers and team representatives, and examining the radio chatter, stewards argued McLarens racing driver impeded Esteban Ocon from achieving his best outcome possible during his flying lap in the second qualification.But Ricciardo never got a warning from his team about Ocon being on a fast lap. Furthermore, Alpines driver said his performance wasnt affected by that aborted lap. Stewards refused to consider these discoveries that were made available to them.Fans expressed their frustration on social media. Most of them said only McLaren shouldve been penalized, not the driver as he didnt have the relevant information coming from his colleagues in charge of helping Ricciardo navigating the track. Some even accused FIA of bias, while others said the penalty was harsh and not necessary.Clearly the stewards didn't use discretion and logic in this one, said another F1 follower.Daniel Ricciardo is one of the most liked drivers in Formula 1, so its not surprising fans of the motorsport react when such things happen. But we should remember that stewards are responsible of enforcing the rules when they see fit.Ricciardo is in no danger of facing more punitive measures right now, but if he accrues 11 more penalty points during the next 12 months, hell be forced to miss a race. FIA rules state that dangerous drivers will receive a race ban, if 12 penalty points are received during a calendar year. These driver sanctions are automatically deleted after every year that passes from the moment of receiving the penalty point or points.
kW

At the time of writing, there are just two occupied space structures floating above Earth, the soon-to-be-retired International Space Station ( ISS ), and the recently launched Palace in the Sky, the Chinese Tiangong. Both are operated by government-backed organizations.Soon enough though, some of the private space companies that have changed the industry in recent years will take their business into orbit as well. A number of them are working on developing orbital habitats with the single goal of making money by providing interested parties the tools and locations to conduct experiments and whatnot. And that will be a true game-changer.Recognizing that, the American space agency announced in the last month of 2021 the signing of agreements with three U.S. companies to develop designs of space stations and other commercial destinations in space.These companies are Blue Origin, Nanoracks, and Northrop Grumman, and its time to have a closer look at what each has to offer.Jeff Bezos Blue Origin has been a player in this industry for two decades, but only recently (read last year) its tourism space business, if it can be called that, took off. The company, which is now offering very short trips to the edge of space onboard the New Shepard spaceship, is also working to develop a lunar lander for the future Artemis missions.On the space station front, Blue Origin partnered with Sierra Space to develop something called the Orbital Reef . It is a station designed to serve the needs of companies, space agencies, nations, media, and private individuals  meaning anyone willing to pay whatever Blue decides to ask for his services.Orbital Reef will float at a distance of 500 km (311 miles) from the surface, and will comprise 830 cubic meters (29,300 cubic feet) of space for living and working, with a capacity of 10 people. NASA is backing the development of the Orbital Reef, expected to become operational in 2030, and awarded the two companies $130 million for its development.Next up is the Starlab , being cooked up by 13-year old space services company Nanoracks and a giant of the industry, Lockheed Martin. Scheduled to be launched in 2027, the first-ever free-flying commercial space station, as its called, comprises a large inflatable habitat of 340 cubic meters (12,000 cubic feet), capable of holding four, a metallic docking node, a 60power and propulsion element, and a robotic arm.The habitat will be structured in a a "state-of-the-art laboratory system" called George Washington Carver (GWC) Science Park, comprising a a biology lab, plant habitation lab, physical science and materials research lab, and an open workbench area.NASA is funding this one with a $160 million award.Last on this list is the yet unnamed Northrop Grumman station, a modular assembly that will use existing technologies, like the Cygnus spacecraft. This contraption will provide a base module for extended capabilities including science, tourism, industrial experimentation, and the building of infrastructure beyond initial design.Its unclear when this one will be ready, but the plan is to have it expand in such a way as to be able to support additional habitats, laboratories, crew airlocks, and even, a first, facilities capable of artificial gravity.$125.6 million have been set aside by NASA for this project.The above three space stations are not the only ones in the works in the near term, only the ones NASA kind of officially recognized. Besides them, the near future will bring five others, close to either the Earth (Axiom, Russias ROSS, and an Indian unnamed habitat), or the Moon (NASAs Gateway and Russias Lunar Orbital Station).
EV

SUV

Tesla Model Y production number 12, "Giga 0012," was slated to be delivered to Mr. Jorgh Minnebush of Oberhausen. The gentleman traveled all the way to Berlin in order to collect his prized German machine personally. But just two days after the German man picked up his, the darn thing had its rear bumper caved in by a wayward Audi driver at a local traffic light.In fairness, the accident appears to have been minor, causing only superficial damage to the passenger side's rear bumper and fender. With most accidents of this small caliber, one would expect repair work to be done expediently and without much issue obtaining replacement body panels. But remember, there are just 30 Model Ys in the entirety of Germany right now, apart from a few imported American examples.Good lucking getting a replacement bumper sent in from the United States shipped all the way to Central Europe while costing an arm and a leg and taking a month or more to arrive for the privilege. That's exactly the scenario that played out when Mr. Minnebush transported his new Tesla to a Bodyshop, who claimed it would be a minimum of several weeks until the rear bumper would arrive and the damage to the body can finally be repaired.Even so, sources claim the owner of this Model Y has no regrets about sitting on a waiting list for as long as three years to receive Elon Musk's answer to an electric Crossover. The gentleman even went as far to say that Mr. Musk was an all-around "extraordinary guy." Perhaps that's his personal perception, but people in the industry hold the opposite opinion.Meanwhile, the very factory that built Giga 0012 is attracting some particularly polarizing reactions among the German people. Tesla's recent attempt to expand its production infrastructure to the international scale initially prompted questions as to the company and Elon Musk would tackle such a gargantuan task. The answer turned out to be quite simple.Find the most skilled architects, engineers, and construction crew he could find, write up a blank check, and watch some vintage Musk Magic take hold in places like Berlin and Shanghai, Nevada, and Austin, Texas. So far, the results of the gigafactory projects have been quite positive. But whether or not this can be sustained long term remains to be seen. Check back for more from EV month right here on autoevolution.
In the aftermath of the Oil Crisis, the 1970s were a period of economic turmoil and social unrest in the Italian Republic. Colloquially referred to as the Years of Lead, this period wasnt particularly good for the Modena-based manufacturer founded by the Maserati brothers in 1914 in Bologna.Due to abysmal sales and a sense of stagnation, de Tomaso decided to dismiss chief engineer Giulio Alfieri. He was central to for more than two decades. For example, he oversaw the development of Maseratis first mass-produced car, the 3500 GT weve covered in detail in a previous article.With the help of American dollars from the Ford Motor Company, de Tomaso developed three models: the Pantera, the Deauville, and the visually challenged Longchamp. The latter is a short-wheelbase take on the Deauville, and it also served as the basis of the Kyalami. Penned by the amazing Pietro Frua, the Maserati-branded gran turismo is rocking the very same chassis as the Longchamp, yet its decidedly different in many other respects.Take, for instance, the powerplant. Alfieris legacy lives on in the engine bay of the Kyalami, where youll find 4.2- and 4.9-liter V8 engines based on the 4.2 that premiered in the Quattroporte. Those lumps are derived from the 4.9-liter V8 used in Maseratis first V8 road-going car, the 5000 GT.Obviously more desirable than the 351ci Ford Cleveland engine in the Longchamp, the Tipo AM 107.21.42 cranks out 266 horsepower at 6,000 revolutions per minute and 289 pound-feet (392 Nm) at 3,800 rpm. The only transmission available was a five-speed manual gearbox, the ZF S5-24-3.Torque is unchanged for the Tipo AM 107.23.49, although it peaks earlier at 3,000 revolutions per minute. The larger engine also happens to be more potent by 10 horsepower for a grand total of 276 ponies at 5,600 rpm. The 4.9-liter Kyalami came standard with a BorgWarner three-speed automatic rather than the Ford C6 of the Longchamp. The ZF manual was optional.Tipping the scales at 1,670 kilograms (3,682 pounds), this half-breed needs just over 7 seconds to reach 100 kilometers per hour (62 miles per hour). If you keep your right foot planted on the accelerator pedal, the speedometer needle will eventually go to 240 kilometers per hour (148 miles per hour).An indirect replacement for the Mexico that weve also covered in a previous write-up, the Kyalami was unveiled in November 1976 at the Turin Motor Show alongside a prototype for the third-generation Quattroporte.Riding on a 2,600-millimeter wheelbase, the 2+2 grand tourer is a unibody like the Mexico before it. Double wishbones up front, an independent rear axle with hydraulically-assisted inboard brakes featuring 286-millimeter discs, 15- by 7.5-inch magnesium wheels from Campagnolo, Michelin XDX tires, power steering, and two fuel tanks also need to be mentioned.Gifted with either Weber 40 DCNF-6 or 42 DCNF-6 depending on the displacement, the Maserati V8 flaunts two valves per cylinder, an 8.5:1 compression ratio, and a single distributor supplied by Magneti Marelli. Both displacements feature alloy blocks and heads. We also need to highlight DOHCs that allow the Tipo 107 to rev higher than the 351C.From a visual standpoint, its easy to identify the Kyalami through its circular headlights rather than the Ford Granada-sourced rectangular units of the Longchamp. Fabricated entirely from steel, the Mazza is tastefully appointed with Connolly leather upholstery and mousehair on the dash.Standard features also include air conditioning, electric windows, as well a power driver-side mirror. Only 200 units were produced in total, split between 125 examples with the 4.2 and 75 cars with the 4.9-liter engine.
EV

The Texas Gigafactory or Giga Texas is slowly turning into the jewel in the crown for the American carmaker. This plant is up-to-standard and will become the main manufacturing and/or assembly point for the awaited Cybertruck. Model Ys have already left the premises. Now its time to ramp up production and keep the flow going.Tesla employees and the companys robots need power to make sure everything runs smoothly. Texas might be a big state that embraces new businesses, but the investments in updating the power grid are nowhere to be found yet. Elon Musks company came up with a workaround. Its a clever one. It made us wonder why it didnt happen in the first place.According to a permit application introduced on Friday and found on the City of Austins website , Tesla is looking for approval to extend its power storing capabilities. Essentially, themanufacturer wants to install a large number of megapacks that will work along with the already existing solar farm. Weather is unpredictable, and so is the power grid. To avoid any shutdowns or production delays, the well-known automaker wants to have power stored in big cell packs.This strategy already has been proven to work well for other companies and even cities! The megapacks are infinitely scalable and are considered by Tesla as the "future of renewable energy." It makes total sense. Think about wind and solar. There's no guarantee that wind will blow with the same power every time or that the Sun will keep shining every day. Thus, it's important to have a proper way of storing the captured and transformed energy.This new Texas buffer will act as an electricity storage system thatll extend over an extra 53 acres of unused land. Furthermore, it creates the opportunity for train usage  a cheaper, more environmentally-friendly transport option. Tesla really is on its way to becoming the next General Electric.A megapack stores energy for the grid and eliminates the need for gas peaker plants. It also helps with avoiding outages. "Each unit can store over 3 MWh of energy that's enough energy to power an average of 3,600 homes for one hour," says Tesla.The initiative isnt something groundbreaking, as CATL (another battery manufacturer) is currently looking to do the same in North America.For now, we dont know if Tesla is planning on using recycled batteries for this new construction. That would be great for the environment and would also show people that EVs really are part of the circular economy. Initiatives like this one will help us all contribute to achieving carbon neutrality.
EV

While Elon Musks company, therefore, spends close to $3,000 for R&D per vehicle, Ford is far behind with a budget of just $1,186 per unit. Toyota is third with $1,063, while GM and Chrysler are next with $878 and $784, respectively.The analysis conducted by StockApps indicates Tesla spends big on R&D as part of its efforts to remain the leading name in terms oftechnology.The industry average in terms of R&D spending is approximately $1,000.But at the same time, Tesla is also the only company that doesnt spend a single cent on advertising. This is impressive, to say the least, especially given its sales have been going strong in the last few years.On the other hand, Chryslers advertising budget covers costs of no less than $664 per produced car, while Ford spends $468 for the very same purpose. Toyotas $454 budget per vehicle isnt much different, while General Motors advertising spending is $394.This time, the industry average for advertising per each produced model is $485.While Tesla is playing its card just right at the moment, the battle in the EV market is becoming much fiercer these days.Later this decade, Teslas leading position is expected to be challenged by none other than Apple, the Cupertino-based iPhone maker thats currently the most valuable company in the entire world. Apple is believed to be working on an Apple Car whose main goal would be specifically to compete against Tesla, with the focus to be put on self-driving systems and next-generation technology.The Apple Car is expected in 2025, at the earliest, with a prototype scheduled to see the daylight at some point in 2023 or 2024 if the project makes the expected progress in the next 12 months.
SUV

HP

CVT

Unlike anything youll find in the subcompactmarket, Honda took a different approach. Like the Toyota RAV4 once was, the 2022 Honda HR-V appeals to a pragmatic user with a decent-looking exterior, functional interior, and enough storage space.The 2022 HR-V might be the tiniest among its rivals, but folding forward the rear seats extends the cargo space to proportions close to its larger siblings.However, the fun begins and ends with its practicality. The 2022 Honda HR-V is by no chance a thrilling car to drive. Theres nothing to write home about its chassis or scrawny four-cylinder engine.This subcompact SUV is ideal as a family cart - cargo hauling, commuting to work and school and running little errands. If you are looking for a more robust alternative in the market, the Mazda CX-30 makes an exciting choice The 2022 Honda HR-V might be practical, but its not cheap with a starting price of $23,095 with options up to $27,895.As we said earlier, theres nothing to smile about under the hood. So far, four variants are available depending on the markets.Three variants come with a 1.5-liter naturally aspirated engine making 129and 145 Nm of torque, with the fourth version coming with a 1.5-liter turbocharged engine producing 177 HP and 240 Nm of torque.Both variables pair to atransmission. The front-wheel-drive will do 0 to 62 mph (100 kph) in 8.6 seconds, while the all-wheel-drive option slows things down to 9.5 seconds.Behind the wheel, the 2022 Honda HV-R isnt as spirited as the Fit hatchback but still retains some of its eager handling capabilities. Putting your foot down will only make its anemic powerplant whine louder with merger returns in performance.
When it came out in 1994, the third-generation 7 Series was one of the most luxurious and technologically advanced sedans money could buy. The first production car to offer curtain airbags and the first European model with satellite navigation, it was a huge improvement over the previous iteration, finally giving the S-Class a worthy rival.The E38 was available with a wide range of engine options, including a V8 and a V12 that helped blend the luxury feel of the massive sedan with the sportscar-like performance and maneuverability that made BMW famous.This beautiful feat of German engineering appealed to many people, including a Pennsylvania resident that goes by the name of Simeon. In the fall of 1999, he was on his way to place a deposit for a new Ford Expedition, but a 740iL crossed his path and 15 minutes later, he was test driving one. The Expedition soon became a distant memory and less than two weeks after the test drive, he was the prowd owner of a BMW flagship.A year later, a friend suggested that he attend a race driving course and thus Simeon ended up taking his 740iL to the Pocono Raceway (also known as The Tricky Triangle) in Long Pond, Pennsylvania.Instantly and irremediably hooked on track driving, the BMW owner soon found out that his car was not built for such endeavors, but instead of buying a track toy, he decided to upgrade the luxury sedan. He took it to Dinan Cars where it was fitted with a Stage 1 suspension, bigger brakes, a cold air intake, a new mass air meter, a cat back exhaust, as well as upgraded engine transmission software.Although these mods improved the E38s track manners, it was still too slow. Simeon thought about a thorough upgrade from the likes of AC Schnitzer, Hamman, or Hartge, but the packages offered by these European tuners were limited to just 390 hp. Moreover, he would still be stuck with the cars original five-speed automatic which took all the fun out of the equation.For the next few months, he researched the possibility of swapping the auto with a BMW six-speed manual, which lead him to Philly-based VAC Motorsports . Not only was the crew open to swapping the transmission, but they also offered to implement other performance-enhancing hardware that would transform Simeons Baby into a veritable track monster and one of the fastest E38 in the States.Apart from the new manual sourced from an E39 M5 that required a strengthened drive shaft and a bespoke aluminum flywheel, the 740iL got a modified M5 limited-slip differential, Brembo 355mm GT F1 Brakes, and a set of Bilstein performance shocks.To top it all off, the crew managed to squeeze in an ESS supercharger that required a lot of custom fabrication to fit. This was an amazing feat at the time since supercharger kits for the M62 V8 were not that common at the time. With a blower snuggly fit and beefed-up rods, valves, or pistons, the sedan was now capable of well over 400 hp.On the exterior, it looked exactly like any other stock 740iL, save for a set of aftermarket wheels.The same can be said about the interior, which gained only a European 7-Series pedal assembly. a gauge cluster from the E39 M5, and five-point seat belts. Years later, the factory navigation system was replaced with a modern iDrive unit borrowed from an i8.Over the years, Simeon took his beloved Baby to many events both on and off the track such as the One Lap of America challenge or the Cannonball Run, where it became a legend among BMW enthusiasts. It was even flown to Germany where it successfully tackled the infamous Nordschleife.Today, this awesome sleeper that boasts almost $200,000 worth of performance upgrades and an unparalleled reputation is available for purchase through ASG Miami . With over 137,500 miles (221,285 km) on the odometer, it can be yours for just $28,500  about what you would pay for a 2022 Toyota Camry.
The Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) was notified that an F1 marshal for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix tweeted a message in which he said in Arabic that he wants Lewis Hamilton to suffer the same faith as Romain Grosjean in 2020. Heres what happened next.

6 photos
Weve known for a while that tech giants are one by one eyeing an expansion in the automotive world, either new software and services or with their very own vehicles.

10 photos
EV

When there's hardly any weight at all to begin with, you have the recipe for one spicy road beast, track monster, or trail carver. Whichever variety of motorcycle you most prefer, chances are pretty good Zero Motorcycles of Santa Cruz, California, has you covered. The man behind Zero's founding had their training in a field a touch more prestigious than common motorcycles.That's right, Neal Saiki, founder and lead engineer behind Zero Motorcycles , spent time at NASA as a legit aerospace engineer. Before opening his own business in the Santa Cruz area. An area pretty well known for being kind to tech startups.Admittedly, the original office building for the company was located adjacent to Santa Cruz proper in the small suburb of Scotts, California. Founded as Electricross in 2006, the company's first-ever bespoke electric dirt bike weighed a featherweight 140 pounds (63.5 kilos). Or nearly light enough to lug onto a subway train, but not quite.The Zero-X, as it was known, had only two switches. One to turn the electric motor on or off, and one to toggle between a setting geared toward either low-end torque or a higher top speed. That's all you need when your electric drive trains is so simple and versatile.Automotive royalty Jay Leno profiled the bike in 2008, perhaps the first big break for the fledgling company. Everyone knows Leno's endorsement is as good as gold. By 2009, the company was staging titularly named endurance races for their own customers to compete in.The inaugural 2009 running of the event covered 502.1 miles and a scarcely believable 1,015 laps of the tough dirt circuit tracks. That same year, the company unveiled its first road-legal motorcycle. This new bike was christened the Zero S.Geared for street and light track use instead of dirt trails, The S and the upgraded Zero DS were touted as also being halfway decent off-road. Even while running on street tires to boot. To cap off a landmark year, the company founded its first European operations team in Holland.The company would get a very helpful endorsement from the then Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger , an avid motorcycle enthusiast in his own right. Soon after, the company unveiled its Zero XU urban commuter. A moderately powerfulbike designed to be perfect for working-class city folks who needed something cheaper than a car to run around in.By 2013, Zero riders were riding cross country in five days, or 135 hours, and developing their own mobile apps to use in tandem with their bikes. That same year, a Zero Motorcycle was victorious in the first-ever running of Pikes Peak's EV motorcycle hill climb race division.It's done so year after year every time out since. By the following year, the brand's flagship Zero SR was topping 100 miles per hour and zero to 60 mph (100 kph) in the low three-second range. Eat your heart out, Suzuki and Kawasaki. Skip to 2016, and the Zero FXS Supermoto is ready to show off the crazy innovations behind its unique Z-Force IPM (Interior Permanent Magnet) motor.Rest assured, this isn't your mom and dad's electric motor. It's a proprietary designed system which is only has a few moving parts. This made the motor perfect for use in a supermoto application. The company marked its ten-year anniversary with the release of the DSR adventure motorcycle. The most versatile and capable electric motorcycle ever produced up to that point.With fast-charging capability, custom graphics, and a wicked black paint job, it's a shame it's not a more well-known and well-celebrated motorcycle. By this stage, the company employed over 150 people, up from just a handful of sales staff and techs when the company first opened its doors.Skip again to late 2021, and the unprecedented buzz behind the 2022 S street bike and the DS and DSR dual-sport models necessitated the company release the bike well ahead of schedule. Imagine that happening with a new Harley or Ducatti. It'd be unheard of.By this stage, power figures and performance data from Zero's extensive line of electric motorcycle models were starting to make an impact that companies like Husqvarna, Honda, and KTM could no longer ignore. In the era of Tesla's domination of the passenger car EV space, this is perfectly understandable.And so, the future looks nothing but bright for a start-up company that was founded with such modest ambitions. Safe for a couple of suspect recalls over the years, the venture's been nothing but a success.Nowadays, the SoCal team behind these electric bikes could teach industry heavyweights a thing or two about how to build an EV motorcycle the correct way. If we were Kawasaki right now, we'd be taking notes.Check back for more from EV month right here on autoevolution.
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Robert Price is a journalist for KGET-TV. His column appears here on Sundays; the views expressed are his own. Reach him at robertprice@kget.com or via Twitter: @stubblebuzz.
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Beaumont's former high schools will soon be immortalized at Memorial Stadium.

While the Beaumont ISD School Board irons out details regarding selling the naming rights at the stadium, it will break ground on a new project at the site soon.

During the facilities subcommittee report of Thursday's board meeting, District 2 Trustee and Board Secretary Stacey Lewis, Jr. announced that construction on the Memorial Stadium Monument will begin soon.

The monument is expected to honor all the district's former high schools including Beaumont, Charlton-Pollard, French, Hebert and the recently-merged Central and Clifton J. Ozen high schools.

RELATED: FAQs: BISD Memorial Stadium naming rights

No specific groundbreaking date was given, though district spokesperson Denise McLean said the subcommittee is expecting it to occur within the next two weeks.

McLean said the board decided to pursue the monument more than a year ago, which was officially approved in November. Vendor and pricing was approved in February.

The estimated cost of the project is $61,000 which McLean said will come out of the district's general fund.

The monument, set to be manufactured by Preferred Facilities Group, will be located on the right side of the field house by the ramp leading into the stadium.

There was no rendering of the design available.

olivia.malick@hearst.com

twitter.com/OliviaMalick
A Southeast Texas man has been ordered to serve 20 years in a federal prison for producing child pornography.

Joshua Welch, 50, of Orange, on Thursday was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Marcia A. Crone in the U.S. Eastern District of Texas court. Welch pleaded guilty on Sept. 20, 2021, according to a news release from the Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas Brit Featherston.

Those who choose to harm a child will quickly find themselves the number one target of law enforcement, Brit Featherston said in Thursdays announcement. No stone will be left un-turned to stop child predators.

Welch was indicted in 2021 following an investigation that began with federal agents in New York.

The Syracuse-based federal agents provided information to Beaumont-based federal agents about an internet user who had uploaded images containing child pornography and sent them to another user, according to information presented in court in April 2021, the release said.

The investigation revealed that the materials original sender was located in Orange, and it ultimately was traced it back to Welch. Federal agents issued a search warrant at a residence in East Ashford Park in Orange where they confronted Welch on May 17, 2021.

Welch admitted to producing the child pornography images and downloading, the release said. He also admitted to visiting other internet websites to view images of child pornography.

This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and the Orange County Sheriffs Office and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Rachel Grove.

This case is part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, the release said.

For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit justice.gov/psc.

meagan.ellsworth@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/megzmagpie
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Frank Farkas, a member of the Berkshire Fair Share Committee, spoke to the Pittsfield City Council on Tuesday about a November ballot question that would generate an estimated $1.6 billion to $2.2 billion in additional annual revenue for transportation and education, through a surtax on top earners. The council voted to pass a resolution supporting the initiative, with only Ward 2 City Councilor Charles Kronick dissenting.
The Outlook is today's look ahead at the week's weather, its impact on the Berkshires and beyond. Clarence Fanto can be reached at cfanto@yahoo.com.
GRANGEVILLE - The Idaho County Sheriff's office is asking residents to be on the lookout for a blue 2015-2019 Chevrolet pickup, with damage to the front drivers side corner panel, headlamp assembly, and the drivers side mirror.

The vehicle was involved in a crash on Meadow Creek Road, east of Ferdinand, early Friday morning. The Idaho County Sheriff's Office says the driver left the scene with the vehicle before deputies arrived.

Using part numbers on the debris left at the crash scene, the initial investigation revealed the vehicle type. The driver also left behind a plastic wheel center cap with the Chevrolet emblem on it.

The Idaho County Sheriff's Office says they have been working to contact area auto body repair shops. If you have any information, contact the Idaho County Sheriffs Office at (208) 983-1100, option 0, to speak with dispatch.
BOISE  As the end of each years legislative session approaches, Ive taken to penning limericks about the happenings. Heres this years crop:

Legislative Limerick No. 1: The definition of...

This is the year of parliamentary maneuvers in the Idaho House, from unsuccessful moves to call up bills on the floor that havent had committee hearings, to repeated maneuvers to force bills to be read at length, which usually brings the House to a stall, but this year has resulted in just slowing its continued slogging movement.

A recent Idaho Reports program on Idaho Public Television included a really interesting montage of many of the calls for bills on the House floor; it was pretty entertaining.

The day I wrote this limerick, Rep. Ron Nate, R-Rexburg, again attempted to call his personal bill, HB 448 removing the sales tax from groceries, out of the Ways and Means Committee, something thats been attempted dozens of times without success. The move was voted down on two straight 57-11 votes, including a vote to cut off debate before any debate had started, which has become the norm now in the House on such moves.

We all know by now that Albert Einstein didnt actually say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, but its still a pretty pithy observation. So with that, heres my first legislative limerick of this years session:

The definition of

When others wont just say amen

And your side still has a strong yen

Then just push em harder

With even more ardor

Again, and again, and again.

Legislative Limerick No. 2: If the House ran the show...

This limerick is jesting about ominously-numbered HB 666, which passed the House but hasnt advanced in the Senate, to criminalize librarians if minors check out harmful materials:

If kids use a library card

Lawmakers will be on guard.

Mom may say OK

But for the last say

The law will be coming down hard.

Legislative Limerick No. 3: Oh, no, Canada!

When the House debated a sweeping bill last week to revamp Idahos election laws, which passed the House but didnt advance in the Senate, the bills sponsor, Rep. Dorothy Moon, who is running for Idaho Secretary of State, warned that Idaho risks voting fraud incursions from our neighbors to the north.

Theres a lot of reports of people coming from Canada that Ive been hearing, just after coming back from Coeur dAlene last night, that have been coming over and voting, Moon, R-Stanley, told the House. So this just secures our elections. Election integrity is a big issue.

Idaho Capital Sun reporter Clark Corbin looked into that allegation, and reported the Idaho Secretary of States office found no evidence for it.

But with a lawmaker claiming Idahos elections could be under attack from Canada, with which Idaho shares a border, heres a limerick about this chilling prospect:

Watch out for the Idaho border

For Canada is much like Mordor.

Theyll sneak in to vote

Ballots under their coat

And, eh, theyll grant us no quarter.

Legislative Limerick No. 4: So long, farewell?

Each year, at least one of my legislative limericks  sometimes more than one  focuses on the growing desire among many for lawmakers to wrap up their session and adjourn sine die, Latin for without a day, signaling that the legislative session, with all its twists and turns, is over. This year is no exception. So heres my latest, written on the 73rd legislative day, with the session poised to wrap up by the end of the week:

About to adjourn sine die

The session this year did supply

A boost to heart rates

Whose cure now conflates

With all of them saying goodbye.

Legislative Limerick No. 5: Three co-equal branches?

HB 782, the controversial, last-minute bill pairing small raises for Idaho judges with major changes in the Idaho Judicial Council and Idahos judge selection process, expands the power of the governor over the courts, which is interesting because last year, the Legislature was focused on decreasing the power of the governor over the legislative branch with regard to emergency powers.

Senate President Pro Tem Chuck Winder, R-Boise, told me, We think an elected official should be the one making the appointments. He said the full Senate would take up the bill soon, which it did. From my perspective, its stirred up a hornets nest because its change, he said.

Many lawmakers are nursing resentment toward the courts over last years Idaho Supreme Court decision invalidating their anti-initiative legislation on constitutional grounds, and for rejecting challenges this fall to a legislative redistricting plan that is forcing some incumbent lawmakers to face off in the May primary. Others are still upset that former longtime Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis wasnt among the Judicial Councils nominations for an Idaho Supreme Court opening last spring, when the council put forth an all-female slate of nominees and the governor appointed Justice Colleen Zahn.

Winder said he rejected the request from Idaho Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Bevan that lawmakers participate in a broad-based study over the next year rather than pass legislation right now. My response to the chief justice was lets see how this plays out in the Legislature, and then we can see if we want to do a study afterwards, he said.

Last year, lawmakers did try to provide some balance of power, Winder said, and he said thats continuing. So, heres a limerick on how all that is playing out:

When it comes to the balance of power

Last year what made lawmakers sour

Was the guvs latitude

But this years attitude

Is how can they make the courts cower?

Legislative Limerick No. 6: Session fatigue

On the 75th day of this years legislative session  slated to be the final day  everyone in the Statehouse was feeling it:

Could this really be the last day?

When many will shout out hooray!

Addressing the question

Left hanging all session

When will it all go away?
Scientists have discovered microplastics in human blood for the first time, warning that the ubiquitous particles could also be making their way into organs.

The tiny pieces of mostly invisible plastic have already been found almost everywhere else on Earth, from the deepest oceans to the highest mountains as well as in the air, soil and food chain.

A Dutch study published in the Environment International journal on Thursday examined blood samples from 22 anonymous, healthy volunteers and found microplastics in nearly 80 percent of them.

Half of the blood samples showed traces of PET plastic, widely used to make drink bottles, while more than a third had polystyrene, used for disposable food containers and many other products.
Corporate America seems to have quite the vendetta against Russia. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink put out a letter Thursday in which he addressed shareholders regarding his companys opinion and response to the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. The CEO of the worlds largest asset manager took an emphatic stance in favor of Ukraine against Russia, claiming he finds it particularly painful to witness due to the indiscriminate killing of civilians.

Fink went on to boast that in consultation with what he calls the companys stakeholders BlackRock has joined the global effort to isolate Russia from financial markets.

War is always a humanitarian tragedy, but the indiscriminate killing of civilians has been particularly painful to witness. I am proud of BlackRocks support for refugees fleeing their homes. In consultation with our stakeholders, BlackRock has also joined the global effort to isolate Russia from financial markets. In the past few weeks, BlackRock mobilized a philanthropic response to help those in need and support our colleagues in Europe, closest to the war. While we do not have offices or operations in Russia or Ukraine, I know that this has created a great deal of stress and uncertainty for all of our employees, particularly those in Europe, and we have worked to provide them with the resources they need.

The BlackRock CEO stated that the world benefited from a global peace dividend and the expansion of globalization as Russia emerged from the Cold War and engaged in international trade during the 1990s, and said he remains a long-term believer in the benefits of globalization and the power of global capital markets.

But the Russian invasion of Ukraine has put an end to the globalization we have experienced over the last three decades, he added.

Fink continued, explaining in detail how both he and others in the private sector worked to punish Russia in a sort of political statement by doing everything they can to prevent any capital from flowing into the nation:

Capital markets, financial institutions and companies have gone even further beyond government-imposed sanctions. As I wrote in my letter to CEOs earlier this year, access to capital markets is a privilege, not a right. And following Russias invasion, we saw how the private sector quickly terminated longstanding business and investment relationships. BlackRock has been committed to doing our part. Grounded in our fiduciary duty, we moved quickly to suspend the purchase of any Russian securities in our active or index portfolios. Over the past few weeks, Ive spoken to countless stakeholders, including our clients and employees, who are all looking to understand what could be done to prevent capital from being deployed to Russia. The speed and magnitude of company actions to amplify sanctions has been incredible. Iconic American consumer brands have suspended their operations of non-essential products. And financial services companies have taken similar steps to further isolate the Russian economy from the global financial system.

BlackRocks website additionally posted a podcast snippet of Fink postulating his views of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in which he both lamented the invasion and eerily stated that access to the global capital markets is a privilege and not a right.

These actions taken by the private sector demonstrate the power of the capital markets, Fink bragged in his shareholder letter. Russia has been essentially cut off from global capital markets, demonstrating the commitment of major companies to operate consistent with core values. This economic war shows what we can achieve when companies, supported by their stakeholders, come together in the face of violence and aggression.

The firm remains heavily invested in China, with its 2018 annual report highlighting the nation as one of its largest growth opportunities. BlackRock has faced scrutiny for such dealings; many have criticized Fink as a China lackey for his seemingly hypocritical tendencies to complain of human rights violations by only certain actors while refusing to offer criticism of the Chinese Communist Party  who have been accused of launching a genocide against its predominantly Muslim Uyghur population.
The media and other Democrats realize they have a problem when their presidents nominee for the nations highest court embraces postmodern BS like transgenderisms claim that merely thinking of oneself as the opposite sex magically transforms that person into the opposite sex. Yet that is what Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson effectively did when she told Senator Blackburn that she couldnt define what a woman is because Im not a biologist.

The mockery that ensued was painful because it exposed part of the nonsense that has become gospel on the left. Judge Jackson took that nonsense position because she fears the transgender lunch mobs that, under the banner of intersectionality, are able to mobilize the angry identity groups that bully the rest of the left and much of the middle into compliance with their madness.

Into the fray, however, jumped USA Today, which has become one of the most dogmatic left-wing outlets in the nation. In a news story written by Alia E. Dastagir, dishonestly headlined, Marsha Blackburn asked Ketanji Brown Jackson to define 'woman.' Science says there's no simple answer.

In the 13th hour of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's confirmation hearing, Sen. Marsha Blackburn asked: Can you provide a definition for the word woman? https://t.co/Ikgkqxj83h  USA TODAY (@USATODAY) March 24, 2022

Twitchy collected some of the resulting mockery that made it past the censors in Twitter:

I guess science is a social construct. pic.twitter.com/70a7hDW0l4  Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) March 24, 2022

Those quotation marks need to be taken off the word, woman, and put around the word, science  Gavin  (@Gavin_B_Hayes) March 24, 2022

But for a properly satisfying rebuke, I suggest reading the Ace of Spades version, which ladles on a full measure of the contempt that Ms. Dastagir and her propaganda rag so richly deserve. Some excerpts:

Actually science says that a "woman" is an adult human with two X chromosomes. Oh, and a vagina and breasts, if you don't have a chromosome test kit available. Seems pretty simple. (snip) Scientists, gender law scholars and philosophers of biology said Jackson's response was commendable, though perhaps misleading. First you said "science" can't answer this question, but now it turns out you're not asking scientists, you're asking "gender law scholars" and "philosophers of biology." Who are not scientists. (snip) Ketanji Brown Jackson is asked to define "woman" by Sen. Blackburn "I don't want to see this question punted to biology as if science can offer a simple, definitive answer," said Rebecca Jordan-Young, a scientist and gender studies scholar at Barnard College whose work explores the relationships between science and the social hierarchies of gender and sexuality. That's your scientist? Oh, a "scientist and a gender studies scholar." Her bio says she's a "feminist scientist." You know -- the famous scientific field of Feminism. I wonder which branch of Feminism Science she works in -- Theoretical Feminism? Applied Feminism? Experimental Feminism? I am an interdisciplinary feminist scientist and science studies scholar whose work explores the reciprocal relations between science and the social hierarchies of gender, sexuality, class, and race. "Interdisciplinary" means you mix fields, and you're saying you're a "feminist scientist," which is already Not a Scientist, and you mix that with "gender studies scholar[ship]," making you even more Not a Scientist. Her degree which she claims makes her a "feminist scientist" is in Noted Scientific Field "Sociomedical Sciences." Um, again, adding in "social" into the mix. Not a Scientist. And she's attached, of course, to the Women's and Gender Studies Department -- not to any scientific department. Not to the "Sociomedical Science" department, which of course does not exist because it's not a real thing. So no, she's not a "scientist." She brands herself that way so she can make her gender studies claims sound "scientific" to idiots, such as those who populate the media. You're not a "scientist" just because you "feel science-y." You're a scientist if you do the work of an actual scientist. She does not. She's just another idiot Gender Studies Marxist. But Jordan-Young said she sees Jackson's answer, particularly the second half of it, reflecting the necessity of nuance. While traditional notions of sex and gender suggest a simple binary -- if you are born with a penis, you are male and identify as a man and if you are born with a vagina, you are female and identify as a woman -- the reality, gender experts say, is more complex. "There isn't one single 'biological' answer to the definition of a woman. There's not even a singular biological answer to the question of 'what is a female,'" Jordan-Young said. We're still quoting this single non-scientist as the "scientists -- note the plural -- this propagandist said she'd consulted? And now we're off of the "scientists" completely, and on to the "philosopher of biology."

There is much more.

Now that Joe Manchin has announced his support for confirming for the Supreme Court, there is no hope of keeping her off the bench, where she will be free to apply postmodernisms tenets  its willingness to pretend words mean whatever they want them to mean -- to interpreting the Constitution. But she will forever be associated with this nonsense, and the Democrat senators who voted to confirm her will be held responsible for installing her.

Justice-to-be Jackson will take her seat alongside Justice Sotomayor, who has recently spouted nonsense from the bench about abortion and children and Covid. Respectively graduates of Harvard and Yale law schools, the two justices are fanning suspicions about the effect of affirmative action on quality control at the elite law schools.
Emails from Hunter Biden's notorious laptop reveal that the first son helped secure millions of dollars for a DoD contractor - Metabiota - which specializes in researching pandemic-causing diseases that could be used as bioweapons, according to the Daily Mail, which obtained Hunter's emails.

Moscows claim that Hunter Biden helped finance a US military 'bioweapons' research program in Ukraine is at least partially true, according to new emails obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com. The commander of the Russian Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Forces, claimed there was a 'scheme of interaction between US government agencies and Ukrainian biological objects' and pointed to the 'financing of such activities by structures close to the current US leadership, in particular the investment fund Rosemont Seneca, which is headed by Hunter Biden.' -Daily Mail

Hunter also appears to have introduced Metabiota to Burisma for a "science project," ostensibly involving biosecurity labs in Ukraine.

On its face, Metabiota appears to be a simple medical data company - however a 2014 email from its Vice President to Hunter described how they could 'assert Ukraine's cultural and economic independence from Russia' - an odd goal for a biotech firm at the time Hunter's Dad was US point-man for Ukraine's 'reconstruction' involving the Obama administration.

Emails and defense contract data reviewed by DailyMail.com suggest that Hunter had a prominent role in making sure Metabiota was able to conduct its pathogen research just a few hundred miles from the border with Russia. The project turned into a national security liability for Ukraine when Russian forces invaded the country last month. -Daily Mail

In April 2014, Metabiota vice president Mary Guttieri wrote a memo to Hunter outlining how they could 'assert Ukraine's cultural and economic independence from Russia'. 'Thanks so much for taking time out of your intense schedule to meet with Kathy [Dimeo, Metabiota executive] and I on Tuesday. We very much enjoyed our discussion,' Guttieri wrote (Daily Mail)

Four days after Guttieri's April 2014 email, Burisma executive Vadym Pozharskyi wrote to Hunter revealing that the then-Vice President's son had pitched a 'science project' involving Burisma and Metabiota in Ukraine. 'Please find few initial points to be discussed for the purposes of analyzing the potential of this as you called, 'Science Ukraine' project,' Pozharskyi wrote (Daily Mail)

Government spending records show the Department of Defense awarded an $18.4million contract to Metabiota between February 2014 and November 2016, with $307,091 earmarked for 'Ukraine research projects'

Digging deeper, we find that Metabiota was working under Black & Veatch - a US defense contractor tied to US intelligence, which built the Ukraine labs that analyzed bioweapons and deadly diseases.

Earlier this month US officials warned congress that 'Russian forces may be seeking to gain control' of these 'biological research facilities', prompting fears that deadly and even engineered pathogens could fall into Russian hands. Hunter and his colleagues at his investment firm Rosemont Seneca Technology Partners (RSTP) routinely raised millions of dollars for technology companies, hoping the firms would take off and make them all fortunes. Metabiota was one of those firms. Emails between Hunter and his colleagues excitedly discuss how the company's monitoring of medical data could become an essential tool for governments and companies looking to spot outbreaks of infectious diseases. -Daily Mail

Hunter and pals invested $500,000 in Metabiota via Rosemont Seneca Technology Partners - and raised several million through various investment firms, including Goldman Sachs.

In Ukraine, the younger Biden was more intimately involved in Metabiota's operations - which he bragged about in pitches to investors. Hunter and his partner Eric Schwerin even discussed housing Metabiota in their office space, April 2014 emails reveal.

That same month, Metabiota VP Mary Guttieri wrote Hunter to wax eloquent on how the company could "assert Ukraine's cultural and economic independence from Russia."

Mary Guttieri, Metabiota vice president, is seen at a meeting with U.S. and Ukrainian military

Russia's Defense Ministry on Thursday put out a diagram with arrows connecting Biden, Soros and the Democratic Party to Ukrainian biolabs

The president's son and his colleagues invested $500,000 in Metabiota through their firm Rosemont Seneca Technology Partners. They raised several million dollars of funding for the company from investment giants including Goldman Sachs

Emails between Hunter and his colleagues at Rosemont Seneca excitedly discuss how the company's monitoring of medical data could become an essential tool for governments and companies looking to spot outbreaks of infectious diseases

Read the rest of the report here...
In confirming that federal prosecutors are treating as authenticated the Biden emails, the Times story applies the final dollop of clown makeup to Wolf Blitzer, Lesley Stahl, Christiane Amanpour, Brian Stelter, and countless other hapless media stooges, many starring in Matt Orfaleas damning montage above (the Hunter half-laugh is classic, by the way). All cooperated with intelligence officials to dismiss a damaging story about Bidens abandoned laptop and his dealings with the corrupt Ukrainian energy company Burisma as Russian disinformation. They tossed in terms thought up for them by spooks as if they were their own thoughts, using words like obviously and classic and textbook to describe the playbook of Russian disinformation, in what itself was and still is a wildly successful disinformation campaign, one begun well before the much-derided (and initially censored) New York Post expose on the topic from October of 2020.

Not to be petty, but  well, yes, lets be petty, just a little, and point out that many of the people who were the most pompous about this story turned out to be the most wrong, including the conga line of Intercept editors and staffers who essentially knocked Glenn Greenwald all the way to Substack over the issue. There are more important things going on in the world, but for sheer bootlicking conformist excess and depraved journalist-on-journalist venom the Russian disinformation fiasco has no equal, and probably needs recording for posterity before its memory-holed via some creepy homage to Severance, or a next-gen algorithmic witch-hunt, or whatever other federally contracted monstrosities are being readied for deployment somewhere far up the anus of Silicon Valley. For comic relief, start with the Intercept:

Subscribers to TK News can read the rest here...
"I think the president, the White House, made the point last night that, quite simply, President Putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else," Blinken said, clearly trying to greatly alter the plain meaning of the words Biden spoke.

"For Gods sake, this man cannot remain in power."



Just some casual warmongering from the "adult in the room." pic.twitter.com/FtnVBChiqI  Ian Haworth (@ighaworth) March 27, 2022

Biden had concluded the televised Warsaw speech by bluntly saying of Putin (who he also had called a "butcher" in a separate statement to a reporter)... "For Gods sake, this man cannot remain in power." Within the very hour as headlines spread around the world that the US president called for regime change in Moscow, and none other than the deep state's preferred mouthpie, the Washington Post, said Biden "sparked a global uproar", the White House desperately scrambled to walk it back.

A White House official tried to clarify to Bloomberg, "The Presidents point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. He was not discussing Putins power in Russia, or regime change." But Biden appeared to be reading a carefully prepared written speech from the teleprompter.

Blinken's Sunday explanation of Biden's words continued:

"As you know, and as you have heard us say repeatedly, we do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia  or anywhere else, for that matter," the US top diplomat said. "As in any case, its up to the people of the country in question. Its up to the Russians," Blinken said.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov had hit back after Biden's speech, stressing that it is not up to the White House or any country anywhere for that matter to decide who is in power in Russia. "The president of Russia is elected by Russians," Peskov said dismissively on Saturday.

Biden's words also triggered an avalanche of commentary in the West from pundits warning that this kind of talk is dangerous given two nuclear-armed superpowers already appear headed toward a war-footing and possible direct clash over Ukraine. Further the Russians have already warned that they could completely sever diplomatic ties over Biden's prior "murderous dictator" and Putin is a "thug" comments.

Bidens call for regime change in Russia wasnt some off-the-cuff gaffe. It was declared as the climax of a carefully choreographed, legacy-defining speech, in a deliberately chosen venue (Poland) where the call would be well-received. The message was delivered loud and clear  Michael Tracey (@mtracey) March 26, 2022

Those fiery references weren't absent from Biden's Saturday speech, where he doubled down of this theme of "evil" Putin, saying, "A dictator bent on rebuilding an empire will never erase a peoples love for liberty. Brutality will never grind down their will to be free. Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia  for free people refuse to live in a world of hopelessness and darkness."

Just prior to the Saturday Warsaw speech, an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal had urged, The President Should Avoid Public Speaking ...at least when the topic is important.

On the heels of the latest walked-back blunder, its a good time to send this along again. The President Should Avoid Public Speaking at least when the topic is important.



https://t.co/VxevpLs6Zc  Tammy Bruce (@HeyTammyBruce) March 27, 2022

Commenting on prior dangerous "gaffes" - the piece stated, "A good number of us will cling to the belief that the president was confused and didnt understand what he was saying, which is all the more reason for him to avoid deviating from a prepared text in this perilous time."

The question remains, was this a mere "gaffe"? Anti-war journalist Michael Tracey and others say no: "Bidens call for regime change in Russia wasnt some off-the-cuff gaffe. It was declared as the climax of a carefully choreographed, legacy-defining speech, in a deliberately chosen venue (Poland) where the call would be well-received."

And then this:
"The moral degeneracy of the LGBTQ4GF150+++ religion knows no boundaries."

The above claim was, not so long ago, considered a bigoted trope exclusively espoused by hateful, reactionary social conservatives.

The claim that normalizing sexual deviancy is at the core of the corporate-sponsored LGBTQ agenda was, the conventional NPC narrative went, a fearmongering talking point to snuff out hard-fought rights of consenting adults to love whomever they choose.

The supposedly "transphobic" argument went like this: taken to its full conclusion, "transgender "ideology would inevitably descend into depraved moral positions  such as, for example, the normalization of sexualizing children.

That prediction  again, once a fringe position among so-called "social conservatives" -- has increasingly proven itself accurate over time.

And, now, here we arrive at the present. And a short ride it was from speculation by "bigots" to factual reality!

---------------------

Meet Allyn Walker (spelled with a "y" for the trend)  "you can't put me in a box with all those other Allens, bro. I can't be categorized."

"It's not so bad bein' trendy

Everyone who looks like me is my friend

Please don't hate me because I'm trendy

They're not gonna laugh at me again

Everybody does it

(Everybody does it)

And I wonder why don't you?"

-Trendy, Reel Big Fish

Allyn (they/them pronouns) was, as you might guess, a sociology professor at Old Dominion University until his recent firing for attempting to normalize pedophilia on the public airwaves.

(Side note: the miscalculation Walker made in his very public appeal in the video below to recognize pedophiles as worthy victims of social protection is that, in his gender studies circles at the university, such positions are par for the course. He mistakenly assumed that enough of the public was on his side  that is, that a sufficient portion of the public was enough like his fellow gender studies academics  that his pedophile normalization rhetoric would be just as acceptable in the wider population as it is inside the halls of his liberal arts institution.)

Any victim of higher education from the past decade or so who enrolled in a sociology course under the false pretense of learning sociology -- rather than being indoctrinated into a cult -- will fully recognize the Allyn Walker archetype.

Here's Allyn Walker explaining his advocacy for "Minor Attracted Persons" (MAPs):

The highlights:

It's important to call pedophiles MAPs because "pedophile" is unfairly stigmatizing

MAPs aren't sex offenders, they're just everyday members of society who happen to be attracted to minors. That attraction forms an important enough part of their identity* to invent an acronym to describe themselves by their sexual attraction to children

MAPs aren't potential victimizers; they're themselves victims of their sexual attractions

*Sexual attraction to children is such an important part of MAPs' self-identity, in fact, that they even have their own flag, in much the same way that a patriot might idolize the symbol of his nation:

The official MAPs pedophile flag

Notice the striking similarity between the above pedophile flag at the official corporate LGBTQ+++ pride flag:

The undeniable takeaway is that proponents of pedophilia hope to ride the coattails of the wider, wildly successful LGBTQ agenda, so as to conflate criticism of pedophilia with the litany of "isms" and "phobias"  homophobia, transphobia, etc.

"Gay rights" activists who aren't actually closeted pedophiles should be livid that their symbols have been hijacked by such a patently loathsome social movement as MAPs.

Where's the denunciation, though, from the likes of Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) or other high-profile "gay rights" advocacy groups?

Nowhere. On the contrary, GLAAD denounces social conservatives who point out the cozy ties between corporate LGTBQ advocacy and pedophilia advocacy while doing nothing publicly to create any daylight between the two causes.

Amazingly, Allyn Walker's remarks in the above-linked video were delivered to a so-called "child rights organization":

"[Old Dominion[ university had been facing calls to fire Walker after the educator made the comment earlier this month while discussing their research in an interview with the Prostasia Foundation, a San Francisco-based child protection organization."

A child protection organization!

In completed inverted reality, one best protects children from child sex predators by destigmatizing pedophilia. Because social justice. Because tolerance. Because diversity is our strength.

---------------------

Predictably, in a goodbye statement released through Old Dominion University after his work garnered enough public backlash, Dr. Allyn magically morphed from the purveyor of child sex propaganda into a hate-crime victim:

"'My scholarship aims to prevent child sexual abuse,' Dr. Walker said. 'That research was mischaracterized by some in the media and online, partly on the basis of my trans identity. As a result, multiple threats were made against me and the campus community generally. I want to thank Old Dominion University for giving me the opportunity to teach and to conduct my research, and the ODU Department of Public Safety for monitoring the threats against me and the community.'"

But muh transphobia!

Just in case it isn't already clear enough where Allyn with a y stands on child sex predators, let the title of his book lay the issue to rest -- "A Long Dark Shadow: Minor-Attracted People and Their Pursuit of Dignity".

----------------------

There's a lot more to potentially say on the topic of pedophilia normalization under the guise of promoting LGBTQ+++ rights, but let's just briefly touch on the issue of hypocrisy.

The temptation of decent people -- which is understandable  is to dismiss Allyn with a y as an egregious anomaly. This benefit of the doubt is  again, as anyone who has spent time in higher-education sociology classrooms can attest -- not deserved.

Moral depravity is the fuel that powers the so-called "social justice" machine. It is social war on decency  a kind of war which might be forgiven in an artist like G.G. Allin who fully embraces the role of deviant; society needs creative challenges to its most basic precepts from time to time. In this regard, I'm not and have never been a conservative.

However, the real grotesque problem with characters like Allyn with a y is that they masquerade as crusaders of righteousness  as if pedophiles need advocates in their corner to normalize their deviancy.

It's the inversion of the relation of the deviant to society.

The audience implicitly knew and understood that, when G.G. Allin defecated on stage, smeared it all over himself, and showered the audience with it while screaming rhythmic obscenities to his loosely defined "music," what they were witnessing was the orgiastic celebration of filth  that is irredeemably was it was, everyone knew that's what it was, and that's the freakshow they came to see.

In contrast with Allyn with a y's attempt to normalize pedophilia, G.G. Allin never tried to whitewash his filth and pass it off as moral virtue. He embraced what he was.

There was no pretense of righteousness.

If only SJW activists were so honest.

Ben Bartee is a Bangkok-based American journalist with opposable thumbs. Follow his stuff via Armageddon Prose , Substack , Patreon , Gab , and Twitter . Please support his independent operations however you can.
In response to a Twitter thread I made about the mounting evidence that the Ukraine war was deliberately provoked by the US empire to orchestrate regime change in Moscow, a former Obama administration State Department spokesperson has called on his followers to investigate my funding.

In a since-deleted Twitter post, Ian Kelly, who has held various White House positions under the Obama and Trump administrations including a year as State Department spokesperson under Hillary Clinton, posted the request Somebody please follow her money as a quote tweet to my aforementioned thread.

I drew attention to his post immediately, because holy shit what the actual fuck.

Kelly responded Yep when I asked if his unverified account actually belonged to a prominent White House diplomat.

When I asked him what precisely is wrong with him, he responded with the image of a Ukrainian flag. That response as of this writing is still up on Twitter, while his other two posts have been deleted.

Screenshot just in case:

Apparently sensing that he may have bit off more than he could chew, Kelly then blocked my account.

And yes this is indeed the Twitter account of Ambassador Kelly, who according to Wikipedia now teaches two courses at Northwestern University: The Fall of the USSR and the Rise of Russia and Controlling the Russian Narrative, from Stalin to Putin. His account has ten thousand followers and has existed since 2010, during which time its handle has been mentioned on the social media platform by prominent neoconservative narrative managers like Bill Kristol and Anne Applebaum as well as mainstream journalists, think tanks and other former US officials.

Heres our boy with the lady herself:

And I guess I should state for the record that there is nothing nefarious about my funding. I am an entirely reader-supported writer and I have never (as far as I know) received any money from the Kremlin or from any other foreign government. Im literally just an Australian woman who says her opinions and observations on the internet with the help of her American husband and the financial support of patrons who enjoy those writings. You might not agree with those opinions, but that doesnt mean Im being paid by Vladimir Putin to voice them.

And its very strange how often I have to explain this to grown adults. This shockingly high-propaganda, high-censorship new media environment weve been in since the start of this war is making everyone bat shit insane.

The source of my funding is linked directly at the top of my Twitter page, and at the bottom of every article I write. My Patreon account is on the most transparent settings allowed by the platform. I wrote an article last year explaining the interesting way Ive been able to make a living doing what I do titled My Experiments With Hacking Capitalism, which in my humble opinion contains a lot of useful information for all content creators who oppose the oligarchic empire. Im actually pretty cool if I do say so myself.

Its really not sane that I should have to say any of these things, though. People shouldnt have to defend themselves from HUAC-style witch hunts for criticizing the most dangerous impulses of the most powerful and destructive government on earth. Every single day now Im getting dozens of people in my online notifications calling me a Kremlin operative because these maniacal accusations have been so aggressively normalized in the anti-Russia hysteria that the general public has had drummed into their consciousness since 2016.

The fact that political insiders from the most powerful empire in history are beginning to feel comfortable just publishing baseless accusations like this about random strangers on the internet says a lot about how crazy these mass-scale imperial cold war psyops are making everyone.

Oh, and about my claim that the evidence was mounting about the Ukraine invasion being used for regime change? Subsequent comments from the US president have since made that case much more compelling than it already was. Perhaps Ambassador Kelly would like him investigated as well.

_________________________

My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following me on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud or YouTube, or throwing some money into my tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy my books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else Ive written) in any way they like free of charge. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what Im trying to do with this platform, click here.

Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.  Coinciding with the second anniversary of the COVID-19 outbreak, The Rutherford Institute has issued an in-depth, follow-up report on the impact of the nations response to the pandemic on civil liberties.

The 2022 report, The Right to Be Let Alone: How to Safeguard Your Freedoms in the Face of the Governments COVID-19 Power Grabs, posits that the governments response to the pandemic has become a massively intrusive, coercive and authoritarian assault on the right of individual sovereignty over ones life, self and private property. As such, concludes John W. Whitehead, these COVID-19 mandates have become the new battleground in the governments tug-of-war over bodily autonomy and individual sovereignty.

Right now, COVID-19 vaccines are the magic ticket for gaining access to the privileges of communal life, said constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute and author of Battlefield America: The War on the American People. Having already conditioned the population to the idea that being part of society is a privilege and not a right, such access could easily be predicated on social credit scores, the worthiness of ones political views, or the extent to which one is willing to comply with the governments dictates, no matter what they might be.

In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, to be a pandemic, resulting in the most widespread and disruptive public health emergency in our lifetime. Since that time, political leaders from the president to governors to mayors have subscribed to a broad range of actions aimed at limiting the spread of COVID-19, some of which have been draconian and unprecedented. On the one-year anniversary of the COVID-19 outbreak, The Rutherford Institute issued an in-depth reporting, Civil Liberties in the Age of COVID-19, to address the delicate balance that must be struck between security and civil liberties, the hazards of government overreach, and the long-term ramifications of an emergency state in which the government is increasingly empowered to declare a state of emergency and impose lockdowns, mandates and restrictions in order to address a broadening range of concerns that prioritize the governments wide-ranging and varying institutional concerns over the individual rights of the citizenry. Coinciding with the second anniversary of the pandemic, The Rutherford Institute has issued The Right to Be Let Alone: How to Safeguard Your Freedoms in the Face of the Governments COVID-19 Power Grabs, which examines the far-reaching ramifications of how the pandemic has impacted the legal, moral and political debate over who gets to decide what happens to our bodies during an encounter with government officials. As the report warns, This merely pushes us one step further down that road towards a total control society in which the government in collusion with Corporate America gets to decide who is worthy of being allowed to take part in society.

The Rutherford Institute, a nonprofit civil liberties organization, provides legal assistance at no charge to individuals whose constitutional rights have been threatened or violated and educates the public on a wide spectrum of issues affecting their freedoms.

Case History

March 22, 2021  Rutherford Institute Issues In-Depth Report on the Year-Long Impact of Lockdowns, Mandates & Restrictions
Since Russias invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 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, March 23.

A nightmare scenario would be a Russian missile or attack aircraft that destroys a U.S. command post across the Polish-Ukrainian border, James Stavridis, a retired admiral who served as the Supreme Allied Commander at NATO from 2009 to 2013, told the Washington Post [1]. 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.

According to a CNN report [2] detailing a rare face-to-face meeting between Russian and US military officials last week, the US believes that the refusal for high-level meetings is due to Kremlin worries that the encounters would show them to be vulnerable if they allowed such meetings, because it risks a tacit admission that an abnormal situation exists, according to the readout of the meeting.

Though the assumption of vulnerability appears misconceived considering while the Pentagon has allegedly attempted to maintain high-level contacts with Russian counterparts, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has not attempted any conversations with his counterpart, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, since the start of the conflict last month.

The real reason the Russian military leadership has allegedly shunned maintaining high-level contacts with the Pentagons top brass appears to be the duplicitous and treacherous role played by the transatlantic NATO alliance of significantly escalating the conflict by substantially increasing the NATO military footprint in Eastern Europe along Russias western flank, publicly providing billions of dollars worth lethal weapons to Ukraines security forces and allied neo-Nazi militias while asininely claiming to be peacemakers extending chivalrous courtesies to the arch-rival.

Ahead of the NATO summit attended by President Biden Thursday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced the transatlantic military alliance would double the number of battlegroups it had deployed in Eastern Europe. The first step is the deployment of four new NATO battlegroups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia, along with our existing forces in the Baltic countries and Poland, Stoltenberg said. This means that we will have eight multinational NATO battlegroups all along the eastern flank, from the Baltic to the Black Sea.

NATO issued a statement [3] after Thursday's emergency summit attended by Joe Biden and European leaders: 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. We are also establishing four additional multinational battlegroups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia.

Last week, President Biden announced an unprecedented package of $1 billion in military assistance to Ukraine in addition to $350 million previously pledged which was disbursed within days of Russias invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. The new package includes 800 Stinger anti-aircraft systems, 2,000 anti-armor Javelins, 1,000 light anti-armor weapons, 6,000 AT-4 anti-armor systems and 100 Switchblade kamikaze drones.

Besides providing abundance of anti-aircraft and anti-armor munitions to Ukraines largely conscript military and allied irregular militias, a senior US administration official told Reuters [4] Washington and its allies were also working on providing anti-ship weapons to protect Ukraine's coast. Ukrainian forces claimed on Thursday to have blown up a Russian landing ship in a Russian-occupied port.

Nonetheless, what must have exasperated Russias military leadership is a secret plan [5] for a peacekeeping mission involving 10,000 NATO troops from the member states surreptitiously occupying western Ukraine and imposing a limited no-fly zone over Lviv and rest of towns which is allegedly being prepared by the Polish government.

The plan is seemingly on hiatus due to a disagreement between Polish President Andrzej Duda and Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the deputy prime minister of Poland and the head of Law and Justice (PiS) Party. Duda wants Washingtons approval before going ahead, whereas Kaczynski appears desperate to obtain political mileage from the Ukraine crisis.

The prime ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia traveled via train to the embattled Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and met with President Volodymyr Zelensky on March 15 in a show of support for Ukraine. De facto leader of Poland, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, accompanied them. Speaking on the occasion, Kaczynski said: I think that it is necessary to have a peace missionNATO, possibly some wider international structurebut a mission that will be able to defend itself, which will operate on Ukrainian territory.

In response, Russian officials condemned Poland's proposal to send NATO peacekeeping forces into Ukraine as a very reckless and extremely dangerous idea that would risk a full-scale war between the alliance and Moscow. This will be the direct clash between the Russian and NATO armed forces that everyone has not only tried to avoid but said should not take place in principle, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

Regarding how operational-level miscalculations could lead to all-out war between belligerents, its pertinent to recall that on February 7, 2018, US B-52 bombers and Apache helicopters struck a contingent of Syrian government troops and allied forces in Deir al-Zor province of eastern Syria that reportedly [6] killed and wounded scores of Russian military contractors working for the Russian private security firm, the Wagner Group.

The survivors described the bombing as an absolute massacre, and Moscow lost more Russian nationals in one day than it had lost during its entire military campaign in support of the Syrian government since September 2015.

Washingtons objective in striking Russian contractors was that the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)  which is mainly comprised of Kurdish YPG militias  had reportedly handed over the control of some areas east of the Euphrates River to Deir al-Zor Military Council (DMC), which was the Arab-led component of SDF, and had relocated several battalions of Kurdish YPG militias to Afrin and along Syrias northern border with Turkey in order to defend the Kurdish-held areas against the onslaught of the Turkish armed forces and allied Syrian militant proxies during Ankaras Operation Olive Branch in Syrias northwest that lasted from January to March 2018.

Syrian forces with the backing of Russian contractors took advantage of the opportunity and crossed the Euphrates River to capture an oil refinery located to the east of the Euphrates River in the Kurdish-held area of Deir al-Zor.

The US Air Force responded with full force, knowing well the ragtag Arab component of SDF  mainly comprised of local Arab tribesmen and mercenaries to make the Kurdish-led SDF appear more representative and inclusive in outlook  was simply not a match for the superior training and arms of the Syrian troops and Russian military contractors, consequently causing a carnage in which scores of Russian nationals lost their lives.

A month after the massacre of Russian military contractors in Syria, on March 4, 2018, Sergei Skripal, a Russian double agent working for the British foreign intelligence service, and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a public bench outside a shopping center in Salisbury. A few months later, in July 2018, a British woman, Dawn Sturgess, died after touching the container of the nerve agent that allegedly poisoned the Skripals.

In the case of the Skripals, Theresa May, then the prime minister of the United Kingdom, promptly accused Russia of attempted assassinations and the British government concluded that Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a Moscow-made, military-grade nerve agent, novichok.

Sergei Skripal was recruited by the British MI6 in 1995, and before his arrest in Russia in December 2004, he was alleged to have blown the cover of scores of Russian secret agents. He was released in a spy swap deal in 2010 and was allowed to settle in Salisbury. Both Sergei Skripal and his daughter have since recovered and were discharged from hospital in May 2018.

In the aftermath of the Salisbury poisonings in March 2018, the US, UK and several European nations expelled scores of Russian diplomats and Washington ordered the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle.

In a retaliatory move, Russia also expelled a similar number of American, British and European diplomats, and ordered the closure of American consulate in Saint Petersburg. The number of American diplomatic personnel stationed in Russia drastically dropped from 1,200 before the escalation to 120, and the relations between Moscow and Western powers reached their lowest ebb since the break-up of the former Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War in December 1991.

Notwithstanding, five years following a potentially catastrophic incident that couldve inundated Islamic States former capital Raqqa and many towns downstream Euphrates River in eastern Syria and caused more deaths than the deployment of any weapon of mass destruction, the New York Times reported in January [7] that at the height of US-led international coalitions war against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, US B-52 bombers struck Tabqa Dam with 2,000-pound bombs, including at least one bunker-busting bomb that fortunately didnt explode.

In March 2017, alternative media was abuzz with reports that the dam was about to collapse and entire civilian population downstream Euphrates River needed to be urgently evacuated to prevent the inevitable catastrophe. But Washington issued a gag order to the corporate media not to sensationalize the issue.

The explosive report noted that the dam was contested between the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, the Syrian government and the Islamic State. A firefight broke out in which SDF incurred heavy casualties. It was then that a top secret US special operations unit Task Force 9 called for airstrikes on the dam after repeated requests from the Kurdish leadership of the SDF.

The explosions on March 26, 2017, knocked dam workers to the ground. A fire spread and crucial equipment failed. The flow of the Euphrates River suddenly had no way through, the reservoir began to rise and authorities used loudspeakers to warn people downstream to flee.

The Islamic State group, the Syrian government and Russia blamed the United States, but the dam was on the US militarys no-strike list of protected civilian sites, and the commander of the US offensive at the time, then-Lt. Gen. Stephen J. Townsend, said allegations of US involvement were based on crazy reporting.

Its worth noting that it was the same rogue Pentagon General Stephen J. Townsend, currently the commander of US AFRICOM and then the commander of Combined Joint Task Force (CJTF)  Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) responsible for leading the war against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, whose operational miscalculation was responsible for the reckless confrontation an year later in February 2018 when US B-52 bombers struck Russian military contractors, killing and wounding scores, a tragic incident that brought two nuclear powers engaged in the Syrian conflict almost to the brink of a full-scale war.

Citations:

[1] Top Russian military leaders repeatedly decline calls from US:

[2] Inside a rare US meeting with a Russian general in Moscow:

[3] NATO doubles battlegroups in 'Eastern Flank' States:

[4] Russia signals scaled-back war aims, Ukrainians advance near Kyiv:

[5] Secret Plan to Send 10,000 NATO Peacekeeping Troops Into Ukraine:

[6] Russian toll in Syria battle was 300 killed and wounded:

[7] A dam in Syria was on a no-strike list. The US bombed it anyway:

About the author:

Nauman Sadiq is an Islamabad-based geopolitical and national security analyst focused on geo-strategic affairs and hybrid warfare in the Af-Pak and Middle East regions. His domains of expertise include neocolonialism, military-industrial complex and petro-imperialism. He is a regular contributor of diligently researched investigative reports to alternative news media.
China, India agree to strengthen communication for furthering ties

Xinhua) 10:50, March 26, 2022

Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (L) talks with Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in New Delhi, India, March 25, 2022. (Xinhua/Zhao Xu)

NEW DELHI, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar agreed on Friday to strengthen communication for the further development of bilateral ties.

During their meeting in the Indian capital, Wang noted that China and India, which are neighboring ancient civilizations with a combined population of 2.8 billion people, are the two nucleus forces promoting a multipolar world, economic globalization, diversified civilization and greater democracy in international relations.

As the world is entering a time of turbulences and transformations, the two countries should strengthen communication and coordinate their stances in safeguarding their legitimate interests as well as the common interests of the developing countries, so as to make respective contributions to peace and stability in the region and the world as well, Wang said.

For his part, Jaishankar said that India attaches great importance to its relations with China, with no changes made in its strategic assessment of the importance of China.

India is willing to strengthen communication with China and increase mutual trust to get their relationship out of its current low as early as possible, and to enable steady and pragmatic cooperation between the two countries, he said.

Wang said that China and India, as two rational major developing countries, should put their border issue at a proper position in bilateral relations. The border issue should neither define nor affect the overall development of the China-India ties.

The two countries should help eath other fulfill achievements rather than constrain one another, and should support rather than reject each other, he said.

The Chinese foreign minister noted that the two countries should adhere to the important consensus reached between their leaders that China and India should not be a threat to each other, but an opportunity for each other's development.

The two countries should properly resolve the border issue and well manage their differences so as to promote bilateral relations, he said.

In the meeting, Jaishankar said that his country and China have maintained effective communication via diplomatic and military channels since last year. After rounds of the Corps Commander Level Meeting and meetings of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on China-India Border Affairs, the two militaries have realized disengagement along the Line of Actual Control in most parts of the border areas' western sector.

The Indian and Chinese border troops should disengage each other in the remaining parts as soon as possible, he said.

In the meeting, the two sides agreed that it is in the common interests of both countries to restore peace and tranquility in the border areas, and they should achieve regular management and control there on the basis of disengagement and take effective measures to avoid misunderstanding and misjudgement.

They also agreed that the two countries have same or similar positions on major international and regional issues, and they should work for mutual understanding and support in order to make positive contributions to the world.

The two sides agreed to engage in dialogue and communication on issues including deepening economic and trade cooperation, facilitating personnel exchanges, and promoting exchanges on the transboundary river hydrology.

The two sides also exchanged views on the fight against COVID-19, Ukraine, and Afghanistan as well as multilateral affairs.

They agreed that multilateralism should be upheld, and the UN Charter and international law should be abided by, while disputes should be settled peacefully via dialogue. They also expressed their grave concerns over the impact of unilateral sanctions on the global economy and supply chain security.

On the same day, Wang also met with India's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval during his working visit to the South Asian country.

(Web editor: Xian Jiangnan, Bianji)
A senior officer told this newspaper that they had done internal transfers of police officers recently keeping in view corruption activities. (DC Image used for representational purposes)

HYDERABAD: Some policemen are allegedly collecting mamools and bribes from business establishments and victims visiting the police stations across the state.

Though the government sanctions huge funds to each police station for regular maintenance purposes on a monthly basis and officials are provided with all kinds of facilities, some policemen are said to be collecting money from credulous people.

Following the suspension of Suryapet rural sub inspector N. Lava Kumar under corruption charges, the district police took measures to streamline the system. Lava Kumar was caught red handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 1.3 lakh from the manager of a hotel for allowing the hotel business to operate smoothly in days and nights.

Sources said Lava Kumar had worked three months from January 25, 2018, to March 24, 2018, in Suryapet Rural police station as SI. He was transferred following allegations levelled against him regarding corruption and giving targets to the staff. Again, Lava Kumar took charge as SI on April 23, 2021.

A few years ago, Director General of Police (DGP) M. Mahendar Reddy had sent an email warning to all superintendents of police (SPs) and police commissioners enclosing a list of 400 staff of respective police stations who were indulged in illegal activities. The DGP also directed the unit heads and police commissioners to attach such policemen to AR headquarters and provide proper training to perform duties.

A senior officer told this newspaper that they had done internal transfers of police officers recently keeping in view corruption activities. These transfers would help prevent corruption activities and strict guidelines were issued to all unit officers to keep a vigil on police staff in an attempt to protect the police image. Stern action would to be initiated against policemen who were found violating law, the official said.

March 24, 2022: Suryapet Rural SI N. Lava Kumar arrested for accepting Rs 1.3 lakh bribe

Feb. 23, 2021: SR Nagar SI B. Bhaskar Rao held for accepting Rs 25,000 bribe.

July 7, 2021: Miyapur SI V. Yadagiri caught taking bribe of Rs 20,000

Dec. 16, 2021: DSP rank officer G. Jagan and others arrested by ACB for accepting Rs 2 lakh bribe

Dec. 8, 2021: Medipally SI Ch Yadagiri Raju arrested for taking

Rs 10,000 bribe from student
Prof. Kodandaram founder Telangana Jana Samithi (right) and scientist Sagar Dhara Former UNEP consultant (left) looks at the present situation of Osman Sagar encroachments on Google Earth print out shown in the Discussions and Resolutions demanding to remove encroachments inside Himayat Sagar and Osman Sagar and all illegal structures in prohibited zone and strict implementation of GO111, way forward. (DC Photo)

Hyderabad: Experts, scientists and leaders from political parties were unanimous in their criticism of the state governments decision to repeal GO 111 during a panel discussion here on Sunday. They warned of serious environmental consequences, including floods in Hyderabad, if the government goes ahead with its proposal.

Speaking on the occasion, former consultant of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Sagar Dhara said that floods had occurred in many parts of the country in the past few years. He pointed out that floods in Hyderabad could result in unprecedented havoc as a scientifically-driven disaster management plan was not in place. The state government has itself said that the purpose of the two reservoirs (Osmansagar and Himayatsagar) was to control floods, he said.

Congress leader M. Kodanda Reddy, All India Kisan Congress vice-president, criticized the way the CM had bulldozed the decision on repeal of the GO in the Assembly, without giving prior notice or any time for debate or discussion. He said he was worried about the effect the GOs repeal would have on farmers.

Prof. M. Kodandaram, president of the Telangana Jana Samiti, said the government was only telling the people that the reservoirs were for drinking water, and was hiding the fact that they also served the function of flood control.

State president of Samajwadi Party, Prof. S. Simhadri, said that the governments decisions had neither a policy nor planning.

The government does not believe in master plans and instead goes by ad-hoc plans. The TRS is only focusing on grabbing land. I do not know how the Chief Minister has got this bizarre idea to repeal GO 111. If he wants land, then he should understand that it is aplenty in the eastern part of the city, he said.

Telangana Prajala Partys state president Muralidhar Gupta took potshots at BJP legislator M. Raghunandan Rao, who had said that the GO would be revoked when the BJP comes to power.

This shows that both TRS and BJP are keen on making money and are not working for the public good, he said.

CPM state secretariat member D.G. Narasimha Rao said the CPM had strongly opposed the decision to repeal the GO in the Assembly.

Farmers with small amounts of land in the reservoirs catchment areas may have some issues but they should be addressed separately, without removing the GO, he said.

Prof. Ramdass, a geophysicist from Osmania University, and former IICT chief scientist Dr K. Baburao also spoke at the event.
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In a crowd of 11 contenders for the Conservative Party of Canada leadership race, one of Westmans two MPs has found his top pick.

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In a crowd of 11 contenders for the Conservative Party of Canada leadership race, one of Westmans two MPs has found his top pick.

Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa MP Dan Mazier officially endorsed Carleton MP Pierre Poilievre in the competition to become his partys next permanent leader, posting a picture of both men shaking hands on his Twitter and Facebook pages.

SUBMITTED Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa Tory MP Dan Mazier (right) has endorsed fellow Carleton MP Pierre Poilievre in the race to become the next leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.

In early February, previous leader Erin OToole was ousted after losing a leadership review with Portage-Lisgar MP Candice Bergen being appointed as interim leader.

Both Mazier and Brandon-Souris Conservative MP Larry Maguire had endorsed OToole in the previous leadership contest in 2020.

"Hes principled, he sees a vision of Canada I can envision as well," Mazier said about Poilievre by phone from Ottawa on Friday. "Hes strong on what needs to be done here."

Mazier sees Poilievre as being good on the issue of freedoms, "especially the restrictions we have on us right now," like federal mask mandates.

The leadership candidate has previously called for all levels of government in Canada to end pandemic-related mandates and vocally supported the so-called freedom convoy that occupied downtown Ottawa in an attempt to convince the federal government to do just that.

As the Tories shadow minister for finance from much of August 2017 through February 2022, Poilievre doggedly challenged the Liberal government on its spending habits, which Mazier appreciates.

Asked if it was hard to pick between such a wide field of candidates, Mazier said he believes the topics that Poilievre speaks about will resonate with his rural Manitoba constituents, calling them "true conservative values."

He agrees with Poilievre that rural Canada is often forgotten, that there are things standing in the way of the success of Canadian agriculture and that something needs to be done about the rising price of fuel. That includes a desire to get rid of the federal carbon tax.

Of OTooles time in charge of the party, Mazier said he didnt think Canadians got to know him as well as they could because access was limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With things opening up across the country, he thinks Canadians will have a better shot at getting to know Poilievre.

With the more socially-conservative Poilievre running against candidates like the more traditionally progressive conservative Jean Charest  who was a leader of the federal Progressive Conservatives and the Liberal premier of Quebec  there has been a suggestion in the media that the current leadership race represents a war between different factions of the Conservative Party of Canada.

According to Mazier, those observations are overblown.

"There are spectrums in every party, like Liberals and NDP," he said. "Theres a left side in that party and no one seems to talk about it. They seem to always be concerned about where the Conservatives are. I think weve ourselves a disservice as a Conservative party, where youre red, blue, social, all these labels. At the end of the day, were Conservatives."

The last time the Sun asked, Maguire had yet to endorse any candidate in the leadership race. He did not respond to an email sent Friday asking if he had come to a decision.

 cslark@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @ColinSlark
The cancellation of the pig and calf scrambles at the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair is being hailed by animal rights groups.

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The cancellation of the pig and calf scrambles at the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair is being hailed by animal rights groups.

The Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba released a statement Thursday afternoon announcing the events are being pulled just four days before the fair is set to open.

The scrambles involve children between seven and 11 years old chasing herds of piglets or calves in a race to capture one for cash prizes. The fair received pushback from animal welfare groups in Brandon and Winnipeg, citing safety and well-being concerns for the animals and participants.

"The health and welfare of our animals is important to us and has always been a top priority," said Kathy Cleaver, president of the Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba, the organizer of the fair, in the Thursday statement.

The Royal Manitoba Winter Fair runs from March 28 to April 2.

When contacted by the Sun on Friday, the Provincial Exhibition declined to give further comment. However, the organization released a statement on its Facebook page late Friday afternoon stating that the Winnipeg Humane Society issued a formal complaint to Manitobas Animal Health/Welfare Brandon.

"After many discussions with the provinces Chief Veterinarian Scott Zaari, we have learned that it is their obligation to look into the complaint," the statement read. "After reviewing, they found probable cause to initiate a formal inquiry into our scrambles."

The statement further explained that the calf and pig scrambles fall within a "grey area" of the Animal Care Act, and if the Winter Fair had proceeded to hold the events, the province "would have no choice but to send an animal protection [officer] to observe the events, from there they could deem us in violation of that act and we as an organization would be liable."

Section 3.1 of the Animal Care Act states that "no person shall inflict upon an animal acute suffering, serious injury or harm, or extreme anxiety or distress that significantly impairs its health or well-being."

If the fair was found in violation of the act, the Provincial Exhibition could face fines, seizure of animals or legal prosecution.

"The unfortunate outcome of this is that not only do we have disappointed children looking forward to the events, but the 1,500 [pounds] of Pork that would be donated to a local food bank is also no longer being donated," the Provincial Exhibition statement read.

Calls to end the scrambles have been ongoing, but a letter from Animal Justice, a Canadian animal law advocacy organization, released on March 15, formally called on fair organizers to cancel the activities, citing cruelty to animals and causing unnecessary stress.

The letter was co-signed by the Winnipeg Humane Society and supported by the Brandon Humane Society.

No one involved in this campaign is against the fair as a whole, reiterated Brandon Humane Societys director and shelter manager, Tracy Munn.

"I say good on them for putting the pigs [welfare] first, and I think its good kids dont have to see that growing up," she said. "Its been a long time coming and Im glad its done. Theres enough violence in the world."

Winnipeg Humane Society animal welfare consultant Brittany Semeniuk was surprised the scrambles were cancelled, and on very short notice, too. She did not receive any notification from fair organizers and only learned about it when the Sun reached out for comment. They had submitted its safety planning for the scrambles, she said, so she didnt expect them to be cancelled this year.

However, as an organization, she said the Winnipeg Humane Society is happy their concerns are also being addressed in terms of the welfare of the animals.

"This move brings the fair one step closer to aligning with a progressive society and how modern-day society views and treats animals."

There could also be legal issues with calf and pig scrambles, according to Kaitlyn Mitchell, the Winnipeg-based staff lawyer for Animal Justice.

In an email, she expressed her contentment with this development, adding the organization was thrilled fair organizers were taking their concerns seriously.

"Encouraging youth to chase and grab at frightened, helpless pigs and calves is antiquated and completely inhumane, and would have also violated federal and provincial animal cruelty laws," she said "We hope that the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair will cancel its pig and calf scrambles for good, just as fairs across Canada have done."

The Provincial Exhibition has not indicated whether the cancellation of the scrambles is long-term or just for this year.

Fairs in Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have cancelled their animal scrambles over animal cruelty concerns.

 kmckinley@brandonsun.com, with Brandon Sun files

 Twitter: @karenleghmcki1
Government has been consulting on how best to support the Australian screen industry for some years now, and some contributors to this discussion claim that without further government action, a sharp decline is unavoidable.

The data doesnt support that view. Screen production activity in 2020-21 reached all-time record-levels and more than $1.9 billion was invested across both domestic and inbound production. In December 2021, the Producer Offset for non-theatrically distributed Australian stories increased from 20 per cent to 30 per cent, triggering so much activity that Screen Australia CEO Graeme Mason asked producers for patience as his team work through a glut of applications.

Adrian Grenier in the Netflix series Clickbait. Credit:Netflix

But the best news is found beyond big headline numbers; we no longer have two separate worlds  one where Australian stories are funded with Australian money at lower production budgets, another where big Hollywood studio productions with massive budgets bring big international stars to Australia. Now these two worlds have amalgamated to form one seamless continuum. Australian stories now secure more funding from the international market than they do from home, and Australian production companies are developing big global hits, using the international Location Offset and Location Incentive tax incentive programs.

What excites me is seeing the cutting-edge virtual production technology trialled on the Location Incentive-funded La Brea, then used to stunning effect on the ABCs Fires; Clickbait  a show created and filmed in Melbourne  become a global hit on Netflix, with a budget most Aussie shows can only dream about; US cable channel FX finance a truly Australian show, Mr. Inbetween; Nicole Kidman bringing Nine Perfect Strangers to Byron Bay, and Toni Collette bringing Pieces of Her to Western Sydney.
The nationwide bandh call given by a joint forum of several trade unions on Monday and Tuesday is not expected to affect normal life in the twin cities, according to various leaders. (DC file photo)

HYDERABAD: The nationwide bandh call given by a joint forum of several trade unions on Monday and Tuesday is not expected to affect normal life in the twin cities, according to various leaders.

All RTC buses, autorickshaws, cab services, national and private banks, petrol pumps and other services would function normally.

Telangana Cab Drivers and Owners Association state president Shiva said cab services would not be affected. Private and public bank employees said banks would be open Monday and Tuesday. Petrol bunk owners also said the fuel outlets would function normally.

V.C. Sajjanar, managing director of the TS Road Transport Corporation said buses would be operated as usual. "None of our staff members has any issue and they are not willing to take part in any strike," he said.

Meanwhile, the Platform of Central Trade Unions that called for the protest against Central government policies affecting workers, farmers, and people, said transport workers, electricity staff and bank unions had decided to join the strike. The strike notices have been given by unions in sectors including coal, steel, oil, telecom, postal, income tax, copper, banks and insurance companies among others.
Every Thursday, Bondi Centre Newsagency receives three Russian-language newspapers on its doorstep.

The publications - Argumenty i Fakty, Moskovskii Komsomolets (MK) and Unification - are on a newsstand at the front of the shop with publications written in Italian, German, French and Greek. They also sit alongside Sydneys local Ukrainian newspaper, The Free Thought, which arrives once a fortnight.

The three Russian newspapers are distributed in Australia each week. Credit:Zoe Samios

They, like international tech giants, are playing a role in the dissemination of news about the war in Ukraine for local readers. And yet the way the war is portrayed in the publications is very different.

Argumenty i Fakty, an international newspaper owned by the Russian government, does not use the words war or conflict on its front page. The main stories are about selling apartments and growing tomatoes. There are several headlines about Russia and its relationship with the world, but these are focused on sanctions and the support China is giving the country.
A man believed to be his 50s has died after a paddleboard was found floating in water at Palm Beach in Sydneys north on Sunday.

Surf lifesavers from North Palm Beach Surf Club began a search at about midday after crew of an inflatable rescue boat found a paddleboard in the water near Barrenjoey Headland.

Surf lifesavers found the man in water near Barrenjoey Headland. Credit:Nick Moir

About 10 minutes later, the rescue boat crew found a man floating face down in the water and rushed him to shore where they carried out CPR for about 40 minutes before ambulances arrived, a NSW Surf Life Saving spokeswoman said.

Despite their efforts, the man died at the scene.
Queenslands COVID-19 cases and deaths have dropped in the past 24 hours, but health officials warn the state continues to see high numbers in the early stages of a second wave.

There was one new COVID-related death on Sunday, along with 7738 new cases  including 4645 positive rapid antigen test results, according to Health Minister Yvette DAth.

In the states hospitals on Sunday, there were 264 COVID-19 patients in public wards  including 13 in intensive care units  and an additional 20 virus patients in private hospitals.

On Saturday, Queensland recorded 9404 new cases and eight deaths, with 295 patients in public and private hospitals and 19 in ICU wards. On Friday, there were 9730 new cases and three deaths.
Its been more than a month and Miranda* still cant bring herself to watch the entire video.

On February 13, hackers took control of the Melbourne womans Instagram account and posted a deep fake of the 34-year-old spruiking a cryptocurrency scam.

Hi guys, I just invested $1000 and got $10,000 back into my bank account straight away, the deep fake version of Miranda says in the clip. Her followers were then asked to follow a suspicious account and many also received private messages, purportedly from Miranda, asking them to follow the dodgy account.

Miranda is an e-commerce worker and does not want to disclose her real name because her company has not given her permission to speak publicly.
A bill to ban intensive puppy farming in NSW has hit fierce opposition from the states peak body for dog breeders, which says the rules are heavy-handed and would hurt responsible breeders.

The Companion Animals Amendment (Puppy Farms) Bill in 2021, a signature policy of Animal Justice Party upper house member Emma Hurst, would limit breeders of cats and dogs to a maximum of 10 breeding females, consistent with Victorian legislation.

The bill, which is being co-sponsored by independent MP Alex Greenwich in the lower house, would also limit female cats and dogs to two litters, cap the age of male dogs used for breeding at six years old, and require a ratio of one staff member to every five animals.

Labrador breeder Guy Spagnolo with his new litter of labrador puppies in Middle Dural. Credit:Wolter Peeters

Ms Hurst said puppy farms or puppy mills referred to the intensive factory farming of dogs for the pet trade industry, often in huge sheds on rural properties. The problem had increased during the pandemic. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) has confirmed many intensive breeders moved across the border to NSW after Victoria passed legislation.
For the owners, this was a long-term investment property that they paid $870,000 for in

2009, Mr Pilcher said. For the buyers it was all about the view and their plan is to put in another level on the home as its one of the highest points in the area. In Winston Hills, a young couple threw down a final bid of $500 to snap up a four-bedroom brick home at 24 Lloyd George Avenue for $1,756,500. We had eight registered bidders, and it went beyond expectations, said Jena Chahine, of Asset Estate Agents. Its an amazing sale price in what I can start to see as a softening market. Buyers do know the market has softened, so agents need to step up now  they need to work a bit harder.

In Melbourne, a historic Northcote manor that had fallen into the hands of squatters sold for $3.217 million under the hammer, which was $300,000 over the reserve. Selling agent Sam Rigopoulos, of Jellis Craig Northcote, said 26 Helen Street had been owned by the Uniting Church for almost 40 years before the squatters moved in and growing disrepair forced them to sell it. Four bidders attended the auction, Mr Rigopoulos said, at which a local family battled a developer to the end. They ended up outbidding the developers and everyone in the street loved that, he said. The land holding [797 square metres] is quite significant for where it is and it kind of lends itself to subdivision. The owners will make a major renovation and an extension.

Loading Mr Rigopoulos said the market was stronger than he expected given eight out of their 10 properties sold under the hammer. Four of those were between $3 and $4 million, and they all sold really well, he said. It was patchy among the other stuff but with premium [homes] theres so much demand. Also sold in Melbourne was a three-bedroom house at 10 Elm Grove, Balaclava, which went under the hammer for $1,653,000  above the $1,580,000 reserve. Two bidders competed for the home before it sold to a couple expecting their first baby.

Josh Stirling, of McGrath St Kilda, said the vendors had owned the house for 10 years, and were absolutely delighted with the sale. We have started to see a shift in the market, but we still got a result as good as the peak, Mr Stirling said. Good houses are selling well. In Brisbane, a quintessential six-bedroom Queenslander at 33 Upper Lancaster Road,

Ascot, procured the top sale across the city on Saturday thanks to a $3.05 million bid by an interstate buyer. The home  which has changed hands three times in less than four years  previously sold for

$2.75 million in November 2020 and $1.225 million in June 2018. Drew Davies, of Place Estate Agents Ascot, said the classic facade and 810 square metre land size in a prime Brisbane suburb made it hot property to five registered bidders, and a lack of other homes for sale only fuelled the competition.
If the numbers of senior commanders killed proves accurate, the Russian generals have been either extremely unlucky or successfully targeted  or both. Shooting generals is a legitimate tactic of war  and it has been openly embraced by Ukrainian officials, who say their forces have been focused on slowing Russian advances by concentrating fire on Russian command-and-control units near the front lines. Jeffrey Edmonds, former director for Russia on the National Security Council and now a senior analyst at the CNA think tank in Washington, said Ukrainian forces appear to be targeting anyone with grey hair standing near a bunch of antennas, a signal they may be senior officers. Some experts suggest the Russian military has struggled to keep its communications secure and that Ukraine intelligence units have found their targets through Russian carelessness, with Russian forces reduced to using unencrypted devices. There have been reports of Russian soldiers using mobile phones. Pentagon and other Western officials say that Russian generals generally serve closer to the front lines than their NATO counterparts. By design, the Russian army is top heavy with senior officers, which makes them numerous, though not expendable.

Military analysts and Western intelligence officials say the Russian generals in Ukraine may be more exposed and serving closer to the front because their side is struggling  and that senior officers are deployed closer to the action to cut through the chaos. One Western official suggested that Russian generals were also needed to push frightened Russian troops, including raw conscripts, forward. Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Defence Ministry to withdraw conscripts from combat, having publicly pledged that they would not be deployed. Troops carry the coffin with the body of Capt. Andrei Paliy, a deputy commander of Russias Black Sea Fleet, during a farewell ceremony in Sevastopol, Crimea, on March 23. Credit:AP Pentagon, NATO and Western officials say the Russian army in Ukraine is struggling with poor morale. Russian soldiers attacked and injured their commanding officer after their brigade suffered heavy losses in the fighting outside the capital, Kyiv, according to a Western official and a Ukrainian journalist.

Loading Troops with the 37th Motor Rifle Brigade ran a tank into Col. Yuri Medvedev, injuring both his legs, after their unit lost almost half its men, according to a Facebook post by Ukrainian journalist Roman Tsymbaliuk. The post said the colonel had been hospitalised. A senior Western official said he believed Medvedev had been killed, as a consequence of the scale of the losses taken by his own brigade. Oleksiy Arestovych, a military adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, told The Washington Post the Ukraine army has focused its efforts on slowing the pace of the Russian invasion, in part by beheading forward command posts, meaning killing, not literally beheading. Killing senior officers can slow down the Russian advances by three or four or five days before new command structures can be put in place, Arestovych said.

He attributed successful targeting to both excellent intelligence and numerous Russian vulnerabilities. Arestovych claimed that in addition to slowing Russian momentum, killing their generals undermines Russian morale, while bolstering Ukrainian resolve. The death of such commanders quickly becomes public knowledge and it is very difficult to hide, he said. Unlike the death of an ordinary soldier, it makes an outsized impression. Ukrainian officials and Western officials have named seven Russian generals killed in action: Rezanstev, Magomed Tushayev, Andrei Sukhovetsky, Vitaly Gerasimov, Andrey Kolesnikov, Oleg Mityaev and Andrei Mordvichev.

Russian officials and Russian media have confirmed the death of only one general. Sukhovetsky, a deputy commander of Russias 41st army, was killed by a sniper at the beginning of the war, Ukrainian officials said. At his burial in Novorossiysk, a port city on the Black Sea, a deputy mayor said Sukhovetsky died heroically during a combat mission during a special operation in Ukraine. Christo Grosev, director of open-source investigative group Bellingcat, said he confirmed the death of Gerasimov, which was first announced by Ukrainian intelligence. The Bellingcat investigator also reported on a March 7 phone call from a Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officer, reporting the death to his superior, a call captured by Ukrainian intelligence and shared with reporters. One of the first commanders that Ukraine claimed to have killed, in late February, was Tushayev, a right-hand man to Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

Kadyrov denied the claim on his Telegram channel and Chechen Information Minister Akhmed Dudayev posted an audio message purportedly from Tushayev, which he said proved he was alive. The deaths of senior officers are celebrated on Ukrainian social media - but kept out of Russian news. Loading Killing Russian generals feels consequential to Ukraine, especially in the David versus Goliath narrative they are living through, said Margarita Konaev, an expert on Russian military innovation at Georgetown Universitys Centre for Security and Emerging Technology. She said the nature of the fighting -- at close quarters in urban environments -- will likely add to the body count on both sides, for civilians, ordinary soldiers and commanders.

The urban dimension is especially deadly, she said. Mason Clark, a senior analyst and expert on the Russian military at the Institute for the Study of War, said Ukrainian reports suggest that radio communications across the Russian forces are vulnerable to interception and location. Before the war with Russia began, Clark said Ukraine forces learned how to use communications to target and pinpoint the sources of artillery fire in the separatist enclaves in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. Theyve used this training at scale, Clark said. Ruth Deyermond, an expert in post-Soviet security in the Department of War Studies at Kings College London, said it was unknown how the loss of senior officers in Ukraine might shape thinking in the Kremlin.

As Putins circle has shrunk, and decision-making become more opaque, she said, you dont even know what Putin is being told about the losses by his own military. The reported high attrition rate for Russian commanders in Ukraine underscores the problem of invading the country on a false set of assumptions, expecting to swiftly topple Ukraines government and install a puppet regime to bring it back into Moscows orbit. A military operation forecast by Russia to take a few days has entered its second month. Russia is highly sensitive about military casualties, in particular involving senior officers. Calling the invasion a special military operation to liberate Ukraine from neo-Nazis, Russian authorities have banned journalists from using the term war and have criminalised criticism of the military or the release of any information that could damage its standing. After Russias initial failures, Putin has simply doubled down on the war effort, with the Kremlin dampening hopes of an off-ramp through peace talks. Russian authorities appear to be preparing for a long, bloody campaign, drumming up domestic unity through a propaganda blitz, as the military intensifies its pressure on Ukraine.
Zelensky responded by saying Moscow was afraid of a relatively short conversation with journalists. It would be funny if it werent so tragic, he said, according to the Ukrainian news agency RBK Ukraina. At the Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, attendees expressed support for Ukraine by falling silent for 30 seconds. Some arrived wearing blue-and-gold ribbons, the colours of the Ukrainian flag. Actor Sean Penn had unsuccessfully campaigned for Zelensky  a former actor  to speak at the ceremony. A view of the square which got destroyed as a result of a rocket strike in the area earlier in Byshiv, Ukraine. Credit:Getty Russias invasion of Ukraine has stalled in many areas. Its aim to quickly encircle the capital, Kyiv, and force its surrender has faltered against staunch Ukrainian resistance  bolstered by weapons from the US and other Western allies. Moscow claims its focus is on wresting the entire eastern Donbas region, which has been partially controlled by Russia-backed separatists since 2014. A high-ranking Russian military official on Friday said that troops were being redirected to the east from other parts of the country.

Russia has supported the separatist rebels in Luhansk and neighbouring Donetsk since the insurgency erupted there shortly after Moscow annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. In talks with Ukraine, Moscow has demanded Kyiv acknowledge the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, accused Russia of seeking to split Ukraine in two, making the comparison to North and South Korea. The occupiers will try to pull the occupied territories into a single quasi-state structure and pit it against independent Ukraine, Budanov said in a statement released by the Defense Ministry. He predicted that guerrilla warfare by Ukrainians would derail such plans. A Ukrainian delegate in talks with Russia on ending the war, Davyd Arakhamia, said in a Facebook post the countries would meet in Turkey beginning Monday. However, the Russians then announced the talks would start on Tuesday. The sides have met previously with no deal reached. Ukraines priorities at the talks will be sovereignty and territorial integrity, Zelensky told his nation in his nightly address.

We are looking for peace, really, without delay, he said. There is an opportunity and a need for a face-to-face meeting in Turkey. Zelensky also signed a law that bans reporting on troop and equipment movements that havent been announced or approved by the military. Journalists who violate the law could face three to eight years in prison. The law does not differentiate between Ukrainian and foreign reporters. Ukraine says that to defeat Russia, the West must provide fighter jets and not just missiles and other military equipment. A proposal to transfer Polish planes to Ukraine via the United States was scrapped amid NATO concerns about being drawn into direct fighting. In his pointed remarks, Zelensky accused Western governments of being afraid to prevent this tragedy. Afraid to simply make a decision.

His plea was echoed by a priest in the western city of Lviv, which was struck by rockets a day earlier. The aerial assault illustrated that Moscow, despite assertions that it intends to shift the war eastward, is willing to strike anywhere in Ukraine. When diplomacy doesnt work, we need military support, said the Rev. Yuri Vaskiv, who said fearful parishioners were staying away from his Greek Catholic church. A damaged building in Kharkiv, Ukraine. More than half Kharkivs 1.4 million people have fled the city since Russias invasion. Credit:Getty Images On the road to Kyiv, residents of a village combed through the wreckage of Russias ongoing attacks. Locals in Byshiv, about 35 kilometres from Kyiv, walked through buildings torn open and destroyed by shelling to salvage what they could, including books, shelving and framed pictures. Standing in what used to be a kindergarten classroom, teacher Svetlana Grybovska said too many children have fallen victim.

Its not right Grybovska told British broadcaster Sky News. Children are not guilty of anything. Loading Russia confirmed it used air-launched cruise missiles to hit a fuel depot and a defence plant in Lyiv, near the Polish border. Another strike with sea-launched missiles destroyed a depot in Plesetske just west of Kyiv, where Ukraine stored air defence missiles, said Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Defence Ministry. Russias back-to-back airstrikes shook the city that has become a haven for an estimated 200,000 people who have fled bombarded towns and cities. Lviv, which has largely been spared bombardment, also has been a waystation for most of the 3.8 million refugees who have left Ukraine since Russia invaded on February 24. In Kharkiv, Ukrainian firefighters used axes and chainsaws to dig through concrete and other debris on Sunday searching for victims of a Russian military strike on the regional administration building. One body was found on Saturday, a firefighter said. At least six people died in the March 1 attack  the first time Russian forces hit the centre of Kharkiv, once home to 1.5 million people.

On Sunday night, a rocket attack hit an oil base in the far northwestern region of Volyn. Loading Along with the millions of people who have fled Ukraine, the invasion has driven more than 10 million people from their homes, almost one-quarter of Ukraines population. Thousands of civilians are believed to have been killed. Zelensky also said on Sunday in the interview with the Russian journalists that he speaks regularly with his troops and their families and had offered his troops in Mariupol the option of leaving the city. They said, We cant. There are wounded people, we will not leave the wounded, Zelensky said. Moreover, they said, We will not leave the dead.
Latest News 24 lenders raise interest rates Read the full list here

Clients seek advice on interest rate rise City brokers field many enquiries

Non-bank SME lender ScotPac has acquired online lender Business Fuel, giving it access to a range of finance products and impressive technology.

Business Fuel provides business loans from $10,000 to $250,000 with terms up to 24 months to help small and medium business owners. It offers completely digital applications, data-driven automated credit assessments, and funding approval within 24 hours. The company also has a 1,100-strong broker network.

ScotPac CEO Jon Sutton (pictured) said the acquisition would make it the leader in the data-driven lending space for SMEs.

It is a really exciting time for Scotpac and Business Fuel. Business Fuel are a tech-enabled business with brokers and customers as their focus, Sutton said.

ScotPac has been in operation for 30 years servicing working capital needs for SMEs and what we have found is small businesses in particular have a need for working capital really quickly, and that need was not being met.

Read more: ScotPac to offer mortgages in major pivot

Sutton said ScotPac dealt with a large number of brokers, so the acquisition would assist the non-bank lenders to provide a more tailored solution for SMEs.

When brokers are sitting down and looking at their clients who need a cashflow loan to combine a debt finance, our brokers will have more to work with to help their client through our acquisition, he said.

Sutton said brokers could take advantage of ScotPacs digitalisation. It enables them to upload information quickly to an online broker portal so transactions can be processed large, complex transactions efficiently.

Business Fuel managing director Wade Doblo will continue to lead the Business Fuel team, reporting to Sutton.

Were excited to join ScotPac which provides us the opportunity to accelerate our growth in the SME market, Doblo said. Our team believes in good ideas and backing Australian businesses with the capital they need to thrive, so joining ScotPac heralds a new phase in Business Fuels success.

ScotPac recently announced a two-month extension to its $100 million bounce back fund until June 30.

The SME bounce back fund is to further support small and medium businesses, particularly those recovering from the floods, to get back on their feet.

The program provides support for SMEs who have been impacted by recent events. We have extended the program through to the end of financial year for SMEs to apply for financial assistance, Sutton said.

We stand by helping businesses get a better chance of success and to make that happen for our brokers and customers.
Andhra Pradesh ST Commission chairman Kumbha Ravibabu, a former student of political science department, told Deccan Chronicle that there have been no active students unions in Andhra University for past two decades.  DC file photot

VISAKHAPATNAM: Andhra Universitys Department of Political Science since past two decades is no longer producing towering politicians, like late Lok Sabha speaker G.M.C. Balayogi or former union minister Panabaka Lakshmi.

Students passing out of the department now appear more focused on Group 1 and other jobs. Not even one percent of students enrolling annually are getting into politics. None has aspired for even sarpanch posts, leave alone becoming an MLA or MP.

During the current academic year 202122, 46 students are pursuing their post graduation in political science, 20 of them women.

Political Science Department head Peteti Premanandam said lack of interest in politics and financial support are main reasons for students not opting for politics as their career option. This apart, political parties are also not concerned about educational qualifications before choosing their MP or MLA contestants in elections.

Most students hail from rural backgrounds and economically weaker sections. Their immediate need is money for survival. So, they search for jobs instead of joining politics to serve people. Constitutional bodies should make some changes in election system. They must formulate rules in which knowledge of political science is given importance, Premandam opined.

Andhra Pradesh ST Commission chairman Kumbha Ravibabu, a former student of political science department, told that there have been no active students unions in Andhra University for past two decades. Politicians like M. Venkaiah Naidu, K. Yerran Naidu, Panabaka Lakshmi and G.M.C. Balayogi had been active student union leaders before graduating to politics. Student unions play a crucial role in nurturing students towards politics and making them disciplined politicians.

It is the governments responsibility to establish student unions at the university level. There must be regular seminars and meetings on public issues like the present Visakhapatnam Steel Plants privatisation. These can be the right step for students to turn into aspiring politicians, Ravibabu underlined.

Andhra University has been running courses in political science since past eight decades. It is among the few state and central universities in the country offering an exclusive course in political science.
Bryan, OH (43506)

Today

Periods of rain. High near 55F. Winds ENE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Light rain and wind early...then remaining cloudy with showers late. Low 48F. Winds NE at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
For Ernest Hemingway, successful writing required creating something that no one else had created before but it also hinged on two elements beyond ones control: Luck and timing. By this standard, the historian Deborah Cohen has scored big-time: Her book Last Call at the Hotel Imperial is bringing out disturbingly prescient material at exactly the right moment.

Ms Cohens ambitious ensemble biography documents the intertwined careers, friendships and sex lives of four hugely influential correspondents and commentators primarily covering Europe in the lead-up to World War II. Like Hemingway (who occasionally barges in), the books four stars John Gunther, H R Knickerbocker, James Vincent Jimmy Sheean and Dorothy Thompson hailed from provincial America, but took Europe by storm after World War I.

It would be hard to overstate the collective power and visibility of these reporters in their heyday. When Gunther died, The New York Times wrote that he had traveled more miles, crossed more borders, interviewed more statesmen, wrote more and sold more copies than any other single journalist of his time. Thompsons On the Record column appeared in 170 newspapers; her late-1930s NBC radio broadcasts reached millions of listeners. She didnt just interview Churchill; she was his weekend guest. Ms Cohen recounts an amusing anecdote in which Thompson and her then-husband, Sinclair Lewis, were in bed one morning when President Franklin Roosevelt telephoned. Lewis handed the phone over to her, the cord stretched tight across his throat, and there he lay for a half-hour  pinned to the bed while his wife  gabbed on with the president, making the countrys foreign policy.

Later generations of journalists owed a debt to these pioneers, who helped invent modern conflict reporting. This was before journalism became institutionalized, Gunther later said. We correspondents were strictly on our own. We avoided official handouts. We were scavengers, buzzards, out to get the news, no matter whose wings got clipped.

Wing-clipping was a polite term for some of the reporting he and his colleagues did, especially once the Third Reich picked up steam. As fascism swept across the continent, these reporters were unsparing in their coverage of what Nazism was unleashing. Hitler personally banned Sheeans writings. Gunthers portrayal of the Fuhrer in his best seller Inside Europe earned him a place of honor on the Gestapos hit list.

Not that these correspondents didnt make missteps. Knickerbocker was accused of being a Mussolini apologist in the early days of the Fascist leaders regime. In 1932, Thompson predicted that Little Man Hitlers bid for power would fizzle out. Just imagine, she wrote, a would-be dictator setting out to persuade a sovereign people to vote away their rights. The very idea was farcical. Never mind that Hitler had told her  on the record  that he intended to get into power legally and abolish this parliament and the Weimar constitution afterward, then found an authority state that demanded total obedience from its subjects. (Ms Cohen oddly leaves this crucial interview excerpt out but its been documented elsewhere.) Yet Thompson was relentless in her subsequent coverage of the Reichs brutality and the global threat that Hitler posed. In 1934, she earned the distinction of being the first foreign correspondent banished from Nazi Germany. She proudly framed her expulsion order.

Much of Hotel Imperial is a distressing, immersive recounting of how denial, passivity and pacification aided the rise of authoritarian regimes. Ms Cohen has tasked herself with the same outsized challenge that faced her subjects in real time: making the deluge of prewar events around the globe comprehensible to readers. At times, she succeeds; at others, torrents of historical details overwhelm the narrative, which Ms Cohen has additionally burdened with extensive documentation of the correspondents sex lives, psychoanalysis adventures and marital woes.

Despite these handicaps, the book is intermittently engrossing. Ms Cohens recounting of Gunthers on-site reporting during the 1934 coup attempt by Austrian Nazis culminating in the siege and occupation of the Chancellery, and the gruesome murder of Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss is un-put-downable. Equally riveting: Her recounting of the Night of Long Knives, and Thompsons daring trip to Germany to report on the massacres aftermath, despite her place on Goebbelss blacklist.

On a more cynical note, Hotel Imperial also reminds readers that the news industry was, and remains, a business. In the eyes of Thompson and crew, dictators needed to be toppled  but they also made great copy. A former journalist himself, Mussolini gave out interviews like candy (Knickerbocker alone scored four audiences with Il Duce), but a rare Hitler get caused a surge of envy within the correspondent community, sold thousands of newspapers and gave journalists material for best-selling . The book depicts several queasy instances of dictator-cultivation. Youre a journalistic whore, Gunther told Knickerbocker at one point  even though he too coveted Mussolini scoops.

World War II is almost an afterthought in Cohens book, largely because the careers of her four subjects began to stall once hostilities began. From their emeritus perches, Gunther and his colleagues were forced to wonder what their years of warnings had yielded: After all, tens of millions of people still died in what became the deadliest conflict of all time. Cohen describes a heartbreaking scene in which Gunther and Sheean, in 1945, see members of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombing crews celebrating at the Stork Club.

Do you think they realize theyve killed more humans than anyone else in history? John asked Jimmy.

No chance of it, Jimmy answered. Look at their faces.



2022 The New York Times News Service
on Sunday said it will invest Rs 500 crore to set up facilities in Tamil Nadu.

Aster, which is one of the largest integrated providers in GCC and India, has signed a memorandum of understanding on March 26 with the Tamil Nadu government in this regard.

The MoU proposes an investment of Rs 500 crore in hospitals, pharmacies and laboratories in Tamil Nadu, said in a statement.

This will help provide quality healthcare at an affordable cost to the people of Tamil Nadu and generate employment for more than 3,500 people, it added.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has encouraged the initiative and ensured support to the healthcare group.

Currently, Aster has 14 hospitals, 9 clinics and 66 labs and patient experience centres in India, with an investment of about Rs 3,000 crore.

With five hospitals already in Kerala, including Aster Medcity - the flagship hospital of the group, the investment in Tamil Nadu will further solidify Aster's presence in South India.

Apart from Kerala, Aster has healthcare facilities spread across Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

(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.)
firm Schoolnet aims to grow multifold to generate Rs 6,000 crore in the next 5-7 years from expansion of services in and subscriber growth on its learning app.

The 25-year old firm provides digital classrooms to around 40,000 at present, along with digital learning content and trains teachers, Schoolnet head of strategy Arindam Ghosh said.

The company claims to have reached a revenue of Rs 800 crore before the COVID-19 outbreak, but it came down due to the closing of during the lockdown.

Ghosh said the company expects to close the current financial year with a consolidated number of around Rs 400 - 450 crore if all goes well.

"There was an impact on the overall revenue during the Covid times, but we have maintained profitability even in this current year. We would be maintaining that. In long term, we are looking at revenue of Rs 6,000 crore over a 57-year horizon for which significant augmentation of resources will be required," he said.

The company expects to onboard almost 10 lakh paid subscribers on its app Geneo, which would be through schools and the retail channels.

It also aims to triple school business from its present portfolio of 40,000 schools to 1.2 lakh in the next 5-7 years, Ghosh said.

Schoolnet is planning to increase its manpower to 5,000 people to meet the growth target.

The company at present has 300 employees, which it plans to increase to about 800 people in the next one year.

"We are looking at aggressively ramping up our manpower both on the sales front as well as the technology front to about 5,000 people. Over the next 2-3 years, we are looking at around Rs 900 1,000 crore of revenue with the addition of approximately 2,000 resources," Ghosh said.

He said out of 1.5 million schools in the country, there are around 10,00,000 plus schools that are yet to be digitised.

"There is a huge market. We will continue to work on that front both in government and private schools and parallelly leverage our relationship with our access in the schools as well as in the retail market to grow the B2C consumer-centric platform," Ghosh 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.)
Property consultant India Sotheby's International Realty on Sunday said it has made a strategic equity in Mumbai-based data analytic firm CRE Matrix to offer more and better advisory services to its clients.

The company did not disclose the amount it has invested and the percentage of the stake it has acquired in CRE Matrix.

When contacted, Abhishek Kiran Gupta, CEO and co-founder, CRE Matrix, told PTI, "We have raised Rs 5.5 crore from India Sotheby's International Realty. We had earlier raised Rs 2 crore from angel investors".

The amount will be used to expand business in more cities and hire people, he added.

In a statement, India Sotheby's International Realty (ISIR) said it has made a strategic to "increase synergies, improve data processing and sharpen analytical skills in the property market".

This will enable the company to draw on analytics of CRE Matrix in residential- commercial real estate and undertake more analytics-based transactions and advisory services.

The ISIR will provide CRE Matrix valuable inputs and insights on product development, with its vast domestic and international client interface experience.

Gupta said the ISIR has picked up a minority equity stake in the CRE Matrix but did not share the exact shareholding.

"I see tremendous synergy in this association, not only from a complimentary business perspective but also on the highly competent and supplementary human capital strength," he added.

The two brands together will create many new systems, products, services for each and all stakeholders within the proptech eco-system, he added.

"CRE Matrix will enhance our ability to bring new products to the market using big data, deep learning and natural language processing (NLP) technologies to store, retrieve and analyse billions of data points across millions of Pan-India real estate transactions," said Ashwin Chadha, president, India Sotheby's International Realty.

Chadha noted that globally real estate decisions are backed by substantial transaction analytics.

"CRE Matrix's ability to compile and collect data on buying, selling and leasing trends in a specific area, traffic, demographic information, consumer survey results and cutting-edge analytics will help ISIR to offer better insights on pricing, home-value trends, and potential value in certain high-value neighbourhoods," Chadha said.

Sotheby's International Realty (SIR) is present in 79 countries and territories with 1,000 offices and 25,000 sales associates. It has achieved a record real estate global sales volume of USD 204 billion in 2021.

The brand established its presence in India by setting up its first office in New Delhi in July 2014.

It has now offices in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Goa, Colombo and the mandate for the Maldives.

CRE Matrix is a deep analytics platform for commercial and residential real estate. It offers data over a cloud-based platform.

CRE Matrix provides data on commercial real estate (office, retail and warehousing) across eight major cities.

In the housing segment, it collects data of both primary and resale markets in major cities of Maharashtra, including Mumbai and Pune.

The company plans to collect and provide data of only resale housing markets of other major cities.

Recently, HDFC acquired a 7.2 per cent stake in proptech startup Loyalie IT Solutions Pvt Ltd (now renamed as Reloy) for Rs 1.1 crore.

(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 combined market valuation of seven of the top-10 valued firms tumbled Rs 1,14,201.53 crore last week, dragged down by Hindustan Unilever and HDFC twins.

Last week, the BSE benchmark index declined 501.73 points or 0.86 per cent. While HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Hindustan Unilever Limited, State Bank of India, Bajaj Finance, HDFC and Bharti Airtel were among the laggards from the top-10 pack, Reliance Industries Limited, Tata Consultancy Services and were the three gainers.

The market valuation of Hindustan Unilever tumbled Rs 34,785.7 crore to reach Rs 4,59,121.88 crore. HDFC Bank's valuation tanked Rs 26,891.57 crore to Rs 7,93,855.60 crore. The valuation of HDFC eroded by Rs 20,348.29 crore to Rs 4,17,511.38 crore and that of ICICI Bank plunged Rs 14,372.87 crore to Rs 4,85,801.96 crore.

State Bank of India's (mcap) declined by Rs 10,174.05 crore to Rs 4,37,618.33 crore and that of Bharti Airtel went lower by Rs 7,441.7 crore to Rs 3,89,522.03 crore. The valuation of Bajaj Finance dipped Rs 187.35 crore to Rs 4,22,138.56 crore.

In contrast, Reliance Industries added Rs 79,188.07 crore taking its valuation to Rs 17,56,635.40 crore. The valuation of Tata Consultancy Services jumped Rs 12,114.39 crore to Rs 13,71,589.75 crore.

also gained Rs 9,404.12 crore to Rs 7,89,352.44 crore. In the ranking of the top-10 most valued firms, Reliance Industries leading the chart followed by Tata Consultancy Services, HDFC Bank, Infosys, ICICI Bank, Hindustan Unilever, State Bank of India, Bajaj Finance, HDFC and Bharti Airtel.
on Sunday recorded 400 fresh infections which raised the total to 65,31,090 till date.

The southern State reported also 25 deaths which raised the hitherto tally to 67,797, according to an official press release.

Of the deaths, three occurred in the last few days but were not recorded due to late receipt of documents and 22 were designated as COVID-19 deaths after receiving appeals based on the new guidelines of the Centre and the directions of the Supreme Court, the release said.

No deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, it said.

With 593 more people recovering from the virus since Saturday, the total recoveries until now was 64,58,586 and the active cases dropped to 3,833, the release said.

As many as 14,913 samples were tested in the last 24 hours.

Among the 14 districts, Ernakulam recorded the most with 88 cases, Thiruvananthapuram saw 56 and Kottayam 55, the release said.

Of the new cases, one was of a person from outside the State, three were health workers and 366 infected through contact with the source of it not being clear in 30, the release said.

There are 14,513 people now under surveillance in various districts and 14,093 are in home or institutional quarantine; 420 are in hospitals, the release added.

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reported 140 fresh COVID-19 cases on Sunday, taking the tally to 78,73,509, while the toll increased by one to reach 1,47,780, a health department official said.

The lone COVID-19 fatality in the state was reported from Mumbai.

So far, 77,24,803 people have been discharged post recovery, including 106 during the day, leaving the state with an active caseload of 926, he said.

health department data showed the fatality rate is 1.87 per cent and the recovery rate stands at 98.11 per cent.

As per the data, the overall number of tests in reached 7,92,49,720 after 40,759 samples were examined in the last 24 hours.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region, which covers the metropolis, Thane, Navi Mumbai and other neighbouring areas, reported 49 new cases on Sunday, while the figure was 42 in Pune cirle comprising Pune, Satara and Solapur districts.

figures of Maharashtra are as follows: Positive cases 78,73,509; fresh cases 140; death toll 1,47,780; recoveries 77,24,803; active cases 926; total tests 7,92,49,720.

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Industries and IT minister K.T. Rama Rao with the Managing Partner of Advent International John Maldonado in New York, USA. (Image: @MinisterKTR)

HYDERABAD: Industries and IT minister K.T. Rama Raos seven-day tour to the United States concluded on Sunday, attracting more investments in the state by US-based companies.

Advent International, a private equity firm, promised to invest Rs 1,750 crore in life sciences and pharmaceutical sectors in Telangana. Rama Rao had been visiting different cities in the US and meeting several industry and investment leaders, as well as Indian diaspora, drumming up support for the state. He also invited several companies to come forward and invest in the state.

On Saturday, according to his office, he met with representatives of Advent who expressed interest to invest in the state which, the company said, had an existing ecosystem for development of life sciences. Advents managing director John Maldonado informed Rama Rao at a meeting in New York that his company would be investing Rs 1,750 crore in the city based RA Chem Pharma Ltd. and Avra Laboratories to acquire majority stakes in the two companies.

Rama Rao said the state government welcomed these investments and will work with Advent, and added that he hoped the US-based company would also make other investments in Telangana.

Similarly, Rama Rao, during his meeting with New Jersey-based Slayback Pharma, was informed by its founder Ajay Singh that over the next three years, the company would invest Rs 1,500 crore in the state.

This will be in addition to the approximately Rs 2,300 crore Slayback invested in Pharma sector in the state in the past five years.
By Neha Arora

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India is leaning toward continuing to from Russia, the steel minister said on Sunday, seeming to buck a global trend to shun Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

"We are moving in the direction of importing from Russia," Ramchandra Prasad Singh told a conference in New Delhi.

India plans to double imports of Russian coking coal, a key ingredient in making steel, the minister said. He said the country had imported 4.5 million tonnes but did not indicate the period he was referring to.

Western countries and Japan have slapped unexpectedly heavy sanctions on the government of President Vladimir Putin and people associated with him. India, a major buyer of Russian goods from commodities to weapons, has abstained from several key United Nations votes condemning the Feb. 24 invasion.

"Smooth supplies" from of have been affected, Singh said, in an apparent reference to the war. He did not elaborate.

Vessels carrying at least 1.06 million tonnes of coking coal, mainly used for steelmaking, and thermal coal used primarily for electricity generation, are set to deliver the fuel to Indian ports this month, the most since January 2020, data from consultancy Kpler showed.

Russia, typically India's sixth-largest supplier of coking and thermal coal, could start offering more competitive prices to Chinese and Indian buyers as European and other customers spurn because of sanctions, traders say.

The trade could also be boosted by a rouble-rupee trading arrangement, they said.

(Reporting by Neha Arora in New Delhi; Writing by Rupam Jain, William Mallard)

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India's largest gas utility GAIL (India) Ltd continues to pay for the it imports from Russia's Gazprom in US dollars and will seek exchange rate neutrality in case payments are sought in any other currency such as Euro, two sources said.

GAIL has a deal to receive 2.5 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) annually on a delivered basis from Russia's Gazprom. This translates into 3 to 4 cargoes or ship loads of super-cooled natural gas every month.

"The contract with Gazprom provides for making payments in US dollars," a source with direct knowledge of the matter said. "Payments become due 5-7 days after the delivery of the cargo. The last payment was made on March 23, which was in US dollars."



An shipload was received on March 25 and its payment will be due in early April. There is no indication that the payment for this cargo will be in a currency other than US dollar, sources said.

"So far, the payment continues without any problem," another source said. "Gazprom has so far not communicated anything to GAIL about change in payment mode."



Sources said the last payment was settled through State Bank of India (SBI) - the bank that has been used to pay for imports from Gazprom since the start of supplies in June 2018.

GAIL, they said, has so far not received any written communication from Gazprom for change in the currency for settling the payments.

"In case the reports of Gazprom wanting to switch payment to Euro come true, it needs to be examined how the change in currency mentioned in the signed contract can be done," one of them said. "In case such a request comes, GAIL will seek exchange rate neutrality in switching the payment to Euro from . Those details will have to be worked out."



Gazprom reportedly is looking to wean away from the US currency after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The US and European nations have imposed sanctions on Russia for the military action but have so far excluded energy trade from the sanctions. Russian banks continue to be on the main financial messaging SWIFT system, enabling payments for commodities bought or sold.

"As long as SWIFT is available to settle payments, there should be no problem of paying for the LNG imports, be it in US dollars or Euros," a source said. "The only concern that GAIL could have is the exchange rate. Currently it is favourable to make payments in Euros but if it changes with rupee strengthening against US dollar, then GAIL would want to be protected."



GAIL had in January 2018 taken advantage of Russian energy giant's inability to deliver LNG from the previously agreed Schtokman project in the Barents Sea, to renegotiate price agreed in 2012. The price indexation was changed from the Japan Customs-cleared Crude to Brent, and the oil-linked slope of the contract formula lowered, and therefore the final price.

This it got because it did not insist on Gazprom delivering the promised 2.5 million tonnes a year of LNG from the first year. The supplies were ramped up with full volumes coming from the fourth year. The contract period was extended by three years to accommodate the supplies not taken in initial years as well as get an additional 2 million tonnes over-and-above the 50 million tonnes it had agreed to take in 2012 over the 20 year contract period.

GAIL had signed the original deal on August 29, 2012 with Gazprom Marketing and Trading Singapore Pte Ltd (GMTS), Singapore. The supplies in that contract was from Schtokman project. In the renegotiated deal, Gazprom is to supply LNG from Yamal LNG project in the Arctic peninsula.

India, which traditionally has had close ties with Moscow, has refrained from outright condemnation of Russian action but has called for an end to violence in Ukraine. It has not banned Russian oil and gas imports, unlike several Western countries, and on the contrary has snapped up distressed Russian oil at deep discounts.

Its LNG supplies from Gazprom too have continued without any hindrance.

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Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai will meet the Union water resources minister in the first week of April to discuss the it has with other states.

"We are yet to get various approvals from the Union government with regard to . I have instructed the concerned departments to make preparations for this. I am set to meet the Union minister in April," Bommai said on Sunday.

Speaking to mediapersons in Hubballi, Bommai said, "We need to make all efforts to resolve the at the earliest... As for the legal issues involved we should get it resolved through the courts."

The chief minister also said that greater emphasis would be given on completing the land acquisition process for railway projects in the state.

Noting that is again on the path of development after coming out of the Covid shadow, the chief minister said that a strong foundation would be laid for planned development of the state.

Northern has been given top priority, Bommai said. "We have provided Rs 3,000 crore for the development of 'Kalyana Karnataka region. Work orders would be issued for all the Budget programmes before the end of April. Already Rs 1,400 crore has been released for the development of Kalyana Karnataka this year," he said.

--IANS

pvn/dpb

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The Madhya Pradesh government will start a course in (AI) for students from class 8, which will be the first such initiative in the country, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Sunday.

The government will also launch a veterinary telemedicine facility so that livestock keepers can get advice on the phone regarding diseases of cows and other animals.

A similar facility will be launched for farmers so that they can consult experts over the phone regarding agriculture-related problems and diseases of crops, the chief minister told a press conference at Pachmarhi, the lone hill station in MP, located 210 km away from Bhopal.

The two-day brainstorming session of the Madhya Pradesh cabinet held at Pachmarhi ended on Sunday.

The state cabinet also took several other decisions including setting up Sanjivani clinics in urban areas and regarding transportation policy for rural areas.

"A decision has been taken to arrange veterinary telemedicine facility so that livestock keepers can get advice on the phone in case of any ailment to cows and other animals," Chouhan said.

Similarly, telecall arrangements will be made for farmers so that they can get advice about agriculture-related problems and diseases of crops from specialists, he said.

Chouhan said students from class 8 will be taught (AI) which is happening for the first time in the country.

A 240-hour course is being introduced for school students, he said.

A renewed CM Tirth Darshan Yojana (a free pilgrimage scheme for senior citizens), which was inoperative due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will be launched the next month and the first train will leave for Varanasi on April 18, he said, adding that state cabinet ministers will also travel in this first train.

A plan to make arrangements for taking senior citizens to distant pilgrimage spots through the air was also discussed, he said.

The amount of financial assistance for the Kanyadan Scheme (for the marriage of girls from poor families) has been increased to Rs 55,000, the CM said.

A renewed "Ladli Laxmi Yojana" will be launched on May 2, he said.

Fair price shops will be turned into multipurpose shops where items other than ration will be sold, the CM added.

He said schools are being developed at different places in MP under which buildings will be constructed for Rs 24 crore.

Chouhan said a "CM Sanjivani clinic" will be set up for every 25,000 people in urban areas to reduce the burden on big hospitals, he said, adding that this facility will start from April 22 in some areas.

He said MP will become the first state in India where students can study MBBS in Hindi.

"This move will help students who had studied from non-English medium schools," Chouhan said.

He said cyber tehsils will also be set up where people will get land transfer titles online.

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Danish Azad Ansari, the only Muslim minister in Uttar Pradesh, on Sunday claimed that his community is warming up to the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister .

The Ballia resident was inducted into the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government as a minister of state on Friday and needs to be elected to the state assembly or the legislative council in the next six month to continue on the post.

Ansari said the Muslim community is now shedding the "illusion" created by opposition parties like the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress.

"The BJP is getting the love of Muslim society now and the love for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister is increasing continuously in the Muslim community, he told PTI.

Faith in the BJP is being awakened in the community," he added.

Ansari, 34, said Modi's vision of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vishwas, Sabka Vikas' is expanding the BJP vote base and Muslims are being drawn more towards the BJP.

He claimed that the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and the 2022 Assembly elections suggest this.

But the BJP fielded no Muslim candidate in the just-ended UP Assembly election. Its ally Apna Dal (S) nominated Haidar Ali Khan from Suar in Rampur, and he was defeated.

The previous Adityanath government too had a single Muslim member --- Mohsin Raza, a minister of state.

Ansari claimed that the opposition thought of Muslims only as a vote bank



But the Muslim community has now understood that the SP, the BSP and the Congress have always cheated them. The Muslim community has realised that only Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister will work for their true development, he said.

The minister said Modi has dreamed of making India a global leader and all youth, and the Muslim community, will have to play an important role in making this come true.

He said it is the dream of Modi and Adityanath that every section of society is connected with the mainstream of development, and they will fulfil this.

He said there should be efforts to take government schemes to the grassroots. He said the Adityanath government will take inputs on what it needs to do for the betterment of the Muslim community, particularly the youth.

Education is a fundamental right and synonymous with development and he will make special efforts to take the Muslim community forward in this field, Ansari said.

He will take the initiative to connect urban schools with technical education, the minister said.

Ansari joined the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in 2010 when he was studying at Lucknow University. He has done Masters in Public Administration and Quality Management.

He was nominated to the Urdu Language Committee in the previous Adityanath government in October 2018 and was made the general secretary of the minorities cell of the BJP just before the assembly elections.

The portfolios are yet to be announced for the members of the new Adityanath ministry. The BJP and its allies won 273 seats in the 403-member state assembly.

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Apex child rights body NCPCR chairperson Priyank Kanoongo on Saturday claimed Chief Minister has made a "public confession" that kids are not taken care of in children's homes in Delhi for which a notice is being issued seeking clarification.

Kanoongo was referring to a video tweeted by Kejriwal in which the Delhi chief minister, addressing a press conference, said Rs 10 crore have been set aside for street children and a state-of-the-art school would be built where they would get all facilities.

In the video clip, Kejriwal is also heard saying that till now, children were "grabbed" and put in child care homes where they were not taken care of properly prompting them to run away.

Reacting to these comments, Kanoongo, in a tweet, demanded an explanation from the Delhi chief minister.

"The chief minister's public confession that 'children are not taken care of in children's homes in Delhi and they are forced to run away' has been taken very seriously and notice is being issued seeking clarification and action taken," Kanoongo tweeted.

He wrote on Twitter that the Supreme Court, since November, has been repeatedly issuing directives to rehabilitate street children.

"But due to the inaction of the Delhi government, only 1,800 children have been brought into the process. Two years ago we were told that 73,000 children are living on Delhi streets out of which not a single child was rehabilitated," he claimed.

"The was also missing from the review meetings held for this. The direction of the court to make a policy in this regard has not been followed to date. Now that the matter is to be heard in the Hon'ble Court on Monday then is lying," the NCPCR chief tweeted.

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Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday met party leaders and workers at his residence after the Biju Janata Dal's victory in the Odisha Municipal Corporation elections and thanked the people of the state for their support to the party.

While addressing the people, party workers and mediapersons outside his residence in Odisha's Bhubaneswar, he stated, "I would like to express my deep gratitude to the people of our state for giving this tremendous victory in the Panchayat and Urban Election, we will continue our good work for the welfare of our people continuously"

"I also would like to thank our many many party workers for the efforts they put in for this election," he added.

The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) registered a thumping victory in the Odisha municipal elections, winning three municipal corporations and 95 out of 108 urban local body councils, the results of which were announced on Saturday. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured six, the Congress four, while Independents get bagged three seats.

Nearly 65 per cent of the total voters had on March 24 exercised their franchise in the elections to civic bodies.

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State-owned oil companies on Sunday hiked petrol price by 50 paise a litre and diesel by 55 paise: the fifth time they did so in six days, provoking Opposition parties to announce protests.

Petrol and diesel in Delhi are selling at Rs 99.11 per litre and Rs 90.42 per litre this morning after prices increased by 50 and 55 paise. In Mumbai, petrol and diesel are selling at Rs 113.88 and Rs 98.13.

In Chennai, petrol is selling at Rs 104.90 and diesel at Rs 95.00. In Kolkata, petrol is at Rs 108.53 and diesel at Rs 93.57. Rates natiowide depending upon local taxes imposed by states.

The Congress party on Saturday said the fuel price hikes were "shameless fleecing" of the public and it will hold nationwide protests on March 31. Congress MPs last week protested near the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Parliament House, demanding a discussion on fuel price hike.

After a four-and-half-month pause, prices were hiked on March 22. In all, petrol prices have gone up by Rs 3.70 per litre and diesel by Rs 3.75 in six days, PTI reported.

Fuel price hikes were put on hold November 4, ahead of assembly elections in four states -- a period during which the cost of crude oil increased by about $30 per barrel.

Moody's Investors Services said last week state-owned retailers together lost around $2.25 billion (Rs 19,000 crore) in revenue for keeping petrol and diesel prices on hold during the elections.

CRISIL Research has said a Rs 9-12 per litre increase in retail price will be required for a full pass-through of an average $100 per barrel crude oil and Rs 15-20 a litre hike if the average crude oil price rises to $110-120, according to PTI.
After US President Joe Biden, while speaking at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland, declared that Russian President "cannot remain in power", the White House clarifies that 'it was not a call for regime change.'

Notably, Biden towards the conclusion of his speech said, "For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power."

A White House official while clarifying the remarks made by Biden said, "The President's point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbours or the region. He was not discussing Putin's power in Russia, or regime change,"

Biden's line that Putin "cannot remain in power" was not in his prepared remarks, the official said.

Moreover, as tries to gain a stronghold in Ukraine, Biden in his address, said has "strangled democracy" adding that its President is lying in a bid to justify the war. Biden slammed Putin for condemning the NATO alliance.

He chided Russia's actions saying, "It's nothing less than a direct challenge to the rules-based order established since the end of World War II, and it threatens to return to decades of war that ravaged Europe before the rule-based order was put in place. We cannot go back to that. We cannot."

Furthermore, Biden talked of the sanctions and other economic steps that are taken in order to pressurize and target the Russian economy.

Russia launched its invasion last month after recognizing 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.

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U.S. President said that Russia's leader "cannot remain in power" in Poland Saturday, remarks a White House official said later were meant to prepare the world's democracies for extended conflict over Ukraine, not back regime change in .

Biden's comments on Saturday, including a statement earlier in the day calling Putin a "butcher," were a sharp escalation of the U.S. approach to Moscow over its invasion of .

In a major address delivered at Warsaw's Royal Castle, Biden evoked Poland's four decades behind the Iron Curtain in an effort to build a case that the world's democracies must urgently confront an autocratic as a threat to global security and freedom.

But a remark at the end of the speech raised the spectre of an escalation by Washington, which has avoided direct military involvement in Ukraine, and has specifically said it does not back regime change.

"For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power," Biden told a crowd in Warsaw after condemning Putin's month-long war in .



A White House official said Biden's remarks did not represent a shift in Washington's policy.

"The President's point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbours or the region," the official said. "He was not discussing Putin's power in Russia, or regime change."

Asked about Biden's comment, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Reuters: "That's not for Biden to decide. The president of is elected by Russians."

Calling the fight against Putin a "new battle for freedom," Biden said Putin's desire for "absolute power" was a strategic failure for Russia and a direct challenge to a European peace that has largely prevailed since World War Two.

"The West is now stronger, more united than it has ever been," Biden said. "This battle will not be won in days or months, either. We need to steel ourselves for the long fight ahead."

The speech came after three days of meetings in Europe with the G7, European Council and NATO allies, and took place roughly at the same time as rockets rained down on the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, just 60 kilometres (40 miles) from the Polish border.

"Their brave resistance is part of a larger fight for essential democratic principles that unite all free people," Biden said. "We stand with you. Period." In his speech, Biden said NATO is a defensive security alliance which never sought Russia's demise and he reiterated that the West has no desire to harm Russia's people even as its sanctions threaten to cripple their economy.

Poland was under communist rule for four decades until 1989 and was a member of the Moscow-led Warsaw Pact security alliance. It is now part of the European Union and NATO.

The rise of right-wing populism in Poland in recent years has put it in conflict with the EU and Washington, but fears of Russia pressing beyond its borders has drawn Poland closer to its Western allies.

Speaking to a crowd holding U.S., Polish and Ukrainian flags, Biden said the West is acting in unison because of the "gravity of the threat" to global peace.

"The battle for democracy could not conclude and did not conclude with the end of the Cold War," Biden said. "Over the last 30 years the forces of autocracy have revived all across the globe."

Reaction was mixed in Warsaw. Mykyta Hubo, a Ukrainian from Dnipro who has been living in Poland for several years called the speech "ordinary": "Lots of talk, little action," he said.

Pawel Sterninski, who traveled nearly three hours to Warsaw from elsewhere in Poland to hear Biden, came wrapped in a U.S.

flag.

"The U.S. can't really engage militarily because that could result in a third world war. Putin is unpredictable. If you're threatening with nuclear weapons, it takes just a moment to turn into a global conflict."

Earlier in the day, Biden dropped in on a meeting with Ukraine's foreign and defense ministers and made additional, unspecified security pledges on developing defence cooperation, according to Ukraine's foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba.

In Warsaw, Biden also visited a refugee reception centre at the national stadium. More than 2 million people have fled the war to Poland. Altogether, about 3.8 million have left since fighting began.

Putin calls Russia's military actions in Ukraine a "special military operation" to demilitarise and "denazify" the country.

(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Karol Badohal in Warsaw and Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington, Additional reporting by Natalia Zinets in Lviv, Nandita Bose in Washington, Humeyra Pamuk, Alan Charlish, Justyna Pawlak and Joanna Plucinska in Warsaw and Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Writing by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Heather Timmons, Grant McCool, Frances Kerry, Timothy Heritage, Nick Zieminski and Andrea Ricci)

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is responsible for carrying out the most cyber-attacks and is motivated primarily by a desire for gaining access to secrets and fulfilling its political objectives with the help of such attacks, reported a Canada-based thinktank, Forum for Rights and Security (IFFRAS).

Crowd strike, which provides cyber security for half the world's 20 biggest multinationals revealed that is motivated primarily by a desire for commercial secrets and pursuit of its political objectives.

The country has mounted cyberattacks on firms, universities, government departments, think tanks and NGOs. According to a US report based on evidence, the Chinese hackers have not only infiltrated US businesses and human rights groups but also carried out operations to steal American intellectual property.

The US National Intelligence Annual Threat Assessment Report has underscored several potential dangers to the country including nuclear and biological weapons, especially infectious diseases, cyber-attacks and climate change.

As per the report, the hackers who are aligned with the Chinese government represent the "most active" threat, capable of affecting Americans' daily lives.

Analysis of thousands of cyberattacks indicates that more than a third of cyberattacks targeted technology companies, specifically biotech firms, pharmaceuticals and defence. They also hit other sectors including mining and transport businesses, said the think tank.

In order to protect the country against Chinese cyber espionage, America has banned many Chinese firms like Huawei, ZTE and Hikevision.

The study further highlights that had emerged as "a bigger threat" after the reorganisation of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). According to think tank, after the PLA reorganization, China had outsourced hacking to contract firms. The PLA's hacking activities were reportedly aimed at both getting access to commercial secrets, particularly in the areas of emerging technology and stealing official secrets, sabotaging the public utility and services for crippling the systems.

In another report by Mandiant, an American cyber security firm, a hacker group backed by the Chinese government breached the network of at least six US state governments. The hackers collectively known as APT41 had been deliberately attacking state-level government networks from May 2021 to February 2022.

Earlier, in July 2021, the US and allies condemned China for malicious cyberattacks, including hacking of Microsoft Exchange email server software that compromised tens of thousands of computers around the world in early 2021. The Microsoft hack affected at least 30,000 US organisations including local governments as well entities worldwide, as per the think tank.

Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, stated that China's "Ministry of State Security (MSS) had fostered an ecosystem of criminal contract hackers who carry out both state-sponsored activities and cybercrime for their own financial gain".

The US Justice Department charged (2021) four Chinese nationals - three security officials and one contract hacker working with the MSS in a hacking campaign that targeted dozens of computer systems, including companies, universities and government entities, between 2011 and 2018.

The department disclosed that the campaign had targeted trade secrets in industries including aviation, defence, education, government, health care, biopharmaceutical and maritime industries.

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Iran's Foreign Minister has said welcomes normalisation of relations with Riyadh and hopes the Saudi side will play a more constructive role to this end, official news agency IRNA reported.

"If we aim to reach a new stage in the talks with Saudi Arabia, all dimensions and aspects must be taken into consideration," Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on Saturday during a televised interview following his visits to Syria and Lebanon.

Regarding the situation in Yemen, Amir-Abdollahian added that has received a number of requests from to cease the war in Yemen, Xinhua news agency reported.

is opposed to war and its spread over Yemen, as it is in no one's interest to continue the conflict, he said.

Over the past months, and held several rounds of talks brokered by Iraq, following which Iran sent three diplomats to in January as a delegation to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to resume activities in Jeddah after a six-year hiatus.

Earlier in March, however, Iran announced it had "temporarily" suspended normalisation talks with Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic ties with Iran in early 2016 in protest against the attacks on its diplomatic missions in Iran following the kingdom's execution of a Shiite cleric.

--IANS

int/khz/

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US President met with Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov during his visit to Poland, "for an update on Ukraine's military, diplomatic and humanitarian situation," according to the White House.

Biden on Saturday dropped in a meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and their Ukranian counterparts, Kuleba and Reznikov.

They discussed "further efforts to help defend its territory" and the US and its allies' ongoing actions towards Russia, the White House said in statement.

In a tweet, Ukrainian Foreign Minister said the meeting between Ukrainian Ministers and US Secretaries allowed him to seek "practical decisions in both political and defense spheres in order to fortify Ukraine's ability to fight back," while Ukrainian Defence Minister tweeted that he acquired "cautious optimism."

The US President is visiting Poland, after attending the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) summit, G7 gathering and the summit of the European Council -- three intensive summits in two days with the crisis as major focus, Xinhua news agency reported.

Biden tried to coax a display of unity with European partners, but failed to talk them into concerted actions against .

The NATO summit concluded on Thursday with no agreement to impose additional sanctions against Moscow, especially the country's oil and gas products. Nor did the European Council summit succeed in reaching a consensus on the same issue.

--IANS

int/khz/

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No components of either common inorganic or organic explosives were present at the crash site of a Eastern Airlines passenger plane, an official told a press briefing.

A physics and chemistry laboratory of the public security authorities has tested 41 samples out of 66 from the crash site and found no major ion components of common inorganic explosives, said Zheng Xi, Head of the fire brigade of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, on Saturday.

He added that the testing also found no regular organic explosive components, Xinhua news agency reported.

--IANS

int/khz/

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As the Russia- war continues to intensify, the US announced that it will provide USD 100 million in civilian security assistance to in order to enable the country's border security, sustain civil law enforcement functions, and safeguard critical governmental infrastructure, said the US State Department in its press release.

Calling Putin's war on premeditated, unprovoked, and unjustified, the statement read, "US intends to provide an additional USD 100 million in civilian security assistance to enhance the capacity of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs to provide essential border security, sustain civil law enforcement functions, and safeguard critical governmental infrastructure."

The US said that the increased funding will continue a steady flow of personal protection equipment, field gear, tactical equipment, medical supplies, armoured vehicles, and communication equipment for the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service and the National Police of Ukraine.

With the US government's vital assistance, Ukrainian law enforcement officers are playing a key role in rescuing victims of the Russian government's brutal assault, leading and protecting convoys of those displaced by attacks, and providing security to civilian areas torn apart by ruthless and devastating bombing, as per the statement.

The United States reiterated its continued solidarity with the community of nations backing the people and government of Ukraine. Moreover, the US urged Putin to "end the violence, rein in his forces, including those who have committed war crimes, and choose the path of peace and diplomacy".

The US reaffirmed its commitment to pursue accountability for "war crimes and other atrocities using every tool available, including criminal prosecutions".

Notably, launched its invasion last month after recognising the Ukrainian breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as "independent republics." has since continued to maintain that the aim of its operations has been to "demilitarize" and "de-nazify" the country.

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, many Western nations and European countries have imposed tough sanctions on targeting its economy and financial system.

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It is symbolic of the Swadeshi movement, and has been a frontrunner in establishing its robustness as a fabric that is both empowering and modern in its interpretation. Thats why has found favour with the younger generation, as it transcends from being termed as slubby and jhola chic to now being accepted as an effective medium of communication.

Five Indian designers -- Abhishek Gupta, Anavila, Anju Modi, Rina Dhaka and Charu Parashar -- came together to give it a unique narrative at the FDCI X Lakme Fashion Week. The fabric has now also crossed borders to get a French chic aesthetic with French designer Mossi Traore adopting it.

Anju Modi's collection

Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) Chairman Sunil Sethi, who is also the advisor to the and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), encouraged Traore to visit India and sample the various fabrics available at the Khadi Gram Udyog. We want to promote khadi as a sustainable fabric, a new-age fibre that remains cool in summer and keeps you warm in winter, says Sethi. Traore has crafted 16 garments out of khadi silk, cotton and wool, and we hope to do a presentation internationally too, soon. This will be on similar lines of what we did in Bhutan in pre-Covid days where even the royalty showed great interest in the simplicity of khadi.

The key to making this avant-garde is to encourage young designers to make collections to woo millennials.

Mumbai-based Anavila sourced khadi from Bardhaman, West Bengal, making it minimalistic, crafting lightly constructed jackets and trousers  not limiting it to conventional saris, her forte. Now you can get the finest threads woven in khadi up to 400 counts with a buttery smooth consistency. We have worked with 3D embroideries, with a fresh take on traditional animal motifs, she says.

Rina Dhaka decided to mix and match khadi with sheer, her signature

Meanwhile, Parashar, who is known for her commercial lines, has been working with khadi for the last seven years. She fondly recalls a show she did exclusively with khadi in Paris, at a polo club owned by Hermes, where her long tunics executed in the finest threads found resonance with the culture of handmade. My role as a designer comes into play to make sure the Varanasi-sourced khadi is not looked at as non-glamorous, so the effort has been to digitally print it and add an element of effortlessness to it, she says. Embodying the hues of spices, with minimal embroideries, Parashars dhotis and structured jackets can be worn even to a holiday in Milan, making each piece universal.

What Covid has taught fashion is that less is more. With even pre-wedding events getting increasingly organic, silk khadi lehengas with ruffled blouses became Parashars mainstay during the lockdown months.

Modi, who has been working tirelessly with this fabric, believes as the world is moving towards an austere approach to life, khadi fits in well satvically (pure, harmonious).

Sourced from Vijayawada, Hyderabad, khadis purity is undeniable, she says. Unlike mill fabrics, it is spun on a charkha and not twisted or turned on machines. If you see an Amrita Sher-Gil painting, it captures the essence of women in khadi saris. I have added foil printing, resham, patchwork, and have been inspired by Bidri designs from Telangana, she explains. A recurring leitmotif is the Tree of life, which metaphorically means no start or end to life, of being eternal. This is why it is used in temple architecture to signify the immortality of the soul, says Modi.

Known for her stretch churidars that redefined the way women wore their white cotton kurtas in the 90s, Rina Dhaka believes new innovations and interesting blends available in khadi are what make it endearing. Sourced from Jharcraft, Dhaka decided to mix and match it with sheer, her signature, and then added crushing for dimension. One of my first collections in khadi, modelled by Simar Dugal, in the early 90s was photographed by Asha Kochhar. I have revisited those austere times through this line, she explains. Skirts with volume, dori work, cotton lace kurtas along with cording elevate the ensembles.

Pin tucks and plisse also find a new interpretation, as Dhaka attempts to give women the comfort of a safari suit. Instead of embroidery, I prefer to use laser cuts and crinkled effects, invisible but impactful, she says.

Designer Abhishek Gupta has, meanwhile, given khadi his signature fabric manipulation to show that you can use myriad techniques to create a buzz on the runway.
Last week, many leaders of Europe and America met at Brussels and decided to impose sanctions on more Russian individuals and defence entities. They also decided to reduce the dependence of Europe on Russia for fossil fuels.

The idea is to cripple the ability of Russia to finance its war efforts. However, Russia has remained defiant and continued its war in Ukraine. The relations between Russia and the alliances led by the United States have deteriorated so much that the probability of a diplomatic solution to resolve the issues has diminished considerably, although it cannot be ...
Chief Minister was on Sunday assaulted by an unidentified person near Patna, in an incident that has sent shock waves across .

Officials were tight-lipped about the incident though highly placed sources said it took place in Bakhtiyarpur where Kumar was meeting his old associates.

The chief minister, who has spent his early childhood in Bakhtiyarpur, was paying floral tributes to the statue of a freedom fighter from the area.

CCTV footage shows the assailant, in his late 20s or early 30s, coming from behind and landing a blow on the septuagenarian's face.

Clad in a T-shirt and trousers, the assailant is soon overpowered by the chief minister's security staff who quickly hand him over to the police.

Another footage shows the alleged assailant being dragged away by the policemen who mutter under their breath "paagal hai" (he is crazy).

The identity of the attacker, who is understood to have been taken to a police station, was not known immediately.



| A youth tried to attack CM during a program in Bakhtiarpur. The accused was later detained by the Police.



(Viral video) pic.twitter.com/FoTMR3Xq8o  ANI (@ANI) March 27, 2022

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Banking services may be hit partially on Monday and Tuesday as a section of bank employees' unions has supported the two-day nationwide general strike called by trade unions.

The joint forum of central trade unions and various sectoral independent trade unions have given the strike call on Monday and Tuesday to protest against government's anti-people economic policies and anti-worker labour policies.

Their demands include scrapping of the labour codes, no privatisation of any form, scrapping of the Monetisation Pipeline (NMP), increased allocation of wages under MNREGA and regularisation of contract workers among others.

" has decided to support this call and join this strike to focus on demands in the banking sectors," All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) said.

Its general secretary C H Venkatachalam said the bank union demands the government to stop privatisation of public sector banks and strengthen them, speedy recovery of bad loans, higher deposit rates by banks, lower service charges on customers as well as restoration of old pension scheme.

The in public sector banks, private banks, foreign banks, cooperative banks and regional rural banks will join the strike, the bank union said in a statement.

A number of public sector banks, including country's largest lender SBI, have said that their services may get impacted to a limited extent due to the strike.

SBI said it has made necessary arrangements to ensure normal functioning in its branches and offices on the days of strike.

"It is likely that work at our bank may be impacted to a limited extent, by the strike," SBI said.

City-headquartered Punjab Bank (PNB) said AIBEA, Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI) and All India Bank Officers' Association (AIBOA) has served notices proposing to go on strike on March 28-29, 2022.

"While bank has made all arrangements to ensure normal functioning in its branches and offices, it is likely that work in our bank may be impacted to a limited extent by the strike," PNB said.

Bengaluru-headquartered Canara Bank said it is taking necessary steps for smooth functioning of bank branches and offices. However, if the strike materialises, the functioning of the bank may be impacted, Canara Bank added.

Private sector RBL Bank said its bank unions are affiliated to AIBOA and AIBEA, and the employees associated with these unions may participate in the strike.

"The subject strike is for the issues at the industry bevel and is nowhere related at bank level issues. The bank will take all necessary steps for smooth functioning of the bank's branches/offices on the days of strike. However, it is likely that some of our branches would also be impacted by the strike," RBL said.

Besides the two-days strike, the customer banking services may also get impacted on March 31st as RBI has asked the banks to participate in the exercise of annual closure of government accounts for the current fiscal year 2021-22.

All government transactions done by agency banks for financial year 2021-22 must be accounted for within the same financial year.

All agency banks should keep their designated branches open for over the counter transactions related to government transactions up to the normal working hours on March 31, 2022, the RBI said in a notification to banks.

Special clearing will be conducted on Thursday for collection of government cheques and RBI will issue necessary instructions in this regard.

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Smoke rises the air in Lviv, western Ukraine, Saturday, March 26, 2022. With Russia continuing to strike and encircle urban populations, from Chernihiv and Kharkiv in the north to Mariupol in the south, Ukrainian authorities said Saturday that they cannot trust statements from the Russian military Friday suggesting that the Kremlin planned to concentrate its remaining strength on wresting the entirety of Ukraine's eastern Donbas region from Ukrainian control. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)
FILE - Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson testifies during her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 23, 2022. The Harvard-educated Jackson is making history, the first Black woman nominated in the court's 233 years. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
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Photo: Wildwood Acres Okanagan

Wildwood Acres Okanagan is doing its part to try and help wild bumblebees thrive in the Okanagan Valley.

"We are launching a fundraiser in partnership with Wildlife Preservation Canada to support conservation and preservation efforts for our wild bumblebees," says Wildwood Acres Okanagan owner, Shelley Buchanan.

The small farm has focused on creating wildcrafted products and is doing its best to help raise awareness and funds for Wildlife Preservation Canada.

The boxes, made up of Tsuchi Dango, or earth dumplings, are loaded with wildflower seeds and sell for $25 each, with $5 going to WPC.

"Each Tsuchi Dango is handcrafted and all of the external beauty of the dried flowers are applied by hand. Our goal is to match the possibility of the beauty Mother Earth gives us with each of these little bundles and to provide a food resource for our wild Bumblebees," Buchanan says.

Tsuchi Dango is a Japanese permaculture approach that promotes sustainable farming and growing practices through a top dressing or scattered and mixed planting approach that allows plants to grow in a more wild way.

"What we do here at Wildwood would not be possible without these little pollinators and we know that our entire human food chain is reliant on these tiny and at-risk creatures," Buchanan says.

There are nearly 50 types of wild bumblebees in Canada, many are endangered or at risk.

"Our initial goal is to raise $1000 or more for this project," but Buchanan says if the first boxes sell out they will be making more.
Photo: Contributed

British Columbia's police watchdog says it's investigating the death of a baby at Victoria General Hospital.

The Independent Investigations Office says in a statement Saturday that Victoria police responded to a request early Thursday to check on the wellness of the woman and child.

The office says later that same day the woman called paramedics about the child.

Both mother and child were taken to hospital, but the infant was pronounced dead.

The watchdog says it is investigating whether police actions or inactions played a role in the death.

It says the BC Coroners Service and police are also conducting investigations related to the babys death.
Photo: Contributed

Police have apprehended a man who assaulted a woman and then attempted to force her into his vehicle this week in Nanaimo.

Nanaimo RCMP arrested Bradley Dylan Boscariol and charged him with Assault with a Weapon and Attempt to Kidnap. Boscariol is currently in police custody and has been remanded until Monday.

The incident occurred around 7 p.m. on Thursday in the 6900 block of Dickinson Road, near Max Bennett Pioneer Park.

Boscariol tried to capture a woman in her early 20s. She managed to fight off the suspect and run to a nearby home where the occupants called 911, according to the RCMP.

Police attended and spoke with the woman who had injuries to her upper body consistent with being assaulted.

According to investigators, the young woman stated that she was walking along Dickinson Road after being dropped off by an RDN transit bus when she noticed a vehicle making strange turns.

Seconds later, a vehicle approached and an unknown man got out and asked her for directions. While she looked them up on her phone, he swung a blunt object at her, striking her in the head.

She fought back, then ran to the closest home. While Boscariol allegedly followed her on foot for a short distance, he then got back in his vehicle and drove northbound on Dickinson Crossing.

The woman later attended the Nanaimo hospital for treatment of her non-life threatening injuries. A search was done by police throughout the area but they were unable to locate the suspect or his vehicle.

Police shared that the investigation into the attempted abduction, which utilized extensive resources and specialized units within the Nanaimo detachment, was a priority.

This incident outraged the community and our officers as well. The investigators were highly motivated to ensure justice was promptly carried out and that the person responsible was found and held accountable, said Constable Gary OBrien of the Nanaimo RCMP in a press release.

The investigation moved forward quickly, primarily due to the excellent detailed description of the suspect vehicle provided by the young woman.

Investigative techniques and police databases quickly focussed in on the suspect vehicle and its location. With the cooperation of the Ladysmith RCMP, at approximately 6 pm on Friday, Boscariol was arrested in the suspect vehicle and taken into police custody.

On Saturday, search warrants in support of the investigation were carried out at a residence and the vehicle associated to the accused.

Having an individual arrested for this incident and in police custody within 24 hours, must be reassuring to the citizens of Nanaimo. Our investigators would also like extend their sincerest appreciation to the general public for their cooperation and assistance with this file, and to the very courageous and tough young lady who stood strong when faced with real adversity. In our books, shes a rock star," added OBrien.

Police will be moving forward with their investigation and once again are asking for the publics assistance

Just prior to the attack, the woman told police she recalls seeing a black SUV with three male occupants drive slowly past her. When last seen, this vehicle had turned right from Dickinson Road onto Schook Road. Secondly, during the attack, the woman lost her brown leather backpack. A search of the scene and surrounding area proved negative for the item.

Police are asking if anyone has information on the SUV or backpack, to please call the Nanaimo RCMP non-emergency line at 250-754-2345, and quote file # 2022-9074.
Photo: The Canadian Press Firefighters work at the site in the aftermath of the first strike that involved Russian rockets that hit an oil facility in an industrial area in the northeastern outskirts of Lviv, Ukraine, Sunday, March 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused the West of lacking courage as his country fights to stave off Russia's invading troops, making an exasperated plea for fighter jets and tanks to sustain a defense in a conflict that has ground into a war of attrition.

Speaking after U.S. President Joe Biden said in a lacerating speech that Russian President Vladimir Putin could not stay in power  words the White House immediately sought to downplay  Zelenskyy lashed out at the West's ping-pong about who and how should hand over jets" and other weapons while Russian missile attacks kill and trap civilians.

Ive talked to the defenders of Mariupol today. Im in constant contact with them. Their determination, heroism and firmness are astonishing," Zelenskyy said in a video address early Sunday, referring to the besieged southern city that has suffered some of the war's greatest deprivations and horrors. "If only those who have been thinking for 31 days on how to hand over dozens of jets and tanks had 1% of their courage.

Russias invasion of Ukraine, now in its 32nd day, has stalled in many areas, its aim to quickly encircle the capital, Kyiv, and force its surrender faltering in the face of staunch Ukrainian resistance  bolstered by weapons from the U.S. and other Western allies.

Britains Defense Ministry said Russias troops looked to be trying to encircle Ukrainian forces directly facing the two separatist-held areas in the countrys east. That would cut the bulk of Ukraines military off from the rest of the country.

Moscow claims its focus is on wresting from Ukraine the entirety of the eastern Donbas region, which has been partially controlled by Russia-backed separatists since 2014. A high-ranking Russian military official said Friday that troops were being redirected to the east from other parts of the country.

The leader of one of the separatist-controlled areas of Donbas said Sunday that he wants to hold a vote on joining Russia, words that could indicate a shift in Russia's position. Leonid Pasechnik, the head of the self-proclaimed Luhansk Peoples Republic, said it plans to hold a referendum on becoming part of Russia in the nearest time.

Russia has supported the separatist rebels in Luhansk and neighboring Donetsk since an insurgency erupted there in 2014, shortly after Moscow annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. In talks with Ukraine so far, Moscow has urged Kyiv to acknowledge the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, accused Russia of seeking to split Ukraine in two, like North and South Korea.

The occupiers will try to pull the occupied territories into a single quasi-state structure and pit it against independent Ukraine," Budanov said in a statement released by the Defense Ministry, He predicted that guerrilla warfare by Ukrainians would derail such plans.

Ukraine says that to defeat Russia, it needs fighter jets and not just the missiles and other military equipment supplied by the West. A proposal to transfer Polish planes to Ukraine via the United States was scrapped amid NATO concerns about getting drawn into a military conflict with Russia.

In his pointed remarks, Zelenskyy accused Western governments of being "afraid to prevent this tragedy. Afraid to simply make a decision.

"So, who is in charge of the Euro-Atlantic community? Is it still Moscow, thanks to its scare tactics? he said. Our partners must step up their aid to Ukraine.

His plea was echoed by a priest in the western city of Lviv, which was struck by rockets on Saturday. The aerial assault illustrated that Moscow, despite recent assertions that it intends to shift the war eastward, is willing to strike anywhere in Ukraine.

When diplomacy doesnt work, we need military support, said the Rev. Yuri Vaskiv, who on Sunday reported fewer parishioners than usual in the pews of his Greek Catholic church, likely because of their fear.

Referring to Putin, he said: This evil is from him, and we must stop it.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov confirmed that Russian forces used air-launched cruise missiles to hit a fuel depot and a defense plant in Lyiv. He said another strike with sea-launched missiles destroyed a depot with air defense missiles in Plesetske just west of Ukraine's capital, Kyiv.
Photo: DARREN STONE, TIMES COLONIST Dr. Stefanie Green performed the first medically assisted death on Vancouver Island just days after the service was legalized in Canada in June 2016.

As a maternity doctor, Stefanie Green has been propped at the end of a bed as a husband tucks in behind his labouring wife and gives one last push to deliver their child. As an assisted death practitioner, she has sat on the side of a bed as a wife took off her robe and slipped in beside her ailing husband to hold him one last time as they said goodbye.

Green, who has come to see both experiences as deliveries, says more than two decades as a maternity doctor prepared her well for her new career providing medical assistance in dying.

I really find them very, very similar, moments, said Green, who has assisted at more than 1,500 births and now more than 300 deaths. At both deliveries, as I call them, I am invited into a most intimate moment in peoples lives.

Green performed the first medically assisted death on Vancouver Island just days after the service was legalized in Canada in June 2016.

Now she has chronicled the first year of these bittersweet stories in her memoir This is Assisted Dying: A Doctors Story of Empowering Patients at the End of Life, published by Scribner, a division of Simon and Schuster, and on bookshelves this week.

Something profound is happening, Green says. Im guiding it, Im steering it. Im making sure the right people are in the right place. And once I tell someone the heartbeat has stopped, I gently and quietly slip away and remove myself from the room.

Afterwards she gathers her thoughts by walking along her favourite Oak Bay beach with her dog, hiking around the Island or paddling in her kayak.

I picture Meg cradling Richard in their bed, and I believe that I have learned what love can look like, writes 53-year-old Green, who is married to an astrophysicist turned entrepreneur and is the mother of two adult children.

On this day, Green, who started out as a family doctor, is in the waiting room of the same Fort Street office in Victoria where she counselled expectant mothers for much of her 22-year career. The walls are papered with snapshots of infants, many of whom she can still name. Those who now come to this same office to be assessed for medical assistance in dying say they like the lively air the baby photos bring to the exam rooms.

The average MAID patient is 75, though Green says she has assisted people age 27 to 105, referring to the latter patient as quite a character. She has assisted members and even leaders of all faiths. More than 65 per cent of those she helps have terminal cancer.

Greens work gained international attention following a piece in the New York Times about the assisted death of former B.C. Government and Service Employees Union president John Shields, 78. The Oak Bay resident died in March 2017 at Victoria Hospice after being diagnosed two years earlier with a rare and incurable hereditary form of amyloidosis, a painful and disabling disease that would eventually see him lose use of his arms and legs and shut down his heart.

A civil rights activist and former Catholic priest who became a social worker, then union president who negotiated landmark pay-equity agreements, Shields decided days before his planned death to hold an Irish wake  replete with drink and Swiss Chalet chicken.

After the New York Times piece, a literary agent in New York approached Green to write a book on the early days of assisted dying.

In the book, Green tells the story of free-spirit Ed, 68, who on the day of his death chose to don a clown suit, red nose and colourful wig. Despite their many conversations, Green didnt know he was an amateur clown. She rolled with it and alone with him in the room, she obliged by telling his favourite joke.

I heard him chuckle, writes Green. Then he closed his eyes and fell asleep.

In her early days of assessing people for medical assistance in dying, Green was plagued by the thought of risking up to 14 years in prison if she got anything wrong  an error in assessing a person for MAID, a complaint from an angry family member who opposed the patients choice, a mistake in procedure.

Writing about her first assisted death, Green says: Harvey isnt just my first assisted death. He is the first MAID death to proceed on Vancouver Island and among the first in all of Canada. I am aware I need to get this right  for myself, for the MAID program, but most importantly, for Harvey.

At that time, Green was one of three providers in Victoria and five on the Island. Green took to ferries, propeller planes, highways and water taxis to assist patients across the Island and the province.

In the first four months of MAID, Island Heath was averaging six assisted deaths a month. In the first year, the Island was providing three times more than the national average.

People would seek out Green on their own because their family doctor didnt want to get mixed up in MAID.

Green describes the palpable sigh of relief expressed by most clients when told they qualify for MAID, and the difficulty of walking away from others in intolerable pain because the law limited the procedure to people whose natural deaths were reasonably foreseeable. Few who are deemed eligible for MAID change their minds, she says.

Once my patients were no longer fearful of how they might die, they focused intently on living and allowed themselves to more fully embrace the life they had left, she writes.

Green triple-checks her paperwork, ensures patients know their options for palliative care, travels to each procedure early to enter at the exact minute she is expected, reviews the plan with the patient and gets their final agreement to proceed, and takes with her a back-up set of pharmaceuticals.

Most patients choose MAID by a series of injections delivered by a physician  the first medication is an anti-anxiety drug that puts the patient in a light sleep, followed by a local anesthetic, then a third drug, propofol, that puts the patient in a coma, and lastly a paralytic. The patient drifts off to sleep and usually during the third medication, breathing and the heart slowly stop. Patients also have the choice of taking a formulated drink, but few opt for this option.

Green says most people want to die as they lived  some choose rock music blaring, some prefer classical music lulling them to sleep, while others settle into the peace of silence. Many use the time in between to get their house and relationships in order.

Sometimes there is drama. In her book, Green tells the story of a grandmother who finally tells her grandson to clean up your crap before dismissing him from the room, and that of an adult daughter who, with just seconds remaining after the first anesthetic is injected in her mother, conveys words that havent been spoken in decades.

Green describes the bony hand of an 88-year-old mother on the pale, smooth, steroid-induced cheeks of her 67-year-old child with terminal cancer, saying her final goodbye.

After more than 40 assisted deaths, it was the first time I felt tears that I simply could not hold back, Green wrote.

Its impossible not to project myself into some situations, Green says in an interview. Some of them are excruciating. I mean, the concept of saying goodbye to your child is something  that takes my breath away  theres too much  we all have a limit.

Green also assisted a woman in her late 40s with whom she was acquainted. The woman was diagnosed with late-stage melanoma that had metastasized to her lungs, liver and brain. I love you mommy were the final words of the womans daughter as Green was set to administer the first needle. Green usually asks the patient to think of a favourite memory before they drift off to sleep. This woman said: There are so many to choose from.

Just before Ray, who was in extreme pain, died, he told Green: I realize this might sound ridiculous, but I feel like you saved my life. There are more uplifting stories than sad  like the family who sang Who could ask for anything more? from I Got Rhythm.

Woven through This is Assisted Dying is Greens own story  what shaped the person who would choose to pioneer MAID, head up Canadian Association of MAID Assessors and Providers, and advise governments on how to improve legislation for medical assistance in dying.

Green talks about how her parents less-than-amicable divorce and subsequent marriages forced her to be independent and fend for herself. She explains how Judaism gave her a sense of belonging and a moral compass, and details how her role as a mother and wife required her to set boundaries in her new-found vocation.

Green hopes the book will stimulate conversations and reduce the stigma around addressing end-of-life decisions. It would take four years into her assisted-dying practice to broach her own last wishes with her husband. It took about the same time for her mother to make known her wishes for her death.

The government, meanwhile, is still sorting out eligibility for assisted death.

The law allowing it took effect June 17, 2016, but the governments eligibility criteria said the eligible persons natural death must be reasonably foreseeable.

In the years that followed, the criteria of reasonably foreseeable death proved problematic for assessors and providers. It was challenged in 2017 and 2019. As of March 17, 2021, the law no longer requires a persons death to be reasonably foreseeable.

Instead, those wishing to receive MAID must be in an advanced state of irreversible decline in capability and have enduring and intolerable physical or psychological suffering that cannot be alleviated under conditions the person considers acceptable, according to the original decision.

Green says patients who can now access MAID include those with lifelong chronic pain or post-viral illness such as chronic Lyme disease or chronic fatigue syndrome (now called Myalgic Encephalomyelitis). They would rather die than live like this, said Green of these patients asking for MAID.

Green said there hasnt been a rush of Canadians wanting to take advantage of the expanded access, and MAID providers are cautious about applying the expanded eligibility criteria.

The new law also opened up MAID to Canadians whose only medical condition is a mental illness  primarily in the area of psychiatry, such as depression and personality disorders  and who meet all other eligibility criteria, although the government has said that group will not be eligible for MAID until March 17, 2023.

A national expert review is now considering the protocols, guidance and safeguards for MAID for those suffering from mental illness and is expected to report its recommendations in April.

We are all eagerly awaiting to hear what they say and then well have another year to digest that and potentially implement that in March 2023, said Green.

A joint parliamentary committee must still grapple with issues including whether to expand MAID access to advance requests  something thats currently not allowed  and mature minors.

National polling suggests advanced requests is the priority issue for MAID, Green said.

There are models of assisted dying that allow advance requests in other jurisdictions in the world that we can learn from, and I think thats the debate and the conversation that Canadians want to have.

Advance requests  for example, a person diagnosed with dementia or other competence-eroding condition who wants MAID if certain events happen  are a complicated issue, said Green.

In the book, she tells how people often explain the conditions under which they would want an assisted death  when they no longer recognize family members, for example.

Yet that raises many questions: Would the condition be met the first time a patient fails to recognize a family member? The second time? When its consistent? Over how long a time period?

Who would decide when the condition has been met? And what if that patient seems to be living comfortably in a specialized care facility, getting enjoyment out of small things, even if they are no longer the person they once were?

Whose suffering should we take into account? The person who was or the person who now is? Its simply not so simple.

Six years into her new practice, Green is eager to tackle all these discussions. This is work she can do for a long time, she says.

While she says its far from lucrative and takes an emotional toll, she calls it profoundly meaningful work.

Assisted dying is not so much about dying, right? Its about how people want to live. Its about whats important to them, what brings meaning to their life, what brings joy to their life, what they have lost, what they still have.

People who choose MAID choose the time and the day and the way they depart, and once thats done, they no longer have to worry about dying and death, Green said.

Immediately, once someones told that they have this option, that its available to them, its all about how theyre going to live the last bits of their life.

To be able to offer this to someone in their final moments, its such privileged work.


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Dean Moorhouse is the best choice for District 10 county commissioner. He is known throughout this community for his volunteer service with schools, charities, and youth sports, just to name a few. He has helped raise money for many worthy causes that benefit the residents and children in this community. His service to this community is in his free time and is always delivered with a smile.

Mr. Moorhouse has held numerous leadership positions including being a co-owner of Professional Pulmonary Services, president of the Harrison Ruritan Foundation, president of the PTA and Booster Club at Snow Hill Elementary, and so many more. He has worked tirelessly behind the scenes in order to fulfill the responsibilities of these roles. He's always professional, shows up prepared, and pays attention to the finer details. He tries to find the best solution for any problem to help make everyone happy.

Dean has led this community many times to ensure responsible growth and development including being our representative at county commission meetings. He has proven his leadership abilities at numerous community meetings where tensions can sometimes run high. He takes a peaceful, measured approach to calm the situation and focus the community on working to find solutions. He doesn't let differences with others get in the way, but instead remains steadfast on working to get the best results for everyone involved. He is also very knowledgeable about how the county government works and if he can't help you, he will direct you to someone who can.

Dean Moorhouse is a proven and experienced leader who is ready to continue serving this community.

Lyn Nelson
Peggy Diane Griffin Peyton, born in Henderson, Kentucky, died at age 79 on March 25, 2022 in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

She is survived by her husband Jerry, sons Christian and wife Erica, and Todd and wife Jennifer; and grandchildren Christopher and Gabriella Johnson and Carter and Jack Peyton.

Peggy graduated from Henderson City High School (Henderson, Kentucky) in 1959 and received her bachelors degree from Murray State University in 1963. She later pursued graduate work at the University of Michigan and Indiana University. Her jobs varied from retail to banking to teaching. In retail, she started out as a clerk at Kohls department store and moved up to become the CEOs secretary in Brookfield, Wisconsin. She worked in the commercial loan department at WSFS Bank in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, but found her heart really beat for teaching. Peggy taught in schools in Michigan, Kentucky, Indiana, Georgia, Kentucky again, Connecticut, Texas, Indiana again, Kentucky again, and Georgia again. She recognized when students and young faculty needed help, was bold in advocating for them, fostered confidence in them, and helped them achieve their highest potential. Due to frequent moves for Jerrys work, Peggy seemed to get stuck with the most challenging students at the schools where she taught, and, while that was very frustrating to her, it made her an exceptional teacher and she told stories about those kids for the rest of her life.

Christian fondly remembers his mother regularly having to defend herself and her boys with mace when being threatened by some crazy characters at the BiLo in El Paso. Jerry reflects on Peggys fearlessness about going nose-to-nose with anyone who was in the wrong or who tried to mess with her or her family. Todd recalls having to read a book and pass a Peggy-made quiz on it before being allowed to go play in the summertime. She never had to work, but she did so that her boys could always have the very best of everything. The best advice Peggy gave was do it right the first time so you dont have to do it again.

Peggy and Jerry finally settled down in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where she made a wealth of friends and played bridge a few times per week with different groups. She volunteered with the Chattanooga Newcomers Club, maintained her membership with the Philanthropic Educational Organization and the National Education Association, and attended weekly Bible Study at Christ United Methodist Church.



While Chattanooga became her home and she never desired to live anywhere else, one of the things Peggy loved most was traveling the world with Jerry. While she has visited more places than most, her favorites included Santorini, Rome, Paris, London, and cruises to just about anywhere. A most memorable event was the time she got to sit in as co-pilot on a float plane tour in Alaska. However, she vowed shed never return to that one sketchy place where she and Jerry were temporarily held captive by a charlatan in north Africa.

After retiring from teaching, Peggy loved spending time with her friends and family. She could most often be found playing cards (and trash-talking her opponents), lunching with her ladies, and demonstrating her tremendous generosity by shopping for her boys (ages 8 to 80). She found the most joy in being Mimi to and doting on her grandsons Carter (10) and Jack (8), and was just getting to know her new grandchildren Christopher (17) and Gabby (15).

Peggy is preceded in death by her father Walter Travis Griffin, mother Grace Ella Nunn Griffin, and her infant brothers Walter Keith and Jerry Griffin.



Visitation will be 3-7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 30, at Tomblinson Funeral Home in Henderson, Kentucky. The memorial service will be held at Grace Point Church on Thursday, March 31, at 11 a.m. with visitation beforehand starting at 9:00. In lieu of flowers, please send donations in memory of Peggy Peyton to The Lexington School (Lexington, KY) or Christ United Methodist Church (Chattanooga, TN).

"there came a moment in the middle of the song when she suddenly felt every heartbeat in the room and after that she never forgot she was part of something much bigger"

- Brian Andreas, Story People

Please share your memories of Peggy with the family at www.chattanoogaeastbrainerdchapel.com

Local arrangements are by the East Brainerd Chapel of Chattanooga Funeral Home, Crematory and Florist, 8214 E. Brainerd Road, Chattanooga, TN 37421.


The American Red Cross, Southeast Tennessee Chapter will host the Heroes Luncheon at The Chattanoogan Hotel on Thursday. This event is one of the largest celebrations of the Red Cross in the Chattanooga area and serves as a time to recognize local heroes who make a difference in the community every day.

The keynote speaker for this years event is Dr. Fran P. Mainella. Dr. Mainella is a visiting scholar at Clemson University Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management.

The chapter will honor several citizens who have been true heroes in Southeast Tennessee. The honorees include:

Call to Action Hero: Debra Socia

Hospital/Medical Hero: Dr. Matthew Kodsi, MD, PhD

Good Samaritan Hero: Matt Lovitt

Volunteer Hero: Malcom Seheult

The chapter will also honor Chattanooga resident and previous board chairwoman for the Red Cross, Rickie Pierce with the Humanitarian Award. This achievement award is given to the person who gives back in the community in several philanthropic ways to make a positive change.
Captain Jason Chambers gave bosun Jamie Sayed and his deck team a stern warning on Below Deck Down Under when the deckhands slacked during the last charter. But despite Chambers frustration with the deck team, he thought Sayed did a good job as bosun.

Sayed also admitted to Showbiz Cheat Sheet he had quite a learning curve as a first time bosun. But said Chambers was an incredible leader, who is someone he views as a big brother.

Jamie Sayed faced a few challenges on Below Deck Down Under

This was my first time as bosun, Sayed remarked. I felt like I was fine for the role [on Below Deck] because I had those leadership qualities and things that Ive had in my past jobs. So leading a small team on deck and even working on bigger boats as well on deck, seeing how the bosuns work on those boats and seeing how the first officers work.

Jamie Sayed and Captain Jason Chambers | Laurent Basset/Peacock

But Sayed had to get used to the role and calling distances wasnt something he did as a deckhand. I hadnt called distances being a deckhand, he asserted. Being new to calling distances but also navigating a tricky marina made for a huge challenge for the bosun and captain.

In this case, in North Queensland, tides run in and out very quickly, much quicker than where other tides are around the world, Sayed explained. On top of that, this was a big-sized boat. And were in a small marina in Australia that caters to these [smaller] kinds of boats, especially with the tides running out.

Below Decks Captain Jason revealed one of Jamies biggest strengths

Chambers told Showbiz Cheat Sheet that tides and a tight marina definitely created a few challenges. But tide changes arent unique to the Whitsunday Islands, which where Below Deck Down Under was filmed.

North America has the same thing as well, Chambers said in terms of honing in on the tide changes. But added, We [in Australia] have massive tides and theres not that many marinas in Australia that dock superyachts. So not only is it a tide issue, theres not much room to move around.

Chambers said his new bosun rose to the challenge. Communication was one of [Jamies] fortes, Chambers said. He was great. Its just about him getting to know what I want. And what I wanted him to do. And anyone who works [in that position] needs to find that and its going to take a bit of time.

Jamie views Captain Jason from Below Deck as a big brother

Sayed learned a lot from Chambers this season. He also drew from his past experience on deck. I just sort of listened and watched, he said, reflecting on experience from past jobs. Sort of took it all in. So when the time came for me being bosun I literally just went back and took notes of what I experienced in my past.

When I met Jason, he said Im basically going to take you under my wing, he recalled. Ill help you get started as bosun. That really helped me start out as well. Working alongside Jason, hes like an older brother. I have a couple of brothers his age so hes like a brother to me as well.

But like most brother relationships, there can be a little tension. I think with Jason, taking the reins a bit, over the course of the show, I think he needs to let me be a bosun, Sayed said. He wanting to do everything. I know he means well, 100%. But its like take a step back and Im going to take over now.

He was a good captain, he emphasized about the newest Below Deck captain. He was calm. And there were times Id be stressed, hed be like Its OK, lets just breathe through it. And even when you could tell he was stressed too, like with docking. But with me just being calm on the radio just giving those distance calls. He was also to be able to breathe as well.

Episodes of Below Deck Down Under are currently streaming on Peacock.

RELATED: Benny From Below Deck Down Under Brings the Drama for Bosun Jamie  He Takes Advantage [Exclusive]
When Drew Barrymore chose the pictures for her lifestyle book, Rebel Homemaker, the acting icon says it was vital she didnt come off too polished and hard to relate to. So, she mostly used photos shed taken herself instead of hiring a professional photographer to capture and enhance every image.

But eventually, she realized she thought someone with practiced experience should shoot one crucial subject.

Drew Barrymore | Barry Brecheisen/Getty Images

Drew Barrymore wants to redefine homemaking with Rebel Homemaker

Barrymore says she liked the word rebel for the name of her book because its totally bombastic without being angry.

She shares in Rebel Homemaker it describes someone just like her.

I cant stand rules, and even when I try to create them, they blow up in my face, the mom of two daughters writes. We need structure, we need social agreements, but we also need societal openheartedness and progressive ways to take care of one another.

She realized shes a Rebel Homemaker through and through because she grew up in an unorthodox way where she traveled a lot and didnt settle until her twenties. But she also adds the term homemaker could use an update.

By the traditional definition, women would be homemakers, meaning they would stay home and not work. So, she thinks its time to modernize the term for breadwinners who also care for homes and children.

I am a passionate homemaker, she writes, but Ive also been a lifelong worker bee.

Drew Barrymore used her own photography to create something different with Rebel Homemaker

I am so excited to have partnered with @DuttonBooks and my Beautiful Kitchenware line to bring one of you the chance to win a signed copy of Rebel Homemaker as well as an assortment of cookware.

Sign-up and enter for a chance to win, visit: https://t.co/MDIpyROsuN! pic.twitter.com/3ItKljyqo4  Drew Barrymore (@DrewBarrymore) November 16, 2021

As Barrymore shares in Rebel Homemaker, she wanted the book to be a messy and real representation of her way of life. Notably, she didnt want to come off like the late 90s lifestyle guru she never related to. I dont wanna be a fraud, she declares, I wanna be utterly myself.

So, she started printing out photos from her real life and using them for the book instead of having every image taken by a professional photographer in a studio and then airbrushed.

The beauty big wig writes she knew the project could be unique by doing this one simple thing. But there was a specific subject she eventually decided required a professional lens.

Drew Barrymore thought a professional should photograph the beautiful food in Rebel Homemaker

With the new cookbook "Rebel Homemaker," actress Drew Barrymore and her co-author and private chef Pilar Valdes lay out their accessible, appealing style of collaborating in the kitchen. Valdes invited us into her Brooklyn kitchen to share insider advice. https://t.co/tiedXE9s7H  The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) November 6, 2021

Since Rebel Homemaker is a lifestyle book and cookbook, Barrymore shares she wanted it to be messy in some aspects. She felt that was a better representation of what life can be like.

 Later, she notes, after living with just my photos for months, I realized, you know what? Some professional shots of the food might be nice 

So, she and her collaborator and cook, Pilar Valdes, hired the best photographers. She wrote the stories, and Valdes worked tirelessly with her on the recipes.

Though Barrymore continued to take her own pictures of their food, she shares,  We got to take it prime time to the professionals and have a bunch of our dishes photographed as well.

In the end, she was happy with what they were able to put together for the book to show a healthy, delicious, and joyful life through her own rebellious brand of homemaking.

RELATED: Drew Barrymore Took up Interesting New Hobbies Like Raising Chickens While in Isolation
As viewers watch The Dropout on Hulu, many want to know the truth about Tyler Shultz (Dylan Minnette) and his grandfather, Theranos board member, George Shultz (Sam Waterston). Like it is depicted in the true crime drama, Tyler tried multiple times to explain the inaccuracies in Elizabeth Holmes (portrayed by Amanda Seyfried) labs to his grandfather. The real-life Tyler Shultz described his conversations to different outlets, including whether or not his grandfather ever apologized.

The Dropout portrays Tyler Shultz very accurately

RELATED: The Dropout: The Real Life Kevin Hunter Described Sunny Balwani Escorting Him to the Bathroom

As depicted in The Dropout Episode 6, the real-life Tyler Shultz did not become a Theranos employee until after his grandfather, George Shultz, recruited many political figures to the company board. Tylers LinkedIn profile showed that he worked as a research engineer at Theranos for eight months  September 2013 to April 2014.

Tyler met Holmes in real life at his grandfathers home in 2011, while he was in college at Stanford. He recalled asking the entrepreneur if he could intern at Theranos. The answer was yes, and the rest is a tumultuous history. While working there, Tyler witnessed that the blood-testing technology did not work. It gave inaccurate results to actual patients. He went to his grandfather, George Shultz, to break the news that Holmes was lying. The first time he spoke to his grandfather about the inaccuracies in the lab, he brought Erika Cheung to George Shultzs home for dinner. All of these events are portrayed accurately in The Dropout based on Tyler Shultzs real-life interviews.

The Dropout: Tyler tried to tell his grandfather the truth about Theranos

The Dropout: Dylan Minnette | Beth Dubber/Hulu

RELATED: The Dropout Episode 4 Real-Life Facts: Theranos Made Its Way Into 41 Actual Walgreens Stores

He didnt believe me, Shultz told NPR. He said, Elizabeth has assured me that they go above and beyond all regulatory standards. I think youre wrong is what he told me.

Tyler didnt give up trying to convince his grandfather of the lies within Theranos. He begged and pleaded with George Shultz, but the man took a long time to come around.

I said, I know you brought all your friends into this, and you feel like you need to stay there to protect your friends,' Tyler recalls telling his grandfather. But theres still an opportunity for you to get them out too, he said. You can lead the way for the board to do the right thing and hold Elizabeth accountable.'

The Dropout: Did George Shultz apologize to his grandson, Tyler Shultz?

Like in Hulus The Dropout, George Shultz never apologized to his grandson, Tyler Shultz. However, the former secretary of state did admit that Tyler was right. George also told Tyler the things Holmes did and said to make him believe her.

In one of my last conversations with him, he told me a story about how he got Elizabeth invited during fleet week in San Francisco to go give a speech to United States Navy sailors, Tyler recalled to CBS News. He said with tears in her eyes; she told the room how she was so honored and humbled that her lifes work would save the lives of United States servicemen and women.

George told Tyler the story to help him understand why the older man believed Holmes.

He said he could not believe that anybody could get in front of these men and women who are willing to put their lives in front of our country and lie directly to their face as convincingly as she lied, Tyler continued.

George Shultz died on Feb. 6, 2021, so Tyler will never get that apology from his grandfather.

What does Tyler Shultz do now?

Since The Dropout events, Tyler Shultz has come a long way from the 22-year-old fresh out of college. He co-founded a startup company, Flux Biosciences, in August 2017. Tyler is currently the CEO and co-founder of the medical equipment manufacturing company in Palo Alto, California. It sounds like he learned a lot (of what not to do) from his experiences at Theranos and remained in a similar field.

Flux Biosciences utilizes magnetic sensing to bring the power of medical-grade diagnostics into patients homes, the company LinkedIn profile reads. We believe that all people deserve to be empowered, active, and autonomous drivers of their own health through accessible, affordable, and actionable insights.

The Dropout is currently streaming on Hulu, releasing new episodes every Thursday.

RELATED: The Dropout: The True Story of Ian Gibbons Death Directly Relates to Theranos
Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, the 2016 Netflix revival of Gilmore Girls, had several important storylines. Luke Danes and Lorelai Gilmores relationship was woven into all four episodes. The four-part revival ended with Luke and Lorelais marriage. While fans never got to see their wedding, they did get to see preparations for it, including a cake. Since the screen went black on the revival, fans have wondered why one of several cakes seemed to reference Duluth, Minnesota. The cake feels like an Easter egg, but what exactly was it referencing?

Duluth, Minnesota was mentioned exactly once in the original series

Duluth feels like a strange city to reference in revival about a show set in a fictitious Connecticut hamlet. While it certainly seems a bit out of place, Duluth was actually mentioned in the original series, albeit only briefly.

Lorelai was engaged to Max Medina, Rory Gilmores English teacher in the shows earlier seasons. The couple was pretty close to walking down the aisle before Lorelai called the whole thing off. They were so close to the wedding day that Maxs brother traveled from Duluth to Connecticut for Maxs bachelor party. That, however, was the citys one and only mention in Gilmore Girls.

Two Gilmore Girls stars have ties to Minnesota

The reference to the city in the original series seems too inconsequential to garner a reference in the revival. Still, Minnesota is connected to two of the stars real lives, though. Lauren Graham, the actor who played Lorelai, and Alexis Bledel, the actor who played Rory, are romantically linked to men raised in Minnesota.

Peter Krause and Lauren Graham | Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic

Following Gilmore Girls, Graham landed a role in Parenthood. On the set of Parenthood, her romance with Peter Krause bloomed. The couple has been together since 2010. Krause was born and raised in Alexandria, Minnesota. While Krause was raised in Minnesota, he doesnt have a connection to Duluth, specifically. Alexandria is more than 3 hours from Duluth. The town of 15,000 is closer to Minneapolis.

Vincent Kartheiser and Alexis Bledel | Gregg DeGuire/WireImage

Alexis Bledels husband, Vincent Kartheiser, is also from Minnesota, just like Krause. Kartheiser isnt from Duluth, either, though. The Mad Men actor was born in Minneapolis and went to high school in Apple Valley, a two-hour drive from Duluth.

A second season of the Gilmore Girls revival could clear things up

Its been six years since Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life premiered on Netflix. No one has come forward to officially explain the Duluth connection. A second season could potentially clear things up. Fans have been asking for a second season since the premiere date. It still hasnt happened, though.

Lauren Graham as Lorelai Gilmore and Scott Patterson as Luke Danes | Saeed Adyani/Netflix

That doesnt mean it never will, though. Several Gilmore Girls cast members have made it clear that they would happily return. Showrunner, Amy Sherman-Palladino, has expressed an interest, too. Still, Netflix doesnt appear to be biting. Could another streaming platform order a revival? Sherman-Palladino nor a streaming provider has made any official announcement. Still, it doesnt feel totally out of the question.

RELATED: Gilmore Girls: Shouldnt Logan Huntzberger Have Known Who Rory Gilmore Was Before They Met?
John Lennons son, Sean Ono Lennon, said Elvis Presleys songs were some of the first songs that impacted him. Afterward, his girlfriend said Elvis didnt mean much to him. Sean responded by saying he really enjoyed one of the King of Rock n Rolls classic albums.

Elvis Presley | GAB Archive/Redferns

John Lennons son listened to Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, and The Everly Brothers and then discovered another genre

During a 2006 interview with New York magazine, Sean discussed his taste in music. Well, the music that appealed to me at first was the early rock n roll stuff  Buddy Holly and The Everly Brothers, Elvis, all stuff that my dad listened to and that was always in the jukebox. The Beatles music really appealed to me when I was young. I think theres something about The Beatles that really appeals to kids in a supernatural way.

Sean explained how he later embraced another style of music. I stuck with that until I discovered the more psychedelic stuff, he revealed. At summer camp, when I was 12, someone turned me on to Jimi Hendrix, which is what made me want to abandon the piano, because it seemed so uncool, and get into guitar and grow my hair long and start smoking pot and doing devious things. I started dressing badly and not washing my jeans as much, and girls actually started talking to me.

John Lennons son, Sean Ono Lennon | Alessandra Benedetti  Corbis / Contributor

RELATED: John Lennons Son Didnt Think His Dad Insulted Jesus When He Said I Dont Believe in Jesus

How John Lennons son reacted when his girlfriend said he didnt care about Elvis Presley

In 2014, Sean gave an interview to GQ with his girlfriend, Charlotte Kemp Muhl. Sean and Muhl were each asked to name the best record their parents had in their collections. My dad listened to a lot of Elvis, Sean said.

Thats funny, Muhl responded. You dont really give a s*** about Elvis. I like The Sun Sessions a lot, Sean said. He proceeded to sing Blue Moon of Kentucky, one of the songs included on The Sun Sessions.

For context, The Sun Sessions is a compilation album from 1976. It includes most of the songs the King of Rock n Roll recorded at the legendary Sun Studios. The compilation features tunes such as Thats All Right (Mama), I Forgot to Remember to Forget, and Baby Lets Play House.

RELATED: John Lennons Son Named His 2 Favorite Beatles Songs Even Though He Hates Being Asked About That

The way listeners from the United States and the United Kingdom reacted to The Sun Sessions

In the United States, The Sun Sessions became a minor hit. The album reached No. 76 on the Billboard 200. It stayed on the chart for 11 weeks.

In the United Kingdom, The Sun Sessions was released under the title The Sun Collection. According to The Official Charts Company, the album hit No. 16 in the U.K. It remained on the chart for 13 weeks.

The Sun Sessions wasnt one of Elvis most popular albums. In spite of that, it means something to Sean.

RELATED: John Lennon Felt 1 Little Richard Song Was Better Than Anything by Elvis Presley  It Was So Great I Couldnt Speak
The world knows John Wayne for his signature acting style, which many folks claim compose the same characters across his filmography. However, there was another side to the actor that moviegoers didnt see through his work. His son, Patrick, once told a hilarious story about a tape recording Wayne wanted to make to protect his home.

Robbers once broke into John Waynes home

John Wayne | CBS via Getty Images

Jeremy Roberts of Medium interviewed Patrick about his fathers memory. He talked about what it was like growing up with Wayne as his father, explaining that he was a good kid to his family. However, Patrick did grow his hair out at one point, which his father didnt care for. He explained how the timing wasnt great, since the actor associated it with the robbers who broke into his home.

The thieves had stolen $20,000 worth of prized memorabilia, mainly guns, Patrick said. He owned an AK-47 that was given to him by a Montagnard tribe while he was touring military bases in Vietnam

However, the long hair certainly played into the narrative.

Patrick continued: He always claimed it was druggies, these long-haired hippies, that stole his stuff. When I looked like that, he said, Oh, for Gods sake. He accused me of being one of those people. They left a bad taste in his mouth.

As a result, Patrick wanted a security system installed into his new house. Wayne also wanted one installed in his own house, so the security guard agreed to travel to Newport Beach to help him out with that.

John Wayne wanted to make his home alarm a hilarious tape recording to scare off robbers

Episode 2 of the John Wayne Gritcast is out now! This episode is the second part of the interview with guest Patrick Wayne. Host, Ethan Wayne, is also joined by sister, Marisa Wayne Links to listen here: https://t.co/gUAviFdJrG pic.twitter.com/lF4r497pUm  John Wayne Official (@JohnDukeWayne) October 7, 2021

Patrick continued that he saw the same security guard a few weeks later and asked him about how the meeting went. However, the guards visit to the Wayne home didnt turn out exactly how he expected. The pair went through the house and sat down for coffee after.

I was describing to him the way I thought the alarm could be set up and what he should do,' Patrick recalled to Medium. Your dad had this frown on his face as he was listening to me. I said to him, Mr. Wayne, do you have some questions or concerns about what Im talking about here?

Patrick continued: My dad said, What I thought is if someone broke into the house, a tape recording of my voice could go off saying, I see you, you son of a b****. My dad was dead serious. The security guard had to bite his lip to keep from laughing because he knew my dad wasnt kidding. That would have been a pretty good alarm.

The actors son thought highly of him

Heading in to the weekend like pic.twitter.com/dmGJ9vz2sd  John Wayne Official (@JohnDukeWayne) August 13, 2021

Patrick had a large amount of respect for his father. The True Grit star had the true presence of a legend, which also followed him through public spaces.

My dad was one of these people whose presence was show-stopping, Patrick said. He could walk into a room and everything would come to a standstill. Im not kidding. Everybody would stop and look.

Waynes home was the target of a robbery, but his response in the form of wanting a voice recording is especially hilarious and memorable.

RELATED: John Wayne and Elvis Presley Didnt Co-Star in Oscar-Winning Film Because Elvis Manager Pushed It Too Far
Grammy-winning musician and writer Questlove has earned the respect of many of his peers over the years. One person whos been a fan of his is former President Barack Obama.

Ahmir Questlove Thompson | Cindy Ord/WireImage

Questloves career

Questlove rose to fame in the 1990s. as a member of the popular hip-hop band The Roots. Their mainstream breakout came at the turn of the century with their song You Got Me with Erykah Badu. The song earned The Roots the Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group and fueled sales of their now-renowned album Things Fall Apart, eventually leading it to platinum certification with over one million copies in sales.

Since the late 2000s, The Roots has served as the in-house band for both late-night talk shows that Jimmy Fallon has hosted: Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

In 2021, Questlove made his film directorial debut with Summer of Soul (Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), a film about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, which featured performances by Stevie Wonder, Sly and The Family Stone, Nina Simone, Mahalia Jackson, Mavis Staples, B.B. King, and many other iconic soul, jazz, gospel and Latin artists of the era. The film earned a nomination for Best Documentary at the 2022 Academy Awards.

Questlove mistook Barack Obama for a Postmates driver

Summer of Soul took home top honors at Sundance Film Festival, and Questlove earned praise from countless people. Barack Obama himself wanted to give Questlove his flowers, but ran into a small problem: the Roots frontman confused the former president with his food delivery driver.

The phone rings and Im wondering where my Postmates guy is with my food. So [the caller] is like, Hello? And I was like, Yo, come [to this] floor, Ive been waiting for you. Hes like, Huh? Wait. I said, Postmates? This is Barry. Wait, do you think Im your Postmates? And I was like, Huh? he recounted in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

Clearly confused, Questlove looked through all of the texts on his phone to realize that he shouldve been expecting a call from Obama. I looked on my phone and theres all these [texts saying], The presidents going to call, he remembered. I totally missed that. I had a belly laugh.

Questlove supported Obama for president

Questlove DJed at the White House in 2016 when Obama was still in office. Speaking to Rick Rubin on his Broken Record podcast in 2019, he revealed Obama requested French Montanas song Pop That to pump up the party.

Two hours into it, [Obama] taps me on the shoulder, Youre doing a good job! I love the Donna Summer and the old school hip-hop and the jazz. But look at them, they wanna have fun too! Questlove said. And hes pointing to his kids. Theyre having a sit-in. Theyre looking at me like, Nah, none of this s*** works. So then, I became the DJ I hated. Im like Googling, let me go to Spotify see what kids are listening to. I became that guy, the guy I hate the most. Suddenly, that night became Animal House.

[Obamas] coming up to me like, Do you have French Montana? And Im like, Sir! I dont have the clean versions of that, he continued. Hes like, Were all adults here. Play it! Im like, Sir, Im not gonna play, Pop that p****, b****, what ya twerkin wit.

RELATED: Maya Rudolphs Chance Encounter With Questlove Helped the Comedian Accept Her Mothers Death
Music superstar and business mogul Rihanna has been giving fans everything they want throughout her pregnancy. Shes dumped traditional maternity outfits for looks that show off her growing baby bump. And now, as her first childs birth gets closer and closer, the Umbrella hitmaker has a lengthy plan for how she wants delivery day to go.

Rihanna in 2022 | Mike Coppola/Getty Images

Rihanna is pregnant with her first child

For years, fans have wondered if and when Rihanna would have children and who she would have a child with. She started dating rapper A$AP Rocky in 2020, and they grew even closer throughout the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Rihanna and Rocky kicked off 2022 with a bang when they revealed that they were expecting their first child together. Everyone in their lives is thrilled for them, including Rihs father, Ronald Fenty. Im ecstatic, he told Page Six after learning the news. Im so happy that I jumped for joy. Im still so excited.

Rihanna is giving birth in Barbados

Rihanna herself hasnt confirmed her due date, but fans believe that the bundle of joy will arrive sometime in spring 2022. The baby will be delivered by Rihannas childhood friend, Dr. Sonita Alexander. In addition to Alexander, Rih will be surrounded by all of the important women in her life, including her mother Monica.

An insider told OK! that Rihanna has an extravagant plan for the day of her delivery, which includes major renovations to her mansion in Barbados. [She] plans to have a full birthing suite, including a water tub, installed at her mansion, the source said. All the important women in her life will be there, and while they wait for the baby to be born, theyll all get spa treatments like massages, manis and pedis.

Rihanna will also be getting regular pregnancy massages and vitamin IVs in the time leading up to the birth to ensure that both she and her baby get all the nutrients they need.

Rihanna is taking motherhood seriously

Becoming a mother is life-changing, and Rihanna recognizes the power of bringing a child into the world. According to Mirror, a source revealed that shes taking pregnancy as seriously as possible.

As far as she is concerned, the day she becomes a mother is the most important in her life, they said. She wants it to be as magical as possible.

As for the plans after she gives birth, she and everyone there plan on partying all day and all night. Its set to be a celebratory affair from start to finish.

Shes going to throw a bit lavish beach party, and will also hold other get-togethers at her place and a nearby resort, the source said. She cant wait to celebrate alongside all her favorite people and is determined to make this epic.

how the gang pulled up to black history month pic.twitter.com/gprFgyP3Xm  Rihanna (@rihanna) February 3, 2022

Rihanna and A$AP Rocky both love Barbados as their home

As far as location goes, Barbados is a natural choice for Rihanna and Rocky to welcome their baby into the world. Rihanna was born and raised in the island country, while Rockys fathers family hails from the Caribbean nation.

[He has] a ton of relatives there that he loves catching up with, a source close to the couple told HollywoodLife. Its something Rihanna and Rocky have bonded about because they feel a commonality there.

RELATED: Rihannas Friends Had a Clue That She Was Pregnant Because She Stopped Smoking Weed
Jeremiah Duggar and Hannah Wissmann married on March 26. Jeremiah is just the latest in a long line of Duggar siblings to tie the knot. His courtship, however, has been different from most of his siblings romances. Jeremiah and Hannah have kept things pretty lowkey. Family followers note that the couple appeared to take a pretty mainstream approach to dating. So, was their courtship one of the longest? Officially it was not, but it wasnt the shortest, either.

Which Duggar sibling had the longest courtship?

Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar would like fans to believe disgraced son, Joshua Duggar, courted his wife, Anna Duggar, for two years before asking for her hand in marriage. Thats the story the family tells, at least. Still, Duggar family followers strongly suspect the duo never actually courted. Instead, they believe Josh jumped right to engagement without Annas buy-in. There is no way to prove it, though.

Jessa Seewald and her husband, Ben Seewald, had the longest documented courtship. According to Fandom, the couple announced their courtship in September 2013. In August 2014, Ben proposed. They married in November 2014, 14 months into their romance.

Which Duggar siblings had the shortest courtship?

Jeremiah and Hannah havent shared many details on their relationship. Still, based on photographic evidence, the couple was likely dating for several months before they announced their courtship and subsequent engagement. Their relationship certainly isnt the shortest in the Duggar familys history. That record appears to go to John David Duggar and Abbie Burnett.

The Duggar family | D Dipasupil/Getty Images for Extra

When they announced their relationship, John David and Abbie were substantially older than most Duggars. They announced their courtship in June 2018. Less than a month later, they were engaged. John David and Abbie were married in November 2018. Jinger Vuolo and Jeremy Vuolos public courtship wasnt much longer. A little more than a month passed between their courtship announcement and engagement.

Who will be the next Duggar to tie the knot?

Jeremiah Duggar might be the latest eligible Duggar to tie the knot, but hes far from the only one who is likely on the hunt for a life partner. James and Jason Duggar are both in their early 20s. Jackson Duggar turns 18 in June and Jana Duggar, now in her 30s, is the familys oldest bachelorette.

Still, none of them appear to be set to head down the aisle right now. At the very least, none have announced a relationship. That doesnt mean there isnt an ongoing romance, though. The Duggar family has been incredibly calculated about the information they release in the wake of Josh Duggars arrest and subsequent trial.

Regardless, Duggar family followers feel confident that Jana is unlikely to be the next one to announce a courtship. Jana was briefly linked to Stephen Wissmann. But it appears the 32-year-old was only spending time in Nebraska to chaperone Jeremiah.

RELATED: Duggar Family News: Big Life Moments That Have Happened Since the Cancelation of Counting On
The new Vikings spinoff, Vikings: Valhalla, picks up with the explorers in 1002. As teased by creator Jeb Stuart, the next season of the Netflix series will follow the Vikings out of Scandinavia and into new lands.

Sam Corlett in Vikings: Valhalla | Netflix

Vikings: Valhalla Season 2 is already finished

The first season of Vikings: Valhalla debuted on February 25, 2022, with eight episodes. But Netflix ordered the series for 24 episodes, which showrunners have evenly divided into three seasons.

Vikings: Valhalla Season 2 started filming in early 2021 and commenced in November. The new installment doesnt have a premiere date yet. But when talking to Digital Spy, Stuart admitted hes eager to release it.

I am just finishing the editing of the last episode of season two this week, Stuart said in the February 2022 interview. I am dying to get it out there.

See you in Valhalla.  Vikings: Valhalla is now streaming only on Netflix. pic.twitter.com/u8exv5mURx  Vikings Valhalla (@NetflixValhalla) February 25, 2022

Season 2 of Vikings: Valhalla will follow the explorers to new worlds

Vikings: Valhalla Season 1 kicks off with the St. Brices Day Massacre in 1002. But the second season will literally broaden the Vikings horizons, and follow them into exotic new lands.

I think in season two, [viewers] will see the Vikings sort of thrust out of Scandinavia, which is a very interesting piece, Stuart told Newsweek. We know that the Vikings traveled, we know that they went to the New World, but we also know that they traveled to Russia, to the Rus, as they called it, and went down the Dnieper River to the Black Sea.

The showrunner also revealed that the Vikings trade will take them into the Middle East. They were great traders, Stuart said. So they went to Constantinople, they went to Egypt, they went through the Middle East.

Yuzler guluyor cunku Vikings: Valhalla 2. ve 3. sezon geliyor!  pic.twitter.com/eT50K61r6K  Netflix Turkiye (@netflixturkiye) March 9, 2022

Viking DNA is found almost all over that part of Europe, he added. They went to the Iberian Peninsula and obviously England and Ireland. So you can probably guess that my Vikings are going to get on their boats and explore a little bit.

Jeb Stuart also teases what to expect from Vikings: Valhalla Season 3

Fans should get a new season of the Netflix series soon. But Stuart has his focus set on Vikings: Valhalla Season 3 and beyond.

When talking to Digital Spy, the Die Hard screenwriter hinted at what fans can expect from the third season. And he also revealed what he has mapped out for future installments.

On our way to the mead-hall to celebrate. pic.twitter.com/7HgtMkjkOu  Vikings Valhalla (@NetflixValhalla) March 9, 2022

Season three [which films in Ireland in the summer] is very exciting and my Vikings get out of Scandinavia, Stuart shared. So we have lots of great surprises and stories for season three.

My story carries on past [a third season] and I would love more time to tell the full story, I would love more time to get to the fact that William the Conqueror puts an end to the Viking Age, he added. That story involves Harald Sigurdsson and that story involves a lot of our characters like Emma and Godwin.

Vikings: Valhalla Season 1 is currently streaming on Netflix.

RELATED: Why Did Vikings Star Travis Fimmel Walk Out of Casting Auditions?
Few people have a reputation as renowned and respected as Jane Campion. The New Zealand native is celebrated for her work as a director, screenwriter, and producer. Being one of the first women in the film industry, Campions ambitious nature and impressive work over the decades have laid the groundwork for many female forces to follow.

At the moment, everyone is talking about Netflixs Western drama The Power of the Dog. Directed by Campion, its certainly adding to the 67-year-olds success and increasing her net worth.

The Power of the Dog director Jane Campions net worth

The Power of the Dog director Jane Campion | Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Champagne Collet&OBC Wines

In 1979, Campion graduated from Sydney College of the Arts. Since then, shes come a long way. IMDb outlines Campions remarkable resume. With 20 directing credits, it is no wonder Campion has become so successful.

Celebrity Net Worth reports that Campions net worth is valued at 10 million dollars. Despite her established wealth, at the age of 67, the powerhouse director doesnt seem like shell retire anytime soon.

The Power of the Dog

BEHIND THE SCENES WITH JANE CAMPION will convince you she deserves the Oscar: https://t.co/qu5LvfdWOn #ThePowerOfTheDog pic.twitter.com/NjATtyuTo2  Decider (@decider) March 23, 2022

Campions fame and success are not secrets. Over the years, she has won awards and the hearts of fans everywhere. At the moment, everyone is talking about her new film, The Power of the Dog.

Written and directed by Campion, The Power of the Dog unpacks a complex and compelling story unfolding amongst a community of ranchers in Montana. Set in 1925, the stellar cast and gorgeous cinematography transport audiences to another time. Kirsten Dunst, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Kodi Smit-McPhee are among the talented actors cast in the Netflix film. With 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, The Power of the Dog seems worth the watch.

Not to mention, fellow respected director Martin Scorsese shared some moving words about Campion. As Scorsese put it, My admiration has only increased over the years. I wish she would make more pictures, but every one that you do get to make really counts. Its a precious thing to have an artistic voice as powerful as Janes developing over time.

Director Jane Campions other noteworthy work

During the 80s, Campions career really started to take off. The 1989 film Sweetie marked her directing debut on the big screen.

The Piano, The Portrait of a Lady, and Bright Star are just a few other titles Campion has been recognized for directing. More recently, her fans and followers have gotten to enjoy her work with the TV series Top of the Lake. However, since The Power of the Dog has been released, its all anyone is talking about.

Since the film premiered, Campion has already received three Oscar nominations. This tracks for the celebrity, considering she has already racked up a total of 157 awards throughout the course of her career.

Jane Campions upcoming projects

Typist Artist Pirate King: Monica Dolan, Kelly Macdonald & Gina McKee Set For Carol Morley Road Movie; Jane Campion Among Exec Producers  AFM https://t.co/YtwVd5Kozd  Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) November 4, 2021

Campions passion for film is evident in her seemingly neverending drive. Critics and audiences who are fans of Campion and The Power of the Dog can look forward to her next collaboration. Teaming up with Carol Morley, Campion is listed as a producer for the upcoming film Typist Artist Pirate King.

The movie focuses on friendship, endings, reconciliation, and, of course, drama. Monica Dolan, Kelly Macdonald, and Kieran Bew are just a few of the actors who will appear in Typist Artist Pirate King. Though there is no official release date at the time, film buffs look forward to it.

RELATED: Director Jane Campion Calls Sam Elliott A Little Bit of a B**** for Slamming The Power of the Dog
Netflixs You has officially started filming season 4, which means fans are eager to find out everything they can about the Penn Badgley-led series. Heres everything we know about the forthcoming episodes of You, which is based on the best-selling books by Caroline Kepnes. Find out where You is filming and who will join the cast in season 4. Plus, an estimate regarding when the new season of You will drop on Netflix.

Penn Badgley as Joe Goldberg | John P. Fleenor/Netflix

You Season 4 is currently filming

Netflix renewed You for another season in October 2021. The news came before the release of season 3.

Were deeply grateful that Netflix has shown You such monumental support, showrunner Sera Gamble said alongside the announcement.  People around the world have enjoyed watching Joe really get it all very wrong over the past three seasons. The whole You team is excited to explore new, dark facets of love in season 4.

feeling YOU-4-ic. YOU Season 4 is now in production. pic.twitter.com/1wtUttZ2P9  YOU (@YouNetflix) March 22, 2022

Previously in November 2021, the You writers room Instagram account posted writing had officially begun. The same account posted about the start of filming on Mar. 22: Roll the camera, Joe. Season 4 has begun.

Cast of You is filming in the United Kingdom

Whats on Netflix estimates You Season 4 will be in production for four months and wrap sometime in July 2022. According to the outlet, part of season 4 will be filmed in the United Kingdom. You Season 4 is also slated to film in Los Angeles according to early reports from ProductionWeekly.

At the end of You Season 3, Joe (Badgley)  who is living under the alias Nick  is in Paris looking for Marianne (Tati Gabrielle). But season 4 could mean a move to the United Kingdom for Joe if production has plans to film in the U.K.

Lukas Gage joins the cast of season 4

Badgley is slated to return as Yous creepily tantalizing Joe. Plus, according to Deadline, Lukas Gage  known for playing Tyler in Euphoria and Dillon in The White Lotus  will join the cast.

Gage will portray Adam, an ex-pat American, the youngest son of a wealthy East-Coast magnate, Deadline reports. Hes famous for spectacularly failing to meet the standards of his successful, venerable family. An entrepreneur and a gambler, Adam is a warm and funny party host and fast friend. But underneath, Adam is hiding a trove of secrets and papering over problems with heavy self-medication.

Nick and Adam will likely bond over their inability to please. But we dont have a good feeling about Adam making it out of season 4 alive.

Lukas Gage is coming for You.



In @YouNetflix Season 4, Gage plays Adam, the warm, funny, and hard-partying son of a wealthy family who is famous for failing to meet their standards. But the one thing he did learn from his parents is to do whatever it takes to get what you want. pic.twitter.com/Hr9tQnmk2r  Netflix (@netflix) February 17, 2022

Deadlines description continues: Determined to prove himself, Adams taking big, risky swings, living by the truism that a good businessman does absolutely anything he can get away with. Does he love his wealthy, titled girlfriend, or is he using her? Theres no doubt hes manipulating his friends; the only question is how far hed go.

You Season 4 estimated release date

Per Whats on Netflix, fans can likely expect You Season 4 to release in December 2022, based on previous production schedules and release dates. The outlet admits fans wont likely get to see new episodes of You until early 2023, though, depending on changes to the production schedule.

Stay tuned to Showbiz Cheat Sheet for updates. Watch the first three seasons of You exclusively on Netflix.

RELATED: Netflixs You: How Penn Badgley Does Joe Goldbergs Voiceovers
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Muslims spray acid on family for accepting Jesus: You deserve death

Radical Muslims in eastern Uganda sprayed acid on their family members during an argument over their conversion from Islam to Christianity and were told, You deserve death. The family survived but remain in the hospital where they're being treated for burns.

Reports surfaced last week that Muslim relatives had sprayed acid on three new converts  Juma Waiswa, 38, his 32-year-old wife, Nasimu Naigaga, and their 13-year-old daughter, Amina Nagudi  in Intonko village of Namutumba District, to punish them for putting their faith in Christ, according to Morning Star News.

One of the victims, Waiswa, said they converted to Christianity when a pastor visited their home and shared the Gospel on Feb. 17. When the relatives came to know about their conversion, they called them for a meeting with other clan members on March 8, he said.

During the meeting, we were asked about our salvation, and we affirmed to them that we had believed in Jesus and converted to Christianity, Waiswa was quoted as saying. They told us to renounce Jesus, but we stood by the newly founded faith in Jesus.

He continued: When we refused to recant our faith in Jesus, my father, Arajabu, recited some Quranic verses, and after that they forcefully started beating us with sticks as prescribed in the Quran, claiming that we were apostates. As this was not enough, my father went inside the room and picked up a bottle of acid and began spraying it on us while the group started shouting, Allah Akbar [Allah is greater], you deserve death, and then disowned us.

The three victims didnt realize initially that they had been sprayed with acid. But as we were fleeing for our lives, we started feeling some serious itching that continued until the pain intensified, Waiswa said. A nearby Christian neighbor called the pastor, who arrived immediately and took us to hospital in Mbale, but our daughter was seriously affected and was referred to a hospital in Jinja.

On March 9, their home was burned to the ground.

Four days later, in a separate incident, radical Muslim villagers attacked a former mosque leader, identified as Swaleh Mulongo of Bugobi village, for putting his faith in Christ after being evangelized by a pastor in January.

It was around 8 a.m. when four Muslims stopped me and began asking me so many questions regarding Christianity, but I did not respond, Mulongo was quoted as saying. Then the men started beating me up with blows and sticks, but thank God when they saw some people approaching, they fled away.

Mulongo suffered deep head wounds and his wrist was broken.

The radical Muslims then killed goats and chickens that were owned by the pastor who had led Mulongo to Christ.

Acid can disfigure a victim for life and has been used in revenge attacks mostly by men and particularly in Pakistan, India, the United Kingdom and Uganda, for various reasons, from disloyalty to saying no to a romantic relationship, according to the London-based Acid Survivors Trust International.

Under Ugandan law, the assailant in an acid attack can be sentenced up to seven years in prison, but perpetrators are rarely charged, said Linnet Kirungi, founder and director of the nonprofit Hope Care Rescue Mission, according to Chimp Reports.

"Of the over 200 acid attack survivors with whom I have worked in Uganda, only 20 percent of their perpetrators were charged or had any legal consequences for perpetrating the attack, she told the outlet.

While most people in Uganda are Christian, some Eastern and Central regions in the country have higher concentrations of Muslims.

The Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures Project estimates that about 11.5% of Ugandas population is Muslim, mostly Sunni. Armed attacks and murders of converts are not uncommon in the region.

Radical Islams influence has grown steadily, and many Christians within the majority-Muslim border regions are facing severe persecution, especially those who convert from Islam, a Voice of the Martyrs factsheet notes.

Despite the risks, Evangelical churches in Uganda have responded by reaching out to their neighbors; many churches are training leaders how to share the Gospel with Muslims and care for those who are persecuted after they become Christians.
Nigeria: Fulani kidnap 46 Christians in ambush attack days after killing 32 civilians

Suspected Fulani herdsmen ambushed and kidnapped 46 Christians and an unknown number of their children three days after killing 32 civilians in predominantly Christian areas in northern Nigerias Kaduna state, according to reports.

On March 17, heavily armed terrorists, suspected to be radical jihadist Fulani herdsmen, attacked Agunu Dutse village in Kachia County shortly after midnight, abducting at least 46 Christians along with their children. In a separate attack two days later, more than 100 herdsmen and Islamist terrorists killed 32 civilians in Kagoro town in Kaura County, Morning Star News reported.

Among those abducted in Agunu Dutse village, 16 are men and 30 women.

They trooped into our village in large numbers and began shooting indiscriminately at anyone on sight, a resident named Philip John was quoted as saying, according to Morning Star News.

In the second attack in Kagoro, two soldiers were killed, a woman was believed to have been abducted and around 200 houses, and 32 shops were destroyed apart from all of the killings in the Tsonje, Agban, Katanga and Kadarko areas of Kagoro.

At least seven others were injured.

My mums family houses were all razed down, and one of my cousins was burned to death in their house, area resident Violet Peter was quoted as saying. We havent been able to reach some of our relatives. Lord please, this is too much for us.

The Rev. John Joseph Hayab, chairman of the Kaduna state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria, said in a statement that Christians were grieving the continued killings, kidnappings, banditry, and the unimaginable evil going on in our state unabated without any substantial action by the government and security forces.

He added: Kaduna state citizens are tired of the governments rhetorical responses without concrete action taken to protect lives and property. Accordingly, we want to hear and see the killers and kidnappers arrested, as the governments usual media condemnation whenever there is havoc is not good enough.

Security analysts say kidnapping for ransom has become a lucrative industry in Nigeria as weapons are becoming available to militants in Nigeria by way of war-torn Libya, and in Nigerias northeast, Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province have killed thousands and displaced millions.

The U.S.-based persecution watchdog group International Christian Concern warns that the Nigerian government continues to deny any religious motivation behind the attacks and has recently convinced the U.S. Department of State to do the same.

Many have raised concerns about what they perceive as the governments inaction in holding terrorists accountable for the rising number of murders and kidnappings, which some groups warn has escalated to a genocide.

Last November, however, the Biden administration removed Nigeria from the U.S. State Departments list of countries of particular concern, a designation reserved for the countries that tolerate or engage in some of the world's worst violations of religious freedom. Nigeria was added to the CPC list in December 2020 during the final months of the Trump administration. ICC identified the African country as one of its 2021 Persecutors of the Year.

Nigeria is one of the deadliest places on Earth for Christians, as 50,000 to 70,000 have been killed since 2000, the ICC Persecutor of the Year report states.

According to Open Doors USAs 2022 World Watch List report, at least 4,650 Christians were killed between Oct. 1, 2020, and Sept. 30, 2021, up from 3,530 the previous year, and more than 2,500 Christians were kidnapped, up from 990 a year earlier.
Oklahoma megachurch leaves UMC over irreconcilable theological differences; changes name

A megachurch in Oklahoma has dropped United Methodist from its name and started fully disaffiliating from Americas second-largest Protestant denomination due to what it describes as the United Methodist Church's slow and steady drift from its historic Christian mission.

Asbury United Methodist Church in south Tulsa is now officially called Asbury Church, the megachurch says in a statement on its website, adding they have begun the process of disaffiliating from the denomination.

We do not know where or when we will affiliate with a new denomination, the church continues. Currently, our main focus is protecting the assets and interests of Asbury and fully disaffiliating from the UMC.

Asbury Churchs announcement comes weeks after the UMC delayed its General Conference meeting for a third time earlier this month, citing the COVID-19 pandemic.

Postponed to 2024, the General Conference is expected to be contentious as delegates negotiate a denominational split over theological differences, including the full inclusion of LGBT members into the denomination and the ordination of ministers in same-sex relationships.

On Jan. 30, Frazer United Methodist Church, a congregation of about 4,000 members in Montgomery, Alabama, disaffiliated from the mainline Protestant denomination, saying in a statement to The Christian Post that the congregation intends to join the Free Methodist Church: [W]e believe that the Free Methodist Church is a better fit for our present identity and future fruitfulness.

The Rev. Tom Harrison, Asbury Church's senior pastor, said the split had been inevitable for some time, according to Tulsa World.

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, Harrison explained. As Asbury Church, we will continue to pursue our mission of helping others follow Jesus.

The UMC has been engaged in a long battle over the churchs teachings on sexuality, prompting more conservative churches to leave the denomination. The UMCs official stance, as outlined in the Book of Discipline, labels homosexuality a sin, bars the ordination of non-celibate homosexuals and prohibits the blessing of same-sex marriages.

However, progressive United Methodists have, on several occasions, defied the rules by ordaining openly gay clergy or officiating same-sex marriages.

The Asbury megachurch says it might consider joining the Global Methodist Church, a more conservative Methodist denomination, which has announced it will officially launch in May.

This future denomination will be made up of former United Methodists from North America, Africa, Europe and elsewhere who uphold the authority of Scripture, Asbury says in its statement. The formation of this new denomination has been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The creators of the GMC previously said they would hold off on launching until after the General Conference.

The denominations website says thousands of Methodist clergy and laity from around the world have worked together for over three years to lay the groundwork for a new, theologically conservative Methodist denomination steeped in the great ecumenical and evangelical confessions of the Christian faith.

It is anticipated that some theologically conservative local churches will find annual conferences willing to negotiate fair and just exit provisions, while others will, unfortunately, face obstacles placed in their paths, the denomination said in a statement.

The Transitional Leadership Council decided it was time to launch the Global Methodist Church, so those who can leave early will have a place to land, to begin building and growing, and making room for others to join later.

The Rev. Keith Boyette, chairman of the Transitional Leadership Council that has been overseeing the creation of the GMC, has said theologically conservative churches and annual conferences want to be free of divisive and destructive debates, and to have the freedom to move forward together.
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.
Bible researchers decipher earliest Hebrew inscription known as curse tablet The inscription is also the earliest mention of the name of God, archaeologist claims

Biblical researchers say they have decoded an ancient Hebrew inscription, known as a curse tablet that predates by centuries any known Hebrew inscription from ancient Israel. The inscription was found on Mt. Ebal, the mountain of the curse, mentioned in Deuteronomy 27 and Joshua 8.

Cursed, cursed, cursed  cursed by the God of YHWH, you will die cursed, cursed you will surely die, cursed by YHWH cursed, cursed, cursed, reads the earliest proto-alphabetic Hebrew text recovered on a small, folded lead tablet, the Associates for Biblical Research announced at a press conference at the Lanier Theological Library in Houston, Texas, on Thursday.

I believe the amulet dates to the Late Bronze II age, or as early as 1400 BC, Scott Stripling, ABRs director of excavations, told The Jerusalem Post.

He added, This is earlier than many skeptics believe the Bible existed, making this the earliest appearance of the word YHWH in Israel and it was found at a covenant site. The implications are enormous and will reverberate for many years to come.

The amulet, known as a defixio or curse tablet, came to light in December 2019 when Stripling, also the director of the Archaeological Studies Institute at the Bible Seminary went with his team to wet sift the discarded material from excavations conducted in 1982-1989 in the West Bank

Those excavations were conducted by the late Haifa University archaeology professor Adam Zertal who discovered the altar of Joshua on Mount Ebal near the city of Nablus in the West Bank.

This amulet and its inscription do not predate the Bible, Stripling said. We believe it coincides with the biblical events. We talk about verisimilitude, a consistency between what we read in the text and what we find in the material culture. If the text were true, this is what you would anticipate finding, and indeed, it is what we found.

Haifa University professor Gershon Galil told The Times of Israel, This is a text you find only every 1,000 years.

Some have raised concerns about the claims, with one unnamed academic telling The Times of Israel, The fact that they are publishing it in the news before being published scientifically is a bit off."

The Associates for Biblical Research said an academic, peer-reviewed article will be published later this year. The researchers include: Stripling, Galil, Ivana Kumpova, Jaroslav Valach, Pieter Gert van der Veen, Daniel Vavrik and Michal Vopalensky.

According to the Bible, Mount Ebal was the mountain from which the curses were called out for those who broke Gods law when the children of Israel made a covenant with God before entering the land of Israel.

Deuteronomy 11:29 reads, When the Lord your God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizim the blessings, and on Mount Ebal the curses.
Orthodox advocacy group, archbishop call for sanctions against Russian Orthodox clerics

The Orthodox Public Affairs Committee and a Ukrainian archbishop are calling for sanctions to be placed on the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church, alleging that they are complicit in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

OPAC, which exists to provide public advocacy for the global Orthodox Christian Church, and to promote, support, defend and champion Christian communities worldwide in the face of persecution, exclusion, and prejudice, released a statement Monday condemning the response of the Russian Orthodox leadership to the invasion.

The statement comes nearly a month into the invasion, which has caused a massive humanitarian crisis in Eastern Europe as hundreds of civilians have been killed and more than 10 million have been displaced from their homes.

Patriarch Kirill, his possible successor, Metropolitan Tikhon of Pskov, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokomansk, who heads the Public Relations wing of the Moscow Patriarchate; the Department of External Church Relations (DECR), and the Rev. Nikolai Balashov, a priest of the DECR and long-time accomplice to Kirill, are all complicit in not only supporting the invasion of Ukraine, but also in perpetuating the lies of the government against their own people, the OPAC statement reads.

The group, founded in 2020 and led by a former Trump White House official, contends that the Russian Orthodox leaders have abandoned the Orthodox People of Ukraine, who make up 1/3 of their flock, and are as blameworthy for the deaths of innocent children and civilians as the soldiers acting on orders from the Kremlin.

The committee said, the idea that this invasion was for the benefit of the Ukrainian people would be laughable, if it were not matched by such horrific war crimes.

As OPAC, we cannot stand by and listen to the lies coming out of these so-called shepherds of the Church of Russia, who are acting more like wolves in sheeps clothing, OPAC asserted.

Like all the other oligarchs and government officials in Russia, these Clerics must be sanctioned now and be held accountable for their betrayal of the Orthodox Faith, and their complicity in this unjust and bloodcurdling war.

OPACs call for sanctions against the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church comes more than three weeks after Patriarch Kirill referred to Ukrainians fighting back against Russian soldiers as evil forces who were fighting against the unity of Russia and the Russian Church.

OPAC was launched in November 2020 and led by George Gigicos, who served as the director of the White House Office of Presidential Advance under President Donald Trump. The organization was founded to expose and combat the persecution of Christians around the globe" and says it advocates for all persecuted Christians.

Archbishop Yevstratiy of Chernihiv and Nizhyn of the Autocephalous Church of Ukraine also called on sanctions against Russian Orthodox Church leaders for their comments about the Russian invasion of Ukraine last week, The Orthodox Times reported.

Yevstratiy, who serves as a spokesperson for the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, specifically called for sanctions against Patriarch Kirill, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Father Nikolaos Balasov and Metropolitan Tikhon Pskov and Porkhov.

Four members of the Russian Orthodox Church are as guilty as Russian ministers, propogandists [sic], and [Russian President Vladimir] Putins oligarchs who have already been included in the list of sanctions, he said.

Yevstratiy maintained that the Russian Orthodox Church officials must be included in the international and Ukrainian sanctions list, as active members of the Kremlin regime, responsible for planning, executing and facilitating the war in Ukraine.

Additionally, Yevstratiy characterized the aforementioned leaders as the main supporters of the idea of the Russian World, a neo-imperialist plan that created the ideological background of Russian aggression against Ukraine.

All the above-mentioned individuals, due to their positions and the system that has been created in Russia between the state and the Church, undoubtedly maintain constant contact with the Russian special services, with government officials and with the presidential administration of the Russian Federation.

Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, which dissolved in 1991. The Eastern European country achieved independence following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and gave up its nuclear weapons after signing the Budapest Memorandum.

The 1994 agreement stipulated that Great Britain, Russia, and the United States would protect Ukraine if it was attacked by a hostile foreign power and vowed to respect its territorial integrity or political independence.

While the memorandum includes assurances of protection, it doesn't carry the same weight as a legally binding treaty agreement and has no enforcement measures.

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, U.S. President Joe Biden announced a series of sanctions that the U.S., along with a coalition of allied nations, would impose. The sanctions apply to Russian elites who have personally gained from the Kremlins policies and Russian banks. Every asset they have in America will be frozen, he vowed.

The calls for sanctions against the Russian Orthodox Church leaders come as Biden heads to Europe this week and will meet with NATO allies to discuss the international response to Russias actions.

The White House listed discussions about efforts to support Ukraine and impose severe and unprecedented costs on Russia for its invasion as part of the agenda for the presidents trip, which will include stops in Brussels, Belgium as well as Warsaw, Poland.

Biden's administration is gearing up to sanction hundreds of Russian lawmakers. The Wall Street Journal reports that an announcement could come Thursday.

There has been a rift between the Russian Orthodox Church and the global Orthodox community in recent years.

The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, which holds authority over the worlds 300 million Orthodox believers, recognized the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as independent in 2019, meaning the Ukrainian Orthodox churches no longer fall under the jurisdiction of Moscow Patriarch Kirill.

The Russian Orthodox Church voted months prior to cut ties with the Patriarchate of Constantinople after a Ukrainian church was granted independence.

Following the Ukrainian Orthodox Church being granted autocephaly, several churches under Moscows jurisdiction severed their ties with the Russian church, moves that infuriated Russian nationalist sentiments, according to James W. Carr, a commissioner on the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom.

The Russian government uses distortions of religious history to support its claim that Ukrainians have no independent ethno-religious identity or state tradition," Carr warned earlier this month in a statement voicing concern that the religious freedom of Ukrainian Orthodox believers is in "jeopardy."
Bidens Supreme Court nominee refuses to define the word 'woman'

Did President Biden keep his promise to nominate a black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court? At first glance, that seems like an absurd question. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is a black woman. However, this past week's interaction between Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Judge Jackson makes that point confusing.

Supreme Court confirmation hearings can be heady affairs. Although the topics of judicial philosophy, legal principles, and how to interpret the Constitution are vitally important to the functioning of our legal system, most Americans do not often consider them. Stare decisis, unenumerated rights, and originalism are simply not part of most peoples daily conversations with their friends or family members. As a result, the Senate Judiciary Committees four-day-long hearing on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to be an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court has likely proven dull for many people.

However, likely lost among the hours of questioning in Tuesdays confirmation hearing was a fascinating exchange between Judge Jackson and Sen. Blackburn. During her questioning, Blackburn asked the nominee to define the word woman.

Can you provide a definition of the word woman? Blackburn asked. After a brief pause, Jackson answered, No, I cant. Incredulous, Blackburn replied, You cant? Not in this context; Im not a biologist, the judge responded.

Initially, few news outlets reported on the exchange, and even most conservative court-watchers have focused on questioning by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) about critical race theory and Sen. Josh Hawleys (R-Mo.) contention that Judge Jackson has been too lenient when sentencing sex offenders. But the exchange between Blackburn and Jackson is a massive cultural moment and reflects how deeply gender identity ideology has taken root in our national subconscious. In short, those pushing gender identity ideology that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago have been so successful in promoting their views that it is now deemed too risky to define a woman as an adult biological female.

The promotion and acceptance of transgender ideology have accelerated the rampant gender confusion in our nation, and the events of the past few weeks underscore just how successful LGBTQ activists have been in converting the news media, Big Tech, the business community, and now, apparently, the judicial community, to their cause. Just within the past few weeks, weve seen a biological male crowned an NCAA champion in womens swimming and USA Today declared Rachel Levine, a biological male serving in the Biden administration, as one of the newspapers Women of the Year.

But even though there have been several stories in the news lately featuring those who identify as transgender, it is remarkable that someone nominated to the nations highest court is unwilling to define the word woman. It raises the question of how Americans can trust someone to faithfully interpret the U.S. Constitution and apply the nations laws who lacks the courage to simply state biological facts. Nevertheless, here we are.

It would be ludicrous to think that Judge Jackson does not know what a woman is. Judge Jackson is a two-time Ivy League graduate. She has served on the federal judiciary for nearly a decade and has been seated on the nations second-most important court for almost a year. Without a doubt, Judge Jackson is highly intelligent. But her unwillingness to answer Sen. Blackburns question is a foreboding sign that gender identity ideology not only holds tremendous sway in the Democratic Party but has also taken hold in parts of the legal profession. Deference to partisan politics has no place in the judiciary.

President Biden promised to nominate a black woman to the nations highest court, and Judge Jackson meets both of those criteria. But the judges own refusal to define the word woman during her confirmation hearing is disturbing because it suggests an accommodation to a postmodern worldview unable to assert basic truths about human embodiment. Judge Jackson is a woman, and it shouldnt be controversial to state this fact. Even those who may not agree with Judge Jacksons judicial philosophy can acknowledge that Jacksons nomination is historic and that many African American women are especially excited about her appointment. But the fact that the nominee herself cannot confidently answer a straightforward question that contradicts the far Lefts radical gender identity ideology is a sad and revealing commentary on the times.

You dont need to be a veterinarian to define what a cat is, a mechanic to define what a car is, a florist to define what a flower is, or a biologist to define what a woman is. But increasingly, you do need courage and a willingness to contradict the misguided zeitgeist of the age. On this point, Judge Jackson failed miserably. Ultimately, if Judge Jackson cannot define what a woman is, it is troubling to think of how she will interpret and apply the nations laws. One can only hope she will find some courage if confirmed by the Senate to the Supreme Court.

Originally published at the Family Research Council.
The SBC and whether God's Word 'whispers' about sexual sin

My family has been Southern Baptist all my life.

My dad was a bi-vocational Southern Baptist pastor/dairy farmer in Kentucky.

I am a graduate of Liberty University and Dallas Theological Seminary and I have been a church planter for the Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. I have now been the pastor of that same Southern Baptist Church, Vanguard Church in Colorado Springs, for the past 25 years.

I have great respect for J.D. Greear; however, I cant agree with him or President Ed Littons approach to sexual sin and how God sees it.

In 2019 Pastor Greear said, The Bible appears more to whisper on sexual sin compared to its shouts about materialism and religious pride.

The problem here is the Bible holds a different view.

It was sexual sin in Genesis 6 that triggered God to raise up Noah to build an ark before He destroyed the earth with a flood. It was sexual sin that caused God to command Lot and his family to leave and not look back at Sodom and Gorromah. It was sexual sin that became the downfall of the beloved King Davids tenure. It was sexual sin of Jezebel that is spoken about through the Old and New Testaments and the focus in Revelation at the End of Time.

God said in Revelation 2:20, But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works.

When the early Church was trying to figure out what rules and guidelines they should follow, they came up with two, one had to do with sexual immorality, and the other with idols and eating meat that still had blood in it due to the ritual of animal blood sacrifice to pagan idols.

The early church said in Acts 15:19, Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood.

Paul carries on this theme in 1 Corinthians 6:18, Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 4:3, For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor.

I agree religious pride and materialism are sinful but that does not make sexual sin any less of an issue. The Old Testament and the New Testament alike take a very strong stance against sexual immorality, and we as pastors and followers of Jesus Christ must do the same. We dont have to be jerks about it, but we should take seriously what the Bible takes seriously. I agree it is not homosexuality or sin for that matter that sends you to hell, but the rejection of Jesus Christ.

The Gospel must be our paramount focus for people to be able to change and become who Jesus created them to be.

Many years ago, when we started Vanguard in Colorado Springs, we had a lesbian couple who joined our group. Eventually one of them asked me, Do I have to just give up my lesbian to come to Christ? I said, No, you have to give up everything. Jesus tells us unless we are willing to give up everything, we cant be his disciple. Nothing can stand between Him and us as our number one priority, including our sexuality.

Not long after this she approached me again and said, What do you think of my lesbianism? I was getting ready to tell her and then I heard the Spirit of God inside me say, Tell her, you didnt create her, you didnt die for her, and you wont be her judge.

I opened my mouth and said these words. She was stunned. I was stunned.

She said to me, Really, it doesnt matter what you think?

I said, I guess not (See, up to this point I thought what I thought was the most important thing).

Then I heard the Spirit say to my soul, Pray and have her ask me what I think.

So, I did.

A few months later she said to me in passing, What does God think of my lesbianism?

I turned away and teared up because I couldnt believe God actually answered this prayer.

I said, Let me get you a Bible and you can read it for yourself.

I gave her Romans 1 and 1 Corinthians 6.

She read it.

We met.

I said, What do you think.

She said, It says it is a sin.

I said, Really?

She said, Really.

She later gave her life to Christ and in front of 12,000 SBC messengers at the Southern Baptist Convention in Fort Worth in 1997, she shared this story.

As Southern Baptists, we dont have to go soft on sexual immorality for the Gospel to thrive and be our focus. No, it is just the opposite, when we share what God thinks from His Word that is what changes people.

Can I give you some friendly advice? The Bible doesnt need to change, we do. You heard it said, Love the sinner and hate their sin. I dont believe that is possible. I have learned, Love the sinner and hate your sin.

Gods Word will take care of the rest.
Transgenderism has a science problem

Laws protecting children from harmful gender transition procedures are supported by basic scientific facts. Yet such laws are routinely opposed by cultural, corporate, and political figures, who claim they are the ones in alignment with science. The White House recently called efforts in Texas to protect children from gender transition an attack on loving parents who seek medical care that is dangerous to the health of these children. Is this really true?

Sadly, when it comes to this issue, ideology is driving science more than science is driving itself. Statements like that of the White House avoid the facts about gender transition for children and instead employ a communications campaign fraught with hyperbole, misinformation, and inadequate research that is more emblematic of a bait-and-switch tactic rather than the gold standard of scientific inquiry. What are we to think of all this?

In the midst of the confusion, its appropriate to recall a few basic facts about the scientific method:

1. The scientific method is just one way of learning about the world around us. It is not an infallible approach to knowledge, and there are always errors associated with any study. The question, then, is not whether error is present, but how loosely do we hold the findings because of the amount of error in the study.

2. Confidence is gained in the studys outcome when error has been reduced. One way error is easily identified is by looking at how the study was designed. This means assessing the methods (e.g., web-survey, experimental study), how the sample was gathered (do the people in the study have the same characteristics as those the researchers are trying to apply the findings to), the financial associations of the researchers, and any vested interests the researchers have in a certain outcome.

3. A particular finding is also strengthened when multiple studies draw the same conclusion. It is normal for a research agenda to start with a wide scope and ask a question such as, What are the experiences of youth who identify as transgender? As this information solidifies, the research questions narrow, and the methods typically become more rigorous and directive. For example, the methods and question might move to the commonly known clinical trial phase and ask, What interventions reduce gender dysphoria?

4. As a research agenda grows, knowledge on a subject matter strengthens. In this way, a fuller picture might emerge, giving insight into the conditions that create an outcome. In this case, its clear that the transgender-identifying population has higher rates of childhood trauma, mental health distress, and increased suicidality. When there is clear knowledge about the factors that create a ripe environment for an outcome, it would be remiss to leave those concepts out of research study without a very clear logic for doing so.

With these basic research concepts in mind, theres no escaping a need to be critical of the transgender literature. Transgender studies have been used to make big claims about the effects of medicalized interventions, but these studies lack solid empirical evidence to back up the assertions that these practices are efficacious. It is critical to keep in mind that these procedures are some of the most intrusive physiological practices used to address any psychological condition listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5; and soon 5-TR) and should demand the most rigorous scientific backing rather than the least. Here are four key things we should be aware of regarding the current transgender literature:

1. First, transgender literature is in its infancy stage of a research agenda. The types of research methods and questions asked in the peer-review literature reveal that these studies are only at the exploratory phase. This means that the approaches used to investigate the experiences of the transgender population cannot establish a causal relationship between claims that are made, such as the claim that the use of cross-sex hormones will reduce suicidal thoughts. The research methods, alone, prohibit such a claim from being made.

2. Much of the research scaffolding the idea that transgender procedures save lives is based on web/survey data, which captures peoples opinions from one moment in time. These data points do not account for suicidal thoughts or mental distress over time or long-term. By design, these studies cannot establish that hormones/surgery are responsible for a reduction in negative mental health outcomes. The methods themselves give us this answer, regardless of how many advocacy, medical, academic, or professional groups say its true.

3. The transgender literature has recycled some of the same web survey data from participants who were enlisted from the social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. Although this isnt necessarily a bad method approach for an exploratory study, in the initial phase of a research agenda, it is unconscionable that this level of inquiry would be explicated to a recommendation for removing healthy organs, particularly for children.

4. This body of literature asserts a causal link between gender affirmative medical care and mental health outcomes. This conclusion is erroneous because the research methods dont allow for it and the variables known to affect the transgender-identifying population and suicide rates in general have been omitted from the investigations. That is, no study to date can claim that gender affirmative medical care clearly reduces:

Depression

Suicidal ideation

Suicide attempts

Gender dysphoria

Would you have any of your vital organs, such as a kidney, removed because a few studies by advocates for kidney removals launched web surveys and found that some people felt less mental distress at the idea of an organ removal or because some people accessed services to remove their healthy kidney?

At this point, we must ask: Where are the research methods to establish the conclusion that access to transgender medical interventions bolsters mental health? There are none. But we still hear from our highest political offices that these practices save lives. Such a claim is both dangerous and patently false, and it is based on a body of data that is immature, to say the least.

**To read more about how the science around transgenderism and other issues is being politicized, see these publications:

Originally published at the Family Research Council.
Xiconomics: How people-centered philosophy navigates China's high-quality growth, common development

Xinhua) 07:32, March 27, 2022

BEIJING, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Economic growth has little meaning unless it can give people a better life. China takes aim at a 5.5-percent growth target for 2022, vowing to create more than 11 million urban jobs and place development and people's livelihoods front and center.

As Chinese President Xi Jinping has said, "To meet people's desire for a happy life is our mission."

The people-centered approach, embodied in Xi's economic thought widely known as "Xiconomics," is charting course for China's high-quality growth and common development of all nations through win-win cooperation.

MEETING PEOPLE'S NEEDS

"What we now face is the contradiction between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people's ever-growing needs for a better life," Xi said at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2017.

From meeting people's growing material and cultural needs to delivering a better life to all Chinese people, as Xi has stressed that "Putting people first is our fundamental philosophy of governance."

"The thought, which creatively combines the aspiration of human beings for a better life with the practice of people-oriented development, is of global influence," said Australian economist Guo Shengxiang.

To meet the people's desire for a happy life is a challenge for governments worldwide, particularly at a time when the international community is struggling to reduce the development gap, and prevent environmental degradation.

In this regard, the Chinese president stressed efforts to unswervingly pursue high-quality development and improve the people's well-being.

By drawing a blueprint for China's development, Xi is leading the country along the path for high-quality growth and towards building a modern economic system and promoting common development.

Guided by his economic thought, China's economy is contributing to building an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world that boasts lasting peace, universal security and common prosperity with better products, better services and a bigger market.

Xi's economic philosophy is full of oriental wisdom and is conducive to the development of the world, noted Honson To, chairman of KPMG China and Asia Pacific.

"It is an advanced thought that suits China's national conditions and the development trend of the world," he said.

BOOSTING COMMON DEVELOPMENT

From China's growth to the common development of countries worldwide, Xi's economic thought addresses the needs and difficulties of global development through cooperation frameworks such as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Global Development Initiative.

"We need to have the vision to dissect these problems; more importantly, we need to have the courage to take actions to address them," Xi said at the 2017 World Economic Forum.

In carrying out foreign economic and trade cooperation, China has taken into full consideration the needs and development interests of its partners.

"China's train is the most beautiful ... We will have the same train soon in our country," said Khamphet Keomixay, a Lao pupil who participated in a sub-forum on people-to-people exchanges during the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing in 2019.

Keomixay's dream came true when the China-Laos Railway was put into operation in 2021. The railway, which connects Kunming, the capital city of southwestern China's Yunnan Province, and Vientiane, the capital of Laos, ushered in a bright prospect for the development of both countries and the Southeast Asia.

From the China-Laos Railway to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, from the Chinese-Belarusian industrial park to the Port of Piraeus, China and its partners have jointly built infrastructure projects which have brought substantial benefits to local people.

By the end of February 2022, over 140 countries as well as more than 30 international organizations have signed BRI cooperation documents with China.

The BRI cooperation is "not only aimed at promoting economic integration but also solving social problems in the countries taking part in this initiative, particularly issues like raising the level and quality of people's lives," said Alexander Petrov, a professor of St. Petersburg State University.

PURSUING MULTILATERALISM

The problems facing the world are intricate and complex. The way out of them, as is advocated by China, is through upholding multilateralism and building a community with a shared future for mankind.

Xi has, on various occasions, reiterated his call for carrying forward multilateralism and pursuing win-win cooperation.

"We need to practice true multilateralism, stick to dialogue rather than confrontation, inclusiveness rather than exclusion, and integration rather than decoupling," Xi said at the 28th APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in 2021.

Jose Ignacio Martinez Cortes, a researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said "China does not just talk about multilateralism, but has taken real actions."

From supplying more than 2.1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to more than 120 countries and international organizations to proposing the Global Vaccine Cooperation Action Initiative, China has honored true multilateralism in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Natee Taweesrifuengfung, president of the Thailand-based Siam Think Tank, said that in the current international situation, China has held high the banner of multilateralism, actively promoted win-win cooperation, vigorously boosted world economic recovery, and has shouldered its responsibility as a major country.

As an ancient Chinese statesman observed, "Designs for justice prevail, and acts for people's benefit succeed." The aspiration for a happy life is a common pursuit of humanity that nothing can hold back. Under the guidance of Xi's economic thought, China is working hand in hand with the rest of the world to build a community with a shared future for mankind and make the world even more prosperous and beautiful. Enditem

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Bianji)
Oxford college accused of canceling Christian conference, denies Evangelical group's claim Free Speech Union criticizes college's 'uncritical acceptance' of student complaints

An Evangelical organization has accused a college in Oxford, England, of canceling an upcoming Christian conference after student activists complained that the beliefs of speakers and attendees were hurtful to the LGBT community, a claim the college has denied.

The Wilberforce Academy, an affiliate of the Evangelical advocacy group Christian Concern, has run a one-week conference for university students and young professionals at Worcester College for over a decade to guide them on applying the Christian faith to their vocations.

After the conference last September, some university students pressured the school to take action against the group, claiming speakers beliefs were hateful and invalidating toward the LGBT community. The school issued an apology for those offended by the conference.

The preliminary booking for this years Wilberforce Academy conference  scheduled for September  was allegedly canceled by Worcester College, according to a statement from Christian Concern.

Student activists allege that leaflets promoting the conferences Christian worldview were aggressively distributed without consent."

Upon hearing news of Worcesters public apology after last years conference, Christian Concern launched an independent inquiry.

The group said in a statement Monday that there was no evidence found to justify the college apologizing last year and canceling the event booking this year.

After thoroughly reviewing all the available evidence given by 114 attendees  the conclusion is made that complaints against The Wilberforce Academy delegates are without substance, Christian Concern stressed in its statement.

In a statement provided to The Christian Post, Worcester College contends that contrary to Christian Concern's claims, "no conference booking has been cancelled."

"The College does not accept many of the findings in Christian Concerns own report, and we are disappointed that this report has been published without us having the opportunity to discuss it in advance," the Worcester College statement reads.

"The College looks forward to a constructive meeting with Christian Concern and the chance to discuss properly the issues raised. It does not wish to comment further at this stage except to make it very clear that the College supports free speech and to confirm that it remains one of the core values of Worcester."

Christian Concern reported that the topics found to be covered by expert international speakers at the conference were teachings of biblical beliefs the Church has upheld for roughly 2,000 years.

The legal group confirmed that the topics discussed by the Wilberforce Academy at the conferences included the role of Christianity in shaping law and culture; understanding todays context; biblical ethics on human identity and sexuality and comparative religion including examining the nature of Islam.

Worcester College is headed by the former chair of the U.K. Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and former head of the LGBT organization Stonewall, Provost David Isaac.

Christian Concern claimed in its Monday statement that it was informed by the college last November that the Wilberforce Academys preliminary booking for September 2021 was canceled because the college planned to conduct an internal review of the matter.

As you will be aware, Oxford University and Worcester College seek to establish an inclusive culture which promotes equality, values diversity and maintains a working, learning and social environment in which the rights and dignity of all members of the College and University community (including people of faith) are respected, the college said in a statement.

Worcester College says it received several complaints from students about the leaflets being passed out on campus last September.

Unsolicited approaches by your conference delegates to staff and students within the confines of the College in respect of various issues, especially LGBT conversion therapy, which they found upsetting, the college was quoted as telling Chrisitan Concern. This was especially the case for new students attending a parallel event, Opportunity Oxford, which prepares young people for their impending admission to Oxford University.

When asked to show details of the complaints and alleged leaflets passed out on campus, Christian Concern was told that the school could not provide such information.

The information provided does not enable me to identify any of your delegates, a Worcester College official told Christian Concern. I have not been able to obtain a copy of the leaflets that were alleged to have been distributed.

Christian Concerns independent inquiry was conducted by Michael Stewart, a charity lawyer with prior experience in similar investigations.

Of the 124 attendees at the 2021 conference, 114 provided witness statements responding to the allegations. Worcester College didnt engage with the inquiry, according to Christian Concern.

The allegations that have been made regarding inappropriate behavior are not in keeping with my own experiences with the delegates with whom I had the pleasure of teaching and interacting. I found them unfailingly courteous and, in their debates with each other, mature and respectful, one of the attendees was quoted as saying in a witness statement.

I find it very sad that people are spreading lies when the week was a very positive week where many of todays issues could be discussed in love and respect, said another attendee.

Andrea Williams, the chief executive of Christian Concern, said she anticipated that the inquiry would find no evidence that any delegates have done anything to warrant apologizing for, being canceled or discriminated against for their Christian beliefs.

Worcester College capitulated to complaints from a handful of students who appear to have felt offended following debate on some of the most important social issues of our time. It is disappointing that such a prestigious university and college should be canceling Christian beliefs, debate and free speech, Williams wrote.

Williams believes Oxford University should stand for free speech and expression and allow its students to have the intellectual ability to decide whether they wish to attend external events and make up their minds on what they hear.

We will continue to speak of Jesus Christ who was Himself an outsider and by His words and actions demonstrated His commitment to reaching the marginalized, excluded and vulnerable so that they could discover true hope and everlasting love through Him, even sacrificing His own life to do so, she added.

The Free Speech Union, a U.K.-based advocacy group, sent a letter to Provost Issac last week voicing concern with the schools handling of allegations against the Wilberforce Academy.

The Colleges uncritical acceptance of claims that the conference harmed students was a serious error, FSU General Secretary Toby Young wrote. In keeping with, as you put it yourself, your own and the Colleges commitment to freedom of speech, the College should have investigated and faced down students ill-founded complaints. No higher education institution should apologise for free speech.
Midland-born VanZandt Controls is joining forces with Fort Worth-based Eagle Automation in a combination that will give the new entity 200 employees and 12 locations servicing Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Montana, Kansas and Arkansas.

We offer life-cycle solutions for customers, said Don Maness, who is serving as chief executive officer. The combination will allow the merged company to move further up the ladder, he said.

And the cool thing is, its woman-owned, he added. Featheringill Capital in Birmingham, Alabama, will be owner alongside management, and Liz Pharo is managing partner of Featheringill.

Lance VanZandt, who had founded his company in 2015 and built it up to $6 million in revenues in two years, will serve as executive vice president, sales.

Said Maness, Lance had grown to the point he needed more backing and help running the business. So VanZandt brought in Larry Richards to serve as chairman. Now, continued Maness, by joining with Eagle, he moves up another level.

VanZandt said owning a business was his dream since he was a child. Whereas others wanted to be firemen or policemen, I wanted to be married, have children and own a business. This is how God led my steps.

In building his company, he worked to develop customer service.

Observed Richards, Lance has strong views on how customers need to be cared for.

The sales force is a reflection on him, said VanZandt. With our sales group, theres no excuses. Theres no tools theyre lacking, theres no knowledge theyre lacking. If theyre not successful, they have no one to blame but themselves.

That was one of the things that drew Eagle to the company, said Maness, calling the sales force top-class.

Now they have a broader range of offerings to go to the customers with, said Maness. Both corporate names will be retained.

VanZandt distributes, packages and services automated valves, flow measurements and instrumentation products for the energy, chemicals and other industrial markets. Eagle, founded as SCADA Products in 2000, provides measurement and automation solutions through systems integration, services, application engineer, control panels and board repair.

Richards chimed in that VanZandt also had a strong safety record and maintained a 98 percent on-time delivery record even through the pandemic.

The men say the combined Eagle-VanZandt offerings can help a customers ESG  Environmental, Social and Governance  initiatives especially amid efforts to reduce emissions.

There are lots of ways we can help customers with ESG, said Maness. Its here to stay.

Those efforts include swapping out pneumatic devices  valves or instruments. VanZandt said he recommends switching to either total electric or utilizing air compression instead of processed gas.

Still, VanZandt said customers shouldnt expect the companies to stray far from what they are known for.

The things we do, we want to be intentional. We want to stick with the core and being the best we can be at that, he explained. If you lose focus on what youre good at, you can have issues.
This article was first published on NerdWallet.com.

The investing information provided on this page is for educational purposes only. NerdWallet does not offer advisory or brokerage services, nor does it recommend or advise investors to buy or sell particular stocks, securities or other investments.

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.
For those who grew up in San Antonio in the 1970s, Federico "Fred" Gomez Carrasco was a household name, even as he lived in the shadows, evading arrest. After building a drug empire that stretched from Nuevo Laredo across the border into Texas  and reportedly killing or ordering the deaths of as many as 50 people  Carrasco was on the lam in the Alamo City. His exploits were outlined in corridos recorded by local musicians.

Eventually arrested in 1973, a year later he masterminded the deadly Huntsville Prison Siege, an 11-day escape attempt and hostage situation. Carrascos story and the unbelievable tale of the siege are detailed in Standoff, a new true crime podcast created by former Texas Monthly journalist Wes Ferguson.

The first two episodes are available to stream. Episode 1 sets the scene for the Huntsville Prison Siege. Episode 2 then zooms out to profile Carrasco from his rise in Mexico, to going dark in San Antonio, and his eventual arrest.

EXPRESS-NEWS FILE PHOTO

Ferguson, who grew up in East Texas, had never heard of Fred Carrasco until a December morning in 2020. Sitting in a hunting blind in South Texas, his buddy leaned over and said, Ive sat in this blind many mornings sharing a whiskey with Father OBrien.

This merely elicited a blank stare from Ferguson.

You know, from the Carrasco siege?

Nothing.

When you get home, Google this immediately.

AP

This kicked off a yearlong odyssey of research into what could be called Texas Attica. Ferguson became entranced by Carrascos rise from nothing in the barrios, his Forrest Gump-like propensity for serendipity, and, of course, the mechanisms through which the Huntsville Prison Siege came to be. He soon learned that Carrasco was a brutal killer, but also a genius schemer who smuggled guns and ammo into Huntsville inside rotten meat and peach cans, and who smartly used the walled-in prison library as his fortress.

He displayed a lot of cunning, a lot of intelligence, and a lot of willpower throughout his life, Ferguson says. But to the dominant Anglo establishment, they couldn't see that. He was just a monster. The diverging views of him are really interesting.

Fergusons dogged reporting and research leads him  and the listener  to a complex portrait of Carrasco. He tracked down 100 hours of negotiation phone calls, tapes from another writer, and even Carrascos daughter, who still lives in San Antonio, and was 4 when he was killed during the siege.

AP

She has a really nuanced view of her dad. She said that he was extremely loving, he was very generous, they had a wonderful relationship, they loved to cook together, Ferguson says. But there was also the bad side. She was not willing to excuse any of his murders.

San Antonio residents often took a similarly nuanced view of Carrasco. Ferguson interviewed San Antonio journalist and playwright Gregg Barrios before he died in the summer of 2021 for Standoff. Barrios followed Carrasco during the 1970s, writing about his escapades for the San Antonio Express.

What he was saying is, he's our Bonnie and Clyde. Hes our John Wesley Hardin, Ferguson says. No, we don't excuse his actions, but we still can't help but root for him.

Wes Ferguson

Barrios portrait of Carrasco as an antihero bears out in Fergusons reporting with locals in San Antonio, many of whom watched the Huntsville Prison Siege with reverence for its mastermind.

It was really fascinating to talk to some older San Antonio residents of Mexican ethnicity. Not everyone, but a lot of people were really rooting for Carrasco because they saw him standing up to the man, and taking a stand for Chicano rights, Ferguson says.

Carrasco was explicit that his motivations were not political, even if they were appropriated for that purpose. Regardless, Ferguson found scores of older folks who were young men and women during the siege, pulling for Carrasco during his 11-day stand.

When they found out he was killed in the final shootout, they were really grieving for him, Ferguson says. I talked to this guy, Henry, who's now a political activist in San Antonio and he said, Yeah, even my mom, this little lady was pulling for him. Yes, he was in the drug game and yes, he killed a lot of people, but that was his business, you know? And he was actually very polite to his elders and respectful and held up this kind of masculine ideal.

Bill Thompson/Houston Chronicle

Episode 3 of Standoff, releasing on Monday, March 28, deals with Carrasco's infamy in San Antonio, his immediate rise to power inside the local jail where Carrasco awaited his trial, and his transfer to Huntsville, where he met the chaplain, Father O'Brien, the name that sparked Ferguson's curiosity in the project. It ends with O'Brien making a fateful decision to become a voluntary hostage as Carrasco begins his siege at Texas' oldest prison.

courtesy of Max Baca

From there, the intrigue isn't what happens; it's common knowledge that Carrasco's plot failed and that he was killed inside Huntsville. What Ferguson gets to is the meat of the story. The how and the why, with an intimate look at all the players involved in the rise and fall of one of Mexico and San Antonio's most notorious  and complicated  criminals.

Imperative Podcasts
GRANITE CITY  For the past month the world has watched the Russian invasion of Ukraine with many people wondering, What can I do to help?

Riverbend area residents answered that question over the weekend as they filled a tractor-trailer with humanitarian goods during the Send a Semi to Ukraine on Saturday and Sunday at St. John UCC Church and Cemetery in Granite City.

Vehicles pulled up in a steady stream over the weekend to drop off paper products, bottled water, hygiene products, baby items, toiletries and non-perishable food items  all of which most residents take for granted but are essential supplies for people caught in a war zone.

Laura Simunich of Belleville had filled her SUV with bottled water and other essential supplies.

I am just so moved by what is happening with the Ukrainian people. Everything they have ever worked for is lost, Simunich said. And if theres anything I can do to contribute and ease some of what they are going through, Im just happy to do it.

Simunich said she felt privileged to be able to help fill the semi with supplies for Ukraine.

I feel so blessed by God that I have the ability to do this, and I hope God blesses them also, and especially relieves them of this misery, Simunich said. I hope He helps the Russian people to realize the destruction and disaster they are inflicting on these innocent individuals.

Dozens of volunteers packed the donated items into boxes and loaded them onto the semi trailer. Twelve-year-old Ava Relleke of Granite City donated her time on Saturday to help out.

My grandma asked me to help and I said I would, Relleke said. I feel bad for them and I hope this helps because I want to help them. It makes me feel happy that I get to help them because they are struggling.

The donations gradually filled the trailer donated for the purpose by Underfanger Mayflower Moving Company of Springfield, Illinois. This week that semi trailer will be driven to a well-established international organization in Chicago, which will then transport the items to Ukraine.

The Send a Semi to Ukraine idea came from Cemetery Manager Kathy Montgomery, who had done something similar for U.S. troops during the Gulf War.

Watching TV and seeing those poor Ukrainian women leaving those strollers, the idea just took off from there, Montgomery said. Its amazing how the community has come together and all of the stuff we have had donated. I feel really bad for them, if I could go over there I would in a heartbeat.

Church member Kiki Cochran said as soon as the congregation heard Montgomerys idea, they decided to wholeheartedly embrace it.

We like to do outreach with our church so we decided to see if we could fill one or more semis, Cochran said. Its heartbreaking to watch the news and see the people try to flee from the fighting that is going on over there. We want to do anything we can to help.

Cochran said seeing people drive up with donations makes it real for her.

You think about having to leave your home with nothing, and to have someone from another country send a toothbrush or baby diapers, whatever you can get to put in your backpack to take with you," Cochran said. "Its something we can do. It truly takes a village.

Monetary donations were also accepted over the weekend. Those still wishing to contribute can do so through GoFundMe.com at "Send a Semi to Ukraine." Checks made payable to St. John UCC Cemetery and cash can also be brought to the church at 2901 N. Nameoki Road in Granite City.
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NEW HAVEN  The citys public health director has confirmed her upcoming bid for Secretary of the State after months of unofficial campaigning.

Maritza Bond, a Democrat, officially declared her candidacy Sunday morning on WTNHs Capitol Report segment, adding that she had received statewide support since launching an exploratory campaign last September.

That initial foray raised $30,000 by January, Bonds campaign said.

Im really humbled that people see me as a fresh face and that I have a different vision that brings in the government management executive experience that is absolutely crucial to be in that role, Bond told WTNH on Sunday.

She joins multiple other Democrats vying for the office, vacant after incumbent Democrat Denise Merrill announced in June 2021 that she would be retiring after three terms.

Bond is the first Hispanic health director in the state and, if elected, would be the first Hispanic Secretary of the State. She also is a first-generation college student, according to a campaign press release.

Since announcing my exploratory campaign months ago, it has been made clear to me that I am the underdog, Bond said in the release. Luckily, this is a position I am very comfortable with.

Bond has cited her 22 years of experience in the public health sector as a valuable precursor to the statewide bid. Bond spent four years as the health and social services director for Bridgeport before she became New Havens health director and worked in the lower Naugatuck Valley before that.

She said her campaign will focus on expanding access to voting, including absentee ballots and early voting, as well as making the office more accessible and community-oriented.

Bond graduated from Southern Connecticut State University and the University of Connecticut, holding a masters in public health from the latter.

She could face at least one other New Haven Democrat in the race. Former Democratic chairwoman and city official Jackie James has said she would make a play for the open seat.

Other Democrats who are considering runs include Hamden state Rep. Joshua Elliott, Middletown state Sen. Matt Lesser and Meriden state Rep. Hilda Santiago, New Haven Democratic Town Chairman Vincent Mauro has said.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro affirms a military pact with Russia despite attempts by US President Joe Biden to cajole Venezuela to the side of the allies.

Washington overplayed its influence on other countries to withdraw support from Russian President Vladimir Putin. The major snub only made the US look bad in its attempt to compel other nations.

Maduro Backs Putin

President Maduro of Venezuela gave a 'stronger message' to the US that it will back the Kremlin, as he and Putin confirmed their pact for military cooperation, reported the Express UK.

Desperate for more countries to abandon Russia, the US and its allies were in the country to talk about ceasing sanctions to get support from the Latin American country, cited CBS News.

Maduro said that his administration has decided on strong military cooperation between Venezuela and Russia in a press conference. He added that it was for defending peace, freedom and sustaining territorial stability in the face of challenges.

Venezuela would increase its efforts for preparedness, training, and collaboration with such a world military force as Russia, Maduro added.

Furthermore, Maduro expressed unwavering support for Moscow and spoke of their unity in the face of cancellation from the western alliance.

US Tries To Fix Severed Ties With Venezuela

In a joint news conference with Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov and Venezuela's oil minister Tareck El Aissami, he stressed the importance of economics and trade in the talks last Wednesday.

Read Also: Vladimir Putin Net Worth 2022: Does Anyone Know Russian President's Hidden Wealth?

The west heaped Venezuela with political and economic crises, destabilizing its economy and seeing punishments from the US over the leader's re-election.

The US severed its ties with the country's government in 2019. However, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has sparked speculation over whether the US's goal of separating Moscow from the rest of the world could be achieved on the continent. Just like Putin's sanctions were slapped by the US to hopefully force the leader from power, but it failed.

An embargo on the sale of Venezuelan oil for US trade is placed to starve the Latin American country of profits. This affected would stop about 96 percent of its cash flow recently. The US recently tried to buy oil from it and got criticized severely.

US representatives went to Caracas earlier this month for discussions with the leadership.

The New York Times said some officials say the US president remarked that there are allies of Putin in Latin America; namely, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela would be threats to America.

According to the White House, Caracas put energy security as its concern. But, the US and its allies want the current Venezuelan leader out via fair elections by trying to interfere in the affairs of a sovereign country.

Maduro refused to drop the military pact with Russia, especially since Joe Biden needed oil and gas sources to make his promise to the EU.

Related Article: India Cautions Chinese Foreign Minister To Refrain From Making Remarks Before the Scheduled BRICS Summit in Beijing

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A proposed residential development in Midland has some neighbors concerned about flooding.

Midland's Planning Commission met last week to discuss a proposed development at 6923 Perrine Road, located on the north side of the city. Residents living around the proposed development shared their concerns about the plans during a public hearing.

The residential development was requested by Monument Engineering Group Associates for phase one of Hunters Ridge, a six-unit, single-family development. The goal for the property is a much larger single-family residential development, but only the first six parcels and associated infrastructure is being considered for approval, said Director of Planning & Community Development Grant Murschel.

However, one large piece of information that the city has not received yet is a wetlands review from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy.

Murschel said the applicant indicated they are not aware of wetlands being on the site, but other surrounding properties, including the nearby Boulder Creek neighborhood, had wetlands on certain portions of residential developments.

Based off of the kind of surrounding vegetation, there could be wetlands located on parts of the property, Murschel said. As part of the site plan review process, it is requirement that the applicant consults on external jurisdictions on wetlands or floodplains.

Representative from Monument Engineering, Britney Shea, said the company is currently working on mapping the wetlands to make sure they are not impacted.

Residents of Boulder Creek are concerned by the possibility of flooding. Eckel Lane, President of the Boulder Creek at Midland Co-Owners Association, said based on the site plans for Hunters Ridge, many of the parcels would drain water back to Boulder Creek and not towards nearby Hahn Drain. He added that he is concerned there will not be enough drainage with the way the site plan is currently designed.

Susan Montesi, secretary for the Boulder Creek at Midland Co-Owners Association, also asked if commission is willing to ensure there will not be added flooding in the area.

If you were, as commissioners, to approve this site plan, that means you give the right for it to be built, do you therefore have, and would you go on record as saying, the responsibility to see that we are not affected by water and drainage? Montesi said.

A couple nearby residents also asked the commission to keep in mind the flood of 2017, which resulted in Boulder Creek residents, and other nearby properties, being full of water.

Shea said Monument is taking drainage into account with the design and looking out water will be re-routed through the site properly to the Hahn Drain. This drain could be moved going into the second phase of development, Murschel said.

In terms of drainage, Murschel said it is a balance with the existing developments and the wetlands. Drains that are going across properties, connecting into county drains into other stormwater basins do need to be adequately addressed as part of this design, he said. However, he added that wetlands already make the area prone to a lot of water.

It is important recognize topography, though, Murschel said. This is a very wet area. When we hear concerns about rain events and other things, it is a swamp that has been designed into residential housing. It is important to recognize that it is just a natural part of that area, though what you cannot do, and what city regulations require, (is) that you can't make that worse for surrounding properties.

The commission could take action on the site plan during their next meeting on April 12.
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Pharmacists to diagnose and treat sick, relieving other health care professionals

mattbeck / Matthew Beck / Chronicle photo editor B&W Rexall Drug owner and pharmacist Ken Heiman works with patient Fran Krug Tuesday, March 22, at his Inverness pharmacy. Heiman now incorporates a Test and Treat program where he can evaluate, test and prescribe drugs for common ailments. mattbeck / Matthew Beck / Chronicle photo editor Pharmacist Ken Heiman fills a prescription for a patient Tuesday, March 22, in his Inverness pharmacy. Following a consultation with Fran Krug, Pharmacist Ken Heiman will diagnose her ailment, prescribe medications and fill the order from his B&W Rexall Drug pharmacy in Inverness.

There was nothing unusual this week about Fran Krug picking up antibiotics at her pharmacy. Hundreds do the same every day in Citrus County for various ailments.

But to get per prescription for a urinary tract infection, the 63-year-old Krug didnt have to step foot into her doctors office or schedule a teleconference days before with a nurse or physicians assistant.

Instead, the retired receptionist from Connecticut sat down with her pharmacist, Ken Heimann, in a private examination room in B & W Rexall Drugs, and explained her symptoms.

Heimann, in his white lab coat, performed a routine examination, and diagnosed her and recommended an antibiotic.

Give me five or 10 minutes, he said as he left the exam room about when her prescription would be ready.

A few minutes and few steps later Krug was picking up her prescription and on her way home from the 102 E. Highland Boulevard pharmacy in Inverness.

Krug could have tried to make an appointment with her doctor, but there was nothing to say he could have squeezed her in to see him. And then theres the additional trip to the pharmacy to pick up the medicine she needed.

Its very convenient to come here. This is the way it ought to be, Krug told the Chronicle. Id highly recommend it.

Several states, including Florida, have programs that now allow pharmacists to perform basic diagnoses and write and fill prescriptions. Those diagnoses include illnesses such as urinary tract infections, the flu, COVID-19, and routine lung, and other kinds of infections. Pharmacists can also run laboratory tests if they have the equipment.

Florida requires pharmacists to take one additional 20-hour class to perform the diagnostic service, but nothing more.

Heimann is the only pharmacist in Citrus County who attended the state-run class back in October, and can now diagnose such illnesses.

At least 15 states permit pharmacists to perform point-of-care testing and determine the appropriate treatment.

Heimann said the coronavirus sped up the existing trend that had already taken hold: pharmacists able to diagnose and treat basic illnesses.

On the business side, Heimann said that independent pharmacies often offered unrelated services under the same roof, such as meals by way of diners, ice cream and lunch counters, and even appliance sales that included TVs and refrigerators.

Heimanns pharmacy includes a post office, and mail order prescriptions making up about 3 percent of his business.

Heiman said the pandemic forced the health care systems hand and pushed the pharmacy industry further along its current trajectory.

Chain pharmacies were already moving in the diagnosis direction.

Walgreens and CVS were hiring nurses and physician assistants to diagnose and treat customers. They were also doing COVID-19 testing and administering vaccines.

When the pandemic hit hardest, traditional prescriptions were down and doctors, hospitals and labs were overwhelmed with the sick, not only with COVID-19 patients, but also those with common illnesses such as flu and infections.

The progression of pharmacists to be allowed to diagnose simple problems was the next logical step and helped to take some of the pressure off other sectors of health care, Heimann said.

In addition, pharmacists could also buy small, compact machines to perform basic blood tests in the pharmacy and measure such things as cholesterol, glucose and glycerides.

It was a far cry from when many Rexall drug stores sold soda and ice cream, but Heimann said the new services helped round out the stores and served as early detection and treatment of diseases.

I think they saw the role pharmacists could play, he said. We were no longer in a turf battle with other frontline professionals (when coronavirus cases packed doctors offices and ER departments).

Doctors and hospitals were saying to pharmacists, let me take care of my critically ill patients and you take care of these, Heimann told the Chronicle.

The practice also allowed people without health insurance or a primary care physician to get access to basic medical treatment, he said.

These (pharmacist) skill sets have been underutilized, he said.

People also watched as pharmacists and pharmacy technicians filled the breach getting people vaccinated.

More than 200 million doses have been administered and reported by retail pharmacies, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after the federal government loosened regulatory restrictions during the crisis.

In addition, supporters of pharmacists providing health care pointed out that most doctors dont practice in rural areas.

One US Department of Agriculture study showed that only 10 percent of physicians work in rural settings. Meanwhile, about 70 percent of independent pharmacists already work in rural areas with under 50,000 people, according to a National Community Pharmacists Association 2020 publication.

What hasnt caught up is how to pay for the evaluations.

Health insurance wont pay for the pharmacists work, but will for the medicine.

Regardless, diagnosis by pharmacists is less costly than seeing a doctor and paying cash, he said.

But Heimann thinks its just a matter of time before health insurance companies get onboard and pay the bill because they will see its cheaper.

Meanwhile, Krug said shes happy with the friendly care she gets from Heimann and his staff.

You can bet Ill keep coming here, she said. Its the solution, really for everybody.
Florida, US (34429)

Today

Sunshine and clouds mixed. High near 90F. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy with occasional showers late at night. Low 71F. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
House GOP Representative Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) clarified that until the 2022 Midterm Election results, the next moves of former President Donald Trump and the Republican party would be determined. If the outcome is favorable, expect a third bid for the presidency by the ex-President will materialize.

President Joe Biden has allegedly sunk the US via lousy governance, including his VP Kamala Harris' blunders, and the Democrats are getting kicked around in the polls.

Trump Hints Run Depending on Midterm Results

McCarthy is keeping mum and not answering speculation about where the former president will go for it in the 2024 elections.

He spoke to The Washington Times that Trump has helped push the party's campaign in many aspects and will be part of policy formation.

The Biden administration has made everything problematic at home and abroad, which made undecided voters go for the Republicans. It will be a bloodbath because Joe Biden has alienated even Democrat voters.

Mentions that Trump and his influence no matter what happens in midterms will be decided if a third time gets a victory over any Dems opponent in 2024, noted CNN.

Many have asked if Trump would run again, but he will not commit until the conditions are favorable. Dems and the liberal media see him as a threat over gaffe-prone Joe Biden, not knowing whether a new bid for retaking the White House is torture for them.

McCarthy said during the House Republican Conference in Florida, where Trump did not attend, the 2022 Midterm Election will make or break the party, which the top Republican in the House was addressing.

Read Also: Joe Biden Net Worth 2022: How Wealthy Is the 46th President of the United States?

The loss of Trump in 2020 was controversial, but even his closest allies are not sure of the answer. Still, he has dropped hints of a possible run in 2024. Soon after the House Republican Conference in Florida, inquiries followed immediately when the remarks were made.

McCarthy told the Washington Times that he regularly speaks with Trump and that the former president plans on meeting with Republicans, including members of Congress, at a fundraiser in Dallas, Texas, in April, reported the Epoch Times.

Trump's Role To Boost the Republicans

Contrary to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), McCarthy seemed to have continued good relations with Trump after his presidency, including meeting with him at his Palm Beach resort at Mar-a-Lago.

Many Republicans like McCarthy have only good things to say how from 2016 to 2020, a lot was done, and it is giving dividends as the Dem are tearing each other apart over the problematic Biden administration.

A testimonial from Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.) tells that emission was lower, and energy was very secure during the time of Trump until Joe Biden unraveled it.

According to Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.), operation Warp Speed, which started during the Trump administration, was essential in producing the much-needed vaccines and therapies for COVID-19.

Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.) remarked that Biden made the border crisis terrible because he wanted to undo Trump's work.

McCarthy indicates it's the 2022 midterm election which will see what Trump will be up to, but he admitted the boost is everything for the party.

Related Article: Sen. McCarthy Says Trump Wants Him to Be House Speaker

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Florida, US (34429)

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Intervals of clouds and sunshine. A stray afternoon thunderstorm is possible. High near 90F. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph..

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Considerable cloudiness. Occasional rain showers later at night. Low 72F. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
After the pandemic slowed IRCC operations, spousal sponsorship is back to service standard, government says.

IRCC back to 12-month processing for spousal sponsorship applications After the pandemic slowed IRCC operations, spousal sponsorship is back to service standard, government says.

IRCC back to 12-month processing for spousal sponsorship applications After the pandemic slowed IRCC operations, spousal sponsorship is back to service standard, government says.

IRCC back to 12-month processing for spousal sponsorship applications After the pandemic slowed IRCC operations, spousal sponsorship is back to service standard, government says. Shelby Thevenot Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

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In January 2022, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser announced that Canadas spousal sponsorship has returned to its 12-month processing standard for new applicants.

According to a government media release, efforts to modernize the Canadian immigration system have allowed Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to get back on track. IRCC also launched a portal where spousal and child sponsorship applicants can track their immigration applications online.

The service standard of 12 months is the same whether spouses are applying as inland or outland applicants. In both cases, the processing time includes the time required for applicants to give biometrics, for IRCC to assess the sponsor and the person being sponsored, as well as the time needed to ensure applicants meet eligibility requirements.

Sponsor your partner for Canadian immigration

Eligibility for spousal sponsorship

Canadians may be eligible to sponsor if they:

are at least 18 years old;

are a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, or they are an Indigenous person registered under the Canadian Indian Act;

demonstrate they are not receiving social assistance unless they have a disability; and

can provide for the financial needs of the sponsored person.

Eligibility to be sponsored

The person being sponsored needs to meet the following eligibility criteria:

Spouse: They must have been legally married to the sponsor at an in-person ceremony.

They must have been legally married to the sponsor at an in-person ceremony. Common-law partner: They must have lived with the sponsor for at least 12 straight months.

They must have lived with the sponsor for at least 12 straight months. Conjugal partner: They must have been in a relationship with the sponsor for at least one year, live outside of Canada, and cannot live with the sponsor in their country or marry them due to significant legal or immigration causes. For example, they live in a country where same-sex marriage or divorce is not allowed. Sponsors need to prove to IRCC they could not live together or get married in their partners country.

Foreign nationals must be at least 18 years old to be sponsored for immigration under all of these categories.

Also, foreign nationals must pass a health, security, and criminality screening and therefore be considered admissible to Canada.

How to apply

There are two types of sponsorship processes: inland and outland sponsorship. The key difference is that couples applying for sponsorship from within Canada are considered inland, while those whose foreign national spouse is abroad will be filed under outland.

To be eligible for inland sponsorship, the foreign spouse or common-law partner must also have valid temporary status in Canada, either as a worker, student, or visitor. During the inland sponsorship application process, the sponsored person will be able to continue to live, work or study in Canada. While pursuing inland sponsorship, the sponsored spouse may be able to get a Spousal Open Work Permit, which would allow them to work while they are waiting on the results of their application.

It is generally expected that inland sponsorship applicants will remain in Canada while their application is being processed. If the spouse or common-law partner does not plan to stay in Canada or needs to be able to travel outside the country while the application is being processed, outland sponsorship may be a better option.

Outland sponsorship is for foreign spouses who are not legally living in Canada at the time of the application. Applicants residing in Canada may also opt for outland sponsorship as it allows for travel to and from Canada while the application process is underway. It may be the best option for those whose work or personal situation requires them to leave the country.

Canadian permanent residents can sponsor their spouse as an outland applicant only if they are living in Canada, whereas Canadian citizens can sponsor their spouse as an outland applicant from abroad. If they do this though, they will have to demonstrate that they will return to Canada with their spouse if the application is approved.

In addition to married and common-law partners, is also possible to sponsor conjugal partners through outland sponsorship. Conjugal partners are couples who have been in an ongoing and committed relationship for a period of at least 12 months but, due to significant legal constraints or other factors beyond their control, they cannot live together.

Steps to submit a sponsorship application

Applicants will submit two applications together. One is for sponsorship and the other is a permanent residence application.

Step 1: Get an application package from IRCC.

Step 2: Pay the application fees to IRCC, which include processing fees, a right of permanent residence fee, and a biometrics fee. These fees need to be paid on IRCCs website.

Step 3: Mail the completed application to IRCC.

IRCCs processing standard is 12 months.

Sponsor your partner for Canadian immigration

 CIC News All Rights Reserved. Visit CanadaVisa.com to discover your Canadian immigration options.
After 58 years they finally have an answer.

It was a local man they didn't know who took their 9-year-old sister's life and changed their family forever.

But they never sought revenge, only justice.
United States President Joe Biden declared that Russian President Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power," at his address in the final stop of his European trip.

"For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power," Biden announced at his address delivered at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland.

Though, the White House said that Biden's message does not mean a call for a change of leadership in Russia.

One White House official clarified that the US President's point "was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region."

The official pointed out that the line "cannot remain in power" was not included in the prepared message, CNN reported.

Earlier, White House officials remarked that the US is not aiming to remove Putin from office.

US Secretary of State Antony Binken earlier mentioned that "regime change" is not included in Washington's agenda.

"The Russian people have to decide who they want to lead them," Blinken said.

Russia Questions Biden's Mental State

In its response to Biden's latest blast on Putin, the Kremlin said that Russia's leadership "is not to be decided by Mr. Biden.

"It should only be by a choice of the people of the Russian Federation," said Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesperson.

Russian officials also questioned Biden's mental state.

Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russia's space agency Roscosmos, mockingly suggested on social media that the White House's medical staff provided clarifications on Biden's statements.

Rogozin has already slammed the US for imposing "Alzheimer's sanctions" on Russia over the Ukrainian conflict, which Moscow describes as a "special military operation" intended at disarming Ukraine.

Moreover, the Kremlin said that Biden's comments were prompted by exhaustion, forgetfulness, and annoyance.

Russian officials accused Biden of making "personal insults" to Putin after he referred to the Russian head of state as a "war criminal" and a "murderous dictator."

Read Also: Maduro Enters Military Pact With Russia, Disregards Biden's Desperate Attempt To Isolate Moscow

Russian Attacks Continues

Russia on Sunday has attacked Ukrainian fuel and food storage depot, according to Ukrainian interior ministry adviser Vadym Denysenko, according to a report from Al Jazeera

While President Joe Biden was in Poland on Saturday, Russian rockets pounded the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, which is viewed by observers as Moscow's message that its forces are willing to strike anyplace in Ukraine, despite its claim to be focused its offensive on the country's east.

The two airstrikes rattled the city that served as a haven for an estimated 200,000 people who have been forced to evacuate their homes.Since the assault began, Lviv had been largely spared from Russian attacks, however, rockets struck an airplane repair factory near the main airport a week ago per The Associated Press.

Before the invasion, the city had a population of around 700,000 people. Residents who no longer feel safe flee to the neighboring country of Poland, where they were met by US President Biden on Saturday to show support,.

Lviv has also become a humanitarian staging ground for Ukraine, and the strikes could make the already difficult task of delivering aid to the rest of the nation even more challenging.

Related Article: US Sends Strong Message to China, Russia Amid North Korea Missile Test: Stop DPRK From "Additional Provocations"

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...OZONE HIGH POLLUTION ADVISORY FOR MARICOPA COUNTY INCLUDING THE PHOENIX METRO AREA FRIDAY... The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) has issued an Ozone High Pollution Advisory for the Phoenix Metro Area on Friday. This means that forecast weather conditions combined with existing ozone levels are expected to result in local maximum 8-hour ozone concentrations that pose a health risk. Adverse health effects increase as air quality deteriorates. Ozone is an air contaminant which can cause breathing difficulties for children, older adults, as well as persons with respiratory problems. A decrease in physical activity is recommended. You are urged to car pool, telecommute or use mass transit. The use of gasoline-powered equipment should be reduced or done late in the day. For details on this High Pollution Advisory, visit the ADEQ internet site at www.azdeq.gov/forecast/phoenix or call 602-771-2300.
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
Beachwood, OH (44122)

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A SIM swap can cause a lot of problems and headaches for victims so it is very important to keep yourself safe from it at all costs.

There are a couple of steps you can take to keep your and your phone number secure at all times.

SIM Swap Scam: What is It?

SIM swap, also known as SIM swapping, is defined by Mozilla as "a form of identity theft where a criminal steals your mobile phone number by assigning it to a new SIM card." The new SIM is then used in a different device in order to access your apps and accounts.

A part of you may be wondering if this is at all even possible. Yes, it is and the process of SIM swapping starts when the person impersonating you makes a phone call to your mobile carrier. According to Mozilla, "They will claim that they have a new SIM card to activate for your account."

Once your mobile carrier is made to believe that it is you making the request, your phone number can get reassigned to the SIM card that your impersonator owns. From there, the impersonator now has access to your accounts, apps, and other things that need your phone number.

Signs That You Have Become a SIM Swap Victim

All the warning signs that you have become a SIM swap victim can be seen in your device, especially when it starts to function oddly.

According to Mozilla, one sign that you may have become a SIM swap victim is if you get emails about changes made to accounts you own. Sending text messages and making phone calls may not even be possible if you have been SIM swapped.

Unfortunately, it can get worse. Your social media accounts and even bank accounts may get hacked as a result of a SIM swap.

Related Article: FBI Warns About 'SIM Swapping' That Steals Millions From Victims: Warning Signs, 5 Ways to Avoid Scam

How to Protect Yourself From SIM Swapping

There a couple of ways you can protect yourself from falling victim to SIM swapping and identity theft.

According to a post by McAfee, it can be helpful to use a password manager to keep your device secure instead of allowing your web browser to store all your passwords.

Per the McAfee post, "A secure password manager makes it so you only have to remember one password." What happens to your other passwords then? They are actually encrypted and kept safe by a two-factor authentication.

McAfee recommends that you keep your guard up against phishing attempts, which are defined as "a method cyber criminals use to fish for sensitive personal information that they can use to impersonate you or gain access to your financial accounts."

These phishing methods come in the form of text messages, emails, and even phone calls that will try to trick you into sharing your personal information,

Mozilla also recommends setting your social media profiles to private so that it will be harder for thieves to try to steal your personal information off of your accounts.

Read Also: T-Mobile Data Breach: Company Confirms SIM Swapping Attack Affected Some Consumers
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 27)  Candidates running for senator in the May polls said looking out for workers' health would help in the country's economic recovery.

Speaking at CNN Philippines' Senatorial Forum on Sunday, lawyer Agnes Bailen, educator and entrepreneur Carl Balita, and environmentalist Roy Cabongero stressed the importance of a persons health, saying it is essential for the country to recover from the effects of the pandemic.

RELATED: Trade chief: Work-from-home 'not encouraged' under Alert Level 1

Cabonegro suggested slowly easing workers back into the office setup, adding that they would need to get used to it again. He also said some jobs should retain their work-from-home setting.

"Sa tingin ko'y dapat maraming trabaho na gawin sa bahay lamang dahil nakakatulong sa kalikasan," he said.

"At huwag po natin madaliin yung mga manggagawa, dahil lahat po tayo na-trauma. Lahat po tayo ay nangangailangan ng panahon para mag-adjust. Kaya napakahalaga na huwag natin ito ipilit kaagad sa kanila."

[Translation: I think there should be more purely home-based jobs because it will help the environment. And let's be patient with workers regarding their return to the office because we all experienced trauma. We all need time to adjust.]

Cabonegro also said such environment-friendly arrangements would be possible if only businessmen and capitalists were only willing to compromise.

Bailen also said workers' health should be the top consideration in revving up the ailing economy.

"Para sa akin ang importante ang health ng workers. Sa aking plataporma sinabi ko na kailangan malulusog na mga mamamayan, para malusog na ekonomiya," she said.

[Translation: The health of workers is important to me. In my platform, I said that a healthy population will result in a healthy economy.]

RELATED: DOF chief asks BPOs: WFH setup or tax incentives?

Bailen, a former Budget department undersecretary, urged company officials to empathize with their workers, who have to endure public transport woes to get to work.

"Dapat pakinggan natin sila. Hindi yung nadun lang kayo sa boardroom ninyo at doon kayo nagde-decide. Siguro, ang maganda bago kayo mag-decide, mag-antay kayo ng jeepney, mag-antay kayo ng bus para malaman niyo kung ano pa yung pinapagawa niyo sa mga workers, kasi hindi madali, Bailen said.

[Translation: We must listen to them and not just make decisions while sitting in boardrooms. Before you decide, maybe you should go out and wait for a ride in jeepneys, or wait for a bus so you'll realize what you are making workers go through because it's not easy.]

RELATED: BPO workers consider quitting rather than returning on-site

Balita also said he was batting for workers' health -- physical as well as mental.

"I'll go for health. At saka hindi dapat itapon yung gains and learnings of the work from home set up during the pandemic," he said.

"At huwag nating kakalimutan na when we talk about health, we're not just talking of COVID here. We're talking of a big issue of mental health here. Any abrupt change, any major psychosocial shift will entail issues of mental health."

[Translation: I'll go for health. And let's not throw away all the gains and learnings from the work from home setup during the pandemic. Let's not also forget that when we talk about health, we're not just talking of COVID here. We're talking of a big issue of mental health here. Any abrupt change, any major psychosocial shift will entail issues of mental health.]

Balita said any decision regarding workers' health must be based on science.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 27)  National Unity Party (NUP) president and Cavite fourth district Rep. Elpidio Barzaga has thrown his support for the presidential bid of Vice President Leni Robredo.

Barzaga, who is running for reelection in this years polls, said Robredo is the most qualified person to assume the countrys top post after analyzing all the qualifications and experience of the current roster of presidential contenders.

As vice president, although she was not a Cabinet secretary, she showed to us citizens that the vice president, unlike the connotation which others believe, is (not) merely a spare tire. With a limited budget, she was able to undergo small projects from the neglected parts of our country, Barzaga said during a local proclamation rally on Saturday.

The veteran lawmaker also noted Robredos vast experience in public service before becoming the countrys second highest official  from working as a lawyer for marginalized communities to being a district representative in Camarines Sur.

His wife Dasmarinas City Mayor Jenny Barzaga also endorsed Robredo for president.

Barzagas support for Robredo runs counter from his partys earlier endorsement of her rival Bongbong Marcos' candidacy.

RELATED: National Unity Party endorses Marcos presidential bid

Incumbent Cavite representative and Imus mayoral candidate Alex Advincula announced he is also backing Robredos presidential bid in a separate campaign rally on Saturday.

The endorsement of the Barzaga couple and Advincula is expected to boost Robredos winning chances in Cavite, the second vote-rich province in the country with over 2.3 million registered voters, according to Commission on Elections data.

Cavite governor Jonvic Remulla, meanwhile, has endorsed Marcos as his presidential bet.

Other NUP members in Misamis Oriental announced their support for Robredo's presidential bid.

Misamis Oriental second district Rep. Juliette Uy, who is gunning for the province's gubernatorial post, led the local NUP members who endorsed Robredo.

We look at the credibility of the candidates, and Robredo is committed, virtuous and principled, Uy said in a press conference on Sunday.

Uy was joined by vice gubernatorial bet Joey Pelaez, first district congressional bet Karen Lagbas, second district congressional candidate Julio Uy, and the 24 mayors under the two districts in declaring their support for Robredo.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 27)  Three senatorial bets who took part in the CNN Philippines Senatorial Forum on Sunday said they would prefer a constitutional convention (con-con) in case the countrys form of government needs to be amended.

Con-con, one of the three means in amending the countrys charter according to the 1987 Constitution, entails the election of convention delegates, who will convene to tackle the proposed constitutional provision.

Partido Lakas ng Masa senatorial candidate Roy Cabonegro noted con-con is a more direct way of consulting citizens about critical amendments to the Constitution, but it should backed with numerous public consultations.

Dagdagan pa ng mga mekanismo, hindi lang yung con-con ang nagko-complement sa kanya. Maraming public consultations (dapat) para talagang maunawaan ng tao kung ano ang ibig sabihin at nakataya sa charter change na kailangan para ayusin natin ang hitsura ng ating pamamahala at gobyerno para mas maging epektibo, said Cabonegro.

[Translation: We should add more mechanisms, where the con-con will not just complement itself. There should be many public consultations so that the people will really understand what it means and what are at stake in the needed charter change that will fix the form of leadership and government to make it more effective.]

Former Budget undersecretary Agnes Bailen said elected con-con members will be focused in solving a particular constitutional issue, which she said is an advantage because they can comprehensively tackle such amendments.

Let con-con do the federalism matter and then let the legislators elected on May 9 handle the most pressing issues, Bailen said.

Like Cabonegro, Aksyon Demokratiko senatorial bet Carl Balita said a con-con is a more inclusive way to find out the will of the people.

Balita added that benchmarking is important to really know what kind of system of government should be adopted in the country. He cited federalism as an effective form of government as practiced in many countries.

Maraming tagumpay na istorya na ng federalism sa mundo. Pero hindi tayo kokopya dito, dahil ang pederalismo ay ididikta ito hindi lang ng history kung hindi ang ating pangangailangan, said Balita, who also elaborated the nature of federalism of having a shared rule and self-rule in its governance style.

[Translation: There are many successful stories of federalism in the world. But we will not copy them, since federalism is dictated not only by history but more importantly by our needs.]

Balita also said a constituent assembly or con-ass is not the proper method to amend the Constitution. In a con-ass, only members of the House of Representatives and the Senate will discuss and decide on the proposed constitutional amendment.

The other method of amending the Constitution is through a peoples initiative, where citizens can directly propose a petition signed by at least 12% of the total number of registered national voters. Every legislative district must be represented by at least 3% of the total registered voters for a peoples initiative to be successful.

During the 2016 election campaign, President Rodrigo Duterte promised to change the countrys form of government to a federal system. In the middle of his term, Duterte admitted he had given up pushing for federalism because he felt Filipinos were not yet ready for it.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 27)  Three senatorial candidates said they are in favor of resuming peace negotiations with communist rebels.

Former Budget undersecretary Agnes Bailen said there is always room for peace and that this is possible more so because a new administration would be coming in.

If there is a new administration, there is goodwill. May trust because bago yung makikipag-usap [There is trust because a fresh set of people would be negotiating], said Bailen on CNN Philippines senatorial forum on Sunday.

Bailen also mentioned that the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) is trying to reform the rebels. She failed to mention that the agency is notorious for red-tagging individuals.

Nurse and entrepreneur Carl Balita also said peace talks should resume, adding that the government should learn to understand the plight of those involved in the armed struggle.

Sino ba namang ama ang gusto umakyat sa bundok at ma-label na terorista at makibaka kung kaya pakainin ang pamilya? said Balita. Bakit naman natin isasara ang pintuan ng pamahalaan na ang dapat trabaho ay intindihin ang kanyang mga mamamayan at yakapin ang kanyang desisyon?

[Translation: What kind of father would choose to fight in the mountains and be labelled a terrorist if he could feed his own family? Why would we close the doors of the government whose job is to understand its people and embrace their decisions?]

Environmentalist Roy Cabonegro agrees that peace talks should resume but adds that armed groups, whether from the rebels or the state, should stay away from ancestral lands of indigenous peoples.

Alis po tayo lahat diyan, said Cabonegro. Ito po ay hindi nila giyera huwag natin sila idamay sa gulo na ito.

[Translation: Lets all get out of there. This is not their war so lets not get them involved in the conflict.]

He also proposed auditing the budget of NTF-ELCAC to see where and how its funds were used.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 27)  Three senatorial candidates pitched ways to improve the countrys education sector during the latest round of the CNN Philippines senatorial forum on Sunday.

Among them was Carl Balita, a teacher and nurse, who said his priority legislative agenda would include the revival of the Congressional Committee on Education, or EdCom.

The commission, first created in 1990 during the presidency of Corazon Aquino, assesses the state of education in the country to come up with proposed reforms. Balita said its re-establishment is necessary for a number of reasons, including the need for several changes in learning systems in the post-pandemic times.

He added that the government should ensure that teachers are given reasonable workloads and proper compensation.

For environmental leader Roy Cabonegro, what is more important is a practical approach to learning. For one, he said the current climate and environmental problems are good reasons for students to shift away from mere theoretical education.

Ang mungkahi ko po diyan para tumaas talaga ang antas natin sa [My proposal to improve students performance in] math and science, allow them to go to the communities, understand the problem, document it, find an innovative solution, act on it. Doon natin bilangin ang effectiveness ng ating [Thats how we should assess the effectiveness of our] educational system, he said.

Both he and former Budget undersecretary Agnes Bailen also said administrative tasks for teachers should be reduced, so more time may be allotted to actually educating students.

Nung tinanong ko po sila, ang mga teachers natin sinasabi lahat ng oras nila puro na lang submissions, nire-require ng DepEd (Department of Education), nire-require ng CHED (Commission on Higher Education). So, bigyan po natin sila ng pagkakataong maging teacher, said Bailen, a lawyer and educator.

[Translation: When I asked our teachers, they said their time is largely spent making submissions required by the DepEd and CHED. So, let's give them a chance to be teachers.]

Bailen also said the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act should be properly implemented. She added that if funding is a problem, the government must still find ways, such as borrowing money, to guarantee that free tuition is institutionalized in state and local universities and colleges, as provided by law.




Lin-Manuel Miranda, one of this year's most prominent Oscar nominees, will sit out the ceremony after his wife tested positive for COVID-19.







Miranda shared the unfortunate news on Twitter, Saturday afternoon. He said that even though he has tested negative himself, he will stay away from Sunday's ceremony out of caution.







"Made it to Hollywood," Miranda wrote. "This weekend, my wife tested + (positive) for COVID. She's doing fine. Kids I have tested - (negative) but out of caution, I won't be going to the Oscars tomorrow night."







The Oscar-nominated composer added he was "cheering for my TickTickBoom Encanto families w my own family, alongside all of you, ALL of you."







Miranda is up for an Oscar for best original song for "Dos Oruguitas" from the animated film "Encanto." Should he win, he would attain rare EGOT status, meaning he'd be an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony winner.







The "Hamilton" creator also will be missing the first live performance of his hugely popular song "We Don't Talk About Bruno," also from "Encanto," a film about a Colombian clan with magical powers. The addictive tune became the highest-charting song from a Disney animated film in more than 26 years.







The multi-talented Miranda also directed "tick, tick ... Boom.!" which is nominated for two Oscars, including star Andrew Garfield for best actor. (AP)


(CNN)  I recently asked my third grade son about crushes in his class. After two years of having limited interaction with human beings, I had to turn to him -- the only person in our house who regularly socializes, albeit with his fellow 8- and 9-year-olds -- for a gossip fix.

He told me about a few crushes, including his own, and he also made it clear that there were some he couldn't tell me about because he had been sworn to secrecy. I respected his secrets and didn't push any harder.

Despite the fact that he seemed happy and at ease throughout our conversation, I wondered if I was asking too many questions or failing to respect boundaries. Was I transgressing the sacred, private space of childhood crushes?

The experts say no -- good news to all curious grown-ups out there. Crushes are important, long-ignored milestones in the relational life of preadolescent children that parents and caregivers should be respectfully discussing and unpacking with them.

These puppy love infatuations help children explore romantic feelings before they are ready for romantic relationships. Through them, they learn to cope with some of the more challenging parts of desiring another.

Why kids have crushes

A crush is in its own category of relationships, separate from friendship or dating. Sometimes crushes are for people we know, and other times they are for fictional characters. Often, even if we know the object of our desire, the crush makes us idealize them, and it's often the idealized version of that person we can't get out of our head, rather than the living, breathing, flawed being.

The experience of having a crush can begin as early as preschool, and crushes can continue to occur throughout one's life. Usually crushes are one-way, though sometimes they are reciprocated. In any form, crushes are common among prepubescent kids and satisfy important needs.

"These kids have emerging romantic ideas and emerging romantic feelings but are not actually ready to translate them into romantic behaviors or relationships," said Julie Bowker, associate professor of psychology at the University at Buffalo in New York, adding that crushes generally aren't sexual or about dating in elementary school.

Emerging, however, doesn't mean lacking in power. The feelings are real, and kids can use their parents' help in understanding them and learning what to do with them. It begins with parents taking these feelings seriously.

"There is a very strong emotional component there, and for some kids it is hard to know what to do with those strong emotions," said Catherine Bagwell, professor of psychology at Oxford College of Emory University in Georgia.

How to talk about crushes

Kids might talk about crushes all day with their friends and still barely understand them. Here is where parents come in, even if we never learn all the juicy details of who has a crush on whom. Parents are there to provide context and make sure kids know whatever they are feeling has likely been felt before, said Amy Lang, a parenting and sexuality educator and host of "Just Say This," a podcast on healthy sexuality.

When talking about crushes with kids, ask them why they like whom they like, what kind of things they might like to do with their crushes and whether they might consider inviting them over. Also talk about what happens if both people don't feel the same way.

How do we treat the person who "likes, likes" us, who we don't "like, like" back? How do we handle it when the person we "like, like" doesn't like us back? Even in the case of top-secret, unrequited love, this line of questioning can help them connect the dots between being thoughtful, respectful and curious and being in a romantic relationship with someone. "Establish the fact that friendship is part of romantic relationships," Lang said.

Talking to kids about crushes helps normalize them, reducing the shame they might be feeling on the playground. In an attempt to normalize them, however, parents should be careful not to make crushes into something they are not.

"Sometimes adults like to quasi-sexualize the kids and say things like: 'Oh, you are so cute! You are going to get married.' In my universe, all that kind of language is not OK," Lang said, explaining that such talk is not where children are developmentally and makes the relationships bigger than they are. Going there creates a set of expectations that kids can't entirely understand or meet.

At the same time, parents should be careful not to play the crushes down.

"They are important to them, and they matter," Bagwell said. Discounting them, or not taking them seriously can be potentially harmful to kids and might make them less eager to share their feelings. When parents take their kids' feelings seriously, they teach their children to take their feelings seriously -- which is the first step to learning how to process one's feelings.

If the mere mention of crushes renders your child silent, have the conversation anyway. Lang recommends asking broad questions about crushes at school, whether they are happening rather than who has a crush on whom. If that fails, parents can offer up their stories of having crushes as children, what they remember and how it felt.

"This tells your kiddo that you know about this, and it is OK to talk about it," she said. It may feel awkward or like overstepping, but Lang said to move past that. "It is your job to help your kid have healthy relationships."

Lang added, "My child to this day won't tell me who he has a crush on, so I just talk about crushing in general and build on it. It is not their job to tell us anything or to ask questions. We have to tell them."

One piece of information that I wish my parents told me when I had early crushes is that most crushes do not result in relationships. I wasn't a romantic failure after all. Fewer than 20% of middle school children have reciprocal romantic relationships, Bowker said, and 20% of high school kids graduate without having a serious, lasting relationship. Elementary-age kids might benefit from knowing that most aren't ready for a relationship until ages 10 to 14. Until then, and even after, there is nothing wrong or weird about having unreciprocated crushes.

What are red flags?

While crushes are a bit obsessive by nature, they can go too far.

Help kids understand that some behaviors might make the object of their affections feel uneasy, Bowker suggested. There is a respectful way to admire another person, and a boundary-crossing one, and it's important to explain the difference. "There were two boys at my daughter's school who had a crush on her and were watching her all the time, and this made her uncomfortable," she said.

If your child is in a similar situation, she recommended that parents talk to them about "consent, respect and boundaries." Unwanted attention can easily cross lines, and children need their parents' help in figuring out what those lines are and how to express them to others and advocate for themselves. She said parents should resist normalizing any behaviors just because they were common when they were kids -- no more "boys will be boys" to hair pulling and other such expressions of affection -- and listen to what feels right for their child.

As children get older, Bagwell said to keep an eye on whether their crush is keeping them from doing other things they should be doing. If that's the case, the crush may have gone too far.

The beginning of healthy relationships

Crushes and parent-child conversations about crushes can be the building blocks of healthy romantic relationships going forward. Children have a chance to work through boundaries and rejection, hopefully developing empathy along the way.

"Looking at the big picture, these smell like relationships and have the components of relationships," Lang said, giving the kids the building blocks of learning how to deal with, and talk about, relationships for the long run.

"Talk about something as normal and common as crushes, and you have made the space for so many more conversations that may be more important in the long run," Lang said. These can include questions about gender, sexuality and sexual relationships.

Just like crushes are rehearsals for romantic relationships for my children, I now understand that talking about crushes is a rehearsal for future conversations about romantic relationships.

As they learn how to connect romantically, I hope to learn a few things as well. I want to be able to make space for their vulnerability and feelings while respecting their privacy, to offer unsolicited advice that needs to be said even when met by silence, and to try to make sure through the rocky ups and downs of early love they know they are neither weird nor alone.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Why your kid's crush should be taken seriously"
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 27)  The Santisima Trinidad Parish in Malate reveals its full glory to churchgoers for the first time after completing the nearly two-year renovation.

Hundreds of members of the faithful on Saturday joined the eucharistic celebration held a day after the churchs 28th anniversary.

Santisima Trinidad Parish Priest Fr. Jojo Buenafe is grateful to see efforts to improve the church come to fruition, after withstanding the test of time and many challenges.

It means a lot. Because this church is a symbol of Gods presence among us. Very memorable and meaningful itong event na ito (This event is very memorable and meaningful) because it is a way of glorifying our God and thanking him. This church is a fruit of unity of our parishioners, he said.

Manila Archbishop Jose Cardinal Advincula presided over the rite of dedication of the church and the consecration of the altar on Saturday afternoon.

In the rite of dedication, the bishop dedicates the church to God or establishes the church as a place of worship. During the solemn rites, there is a blessing of the space with holy water, followed by the incensing and the anointing of the altar and walls of the church with holy chrism oil. It continues with the adornment of the altar with cloth and the lighting of the altar.

Cardinal Advincula likened the rites to baptism, wherein the faithful are welcomed to the church and begin service to the Lord. He reminded the faithful that the beauty of the church should also be reflected in the actions of its people.

Sa parokyang ito wala sanang makakaramdam katulad ni Zaqueo na mag-isa lang siya sa buhay. Sa simbahan, bukas ang mga pintuan at puso natin upang yakapin at tanggapin ang lahat, he said during his homily.

[Translation: I hope that no one in this parish feels lonely in life just like Zacchaeus. In church, our doors and hearts are open to embrace and welcome everyone.]

Over the years, the parish has faced several challenges, including land dispute, renovation funding issues and most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic. Fr. Buenafe said all the struggles helped them remember the importance of keeping faith in the Lord.

This is something beautiful because even in the midst of pandemic, even in the midst of crisis, you see here really that the people did not forget about God. All the more they cling to God, he said.

The structure, first built in 1935, was a church of the Iglesia Independendista de la Santisima Trinidad, a breakaway sect of the Aglipayan Church. The late Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin established it as a Catholic church on March 25, 1994.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 27)  Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda has requested the national COVID-19 inter-agency task force to de-escalate the alert level status in the province to Alert Level 1.

In a letter addressed to task force chairman Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Sunday, Salceda said he believes the reclassification is in order, considering the improvements in the COVID-19 situation in Albay.

Albay has (1) very low healthcare utilization rates as documented by the personnel of the Bicol Regional Training and Teaching Hospital and (2) has very low COVID-19 case counts, the lawmaker wrote.

You have areas like Naga City where the alert level is now at Level 1. We are not much worse in terms of capacity and utilization, he said, adding that the alert level should be proportional to the areas capacity to treat its COVID-19 patients.

Latest data from the Department of Health website show Albays active COVID-19 cases were down to 177 as of March 26. Available DOH figures on healthcare utilization rates, however, were not updated.

CNN Philippines has requested for Duques response regarding the appeal.

The IATF has yet to announce the new alert level classifications nationwide for the month of April.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 27)  President Rodrigo Duterte is wishing for a clean, fair and honest election for his 77th birthday, which he will celebrate on Monday in Davao City, acting presidential spokesperson Martin Andanar said on Sunday.

Duterte will mark the occasion with a simple and quiet celebration in his hometown, in line with his familys tradition, Andanar said.

His birthday wish for this year is to have a clean, fair, and honest election in May 2022, as he has time and again underscored the importance of a peaceful transfer of power as part of his enduring legacy, he added.

Duterte previously said his administration would remain "neutral" during the campaign season.

Early this month, the PDP-Laban faction headed by Energy Secretary Cusi said Duterte would be taking a more proactive role to promote the ruling partys candidates beginning late March.

The faction has endorsed the presidential bid of former senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. Cusi clarified that the endorsement doesn't mean that Duterte is supporting Marcos as Duterte has not yet named his preferred successor.

Last year, Duterte endorsed Senator Bong Go, but the lawmaker withdrew from the presidential race.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 27)  The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Sunday reported a close distance maneuvering of a Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) vessel in Bajo de Masinloc and condemned it as a violation of regulations for preventing collisions.

In a statement, the PCG said the incident happened while BRP Malabrigo was patrolling on March 2.

"Coast Guard personnel have monitored a CCG vessel with bow number 3305 that conducted a close distance maneuvering of approximately 21 yards towards BRP Malabrigo (MRRV-4402) while the said PCG vessel was sailing at the vicinity waters off Bajo de Masinloc," the PCG added.

The PCG also noted that the incident resulted in limiting the maneuvering space of BRP Malabrigo, which was "a clear violation of the 1972 International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea."

When the media asked the PCG why it only released the report three weeks after the incident, the agency explained that they only received the go signal for the release on Sunday.

PCG Commandant Artemio Abu said that March 2 incident was the fourth time the PCG vessels had a close encounter with the CCG ships in disputed waters. One incident happened in May 2021 and two incidents happened in June last year.

RELATED: China vows no bullying, to work with PH to 'properly resolve' South China Sea issue

"The behavior of the involved CCG vessels increased the risk of collision with four of our capital ships. Hence, we immediately coordinated with the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea and the Department of Foreign Affairs to address this issue through rules-based and peaceful approaches," Abu said.

Abu added these "dangerous situations" will not stop the deployment of assets and personnel to Bajo de Masinloc and other parts of the exclusive economic zones of the Philippines.
(CNN)  President Joe Biden declared forcefully Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin should no longer remain in power, an unabashed challenge that came at the very end of a swing through Europe meant to reinforce Western unity.

"For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power," Biden announced at the conclusion of a capstone address delivered in the cold outside the Royal Castle in Warsaw.

The White House afterward downplayed the remark: "The President's point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region," a White House official said. "He was not discussing Putin's power in Russia, or regime change."

The line was not in Biden's prepared remarks, a separate White House official said.

But his remark was already reverberating as Biden departed Poland to return home to Washington after his last-minute trip to attend snap summits in Brussels and to reassure allies along NATO's eastern edge.

It was the furthest he had gone in calling for changes atop Russia's government and reflected a significant escalation in his rhetorical approach to Moscow. US officials had said previously said removing Putin from power was not their goal.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded to Biden, saying, "This is not to be decided by Mr. Biden. It should only be a choice of the people of the Russian Federation."

In his speech, which drew a sharp line between liberal democracies and the type of autocracy Putin oversees, Biden warned of a long fight ahead.

"In this battle we need to be clear-eyed. This battle will not be won in days, or months, either," he said.

Just before Biden was set to speak in Poland, an airstrike struck a fuel depot just outside Lviv, Ukraine -- about 200 miles away from where the President would speak. The strike caused billowing smoke and flames to rise above the western Ukrainian city, which had largely been seen as a safe haven during the war given its distance from the Russia-Ukraine border.

It was a surprising attack, coming just a day after the Russian military said the first phase of the conflict had ended andthat it was shifting its attention to the disputed eastern parts of Ukraine. After days of Western leaders displaying their united front against Russia, the strike could be seen as a response from Putin and his military to Biden and the West.

Biden, standing along NATO's eastern edge, in Poland, issued a stern warning during his speech, telling Putin: "Don't even think about moving on one single inch of NATO territory." He said the US was committed to the collective protection obligations laid out in NATO's charter "with the full force of our collective power."

But Biden made clear the current conflict in Ukraine  not a NATO member -- doesn't require America to become directly involved.

"American forces are not in Europe to engage in conflict with Russian forces, American forces are here to defend NATO," he said.

Biden opened his address saying that Ukraine is now a front line battle in the fight between autocracy and democracy, casting Russia's invasion of its neighbor as part of the decades-long battle that has played out between the West and the Kremlin.

"My message to the people of Ukraine is ... we stand with you. Period," said Biden.

Biden cites lessons learned in 20th century Europe

Earlier in the day, Biden cited a dark history of US hesitance with involving itself in Europe's wars as an example of how the continent's security is in the American national interest, a striking comment illustrating the about-face in US foreign policy from the last administration.

"America's ability to meet its role in other parts of the world rests upon a united Europe and a secure Europe," Biden said Saturday as he met with Polish President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw. "We have learned from sad experiences in two world wars, when we've stayed out of and not been involved in stability in Europe, it always comes back to haunt the United States."

Biden's comments came during the final day of a last-minute trip to Europe aimed at synchronizing how Western allies address Russia's aggression against Ukraine. Biden and Duda spent a lengthy stretch in a one-on-one meeting before beginning an expanded session with aides. Biden said he raised the world war comparisons during the private meeting.

In brief remarks, Biden repeatedly cited America's commitment to NATO's Article V pledge of common defense, and noted he was a main proponent of Polish membership in NATO when he was a senator 25 years ago.5

"We take Article 5 as a sacred commitment, not a throwaway, a sacred commitment that relates to every member of NATO," Biden said, insisting that members must remain "absolutely, completely thoroughly united."

The President's comments are a sharp contrast from the "America First" foreign policy of former President Donald Trump, who called NATO "obsolete" before he came into office and often questioned the value of American alliances with European nations. Trump's time in office was marked by his spats with foreign leaders and the often-contentious nature of his dealings with traditional American allies in Europe and across the globe.

Given this recent history, NATO's strength and unity had been questioned in recent years. Biden told Duda that he was sure Putin "was counting on being able to divide NATO and separate the eastern flank from the west, and separate nations based on past histories. But he wasn't able to do it."

And noting that Poland had taken in millions of refugees fleeing violence in Ukraine, Biden made a point of referencing migrants seeking entry into the United States at its southern border. But he said the US must also take in people fleeing the war in Europe.

"We have, in our southern border, thousands of people a day  literally, not figuratively  trying to get into the United States," he said. "But we believe that we, the United States, should do our part relative to Ukraine as well, by opening our borders to another 100,000 people."

Biden meets Ukrainian officials in Warsaw

Earlier Saturday, Biden met Ukrainian government officials who had traveled to Warsaw for engagements with their American counterparts. Biden's visit to Europe has been entirely focused on the war, but the talks with Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov were the first time Biden was able to meet face-to-face with officials from Ukraine during his tour.

As it got underway, Kuleba described an arduous journey from Kyiv to Warsaw that included a train and three hours in a car.

"It's like flying from Kyiv to Washington with a connecting flight in Istanbul," Kuleba said. "The good thing is that since the beginning of the war I've learned how to sleep under any conditions. So I slept on the train, I slept in the car."

Biden, on hearing how the ministers had traveled, relayed that he, too, had made many journeys by train.

"You're looking at a fellow who's traveled over a million, 200,000 miles on a train. Literally," Biden said. Biden commuted from his home in Delaware to Washington as a senator and vice president on Amtrak trains.

The group meeting at a hotel in Warsaw, which also included Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, delved into more substantive issues later. A White House readout said the men discussed "further efforts to help Ukraine defend its territory."

The United States is considering sanctioning Russian companies that make supplies for the Russian military, sources familiar with the option told CNN following the meeting, though an official decision hasn't been made. Kuleba said he believed Biden administration officials were "keen to move on with further sanctions."

Ukraine has been pressuring the US and NATO to increase the military assistance they are providing to Ukraine, including calls from President Volodymyr Zelensky to establish a no-fly zone.

After talks in Brussels this week, during which Zelensky appeared virtually, it did not appear NATO members had warmed to the idea. Biden has said becoming more directly involved in the conflict could usher in World War III.

That left Ukraine's leaders dismayed. "We are very disappointed, in all honesty. We expect more bravery. Expected some bold decisions. The alliance has taken decisions as if there's no war," said Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, in a live interview with the Atlantic Council on Friday.

A focus on refugees on trip's final day

While Biden is meeting with refugees in Warsaw, he said on Friday that he would have preferred to see the crisis from an even closer perspective.

"They will not let me  understandably, I guess  cross the border and take a look at what's going on in Ukraine," he said. The White House has said it did not explore a visit to Ukraine.

The visit to Ukraine's western neighbor comes as Poland has, on several fronts, urged the US to do more in the war.

For example, Duda has asked the US to speed up and simplify the procedures allowing Ukrainians with family in the US to come to the country.

More than 3.5 million refugees have now fled Ukraine, according to data from the United Nations refugee agency released on Tuesday. A vast majority of those refugees have fled to Ukraine's western neighbors across Europe.

Poland, which borders Ukraine to the west, has registered more than 2 million Ukrainian refugees crossing into the country, though not all refugees who have entered Poland remain there.

Biden met with chef Jose Andres and other volunteers in Warsaw Saturday at a food distribution site for Andres' World Center Kitchen, the nonprofit devoted to providing meals in the wake of disasters.

Biden met with some of the volunteers, some from Europe and some from the United States.

"God love ya," the President could be heard saying to them and asking if he could help them.

Following his meeting with refugees at Stadion Narodowy, Biden was asked by reporters what seeing the Ukrainian refugees made him think of as he deals with Putin every day. Biden responded, "He's a butcher."

There are other issues connected to the war in Ukraine that have been top of mind in Poland.

US has continued to reject Poland's proposal to facilitate the transfer of its MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine. And the Polish President has called for a more permanent NATO defense posture in the country along with an international peacekeeping force in Ukraine.

US officials have not warmed to the peacekeeping proposition, suggesting it could violate Biden's red line of keeping US troops out of the conflict.

During Friday's meeting with humanitarian workers, Duda said Biden's "presence here sends a great signal and evidence of unity  unity within NATO."

The Polish President added that Biden's visit "demonstrates a huge support and also a big significance attached by the United States to the stability and world peace, to reinstating the peace where difficult situations are happening in places where somebody resorts to acts of aggression against other democratic and free nations  as it is happening today against Ukraine where the Russian aggression, unfortunately, happening for a month now is effect."

This story has been updated with additional developments on Saturday.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Biden says Putin 'cannot remain in power.'"
(CNN)  At least five people were reportedly injured Saturday after at least two missiles struck Lviv, a city in western Ukraine that had been previously spared the worst of Russia's brutal onslaught, local officials said.

One of the strikes hit a fuel storage facility, causing it to catch fire, and a later strike caused "significant damage" to the city's infrastructure facilities, according to the city's mayor, Andriy Sadovyi.

Three powerful blasts were heard in the center of the city earlier, and plumes of thick black smoke could be seen rising in the distance. Air raid sirens rang out prior to the explosions. Maksym Kozytsky, the head of the Lviv regional military administration, later on his Telegram account reported three more explosions following the strike on the fuel depot, saying, "The air alarm remains."

Lviv is a strategic Ukrainian city close to the Polish border that has largely been spared from the relentless bombardment seen across much of the country during the Russian invasion. It was a surprising attack, coming just a day after the Russian military said that the first phase of the conflict had ended and that it was shifting its attention to the disputed eastern parts of Ukraine.

The attack came as US President Joe Biden was in Poland Saturday, where he met with his Polish counterpart, Andrzej Duda, as well as Ukrainian officials and refugees. Biden later delivered a speech outside the Royal Castle in the Polish capital of Warsaw, in which he declared forcefully that Russian President Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power."

The White House afterward said Biden wasn't calling for regime change: "The President's point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region," a White House official said.

Earlier in the speech, Biden told the Ukrainian people: "We stand with you. Period." Biden was briefed on the strike on Lviv before leaving his hotel for his speech, according to a White House official.

"Now in the perennial struggle for democracy and freedom, Ukraine and its people are on the front lines, fighting to save their nation, and their brave resistance is part of a larger fight for ... essential democratic principles that unite all free people," Biden said.

Sadovyi said on Twitter Saturday that Russian troops had attacked the city but did not provide extensive detail. He urged residents to stay in shelters.

An industrial facility in Lviv used for fuel storage was burned as a result of one of the Russian strikes, according to Sadovyi.

"As a result of the shelling, one of the industrial facilities burns. It is fuel storage," the mayor said. He did not clarify if this was the cause of the smoke.

The mayor added that "habitable infrastructure was not injured."

Sadovyi later confirmed that another strike had hit Lviv, causing "significant damage" to the city's infrastructure. Residential buildings were not damaged, he added.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities said Saturday that bus convoys trying to evacuate civilians were being stopped and held by Russian forces, as part of what they claimed to be a pressure campaign to force some residents to go to Russia.

In a statement, Oleksandr Starukh, the head of the Zaporizhzhia regional administration, said an evacuation convoy of more than 50 buses driving from the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia was held overnight at a Russian checkpoint in Vasylivka, about 35 miles south of Zaporizhzhia. Starukh said the convoy included two ambulances carrying three children requiring urgent medical care.

Saturday's strikes were not the first strikes on Lviv. Several Russian missiles hit an aircraft repair plant there on March 18. Work at the facility had stopped before the strikes, and there were no reports of casualties.

Saturday's attacks come after a top Russian general claimed Friday that the "first stage" of Russia's military plan was complete, with their primary focus now centered on eastern Ukraine.

It was unclear if the statement implied a shifting of the goalposts for the Russian military or just represents a change in public messaging.

"In general, the main tasks of the first stage of the operation have been completed," said Col. General Sergei Rudskoy, first deputy chief of Russia's General Staff, in a briefing. "The combat potential of the armed forces of Ukraine has been significantly reduced, allowing us, I emphasize again, to focus the main efforts on achieving the main goal - the liberation of Donbas."

After days of Western leaders displaying their united front against Russia, Saturday's strikes could be seen as a response from Putin and his military to Biden and the West.

This story was first published on CNN.com "Lviv, western Ukrainian city until now spared from Russian assault, rocked by powerful explosions"
Over the weekend, students and families tapped into Penn State Shavers Creek Environmental Center for its annual Maple Harvest Festival and Pancake Breakfast, which has been held since 1984.

During the festival, events centered around maple syrup production were highlighted  with activities such as a walking trail with stations highlighting the maple sugaring process, live music and animal programs in the aviary.

Maple Harvest Fest is a wonderful community event; we have lots of people involved. It's a really loved program to get people outside learning a little bit about the natural world, learning about how to make syrup and connecting people... to enjoy the space together, Laurie McLaughlin, the program director, said.

Tyler Kauffman, a Shaver's Creek environmental education intern and assistant naturalist, said the production team did 25 taps over the course of the past two months at Shavers Creek, creating around a gallon of maple syrup.

As someone thats helped produce the little bit of syrup weve had here at Shavers Creek, I know the amount of work that goes into it, Kauffman said. Its a lot of details you dont think of until youre in the position of using them.

At the cultural history station, Madison Botch, a Penn State teacher's assistant for Agricultural and Extension Education 297, said since maple sugaring is more prevalent in the Northeast, many people forget Pennsylvania also produces  making the event a good educational opportunity.

The festival is partly run by students, like Kyra Monsam, who are in AEE297. Monsam said the class helps build teaching skills in addition to learning about maple sugaring.

Its just a really fun way to get the community involved and get people out to Shaver's Creek  I just love it. I think its super fun, Monsam (senior-recreation, park and tourism management) said.

For visitor Adelle Loaney, the event offered a multitude of activities.

Its a really cool event that people can check out, Loaney (sophomore-marketing) said. Its really good for kids, and its fun to learn about local syrup production.

Plowshare Produce Owner Micah Spicher Schonberg was also in attendance, demonstrating how to use a handheld corn sheller, which he said he uses on his farm to deshell corn to then send off to a miller.

The event celebrated local foods with a pancake and sausage breakfast made with local ingredients and by selling maple syrup from two local sugar camps, McLaughlin said.

While the event, which ends Sunday, was sold out for the weekend, McLaughlin encourages individuals to check out other events and visit Shavers Creek.

It may be a little more expensive [but] I think its very important to support your local farmers and different producers  that goes for syrup as well, Kauffman said. I think its a really important outreach that we do  and to give people a chance to see Shavers Creek and learn as well.

MORE BOROUGH COVERAGE
State College Borough Council member Richard Biever will be stepping down from council after beginning his first term on council in June.

Biever said via email he will be moving to Kansas in July due to accepting a professorship in musical theatre at Wichita State University, and his wife will be a teaching artist at Music Theatre Wichita.

Biever said this comes a difficult decision since theyve lived in State College for 20 years, and his wife grew up in State College.

Because both my wife and my talents will be used in a broader way, we decided to take the leap, Biever said.

Biever will serve on the council until June, and his family will move in July.

RELATED
Defend Dr. Baker.

Against Lang, Jones and Barron, it is right to rebel.

Whose campus, our campus.

These were a few phrases heard by those attending Penn State's Students Against Sexist Violence "Walk Out and March" on Thursday in response to the university's activation of the firing process against Penn State professor Oliver Baker.

After a physical altercation with counter-protester Penn State student Avi Rachlin at a vaccine mandate rally in August 2021, Baker was charged with harassment, disorderly conduct and simple assault.

On Nov. 8, 2021, Baker was found not guilty on one charge of harassment by Centre County District Judge Steven Lachman, while the other two charges were withdrawn.

In January 2022, Baker said via email Penn State has "activated the AC70 process," which is the dismissal procedure for tenure and tenure-eligible faculty members.

"Regrettably, the university intends to hold a hearing under the AC70 process if I choose not to resign," Baker said. "That is all that I wish to say at this point."

At the march, an anonymous organizer handed out a chant sheet, as the main spokesman yelled instructions through a megaphone.

One of the student protestors, Jacob Ricks, heard about the rally through various club group chats as well as flyers throughout campus.

Ricks (junior-film production) said he believed Penn States stance on promoting diversity was hypocritical and didnt add up following the activation of Baker's firing process.

Its hypocritical to take money for those programs and then defend the people that want to destroy those programs, Ricks said. You promote yourself as a diverse campus, and then you turn your back on those actions.

Throughout the day, more people gathered at the march, and chants of all support to Dr. Baker filled the air. Then, two alleged instigators were called out by the event's main spokesman and were escorted out by the SASV security team.

One of the alleged instigators, who preferred to remain anonymous, said they liked the rhetoric of the protestors and supported the groups use of freedom of speech but didnt agree with being labeled a fascist.

Theyll accuse anyone of being a fascist for some reason just out of nowhere, the alleged instigator said. I guess I wasnt chanting in the right way.

Then, protestors began marching down the library steps toward South Allen Street, with signs in hand while yelling racist Rachlin is a threat, you choose him, we wont forget.

Rachlin interrupted protestors at the Student-Faculty Rally to Vaccinate Penn State in August and showed "physically aggressive behavior" toward them, according to the Coalition for a Just University. There is currently a petition for the university to expel him.

A masked SASV member called Happy Valley nothing but a facade" and cited Penn State's We Are mantra as a safe space for bigots, racists, homophobes and sexists.

For Adia Hearns, she said she came to the march because it could have been her, and by protecting" Rachlin, the university props We Are up as a guise.

I don't think 'We Are' exists, Hearns (senior-English and African American studies) said. I think its something the university likes to put up so that everyone feels safe.

As the march continued, protestors walked past the Willard Building, where protestors met the Willard Preacher. Witnesses Coron Mains and a student who wished to remain anonymous said "anger" was expressed between the group and the preacher.

It seems like the goal [of the protest] is not to change minds but to express anger, and the Willard Preacher was an outlet for that anger, the anonymous witness said.

Mains (junior-military and film) said people should show love" and be friendly when speaking with others who have conflicting viewpoints.

For the anonymous witness, they said they were proud of [the protestors] for having that opinion, and they said having difficult conversations is important.

The streets of downtown State College were met with SASV members, student protestors and a bike security blocking off traffic to let the march hit its full stride.

Onlookers from apartment balconies were greeted with chants of no justice, no peace, stay together, stay safe, fist up, fight back as well as the right to rebel.

Payton Fremer heard all the commotion outside of her apartment and saw the protestors.

F that, f [Rachlin], Fremer (junior-public relations) said. I dont think [Baker] should have been fired at all.

According to Penn State spokeswoman Lisa Powers, the process is "confidential," and the university is "following processes/guidance" found under the university's "Academic Policies" and "Administrative Policies" as applicable.

Baker remains on administrative leave while university processes continue, according to Powers.

The rally ended on the stairs of Old Main with signs stuck in the grass, banners tied to the handrails and posters plastered on the main entrance.

The protestors yelled for the administration to let them into Old Main, and the group gained entry through a side door and covered hallways and the vice presidents office with posters.

We wanted to make a statement that we werent going to allow Penn States Board of Trustees to get away with firing Dr. Baker, a SASV member said through a blue bandana mask.

After, members went off into small groups and met at an undisclosed location to debrief, while wearing masks to protect their identities.

Granola bars and bottles of water were in the center of the group huddle as the main spokesperson, who preferred to remain anonymous, opened the floor to comments pertaining to what went well, what went wrong, and they allowed new members to introduce themselves.

We see the administration, we see through their lies, we see who theyre actually serving, and were gonna fight until they serve us, the organizer said.

MORE CAMPUS COVERAGE




By Yi Whan-woo







The Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) said Sunday it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Seoul Business Agency and the Korea Artificial Intelligence Association to nurture talented workers in digital technology and help them land jobs in promising companies.







The deal comes in line with IBK's campaign to connect qualified jobseekers with small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that have struggled to find employees in the era of the digital transformation.







"The bank anticipates that it will contribute to helping SMEs overcome a lack of workers in digital technology and also offer quality jobs for young jobseekers," IBK Chairman and CEO Yoon Jong-won said in a press release.







CEO Kim Hyun-woo of the Seoul Business Agency expressed hope that the agreement will "pave the way for highly-motivated jobseekers to find jobs that match demand."







He noted that the agency, operated by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, is tasked with supporting SMEs in the nation's capital and that the three-way deal can bolster its goal.







The Korea Artificial Intelligence Association has more than 500 member companies nationwide. It seeks to promote AI-related products and services that can contribute to sustainable growth and joint prosperity between businesses and society.







Meanwhile, the IBK will organize two campaigns  the first one between March 29 to 30 and the second one in May  to match job applicants with corresponding companies.


Colorado Politics is published both in print and online. Our website features subscriber-only news stories daily, designed for public policy arena professionals. Member subscribers also receive the weekly print edition of our award-winning newspaper, containing outstanding features and news stories, in their mailboxes every Saturday.
Tech skills remain in short supply in NZ; vendors offer training

Two recent reports have once again highlighted the dire need for more digital skills in New Zealand, with two global tech giants stepping in to offer training.

Amazon Web Services Building Digital Skills for the Changing Workforce report found that 1 million more New Zealand workers will require digital skills training for their jobs in the next year, representing 35% of the workforce.

[ Keep up on the latest thought leadership, insights, how-to, and analysis on IT through Computerworlds newsletters. ]

In response, AWS is launching the re/Start programme, a free, full-time, 12-week program that prepares unemployed, underemployed, and transitioning individuals for careers in cloud computing.

Meanwhile, Salesforces recent Global Digital Skills Index also pointed to a digital skills crisisand says that the gap is widening. The index revealed New Zealands Workplace Digital Skills Readiness Index score is 28. By comparison, India topped the rankings with a score of 63, while Australia and the UK scored 21 and the US scored 36.

The research also found 82% of Kiwis said they are not equipped for the future of work, and 80% are planning to learn new skills in the future. Yet only 20% are very actively involved in workplace digital skills training programmes today.

Salesforce has committed to training 400 New Zealanders in Salesforce skills in partnership with career development agency Mission Ready and with TupuToa, an organisation which aims to develop Maori and Pacific leaders.

AWSs Building Digital Skills for the Changing Workforce report also showed that New Zealand companies that had invested in digital skills training have seen significant benefits, with 91% reporting improved employee productivity, 86% stating they were able to fast-track their digitisation goals, 79% achieving cost efficiencies, 80% reporting higher employee retention, and 76% seeing increased revenue.

IT skilled help from abroad?

The Information Technology Professionals New Zealand (ITP)s TechBlog meanwhile reported that while the New Zealand governments tech-class exception to border restrictions has received strong interest, there are plenty of visas still to be allocated.

The exception allows as many as 600 visas to be issued to highly skilled tech workers. However, rumours that large tech companies had already scooped up the available visas for suitable offshore candidates are unfounded, according to TechBlog, quoting NZTech chief executive Graeme Muller, who addressed an ITP NZ webinar.

There havent been any special deals or mass purchases or anything like that. Its steady as she goes; they are ticking on a fairly regular basis each week, Muller is quoted as saying.

.nz domain disputes simplified

The regulator for the .nz domain name space, New Zealand Domain Name Commission Limited (DNCL), has launched an online dispute-resolution platform to help .nz domain name holders resolve .nz domain disputes faster.

According to DNCL, there are about 1,600 conflicted domain names that could be resolved through the platform.

DNCL is piloting the platform to help resolve domain disputes between parties claiming rights to a domain without the need to go to court. It will allow for online submission of issues by the parties. There is an option for e-negotiation between the parties and online mediation through live conferencing with a qualified mediator.

Australia vs. New Zealand: Who has the fastest 5G speed?

New Zealand has the fastest 5G download speed, reaching 253Mbps according to findings from consultancy Opensignal, while Australia comes right after New Zealand at 224Mbps. This is according to data from 10 countries across Asia.

When it comes download speeds in peak hours, Australia is much faster than New Zealand, with 597Mbps being in the top three of the tally, while New Zealand takes No. 7 at 459Mbps.

When it comes to upload speeds, New Zealand comes out ahead again; it takes the No. 6 spot at 20Mbps while Australia takes the No. 8 spot at 15Mbps.

Samira Sarraf

Property industry becomes more tech-savvy

Yet another report shows those in the New Zealand property industry are becoming more technologically adeptalthough many still rely on spreadsheets.

The survey of a senior cohort from New Zealands property industryconducted by the Property Council of New Zealand and software company Yardifound that investment in technology has accelerated across the sector in response to COVID-19. The local industry has also embraced new systems and processes at a faster rate than its Australian counterparts.

According to Property Council New Zealand CEO Leonie Freeman, 95% of respondents said the disruption of COVID-19 had driven adoption of digital technology, with more than two thirds now using cloud-based productivity suites.

Much of this change has been driven by tenants shif in expectations. Yardis senior regional director, Bernie Devine, said the organisation is seeing building users wanting a building to be more like a device with an engaging user experience.

The report also found 77% of Kiwi property companies use specialist accounting and finance systems, compared with 22% of Australian companies. But with six in 10 respondents are still using spreadsheets to assess the performance of their portfolios, there is still room for improvement.

Fletcher Building names new CIO

Fletcher Building has appointed Joe Locandro as its new CIO, replacing Dan Beecham, who had been in the role since February 2020.

Locandro had previously worked as CIO and CDO roles in Australia, Hong Kong, and the Middle East for more than two decades.

According to Fletcher Building CEO Ross Taylor, Locandro has been at the forefront of e-commerce for some of the worlds biggest airlines, and his experience in the energy sector has seen him successfully lead the development and delivery of new data platforms and transactional systems. He also has deep experience of ERP implementations.

Beecham decided to remain in Australia for family reasons, according to Fletcher Building.
Study finds significant digital skills training shortfall

Over the next year, 27.3 million IT workers, or 7% of Indias workforce, will need digital skills training, according to a new survey conducted in 12 countries including India. Although 97% of Indian organizations say they need to train their workers on digital skills, only 45% have fully implemented training plans, the survey by Amazon Web Services and Alpha Beta found.

A majority of workers (88%) in the Asia-Pacific and Japan region say they need to learn more digital skills for their jobs since the pandemic started, however, but 93% face barriers to training.

The ability to use cloud-based or SaaS tools for work, including developer tools, emerged as the most in-demand digital skill by employers, but only 45% of workers have trained or are training in this skill. Cybersecurity skills will be employers second most in-demand digital skill by 2025. Technical or IT support, digital marketing, and cloud migration are the next three digital skills that will see increased demand.

Manufacturing IT spend shifts to Industry 4.0 technologies

With the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies, India aims to build a $1.1 trillion manufacturing sector contributing 25% of GDP by the 2026 financial year. Indian manufacturers spent about half of their IT budgets on Industry 4.0 technologies, or $5.5 billion-$6.5 billion, in the 2021 financial year, according to Nasscom research. Of that sum, Indian manufacturers spent about half on foundational technologies such as IoT and cloud, with big data analytics, wireless, RPA (robotic process automation), AR/VR, and AI/ML accounting for much of the rest.

They plan ramp up investments in emerging network technology, big data analytics, central and remote-controlled monitoring, and automation in the next two years.

Nasscom also found that Indian manufacturers lag in maturity in foundational technologies, with 30-45% still at the proof-of-concept stages in technologies including cloud, IoT, and connectivity, and have less mature data and talent strategies.

For a successful Industry 4.0 adoption, Nasscom recommends leadership commitment, cross-skilling and continuous upskilling of teams, digital talent acquisition and reskilling, technology standards, and most critically, a company-wide data strategy.

Government takes measures to upskill IT workers

The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) has established a Future of Work initiative to reskill and upskill IT professionals in emerging technologies. NSDC has designed qualification packs in association with the IT-ITeS Sector Skill Council across technologies including AI, big data analytics, blockchain, cloud computing, cybersecurity, IoT, RPA, social and mobile application, and virtual reality. A qualification pack is a set of standards of performance an individual must achieve in a job role.

The IT-ITeS Sector Skill Council has also launched the Future Skills platform through which a learner can seamlessly access free and paid content, assessments, and virtual labs and get certified on the skills of their choice. It focuses on over 155 skills across 70+ job roles on emerging technologies.

One in four Indian businesses experienced ransomware attacks last year

New research has revealed that 26% of Indian businesses have experienced a ransomware attack in the last year, higher than the global figure of 21%. Of these, 30% of them said it severely impacted their operations. A quarter of them also experienced data breaches in the same period. The increase in the frequency of these attacks is attributed to the rise of cryptocurrency as the preferred ransomware payment method.

The new threat report by Thales reveals that 55% of Indian businesses have no plans to change security spending, even with increasing ransomware impacts, and only 47% have implemented a formal ransomware plan.

Whilst organisations in India and around the world have continued to face challenges in securing their data, our findings indicate that urgent action is needed by businesses to develop more robust cybersecurity strategies, said Ashish Saraf, Thales VP and country director for India.

Mumbai and Chennai are preferred cities for data centres

Mumbai and Chennai are the most preferred choices for data centre providers, according to a report from Nxtra by Airtel and Jones Lang LaSalle. The coastal cities have the advantage of connections to submarine cables offering low-latency connections to the rest of the world.

According to the report, Indias data centre capacity could cross the 1 GW mark by 2023. In the first half of 2021, the capacity was 499 MW, of which Mumbai accounted for 45%. It also has the highest number of cable landings.

Other cities including Delhi have seen growth due to regulatory incentives and great demand from government organizations, whereas Pune offers a good alternative to Mumbai due to its proximity to the city and lower risk of storm flooding due to its landlocked location.
Congratulations, design21sdn.com got a very good Social Media Impact Score! Show it by adding this HTML code on your site:

Design21sdn.com scored 77 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 4/5.0 Stars by Social Team

This CoolSocial report was updated on 2 Dec 2012, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.

This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared the design21sdn homepage on Twitter + the total number of design21sdn followers (if design21sdn has a Twitter account). The total number of people who shared the design21sdn homepage on Delicious. The total number of people who shared the design21sdn homepage on StumbleUpon. The total number of people who shared the design21sdn homepage on Google Plus by a google +1 button. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared, liked or recommended the design21sdn homepage on Facebook + the total number of page likes (if design21sdn has a Facebook fan page).

Basic Information

PAGE TITLE DESIGN 21: Social Design Network DESCRIPTION KEYWORDS OTHER KEYWORDS



The keywords meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. The description meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. The title found in the head section of the homepage. CoolSocial advanced keyword analysis tool is able to detect and analyze every keyword on each page of a site. The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of the site.

Domain and Server

DOCTYPE XHTML 1.0 Transitional CHARSET AND LANGUAGE UTF-8 DETECTED LANGUAGE English English SERVER nginx/0.8.54 OPERATIVE SYSTEM

Operative System running on the server. Type of server and offered services. Character set and language of the site. The language of design21sdn.com as detected by CoolSocial algorithms. Represents HTML declared type (e.g.: XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.0, the new HTML 5.0)

Site Traffic trend during the last year. Only available for sites ranked <= 100000 in the world.

Referring domains for design21sdn.com by MajesticSeo. High values are a sign of site importance over the web and on web engines.

Facebook link

FACEBOOK PAGE LINK NOT FOUND

The total number of people who tagged or talked about website Facebook page in the last 7-10 days. The type of Facebook page. The description of the Facebook page describes website and its services to the social media users. The total number of people who like website Facebook page. The URL of the found Facebook page. Facebook Timeline is the new layout of Facebook pages. A Facebook page link can be found in the homepage or in the robots.txt file.

Twitter account link

TWITTER PAGE LINK NOT FOUND
Export-Import Bank of Korea (Eximbank) CEO Bang Moon-kyu, left, poses with Maria Lombana, right, Colombia's Minister of Commerce, Industry, and Tourism, after Eximbank and Colombia's Banco de Occidente signed a re-lending deal at the Eximbank's office in Bogota, Colombia, March 22. Courtesy of Eximbank



Eximbank signs re-lending deal with Colombia's Banco de Occidente



By Yoon Ja-young



Export-Import Bank of Korea (Eximbank) is strengthening its financial network in Latin America to help Korean businesses get a head start winning orders overseas before the post-pandemic era starts.



Eximbank CEO Bang Moon-kyu held separate meetings with the presidents of Colombia and the Dominican Republic as well as the chief of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), discussing comprehensive measures for cooperation to induce more Korean businesses to advance into Latin America's infrastructure and energy sectors.



Bang had meeting with Colombian President Ivan Duque at his office in Bogota, March 22, where they discussed how Korea's Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) should support the Latin American country deal with climate change, transition to digital, and promote the use of electric vehicles. The EDCF was established in 1987 and Eximbank is in charge of operating and managing the fund. The Korean bank aims to support industry development and economic stability in developing countries as well as promoting their economic exchanges with Korea, providing long-term, low-interest loans. Eximbank also held an opening ceremony of its Bogota office on the same day and signed a $100 million re-lending deal as well as an MOU with Banco de Occidente.



Bang also met Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader and CABEI chief Dante Mossi in Santo Domingo on March 24. They discussed Korean business participation and Korea's financial support for the Dominican Republic's LNG power plant and transportation infrastructure projects, such as building subways and railways. Korea is a member of CABEI, a multilateral development bank established in 1960 to support both public and private investments for balanced development and economic integration in Central America. Eximbank also inked a $100 million MOU with BANDEX, the Dominican Republic's export credit agency, to support Korean businesses operating in diverse projects including LNG terminals, renewable energy, and ICT.



While countries like Spain, the U.S., and China used to win major infrastructure projects in Latin America, funding such projects has become difficult due to deteriorating fiscal conditions of the governments following the COVID-19 pandemic. Eximbank expects the bolstering of financial networks with CABEI and BANDEX will provide Korean businesses with better financing when they engage in public-private partnerships or infrastructure projects.



"The year 2022 marks the 60th anniversary since Korea established diplomatic ties with Colombia and the Dominican Republic," Bang said.



"The Latin American market will provide opportunities for Korean companies to diversify from Middle East and Asia. Eximbank will actively support them," he added.


Slidespost.com scored 42 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 2/5.0 Stars by Social Team

This CoolSocial report was updated on 22 Feb 2013, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.

The total number of people who shared the slidespost homepage on StumbleUpon. The total number of people who shared the slidespost homepage on Delicious. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared, liked or recommended the slidespost homepage on Facebook + the total number of page likes (if slidespost has a Facebook fan page). This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared the slidespost homepage on Twitter + the total number of slidespost followers (if slidespost has a Twitter account). The total number of people who shared the slidespost homepage on Google Plus by a google +1 button.

Basic Information

PAGE TITLE Slideshows , Presentations and More DESCRIPTION Presentations, SlideShows, Slides and Photos KEYWORDS Presentations, SlideShows, Slides and Photos OTHER KEYWORDS pictures, views, comments, add on date, added by, add on, on date



The title found in the head section of the homepage. The description meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of the site. The keywords meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. CoolSocial advanced keyword analysis tool is able to detect and analyze every keyword on each page of a site.

Domain and Server

DOCTYPE XHTML 1.0 Transitional CHARSET AND LANGUAGE UTF-8 DETECTED LANGUAGE English English SERVER Apache/2.2.22 (PHP/5.3.15) OPERATIVE SYSTEM Linux Linux

Character set and language of the site. Type of server and offered services. Represents HTML declared type (e.g.: XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.0, the new HTML 5.0) Operative System running on the server. The language of slidespost.com as detected by CoolSocial algorithms.

Site Traffic trend during the last year. Only available for sites ranked <= 100000 in the world.

Referring domains for slidespost.com by MajesticSeo. High values are a sign of site importance over the web and on web engines.

Facebook link

FACEBOOK PAGE LINK NOT FOUND

The description of the Facebook page describes website and its services to the social media users. The URL of the found Facebook page. A Facebook page link can be found in the homepage or in the robots.txt file. The total number of people who like website Facebook page. The total number of people who tagged or talked about website Facebook page in the last 7-10 days. Facebook Timeline is the new layout of Facebook pages. The type of Facebook page.

Twitter account link

TWITTER PAGE LINK NOT FOUND
Toner.uz scored 40 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 2/5.0 Stars by Social Team

This CoolSocial report was updated on 8 Jan 2015, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.

The total number of people who shared the toner homepage on Delicious. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared the toner homepage on Twitter + the total number of toner followers (if toner has a Twitter account). This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared, liked or recommended the toner homepage on Facebook + the total number of page likes (if toner has a Facebook fan page). The total number of people who shared the toner homepage on Google Plus by a google +1 button. The total number of people who shared the toner homepage on StumbleUpon.

Basic Information

PAGE TITLE TONER.UZ -   |  DESCRIPTION KEYWORDS OTHER KEYWORDS hentek, samsung, uz , uz , uz , uz , hentek service



The description meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. The keywords meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of the site. CoolSocial advanced keyword analysis tool is able to detect and analyze every keyword on each page of a site. The title found in the head section of the homepage.

Domain and Server

DOCTYPE CHARSET AND LANGUAGE UTF-8 DETECTED LANGUAGE Russian Russian SERVER nginx (PleskLin) OPERATIVE SYSTEM

Type of server and offered services. Operative System running on the server. Represents HTML declared type (e.g.: XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.0, the new HTML 5.0) The language of toner.uz as detected by CoolSocial algorithms. Character set and language of the site.

Site Traffic trend during the last year. Only available for sites ranked <= 100000 in the world.

Referring domains for toner.uz by MajesticSeo. High values are a sign of site importance over the web and on web engines.

Facebook link

FACEBOOK PAGE LINK NOT FOUND

The total number of people who tagged or talked about website Facebook page in the last 7-10 days. The total number of people who like website Facebook page. A Facebook page link can be found in the homepage or in the robots.txt file. Facebook Timeline is the new layout of Facebook pages. The description of the Facebook page describes website and its services to the social media users. The URL of the found Facebook page. The type of Facebook page.

Twitter account link

TWITTER PAGE LINK NOT FOUND
The memorial service for Judith McFerran Robertson will be held at Algiers United Methodist Church, 637 Opelousas Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70114 at 2PM on Sunday, May 22, 2022 with Reverend JoAnne Pounds officiating. The obituary for Judi can be viewed and online condolences made at www.shule
(This article contains SPOILERS for Dont Look Up.) Best Picture nominee Dont Look Up tells the story of two scientists warning the government against an imminent, apocalyptic threat, only to be ignored and ridiculed, in what were pretty sure was all an allegory for  relationship problems? The Kennedy assassination? Its unclear. At any rate, if the film felt at all familiar, there might be a good reason for that; it follows many of the same story beats as the highly underrated 90s comedy Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy  which, tragically, was not nominated for a single goddamn Oscar.

Adam McKays star-studded satire begins much like the only feature film made by the beloved Canadian sketch comedy troupe, with a gang of nerdy scientists making a world-changing discovery -- a giant asteroid heading straight for Earth and a new happiness drug, respectively.

Netflix

Paramount Pictures Both also feature unfortunate bangs.

The bespectacled head scientist then nervously presents their findings to the president (of the United States in Dont Look Up and a pharmaceutical company in Brain Candy).

Netflix

Paramount Pictures

And also the presidents sniveling suck-up right-hand man.

Netflix

Paramount Pictures

Both scientists soon end up on TV shows giving awkward interviews to vapid talk show hosts about their discovery 

Netflix

Paramount Pictures

Netflix
Crossville, TN (38555)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. Low 61F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. Low 61F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
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DANBURY  When Gov. Ned Lamont addressed local business leaders a year ago, there was no bigger hot-button issue than tolls, with area merchants dependent on cross-border traffic with New York.

Returning to Danbury on Friday, Lamont suggested the biggest issue now is how to help people afford to live in the city, whether newcomers or those looking to stay, by attacking the high cost of housing and day care for the children of working parents.

Speaking to the Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce, Lamont stuck to themes he has been emphasizing in the spring legislative session  improving transportation, education and training, reducing hurdles for businesses, avoiding tax increases, and eliminating income taxes on pension funds on which retirees depend.

The Connecticut Department of Labor on Friday estimated the Danbury areas unemployment rate at 4.5 percent as of mid-February, the lowest of the 10 labor market areas the state tracks. The state calculated a 4.9 percent unemployment rate statewide, down from 5.1 percent the previous month.

Lamont reminded those in attendance that Danbury Hospital was the first in Connecticut to admit a patient diagnosed with COVID-19 in March 2020 before schools and businesses went remote in an attempt to limit transmission of the virus.

The state is coming out of this a lot stronger  weve got the wind to our back and amazing things have happened, Lamont said. For decades, the moving vans were leaving the state of Connecticut. Now as youve heard, we have tens of thousands of families moving into the state of Connecticut  not old guys like me, young families ... and they keep coming.

That is helping Connecticut reverse the tide on tax revenue. Lamont noted the presence of Mark Boughton, who he installed as commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services last year after a long tenure as mayor of Danbury.

Mark Boughton was always running around Hartford with a tin cup saying, Help me out, help me out  now, hes a billion-dollar man, Lamont said. This gives us an opportunity to transform the state.

Three weeks ago, state Comptroller Natalie Braswell projected a $1.5 billion surplus for the state in this fiscal year, while calling attention to the plight of renters who have been hit with onerous terms as their leases come up for renewals by landlords looking to cash in on the hot real estate market.

Of about 225 rentals in Danbury listed on Apartments.com on Friday, about one in four were available for less than $2,000 a month  and only three for below $1,500.

Little more than 600 Danbury families have received assistance under the UniteCT rental assistance program that was created with federal funds, for an average boost of about $8,450 for each recipient or $2.2 million in total. Statewide, nearly $197 million in rent assistance has been disbursed under the program.

Having proposed an expansion of a property tax credit, Lamont promised Friday to intensify the states investments in affordable housing.

The No. 1 question I get from employers who are thinking about the state of Connecticut is housing  and will there be housing for young workers, Lamont said. It really slows down growth in our state, because of the high price of housing and demand outstripping supply.

Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulman
Free speech in schools is under assault from both the left and the right. Ironically, neither realize that they are trying to do the same thing: Suppress messages they dont like. Both are inconsistent with what should be a core value of educational institutions to allow all ideas and views to be expressed.

Incidents at Yale Law School and UC Hastings College of Law, involving progressive students trying to keep invited conservative speakers from addressing their audiences, have renewed attention on how the hecklers veto can be a threat to free speech principles.

There is no doubt that freedom of expression on a campus, and academic freedom as a principle, would be rendered meaningless if protestors and dissenters had a recognized right to shout down speakers who participate in authorized campus events. However, these challenges to a culture of free expression are trivial compared to efforts by a number of Republican state legislatures to direct how race and gender are taught in public schools and colleges.

Most of these bills emerge from a recently supercharged effort by Republican officials  including a number who participated in the confirmation hearings of Ketanji Brown Jackson  to condemn certain ideas that they claim emerge from critical race theory and transgender rights activism.

For example, in Alabama, House Bill 8 would bar public K-12 schools and public institutions of higher education from teaching, instructing or training any student to adopt or believe certain concepts relating to race or sex. House Bill 9 would bar any teaching or training designed to lead individuals to adopt or believe divisive concepts.

In Alaska, House Bill 330 would prevent colleges from persuading or attempting to indoctrinate a student to adopt or affirm certain ideas related to sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, or national origin.

Similar bills are pending in Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Wisconsin. Each of these bills was sponsored by a Republican officeholder.

In Florida, a bill that recently passed the House and Senate bars public colleges from adopting any instructional materials that espouse, promote or compel belief in certain ideas about race and gender. It also prohibits educators (including college faculty) from subjecting any student or employee to training or instruction that espouses, promotes, advances, inculcates or compels such student or employee to believe those same ideas, including ideas about the relevance of past racial injustice.

Collectively these bills represent a sweeping attempt to restrict what can be read, taught and discussed at colleges and universities. It is unclear what would be deemed speech that causes one to adopt or believe particular ideas. Arguably, all exposure to views can cause some to adopt them.

Some of these laws say that students could not be asked to read materials that espouse the view that one race or sex is superior to another, which (among other things) would prevent exposure to many basic documents of American history, the history of political theory or a great deal of literature. Students could never learn about the arguments defending slavery or Southern succession.

Prohibitions against arguments that advocate for favorable treatment based on a persons race or sex would make it impossible to debate basic topics such as affirmative action. If passed, these bills might make it impossible for psychologists to study the sources of racist attitudes and behaviors. They could ban faculty from exposing students to arguments central to an understanding of feminism, race studies or the rights of transgender persons.

In other words, these bills would fundamentally undermine the core mission of colleges and universities, which is to generate new knowledge, preserve inherited knowledge and empower students to critically analyze competing ideas.

Many individuals on the right who are quick to criticize students who attempt to silence individual speakers are unacceptably silent on the more sweeping threats to freedom of thought and expression represented by these systematic partisan assaults on teaching and learning.

Similarly, those who support the use of the hecklers veto by student protestors are depriving themselves of the arguments necessary to resist these Republican bills.

Many of the protestors claim that colleges and universities should not tolerate speech that is considered hateful, racist, sexist, or otherwise divisive. But this is precisely the same justification offered by those who are sponsoring these anti-teaching, anti-learning bills.

The student protestors and their allies would undoubtedly make the case that they are opposing truly bad ideas while the Republican legislators are opposing important ideas. But that is not how censorship works. Once one grants that administrators and other officials should have the authority to censor and punish bad ideas, there is no predicting who will be the target of such repression.

In fact, based on the history of free speech in the United States as well as these contemporary efforts, there is every reason to predict that the people most vulnerable to censorship will be progressive voices. The left should strongly embrace free speech values because the left might have the most to lose if those values are eroded.

Howard Gillman is chancellor of the University of California, Irvine, and Erwin Chemerinsky is dean of Berkeley Law. They are co-chairs of the national advisory board of the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement.
The alleged test-firing of a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) from an undisclosed location in North Korea, March 24, is seen in this photo distributed by the North Korean government. AP-Yonhap





South Korea and the United States regard North Korea as having disguised its launch of an existing intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) last week as that of a new larger one, informed sources said Sunday.







The allies believe that the North again tested a Hwasong-15 ICBM, Thursday, the same type it fired in late 2017, according to the sources. The North has publicly claimed success in the launch of a Hwasong-17 missile.







Their intelligence analysis suggested that like the Hwasong-15, the ICBM in question had two engine nozzles, whereas the Hwasong-17 has four nozzles. The engine combustion time of the first-stage rocket was also similar to that of the Hwasong-15.







The analysis was based on data from the allies' intelligence assets, including from a satellite equipped with infrared thermal sensors.






WESTPORT  A group of teens is looking to feed 10,000 people by the end of the year, whether thats raising the money to ensure those in need have a hot meal in hand or actually helping to prepare and serve the meal itself.

Up Next Teens, a group in Fairfield County led completely by students, recently launched its Feed Fairfield County initiative to celebrate its one-year anniversary.

The group has already raised $230 in the efforts first two weeks, translating to meals for about 100 people. The total goal is $25,000.

Its really exciting that weve gotten this much support on this project so far, said Addison Moore, the groups founder and president, who is a junior at Staples High School.

The majority of the funding came from its second annual Lights Festival, a fitting kickoff since last years festival in Westport was the groups inaugural event.

Moore said they are also focusing on child hunger within the broader food insecurity umbrella. He noted COVID had a big impact on Connecticut, driving more people to the local food pantries. It also shone a light on childhood hunger and how many students in the state rely on the schools to get their meals.

Up Next is partnering with several groups this year that are focused on this need, including various food banks and soup kitchens. The teens are also hoping to work with schools directly on other hunger-related projects.

Theres an aspect of donating, which is great, but what really matters is physically providing those meals, Moore said.

He said he was looking over Up Nexts inaugural year as the anniversary approached and realized he and his peers had already done 10 projects and raised thousands of dollars for food insecurity. Thats when they decided to kick it up and set this goal.

We really want to make a big impact this upcoming year, Moore said.

A little more than 50 teens have already joined the cause. Each also has the opportunity to organize events in their own community to raise money or help out with service projects.

Donations can also be collected on the groups website, which links to the GoFundMe page.

Since the group is made up of only teens, Moore said theyre working with a number of established food banks and nonprofits to determine how to distribute the money collected.

Its a really awesome project, Moore said. We need a lot of outside support to make this really happen.

He said that includes not only actual donations but partners on projects. People can figure out how to get involved through the website, upnextteens.org, where they can donate, volunteer or sign up for the newsletter to find out when different projects will be happening in the community. Those events will also be posted on social media.

Moore said the effort not only helps the people receiving the meals but the teens doing the work. Having a successful project will encourage the teen members to further their entrepreneurial efforts and create projects theyre passionate about while helping the community around them.

If we instill that idea in teens, then theyll grow up doing it, Moore said.
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Dalton, GA (30720)

Today

Thunderstorms likely in the morning. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms in the afternoon. A few storms may be severe. High 77F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible early. Partly cloudy skies during the evening will give way to cloudy skies overnight. Low 57F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph.
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
Jang Hye-yeong from the Justice Party, right, wearing a yellow mask, condemns main opposition People Power Party leader Lee Jun-seok's criticism of disability advocates, along with members of the Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination, and ruling Democratic Party of Korea's Choi Hye-young, left, in a wheelchair, during a press conference at the National Assembly, Seoul, March 25. Screenshot from Jang Hye-yeong's Twitter





By Lee Hae-rin







Main opposition People Power Party (PPP) leader Lee Jun-seok's comments concerning a disability advocacy group that has been holding daily protests on subway lines every morning to raise awareness of their mobility rights since last year is receiving criticism for being hate speech against a minority group. "Blocking train operation by intentionally stopping at the doors, and telling someone who needs to be at grandmother's deathbed to take a bus. This should no longer be justified as a legitimate fight," Lee wrote on Facebook, Friday.







Along with Lee's post was a YouTube video link, which showed an activist with a disability telling a bystander to "take a bus," as she asked the protesters to stop the demonstration, because she needed to board the subway to go to see her grandmother who was in a near-death condition.







On the spot, the protester apologized to the person in tears and explained that she also missed her mother's final moments last July, due to the activist's inability to move via public transport and the lack of taxis designated for people with disability, which was edited out in the video posted by Lee.







On the same day, Lee posted three additional Facebook posts, which denounced the activist group's protests as a "social irregularity that takes hostage millions of innocent Seoul citizens," and called for the use of public force by the police and Seoul Metro to suppress them.







In response, a group of lawmakers and activists held a press conference at the National Assembly to condemn Lee's words, Friday.







"As a party leader, Lee chose to speak in favor of cracking down on the demonstrations of a socially vulnerable group with the use of force, rather than listening to their calls to have their fundamental rights granted. His self-righteousness with no sense of empathy deeply worries me," Rep. Jang Hye-yeong of the minor opposition Justice Party said.







Rep. Choi Hye-young of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, who became disabled due to a spinal cord injury, and members of the local civic group that has been leading the metro protest, Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination (SADD), also condemned Lee's words and expressed concerns about the new administration's stance towards a socially vulnerable group.







Many people stand in united criticism of the PPP chairman's comments.







"Lee always incites hatred against socially vulnerable groups and takes advantage of it for his political ends," one internet user wrote, Saturday, while another wrote, "Those of you who are annoyed by the morning metro protest, please call Seoul Metro and file a complaint, rather than channeling your anger towards the disabled people."







"Lee's comments are clearly hate speech and it is extremely inappropriate for a politician and party leader to make such remarks," Kim Ye-won, an attorney at the Disability Rights Advocate Center, told The Korea Times, Sunday.







"He is intentionally attempting to make the group's arguments lose ground and hindering solidarity between the protesters and society. It is a great concern that he will be running state affairs with such a spirit."







As of Dec. 2021, 261 out of 283 metro stations in Seoul have elevators installed for the disabled and elderly.







The installation of these elevators is the result of a 39-day hunger strike by the disability advocacy group in 2002, who demanded that the city government and Seoul Metro apologize for the deaths of wheelchair users with disabilities in metro station elevator accidents and a guarantee of their right to mobility.







Former President Lee Myung-bak, who was the Seoul city mayor at the time, had promised to achieve a 100-percent installation rate. However, no city government has achieved full installation of elevators or apologized for the elevator-related deaths.


Our Monarchy is a treasured but ultimately fragile jewel. The events of the past few days have shown that all too clearly. There are widespread concerns about the Queens health, while William and Kate endured several awkward moments during their Caribbean tour.

The couple returned home today having acquitted themselves with distinction, but the institution that they represent, and which has been such a key pillar of Britains national identity for centuries, has come under attack.

For many, the Monarchy is a refuge in times of crisis. Ugly events  war in Ukraine, Covid, the rising cost of living at home  can seem less of a threat if all remains calm and stable at the centre of things.

The Queen represents the beating heart of the nation, yet her advanced age and increasing frailty expose just how delicate the bond is between sovereign and people.

It is now increasingly clear that we should not expect to see our Head of State again at any of those traditional set pieces in the Royal year  Trooping the Colour, the State Opening of Parliament, Royal Ascot and the rest.

The Queen (pictured viewing a display of artefacts on March 23) represents the beating heart of the nation, yet her advanced age and increasing frailty expose just how delicate the bond is between sovereign and people, writes Christopher Wilson

Yet there are no plans for a Regency, in which Prince Charles would formally take his mothers place as Head of State. For on her 21st birthday, the Queen pledged: I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service.

In other words, she would never give up the throne.

But make no mistake, critics of the Monarchy are lining up to attack this keystone of the British state. And William and Kates overseas tour last week has given them more ammunition.

The Royal couples appearance in Jamaica, where republican feeling runs hot and strong, was a mis-step. Having tripped, they found it difficult to regain a steady momentum.

And despite an outstanding show of Royal professionalism in the harsh glare of tropical sunlight, the dependable Royal magic of old looked as though it was wearing thin.

With Barbados so recently turning its back on the Crown and declaring itself a republic, visiting Jamaica was always going to be a gamble. With hindsight, its easy to see the flaws in the Caribbean tours planning and perception.

Principally aired on social media but significantly, too, from the BBCs Royal correspondent who described one event as some sort of white-saviour parody.

Then last night came Williams dramatic statement about the future of the Commonwealth.

For the millions who care about the future of the House of Windsor, these are dangerous times.

After her painful decision not to attend the annual Commonwealth Day service a fortnight ago, there is much anxiety over whether the Queen will go to Westminster Abbey on Tuesday for the memorial service for Prince Philip.

Quite understandably, she doesnt wish her increasing mobility problems to be broadcast around the world.

Despite last weeks charming pictures of her in a floral dress, leaning lightly on a walking stick, things have clearly become a struggle for her.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are pictured paying their respects during a visit to Abaco's Memorial Wall on Saturday to remember the victims of the hurricane

In refusing to step aside and take a back seat, it can be argued that the institution she heads is in danger of growing weaker with her.

Unquestionably, too, the combined losses of Prince Andrew and Prince Harry from the Royal ranks in deeply controversial circumstances, coupled with the death of Prince Philip, leave the Royal Family at its most vulnerable since the 1936 Abdication.

Members are undoubtedly working hard in difficult circumstances, but with ageing members such as the Duke of Kent, Princess Alexandra and the Duke of Gloucester now semi-retired, the institution looks and feels less solid.

In fairness, the Covid lockdowns, which put paid to Royals meeting people on official visits, saw the House of Windsor act with unaccustomed speed to address the changing national mood.

During the pandemic, we have seen the Royals adapt quickly to the electronic world and, in so doing, have astutely found a way to make themselves more visible to many more people.

But the more high-profile the Windsor team becomes, the greater the scrutiny and the greater the chances for error.

Many believe that Williams apology in Jamaica for Britains slave-trading past was a colossal error, aimed at appeasing a nation unready and unwilling to be appeased.

All it did was to open an old wound and served no useful purpose beyond making British Royalty look weak.

For this, William can hardly take the blame personally  his speech will have been drafted with Foreign Office direction. But now back home, as he reflects on the events of the past few days, he may ask himself whether he and his family need better advice.

Because times are changing fast. In todays social media age, where minority toxic views often out-shout the feelings of the majority, the concept of Monarchy is in danger of being viewed by younger generations as antiquated, unduly privileged and irrelevant.

In addition  for some observers at least  the danger to the Royal Familys stability lies, not in dissent from far-flung countries, but from much nearer home.

For years, there have been concerns that Prince Charles, despite his lifetime of good works and cheerful patience while he awaits the top job, has an erratic side to his nature which threatens the necessary stability that has been the hallmark of his mothers reign.

Prince Charles and Camilla are seen posing in front of a cathedral during a visit to the Rock of Cashel on March 25 in Tipperary, Ireland

Charles has pledged that, once on the throne, he will no longer interfere in politics. The so-called black-spider memos  handwritten notes he sent to Cabinet Ministers urging them into action on his pet concerns  will, we are told, cease and, as King, he will lay down his campaigning sword. But those who know Charles doubt it.

The big question is whether King Charles III will leave the institution of Monarchy in as strong a position as when he inherited it. Or will his innate bull-headedness provide more ammunition to the Monarchys critics?

Looking much further ahead, and the reign of King William V, it is to be hoped that such lessons will have been learned.

The fact is that William has, as far as we know, steered clear of political intervention, and wisely, too. From reluctant beginnings, we know he now treasures the prospect of kingship.

Most impressively, he and Kate have, month upon month and year upon year, become a glittering asset of which our nation, and the Commonwealth, can be proud. Pretty much, they have followed the path laid down by the Queen, rather than the one pioneered by Charles.

Also, William, aged 39, is untouched by the heavy burden of waiting in line which has so afflicted his father, allowing his judgment on occasion to meander.

After the bruising he received during last weeks Caribbean tour, William will surely take heed. And when he has more say about the direction the Monarchy is heading, after last weeks shambles, he should be heard.

Above all, the words of another man, a titan of the House of Windsor should be heeded.

As the world pays tribute to Prince Philip at his memorial service on Tuesday, we would do well to reflect on this great mans sense of duty, patriotism, self-sacrifice, modesty and common sense  all virtues that will guarantee that our Monarchy endures.
Prince William is one of the most popular and personable figures the Royal Family has had in years.

The public can see that he has his mother's touch and that his heart is in the right place.

With the always elegant Duchess of Cambridge at his side, approval ratings have soared.

And in the aftermath of the Harry and Meghan fiasco, and the Prince Andrew saga, he has steadied the Royal ship.

So what are we to make of last night's hastily drafted statement in which you could almost hear his angry voice dictating the words?

Prince William is one of the most popular and personable figures the Royal Family has had in years. The public can see that he has his mother's touch and that his heart is in the right place.(Above, he meets members of the public during a visit to Fish Fry - a culinary gathering place found on every island in the Bahamas)

He has given us a glimpse of the kind of thoughtful man William, at 39, is turning into and, crucially, what sort of King he will be. (Above, in the Bahamas this week)

Unhappiness certainly at the criticism that has been levelled at him and Kate for the public relations missteps that marred their Caribbean tour.

But at the same time he has given us a glimpse of the kind of thoughtful man William, at 39, is turning into and, crucially, what sort of King he will be.

When was the last time  if ever  a senior member of the Royal Family went on record to acknowledge mistakes?

And in his statement William did just that. He wants us to see that he and Kate will not turn away from censure but rather learn from it.

One particular picture of the couple joyfully making fleeting contact with the outstretched fingers of Jamaican children pushing through a wire fence will haunt Royal planners, who should have realised what a damaging image it might convey

The same might be said of the Land Rover salute that was meant as a homage to the Queen and Prince Philip's visit seven decades earlier but which some said presented an out-of-touch reminder of a more deferential age

His tone of mildly injured hurt is probably justifiable, especially in the light of those commentators such as the BBC's Royal Correspondent who appeared to blame the couple themselves for being responsible for cack-handed photo-opportunities and misreading of post-colonial sensitivities in the era of Black Lives Matter.

One particular picture of the couple joyfully making fleeting contact with the outstretched fingers of Jamaican children pushing through a wire fence will haunt Royal planners, who should have realised what a damaging image it might convey.

The same might be said of the Land Rover salute that was meant as a homage to the Queen and Prince Philip's visit seven decades earlier but which some said presented an out-of-touch reminder of a more deferential age.

It is highly unusual for a statement to be issued at the conclusion of a tour and when the cheers of the crowds in the Bahamas were almost still audible.

Perhaps William wanted the world to know how he  and Kate  feel, that they are bruised at being blamed for things they do not think they are responsible for.

Certainly, it shows a refreshing willingness to engage with criticism, something that rarely if ever happens in Royal circles, where the stoic mantra has always been, 'Never complain, never explain'.

Even as second in line to the throne you need government approval for speeches such as this.

And the Foreign Office, which will face some searching questions over its bungling of the Cambridges' three-nation tour, were only too happy to give him the go-ahead.

But was the statement the right thing to do?

Particularly since there was a key passage that has left critics and Royal supporters alike wondering why an issue was raised that never got discussed on the couple's eight-day visit  the future of the Commonwealth.

It is 25 years since a Royal tour was last hit by the kind of setbacks the Cambridges have had to endure. That was the Queen's 1997 tour to India (above), which was a diplomatic disaster as a result largely of then Labour Foreign Secretary Robin Cook's comments that suggested he backed an independent Kashmir, and another own goal over the colonial legacy when the Blair government insisted on a visit to Amritsar, the site of a massacre in 1919

Suddenly, William has opened up a tricky issue. Was he casting doubts on the role of Prince Charles, whom the Queen asked Commonwealth leaders to endorse as its next head?

Palace officials have assured that this was not the case and that William was referring to his own future prospects and wanted to emphasise that he was not taking anything for granted.

However, although it was a surprisingly clumsy intervention because his father's reign was not mentioned, it does reveal a maturity to William that we rarely see in public.

It is 25 years since a Royal tour was last hit by the kind of setbacks the Cambridges have had to endure.

That was the Queen's 1997 tour to India, which was a diplomatic disaster as a result largely of then Labour Foreign Secretary Robin Cook's comments that suggested he backed an independent Kashmir, and another own goal over the colonial legacy when the Blair government insisted on a visit to Amritsar, the site of a massacre in 1919.

On that occasion, the Queen came under fierce criticism for not issuing an adequate apology.

No such dramas afflicted William in the Caribbean, but he did discover, for the first time, that navigating the distant reaches of his grandmother's realms is not always going to be plain sailing.

And he showed that, when trouble does come along, he is prepared to take the initiative and that he is listening.

While not obsessing about the media coverage he receives  in the way his brother Harry does  William also demonstrates that he is not prepared to simply stay silent.

Just as he did in the wake of the BBC inquiry into how Martin Bashir obtained his interview with Princess Diana, William showed fighting spirit. He barely controlled the passion he felt about how his mother had been tricked.

This time he was measured, but at the same time he has shown once again that he will not be pushed around.
While weve all been enjoying the start of spring without restrictions for the first time in three years, these last few weeks Covid-19 infections have started rising across the UK.

People see this and ask me: are we going to need another lockdown? My answer is an emphatic no.

As we look back on two years since the first lockdown, Im confident we have done all we can to protect people.

As the man who was in the hot seat as Health Secretary during the pandemic, I took no pleasure in introducing these rules. Far from it.

We did what we had to do to keep people as safe as possible, during a truly unprecedented time where no one  including the best scientific minds in the world  really knew what this killer virus would do next.

I knew from early on that a vaccine was the only way out of this life-changing world event.

We had to get to a place where we could deal with Covid like we do with flu. Thats exactly where we are now. The pandemic is over.

Two years after Covid first forced us into isolation, the then Health Secretary Matt Hancock, pictured, writes: 'People ask me if we'll need a new lockdown. Thanks to the vaccine, my answer is an emphatic no'

Yes, Covid is with us and in some ways, it always will be, but we can now live with it like we live with flu  as we have been doing for the last few months.

Thanks to the vaccine, and the Prime Ministers leadership  removing all remaining restrictions before any other major country in the world  we finally have our freedoms back.

As we get back to our normal lives and we once again enjoy the things that make life worth living without legal restrictions, its quite easy to forget that in almost every other country around the world, restrictions are still in place.

There are some countries who at first were lauded for their zero Covid response.

But many of these countries that have kept high levels of restrictions throughout now have a significant problem: Covid isnt going away for them either.

Countries like China now find they are unable to live with Covid like the flu as we are. They dont have the levels of immunity.

The key question is: what now? My answer is that weve got to keep vaccinating and boosting the most vulnerable.

But theres no prospect of a lockdown. Weve done all we can.

Before there was a vaccine, lockdowns were necessary and justified to save lives.

We had to suppress the virus until we were protected by vaccines.

By contrast, figures quietly released this week show that an astonishing 99.3 per cent of the adult population now have antibodies to Covid-19. Almost everyone has some protection.

Today, we must live with the reality that diseases will always be with us and use medical science to protect us as much as possible.

People over the age of 75, and those with certain medical conditions, are now being encouraged to get a further Covid booster.

More than nine in ten over 12s have now had the jab. But less than two thirds have had the booster.

So weve got to keep that drive going to keep increasing protection.

We started work on the vaccines back in January 2020.

Many were sceptical that they would work. But I was convinced this would be our way out.

The scientists told me that a vaccine usually takes 5-10 years, but if everything went right, it could take a year to 18 months.

I set them the target of having a vaccine ready to roll-out into arms by Christmas.

So we started early, set ambitious but achievable targets, and backed the team with unprecedented levels of Government support.

We couldnt have done it without the holy trinity of academia, industry and government.

We bought vaccines early, backed our scientists, and removed regulations that would have slowed things down without improving safety.

The private sector was critical, and because of them and a flexible approach by the regulator, we were the first to vaccinate, and thats one reason why the UK is the first major country free from restrictions.

Theres a lesson in all this for how we boost innovation in future.

As we are now through the pandemic, we are able to look back and analyse what went well and what could have been done better.

The first rigorous analysis of international responses to Covid-19 by The Lancet showed the UK as one of the best major countries.

Deaths per head of the population in the UK were comparable with those in France and Germany and below Italy, Spain and the USA.

This is the only way to really measure the health impact of the pandemic. The fact is that countries measured deaths differently.

We measured very rigorously. Its important too to measure the impact of the pandemic on people dying from other diseases too  not just directly as a result of Covid.

Of course, there were mistakes. One that really got to me was our handling of funerals.

Seeing children be buried alone by people in hazmat suits or partners unable to go to the funerals of their loved ones was deeply heartbreaking.

This was not the intention as we were writing the law on this, but its how it played out.

We changed that as we saw what was happening in practice, but that really hit me.

Another problem area was not pushing harder on tackling asymptomatic transmission  which is to say the fact that people who had no symptoms could pass the virus on.

In early 2020, we were told over and over again that Covid could only be transmitted by people when they did have symptoms.

I remember phoning the WHO when there was one report out of China saying there might be asymptomatic transmission, but their response was: no we think that was a mistranslation.

For several months there was a global consensus that tests wouldnt work if you didnt have symptoms.

This, in hindsight, was wrong. Now we must reflect and learn important lessons.

Whoever finds themselves in my shoes next time, we must help them navigate through the fog of uncertainty when a new disease strikes.

The job of the inquiry is to write a guidebook for the next pandemic. Because one things for certain: there will be a next time.

We dont know if it will be in a year, a decade, or a century. But it is our duty to make the most our experience now.

We must trust the science, learn the lessons from what went well, as well as what went badly, and make sure we are prepared next time.

We owe it to those who lost their lives, and to future generations yet to come, to be ready.
With the release of its new abortion guidelines, the World Health Organisation appears to have moved from issuing technical guidance to make abortions safe for women to campaigning for the most extreme of positions.

Radical demands such as calling for abortion on demand right up to birth and allowing sex-selective terminations are driven by hardened abortion campaigners and enjoy virtually no support from the general public  and women in particular.

A recent survey for the BBC by pollster Savanta ComRes showed only one per cent of British women supported introducing abortion right through to birth.

In fact, 70 per cent of UK women believe our current gestation time limit of 24 weeks is too late and should be reduced.

The most popular time limit among women is 12 weeks, which would bring us into line with the be explicitly banned by law.

Aside from where public opinion sits on this issue, as a mother who has recently been through pregnancy, I am shocked by the position the majority of EU countries.

And nine in ten adults  89 per cent of men and 91 per cent of women  think being able to abort because the foetus is the wrong sex should World Health Organisation has taken.

With the release of its new abortion guidelines, the World Health Organisation appears to have moved from issuing technical guidance to make abortions safe for women to campaigning for the most extreme of positions. Pictured: Carla Lockhart DUP MP And Chair Of The All-party Parliamentary Pro-life Group

When I sat at my 12-week scan, I heard my sons heartbeat and saw him for the first time.

His body was already fully formed, with all his organs, muscles, limbs and bones in place. He could open and close his hands, move his arms and legs.

Seeing the humanity of him there, even at that relatively early stage, it is beyond belief to me that the WHO is calling for abortion to be legal right through to birth.

Why has it taken such a hardline view which pretends a baby has no humanity until it breathes its first breath?

A view that denies every single one of those not yet born any of the human rights the WHO so loudly exalts?

Disability rights activist, Heidi Crowter (centre), with her mother, Liz Crowter (left) and DUP MP Carla Lockhart (right) outside Downing Street, London, whilst a police officer delivers her petition of 18,000 signatures calling for changes to the abortion laws in Northern Ireland

If one looks at the list of experts it chose to consult ahead of issuing its new guidelines, a clue emerges.

For the panel includes numerous individuals who work for major abortion providers or lobby groups, including two of the largest abortion providers in the world  MSI Reproductive Choices (formerly Marie Stopes International) and Planned Parenthood.

It appears to have been written, to all intents and purposes, by the abortion industry.

The WHO has allowed itself to be hijacked by these extremists.

It should recall this document immediately.
Normally I'm quite grumpy about Mother's Day. For a start, every day is Mother's Day if you're a mother.

Also, I loathe how, like so many other things, it's become an opportunity for pointless wokeness.

Numerous firms have contacted me, asking if I'm offended if their emails use the word 'motherhood'. My answer is that I'm not. But I am offended to be asked at all.

But this year, Mother's Day has real meaning. Not just for the mothers of Ukraine.

Like so many affected by the pandemic, I haven't seen my mother since 2019.

And during that time  which has seen a period of particular personal trouble for myself  I have realised more than ever just how much she means to me, and how much I miss her.

This year, Mother's Day has real meaning. Not just for the mothers of Ukraine. Like so many affected by the pandemic, I haven't seen my mother since 2019, says SARAH VINE (pictured)

Every child loves their mother in their own particular way, each one is shaped by her.

But I just want to say publicly what a remarkable person my mother is; how lucky I feel to be able to call her mine; and that she is still here to offer her love and support to me and my children.

There has never been another person who has supported me like she has.

Not blindly, not unconditionally, for I have done many stupid things against her advice, some of which I have regretted, others not.

But throughout it all she has shown not only kindness and understanding, but also wisdom, patience and infinite generosity.

Don't get me wrong, she was never one of those mothers who allowed the role to eclipse them. She always made it clear to me, from a young age, that it was her life, too, and I was not the only thing in it.

But I never felt short-changed. On the contrary: Mum's strength and character have always been the qualities I've admired most in her, as well as her immovable moral compass, inherited, I think, in large part from her own mother, an Army wife whose years of suffering made her an exceptional individual.

Both women, each a tower of strength in their very different ways, taught me what it means to be a woman, and how it's possible to be the custodian of a child's character without stifling their true self.

Every child loves their mother in their own particular way, each one is shaped by her. (Posed by models)

While other mothers imposed their own expectations on their children, transmitted their own anxieties and shortcomings, mine did nothing of the sort.

She set out to provide me with the tools for living, without insisting that I use them how she wanted me to.

She allowed me to make my own mistakes, believing, I think, that failure is sometimes as important as success.

She kept her distance while always being there for me, respecting my autonomy but never being afraid to step in when I needed her. And she did all this without an ounce of resentment or judgment.

Of course, there are things about my mum that infuriate me. She is, and always has been, so much more glamorous than me which, in my younger years, caused me much anxiety.

But at the same time, I was secretly proud that my friends were in awe of her, and that while other mothers were padding around in comfortable shoes, mine wore high heels and smoked cigars.

For a woman of her generation, she was, and still is, remarkably uncompromising, defiantly unconcerned about what others may think of her.

She had me very young, against the advice of many, and lived an adventurous and rather brave life, against the grain but never chaotic or out of control.

In her own elegant way, she broke a lot of taboos, not so much to draw attention to herself but because, I think, she felt it was the right thing to do.

But perhaps the quality I admire most is her flexibility. She is not someone who is ever set in her ways. She will always listen to another point of view, even if ultimately she disagrees.

And she is never scared of change. Every day is a new opportunity, a new challenge. Her latest is a local project, where she lives in Italy, to help Ukrainian children.

She spends her days, all eight-and-a-half stone of her, carrying boxes of clothes and toys to give to new arrivals.

Whenever I call, she's either loading or unloading a car, breathless, ready to make another delivery.

It makes me prouder than I can say to know that another generation of children are benefiting from her kindness and generosity.

If I can claim any sort of success in life, it's thanks to her. It just remains to say, to her and to all the others out there: Happy Mother's Day.

Oscars have become a celebrity woke-fest

What's the point of the Oscars any more?

Once, they offered a rare thrill to see Hollywood's finest off screen, speaking lines that hadn't been written for them, or watching them a little worse for wear.

Today, there is no crevice of celebrities' lives that's not either on display, monetised or for sale.

All that's left of the Oscars are terrible frocks, dreadful acceptance speeches  and Emma Watson being smug

The Oscars, too, have long ceased to have anything to do with talent. Now, they simply serve as a barometer of political correctness.

All that's left are terrible frocks, dreadful acceptance speeches  and Emma Watson being smug.

Noble end-of-tour words from Prince William.

He's right that 'the future is for the people to decide upon'.

His statement strikes the right note even if it's tinged with sadness.

But I imagine it's the Queen who'll feel most sadness, as the end of an era she has presided over so gracefully draws to a close.

I've some sympathy for Rishi Sunak, who's had a week from hell.

No one cared about his multi-million-pound family fortune when he was dishing out the dosh during lockdown.

Now he's being slow-roasted on a spit. I have no useful advice, save to say he should get out while his sanity  and marriage  is still intact.

I've some sympathy for Rishi Sunak, who's had a week from hell

Blame online porn for rape culture

Despite being told that girls have been subject to a 'rape culture' in schools, an extensive investigation by the Met Police has resulted in no prosecutions.

Though this suggests the claims were false, I believe that it proves the law is inadequate to deal with sexual assault.

It works only with clear-cut cases of rape  whereas many victims' testimonies are ambiguous or historical and very hard to prove.

That said, there's a single common denominator in many cases: online pornography, which informs so much of the abusive attitudes reported.

Until young minds are shielded from the worst excess of the adult world, these terrible behaviours will keep happening, and girls, and boys, will have their lives blighted.

'This is Archetypes  the podcast where we dissect, explore and subvert the labels that try to hold women back,' gushes the Duchess of Sussex in a teaser for her long-awaited 18 million Spotify series. Meghan, darling, the BBC's Woman's Hour has been doing that since 1946. For free.

Trans swimmer Lia Thomas, who is said to still have male genitalia, apparently likes to wander naked around the ladies' changing rooms.

As she's also sexually attracted to women, this understandably makes her team-mates feel deeply uncomfortable.

I'm starting to think that, male or female, Lia, is at best a fool, at worst a thoroughly nasty piece of work.

Trans swimmer Lia Thomas, who is said to still have male genitalia, apparently likes to wander naked around the ladies' changing rooms

William and Kate did what Diana would have done

Much confected hysteria about the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge greeting locals in Jamaica through a chain-link fence.

The BBC's Jonny Dymond accused them of 'white saviour parody', and Omid Scobie, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's pet 'journalist', gleefully commented how 'out of touch' they looked.

But what were they supposed to do when welcomed by a sea of outstretched hands? Ignore them? Call security, as Meghan did when she cut short a visit to a women's project in Fiji after just eight minutes? Apparently, she felt 'overwhelmed'.

I daresay Kate and William might have done too; but instead of running away, they returned the greetings.

It was a spontaneous gesture typical of Princess Diana. Only a twisted mind  or one with a certain agenda  would see it as anything else.

Much confected hysteria about the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge greeting locals in Jamaica through a chain-link fence

The worst thing about the great 'what is a woman?' debate is not so much the fact that virtually no politician can muster a cogent answer, it's that the question has to be asked at all.

Radio 4 presenter Justin Webb is thinking of getting a tattoo, partly, he jokes, because he's often mistaken for colleague Nick Robinson. Considering how many people have tattoos, surely he'd stand out more without one?

It's hard to find much to cheer the soul; but an occasional nugget of unadulterated joy comes along to restore faith in humanity.

This week, it was a dad from the Lake District who tweeted that his 12-year-old son, Gabriel, was making wooden bowls and chopping boards to save up for a mountain bike.

However, as his boy had been ridiculed by bullies, he asked people to give him a boost and follow him on social media.

Now, he has upwards of 66,000 Twitter followers and thousands of orders that he can't fulfil.

So he's making a bowl to auction, with the proceeds going to help Ukrainians. A story that proves humanity IS worth saving after all.
Sir Keir Starmer has been reported to the equalities watchdog, I can reveal.

The Leader of Her Majesty's Official Opposition has drawn complaints over the answer he gave when asked: what is a woman?

Members of the public have asked the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to get involved over his response that 'trans women are women'.

J. K. Rowling had already waded in. The Harry Potter author said Labour could 'no longer be counted on to defend women's rights'.

Senior party figures have gone further, and said such 'drivel' is alienating so-called Red Wall voters who defected to the Tories at the 2019 General Election.

Sir Keir Starmer has been reported to the equalities watchdog, I can reveal. The Leader of Her Majesty's Official Opposition has drawn complaints over the answer he gave when asked: what is a woman? Members of the public have asked the Equality and Human Rights Commission to get involved over his response that 'trans women are women'

J. K. Rowling had already waded in. The Harry Potter author said Labour could 'no longer be counted on to defend women's rights'

In a recent newspaper interview, human rights QC Starmer said: 'A woman is a female adult, and, in addition to that, trans women are women, and that is not just my view, that is actually the law. It has been the law through the combined effects of the 2004 [Gender Recognition] Act and the 2010 [Equality] Act.

'So that's my view. It also happens to be the law in the UK.'

You'd think, having been Director of Public Prosecutions for almost five years, he should know.

But an EHRC source tells me some of the complaints say Starmer is misrepresenting the law.

A former Labour Minister said last night: 'There's not a single person in the country who used to vote Labour, but backed Boris, whom Starmer will win back by appealing to trendy teenagers and woke students with this drivel.

'He needs to get out of London and listen to people in places such as Sedgefield, Walsall and Bassetlaw who will have no problem telling him in plain English what a woman is.'

All this raises another question: 'What is an effective Leader of the Opposition?'

It was only a matter of time before the P&O scandal was linked to former Transport Secretary Chris 'failing' Grayling.

He reportedly oversaw the legal change in 2018 that allowed the ferry company to legally sack 800 staff.

At the time the law was changed, P&O's owner, DP World, was led in the UK by Chris Lewis.

Now a backbencher, Grayling is paid 100,000 a year as a 'strategic adviser' to Hutchison Ports Europe, whose UK boss until recently was... Chris Lewis.

Strong-arm tactic of Tory enforcer Chris

It's no pain, no gain for the new Chief Whip, who is quietly letting MPs know that his weekend hobby is power-lifting.

Chris Heaton-Harris films himself deadlifting 190kg  about 420lb  and sources in the Whips' office confirm that flexing pecs is going to be 'his thing'.

The 54-year-old Tory enforcer may be able to crush puny dissenters but power-lifting the Government's reputation back to life could prove him to be more Olive Oyl than Popeye.

Chris Heaton-Harris films himself deadlifting 190kg  about 420lb  and sources in the Whips' office confirm that flexing pecs is going to be 'his thing'

Police Minister Kit Malthouse told the Commons that his thoughts were with the family of Daniel Morgan as he spoke about a damning report on the Metropolitan Police's corrupt, incompetent and uncaring approach to tackling the axe murder of the private investigator in 1987.

But Malthouse forgot to alert the Morgan family in advance.

The omission drew a stinging rebuke from Daniel's brother Alastair, who said 'nobody in the Government had the courtesy to tell us' about the statement.

He wondered if the Police Minister was simply 'a buffer between anyone sensible and Priti Patel'.

The Home Secretary angered Alastair Morgan last year for delaying publication of the eight-year inquiry that found the Met's response to the unsolved murder to be 'institutionally corrupt'.

I hear Malthouse quickly offered the Morgans a Zoom meeting on Friday afternoon.

Sadly, officials were unable to make the connection work properly. Another shambles.
The Duchess of Cambridge mixed trendy designers with high street brands during her royal tour of the Caribbean - wearing 34,332.95 worth of new clothing for the week-long visit.

Kate Middleton, 40, ticked off some of her go-to designer labels throughout the tour, including Jenny Packham and Alexander McQueen, as well as some of her favourite high-street brands, like Anthropologie.

The Duchess also donned trendy modern designers, including The Vampire's Wife, which is loved by royals and A-listers including Princess Beatrice.

The royal also opted to wear vintage pieces from a small English boutique , Willow Hilson, as well as Yves Saint Laurent and Stella McCartney.

One of her most expensive outfits came as she left Jamaica last night, in a 1,655 Alessandra Rich dress, with 560 Gianvito Rossi shoes, 598 bag from Ferragamo and 3,400 earrings.

Other stand out dresses included a bespoke green glittering gown from Jenny Packham at an estimated 3,791 and a Phillipa Lepley dress at an estimated 6,500.

The Duchess of Cambridge mixed trendy designers with high street brands during her royal tour of the Caribbean - wearing 35,000 worth of new clothing for the brief week-long visit

She also opted to wear vintage pieces from a small English boutique, Willow Hilson (left, carrying a bag from the store, and right, in a dress which was adapted)

The Duchess also paid tribute to both the Queen and Princess Diana during her week-long trip.

She borrowed jewels from her late mother-in-law's jewellery box, wearing a diamond and sapphire pendant crafted from one of Diana's favourite jewellery collections for her first appearance on the tour.

The design of the necklace is strikingly similar to a pair of earrings worn by Princess Diana, which come from one of Diana's most famous collections of jewels known as 'The Saudi Suite'.

And the monarch has kindly lent several items to the Duchess for the high profile tour, including a pair of pearl studs and a pair of gold and emerald drop earrings.

Kate Middleton, who is known for her love of rewearing older pieces, rarely repeated older outfits for the tour, donning just one Emilia Wickstead dress from 2021

Meanwhile she made subtle tribute to the Queen and Princess Diana by wearing pieces from their jewellery boxes (left, in Diana's earrings and necklace, and right, wearing the Queen's jewels)

However in a step away from the norm for Kate, she has rarely repeated older pieces from her wardrobe.

She only wore one recycled outfit during the tour, opting for an older green Emilia Wickstead dress as she left Jamaica to travel to the Bahamas.

The Prince of Wales is understood to cover the costs of Kate's wardrobes for 'work-related' engagements through his official household budget, funded by the Duchy of Cornwall, but it is not clear whether the Duchess always pays full price for outfits or receives discounts.
China calls for restraint regarding nuclear issue on Korean Peninsula

Xinhua) 07:34, March 27, 2022

-- The direct parties to the peninsula issue, namely the United States and the DPRK, should re-engage in direct talks without delay, says Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations.

-- The DPRK's legitimate concerns must be addressed and both the United States and the DPRK must resume direct talks as soon as possible, he says.

UNITED NATIONS, March 26 (Xinhua) -- China on Friday called for restraint on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue after the test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile was conducted by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) the previous day.

"Under the current circumstances, we call on the parties concerned to stay calm, exercise restraint, stay on the right track of dialogue and consultation, and avoid taking any action that may exacerbate the tensions and lead to miscalculations," China's permanent representative to the United Nations Zhang Jun told the Security Council meeting on the situation of the Korean Peninsula.

"As the peninsula's next door neighbor, China has been consistent in advocating and promoting the peninsula's peace and stability, its de-nuclearization, and the approach of seeking a solution through dialogue and consultation," Zhang said, adding that "we hope the United States and the DPRK will actively pursue dialogue and engagement in search of an effective solution to settle their differences."

Zhang said the direct parties to the peninsula issue, namely the United States and the DPRK, should re-engage in direct talks without delay.

"It is right and proper for the U.S. side to show its goodwill, take actions that have practical relevance, and work harder to stabilize the situation, build mutual trust, and relaunch dialogue," the envoy noted.

He underscored that given the evolving situation, the international community should stick to prudence and reason on the peninsula issue, and play a positive, constructive role in bringing about a political settlement of the peninsula issue.

Photo provided by Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on March 25, 2022 shows the test-launch of a new type intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) Hwasongpho-17 of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) strategic forces. (Korean Central News Agency/Handout via Xinhua)

"No parties should take any action that would lead to greater tensions, and the Peninsula cannot afford the risk of any dramatic change, much less a reversal of the situation with dire consequences," said Zhang, noting that "what needs to happen now, as a matter of urgency, is for the parties concerned to actively seek a political way out of the impasse on the basis of existing understandings in light of the latest developments."

"China calls on the parties to put the greater good of peace and stability on the peninsula first, speak and act with caution, pursue dialogue and consultation, take the dual-track approach guided by the principle of moving forward in phases with synchronized steps, and work tirelessly to denuclearize the Peninsula and to build a peace mechanism thereon," said the ambassador.

He pointed out that the DPRK's legitimate concerns must be addressed and both the United States and the DPRK must resume direct talks as soon as possible.

"It is imperative to interpret and implement the Security Council resolutions concerning the DPRK in a comprehensive manner. These resolutions should be implemented comprehensively, completely and accurately," the envoy said.

"The fact that the peninsula issue is deadlocked is to some degree attributable to the absence of effective implementation of certain provisions therein. The parties concerned should take this issue seriously, and take practical actions rather than put one-sided emphasis on the sanctions provisions therein," he stressed.

Zhang underlined that the council should play a constructive role when it comes to the peninsula issue, adding that it should not stress the need for sanctions and pressurization to the exclusion of other considerations.

"It is in the common interest of all countries to safeguard the international nuclear non-proliferation regime. At this important juncture for the persistent and intractable nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, certain countries ignore the concerns of the international community and went ahead with their nuclear submarine cooperation, which poses a serious risk of nuclear proliferation," he said.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Bianji)
President Moon Jae-in and then Prosecutor General Yoon Suk-yeol are seen at Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul, in this July 25, 2019, file photo. Yonhap



President Moon Jae-in and President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol will hold their first meeting at Cheong Wa Dae this week, their aides said Sunday.



The two are set to hold a dinner meeting at the Sangchunje Guest House, Monday, 19 days after Yoon was elected Moon's successor, Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson Park Kyung-mee and Yoon's spokesperson Kim Eun-hye said in separate press briefings.



Moon and Yoon will be accompanied by presidential chief of staff Yoo Young-min and Yoon's top aide, Rep. Chang Je-won.



The decision on their meeting was finalized after Moon offered to meet Yoon at the "earliest possible" date, while Yoon expressed his hope to meet without any agenda and engage in "candid" dialogue, according to the briefings.






Prince William and Kate Middleton are trying to appear 'friendly and fun' by adopting a more casual approach to their social media, a brand expert has claimed.

The Duke, 39, and Duchess of Cambridge, 40, have just returned from a whirlwind seven day tour of the Caribbean, with stops in Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas.

During the trip, the couple broke the Buckingham Palace 'no selfie' rule, posing for snaps with the Olympic Bobsleigh team as well as Early Childhood Commission chairman Trisha K Williams-Singh.

They have also adopted a more personal tone in their approach to social media during their trip, dropping all official titles from Instagram captions and tweets and writing many in first person.

Brand expert Nick Ede told FEMAIL the change to the couple's social media strategy was intentional in order for the Duke and Duchess to give a sense of 'friendship and fun'.

Brand expert Nick Ede told FEMAIL the change to the couple's social media strategy was intentional in order to give a sense of 'friendship and fun' to the Duke and Duchess

He explained: 'The word selfie and the action with your phone breaks down barriers, makes you feel included and gives a sense of friendship, fun and kindness all three thing the future King and Queen portray daily.

'This move is one that once again shows that they are progressive and understand the need to move with the times and appear more accessible and for the people.

'Like most Hollywood stars who stop for a selfie or who make it a 'thing' like Tom Cruise, the royal couple know that it's going to cause a stir, create excitement and ultimately make everyone smile which is part of the revolution of kindness that's happening nowadays.'

The Queen is known not to like selfies because she prefers to make eye contact with the public, but younger royals such as the Cambridges and Harry and Meghan appear to enjoy them.

During the couple's tour of Jamaica, they have been snapped enjoying a selfie at several different points - including meeting the bobsleigh team

Locals were able to take a rare selfie with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at the event earlier this week

Posing for pictures with the public is not the only change Kate and Prince William have made to their social media strategy during the Caribbean tour.

The Duke and Duchess shared a video as they went scuba-diving through coral reefs while visiting Belize at the start of their tour.

Meanwhile they also compiled snapshots from the week-long trip in an Instagram 'Guide', one of only three on their official page.

It allows followers of the couple to see a compilation of images from their tour with ease.

Tweets from the tour appear to be written by the couple themselves, with tweets in the last few days reading: 'What a incredible day at Trench Town', 'Good morning! We're looking forward to our first full day in Belize' and 'Catherine and I are delighted to be here in Belize at the beginning of our first official visit to the Caribbean'

The couple have also adopted a first person, casual tone for their Instagram posts during the tour.

The change in tone is likely to have been part of the 'charm offensive' from the royal couple who are visiting Belize, Jamaica and The Bahamas in an attempt to drum up support for the monarchy ahead of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

Tweets from the tour appear to be written by the couple themselves, with tweets in the last few days reading: 'What a incredible day at Trench Town', 'Good morning! We're looking forward to our first full day in Belize' and 'Catherine and I are delighted to be here in Belize at the beginning of our first official visit to the Caribbean'.

Tweets from previous royal tours often refer to the couple in third person, using HRH titles or referring to them as the 'Duke and Duchess' rather than by their first names.

Tweets from previous royal tours often refer to the couple in third person, using HRH titles or referring to them as the 'Duke and Duchess' rather than by their first names. They are also more formal in tone, something that might be expected from royal communications.

They are also more formal in tone, something that might be expected from royal communications.

However, the new tweets use exclamation marks, more emojis and emotive words in another sign of a modernisation of the monarchy.

One tweet from November reads: ' This evening The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge joined The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall for a #COP26 reception, which saw Her Majesty The Queen address the assembled delegates via a recorded message

Another from a recent visit says: 'The Duke and Duchess' next visit was to the East London Mosque and London Muslim Centre in Whitechapel, where volunteers have played an important role in supporting members of their community by helping to deliver warm meals, food and medication to the most vulnerable.'
A 30-year-old property investor who owns a staggering 43 homes has revealed why others shouldn't delay entering the market - and his secrets to building a successful portfolio.

At 18, Eddie Dilleen, from Mt Druitt in western Sydney, bought his first two-bedroom apartment on the Central Coast for $138,000 and rented it out for $220 per week.

Today his impressive portfolio is worth more than $20million dollars with houses spanning across Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide.

Mr Dilleen told Daily Mail Australia the three key features he looks for in a property is a high yield (income return), capital growth and ensuring the price is below market value.

'Anyone can invest in property, but you need to consider your goals and think long-term,' he said.

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Eddie Dilleen, from Mt Druitt in western Sydney, (pictured left) owns 43 properties with an estimated value of more than $20million dollars

Mr Dilleen told Daily Mail Australia the three key features he looks for in a property is a high yield (income return), capital growth and ensuring the price is below market value

Mr Dilleen believes you don't need to be earning six-figures in order to get your foot into the real estate market.

When he purchased his first four properties, Mr Dilleen was earning $50,000 per year, and bought another four on a $65,000 salary in 2016.

'It's all about understanding how the banks lend you money - having a high yield means you can continue to borrow,' he said.

'Start small and get in as soon as you can.'

Mr Dilleen also suggested purchasing existing properties rather than new builds which are often on small blocks of land.

He also encourages 'rentvesting' - a tactic that sees buyers rent a property where they want to live and buy an investment property in a suburb they can afford.

Mr Dilleen believes you don't need to be earning six-figures in order to get your foot into the real estate market

Mr Dilleen grew up in housing commission and became interested in real estate when he started working at McDonald's at 14.

Based on conversations had with co-workers and others, he quickly understood buying into real estate was the perfect strategy to build wealth.

'From humble beginnings, I grew up in a rough neighbourhood and no one in my family owned a home,' he said.

'Mum struggled to put food on the table, we had to buy secondhand clothes from the Salvos, it was very rough financially.

'I remember when I was 12 thinking "this sucks" and wished things were different  I wanted to break out of the cycle.'

Mr Dilleen smiles in front of one of his properties in Parramatta, Sydney's western suburbs

The 30-year-old bought an Ipswich two-bedroom villa (pictured) for $133,000 in May 2020

He has also splashed on a $875,000 property in Sydney for his mother (pictured)

Mr Dilleen quickly wanted to buy more investment properties and eventually be able to live off the rental income.

Rather than following the 'old school mentality' of paying off the initial loan first, he decided to leverage the capital gains and bought his second property at 21.

'I realised there's another way instead of paying one property off - it's all about looking at the long-term gain,' he said.

Mr Dilleen explained that if he focused on paying off the loan of the first property quickly, he'd be left with the income of a single investment, which isn't enough to live off.

'It's about the scalability - instead of paying it off, why not use the funds to buy more investment properties?' he said.

'For example, instead of putting in $30,000 a year into the investment, that could be used to buy another property.'

Some of Mr Dilleen's purchases during Covid-19 include a $437,000 duplex in Brisbane (pictured)

What to consider when buying an investment property: Consider your long-term goals Start small and get in as soon as you can Buy a property with a high yield return Buy below market value at a discounted rate Don't pay off the loan - use the repayments to buy more properties Be realistic about your finances and speak to an expert for assistance Advertisement

The investor has just written his first book 30 properties before 30, which shares his tips and tricks for investing in property.

He recommends starting off small, by purchasing something to get a foot in the market and to try not to be emotional about where you buy.

He also suggests putting down a small deposit, suggesting first home buyers can snap up a property with as little as a 5 per cent deposit.

'Most people think they need a 20 per cent deposit but you can buy your first property for as little as 5 per cent down,' he said.

'Brisbane is one of the best markets to be buying in right now, you can buy a property for $300,000 so 5 per cent of that is $15,000.'

He said to focus on rental return of properties and buy property below market value by looking for those who want to sell fast.
Australian celebrity scientist Dr Karl Kruszelnicki has revealed the alarming reason why you should always be flushing the toilet with the lid down.

In a video posted to TikTok, Dr Karl, 73, who has degrees in medicine and biomedical engineering, said flushing with the lid up releases a 'polluted plume of bacteria and water vapour'.

He said the particles eventually land around your bathroom, sometimes even on your toothbrush.

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Australian celebrity scientist Dr Karl Kruszelnicki explained the reason you should always be flushing the toilet with the lid down

Dr Karl, 73, who has degrees in medicine and biomedical engineering, said flushing with the lid up releases a 'polluted plume of bacteria and water vapour'

'If you flush with the toilet lid up you could be brushing your teeth with toilet water,' he said in the clip.

The popular scientist said when you flush with the lid up, bacteria and water particles 'erupt' from the toilet bowl into the air around the bathroom.

'The plume and water particles float around for a few hours around your bathroom before they all eventually land and some of them could even land on your toothbrush,' he said.

'I guess that's one way to get the males in your household to put the lid down.'

He said the particles eventually land around your bathroom, sometimes even on your toothbrush

Since it was posted yesterday, the clip has received more than 180,600 views and a barrage of horrified responses.

'I did not know that. Loo separate from bathroom but will flush with lid down from now on,' one fan said.

'And just like thatthe seat will be down from now on,' a second wrote.

Many commenters were thankful their toilet was in a separate room from the bathroom and others said flushing with the lid down was a household rule.

'My mum instilled always putting the lid down. Thats my house rule. Always. Not in use, lid is down. Nobody wants to see inside a toilet anyway,' one person explained.

Many commenters were thankful their toilet was in a separate room from the bathroom and others said flushing with the lid down was a household rule

'This is why my toothbrush is in the cupboard, and also why Im glad our toilet is separate to the actual bathroom,' another commented.

'Ive said this for so long! However I didnt know they lingered. Now public toilets will be an even scarier place,' a third said.

Some questioned whether the particles would make you sick and joked that it builds immunity.

'Youre unlikely to get sick but the concept of putting faecal matter in my mouth isnt something I want to do' Dr Karl responded.
There's something different about my house. It contains only me. My boyfriend David is away on a work trip and my son recently moved out into his own place.

Its not the spending time alone thats weird, but being in this particular space alone. Ive been unprepared for how strange the rooms feel, as if my surroundings have a filter on them which makes them appear just that bit unusual.

When you live with other people, you take for granted their presence. There are the sounds as they move about: a kettle boiling downstairs, the loo flushing, the banging of the front door, the muffled words of their voice while on the phone.

Alexandra Shulman, pictured, has revealed that with her son having recently left home and her boyfriend David away on a work trip, she has found it slightly odd being in the house alone

When you live with other people, you take for granted their presence. There are the sounds as they move about: a kettle boiling downstairs, the loo flushing, the banging of the front door, the muffled words of their voice while on the phone

Such activities are aural wallpaper, the background to the day. But without them the space is noisily silent. Birdsong sounds louder, with no competition. An altercation in the street seems closer than normal.

Nothing moves unless you move it yourself  the rooms are set in aspic: no coffee cups left lying around, no clothes dumped in the laundry bin, no biscuit wrappers on the kitchen counter. Its spooky.

For many years, I was the one who frequently spent time away  coming back to complain about dead flowers left in the vase or a broken lightbulb not replaced. But now Im the one left behind alone, my footsteps echoing around the place.

Waking in the morning with nobody either next to me or padding around in the kitchen is rather pleasant.

Im loving being able to switch on the radio while Im lying in bed, and theres something peaceful about making a coffee alone to greet the day, especially during sunny mornings.

But as the hours pass, time alone becomes less appealing. There is no one to listen to my grumbles about an email I have received, or share a small triumph, or to tell me to relax if I get worked up about something or other. There is no one to share tasks with, or to nag about the bins or the catfood or a diary date.

Evenings are way too long without a companion, and the dark hours before dawn even less pleasant than usual to inhabit alone.

This reaction to my solitary state somewhat shocks me.

I dont consider myself a dependent person and for years I lived contentedly alone before marriage and children. But, clearly, Ive become inculcated into coupledom. The indulgence and freedom of hanging out on my own at home are less pleasurable than I expected. Anyway, its not for very long. David returns in a week or so and I am hoping the visa for the Ukrainian refugee couple we have invited into our home will come through so they can join us. And, no doubt soon, Ill be craving 24 hours with just my own company.

Panic over  my vodkas Latvian

Poor old Loro Piana. The upmarket, hugely expensive and utterly covetable Italian clothing brand has been getting shtick after Vladimir Putin was spotted wearing one of its 10,000 jackets.

His choice was no surprise as all the big-name brands have been hugely reliant on Russian customers for years.

But now that most oligarchs have gone to ground, theres not much opportunity to eye them in their Moncler puffas, or touting their Dior bags and Balenciaga trainers.

Poor old Loro Piana. The upmarket, hugely expensive and utterly covetable Italian clothing brand has been getting shtick after Vladimir Putin was spotted wearing one of its 10,000 jackets

Even so, to be on the safe side, many brands are doing their utmost to distance themselves from the Russians they have relied on.

This wariness has trickled down to the high end of the beauty business. A hair colourist I know, who has just flown to the Maldives to attend to the locks of one of his regular Russian clients, is telling everyone its his last such trip  despite this personal attention making up a chunk of his earnings.

Of course, its unfair to tarnish all Russians with the actions of their awful leader but the qualms about all things Russian are contagious. As I unpacked my shopping the other day, I suddenly worried about the Stolichnaya vodka.

Was I bankrolling the Russian regime? Phew  panic over. The labels small print said that it was Latvian. Ive never been more relieved to see the name Riga.

A bad workman blames the sun

The glorious sunshine has been good news for most people, but not, I suspect, for anyone renovating a house. My personal survey shows that almost all construction workers in London have downed their tools to bask like cats outside building sites.

Thankfully for those hoping to get refurbishment work finished, the balmy rays are due to disappear imminently.

Mothers Day just plays with the mind

Mother's Day is a particularly annoying institution. Just like Halloween and Valentines Day, its now a marketing exercise for gifts and cards thats hard to escape.

I dont feel it necessary to care much about Mothers Day. In particular, I dont want to subliminally expect some kind of loving gesture from my child (which I almost certainly wont receive), and which I will then (even though I dont want to care) slightly mind about not getting.

Madeleine sent her message by brooch

Madeleine Albright, the former US Secretary of State who died last week, was famous not only for her diplomacy but for her collection of brooches. One depicted the Three Wise Monkeys (See No Evil, Hear No Evil and Speak No Evil) and she wore it on her lapel to meet Putin to discuss human rights violations in Chechnya.

I wonder what brooch she would have chosen to wear had she met him today?

Madeleine Albright, the former US Secretary of State who died last week, was famous not only for her diplomacy but for her collection of brooches

Gulp! Pizza night now costs 160

A bill of 160 for a bottle of wine and two pizzas struck me as excessive the other night. As did prices on the wine list at another local joint, starting at 42 a bottle. Why the sudden huge hike in restaurant wine prices? Its one of the few things that cant be blamed on the Ukraine war, surely? And it cant be Brexit, as English wines are just as pricey.
Australian men spilled their secrets admitting they rarely buy shower products for themselves and use whatever is already in the bathroom.

In a video posted to TikTok co-founders of male body care brand, Huxden, Olivia Burrows and Catie O'Neil, took to the streets of Melbourne to ask tradies about their showering habits.

The businesswomen asked more than 100 random tradies on the street if they were guilty of stealing other people's stuff in the shower.

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In a video posted to TikTok, co-founders of male body care brand, Huxden , Olivia Burrows and Catie O'Neil, took to the streets of Melbourne to ask tradies about their showering habits

The businesswomen asked more than 100 random tradies on the street if they were guilty of stealing other people's stuff in the shower

They even bumped into Married at First Sight alum Sam Carraro who said he gets 'excited' exploring all the products when he uses a 'girl's shower' and that he is guilty of pinching body wash, shampoo and conditioner.

Many of the other male interviewees also admitted to using other people's stuff in the shower and most said they use whatever their wife or mum buys.

'I think I stole it from my mum's house,' one man admitted.

'Yeah, 100 per cent, the wife,' another agreed.

'I just leave the dirt on my body,' one tradie confessed.

Most of the men said they use whatever shower products their wife, partner or mum buys

The clip has been viewed more than 205,500 times and drew in dozens of amused comments.

'Love the nervous foot taps,' one woman joked.

'Defo take the hotel shampoo/conditioner - parents taught me that one,' a man wrote.

Olivia and Catie conducted the vox-pops as market research for their new male body care range.

They found most men tend to use shower products that have been bought for them by women and it's uncommon for them to buy it themselves.

The Melbourne bestie businesswomen behind the best-selling My Glow 2 exfoliating glove have turned their attention to male hygiene with Huxden after getting tired of the men in their lives stealing their skincare.

Huxden, described by its founders as My Glow 2's 'bold and cheeky brother', has a range of body care tools for men.

Starting from $19.95, the tools include a body buffing exfoliating glove, facial brush to remove dead and dry skin, scalp brush to remove dirt, manage dandruff and promote healthy hair.
Iconic haircare brand GHD is slashing the prices of its iconic range of hair styling tools as part of the Good Hair Day global sale.

Home hair stylists can get up to 25 per cent off some of their favourite gadgets including hair dryers, straighteners, hot brushes and curling wands.

To get an extra 10 per cent off shoppers can use the code GOODHAIR10 at the checkout.

Shoppers better be quick to snap up the discounted hair styling tools as the sale end tomorrow, March 28.

Home hair stylists can get up to 25 per cent off some of their favourite gadgets including hair dryers, straighteners, hot brushes and curling wands as part of GHD's Good hair Day sale

Shoppers better be quick to snap up the discounted hair styling tools as the sale end tomorrow, March 28

GHD has slashed 25 per cent off the unplugged cordless hair straightener saving you a whopping $123.

The professional hair dryer is 20 per cent off down from $310 to $248 and you can get $50 off the platinum hair straightener gift set with a brush and heat resistant bag.

The air hair dryer, hot brushes, wave wand, curl tongs and straighteners are also included in the 20 per cent off deal.

GHD has slashed 25 per cent off the unplugged cordless hair straightener saving you a whopping $123 and the professional hair dryer is 20 per cent off down from $310 to $248

Customers can get $50 off the platinum hair straightener gift set with a brush and heat resistant bag

Customers can also get a heat resistant bag valued at $45 with the promo code 'GOODHAIRDAY'.

Just this month the popular British hair care brand released its thinnest curling wand yet so customers can create effortlessly 80s-style tight curls in just three seconds flat.

The 'curve thin wand' features a unique 14mm barrel to create defined and even curls that last for up to 24 hours in the hair with no extreme heat required.

Using the optimum styling temperature of 185 degrees and a speedy 30 second heat up time, the $250 device can take you from dead straight to a perm with ease - and thousands of customers agree.

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The 'curve thin wand ' features a unique 14mm barrel to create defined and even curls that last for up to 24 hours in the hair with no extreme heat required

'The GHD thin wand is great for any hair length and curl type, even for super short hair. The consistent temperature creates curls that look healthy and bouncy. This is my new go-to tool for creating unique and head turning curls,' Global brand ambassador Charlotte Mensah said.

'I'm so excited about the GHD thin wand given my natural corkscrew curl and until now, there haven't been enough hot tools on the market for our hair type available,' said Tane Tomoana, Creative Lead Dry & Tea AU & NZ.

Designed to create a seamless styling experience, it is lightweight with a professional length cord with 360 degree swivel for flexible styling.

Designed to create a seamless styling experience, it is lightweight with a professional length cord with 360 degree swivel for flexible styling

For added safety and peace of mind the wand features an automatic sleep mode, shutting off after 60 minutes of non-use.

The built-in safety stand protects surfaces when set down during styling, while the protective cool tip and included styling glove allow you to safely control your style.

Hundreds of ladies have uploaded tutorials online alongside their own testimonials, calling the January new release a 'game-changer' for anyone wanting curly hair fast.

The built-in safety stand protects surfaces when set down during styling, while the protective cool tip and included styling glove allow you to safely control your style

'These curls stay in for days. This the best curler I have ever purchased. Worth every penny,' one woman wrote online.

'It's so easy to use and gives the best curls. Even had my curls the next day which never happens,' said another.

A third added: 'I bought this thin wand as a last ditch attempt as nothing curls my hair! This worked so well and the curls lasted for days! I couldn't be happier'.
Kate Middleton has paid homage to the late Princess of Wales by sporting a gown similar to one worn by Diana during her first royal tour.

The Duchess of Cambridge donned a 1,655 belted floral-print peplum dress by Alessandra Rich, as she departed the Bahamas with Prince William following their week-long tour of the Caribbean.

The silk-jacquard gown was strikingly similar to a Jan Van Velden piece worn by Diana during her visit to Alice Springs School on her 1983 tour of Australia with Prince Charles.

Dutch designer Jan Vanvelden was a favourite of Diana, who paired her own silk tea-dress with a white belt and matching cartwheel-style hat and pair of dainty pearl earrings.

Kate Middleton has paid homage to the late Princess of Wales by sporting a gown similar to one worn by Diana during her first royal tour as she attend a departure ceremony in the Bahamas following her week-long tour with Prince William

The silk-jacquard gown was strikingly similar to a Jan Van Velden piece worn by Diana during her visit to Alice Springs School on her 1983 tour of Australia with Prince Charles

In March 1993, the newlywed royal couple and baby Prince William visited Australia's Northern Territory in the Princess of Wales' first overseas tour and first-ever trip abroad at the age of 22.

Like Diana, Kate also paired the look with white leather pumps. The Duchess, 40, wore the 80s-inspired silhouette, featuring bow-detailed ruffled collar, puffed sleeves and a pleated peplum at the waist, with 560 Gianvito Rossi pumps and 3,400 earrings.

The designer intentionally included oversized crystal-embellished buckle and faux pearl buttons in a nod to the decades 'glamorous excess'.

The Duchess donned the same Ferragamo bag during her visit to Jamaica last week, while she first wore the Patrick Mavros earrings in the summer of 2020, having been a longtime fan of the Zimbabwean designer's pieces.

The Duchess of Cambridge donned a 1,655 belted floral-print peplum dress by Alessandra Rich, as she departed the Bahamas with Prince William following their week-long tour of the Caribbean

In March 1993, the newlywed royal couple and baby Prince William visited Australia's Northern Territory in the Princess of Wales' first overseas tour and first-ever trip abroad at the age of 22

Alessandra Rich is also one of the Duchess' favoured labels, with the royal frequently turning to the London-based designer for her royal engagements.

Kate wore the designer's gown as she joined William, 39, at the Lynden Pindling International Airport in Nassau after enjoying their week-long tour on behalf of the Queen.

It came after the prince admitted he might never succeed the Queen as head of the Commonwealth following the trouble-hit visit to the Caribbean.

In an end-of-tour statement, the Duke addressed the growing republican sentiment and 'colonialism' row the trip had inadvertently highlighted, acknowledging it had 'brought into even sharper focus questions about the past and the future'.

His week-long trip with Kate, which came to an end last night, has been plagued by public relations gaffes and protests about British colonialism, which led to the endeavour being branded 'tone deaf' to modern sensibilities.

The Duchess donned the same Ferragamo bag during her visit to Jamaica last week. She is pictured with Jamaica's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Kamina Johnson-Smith at Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston

Kate wore the designer's gown as she joined William, 39, at the Lynden Pindling International Airport in Nassau after enjoying their week-long tour on behalf of the Queen

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge board a plane at Lynden Pindling International Airport as they depart the Bahamas at the end of their royal tour

Speaking on the penultimate night of their visit, William told guests in the Bahamas, who included the country's prime minister Philip Davis, that whatever the future holds the bonds between the UK and the nations will 'endure'.

The Duke said: 'Next year, I know you are all looking forward to celebrating fifty years of independence - your Golden Anniversary.

'And with Jamaica celebrating 60 years of independence this year, and Belize celebrating 40 years of independence last year, I want to say this:

'We support with pride and respect your decisions about your future. Relationships evolve. Friendship endures.'

Barbados took the historic move of replacing the Queen as head of state in November, and elected its first president during a ceremony witnessed by the Prince of Wales.
Kate Middleton showed her love for a particular pair of Gianvito Rossi pumps as she departed the Bahamas after the last leg of her Caribbean tour last night.

The Duchess of Cambridge, 40, appears to own at least six different coloured pairs of the classic high heels, which cost 560.

She donned a white pair as she and husband Prince William, 39, attended a departure ceremony at Lynden Pindling International Airport in Nassau.

Kate co-ordinated the versatile pumps with an 80s-style yellow and white floral 1,655 Alessandra Rich frock featuring puff sleeves, and a Peter Pan collar reminiscent of the style favoured by her late mother-in-law Diana, Princess of Wales.

To finish the youthful, fresh look, the duchess held a white Ferragamo bag. She added some sparkle with a pair of 3,400 earrings.

Kate Middleton, 40, (pictured, left), was snapped wearing a white pair of her favourite 560 Gianvito Rossi pumps as she and husband Prince William, 39, (pictured, right), left the Bahamas at the end of their Caribbean tour last night

The Duchess of Cambridge has been snapped wearing the shoes in at least six different colours over the years, including this pair in black suede in 2017, and the burgundy option in 2016

Fashion forward: Kate also owns a pair of the pointy-toed heels in silver patent leather, which she was snapped wearing while attending Ascot in 2019

The pumps, which are made in Italy, are described by the designer as embodying 'three key characteristics...elegance, femininity and modernity. They feature a 'refined point-toe silhouette and sky-high 105mm stiletto heel', and are available in leather or suede.

As well as the cream pair she wore for the departure ceremony last night, Kate also owns the shoes in praline and black, burgundy and red suede, as well as in metallic silver leather.

She has been snapped wearing the shoes numerous times over the years.

In 2015, during a state visit from the President of the Peoples Republic of China, Mr Xi Jinping and his wife, Madame Peng Liyuan, the royal donned a burgundy pair of the pumps to attend a Creative Collaborations: UK & China event at Lancaster House.

In 2015, the duchess opted for a burgundy pair of the pumps during a Creative Collaborations: UK & China event at Lancaster House, during a state visit from the President of the Peoples Republic of China

In the red: the duchess stepped out in a vibrant red pair of the heels while attending the annual Order of The Garter Service at Windsor Castle in 2016

The duchess chose a sombre black pair of the heels, which she was snapped wearing while looking pensive, while attending The Commemoration of the Centenary of The Battle of the Somme in 2016

Then, in March 2016, she opted for a pair in classic black suede, pairing them with a red and white dress coat as she visited the mentoring programme of the XLP project London Wall, an initiative which supports young people who are facing emotional, behavioural and relational challenges.

The duchess switched things up a bit in June that year, when she matched a vibrant red pair of the heels to her outfit for the annual Order of The Garter Service at Windsor Castle.

But by July, she was back in her trusty black pumps, pictured looking thoughtful while attending The Commemoration of the Centenary of The Battle of the Somme.

Kate was photographed in a black suede pair of the shoes in March 2016, while visiting the mentoring programme of the XLP project London Wall

The Gianvito Rossi pumps feature a 'refined point-toe silhouette and sky-high 105mm stiletto heel', and come in suede or leather

Then later that year, in November, she recycled the burgundy suede footwear for the UK Premiere of A Street Cat Named Bob at the Curzon Mayfair in London.

The thrifty duchess again recycled her beloved pumps, this time in black, when visiting the East Anglia's Children's Hospices in Norfolk at the beginning of 2017.

In 2019, the Gianvito Rossi pumps made another outing, this time in silver. Kate paired the footwear with a powder blue midi dress while attending Royal Ascot that Summer.
The Queen has marked Mothering Sunday with a touching throwback picture of the Queen Mother with her two daughters.

The heartwarming picture shows Her Majesty as a young woman with her sister Princess Margaret and the former Queen Elizabeth for a portrait commissioned in 1941.

The picture was taken by British society photographer Marcus Adams and was his last sitting with the young Princesses at Windsor Castle, where they spent most of the Second World War.

The Princesses were seen wearing matching suits and blouses while Elizabeth sported a four-stringed pearl necklace and diamond paisley brooch.

Sharing the sweet snap on the Royal Family's Twitter account, the caption read: 'Wishing all those celebrating today a very special Mothering Sunday.'

The Royal Family marked Mothering Sunday with a touching throwback picture of the Queen Mother with her two daughters taken by British society photographer Marcus Adams at Windsor Castle

Fans were quick to praise the photo and to wish Her Majesty a happy Mothering Sunday, with one writing: 'Great photo of HM The Queen Mother and TRH the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret'.

Another said: 'What a lovely picture happy Mothers Day to Her Majesty The Queen and everyone else celebrating it today'.

'Happy Mothering Sunday. What a beautiful picture to treasure as a memory. Best wishes to Her Majesty The Queen', wrote a third.

The Queen Mother, born Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon in London on August 4, 1900, was to etch her name on the hearts of the nation as the longest-lived and well-loved Royal.

Fans were quick to praise the photo and to wish Her Majesty a happy Mothering Sunday, with one writing: 'Great photo of HM The Queen Mother and TRH the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret'

The fourth daughter and ninth child of Lord and Lady Glamis, she met her future husband at a dance in May 1920.

They married at Westminster Abbey in April 1923, and had two children - Elizabeth, now the Queen, and Princess Margaret.

When her husband was crowned King George VI on December 12 1936, after the abdication crisis of King Edward VIII, she became the first British-born Queen Consort since Tudor times.

Widowed on February 6 1952, she chose to be called Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother when her elder daughter became Queen Elizabeth II.

The Queen Mother spent three months in mourning, after which she embarked on a life of public duty, characterised by a grace and energy that made her a favourite with the British public.

King George VI is pictured with then Princess Elizabeth and her mother, then Queen Elizabeth on the Princess 18th birthday, April 21, 1944

The Queen Mother is pictured with Her Majesty and Princess Margaret at Badminton horse trails, Gloucester

Over the next 50 years she won a special place in the public's affection and continued with her royal duties well into her second century.

The Queen Mother's last public engagement had been on November 22 when she re-commissioned the aircraft carrier Ark Royal at a ceremony in Portsmouth, Hampshire.

Despite illness in the last months of her life, she flew by helicopter from Sandringham to Windsor to attend the funeral of Princess Margaret who died on February 9 after suffering a stroke.

The seemingly indomitable Royal matriarch was determined to be at the funeral but looked pale and drawn behind a black veil.

Six weeks after the funeral, the Queen mother died at Royal Lodge, her Windsor residence, having outlived her husband King George VI by 50 years.
Theres a familiar rags-to-riches story around many of our best-loved, high-end department stores: a humble family business grows into an iconic fashion institution.

Charles Harrod started life as a miller; Harry Gordon Selfridge was a stock boy while James John Fenwick (JJ, as he was known) was one of 11 children from a tenant farmer family in North Yorkshire.

Dress, 89, Never Fully Dressed, and bag, 350, from fenwick.co.uk. Themoire, shoes, 299, lkbennett.com

Dress, 745, E.L.V Denim, from fenwick.co.uk

But Harrods and Selfridges, along with Liberty and Harvey Nichols, are family businesses no more. Thesedays, theyre all owned by giant multinational corporations (or in the case of Harrods, the Qatar Investment Authority).

Only Fenwick remains firmly in the family, with its flagship store on the original Northumberland Street, Newcastle, site.

Left: Dress, 285, Weekend Max Mara. Right: Dress, 700, Edeline Lee, and bag, 350, Themoire, from fenwick.co.uk

This year Fenwick turns 140 and has nine stores nationwide. It has a loyal  and royal  following. The iconic navy wrapstyle dress the Duchess of Cambridge wore to announce her engagement was bought from the Issa concession in Fenwicks Bond Street store. To mark its anniversary, Fenwick has commissioned a host of collaborations with designers including Edeline Lee, Samantha Sung, Rixo, Nobodys Child, Max Mara and zero-waste sustainable brand ELV Denim. Occasionwear is what Fenwick does best, and its no surprise the collection has pieces that will see you through the summer season.

Left: Dress, 450, Weekend Max Mara. Right: Dress, 365, Rixo, from fenwick.co.uk

Dress, 655, Samantha Sung, and bag, 190, Apatchy London from fenwick.co.uk

Samantha Sungs floral-print pleated midi is a work of art that would flatter anyone, while Rixos striking fuchsia wrap dress with metallic thread detail will do weddings, parties and fancy dinners this year and next.

If the rich pink colour isnt for you, the Fenwick collection also has pieces in turquoise, lilac and pale blue hues. My favourite design is the navy and white Edeline Lee sleeveless dress.

Were always striving for a real wow with our collections, says Leo Fenwick, great-great-grandson of JJ and Head of Brand.

No one wants to look like everyone else. Its that feeling of individuality that gives us our distinction. In other words, a quintessentially British approach to style.
President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol speaks during a presidential transition committee workshop in Seoul, March 26. Yonhap



President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol plans to dispatch a delegation to the United States within the coming weeks for policy consultations on the bilateral alliance, North Korea and other issues of mutual concern, his spokesperson said Sunday.



Led by Rep. Park Jin of Yoon's People Power Party, the delegation will visit Washington before the launch of the new administration in Seoul, May 10, according to Yoon's spokesperson, Kim Eun-hye. It will consist of about five experts on relations between South Korea and the U.S.






Styling: Sairey Stemp

If my husband and I ever have time to lie in bed in the mornings (about once every blue moon before our four-year-old demands breakfast), weve started opening our bedroom window to listen to the birds who appear to be stirring from their winter slumber. We even entered proper bird nerd-dom by googling which tweet belonged to which bird (british-birdsongs.uk has an audio for every birdsong you can think of). I know, its hardly rock n roll, but I can highly recommend tuning into sounds of nature to soothe the soul.

On the Calm app, which is one of the best out there for helping with anxiety, its the nature sounds or soundscapes such as rain on leaves, waves on a shore or the crackling fire that I find are like a balm to my often overstimulated mind. While sound therapy is nothing new, there is increasing research into its wellbeing benefits.

Calms Daily Move instructor Mel Mah says, By listening to music, electrical activity in the right hemisphere of our brain is subconsciously synchronised. This can affect our whole body, adds Mel. Listening to peaceful music and sounds can soothe stress, induce relaxation and slow heart rates. All of this reduces the bodys levels of stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline.

One app literally making (sound) waves is Sona: Music As Medicine. It uses Grammy award-winning artists to craft restorative music that is backed by scientists to reduce anxiety levels. On the app you can choose how you are feeling  worried, stressed, anxious  and it will pick music to suit your mood. At the same time, there is a bubble on the screen that expands to indicate an in-breath and deflates as you let your breath go. Each track is a journey of different beats and dreamy sounds.

Its no surprise that music has the power to change the way we feel. Music is based on rhythm and harmony  and so is human life. We inhale and exhale continuously, our hearts beat between 60 and 100 times a minute, our days are governed by circadian rhythms. Its little wonder then that music app Spotify says its users have created over 402,000 self-care, mindfulness and health and wellness playlists to date.

One type of music thats becoming increasingly popular for its wellbeing benefits is binaural beats. This is an auditory phenomenon created by our brains when we hear two tones at different frequencies, one in each ear: the brain then creates an illusory third tone.

While research is relatively new, some small studies have shown that when binaural beats are listened to, over time they can help enhance mood. Its also believed that different sound frequencies can correspond to different brainwaves and mental states. For example, studies at the National Library of Medicine have shown that people listening to binaural beats at frequencies of 40Hz experienced better mood, memory and cognition, while binaural beats at 6Hz helped induce a more meditative state.

Ive been listening to various binaural beat playlists on Spotify (its crucial you wear headphones in order to hear the frequencies in each ear) and, to be honest, it doesnt sound any different to any other New Age music soundtrack  slightly woo-woo, ambient, some rainfall and a few waves thrown in. However, when I left the Stress Relief playlist on while working, I started nodding off.

Im blaming the binaural beat for missing my deadline this week.

Stick-on positivity

45 for ten patches, subtleenergies.com.au

The aromatherapy scents from Australian brand Subtle Energies are extraordinarily beautiful.

I have the Aura Protection Inhalation Patches stuck to my wrists which release potent aromatic oils (a comforting waft of saffron, rhu khus and tulasi) throughout the day, said to increase focus and cleanse negative energy.

45 for ten patches, subtleenergies.com.au

Self-help, no jargon

All too often, mental-health help books are written by very clever psychologists in a therapy language we dont understand. TikTok sensation Dr Julie Smiths Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?* is an exception.

Relatable, real and easy to digest, it covers everything from understanding low mood to emotional pain, self-doubt and anxiety as if your wise best friend is chatting to you.

An essential mental-health bible for adults and teenagers.

*Published by Penguin Books Ltd, price 14.99. To order a copy for 12.74 until 10 April, go to mailshop.co.uk/books. Free UK delivery on orders over 20

@susannahtaylor
Thirty years on from escaping wartorn Bosnia, TV producer Inga Lovric tells Sheron Boyle how a person endures and survives in the face of losing everything

Ukrainian families escaping the Russian onslaught at Lviv train station this month

It was a calm, star-filled night in June 1992 when Inga Lovric left her apartment in Jajce, Bosnia, for the last time carrying just a change of clothes, her passport and some money hidden in a tin.

Only weeks before, she had been living the carefree life of an English literature undergraduate: I was 22 when the first bomb landed in my hometown. It was a warm day in May and I was with my best friend and her boyfriend in a cafe. About 2pm, I heard the loudest noise ever  the first grenade to land in Jajce, Inga recalls. As I ran for home, I was painfully aware that my white jeans and brightly coloured top made me an easy target for a sniper.

Making it to the basement of her apartment block, Inga waited for her mother Mira  a 48-year-old dentist who was working at the local hospital  to join her. It was cold and dark down there, she shudders. We had no electricity.

Over the coming weeks, the basement was to become a shelter for Inga, Mira and the other families who lived in the block, as Serbian forces attacked the town.

Id be in it every day, sometimes two or three times, remembers Inga. Id take candles to give some light. As the shells rained down, Id calm myself by staring at the flame.

One day, while Mira was working, Inga decided to get some fresh water during a pause in the bombardment. Heading to a nearby stream, she filled two buckets and was on her way back when a sniper spotted her and began shooting, first at the buckets but then directly at her. I was the only person on the street. He wanted to kill me. I darted in between my house and outbuildings but he kept shooting, bullets flying everywhere. I crawled into the grass and somehow made it home, she pauses, before adding, There was still some water in the buckets.

Inga Lovric today

By June, Mira had decided that she had to get her daughter out of Bosnia. She told me that she had found someone who could smuggle me to safety, remembers Inga. She said: Its too dangerous to stay here. You have a life ahead of you.

Ingas smuggler was a colleague of her mothers. He was a soldier trying to get to Croatia to collect medical supplies for the hospital where he and Mum worked. She trusted him, as did I, but to say I was scared of what lay ahead was an understatement.

Inga said an emotional goodbye to Mira. My darling Mum and I hugged as we tried to hold back the tears. I am an optimist and so was she. Well meet again, and it will only be a few weeks before I am back, I whispered. If, for any reason, you start feeling unsafe, please leave and meet me wherever I am.

Mira agreed but told her daughter that she wanted to stay in Jajce as long as possible to help in the hospital. Inga weeps as she recalls those final moments together. She smelled like Mum.

In the dark of the night, the frightened young woman got into the smugglers van. With a curfew in place, the only way out was to drive through country lanes and orchards with their headlights off.

Despite their attempts to stay quiet, the vans engine drew the attention of Serbian snipers who responded by shooting haphazardly into the darkness. They heard the vans engine, but they couldnt see us, says Inga. It was a lottery whether wed be hit or not.

My way of coping with the fear was to imagine happy scenarios. Id marry my handsome smuggler; wed run away from this nightmare and live happily ever after. Sometimes, Id drift into sleep then wake again. We just kept going and going.

Inga, aged two, with Mira

The following day the pair arrived at the Croatian city of Split. As the smuggler dropped Inga at the busy port, he said: Good luck. I hope you have a good life.

Inga then headed for the capital Zagreb, where her cousin lived. From there, she made contact with the Fishman family in England, for whom she had au paired in 1990. They immediately offered her shelter in their London home.

Contacting Mira back in Bosnia, however, wasnt so easy. I found some radio amateurs who sent a Morse Code message to colleagues in Jajce. They then passed it on to Mum. This was before mobile phones and most landlines werent working any more.

Mira, in turn, had spent four agonising days not knowing if her daughter had made it out alive. Over the ensuing weeks, Inga was able to send a few more messages, one to say she got safely to London and the other in August asking Mira to join her.

As Jajce fell under Serb control, thousands of people  including Mira  fled their homes in a convoy of vehicles. Two hours into their journey, a sniper opened fire. In the confusion of the attack, the lorry in front of the car Mira was travelling in stopped suddenly and her vehicle went under it. Mira was left paralysed in the wreckage.

When medics reached her, Miras only concern was that somebody contact Inga  and that she wasnt alone when she got the news about the accident. Despite being transferred to hospital in Zagreb, Mira didnt survive her injuries. It was the darkest day of my life, says Inga softly. I wanted to say goodbye to Mum, to hug and touch her one final time. When Mira was buried in Mostar, in Bosnia, her relatives put a white rose on her coffin to represent Inga, for whom it was still too dangerous to return home. That was the end of my old life, she says.

The only ray of light was that she discovered that the radio amateurs had got a message to her mum before she died, telling her about the place Inga had secured to study English literature and history at St Marys College, Twickenham. It still felt like I was in a nightmare, says Inga, and I only wore black during the first term. But I know my achievement would have made her proud.

Unclear about the exact events surrounding her mothers death, Inga received a letter from her aunt attempting to explain, but it was  and still is  too hard for her to read. Ive saved it, she says. But its been 30 years. I dont think Ill ever be brave enough to read it.

The sniper was trying to kill me. Bullets flew everywhere

It was to be another 11 years before Inga felt strong enough to visit Miras grave. By now married and a mother herself (her daughter Freya was nine months old at the time), Inga made the emotional journey home. In August 2003, as she finally reached the grave in Mostar, it felt like the culmination of the journey that began on the night she fled. I stared at the black marble stone that had her picture engraved on it. I sobbed as I touched it, calling out her name. But she was gone. There was no hug for me. Instead, I squeezed my baby daughter and hoped she would never endure this kind of pain. I placed a candle next to the stone, lit it and again watched the flame as I had done all those years ago in the shelter. A sense of peace passed through me as I said goodbye.

During lockdown, Inga  who is now 52 and a series producer of international current affairs at the BBC  felt drawn by the sense of calm that candles have given her over the years to start making her own. She has also recently produced a BBC Two documentary on Ukraine entitled Platform 5: Escaping Ukraine, which tells the story of Lviv train station where women and children fleeing Ukraine have had to leave loved ones behind.

Inga has a message to the Ukrainian people: Hard and heartbreaking times undoubtedly lie in store, but there is a way ahead. When you lose everything, all you are left with is hope to find the light. I did  and so will you.
Living with spina bifida has made Bafta-winning actress RUTH MADELEY determined to defy expectations. And, discovers Hattie Crisell, her brave new role is breaking barriers, too

Ruth Madeley: My partner would pay me never to take him to the baftas again

Ruth Madeley is no diva. The 34-year-old actress is a rose-tinted-spectacles kind of person, she explains, who errs on the side of being polite and understanding. This has put her in difficult situations, such as when employers have failed to provide her with wheelchair access (Ruth has spina bifida). She says, with a bit of self-mockery, When I started out, if someone said, We cant provide a ramp, Id reply, Dont worry! Ill crawl upstairs.

She is, then, very different to the real person she is playing in her latest role  disability-rights activist, comedian and fellow wheelchair-user Barbara Lisicki.

The one-off BBC drama Then Barbara Met Alan depicts the events that saw Barbara and Alan Holdsworth (played by Arthur Hughes, who has radial dysplasia) meet in 1989. The pair were cabaret performers who went on to found the Direct Action Network (DAN), which led protests for disabled rights. They chained themselves to trains and buses and blocked roads to protest against workplace discrimination, inaccessible public transport and patronising coverage of disabled people on TV. Their work helped bring about the Disability Discrimination Act in 1995, which laid the groundwork for 2010s Equality Act.

Barbara, who started using a wheelchair after contracting juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, was defiant in taking on politicians and police  DANs placards were emblazoned with the words P*ss on pity. I imagine Ruths approach might be a bit softer? Id be behind Barbara [urging her on]. Id be like, Im going to tell them! Then Id get there and instead ask politely, Could we do this, please? she laughs.

Ruth and her elder sister Liz were brought up in Bolton, where the family still lives. Ruths mother was a nurse and her father worked in customer services. They found out that Ruth had spina bifida six weeks before she was born. They were very much of the opinion, It doesnt make a difference  well just crack on, she says. My sisters non-disabled but we were never treated differently. My mum and dad always had the attitude that it might take us a bit longer to do something but well still do it. So Ive always had that mentality, and Im very grateful for it. Were positive people.

Ruth studied scriptwriting at university and was doing a placement at the BBC when someone suggested she audition for the childrens show Half Moon Investigations, which needed an actress in a wheelchair for one episode. She got the part, caught the acting bug and her career has flourished. In 2015 she appeared in Dont Take My Baby  the story of a disabled couple fighting to retain custody of their child. It won a Bafta for Best Single Drama, and Ruth was nominated for Best Leading Actress. Shes also had parts in Cold Feet and The Accident.

And though shes unfailingly agreeable, Ruth is formidable, too. She has had surgery on her back several times over the years and completed her GCSEs and her degree from a hospital bed. She even had an operation during her first week at Edge Hill university near Liverpool. I went into the hospital and said, Listen, its freshers night and I cant miss it, because thats when all your friendships form. So they did my blood tests and I said, Ill be back at 6am!

In life, her disability is only a side plot and in her work its often also incidental; the character she played in the BBC drama Years and Years was not written as a wheelchair user until she was cast in the role. But her latest project means a lot. I was a child when these events were happening, I was too invested in Barbies, she says. It was really humbling to learn what the campaigners went through  but I also found it really emotional because so much of what they were fighting for, were still fighting for. A lot has changed but not enough.

I ask where shed like to see more progress. Transport, she says, and I think of my local tube station, which has a long flight of stairs and no lift or escalator. Its a nightmare, especially in big cities like London. Ive lived there and Ive never felt more stressed out in my entire life. I cant rely on public transport, and to get cabs everywhere is extortionate.

Ruth with the real Barbara Lisicki (left) during filming of Then Barbara Met Alan

Last year, on the very day that Ruth was announced in the role of Barbara Lisicki, she ordered a London minicab to take her and her mother from a costume fitting back to Euston station. As the traffic was heavy, the driver refused to go all the way to the stations accessible entrance. Hed seen Ruth stand up, so he insisted she use the main entrance, despite the fact that it involves stairs, which she cant manage. He then demanded money even though the journey had been paid for in advance. When Ruth explained this, he took her wheelchair from behind her and put it in the boot of his car. Her mother managed to snatch it back.

Ruth shared this story on Instagram but when I bring it up today, she just shrugs wearily. That wasnt an isolated incident  thats happening to people all the time, she says. In all forms of public transport you can have nightmare stories. Im sure that wont be my last. Were there consequences for the driver? I dont know. The relevant people were made aware. Its exhausting to have to track these things, so all I can do is pass on the information. She gives me a twinkly smile. I mean, I had a drama to film  I was busy.

Ruth has several projects in development, including some writing work. Im very privileged with where Im at  I know the opportunities and the success Ive had in a short period arent the norm. Do I think there are enough opportunities for disabled actors in general? No. But Then Barbara Met Alan has a predominantly disabled cast and every single one of them could hold a show on their own. I hope that I can open doors for other people who are more talented than I am.

She also feels a responsibility now to speak out when necessary. Earlier in my career, I was on set and theyd not booked an accessible toilet, so the entire production had to stop while I got taken back to base to use the bathroom. Thats a horrible feeling when everyones waiting for you, so I just didnt drink anything for the rest of the shoot.

Nowadays, Ruth wouldnt hesitate to say she needed a bathroom on set. Its not like asking for only blue M&Ms in my trailer  its about my right to be able to do my job. Ive learnt that if I dont ask for what I need itll be much harder for the next person. I cant say, this is how the industry should be if I dont play my own part in changing it.

Then Barbara Met Alan is also breaking ground with a moving sex scene between Barbara and Alan, shot tastefully but without shying away from the scars on Ruths back. How does she feel about such scenes? She laughs. Theyre terrifying! Id done smaller scenes before but nothing as intimate as this. Growing up, I never saw a body like mine on screen. So this felt really important because it wasnt just one disabled body, it was two, and it was really beautiful, one of the proudest moments of my career.

Off screen, Ruths partner of nine years is Joe Lawrence, who shes known since they were friends at school. I am very lucky  but dont tell him that, she jokes. He owns a company that trains people to operate cranes and for many years he was also a motorbike racer. Hes a lunatic, says Ruth. When he raced, I was in the pit lane going, Thirty miles an hours fast enough! Im frightened of everything, hes frightened of nothing, so we balance each other out.

My job is his idea of hell. Hes the perfect combination of so unbelievably proud of me, but also so nonchalant about the whole thing. She took him to the Baftas: I think he would pay me never to take him again. Joe is happy when hes in his garage working on his bikes  not in a tux on a red carpet.

Ruths life in Bolton, then, with Joe tinkering in the garage and her family down the road, isnt very showbiz. And I love that. Especially when I dont get the job I want, or someones said something online To have that real solid ground at home is perfect. She wouldnt want a fuss, after all.
An Australian investment bank known as the 'Vampire Kangaroo' has snapped up a vital part of the UK's gas grid.

Sydney-based Macquarie has taken a 60 per cent stake in National Grid's gas transmission and metering business  a 5.76billion swoop which values the division at 9.6billion.

The network part operates more than 4,000 miles of gas pipes in the UK.

Concern: Macquarie has a questionable track record of investing in some of Britain's biggest firms

National Grid has been looking for an outside group to take a majority stake in the transmission unit.

But the presence of Macquarie will worry many in the City because of its questionable track record of investing in some of Britain's biggest firms.

It earned its 'Vampire Kangaroo' nickname after developing a reputation for buying companies, loading them with debt and sucking out money for shareholders.

And it comes at a time when foreign investors are under scrutiny as fears grow that the UK is losing control of key businesses and infrastructure.

The sale places a crucial part of the gas network in foreign hands just as the energy crisis deepens. The deal will likely be referred to the Business Department to assess if it poses a security risk.

Macquarie, which teamed up with Canadian asset manager British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, said it expects completion in the second half of this year.

The consortium has an option to acquire the remaining 40 per cent of the business.

Macquarie has a swathe of UK assets and claims to have ploughed more than 50billion into UK infrastructure.

The company bought the Green Investment Bank, now called the Green Investment Group, from the Government in 2017. But it is still best known for its reputation-damaging ownership of Thames Water from 2006 to 2017.

Over slightly more than a decade in charge, Macquarie paid out almost 3billion in dividends while amassing debts of 10billion and using a complex-corporate structure that meant it paid almost no corporation tax in the UK.

Macquarie's Europe head Martin Bradley said the division is a 'critical enabler' of the UK's transition to net zero.

Bradley said: 'The transmission system will play a leading role in making the network ready for this transition.'
Councils have spent over 1million pounds in two years looking after pets abandoned by people in poor health - with one local authority spending 19,000 on luxury accommodation for four cats.

Under the Care Act, local councils are responsible for pets when people are hospitalised, if no friends or family can step in to feed, water and otherwise care for the animals.

The London Borough of Hackney looked after 34 cats and five dogs over the two years.

In one instance, Hackney officials spent 19,027 putting up four cats in Elmtree Luxury Pet Hotel  which offers its guests underfloor heating, a manicuring pad and even an air-conditioned chauffeuring service.

Liverpool City Council alone spent 222,000 in the last two years caring for 73 cats, 53 dogs and 26 pets of other species  in one case spending 10,000 on bed and board for a single pampered pooch.

Councils responding to a Freedom of Information probe by gambling firm Buzz Bingo revealed from 2020 to 2022 local authorities looked after 572 cats, 464 dogs and 190 animals of other species - including a terrapin and a cockatoo - after their owners suffered ill health. Pictured: Elmtree Luxury Pet Hotel

Hackney officials spent 19,027 putting up four cats in Elmtree Luxury Pet Hotel (pictured)  which offers its guests underfloor heating, a manicuring pad and even an air-conditioned chauffeuring service

TOP TEN COUNCILS SPENDING THE MOST ON CARING FOR ABANDONED PETS Council Cats Dogs Others Total cost of caring for pets, from 2020 to 2022 Liverpool City Council 73 53 26 222,242 Leeds City Council 59 43 4 135,426 Westminster City Council 92 16 1 99,563 Nottinghamshire County Council 63 74 67 97,788 Royal Borough Kensington and Chelsea 37 6 0 81,939 Plymouth City Council 20 24 8 55,917 London Borough of Hackney 34 5 0 53,992 Nottingham City Council 19 17 4 45,686 Salford City Council 20 20 0 31,231 Sefton Council 23 14 4 27,364

The figures come from a Freedom of Information survey of local authorities, probing how many heartbroken pets ended up in councils' care from 2020 to 2022 - and at what cost to taxpayers.

Plymouth City Council were left to care for 52 ownerless pets - including a terrapin, which was looked after for three months at a cost of 999 before being rehomed.

Four goats were forced into the care of Nottinghamshire County Council, where officials also wound up responsible for 14 rabbits, four guinea pigs and three hamsters.

Two forsaken ferrets were rehomed by Hartlepool Borough Council at a cost to taxpayers of 200.

Hackney Borough Council did not respond to a request by MailOnline for comment on their costly choice of bed and board for four spoiled felines. Pictured: A bird's-eye view of Elmtree Luxury Pet Hotel, where Hackney officials sent four abandoned cats at a cost of 19,000

In the London Borough of Enfield, officials were lumped with a cockatoo in November 2020, which they spent 930 on before managing to find it a forever home.

From 2020 to 2022, 57 local authorities responding to a Freedom of Information probe by gambling firm Buzz Bingo said they cared for 1,226 animals between them.

The animals cared for by councils over the two years included 572 cats and 464 dogs, coming to a total cost of 1.08million.

MailOnline contacted Hackney Borough Council for a comment but received no response.
Penny Wong's brutal insult about Kimberley Kitching having no children was 'one of the most heartless comments you can make,' according to a political consultant who was also unable to become a mother.

During a heated discussion in 2019 Senator Wong told her Labor colleague 'well if you had children, you might understand why there is a climate emergency'.

Friends of Senator Kitching, who died of a suspected heart attack earlier this month, say the remark deeply offended her because she loved children but had been unable to have them with her husband Andrew.

Fiona Scott, a former Liberal MP turned government relations specialist, said the comment was 'completely out of line' and will be remembered for the rest of Senator Wong's career.

Penny Wong's brutal insult about Kimberley Kitching having no children was 'one of the most heartless comments you can make', a political consultant has said

Ms Scott went through IVF with her husband Aaron after getting married in her late 30s but was unable to conceive.

'I'm childless and I also had comments like that thrown at me by trolls on social media who were mostly other women,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'But someone like Penny Wong should know better. There's no context in which that comment is right.

It is one of the most heartless comments you can make and completely below the belt Political consultant Fiona Scott

'It is one of the most heartless comments you can make and completely below the belt.

'It's a personal blow that's completely unnecessary.'

Ms Scott said Senator Wong - who has two children via IVF and sperm donor with her partner Sophie - should have been aware that many women face a challenging 'fertility journey'.

'I didn't get married until my late 30s so I knew having children would be difficult and being a mother didn't define me,' she said.

'But if your dream is to be a mother and you can't, that is difficult. I've sat in cafes with friends who look at a pram and burst into tears because they want children.'

Ms Scott also said the comment was 'hypocritical' coming from a senior member of a party which campaigns for equality and respect for women.

Fiona Scott (pictured), a former Liberal MP turned government relations specialist, said Senator Wong's comment was 'completely out of line'

Fiona Scott is pictured at her wedding to husband Aaron in 2015 alongside then PM Malcolm Turnbull and wife Lucy

Senator Wong's savage insult resurfaced after Senator Kitching's friends claimed she was being bullied by her, Kristina Keneally and Katy Gallagher, allegations the senior senators deny.

Senator Wong says she apologised to Senator Kitching - and believed the apology was accepted - but only did so after her insult was made public in an ABC article.

Ms Scott said as well as being highly offensive, the comment made no logical sense.

'Does Senator Wong thing that Greta Thunberg doesn't understand climate change because she doesn't have kids?

'And what about Gladys Berejiklian, Annastacia Palaszczuk and Julia Gillard who are all leaders, role models and childless women,' she said.

Former Labor prime minister Julia Gillard also faced nasty sledges for not having children.

Former Liberal senator Bill Heffernan said she was not fit to lead because she was 'deliberately barren' in comments that caused outrage at the time.

Senator Kitching (pictured) died of a suspected heart attack on March 10

Former Labor Prime Minister Gillard (pictured in 2012) also faced nasty sledges for not having children

Anthony Albanese has refused to call an inquiry to examine to claims Senator Kitching was being bullied, insisting he doesn't need to because she only told friends and never lodged an official complaint.

His dismissal of the allegations - on the cusp of an election which he desperately wants to win - has opened him up to cries of hypocrisy after Labor furiously called for inquiries and resignations over mistreatment scandals within the Liberal ranks last year.

Ms Scott said Labor's lack of action means the party risks 'looking like a fraud'.

'It's a credibility issue and this close to the election Labor strategists will be worried,' she said.

Climate campaigner Greta Thunberg (pictured last month) understands climate change without having children, said Ms Scott

Senator Kitching's allies say she was subjected to poor treatment such as being forced to do late night shifts because she was friends with Coalition MPs, hawkish on defence and foreign policy and had lost the trust of the leadership team.

Ms Scott said Labor talks a big game about the equal treatment of women but is silent when non left-wing women are bullied or targeted.

She said as MP for Lindsay in western Sydney in the 2016 election campaign she was hounded by left-wing figures including 'big union thugs stalking me at train stations'.

Outgoing Liberal MP Nicole Flint has complained of a similar campaign of harassment against her by activist group GetUp and the unions in her South Australia seat of Boothby in the 2019 campaign.

'The way Labor treat conservative women is a disgrace. It's not good enough for women of the Left to be silent,' Ms Scott said.

'Senator Kitching was a recipient of the hypocrisy of the Left.

'If you're going to fight for freedom and equality for all then you have to hold everybody to the same standards.'

Anthony Albanese (pictured with QLD premier Annastacia Palaszczuk) has refused to call an inquiry to examine to claims Senator Kitching was being bullied
A disability rights advocate will become the first openly transgender person to be a California judge having been appointed Friday by Governor Gavin Newsom.

Andi Mudryk, 58, chief deputy director at the Department of Rehabilitation, will serve on the Sacramento County Superior Court.

She will be the second transgender judge in the state, following in the path of Alameda Superior Court Judge Victoria Kolakowski, who became the first openly transgender judge after she was elected in 2010.

'I'm humbled, honored and I'm thrilled,' Mudryk told The LA Times. 'I'm grateful to Gov. Newsom for creating a vision of California for all.'

Mudryk, 58, will serve as a judge in Sacramento County Superior Court, filling the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Benjamin Davidian

'Andi Mudryk is a great appointment and will be a wonderful judge,' Kolakowski tweeted. 'Im glad to finally have a trans colleague on the bench in California.'

Mudryk has the distinction of being the first transgender person appointed to the California bench. She transitioned within the last four years.

She has lived in Sacramento since 2009 and said she feels proud to serve the community.

She said that her experiences as a transgender woman, a person with a significant disability, the parent of an adult black man, and the descendant of Jewish Holocaust survivors has spurred a legal career spent that has seen her advocate for the civil rights of all people.

Mudryk, who has brittle bone disease, began her legal career in private practice, working for 11 years with Disability Rights California where she served in various managerial positions.

Andi Mudryk, as seen in her Facebook profile photo. She is the first openly transgender person to be appointed to the bench in the Golden State

Andi Mudryk is seen, center, with colleagues in a photo posted in February 2000. Mudryk has lived in Sacramento since 2009 and said she feels proud to serve the community

Mudryk, a Democrat, has a law degree from George Washington University. She will receive a $225,000 annual salary.

Her appointment comes as political battles are waged over transgender rights in the U.S. amid a culture war, and as Newsom seeks to leave a legacy of diversity on California courts.

On Friday, Utah became the 12th state to ban transgender youth athletes playing on girls teams when lawmakers overrode Gov. Spencer Cox's veto.

Newsom is scheduled Monday to swear in Justice Patricia Guerrero as the first Latina on the California Supreme Court.

She was confirmed unanimously on Tuesday. In 2020, he nominated the first openly gay justice, Martin Jenkins, who is the third Black person to serve on the high court.

Andi, left, with sister Cindy, center, and brother Alan, as children in a photo posted by Alan

LGBTQ organizations hailed Mudryk's appointment and its timing.

'As governors and state legislatures across the country attack the trans community, we applaud Gov. Newsoms continued commitment to increasing trans representation,' Tony Hoang, executive director of Equality California, said in a statement.

'California continues to remind the rest of the country that LGBTQ+ voices are essential to achieve full equality.'

'The values of diversity, equity and inclusion are fundamental to the State Bar's mission, and I thank our Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation for their important work, and I applaud Gov. Newsom on his commitment to a diverse judiciary,' stated Leah Wilson, executive director of the State Bar of California, in a statement.

'Superior Court Judge Andi Mudryk's appointment is a touchstone moment in California history that will lead to more opportunities for transgender people throughout the legal profession.'

Mudryk's appointment comes as political battles are waged over transgender rights in the U.S. amid a culture war, and as Newsom seeks to leave a legacy of diversity on California courts

She follows in the path of Alameda Superior Court Judge Victoria Kolakowski, pictured, who became the first openly transgender judge after being elected in 2010
Lawyers for relatives of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims asked a Connecticut judge Friday to order Alex Jones's arrest after he failed to turn up for deposition in his defamation lawsuit for a second time.

The InfoWars host being sued for defamation for repeatedly calling the massacre a hoax.

Jones missed both days of deposition Wednesday and Thursday in Austin citing a health problem, including vertigo and eventually revealing that it was a sinus infection on Friday.

After the 48-year-old failed to show up to court on Wednesday on the advice of one pf his doctors, Connecticut Judge Barbara Bellis instead ordered him to appear Thursday, noting he hadn't been hospitalized and appeared healthy enough in his in-person on his show on Tuesday.

Lawyers for relatives of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims asked a Connecticut judge Friday to order Alex Jones's arrest after he failed to turn up for deposition in his defamation lawsuit for a second time. Alex Jones of Infowars in 2018

Family members of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting (pictured in 2013) are demanding his arrest

'The plaintiffs subjected themselves to hours and hours of painful questioning Mr. Joness lawyers  and Mr. Jones plays sick when it is his turn to tell the truth under oath,' Alinor Sterling, one of the families' lawyers, wrote in the motion.

A superior court judge in Connecticut made the ruling on Monday morning because Jones refused to turn over documents ordered by the courts to back up his defense, including financial records, according to the New York Times.

His conviction is a sweeping victory for the parents of eight people killed in the Newtown massacre.

On December 14, 2012 gunman Adam Lanza, 20, killed 20 first-graders and six teachers.

Lanza fatally shot his mother at their home before going to the school, and later killed himself as police arrived.

Juries in both states have not yet determined how much in damages Jones and the other defendants will have to pay the families.

Trials on the matter are scheduled in both states for next year.

Adam Lanza, who authorities said opened fire inside the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., killing 20 first-graders, six educators and himself in December 2012

Pictured: firearms and ammunition found on or in close proximity to shooters body at Sandy Hook Elementary School following the December 14, 2012 shooting rampage

Connecticut State Police lead a line of children from the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut on Friday, December 14, 2012 after the shooting

People gather at the scene of a mass school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut

The conviction combines with three rulings in Texas last month that found Jones liable for damages in defamation lawsuits that stemmed from his statements about the Newtown massacre.

The shooting was portrayed on Jones' Infowars show as a 'giant hoax' and the families involved were all 'crisis actors' hired to perpetuate a government agenda to increase gun control.

Jones has since acknowledged the school shooting did occur.

The Sandy Hook families that sued Jones claim that he profited by spreading lives about the murders of their loved ones.

Jones has disputed their claims, but failed to turn over documents and financial records to support his stance after ordered todo so in court.
A Missouri local radio station owner has been branded a traitor for accepting $5,000-a-month to air six hours of Vladimir Putin-sponsored Russian propaganda every day.

Peter Schartel is one of only two radio station owners in the US who've agreed to air Radio Sputnik's The Critical Hour, with the other being Washington D.C. station WZHF-AM.

The controversial program is broadcast for three hours, twice a day on KCXL in Liberty, Missouri, from 6am to 9am, and again from 9pm to midnight.

The Critical Hour is recorded in English at Sputnik's Washington DC bureau, and is hosted by American broadcasters Dr Wilmer Leon and Garland Nixon.

Schartel has been blasted for airing the show after Putin invaded Ukraine and killed thousands of innocent people, but he is unrepentant.

'Some will talk to me, but others will still call me a piece of whatever,' he said. 'What I am thankful for is we are still living in a country where they can call me up. Even if they aren't thinking about free speech they're exercising that right.'

Peter Schartel, who runs a small radio company in Liberty, Missouri, is facing criticism for airing Russian state-sponsored programming in the midst of the Ukrainian war

Schartel started airing the Russian programming in January 2020, but criticism intensified after Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

During one recent broadcast of 'The Critical Hour' the hosts and their guests echoed false and unsupported claims about Ukraine's government.

They repeated Russian state media lies about the Russian military's attacks on civilian targets and its destruction of entire neighborhoods, as well as Putin's baseless claim that his enemies in Ukraine are Nazis.

Schartel said people accuse him and his wife being traitors to the US and occasionally issue threats.

While some critics say he is promoting propaganda and misinformation, Schartel maintains most people who call to complain haven't listened to the program.

Schartel said he is standing up for free speech and alternative viewpoints by airing Sputnik's broadcast in English from the controversial Russian news agency's DC bureau. Its Washington bureau is pictured

Schartel started airing the Russian programming in January 2020, but criticism intensified after Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in February

KCXL's The Critical Hour airs twice every day.

Hosted by Wilmer Leon and Garland Nixon and marketed as 'a hard hitting analysis on hard news,' the program has been shared on Sputnik's website along with egregious headlines claiming 'Russionphobia is the new pandemic,' and 'international analysts fear US false flag in Ukraine.'

'The mainstream news outlets play it safe by parroting the perspectives of their corporate benefactors,' KCXL's website reads.

'Those who are truly interested in understanding what is going on in the world and especially who is behind it turn to The Critical Hour for rhetoric free analysis and commentary.'

Schartel has acknowledged that he initially accepted the Radio Sputnik contract because he was struggling to keep KCXL afloat.

The station operates out of a dilapidated, cluttered building. He said he stopped taking a salary months ago, though he does nearly all the work.

Schartel said he airs programs that are not commercially viable and don't depend on advertising, which he contends influences news reporting. He said he is promoting free speech by 'providing a platform for people who otherwise aren't heard.'

KCXL's other programming includes shows that are heavily religious, offer opinions across the political spectrum and promote conspiracy theories.

One program, TruNews, has been criticized by the Anti-Defamation League for spreading anti-Semitic, Islamophobic and anti-LGBTQ messages.

Schartel has acknowledged that he initially accepted the Radio Sputnik contract because he was struggling to keep KCXL afloat

Hosted by Wilmer Leon (left) and Garland Nixon (right) and marketed as 'a hard hitting analysis on hard news,' The critical Hour has been shared on Sputnik's website

Radio Sputnik is produced by the US-based branch of Rossiya Segodnya, a media group operated by the Russian government.

Its content prompted the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) to issue an unusual statement on March 1 calling on broadcasters to stop carrying state-sponsored programming with ties to Russia or its agents.

The statement from NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt said the organization is a 'fierce defender' of free speech but that given Russia's unprovoked attack on Ukraine, 'we believe that our nation must stand fully united against misinformation and for freedom and democracy across the globe.'

Radio Sputnik, funded by the Russian government, pays broadcast companies in the US to air its programs. Only Schartel's company and one in Washington, DC, do so.

Roy Gutterman, director of the Tully Center for Free Speech at Syracuse University, said all radio station owners in the US have a right to air whatever content they want.

'It this station thinks it's going to make a mark in Missouri by playing Radio Sputnik, they have the right to do so,' Gutterman said.

Sputnik has shared sections of the program claiming along with egregious headlines claiming 'Russionphobia is the new pandemic'

The controversial Russian news agency also claimed 'international analysts fear US false flag in Ukraine'

The Federal Communications Commission, which regulates licensing of radio and television broadcasts, does not censor content unless it intentionally endangers public safety or is found to be obscene, indecent or profane.

Radio Sputnik listeners hear discussions not only about Russia but also current issues in the US and other countries.

The theme throughout the broadcast is that US policies intentionally damage the US and other countries while benefiting other corrupt governments, the rich and big business.

The Kansas City Star said in an editorial that Schartel is putting his financial needs above ethics by spreading Russian propaganda.

'Much like the National Association of Broadcasters, we advise KCXL to drop all programming that paints (Russian President Vladimir) Putin in a positive light. The Russian president is no victim; he is for sure no war hero,' The Star wrote.

Schartel has acknowledged that he initially accepted the Radio Sputnik contract because he was struggling to keep KCXL afloat

The deal that brought Radio Sputnik to the small Missouri station was brokered by RM Broadcasting, based in Florida, which is run by Anthony Ferolito.

He signed a similar deal in 2017 with Way Broadcasting, which agreed to lease WZHF-AM's airtime in Washington, D., to RM Broadcasting.

Because of his contracts with Rossiya Segodnya, the Justice Department required Ferolito to register as a foreign government agent in 2018, citing a 1938 law for people lobbying for or acting on behalf of a foreign government. Ferolito lost a lawsuit over the registration.

Ferolito did not return messages, but RM Broadcasting said in a statement that the company stands with Ukraine and all victims of oppression and aggression. It said RM Broadcasting is dedicated to freedom of speech.

'The public is explicitly notified throughout the broadcast day of the source of the material, so that people can make an informed decision on whether to listen or turn the dial - and that freedom of choice is the ultimate underpinning of our republic,' the statement said.

Gutterman, of Syracuse University, noted that state-produced content from countries not friendly with the US, including Russia and China, is already available on some cable stations and online, although some providers have dropped Russian content since the war began.

'Modern media has changed the radio landscape we grew up with,' he said. 'Even if stations drop it, people can find this content.'

For his part, Schartel doesn't think the uproar over the Radio Sputnik broadcasts will last.

Russian state-controlled RT America, the television counterpart to Radio Sputnik, closed its US branch this month and laid off most of its staff. Schartel said that likely means his contract won't be renewed when it ends in December.
A toddler was soaked in his mother's blood at horrific alleged murder scene so grisly it shocked hardened senior cops.

Mackenzie 'Max' Anderson, 21, died outside her home after an alleged domestic violence attack in the Newcastle suburb of Mayfield about 10.40pm on Friday.

Tyrone Thompson, 22, was arrested at the scene and the police allege he broke into Ms Anderson's home on Crebert Street and attacked her.

He is being held under guard in hospital after seriously injuring his hand, allegedly in the attack, and has not been charged over Ms Anderson's death.

Mackenzie Anderson, 21, has died in a brutal alleged stabbing that left her toddler soaked in blood and shocked hardened police and emergency services

Mackenzie Anderson's ex-boyfriend Tyrone Thompson was arrested at the scene

The young mother posted on social media that she was a recovering drug addict, having used meth from the age of 16.

The 'horrendous attack' soaked Ms Anderson's toddler in blood and shocked police and paramedics.

Thompson is understood not to be the father of the child.

Police said they found the young mother lying on the landing last Friday outside her Crebert Street unit with horrific injuries.

The dreadful scene shocked first responders and left a seasoned senior police officer severely shaken

Ms Anderson died outside her unit despite desperate attempts by paramedics to save her

The dreadful scene shocked first responders and left a seasoned senior police officer severely shaken.

Newcastle City Commander Superintendent Wayne Humphrey confirmed the child at the scene was found 'covered in blood'.

'I've just spent the last 20 minutes or so viewing body worn footage and it was a horrendous scene, horrendous,' he said.

Ms Anderson died outside her unit despite desperate attempts by paramedics to save her.

Police confirmed her son, 3, was found 'covered in blood' but was not injured.

Ms Anderson often used her Facebook account to comment on or forward reports of alleged domestic violence, such as the recent alleged killing of Charlise Mutten, 9, in NSW.

She once posted a comment above a photo of some young men sitting on a wall, saying 'highly embarrassing, I had a baby to someone like this.'

A bloodied three-year old child was rescued by Newcastle police from a Mayfield unit where a 21-year-old woman died from stab wounds late on Friday night

Mackenzie Anderson, 21, is pictured right alongside Tyrone Thomspson, 22, pictured left

Ms Anderson responded to another commenter, saying 'I'm not really being funny... this is his friend group... kill me.'

She also posted a cartoon comparing male and female parenting, implying that women had a much harder job in being considered a good parent.

Ms Anderson had battled drug addiction from the age of 16.

On May 25, 2019 she posted on Facebook that 'addiction is a real thing, addiction is a disease that makes you too selfish to see the havoc and mess in your life that you created or care about the people's who's lives you shattered and hurt.

'It makes you blind to who you are when you are high.

'I've been clean from ice for three years now and I still count myself as a person in recovery, only in the process of fixing myself from being an addict is when I found out who I really was.'

Thompson is under police guard at John Hunter Hospital.

He is not expected to be charged until he is released from hospital, which could take another two days, Daily Mail Australia understands.

Mackenzie Anderson (pictured) was stabbed to death on Friday night at her home in Newcastle

Four ambulances and a specialist care team tried to save Ms Anderson but to no avail.

Superintendent Humphrey confirmed the child found at the scene was 'unharmed' and is now safe with relatives.

'Police arrived to find a 21-year-old woman critically injured lying outside her home. Police and NSW Ambulance paramedics rendered assistance but the woman died at the scene.

'She had suffered a number of stab wounds.'

Police initiated Strike Force Slant to investigate her death and the circumstances.

Ms Anderson's shocked family and friends began to pay tribute on Saturday after hearing of her death.

'We will love and miss you always beautiful girl... fly high gorgeous,' Naomi Anderson wrote.

Mackenzie Anderson (pictured) wrote on Facebook that taking drugs 'makes you blind to who you are when you are high'

A friend of Ms Anderson's commented: 'How many more lives need to be lost for people to take DV (domestic violence) serious. The system well and truly failed you.

'My heart is with your baby and family at this traumatic time... Your son will be protected for you.'

Another wrote: 'I'm gobsmacked. This world is such a dark, terrible place.'

A male friend said he 'got a call this morning you were gone. I couldn't believe it.

'I guess God needed another angel. Shine bright up there beautiful, you'll always be my best friend, on my mind is where you'll stay with them memories.'

A female friend said she was 'sick of losing my close friends to either drugs or violence. This world has to change.

'You had such a beautiful life ahead of you with your beautiful boy. My girl I'm gonna miss you dearly.

'My heart is broken... I'll miss you every day. I love you so much. Your son will always remember how beautiful his mother was.'
Supporters of former President Park Geun-hye welcome her arrival at her new residence in Dalseong County, in the southeastern city of Daegu, March 24. Korea Times photo by Wang Tae-suk



'We love you:' Former president's return thrills supporters in Daegu



By Lee Hyo-jin



DAEGU  It was a day of excitement for Dalseong County in the southeastern city of Daegu, March 24, when former conservative President Park Geun-hye settled at her new home, after spending nearly five years in prison.



From early morning, thousands of loyal supporters of Park, who still believe that she is the nation's leader, gathered in front of her new residence, located in a village in southwest Daegu, to welcome her return.



Dalseong is Park's political hometown, where she started her career as a politician. She ran for the National Assembly election there in 1998 and was elected four times.



The welcoming ceremony was organized by ultra-conservative minor Our Republican Party and attended by Park's diehard supporters, collectively called, "Park-Sa-Mo," which literally means, "the group who loves Park Geun-hye."



While waiting for Park to arrive, the participants waved white and green balloons  the colors of which symbolize "innocence and revival," according to the organizers. Many were seen taking selfies with Park's residence in the background.



The 1,670-square-meter two-story house with a basement and an elevator  known to have cost approximately 2.5 billion won ($1.67 million)  was purchased by Park in January of this year.





Supporters look at flower wreaths lined up in front of ex-president Park Geun-hye's residence in Dalseong County, Daegu, March. 24. Yonhap



Hundreds of flower wreaths sent by Park's supporters from across the country lined the path to her home, while dozens of banners were hung at the entrance of the village, with several of them reading, "Welcome to your private residence, Ms. President" and "We wish for your return to Cheong Hwa Dae (a misspelling of "Cheong Wa Dae," the presidential office and residence in Seoul)."



Several stands were seen selling Park's book, "Not Everybody Feels a Longing," a compilation of her letters written while serving over four years in prison. The merchants said the funds raised by the book sales would be used to make a documentary film about Park.



After revelations of political corruption and five months of Candlelight demonstrations around the country, Park was impeached in 2016 and sentenced to a combined 22-year sentence in March 2017 on 16 charges of bribery and power abuse. After serving four years and nine months of the sentence, she was released via a special pardon in December 2021.



But the scandal-ridden former president still has a handful of fervent supporters who cling onto the notion that she is innocent.



"I am so thrilled. I burst into tears when I saw her coming out of the hospital today," said a Dalseong resident in her 70s surnamed Lee.



Since her release, Park had been hospitalized in Samsung Medical Center for treatment of ailments in her shoulder and back.



"It's heartbreaking to imagine what she has gone through. She was wrongfully convicted over the criminal wrongdoings of her aides. She is not a bad person, but her aides are," Lee said.



"I'm so excited to finally see her in person," said Chae Won-yong, a 57-year-old man who traveled from Gapyeong, Gyeonggi Province to Daegu. "I feel so sorry for her that she had to spend five years in jail at an old age. She did nothing wrong. She is just a victim of political witch hunts by leftists."



Some are loyal to Park because of her father's legacy. Longtime military dictator Park Chung-hee, who took power in a 1961 and held onto it for 18 years until he was assassinated by a close aide in 1979, is credited with guiding the country's rapid economic development during his dictatorship.



"I support her because she is the daughter of Park Chung-hee, who lifted our country from poverty. I still remember the days when livelihoods of people drastically improved under his leadership," said a 60-something woman surnamed Jeong, who lives in Gyeongsan, a satellite city near Daegu.





Park Geun-hye speaks to her supporters in front of her residence in Dalseong, Daegu, March 24. Yonhap



Around 12:15 p.m., as Park's black car approached the entrance of the village, the crowd began to chant "President Park Geun-hye!" "We love you!" Please stay healthy!" Then they released balloons into the sky.



Wearing a navy coat and a beige mask, Park stood in front of the crowd to deliver a speech.



"The past five years has been a difficult time for me to endure. But I was able to endure those days by dreaming about the day when I would return to my political hometown of Dalseong," she said.





Bodyguards surround ex-president Park Geun-hye immediately after a man threw a bottle of soju at her as she delivers a speech in front of her residence in Daegu, March 24. Yonhap
Her bloodied and bandaged face provided the first grim evidence of the sheer barbarity that Russian President Vladimir Putin was prepared to deploy to subdue Ukraine.

Olena Kurylo was blinded in her right eye when a missile destroyed her apartment block in the opening hours of Russias brutal invasion last month.

While the terrified nursery teacher hid from the bombardment for a fortnight in a cold, dark basement, her blood-streaked face stared from the front pages of newspapers around the world, fuelling a wave of revulsion against Putin.

Olena Kurylo was blinded in her right eye when a missile destroyed her apartment block in the opening hours of Russias brutal invasion last month

Earlier this week an ophthalmologist performed an ultrasound scan on Olena Kurylo's right eye, which was damaged by Russian shelling on her home in Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, on the first day of the war

Today we can reveal how The Mail on Sunday has helped Olena to complete a remarkable escape from Ukraine and arranged for her to have surgery on her injuries in Poland. Doctors hope to save her eye and return at least some of her vision.

Speaking exclusively from her hospital bed yesterday, Olena, 52, said: Im very grateful and I will be until the end of days. I now have hope.

Olena, who is half-Russian, was left with glass lodged inside her right eye and hundreds of particles embedded in her skin when the missile exploded outside her two-bedroom flat in Chuhuiv, a town near the blitzed city of Kharkiv in North-East Ukraine.

Doctors had already warned the mother of one that she needed eye surgery as soon as possible, but on Friday an expert at a Polish hospital delivered distressing news: surgeons face a battle to save her eye and, a month after sustaining her injuries, she is in danger of developing a fatal infection from her wounds.

This is about saving your eye, not your sight, the ophthalmologist gravely told her. She will lose her eye if shes not treated, and that could lead to meningitis.

Today we can reveal how The Mail on Sunday has helped Olena to complete a remarkable escape from Ukraine and arranged for her to have surgery on her injuries in Poland. Doctors hope to save her eye and return at least some of her vision

Yesterday, Olena prepared for her daunting operation with the same remarkable bravery and stoicism that helped her survive the hell of relentless Russian bombardment in Ukraine.

Speaking to this newspaper, she bravely told the astonishing story of how she escaped the onslaught with her 27-year-old daughter and her heartache of leaving her husband Mykola, 54, behind.

The couple were woken at 5.20am on February 24 by three huge explosions that appeared to have come from a nearby military airfield. It was less than an hour after Putin had announced his intention to invade.

We had been following the news but never believed a war would really start, she said. My first thoughts were this is really happening. There was a small period of silence before a big explosion.

Mykola left to fill up the car with the petrol so we could escape while I packed. But he got a flat tyre and the 30 minutes he spent replacing the wheel saved his life.

Having collected the couples essential documents, Olena was sitting on a sofa in their bedroom when she suddenly heard a loud noise and saw shards of glass flying towards her.

Its like a photo, I can picture it so clearly. The window shattered into a thousand small pieces, she said. Its a miracle I survived. I just remember thinking, Im not ready to die. We had just refurbished our home. I could never have imagined that someone could lose something so fast.

The missile left a 30ft wide crater by the parking space where Mykola normally parked his car. The epicentre of the blast was about 70ft from their apartment. There was a moment of silence before Olena heard people crying for help.

The blood was running down my face and I couldnt see anything. I had hundreds of particles of glass embedded in my skin but I felt no pain as I was in shock.

At that point I didnt know there was glass in my eye as it was filled with blood. I kept wiping my face with clothes to try and stop the bleeding but it just wouldnt.

Olena survived the attack on her apartment complex in Chuhuiv near the Russian border

Olena called her husband and daughter Katya to tell them she was alive, before managing to find paramedics to dress her wounds. This was where she was pictured by American photographer Wolfgang Schwan, whose haunting image quickly spread around the world. She then waited for Mykola to return before she went to hospital because there were people far more wounded who needed an ambulance more than her.

At a nearby hospital, Olena was told that she had an injury in her right eye  but she was simply sent away with eye drops because there were no ophthalmologists in the city.

As Russias attacks around Kharkiv intensified, the couple sought refuge in a cabin in a small village in the woods outside the city while daughter Katya fled to the city of Dnipro with her two cats.

Olena and Mykola spent 12 terrifying days in the basement of the remote house  too afraid to leave for fear that they would be bombed. We could see that the area was completely destroyed and see the missiles, Olena said: We could feel the shockwaves from the explosions. I didnt dare leave.

When she did finally emerge and go upstairs into the cabin she slept in the bath on yoga mats. I didnt want to be around windows. I would only sleep in the bath. It wasnt safe in the bedroom as it was a room with windows. By this point, Olena was aware that she was also the victim of a vile Russian disinformation campaign as false claims spread online that Schwans photograph of her injuries was fake and that she was an actor. It was horrible, she said. I felt insulted.

The Mail on Sunday remained in contact with Olena while she was trapped in the cabin. She told us how she was desperate to leave  but that it remained too dangerous to do so.

Concerned that she still had not received any specialist medical care, we contacted Moorfields Eye Hospital in London who in turn enlisted the help of Maaike van Zuilen, coordinator of the World Association of Eye Hospitals (WAEH). Ms Van Zuilen arranged for Dr Tanya Lushchyk, a Dutch-Ukrainian ophthalmologist at Rotterdam Eye Hospital, to carry out a telephone consultation.

She concluded that large pieces of glass remained lodged in Olenas eye and that she had suffered bleeding and possibly the detachment of her retina.

It was increasingly clear that Olena needed urgent surgery  but first she had to escape what had become a deadly and complex battlefield.

Olenas salvation came in the form of a lorry driver who was delivering supplies in the area and who, at Mykolas request, agreed that she could travel in his cab.

He smuggled me into Kharkiv through the forest, Olena said. I spent the journey curled into a ball on the front seat to hide. I had to leave Mykola behind as he had to look after his paralysed mother.

If I didnt have my wounds, I wouldnt have left my husband. I needed to save my vision as I work with children and I love my job.

After arriving at Kharkiv railway station Olena boarded a train to Dnipro, where daughter Katya was staying with a friend after fleeing the bombarded city of Kharkiv with her two cats.

They spent four days together and saw another expert who had been lined up with the help of the WAEH and Dr Lushchyk in Rotterdam. But, in another blow, Olenas allergies to certain anesthetics, and the lack of surgeons in the shelled city, meant that a speedy operation was not forthcoming. Her best hope was to continue to flee west.

Last Tuesday, she received a call from aid workers at the Ukrainian Red Cross in Lviv, whom The Mail on Sunday had contacted for help, who offered to take her to the Polish border.

That evening Olena and her daughter boarded a 20-hour train from Dnipro to Lviv.

It was crammed, she said. I didnt sleep for the whole time. I was one of seven people sitting in a four-seater carriage, with a 30kg dog in the middle. But everyone comforted one another.

I was concerned about being bombed. They turned the lights off on the train and told us we couldnt use our phone so the lights dont attract Russian forces.

Shortly before 10.30am UK time on Wednesday. Olena and Katya crossed into Poland after being dropped off at the border by the Red Cross and were greeted by an MoS reporter and photographer. Their entire lives were crammed into one bag and a rucksack.

On Friday, after a much-needed rest, our reporter took Olena to a hospital in Poland, which we are not naming to respect her privacy.

Despite knowing she needed emergency care, Olena believed that it would be a simple procedure. But during the appointment, the expert broke the news that her condition was more serious, saying: She should have had surgery a month ago  and even then getting perfect vision back would have been difficult.

She has penetrating trauma of the eyeball, a detached retina and a haemorrhage.

On hearing the distressing news, Olena put her head in her hands, and said: I didnt think it was this serious. There was no question I was going to lose my eye.

She was admitted immediately and is expected to undergo surgery tomorrow. Doctors say there is a chance Olena could restore her vision.

I was shocked, she said yesterday. I had hoped they would be able to get my vision back and I might be able to see again.

Aesthetically I will have my eye, and I will have my life, but there is still hope inside of me I will get partial eyesight back.

Olena, who becomes fearful when she hears aircraft overhead, says the injury has changed her, but she feels no hatred. When I look in the mirror I dont understand it. I cannot accept reality.

Indeed, she even still wears the black puffa coat she was wearing the day her building was destroyed. She points out the tears in her jacket caused by the blasted glass from her windows, adding: I really need to get a new coat. This one has bad memories.

But she added: I know I have this trauma and I know I was one of the first victims of the war but I understand that Im one of many. I know many will never be able to receive the help I have.

In a sign of her undimmed defiance, she urged Ukraine to continue to resist the Russian invasion and said she hopes to return to her beloved country soon.

She said: Every Ukrainian civilian, volunteer and soldier, do everything possible for Ukraine to remain a free and independent country. Please support us. If Ukraine wins, the whole world will win, the whole of humankind will.
The worlds most influential health organisation is calling on governments to scrap the legal time limit on abortion, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

New guidelines issued by the World Health Organisation (WHO) claim laws preventing abortion at any point during pregnancy risk violating the rights of women, girls or other pregnant persons.

But last night Tory MP Fiona Bruce, co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Pro-Life Group, described any proposal to legalise abortion up to birth as completely unacceptable and truly shocking.

She added: A viable human being could have his or her life ended up to the point of birth. Yet a day, an hour, even moments later, similar action against a child could constitute murder.

The worlds most influential health organisation is calling on governments to scrap the legal time limit on abortion, The Mail on Sunday can reveal (stock image)

The WHOs Abortion Care Guideline published this month  six years after the MoS revealed the Royal College of Midwives was pushing for the same policy  also recommends that governments:

Allow abortion under all circumstances  ruling out laws banning terminations because the foetus is the wrong sex;

Stop women requiring approval from a doctor or nurse to have a termination; l

Roll out pills by post schemes so that women can be sent abortion medication after a phone call;

Curtail medical professionals rights to refuse to take part in abortions on conscience grounds.

The United Nations, which oversees the WHO, has welcomed the suggested removal of what it called unnecessary policy barriers to safe abortion, including limits on when an abortion can take place.

But nowhere in the 210-page document is there mention of the ethical debate about the rights of the unborn child, nor if abortions are morally acceptable when after 22-24 weeks the foetus has a good chance of surviving if born prematurely.

It is also silent on sex-selective abortion, despite the termination of female foetuses being common in countries such as India, Pakistan and China.

Tory MP Fiona Bruce, co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Pro-Life Group, described any proposal to legalise abortion up to birth as completely unacceptable and truly shocking

Prior to publication, the WHO consulted a panel of 12 external experts including Dr Dhammika Perera, global medical director of UK-based Marie Stopes International, whose British arm carries out more than 60,000 NHS abortions a year, and Dr Laura Castleman, of Planned Parenthood Michigan, a branch of the largest abortion provider in the United States.

Dr Perera has previously described terms such as late-term abortion and foetal heartbeat as anti-choice rhetoric.

He also objects to the word womb because it assigns emotional and symbolic value to an organ.

Another member of the panel was Karthik Srinivasan from the International Planned Parenthood Federation, which lobbies to expand abortion rights.

Christina Zampas, of the global Center for Reproductive Rights, which uses donations to build, enforce, [and] defend abortion, advised on human rights law.

The WHO document recommends full decriminalisation of abortion and the scrapping of laws and regulations that prohibit abortion based on gestational limits and restrict abortion on any grounds (stock image)

The WHO document recommends full decriminalisation of abortion and the scrapping of laws and regulations that prohibit abortion based on gestational limits and restrict abortion on any grounds.

It says a review of 21 studies found that when women are denied later terminations it can be viewed as [being] incompatible with international human rights law.

It adds that time limits on abortion might also breach equality laws because they have a disproportionate impact on some groups, such as teenagers and the poor.

In England and Wales women can have abortions for social reasons up to 24 weeks.

After that, they are only legally permitted in circumstances such as the mothers life being at risk or if the child would be born with a severe disability.

The Royal College of Midwives called for the decriminalisation of abortion, including scrapping time limits, in 2016.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists followed in 2017 and the Royal College of General Practitioners in 2019.

But Ministers have said they have no plans to change the law.

The WHO did not respond to a request to comment.

Pro-abortion group Alliance for Choice said abortion should be provided to those in need of it as early as possible and as late as neccessary.
Wherever you stand on the merits of Damien Hirst  and there is no shortage of detractors  there is absolute consensus on this one fact: he is very, very good at making huge sums of money.

At 56, Hirst boasts a fortune estimated at 300million thanks to a series of startling creations such as boxes filled with flies, giant canvases covered with coloured dots and pickled animals with their innards on display.

Today, a single piece can fetch 1million or more from collectors in Britain and around the world.

Hirst rarely goes to the trouble of making the stuff himself, of course.

Instead, he outsources the labour to more than 150 assistants at a network of specialist production sites in London and Gloucestershire.

According to a whistleblower from Hirsts factory in Gloucestershire, a grim facility on the edge of a housing estate near Stroud, he and his colleagues worked for low wages, disembowelling dead animals. Pictured: A cow being treated

While Hirst gets on with life as a towering figure on the British art scene, young factory hands daub dots, disembowel sharks or sheep and stick gems to skulls of the sort that reputedly once sold for 50million.

Contractually barred from discussing their role in his art or how it was produced, they tend to do their work in considerable secrecy.

Yet The Mail on Sunday has established that the art and installations that have brought so much success to Hirst are produced in macabre conditions that might surprise his rich collectors and their dinner-party guests.

According to a whistleblower from Hirsts factory in Gloucestershire, a grim facility on the edge of a housing estate near Stroud, he and his colleagues worked for low wages, disembowelling dead animals, slicing them in two with giant saws, or standing in full protective equipment waist-deep in formaldehyde, a chemical preservative.

Then, amid the stress of the pandemic, their jobs simply vanished.

Figures released last week show Hirst took a total of 1.3million in Government furlough money.

Yet documents seen by the MoS show he also made dozens of technicians, including our whistleblower, redundant in October 2020 after they had spent seven months on furlough  never mind that the taxpayer-funded scheme was created to save jobs.

The conditions we worked under were difficult, says Billy  not his real name  in a unique account of life on Hirsts bizarre production line.

During the pandemic, Hirst was on Instagram making himself look like a hero by doing charity work and making prints for the NHS.

His Butterfly pictures  gaudy rainbows or hearts decorated with butterflies were created in the summer of 2020 to raise money for NHS workers.

But we barely saw him in the studio, Billy continues. It got to the point where we thought, Is this really art? But I would say hes a genius businessman.

Artist Damien Hirst (L) and Sophie Cannell (R) attend The Empathy Suite designed by Damien Hirst which was unveilled at Palms Casino Resort in 2019

Billy, a Fine Art graduate, first joined the company in his 20s after applying for the job through a recruitment website.

He helped to create Hirsts three-dimensional pieces, which frequently involved preserving dead animals, including tigers, before they were mounted in display cases.

These were shipped in as whole frozen carcasses from overseas  although Billy wasnt told precisely where from  then suspended using fishing wire in preservative-filled tanks.

Some of the corpses would be painstakingly sliced in half by Billy and his colleagues, using a giant industrial cutter, so the animal would eventually be seen with its internal organs on full view.

Other creatures had their guts removed before being stitched up again using surgical thread or staples and displayed whole.

Billy also worked on two more of Hirsts trademarks: glass cases filled with dead insects and his medicine cabinets featuring rows of coloured pills.

When he first came to prominence in the 1990s, Hirst was known as the enfant terrible of the Young British Artists scene, as famous for his hellraising as for his provocative art.

In 1992, his 14ft tiger shark pickled and suspended in formaldehyde called The Physical Imposibility Of Death In The Mind Of Someone Living became the focus of the Saatchi Gallerys Young British Artists exhibition.

While Hirst gets on with life as a towering figure on the British art scene, young factory hands daub dots, disembowel sharks or sheep and stick gems to skulls of the sort that reputedly once sold for 50million. Pictured: A worker submerging a dead sheep in formaldehyde at one of the artists workshops

Next came a pickled sheep and a sliced crosssection of a cow and a calf. In 1995, he won the Turner Prize and with it the 25,000 prize money.

A regular at Londons fashionable Groucho Club, he famously put his Turner Prize winnings behind the bar and drank the lot in a single sitting with a gang of showbiz friends.

His celebrity established, Hirst began selling replicas of his art for eye-watering prices, promoted by his patron Charles Saatchi and powerful art dealers Larry Gagosian and Jay Jopling, the Old Etonian founder of the White Cube galleries in London and Hong Kong.

By 2008, his star power was so great that Sothebys marked an auction of 223 of his works with a party for 1,500 guests, who were served foie gras wrapped in gold leaf.

The 158million sale set a new record for a single-artist auction, with Hirst reportedly taking 135million of the proceeds.

At the height of his commercial success before the financial crash, one of Hirsts stainless steel and glass pill cabinets, called Lullaby Spring, sold at Sothebys for 9.6million to Qatars ruling Al-Thani family.

By then, Hirst had opened three art factories  two in South London and one in Gloucestershire  to mass-produce his most commercially successful work, including his pickled animals, medicine cabinets, spot circles and butterfly paintings.

Today he has at least three homes including Toddington Manor, a vast neo-Gothic pile in the Cotswolds, but keeps a lower profile than in the past.

Now divorced from his wife and mother of his three children Maia Norman, he spends his time with ex-ballerina girlfriend Sophie Cannell, 27.

Hirst, it should be said, has always been clear that his art is a brand produced in a factory.

Referring to his spot paintings, he once said: I only painted the first five and I was like f*** this, I hated it. As soon as I sold one, I used the money to pay people to make them.

Billy first joined his team at the Dudbridge art factory near Stroud four years ago on an annual salary of about 22,000.

He was keen to save money to study sculpture and the job seemed to be a foot in the door of the art world  even if he was contractually bound not to discuss his work with outsiders, take pictures or refer to his time with Hirst on his CV.

His official working hours were regular: a typical day saw him clock in at 9am and he was supposed to finish at 5pm.

His celebrity established, Hirst began selling replicas of his art for eye-watering prices, promoted by his patron Charles Saatchi and powerful art dealers Larry Gagosian and Jay Jopling, the Old Etonian founder of the White Cube galleries in London and Hong Kong. Pictured: One of Hirsts employees carrying out preservation work on a shark

But he says there were times when he was expected to work overtime in the evenings and at weekends.

Often this meant visiting wealthy patrons to install pieces of art, or repair them when things went wrong.

The Dudbridge factory is surrounded by a 7ft steel fence with Keep Out signs and CCTV cameras, so accounts of life behind the walls are rare.

Billy describes the main building, known as the Science Studio, as a windowless concrete space where the only natural light filters through rooftop glazing.

It features a grisly formaldehyde room where dead animals float in huge tubs of chemical preservative covered by plastic sheeting.

One wing is a giant freezer room, where dead animals are stored at minus 25C.

Before starting work, Billy and his colleagues would put on full-body protective equipment, including gloves and a ventilated mask.

Then they hoisted dead animals on to worktops and cut open the animals using scalpels to remove their stomachs, guts and bowels.

Blood drained through a hole in the worktops and was collected in a bucket. To complete the gory process, Hirsts assistants injected the carcasses with formaldehyde, which is used by undertakers and has the effect of stiffening the flesh, until they were solid.

For larger animals, such as tigers and zebras, this took several weeks. Once ready, the corpses were lifted off the worktops using a gantry and a forklift truck.

The Dudbridge factory is surrounded by a 7ft steel fence with Keep Out signs and CCTV cameras, so accounts of life behind the walls are rare

They were then installed in tanks filled with solutions of the colourless preservative and shipped off to galleries and private clients.

To prepare dead sheep, Hirsts team had to break their pelvises and shoulders so that the fleeces could be rolled off in one piece  and rolled back on once the process was complete, Pieces on display in the homes of wealthy collectors frequently required maintenance, he says.

There were times, for example, when oxygen and fluids started leaking from the dead animals on display and created visible bubbles in the tanks surrounding them.

You would go off to do installations and youd have a bucket of formaldehyde in the back of the car, and the whole car would stink  youd have to drive with the windows open, he recalls.

A lot of times wed be going to peoples houses to get bubbles out of their tanks before they had people over to show them their Hirst.

It would be last-minute and very demanding. We would have to drop everything.

At the grandest London homes, he would enter by the underground staff entrance before being taken up to rooms of jaw-dropping opulence.

We were told beforehand by the managers they [the clients] were Russian oligarchs, he says, recalling one visit in particular.

Everything was made of marble, with chandeliers in every room. Some of the London mansions I went to had solid gold plug sockets.

Despite the power of his brand, he claims Hirsts personal involvement in the artistic process was minimal, saying a number of his colleagues had become so skilful at writing Hirsts signature that they engraved his name on the back of artworks.

It was easier than getting him to come in, he says. It happened regularly.

Hirst visited the factory once a month at most, he suggests, and talked only to managers.

We would be warned he was coming in and told not to make eye contact, dont look his way too much, dont talk to him unless he spoke to us first. Sometimes we would text him a picture of something we had just made and hed text back, Great, full stop. That was his involvement.

The work was demanding and staff turnover had been high throughout his time at the company.

It definitely felt like Damien cared more about making a profit from people than he did on making quality artwork, he comments.

The pandemic made life even harder.

The art market promptly collapsed and, at the start of April 2020, Billy and a number of his colleagues were furloughed.

The Government made up 80 per cent of their wages and Hirst paid the rest.

If the intention was to save their jobs, however, it didnt work.

Not long afterwards, Hirsts firm, Science UK, announced there would be more than 60 redundancies at the Dudbridge studio, blaming the significant impact Covid-19 is having on the market and wider economy, and started a consultation process with its workers.

Staff including Billy were eventually made redundant in October 2020  and paid an extra 100 if they signed Non-Disclosure Agreements to keep the details of their settlements secret.

Hirsts company channels earnings from selling artworks to a parent company based in Jersey.

Financial documents published last week show Science UK sold 18.2million of art in 2020, generating almost 3.5 million of pretax profits.

Science UK claimed 1.31million furlough support on top of the groups 15million Coronavirus Business Interruption loan taken out in October that year.

Meanwhile, redundancy documents seen by The Mail on Sunday suggest that at least 63 staff lost their jobs at Dudbridge  a process which Billy says left a number of them depressed and in some cases on medication.

I think he doesnt allow himself to get close to people so he can be this separate god-like genius figure, he says.

Hirst himself has a more prosaic turn of phrase, once saying: I cant wait to get into a position to make really bad art and get away with it.

So far at least, concludes Billy, he has succeeded on both counts.

Damien Hirst did not respond to requests for comment.
Oscar-winning actress Dame Emma Thompson last night criticised the Governments slow and complicated visa scheme for Ukrainian refugees as she heaped praise on Mail Forces appeal.

Dame Emma is a patron of the Refugee Council, which has received 500,000 from Mail Force to help the thousands of Ukrainians expected to arrive in Britain after fleeing Vladimir Putins invasion. It will use the money to invest in therapeutic services for traumatised children and adults and boost its information hotline.

Im thrilled that Mail Force are supporting the Refugee Council, said Dame Emma. The generosity of the public and of Mail readers is really heart-warming and its one of the things that gives me hope.

Dame Emma is a patron of the Refugee Council, which has received 500,000 from Mail Force to help the thousands of Ukrainians expected to arrive in Britain after fleeing Vladimir Putins invasion. It will use the money to invest in therapeutic services for traumatised children and adults and boost its information hotline

Her critical comments about the Government reflect mounting frustration at the protracted delays Ukrainians face in securing UK visas

Its horrific to see whats happening in Ukraine. Like everyone else, Ive been watching and there are just no words.

Her critical comments about the Government reflect mounting frustration at the protracted delays Ukrainians face in securing UK visas. The Homes For Ukraine scheme allows British people to sponsor a Ukrainian nationals visa so that those without family connections can still come to live in the UK. More than 25,000 completed applications have been submitted but only 1,000 visas have reportedly been approved, while the number of refugees who have reached Britain is even smaller.

Under a separate scheme, the Home Office has issued 20,100 visas to Ukrainians who have family in the UK.

Id like to see the Government do much more for refugees, Dame Emma said. It wouldnt be difficult. The visa process for refugees from Ukraine is slow and complicated. These are people in an emergency.

Her comments came as Refugees Minister Richard Harrington told The Mail on Sunday he will offer a three-bedroom flat he owns in London to refugees. We should all do our bit, he said. Everyone has different things they can do, and Im pleased to be able to do this.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has said he will be welcoming a refugee family into his home, and Environment Minister Victoria Prentis is hosting a Ukrainian office worker at her Oxfordshire home.
Labor Senator Katy Gallagher has broken her silence over claims she bullied Kimberley Kitching, saying she 'never did anything' to deserve being labelled a 'mean girl'.

Senator Kitching died aged 52 from a heart attack on March 10, amid claims she was bullied and ostracised by members of her own party.

Allies said Ms Kitching described fellow ALP senators Penny Wong, Kristina Keneally, and Ms Gallagher as 'mean girls' and said she was suffering from stress at the time of her death.

Senator Kimberley Kitching (pictured) died from a heart attack earlier this month at the age of 52

All three senators vehemently denied the allegations, which are an unwelcome scandal for the Labor Party in the lead up to the federal election.

'Mean girls' is a reference to the beloved 2004 film of the same name that features a high school clique of popular girls who denigrate other students.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese and Deputy Leader Richard Marles rejected calls for an inquiry into the allegations, claiming the matter has already been addressed and no official complaint was filed.

Senator Gallagher reiterated her defence on Sunday, saying she 'hadn't heard of the term [mean girls]' until it was published in The Australian earlier this month.

'It wasnt a term that I heard Kimberley use, it certainly wasnt a term she used directly to me,' the Shadow Finance Minister told Sky News on Sunday.

'I think its an unfortunate term that does diminish women.

'I dont think I did anything that would deserve that name, but I dont think any person deserves that name on any side of the political chamber.'

Asked whether she ever had 'disagreements, harsh words or difficult arguments' with Senator Kitching, Senator Gallagher said no such situation ever occurred.

Senator Katy Gallagher (left) Senator Kristina Keneally (centre) and Senator Penny Wong were reportedly coined 'mean girls' by Senator Kitching

'I think people understand that within politics there are disagreements,' she said.

'It is an environment where conflict comes and people have differences of opinions. I dont think thats unusual, but I certainly didnt have anything like [harsh words and difficult arguments].'

Gallagher was asked why a 'strong woman' like Senator's Kitching's allegations should not be believed when one of Labor's mantras was that women should always be believed.

She replied it was unfair to comment on the allegations because Senator Kitching was no longer alive to offer her input.

'Kimberley certainly was a strong woman... [But] to be honest, I don't know what Kimberley thinks or how she would want this handled,' the Opposition Finance spokeswoman said.

Labor Senator Katy Gallagher (pictured) has spoken out to say she 'never did anything' to deserve being called a 'mean girl'

'And that is part of the issue here. This is in a sense allegations being raised in the media, and I feel that it is impossible to respond on the detail of someone who is no longer here.

'I don't feel comfortable doing or saying something that puts Kimberley at a disadvantage.'

A motion of condolence will be moved in the Senate on Monday - the first sitting since Ms Kitching's death - where senators from all sides of the politics will issue statements marking their respect for the late Victorian Labor member.

Senator Gallagher said everyone within the Labor Party was trying to be 'as respectful to Kimberley and her family as possible'.

'Bill (Shorten) summed it up last week when he said he thinks Kimberley would want us to move on and win the election,' she said.
Parents of babies in intensive care should be exempt from paying for Covid tests when visiting them, charities and MPs have said.

Free lateral flow tests will end for most people from Friday, and will remain available only to the most vulnerable and social care staff.

Tom Padden, a father whose baby spent 104 days in intensive care, said he and his wife would have had to pay for over 200 tests under the new rules and warned: If you cant afford a test, you cant afford to see your baby.

'You cant put another barrier in front of people who need to be with their poorly babies.

Parents of babies in intensive care should be exempt from paying for Covid tests when visiting them, charities and MPs have said (file photo)

Some hospitals require parents to test every day their baby is in intensive care. Mr Padden added: Having to pay for tests adds another worry when youre at breaking point.

A Government source said mothers may be exempt because they would be seen as patients, but refused to say if this would apply to fathers.

A Department of Health spokesman said details of any exemptions will be given in due course.

Conservative MP Alicia Kearns said hospitals should offer free tests or adapt testing requirements. Caroline Lee-Davey, of baby charity Bliss, said: Parents arent visitors to their baby, they are part of the care team.
It is easy to see why the Duke of Cambridge felt it wise to condemn slavery during his recent visit to Jamaica.

His Caribbean trip has been dogged by protests. Commonwealth countries in the area are hurrying to proclaim themselves republics. Decades when these places seemed loyal and happy to welcome Monarchs and future Monarchs are plainly coming to an end.

What can the Monarchy do to cope with this and minimise the damage? Plainly, the Foreign Office has advised a large dose of self-abasement.

Speaking in Jamaica, Prince William repeated his fathers condemnation of slavery, before adding his own words: I want to express my profound sorrow. Slavery was abhorrent. And it should never have happened.

Nobody actually disagrees with these views. What matters is when and where they are said, and who says them. Even more important is whether they are qualified with any reflections on how Britain was the first great European nation to reject and renounce slavery, and that the British Empire and the Royal Navy fought ferociously to stamp out the evil trade.

Speaking in Jamaica (above), Prince William repeated his fathers condemnation of slavery, before adding his own words: I want to express my profound sorrow. Slavery was abhorrent. And it should never have happened'

It is absurd to discuss the issue of slavery without recognising this. In fact, it is wrong. Imagine the world that would have existed had Britain not taken this position. Have we forgotten that what is now the worlds most advanced nation, the US (as it happens, a republic), permitted large-scale slavery on its home territory right into the 1860s?

Leaks from the Jamaican government suggested it was disappointed that Prince William had not actually apologised for slavery. And Prime Minister Andrew Holness hinted strongly that Jamaica would soon join Barbados and many other Commonwealth countries in getting rid of the Crown and becoming a republic.

It is hard to believe that the Cambridges would have avoided this snub had William given the apology that radicals in Jamaica want so much to hear.

Concessions to such campaigners only strengthen their demands. Once we decide to try to save ourselves by offering a cultural cringe to our enemies, we have lost the battle.

There is a bitter irony in these events. In the modern world, slavery has more than once been revived by ruthless totalitarian states, not just Hitler and the Nazis but also Left-wing despotisms such as Stalins USSR and Maos China.

And the only one of these states that still survives is China. Recent research by Sheffield Hallam University suggests that China is using its persecuted Uighur minority for forced labour.

Mr Holness hinted strongly that Jamaica would soon join Barbados and many other Commonwealth countries in getting rid of the Crown and becoming a republic (Kate pictured standing during the meeting with Jamaica's PM)

As the university says, Uighurs work on producing materials for solar panels within an environment of unprecedented coercion, undergirded by the constant threat of re-education and internment. Many indigenous workers are unable to refuse or walk away from these jobs, and thus the programmes are tantamount to forcible transfer of populations and enslavement.

And which country is hungrily waiting to move into Commonwealth nations with offers of loans, which are in fact baited traps? China is spending 5 billion in five Commonwealth Caribbean nations: Barbados, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda, and Trinidad and Tobago.

But Xi Jinpings agents are also hard at work in other Commonwealth countries. Their leaders can easily tell the British Monarchy it is no longer wanted, and even demand apologies for past slavery. Let them see how China reacts if they run into trouble with their loans, or criticise Beijings forced labour schemes.

Far from cringing in the face of woke attacks, Britain should proudly assert its role in abolishing the slave trade, and offer Commonwealth countries help that will not enslave them, as Chinas will.
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President Joe Biden's call for Vladimir Putin to be removed from power is setting off alarm bells among US foreign policy experts, who fear that it could escalate tensions even after the Kremlin scales back its war aims in Ukraine.

'For God's sake this man cannot remain in power,' Biden said in a shocking apparent call for regime change in Moscow at the end of a impassioned speech from Poland on Saturday.

The unscripted remark, which the White House scrambled to walk back as the Kremlin expressed fury, came at the end of an otherwise resolute and fiery speech rallying the free world to unite in opposition to autocracy and support of Ukraine.

Richard Haass, the Council on Foreign Relations president, tweeted his concerns that Biden had 'just expanded US war aims, calling for regime change.'

'However desirable it may be, it is not within our power to accomplish-plus runs risk it will increase Putin's inclination to see this as a fight to the finish, raising odds he will reject compromise, escalate, or both,' wrote Haass.

'Our interests are to end the war on terms Ukraine can accept & to discourage Russian escalation. Today's call for regime change is inconsistent with these ends,' he added.

President Joe Biden's call for Vladimir Putin to be removed from power in Russia is setting off alarm bells among foreign policy experts. who fear that it could escalate tensions

'For god's sake this man cannot remain in power,' he said of Putin, describing the Russian president as having a 'craving for absolute power and control.'

A wrecked tank is seen near a damaged building in Mariupol on Saturday as civilians are being evacuated along humanitarian corridors from the Ukrainian city under the control of Russian military and pro-Russian separatists

Haass went on to tell Politico that a senior Biden official, possibly even Secretary of State Antony Blinken, needs to reach out to their Russian counterpart immediately and explain that Biden's comment doesn't reflect US policy.

'The fact that it was so off-script in some ways makes it worse,' because it could be read as Biden's genuine belief as opposed to his scripted words, Haas said.

Biden's remark could also diminish Putin's interest in compromise and increase his temptation to escalate in Ukraine, 'because if he believes he has everything to lose then he'll believe he has nothing to lose,' Haass said.

Before Biden could even board Air Force One to begin the flight back to Washington, his aides were rushing to claim that he hadn't been calling for an immediate change in government in Moscow.

'The President's point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. He was not discussing Putin's power in Russia, or regime change,' a White House official said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov quickly denounced Biden, saying 'its not up to the president of the U.S. and not up to the Americans to decide who will remain in power in Russia.'

Biden's alarming off-the-cuff remark comes just 24 hours after the White House rushed to clarify other awkward remarks from the president suggesting that US troops would deploy, and had already deployed, to Ukraine.

In a speech to US paratroopers in Poland on Friday, Biden said: 'You're going to see when you're there  some of you have been there  you're going to see women, young people, standing in the middle, in front of a damn tank, saying, 'I'm not leaving'.'

Biden's mention of 'when you're there' seem to suggest that the troops would be deployed across the border to Ukraine, but the administration insisted there has been no change in his stance that the US will not enter the conflict.

The White House was forced to clarify on Friday that American troops would not be going into Ukraine after President Biden appeared to make a slip in his speech to paratroopers in Poland

'The president has been clear we are not sending U.S. troops to Ukraine and there is no change in that position,' a White House spokesperson clarified to Fox News on Friday.

Biden has persistently said that troops would not be sent into Ukraine under any circumstances during Putin's invasion, fearing it would turn into World War Three and end up becoming a lengthy combat mission like in Afghanistan.

In his fiery speech on Saturday, Biden drew a stark line between democracy and oppression, repeatedly going after Putin and accusing the Russian president of dishonesty.

Speaking outdoors in the cobbled courtyard of the Royal Castle in Warsaw, which was lit with the colors of Poland and Ukraine, Biden accused Putin of 'using brute force and disinformation' to rule.

'It's nothing less than a direct challenges to the rules-based system of international order,' Biden said.

President Joe Biden accused Vladimir Putin of duplicity in the run up to Russia's invasion of Ukraine

Biden also took a cue from Arnold Schwarzenegger - who released a video message to Russians that went viral - and spoke directly to the Russian people.

'I'm telling you the truth. This war is not worthy of you the Russian people,' he said. 'Putin can and must end this war. The American people will stand with you and the brave citizens of Ukraine that want peace.'

And he warned Putin's aggression could bring 'decades of war' to Europe.

'It's nothing less than a direct challenge for the order established since the World War II and it threatens to return to decades of war that ravage Europe before the international rule-based order was put in place. We cannot go back to that,' Biden said.

Biden also moved to calm worried Eastern European nations. He made it clear the NATO alliance would hold together and he warned Russia not to think about expanding his invasion outside of Ukraine.

Poland and the old Eastern bloc nations - like Lativa and Estonia - are worried Putin's ambitions might lead to their borders. But Biden made it clear NATO would protect its member nations and honor Article Five, which states if one is striked, all respond.

'Don't even think about moving on one single inch of NATO territory. We have sacred obligations,' Biden said.

Biden mentioned his own conversations with Putin before Russia's invasion late last month.

He said Putin 'repeatedly he asserted he had no interest in war - guaranteed he would not move.'

'There is simply no justification or provocation for Russia's choice of war.

President Biden walks out on stage to give his remarks at the Royal Castle in Warsaw

President Joe Biden boards Air Force One, heading back to Washington D.C.

Polish President Andrzej Duda listens as President Joe Biden delivers a speech about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, at the Royal Castle

But Putin and Russia met each of the proposals with disinterest. 'Russia was bent on violence from the start,' he said.

After days of diplomacy and quiet meetings with powerbrokers in Warsaw and Brussels, the White House lined up a speech where Biden could speak in broad strokes about what was at stake, as the U.S. and allies rush to arm Ukraine.

Biden said the war has been 'a strategic failure for Russia already'  alluding to its battlefield losses.

'He, Putin thought Ukrainians would roll over and not fight. Not much of a student of history. Instead, Russian forces have met their match,' he said, in a speech with references to Pope John Paul II, the siege of Stalingrad, and Lech Walesa.

Despite Putin's aims, 'The west is not stronger and more united than it has ever been,' Biden said, pointing to the international response,' Biden said.

'The democracies of the world are revitalized,' said Biden.

People listen as President Joe Biden delivers a speech about the Russian invasion of Ukraine

In contrast, he said Russia was suffering a 'remarkable brain drain,' with more than 200,000 leaving the country in a month.

'We must commit now to be in this fight for the long haul,' he said, speaking in a country that has been pushing to arm Ukraine while housing more than 2 million refugees.

Punctuating his words, he told a cheering crowd never to be discouraged. 'Be not afraid,' he said.

Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia,' he vowed. 'For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power,' he said, on a day when Russia lobbed new missiles at Lviv in western Ukraine.

Biden began and ended his remarks with a quote from the first Polish pope, Pope John Paul II, telling people: 'Be not afraid.'

Biden has personally attacked Putin before, calling him a war criminal and said he doesn't have a soul.

Earlier Saturday, he called Putin a 'butcher' after holding emotional conversations with Ukrainian refugees  including a pair who fled the horror of the siege at Mariupol.

'He's a butcher,' Biden said when asked what he thought of Putin after what he has done to the people he was meeting.

On March 19, video captured Biden tripping up the stairs as he boarded Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews.

In the clip, Biden stumbles as he walks up the airstairs. He grabs the hand railing to catch his balance, but then loses his footing two additional times.

During the third stumble, he falls to his knees. However, after brushing off his leg, he reaches the top of the plane and gives a salute before disappearing inside.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre later told reporters that Biden was '100 percent fine' and preparing for his trip in Atlanta.

'It's pretty windy outside. It's very windy. I almost fell coming up the steps myself,' she said.

Just one day earlier, during a press conference on March 18 (pictured), he referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as 'President Harris'

Just one day earlier, Biden accidentally referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as 'President Harris.'

The gaffe occurred during a press conference on March 18, during which he lauded his administration for being close to meeting their goal of 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses in his first 100 days in office.

'Now when President Harris and I took a virtual tour of a vaccination center in Arizona not long ago, one of the nurses on that, on that tour injecting people, giving vaccinations, said that each shot was like administering a dose of hope,' Biden said.

Harris was standing behind Biden as the president carried on with his speech, but did not correct himself.

Later that day, when the White House released the transcript of his speech, Harris's proper title was inserted with brackets.

On March 9, while making a speech, Biden seemed to forget the name of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin (above)

In a speech on March 9, Biden seemed to fumble with his words and forget the name of his Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

'I want to thank Sec - the former general - I keep calling him 'General,'' Biden said.

'My - the guy who runs that outfit over there. I want to make sure we thank the Secretary for all he's done to try to implement what we've just talked about, and for recommending these two women for promotion.' The slip-occurred despite the fact that just a few minutes earlier, he had mentioned Austin's name in the speech without an issue.

On Election Day, in November, Biden introduced a crowd to his granddaughter, but referred to her as his son

During an Election Day speech in Philadelphia, Biden stumbled over his words and confused his granddaughter with his late son, Beau Biden.

Biden told the crowd: 'I want to introduce you to two of my granddaughters...this is my son, Beau Biden who a lot of you helped elect to the Senate in Delaware.'

The commander-in-chief had meant to introduce the crowed to Natalie, Beau's daughter, but hadn't just mixed up the name but the person - he also put his arm around Finnegan Biden, Hunter's daughter.

He finally corrected himself as he draped his arm around Natalie's shoulder and said: 'This is Natalie, this is Beau's daughter.'

Beau Biden passed away in 2015 after a months-long battle with glioblastoma, one of the deadliest types of brain cancer.

TOLD STATE SENATOR IN WHEELCHAIR TO STAND UP

In 2008, Biden told then-Missouri state senator Chuck Graham to stand up for the crowd at a rally, before realizing he was in a wheelchair

Not all of Biden's gaffes occurred in the 2020s or even the 2010s. In fact, some happened in the early aughts.

In September 2008, after Biden had been named former President Barack Obama's running mate, he attended a campaign rally in Missouri.

It was there that he called on then-Missouri state senator Chuck Graham, who passed away last year. to stand up for the crowd.

'I'm told Chuck Graham, state senator, is here. Stand up Chuck, let 'em see you,' Biden said.

It was at that moment he realized Graham was in a wheelchair due to muscular dystrophy.

'Oh, God love you. What am I talking about. I'll tell you what, you're making everybody else stand up, though, pal.'

According to the Columbia Tribune, Graham said he was never offended by the mistake.
As restrictions are further eased in a bid to reboot Australia's pandemic-ravaged travel sector, international visitors are being wooed Down Under.

Nearly two years of Covid border restrictions have crippled the once-thriving industry.

Budget carrier Virgin Australia announced discounts on up to 1.5 million flights, including short-haul international destinations.

The Back to Holidays sale runs until midnight April 4 or until sold out, with a 25 per cent bonus discount on fares for children aged between two and 11.

Budget carrier Virgin Australia announced discounts on up to 1.5 million flights, including short-haul international destinations

However it's international travellers to Australia the federal government most hopes to entice with the easing of travel rules.

While still needing to be fully vaccinated, from April 17 they will no longer require a negative Covid test result to board a flight to Australia.

Health Minister Greg Hunt says the rule will be dropped, like the ban on cruise ships.

Qantas launched a campaign on Friday to showcase the country as a prime international destination.

The ads feature iconic local landscapes, while the country's sporting and cultural stars sing I Still Call Australia Home with members of the Australian Girls Choir, National Boys Choir and Gondwana Choir.

Group chief executive Alan Joyce says a new version of the Peter Allen classic will be the carrier's anthem.

While still needing to be fully vaccinated, from April 17 they will no longer require a negative Covid test result to board a flight to Australia

'The full version of this advert is effectively a short film that highlights Australia's stunning natural beauty and unique culture while celebrating the incredible resilience that has really shone through recently,' he said.

New financial supports for the tourism industry have also been announced.

The government will provide $75.5 million for travel agents and tour arrangement service providers to continue to operate and re-book travel credits.

A further $60 million over three years will entice more visitors from new international markets, including additional support for the Business Events bid fund attracting major events to Australia.

LATEST 24-HOUR COVID-19 DATA FROM ACROSS AUSTRALIA:

NSW: 17,450 cases, one death, 1171 in hospital including 47 in ICU

Victoria: 7466 cases, five deaths, 260 in hospital including 19 in ICU
Oscar winners are almost seven times more likely to suffer from mental health and addiction issues than other people.

Analysis by Paracelsus Recovery, a clinic that has treated dozens of celebrities, said fame should come with a health warning after it emerged that two-thirds of actors who have won Academy Awards over the past 30 years experienced disorders.

Of the 60 performers who won either the Best Actor or Best Actress gong since 1992, 41 have suffered from a mental health issue  with depression, anxiety and substance abuse the most common problems.

Last night, psychotherapist Dr Paul Hokemeyer, a leading expert on celebrity mental health, said fame was often associated with fear, pain and loneliness, and major success can lead to impostor syndrome.

The level of success that Oscar-winning celebrities attain is beyond comprehension for about 99.9 per cent of the population, he said.

Emma Stone, pictured, who picked up the same award in 2017 for La La Land, has spoken of mental health issues

The drive, work and confluence of circumstances that it takes to get there are otherworldly. For this reason, once attained, the success feels empty and fraudulent. It feels undeserved.

Triple Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis has said his crippling depression was one of the reasons he decided to quit acting in 2017, aged just 60.

Nicolas Cage, who won the Best Actor award in 1996 for Leaving Las Vegas, has previously spoken about his alcohol abuse.

Jodie Foster, winner of the Best Actress gong for The Silence Of The Lambs in 1992, and Emma Stone, who picked up the same award in 2017 for La La Land, have also spoken of mental health issues.

Triple Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis, pictured, has said his crippling depression was one of the reasons he decided to quit acting in 2017, aged just 60.

Figures show that ten per cent of the general population have a mental health issue, but this rises to 68 per cent among Oscar winners, according to the research by Swiss and UK-based clinic Paracelsus Recovery, where treatment costs 72,000 a week.

Chief executive Jan Gerber said: Art is a coping mechanism, and studies show a genetic link between creativity and conditions like depression or bipolar disorder. As Oscar winners are the best of the best when it comes to their creative endeavours, one can see why they are at increased risk.
On left, President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol talks to journalists at a makeshift press room set up in a tent near his temporary office in Tongui-dong, Seoul's Jongno District, March 24. On right, President Moon Jae-in bangs the gavel to start the cabinet meeting at Cheong Wa Dae on March 22. Korea Times



President-elect set to upend most of Moon's key policies



By Ko Dong-hwan



President Moon Jae-in and President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol will finally hold their long-delayed first meeting at 6 p.m. on Monday, according to their offices, hoping to achieve a smooth transfer of power after clashing over both personnel appointments and other issues.



The dinner meeting will take place 19 days after Moon's former prosecutor general was elected as his successor on March 9, which is the largest number of days ever taken for a president-elect to meet an incumbent president in Korean history.



Cheong Wa Dae's Chief of Staff You Young-min and Yoon's Chief of Staff Rep. Chang Je-won will accompany the two men at the dinner.



Moon has been trying to invite Yoon to Cheong Wa Dae for a casual meeting at the earliest possible date. But Yoon, who considered the meeting to be more strategic than casual, has been delaying it, saying that the terms of agreement to be discussed at the meeting had not been reached in advance. But Yoon gave in to Moon's invitation on Saturday evening, agreeing to converse freely instead of having strategic talks.



It is expected that the meeting, though toned down from any official purpose, will inevitably see the two to share words at least over the process and cost of Yoon's adamant plans to move the presidential office and residence to the Ministry of National Defense's headquarters in Yongsan and possibly a pardon for imprisoned former President Lee Myung-bak.



Following the meeting, Yoon is expected to push to change the key national policies of the Moon administration, including real estate and nuclear power policies. The presidential transition committee, which has been brainstorming the new administration's roadmap in Yoon's favor in seven different groups, has been briefing Yoon on which policies the new government should pursue. In those group meetings, which have been conducted since March 22, most of the suggested policies seek to drastically change existing policies put in place by the Moon administration.



Yoon said that the committee will announce the new policies in early May. His inauguration takes place on May 10.



The Ministry of Strategy and Finance briefed Yoon and proposed dropping Moon's main economic tools to incentivize consumers and regional economies by using local vouchers, coupons and other measures that were part of the outgoing leader's "Korean New Deal" framework. The country should also rely on private enterprises more firmly to influence national economic policies rather than the government fostering innovative growth and financial soundness, the ministry has proposed.



The Financial Services Commission suggested that Yoon allow people to borrow more money from banks than what was allowed at the end of the Moon administration by mitigating the loan-to-value (LTV) ratio and adjusting the debt service ratio (DSR).



In discussing the country's behemoth real estate issues laid out in a report by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Yoon took particular interest, expressing his intent to "manage it myself." Reintroducing the pledge he had made as a presidential candidate to build 2.5 million new homes nationwide, he ordered new guidelines to increase the number of available homes, mitigate regulations for owners of multiple properties, and expand the land available to build new homes.





Yoon arrives at a conference hall inside Seoul Startup Hub in Seoul's Mapo District, March 26, to attend the Presidential Transition Committee's workshop. Right to Yoon is Kim Han-gil, who leads the national unity committee inside the transition committee. Newsis
The daughter of David Haines is set to come face-to-face with the man accused of kidnapping and torturing her father for the first time, and has said she wanted his killers to be 'hung from a tree'.

Bethany Haines will be present in Virginia this week when a U.S. federal judge is finally set to hear the case against El Shafee Elsheikh, who is standing trial over the deaths of Americans James Foley, Steven Sotloff, Kayla Mueller and Peter Kassig.

While Elsheikh has not been charged in America over Mr Haines' death due to America lacking jurisdiction, he is believed to have participated in the kidnapping, torture and beheading of 27 British, American and other foreign hostages in Syria.

Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph, the daughter of Mr Haines - the former RAF engineer and aid worker who was 44 he was captured by ISIS in 2013 and beheaded the following year - said that she never thought Elsheikh would be caught, let alone stand trial.

'That we have got to this point feels like a miracle,' she told the newspaper before travelling to Virginia from her home in Perthshire.

Bethany Haines will be present in Virginia this week when a U.S. federal judge is finally set to hear the case against El Shafee Elsheikh, who is standing trial over the deaths of Americans James Foley, Steven Sotloff, Kayla Mueller and Peter Kassig. He is also accused of killing

The 24-year-old has prepared a victim impact statement which she plans to read in court. Giving the Telegraph a preview, she said it would say that Elsheikh's alleged killings had nothing to do with his religion.

'No matter what you say, this was not about religion, you brutally murdered good and innocent people, and now you have to live with that for the rest of your life,' Ms Haines plans to tell him, she said.

Ms Haines says that as much as she wants to see Elsheikh see justice, she is also hoping that he will finally reveal the location of her father's body.

Her letter will implore him to give up the location not for her, but for her son.

'Don't do it for me, do it for my son, who can finally say goodbye to his grandad,' she told the newspaper, reading from her draft.

Elsheikh was one of the members of the 'ISIS Beatles' - four British born men who went to Syria to fight for the terrorist group.

When being interrogated by the United States, Elsheikh said that Mohammed Emwazi, known as the infamous 'Jihadi John', buried the body of James Foley, but burned that of Steven Sotloff because the ground was too dry.

While Elsheikh (pictured) has not been charged in America over Mr Haines' death due to America lacking jurisdiction, he is believed to have participated in the kidnapping, torture and beheading of 27 British, American and other foreign hostages in Syria

It is expected that Elsheikh will spend 15 years in a U.S. prison before being extradited to the UK to serve the rest of his jail term.

Over the course of the trial - that will likely last a whole month - 60 witnesses will give evidence. They are made up of foreign intelligence, other alleged victims and Yazidi sex slaves, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

The trial will be the first - and likely the last time a senior member of ISIS stands trial in the West. Others were either killed in Syria or tried in the Middle East.

David Haines' family reportedly have different opinions over the justice they want to see handed down to his captors.

In an interview last in October 2020, Mr Haines brother, Mike, said: Hate is the choice. We all have the power not to hate.

He told The Independent that he had started working in counter-extremism, adding: I knew I had to do something  my brothers murder was about hatred, it was about division.

They took my brothers life but if I could take someone away from a path of hatred and help them choose a different path, weve won.

However, Bethany told MailOnline last year: My uncle and I have very different views and opinions. These two men took my dad away from me and took my sons grandad away from him. I will always hate them.

She has not changed her opinion, telling The Sunday Telegraph she wanted them 'hung from a tree', saying prison would not change them.

Pictured: Bethany Haines when she was a child with father David Haines

Bethany Haines with father David Haines

Elsheikh (aka Geroge) has been pictured since he was detained. He has been held by the US with Alexanda Kotey (aka Ringo) - another of the four 'Beatles'.

Emwazi (aka John) is believed to have been killed in an airstrike in 2015, while Aine Lesley Davis (aka Paul) is serving a seven-year prison sentence in Turkey.

In September last year, 38-year-old Kotey pleaded guilty to eight charges relating to the murders of the hostages, and will likely spend the rest of his life in prison.

At the same time, 33-year-old Elsheikh pleaded not guilty, leading to the trial.

The Beatles ISIS cell became notorious around the world after videos were posted online showing Jihadi John beheading hostages.

The first video showed Emwazi beheading James Foley off camera after forcing him to read a statement criticising the United States.

Subsequent videos showed the beheading of American journalist Steven Sotloff and British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning. Another appeared to show the aftermath of the beheading of American aid worker Peter Kassig.

Pictured left: James Foley while covering the civil war in Aleppo, Syria. Pictured right: US aid worker Peter Kassig otherwise known as Abdul-Rahman Kassig in Syria. Both were beheaded by British ISIS fighter and 'Beatle' Jihadi John

Left: US freelance journalist Steven Sotloff. Right: Kayla Mueller is shown after speaking to a group in Prescott, Arizona. Both were killed in Syria by ISIS

On November 12 2015, Emwazi was reported to have been killed in a drone strike carried out by the United States in Syria, with then-President Barack Obama saying on December 14 he had been 'taken out'.

Kotey and Elsheikh were later captured in early 2018 by the Kurdish-led Syrian Defense Forces (SDF). In the following months, they both gave interviews to various media outlets which saw Elsheikh admit to guarding hostages who were later killed.

He also admitted to getting information from them to be used in ransom negotiations, but Elsheikh later attempted to have his statements tossed out, claiming he made them under torture after he was captured.

A judge denied the request, ruling the interrogations could be used in the trial.

Pictured: A combination picture shows Alexanda Kotey and Shafee Elsheikh, in these undated handout pictures in Amouda, Syria released February 9, 2018

A Kurdish security officer escorts Alexanda Amon Kotey, left, and El Shafee Elsheikh, who were allegedly among four British jihadis who made up a brutal Islamic State cell dubbed 'The Beatles,' for an interview with The Associated Press at a security center in Kobani, Syria, Friday, March 30, 2018

They initially pleaded not guilty at a hearing in 2020, but Kotey later changed changed his plea giving hope that he would be open to cooperation.

Both men are believed to also be involved in the deaths of Haines and Henning, as well as two Japanese nationals.

Families of their victims hope that Elsheikh's trial in March will give them answers to what happened to their loved ones, including where they were buried.

The fourth member of the 'Beatles' - Aine Lesley Davis, known as 'Paul' - was arrested in Turkey in 2015 and is currently serving a seven and a half year prison sentence.
Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey, who sparked uproar by ignoring a call for staff to return to the office, took advantage of his own edict by claiming 83 for home office equipment, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Figures disclosed by a Freedom of Information request show that he made an expenses claim for a keyboard cover and screen protector for his tablet device, despite enjoying a pay package of 575,000 a year.

Critics last night branded the expenses claims a slap in the face to all those who struggled during the pandemic.

John OConnell, chief executive of the Taxpayers Alliance, said: At a time when many businesses were struggling to stay afloat and taxpayers were facing economic ruin, Bank of England bureaucrats on supersized salaries were kitting out their home offices.

Public bodies should consider these sensitivities before claiming work-from-home comforts.

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey, pictured, who sparked uproar by ignoring a call for staff to return to the office, took advantage of his own edict by claiming 83 for home office equipment, The Mail on Sunday can reveal

According to the newly released documents, the Bank of England has allowed staff members a budget of 375 each to cover the cost of home-working office equipment.

Mr Bailey appears to have taken advantage of the generous offer, with his claims totalling 83.98.

That is despite admitting to a Select Committee meeting last month that he earns more than half a million pounds a year.

The expenses furore also comes as Mr Bailey has been accused of turning his Threadneedle Street offices in the City into a ghost town as a result of his refusal to comply with guidance by the Government to return to offices.

The move angered many City workers  including some frustrated staff at the Bank of England  who argued they risked losing deal-making and networking opportunities, with younger workers missing out on mentoring by experienced colleagues. Pictured: Finanical district in London

Despite calls by Chancellor Rishi Sunak for employees to return to traditional working patterns, Mr Bailey told workers in September that they would not be compelled to abandon working from home.

The move angered many City workers  including some frustrated staff at the Bank of England  who argued they risked losing deal-making and networking opportunities, with younger workers missing out on mentoring by experienced colleagues.

Last night, after The Mail on Sunday contacted the Bank for comment, it said Mr Bailey had paid back the expenses.
Hundreds of thousands of people have deserted the British workforce as the pandemic leaves the economy with a post-Covid hangover.

In what has been described as The Great Lie-Down, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) expects there will be 400,000 fewer people working after many chose early retirement, left the country or became economically inactive.

In its March 2022 outlook accompanying Chancellor Rishi Sunaks Spring Statement, it attributed 210,000 of those lost workers to a higher inactivity rate among working-age people.

The number of posts available in the quarter to December was 462,000 above the pre-pandemic level

Unemployment is now near the level from before the coronavirus pandemic struck

Single-month growth in real average weekly earnings was minus 0.9 per cent for total pay and minus 1 per cent for regular pay

In what has been described as The Great Lie-Down, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) expects there will be 400,000 fewer people working after many chose early retirement, left the country or became economically inactive (stock image)

Brits who WFH 'take THREE naps during their working week and read three books', survey reveals Brits who work from home typically take three naps during their working week, a new study reveals. During their working day, the average WFH-er browses social media nine times, messages family and friends eight times, shares three funny memes and shops online twice. It comes as UK rail traffic rebounded to 70 percent of pre-pandemic levels this month, with workers across the country increasingly finding themselves required to come back to the office on a hybrid or full-time basis. Across a whole week at home, those working from home find time during working hours to watch four episodes of their favourite TV show, go for four walks and read three books or magazines, the survey found. The average Brit now has a hybrid 3:2 week with two days working from home or remotely, researchers found. As a result, more than eight in ten - 82 per cent - consider their work-life balance to be better than pre-pandemic Advertisement

That mainly includes those taking early retirement as well as what the OBR said was a greater prevalence of long-term sickness.

The loss of a further 190,000 is said to be due to a reduced population, partially attributed to both Brexit and the pandemic.

The Office for National Statistics estimates there were 1.3million job vacancies in January.

James Reed, chairman of the Reed employment group, said the impact of the pandemic on workforce size has been felt in many other economies and that the phrase The Great Lie-Down had been used in China to describe the phenomenon.

He added: During the pandemic, a lot of people decided they just wanted to change their lifestyle.

A lot of those were over 50. That might have been a combination of health concerns or reprioritising lifestyle choices, such as family over work.

He said there are more than eight million people in the UK aged 16 to 64 classed as economically inactive. It is a huge number, he added.

Employers in some sectors are competing for new staff, and in some cases making pretty substantial offers, Mr Reed said. Workers with particular skills  tech skills  are doing very well in the labour market.

If you are a worker looking for a job, this is not a problem. Its a good thing. Its a problem for a lot of businesses, though.

Bethany Beckett, an economist at Capital Economics, predicted that most of the fall in the UKs labour force since the onset of Covid-19 would eventually reverse.

However, she said this was likely to take another two years or so.
A British film-maker who used to work for a Kremlin-funded propaganda channel is now making documentaries inside occupied areas of Ukraine showing the 'positive work' of Russian troops.

Graham Phillips  previously banned from entering Ukraine after being arrested as a suspected Russian spy  has entered the occupied areas of the eastern Donbass region, where he is showing Russian troops distributing food.

Phillips, 38, from Nottingham  a former reporter for Russia Today, which has been taken off the air in the UK  claims he is trying to dispel Western propaganda about Russians being invaders, and trying to show them as peacekeepers.

As well as making documentaries inside Ukraine, Phillips  a graduate of Dundee University  has visited Belarus, and given interviews on its national TV, styled as an 'influential' British journalist.

Graham Phillips (above)  previously banned from entering Ukraine after being arrested as a suspected Russian spy  has entered the occupied areas of the eastern Donbass region, where he is showing Russian troops distributing food

Phillips, 38, from Nottingham  a former reporter for Russia Today, which has been taken off the air in the UK  claims he is trying to dispel Western propaganda about Russians being invaders, and trying to show them as peacekeepers

In the interviews, Phillips said that Ukraine is being ruled by neo-Nazis who should die, echoing baseless accusations made by Vladimir Putin who said he wanted to 'de-Nazify' the country.

In one 13-minute documentary called The Truth About Life In A Ukrainian Town Under Russian Control, Phillips visits Gorodnya, a town of 16,000 people near the Belarus border.

He repeatedly shows Ukrainian flags flying, noting that: 'Not only have they [the Russians] not taken down any of the Ukrainian flags, they've even left up the monuments, which, to my mind, are offensive.'

One monument he refers to was erected for those from the town who died fighting Russian separatists in Donbass in 2014.

Last night, Phillips could not be reached for comment.
A man has drowned at a popular beach after he was pulled from the water unconscious by lifeguards.

Paramedics arrived to North Palm Beach in Sydney's northern beaches just before 12.15pm on Sunday after he was rescued from the waves.

A concerned beach-goer saw a floating surf ski and reported it to Surf Life Savers.

Paramedics arrived to North Palm Beach in Sydney's Northern Beaches just before 12.15pm on Sunday after a male was pulled from the water

North Palm Beach, Sydney, was closed at the time the man was pulled from the rough water

The man was soon located in the water and was taken to shore unconscious.

Life Savers performed CPR on the man but he died at the scene.

The man has not yet been formally identified but is believed to be aged in his 50s.

A concerned beach-goer saw a floating surf ski and reported it to Surf Life Savers

The deceased man has not yet been formally identified but is believed to be aged in his 50s

Police, Surf Life Savers, and NSW Ambulance paramedics all attended the scene on Sunday

The beach was closed at the time he was pulled from the water.

Photos show police, lifeguards, and NSW Ambulance paramedics at the scene.

Witnesses are understood to be helping police.

The man's death marks the 42nd drowning in NSW since summer began in December last year.

Anyone with information was urged to contact police.
Actor Sean Penn has called for a boycott of Sunday's Oscars ceremony if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is not allowed to appear by video, vowing to 'smelt' his own awards in protest.

Penn made his remarks in an interview with CNN host Jim Acosta on Saturday, a day ahead of Hollywood's premiere awards ceremony, which is grappling with how to best address Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Oscars co-host Amy Schumer said earlier this week that she had proposed inviting Zelensky to appear by video, but it was not clear whether organizers were on board with the concept.

'There is nothing greater that the Academy Awards could do than to give [Zelensky] an opportunity to talk to all of us,' said Penn.

'It is my understanding that a decision has been made not to do it,' he claimed.

'If it comes back to it, I will smelt mine in public,' Penn continued, referring to his two Academy Awards, for his roles in Mystic River and Milk.

Actor Sean Penn has called for a boycott of Sunday's Oscars ceremony if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is not allowed to appear by video

Penn claimed that Oscars organizers had decided not to invite Zelensky (above) to appear via video at Sunday's awards ceremony, expressing his outrage

Oscars co-host Amy Schumer said earlier this week that she had proposed inviting Zelensky to appear by video, but it was not clear whether organizers were on board

ICYMI: Actor Sean Penn says the Oscars should be boycotted if the ceremonys planners have decided against having Zelensky on the program. pic.twitter.com/4LI2YIiKcD  Jim Acosta (@Acosta) March 26, 2022

'I pray that's not what's happened. I pray there have not been arrogant people, who consider themselves representatives of the greater good in my industry, that have [decided against checking] with leadership in Ukraine,' he continued.

'So I'm just going to hope that that's not what's happened. I hope [every attendee] walks out if it is.'

A spokesperson for the Oscars did not immediately respond to an inquiry from DailyMail.com on Saturday night regarding plans for the awards show.

Penn, who was in the Ukrainian capital to shoot a documentary when the Russian invasion began, has signed an agreement for his foundation to provide education and shelter for refugees in Poland.

'Ukraine is the tip of the spear for the democratic embrace of dreams. If we allow it to fight alone, our soul as America is lost,' he said in a statement to AFP.

With the Oscars looming, Hollywood is weighing how or whether to address Russia's bloody assault on Ukraine, trying to thread the needle between showing support for Kyiv and being seen as too preachy.

'If it comes back to it, I will smelt mine in public,' Penn continued, referring to his two Academy Awards, for his roles in Mystic River (above) and Milk

Crews construct the red carpet area at Hollywood and Highland days before the 94th Oscars at Dolby Theater earlier this week

As Leonardo DiCaprio's climate crisis warning and Joaquin Phoenix's outrage over artificially inseminated cows have recently shown, A-listers are rarely shy about making political statements at the Academy Awards -- despite accusations of hypocrisy.

But after Oscars host Amy Schumer raised the idea of inviting Zelensky to speak at the ceremony via video, some have wondered if less might be more, in terms of acknowledging the crisis.

'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.'

One example of Hollywood stars using their platform effectively is a GoFundMe site launched by Mila Kunis -- who was born in Ukraine -- and her husband Ashton Kutcher.

It has raised over $35 million toward relief supplies and free short-term housing for Ukrainian refugees in neighboring countries, and drew praise from Zelensky himself.

Kutcher and 'Mila Kunis were among the first to respond to our grief,' wrote Zelensky, a former actor himself.

'Grateful for their support. Impressed by their determination. They inspire the world. #StandWithUkraine,' he added.

Assistant painter Rick Roberts applies the finishing touches on Oscar statues as construction continues on the red carpet of the 94th Academy Awards at Dolby Theater

Actress Mila Kunis (R) -- who was born in Ukraine -- and her actor husband Ashton Kutcher launched a GoFundMe campaign for Ukraine that has raised more than $35 million

'Terminator' star Arnold Schwarzenegger appealed to Russian leader Vladimir Putin to end the 'senseless' war in Ukraine, in a video message that went viral.

And many less well-known filmmakers have been chronicling Ukraine's conflict since 2014, when Putin annexed Crimea and backed separatist rebels in the Donbas region.

For instance, documentary 'A House Made of Splinters' and drama 'Klondike' both premiered at January's Sundance festival, examining the impact of the long-running conflict in eastern Ukraine on ordinary families and children.

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.

'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.

View of the Oscar red carpet outside the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, California on Saturday, one day before the 94th Academy Awards

Host Megan Mullally adopted a saltier tone.

'I think we speak for everyone here when we say we are hoping for a quick and peaceful resolution -- specifically, fuck off and go home, Putin,' she said.

Schumer, who is unlikely to get away with similar language on network TV, recently said she had pitched the idea of inviting 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.'

'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.
A father-of-four was killed in a suspected grizzly bear attack during a hike in a Montana park.

The remains of Craig Clouatre, 40, of Livingston, were discovered by Park County Search and Rescue near Yellowstone National Park on Friday.

Clouatre went missing after hiking in the Six Mile Creek area of Paradise Valley on Wednesday, according to The Living Enterprise.

Park County Sheriff Brad Bichler confirmed Clouatre's death in a statement on Saturday.

'It is with a very heavy heart that I am writing this update. After an extensive search this morning we have located Craig,' Bichler wrote. 'It appears he had an encounter with a grizzly and unfortunately did not survive.'

'Please keep his family and all those involved in your thoughts and prayers.'

Clouatre leaves behind a wife, Jamie, and their four children. A GoFundMe for his family raised over $55,000 out of a $75,000 goal as of Sunday morning.

Pictured: Craig Clouatre, 40, of Livingston, reportedly went missing after hiking in the Six Mile Creek area of Paradise Valley on Wednesday

Clouatre leaves behind a wife, Jamie, and their four children, pictured above

Pictured: the location of the deadly grizzly attack that reportedly took Clouatre's life in relation to Yellowstone National Park

The father-of-four was killed in a suspected grizzly bear attack during a hike in a Montana park (file image)

On Wednesday, search teams on the ground and in helicopters had been looking for Clouatre after he failed to return from hiking that morning.

He had gone with a friend but the pair split up, possibly to hunt for antlers.

'They split up at some point later in the morning. When the other man returned to their vehicle and his friend wasn't there, he called us and we began searching Wednesday night.'

The search began that night concentrated on the Six Mile Creek area of the Absaroka Mountains, located about 30 miles south of Livingston, Montana.

'We're fortunate to have a group of experienced volunteers on our SAR [Search and Rescue] team and we're thankful for the folks who have come to help,' Bichler told the paper.

Authorities were working Friday to return Clouatre's body to his family, Bichler said in a social media post.

Clouatre's father told The Associated Press that his son grew up in Massachusetts and moved more than two decades ago to Montana, where Clouatre met his future wife, Jamie, and decided to make a home.

Clouatre grew up in Massachusetts and moved more than two decades ago to Montana, where Clouatre met his future wife, Jamie, and decided to make a home

Jamie shared a tribute to her husband today saying she will have to 'relearn how to be and who I am... for our kids

Clouatre and his family, pictured, had just suffered the burning down of their home two years ago, which the family was still recovering from at the time of Clouatre's death

'He was a joy to have as a son all the way around,' David Clouatre said.

'He was a good man, a good, hardworking family man.'

Meanwhile, his wife, Jamie, said she will have to 'relearn how to be and who I am... for our kids.'

'I don't have many words really right now and I'm not reaching back out to everyone who has reached out to me...but I appreciate every one of the sentiments and memories of the most amazing person I have ever known, my husband,' she wrote on Facebook.

'I loved him with every single fiber of me....he was a vital part of me and our children and it is going to be a struggle for the rest of our lives. To say we are broken is an understatement. I have to relearn how to be and who I am and stay strong enough for our kids.'

'No easy way to put it, this is not fair, they don't deserve this. The support in this community is incredible and I know it comes from Craig...who he was, a joy, a truly kind, good, GOOD man. There is no one else like him in the entire world. Thank you all for everything! We all lost something and the world is a hell of a lot dimmer,' she went on to write.

The mountains in the area where Craig Clouatre died rise steeply above the Yellowstone River as it passes through the Paradise Valley.

Dense forests at higher elevations are home to bears and other wildlife, although dangerous encounters with people are relatively rare.

Clouatre frequented those mountains and others around the park, hiking in summer and ice climbing in winter when he wasn't home with his wife and their four young children, said Anne Tanner, a friend of the victim.

Tanner said she had known Clouatre for about a decade because he worked for commercial food companies and delivered to their restaurant, the Emigrant Outpost.

The mountains in the area where Craig Clouatre, pictured, died rise steeply above the Yellowstone River as it passes through the Paradise Valley

The restaurant held a benefit for the Clouatre family after their house burned down two years ago. Tanner said they had only recently recovered from the fire.

'He was finally just getting their house together,' she said.

'It just makes me angry that something like this could happen to such a good person...Of all the men I know, I can't believe he would die in the wilderness. He was so strong and he was so smart.'

State wildlife officials were responding to the scene but Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokesperson Greg Lemon said he had no further information.

Since 2010, grizzlies in the Yellowstone region have killed at least eight people.

Among them was a backcountry guide killed by a bear last year along Yellowstone's western border. Guide Charles 'Carl' Mock was killed in April after being mauled by a 400-plus pound male grizzly while fishing alone at a favorite spot on Montanas Madison River, where it spills out of the park.

Grizzlies are protected under federal law outside Alaska. Elected officials in the Yellowstone region are pushing to lift protections and allow grizzly hunting.

The Yellowstone region spanning portions of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming has more than 700 bears.

Fatal attacks on humans are rare but have increased in recent decades as the grizzly population grew and more people moved into rural areas near bear habitat.
Donald Trump has lashed out at Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, criticizing her refusal to define the word 'woman' during Senate confirmation hearings.

Speaking at a rally in Commerce, Georgia on Saturday night, Trump seized on the hot-button issue, which has generated controversy in the wake of transgender swimmer Lia Thomas' NCAA title.

'The left has become so extreme that we now have a justice being nominated to the Supreme Court who testified under oath that she could not say what a woman is,' said Trump.

'If she can't even say what a woman is. How on earth can she be trusted to say what the Constitution is?'

Donald Trump has lashed out at Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, criticizing her refusal to define the word 'woman' during Senate confirmation hearings

'A party that's unwilling to admit that men and women are biologically different, in defiance of all scientific and human history, is a party that should not be anywhere near the levers of power,' added Trump.

During Senate hearings this week, Jackson repeatedly refused to define 'woman' under questioning from Republicans, who pressed the issue.

At Tuesday's hearing, Senator Marsha Blackburn quoted late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, saying: 'Physical differences between men and women are enduring. The two sexes are not fungible. A community made up exclusively of one sex is different from a community composed of both.'

'Do you agree with Justice Ginsburg that there are physical differences between men and women that are enduring?' the senator asked.

When Jackson claimed she had never heard the quote, Blackburn asked directly: 'Can you define the word ''woman''?'

'Can I provide a definition?' Jackson responded.

'No, I can't,' she declared, before adding: 'I'm not a biologist.'

During Senate hearings this week, Jackson repeatedly refused to define 'woman' under questioning from Republicans, saying she is 'not a biologist'

Current members of the Supreme Court pose for a group photo in April. Jackson would replace Justice Stephen Breyer (seated, second from right) who is retiring

Conservative pundits and elected Republicans have seized on the issue in their criticism of Jackson, perhaps seeing her position as diverging from that of many Americans.

Republicans have also focused on Jackson's sentencing practices in a handful of cases related to heinous sex crimes or child pornography.

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.

However, evaluators at the American Bar Association rejected those claims, saying there's 'no evidence' to support claims that Jackson's sentencing practices are outside of the mainstream, and insisting that she is well qualified for the high court.

Despite Republican objections, Jackson's confirmation now appears to be assured in the evenly divided senate.

Senator Joe Manchin announced Friday that he plans to vote in favor of Jackson, likely clearing the path for President Joe Biden's historic nominee to be confirmed.

But Democratic hopes of securing significant Republican support for Jackson's nomination appear to be fading.

Speaking at a rally in Commerce, Georgia on Saturday night, Trump seized on the hot-button issue to criticize Jackson and Democrats

The West Virginia Democrat was a key vote to watch because he has bucked his party on some of its top domestic priorities.

But he has yet to vote against any of Biden's judicial nominees, and he said he will also support Jackson, who would become the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.

'I am confident Judge Jackson is supremely qualified and has the disposition necessary to serve as our nations next Supreme Court Justice,' Manchin said in a statement, which came after four days of hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

He also noted that her family has spent time in West Virginia, and 'her deep love of our state and commitment to public service were abundantly clear.'

Manchin's announcement indicates that Jackson will likely have the support of all 50 Senate Democrats. Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who has joined Manchin in voting against large swaths of Biden's domestic agenda, hasn't yet said whether she will support her.

But she too has supported all of the president's judicial picks, including Jackson for the federal appeals court last year.

A united Democratic caucus would guarantee Jackson's confirmation in the 50-50 Senate, as Vice President Kamala Harris could break a tie.

Still, Democrats seem unlikely to confirm her with a robust bipartisan vote, dashing Biden's hopes for a grand reset after partisan battles over other high court nominees.
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Authorities issued an evacuation order for 19,400 people on Saturday near a fast-moving Colorado wildfire in rolling hills south of the college town of Boulder, not far from the site of a destructive 2021 blaze that leveled more than 1,000 homes almost three months to the day.

The wildfire was fueled by wind earlier in the day and had grown to 126 acres with no containment, Boulder Fire-Rescue spokesperson Marya Washburn said.

The fire is burning near the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, and is being referred to as the NCAR fire.

An air tanker drops fire retardant on the NCAR Fire on Saturday in Boulder, Colorado

The NCAR Fire burns on March 26, 2022 in Boulder, Colorado

Boulder Office of Emergency Management tweets about the NCAR fire on Saturday evening. The evacuation areas include 19,000 people and 8,000 homes. The fire is currently at 126 acres and zero containment.

The Boulder Police Department tweets an evacuation map of the NCAR Fire on Saturday night

A man watches as the NCAR Fire burns on Saturday in Boulder, Colorado

An air tanker drops slurry on the NCAR Fire on Saturday afternoon

The wildfire, which has forced almost 20,000 people to evacuate their homes and started just a few miles away from where the Marshall Fire destroyed more than 1,000 homes in December

An air tanker flies above the NCAR Fire on Saturday afternoon

A tree goes up in flames as the NCAR Fire burns on March 26, 2022 in Boulder, Colorado

Firefighters work during a wildfire near the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) prompted a large evacuation in Boulder, Colorado

A single engine air tanker drops water on the NCAR fire as it burns in the foothills south of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado

The Boulder Police Department tweeted photos of the NCAR Fire on Saturday

About 19,000 Colorado residents were ordered to evacuate Saturday due to a fast-moving fire

An officer with Boulder Police launched a drone in order to get a clearer view of the fire

The wildfire had grown to 126 acres (50 hectares) by late afternoon with no containment, according to the Boulder Office of Emergency Management

The Boulder Office of Emergency Management said an overnight shelter was opened after evacuation orders covered 8,000 homes and 7,000 structures. No structures had been damaged.

Winds and temperatures have died down, Washburn said. Officials expect to be dealing with the fire for several days due to heavy fuels, said Boulder Fire-Rescue Wildland Division Chief Brian Oliver.

Nevertheless, a pre-evacuation order was issued by the police department.

'Pre-evacuation warning has gone out to the following areas: West of Hwy. 93, north of Eldorado Canyon State Park, east side of Walker Ranch Open Space and south of Greenbriar Boulevard. Be ready to evacuate and keep alert.'

An emergency tweet message posted online: ''Message is to EVACUATE area due to fast moving wildfire,' the posting from police department read in part.

Smoke billows from a wildfire on Saturday. About 19,000 Colorado residents have been ordered to evacuate

White smoke from the fire near Boulder, Colorado is seen billowing into the skies above

Boulder County Sheriff deputies keep the road closed at Highway 93 and Eldorado Spring Drive in Boulder on Saturday

An air tanker attempts to dampen the flames with fire retardant being distributed from above

People watch as the NCAR fire burns in the foothills south of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado

The front of the fire can be seen as it spreads across the Colorado hillsides

Trees go up in flames and are surrounded by smoke

A fire fighting aircraft attempts to put out the flames along the hillsides

The wildfire, which forced almost 20,000 people to evacuate their homes. It started just a few miles away from where the Marshall Fire destroyed more than 1,000 homes in December, 2021

Smoke filters through the trees as the NCAR Fire burns on Saturday in Boulder, Colorado

The University of Colorado Boulder Police also tweeted that their South Campus was being evacuated.

Strong winds in the area caused officials to fear could spread further.

Authorities investigating the blaze origins say it began south of the Mesa Laboratory, where there is a canyon and trails .

"The fire started this afternoon down in the Bear Creek drainage," Brian Oliver, chief of the Boulder Fire Rescue Wildland Division, said at an evening press conference.

The fire is in an area where a blaze destroyed 1,000 homes last year in unincorporated Boulder County and suburban Superior and Louisville.

From left to right, Laura Tyson, Tod Smith and Rebecca Caldwell, residents of Eldorado Springs, watch as the fire burns in the foothills south of the National Center for Atmospheric Research

Amitai Beh, 6, watches the NCAR Fire through binoculars on Saturday in Boulder, Colorado

A little boy watches the fire from the rooftop of a car on Saturday afternoon

The NCAR fire burns in the foothills south of the National Center for Atmospheric Research

Small air tankers were seen in the skies above Boulder as smoke and fire raged below

Firetrucks sit in a neighborhood next to the NCAR Fire on in Boulder, Colorado

Firefighters hose down the area surrounding a neighborhood as the NCAR Fire burns close by

Firefighters can be seen battling the fire directly on the hillsides in Boulder

A firefighter watches as the NCAR Fire burns close by on Saturday afternoon

Superior town officials told residents in an email that there were no immediate concerns for the community.

The 2021 blaze burned Alicia Miller's home, where she could see smoke from Saturday's fire rising in the background.

She posted a photo on Twitter and referenced climate change, which has made the U.S. West warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more destructive, according to scientists.

Miller said her neighbors helped her escape along with her husband, Craig, their three adult sons and two dogs, Ginger and Chloe.

She said the hardest losses from the blaze were things they didn't look at much, like baby shoes, family pictures and letters from her grandmother.

'I feel exhausted by all of this, and I just feel like enough as far as these fires and disasters,' she said.

She pointed to a recent Texas wildfire that left a deputy dead and homes destroyed. ' ... So I'm standing there and it's just kind of a repeat.'

Saturday's fire started around 2pm and burned protected wildland near the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder police said.

A home that was destroyed in the Marshall Fire in December of 2021 sits in ruins as the NCAR Fire burns in the distance on Saturday

Just three months ago, the area was hit by wild fires. Saturday's wildfire can be seen in the distance

This photo provided by realtor Alicia Miller shows the ruins of Miller's former house, which burned to the ground in December 30 in the devastating Marshall Fire that roared through Louisville, Colorado as smoke from the NCAR Fire burns in the background
Australian academic Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert has recounted her incredible tale of survival as she spent a gruelling 804 days in an Iranian jail after being accused of espionage.

Dr Moore-Gilbert, a University of Melbourne lecturer in Islamic studies, travelled to Iran in August 2018 to attend a seminar on Shia Islam.

But three weeks later she was arrested at Tehran Airport in September on trumped-up spy charges as she attempted to fly home.

She was sent to Tehran's notorious Evin prison and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment, where she spent more than two years behind bars until finally being freed in November 2020.

During her horror stay in the Middle Eastern hellhole, the academic was subjected to filthy toilets, mistreatment from guards, and horrible food.

Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert (pictured) spent more than two years locked up in an Iranian prison after being accused of espionage

But there were some moments of light that helped her push through the her terrifying ordeal - including the kindness of a diplomat who visited her in prison.

While she managed to keep a strong front most of the time, Dr Moore-Gilbert reached a tipping point during a meeting with Iranian officials in April 2019.

Taken from her cell to the meeting room, Dr Moore-Gilbert arrived to find Australia's ambassador to Iran Ian Biggs and a camera mounted on a tripod.

After previously being pressured into making statements on camera, she refused to have her conversation with Mr Biggs recorded.

At that point, her jailers declared the meeting was over and asked Mr Biggs to leave, prompting Dr Moore-Gilbert to angrily shout it was not over until she said so.

She dove to the floor and threw her arms around Mr Biggs legs, begging him to continue to tell her what he came there to say, and fill her in on the ways the Australian government was working to get her out of the Middle East.

Dr Moore-Gilbert was given a 10 year prison sentence, but was eventually freed after spending 804 days in a high-security Tehran prison

Telling him to ignore Iranian guards insistence to leave, Dr Moore-Gilbert noticed Mr Biggs had muscular legs as she clasped her arms around his calves.

'He must have been a runner or something. [I told him] nice legs!' she told the Sydney Morning Herald's Good Weekend.

Meanwhile, back home, her Russian-Israeli husband Ruslan Hodorov started having an affair with Dr Kylie Baxter, her university colleague and PhD supervisor - which she would only discover upon arriving home.

'It was a shock to me, the affair,' Dr Moore-Gilbert said.

Dr Moore-Gilbert said she had begun to suspect Hodorov, who she had bought a home with in Dandenong shortly before leaving for Iran, was starting to grow less committed to their relationship.

She said he seemed highly emotional during their initial conversations in jail, but grew distant and distracted as time went on.

Dr Moore-Gilbert conceded her husband had also been traumatised by the experience, but does not believe that is an excuse for his actions.

Although she now feels better off without him, she does not want him to be seen as a villain, and strongly believes that sometimes good people do bad things.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert is pictured returning to Australia in November 2020 after spending more than 800 days in one of Iran's most notorious jails

Her first inkling that she was in trouble was the night before she was due to leave Iran when a group of men 'like police' came to her Tehran hotel while she was out.

After being told about the visit by the hotel receptionist, Dr Moore-Gilbert searched for the phone number of the Australian embassy without any success and then dismissed any concerns as had nothing to hide.

Her harrowing nightmare began the next day at the airport, where she was pulled out of the passport-control queue and taken to a room filled with men wearing black.

She spent the next week being interrogated at a hotel before she was blindfolded and transported to Tehran's Evin Prison one of Iran's most notorious prisons.

Dr Moore-Gilbert would spend the next 804 day confined to a windowless cell which measured two metres by two metres.

Dr Moore-Gilbert's Russian-Israeli husband Ruslan Hodorov (right) started having an affair with Dr Kylie Baxter (left) while his wife was in Evin Prison

Assigned as prisoner 97029, she would often spend her days singing hits from Destiny's Child and Amy Winehouse at the top of her lungs but her time in solitary confinement gradually left her disheartened.

She had to wear a blindfold every time she left her cell and was handcuffed during trips to the clinic inside the prison grounds.

She didn't attempt suicide and admits she did contemplate ending her life.

'My understanding of myself as a unique human being with a personality and a character, with likes and dislikes, with talents, with a moral compass, with dreams and ambitions, slowly diminished,' she writes in her new book The Uncaged Sky.

'I was losing myself. I was becoming 97029.'

Dr Moore-Gilbert describes prison food as edible and will never forget the 'filthy, disgusting, squat toilet' she says hadn't been cleaned if in months, if not ever.

'They said, 'We can't give you cleaning chemicals because you'll drink them and kill yourself,' she recalled.

'I said, 'You clean it then.' My first hunger strike, that was one of my demands: 'I want someone to pour bleach into the toilet.' '

She went on seven hunger strikes during her imprisonment which she says was an effective way of getting the prison bosses' attention.

Kylie-Moore-Gilbert has shared more harrowing details about her time in Evin Prison

Her fate was in the hands of a man she knew as Qazi Zadeh, whom she says developed a crush on her and admitted she felt a real connection with him.

'He had complete and utter power over me,' she recalled as she looked back on their 'weird relationship'.

'He was in love with me. It was clear to everyone, not just me.'

Some days he would taunt Moore-Gilbert by claiming Australian embassy staff knew she was guilty, or assuring her that she would be buried in Iran.

Other days he would claim he was her side he was on her side and that he would organise her release if only she agreed to switch allegiances and spy for the Islamic Republic.

'We had a lot of intellectual conversations, and flirty banter was going on as well,' she says. '

'It was probably Stockholm syndrome.' Loneliness no doubt came into it, too, she said. 'I was in solitary. I had nobody else to talk to.'

Kylie Moore-Gilbert (pictured) was subjected to poor treatment, horrible food, and filthy toilets during her horror 804 day stint in Tehran's Evin Jail

She will never forget her first hours of freedom in November 2020, where her first stop was to the home of the current Australian ambassador, Lyndall Sachs, where she enjoyed a hearty lunch which included her first glass of wine since 2018 and two cups of coffee.

More a year after her return to Australia, Dr Moore-Gilbert credits personal resilience with preventing her from becoming extremely damaged for life.

She has no bitterness towards Iran which she described as beautiful and regards ordinary Iranians as wonderful, warm and hospitable.

Her harrowing ordeal hasn't diminished her interest in the Middle East and says she's if anything, more interested in the region where she was held captive.

Dr Moore-Gilbert will feature on Sunday night's episode of 60 Minutes.

Her book The Uncaged Sky: My 804 days in an Iranian prison is out on March 30
Big Tech hit for circumventing regulation



Early this month, Korea became the first country in the world to introduce a law banning platform operators, like Apple and Google, from forcing their in-app payment systems upon developers. However, Google immediately came up with a policy to get around the regulation. The tech giant told app developers that it would not allow links to external payment pages and remove those not following the rule from its app marketplace, Google Play. It was aimed at blocking attempts to reduce commission fees.



Google's move runs counter to the amendment. In-app payment systems force customers purchasing apps, including mobile games, to pay only through the platform operators' system from which a commission is deducted. The revised law is aimed at preventing companies from creating platform monopolies. The U.S. Senate also passed a similar law recently.



Google claims that it is not a monopoly, stressing that it allows developers to apply alternative in-app payment systems. However, it has implemented a system that effectively forces developers to abandon that and adopt Google's in-app payment system. It set the commission rate of developers' in-app payment at 26 percent, not much different from the maximum commission rate of 30 percent charged for Google's in-app payments.



Considering the cost to developers, the structure disadvantages developers who build their own payment systems. It is nothing more than the exploitation of a loophole to get around the law, and market insiders predict Apple will soon follow Google's example. The Korea Communications Commission regards it as an apparent offense. The new enforcement decree of the Telecommunications Business Act clarifies the bill's purpose that external payments should not be blocked.



The situation will likely lead to a continuing legal battle. Last year, Google was slapped with a 224.9 billion won ($184.1 million) fine for forcing smartphone makers to use only the Android mobile operating system. It was also criticized for tricking major universities into using unlimited storage services and then switching them to paid ones. The current practices of Google are simply unfair.


A bikie gang member described blood pouring out of the head of a man he had pistol whipped as 'pretty funny' in texts intercepted by police.

The man, whose name has been suppressed by the Adelaide Magistrates Court, fled Australia within hours of allegedly shooting another man.

The accused man told his girlfriend not to be mad and joked about the victim's injuries.

The court also heard the man allegedly used the encrypted AN0M mobile phone app to suggest to his associates they 'knock' the victim.

A man is pictured after getting arrested in Adelaide in connection with a shooting

His texts were recorded by the AN0M app, which was created by police to foot criminals into thinking they were on a secure, encrypted platform, but actually sent everything to investigators.

The man was accused of shooting the victim - who was a driver for a rival gang - in the leg in Hindmarsh on September 16, 2019 before stealing his car, the Adelaide Advertiser reported.

The case was revisited last year as part of Operation Ironside which analysed messages sent using AN0M.

'A review of the AN0M material has found detailed, explicit and quite frankly disturbing messages which the prosecution attribute to the accused,' the prosecutor said.

Once he arrived abroad, the accused allegedly messaged his girlfriend about his shocking attack on the rival gang member.

'So I guess you're wondering why I'm here, well please don't be mad but I kind of slightly may have shot someone in broad daylight and pistol whipped him and bashed him in front of a few witnesses,' he allegedly wrote.

'On the bright side I made him squirt: his head was squirting blood in time with his heart beat, it was pretty funny.'

A man is pictured being put into a police vehicle after getting arrested in Adelaide in connection with a shooting

The court heard the shooting was prompted by a dispute between the gangs over the theft of explosives.

The prosecutor said it was meant to be a kidnapping.

'The man got into the victim's vehicle, a second man was meant to assist him but didn't, It culminated in the man shooting the victim,' he said.

The bullet went through the victim's left leg and became lodged in his right calf.

The court heard the man was waiting abroad to see if the victim would talk to the police about the shooting.

WHAT IS ANOM? The FBI developed an encrypted messaging app called ANOM in 2018 that was used by criminal gangs, allowing the agency to monitor their operations in real time. With relevant information passed on by the FBI, the Australian Federal Police uncovered 21 murder plots, gun distribution and mass drug trafficking operations in Australia. Advertisement

The prosecutor alleged the man received a message saying the victim was not cooperating with the police and it was safe to go back to Australia.

The man messaged associates in Australia that they 'might have to knock him just to be safe', the court heard.

The man allegedly also supplied a handgun that was intended to be used to kill a bikie figure in Adelaide's east.

The alleged plot was foiled by police when guns were seized and several people arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

He is also charged with breaching a firearm prohibition order by providing the gun, but is not charged with the conspiracy to kill the bikie.

Michael Abbott QC, acting for the defendant, said the case against his client was one of the 'most improbable circumstantial [he] had ever heard'.

He argued for his client to be released on home detention bail.

Bail was denied.
Labor has promised to give all Australians free rapid antigen tests if it defeats Scott Morrison at the federal election.

Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the tests were a matter of public safety, and they would be free for everyone unlike the prime minister's limited plan.

He said free rapid antigen tests were an important part of Australians health and that people shouldn't be forced to opt out of a test 'because they can't afford one'.

Shadow treasurer said free rapid antigen tests were an important part of Australians health and that people shouldn't be forced to opt out of a test 'because they can't afford one'

Mr Morrison infamously said 'we just can't go round and make everything free' in reference to the tests during the dire shortage in December.

He then argued they shouldn't be free because it would undercut businesses making a profit from selling them, saying 'that is what the private market is for'.

'They can get them on the shelves and not have any concern that somehow a new policy will come in and tests will be handed out to anyone who wants one,' he said.

Eventually he agreed to give five free tests to low-income earners, schools, and other critical services.

Mr Chalmers also would not rule out the re-introduction of Sunday penalty rates for people working in hospitality and retail.

The Labor Party promised the restoration of penalty rates in the last federal election but since said the 'the situation had moved out' and an upcoming minimum wage review was more important.

'We want to see what that minimum wage case throws up because once we know where the minimum wage (review) lands, we can come to a view on those broader issues across the board,' Mr Chalmers told ABC's Insiders program.

Anthony Albanese's Labor party will make rapid antigen tests free if it wins the next election

Mr Chalmers said Labor would also address the increasing cost of living in Australia.

'We try and be constructive but no amount of money sprayed around on the eve of an election will make Australians forget a decade of attacks on wages and jobs security,' he said.

'That is a big part of the reason why Australians have been under these cost of living pressures.

'It didn't just show up when Russia invaded Ukraine  they showed up when the Coalition attacked wages and take home pay.'
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North Korea is preparing for its first nuclear bomb test in nearly five years, government sources in South Korea have told local media.

Kim Jong Un's secretive regime appears to be hastily constructing a 'shortcut' to a tunnel at its nuclear test site in Punggye-ri in preparations for a seventh underground nuclear detonation, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported on Sunday.

Warnings of the nuclear test, which would be the first since September 17, come just days after the North test-fired its massive Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile, which could deliver a warhead anywhere in the United States.

Kim's latest saber-rattling comes as the world is focused on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and adds to the geopolitical challenges facing President Joe Biden.

Kim Jong Un's secretive regime appears to be hastily constructing a 'shortcut' to a tunnel at its nuclear test site in Punggye-ri (above) in preparations for a seventh underground nuclear detonation, South Korean government sources say

The North Korean leader is seen walking near what state media reports say is a new type of inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) on March 24

North Korea's latest launch was a huge, new intercontinental ballistic missile state media reported on Friday. General view during the test firing of what state media report is a North Korean 'new type' of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in this undated photo released on March 24

The latest information about North Korea's nuclear test plans comes from South Korea's military and intelligence authorities, who say they have detected signs the North is restoring an underground testing facility that was shuttered during negotiations in 2018.

Work at the mountainous site in the country's northwest appears to have taken a turn that suggests the restoration of access to Tunnel 3 is a high priority.

'(The North) abruptly stopped its initial construction work to restore the entrance to Tunnel 3, and it is digging up the side (of the tunnel),' a source told Yonhap, requesting anonymity.

'In this way, it seems like it will be possible to restore (the testing facilities) in a month.'

Major weapons tests in North Korea often coincide with national holidays, and Kim could be eyeing a nuclear demonstration for Military Foundation Day, which falls on April 25.

Experts tell Yonhap the North may test a small tactical nuclear weapon that can be loaded on ballistic missiles.

Though smaller nukes may seem like less of a threat than massive thermonuclear bombs, arms control experts warn that they can lower the threshold for nuclear deployment, as they are designed to be used in battlefield scenarios.

The Arms Control Association estimates that North Korea currently has around 40 to 50 viable nuclear warheads.

 Slide me  Satellite images show the Punggye-ri site on February 18 (left) and with new construction apparent on March 4 (right)

North Korean leader Jim is seen walking around what state media reports say is a new ICBM. It came a day after the militaries of South Korea and Japan said they detected the North launching an ICBM

This photo distributed by the North Korean government shows what it says a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) before its test-fire, at an undisclosed location in North Korea on March 24, 2022

On Thursday, North Korea fired its cartoonishly massive Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) for the first time, demonstrating the capabilities of a weapon potentially able to deliver a nuclear warhead to anywhere in the United States.

The launch Thursday extended a barrage of weapons demonstrations this year that analysts say are aimed at forcing the United States to accept the idea of North Korea as a nuclear power and remove crippling sanctions against its broken economy.

North Korean state TV dramatized the missile testing process like a Hollywood movie, showing Kim walking in slow motion in front of a giant missile in sunglasses and a black leather motorcycle jacket.

After a series of quick cuts of Kim and military officials staring at their watches, Kim takes off his shades and nods, and the missile is shown being rolled out of the hangar.

But analysts said shadows, weather, and other aspects of the imagery suggest the launch shown by North Korea actually happened on a different date and time.

'Multiple pieces of visual evidence suggest North Korea's version of events is misleading at best, and possibly a complete fabrication of a successful Hwasong-17 test at worst,' NK Pro, a Seoul-based research website that tracks North Korea, said in a report.

The Hwasong-17, which was fired at a high angle to avoid the territorial waters of neighbors, reached a maximum altitude of 3,880 miles and traveled 680 miles during a 67-minute flight before landing in waters between North Korea and Japan, Pyongyangs official Korean Central News Agency said.

KCNA claimed the launch met its technical objectives and proved the ICBM could be operated quickly during wartime conditions.

The South Korean and Japanese militaries had announced similar flight details, which analysts say suggested that the missile could reach targets 9,320 miles away when fired on normal trajectory with a warhead weighing less than a ton.

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

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un looks through a window during the test firing of what state media report is a 'new type' of intercontinental ballistic missile, fired on Thursday

Believed to be about 82ft (25m) long, the Hwasong-17 is the North's longest-range weapon and, by some estimates, the world's biggest road-mobile ballistic missile system

Images showed Kim Jong Un smiling and clapping as he celebrated with military officials from an observation deck during the test launch operation of the Hwasong-17

This picture released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows the test launch of a new type inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM)

That would place the entire US mainland within Kim's striking distance, as well as the UK and all of continental Europe.

Believed to be about 82 feet long, the Hwasong-17 is the Norths longest-range weapon and, by some estimates, the world's biggest road-mobile ballistic missile system.

North Korea revealed the missile in a military parade in October 2020 and Thursday's launch was its first full-range test.

KCNA paraphrased Kim as saying that the new weapon would make the 'whole world clearly aware' of the Norths bolstered nuclear forces.

He vowed for his military to acquire 'formidable military and technical capabilities unperturbed by any military threat and blackmail and keep themselves fully ready for long-standing confrontation with the U.S. imperialists.'

The United States called Friday for tougher U.N. sanctions against North Korea following the test.

The United Nations Security Council meets concerning North Korea's test-firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile, Friday at U.N. headquarters in Manhattan

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, addresses the United Nations Security Council concerning North Korea's test-firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile on Friday

At a U.N. Security Council meeting Friday, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the U.S. would propose a resolution 'to update and strengthen' Security Council sanctions. She declined to specify what those new measures might be.

'It is clear that remaining silent, in the hope that the DPRK would similarly show restraint, is a failed strategy,' she said. DPRK is an acronym for the countrys formal name, the Democratic Peoples Republic of North Korea.

The council originally imposed sanctions after the North's first nuclear test explosion in 2006 and tightened them over the years.

But last fall, veto-wielding China and Russia called for lifting various sanctions against their neighbor.

Russian Deputy Ambassador Anna Evstigneeva said that further sanctions would only harm North Korea's people, while Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jun urged the council 'to consider how to accommodate the DPRKs justified security concerns.'

He suggested that the U.S. didn't do enough to respond to the Norths 2018 self-imposed pause on long-range missile and nuclear tests and needed to 'show its goodwill' and 'work harder to stabilize the situation' and resume dialogue.

North Korea didn't speak at the council meeting. A message seeking comment was sent to its U.N. mission.

Meanwhile, the U.S. imposed new sanctions of its own against five entities and individuals in Russia and North Korea over transferring sensitive items to the North's missile program, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said.
A man on his way to hospital has attacked two Queensland paramedics before stealing their ambulance south of Bundaberg.

The 56-year-old man was being treated by paramedics at Buxton, 319 km north of Brisbane, around 10.30pm on Saturday, police say.

The patient turned on the officers, first attacking a male paramedic by punching him in the head.

A 56-year-old man has been arrested after he allegedly stole an ambulance in Buxton, Queensland

The man allegedly punched a male paramedic in the face and threw items at a female officer

He then threw an item at the female officer who was driving, forcing her to stop by the side of the road, abandoning the ambulance.

The paramedics 'tactically withdrew', calling for police backup as the patient took off in the emergency vehicle.

Police found the ambulance a short distance away where the 56-year-old male patient was arrested.

The male paramedic suffered minor injuries while his partner escaped injury.

The patient is expected to face charges of assault.
A bewildered Melbourne man is searching for answers after receiving a bizarre black and white photocopied page of a Coles catalogue in the mail.

The man shared a photo of the black and white Coles page to Reddit and asked if any other Australians had received the strange letter as well.

He explained in the caption that the page was sealed inside an envelope and addressed directly to him, which is odd considering almost all advertising material - including normal Coles catalogues - come trackless and unsealed.

A bewildered Melbourne man is searching for answers after receiving a bizarre black and white photocopied page of a Coles catalogue in the mail

'Received registered post in my name with only a (bad) photocopy of Coles catalogue (one page only). Tf [sic] is this?' the man wrote in the post.

The Reddit post received 427 comments with a range of answers from the forum's users on why they believed he was given the bizarre photoshopped catalogue page.

One user said: 'I have a clue. You know when you see reviews online for stuff, there are the ones that have 'verified buyer' next to them so you know they are legit.

'Well companies send random shit, I mean random like a Coles catalogue/hair tie/whatever just to get the mailing receipt #.'

'With the mailing receipt # they can then create fake reviews in your name and say you have purchased from their company because they have a mailing receipt number to prove it.'

This theory was suggested by multiple respondents in the post, with many claiming this odd scheme occurs with companies in the US.

Another wrote: 'Is it one of those things where they 'sell' items from their Amazon store just so they can post good reviews, but they need real addresses to send to as they have to record mail sent [or something] to prove it's a legitimate sale.'

A third suggested that it 'sounds like some scammer trying to confirm that you live at that address somehow'.

The Reddit post received 427 comments with a range of answers from the forum's users on why they believed he was given the bizarre photoshopped catalogue page. Pictured: The original colour version of the catalogue page

One person told the Melbourne man they had taken the article ID and entered it into the tracker service on the Auspost website.

They revealed the mail was posted from Frankston North in south-east Melbourne on a Thursday afternoon earlier in the month.

The receiver responded by commending the user on their efforts to find an answer but said the location or time the letter was posted didn't provide any clarity as to why he received the letter in the first place.

Many suggested that the letter was related to religion as the word Lent is printed at the top of the black and white Coles page.

Lent is an annual period in the Christian religion that involves reflection, penance and abstinence. It lasts from Ash Wednesday to Easter.

'This is it!! A reminder to not eat meat during lent, but seafood. It's all prawns. You might hve received it by accident. Likely a very old person without a scanner or knowledge on how to upload photos from their phone to the computer,' said one.

'Another clue is that it is the catalogue page for Lent foods. Maybe religion is a factor in this?' questioned an earlier respondent.
Sanctions on Russia could be lifted if Vladimir Putin abandons his invasion of Ukraine and promises not to do it again, Liz Truss said today.

The Foreign Secretary insisted there is a chance of the punitive measures against banks, businesses and oligarchs being eased if the Kremlin withdraws troops and commits to 'no further aggression'.

She stressed that the West would keep the threat of 'snapback sanctions' if the Russian president did renew his attack.

The comments are in line with the stance taken by her US counterpart Antony Blinken, who has suggested the reprisals could 'go away' if there was an 'irreversible' withdrawal by Russia.

In interviews this morning, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said it is 'for the Russian people to decide' who leads them, but added that they would 'do well to have someone that is democratic'.

But they come after Joe Biden suggested that 'butcher' Putin 'cannot remain in power'. The White House has desperately tried to row back the remarks, made during an impassioned speech in Warsaw, saying the US president was not calling for regime change.

Sanctions on Russia could be lifted if Vladimir Putin (right) abandons his invasion of Ukraine and promises not to do it again, Liz Truss (left) said today

Joe Biden suggested that 'butcher' Putin 'cannot remain in power'. The White House has desperately tried to row back the remarks, made during an impassioned speech in Warsaw, saying the US president was not calling for regime change

With the Kremlin's troops struggling, Ms Truss's intervention will be seen as an attempt to give Putin an exit path from the crisis.

Moscow has given indications after a month of war that it might scale back its wider ambitions and focus on the Donbas region in the east of Ukraine.

But Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has warned he will not give up territory in peace talks as he noted that his troops have delivered 'powerful blows' to invading forces.

Boris Johnson says Western allies are looking to 'steadily ratchet up' the sanctions that have sought to punish Putin and those who prop up his regime.

But in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Ms Truss indicated that the process can still be reversed.

'Those sanctions should only come off with a full ceasefire and withdrawal, but also commitments that there will be no further aggression,' she said.

'And also, there's the opportunity to have snapback sanctions if there is further aggression in future. That is a real lever that I think can be used.'

Ms Truss said a 'negotiations unit' had been established in the Foreign Office to aid possible peace talks.

Mr Blinken, has previously said the travel bans and asset freezes are 'not designed to be permanent'.

The secretary of state said the sanctions could 'go away' in the event of an 'in effect, irreversible' withdrawal of Russian troops.

In his speech, Mr Biden appealed to Russian people directly, with comparisons between the invasion of Ukraine and the horrors of the Second World War.

'For God's sake this man cannot remain in power,' the US president said at the close of his speech of the Russian president he earlier described as a 'butcher'.

Mr Biden pleaded 'if you're able to listen: you, the Russian people, are not our enemy', as multiple rockets struck the city of Lviv near the Polish border in the west of Ukraine.

Smoke rises over Lviv, western Ukraine, this weekend after the latest attacks by Russian forces

In interviews this morning, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said it is 'for the Russian people to decide' who leads them, but added that they would 'do well to have someone that is democratic'

But a White House official tried to argue that the US president's point was that the Russian leader 'cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbours or the region'.

'He was not discussing Putin's power in Russia, or regime change,' the official added, before reports in the US suggested the remarks in question had not been scripted.

Mr Biden warned 'we need to steel ourselves for the long fight ahead' as he conceded the battle will not be 'won in days, or months either'.

He told European nations they must end 'dependence on Russian fossil fuels', but said sanctions had been sapping Russia's strength and have reduced the rouble 'to rubble'.

Tobias Ellwood, the Conservative MP who chairs the Commons Defence Committee, described Mr Biden's comment hinting at regime change as 'unwise'.

He warned the Russian president will now see regime change as Mr Biden's wider objective, adding: 'Putin will spin this, dig in and fight harder.'
Queensland residents have questioned why a series of white bags have been mysteriously tied to several power poles throughout the state.

The grim reason behind the appearance of the bags is that they actually contain deceased animals that have died from either traversing or touching the powerlines.

Workers from power supply companies often come across deceased wildlife remains they find on site and are directed to place the remains into white bags and tape them to electrical poles for the local council to recover and discard.

Queensland residents have questioned why a series of white bags have been mysteriously tied to several power poles throughout the state. Pictured: A white bag tied to an electrical pole in Wilston, QLD - taken by resident Craig Alpen

Queensland electricity company Energex has outlined this practice on their website and some of the 'strategies' they implement to minimise wildlife interaction with the powerlines and electrical equipment.

'It's not uncommon for wildlife to come into contact with our network which not only can harm the animals, but can also damage our electricity network and create power outages,' their website states.

'In the unfortunate case that a deceased animal is found on our electricity network, for Workplace Health and Safety reasons, our crews are only able to remove the animal.

'Once removed, the animal is bagged and left at the power pole for the council to arrange for appropriate disposal.'

Questions were raised about the bags earlier this month when Wilston resident Craig Alpen shared a photo of one of the bags tied to an electrical pole on a street in the inner-northern Brisbane suburb.

The ABC reported Mr Alpen's account of spotting the bag on Fifth Avenue in Wilston.

The grim reason behind the appearance of the bags is that they actually contain deceased animals that have died from either traversing or touching the powerlines. Pictured: A possum traversing a powerline

The power company spokesperson said that the majority of animals that cross the powerlines and transformers are possums and birds (pictured)

The local resident said he knew that whatever was inside the bag was not alive due to the smell and the numerous flies buzzing around it.

Energex spokesman Danny Donald told the ABC animals are a major contributing factor to power outages.

Donald revealed there were 445 electricity outages triggered by the local wildlife interacting with powerlines or transformers in Queensland last year.

'Generally power outages are the primary issue the animals cause as a result of striking powerlines or crawling into hard-to-reach areas of equipment,' he said.

'We design and construct the network to reduce the risk of animals coming in contact with the network.'

The power company spokesperson said that the majority of animals that cross the powerlines and transformers are possums and birds.

However, Energex has also discovered other animals like snakes and frogs deceased or trapped amongst the electrical equipment.

Residents who come across deceased wildlife at electrical poles near their homes are told to call Energex on 13 12 13

Those who find deceased animals on highways should call the Department of Transport and Main Roads on 13 19 40

If a resident finds a sick, orphaned or injured animal, call the RSPCA on 1300 264 625
Prince Charles is lined up to deliver the Queen's Speech at the state opening of parliament amid concerns she may not feel fit enough to attend.

Contingency plans are being prepared by palace and government officials to accommodate her absence should health or mobility issues prevent her from reading her speech on May 10.

It comes as the Queen, 95, has pulled out of a number of key occasions in the last six months due to concerns surrounding her health, most recently delegating to Charles for the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey last week.

The consistent uncertainty has meant that her presence at all future events will be confirmed on the day with a member of the royal family on standby in the event she feels unable to attend.

A royal source told the Sunday Times: 'The date is in Her Majesty's diary, and she hopes to attend. The Queen remains fit and active, and it is amazing how much she still does.

'But her diary is being paced to reflect the realities of a woman of her age, and to ensure that she is able to continue to do as much as she can and would like to do.

Contingency plans are in place for Prince Charles to deliver the Queen's Speech at this year's state opening of parliament in May in case she is unable to attend. Pictured: The Queen sits on the Sovereign's Throne in the House of Lords at last year's state opening ceremony

'All events will now be scheduled so that if Her Majesty is unable to attend at short notice, another member of the royal family will still be present.'

The Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey would have been the 95-year-old's first in-person public engagement since being advised to rest by her doctors following a hospital stay in October and testing positive for Covid-19 on February 20 with 'mild symptoms'.

Most notably, she did not attend last November's Remembrance Day ceremonies at the Cenotaph after suffering a sprained back and being advised to rest.

She has spent recent weeks carrying out only light duties including a handful of virtual audiences.

But she returned to in-person engagements earlier this month, meeting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at Windsor Castle and later meeting the head of Britain's armed forces.

She now regularly uses a stick and recently commented about her mobility issues, telling two senior military officers during a Windsor Castle reception 'Well, as you can see, I can't move,' when asked how she was.

Prince Charles (pictured with Camilla, right, during a trip to Ireland on Friday) is on standby to deliver the Queen's Speech at the state opening of parliament on May 10 if his mother is unable

Earlier this week, the Queen - who has moved to permanent 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.

It is thought her comfort travelling from Windsor Westminster Palace was the cause of her absence at the Commonwealth Day service but it is thought she will still attend a Thanksgiving service due to be held at the abbey on Tuesday.

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.

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 still 'hopes to attend' a thanksgiving service dedicated to her late husband Prince Philip (pictured together in 2014) which is due to be held at Westminster Abbey on Tuesday

The thanksgiving service for the life of Prince Philip will take place at Westminster Abbey

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.

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.
A Russian soldier has handed himself and his tank over to Ukrainian troops for a reward of $10,000 (7,500) and a chance at Ukrainian citizenship.

Misha, one of alleged war criminal Vladimir Putin's invading soldiers, surrendered in a T-72B3 main battle tank after his two other crewmates escaped home and his commanding officer threatened to shoot him.

Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs Victor Andrusiv said Misha had contacted Ukraine's national police by phone and arranged a place to meet.

He said: 'For a few weeks in the National Police have identified the phones used by Russians.

The moment a Russian tank driver called Misha surrendered to Ukrainian troops by lying on the ground beside his T-72B3 main battle tank for a reward of $10,000

Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs Victor Andrusiv (pictured) said Misha had contacted Ukraine's national police by phone and arranged a place to meet

'On these phones, we regularly send SMS about how to surrender and hand over the equipment.

'A few days ago, Misha called us.

'We handed over the information about him to the GUR MO [Ukrainian military intelligence].

'He didn't see the point of war.

'Misha said that there was almost no food left, military management is chaotic and practically absent. Demoralization is colossal.

'The Russians are giving up!'

The Ukrainian military selected a place for the soldier to surrender and used a drone fitted with a camera to make sure it wasn't an ambush.

Special forces then detained Misha, who lay face-down on the with his hand up as he surrendered.

Ukrainian forces have used anti-tank defences, including British NLAWs, against T-72B3s at close range. Pictured: A destroyed Russian T-72B3

By 2020 Russia had 558 T-72B3 main battle tanks (pictured in Mariupol) in its arsenal

Each T-72B3 tank has the capacity for a three-person crew and is fitted with a 125 mm smoothbore main gun as well as a machine gun and an anti-tank guided missile. Pictured: Russian tanks T-72B3 take part in drills at the Kadamovskiy firing range in the Rostov region in southern Russia, ahead of the invasion of Ukraine

Mr Andrusiv added the Russian soldier will spend the remainder of the war as a prisoner in 'comfortable conditions with a TV, phone, kitchen and shower'.

Ukrainian state arms manufacturer Ukroboronprom previously offered $1million for the capture of battle-ready Russian aircraft.

It said the offer also applied to Russian troops wanting to switch sides.

Ukroboronprom said: 'To the pilots of the Russian Federation ready to participate in the programme, we guarantee the issuance of citizenship of a free country!'

The arms manufacturer added it would give $500,000 for every combat helicopter seized from the Russians that could still be used.
The case of a 15-year-old black schoolgirl being strip-searched while on her period after being wrongly suspected of carrying cannabis should 'horrify us all', a government advisor has said.

Protests and political condemnation erupted after it emerged the teenager, referred to as Child Q, was strip-searched by female Metropolitan Police officers at her north London school without another adult present in December 2020.

Nimco Ali, chief executive of the Five Foundation and an adviser on violence against women and girls to the Home Office, said the Child Q case 'should be something we shouldn't be able to tolerate in this country'.

A safeguarding review, conducted by City & Hackney Safeguarding Children Partnership (CHSCP) and published last week, found that 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 concluded that the strip search should never have happened, was unjustified and that racism 'was likely to have been an influencing factor'. It also said the impact on the secondary school pupil was 'profound' and the repercussions 'obvious and ongoing'.

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.

The case of a 15-year-old black schoolgirl being strip-searched while on her period after being wrongly suspected of carrying cannabis should 'horrify us all, government advisor Nimco Ali (pictured) has said

Protests and political condemnation erupted after it emerged the teenager, referred to as Child Q, was strip-searched by female Metropolitan Police officers at her north London school without another adult present in December 2020

People gathered outside Hackney Town Hall last week to take part in a solidarity rally for Child Q

MP for Hackney North Diane Abbott appeared at the protest to talk to the crowds

On March 19, around 10,000 people turned out to the March Against Racism protest from BBC Broadcasting House down through Whitehall to Parliament Square

Speaking to Sky News on Sunday, Ms Ali said: 'I know it's an ongoing case and it's something that should horrify us all.

'And I think the idea of a child being stripped searched, be they female or male, should be something that we shouldn't be able to tolerate in this country.

Asked about the safeguarding report's conclusion that racism was a factor, Ms Ali said: 'This country is one of the most tolerant countries in Europe but is there more for us to do? Yes, there is.'

She added that Covid has also brought out more unrest, adding: 'I've kind of experienced that in the last two years - that really horrific experience of racism, which I never thought about the UK could be capable of.

'Ultimately, we have to talk about the Metropolitan Police and institutional racism.'

The teen at the centre of the outrage has now launched legal action against Scotland Yard and her school

During last weekend's protest people held placards and listened to speakers on the steps of the town hall

Former leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn MP spoke to demonstrators gathered in Parliament Square during a rally against racism, Islamophobia, antisemitism and fascism as part of United Nations Anti-Racism Day

Child Qs mother has called on the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) to investigate the officers involved

'Child Q' fears she will 'never feel normal again' after being strip -searched at school on suspicion of cannabis possession while on her period During her engagement with the safeguarding review, Child Q was spoken to and shared a written account of her experiences. The following statements made by Child Q reflect the significant impact that the incident had upon her. She told the review: 'Someone walked into the school, where I was supposed to feel safe, took me away from the people who were supposed to protect me and stripped me naked, while on my period. 'On the top of preparing for the most important exams of my life. 'I can't go a single day without wanting to scream, shout, cry or just give up. 'I feel like I'm locked in a box, and no one can see or cares that I just want to go back to feeling safe again, my box is collapsing around me, and no-one wants to help. 'I don't know if I'm going to feel normal again. I don't know how long it will take to repair my box. 'But I do know this can't happen to anyone, ever again.' 'All the people that allowed this to happen need to be held responsible. 'I was held responsible for a smell. 'But I'm just a child. 'The main thing I need is space and time to understand what has happened to me and exactly how I feel about it and getting past this exam season.' 'I need to know that the people who have done this to me can't do it to anyone else ever again. 'In fact so NO ONE else can do this to any other child in their care. 'Things need to change with all organisations involved. Even I can see that.' Advertisement

Her comments come after Metropolitan Police data, which showed five children are strip-searched every day on average by the force in London, prompted fresh anger in the wake of the Child Q case.

The figures, first reported by LBC, show that out of 5,279 children searched after an arrest in the past three years, 3,939 - around 75% - were from ethnically diverse backgrounds.

The data did not cover children who were not arrested but still strip-searched - like Child Q - so it is likely the number in London is even higher.

Weyman Bennett, co-coordinator of Stand Up to Racism campaign group, called for 'urgent change' in light of the 'shocking' data.

He told the PA news agency: 'You judge a society on how it treats its children.

'These figures are shocking and expose institutional racism in the Met Police.'

Mr Bennett also said it is 'shocking' that 'these things are still going ahead' more than two decades after the report into the death of Stephen Lawrence was published.

He said: 'We need urgent change to deliver a police force that works in the 21st century.'

In a statement, the Metropolitan Police defended its policy, known as More Thorough Search where Intimate Parts are exposed (MTIP), in response to the figures.

A spokesperson said: 'We work closely with communities in London and understand that stop and search can have a significant and lasting impact on someone, especially an MTIP and strip searches in custody.

'Every search must be lawful, proportionate and necessary and carried out with respect, dignity and empathy.

'While some may question whether any child should be subject to an MTIP or strip search, there are occasions when it is very necessary to prevent harm to children who may be exploited by gangs, County Lines and drug dealers.

'Used appropriately, stop and search powers save lives and are an important tactic to keep Londoners safe, helping us identify criminality and take drugs and dangerous weapons off the streets.

'Officers are highly trained around the use of stop and search. Part of the training is around unbiased decision making, unconscious bias and the impact of the use of these powers on communities.

'That said we do not underestimate the impact that the use of stop and search has on some individuals and that it continues to cause significant concern within some communities.'
Pyongyang should face more sanctions for ICBM launch



The U.N. Security Council failed to take any action Friday against North Korea for test-firing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) last week. China and Russia were held accountable for the failure as they were against the council's adoption of any statement condemning the North's provocation.



It is regrettable that the UNSC could not afford to issue at least a press statement on the matter. The objection by the council's two permanent members with veto-wielding power has made the world body remain silent on the North's blatant violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions against its nuclear tests and ICBM launches.



The council's inaction came despite efforts by South Korea, the U.S. and other countries to prevent Pyongyang from making further provocations. This is raising concerns that China, Russia and North Korea are moving toward strengthening their three-way alliance against the U.S., Japan and South Korea amid an emerging new Cold War. Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the Sino-U.S. rivalry have been reshaping the international order to the detriment of peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.



It is hard to understand why Beijing and Moscow are trying to defend Pyongyang despite the North's unlawful actions. They should join international efforts to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction just as they did in 2017 when the North launched an ICBM and conducted its sixth nuclear test. Otherwise, they should get the blame for giving the Kim Jong-un regime carte blanche to increase its military threats not only in East Asia, but also around the world.



No country can overlook Kim's scrapping of his self-imposed moratorium on long-range missile launches and nuclear tests which had been in place since April 2018. On Thursday, the North test-fired the Hwasong-17 ICBM which it said flew 1,090 kilometers at a top altitude of 6,249 kilometers for 67 minutes. The latest launch followed 11 rounds of ballistic missile tests, including the firing of a hypersonic missile, this year.



More worrisome is that Pyongyang might continue its missile launches as well as resume its nuclear tests amid the Ukraine crisis and South Korea's power transition period. There are reports that the North is reconstructing the Punggyeri nuclear test site that it demolished in 2018. Against this backdrop, Seoul needs to engage in more active diplomacy to make Pyongyang pay the price for its military buildup.



The U.S. is seeking to impose additional UNSC sanctions on the North. It is expected to push for a cut in the cap on North Korea's imports of crude oil and refined oil which is currently set at 4 million barrels and 500,000 barrels, respectively, per year. However such a reduction seems unfeasible because China and Russia are sure to oppose it.



The outgoing Moon Jae-in government and the incoming Yoon Suk-yeol administration should exhaust every effort to stop the North from making further provocations. President-elect Yoon needs to hold a summit with U.S. President Joe Biden soon after he is inaugurated on May 10, in order to strengthen the Seoul-Washington security alliance and prod Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program and the development of ICBMs.




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Russian troops are trying to encircle Ukrainian forces fighting in the separatist regions in the eastern part of the country, British intelligence chiefs said, as Russia continues its attacks on Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin's forces are advancing southward from the area around the city of Kharkiv and north from the port city of Mariupol to the Donbas region in an attempt to surround Ukrainian troops, the Ministry of Defence said in an intelligence briefing today.

But in a further blow to Putin's barbaric invasion, Ukrainian forces repulsed seven attacks in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and destroyed several tanks and armoured vehicles, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said on Sunday.

Ukraine's military chiefs said on Sunday that Russia is continuing with its 'full-scale armed aggression', with rocket attacks being launched on Ukrainian cities overnight.

Russian missiles struck Ukrainian fuel and food storage depots in the city of Lviv, sparking huge fires and wounding at least five people.

A security guard at the site, Yaroslav Prokopiv, said he saw three rockets strike and destroy two oil tanks. 'The third strike threw me to the ground,' he said.

The attack on the facilities means the government will have to disperse the stocks of both in the near future, Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser Vadym Denysenko said today.

Denysenko also said Russia was bringing forces to the Ukrainian border on rotation, and could make new attempts to advance in its invasion of Ukraine.

Western intelligence officials say Russian forces now rely on indiscriminate bombardments rather than risking large-scale ground operations, a tactic that could limit Russian military casualties but would harm more civilians.

Whilst Russian troops appear to be advancing on the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, battlefields in northern Ukraine remain 'largely static,' with Ukrainian counterattacks hampering Russian efforts to reorganise their forces, the UK's MoD said.

It comes as President Joe Biden last night called for Putin to be removed from power, setting off alarm bells among US foreign policy experts, who fear that it could escalate tensions.

'For God's sake this man cannot remain in power,' Biden said in a shocking apparent call for regime change in Moscow at the end of a impassioned speech from Poland on Saturday.

Ukrainian firefighters try to contain a major fire after Russian missiles struck a fuel storage facility in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on March 26

Dark smoke and flames rise from a fire following an air strike in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Saturday

Russian servicemen drive on the infantry armoured vehicles in downtown Volnovakha, near Donetsk, Ukraine, on Saturday

Vladimir Putin's forces are advancing southward from the area around the city of Kharkiv and north from the port city of Mariupol to the Donbas region in an attempt to surround Ukrainian troops, the MoD said in an intelligence briefing today

Russian missiles struck Ukrainian fuel and food storage depots in the city of Lviv, sparking huge fires and wounding at least five people

Firefighters try to extinguish the fire as the flames and smoke rise after Russian guided missiles hit fuel tanks attacks in Lviv

A satellite image made available by Maxar Technologies shows damage to Ukrainian fuel storage depot at Kalynivka, Ukraine

President Joe Biden's call for Vladimir Putin to be removed from power in Russia is setting off alarm bells among foreign policy experts. who fear that it could escalate tensions

'For god's sake this man cannot remain in power,' he said of Putin, describing the Russian president as having a 'craving for absolute power and control.'

A wrecked tank is seen near a damaged building in Mariupol on Saturday as civilians are being evacuated along humanitarian corridors from the Ukrainian city under the control of Russian military and pro-Russian separatists

The unscripted remark, which the White House scrambled to walk back as the Kremlin expressed fury, came at the end of an otherwise resolute and fiery speech in Poland rallying the free world to unite in opposition to autocracy and support of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, in the encircled southern port of Mariupol, Mayor Vadym Boichenko said the situation remained critical, with street fighting in the centre.

Russia said last week it had evacuated several hundred thousand people from the war zone, but Ukraine says thousands of its residents, including from Mariupol, have been illegally deported.

Ukraine and Russia have since agreed on two 'humanitarian corridors' to evacuate civilians from frontline areas on Sunday, including allowing people to leave by private car from the southern city of Mariupol, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.

But there are fears over whether Russia will adhere to allowing Ukrainian citizens to leave via the humanitarian corridors, after previous Russian attacks have killed civilians fleeing via those routes.

Meanwhile Russian forces on Saturday seized Slavutych, a town where workers at the defunct Chernobyl nuclear plant live, and the mayor said three people were killed, Interfax Ukraine news agency reported.

Ukrainian staff have continued to work at Chernobyl after the site of the world's worst nuclear accident was seized by Russian forces.

Ukraine's nuclear watchdog said that a nuclear research facility in Kharkiv again has come under shelling by Russia and the fighting makes it impossible to assess the damage.

The State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate said that the neutron source experimental facility in the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology came under fire Saturday.

Ukrainian authorities have previously reported that Russian shelling damaged buildings at the Kharkiv facility, but there has been no release of radiation. The newly built neutron source facility is intended for the research and production of radioisotopes for medical and industrial needs.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has said that the nuclear material in the facility is always subcritical and the inventory of radioactive material is very low, reducing the risks of radiation release.

Kharkiv has been besieged by Russian forces since the start of the invasion and has come under repeated shelling of its residential buildings and critical infrastructure.

Firefighters operate at a damaged oil depot following a Russian missile attack in the city of Lviv, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, on Sunday

Ukrainian soldier standing before a Russian self-propelled artillery gun destroyed following a battle in the town of Trostyanets, Sumy region, on Sunday

A Russian tank destroyed following a battle in the town of Trostyanets, Sumy region, in Ukraine, on Sunday

Meanwhile, Biden was criticised for calling for Putin to be removed from power. Richard Haass, the Council on Foreign Relations president, tweeted his concerns that Biden had 'just expanded US war aims, calling for regime change.'

'However desirable it may be, it is not within our power to accomplish-plus runs risk it will increase Putin's inclination to see this as a fight to the finish, raising odds he will reject compromise, escalate, or both,' wrote Haass.

'Our interests are to end the war on terms Ukraine can accept & to discourage Russian escalation. Today's call for regime change is inconsistent with these ends,' he added.

Haass went on to tell Politico that a senior Biden official, possibly even Secretary of State Antony Blinken, needs to reach out to their Russian counterpart immediately and explain that Biden's comment doesn't reflect US policy.

'The fact that it was so off-script in some ways makes it worse,' because it could be read as Biden's genuine belief as opposed to his scripted words, Haas said.

Biden's remark could also diminish Putin's interest in compromise and increase his temptation to escalate in Ukraine, 'because if he believes he has everything to lose then he'll believe he has nothing to lose,' Haass said.

Before Biden could even board Air Force One to begin the flight back to Washington, his aides were rushing to claim that he hadn't been calling for an immediate change in government in Moscow.

'The President's point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. He was not discussing Putin's power in Russia, or regime change,' a White House official said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov quickly denounced Biden, saying 'its not up to the president of the U.S. and not up to the Americans to decide who will remain in power in Russia.'

Biden's alarming off-the-cuff remark comes just 24 hours after the White House rushed to clarify other awkward remarks from the president suggesting that US troops would deploy, and had already deployed, to Ukraine.

In a speech to US paratroopers in Poland on Friday, Biden said: 'You're going to see when you're there  some of you have been there  you're going to see women, young people, standing in the middle, in front of a damn tank, saying, 'I'm not leaving'.'

Biden's mention of 'when you're there' seem to suggest that the troops would be deployed across the border to Ukraine, but the administration insisted there has been no change in his stance that the US will not enter the conflict.

The White House was forced to clarify on Friday that American troops would not be going into Ukraine after President Biden appeared to make a slip in his speech to paratroopers in Poland

'The president has been clear we are not sending U.S. troops to Ukraine and there is no change in that position,' a White House spokesperson clarified to Fox News on Friday.

Biden has persistently said that troops would not be sent into Ukraine under any circumstances during Putin's invasion, fearing it would turn into World War Three and end up becoming a lengthy combat mission like in Afghanistan.

In his fiery speech on Saturday, Biden drew a stark line between democracy and oppression, repeatedly going after Putin and accusing the Russian president of dishonesty.

Speaking outdoors in the cobbled courtyard of the Royal Castle in Warsaw, which was lit with the colors of Poland and Ukraine, Biden accused Putin of 'using brute force and disinformation' to rule.

'It's nothing less than a direct challenges to the rules-based system of international order,' Biden said.

President Joe Biden accused Vladimir Putin of duplicity in the run up to Russia's invasion of Ukraine

Biden also took a cue from Arnold Schwarzenegger - who released a video message to Russians that went viral - and spoke directly to the Russian people.

'I'm telling you the truth. This war is not worthy of you the Russian people,' he said. 'Putin can and must end this war. The American people will stand with you and the brave citizens of Ukraine that want peace.'

And he warned Putin's aggression could bring 'decades of war' to Europe.

'It's nothing less than a direct challenge for the order established since the World War II and it threatens to return to decades of war that ravage Europe before the international rule-based order was put in place. We cannot go back to that,' Biden said.

Biden also moved to calm worried Eastern European nations. He made it clear the NATO alliance would hold together and he warned Russia not to think about expanding his invasion outside of Ukraine.

Poland and the old Eastern bloc nations - like Lativa and Estonia - are worried Putin's ambitions might lead to their borders. But Biden made it clear NATO would protect its member nations and honor Article Five, which states if one is striked, all respond.

'Don't even think about moving on one single inch of NATO territory. We have sacred obligations,' Biden said.

Biden mentioned his own conversations with Putin before Russia's invasion late last month.

He said Putin 'repeatedly he asserted he had no interest in war - guaranteed he would not move.'

'There is simply no justification or provocation for Russia's choice of war.

President Biden walks out on stage to give his remarks at the Royal Castle in Warsaw

President Joe Biden boards Air Force One, heading back to Washington D.C.

Polish President Andrzej Duda listens as President Joe Biden delivers a speech about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, at the Royal Castle

But Putin and Russia met each of the proposals with disinterest. 'Russia was bent on violence from the start,' he said.

After days of diplomacy and quiet meetings with powerbrokers in Warsaw and Brussels, the White House lined up a speech where Biden could speak in broad strokes about what was at stake, as the U.S. and allies rush to arm Ukraine.

Biden said the war has been 'a strategic failure for Russia already'  alluding to its battlefield losses.

'He, Putin thought Ukrainians would roll over and not fight. Not much of a student of history. Instead, Russian forces have met their match,' he said, in a speech with references to Pope John Paul II, the siege of Stalingrad, and Lech Walesa.

Despite Putin's aims, 'The west is not stronger and more united than it has ever been,' Biden said, pointing to the international response,' Biden said.

'The democracies of the world are revitalized,' said Biden.

People listen as President Joe Biden delivers a speech about the Russian invasion of Ukraine

In contrast, he said Russia was suffering a 'remarkable brain drain,' with more than 200,000 leaving the country in a month.

'We must commit now to be in this fight for the long haul,' he said, speaking in a country that has been pushing to arm Ukraine while housing more than 2 million refugees.

Punctuating his words, he told a cheering crowd never to be discouraged. 'Be not afraid,' he said.

Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia,' he vowed. 'For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power,' he said, on a day when Russia lobbed new missiles at Lviv in western Ukraine.

Biden began and ended his remarks with a quote from the first Polish pope, Pope John Paul II, telling people: 'Be not afraid.'

Biden has personally attacked Putin before, calling him a war criminal and said he doesn't have a soul.

Earlier Saturday, he called Putin a 'butcher' after holding emotional conversations with Ukrainian refugees  including a pair who fled the horror of the siege at Mariupol.

'He's a butcher,' Biden said when asked what he thought of Putin after what he has done to the people he was meeting.

On March 19, video captured Biden tripping up the stairs as he boarded Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews.

In the clip, Biden stumbles as he walks up the airstairs. He grabs the hand railing to catch his balance, but then loses his footing two additional times.

During the third stumble, he falls to his knees. However, after brushing off his leg, he reaches the top of the plane and gives a salute before disappearing inside.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre later told reporters that Biden was '100 percent fine' and preparing for his trip in Atlanta.

'It's pretty windy outside. It's very windy. I almost fell coming up the steps myself,' she said.

Just one day earlier, during a press conference on March 18 (pictured), he referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as 'President Harris'

Just one day earlier, Biden accidentally referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as 'President Harris.'

The gaffe occurred during a press conference on March 18, during which he lauded his administration for being close to meeting their goal of 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses in his first 100 days in office.

'Now when President Harris and I took a virtual tour of a vaccination center in Arizona not long ago, one of the nurses on that, on that tour injecting people, giving vaccinations, said that each shot was like administering a dose of hope,' Biden said.

Harris was standing behind Biden as the president carried on with his speech, but did not correct himself.

Later that day, when the White House released the transcript of his speech, Harris's proper title was inserted with brackets.

On March 9, while making a speech, Biden seemed to forget the name of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin (above)

In a speech on March 9, Biden seemed to fumble with his words and forget the name of his Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

'I want to thank Sec - the former general - I keep calling him 'General,'' Biden said.

'My - the guy who runs that outfit over there. I want to make sure we thank the Secretary for all he's done to try to implement what we've just talked about, and for recommending these two women for promotion.' The slip-occurred despite the fact that just a few minutes earlier, he had mentioned Austin's name in the speech without an issue.

On Election Day, in November, Biden introduced a crowd to his granddaughter, but referred to her as his son

During an Election Day speech in Philadelphia, Biden stumbled over his words and confused his granddaughter with his late son, Beau Biden.

Biden told the crowd: 'I want to introduce you to two of my granddaughters...this is my son, Beau Biden who a lot of you helped elect to the Senate in Delaware.'

The commander-in-chief had meant to introduce the crowed to Natalie, Beau's daughter, but hadn't just mixed up the name but the person - he also put his arm around Finnegan Biden, Hunter's daughter.

He finally corrected himself as he draped his arm around Natalie's shoulder and said: 'This is Natalie, this is Beau's daughter.'

Beau Biden passed away in 2015 after a months-long battle with glioblastoma, one of the deadliest types of brain cancer.

TOLD STATE SENATOR IN WHEELCHAIR TO STAND UP

In 2008, Biden told then-Missouri state senator Chuck Graham to stand up for the crowd at a rally, before realizing he was in a wheelchair

Not all of Biden's gaffes occurred in the 2020s or even the 2010s. In fact, some happened in the early aughts.

In September 2008, after Biden had been named former President Barack Obama's running mate, he attended a campaign rally in Missouri.

It was there that he called on then-Missouri state senator Chuck Graham, who passed away last year. to stand up for the crowd.

'I'm told Chuck Graham, state senator, is here. Stand up Chuck, let 'em see you,' Biden said.

It was at that moment he realized Graham was in a wheelchair due to muscular dystrophy.

'Oh, God love you. What am I talking about. I'll tell you what, you're making everybody else stand up, though, pal.'

According to the Columbia Tribune, Graham said he was never offended by the mistake.
Shocking footage has emerged showing a woman appearing to pull a gun on another woman during a brawl between students.

A group of girls from Otahuhu, New Zealand, were filmed engaging in a fracas in a carpark on Thursday before a woman in a black hoodie comes in holding an object that appears to be a gun.

In the footage, she screams at the participants before marching towards a woman and purportedly holding the firearm to her head.

A woman appears to have pulled a gun on another during a shocking brawl between New Zealand school students

Two students dressed in their school uniforms can be seen slapping each other as several onlookers surround them.

The pair repeteadly strike each other in the head before another woman can be heard screaming, running in brandishing the object.

'You touch my sister again, touch her, touch her,' she screams, waving around the item that appears to be a gun.

The woman then charges over to another young woman wearing a green jumper, screaming at her and continuing to flash the weapon.

She then appears to hold the gun to the woman's head as the continues to bark at those watching on.

'Get the f*** out of here right now,' the woman shouts.

The woman holds what appears to be a gun at another woman after attempting to break up the brawl

The school's principal confirmed to the NZ Herald they are investigating the incident after only being made aware of it on Saturday.

'We have a member of the public with what looks like a firearm. We're helping the police with their inquiries, and our priority is the safety and security of our families and students,' Neil Watson said.

So far the school are not considering contacting parents over the issue.

A concerned mother told the Herald they were deeply concerned about the safety of their children at the school.

'I am keeping my child at home until I hear back from the school that this has been resolved and some sort of consequences is there with these students,'' she said.

NZ Police said they had received a report about the altercation and are investigating.

They're appealing for anyone in attendance to come forward.
Henry VIII's reign will be skipped over in a new BBC history programme chronicling Britain over 1,500 years due to complaints the 16th century monarch was 'a horrible person'.

The eight-part series, called Art That Made Us, intends to explore turbulent periods of British history through the lens of art, literature, music and design but Henry VIII - despite heading up the English Reformation of 1534 - will not get a look in, according to The Telegraph.

BBC producers invited Jeremy Deller, the Turner Prize-winning artist, to discuss a painting of Henry VIII, called Field of the Cloth of Gold, depicting an ostentatious summit between the English monarch and Francis I of France in 1520.

However, Mr Deller refused the invitation to speak about the painting and the English monarch it depicts, condemning Henry VIII as 'one of the greatest a**holes in British culture'.

'I despise him', said Mr Deller.

Excluded: Henry VIII, whose reign lasted from 1509 until his death in 1547, forced through the bloody English Reformation and plundered monasteries - leading to his exclusion from a new BBC Two series purporting to chronicle 1,500 years of British history, after a contributor to the show said the monarch was 'horrible' and an 'a**hole'

The British rapper Stormzy and his 2019 Glastonbury performance will be discussed in the final episode of the eight-part history series, covering Britain from 400AD to today

'He's an iconoclast fundamentalist, just a horrible, horrible person.'

The dissolution of the monastic system under Henry VIII, a property grab that saw monks, nuns and friars turfed out of monasteries with their wealth being funnelled to the Crown, was a principal reason given by Mr Deller for his loathing of the historical figure.

According to the producer of the BBC Two series, Russell Barnes, the team 'gave up on Henry VIII' after receiving Mr Deller's flat-out refusal.

Mr Barnes said: 'We thought maybe Field of the Cloth of Gold would be a really interesting picture to look at, but we just couldn't find an artist who really wanted to engage with that.'

Mr Deller will instead appear on the series to discuss the work of William Morris, the influential British textile designer of the Victorian era.

Producers of Art That Made Us - an eight-part series about era-defining art, literature, music and design - had trouble finding someone to talk about Field of The Cloth of Gold (pictured), a depiction of an ostentatious meeting between Henry VIII and King Francis I of France in 1520. Pictured: the English monarch sits on a white horse in the centre, wearing an outfit woven with silk and gold thread

Jeremy Deller, the Turner Prize-winning artist, refused to talk about Henry VIII or Field of The Cloth of Gold, saying the 16th century monarch was 'one of the greatest a**holes in British culture'

Speaking about Morris' wallpaper designs, Mr Deller said: 'These are the great landscape artworks of the 19th century - it's not Turner and Constable, it's these, which were then replicated throughout people's homes and throughout the world.'

BBC Two's new series Art That Made Us will start in the 5th century, looking at an Anglo-Saxon figurine, the Lindisfarne Gospels and Beowulf.

The final instalment of the eight-series show will cover from 1958 to the present day, during which everything from Irvine Welsh's film Trainspotting to Stormzy's 2019 performance at Glastonbury are highlighted for discussion.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - the first of JK Rowling's seven books about Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry - is dissected by commentators, who claim the book offers a 'clearly conservative' defence of 'elite boarding schools'.

Henry VIII dissolved Britain's monastic system, an unwelcome reminder of the Roman Catholic Church after England's break from the Pope, seizing the wealth and land the monasteries had acquired and executing the 200 abbots and religious house leaders who resisted the expropriation

Other authors featured in the series include Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton and Austen.

Comedians who often appear on BBC shows - such as Stewart Lee and Rachel Parris - have also been chosen to feature as contributors on the show, speaking about historical works of their choosing.

Art That Made Us will debut on April 7, and it will screen alongside a nationwide event of the same name involving exhibitions in museums, libraries, archives and galleries.
A 40-year-old man has been arrested after a mother-of-two was stabbed to death in Bethnal Green, London, while her children were at school, Scotland Yard said.

Formal identification of the woman's body has not yet taken place but detectives believe the victim is 40-year-old Yasmin Begum.

Her family has been informed and are being supported by specially trained officers.

A post-mortem examination carried out on Saturday established the cause of her death as multiple sharp force injuries.

The man, who was arrested on Sunday, remains in police custody.

The victim was found by police at her home in Bethnal Green, east London at 4.05pm on Thursday.

The alert was raised after the 40-year-old woman had failed to pick up her two sons from school that afternoon.

A 40-year-old man has been arrested after Yasmin Begum, a mother-of-two was stabbed to death in Bethnal Green, London, while her children were at school, Scotland Yard said

The Met launched a murder investigation after the 40-year-old suffered stab wounds at home

Ms Begum had dropped her children to the Bangabandhu Primary School on Thursday morning and was due to pick them up that afternoon.

Teachers became concerned when the woman failed to collect her children and called the police who went to the woman's home on Globe Road.

Police found Ms Begum inside the property but she was declared dead at the scene after suffering a number of stab wounds.

Detective Chief Inspector Laurence Smith, leading the investigation, said: 'My thoughts are with Yasmin's family and friends at this incredibly difficult time.

'I want to reassure them that we are working around the clock to get them the answers they deserve.

'It is heart-breaking that yet another woman has been killed. All women and girls have the right to feel safe, at any time, day or night, in public or at home, and we will do everything we can to find those responsible for this.

'Tackling violence against woman is one of the Met's top priorities. Police officers, including forensic specialists, remain at the scene.

'We will continue to carry out door-to-door enquiries and local people will also see additional police in the area. We are appealing for any witnesses, or anyone with any information, to contact us.

'No matter how insignificant you think your information might be, please don't hesitate to get in touch. It could be key to this investigation.'

Neighbours said one of the boys was in reception class while the elder son was in Year 5.

One friend described Ms Begum as 'full of life' and a 'fantastic mother'.

He told MyLondon: 'I haven't seen a mother like that. Fantastic mother - I would not doubt that for a second. She's teaching them privately online lessons - investing in them big time.'

The friend, who couldn't believe the tragic news, added that the mother was a 'very outgoing and spontaneous person', who would 'go try anything' and 'had a big heart'.

A neighbour, 67, said: 'I know she was supposed to pick up her children, two young boys, from the local school but did not come so they raised the alarm.

Ms Begum had failed to collect her children from Bangabandhu Primary School (pictured)

'The two teachers came over here with the officers when they crashed through the door.

'She has lived here for 10 years. She was a nice lady and we never had any problems.

'I know she had a partner, and an ex-partner who visited sometimes.

'We're in complete shock because things like that do not happen around here.'

A father of four, who has two children who are classmates with the woman's kids, said: 'I saw two teachers from the school knocking on the door with no answer. They were trying to get a response.

'Later the officers, with the teachers, came to knock the door down. I've got a deep sadness in my heart because you hear of what happened.

'My kids, who are classmates, are very worried about their friends.

Ysmin Begum, 40, a mother of two, was found dead at her home in Bethnal Green (pictured), east London on Thursday afternoon after she failed to pick up her two sons from school

'They're worried about her friend about what's happening to the boy, he must be crying, very very upset, who have lost their mother.'

A woman, 42, said: 'My kids are older so I don't really talk to her but I know she lived her for a long time.

'I heard that the school was concerned after she didn't pick up her children.

'As far as I know she was a very lovely woman. No one deserves for anything like this to happen.'

A neighbour, who did not wish to be identified, said 'You just think about those little kids of hers. It's just so sad. It's a terrible thing. Your mum takes you to school and then you never see her again.'

Another local resident, who also wished to remain anonymous, said: 'It's so messed up. I feel scared. It's bad as it is a women - you're scared for your own safety too. It's so bizarre happening in her own home.

'It's very unsettling, the kids are tiny, they've got no mum. Who could be so cruel.'

One woman whose children attended the same school as the victim's children cried as she said: 'I'm a mother. So sad, I am so sad.'

Scotland Yard has appealed for anyone with information of the crime to come forward by calling 101 citing the reference number CAD 4738/24Mar.

Anyone who wishes to remain anonymous can contact independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
A man has been charged with murdering his ex-girlfriend after police found a toddler soaked in her blood at their home.

Mackenzie 'Max' Anderson, 21, died outside her home after an alleged domestic violence attack in the Newcastle suburb of Mayfield about 10.40pm on Friday.

The scene was described as being so grisly it shocked the hardened senior police officers who attended.

Tyrone Thompson, 22, was arrested at the scene and the police allege he broke into Ms Anderson's home on Crebert Street and attacked her. He was charged with her murder on Sunday afternoon.

Tyrone Thompson (pictured), 22, was arrested at the scene and the police allege he broke into Ms Anderson's home on Crebert Street and attacked her. He's been charged with her murder

Mackenzie Anderson, 21, died in a brutal alleged stabbing that left her toddler soaked in blood and shocked hardened police and emergency services

Mackenzie Anderson's ex-boyfriend Tyrone Thompson was arrested at the scene and has since been charged

The young mother posted on social media that she was a recovering drug addict, having used meth from the age of 16.

The 'horrendous attack' soaked Ms Anderson's toddler in blood and shocked police and paramedics.

She made an emergency triple-0 call at about 10:40pm on the night of her death to report a man had broken into her home.

Police said they found the young mother lying on the landing last Friday outside her Crebert Street unit with horrific injuries.

Thompson was taken to John Hunter Hospital with a hand wound where he had remained under police guard.

On Sunday afternoon he was formally charged with murder, enter with intent and breaching an apprehended domestic violence order.

Thompson is understood not to be the father of the child.

On Sunday Thompson was formally charged with murder, enter with intent and breaching an apprehended domestic violence order.

The dreadful scene shocked first responders and left a seasoned senior police officer severely shaken

Ms Anderson died outside her unit despite desperate attempts by paramedics to save her

The dreadful scene shocked first responders and left a seasoned senior police officer severely shaken.

Newcastle City Commander Superintendent Wayne Humphrey confirmed the child at the scene was found 'covered in blood'.

'I've just spent the last 20 minutes or so viewing body worn footage and it was a horrendous scene, horrendous,' he said.

Ms Anderson died outside her unit despite desperate attempts by paramedics to save her.

Police confirmed her son, 3, was found 'covered in blood' but was not injured.

Ms Anderson often used her Facebook account to comment on or forward reports of alleged domestic violence, such as the recent alleged killing of Charlise Mutten, 9, in NSW.

She once posted a comment above a photo of some young men sitting on a wall, saying 'highly embarrassing, I had a baby to someone like this.'

A bloodied three-year old child was rescued by Newcastle police from a Mayfield unit where a 21-year-old woman died from stab wounds late on Friday night

Mackenzie Anderson, 21, is pictured. The young mother was killed at her home last week

Ms Anderson responded to another commenter, saying 'I'm not really being funny... this is his friend group... kill me.'

She also posted a cartoon comparing male and female parenting, implying that women had a much harder job in being considered a good parent.

Ms Anderson had battled drug addiction from the age of 16.

On May 25, 2019 she posted on Facebook that 'addiction is a real thing, addiction is a disease that makes you too selfish to see the havoc and mess in your life that you created or care about the people's who's lives you shattered and hurt.

'It makes you blind to who you are when you are high.

'I've been clean from ice for three years now and I still count myself as a person in recovery, only in the process of fixing myself from being an addict is when I found out who I really was.'

Mackenzie Anderson (pictured) was stabbed to death on Friday night at her home in Newcastle

Four ambulances and a specialist care team tried to save Anderson but to no avail.

Superintendent Humphrey confirmed the child found at the scene was 'unharmed' and is now safe with relatives.

'Police arrived to find a 21-year-old woman critically injured lying outside her home. Police and NSW Ambulance paramedics rendered assistance but the woman died at the scene.

'She had suffered a number of stab wounds.'

Police initiated Strike Force Slant to investigate her death and the circumstances.

Ms Anderson's shocked family and friends began to pay tribute on Saturday after hearing of her death.

'We will love and miss you always beautiful girl... fly high gorgeous,' Naomi Anderson wrote.

Mackenzie Anderson (pictured) wrote on Facebook that taking drugs 'makes you blind to who you are when you are high'

A friend of Ms Anderson's commented: 'My heart is with your baby and family at this traumatic time... Your son will be protected for you.'

Another wrote: 'I'm gobsmacked. This world is such a dark, terrible place.'

A male friend said he 'got a call this morning you were gone. I couldn't believe it.

'I guess God needed another angel. Shine bright up there beautiful, you'll always be my best friend, on my mind is where you'll stay with them memories.'

A female friend said she was 'sick of losing my close friends to either drugs or violence. This world has to change.

'You had such a beautiful life ahead of you with your beautiful boy. My girl I'm gonna miss you dearly.

'My heart is broken... I'll miss you every day. I love you so much. Your son will always remember how beautiful his mother was.'
Families living near nuclear power plants and onshore wind farms could get lower bills as part of the UK's new energy strategy.

Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi backed a discount as he signalled that planning rules will be loosened in the blueprint being unveiled by Boris Johnson this week.

However, he stressed that communities will still need to agree to hosting nuclear and onshore wind farms - suggesting that the government will use incentives rather than compulsion.

The PM pledged a new energy strategy amid the chaos from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, warning that the West must 'wean itself' from Moscow's gas and oil supplies.

He has insisted that renewables, smaller nuclear plants, and exploiting the UK's own oil and gas reserves in the North Sea will all play key roles.

The strategy has been repeatedly delayed, but Downing Street has said it will be released by the end of the month.

Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi backed a discount as he signalled that planning rules will be loosened in the blueprint being unveiled by Boris Johnson this week

Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the Moray Offshore Windfarm East off Aberdeenshire last year

This UK map compiled by the Renewable Energy Hub shows the location of onshore wind farms (red dots, bigger dot indicates higher capacity) and offshore wind farms (in dark blue)

This graphic from EDF shows a comparison between onshore and offshore wind farms

Currently in England onshore wind farms must have virtually unanimous backing from locals in order to get the go-ahead - although the hurdles are much lower in other parts of the UK.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng is adamant more onshore turbines are needed to guarantee energy supplies in the wake of the Ukraine crisis.

However, there has been concern about the move in Cabinet because it could be deeply unpopular in Tory heartlands.

Mr Zahawi told Sky's Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme: 'I would say that if we are going to make sure that we carry the will of local people, whether it's onshore wind or nuclear, we have to learn from how it's done well in other countries. The way you do that is to make sure the local community has a real say.

'But also we've seen great examples of other people where if they build a nuclear power station, within a certain radius of that power station they get free power.

'So it's right to look at innovation to make sure we wean ourselves off hydrocarbons, we have to do that, we have to do that well, part of that is making sure we look after the will of the local people.'

He insisted there 'isn't a row' around the Cabinet table about onshore wind.

MailOnline understands that the government is 'looking at different ways of ensuring communities can directly benefit' if planning is loosened.

Michael Gove - who responsible for the planning system in England - is believed to be supportive of the change.

A Whitehall source said: 'We need to generate more cheap, clean power in the UK to become energy independent.

'Wind power is cheaper than gas, so we need more wind power.'

But the issue is likely to be controversial with Tory rank and file, many of whom do not want to see the ability of local residents to object to wind farms rescinded.

Europe's biggest onshore wind farm, Whitelee Windfarm on the outskirts of Glasgow, in 2019

Kwasi Kwarteng (left) has been drawing up options for incentivising communities to accept onshore wind turbines. Michael Gove (right) is thought to support easing planning rules

Mr Zahawi was among 101 Tory MPs and eight Cabinet ministers - including Priti Patel, Nadine Dorries, and Jacob Rees-Mogg - who signed a Tory letter to former prime minister David Cameron in 2012, calling on the Government to withdraw subsidies for the farms and ensure the planning system 'properly takes into account the views of local people'.

However, Mr Kwarteng argues that Britons have since changed their minds on windfarms.

Tory MP Bob Blackman said last week: 'It would be a total disaster. It's extremely unpopular, they're ugly, and they don't necessarily produce enough energy.

'I do think if we start getting into energy supply, it should be fracking, not onshore wind.'
Australian academic Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert has revealed she was beaten up by a prison guard who turned out to be the wife of a senior officer who tried to seek a romantic relationship with her while she was locked in an Iranian jail for 804 days.

The University of Melbourne lecturer in Islamic studies travelled to Iran in August 2018 to attend a seminar on Shia Islam.

But three weeks later she was arrested at Tehran Airport accused of spy charges as she attempted to fly home.

She was sent to Tehran's notorious Evin prison and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment, where she spent more than two years behind bars until she was finally freed in November 2020.

Dr Moore-Gilbert opened up for the first time about the prison boss she knew as Qazi Zadeh, when she appeared on 60 Minutes on Sunday night.

She claimed he took a 'perverse' romantic interest in her and used his powers to extend her sentence after she became embroiled in his bizarre love triangle.

Two months after he started flirting with her, Dr Moore-Gilbert was horrified to discover that he was married to a guard at the prison.

Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert (pictured) has revealed for the first time how a senior prison officer developed a romantic interest in her and how he bought her pizza, clothes and a birthday cake during her time in Tehran's Evin prison

Aussie academic Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert discovered her Russian-Israeli husband Ruslan Hodorov (both pictured) was having an affair with Dr Kylie Baxter when she was released from prison

'She did everything she could to make my life impossible to live,' she told 60 Minutes.

'She bullied me, she really made it hard. She had beaten up. She was the prison guard who beat me up.'

Dr Moore-Gilbert put two and two together after a conversation with the prison guard's wife in the exercise yard.

'I sat up in bed one night with a blanket over my head and I just had this moment of realisation that 'Oh she's his wife. F*** what do I do?,' she said.

'It was too bonkers.'

After almost two years behind bars, Dr Moore-Gilbert was told a diplomatic deal for her to be released was imminent.

She decided to make a bold move that would backfire on her.

'I understood that in a few days time that perhaps I was leaving,' she recalled.

'I felt I had to warn her. I wanted her to know that it wasn't coming from me. I wanted her to know I had no power or control over this.'

That's when the prison boss cancelled the diplomatic deal and ordered Dr Moore-Gilbert to be relocated to Qarchak prison, a notorious women's facility in Iran, where she was detained for a further six to seven months.

'When I eventually made it clear to him I wasn't interested, I was sent to Qarchak prison,' she said.

'He thought I would suffer there and I would be in danger there being around criminals and gangs and murderer.

'I couldn't believe he had the power to do that.'

The University of Melbourne lecturer spent two years in Evin Prison (pictured), one of Iran's most notorious prisons

Dr Moore-Gilbert shared candid details about the bizarre bond she had with the Revolutionary Guard who controlled every aspect of her life in prison.

She claimed there was a lot of animosity between them in the first 12 months.

'He initially wanted to present himself as the 'good cop' but that quickly degenerated into him being the absolute bad cop - punishing me, putting informers and spies in my room, banning me from family phone calls and consulate visits,' she recalled.

He then developed a romantic interest in her which Dr Moore-Gilbert claimed was very perverse, controlling and emotionally abusive.

'He had complete and utter control over every facet of my life,' she said.

'He was giving me information. I saw it as a beneficial relationship to nurture and foster because I was getting something out of it.

'I got a lot of stuff from him. He would buy me pizza, he arranged a birthday party for me, he bought clothes for me.

'He helped me bear the conditions in that place.

'I know it's strange. He bought me an enormous two tier chocolate cake with my name in icing.

'It was very dangerous. He was a very dangerous man.'

Kylie Moore-Gilbert (pictured) claims the senior prison officer she befriended later extended her imprisonment after she told him she was romantically interested in him

While she was imprisoned, her Russian-Israeli husband Ruslan Hodorov started having an affair with Dr Kylie Baxter, her university colleague and PhD supervisor - which she would only discover upon arriving home.

A year since announcing her separation on social media, she still has no idea of how or why the affair developed while she was imprisoned.

'He went through a really hard time, though not as hard as me,' Dr Moore-Gilbert said.

'I don't know his side of the story.'

When quizzed by reported Sarah Abo on whether she wanted to know, she replied: 'Not particularly.'

'Because I'm over it. I'm better off this way.'

Dr Moore-Gilbert was given a 10-year sentence but always denied the charges, that reportedly stemmed from the Iranian authorities' belief that she was a spy for Israel because of her relationship with her husband - an Israeli citizen.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert (pictured) claimed she was bullied and beaten up during her tow years in an Iranian prison

Dr Moore-Gilbert's Russian-Israeli husband Ruslan Hodorov (right) started having an affair with Dr Kylie Baxter (left) while his wife was in Evin Prison

When she was arrested, Dr Moore-Gilbert - who is also the cousin of Julian Assange - had been attending a conference in Iran when she was flagged as 'suspicious' by a fellow academic and by a subject she had interviewed for research.

She was subsequently tried and sentenced, and held in Evin prison in solitary confinement. Iranian authorities reportedly tried to recruit her as a spy in exchange for her release, which she declined.

Nick Warner, the head of Australia's intelligence service, successfully negotiated a prison swap for Dr Moore-Gilbert's freedom, as she revealed what got her through those 804 days of torture.

'Freedom is so precious, only when it's taken away from you do you really understand its value and what it means,' she said.

'There were a lot of factors that helped me survive.'

'One of them is simply you have no choice, you have to survive. What's the alternative?'

'Your own brain becomes your worst enemy. You're there to be broken.

'They didn't break me, and I'm proud of myself for that.'

Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert (pictured) spent more than two years locked up in an Iranian prison after being accused of espionage

During her horror 804-day ordeal in the Middle Eastern hellhole, the academic was subjected to filthy toilets, mistreatment from guards, and horrible food.

But there were some moments of light that helped her push through the her terrifying ordeal - including the kindness of a diplomat who visited her in prison.

While she managed to keep a strong front most of the time, Dr Moore-Gilbert reached a tipping point during a meeting with Iranian officials in April 2019.

Taken from her cell to the meeting room, Dr Moore-Gilbert arrived to find Australia's ambassador to Iran Ian Biggs and a camera mounted on a tripod.

After previously being pressured into making statements on camera, she refused to have her conversation with Mr Biggs recorded.

At that point, her jailers declared the meeting was over and asked Mr Biggs to leave, prompting Dr Moore-Gilbert to angrily shout it was not over until she said so.

She dove to the floor and threw her arms around Mr Biggs legs, begging him to continue to tell her what he came there to say, and fill her in on the ways the Australian government was working to get her out of the Middle East.

Dr Moore-Gilbert was given a 10 year prison sentence, but was eventually freed after spending 804 days in a high-security Tehran prison

Telling him to ignore Iranian guards insistence to leave, Dr Moore-Gilbert noticed Mr Biggs had muscular legs as she clasped her arms around his calves.

'He must have been a runner or something. [I told him] nice legs!' she told the Sydney Morning Herald's Good Weekend.

Dr Moore-Gilbert said she had begun to suspect her husband, who she had bought a home with in Dandenong shortly before leaving for Iran, was starting to grow less committed to their relationship.

She said he seemed highly emotional during their initial conversations in jail, but grew distant and distracted as time went on.

Dr Moore-Gilbert conceded her husband had also been traumatised by the experience, but does not believe that is an excuse for his actions.

Although she now feels better off without him, she does not want him to be seen as a villain, and strongly believes that sometimes good people do bad things.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert is pictured returning to Australia in November 2020 after spending more than 800 days in one of Iran's most notorious jails

Her first inkling that she was in trouble was the night before she was due to leave Iran when a group of men 'like police' came to her Tehran hotel while she was out.

After being told about the visit by the hotel receptionist, Dr Moore-Gilbert searched for the phone number of the Australian embassy without any success and then dismissed any concerns as had nothing to hide.

Her harrowing nightmare began the next day at the airport, where she was pulled out of the passport-control queue and taken to a room filled with men wearing black.

She spent the next week being interrogated at a hotel before she was blindfolded and transported to Tehran's Evin Prison.

Dr Moore-Gilbert would spend two years confined to a windowless cell which measured two metres by two metres.

Assigned as prisoner 97029, she would often spend her days singing hits from Destiny's Child and Amy Winehouse at the top of her lungs but her time in solitary confinement gradually left her disheartened.

She had to wear a blindfold every time she left her cell and was handcuffed during trips to the clinic inside the prison grounds.

She didn't attempt suicide and admits she did contemplate ending her life.

'My understanding of myself as a unique human being with a personality and a character, with likes and dislikes, with talents, with a moral compass, with dreams and ambitions, slowly diminished,' she writes in her new book The Uncaged Sky.

'I was losing myself. I was becoming 97029.'

Dr Moore-Gilbert describes prison food as edible and will never forget the 'filthy, disgusting, squat toilet' she says hadn't been cleaned if in months, if not ever.

'They said, 'We can't give you cleaning chemicals because you'll drink them and kill yourself,' she recalled.

'I said, 'You clean it then.' My first hunger strike, that was one of my demands: 'I want someone to pour bleach into the toilet.' '

She went on seven hunger strikes during her imprisonment which she says was an effective way of getting the prison bosses' attention.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert (pictured) was subjected to poor treatment, horrible food, and filthy toilets during her horror 804 day stint in Tehran's Evin Jail

Her fate was in the hands of the prison guard she knew as Qazi Zadeh, whom she says developed a crush on her and admitted she felt a real connection with him.

'He had complete and utter power over me,' she recalled as she looked back on their 'weird relationship'.

'He was in love with me. It was clear to everyone, not just me.'

Some days he would taunt Moore-Gilbert by claiming Australian embassy staff knew she was guilty, or assuring her that she would be buried in Iran.

Other days he would claim he was her side he was on her side and that he would organise her release if only she agreed to switch allegiances and spy for the Islamic Republic.

'We had a lot of intellectual conversations, and flirty banter was going on as well,' she says. '

'It was probably Stockholm syndrome.' Loneliness no doubt came into it, too, she said. 'I was in solitary. I had nobody else to talk to.'

She will never forget her first hours of freedom in November 2020, where her first stop was to the home of the current Australian ambassador, Lyndall Sachs, where she enjoyed a hearty lunch which included her first glass of wine since 2018 and two cups of coffee.

More a year after her return to Australia, Dr Moore-Gilbert credits personal resilience with preventing her from becoming extremely damaged for life.

She has no bitterness towards Iran which she described as beautiful and regards ordinary Iranians as wonderful, warm and hospitable.

Her harrowing ordeal hasn't diminished her interest in the Middle East and says she's if anything, more interested in the region where she was held captive.

Her book The Uncaged Sky: My 804 days in an Iranian prison is out on Wednesday.
A P-plater allegedly smashed his ute into ten cars before threatening a resident who attempted to stop him from driving.

Police rushed to the scene after reports of a multi-vehicle crash on West Street in South Hurstville at 11:25pm on Saturday night.

The 20-year-old driver was allegedly intoxicated when he drove recklessly along the stretch the road, according to a report from 9News.

A man has been arrested after allegedly smashing his ute into ten cars in Sydney 's south-west while allegedly under the influence of alcohol before threatening a resident (Pictured: Home security footage showing the ute smashing into a parked car)

Home security footage at the scene shows the driver smash into one of the parked cars.

It was reported the driver then allegedly threatened to punch a resident who confronted him as he was about to drive away from the scene.

The driver was later arrested by police as his smashed-up ute got towed away.

Police allege that the man blew a blood-alcohol reading of 0.138 at the scene.

P-plate drivers are not allowed to have any alcohol in their system while they're driving.

One resident said they heard 'several bangs' and emerged from his home to see a man 'smash into seven cars'.

The 20-year-old driver had allegedly crashed into ten parked vehicles in the street as he drove recklessly along the stretch the road (Pictured: One of the smashed vehicles)

The p-plater was later arrested by police as his smashed-up ute (pictured) got towed away. He was charged with mid-range drink driving and had his licence suspended

The man has been charged for mid-range drink driving and his license was suspended.

He was also charged with stalk or intimidate with intent to cause fear of physical or mental harm for threatening the local resident.

He will appear in court on May 10.
Search teams have recovered the second black box from the wreckage of the China Eastern 737-800 as authorities have now confirmed all passengers and crew were killed in the crash.

The recovery of the second black box should allow experts to begin piecing together what caused the plane to nosedive into the mountainous terrain in rural China last Monday.

Investigators have identified 120 of the plane's 132 victims through DNA analysis, state media reported.

The announcement by an official of the Civil Aviation Administration of China at a late-night news conference was followed by a brief moment of silence.

The flight from the city of Kunming in southwestern China was flying at 29,000 feet last Monday when it suddenly nosedived into a mountainous area.

The plane crashed shortly before it would have started its descent to the airport in Guangzhou, a provincial capital and export manufacturing hub near Hong Kong on China's south-eastern coast.

Construction excavators dug into the crash site on Saturday in the search for wreckage and remains, having recovered the second black box this weekend.

Searchers found the cockpit voice recorder on Wednesday and have now found the flight data recorder.

Pictured: A search and rescue worker holds the second orange-coloured 'black box' recorder which recovered at the China Eastern flight crash site in Tengxian County on Sunday, March 27

Chinese authorities have confirmed that there were no survivors onboard the doomed plane. Pictured: Recovery workers carry a piece of the plane wreckage away from the crash site

Firefighters taking part in the search found the recorder, an orange cylinder, on a mountain slope about 1.5 meters (5 feet) underground, state broadcaster CCTV said, and experts have since confirmed it is the flight data recorder.

The two recorders should help investigators determine what caused the plane to plummet from 29,000 feet (8,800 meters) and into a forested mountainside in southern China.

Video posted by CGTN, the international arm of CCTV, showed an official holding the orange can-like object on site with the words 'RECORDER' and 'DO NOT OPEN' written on it. It appeared slightly dented but intact.

Workers wearing knee-high rubber boots used shovels and other hand tools to sift through the earthen slopes in a 20-metre deep pit left by the plane.

Debris and other items were collected in dozens of rectangular, mud-stained plastic containers.

Pumps were used to drain water as muddy conditions in the rainy Guangxi region hampered the search. One excavator stopped working after getting partially stuck, state broadcaster CCTV said.

Pictured: Rescuer workers conduct search and rescue work at the core site of Monday's plane crash in Tengxian County, southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Friday

Authorities said that forensic and criminal investigation experts had confirmed the identities of 114 passengers and six crew members. Picture: recovery workers at the crash site on Friday

The cause of the crash remains a mystery with investigators probing whether it is possible the plane broke in midair before crashing.

An air traffic controller tried to contact the pilots several times after seeing the plane's altitude drop sharply but got no reply, officials have said.

Authorities said that forensic and criminal investigation experts had confirmed the identities of 114 passengers and six crew members.

Investigations revealed that at least one piece of the plane had broken off six miles before impact.

Chinese officials said that if the part is confirmed to be a part of the Boeing 737-800, then the plane may have broken mid-air before crashing.

This adds mystery to the fatal flight from Kunming in Yunnan province to Guangzhou, which carried 123 passengers and nine crew.

Pictured: A search and rescuer worker wearing a protective suit holds an umbrella using a tool to conduct a search operation at the China Eastern flight crash site on Saturday, March 26

The search for evidence and remains continued at the crash site on Saturday March 26

The piece, believed to be from the plane, was around 1.3 metres long (4.3 feet) and 10 centimetres (four inches) wide, and was found on farmland, said Zheng Xi, head of the Guangxi fire-fighting rescue team, at a briefing for the accident.

At this early stage in the investigation, officials say it is not possible to know if the piece was loose as a result of 'stresses' during the plunge or came off before the fatal descent into the hillside.

Former chief of accident investigations at the US Federal Aviation administration, Jeff Guzzetti, believes it most likely occurred during the plummeting stage of the flight, from a cruising altitude of around 29,000 feet in about one minute and 35 seconds.

'In my view, that's the aircraft shedding parts as it's coming down,' he said.

'The questions are, exactly what piece was it and when did it come off?'

According to the Civil Aviation Administration of China, Flight 5735 dived down into a hillside 100 miles from the intended destination of Guangzhou, without any emergency radio call through from pilots.

The Chinese passenger plane with 132 people on board crashed into a mountainous area of southern China. A review of Flightradar24 data from Bloomberg News revealed that the jet was flying 'well above' normal speeds when it took the dive, 'possibly nearing the speed of sound'

Crash investigators and safety experts have pointed out the mystery of the crash, as aircraft such as the 737-800 are designed so they don't dive so aggressively.

This means that the nose being pointed down for so long could only be explained by aircraft failure or pilot action.

A review of Flightradar24 data from Bloomberg News revealed that the jet was flying 'well above' normal speeds when it took the dive, 'possibly nearing the speed of sound'.

This speed helps explain the part found six miles from the crash site, as jetliners like the Boeing 737 could cause light-weight components to the wings and tail sections to break off, according to investigations on the 1997 crash of SilkAir 737-300 in Indonesia.

The fatal SilkAir flight was also travelling close to the speed of sound before it crashed into a river - and the Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee concluded that the captain most likely did it as a murder-suicide.

The data also showed that the aircraft remained intact for the most part, as it continued to transmit its position up until 3,225 feet.

China Eastern, one of China's four major airlines, and its subsidiaries have grounded all of their 737-800 aircraft, a total of 223 planes.

The carrier said the grounding was a precaution, not a sign there was anything wrong.

The Boeing Co. said in a statement that a Boeing technical team is supporting the US National Transportation Safety Board and the Civil Aviation Administration of China, which will lead the investigation into the crash.
Nadhim Zahawi has defended the awarding of a knighthood to Sir Gavin Williamson despite him being twice sacked as a cabinet minister and overseeing the Covid exams result fiasco in 2020.

The Education Secretary said said his predecessor 'deserves' the prestigious honour for his work on skills and new technical qualifications called T-levels - aimed at training workers in skills wanted by employers - which feature in the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill that has yet to clear Parliament.

Mr Zahawi added that when he served as minister for children and families under Theresa May's government, 'skills was considered the Cinderella part of the department'.

The proposed bill was tabled during Sir Williamson's tenure although it began its parliamentary journey in the House of Lords and arrived in the House of Commons after he had been given the boot.

The legislation comes back before MPs on Monday after peers defied the Government by pressing their demand that funding for Btec qualifications continues for up to four years under the shake-up of post-16 training.

The defeat came despite a concession by the Government that it would delay the defunding of most Btecs and other applied general qualifications by a year until 2024.

There has been cross-party concern that the vast majority of Btec vocational qualifications will be swept away in the overhaul.

Nadhim Zahawi has defended the awarding of a knighthood to Sir Gavin Williamson who has twice been sacked as a cabinet minister and oversaw the exam result fiasco in 2020

Mr Zahawi told Sky's Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme: 'I'm going to say something to you which isn't universally popular, I know, but being in a department, and you see this on my lapel here, it's T-Levels, the Skills White Paper and the Skills Bill which is about to receive royal assent was Gavin Williamson's work.

'When I was in the department under Theresa May, skills was considered the Cinderella part of the department.

'Gavin Williamson's work on skills, T-Levels, the lifelong learning entitlement will transform the fortunes of young people in our country who may not want to go to university. For that alone I think he deserves that knighthood.'

It is understood that Mr Williamson's knighthood was set to be part of the New Year's honours list but was delayed while Sue Gray investigated a 2020 Christmas party in the Department of Education.

But in January, the Metropolitan Police decided not to investigate the event, paving the way for Mr Williamson's honour.

Mr Williamson, who ran Boris Johnson's Tory leadership campaign in 2019, was axed last September in a Cabinet reshuffle.

He had faced repeated criticism and calls to resign after overseeing months of Covid schools chaos and the exam result fiasco in 2020.

When his removal was confirmed, Labour's Angela Rayner described him as a 'prat'.

The Education Secretary said said his predecessor Sir Gavin Williamson (pictured) 'deserves' the prestigious honour for his work on skills and new technical qualifications called T-levels - aimed at training workers in skills wanted by employers, and the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill, which has yet to clear Parliament

He had previously been sacked as defence secretary by Theresa May after being blamed for leaks of top secret information on China from national security briefings.

While in that post he attracted ridicule for telling Russia to 'go away' and shut up' at the height of the Salisbury poisoning.

Mr Zahawi declined to criticise Sir Gavin for cancelling exams during the pandemic, saying he had 'very little choice'.

But Mr Zahawi said: 'The closure of schools, when I reflect on that, was a mistake and I'm on the record as saying that, and I will do everything in my power never again to close schools, and the Prime Minister absolutely agrees with me.'

Earlier this month, No 10 said: 'The Queen has been pleased to approve that the honour of Knighthood be conferred upon The Rt Hon Gavin Williamson CBE MP.'

Asked why the knighthood was being announced now and not part of an honours list, Downing Street said it was a political appointment by the Conservative Party.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson replaced Mr Williamson with the former vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi in a Cabinet reshuffle

Before his sacking, he reportedly told allies he 'knows where the bodies are'.

His honour has prompted fury, with education unions saying parents would be baffled by his recognition.

Former head teacher Tom Sherrington said Mr Williamson's knighthood 'demeans' the entire honours system.

Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: 'Gavin Williamson left children to go hungry, created two years of complete chaos over exams and failed to get laptops out to kids struggling to learn during lockdowns. His record is astonishing and disgraceful.

'Boris Johnson is proving again it's one rule for him and his mates and another for the rest of us.

'This shows utter contempt for the challenges children and education staff have faced during the pandemic.'
Guardians of the road in the 1900s. Courtesy of Diane Nars Collection



By Robert Neff



Richard Sidebotham, an American missionary living in Korea in the early 1900s, is often associated (rather inaccurately) with bringing the first piano into Korea, but I always associate him with what he lost  his clothes.



On October 14, 1900, Sidebotham was accompanying Mrs. Johnson (the wife of a fellow missionary) and her small child from Busan to their home in Daegu when they were suddenly set upon by a band of 20 Korean highwaymen armed with swords and other crude weapons.



Horace N. Allen, the American representative in Korea, was promptly notified of the attack but did not seem overly alarmed  despite rumors of an anti-foreign movement being organized in Korea similar to that in China. Perhaps his lack of alarm was due to his less-than-favorable impression of Sidebotham.



In a letter to his sons, Allen described the missionary as a "galvanized (I mean naturalized) American  of feeble appearance [and] feeble actions." The ruffians easily intimidated the missionary and realized almost immediately that "he was a man of no spirit [and] decided to have some fun with him."



Allen seemed to take great delight in denigrating his fellow missionary (Allen originally came to Korea as a missionary doctor) to his sons. He seemed almost giddy as he described Sidebotham being stripped of all of his clothing by the bandits, then having Mrs. Johnson's bonnet placed upon his head and finally forced to taste all of the provisions  including the baby food. This tasting may have been done because the bandits were unfamiliar with Western food or they were worried that it was poisonous. Once they were satisfied that the food was edible, they wolfed it down while presumably laughing at the naked missionary. Allen insisted that the entire American community in Seoul felt that Sidebotham "has disgraced us all by his cowardice."





A Korean street in the early 1900s. Courtesy of Diane Nars Collection



However, another missionary, James Scarth Gale, was more charitable with his description of the event.



He reported that the Korean robbers "stationed Mr. Sidebotham on a rock, prodded him gently with their swords, and then demanded clothing, money, and baggage, promising to leave him intact if he responded quickly. There was nothing to do but to yield"



While Allen had nothing but contempt for Sidebotham, he was deeply impressed with Mrs. Johnson's stoic behavior.



"When they attempted to take off her clothes, she struck out properly and gave them some good hard blows in the face. She was hit several times with the back of a sword but came off best. She then made them give back some of the baby food for her very young. She did us great credit."



Eventually, the Westerners  Mrs. Johnson fully clothed and with her dignity and Sidebotham covered with shame and whatever he could scrounge to hide his nakedness  arrived safely in Daegu.



Allen appealed to the Korean government for satisfaction and eventually, through some compromise between Mr. Johnson and the Korean magistrate, the issue was put to rest. The robbery was, according to Allen, "unpremeditated and of no anti-foreign significance, and of a similar character with many such cases occurring in that region wherein Koreans were the sufferers."



Allen seemed to take fiendish delight in taunting Sidebotham  going so far as to sending him a message informing him that the American government would "be unable to recover his panties" nor accommodate his "excessive demands for indemnity." In at least two letters  one to a fellow diplomat and the other to Sidebotham's superior  Allen wrote:



"I expect to get a very complaining letter from our naturalized friend, Mr. Sidebotham. These naturalized citizens have great ideas of the duties their Government owes them."



It is unclear if Sidebotham was aware of Allen's opinion of him. If he was, he apparently kept it to himself. However, this incident was not his only encounter with highwaymen and nakedness.





A mountainous region of Korea in the 1900s. Robert Neff Collection



Several years later, Sidebotham and his further adventures in the southern part of the peninsula became reading material for the American community in Seoul. The stories were more along the lines of a travelogue rather than an official complaint.



In November 1904, he and another missionary traveled throughout South Gyeongsang Province. According to Sidebotham, they traveled through six magistracies where "a careful enquiry seemed to indicate that not more than one foreigner had ever been seen in any magistracy." One of these men was apparently Hugh Miller, a missionary who traveled from Jeonju (North Jeolla Province) to Jinju (South Gyeongsang Province) on his bike in 1900.



In an article published in The Korea Review (June 1905), Sidebotham declared: "Even the French fathers whom I had considered ubiquitous in [Gyeongsang] Province seem to have left these magistracies out of their travels" but then he admitted some doubt as to the veracity of his statement when he added, "though some indefinite rumors led me to think perhaps three out of the six had been touched."



His account of his travel is rather boring, but there are a few gems worth repeating. Upon spying Jirisan in the distance  a mountain that "has won for itself a place of prominence in Korean mountain lore"  one of his voluble Korean companions declared the foot of the mountain had a circumference of about 290 kilometers and "that it was [24 kilometers] from bottom to top by the shortest road." Its forested slopes were abundant with wild animals, especially bears, tigers and wild boars, and its summit could only be reached in the summer months. The Korean insisted that at the present (in late November), the snow on the summit "would be up to one's neck."



Sidebotham was extremely impressed with the Hapcheon area of South Gyeongsang Province:



"Entering the district of [Hapcheon] from the eastern side we came upon the prettiest natural scenery I have found in Korea. It was a gigantic mountain cliff overhanging for perhaps half a mile a delightful little stream. About halfway up the cliff was a winding natural road about eight feet wide, while above, the rocks towered up a straight column and below, there was a sheer drop of two hundred feet or so to the glistening stream. But not only was this natural roadway a wonder to us, but we marveled at the rich verdure on that rocky prominence. Large trees a foot in diameter sprang sideways out of solid rock and then coming upwards sent out their branches as naturally as if the roots were imbedded in rich earth. The November weather had tinted the leaves with every autumnal hue, and the colored foliage was so thick we hardly saw the sun from one end of the beautiful walk to the other."





Plowing with cows in the 1900s. Robert Neff Collection
The drive to house Ukrainian refugees could be an 'opportunity' for Britons who want to abuse women and children, a government adviser warned today.

Nimco Ali suggested that more attention needs to be put on safeguarding those who are fleeing to the UK amid the Russian invasion.

The independent government adviser on tackling violence against women - a close friend of the PM's wife Carrie - voiced fears that some people volunteering accommodation for refugees will not have the 'best intentions'.

The comments, in an interview with Sophy Ridge on Sky News, came after the first desperate Ukrainians started arriving in the UK.

The Home Office has been rushing to set up systems for Britons who are eager to help ease the plight of victims of Vladimir Putin's war.

Nimco Ali suggested that more attention needs to be put on safeguarding those who are fleeing to the UK amid the Russian invasion

More than 25,000 have completed documents formally offering accommodation for a minimum of six months, having matched themselves up with refugees through charities and social media.

But more than 200,000 Britons have registered an interest in taking part in the through the Homes for Ukraine scheme, which includes 350-a-month from the Government as a 'thank you'.

Only around 1,000 visas have so far been approved by the authorities, with checks required on both Ukrainians and the prospective hosts.

Ms Ali, who herself came to Britain as a refugee at the age of seven, suggested that not as much importance being placed on safeguarding as there had been with arrivals from Syria and Afghanistan.

'There is definitely a safeguarding issue,' she said.

'I don't think we're necessarily doing as much as what we would have done for Syrian or Afghan refugees, because there's this kind of idea, the fact that because they're Europeans and they'll be a lot safer in terms of mixing with Westerners...

'We've seen again and again that those that want to take advantage of vulnerable people will use this opportunity where people are looking for safety in order to abuse them.

'So I think we have to be wary, and conscious of the fact that there are going to be some people who don't necessarily have the best intentions when they talk about taking refugees in.'

As of this weekend only 'dozens' of refugees were said to have actually arrived in the UK.

Refugees minister Lord Harrington told MPs earlier this month he expected 'thousands' of evacuees would arrive by now.

Britons who volunteered to take refugees after the scheme opened on March 14 have been venting their anger and frustration at delays.

The number of visas given to refugees through another scheme for those with family connections in the UK rose sharply last week, with more than 20,000 approved.
Grant Shapps will hold crisis talks with rival operators of P&O Ferries this week as the Government fights to avoid chaos at UK ports over the Easter holidays.

The Transport Secretary will meet with DFDS and Stena Line on Monday after P&O's millionaire chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite admitted the company 'chose' to break the law when it sacked nearly 800 workers last week.

DFDS, one of Europe's largest shipping operators, is likely to be asked to fill the void left by P&O until Government officials sign off on the use of ferries staffed by agency workers.

Meanwhile, Swedish operator Stena has already laid on extra ships between Britain and Ireland.

It comes after a after a ship operated by the ferry firm was detained for being 'unfit to sail' in Northern Ireland amid concerns it was trying to 'rush inexperienced crew through training'.

Discussions are also expected to take place over the future of P&O and plans to speedily introduce new legislation ensuring seafarers will be covered by the UK minimum wage.

Mr Shapps is understood to be holding meetings with the French and Dutch Governments for minimum wage commitments to cover 'foreign flagged' ships, The Sunday Telegraph reports.

The new laws will be tabled in Parliament this week after Mr Shapps said ferry operators were using a 'loophole' to pay employees less than the hourly wage of 8.91 - with agency staff earning an average of 5.50.

It comes as Mr Hebblethwaite has faced calls from MPs to resign from his untenable position during a dramatic joint evidence session in Parliament this week.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps (pictured on Wednesday) will hold meetings with the rivals of P&O after calling for its chief executive to resign

Peter Hebblethwaite, P&O Ferries chief executive, answering questions in front of the Transport Committee and Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee in the House of Commmons earlier this week

Irish trade union workers during a rally at Dublin Port outside the P&O terminal to send support to the hunderds of seafarers sacked in recent days

The P&O Ferries operated European Causeway vessel in dock at the Port of Larne, Co Antrim, where it was been detained by authorities for being 'unfit to sail'

Id do it again: What P&O Ferries millionaire boss Peter Hebblethwaite told MPs while giving evidence

The chief executive, who is paid 325,000 to run P&O Ferries and lives in a plush Cotswold farmhouse worth more than 1.5million, also told the session that he would do it again'  and refused to say if he could live on the new workers 5.50 hourly wage.

However, he allegedly told sacked staff the following morning that 'this type of dismissal could not and would not happen again'.

Commons business committee chair Darren Jones said he 'should be fined, struck off and prosecuted'.

Labour has written to Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng asking whether the Government will seek the removal of P&O Ferries' chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite as a director under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986.

Shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh said the 'shameful misconduct of P&O Ferries has ruined livelihoods' as she called for the sacked workers to be reinstated and for Mr Hebblethwaite to be 'barred' as a director for his role in the crisis.

Protests have been taking place at UK ports over the last week in solidarity with those who lost their jobs.

Protestors and union members have gathered at ports in Liverpool, Hull and Dover to blockade the entrances.

Some demonstrators were seen carrying banners saying 'Save our seafarers' while others demanded that P&O's ferries be 'seized'.

Protests are taking place at ports in Liverpool, Hull and Dover over the sacking of hundreds of seafarers by P&O Ferries, as calls grow for the company's boss to quit. Pictured: Protests at the port of Liverpool

The demonstrations come after a ship operated by the ferry firm was detained for being 'unfit to sail' in Northern Ireland.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency said the ship, named the European Causeway, had been detained in Larne, Northern Ireland last week 'based on concerns over its safety' and to 'prevent them going to sea'.

The discussions are also likely to involve the long-term impact of minimum wage for employees amid concerns P&O's Dubai owners could fold the business after claiming it needs to cut staff costs.

P&O Ferries conducted a study last year into options to sustain the company which calculated it would cost 309 million to keep the business going while consulting with staff over job losses.

Months of consultations would have undermined the business, caused disruption which would have led to customers leaving to competitors, dealing a 'fatal blow' to P&O, a source said.

Instead, the firm believes it has safeguarded the long-term future of the company and the livelihoods of 2,200 employees.

A P&O spokesperson said: 'Over 90% of seafarers affected are in discussions to progress with the severance offers.

'We are sorry to the people affected and their families for the impact it's had on them. They've lost their jobs and there is anger and shock, which we completely understand.

'We needed fundamental change to make the business viable. This was an incredibly difficult decision that we wrestled with but once we knew it was the only way to save the business, we had to act.

'All other routes led to the loss of 3,000 jobs and the closure of P&O Ferries.

'In making this hard choice we have guaranteed the future viability of P&O Ferries and secured Britain's trading capacity.

'We are committed to ensuring the continued and ongoing support for all those former and current employees affected.'
The situation in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv is so desperate that people are starving and being forced to drink sewage water, a Ukrainian politician said.

The city is still facing a barrage of Russian missile strikes and suffering severe food and water shortages as a result.

Civilians in Kyiv are being 'made to stay in basements and metro stations' as they try to find shelter from Vladimir Putin's bombs, Ukrainian politician Lesia Vasylenko said.

Speaking to Times Radio, Ms Vasylenko added: 'People are actually starving without food, and drinking sewage water.

While Russia's advance on Kyiv remains stalled due to the Ukrainian military's fightback, continued bombardments has led to the city's authorities to announce a new 35-hour curfew in the city.

A worker removes the debris left in a food warehouse targeted by a missile in the previous days in Brovary district in Kyiv, on Saturday

Volunteers place sandbags around statues in Kyiv as Russian attacks on the city continue on Sunday

A damaged library is seen after shelling in Byshiv village in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Friday

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the curfew will run from 8 p.m. local time on Saturday to 7 a.m. on Monday, with local residents allowed to leave their homes only to get to a bomb shelter.

Klitschko said that shops, pharmacies, gas stations and public transport will not be operating during the curfew.

Ms Vasylenko also pointed to 'atrocities' being carried out across Ukraine, including in the besieged port city of Mariupol.

She pointed to how up to 15,000 civilians were forcibly deported from the Left Bank area of Mariupol since it was captured by Russian troops earlier this week.

'In Mariupol, thousands of people are getting forcefully deported across the border to Russia apparently to safety but then they are sent off in an unknown direction and nobody hears from them again,' Ms Vasylenko said.

'So the atrocities, they're just the same all over the place.'

Authorities in Mariupol warned an estimated 100,000 people who remain in the city face a desperate plight without food, water or electricity.

A view of destroyed buildings and vehicles after shelling in Kyiv

Ukrainian civilians wait to be evacuated via a humanitarian corridor in the city of Mariupol on Saturday

Soldiers carry the coffins of two Ukrainian soldiers who died in battle during Russia's invasion of Ukraine in Lviv, Ukraine, on Sunday

Mariupol has seen some of the most intense fighting since Putin ordered his armies into Ukraine on February 24. Russian forces have been shelling the city indiscriminately, razing large swathes of the city.

Officials say at least 2,400 civilians have been killed in the southern port city, but it is feared that the true toll is much higher. One official said earlier this month that he feared as many as 20,000 people could have been killed.

The U.N. said on Friday it had received information about mass graves in the city, which was the site of a devastating Russian strike on a theatre that killed 300.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused the West of lacking courage as his country fights Russia's invasion, making a plea for fighter jets and tanks to sustain a defence in a conflict that has ground into a war of attrition.

After US President Joe Biden met senior Ukrainian officials in Poland on Saturday, Mr Zelensky lashed out at the West's 'ping-pong about who and how should hand over jets and other defensive weapons to us' while Russian missile attacks kill and trap civilians.

'I've talked to the defenders of Mariupol today. I'm in constant contact with them. Their determination, heroism and firmness are astonishing,' Mr Zelensky said in a video address early on Sunday, referring to the besieged southern city that has suffered some of the war's greatest deprivations and horrors.

'If only those who have been thinking for 31 days on how to hand over dozens of jets and tanks had 1% of their courage.'

Russia's invasion of Ukraine, now in its 32nd day, has stalled in many areas, faltering in the face of Ukrainian resistance bolstered by weapons from the US and other western allies.

Soldiers carry the coffin of colonel Yurin Kozhukhar, 54, who was killed in battle during Russia's attack on Ukraine, during a funeral ceremony at Saints Peter and Paul Garrison Church in Lviv, Ukraine, on Sunday

People attend the funeral ceremony of colonel Yurin Kozhukhar, 54, and sergeant Kostiantyn Deriuhin, 44, who were killed in battle during Russia's attack on Ukraine, at Saints Peter and Paul Garrison Church in Lviv on Sunday

A wrecked tank is seen near a damaged building as civilians are being evacuated along humanitarian corridors from the Ukrainian city of Mariupol on Saturday

Collapsed building is seen in the city of Mariupol on Saturday after the city endured intense Russian strikes

Western military aid has so far not included fighter jets. A proposal to transfer Polish planes to Ukraine via the US was scrapped amid Nato concerns about getting drawn into conflict with Russia.

'So who is in charge of the Euro-Atlantic community? Is it still Moscow, thanks to its scare tactics?' Mr Zelensky said. 'Our partners must step up their aid to Ukraine.'

The UK Ministry of Defence said on Sunday that the battlefield across northern Ukraine remains largely static as local counterattacks hamper Russian attempts to reorganise their forces.

The MoD said Russian troops looked to be trying to encircle Ukrainian forces directly facing the separatist regions in the country's east.

Moscow has claimed that its focus is on wresting Ukraine's eastern Donbas region from Ukrainian control. The region has been partially controlled by Russia-backed separatists since 2014. A high-ranking Russian military official said on Friday that troops were being redirected to the east from other parts of the country.

Despite those assertions, Russian rockets struck the western city of Lviv on Saturday while Mr Biden visited neighbouring Poland, serving as a reminder that Moscow is willing to strike anywhere in Ukraine.

Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said on Sunday that it used air-launched cruise missiles to hit a fuel depot and a defence plant in Lviv.

He said another strike with sea-launched missiles destroyed a depot with air defence missiles in Plesetske, just west of Ukraine's capital Kyiv.
Australians struggling to make ends meet in the face of the surging cost of living will be helped by a slashing of fuel costs as well as support for first time buyers, the treasurer will announce in the Budget tomorrow.

The 'significant' 10 to 20 per cent cut per litre on fuel excise, which will be in place for six months, is in response to rising fuel and oil prices which have skyrocketed across the country largely due to Russia's war in Ukraine.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg hopes cutting the tax, which runs at 44.2 cents a litre, will provide relief for motorists feeling the pinch of high fuel costs.

Funding is also expected to be announced for a new fast rail, which will reduce the commute time between Newcastle and Sydney, and for new major road and transport projects and upgrades.

A cut to the fuel excise and an expansion to the New Home Guarantee Scheme for first home buyers are on the cards for Tuesday's 2022-23 Federal Budget (Pictured: Treasurer Josh Frydenberg)

Rail bridges, new stations and a 10km electrified track will be built between Tuggerah and Wyong - meaning express passenger services can skip the mainline, drastically cutting down on travel time.

The mammoth project will cost $1billion and create 4,560 new jobs, The Australian reported.

The temporary cut to the petrol tax will be brought in despite some senior Coalition members and industry groups opposing the cut.

'Fuel prices have skyrocketed, and of course for many families this [using a car] is not a choice,' Mr Frydenberg told the ABC on Sunday.

'These are costs that families are incurring and of course it's putting real pressure on their household budget,' he added.

The cut to the excise follows the New Zealand government's move to cut the fuel tax for citizens as the cost of living in the country reached 'crisis' levels earlier this month.

The Ardern government has also halved public transport fees for the next three months.

New Zealand cut their fuel excise by 25 cents a litre, which is higher than the expected cut to be introduced by the Australian government on Tuesday.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will introduce a 'significant' cut to the petrol tax for six months in his fourth budget in response to rising fuel prices. The measure is expected to cut the fuel excise by 10 to 20 cents a litre (pictured, a woman filling her car in Sydney)

The cut to the excise follows the New Zealand government's move to cut the fuel tax for citizens as the cost of living situation in the country reached 'crisis' levels earlier this month (Pictured: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on March 23)

The government's New Home Guarantee Scheme is also being updated in the budget, which looks to help tens of thousands of Australians battling to get on the property ladder.

The scheme allows first home buyers to enter the market with a 5 per cent deposit without having to pay lenders mortgage insurance.

Under the new measures the scheme will grow from 20,000 places a year to 50,000 places a year.

From those 50,000 places, 5,000 will be offered to single parents and 10,000 will be guaranteed to first home buyers or those who have not owned a home in the past five years in regional Australia.

It comes as the latest ANZ CoreLogic Housing Affordability report found that saving for a deposit was deemed to be the biggest issue for those trying to enter the property market.

It also estimated that, based on households saving 15 per cent of their gross annual income, it would take a record 10.8 years to save a deposit for a house and nine years for a unit.

The government's New Home Guarantee Scheme is also being updated in the budget, which will see massive benefits for tens of thousands of Australians looking to buy their first home. The scheme will expand from 20,000 places a year to 50,000

Separate research from the Property Council of Australia found one in five Australians believe purchasing a home was out of their reach even though they expressed their wish to own their own home.

The survey, which garnered responses from 1,100 people, saw 90 per cent of respondents put down high prices as the biggest barrier to buying a first home.

Tuesday's budget will also see another flurry of announcements around small business and apprentices.

Mr Frydenberg told Sky News' Sunday Agenda program there will be a series of initiatives in the budget to support small business.

There would also be a $44million program that provides $10,000 for employers who take on seniors with a disability

'It's important because these workers with a disability as seniors are very valuable members of our workforce and businesses are incentivised to take them on,' he said.

The government is also providing $365.3million to support an extra 35,000 apprentices and trainees get into a job through an extension of its 'boosting apprenticeship commencements and completing apprenticeship commencements' wage subsidies.

Apprentice tradies are set to be big winners from the Budget with a scheme that will support getting 35,000 into new jobs (pictured: a construction worker in Sydney in March)

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said by backing apprentices in their training the government is boosting the pipeline of workers Australia is going to need for a stronger economy and a stronger future.

'These programs deliver certainty for business so they can go and hire another apprentice chef, another apprentice hairdresser, another apprentice plumber. It is about getting Australians skilled and into jobs right now,' he said in a statement.

Any employer who takes on an apprentice or trainee up until June 30, 2022, can gain access to 50 per cent of the eligible Australian apprentice's wages in the first year, capped at a maximum payment value of $7000 per quarter.

This reduces to 10 per cent in the second year, capped at a maximum payment value of $1,500 per quarter, and then five per cent in the third year, capped at a maximum payment value of $750 per quarter.

The federal government will spend $17.9billion on infrastructure projects across the country with $3.3billion set aside for new road and transport projects and major upgrades in NSW.

Some $336m will be set aside to upgrade the Pacific Highway on the Central Coast at Wyong, $232.5m for the Mulgoa Road Stage 2 upgrade, $100m for the Southern Connector Road at Jindabyne and $95.6m for planning of the Picton Bypass.

'By investing in these projects we are delivering the infrastructure that the Australian economy needs to grow, to get Australians home sooner and safer, and generate thousands of jobs and new opportunities for small businesses right across the state,' Mr Morrison said.
A Conservative MP who was cyber-flashed while on a busy train to London revealed she has become accustomed to a 'regular bombardment of online verbal abuse, rape, and even death threats'.

Basingstoke MP Maria Miller, 57, recalled the moment she received an unsolicited explicit image without consent of a man's genitalia by someone she was sharing a packed train with to Waterloo station.

The 57-year-old also hailed the Online Safety Bill, which was introduced in Parliament last week and called it 'a ground-breaking piece of legislation' that will 'hold tech giants to account for the first time'.

She said: 'Like any other woman in Basingstoke I have received abuse online and I have received a cyber-flashing image of a mans naked genitals.

'Like any other commuters to Waterloo you don't want to see a picture of a penis when you are on a packed train. It was someone on the train with me and I wondered who it was.

'This law will make it against the law and the same offence as flashing. I think women expect this to already be in place.'

Cyber-flashing is when a person is sent an unsolicited sexual image on their mobile device by an unknown person nearby through social media, messages or other sharing functions such as Airdrop. In some instances, a preview of the photo can appear on a persons device, meaning that even if the transfer is rejected, victims are forced into seeing the image.

Tory MP Maria Miller (pictured) who received a cyber-flashing image of a man's genitalia whilst on a train to London said she is accustomed to a 'regular bombardment of online verbal abuse, rape, and even death threats'

Ministers confirmed last week that sending unsolicited sexual images to people via social media or dating apps will become a criminal offence. The measure will be added to existing plans to beef up online protections.

The move comes after research found that three-quarters of girls aged 12 to 18 had been sent unsolicited nude images of boys or men. A Law Commission review, Modernising Communications Offences, recommended that a new offence be created.

The new legislation will apply to England and Wales  with the act being made illegal in Scotland 12 years ago.

Officials said the law change would mean anyone who sent a photograph or film of a persons genitals, for the purpose of their own sexual gratification or to cause the victim humiliation, alarm or distress, could face up to two years in prison.

Cyber-flashing is when a person is sent an unsolicited sexual image on their mobile device by an unknown person nearby through social media, messages or other sharing functions such as Airdrop. In some instances, a preview of the photo can appear on a persons device, meaning that even if the transfer is rejected, victims are forced into seeing the image (file image)

What is cyber-flashing? Cyber-flashing is the act of someone deliberately sending a stranger an unsolicited sexual image using the AirDrop feature on an iPhone. These images are typically of male genitalia. AirDrop, which is specific to iOS devices such as iPads and iPhones, as well as Apple Macs, uses Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to connect over a short range to other devices. People are often targeted by cyber-flashing through AirDrop on public transport due to the technology's short range. Cyber-flashing was criminalised in Scotland under Section 6 of the Sexual Offence in 2009, while a similar measure was also passed in the Texas Senate unanimously in May 2019. Police investigated the first ever case of cyber-flashing in 2015 after an unwanted graphic picture popped up on a shocked London commuter's iPhone. Advertisement

Ms Miller said the new legislation will 'stop people breaking the law without being punished'.

Speaking to the Basingstoke Gazette, she added: 'We know that women MPs receive twice the level of abuse that their male counterparts so there are societal issues that we have to tackle where abuse towards women is more common than abuse towards men.

'People are hiding behind the fact that for too long the online world has been a place where people who break the law can exist without being punished. It wont stop people having controversial ideas and sharing them online but it would stop people who do harm others from doing so.

'[The bill will] finally grasp the nettle of online abuse, to create a safer, more respectful online environment, that will lead to a kinder politics too.

'Abuse, bullying, and harassment on social media platforms is ruining lives, undermining our democracy, and splintering society.'

Speaking about the bill, Digital Secretary Nadine Dorries said: Tech has the power to bring people together and make our lives better, but it can also enable heinous behaviour from those who wish to abuse, harm and harass.

The forthcoming Online Safety Bill will force tech companies to stop their platforms being used to commit vile acts of cyber-flashing.

We are bringing the full weight of the law on individuals who perpetrate this awful behaviour.

Justice Secretary Dominic Raab added: Protecting women and girls is my top priority, which is why were keeping sexual and violent offenders behind bars for longer, giving domestic abuse victims more time to report assaults and boosting funding for support services to 185 million per year.

Making cyber-flashing a specific crime is the latest step, sending a clear message to perpetrators that they will face jail time.
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The streets of Mariupol are being turned into cemeteries with makeshift graves appearing across the besieged port city.

Bodies of both civilians and soldiers are becoming buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings or left out on the streets with rescuers unable to retrieve victims and give them a proper burial due to the incessant bombing.

It comes as the UN said on Friday that it had received more information regarding mass graves in the city - one of which is thought to hold up to 200 bodies.

Earlier this month, graphic images showed mortuary workers digging 25-metre trenches at one of the old cemeteries in Mariupol, and making the sign of the cross as they pushed dead bodies wrapped in carpet or bags over the edge.

Residents have also had to dig roadside graves opposite defaced residential buildings, with those not killed by the shelling having to endure a shortage of medical supplies, water and electricity.

Mariupol has seen some of the most intense fighting since Putin ordered his armies into Ukraine on February 24 as part of what the Russian strongman branded a 'special military operation'.

Russian forces have been shelling the city indiscriminately, razing large swathes of the city.

More than 1,200 civilians are thought to have been killed as Moscow has been terrorising the captive population with increasingly brutal attacks.

It includes around 300 people thought to have died when a devastating Russian airstrike destroyed a theatre being used as temporary refuge.

Matilda Bogner, head of the UN human rights team, said it had 'increasing information on mass graves that are there'.

The streets of the besieged city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine have been turned into a cemetery because of incessant Russian bombing attacks

Multiple graves are surrounded by debris following Russian shelling. It comes as the UN says it has information relating to mass burial sites in the city, one of which contains up to 200 bodies

A woman touches the grave in the southern port city of Mariupol. More than 1,000 civilians are thought to have been killed during the conflict

A woman walks past graves of residents killed by shelling during the conflict. The city's mayor says street fighting has been taking place in the city centre

A woman places flowers at the graves of residents killed in shelling on Wednesday. It comes as diplomatic efforts are ongoing to evacuate refugees from the city

Dead bodies are placed into a mass grave on the outskirts of Mariupol earlier this month as people cannot bury their dead due to the heavy shelling

A collapsed building is pictured as civilians are being evacuated along humanitarian corridors from the Ukrainian city of Mariupol on Saturday

A wrecked tank in the city of Mariupol as civilians try to make their way out of the area to safety from the threat of bombing attacks

Graves of residents killed by shelling during Russia's invasion pictured in a yard in the southern port city of Mariupol

A wrecked tank is seen near a damaged building as civilians are being evacuated along humanitarian corridors from the Ukrainian city of Mariupol on Saturday

Dead bodies are put into a mass grave on the outskirts of Mariupol, Ukraine, on March 9 following heavy shelling from Russian forces

She did not elaborate further on the evidence, adding that it was not clear whether the dead were soldiers or civilians.

The extent of the shelling is making it increasingly difficult to verify the number of victims, with bodies having to be left out in the streets.

She added: 'The extent of civilian casualties and the extent of damage raises serious concerns and suggests strongly there have been violations of international humanitarian law and in particular of indiscriminate attacks.'

It comes as a group of Chechen fighters have been seen on video wildly firing heavy machine guns towards residential buildings in the city.

The video, shared by Kremlin-allied Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov, also showed the Chechen soldiers seemingly celebrating as the camera panned to show the hollowed-out shells of destroyed apartment blocks.

The soldiers, dressed in camouflaged military gear, pumped their fists to the camera and could be heard shouting 'allahu akbar'.

On his Telegram channel, Kadyrov claimed his fighters were clearing 'the territory of the Nazis' - parroting a line used by Russian president Vladimir Putin and his propaganda machine to justify the invasion of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Mariupol's mayor Vadym Boichenko has said the situation in the city remains critical, with street fighting taking place in its centre.

Mr Boichenko added that he has spoken with France's ambassador to Ukraine about options for evacuating civilians after Emmanuel Macron said he would propose to Russia a plan to help people leave the encircled city.

In what could see NATO soldiers on the ground in Ukraine for the first time since the start of the war, Macron announced a bold plan with Turkey and Greece to evacuate 'all those who wish to leave Mariupol', adding he would discuss it with Putin soon.

However, diplomatic tensions have risen after US President Jo Biden has been slammed for his 'unscripted' declaration that Putin 'cannot remain in power'.

The remark, which the White House scrambled to walk back as the Kremlin expressed fury, came at the end of an otherwise resolute and fiery speech rallying the free world to unite in opposition to autocracy and support of Ukraine.

Biden's remark could also diminish Putin's interest in compromise and increase his temptation to escalate in Ukraine, 'because if he believes he has everything to lose then he'll believe he has nothing to lose,' Haass said.

Before Biden could even board Air Force One to begin the flight back to Washington, his aides were rushing to claim that he hadn't been calling for an immediate change in government in Moscow.

Russian troops are trying to encircle Ukrainian forces fighting in the separatist regions in the eastern part of the country, British intelligence chiefs said, as Russia continues its attacks on Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin's forces are advancing southward from the area around the city of Kharkiv and north from the port city of Mariupol to the Donbas region in an attempt to surround Ukrainian troops, the Ministry of Defence said in an intelligence briefing today.

A view of the destruction of the city of besieged Mariupol in Ukraine on Saturday, March 26, amid mounting evidence of mass graves around the city

'The President's point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. He was not discussing Putin's power in Russia, or regime change,' a White House official said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov quickly denounced Biden, saying 'it's not up to the president of the U.S. and not up to the Americans to decide who will remain in power in Russia.'

Putin's forces are understood to be advancing southward from the area around the city of Kharkiv and north from Mariupol to the Donbas region in an attempt to surround Ukrainian troops, the Ministry of Defence said in an intelligence briefing today.

But in a further blow to the barbaric invasion, Ukrainian forces repulsed seven attacks in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and destroyed several tanks and armoured vehicles, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said on Sunday.

Ukraine's military chiefs say Russia is continuing with its 'full-scale armed aggression', with rocket attacks being launched on Ukrainian cities overnight.

Russian missiles struck Ukrainian fuel and food storage depots in the city of Lviv, sparking huge fires and wounding at least five people.

But President Volodymyr Zelensky has begged the West to give Ukraine tanks, planes and missiles to fend off Russian forces, as he accused NATO leaders of holding back on supplies because of 'intimidation' from Moscow.

Zelensky demanded that Western nations hand over military hardware that was 'gathering dust' in stockpiles, saying Ukraine needed just one per cent of NATO's aircraft and one per cent of its tanks.

NATO leaders have so far given Ukraine anti-tank and anti-craft missiles as well as small arms and protective equipment, but have not offered any heavy armour or planes.

Zelensky accused the West of holding back on supplies because they were frightened of Russia and suggested Moscow is in charge of NATO in a late-night address on Saturday.
Defiant residents living on the front line in Odesa are refusing to leave their homes and digging in to protect themselves from an imminent Russian invasion.

While Kremlin warships test the ports defences with regular bombardments volunteers are gathering supplies for Ukraines armed forces and old people are keeping calm and carrying on.

In normal times the 72-year-old Igor Igorovych lives in one of the most sought-after streets in Odesa, a stones throw from the famous Opera Theatre and with views of the Black Sea.

Now his third-floor apartment in the historic centre is surrounded by sand-bag gun emplacements, manned by heavily-armed soldiers and with barbed-wire and tank traps littering the pedestrian walkways.

The retired school-teacher told MailOnline: We are not afraid of the Russians. We live here and we are not leaving.

The soldiers told us to leave  for our own safety.

But everyone in the building refused to leave.

Why should we be afraid? This is our home.

A group of young women set up a humanitarian aid group, known as Odesa Angels, to make sure the soldiers protecting the city have everything they need. Together with her friends, entrepreneur Stephaniia Sahaidak (pictured) gather food, clothing, medicines and washing products to supply troops on the front-line.

While Kremlin warships test the ports defences with regular bombardments volunteers are gathering supplies for Ukraines armed forces and old people are keeping calm and carrying on. Pictured: 72-year-old Igor Igorovych who is staying put in Odesa

Further along the road his neighbour, Tymofei Emelianovych (pictured), is not budging either. The 80-year-old former Red Army soldier turned theatre comedy actor told MailOnline: Why should I be frightened this is my home'

Further along the road his neighbour, Tymofei Emelianovych, is not budging either.

The 80-year-old former Red Army soldier turned theatre comedy actor told MailOnline: Why should I be frightened this is my home.

I was born in Odesa and I plan to die in Odesa.

I am not afraid of the war because I was in the Red Army.

I was a tank soldier. I was stationed in [east] Germany

But now I work at the theatre. I like to make jokes.

Pictured: Sand-bag gun emplacements and a military vehicle in Odesa, where residents are refusing to leave

Tymofei confessed that the new army defences did get in the way.

He said: My wife Sofia is waiting for me.

I told her would only be out for an hour to do the shopping.

But because of all the road blocks it has taken me two hours.

Pictured: A soldier stationed next to a military vehicle in Odesa, Ukraine today

Meanwhile across the road a group of young women set up a humanitarian aid group, known as Odesa Angels, to make sure the soldiers protecting the city have everything they need.

Together with her friends, entrepreneur Stephaniia Sahaidak gather food, clothing, medicines and washing products to supply troops on the front-line.

Stephaniia, 26, explained: We make sure that the soldiers on the front-line that is defending Odesa have a hot meal, are kept warm, have the medicines they need and have soap to wash themselves.

We also provide bullet-proof vests.

We are a group of friends who got together to help in any way we can.

So, we raise money and we ask for donations to support our boys.

The government does its best for our troops. But often the supplies get there too late.

So now the local commanders tell us what they need and we get it to them.

And of course the boys on the front-line, who are defending Odesa, are our first priority.

Pictured: The Odesa Angels, who set up their group to ensure that soldiers protecting Odessa have food, clothing and washing products

Pictured: Heavily armed Ukrainian forces protect the centre of Ukraine from Russian bombardments

Pictured: Igor Igorovych with his neighbour driving out of the historic centre of Odesa while a soldier is stationed in the street to protect the city

Pictured: Residents in Odesa visit to a local market as a seller sorts through her products today

Over-looking the sea, in nearby Taras Shevchenko Park, retired merchant seaman Valeriy is equally defiant.

He told MailOnline: I am not leaving Odesa. This is my home.

There are Russians out in the sea. They come and they go.

But they are only small ships, frigates.

They fire at Odesa to prompt a response from our navy.

They want to know where the Ukrainian ships are so that they can attack them.

But our navy refuses to give away its location.

Over-looking the sea, in nearby Taras Shevchenko Park, retired merchant seaman Valeriy (pictured) is equally defiant. He told MailOnline: I am not leaving Odesa. This is my home.'

Pictured: People in Odesa walk around their local market while stall holders watch on today

Pictured: People walk around the city looking at stalls on the street today in Odesa

Yesterday, two Ukrainian women told MailOnline they were taking up arms to protect Odesa.

Olena Lolesnyk, 30, and Kamila Suleymanova, 33, are part of a unit of Ukraine's 3014 Army that is the final line of defence for Odesa  a long-held prize of the Kremlin.

'I am prepared to kill to protect my city, my family, my country,' blonde-haired Olena told MailOnline, after she collected a bravery award from the city mayor.

'I try not to think about whether I might die, but I am prepared to give my life to protect everything I love.'

Kamila added: 'My mother does not know that I have joined the army.

'But we have to defend our land. It is for our children.'

Pictured: Residents walk through Odesa as defences are seen to protect the city from bombardments

Pictured: A resident sits on a bench in Odesa as an armed Ukrainian soldier ready to protect his city walks past her today

The pair were speaking after they attended a military ceremony to honour Ukraine's National Guard.

Dressed in khaki-green uniforms, body armour, tin hats, and carrying Kalashnikov assault rifles, they stood shoulder to shoulder with their male comrades, as a military band played the Last Post.

The parade was held next to a famous statue of Russian Tsarina Catherine the Great, who founded the city in 1794.

But now this symbol of the Russian Empire is covered in sand-bags and surrounded by Ukrainian military hardware to protect it from the Kremlin warships that threaten to reduce the historic port to rubble.

Tank traps, barbed-wire and machine gun emplacement now litter the tree-lined boulevards and pedestrian walkways throughout the city centre.

Sunday worshippers at The Holy Trinity Cathedral in Odesa today (pictured)

Pictured: A Ukrainian military vehicle is stationed in Odesa to protect the city from the Russian invasion

Pictured: Sand-bags are stacked up to protect the city of Odesa from Russian bombardment

Formally the fourth most important city in the Russian Empire, and with huge strategic value as Ukraine's main sea port, Odesa is a major Kremlin goal.

Russian warships fired shells into the town last week wrecking buildings.

And the Ukrainian Army is on high-alert of a coordinated Normandy-style beach landing and parachute assault that could surround the city on three sides.

So ordinary citizens  like the two mothers  have taken up arms in their droves to defend their homes.

Back on parade, Olena revealed she does not know who will look after her nine-year-old son David if she is killed.

Olena Lolesnyk (left), 30, and Kamila Suleymanova, 33, are part of a unit of Ukraine's 3014 Army that is the final line of defence for Odesa  a long-held prize of the Kremlin

The pair (pictured) were speaking after they attended a military ceremony to honour Ukraine's National Guard

Her mother is dead and she split up from his father a long time ago.

But the 30-year-old, who usually works for a trade union, says she had no other choice than to help defend the city.

She said: 'This is my duty.

'At the moment I work in the army stores.

'But my unit is based here in the city of Odesa so if the Russians invade I will shoot them from the barricades.

Kamila, who used to work for the city council, said she felt she had no choice but to join the army.

She said: 'My son Daniel is 12 years old. I have to protect Odesa for him, for his future.

'I used to work in an office but now I go on patrol and man a post with my unit.'
A rising-star journalist has shared how she was canceled by her colleagues and the internet for blasting BLM for vandalizing synagogues during summer 2020.

Eve Barlow was enjoying a soaring career as a music writer, with the journalist - who is Scottish, gay and Jewish - once told she was 'magic' by a senior editor for the quality of her copy.

But Barlow - who was on track to become one of New York magazine's star writers - says she was shunned after blasting BLM vandalism days after George Floyd's murder.

Recalling the editor who branded her abilities 'magic,' she wrote for Common Sense with Bari Weiss: 'Well, I was. But now that I was a racist, none of that was real.'

The tweet that saw Barlow was posted four days after Floyd's killing in Minneapolis, on May 31 2020.

She wrote: 'Woke up to see that synagogues in LA have been graffiti'd during the riots with the words FREE PALESTINE and F*** ISRAEL, and that dua lipa is spreading antisemitic posts on her IG feed,' she wrote in the tweet in May 2020. 'how dare you bring the jewish nation and community into the killing of black american lives.'

Eve Barlow is a Los Angeles-based freelance music journalist who said she was branded as a 'racist' by her own industry

When synagogues in Los Angeles were vandalized, the Jewish journalist had enough and posted a tweet she said got her canceled: 'How dare you'

Barlow wrote on Common Sense that she wished she could keep her mouth shut for the sake of her career, but that she could no longer remain silent.

'Me being me I can never keep my mouth shut, even when I really wish I could, and I put my foot in it,' she wrote. 'I tweeted, How dare you, and all hell break loose.'

Since then, Barlow has faced a barrage of online hate. Editors stopped replying to her emails. Staff and fellow writers unfollowed her on social media.

'I remember surrendering to the peer pressure to donate every single day, and to post receipts of those donations (like I was in trouble for somethingoh yeah, being white),' she wrote.

She added: 'I was performing,' she wrote. 'I was absolutely performing. And I am not ashamed to admit it. I was so scared. I was still a hired freelance journalist, and I knew the impact of staying silent. Freelance writing isnt a joke. You cannot pay rent if you offend people.'

Synagogue Congregation Beth El in L.A. was vandalized in May 2020 during the protests

Black Lives Matter protesters are pictured in Hollywood on June 7 2020

'It was decreed that I was a racist by my entire industry,' she wrote for Common Sense. 'And I remember talking to this woman, and talking to my former editor at GQ, who expressed empathy but said that Id had a mini yikes moment.

'Meanwhile, everyone else was having a major yikes moment, in my opinion, becoming indoctrinated en masse.'

For a period of time, Barlow was the music journalist to contend with, but after her tweet, she was, as she described 'toxic molten lava.'

After 12 years in the industry, Barlow said she was 'stripped of talent, conveniently dissociated from my own intelligence and popularity, and marked as a shameful member of the communityone who should never have gotten as far as I had.'

'An outstanding record for 12-plus years no longer meant a thing. Everyone either hated me, or didnt want people to know otherwise.'

But in her Substack piece, Barlow told readers that people move on and survive.

'Know this: youll survive. Its okay. Actually, its more than okay,' she wrote. 'The best relationships and the right opportunities handle the truth. The ones that cant were never reciprocal. They were never real. They were never honest.

'Be honest,' she offered. 'You won't ever regret it. And you'll always get through another sunset and experience a new dawn.'
A white Florida man caught on camera threatening to lynch a black Popeyes worker while calling her the n-word has been exposed as a domestic abuse suspect.

Colton Norsworthy, 32, has been named as the racist online - including by members of his former band I Killed Anubis, who say they've severed all remaining ties with him.

Norsworthy, from Okeechobee in the Sunshine State, was filmed hurling abuse at the black Popeye's worker earlier this month over an issue with his food.

I Killed Anubis wrote on its Facebook page: 'This is Chris. I just want to make this very clear to everyone that me and my band I Killed Anubis do not and will never associate ourselves with anyone who is racist.

Colton Norsworthy, is believed to be the man at the center of the racist rant at a Popeyes employee in Okeechobee, Florida. His identity was verified by multiple people on social media

A search of Colton Norsworthy's criminal record turned up a slew of charges from 2014, including domestic battery and strangulation

A viral video captured the moment a white man went on a racist rant against black employees at a Popeyes in Okeechobee, Florida, hurling racial slurs at them

'I myself am Puerto Rican and know upfront what that feels like. So please do not associate me or my band with what happened at Popeyes. That kind of behavior doesn't fly with us. And if you are a racist on my Facebook i'd advise you to unfriend me right now.

'Edit: if your wondering we we are reaching out, its in regards to an event regarding and ex member. We will not post a link but it happened at a Popeyes. Do with the info as you wish.'

The band also later named 'Colton' in comments underneath the post. They said Norsworthy - who still lists himself as a member on his own Facebook page - had been kicked out years previously over an unspecified incident.

Norsworthy has not been arrested over the Popeye's incident.

But a criminal record turned up a slew of charges from 2014, including felony domestic battery by strangulation, obstructing justice, and tampering in felony third degree proceeding.

DailyMail.com has contacted Norsworthy for further comment.

He shot to notoriety over a viral video of him hurling the word 'n*****' at a black female Popeye's employee at least seven times, after she called him a cracker.

His former band 'I Killed Anubis,' wrote online that they do not condone the racist incident at Popeyes and that they do not associate with Norsworthy, who had been 'kicked out years ago'

The manager asks the man, 'And what did you call her?'

The unidentified white man responds: 'I called her a n***** after she called me cracker.'

The manager tells the man to 'have a nice day' as the man threatens to call the cops on the employee, a bluff the manager calls as he walks away.

The man then hangs up his phone and goes on to say: 'All you n***** think this is f**king acceptable. You f**king n*****.'

The identity of Colton Norsworthy was verified by multiple people on social media

The man, who has not been identified, threatened to call police after he claimed the black employee called him a 'cracker.' When the woman's manager asked the man what he called her, the man admits he called her the n-word

The man goes on to use the n-word at the employee and manager and threatened to beat her when she goes outside and hang her on a tree

The manager, now off screen, tells the man he's entitled to his own opinion, and the female employee can be heard saying: 'He can't call me that. He's a cracker. F**k him.'

The female employee goes on to further insult the man, and he retaliates by threatening her.

'When I catch get your n***** a** outside, I promise you, I promise you, Imma beat your f***ing n***** a** ,' he yells.

'Imma hang you from a f***ing tree, b****.'

The woman continues to insult the man and call him a 'cracker' as he keeps threatening to beat her.

'Your parents raised you like a f***ing n*****,' he says.

The two continue to insult each other as the man walks away, but before he leaves, he can be heard saying, 'I'm white. That means I'm automatically better than you, b****.'

The man and the employee continued to insult each other, but he was the only one who threatened violence by saying he would beat her

Just before he left, he yelled, 'I'm white. That means I'm automatically better than you, b****'

The incident took place at the Popeyes franchise in Okeechobee, Florida. The company condemned the man's rant and said it was providing assistance to the franchise and reviewing how to help workers deal with hateful customers

Popeyes officials said they condemned the white man's behavior and that the company has zero tolerance for 'hateful aggression' at its restaurants.

The company is also working with the franchise owner to provide support for employees and is reviewing ways to help workers better navigate these kinds of situations.

No police report was filed over the incident.
Florida's rowdy spring break celebrations have welcomed their most eye-catching visitor yet - a giant great white shark called Scot.

Scot, who weighs 1,600 pounds and is 12-feet long, is currently enjoying himself in the balmy waters off the Keys and the Gulf, both of which play host to party-crazed spring breakers.

He was tracked by marine non-profit OCEARCH last Thursday, and was filmed being hauled up onto a boat for a few minutes so conservationists could tag him.

The big fish is the 74th member of its kind to be located and tracked by the marine group off North America's side of the Atlantic ocean, OCEARCH said. With more than 200 sharks tagged around the world, the non-profit places a geo-tracker on each animal, allowing it to know whenever one rises to the surface.

The tracker also records each shark's journey, including Scot's, who travelled all the way from Nova Scotia to the Gulf of Mexico. First tagged in September of last year, the great white got its name in honor of the 'welcoming and ocean first dedicated people' in the Canadian province by Sea World, one of OCEARCH's partners.

Scot then swam his way down North America's coast in just 119 days, clocking in more than 3,900 miles of travel.

Scot is the 74th shark along North America's Atlantic Coast to be tracked by OCEARCH, but one of just a handful in the Gulf of Mexico

Scot, a male great white that weighs 1,600-pounds and measures 12-feet long, was found off Florida's Gulf Coast on Thursday by OCEARCH, a non-profit maritime conservancy group

The shark swam his way down North America's coast from Nova Scotia, Canada, in just 119 days, travelling more than 3,900 miles of travel

As of Sunday afternoon, he has been staying put between 155 and 215 miles (250-350 kilometers) off the western coast of Florida, according to OCEARCH data. However, the big fish has been lurking around Florida's Keys since Valentine's Day.

Sharks typically migrate towards the coast during the warmest times of the year - usually in the spring and summer - and move around most often at dawn and night to hunt.

There are more than 13 different shark species that comes to Florida's shores, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reports.

The most common ones are blacktip and spinner sharks - both smaller in size and weight than the great white - as they arrive in mass near the beaches of Pal Beach County from January to March.

Florida had 28 unprovoked shark attacks in 2021, compared to 19 on other coasts of the United States, and 26 around the rest of the world. The total amount of shark-related attacks in Florida constitute 60 percent of all cases in the U.S. and 38 percent worldwide.

However, sharks aren't as dangerous in real life as they are depicted in movies like in Jaws or in The Reef. As a matter of fact, humans have a higher chance of being hit by thunder in Florida than to be bitten by a shark, and less than 10 people are victims of deadly shark attacks per year, according to the commission.

And despite sharks sitting at the top of their food chain as an apex predator, they are considered as an endangered species due to hunting.

'Great white sharks are central to the functioning of ecosystems and the maintenance of biodiversity,' says OCEARCH.

Meanwhile, thousands of spring breakers were spotted on camera Saturday enjoying a nice day out on the Fort Lauderdale beach, free from the restraints and curfews that Miami Beach revelers have faced after several shootings marred the festivities.

Fort Lauderdale beaches were covered in bikini-clad students soaking up some sun, playing games or splashing in the surf, with conditions for swimming reported to be perfect on Saturday.

Many beachgoers were pictured enjoying alcoholic beverages and loud party music in the sun, even though Fort Lauderdale now prohibits drinking on the beach, along with tents, tables, and coolers.

Two spring breakers made the best of the balmy weather on South Beach Saturday

A group of women decided to hit the town in just their bikinis, as the rowdy celebrations continue

Another group of friends were snapped heading out on South Beach Saturday clad in just bikinis and shoes

This woman was evidently feeling the spring break vibe as she began dancing on the street

A woman in a pair of white bikini bottoms danced on the back of a car in South Beach on Saturday night

Two other women proudly displayed their assets while a male friend took a photo in the back of a convertible on South Beach Saturday night

Moments later, one of the women stuck her legs up in the air while one friends watched and another smoked a cigarette

That's what friends are for! One woman was snapped giving one of her friends a piggy-back ride on South beach Saturday

Several of them were seen dancing to loud music while enjoying the sunny but humid weather

SHAKE IT: Young men and women seen enjoying themselves as they gathered around the dancefloor on South Beach

There were no signs of slowing down at night as more spring breakers continued to dance and enjoy the loud music

However, the Miami curfew kicked in on Thursday night and will also be in effect on Saturday and Sunday, and could be extended next week as officials attempt to reign in wild crowds

A group of women twerk on Washington Avenue early Saturday night before the midnight curfew imposed by the City of Miami Beach

People spend time at the beach during the Spring Break in Miami Beach. South Beach is under a state of emergency due to spring break and a curfew that runs from midnight to 6:00 a.m. each night from Thursday to Monday was imposed

Lae'la Labeaud, a tourist from New Orleans, hugs Panther, a great Dane, while visiting Miami Beach. Curfew restrictions were set in place after two shootings in Miami Beach the weekend before caused city officials to announce a 'state of emergency'

Bars, liquor stores and restaurants will be open late into the night for revelers - unlike the other Spring Break hotspot of Miami Beach where wild antics and shootings have forced city officials to enact a midnight curfew.

In addition to a hard curfew for much of the party district, which took effect at 11.59pm Thursday, the sale of alcohol for off-premises consumption was halted from 6pm to 6am - measures that came after two horrifying shootings that left five people injured in recent days.

The curfew will be in effect through Sunday, and could be extended next week as desperate officials attempt to reign in wild crowds.

Last year police, also imposed a curfew after arresting more than 1,000 people over the course of six weeks for street fights and vandalism.

Cops have made more than 600 arrests in Miami as of Tuesday, with 100 weapons having been seized.

It's a far cry from the calmer resort of Fort Lauderdale, where there have only been 14 arrests all break.
SsangYong Motor's headquarters in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province / Courtesy of SsangYong Motor



By Baek Byung-yeul



Edison Motors' acquisition of SsangYong Motor is on the verge of collapse, as it has failed to pay the balance in the purchase price for the debt-ridden carmaker before the deadline, according to company officials and industry analysts, Sunday.



A consortium led by Edison Motors was supposed to pay 274.3 billion won ($223.8 million) to acquire SsangYong Motor by March 25. The Seoul Bankruptcy Court ordered Edison Motors to pay the full balance by that day, five business days before the creditors' meeting on April 1.



At the meeting, creditors and others related to the acquisition process are set to decide on a rehabilitation plan for SsangYong Motor. However, since Edison Motors did not pay for the acquisition within the set period, the meeting cannot be held.



An industry official familiar with the matter said, "SsangYong now has the authority to terminate the M&A contract signed with Edison Motors because the latter didn't pay the remaining acquisition price." Edison Motors already paid 30.5 billion won to SsangYong Motor, about 10 percent of the total acquisition amount.



"If SsangYong Motor decides to terminate the contract, Edison Motors' acquisition plan will be scrapped," the official said, asking for anonymity. Stating that Edison Motors applied to the Seoul Bankruptcy Court to postpone the payment period, he added that it remains to be seen whether the court would accept the request.



SsangYong filed for court receivership in December 2020, as the company failed to repay around 160 billion won worth of loans and its Indian owner, Mahindra & Mahindra, put SsangYong up for sale. In November 2021, Edison Motors and SsangYong signed a memorandum of understanding for the purchase and the Seoul Bankruptcy Court approved the Edison-led consortium to take over SsangYong in January.



Initially, Edison planned to attract financial investors to raise funds, but the company has been struggling with securing enough funds for the acquisition. Keystone Private Equity, a local private equity fund, already withdrew from the consortium, and another private equity fund, member KCGI, also has not confirmed its investment plans concerning the acquisition.



At this time when Edison Motors is having difficulties in securing funds, creditors and Ssangyong's union are opposing Edison's acquisition plan. The creditors recently made an announcement saying, "Edison Motors' funding capabilities and business plans are unreliable." They also added, "We ask for additional mergers and acquisitions to increase the corporate value of SsangYong Motor to find new buyers."



The union also opposed Edison's acquisition, saying that Edison's plan to build a mass-production line for electric cars only within few months is unrealistic. They also questioned the feasibility of Edison's plan to raise the funds needed to operate SsangYong after the acquisition.



Kim Dae-jong, a professor at the School of Business at Sejong University, said that SsangYong's search for a new owner will become a challenge for President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol if Edison Motors fails to sign the acquisition contract due to the lack of funds.



"The problem is that Edison Motors joined the bidding process for the acquisition of SsangYong Motor even though the company didn't have enough funds to take over. SsangYong should have been taken over by a company that can manage the automaker sufficiently," the professor said.



"It is a pity that this is occurring at this time when Ssangyong Motor is about to change its business structure to being an electric car maker. And considering the weight of SsangYong's impact on the country's auto industry, this issue will be a big concern for President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol. He will have to come up with a clever solution," Kim added.


Barack Obama's Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson stood as an outlier on Sunday defending President Joe Biden's off-the-cuff remark that Vladimir Putin 'cannot remain in power.'

'I'm not sure I would have walked it back,' the first black DHS chief told NBC's Meet the Press, claiming 'everyone in the western world' backed the sentiment.

Johnson added of Putin, 'He's a war criminal. He's slaughtering innocent men, women and children. He illegally invaded Ukraine. And he's got command and control of nuclear weapons. Such a person should not remain in power.'

It comes as federal lawmakers on both sides of the aisle scramble to downplay the president's remarks, some reiterating existing US policy while Republican Senator Jim Risch chided Biden to 'stay on script.'

Risch called the comment a 'horrendous gaffe.'

Meanwhile Ukraine's ambassador to the US said her people heard the president's message 'loud and clear.'

Biden appeared to call for the Russian autocrat's removal on Saturday during an emotionally-charged speech in Warsaw after meeting with Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Kremlin's brutal and unprovoked invasion.

'For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power,' he said. 'This battle will not be won in days or months either. We need to steel ourselves for the long fight ahead.'

Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson was among the few foreign policy officials standing by Biden's comments in Warsaw on Saturday night, even as the White House sought to water them down

Jeh Johnson says Pres. Bidens ad lib about removing Russian Pres. Putin from power was a statement of fact, and everyone in the Western world agrees. #MTP #IfItsSunday



I wouldnt have walked it back pic.twitter.com/iePn46NDpa  Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) March 27, 2022

The White House soon raced to clarify that Biden was referring to Putin's influence outside Russia's borders and was not calling for regime change.

But the non-scripted remark prompted a flurry of responses from both Democrats and Republicans in Congress.

GOP Senator Jim Risch of Idaho said the president's speechwriter did a 'good job' but knocked Biden for improvising during a Sunday television interview.

'This administration has done everything they can to stop escalating. There's not a whole lot more you can do to escalate than to call for regime change,' Risch said on CNN's State of the Union.

'The White House tried to walk it back immediately. Tony Blinken, the secretary of state, tried to walk it back immediately. I will walk it back right now. That is not the policy of the United States of America. Please, Mr. President, stay on script.'

He said regime change was an 'existential' issue, adding of the speech: 'Whoever wrote it did a good job, hit the right notes. And then to have that at the end, the sour note at the end, was unfortunate, to say the least.'

Democrat Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota said it 'has been made very clear' that the president was not calling to topple Putin from power during an appearance on ABC's This Week.

'We know the policy of our country. We know what it is. I think Vladimir Putin knows what it is and certainly our NATO allies and Americans know what it is,' Klobuchar said on Sunday.

Meanwhile Republican Senator Jim Risch said Biden's remark was a 'horrendous gaffe' and urged him to 'stay on script'

"Please, Mr. President, stay on script."



Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID) reacts to President Joe Biden saying Russian President Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power," telling @DanaBashCNN the remark could cause problems in Ukraine as the US tries to de-escalate the conflict. #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/PcylOrnQ23  CNN (@CNN) March 27, 2022

'For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power,' Biden said during his speech in Warsaw

She added, 'Vladimir Putin is a monster. But the position of the United States Government is not to send troops in there. It is to give all the aid we can to Ukraine.'

Democrat Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey echoed his colleague's comments in walking back Biden's speech.

'I think the administration has made it clear that the goal of the United States is not regime change in Russia. It's defending the extraordinary people of Ukraine and helping them in what I think is an existentially critical battle, not just for their country, but for free democracies around the world,' Booker told Meet the Press on NBC.

However, asked about if he personally saw Putin still in power after his brutal invasion of Ukraine, Booker admitted he cannot 'see how this ends well' for the autocrat.

'I don't see a real victory for him. His country is suffering extraordinarily. He is depleting critical resources from his own nation for this awful war. So I just don't see how this ends well for him,' the New Jersey Democrat said.

Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, a Republican, claimed Biden's remark was a 'mistake' that 'plays into the hands of the Russian propagandists and plays into the hands of Vladimir Putin.'

'I think all of us believe the world would be a better place without Vladimir Putin. But ... that's not the official U.S. policy,' Portman also told Meet the Press.

GOP Rep. Darrell Issa told Fox News, 'This certainly was not in the speech. No speech writer would use terms like that.'

A Ukrainian serviceman stands in a heavily damaged building in Stoyanka, Ukraine, Sunday, March 27

People prepare sand bags to cover statues in an effort to protect cultural and historical heritage amid Russian attacks in Kyiv on March 27

Meanwhile former Homeland Security chief Johnson, who worked with Biden under the Obama administration, claimed much of the western world agreed that Putin 'cannot remain in power.'

'At most, I would've modified the statement by saying "It's not a statement of our policy, it's just simply a statement of fact." But, you know -- I'd like to see us at some point, get to a place where we're not constantly disclaiming the line over which we will not cross,' Johnson said on Sunday.

The former official pointed to other notable instances of presidential improvisation, such as when Ronald Reagan famously referred to the former Soviet Union as the 'evil empire' in a speech.

Of Biden's comment, he added: 'It was a statement of fact. Virtually everyone agrees. Everyone in the western world agrees.'

Ukrainian Ambassador to the US Oksana Markarova told Meet the Press on Sunday: 'We heard President Biden loud and clear.'

'We clearly understand in Ukraine that anyone who's a war criminal, who attacks a neighboring country, who's doing all these atrocities together with all the Russians that are involved, definitely cannot stay in power in a civilized world,' Markarova said.

After Biden's speech in Warsaw on Saturday, a White House official clarified that Biden was not calling for regime change in Moscow as the Kremlin reacted to the US president with outrage.

'The President's point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. He was not discussing Putin's power in Russia, or regime change,' the official said.

Meanwhile Russia's response was menacingly vague.

On #MTP: Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova heard Pres. Bidens remarks to remove Russian President Putin loud and clear. @Omarkarova: Putins actions are a "brutal genocide attempt to eliminate or exterminate [the] Ukrainian nation but also an attack on democracy. pic.twitter.com/HI38mmuftQ  Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) March 27, 2022

'This is not to be decided by Mr. Biden,' Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in response. 'It should only be a choice of the people of the Russian Federation.'

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday that the US is not looking for 'regime change' in Moscow or anywhere else in the world.

Speaking to reporters in Jerusalem, Blinken explained that his boss was likely referring to Putin's influence outside of his country.

'I think the president, the White House, made the point last night that, quite simply, President Putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else,' Blinken said according to multiple reports.

'As you know, and as you have heard us say repeatedly, we do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia -- or anywhere else, for that matter.'

The US's chief diplomat was speaking at a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
Russian gas currently powers the equivalent of 1.76m UK homes amid concerns over Putin's stranglehold on the supply of energy to Europe.

The Government is due to set out plans on how Britain can end its dependence on Russian oil and gas in a new energy strategy next week.

Responding to a Written Parliamentary Question earlier this month Minister of Business, Energy and Clean Growth Secretary Greg Hands said the average UK household used around 12,200 kilowatt hours (kWh) of gas each year.

In response to a second question, Mr Hands revealed the UK had received an annual average of 21,506 Gigawatt hours of Liquified Natural Gas from Russia over the past five years.

This volume of gas supplied by Russia is equivalent to the annual usage for 1.76m UK households, MailOnline can reveal, enough to meet the needs of the entire populations of Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool put together.

With an average of 2.4 residents per household, according the Office for National Statistics, it means up to 4.2m people could be living in homes powered by Russian gas.

It puts into perspective the challenge being faced by the government in its attempt to decouple from the Russian supply line.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson pictured during a speech to a special meeting of NATO leaders in Brussels on Thursday

A pumpjack extracts crude at an oil field in Emlichheim, Germany, last week amid rising global oil and gas prices

Russian President Vladimir Putin declared earlier this week that Russia will only accept roubles as payment from 'unfriendly' countries in retaliation for sanctions imposed over his invasion of Ukraine

Mr Hands said: 'According to the latest data available, in 2020 the average household used around 12,200kWh of gas.

'In that year less than 3 per cent of UK gas supplies came from Russia via LNG. Once natural gas enters the UK transmission system, it is impossible to identify the distribution of specific molecules.'

He added: 'The UK only receives direct gas in the form of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) from Russia, since there are no gas pipelines directly linking the UK with Russia.

'Over the last five years (2017-2021), UK gas imports from Russia accounted for, on average, two per cent of the UKs gas supply portfolio.

'On average, over the last five years (2017-2021), the UK received 21506 GWh of LNG from Russia.'

It comes as British gas prices have risen after Putin declared earlier this week that Russia will only accept roubles as payment from 'unfriendly' countries in retaliation for sanctions imposed over his invasion of Ukraine.

The UK is also set to spend 2billion on fossil fuels from Russia this year despite sanctions against Putin's regime, it was revealed earlier this month.

Russia supplies around 30 per cent of Europe's gas and oil - and one in ten barrels of the world's oil - and the UK has become increasingly reliant on it.

Around 33 shipments from Russia arrive in the UK per year, mostly from the Yamal peninsula in the Arctic Circle. But it appears that there has been a change in tactic, with fuel changed on to non-Russian ships in Europe before continuing their journey to avoid sanctions.

The government followed suit of the US earlier this month in announcing it would begin phasing out its use of Russian oil and gas.

And next week Boris Johnson will release an energy strategy 'looking at what we can do to source hydrocarbons from places other than Russia'.

However, the majority of gas used in the UK is imported, with the required volume set to increase to 70 per cent by 2030.

Speaking earlier this week, Mr Johnson said: 'Vladimir Putin over the last yeast has been like a pusher, feeding an addiction in western countries to his hydrocarbons.

'We need to get ourselves off that addiction.'

As the Cabinet searches for alternative energy sources, Tory MPs are calling for the government to restart shale gas extraction.

Steve Baker MP said: 'These startling figures show how reliant the UK is on direct gas imports from Russia.

A host of European countries are still dependent on Moscow for most of their gas and oil supplies (pictured, a plant in Tartarstan, Russia). Russian gas accounts for some 40 per cent of Europe's total gas consumption

'This is before we even consider the fact that were tethered to a European market that, in the Prime Ministers words, is addicted to Russian gas.

'The government must ensure that its forthcoming energy strategy does not just look at cutting out our reliance on Russian oil, but also on Russian gas.

'The answer is simple. Under our feet is enough gas to keep the UK going until 2050 and beyond.

'Producing our own domestic shale gas is better for the environment than shipping it in from overseas, would create tens of thousands of well-paid jobs, and could provide local communities with cheaper energy bills. Everyone wins except Putin.'

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng this week put a stop to plans to concrete over two viable shale gas wells in Lancashire this week.

Craig Mackinlay, MP for South Thanet, said: 'The potential national benefits of shale gas extraction are now quite clear to those of us looking for a way out of the current energy crisis.

'The Government, with its new warmth for expansion of North Sea capacity, means it has belatedly recognised that producing gas here in Britain is far preferable to importing it from overseas.

'What seems to be playing on ministers minds is a concern about noisy local opposition that could put at risk marginal constituencies in the Red Wall.

'To move ahead we need to unlock the planning system by ensuring that local people see tangible benefits, and that projects go forward with the consent of local people.'

Another fracking firm, Cuadrilla, is preparing to seal its two wells in Lancashire with work due to begin this week.

The MPs say the gas wells could produce useable gas by September later this year.
Campaigners who paid 30,000 to help a council buy an ancient woodland are furious after the authority announced plans to cut down 152 trees - over health and safety fears.

A town council in Wiltshire claims the over 100 trees are each at 'an imminent risk' to walkers and need to be managed due to Ash dieback disease.

The 'Friends of Becky Addy Wood' used their own cash to preserve the historic 10-acre woodland, first recorded in Saxon times, for future generations.

By putting up two-thirds of the funds, campaigners helped Bradford-on-Avon Town Council in Wiltshire purchase the land for 45,000 in April 2020.

And just two years later the council says it has to cut them down to manage Ash dieback disease and they 'might fall or drop limbs on users of the adjacent road and public footpath through the woodland'.

But the campaigners say the council has ignored advice from the government, the Woodland Trust, UK Wildlife Trusts and the Tree Council on managing Ash dieback.

Campaigners who paid 30,000 to help a council buy an ancient woodland are furious after the authority announced plans to cut down 152 trees - over health and safety fears. Pictured: The Becky Addy Wood

The 'Friends of Becky Addy Wood', pictured, used their own cash to preserve a historic 10-acre woodland, first recorded in Saxon times, for future generations

Bradford-on-Avon Town Council in Wiltshire purchased the land that the woods, pictured, are on for 45,000 thanks to the campaigners raising two-thirds of the funds

The authority has applied to the Forestry Commission for a licence to fell the 152 trees.

If approved the group says it will cause 'irreversible damage' to the small woodland and its wildlife - including rare bats and nesting birds.

One resident, David McQueen, 57, said: 'I am absolutely horrified by this absurd over-reaction.

'There is a 1 in 11 million chance of being killed by a falling tree in the UK and yet they want to destroy this tranquil, historic wood over it.

Becky Addy Wood, pictured, is owned and maintained by Bradford-on-Avon Town Council

Campaigners say the council have ignored advice from the government, the Woodland Trust, UK Wildlife Trusts and the Tree Council on managing Ash dieback. Pictured: The woods with light breaking through

'It's another example of local council overreach. We want our beauty spot protected, not hacked to pieces.

'This is a literal hatchet job designed by a jobsworth wildly over-reacting to the one-in-a -million threat to local walkers who can look after themselves.

'Woods are resilient. We don't need protecting from the woods, we need protecting from overzealous councillors.

'Will we be able to walk through any wood without a local council cutting down any nearby ash tree? There are 125 million ash trees in the UK.

'How many do they want to cut down because of some theoretical threat? A hundred thousand? A million? 50 million? Where does this end?

'Risk averse council will end up decimating local woods everywhere just at the point we need more trees, not less.'

A tree felled in the Becky Addy Wood. Many have been damaged by Storms Dudley, Eunice and Franklin

The authority has applied to the Forestry Commission for a licence to fell the 152 trees in the woods, pictured

A spokesman for the The Friends of Becky Addy Wood added: 'Many trees in Becky Addy Wood claimed to be dead in the October tree survey have now been found by a local expert to be alive and full of Spring buds.

'We have it on good authority that the tree survey was not a specific survey on the health of the trees and that only trees posing an undeniable and immediate risk to public safety should be felled.

'We urge a more gradual approach, based on the very latest science, which recommends frequent monitoring and low intervention.

A spokesperson for Bradford on Avon Town Council said: 'The Town Council is following the guidance and advice from accredited organisations including Forest Research, the Woodland Trust and the Arboricultural Association'. Pictured: Campaigners look at the trees

A spokesperson for Bradford on Avon Town Council said: 'The Town Council is following the guidance and advice from accredited organisations including Forest Research, the Woodland Trust and the Arboricultural Association.

'We are proud of our forward-thinking and scientifically-based approach to biodiversity. We are taking the opportunity to carefully consider the ecology of the woodland as we carry out necessary safety works.

'Official and scientific guidance [for] trees emphasises that particular care is needed to address danger near roads and footpaths.

'Individual trees have been surveyed where they might fall or drop limbs on users of the adjacent road and public footpath through the woodland.

'This survey, for safety purposes, was carried out at an appropriate time of year by a professional qualified tree surveyor who identified real dangers observed at the time of survey - including obvious signs of extensive Ash Dieback.

'Away from where falling trees may endanger the public; the Town Council is taking a different approach to managing Ash Dieback, where we will be able to monitor the ongoing decline of trees as part of a scientific study.

'We have been commended by one of the leading scientists undertaking the research into resistance to dieback in ash trees: "I've read your plan with interest - it's a great plan, and a credit to Bradford on Avon Town Council. It's what I would do if it (Becky Addy Wood) was in my hands".

'The Town Council, as landowner, has a duty to manage its risk, as assessed by a qualified independent tree expert,' it claims. Pictured: A campaigner wants the trees saved

'During and after the recent storms Dudley, Eunice and Franklin there was significant damage to trees in Becky Addy Wood - including large Ash trees that had fallen across the public footpath and others hanging over the footpath.

'The Town Council, as landowner, has a duty to manage its risk, as assessed by a qualified independent tree expert.

'Failing to do so would not only put users of the footpaths at risk but also the Town Council in terms of liability.

'The Town Council is planning the recovery of Becky Addy Wood, which will include planting a wider mix of tree species so the woodland is ecologically more diverse and resilient.'
Footage has emerged of several wounded Russian soldiers frozen with fear and regret as they wait in line to receive medals of honour from Russia's deputy minister of defence.

The soldiers had not long returned from the frontlines in Ukraine, where they had sustained a variety of crippling injuries amid Putin's invasion.

Sat together in a row of wheelchairs, the medically discharged soldiers - some missing entire limbs - waited in silence as deputy defence minister Alexander Fomin waxed lyrical about their courage and sacrifice, before being presented with their rewards.

Each soldier shared a handshake with Fomin and declared: 'I serve Russia!' as the Colonel-General pinned a medal to their chest, but the prideful facade could not conceal the troops' real feelings.

The video, broadcast by the Kremlin-controlled Channel One, showed clear expressions of terror and despair emblazoned across the young men's faces.

It comes as Ukraine's armed forces continue to inflict devastating losses on the invaders, with President Volodymyr Zelensky announcing yesterday his forces had killed more than 16,000 Russian troops.

NATO meanwhile estimates between 7,000 and 15,000 Russian soldiers have already died after just one month of war.

The soldiers had not long returned from the frontlines in Ukraine, where they had sustained a variety of crippling injuries amid Putin's invasion

The video, broadcast by the Kremlin-controlled Channel One, showed clear expressions of terror and despair emblazoned across the young men's faces

Sat together in a line of wheelchairs - some missing entire limbs - the medically discharged soldiers sat in silence as deputy defence minister Alexander Fomin (pictured) waxed lyrical about their courage and sacrifice, before being presented with their rewards

Fomin reeled off a list of cliches as he stood in front of the ailing troops, many of whom were missing feet or legs as a result of the bitter conflict across the border.

'You all carried out the orders assigned to you, you all gave one hundred percent,' Fomin said.

'Like real men, like real soldiers, you continued the glorious military traditions of our grandfathers and fathers,' he proclaimed.

But his audience refused to acknowledge the speech and instead merely sat in silence and stared into space, perhaps reliving the horrors of a war which has resulted in the death of thousands of their countrymen.

A second clip showed a wounded and bedbound soldier, also missing a leg, looking up in bemusement at another of Russia's defence ministers who told him: 'I hope you'll get back on your feet,' as he handed out another medal yesterday.

Minister Yunus-Bek Evkurov was seen towering over the crippled foot soldier, who lay rigid in his hospital bed and only managed to utter one or two words in response to Evkurov's questions, clearly unsettled and seemingly paralysed with fear.

A second clip showed a wounded and bedbound soldier, also missing a leg, looking up in bemusement at another of Russia's defence ministers who told him: 'I hope you'll get back on your feet,' as he handed out another medal yesterday

Minister Yunus-Bek Evkurov pinned a medal to the young soldier's chest and shook his hand, but the man lay paralysed with fear

The soldier simply lay in bed and looked up at the deputy defence minister, only managing to utter one or two words in clipped tones in response to questioning

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said late last night that Russian forces have been beaten back from the outskirts of Kyiv by the 'powerful blows' of Ukrainian forces as the war entered its fifth week.

Zelensky's troops are now launching counter-attacks in an attempt to take the southern city of Kherson today, which was the first major urban centre to be seized by the invaders.

'Over the past week, our heroic Armed Forces have dealt powerful blows to the enemy. Significant losses,' Zelensky declared in a presidential address.

'I am grateful to our defenders who showed the occupiers that the sea will not be calm for them even when there is no storm. Because there will be fire.'

Ukrainian service members inspect destroyed Russian military vehicles, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, near the town of Trostianets, in the Sumy region on March 25

A destroyed Russian MLRS (multiple launch rocket system) vehicles with the ammunition still intact can be seen in Kyiv

Meanwhile, an adviser to the Ukrainian defence minister today declared Kherson should be won back within hours after his forces managed to successfully repel Russian advances outside the capital.

Markian Lubkivskyi told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'I believe that today the city will be fully under the control of Ukrainian armed forces.

'We have finished in the last two days the operation in the Kyiv region so other armed forces are now focused on the southern part trying to get free Kherson and some other Ukrainian cities.'

Zelensky also welcomed a delivery of 1,500 German anti-aircraft missiles, but continued to urge western leaders to increase its supply of tanks, planes and missiles to help fend off Russian forces.
A former Catholic bishop has admitted covering-up child sex abuse allegations against 11 priests, and not reporting the suspects to cops - or even firing them.

Former bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany Howard J. Hubbard made the shocking admissions during a deposition taken last year as part of a response to dozens of claims filed under New York's Child Victims Act. A judge ordered the deposition released on Friday.

Hubbard has himself been accused of sex abuse, but denies those allegations. His deposition likely leaves him open to criminal or civil proceedings by police and victims.

Hundreds of people have sued the Albany diocese over sexual abuse they say they endured as children, sometimes decades ago. Between 1977 and 2002, Hubbard said that he had receive complaints regarding 11 priests alleging sexual assault on minors.

Howard James Hubbard is the Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Albany. He was the ninth Bishop of Albany, serving as bishop from 1977 to 2014, when 11 priests were accused of sexual abuse towards minors

He added that some of the accused priests were sent for treatment before returning to the ministry without ever informing the public. None of them were reported to police either, with Hubbard claiming he avoided doing so out of concern for 'scandal and the respect of the priesthood.'

During the four-day deposition, the Bishop Emeritus named several priests who had been accused of sexual abuse who were referred to treatment and later returned to ministry, without notification to the public.

One, David Bentley, admitted to Hubbard that he had engaged in the behavior alleged.

Bentley was a member of the Diocese of Albany from 1976 until 1994, when a lawsuit was filed, claiming that the priest had allegedly sexually assaulted children.

A man, who chose to remain anonymous, alleges that Bentley sexually abused him as a teen at the Albany Home for Children in the 1970s. In 1997, the plaintiff's brother and another man, came forward alleging that they were victims of Bentley's abuse at the Albany Home for Children too.

Bentley was then no long part of the ministry in 2002, before another lawsuit in 2005 was filed from another victim alleging that Bentley had sexually him when he was 11-years-old on a trip to Boston, Massachusetts, in the 1980s.

The latest victim who suffered at the hands of Bentley filed a lawsuit in 2018, in which he says that he was sexually abused by the priest at Holy Family Catholic Church in Deming, New Mexico, in the 1990s.

Father David G. Bentley was a member of the Diocese of Albany for two decades until a lawsuit claiming he had sexually abused children came to light in 1994. His current whereabouts are unknown

Subsequently, Bentley became part of the Diocese of Albany's 2015, 2018, and 2019 lists of 'Clergy Credibly Accused While Serving in the Diocese of Albany,' and on the Diocese of Las Cruces' list of 'Priests and religious credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors who have served within the current territorial boundaries of the Diocese of Las Cruces.'

It remains unclear if Bentley is still a priest today. His whereabouts are unknown.

Meanwhile, Hubbard testified he didn't report the allegations to law enforcement because he didn't feel he was required by law to do so, and instead kept the allegations against Bentley, and others, secret out of concern for 'scandal and the respect of the priesthood.' The diocese eventually removed Bentley from ministry.

The transcript 'will be read with horror by the public,' Cynthia LaFave, an attorney representing some of the plaintiffs, said in an emailed statement Friday. 'The public will see the culpability of the Diocese in perpetuating a culture of sex abuse by priests that was allowed to continue for decades.'

Hubbard ran the diocese in New York's Capital District from 1977 to 2014 and has himself been accused of sexual abuse, which he has denied.

He also testified that the diocese kept records documenting sexual abuse allegations in secret files in a locked room that only he and other top church officials could access.

In an emailed statement, a diocese spokesperson didn't address Hubbard's testimony directly but said the diocese's priority is 'the protection and assistance of victim/survivors and the discovery of the truth,' and that it 'has and continues to resolve pending claims of victims/survivors in mediations with the assistance of the court.'

In arguing for the release of the deposition transcript, attorneys for some of the alleged victims had argued that the risk of pre-trial prejudice was no longer valid after Hubbard published an opinion piece in the Albany Times-Union last year in which he defended the diocese's handling of abuse complaints.

When asked why he didn't report the allegations to police, Hubbard said: 'Because I was not a mandated reporter. I don't think the law then or even now requires me to do it. Would I do it now? Yes. But did I do it then? No.'

Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany, where Bentley served as a priest from 1976-1977

Regarding the new accusations, the diocese released a statement: 'Our priority is the protection and assistance of victim/survivors and the discovery of the truth. The wounds persist, the accompaniment continues, the denial and cover up does not.'

'As we stated earlier, while we cannot offer detailed information on historic events that occurred long ago, we can with absolute conviction say that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany takes all allegations of abuse seriously and remains committed to uncovering the truth without fear or favor,' it added.

'The Diocese has and continues to resolve pending claims of victims/survivors in mediations with the assistance of the court. We have settled claims with the intent to provide assistance to victims/survivors through mediation with their attorneys and the court.'
Democrat Senator Amy Klobuchar called on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from election-related cases during a Sunday TV interview, days after a damning report revealed his wife's attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential results.

'The facts are clear here. This is unbelievable. You have the wife of a sitting Supreme Court justice advocating for an insurrection, advocating for overturning a legal election to the sitting president's chief of staff and she also knows this election, these cases, are going to come before her husband,' Klobuchar said.

She told ABC's This Week: 'This is a textbook case for removing him, recusing him from these decisions.'

Virginia Thomas, a conservative activist, pushed 2020 election fraud conspiracy theories in dozens of text messages with ex-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, reports revealed on Thursday.

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 and CBS News.

The 29 messages are reportedly part of the vast tranche of documents Meadows handed over to the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of the two Republicans sitting on the committee, would not confirm or deny that the panel was in possession of the messages on Sunday.

Minnesota Democrat Senator Amy Klobuchar said of Justice Clarence Thomas that his wife's reported text messages with Mark Meadows about the 2020 election represent 'a textbook case for removing him, recusing him from these decisions'

Sen. Amy Klobuchar says Justice Clarence Thomas needs to recuse himself from election cases over his wifes texts.



This is a textbook case for removing him, recusing him from these decisionsThe entire integrity of the court is on the line here. https://t.co/Cghdx0vPeO pic.twitter.com/3IHHIl9crj  This Week (@ThisWeekABC) March 27, 2022

However, it's been confirmed that Meadows handed over thousands of documents before abruptly cutting ties with the House investigation, and Kinzinger said he is 'not convinced' that the former White House aide gave them everything.

'I can't, as a member of the committee, confirm, deny the existence of those. I'll tell you, though, we have thousands of text messages from lots of people. We have a lot of documents. And we are going to, in a methodical, fact-driven way, get to the answers here,' Kinzinger told CBS News' Face The Nation.

He was equally as cagey when asked about the possibility of subpoenaing Thomas.

'We want to make sure that this isn't driven, even though it's in the political realm, it's not driven by a political motivation, it's driven by facts,' Kinzinger said.

The messages, which include allusions to the 'Biden crime family' and a false QAnon conspiracy that Trump had watermarked mail-in ballots to track possible fraud, only go through November -- raising questions over what, if any, communication Thomas and Meadows had closer to the January 6 insurrection.

Thomas already admitted she was in attendance at Trump's Stop The Steal rally, which took place just before the riot, during an interview with the Washington Free Beacon. She claimed to have left before the end.

'I'm not confident that Meadow's handed over everything at all. I mean, he was cooperating with us for a little bit, and then in an attempt to make Donald Trump happy, he stopped cooperating,' Kinzinger said.

The Thomases have denied discussing their respective work with each other but the well-publicized closeness of their relationship casts doubt on that claim

Virginia Thomas (right) is a well-known conservative activist and Trump supporter

The House of Representatives previously voted to hold Meadows in contempt of Congress over his abrupt severing of ties with the committee. It's now up to the Justice Department whether to charge him.

'I'm not convinced he's handed over everything to us. And that's why it's in the DOJ's hands now, whether to prosecute him for contempt,' Kinzinger said on Sunday.

Virginia Thomas has denied discussing work with her husband, but their clearly close relationship has cast doubt on her claims.

Clarence Thomas was the lone dissenting vote when the high court rejected Trump's bid to block the release of White House records related to the Capitol riot this past January. He gave no explanation for his decision.

And one particular exchange between Meadows and Thomas within the reported tranche of texts is fueling questions on how much her husband knew.

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!'

It's not clear who the 'best friend' Thomas mentions is. The Thomases have been known to refer to each other as their 'best friend.'

The Washington Post and CBS News reportedly obtained 29 texts between Thomas and Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows

Are you confident that Meadows has handed over all of his texts? @jdickerson asks Jan 6. committee member Rep. Adam Kinzinger, on former Pres. Trumps chief of staff.



Im not confident that Meadows has handed over everything at all, Kinzinger says. pic.twitter.com/e7MDtPxmIe  Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) March 27, 2022

On Sunday Klobuchar urged the Supreme Court to formally weigh in on the matter, claiming the 'entire integrity of the court is on the line.'

'All I hear is silence from the Supreme Court right now and that better change in the coming week, because every other federal judge in the country except Supreme Court justices would have guidance from ethics rules that says you've got to recuse,' the Minnesota Democrat senator said.

'Not only should he recuse himself, but this Supreme Court badly needs ethics rules.'

The high court currently has no guidelines on recusals, leaving them to the justices' discretion.

Klobuchar's sentiment was echoed by New Jersey Democrat Senator Cory Booker on Sunday.

'I have a lot of frustrations with the Supreme Court as a whole, that they have not taken better measures to police themselves. There are ethics rules that they hold lower courts responsible for, that they don't put upon themselves,' Booker told NBC News' Meet The Press.

He continued, 'And I think most of America doesn't understand that I could be a justice and I could give a paid speech in front of a group that has either a direct matter in front of the Supreme Court, or has amicus briefs in front of the Supreme Court.'

'There are a lot of ethics rules that they have not put upon themselves that are just common sense and ultimately lead to a delegitimized court. And I think that they need to use this ... as an opportunity to change their ethics rules.'

WATCH: "Clearly" Justice Thomas "should have recused himself" from election cases as his wife, Ginni Thomas, sent "stop the steal" texts around the Jan. 6 insurrection, Sen. @CoryBooker says. #MTP



"[The Supreme Court needs] to use this ... to change their ethics rules." pic.twitter.com/391j6blZp2  Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) March 27, 2022

A message supposedly sent by Thomas to Meadows on November 19 reads, '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.'

'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.

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.

On November 22, the same day Giuliani and fellow Trump attorney Jenna Ellis cut ties with Powell, Thomas apparently reached out to Meadows with concern.

'Trying to understand the Sidney Powell distancing,' a text from Thomas read.

Meadows allegedly replied, 'She doesnt have anything or at least she wont share it if she does.'

The brief exchange abruptly ends after Thomas responds with 'Wow!'

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.'

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

'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 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 echoed a passage that was making the rounds in far-right internet circles: '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.

Clarence Thomas was released from the hospital on Friday, after checking in the week before with an 'infection.'
A charity supporting families coming to the UK from Ukraine said no visas have been granted to those it is helping, almost two weeks on from the Government scheme's launch.

The Homes for Ukraine scheme opened on March 14, with the aim of allowing individuals, charities, community groups and businesses to bring Ukrainians - including those with no family ties to the UK - to safety.

But the organisation Positive Action in Housing said the scheme has left those seeking refuge 'to turn in desperation to strangers on social media for sponsors', and warned of the danger posed by potential human traffickers.

The charity said that in the past week alone it has been helping 483 Ukrainian families, young people and unaccompanied minors who are asking for assistance to find a sponsor who will also shelter them.

Robina Qureshi, director of the charity - which runs Room for Refugees, the UK's longest-running refugee hosting programme which has been in place since 2002 - said the forms involved in the Ukrainian scheme are 'tortuous and confusing - with no guideline'.

She said: 'The Government made a fanfare of its Homes for Ukraine Community sponsorship programme. Michael Gove told Parliament on March 14 that there was no limit on the numbers coming in.

'Yet, none of the families we are supporting have yet got a visa to travel under the Community Sponsorship scheme and are still waiting.'

A charity supporting families coming to the UK from Ukraine said no visas have been granted to those it is helping, almost two weeks on from the Government scheme's launch (Ukrainian refugees pictured leaving the country earlier today)

The organisation Positive Action in Housing said the scheme has left those seeking refuge 'to turn in desperation to strangers on social media for sponsors'

A Ukrainian police officer is overwhelmed by emotion after comforting people evacuated from Irpin on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, March 26, 2022

Ukrainian refugees sit on a shuttle bus after crossing the Ukrainian border with Poland at the Medyka border crossing, southeastern Poland, on March 27, 2022

KYIV, UKRAINE - MARCH 25: Damaged library is seen after shelling in Byshiv village in Kyiv, Ukraine on March 25, 2022

Ms Qureshi said they had seen examples of people putting themselves at further risk, such is their desperation as they endure long waits to find out if they can get a visa.

She said: 'Unaccompanied minors, young women, women with young children, have told us they met someone on social media who offered to be a sponsor under Homes for Ukraine.

'A Ukrainian mother said she was sending her teenage sons, one of whom is autistic, alone to make the journey to the UK from Ukraine.

'Another woman told us that she would leave Kharkiv now if the UK government offered a visa, but she is waiting in her home terrified.

'Refugees are turning to wholly unsafe methods of getting here, meeting people in Facebook groups, on social media.

'And this Government is responsible for giving people false hope and putting them further in the way of danger.'

She warned that human traffickers 'thrive on refugee conflicts and displacements anytime there are vulnerable populations on the move', labelling the scheme a 'gimmick' which she said 'has resulted in obvious and dangerous breaches of basic safeguarding on an industrial scale - all instigated by one Government Department'.

She repeated the charity's call for visa restrictions to be waived 'so that war refugees have the confidence to travel, and allow NGOs and community organisations to assess people and place them in safe shelter'.

Russian serviceman examines debris of the store in downtown Volnovakha, Ukraine, 26 March 2022

Ukrainian refugees board a train en route to Warsaw at the railway station in Przemysl, near the Polish-Ukrainian border, on March 27, 2022, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine

A Ukrainian mother embraces her child as they flee the Russian invasion of their home country

Smoke rises outside Lviv after a Russian airstrike, in Lviv, western Ukraine, 26 March 2022

On Saturday, Government minister Kit Maltouse said refugees have arrived in the UK through the Homes For Ukraine scheme, but that the number will not be published until 'next week'.

Separately, the Government has a Ukraine Family Scheme which is for people seeking to join relatives or extend their stay in the UK.

A Government spokesperson said: 'No visa is issued by the Home Office until checks have been completed on the Ukrainian applicant as well as on every adult in a sponsor's household.

'Local authorities will then run DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) checks on sponsors, with enhanced DBS with barred list checks for those housing families with children or vulnerable adults.

'Under the Homes for Ukraine scheme, Ukrainians will be guaranteed free access to NHS healthcare, including mental health care. They will also be able to work and receive benefits.

'The Government has also ensured that local authorities have appropriate levels of funding to support new arrivals.'
Apocalyptic scenes have been captured of fire raging across a Scottish island where government scientists had experimented with Anthrax.

Gruinard Island, off the west coast of Scotland, is uninhabited and the scenes of a huge blaze engulfing it were seen by those on the mainland on Saturday night.

The news comes as the Scottish public were urged 'take care' following a wildfire warning in force over the weekend.

The small island, just 2km long by 1km, was put off limits to humans in the 1940s until the late 20th Century, when it was decontaminated from the deadly disease.

The Ministry of Defence declared the Scottish island free of Anthrax in 1990.

Apocalyptic scenes, pictured, have been captured of fire raging across the Scottish Gruinard island where government scientists had experimented with Anthrax

Gruinard Island, off the west coast of Scotland, where biological warfare testing was carried out in the 1940s

Gruinard Island, off the west coast of Scotland, is uninhabited and a small island just 2km long by 1km

According to the BBC, Kate Gearing and her daughter Nessie were going home to Aultbea, a small fishing village in the North-West Highlands of Scotland, at 8.30pm last night when they spotted the blaze.

Ms Gearing, 25, said the huge fire scene raging across the island was 'apocalyptic,' and looked like 'hell fire'.

She added 'There was a string of flames around the whole circumference of the island.

'We could hear birds crying, screaming, and then suddenly there was silence - but the flames went on, it was awful.'

She also had concerns about the anthrax, which was tested on the island.

But has been cleared, according to the MoD.

What is anthrax and how was the infectious disease developed into a weapon for bioterrorism? Anthrax spores have been weaponised by at least five countries: Britain, Japan, the United States, Russia and Iraq Anthrax is the name of the potentially-deadly disease caused by the spores of bacteria Bacillus anthracis. As the disease can survive in harsh climates, Anthrax spores have been weaponised by at least five countries: Britain, Japan, the United States, Russia and Iraq. The disease can be contracted by touching, inhaling or swallowing spores, which can lie dormant in water and soil for years. It is most deadly, however, when the spores are inhaled, which is why the threat of a letter containing the disease is taken very seriously by authorities. About 80 per cent of people who inhale the spores will die, in some cases even with immediate medical intervention. Use as a biological weapon Anthrax's first documented use as a weapon of warfare was by the Japanese in the 1930s, where thousands of prisoners of war were intentionally infected and died. British trials of the disease on Gruinard Island in Scotland in 1942 severely contaminated the land for half a century, making it a no-go area until 1990. The disease is particularly dangerous as its spores can be cultivated with minimal scientific training and special equipment. Letters containing the deadly spores was mailed to several news outlets and the offices of two politicians in America, in what came to be known as the 2001 Anthrax attacks. Biodefence researcher Dr Bruce Ivins (left) is the sole suspect of the 2001 Anthrax attacks, in whcih letters (right) containing the disease were mailed across the USA As a result, 22 were infected and five people died after just a few grams who used across all the letters. In 2008, biodefence researcher Dr Bruce Ivins was named as a suspect but committed suicide before he could face any charges. What are the symptoms of Anthrax?

Once inside the body they become active and start producing toxins, which cause the disease and manifest and spread. Symptoms range from blisters to shortness of breath or diarrhea, depending on how it enters the body. The vast majority of cases are caused by skin contact. This is the least deadly form of the disease, with 75 per cent of patients surviving without treatment. Anthrax naturally infects many species of grazing mammals such as sheep, cattle and goats, which are infected through ingestion of soil contaminated by B. anthracis spores. The spores may remain dormant for many years. Infection generally occurs 1 to 7 days after exposure but occasionally, if inhaled, cases may present 2 to 3 months later. Sources: NHS and US Centers for Disease Control Advertisement

Scientists studied the effects of anthrax in 1942 by putting bacteria in bombs and detonating them near a herd of sheep on the island.

The disease is particularly dangerous as its spores can be cultivated with minimal scientific training and special equipment.

Scotland Fire and Rescue Service is aware of the fire on Saturday but does not manage fires on the island as its uninhabited, it told the BBC.

A wildfire warning has been in place in Scotland since Friday and lasts until Wednesday, 30 March.

People who live, work or are visiting rural areas, in particular, are being urged to exercise the utmost caution to avoid fires breaking out.

Scotland Fire and Rescue Service is aware of the fire on Saturday night, pictured, but does not manage fires on the island as its uninhabited, it told the BBC

Scotland Fire and Rescue Service group commander, Niall MacLennan said: 'Numerous wildfires across Scotland this week, including large fires on Ben Lomond and near Mallaig have shown how real the danger of fire is in the countryside and how damaging it can be to the environment, wildlife and nearby communities.

'With rising temperatures this weekend and further dry conditions into next week, wildfires could burn and spread with very high intensity in high-risk areas.

'Therefore, we are asking people to act responsibly when enjoying the outdoors and please think twice before using anything involving a naked flame.'
The BBC's TV news bulletins have been taken off-air in Afghanistan after the Taliban 'ordered our TV partners to remove international broadcasters from their airwaves'.

The corporation has called on the Taliban to 'reverse their decision', claiming the service reaches six million Afghans weekly.

The Taliban were ousted in 2001 by a US-led coalition, but swept back into power last August following America's chaotic end to 20 years of war in Afghanistan.

On Sunday, the BBC announced its TV news bulletin in Pashto, Persian and Uzbek had been taken off-air in Afghanistan following a Taliban order

On Sunday, the BBC announced its TV news bulletin in Pashto, Persian and Uzbek had been taken off-air in Afghanistan following a Taliban order.

Tarik Kafala, head of languages, BBC World Service, said: 'This is a worrying development at a time of uncertainty and turbulence for the people of Afghanistan.

'More than six million Afghans consume the BBC's independent and impartial journalism on TV every week and it is crucial they are not denied access to it in the future.

'We call on the Taliban to reverse their decision and allow our TV partners to return the BBC's news bulletins to their airwaves immediately.'

This comes after the Taliban excluded girls from returning to secondary school and replaced Afghanistan's women's ministry with an all-male 'vice and virtue' department.

This comes after the Taliban excluded girls from returning to secondary school and replaced Afghanistan's women's ministry with an all-male 'vice and virtue' department

The Islamists excluded girls from returning to secondary school in Afghanistan on Saturday but ordered boys and male teachers back to the classroom.

The hardline group ousted the US-backed government in August last year, promising a softer brand of rule than their repressive reign in the 1990s, when women were mostly banned from education and work.

But the diktat from the education ministry was the latest move from the new government to threaten women's rights.

'All male teachers and students should attend their educational institutions'
Ukraine could adopt a neutral status as part of a peace deal with Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky admitted last night.

He told Russian media - who were warned not to report the interview - such a pact would have to be guaranteed by third parties and put to a referendum.

Zelensky said Russia's invasion had caused the destruction of Russian-speaking cities in Ukraine, and said the damage was worse than the Russian wars in Chechnya.

'Security guarantees and neutrality, non-nuclear status of our state. We are ready to go for it. This is the most important point,' he said.

He said no peace deal would be possible without a ceasefire and troop withdrawals.

'All entries and exits from the city of Mariupol are blocked,' Zelensky added.

'The port is mined. A humanitarian catastrophe inside the city is unequivocal, because it is impossible to go there with food, medicine and water,' he said.

'I don't even know who the Russian army has ever treated like this,' he said, adding that, compared to Russian wars in Chechnya, the volume of destruction 'cannot be compared'.

It came as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had a telephone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin today where he stressed the need for a ceasefire in Ukraine, his office said.

The two leaders agreed the next meeting between Russian and Ukrainian officials should be held in Istanbul though it did not give a time frame.

Erdogan also called for an improvement to the humanitarian situation in the region, according to the statement.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (pictured) has said he spoke with Russian president Vladimir Putin and stressed the need for a ceasefire in Ukraine to him

President Vladimir Putin (pictured) agreed with Erdogan that the next peace talks between Russian and Ukrainian should be held in Istanbul

Earlier on Sunday, Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia said the next round of face-to-face talks between Ukraine and Russia will take place in Turkey on March 28-30.

While Russia's chief negotiator said the in-person talks would begin on Tuesday.

This week Erdogan said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's comments on the need for a referendum for compromises with Russia was 'smart leadership'.

Speaking to reporters on a return flight from a NATO summit in Brussels, The Turkish president said his country could not impose sanctions on Russia due to its energy needs and cooperation.

President Volodymyr Zelensky (pictured) said on Monday any compromises agreed with Russia to end the war would need to be voted upon in a referendum

Self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic leader, Leonid Pasechnik (pictured), said the region may hold a referendum to join Russia in the future

A Ukrainian military chief has said that Putin is trying to split Ukraine in two, as separatists in rebel-held Luhansk say they will hold referendum on joining Russia.

In talks with Ukraine, Moscow has urged it to acknowledge Russia's sovereignty over Crimea and the independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

The head of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic, Leonid Pasechnik, said it may hold a referendum in the near future.

However Ukraine said that any such vote would have no legal basis and vowed a 'total' guerrilla warfare to prevent the country splitting in two.

'In fact, it is an attempt to create North and South Korea in Ukraine,' Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, said in a statement, referring to the division of Korea after World War Two.

Russia has supported the separatist rebels in Luhansk and the neighbouring Donetsk regions since an insurgency erupted there in 2014 shortly after Moscow's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.

Vladimir Putin last month recognised the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, where pro-Russian separatists began fighting Ukrainian forces in 2014, as 'independent'.

Putin used the apparent protection of the two eastern Ukrainian regions as a pretext to start their barbaric invasion on Ukraine.

Ukraine has repeatedly said it will never agree to Russia's annexation of its territory - the hardest part of peace talks with Moscow.

'All fake referendums in the temporarily occupied territories are null and void and will have no legal validity,' Ukraine's foreign ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko said in a statement to Reuters.

'Instead, Russia will face an even stronger response from the international community, further deepening its global isolation.'
U.S. President Joe Biden holds a girl on his arm as he and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki meet with Ukrainian refugees at PGE Narodowy Stadium in Warsaw, March 26. AFP-Yonhap





U.S. President Joe Biden said in Poland, Saturday, that Russia's leader Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power," remarks a White House official said later were meant to prepare the world's democracies for extended conflict over Ukraine, not back regime change in Russia.







Biden's comments, including a statement earlier in the day calling Putin a "butcher," were a sharp escalation of the U.S. approach to Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.







In a major address delivered at Warsaw's Royal Castle, Biden evoked Poland's four decades behind the Iron Curtain in an effort to build a case that the world's democracies must urgently confront an autocratic Russia as a threat to global security and freedom.







But a remark at the end of the speech raised the specter of an escalation by Washington, which has avoided direct military involvement in Ukraine, and has specifically said it does not back regime change.







"For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power," Biden told a crowd in Warsaw after condemning Putin's month-long war in Ukraine.







A White House official said Biden's remarks did not represent a shift in Washington's policy.







"The President's point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region," the official said. "He was not discussing Putin's power in Russia, or regime change."







Asked about Biden's comment, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Reuters: "That's not for Biden to decide. The president of Russia is elected by Russians."







Calling the fight against Putin a "new battle for freedom," Biden said Putin's desire for "absolute power" was a strategic failure for Russia and a direct challenge to a European peace that has largely prevailed since World War Two.







U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during an event at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland, March 26, amid Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Reuters-Yonhap





"The West is now stronger, more united than it has ever been," Biden said. "This battle will not be won in days or months, either. We need to steel ourselves for the long fight ahead."







The speech came after three days of meetings in Europe with the G7, European Council and NATO allies, and took place roughly at the same time as rockets rained down on the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, just 60 kilometers (40 miles) from the Polish border.







"Their brave resistance is part of a larger fight for essential democratic principles that unite all free people," Biden said. "We stand with you. Period."







In his speech, Biden said NATO is a defensive security alliance which never sought Russia's demise and he reiterated that the West has no desire to harm Russia's people even as its sanctions threaten to cripple their economy.







Poland was under communist rule for four decades until 1989 and was a member of the Moscow-led Warsaw Pact security alliance. It is now part of the European Union and NATO.







The rise of right-wing populism in Poland in recent years has put it in conflict with the EU and Washington, but fears of Russia pressing beyond its borders has drawn Poland closer to its Western allies.







Speaking to a crowd holding U.S., Polish and Ukrainian flags, Biden said the West is acting in unison because of the "gravity of the threat" to global peace.







"The battle for democracy could not conclude and did not conclude with the end of the Cold War," Biden said. "Over the last 30 years the forces of autocracy have revived all across the globe."







Reaction was mixed in Warsaw. Mykyta Hubo, a Ukrainian from Dnipro who has been living in Poland for several years called the speech "ordinary": "Lots of talk, little action," he said.







Pawel Sterninski, who traveled nearly three hours to Warsaw from elsewhere in Poland to hear Biden, came wrapped in a U.S. flag.







"The U.S. can't really engage militarily because that could result in a third world war. Putin is unpredictable. If you're threatening with nuclear weapons, it takes just a moment to turn into a global conflict."







Earlier in the day, Biden dropped in on a meeting with Ukraine's foreign and defense ministers and made additional, unspecified security pledges on developing defense cooperation, according to Ukraine's foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba.







In Warsaw, Biden also visited a refugee reception center at the national stadium. More than 2 million people have fled the war to Poland. Altogether, about 3.8 million have left Ukraine since fighting began.







Putin calls Russia's military actions in Ukraine a "special military operation" to demilitarize and "denazify" the country. (Reuters)


A Chicago Transit Authority worker is facing attempted murder charges for allegedly shooting a 'violent' passenger after being shoved to the ground in a shocking moment that was captured on video.

Sylvester Adams, 53, was taken into custody moments after the early Saturday morning shooting at the 95th Red Line station.

He is charged with felony first-degree attempted murder and felony aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.

The victim, identified as a 37-year-old Jeremy Begay, was taken to the University of Chicago hospital in critical condition with gunshot wounds to his back, abdomen, and left leg.

Chicago Police said Begay had been disturbing customers in the train station leading up to the argument that escalated to a fight just before 2 a.m. on Saturday.

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Video shows the heated altercation between the two men and the shocking moment Jeremy Begay shoves CTA worker Sylvester Adams to the ground early Saturday

Sylvester Adams, 53, was taken into custody moments after the early Saturday morning shooting at the 95th Red Line station

Video posted by the @CPD1617Scanner Twitter account shows the heated altercation between the two men and the shocking moment Begay shoves the worker to the ground.

He then flees down the stairs at the station.

The video footage shows the CTA worker regain his composure as he appears to pull out a gun and limps over to the stairs.

'He got his pipe, boy,' a bystander at the station is heard on the video saying.

The CTA worker pauses at the top of the stairs and then starts firing several shots at the man, hitting him, police said.

Chicago Police said Begay had been disturbing customers in the train station leading up to the argument that escalated to a fight just before 2 a.m. on Saturday

The video footage shows the CTA worker regain his composure as he appears to pull out a gun and limps over to the stairs

The CTA worker pauses at the top of the stairs and then starts firing several shots at the man, hitting him, police said

CTA said the worker was employed as a customer assistant and was not allowed to carry a firearm.

'Based on our own investigation, we can also confirm that this employee was in violation of several CTA workforce rules, including one that expressly prohibits the possession of a firearm,' the agency said in a statement.

'The behavior of this one employee is not at all reflective of the thousands of hardworking and dedicated men and women who take pride in their work and responsibly perform their duties each day,' the agency added.

The CTA is 'pursuing termination' of the employee, the agency said.

Adams is scheduled to be in bond court on Sunday.

The violent incident comes as Chicago experiences a dramatic and sustained crime wave.

While murders are roughly flat so far in 2022 compared to last year, they are up 24 percent from 2020 and 74 percent from 2019.

The Chicago Transit Authority, meanwhile, recorded a spike in crime of 56 percent in January and February, according to the Chicago Tribune.
A Missouri girl aged just 14 accidentally' shot her 12 year-old cousin dead and then killed herself while streaming on Instagram Live at a birthday party, her stricken family says.

St Louis Police initially described Friday's incident, in which 12-year-old Paris Harvey, shot her 14-year-old cousin, Kuaron Harvey before shooting herself, as a murder-suicide.

But the children's family have since described the horrific shooting that took place at a house the family rented to celebrate birthdays, as a 'freak accident.'

Police responded to the Cupples Station Loft Apartments at South 10th and Spruce Street shortly after 2am on Friday.

Kuaron and Paris, whose mother and father are siblings, were pronounced dead at the scene. Relatives have shut down reports of a murder-suicide, saying instead it was a 'freak accident.'

'It was no murder. It wasn't a suicide,' Paris' mother, 35-year-old Shinise Harvey, told the St Louis Post-Dispatch. 'It was a freak accident. It happened.'

Harvey said she had not seen the video but family members had described it to her.

She said the cousins were 'trying to be too hip,' when livestreaming from the downtown apartment's bathroom before the tragedy.

Twelve-year-old Paris Harvey (pictured), shot her 14-year-old cousin, Kuaron Harvey, before shooting herself in what police initially described as a murder-suicide but relatives said was a freak accident

After Kuaron (pictured) was shot in the head, Paris reached for the gun and it may have accidentally gone off, also wounding her in the head, relatives have said

The tragedy took place at an appartment the family had rented for a party on South 10th and Spruce Street shortly after 2am on Friday. Kuaron and Paris were pronounced dead at the scene

Paris' grandmother, Susan Dyson, said she saw the Instagram Live video the two cousins were making together.

After Kuaron was shot in the head, Paris reached for the gun and it may have accidentally gone off, also wounding her in the head, relatives have said.

'It wasn't a situation where they were arguing or anything like that,' Dyson told the Post-dispatch.

'They were playing with the gun, when they shouldn't have been. Of course, they shouldn't have been doing it. I think it just went off. It went off by mistake.'

The gun was believed to have been taken to the party by Kuaron, but cops are still investigating who the weapon was registered to.

It is unclear if law enforcement plans to bring charges against any of the adults in charge of the children or their parents.

Family members told the Post-dispatch Paris and Kuaron were very close, called each other brother and sister and were always facetiming, rapping, making videos and pulling pranks.

Angel Dyson, Paris' aunt, also told the outlet the cousins acted 'older than they were.'

'No matter how good we try to raise our kids,' Shinise Harvey said, 'they still are going to venture off.'

Paris' sister, Tatyina Gilliehan, set up a GoFundMe to raise money to cover funeral costs. Kuaron's mother, Dara Harvey, has also set up a fundraiser

On social media, police posted a tribute for the children after their sudden death.

'We are sending our heartfelt condolences to the family of 12-year-old Paris Harvey and 14-year-old Kuaron Harvey who tragically passed away on 3/25/22.'

Family members said Paris, who was one of nine children, was a funny seventh grader who loved getting her hair and nails done and had a beautiful voice.

They described Kuaron as a goofy eighth grader who had long been able to do back flips.

According to the Post-dispatch, the party was for teenagers and younger adults in the family.

While Paris and Kuaron had been initially told they couldn't go to the party, their mothers eventually said yes when the children begged them to go.

Paris' sister, Tatyina Gilliehan, set up a GoFundMe to raise money to cover funeral costs. Kuaron's mother, Dara Harvey, has also set up a fundraiser.
Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of California on Sunday accused Democrats and the mainstream media of engaging in a 'conspiracy' over Hunter Biden's laptop in a bid to help President Joe Biden win the 2020 election.

GOP lawmakers have been demanding answers after the New York Times claimed to have authenticated a hard drive purportedly belonging to the president's only living son -- more than a year after the New York Post was widely criticized for reporting on the contents of that same computer.

DailyMail.com had also authenticated the information at a time when many on the left wing were dismissing it as Russian disinformation.

Issa's bombshell accusation comes one day after New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, the no. 3 House Republican, vowed that her party 'will subpoena Hunter Biden' if they win back control of Congress in November.

'The American people absolutely deserve answers,' Stefanik told the Post on Saturday. 'There is no greater ethical concern or frankly conspiracy  whether this president is compromised because of his illegal ties to his family members.'

Earlier this week Issa sent preservation notices to White House aides, several tech companies and ex-intelligence officials in a bid to keep them from getting rid of documents and records tied to the Post's original Hunter Biden story from October 2020.

'Well one of the reasons I said the preservation letters is that those notices, if you then destroy evidence, are in fact evading Congress and suppressing evidence,' Issa said on Fox News Sunday. 'We've had that in the past. Obviously, we had that with Hillary Clinton at her attempt to destroy all the evidence of her illegal activities.'

California GOP Rep. Darrell Issa (right) slammed Hunter Biden as a 'petty criminal' and alleged the media was involved in a cover-up to sway the 2020 election during an interview on Fox News

'But the other part of it is, that because this involves so many companies such as Facebook, Twitter, and so on, they took down the New York Post, there was clearly a conspiracy to, if you will, cover up the wrongdoing of the president and his family just before an election that he had to win and did win.'

The hard drive was given to the outlet by ex-Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who obtained it from a Delaware computer repair shop where Hunter Biden reportedly dropped it off.

In addition to lewd images depicting sex acts and drug use, the laptop's hard drive also contained a trove of emails that detailed Hunter Biden's efforts to leverage his father's connections as then-vice president to bolster his foreign business dealings.

Issa's comments come one day after Rep. Elise Stefanik, the third most powerful Republican in the House, vowed to subpoena the president's only living son if her party takes back control of Congress in November

Of particular interest to Republicans is the identity of a so-called 'big guy' who was meant to receive 10 percent of profits from a Chinese business deal. The monicker is found in an email on the hard drive to Hunter Biden from his business partner James Gilliar.

It's not confirmed who the 'big guy' is, but some Republican lawmakers have speculated it to mean the president.

Tony Bobulinski, another former business partner of Hunter Biden's, also previously pointed the finger at Joe Biden.

'Thats one of the critical questions  perhaps the most critical question,' Stefanik said on Saturday.

Amid backlash from Biden supporters and Democrats who called the story an effort by Russia to meddle in the presidential election, Twitter blocked users from sharing the story for more than two weeks.

Facebook said at the time that it had reduced the story's distribution.

On Sunday Issa blasted Hunter Biden as a 'petty criminal' and charged tech platforms and other media outlets with 'suppressing' the New York Post.

'The investigation is clearly warranted -- not just because Hunter Biden seems to be a petty criminal, taking advantage of his father's money and perhaps sharing you know, money with his father,' Issa said.

'It's because if we have this kind of coordinated effort just before an election, what we have is American collusion to over -- to affect the output of an election.

'That can't happen. We've got to make sure that our press is free and fair and right now, when it comes to new media, free and fair doesn't exist. And when it comes to one of the oldest newspapers in America -- the New York Post was founded in 1801 -- they were suppressed.'

The laptop, which the New York Times recently authenticated long after right-wing media outlets were blasted for reporting about it, contains compromising and embarrassing images of Hunter Biden

In some of the pictures, Hunter Biden is seen with a crack pipe hanging out of his mouth. His past struggles with drug addiction have been well documented

The breakdown of the stake in the business, including the 10% to the 'Big Guy', were revealed in an email last year. Stefanik said finding out who that is could be 'the most critical question' that Republicans have for Hunter Biden

Extracts from one email published show how Hunter Biden was to be paid $850,000 in part of his arrangement with the Chinese firm

At the center of Republicans' outrage is a recent New York Times article, which reveals that an ongoing federal investigation into Hunter Biden's tax affairs has since widened into the recovering drug addict's overseas business dealings -- including his time on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

One paragraph in the article appears to be the first time the outlet acknowledged the veracity of Hunter's hard drive: 'Those emails were obtained by The New York Times from a cache of files that appears to have come from a laptop abandoned by Mr. Biden in a Delaware repair shop. The email and others in the cache were authenticated by people familiar with them and with the investigation.'

GOP Senators Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley previously teamed up to release an 'interim report' weeks before the 2020 presidential election titled 'Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns.'

The report accused Hunter Biden of 'cashing in' on his father's role as vice president in the Obama administration but found no wrongdoing on the part of then-candidate Biden himself.

In an interview with The Hill last week, Johnson signaled interest in restarting the investigation if Republicans were to take back the majority in the Senate in November's midterm elections.

'Id kind of like that to wrap that up. Weve been trying to get his travel records for a couple of years now,' Johnson said of his Congressional inquiry.
An Oregon woman is facing a long road to recovery after being stabbed 11 times with a kitchen knife in front of her apartment by a stranger who was out on parole, in what police have described as a chilling random attack.

Lauren Carrier, 30, can now only walk with the assistance of a cane and is unable to move her arm.

The incident began when Bryan Aguilera, 27, showed up to her apartment in Beaverton - just outside of Portland - on March 3 looking for someone named Jasmine.

She told him he had the wrong place - but he returned the next evening for some reason, setting off alarm bells for Carrier.

'I only opened the door, a small crack, and he began to punch me and stab me. And that's when I knew that I needed to fight, because he was pushing me away from the front door,' Carrier told local station KOMO.

Carrier, who has a 9-year-old daughter that wasn't home at the time, grabbed a bat to fight off her attacker and started screaming for help, according to the outlet. Her neighbors came to the rescue, with one pinning Aguilera down until police arrived.

Aguilera was on parole at the time of the March 4 incident, according to court records.

He's being held at Washington County jail on $25,000 bail as of Sunday afternoon on charges of attempted murder, first degree assault, burglary, two counts of third degree theft and four counts of unlawful use of a weapon.

Carrier is recovering at home and walking with a cane. She says she can't move her right arm anymore as a result of the brutal knife attack.

Lauren Carrier, 30, was in her Beaverton, Oregon apartment on March 4 when a random man knocked on the door and brutally stabbed her 11 times in a random attack

Carrier, who has a 9-year-old daughter, grabbed a bat to defend herself as her neighbors helped her and eventually chased down the suspect, 27-year-old Bryan Aguilera

She hospitalized with a broken rib, punctured lungs and severed nerves in her right arm and is now recovering at home

The Beaverton Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment from DailyMail.com.

Aguilera is from Woodburn, about 28 mi south of Beaverton, according to the Beaverton Valley Times.

Police said he stabbed Carrier repeatedly from the other side of her front door.

'He began just punching me and all of a sudden grabbed a seven-inch kitchen knife and began stabbing and trying to push me into my living room, and I knew that if I didn't get out of my apartment I was going to die,' she told KPTV.

She grabbed a bat to fight him off, adding that her dad always taught her to keep one by the door in case she had to defend herself.

'I was thinking in my head, like, "My mom. Somebody needs to tell my mom." Because I just thought I was gonna die,' she told KOMO.

'My neighbors were amazing,' Carrier said. 'They got towels; they made them into tourniquets, called 911. My attacker ran away, and two other neighbors ran after him, tackled him, and held him until police arrived.'

Carrier said: 'He severed the nerves in my arm; I can't move my arm anymore'

The stabbing happened on the evening of March 4 at her Beaverton apartment complex, just outside of Portland

In an update on Facebook on March 18, Carrier said: 'I'm back home and feeling so full of love and support. Im ready for this new journey. Im already starting to take a few steps without my cane, getting up and down the stairs (with assistance) and can tie my shoes one handed!'

She was hospitalized with a broken rib, punctured lungs and severed nerves in her right arm.

A GoFundMe fundraiser posted on her behalf has raised almost $16,000 since March 6.

'She sustained two punctured lungs, broken ribs, and cannot feel or use her right arm,' the description reads.

'Lauren has a long road to recovery, physically and mentally. She will not be able to work for the foreseeable future, and she is a single parent. Thankfully, Lauren's child was not home at the time of the attack. Lauren's amazing family will be able to house her, but she will need financial assistance to meet basic needs while she is healing.'

On March 18, Carrier posted an update on her recovery on Facebook.

'I'm back home and feeling so full of love and support. Im ready for this new journey. Im already starting to take a few steps without my cane, getting up and down the stairs (with assistance) and can tie my shoes one handed!

A GoFundMe fundraiser posted on her behalf has raised almost $16,000 since March 6

Carrier posted an update on her recovery on March 18, telling her followers that she's 'grateful and fortunate to be alive'

'I'm experiencing lots of physical pain but the amount of love from family, friends and our community has overshadowed that pain. I'm so, so grateful and fortunate to be alive and I wont let anyone kill my spirit,' she wrote.

Beaverton is a suburb of Portland, which is already on track to surpass last year's record-breaking homicide rate.

The Pacific Northwest city capped off February with 22 murders so far this year - up from 19 in 2021 - and is on track to hit around 130 by December, according to the Oregonian.

The city, which slashed its police budget in the wake of protests over George Floyd's murder, set a record last year with 92 homicides - the highest since there were 70 homicides in 1987.

Portland has already had 22 murders since the start of 2022, up from the 19 in the same period last year and is predicted to have up to around 130 by the end of December. If it reaches 126, 2022 will surpass the record-breaking 2021, which had 92 murders - breaking the 34-year record of 70 murders in 1987

The Portland Police Bureau suffered a rash of retirements and resignations after Portland politicians embraced calls to defund the police.

A total of $15 million was initially chopped from the city's budget, with progressive Portland prosecutors also criticized for refusing to charge 70 percent of people arrested by the city's police.

In an attempt to stem the violence, the police department introduced a new 'Focused Intervention Team' that hit the streets in January.

The team is designed to address gun violence and the proliferation of the deadly weapons in a city where around 75 percent of victims are killed through gun violence.

But local business owners, such as the longtime downtown storefront Margulis Jewelers, say they haven't experienced much respite from spiking crime.

For nine decades, the store's treasure-filled windows made visitors rushing through Portland's busy downtown stop in awe at the sight of delicate, vintage-styled gemstones - but owner David Margulis said he made the 'agonizing decision to close after losing a battle with 'vandalism, homelessness crisis, and sense of nighttime lawlessness.'

Despite major efforts, Margulis Jewelers couldn't win the fight against 'broken downtown's vandalism, homelessness crisis, and sense of nighttime lawlessness,' owner David Margulis said

Margulis took over the reigns of the store from his father Jerome Margulis in 1985 after he founded the business in 1932

'Portland has experienced the perfect storm of adversity and independent businesses simply cannot withstand the economic forces which have caused the deterioration and resulting emptiness of Downtown Portland,' he added.

Margulis had long decried the area's descent into violence, blaming city officials for 'doing the talk, but not walking the walk,' and exacerbating the issue with woke policies.

In a last resort to save his decaying business three months ago, Margulis conducted a 'survival sale,' marking 20-40percent off the store's entire multi-million dollar inventory.

The measure was not enough to balance out the 72 percent decrease from foot traffic in the downtown area - and the homeless encampments and riots driving away potential customers.

The Rose City has seen robberies spike 47 percent in the year to date through January.
A sex assault survivor is suing a New York IVF clinic after it allegedly broke an agreement to insert a female embryo inside her, and she gave birth to a boy.

Assistant Dean for New Student Transitions at CUNY Geneseo Heather Wilhelhm-Routenberg and her wife, Robbie, who also works at the university as a chief diversity officer, are suing CNY Fertility Albany in Latham on 11 counts including breach of contract, medical malpractice and battery. They are seeking unspecified damages. CNY Fertility has refused to comment on the case.

The couple told the New York Post that they decided Heather would carry their child through in vitro fertilization (IVF) after Robbie had suffered a miscarriage during their first attempt to have a daughter.

They had opted to implant each other's embryos, meaning Robbie was given one of Heather's, and Heather received one of Robbie's after the first miscarriage. The couple say they were assured that all embryos implanted would be female.

At first, the couple were excited to go through the motions of expecting a child all over again, the New York Post reported.

However, once the couple approached the 15-week benchmark of the fertilization process, their Obstetrician-Gynecologist (OB-GYN) proceeded to check on the QNatal test (a simple blood test that can screen for certain genetic conditions, including a lack of chromosomes) of Heather's pregnancy.

Heather Wilhelhm-Routenberg, left, is suing after alleging that a New York IVF clinic broke an agreement to only implant female embryos inside her. Her wife Robbie is pictured right

The doctor, whose name was not shared, asked the couple: 'Wait, do you know the sex of the baby?'

'We're having a girl,' Heather replied. 'It's very important to me to have a girl,' she added. But the couple were horrified to discover that they were actually having a boy, with Heather since saying learning she had a male fetus inside her was 'just like rape.'

They initially feared that another person's embryo had been implanted by mistake, rather than Robbie's. But subsequent testing revealed that the embryo did indeed belong to Robbie.

Recalling the moment they'd discovered what had happened, Heather said: 'Our jaws dropped to the floor. I was convinced it had to be someone elses result.

'I looked at Robbie and said, Whats if its not yours  who is in my body?! Thats when I flipped out, thats when I felt my body was taken hostage. I assumed it was someone elses embryo, not the wrong embryo of ours.

'It scared the s**t out of me. I dont know how to explain this  it felt like there was an alien living inside of me.

'I said to Robbie, If this is someone elses kid, we will have to give it back.

'Our OB offered us the option to abort. I respect others decisions, but that was never a choice I could make in these circumstances. I was hoping beyond hope someone would have our baby and we would switch after birth and it would be this happy story.'

Heather, pictured with Robbie, survived two sex assaults, and said the trauma of those made her want to have a baby girl. She says discovering she was pregnant with a boy re-traumatized her

Prior to her pregnancy, Heather had suffered trauma from being a victim of sexual assault after she left college, carried out by two men on two separate occasions. She told the Post that she never considered having a baby boy due to the assaults and because of the stigma in today's society of what it means to be a 'real man'.

The night before her ultrasound, which took a place a day after her QNatal test, Heather remembered lying in bed and overwhelmingly thinking: 'This cant be happening! Not only was the baby in my body not ours, but the baby in my body was male and he was put there against my will, just like rape.'

She started having negative, dark thoughts, and compared them to the ones she had after being sexually assaulted. Robbie tried to offer comfort, but Heather was distraught.

The couple met in 2002 while completing their bachelor degrees at SUNY Geneseo, where they both now work. The couple were in an on-again-off-again relationship before deciding to give things another go in 2008. They successfully did before getting married in 2012.

Then, the pair wanted to have two daughters and knew that at ages 35 that they were warned they were relatively old when signing up for an IVF.

'We wanted to minimize the risk of anything going wrong, so the clinic recommended genetic testing of the embryos,' Heather said. 'We selected CNY because they agreed we would be able to select female embryos. We never intended to use the males.'

Heather says learning she was expecting a boy caused further mental anguish. She gave birth in December 2020, and is now learning to bond with her young son

Heather and Robbie proceeded with the pregnancy, and took it to term.

Heather was rushed to the ER with bleeding at 27 weeks and discovered she had suffered a placental abruption.

She says she's convinced the stress of the gender ordeal caused the medical emergency.

Heather recalled: 'I was put on modified bed rest. I just wanted the baby out of me. Thats sounds horrible but its true. We were so worried about me going off the deep end, we didnt talk about the baby unless we had to.'

The couple's son, who they have not named, arrived in December 2020, and was rushed to NICU.

Heather and Robbie are now bonding with their son, and Heather says she feels a great deal of guilt over how he came into the world.

She explained: 'I had wanted skin-to-skin connection but I ended up wearing things so he wouldnt touch my chest. When he did, it sent electric shockwaves through me.

CNY Fertility, pictured, has yet to comment on the alleged mistake

'I started experiencing extreme anxiety. I would look at the baby and it would contort into the faces of all these grown men that I know. It was so creepy. Whenever that happened, I had to give the baby to Robbie.'

Heather told of how she suffered postpartum depression and suicidal thoughts at her lowest ebb, but says she is gradually coming to terms with what has happened.

She said: 'I never want to come off ungrateful. If I was, he wouldnt be here.

'The baby is a year and a half now, and I think about the mistake all the time. Hes a lovely kid. He smiles just like Robbie, he has Robbies dimples, and that makes it easier. Our son is made of magic. He does things to be funny  hell use certain tones of voice and laughs to make us crack up. Hes hilarious, and hes been an easy baby.'

Heather says she has bonded with Robbie, and added: 'I feel immense guilt and shame because I wasnt able to be emotionally present for him. I dont want to play the victim.

'Hes an innocent being, he didnt deserve any of this. The clinic messed with something so integral: our babys first formative years. Thats the reason I am doing this  because I love my kid so much. We think our son deserved that bond from the start.'
A year after her husband Jerry died, Delia Ephron  then 72  started exchanging emails with a psychoanalyst who had written to her out of the blue.

Peter said he'd met her many years before through her sister, the celebrated director and screenwriter Nora Ephron  though Delia couldn't recall him. Emails progressed to long phone calls.

Then he decided to fly from his home in California to New York, to meet her in the flesh...

Our first in-person date was Saturday, November 12, 2016. Looking back, we were already in love and possibly set up for catastrophe.

The phone calls and emails [between us] were almost dreams, perfect versions of ourselves.

I worried about Peter coming into this apartment, which was still very much mine and Jerry's. Worried that it would be hard for him. That it would be hard for me, too.

I put Jerry's clothes in a box, cleared off his desk, moved his computer to a closet. Hardest to part with were his glasses. They were sitting on my desk, to the left of my laptop and a little bit back. Why did I toss them? I don't know. I was in a bit of a frenzy. I still regret it.

Our first in-person date was Saturday, November 12, 2016. Looking back, we were already in love and possibly set up for catastrophe. Delia is pictured above with Peter

'What? You let him come to your apartment?' a friend said. She had no idea how far these emails had taken us.

Seeing Peter in person was almost deranging. He had dark, deep-set eyes, white hair, and a great quick smile. I loved his smile. Gorgeous laugh lines in his cheeks. He did not take his eyes off me  in my memory anyway  but fixed me with such a happy look.

He was about 5ft 8in, perfect for my 5ft 3in. We went into the kitchen first and I didn't want him to sit in Jerry's breakfast chair. Not that I told Peter that. Nor did I say that Jerry was with us. There were definitely three in the room. I couldn't let Jerry go.

At dinner in a charming downtown bistro I was so tongue-tied, I asked him his favourite colour. And then again noticing how happy he was just looking at me, I said: 'We're not getting married this weekend.' We both started laughing. I think that's when things eased up. When we left the restaurant, Peter kissed me. Not lightly. A wonderful, serious kiss.

Now with his arm around me, holding me tight, we walked back to my apartment and made out on the living-room couch like teenagers. We had great chemistry. Sometime after midnight, he returned to his nearby hotel.

Seeing Peter in person was almost deranging. He had dark, deep-set eyes, white hair, and a great quick smile. I loved his smile. Gorgeous laugh lines in his cheeks. He did not take his eyes off me  in my memory anyway  but fixed me with such a happy look

When I woke up the next morning, I was zonked. Physically and emotionally. And freaked out.

We were supposed to meet at noon in Washington Square Park. I can't do this, I thought. I can't start some new life with a stranger. I can't turn my life over, begin again. And then what? Then what? One of us dies?

At the park we sat on a bench. And we talked. We really talked. About what it meant to start something intense and meaningful at this age. To fall in love now, when death is right there in front of us. When we can reach out and touch it.

I had told him about my medical situation, but repeated it  that I had abnormal cells in my bone marrow that were harmless right now and might remain so and that the doctor had been tracking me for seven years.

Neither of us should have to go through again what we'd both already gone through, Peter with his [late] wife, me with Jerry. I said: 'If I get sick, I give you total permission to leave me.'

I didn't really mean that. It was almost a joke  I have a tendency to spin serious things that way.

Peter said: 'I could never do that.'

I also told him that we needed to get to know each other. I needed to go a bit more slowly. He said: 'Why don't we take today? Tomorrow I'll visit my friends in Brooklyn.'

Peter, I was learning, never tried to argue me out of a feeling. Of course, the minute I expressed my anxieties and he said it was fine, I relaxed.

We stopped for pasta at a local Italian place, then went back to my apartment and spent the rest of the day and night in bed.

From me the next afternoon: 'Peter, You must be on your way to the airport . . . I didn't thank you, such a strange thing to say, but I didn't thank you for taking me out, for coming here, for being considerate and kind and exciting, for giving me room to breathe and taking my breath away, for your hands and your heart and all the rest of it.'

From Peter: 'D I miss you but feel so much gratitude for all that has happened between us in such a short time, so that fills me up even in the missing. Please breathe well and don't be trapped.'

Peter and I spent the next three months falling in love. I visited him in California for five days. I told him: 'If it gets difficult, I'll move into a hotel.' It wasn't difficult.

I tried to push away my guilt. All my friends said: 'Jerry would be so happy about this.' It was kind of them, for sure. But all this sex? Would he be happy about that?

And I want to apologise for even mentioning sex. No one wants to hear about two 72-year-olds getting it on. In a movie, I know, if you have two 72-year-olds simply kissing, you want the camera far away, like across the street or out the window. But our attraction was an essential part of the magic.

This replay of young love when I am old  heady, giddy, exhilarating  I was aware every second of what a gift it was. At the same time, there was something lurking . . .

My beloved sister Nora was sick for six years before she died in 2012. She'd had myelodysplastic syndrome, a disease of the bone marrow which leads almost inevitably to fierce acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). Because AML can run in families, my doctor had sent me to an oncologist for a bone marrow biopsy in 2008.

The results were that I didn't have myelodysplastic syndrome, although I had signs that I could get it. That didn't mean I would get it.

Delia, with her late husband Jerry, at the Fox studio in Sydney

Nora's doctors weren't concerned about me, they weren't my doctors. Also Nora was a national treasure  a writer and director, reinventor of the romantic comedy, admired by women everywhere.

I was just, well, me. I realised I needed a great specialist of my own. Which is how Dr Gail Roboz came into my life. She looked at the results of my blood tests, and my biopsy and said, basically, right now, you're fine. I should come back every six months, and she would take some blood.

Nora's doctors told her, after several years keeping her stabilised, that they couldn't do that for ever and she could have a bone marrow transplant, the only thing that might cure her. And they discovered she and I were a bone marrow match.

Ultimately, they decided it was too risky to use me to save her because my marrow might be diseased. Nora decided, in any event, she did not want a transplant.

She read everything there was to read about bone marrow transplants and told me it was awful, the chemotherapy before and the entire subsequent process. She did not want to go through a long suffering.

If you survived the transplant, your body might reject it. Also, you could just get leukaemia all over again a few months later. Nora was over 70. Because the process was gruelling, doctors rarely attempted it on patients over 70.

When Nora's myelodysplastic syndrome morphed into leukaemia, I was with her every day in the hospital that last month. Watching her die was, in addition to the sadness, like staring my own death in the face.

My six-month checkup with Dr Roboz is on Thursday, March 9. I check in and sit down. I have done this now every six months for eight years. I always notice the variety of folks waiting to see doctors. Every age, every ethnicity, some well dressed, some barely put together.

A microcosm of the world. Cancer is an equal opportunity disease.

Not that I don't know it, but it's good to realise I am part of a world, even if it's not a world I want to be part of. I assure myself each time I come that I'm not 'one of them'.

I am called to the small clinic room to see the doctor. Dr Roboz's PA (physician's assistant) Evgeny introduces himself and sits at the desk.

I have never met one of her PAs in all this time. I say, 'I come every six months to have my blood checked. My counts have always been normal.'

He is looking at the computer screen, at the results from my blood just taken. 'They're not normal,' he says hesitantly.

'What?'

He's studying the computer. Dr Roboz comes in. He gets up. She sits down and looks. 'It's not normal?' I say.

She tells me something, I don't remember what exactly, to the effect that it could correct. I can come back in a week.

As she is sitting there, the rest of the results come in, results that leave no doubt: I have leukaemia. I don't remember her telling me. I only remember suddenly knowing it.

She says we have to do a bone marrow biopsy right now. While they find a room to do it, I call Peter and reach him between patients. He says hello. I say: 'I have leukaemia.'

Delia and Peter - with furry friend - in New York

'We'll get through this,' says Peter. He's flying in tonight on the red-eye.

The news sinks in by me repeating it and repeating it. The next morning Peter arrives. He puts his arms around me and I want to disappear into him, just stay there for ever.

AML presents differently in different people, Dr Roboz tells me. 'You are not your sister,' is a refrain she drums into me again and again, willing me to believe I can have a different outcome.

Dr. Roboz says there is a new drug, in the final stages of testing, that she thinks is absolutely suited to me: CPX-351. I don't Google it. But I have hope.

I will check into the hospital on Tuesday. On Sunday morning, Peter is at the kitchen table and I am making us French toast. Peter says: 'We should get married.' Then, I suspect because he's hearing his own words, he stands up and says: 'Will you marry me?'

'Yes,' I say.

It isn't romantic. I mean, I'm holding a spatula in my hand, feeling terror about my diagnosis, about the next weeks, my future, our future, but 'We should get married' feels absolutely right.

Tuesday I check in. I am officially a cancer patient now. I learn about PICC lines because I get one. It's a skinny tube inserted into a vein in my left upper arm. The end goes into a central vein near my heart.

When the first tech tries to insert it, I writhe and scream. They bring in another tech, who inserts it swiftly and painlessly. One of the many things I learn in hospitals is there is often someone who can do a procedure better.

I love to think, Oh, I can tell this to a friend. This part of me is still operating.

There are so many levels operating  the same old Delia, trying to learn and get better at anything new; the frightened Delia who thinks her life might be over; the Delia who is madly in love. I know that Peter will track my blood counts and everything else. He's a doctor. I'm marrying a doctor.

I am aware I am lucky. It's a bit pathetic to be dealt one of the worst cards in the deck and still try to find some way to believe that you are lucky. But that part of me is operating, too. Dr Roboz promises not to put me in Nora's rooms.

I have invited a very few close friends to come to our wedding in the private dining room on the 14th floor of the hospital. It's a sunny day. Light streams in the dining-room window.

In the photos, all the guests are smiling and some are wiping away tears. I am pale and have a scrunched-up tissue clutched in one hand and a bunch of daffodils in the other. We read our vows. I cry through mine. Probably every person at the wedding knew my chances were slim. But none of them brought that feeling with them. It was a room full of hope.

The way CPX works: I get three infusions, with a day between each. The hope is this chemotherapy will clean out my marrow, kill off the cancerous white cells. For the first ten days or so, I feel fine. One day, I stand up and my legs crumple; I clutch the bed, breaking my fall.

What I don't remember during this time is discussing death with Peter, but it's a presence. One night I have the strongest feeling that Jerry and Nora are there with me, and I worry they have come to take me away.

Peter is positive, always positive. Dr Roboz believes it can work. You are not your sister. It's all banging around in my head every day. All the time, every day.

One morning, leaving the bathroom, I suddenly pass out. My head hits the floor. I am out for only a second.

We walk the hallways, my arm in Peter's, and radiate so much affection that nurses and orderlies randomly ask us how long we've been married, thinking we will say, 50 years. At our age, we are everyone's fantasy of long enduring romantic love. We tell them three days, a week, two weeks. Peter sleeps on a daybed here every night. I don't know how he can do it, really.

I remember when Jerry was in the hospital. Around seven or eight every night, after a day there, I would feel that I had to get out. I had to get home.

Peter says his home is where I am. Perhaps some of this stamina is his medical training, the hours he spent years ago on overnight call. Mostly, I think, it's love. The freshness of our love.

Sometimes, illegally, he slips into my bed, hoping the nurses won't catch us. I love having his arms around me, feeling his body next to mine. I love the silliness of the sneak.

One night, very late, my heart starts palpitating. Peter takes my pulse. It's racing. It is odd to realise that I am in danger. I am soon told that I have atrial fibrillation  an irregular heartbeat  which is a complication of treatment. It can cause blood clots or strokes.

My blood counts begin to rise, as they are supposed to. The question now is, will the new white cells be healthy? I am released from the hospital without knowing the answer.

I am uncertain outside. Street confidence  after five weeks in the hospital on chemotherapy  is blown. I love April in New York, but now I feel fragile, looking every which way before I cross a street.

Several days later, Peter and I wait nervously in the clinic room to hear the results of my 'all-important next bone marrow biopsy' as he calls it.

Dr. Roboz bursts in. 'Your marrow is gorgeous.' Remission. Impossible to underestimate the power of that word. Peter and I are instantly imagining and planning a future.

The first thing Peter does when we wake up in the morning is wrap his arms around me. I snuggle into his shoulder. It's the moment in the day when I am happiest. When death is farthest away.

I think about it all the time. Sometimes very consciously, and sometimes it's just fluttering in the back of things.

The average remission for CPX is 14 months. Maybe I will get more, much more. Many people with cancer have lasted way longer than expected, I tell myself. I have to go for a blood test once or twice a week, depending on the counts. I can't take subways because I cannot risk getting sick. With my injured immune system, that could be the end of me.

I don't know if it's the chemotherapy or the possibly fatal diagnosis or the uncertainty inherent in remission or all of those things, but my relationship to the world has changed. It's as if I've been knocked on the head.

I look the same, I think, although there is uncertainty in my reflection that wasn't there before. Would anyone else notice that? I'm not sure. I am physically, mentally, and emotionally wobbly.

As soon as it's safe, I go for a blow-dry. CPX, amazingly, does not make a person's hair fall out. I get out of the taxi, cross the street, and my legs give out.

Fortunately there is a lamppost. I grab it. I recover in a second, and walk on. This legs-giving-out thing starts to happen now and then. Peter accompanies me whenever he can. I always leave calmer, and not simply because I have good hair  although let's not underestimate the importance of that.

I have another bone marrow biopsy. 'Fewer bad cells than last time,' Dr Roboz writes. I didn't realise I had any bad cells. My relationship to my illness is full of gaps in understanding. She prescribes an oral chemotherapy drug.

June 17, 2017: My legs are intermittently weak again. But I am beginning to believe with absolutely no evidence that my remission will be a long one or at the very least a full 14 months, until next summer.

Peter and I, feeling optimistic and festive, plan a party to celebrate our marriage. For Thanksgiving, we go to Paris, then fly to Wales so Peter can meet my friends Richard and Julia.

November 30, 2017. I have a bone marrow biopsy as soon as we return and get the results from Natalie, Dr Roboz's PA. Peter and I are sitting opposite her at the clinic table. Feeling good and positive and certain I am fine.

Natalie says: 'The results indicate early relapse.'

'What?'

Natalie nods.

'The disease is back?'

'It's coming back. Yes.'

'Where's Dr Roboz?' I say.

Natalie looks tragic. 'She's at a conference. She's in Japan. Do you think I would be telling you this if she were here?'

Adapted from Left On Tenth: A Second Chance At Life by Delia Ephron, published by Transworld at 16.99.  Delia Ephron 2022. To order a copy for 15.29 (offer valid until April 10; UK P&P free on orders over 20), visit mailshop.co.uk/books or call 020 3176 2937.
Silhouetted against a wall of flame, firemen battle to control an oil depot inferno after a devastating Russian cruise missile attack on Lviv.

When the blaze was finally contained 13 hours later, the citys emergency services chief Khrystyna Avdyeyeva issued a defiant rallying cry.

The boys have been through hell, said Miss Avdyeyeva. This fire was started by non-humans. Let them burn in the same hell.

Three missiles rocked the western Ukrainian city on Saturday afternoon, sparking fires that blazed all through the night.

Black smoke drifted from the depot to the historic centre of Lviv, stopping weekend shoppers in their tracks.

Five people were injured in the attack but no one was killed.

The third strike threw me to the ground, which was moving as if an earthquake was in progress, said security guard Yaroslav Prokopiv.

The Ukrainian interior ministry said the attack was part of a campaign to destroy fuel and storage depots and it would now disperse supplies of both.

Silhouted against a wall of flame, firemen, pictured, battle to control an oil depot inferno after a devastating Russian cruise missile attack on Lviv

Local resident Valentina Demura, 70, reacts next to the building where her apartment, destroyed during Ukraine-Russia conflict, is located in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol

Five people were injured in the attack but no one was killed. Pictured: A civilian is evacuated from Irpi

Lviv, a Unesco world heritage city whose churches, coffee houses and trams recall Vienna, has been a safe haven for tens of thousands of refugees fleeing fighting in the east of the country.

It had been untouched by the war but the 720,000 residents were urged to stay indoors or seek shelter after the depot attack.

Two hours after the warning was issued, three more missiles rained down on a factory used for repairing tanks, anti-aircraft systems and radar stations.

The plant stands behind a high-security roadblock in a densely populated district in the south-east of the city.

There were no reports of casualties.

Dmitry Leonov, a 36-year-old IT worker who lives in the neighbourhood, said his windows rattled after the first explosion: I took refuge in a shelter but my friend, who was walking his dog, was sent flying backwards by the force of the blast.

In footage from an apartment block three blasts were heard, seconds apart, and a ball of fire went skyward.

Plumes of smoke then rose high above surrounding blocks of flats.

Russias defence ministry said yesterday that it had struck military targets in Lviv.

The Russian Armed Forces launched a missile strike, pictured, with high-precision weapons on the objects of military infrastructure of Ukraine on Saturday, March 26

Spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the attack destroyed a large depot that he claimed was providing fuel to Ukrainian troops in combat zones.

The facility was hit with long-range, sea-launched weapons, he added.

Konashenkov said similar weapons had destroyed a second target  a military supply depot.

Lviv police detained two men on suspicion of espionage, accusing them of sending information to Russian recipients.

The strikes came hours before Joe Biden delivered a forceful condemnation of Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in an address in Warsaw.

The strikes were Putin trying to say hello to the US President, according to Lvivs mayor, Andriy Sadovyi.

In a crowded bomb shelter under an apartment block a short way from the first blast site, Olana Ukrainets said she could not believe she had had to hide again after fleeing from Kharkiv, one of the most bombarded cities of the war.

We were on one side of the street and saw it on the other side, said the 34-year-old IT worker.

We saw fire. I said to my friend, Whats this? Then we heard the sound of an explosion and glass breaking.

Lviv is hosting an estimated 200,000 people who have fled other bombarded towns and cities and has been a way-station for most of the 3.8million refugees who have left Ukraine since Russia invaded on February 24.

Firefighters, pictured, try to extinguish the fire as the flames and smoke rise after Russian guided missiles hit fuel tanks attacks as Russian attacks continue on Ukraine, in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv

The city is around 45 miles from the Polish border.

Russia insists that it has ended its first phase of the conflict and claims it is shifting its attention to eastern Ukraines disputed territories.

Pentagon intelligence said Moscow had halted ground operations aimed at Kyiv, moving its focus instead on attacking the eastern Donbas region.

Elsewhere in Ukraine over the weekend, residents, including the elderly, the infirm and the injured, continued fleeing Irpin, the under-fire Kyiv suburb.

Most were driven to a road block in private cars, ambulances and Red Cross vehicles and on to central Kyiv before escaping to safety in the west.

Authorities in the capital warned that Russians were increasingly disguising themselves as civilians to engage in sabotage.

In the second city of Kharkiv, the target of intense bombardment for weeks, the authorities reported 44 artillery strikes and 140 rocket assaults in a single day, including a strike on a hospital and humanitarian aid centre that authorities said left four dead.

This shows a Russian tank destroyed following a battle in the town of Trostyanets, Sumy region

But musicians there yesterday performed an emotional concert in a metro station that was being used as a makeshift shelter.

It was the opening day of the Kharkiv Music Festival which performers were determined to mark, whatever the circumstances.

By the end of the day, they had something to celebrate as Ukrainian forces launched counterattacks to successfully retake a number of villages around the city.

That success was replicated elsewhere in several strategic towns, including Trostianets, near the Russian border in the Sumy region.

It was one of the first places to fall under Moscows control.

Pictures showed Ukrainian soldiers and civilians among heavily damaged buildings and what appeared to be abandoned or smouldering Russian tanks and other military equipment.

The town was captured by Putins forces on March 1.

Poltavka and Malynivka, towns in the south-eastern region of Zaporizhzhia, were also liberated by Ukrainian forces following heavy fighting.
Southeast Queensland and northeast NSW are again bracing for severe wet weather as a slow-moving and dangerous east coast low hammers the east coast.

The Bureau of Meteorology issued a warning on Monday for more heavy rainfall and potentially life-threatening flash floods from Noosa, Queensland down to the NSW border.

A man died on Monday morning after his ute became trapped in floodwaters near Toowoomba about 5am.

The coastal trough over southeast Queensland is expected to deepen throughout today and into Tuesday, with rainfall totals of up to 250mm possible.

However, forecasters say conditions could be patchy over coastal areas with rainfall totals of 50-100mm in some areas.

The Bureau of Meteorology issued a warning on Monday for more heavy rainfall and potentially life-threatening flash floods from Noosa down to the NSW border

Channel Seven footage shows flash flooding trapped a man on top of his car near Toowoomba, in southeast Queensland.

'Intense rainfall leading to dangerous and life-threatening flash flooding is possible with thunderstorms with six-hourly rainfall totals up to 250mm,' the bureau warned.

A major flood warning is in place for Myall Creek along with a moderate warning for the Bokhara River and a minor warning for the Condamine River.

'Further thunderstorms and showers are likely during Monday, which may cause renewed river level rises and possible flooding in the Condamine and Balonne River catchments,' the BoM.

Seqwater late on Sunday warned of possible flood releases from the Wivenhoe, Somerset and North Pine dams in the next 48 hours due to the forecast rainfall.

Rainfall totals up to 250mm are possible, although conditions could be patchy over over coastal areas with rainfall totals of 50mm-100mm in some areas

The authority warned people downstream of the dams to avoid deep and fast-flowing water near floodplains and waterways.

The bad weather comes as communities continue to clean-up after the deadly foods triggered last month by the state's wettest February in 130 years.

Weeks after the deluge, the Brisbane River has reopened to recreational boating after some 2000 tonnes of debris were removed from the river.

Citycat ferry services remain suspended and are not expected to resume until April, according to Brisbane City Council.

'Life threatening flash floods' are also expected to hit areas in northeast NSW as recovery efforts from the disastrous floods from earlier this month continue.

FLOOD WARNINGS NSW Tweed and Rouse Rivers - minor to moderate flooding Brunswick River and Marshalls Creek - minor flooding Wilsons River - minor to moderate flooding Richmond River - minor to moderate flooding Clarence River - minor flooding Orara River - minor to moderate flooding Coffs Coast Bellinger and Kalang Rivers - minor flooding Nambucca River - minor flooding Hastings River - minor flooding Camden Haven River - minor flooding Manning and Gloucester Rivers - minor flooding Wollombi Brook and Lower Hunter River - minor flooding Paterson and Williams Rivers - minor flooding Upper Macintyre River - minor flooding Gwydir River - minor flooding Whalan and Gil Gil Creeks Macintyre River - minor flooding Peel River - minor flooding Namoi River - minor flooding Castlereagh River - minor flooding QLD Major Flood Warning for Myall Creek. Moderate Flood Warning for the Bokhara River Minor Flood Warning for the Condamine River Minor Flood Warning for the Paroo River Flood Watch for parts of southern Queensland Initial Minor Flood Warning for the Macintyre Brook Initial Minor Flood Warning for the Upper Dawson River Advertisement

A man was stranded on top of his car by flash flooding outside of Toowoomba on Monday

The Bureau of Meteorology shared a warning on Monday warning residents in Tweed Heads, Murwillumbah, Byron Bay, Lismore, Yamba, Grafton, Coffs Harbour and Dorrigo to prepare.

'Heavy rainfall which may lead to flash flooding is forecast to develop over northern parts of northeast New South Wales later today and into early Tuesday,' it said.

'Six-hourly rainfall totals between 80 to 140 mm are possible, reaching up to 180 mm over coastal areas and ranges.

'Locally intense rainfall leading to dangerous and life-threatening flash flooding is possible with thunderstorms with six-hourly rainfall totals in excess of 180 mm.'

The Bureau of Meteorology shared a warning on Monday warning residents in Tweed Heads, Murwillumbah, Byron Bay, Lismore, Yamba, Grafton, Coffs Harbour and Dorrigo to prepare (pictured, a flooded Lismore on March 2)

'Life threatening flash floods' are also expected to hit areas in northeast NSW as recovery efforts from the disastrous floods from earlier this month continue (pictured, Lismore on March 24)

Lismore's mayor Steve Krieg told the Today Show residents were sick of the wet weather.

'It won't bloody stop raining up here, Karl,' he said.

'The forecast doesn't look good. It won't stop raining.'

Lismore was heavily affected by floods in late February to March and underwent an emergency evacuation after the town's levee broke.
Three generations of a Ukrainian family who fled the Russian invasion are now sheltering in Poland thanks to the generosity of Mail readers.

Svetlana Tsymbal, her daughter Alona and granddaughter Sofia reached the Polish capital after attacks on their hometown of Zaporizhzhia forced them to flee earlier this month.

They are now being kept safe from Vladimir Putins barbarism  with the help of Mail Forces Ukraine Refugee Appeal which has so far raised more than 9.1million.

Svetlana Tsymbal, her daughter Alona and granddaughter Sofia reached the Polish capital after attacks on their hometown of Zaporizhzhia forced them to flee earlier this month

But although they have managed to escape the violence, Svetlana, 48, is already dreaming of returning to her homeland in south-east Ukraine.

We are still trying to digest what happened, the shop assistant said. I just want to go back home.

Svetlana, 29-year-old Alona and nine-year-old Sofia left after Russian forces attacked the citys nuclear power plant  which is the biggest in Europe.

We had spent most of the previous two weeks underground in a bunker. We could hear the planes flying and the bombs falling, Svetlana said.

The Mail met the family at a centre run by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in central Warsaw, which is providing money aid and counselling to Ukrainian refugees.

Polands government has already said Ukrainian refugees will be eligible for welfare support. But this assistance money will help buy goods, medication and essential services as new arrivals wait for their benefits applications to be processed. Refugees are pictured arriving in Poland

After a short interview process, Svetlana and her family managed to sign up to a cash payments system which is partly funded by donations from Mail readers.

Under the system, she will be able to go to any ATM in Poland and withdraw money with a special code that is sent to her mobile phone. The payments amount to 700 zloty per month per Ukrainian refugee  equivalent to 125  for an initial three months.

Polands government has already said Ukrainian refugees will be eligible for welfare support. But this assistance money will help buy goods, medication and essential services as new arrivals wait for their benefits applications to be processed.

A senior official from the UNHCR, which has received 1million from the appeal, has praised kind-hearted Mail readers.

More than two million Ukrainians have entered Poland since the war broke out just over a month ago

Marin Din Kajdomcaj, the UNHCRs representative in Poland, said: A big thank-you to the readers of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday for their incredible generosity.

This cash assistance will ensure that refugees are able to meet their basic needs during this difficult period in dignity of choice.

More than two million Ukrainians have entered Poland since the war broke out just over a month ago. The Mails appeal was launched shortly afterwards, and readers have flooded it with more than 67,500 cheques as well as online donations.

The Mail Force appeal began with a 500,000 donation from parent company, DMGT, at the personal request of Lord and Lady Rothermere.

The charity is giving money to aid organisations already helping refugees. As well as the donation to the UNHCR, other organisations to have received funds include the Red Cross, Unicef and CARE International. Donations of 250,000 have also been made to the AMAR Foundation and The Halo Trust.
England's first public inquiry into mental health is set to investigate the deaths of 1,500 people.

All died while they were a patient in mental health wards in Essex, or within three months of being discharged, between 2000 and 2020.

Dr Geraldine Strathdee, chairman of the Essex Mental Health Independent Inquiry, said she had consistently heard certain concerns, such as a lack of basic information being shared with patients and their families about their care and treatment.

The inquiry is investigating deaths from the North Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (NEPUFT) and South Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, which merged in 2017 to form the Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUFT).

The Essex Mental Health Independent Inquiry will look at the deaths of 1,500 people who died while at, or within three months of leaving, mental health facilities in Essex (pictured: Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust) between 2000 and 2020

The inquiry was first announced by then health minister Nadine Dorries (pictured) in 2020

Robert Wade lost his 30-year-old son Richard Wade to suicide in 2015, shortly after he had been admitted for the first time to a mental health unit.

His son, who lived in Chelmsford, had a job at accounting firm PwC in London. Mr Wade, 66, said: He went in [to the unit] just after midnight. He was dead by midday. He was there for less than 12 hours before the injuries he inflicted on himself.

Richards mother Linda Wade, 71, said: Theres got to be change. We cant bring Richard back, but that was a young man that went into the Linden Centre for safety and there was no safety. The inquiry was announced by then health minister Nadine Dorries in 2020, after a series of deaths at an NHS mental health unit in Essex.

Patients and families have serious concerns about patients physical, psychological and sexual safety on wards, Dr Strathdee said.

She added: Right now, we have very limited information on the 1,500 deaths weve been made aware of. Our investigations are ongoing, and we expect to be able to provide a fuller breakdown of this number in the future. But as it stands, for example, we have only been given the cause of death for around 40 per cent of these deaths.

The inquiry has so far heard from 14 families of those who have died and from former inpatients, and is seeking more to come forward. Last year EPUFT was fined 1.5million for breaches committed by NEPUFT.

Chelmsford Crown Court heard that between 25 October 2004 and 31 March 2015 NEPUFT failed to effectively manage recognised risks from potential ligature points in inpatient wards. The deaths of 11 inpatients during this time involved access to fixed ligature points.

In the coming months, the team hopes to speak to current and former staff. Afterwards, the chairman will make recommendations to the Government on what changes must be made to keep patients safe in mental health inpatient care and to improve the experiences of their families and loved ones.

In 2019 the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman reported a series of significant failings in the care and treatment of two vulnerable young men who died shortly after being admitted to NEPUFT. One, Matthew Leahy, 20, had been diagnosed with a delusional disorder caused by cannabis use and was found hanging in his room eight days after being admitted to the Linden Centre.

Paul Scott, EPUFT chief executive, said: We continue to support the ongoing inquiry and encourage service users, family, carers and staff to share their experiences with the inquiry team so they have a full picture to draw on to make their recommendations.
Founder and CEO of Tesla Motors Elon Musk speaks during a media tour of the Tesla Gigafactory, which will produce batteries for the electric carmaker, in Sparks, Nevada, U.S. July 26, 2016. Reuters-Yonhap





Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk is giving "serious thought" to building a new social media platform, the billionaire said in a tweet Saturday.







Musk was responding to a Twitter user's question on whether he would consider building a social media platform consisting of an open source algorithm and one that would prioritize free speech, and where propaganda was minimal.







Musk, a prolific user of Twitter himself, has been critical of the social media platform and its policies of late. He has said the company is undermining democracy by failing to adhere to free speech principles.







His tweet comes a day after he put out a Twitter poll asking users if they believed Twitter adheres to the principle of free speech, to which over 70 percent voted "no."







"The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully," he said Friday.







If Musk decides to go ahead with creating a new platform, he would be joining a growing portfolio of technology companies that are positioning themselves as champions of free speech and which hope to draw users who feel their views are suppressed on platforms such as Twitter, Meta Platform's Facebook and Alphabet-owned Google's YouTube.







None of the companies, including Donald Trump's Truth Social, Twitter competitors Gettr and Parler and video site Rumble, have come close to matching the reach and popularity of the mainstream platforms so far. (Reuters)






Britain's bureaucratic Ukraine refugee scheme is causing distress for evacuees and frustration for thousands of British families trying to help, major charities warn today.

Oxfam, Save the Children and the British Red Cross are among the organisations that have signed a letter calling on ministers to make urgent changes to the Homes for Ukraine visa programme.

The Daily Mail revealed on Saturday that the scheme  which offers hosts a 350-a-month thank you from the Government for taking in evacuees for a minimum of six months  was struggling with a 24,000 backlog.

More than 25,000 completed applications have been submitted by UK hosts who have already matched themselves up with refugees in need of shelter.

But only 1,000 visas have been granted.

Overall, around 200,000 British families have offered to open their homes to refugees.

Home Secretary Priti Patel, pictured, has insisted a visa scheme with vetting checks is essential for national security reasons

The charities open letter to Michael Gove, whose communities department is responsible for the scheme, said: Those who want to come to the UK are having to navigate a complex web of bureaucratic paperwork to get visas leaving them facing protracted delays. While it is welcome that our country is offering sanctuary, the visa process is causing great distress to already traumatised Ukrainians and increasing frustration to tens of thousands of Britons who want to welcome them into their homes.

Home Secretary Priti Patel has insisted a visa scheme with vetting checks is essential for national security reasons.

Although the vast majority of people feeling the invasion are women and children, Miss Patel has said it was naive and misguided to think Russian agents could not be among them.

However the letter, which is due to be delivered today and was also signed by the Refugee Council and the International Rescue Committee, called for the process to be simplified.

Refugees wait for the bus before continuing the journey after they crossed the Ukrainian-Polish border in Medyka on March 19

The Government must review the use of visas and waive them as an immediate short-term measure, as has been done by the EU, and look to introduce a simplified emergency humanitarian visa process, it claimed.

Now is not the time to put paperwork and bureaucracy before the needs of people who have had their lives shattered by war or to weaken our commitment to refugee protection.

A poll shows that more than half of UK voters think the Government should ditch visa requirements and allow unlimited numbers of Ukrainian refugees to come here.

The survey, conducted by Savanta ComRes for The Independent found that 54 per cent said the policy of insisting on visas should be dropped, with just 21 per cent backing the current set-up.

Boris Johnsons new refugees minister Lord Harrington, pictured, told MPs earlier this month that he expected thousands of evacuees would have arrived by now under Homes for Ukraine

Boris Johnsons new refugees minister Lord Harrington told MPs earlier this month that he expected thousands of evacuees would have arrived by now under Homes for Ukraine.

However, just a small number are believed to have made it to Britain so far.

No official figures have yet been published but a government source admitted last week that progress has been slower than we would have liked.

It came as experts warned the scheme risked becoming a Tinder for sex traffickers as evidence emerged that UK-based criminals were targeting Ukrainian evacuees.

Those who are approved as UK hosts by the Government need to identify which Ukrainians they want to house and some are turning to social media to find them.

We are aware of people with illegal motives who are advertising [their home] on social media, the charity Refugee Action told The Observer.

We are concerned that it risks being a Tinder for sex traffickers.

It said one UK resident offered accommodation only to an orphan, while another requested to house a single woman who could help with their childcare.
After almost three weeks of war, the candles and food were running out for the 90 petrified people sheltering in the basement beneath a sturdy Soviet-era theatre near Mariupol, as Russian shells hammered down above their heads.

They flicked on their lighters to pick a path through the darkness to the toilet, while lunch was sometimes reduced to just a few biscuits shared among a group that included 15 children, along with many older folks.

Then the Russian soldiers arrived. They were very surprised there were people alive, said Olga, a translator in her mid-twenties. They allowed the women to go outside and get water but banned men from leaving the shelter.

After almost three weeks of war, the candles and food were running out for the 90 petrified people sheltering in the basement beneath a sturdy Soviet-era theatre

The following day, they were told there would be an evacuation. But when Olgas uncle went up to find out the details, the soldiers he encountered were aggressive.

They pulled his hat over his eyes to intimidate him, warned that if he moved they would shoot him and spent half an hour searching his mobile phone  and then they left.

Then the next day, on March 15, the soldiers returned and ordered them out of the basement. Many of them were hesitant, said Olga. Everyone rushed outside to see if there was an option to stay. I did not want to go. It was not clear where we were going.

This was the start of their forced evacuation from Ukraine that took them over the Russian border and into sinister filtration camps, spending three days under armed guard with interrogations by men in unmarked military uniforms before being dispersed around the country.

The abductions and relocations, subverting the refugee process, hint at dark echoes of past atrocities. Vadym Boichenko, Mariupols alarmed mayor, has even likened it to Nazi transportations to concentration camps in World War Two. Others have drawn parallels with mass deportations inflicted by Joseph Stalin when an estimated 3million people in the Soviet Union were sent to camps in Siberia and Central Asia.

The situation has added to the fears of those, such as Tatiana Bezruchenko, with friends or families still trapped in Mariupol as the bombs rain down

Britain has joined international condemnation of the abduction and deportation of citizens from cities such as the devastated port of Mariupol amid fears that Vladimir Putin may use the refugees as hostages to heap pressure on Ukraine to accept his peace terms.

Moscows defence ministry claims to have accepted 439,420 refugees escaping the war, including 98,000 people rescued from Mariupol, and to have received 2.72million requests for evacuation from more than 2,000 settlements in Ukraine.

Last week a Ukrainian official said Moscow was passing this data to them but they were struggling to determine if the figures were propaganda or truth.

She added, however, that they knew of incidents in which troops had taken people from bomb shelters and transported them to Russia through filtration camps set up in both the self-declared Donetsk Peoples Republic and over the border.

Satellite images have revealed one cluster of 30 tents erected in a coastal village 11 miles from the shattered outskirts of Mariupol, while officials in the ruined port claim 15,000 residents have been forcibly relocated into Russia.

Iryna Vereshchuk, Ukraines deputy prime minister, said at the weekend they have collated 40,000 cases including thousands of children. Now, Olga  not her real name  has given the first eye-witness account of the forced evacuations from cities under fire.

Like many Ukrainian citizens, she dismissed fears Putin might invade. We were so sure there would be no war because it was obvious Mariupol is a pro-Ukrainian city. It is hard to believe that the war could be this horrible and this brutal. Her family moved on the third day of the war into a shelter beneath the towns Palace of Culture, and Olga stayed below ground for more than a fortnight with eight family members despite a direct hit on the building.

We could hear shells striking the building above us, the sound of walls collapsing, the sound of a shell hitting the floor of the palace of culture, which was our ceiling.

It was scary since we did not know if the ceiling was going to collapse or not.

Then came their rescue by the very Russian forces that were tormenting their lives and destroying their town. We were never told exactly what was happening and we never knew what was going to happen next, said Olga.

They told women and children to leave the bomb shelter but the majority of men had to stay. It was the first time I went outside for many days, seeing the sun. It was a horrible moment  I saw that everything around me was shelled.

The frightened families were taken to a half-destroyed school across the road, then loaded on to military trucks.

Britain has joined international condemnation of the abduction and deportation of citizens from cities such as the devastated port of Mariupol

There were people from our bomb shelter but also from other places. It looked like they went from one house to another, telling people about evacuation.

I was in a state of despair. All the people giving us orders were armed, in military uniforms, but with no insignia.

I could not understand if they were police or military. But we could hear the fighting very close so we just got into the trucks.

They drove to another village captured by Russians and were taken to another school.

Some people asked if they could stay in this village but were told this was not allowed. Some were saying they wanted to return to our town but the Russians did not allow this either.

After a freezing night trying to sleep in classrooms, surrounded by drunk guards with guns who refused to tell them where they would be going, the refugees were driven for several hours to a border town in the self-declared Luhansk Peoples Republic.

Their guards told them they were going into filtration camps.

This is a big tent with a lot of men dressed in military uniforms, explained Olga. You are told to give your document and the phone. You are also told to tell them your phones passwords.

Im not brave enough to disobey so I just gave it all to them. No one was explaining anything. I overheard they were downloading all the contacts from our phones.

Olga was photographed, fingerprinted and subjected to repeated interrogation by three officials over her personal details, any relatives serving in armed forces and views on Ukrainian politics before her phone was returned to her.

Finally, the refugees were put back on buses, which waited for nine hours through the night to the fury of many mothers enduring the process.

They said the situation was intolerable for their children. They were told to stop arguing otherwise it would be even worse.

After crossing the border, the evacuees were offered 10,000 roubles (75) to sign papers saying they accepted assistance from Russia. Olga said everyone refused.

She was among those picked out for another round of questioning by a man almost certainly from security services, who bombarded her with strange questions as if trying to lead me into saying something. The hour-long interrogation ranged from questions over the Ukrainian army through to details about her boyfriend and interests. He was deliberately trying to scare me. He asked me why did I behave so strangely, was I in some sort of sect?

After questioning concluded, the group was placed back on buses and taken under a police escort to Taganrog train station, 30 miles inside the Russian border.

They were told they were free to leave  but most had no money or documents after fleeing bomb shelters while few of them knew anyone in Russia to help them return home. So without anywhere to go, they were put on a train to Vladimir, a town 780 miles away in central Russia.

Olga was fortunate. Friends helped her find a taxi, board a train to St Petersburg and cross the border to Finland, but she knows others from her town are still stuck. I really want to help them leave Russia and come somewhere safe, she said.

The spokesman for a voluntary group assisting Ukrainians in Russia said they started receiving information about people being forced into the country eight days ago and had since received dozens of pleas for help.

People are taken to Russia against their will under huge psychological pressure, stressed and disoriented. They are not provided with any information and find it very hard to be alone in a foreign country, with no money and sometimes no documents.

Ukrainian officials have demanded more information from Russia. They have received similar reports of people being forced to evacuate into Belarus, while an investigation has been launched into the illegal deportation of 2,389 children from the occupied territories of Donbas to Russia.

Tetiana Lomakina, the Ukrainian presidents adviser on humanitarian corridors, said exhausted people were being evacuated at gunpoint after weeks under shelling

Tetiana Lomakina, the Ukrainian presidents adviser on humanitarian corridors, said exhausted people were being evacuated at gunpoint after weeks under shelling.

They are questioned, their phones and documents are taken. Some people were able to preserve their documents, but there are also other ones who did not.

She said they had also seen reports of Ukrainian citizens being given certificates that bar them from leaving Russia for two years and had started hearing cases of families being split up and the parents sent to different locations with children.

She said: There is no rational explanation for such inhumane actions. I cannot imagine why these forced evacuations would be done. The only reason, in my opinion, is to humiliate people, punish them and break their will.

The situation has added to the fears of those, such as Tatiana Bezruchenko, with friends or families still trapped in Mariupol as the bombs rain down.

She is terrified over the plight of her 77-year-old mother.

Shes still in the bomb shelter and there is fighting going on. Im very worried for her  but mostly Im worried that shell be forced into Russia. I know she doesnt want to go there, she said.

And if shes taken to Russia I wont be able to find her or help her. Im so scared that theyll take my mother somewhere and I will never see her again.

Additional reporting by Kate Baklitskaya
Crystal Palace have been dealt a potential blow following the news that Michael Olise has had to withdraw from international duty with a foot injury.

The 20-year-old was called up to the France Under-21 squad for the first time this month, and made his debut for the team as a substitute on Thursday against the Faroe Islands.

He will have been looking to get some more minutes under his belt against Northern Ireland on Monday, but he has been ruled out of that clash due to 'inflammation' in his left foot.

Michael Olise has been forced to withdraw from the France Under-21 squad due to a foot injury

Olise is now set to return to his club, who will assess the severity of the issue.

Palace will hope that the setback is only a minor one as Olise has become a key player in his maiden campaign at Selhurst Park, with his performances catching the eye of Gareth Southgate.

The winger was born in England, and is still eligible to play for the Three Lions.

It has been reported that Southgate remains keen to try to convince him to switch allegiances.

Olise's injury is a setback for Patrick Vieira who has been heavily reliant on the winger recently

Olise has settled in quickly at Crystal Palace in his first season in the Premier League

In 22 top-flight appearances in 2021-22, Olise has been directly involved in seven goals, scoring twice and providing five assists.

The Eagles are currently on a six-match unbeaten run across all competitions, and Olise has started all of those games.

He has also thrived in the FA Cup, registering five goal contributions in four appearances to help Patrick Vieira's side progress into the semi-finals.

Palace are due to face Chelsea at Wembley on April 17, and will want to have Olise available for that match as they aim to move one step closer to picking up some major silverware.

Before then, they take on Arsenal and Leicester in the league, and it remains to be seen whether Olise will be fit for those fixtures.
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Waking up at sunrise on The Ghan railway as it snakes through the Australian Outback ranks as one of lifes bucket-list experiences, especially if youre a fan of the Golden Age of travel.

As the legendary train made its way through the red desert sands of the Northern Territory, between the towns of Katherine and Alice Springs, a deep orange hue bathed the sky before it was gradually eclipsed by the sun coming up over the horizon and peaking above the distant hills.

During breakfast  a sumptuous gammon steak with a fried egg, bubble and squeak rosti and a slow-roasted tomato  I chatted to David and Stephanie Harley, train enthusiasts from Sydney who prefer slow travel.

Beauty: Claudia Joseph boards The Ghan, the worlds longest passenger train (pictured), for a 1,850-mile, two-night journey through the heart of Australia

Where we live, we dont get to see sunrise every day, says Stephanie, so whenever theres an opportunity I make the effort to set the alarm. We went to bed specifically with the blind up so that we would see it. Its such a thrill every day.

The sunrises and sunsets on our Outback holidays are the highlights of the day, adds David. I love the desertscape and I can sit and watch it go by for hours, looking for animals, looking for birds. This morning the sunrise was spectacular. There was a really intense orange band across the bottom of the sky, which you rarely see, and then it grew until the entire sky was glowing orange. It was quite something.

Certainly, sunrise was one of the high points of my trip on the worlds longest passenger train, which has become as renowned for its stunning views as it has its fine dining.

Claudia visits the sacred Simpsons Gap (pictured) near Alice Springs. She describes it as 'absolutely breathtaking'

The Ghan showcases 'the diversity of Australia' as it travels between Darwin and Adelaide

Originally dubbed The Afghan Express, after the pioneering camel drivers who blazed a trail into the heart of Australia during the 19th Century when it was opened up to explorers, The Ghan now hosts in excess of 28,000 passengers every year  more than 500,000 have embarked on the journey in total.

The origins of the line date back to 1877, but it was only on February 1, 2004, that it was fully completed, when the final section between Darwin and Alice Springs was opened and the train set off for its first transcontinental trip with 43 carriages.

State government bureaucrat Charles Mountford travelled on The Ghan in 1938 at the outset of his search for the remains of explorer Ludwig Leichhardt, who had gone missing in the massive Simpson Desert in central Australia some 90 years earlier. He wrote: The train is always mixed, that is, it conveys anything that requires transport into the Centre  passengers, goods, livestock, motor cars and, on one occasion, a family of four hens and a rooster. At one station, these escaped and everyone on the train, even dignified and serious-minded professors, assisted to capture the cackling old hens.

My experience began as I climbed aboard the 3,100ft red and silver train in Darwin, capital of the Northern Territory and the gateway to Kakadu National Park. I had joined 269 other guests and 45 staff to travel 1,850 miles through the heart of Australia on a three-day, two-night journey. Over the next 54 hours, until we arrived at our final stop in Adelaide, an ever-changing panorama would showcase the diversity of Australia. The tropical greens of Darwin and Katherine, dotted with galahs  or red-breasted cockatoos  magpies and Australian ravens; the rusty red landscape of the Outback and the MacDonnell Ranges; the pastoral hues of the plains, scattered with sheep farms, clusters of kangaroos and sleepy towns littered with dusty, broken-down buses and car wrecks.

After being shown to my wooden cabin, with its brass knobs and handles, a sofa that converted into bunk beds, and en suite loo that ingeniously converted into a shower room, I sipped the first of many complimentary glasses of bubbles and watched Darwin disappear as we travelled through lush landscape.

Our first lunch was a fragrant buffalo curry and mango parfait with a berry salsa in the Art Deco Queen Adelaide Restaurant, named after the consort of King William IV.

We then stopped at the Northern Territory town of Katherine. Known for being the location where the Outback meets the tropics, it is teeming with stunning gorges and misty waterfalls, thermal springs and ancient culture.

We disembarked for a three-hour cruise down the River Katherine and through Nitmiluk Gorge, and watched in awe as the dramatic ancient scenery, made up of 13 gorges, unfolded around us. The shrill sounds of cicadas reverberated off the cliff face and birds of prey flew overhead as we meandered down the swirling waters of the first gorge, before walking 300 yards over sandstone to get to the second gorge.

Dramatic: Claudia disembarks for a three-hour cruise down the River Katherine and through Nitmiluk Gorge, pictured

Take a snap: Claudia and her group spot a freshwater crocodile (file image above) on the River Katherine. Guides say they are safe to swim near...

After stopping to gaze at a huge cliff face  now known as Jeddas Rock after the 1955 eponymous movie (the first Australian film to star indigenous actors and to be made in colour)  we spotted a freshwater crocodile on the shoreline.

Up here in the Northern Territory we get two different species of crocodiles that occupy the waterways, our guide Russell Cadwell told us, revealing that Katherine River was also the scene of a 2007 horror film, Rogue, about a giant saltwater crocodile terrorising a boat-load of tourists.

You get the big, nasty saltwater crocodile, and then you get the smaller ones, the freshwater crocodiles. It is actually very safe to swim in the water with freshwater crocodiles around because we humans are too big for them to eat. They dont really bother us  as long as you leave them alone, theyll leave you alone. But if youre swimming around and you see a freshwater crocodile sitting on a riverbank and you swim over to it and try to give it a cuddle and poke it with a stick, its going to feel cornered and try to bite you to get away from you.

We made our way back to the train to change for dinner, stopping for a glass of fizz in the Outback Explorer Lounge. Shunning the grilled crocodile tail fillet, I chose cauliflower soup and braised beef cheeks, followed by artisanal cheese and an obligatory glass of port. Afterwards I had one of the most comfortable nights of my life  despite being in a bunk bed  lulled to sleep by the gentle rocking of the train and the sound of wheels rolling on the track.

By the time I woke up to that staggering sunrise, we were well on our way to Alice Springs, a cultural melting pot in the heartland of Australia, made famous by Nevil Shutes 1950s romance novel A Town Like Alice. There you can follow in the footsteps of Aboriginal Australians, going on a three-hour tour of the West MacDonnell Ranges, home to more than 40 species of rare fauna, including corkwood trees, which the indigenous population used for boomerangs and shields because of their hard wood.

The landscape is dominated by river red gum trees  a eucalyptus native to Australia which has become known as the widow maker because it randomly drops withered branches if its not getting enough nutrients, so not the best place to camp.

Claudia enjoys taking in the tropical greens of Darwin and Katherine, dotted with galahs  or red-breasted cockatoos (pictured)

TRAVEL FACTS Claudia Joseph was a guest of Journey Beyond Rail (journeybeyondrail.com) on a two-night, three-day journey on The Ghan, where a Gold Twin room costs from 2,800 (A$4,955) for single occupancy or 1,568pp (A$2,755pp) for double occupancy (prices subject to change). There are also one-night and three-night itineraries. Visit australia.com for more information. Advertisement

But we also spotted a 2,000-year-old ghost gum tree, a species that features heavily in the works of Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira but is rare in the Outback as it usually grows in rocky areas. Its incredible to think its been here longer than any European, says tour guide Dahria Sharp. What has this ghost gum seen in its life? Afterwards we visit the spiritual home of the Aboriginals, Simpsons Gap, one of the most scenic pathways through the ranges, which is absolutely breathtaking. Unlike nearby Roe Creek, which is an upside-down stream  a dry riverbed with water under the surface  Simpsons Gap actually has a waterhole, which means that plants such as native figs, bush plums and bush coconuts grow on the surface.

This is a lifeline for the indigenous people, adds Dahria. It provides shelter, water and food  and then, in that rockfall there, there is a family of wallabies so theres meat. So its got absolutely everything. Its one of the reasons its so sacred.

Finally, after dinner, the train stopped at Manguri, a rail siding 30 minutes out of Coober Pedy in Southern Australia, where the Outbacks pitch-black sky revealed a carpet of brilliant stars.

Gathering around a bonfire, we enjoyed a nightcap and marvelled at the contrast in the sky. The following morning, we awoke on the outskirts of Adelaide and gazed out of the window as the train wound its way into the city, passing scattered territory towns and sheep farms. Like my fellow passengers David and Stephanie Harley, for me it was the sunrises and sunsets on The Ghan that I will never forget.
Carrie Bickmore's planned three-month sabbatical in the UK means she will be away from Channel 10's The Project until at least July.

But her extended family holiday also presents an issue for Southern Cross Austereo, as she hosts the national afternoon show Carrie and Tommy on the Hit Network.

While Carrie and SCA insist she will broadcast remotely from England until she returns to Melbourne, industry insiders are doubtful this is logistically possible.

Sabbatical: Carrie Bickmore's extended family holiday presents an issue for Southern Cross Austereo, as she hosts the national afternoon show Carrie and Tommy on the Hit Network. Pictured here with her co-host Tommy Little

One source said it's doubtful she will be able to record a daily radio program due to the time difference between Australia and the UK.

Broadcasting live would mean Carrie dialling in each morning at 4am, as Carrie and Tommy airs from 3pm to 6pm (AEST) Monday through Friday.

While it's possible she will pre-record segments, this could lead to a decline in quality for a show that prides itself on the 'immediacy of radio, and thriving on the unpredictable contribution of their listeners'.

What will the future hold? While Carrie and SCA insist she will broadcast remotely from the UK until she returns to Melbourne, industry insiders are doubtful this is logistically possible

The Hit Network previously tried to accommodate a radio presenter broadcasting from Europe when Kate Langbroek, one half the Hughesy and Kate show, moved to Italy with her family in 2019.

She relocated in January that year but the long-distance arrangement became untenable after just a few months and she was replaced by Ed Kavalee.

Industry sceptics aside, Carrie will likely do everything she can to keep hold of her radio gig because it is so lucrative for her.

Sources tell Daily Mail Australia she is earning at least $1million per year, which is about three times the usual salary for an afternoon or nights radio host.

It's unclear how much her offsider Tommy Little is being paid.

Doubts: One source said it's doubtful she will be able to record a daily radio program due to the time difference between Australia and the UK. Broadcasting live would mean Carrie dialling in each morning at 4am, as Carrie & Tommy airs from 3pm to 6pm (AEST) Monday through Friday

Meanwhile, there are rumours former Bachelor star-turned-media personality Abbie Chatfield could stand in for Carrie during her absence.

The popular podcaster already hosts Hot Nights with Abbie Chatfield on the Hit Network and is considered a rising star at SCA.

However, the audio company has denied there are any plans for Abbie to fill in.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted SCA for further comment.

Format change: While it's possible she will pre-record segments, this could lead to a decline in quality for a show that prides itself on the 'immediacy of radio, and thriving on the unpredictable contribution of their listeners'

Host with the most? There are rumours former Bachelor star-turned-media personality Abbie Chatfield (pictured on set of Love Island Afterparty) could fill in for Carrie during her absence

Carrie became emotional on The Project on March 15 as she explained she and her partner Chris Walker would be taking their family to the UK.

'In April I'm going to be taking a few months off The Project desk. Chris and I and the kids are heading off on a family adventure together,' she said.

'We've been wanting to do it for a while, but for lots of reasons, the timing hasn't been right, but we figure it's never going to be the perfect time to go.'

'Taking a few months off': Carrie, who is said to earn $1million per year from her radio job alone, became emotional on The Project on March 15 as she explained she and her partner Chris Walker would be taking their family to the UK

She added: 'It's something we really want to do before my son starts his final years at school so we're doing term two in the UK. So I will be off for a couple of months.'

Carrie did not, however, mention the recent sale of her $3.4million five-bedroom home in Melbourne, which appears to suggest a more permanent move.

She also said she had been inspired by The Project panellist Kate Langbroek, who spent two years living abroad in Bologna, Italy, with her family.

Inspired: Carrie said she had been inspired by The Project panellist Kate Langbroek (right), who spent two years living abroad in Bologna, Italy, with her family. Interestingly, Kate had tried to host a radio show from Europe in 2019 but gave up after a few months

'You are a big inspiration for heading overseas with a family and we had some big conversations after living through the world's longest lockdown,' she said.

'One of the things that my son Ollie said was how much he was going to miss the family time when we were coming out of lockdown which kind of surprised us because we had a lot of family time!

'But we thought, gosh, he still wants to spend time with us and while he does he only has a few years left and then he will fly away so we thought we would seize the moment and do it.'

Family: Carrie has two children, daughters Evie, six, and Adelaide, three, with her partner Chris Walker, as well as a son, Oliver Lange, 14, from her marriage to the late Greg Lange, who died of brain cancer in 2010

Chrissie Swan and Georgie Tunny have since been announced as Bickmore's replacements on The Project during her time away.

The pair will appear on the show on alternate nights alongside regular panellists Waleed Aly and Peter Helliar.

Carrie shares two children, daughters Evie, six, and Adelaide, three, with her partner Chris, a television producer for the ABC and Channel 10.

Part of the family: Carrie has been a core part of The Project since its launch in 2009. Pictured here with Peter Helliar (left), Waleed Aly (centre left) and Steve Price (right)

She also has a son, Oliver Lange, 14, from her marriage to the late Greg Lange, who died of brain cancer in 2010.

She has been a core part of The Project since its launch in 2009.

In addition to being awarded an Order of Australia for her service to media, Carrie has also been nominated for multiple Logie Awards, and won three.

Back then: Carrie is seen here with former The Project hosts Dave Hughes (left) and Charlie Pickering (second from left), as well as MasterChef alum Julie Goodwin (second from right)

The award-winning television and radio presenter took home the coveted Gold Logie for Most Popular Personality on Television in 2015.

After working in radio for a few years, she got her start on television in 2006, reading the news bulletin for Channel 10's popular variety show Rove Live.

Carrie's exit comes as ratings for The Project continue a downward trend.

Channel 10's flagship current affairs program has lost almost a third of its audience since 2011, OzTAM ratings revealed in November.

The show saw its metro ratings plummet to an all-time low of just 367,000 in 2021.
They have been at loggerheads for years but has peace finally broken out between music star neighbours Robbie Williams and Jimmy Page?

The Led Zeppelin rocker, 78, was left furious over plans by Robbie and wife Ayda to dig a mega-basement at their house in Holland Park, West London, claiming the building work would damage his own historic mansion.

The planning battle raged for five years until Robbie was finally given permission in 2019.

Now the former Take That star has put in a new application to do some work  but this time his neighbour is fully behind it.

Robbie, 48, wants to pull down a Robinia tree that sits on the border of their multi-million pound properties.

And while Jimmy would normally be opposed to such a move, my source tells me he accepts the tree is too dangerous to stay  and, in fact, should have been removed before now.

Robbie Williams, 48, wants to pull down a Robinia tree that sits on the border of his and Jimmy Page's multi-million pound properties. (Pictured: Robbie with wife Ayda Field)

Robbie has had to apply for permission to cut down the Robinia (pictured) as it's in a conservation area.

The agreement between the pair suggests a thaw in their feud over Robbie's previous basement plans, which Jimmy Page (pictured) strongly objected to

It is causing a crack in their boundary wall and is leaning on a lamppost.

I understand Jimmy was relieved the tree didn't fall and cause serious damage during the recent storms.

Robbie has had to apply for permission to cut down the Robinia as it's in a conservation area.

If any work is done without permission, he could face a fine of up to 20,000.

The agreement between the pair suggests a thaw in their feud over the basement plans.

Jimmy objected to the vast extension, fearing the slightest vibration could damage his Grade I listed home, The Tower House, which features delicate mosaics and friezes.

Robbie was given the green light, but his builders can only use hand-held tools, meaning the excavation will take years at great expense.

He bought the 47-room mansion in 2013 after the death of former owner, Michael Winner.

Robbie previously angered the film director's widow, Geraldine, by felling palm trees Winner had tended for 35 years.

Mick's in denial

He is one of the most recognisable stars in the world, so I'm surprised Mick Jagger's ploy of telling eager fans that he is NOT Mick Jagger actually works.

The Rolling Stone's brother Chris has revealed he fibs to get out of signing autographs.

He says: 'Once we were in a London theatre and during the interval an American girl approached and timidly asked perhaps if he was Mick Jagger? 'No,' he blankly lied, and the poor girl turned away in disappointment.

Mick Jagger signing photographs at the Crossfire Hurricane premier in London in 2012

'It's a well-known maxim that you shouldn't meet your heroes as you will be disappointed, and there's truth in that.

'Better to admire from a distance.'

Or as Mick might say: when it comes to autographs, you can't always get what you want
Spotify has pulled out all the stops to prevent the Duke and Duchess of Sussex leaving the streaming service after a row over Covid conspiracies.

Meghan and Harry, who have an 18million podcast deal with the music giant, are unhappy about misinformation on the platform.

Now I can reveal the company says the Sussexes can place Covid information on their Archewell page as a compromise.

Stars including Neil Young and Joni Mitchell removed their catalogue from Spotify over claims that its biggest podcaster, Joe Rogan, was spreading anti-vax misinformation.

Meghan and Harry (pictured), who have an 18million podcast deal with Spotify, are unhappy about misinformation on the platform

Stars including Neil Young and Joni Mitchell removed their catalogue from Spotify over claims that its biggest podcaster, Joe Rogan (pictured), was spreading anti-vax misinformation

Seems the Johnsons were not the first occupants of Downing Street to adorn the walls with lavish gold wallpaper.

I hear that when designer Lulu Lytle's decorating assistant Laura Morris started stripping back the walls of the PM's flat above No 11, evidence of previous gold wallpaper was discovered.

If you want an idea of what the flat might look like, head for the newly refurbed Walmer Castle pub in Notting Hill.

Laura, who describes herself as 'obsessed with gold', was in charge of decoration there too, and has applied her trademark shimmering glazed plaster effect in exactly the way she did for Boris and Carrie.

Mums not chuffed about train stunt

I wonder if Sheherazade Goldsmith and her ex-husband Zac, the International Environment Minister, have been suffering sleepless nights  their 19-year-old son James has been hanging out of moving trains during his gap year!

The youngster is finding himself in Sri Lanka and Sheherazade, left, posted an Instagram video of Jamess rather dangerous stunt.

Sheherazade Goldsmith attends the Big Up Uganda fundraising gala for Save The Children in London in 2018

She also shared a WhatsApp chat in which Jamess sister Uma asked the bearded teenager: Why do you look so ruggard [sic] already?

He replied: Im trying to find myself and I feel a beard is essential. After posting the exchange, Sheherazade deadpanned: Needless to say they will kill me.

My lips are sealed but...

Which married primetime TV actor showed his love for the NHS in a very different way  by having a late-night encounter with a nurse at a celebrity members' club in London?
She recently returned home to England after soaking up the sunshine with fiance Matthew Sarsfield and their thirteen-month-old son Noah in Dubai.

And Charlotte Dawson went all nostalgic on Saturday as she took to her Instagram account to post some stunning throwback snaps from their trip.

The reality star, 29, who recently lost an incredible three stone looked radiant in a plunging monochrome swimsuit and matching hat - which almost blew away as she posed on the beach.

Stunner: Charlotte Dawson looked incredible in a plunging monochrome swimsuit and matching hat in a slew of throwback snaps posted to her Instagram account on Saturday

The windswept star playfully took to her social media and captioned the post:

'Holding onto me hat for dear lyf vs how it went xxxx. Oh I miss that sexeh sunset I do.'

Charlotte looked flawless in the chic, sensual swimwear design with detachable tie belt which brought attention to her svelte waist.

She teamed it with a matching mono stripe gown which made for a striking beachside ensemble.

Chic: Carrying on with the colour scheme - Charlotte wore a striped wide brim elegant floppy sun hat

Carrying on with the colour scheme - Charlotte wore a striped wide brim elegant floppy sun hat.

She went on to upload a hilarious video of herself struggling to hold on to the head piece as the windswept star hilariously laughed at herself.

The Celebs Go Dating star completed the look with a pair of Chloe woody logo slides while sporting a glamorous palette of make-up and wore her blonde hair in relaxed curls.

Whoops! The windswept star playfully took to her social media and captioned the post: 'Holding onto me hat for dear lyf vs how it went xxxx. Oh I miss that sexeh sunset I do'

Funny: She went on to upload a hilarious video of herself struggling to hold on to the head piece as the windswept star hilariously laughed at herself

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)
Tammin Sursok dressed to impress as she posed for a stunning photo shoot in this week's Stellar Magazine.

The South African-born Australian actress showed off her fashion-forward style as she rocked a stylish double denim outfit.

The 38-year-old completed her stylish ensemble with a pair of black sneakers as she glanced seductively at the camera.

Making a style statement! Tammin Sursok rocked a stylish double denim outfit for a stunning shoot for this week's Stellar Magazine

Tammin left her long brunette locks out and wore a neutral palette of makeup for the photo shoot.

The actress also spoke to the publication about what it was like to film Neighbours before it was axed.

She recently wrapped up filming a short stint on the long-running soap.

'It will always be a special part of who we were': The actress also spoke to the publication about what it was like to film Neighbours before it was axed

'I needed to go back to a soap and see it through a different lens  as someone who's much older  and make peace with that whole time,' she explained.

'Our children will never know of Neighbours except through reruns! Neighbours will always be a special part of who we were... but I guess it all just moves on'.

On Monday, Tammin also spoke about what the vibe was like on set of the soap, with her contract having coincided with the announcement the show had been axed after 37 years on air.

'Our children will never know of Neighbours except through reruns! Neighbours will always be a special part of who we were... but I guess it all just moves on,' she said

'I love the work ethic of Australians... they came with such professionalism and they did their job and they didn't moan about it and they didn't chuck a hissy fit,' Tammin said on The Kyle and Jackie O Show.

'They were just so professional and it was just really nice to be on that show when it was going through such a transition,' she continued.

Network 10 and Fremantle, the show's producer, confirmed the news Neighbours was cancelled earlier this month, with the final episode filmed in June.
Angelina Jolie was the epitome of chic in a long black coat while arriving to the Cara Hotel in Los Feliz, located just south of Griffith Park, on Friday.

While strutting into the upscale property, known for its stunning courtyard surrounded by 100-year-old olive trees and California palms, the 46-year-old actress wore a protective N95 respirator mask and nude pumps.

Her long, glossy brown hair cascaded in loose curls past her shoulders as she made her way toward the entrance flanked by a muscular bodyguard.

Classy: Angelina Jolie was the epitome of chic in a long black coat while arriving to the Cara Hotel in Los Feliz, located just south of Griffith Park, on Friday

The Maleficent star carried her essentials in a sleek black leather handbag on a rare outing without any of her and ex-husband Brad Pitt's six children.

Her outing comes after appearing on NBC Nightly News last week to talk about the recently renewed Violence Against Women Act.

On the segment, she spoke to Kate Snow about how the law's passing was 'a long time coming' as the system currently in place to protect survivors is 'unbelievably broken' and needs serious reform

Effortlessly glamorous: Her long, glossy brown hair cascaded in loose curls past her shoulders as she made her way toward the entrance flanked by a muscular bodyguard

'I think, I think this country doesn't recognize what a serious domestic violence and child abuse problem it really has,' she said. 'And I think, I think there is a reality that when somebody harms a child, if it's a stranger, the way the law looks at it, the way the law responds, it's quite strong.'

'When it's somebody within a family, within a home, it is responded to less. And if you can imagine for the child in fact, that's, that's in many ways worse.'

She added: 'I think once you're exposed to this system, whoever you are, once you're exposed to it and you realize how unbelievably broken this system is, you have to do something to improve it.'

Praise: Angelina Jolie lauded the recently renewed Violence Against Women Act, a federal law first established in 1994 and reauthorized under President Joe Biden on Tuesday as part of a $1.5 trillion spending bill which also prevented a government shutdown

Jolie said the bill was 'personal to everyone' and has had her own experience with the family court system after accusing her former spouse of verbally and physically assaulting one of their six kids on a private plane in 2016.

'It is personal to everyone,' Jolie said. 'Everyone who cares about family, everyone who cares about children, everyone who cares about their own safety and the health of their community.'

He was cleared of any wrongdoing after an investigation by both the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services and the FBI.

'My children's health is my priority at this moment,' she added. 'And my focus for the last few years has been to help my family and  to focus on helping change laws to protect other families and other women and focus on their stories.'

'I think, I think this country doesn't recognize what a serious domestic violence and child abuse problem it really has,' she said. 'And I think, I think there is a reality that when somebody harms a child, if it's a stranger, the way the law looks at it, the way the law responds, it's quite strong'

Talk about it: The longtime human rights activist told Kate Snow and NBC Nightly News on Wednesday that the law's passing was 'a long time coming' as the system currently in place to protect survivors is 'unbelievably broken' and needs serious reform

Angelina and Brad began dating in 2004 after meeting on set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith and married in 2014.

She filed for divorce two years later, though, in 2016 citing 'irreconcilable differences' and it was finalized in 2019.

They've continued battling in court for custody of four of their six children who are still legally minors, and a host of properties acquired throughout their marriage.

Ruth Glenn of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence Glenn spoke about the significance of the reauthorization, saying, 'Many, many survivors who have not had their needs addressed previously will now have their needs addressed.'

In addition to funding for Pell Grants and other programs, the act was also part of a bill which provided billions in emergency aid to Ukraine.
All 132 people on board China's crashed plane dead

Xinhua) 07:36, March 27, 2022

Rescuers conduct search and rescue work at the core site of a recent plane crash in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 26, 2022. (Xinhua/Lu Boan)

NANNING, March 26 (Xinhua) -- All 132 people on board China Eastern Airlines' plane that crashed Monday in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region were dead, an official announced Saturday.

The national emergency response headquarters for the China Eastern Airlines Flight MU5735 aircraft accident on March 21 made the announcement at a press conference late night on Saturday after six days of all-out search and rescue efforts.

"It is with great sadness that we here announce that the 123 passengers and nine crew members on board China Eastern Airlines Flight MU5735 on March 21 have all died," Hu Zhenjiang, deputy commander of the headquarters and deputy head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

According to the requirements made by the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council, the headquarters has organized personnel from multiple departments, including fire fighters, soldiers, armed police, public security, health and quarantine, to carry out massive research at the crash site for the past six consecutive days, he said.

Together with experts' analysis of video contents in various monitoring and recording equipments, the key data recorded by facilities such as the air traffic control radar, and particularly the wreckage distribution at the crash site, it can be determined that there have been no signs of life at the crash site, Hu said.

So far, identities of 120 victims of the plane crash have been confirmed through DNA testing.

The China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737 aircraft, which departed from Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province and was bound for Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, crashed into a mountainous area in Tengxian County, Guangxi at around 2:38 p.m. Monday.

In the next step, more efforts will be made to search for the remains of the victims and the wreckage of the plane to provide strong support for the following investigation and evidence collection, Hu said.

The official also pledged efforts to properly handle the aftermath. "We are deeply saddened by the accident. We mourn the loss of 132 lives and express our deep sympathy to the bereaved families."

All attendees of the press conference stood in silent tribute to the dead in the plane accident.

"Our hearts are heavy. We have been searching the place where the plane crashed and the surrounding hilly areas for days, expecting a miracle," Li Shaolin, head of a firefighting team in Guilin City.

Besides a number of wreckage pieces, rescuers have recovered one black box -- believed to be the cockpit voice recorder -- and are still searching for the second black box, or the flight-data recorder. The data downloading and analysis work of the recovered black box is underway.

A physics and chemistry laboratory of the public security authorities has tested 41 samples out of 66 from the crash site and found no major ion components of common inorganic or organic explosives, said Zheng Xi, head of the fire brigade of the Guangxi region at a press briefing on Saturday afternoon.

Several thousand people have joined the search and rescue efforts. Drones and other equipments were also used in the operation.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Bianji)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks via video call to the Doha Forum in Doha, Qatar, Saturday. Ukraine's president made a surprise video appearance Saturday at Qatar's Doha Forum, calling on the energy-rich nation and others to boost their production to counteract the loss of Russian energy supplies. AP-Yonhap



Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused the West of lacking courage as his country fights to stave off Russia's invasion, making an exasperated plea for fighter jets and tanks to sustain a defense in a conflict that has ground into a war of attrition.



Speaking after U.S. President Joe Biden met with senior Ukrainian officials in Poland on Saturday, Zelenskyy lashed out at the West's ''ping-pong about who and how should hand over jets and other defensive weapons to us'' while Russian missile attacks kill and trap civilians.



''I've talked to the defenders of Mariupol today. I'm in constant contact with them. Their determination, heroism and firmness are astonishing,'' Zelenskyy said in a video address early Sunday, referring to the besieged southern city that has suffered some of the war's greatest deprivations and horrors. ''If only those who have been thinking for 31 days on how to hand over dozens of jets and tanks had 1% of their courage.''



Russia's invasion of Ukraine, now in its 32nd day, has stalled in many areas, its aim to quickly encircle the capital, Kyiv, and force its surrender faltering in the face of staunch Ukrainian resistance  bolstered by weapons from the U.S. and other Western allies.



However, Western military aid has, so far, not included fighter jets. A proposal to transfer Polish planes to Ukraine via the United States was scrapped amid NATO concerns about getting drawn into a military conflict with Russia.



''So, who is in charge of the Euro-Atlantic community? Is it still Moscow, thanks to its scare tactics?'' Zelenskyy exclaimed as he delivered his pointed remarks. ''Our partners must step up their aid to Ukraine.''



Britain's defense ministry said Sunday that the battlefield across northern Ukraine remains largely static as local Ukrainian counterattacks hamper Russian attempts to reorganize their forces. It said Russia's forces looked to be trying to encircle Ukrainian forces directly facing the separatist regions in the country's east.



Moscow has claimed that its focus is on wresting the entirety of Ukraine's eastern Donbas region from Ukrainian control. The region has been partially controlled by Russia-backed separatists since 2014. A high-ranking Russian military official said Friday that troops were being redirected to the east from other parts of the country.



Despite those assertions, Russian rockets struck the western city of Lviv on Saturday while Biden visited neighboring Poland, serving as a reminder that Moscow is willing to strike anywhere in Ukraine.



Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Sunday that it used air-launched cruise missiles to hit a fuel depot and a defense plant in Lyiv. Konashenkov said another strike with sea-launched missiles destroyed a depot with air defense missiles in Plesetske just west of Ukraine's capital, Kyiv.



The strikes came as Biden wrapped up a visit to Poland, where he met Ukraine's foreign and defense ministers, visited U.S. troops and saw refugees from the war. Before leaving, he delivered a forceful and highly personal condemnation of Russia President Vladimir Putin, saying: ''For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power.''



The White House quickly clarified that Biden wasn't calling for an immediate change in government in Moscow. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denounced the remark, saying ''It's not up to the president of the U.S. and not up to the Americans to decide who will remain in power in Russia.''



Early Sunday, a chemical smell still lingered in the air as firefighters in Lviv, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) from the Polish border, sprayed water on a burned section of an oil facility hit in the Russian attack.



A security guard at the site, Yaroslav Prokopiv, said he saw three rockets strike and destroy two oil tanks but no one was hurt.



''The third strike threw me to the ground,'' he said.





People with their belongings in a city subway that they have used as a bomb shelter in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Thursday. World leaders heard impassioned pleas Thursday from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for more military aid to defend his country and the United States announced new sanctions and humanitarian aid as officials gathered for a trio of summits to discuss next steps in countering Russia's month-old invasion of its much smaller neighbor. AP-Yonhap
Denise Van Outen is reportedly back in contact with her former fiance Jay Kay, after dumping her cheating ex Eddie Boxshall, who she was most recently engaged to.

The TV personality, 47, enjoyed a highly-publicised relationship with the Jamiroquai bandmember, 52, before they 'painfully' called it quits back in 2001.

Denise even wrote about him in her new autobiography A Bit Of Me, and he claimed they called off their plans to marry due to 'conflicting' jobs at the time.

Former flame: Denise Van Outen is reportedly back in contact with her former fiance Jay Kay, after dumping her cheating ex Eddie Boxshall, who she was also engaged to (pictured in 1995)

A source told The Sun: 'Denise and Jay have been speaking again and it has been good for both of them to have that connection.

'Their split was very painful but a lot of water has passed under the bridge.'

Representatives for Denise and Jay have been contacted for comment by MailOnline.

It comes after 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.

Happier times: Denise announced she had split from Eddie in January after discovering he had cheated on her during their seven year relationship

In an excerpt from her book, she wrote about his alleged infidelities, which she discovered while using his phone.

The former West End star penned: '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.

The commodities trader shared photos from his day in East London, including a snap of a street sign for Old Broad Street.

They suit! The TV star, 47, enjoyed a highly-publicised relationship with the Jamiroquai bandmember, 52, before they 'painfully' called it quits back in 2001 (pictured in 1998)

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].'

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: The commodities trader also posted a snap of a British Transport Police poster on the tube which read 'we stand together against hate'

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.

'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.'
Lin-Manuel Miranda revealed that he'll be sitting out the Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday due to COVID-19 exposure.

The 42-year-old Hamilton star announced Saturday on Twitter that his wife Vanessa Nadal had tested positive for the novel coronavirus, though he and his children had all tested negative.

'Made it to Hollywood...' he began his tweet, before announcing, 'This weekend, my wife tested [positive] for COVID.

'Out of caution': Lin-Manuel Miranda, 42, wrote Saturday on Twitter said he would miss the Oscars after his wife tested positive for COVID-19; seen March 19 in La

'She's doing fine,' he continued. 'Kids & I have tested [negative], but out of caution, I won't be going to the Oscars tomorrow night. Cheering for my TickTickBoom & Encanto families w my own family, alongside all of you, ALL of you. -LMM,' he concluded.

Dozens of fans shared their condolences in the replies, and Star Wars star Mark Hamill tried to convince him that he wasn't missing anything.

'Wishing you & your family all the best & cheering for TickTickBoom too! PS- I've been to the Oscars twice & they're MUCH more fun from home,' he wrote.

The outcome of the Oscars could determine if Miranda is able to complete his EGOT, meaning he would have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award.

Safety first: He noted that he and their children were still negative, but he would sit out the ceremony 'out of caution'

Big moment: He's nominated for Best Original Song for Dos Oruguitas from Disney's animated film Encanto, which would give him his EGOT if he wins; still from Encanto

So far, only 16 people have ever managed to win an award from all four ceremonies, including Mel Brooks, Rita Moreno, Whoopi Goldberg and John Legend.

The multi-talented star is nominated for Best Original Song for Dos Oruguitas from Disney's animated film Encanto, about a Colombian family who all have magical gifts, except for one daughter who has seemingly been passed over.

Some of the cast of the film will be performing the song We Don't Talk About Bruno, which Miranda also wrote the music and lyrics for, though it's not nominated.

Although his Original Song nomination  which he's favored to win  is the only Oscar that he's personally up for, Miranda's film tick, tick...BOOM! also received multiple nominations.

The movie, based on the musical of the same name by Rent creator Jonathan Larson, is nominated for Best Editing, and its star Andrew Garfield is nominated in the Best Actor category.

In the running: His directorial debut tick, tick...BOOM! is also nominated for Best Editing and Best Actor for Andrew Garfield; still from tick, tick...BOOM!

No thanks! Miranda previously told People that he's uninterested in hosting the Oscars, even though he has written musical numbers for award show hosts in the past; seen March 7 in LA

Miranda's success with musicals, including his monster hit Hamilton, has led him to be regularly mentioned as a possible Oscars host, but he revealed earlier this year that he's not interested in the job.

'I have said no in the past. I really don't think that that's my skillset,' he told People in January. 'It's not something I'm comfortable doing, hosting, mainly because I've been lucky enough to work with incredible hosts.'

Although he didn't care to be the focus of attention on stage, he added that he had previously written musical numbers for others hosts.

'I've written for Neil Patrick Harris, I've written his opening numbers and closing numbers for the Tonys. That is a whole other thing. He is genius at that, he and Hugh Jackman,' he continued. 'I actually don't think  that's not something I feel confident in.'

He added, 'I'm happy to write for the host, but I don't know that... I wouldn't feel comfortable hosting.'
Reese Witherspoon and her husband Jim Toth celebrated their 11th wedding anniversary on Saturday, March 26.

And the Morning Show actress, 46, shared several snaps of herself with the talent agent, 51, to Instagram in honor of the milestone.

'Happy Anniversary JT!! [growing heart emoji] 11 years of adventures, love & laughter. I feel so lucky to share this wonderful life with you. [pink hearts emoji],' captioned Witherspoon.

Major milestone: Reese Witherspoon and her husband Jim Toth celebrated their 11th wedding anniversary on Saturday, March 26. And the Morning Show actress, 46, shared several snaps of herself with the talent agent, 51, to Instagram in honor of the milestone

In the first photo, the couple posed with her heads close together as they snapped a cozy selfie in front of a calm body of water.

Witherspoon's naturally blonde locks were combed off to the right, and she flashed a bright smile.

In the next snap, the pair stood in a kitchen holding flutes filled with what appeared to be champagne.

Toth donned a flat cap hat and a red sweater over a blue button-down shirt, while his better half rocked a red plaid dress and a black sweater.

Feeling lucky: 'Happy Anniversary JT!! [growing heart emoji] 11 years of adventures, love & laughter. I feel so lucky to share this wonderful life with you. [pink hearts emoji],' captioned Witherspoon

Whirlwind romance: Toth and Witherspoon first met at a party back in 2010. They became engaged less than a year later and married in 2011

In a final picture, the Legally Blonde actress modeled a gorgeous off-the-shoulder gown while resting her hand on the chest of Toth's classic tuxedo.

Toth and Witherspoon first met at a party back in 2010. They became engaged less than a year later and married in 2011.

In 2012, Witherspoon gave birth to a son, Tennessee.

A happy blended family: In 2012, Witherspoon gave birth to a son, Tennessee. She also has Ava, 22m and Deacon, 18, from her first marriage to actor Ryan Phillippe (L to R: Ava, Reese, Deacon, Tennessee and Jim pictured 2016)

The 9-year-old is Toth's only child and Witherspoon's third.

She has 22-year-old Ava and 18-year-old Deacon from her first marriage to actor Ryan Phillippe.

The ex-couple met at Witherspoon's 21st birthday party in 1997 and married two years later. They divorced in 2008 and share joint custody of their children.
Ferne McCann caused her fans to do a double take as she transformed into Pamela Anderson for a gorgeous slew of snaps, which she posted to Instagram on Saturday.

The former TOWIE star, 31, looked sensational as she posed up a sultry storm while wearing her light brown tresses in the Baywatch actress's iconic up-do.

It comes after Ferne let slip that she's already up for having a baby with her Dubai-based boyfriend Lorri Haines, after just two months together.

Wow! Ferne McCann transformed into Pamela Anderson in a Saturday Instagram post... after revealing she's ready to have a baby with her boyfriend Lorri Haines

While sitting against a wall, she slipped into a black crop top and a faded pair of distressed jeans having overlined her pout with brown lip gloss.

In her caption, she wrote: 'Pammy. There was no way I was going to do Pam Vibes without doing a little photoshoot at home @hairbysarrah @huda.makeup.london.'

Ferne was no doubt inspired to get into character as the 90s icon by the recent series finale of Hulu's Pam & Tommy.

The miniseries dramatised Pam's [played by Lily James] highly-publicised sex tape leak in which she starred alongside her ex husband Tommy Lee [Sebastian Stan].

Coming to its much-anticipated conclusion on Wednesday, the titular couple finally gave into the spread of their home movie ahead of becoming parents for the first time.

Throwback: The former TOWIE star, 31, was no doubt inspired to get into character as the 90s icon by the recent series finale of Hulu's Pam & Tommy (Pamela pictured in 1994)

The series ended with Pamela finally giving birth to her first child, with him filming the tender moment on a video camera.

Their saucy tape is seen for sale in a video store, while the Motley Crue's latest album is demoted to the clearance bin.

As Pamela covers up a tattoo of Tommy's name on her ring finger, she shares a tender moment with her son while gazing at her husband's portrait.

That was before an on-screen text noted the couple divorce two years later, after he was arrested and later imprisoned for six months following a fight in their kitchen.

Gorgeous: While sitting against a wall, Ferne slipped into a black crop top and a faded pair of distressed jeans having overlined her pout with brown lip gloss

Sizzling: Ferne clutched her phone and accessorised her look with a pair of small silver hoop earrings

Hot stuff: She looked sensational as she posed up a sultry storm while wearing her light brown tresses in the Baywatch actress's iconic up-do

Fan: In her caption, she wrote: 'Pammy. There was no way I was going to do Pam Vibes without doing a little photoshoot at home @hairbysarrah @huda.makeup.london'

The couple briefly reunited in 2008, but split just months later.

It comes after Ferne let slip that she's already up for having a baby with her Dubai-based boyfriend Lorri, after just two months together.

The influencer claimed the businessman is 'the one', adding she wants to get engaged and have babies because it's what 'all her friends' are doing.

She told The Sun: 'Someone asked me a while ago if I want more children one day, and I was like: "I'm not sure if I do."

'But Lorri has changed all that. I'd love to have children with him, I'd love for Sunday to have a sibling and I'd love us to build that family.

Spellbinding: The miniseries dramatised Pam's [played by Lily James] highly-publicised sex tape leak in which she starred alongside her ex husband Tommy Lee [Sebastian Stan]

'Can I imagine doing it all again? Yes, I think I can. All my friends are getting engaged and having babies  and who doesn't want that?'

Ferne - who confessed those closest to her are 'wary' of her new romance - jokingly added that they'd 'better be a wedding day soon'.

The former I'm A Celebrity campmate already shares daughter Sunday, four, with her ex boyfriend Arthur Collins, who has been jailed for 20 years for throwing corrosive acid over a crowd on the dance floor at Mangle E8 in Dalston in April 2017.

Lorri was forced to issue an apology after a video resurfaced of him appearing to hold a bag of white powder to his nose.

He took to Instagram on Monday and shared a lengthy statement where he claimed the video was from a 'destructive time' and that he has since spent years turning his life around.

That's soon! It comes after Ferne let slip that she's already up for having a baby with her Dubai-based boyfriend Lorri, after just two months together

Lorri said the clip, which was filmed before he met Ferne, had caused his family pain and added that he is now striving to be a better person going forward.

He wrote: 'In light of the videos circulating of me from a destructive time in my life. I want you to hear this directly from me.

'I want to start this by saying how sorry I am that my past actions are bringing pain to the people I love most in my life now. It is unfair that something I did a long time ago impacts them.

'I have spent years turning my life around, to be someone I can be proud of. I changed my lifestyle for the better a long time ago but like most people, I have made stupid mistakes and done things I am not proud of. I never thought these actions could possibly hurt anyone else either.

In love: The influencer claimed the businessman is 'the one', adding she wants to get engaged and have babies because it's what 'all her friends' are doing

'These things do not reflect the person I am today.

'Whilst I cant undo the past, I can only continue to strive to be a better person and learn from past mistakes.

'The latest videos I am being threatened with are from a long time ago, I could never know then the harm they would cause me and more importantly the people in my life now. For that I am deeply sorry.'

In the film obtained by The Sun, Lorri, who previously insisted he was not taking drugs, is seen scooping the powder out of the bag and up to his nostrils, with a pal shouting in the background: 'No! No ket, no ket.'

Moving quickly: Ferne - who confessed those closest to her are 'wary' of her new romance - jokingly added that they'd 'better be a wedding day soon'

Lorri, who is based in the UAE, was seen dancing shirtless in the clip while holding two small clear plastic bags.

Lorri's friend told him to 'put the ket down' before the entrepreneur was seen throwing the packet onto a nearby table. It has not been confirmed what substance Lorri was holding.

The man then says: 'That's none of your business,' prompting Lorri to shake his head and reply: 'None of my business.'

He then held the smaller bag up before before clapping his hands and dancing to the music.

Haines has told The Sun that he was not taking drugs and was 'joking about'.

Statement: Lorri was forced to issue an apology after a video resurfaced of him appearing to hold a bag of white powder to his nose

'Actions': Lorri, who is based in the UAE, said the clip had caused his family pain and added that he is now striving to be a better person going forward

Lorri added: 'Whilst I cant undo the past, I can only continue to strive to be a better person and learn from past mistakes'

Sources told The Sun Lorri had been partying on a yacht at the marina with six friends earlier in the day.

An insider told the publication: 'They went to an apartment and carried the party on until about 4am.'

The clip surfaced three weeks after Ferne shared her first picture with Dubai-based Lorri, with the reality star writing at the time: 'When you know, you know.'

Authorities in the desert country have a zero-tolerance policy with regards to drugs, with the standard minimum jail sentence for possession being four years.

For help with drugs, call FRANK 24 hours a day, seven days a week on 0300 123 6600, text 82111 or visit https://www.talktofrank.com/contact.
Club goers in Central London were shocked on Friday to see two of TV's favourite stars enjoying a wild night out.

Both Rylan Clark, 33, and Alex Jones, 45, enjoyed an evening of drinking and dancing at The Freedom bar in Soho, after finishing their hosting duties on BBC's The One Show.

The duo even took a spin on a stripper pole at the famous LGBTQ+ venue, with Rylan sharing the couples shenanigans with his 1.5 million Instagram followers.

Wow: Club goers in Central London were shocked on Friday to see two of TV's favourite stars enjoying a wild night out

In the video Rylan can be seen in a smart white polar necked jumper, which he wore on the show, as the clubs patrons cheer him on.

The former X Factor star beams as he jumps onto the pole and spins until he is eventually upside down.

Alex too takes a turn, though she isn't as skilled and falls to the floor in fits of giggles, with Rylan jokingly commenting: 'She's a natural'.

The brunette beauty also wore the same outfit as she did for her presenting duties earlier on Friday. A chic lilac knitted jumper, with alabaster jeans and for a pop of colour a pair of neon yellow heels.

BFF: Both Rylan Clark, 33, and Alex Jones, 45, enjoyed an evening of drinking and dancing at The Freedom bar in Soho, after finishing their hosting duties on BBC's The One Show

LOL: In the video Rylan can be seen in a smart white polar necked jumper, which he wore on the show, as the clubs patrons cheer him on

Spin: Alex too takes a turn, though she isn't as skilled and falls to the floor in fits of giggles, with Rylan jokingly commenting: 'She's a natural'

Chic: The brunette beauty also wore the same outfit as she did for her presenting duties earlier on Friday. A chic lilac knitted jumper, with alabaster jeans and for a pop of colour a pair of neon yellow heels

Friends: In other snaps from the evening the pair can be seen cuddling on the dance floor with Ryland writing: This one. She's a keeper @alexjonesthomson

In other snaps from the evening the pair can be seen cuddling on the dance floor with Ryland writing: This one. She's a keeper @alexjonesthomson.

The duo are later seen dancing to Mis-Teeq's hit Scandalous as they make the most of their crazy night.

Earlier in the evening the two had co-hosted an episode of the One Show where they'd interviewed James Bay and Jamie Redknapp.

Before: Earlier in the evening the two had co-hosted an episode of the One Show where they'd interviewed James Bay and Jamie Redknapp

Party: The duo are later seen dancing to Mis-Teeq's hit Scandalous as they make the most of their crazy night

This comes after Alex was recently whisked away for her 45th birthday for a surprise trip to Paris, by her husband charlie thompson.

The presenter 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': Alex Jones passionately husband Charlie Thomson in rare PDA as he whisks her away to French capital for her 45th birthday

Adorable:She took to Instagram to share a slew of loved-up snaps from the trip

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 we're a team.

'Thank you Mr T for the best surprise.'

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.



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 we're a team'

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.
Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas stepped out in casual outfits as they strolled through Los Angeles on Saturday.

Turner, 26, who is rumored to be pregnant with the couple's second child, flashed her tummy in a cropped white button-down shirt and distressed denim jeans.

She walked beside her husband in a pair of green and white sneakers while protecting her eyes from the harsh California sun with sunglasses.

Soaking up the sun: Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas stepped out in casual outfits as they strolled through Los Angeles on Saturday

The Time Freak star wore her long red hair back in a single braid that rested on her shoulder.

She toted her belongings in a customized Louis Vuitton handbag with her last name 'Turner' written on it in gold letters.

Jonas wore a white tank top, light brown pants and a knit bucket hat decorated with black peace signs.

The Jonas Brothers band member added a pair of ovular glasses and a gold chain to his look, and the tattoos on his arms were clearly visible in the sleeveless shirt.

On display: Turner, 26, who is rumored to be pregnant with the couple's second child, flashed her tummy in a cropped white button-down shirt and distressed denim jeans

Pounding the pavement: She walked beside her husband in a pair of green and white sneakers while protecting her eyes from the harsh California sun with sunglasses

Custom creation: She toted her belongings in a customized Louis Vuitton handbag with her last name 'Turner' written on it in gold letters

The couple's jaunt through the California metropolis comes as rumors regarding a second pregnancy continue to swirl.

Us Weekly and E! News have both cited sources claiming that Turner is indeed pregnant, but the Dark Phoenix actress and Jonas have yet to comment publicly.

The Hollywood 'it' couple had their first child, a daughter named Willa, in July of 2020, but they haven't shared their toddler's face on social media as of yet.

Stylish: Jonas wore a white tank top, light brown pants and a brown and white knit bucket hat decorated with black peace signs

Decked out: The Jonas Brothers band member added a pair of ovular glasses and a gold chain to his look, and the tattoos on his arms were clearly visible in the sleeveless shirt

Rumor mill: The couple's jaunt through the California metropolis comes as rumors regarding a second pregnancy continue to swirl

When asked about that decision last year, Turner replied simply, 'She did not ask for this life.'

Rumors the couple were dating began after they were spotted at the MTV Europe Music Awards in November 2016.

Turner seemed to confirm the relationship two months later when she posted a picture of Joe smoking a cigar on a boat.

The lovebirds got engaged in October of 2017 and married two years later in Las Vegas on May 1, 2019. They held a second wedding in Paris several months after.
Justin Hemmes' girlfriend Madeline Holtznagel is enjoying one of the perks of dating a billionaire pub baron.

The model, 26, and her friends including Montana Cox enjoyed a relaxing getaway at Haggerstone Island, which lies on the coast of far north Queensland, this week.

Justin, 49, is a part owner of the luxury destination, which costs a whopping $7000 a night to rent in its entirety.

Holiday time! Justin Hemmes, 49, enjoyed a relaxing getaway with his glamorous model girlfriend Madeline Holtznagel, 26, and her gal pals at his $7000-a-night private island

'Justin and the girls flew up in his private jet then had the seaplane take them out to the island,' a source told The Daily Telegraph.

The trip came after Justin and Madeline made a rare public appearance together at the Silver Party charity event at Hemmes' own mansion, The Hermitage, in Sydney's Vaucluse earlier this month.

It was the first time in two years that the glitzy fundraiser had been held due to the Covid pandemic.

Fun in the sun! The model and her friends including Montana Cox enjoyed a relaxing getaway at Haggerstone Island, which lies on the coast of far north Queensland, this week

The event raises funds for the Kids Cancer Centre at the Sydney Children's Hospital, Randwick.

In February, Madeline received a stark warning over her relationship with Hemmes.

Agents have reportedly been warning Madeline she could be missing important opportunities in the modelling industry because she is prioritising her relationship over her career.

Warning: The trip comes after Madeline received a stark warning over her relationship with Hemmes. The couple are pictured together on May 13, 2021, in Sydney

'It's not like Madeline is going out with a Hemsworth,' one industry source told The Daily Telegraph.

'I don't think this relationship with Justin will have much of an impact on her career. If anything, she will be more known as a bit of a celebrity model as opposed to a fashion model.'

Another source close to the couple said: 'It's all well and good now, but there might come a time when the relationship runs its course and she will need her modelling career, so she can support herself financially.'

Claims: Agents have reportedly been warning Madeline she could be missing important opportunities in the industry because she is prioritising her relationship over her career

Madeline and Justin have been dating for some time, and she also spent lockdown at his Vaucluse mansion in 2020.

She now reportedly lives in a Coogee penthouse he owns.

The couple have been spotted out in Sydney several times after confirming their romance.
Former child star Shaun Weiss, who's best known for his role in the 1990s Mighty Ducks film franchise, has plenty to smile about now that he's got a permanent fix to his decayed teeth.

It took a couple of years, but Weiss can now flash his new pearly whites without being embarrassed after completing his tooth reconstruction, which was complements of Dr. Gabe Rosenthal, who did all the work for free after being moved by his story of survival.

The former television and film actor lost most of his teeth after years of drug abuse and addiction, but he showed off his incredible transformation on Instagram this week.

Miraculous recovery: Former child star Shaun Weiss flashed his new pearly white teeth after receiving free teeth reconstruction after getting sober following arrest in January 2020

Dr. Rosenthal got word of his downfall, which included his arrest in January 2020 after being found in a stranger's garage, which culminated with the infamous mugshot of the former child star looking emaciated and nearly toothless.

It took more than two years, but now Weiss has new permanent upper and lower implants, which would have cost about $100,000 had it not been for the good doctor.

'I feel like a new person. Thank you Dr. Gabe!!' Weiss captioned an Instagram post of the doctor and patient smiling together on Wednesday, following the completion of the dental work.

The following day, Dr. Rosenthal took to his Instagram page and shared a similar photo of the new friends flashing big beaming smiles.

'It's a new dawn, it's a new day, its a new life and I'm feeling GOOD! Congratulations @shaunweiss! Smile as much as possible,' he gushed in the caption, which ended with a red heart emoji.

Grateful: Weiss took to Instagram this week and to thank Dr. Gabe Rosenthal for doing $100,000 work for free over the last couple of years

Making a difference: Dr. Rosenthal did the work pro bono after being inspired by the former child actor's story of survival

Dr. Rosenthal confessed to TMZ that this was 'one of the most challenging and rewarding cases of my entire career! I am so incredibly happy for Shaun!'

It turns out the case took so long because 'we needed everything to be as perfect as possible. He added, 'I look forward to seeing Shaun smile as large as possible years to come in this new chapter.'

Having cleaned himself up after his arrest, where he 'displayed symptoms of being under the influence of methamphetamine,' Weiss celebrated two years of being clean and sober this past January.

And now that he's got his new set of teeth he feels comfortable to perform his stand-up comedy routine, as well as speaking engagements and interviews.

As a token of his gratitude, Weiss gave Dr. Rosenthal an autographed Mighty Ducks jersey to display in his dental office.

Humbled: As a token of his gratitude, Weiss gave Dr. Rosenthal an autographed Mighty Ducks jersey to display in his dental office

Weiss got his first role, playing Elvis in Pee-Wee's Playhouse (1986), when he was seven-years-old.

He would go on to land guest spots on such television series as Charles in Charge (1988), Empty Nest (1989) and The Cosby Show (1989).

But the New Jersey native would end up landing his breakout role, playing goalie Greg Goldberg in the original Mighty Ducks (1992) movie that starred Emilio Estevez in the lead role of Gordon Bombay.

Weiss reprised the role of Greg in the sequel D2: The Mighty Ducks (1994) and again in D3: The Mighty Ducks (1996).

From there Weiss had an assortment of guest-starring spots on such series as Mr. Rhodes (19961997), The King of Queens (19981999), Freaks and Geeks (19992000), Las Vegas (2005) and Crossing Jordan (2007).

His last credited acting role was in the coming-of-age comedy film Drillbit Taylor (2008).

Child star: Weiss had his breakthrough role as a child star in the original Mighty Ducks film (1992); he is pictured at the top
Sharna Burgess was spotted cradling her baby bump while stocking up on groceries at Whole Foods in Malibu, California on Saturday afternoon.

Just days after revealing she was initially 'scared' to tell Brian Austin Green about her pregnancy, the ballroom dancer, 36, bundled up in a white turtleneck and a pair of cozy $108 brown sweatpants from Alo.

For the laid-back outing, she wore her blonde tresses in a messy bun and opted to show off her flawless complexion by wearing minimal makeup.

Mom-to-be: Sharna Burgess was spotted cradling her baby bump while stocking up on groceries at Whole Foods in Malibu, California on Saturday

The Dancing with the Stars pro, who announced she was expecting a baby boy with her boyfriend to the world last month, kept her blonde hair pulled back in a messy blonde.

As she made her way into the store, the mom-to-be placed on hand gently on top of her stomach.

On Thursday, Burgess revealed she was initially nervous to tell her beau the exciting news as she noted they were still a 'relatively' new couple.

Expanding their family: Burgess and Brian Austin Green announced they were expecting their first child together last month

Burgess also revealed that she found out she was expecting after taking a pregnancy test at home as her man watched a Lakers game in their living room.

Since the team was losing, at that point, she says her first thought was: 'I was like, 'What am I gonna do?' I can't tell him now.'

'So I waited for 40 minutes. And he came in like, 'Big day. The Lakers came back and they won,' she added.

Cradling her bump: Just days after revealing she was initially 'scared at the time' to tell Brian Austin Green about her pregnancy, the ballroom dancer, 36, bundled up her baby bump in a white turtleneck and a pair of $108 brown sweatpants

Baby on board: For the laid-back outing, she wore her blonde tresses in a messy bun and showed off her flawless complexion by wearing minimal makeup

'And I was like, 'It's about to get bigger. You're probably gonna need to sit down for this,' she told Us Weekly.

The beauty noted she was 'scared at the time' because she and the actor were 'relatively new as a couple.'

Green, however, immediately smiled and hugged her, before saying: 'That's awesome.'

Honest: On Thursday, Burgess revealed she was initially nervous to tell her beau the exciting news as she noted they were still a 'relatively' new couple

'Even though we feel like we've spent lifetimes with each other, it's still a quicker timeline than we were thinking. We were probably a year ahead of what we were talking about, but he was so excited knowing how much I've wanted this,' Burgess concluded.

While this will be her first child, Green shares his 20-year-old son Kassius with ex-fiancee Vanessa Marcil and Noah, nine, Bodhi, eight, and five-year-old Journey, with ex-wife Megan Fox.

Burgess says she was nervous to break the news to the 90210 alum's kids about their upcoming sibling, despite their close bond.

Exciting: The beauty noted she was 'scared at the time' because she and the actor were 'relatively new as a couple,' but he thought the news was 'awesome'

'We want to thank everyone for the amazingly kind well wishes  we are really excited to be welcoming a baby boy on or around the 4th of July,' the Beverly Hills, 90210 star captioned the sweet shot of them on a beach, a week after revealing the Australian ballroom dancer's pregnancy

'Those beautiful kids have been through so much change, and I'm always very sensitive with them,' the TV personality confessed. 'Though they love me deeply, who knows how they're going to feel about another kid?'

But just like her man, his sons were 'super excited' and already nicknamed their future sibling 'Peanut.'

'We have snuggle puddles in the morning,' Burgess told the outlet. 'They come in and jump on the bed and hug my tummy and kiss it.  They just can't wait for him to be here.'

'And suddenly my world would never be the same. Forever greater, forever expanded and deeper. Forever abundant and unconditional,' the beauty captioned the image

Their little one is due 'on or around the 4th of July,' according to one of her Instagram posts in February.

The happy couple celebrated their one-year anniversary in October, with Brian remarking at the time on Instagram: '1 year of accepting me in a way I've never been loved before #damnimlucky.'

They first began their romance five months after he split with Megan Fox, who is currently engaged to Machine Gun Kelly.
Olivia Culpo nailed couture chic on Saturday as she attended the Giorgio Armani pre-Oscars Soiree, which was held in Beverly Hills.

The 29-year-old actress certainly made an entrance to the exclusive event, donning a pale grey ankle length gown, which has a scooping high neck, button detailing and a belt to accentuate her waist.

The former Miss USA added a pair of satin heels, with an ankle strap design and a pointed toe.

Chic: Olivia Culpo oozed class in a pale grey gown as she attended the Giorgio Armani pre-Oscars bash in Beverly Hills on Saturday

Olivia clutched a matching strapless bag as she smiled at the camera, accessorising with large silver earrings.

The brunette had her tresses sweeped back into a sleek up do, showing off her complexion.

She opted for a radiant makeup look, highlighting her cheeks with blush and adding a deep nude lipstick.

Classy: The pale grey ankle length gown had a scooping high neck, button detailing and a belt to accentuate her waist

Beauty: The brunette had her tresses sweeped back into a sleek up do, showing off her radiant complexion

The event prefaced the 94th Academy Awards, which will be held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Olivia gave fans a behind the scenes peek as she got ready for the soiree, sharing Instagram Stories to her 5m followers.

She posted some mirror snaps alongside her NFL Superstar boyfriend of three years, Christian McCaffrey.

Additions: Olivia clutched a matching strapless bag as she smiled at the camera, accessorising with large silver earrings

The pair put on a loved up display, with 25-year-old Christian wrapping his arms around his girlfriend in the first pic.

He then grabbed Olivia's waist for another, leaning towards her face, before the pair shared a laugh in a more candid shot.

While her boyfriend had a giggle, Olivia gushed: 'Favourite thing is that smile'

BTS: Olivia gave fans a behind the scenes peek as she got ready for the soiree, sharing Instagram Stories with her beau to her 5m followers

She then took the opportunity to show off her outfit, tagging fashion house Armani in the chic picture, which saw Olivia pose for the camera in her home.

Olivia has been gearing up for the biggest night in Hollywood this week, kicking off the celebrations with LaQuan Smith's intimate Oscars dinner on Thursday.

A host of A-listers will pile into the Dolby Theatre on Sunday evening for Hollywood's biggest event, which will honour the best in film from the last year.

Cute! Olivia gushed over boyfriend Christian McCaffrey, sharing that his smile is her 'favourite thing'

Details: She then took the opportunity to show off her outfit, tagging fashion house Armani in the chic picture, which saw Olivia pose for the camera in her home
Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, head of the military council, inspects officers during a parade to commemorate Myanmar's 77th Armed Forces Day in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Sunday. The occasion commemorates resistance against Japanese occupiers during World War II, and is a show of strength as the military battles armed resistance to its takeover last year that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. AP-Yonhap



Myanmar's leader vowed Sunday to intensify action against homegrown militia groups fighting the military-run government, saying the armed forces would ''annihilate'' them.



Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, speaking at a military parade marking Armed Forces Day, also urged ethnic minorities not to support groups opposed to army rule and ruled out negotiations with them.



The military seized power last year from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Security forces used lethal force to suppress mass nationwide protests, resulting in the deaths of more than 1,700 civilians, according to a detailed tally compiled by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.



Forced to turn away from peaceful protests, many of those opposed to military rule took up arms, forming hundreds of militia groups called People's Defense Forces  better known as PDFs. In some parts of the country, they've joined forces with well-organized, battle-hardened ethnic armed groups, which have been fighting for greater autonomy for decades.



Min Aung Hlaing, speaking to thousands of military personnel at the annual Armed Forces Day parade in the capital Naypyitaw, said he would not negotiate with ''terrorist groups and their supporters for killing innocent people'' and threatening peace and security.



He said the military  known as the Tatmadaw  ''will annihilate them to (the) end,'' according to an official translation of his speech.



His government has declared major resistance organizations  regardless of whether they are directly engaged in armed struggle  as terrorist groups. Membership or even contact with them carries harsh punishment under law.



''I would like to highlight that there are no governments or armies worldwide that negotiate with any terrorist groups,'' he said.



Despite a huge advantage in equipment and numbers, Myanmar's military has struggled to crush the new militia units. Outgunned and outmanned, the PDFs have relied on support from local communities and knowledge of the terrain to carry out often surprisingly effective attacks on convoys, patrols, guard posts, police stations and isolated bases in remote areas.



The military is currently conducting operations in Sagaing, in upper central Myanmar, and in Kayah State, in the country's east, using airstrikes, artillery barrages and the burning of villages. The army recently seems to have expanded its offensive into Chin State in the west and Kayin State in the southeast as well.





Myanmar military officers march during a parade to commemorate Myanmar's 77th Armed Forces Day in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Sunday. The occasion commemorates resistance against Japanese occupiers during World War II, and is a show of strength as the military battles armed resistance to its takeover last year that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. AP-Yonhap
Caitriona Balfe looked sensational as she stepped out to attend the Chanel and Charles Finch Pre-Oscar Awards Dinner in Los Angeles on Saturday.

The actress, 42, put on a very chic display in a black and white ensemble emblazoned with shimmering sequins at the Polo Lounge.

She slipped into an elegant A-line midi skirt that buttoned down the front as she tucked in a crisp white top.

Radiant: Caitriona Balfe, 42, looked sensational in a sequin embellished midi skirt at the Chanel and Charles Finch Pre-Oscar Awards Dinner in Los Angeles on Saturday

Caitriona layered over a cropped boucle cardigan that showcased her frilly sleeves that peaked out from beneath.

She accessorised her look with some statement drop earrings and carried a classic quilted Chanel handbag with a gold chain strap.

Her brunette locks were slicked back into a chic low bun as she added a feline flick of black eyeliner to enhance her eyes.

Elegant: She accessorised her look with some statement drop earrings and carried a classic quilted Chanel handbag with a gold chain strap

The Chanel and Charles Finch Pre-Oscar Awards Dinner is an annual event where many of the Academy Award nominees and other friends of the Chanel brand gather for a lavish party complete with impressive gift bags.

This year's event was attended by stars like Kristen Stewart, Kate Beckinsale, Lily James, Harvey Keitel, Jamie Dornan and many more.

This comes as Caitriona's role in Kenneth Branagh's Dublin is set to propel her to Hollywood stardom and Oscar glory.

Impressive: This comes as Caitriona's role in Kenneth Branagh's Dublin is set to propel her to Hollywood stardom and Oscar glory

Previously she landed one of the leading parts in the critically acclaimed Starz romance series Outlander, playing time-travelling heroine Claire Fraser for six seasons.

Belfast, which stars Jamie Dornan, Judi Dench and newcomer Jude Hill and is based on Kenneths' childhood growing up in Northern Ireland at the height of The Troubles.

The black and white film is nominated for an impressive seven awards including Best Picture category, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Sound award and Best Original Song.

Whilst Judy is nominated for Best Supporting Actress and Ciaran Hinds for Best Supporting Actor.
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Nicole Kidman and The White Lotus star Alexandra Daddario lead the glamour in ultra chic black tuxedo jackets at Giorgio Armani's pre-Oscars soiree in Beverly Hills on Saturday, one night ahead of the 94th Academy Awards.

As she arrived to the celebration, the 54-year-old Big Little Lies actress looked radiant as ever in a plunging silver sequin crop top, which showed off a glimpse of her toned abs, and a pair of fitted black trousers.

Kidman, who earned her fifth Oscar nomination for her performance as Lucille Ball in Aaron Sorkin's 2021 drama Being the Ricardos, appeared in high spirits as she flashed a beaming smile on her way into the bash.

Night out: Nicole Kidman and The White Lotus star Alexandra Daddario lead the glamour in ultra chic black tuxedo jackets at Giorgio Armani's pre-Oscars soiree in Beverly Hills on Saturday

She accessorized her timeless ensemble with a black and silver clutch, a bright red manicure and a sparkly pair of drop statement earrings.

The mom-of-four wore her strawberry blonde hair in loose waves, which cascaded past her shoulders and flawless makeup look, consisting of a light pink lipstick and sweep of blush for a radiant and youthful glow.

Meanwhile, Daddario, 36, oozed classic Hollywood glamour in a black midi dress with semi-sheer stripes and her glossy mane styled in bouncy, brunette curls.

Radiant: Kidman, who earned her fifth Oscar nomination for her performance as Lucille Ball in Aaron Sorkin's 2021 drama Being the Ricardos, appeared in high spirits as she flashed a beaming smile on her way into the bash

Glamorous: The mother-of-four wore her strawberry blonde hair in loose waves, which cascaded past her shoulders

Tough competition: Kidman is up against Jessica Chastain, Olivia Colman, Penelope Cruz and Kristen Stewart for best actress at the 2022 Academy Awards

Beautiful: She also rocked a flawless makeup look, consisting of a light pink lipstick and sweep of blush for a radiant and youthful glow

Wow: Nicole looked every inch the superstar as she posed up inside the soiree in her honour

Exchanging laughs: Kidman appeared delighted as she chatted with friends at the event

Smoldering: The Oscar winner appeared to be having a blast at the party

The Baywatch actress, who has landed a spot on nearly every best dressed list this awards season, wowed in yet another eye-catching wowed in yet another eye-catching that showed off her fabulous figure.

She completed her sophisticated outfit with a pair of pointed Christian Louboutin heels, featuring the luxury shoe brand's trademark red soles that make them easily recognizable in any room.

Upon her arrival, she immediately began mingling with other attendees, while braving the cold with a black jacket over her shoulders for warmth.

Bombshell: Meanwhile, Daddario, 36, oozed classic Hollywood glamour in a black midi dress with semi-sheer stripes and her glossy mane styled in bouncy, brunette curls

Nothing but the best: She completed her sophisticated outfit with a pair of pointed Christian Louboutin heels, featuring the luxury shoe brand's trademark red soles that make them easily recognizable in any room

Excited: Daddario was beaming with excitement upon her arrival as she stood outside with a smile while braving the cold in a black tuxedo jacket

Chatting away: Within minutes at the event she was seen mingling with two other well-dressed attendees

There was no shortage of A-List talent at the event, including Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Kathy Hilton, Dylan Sprouse and his supermodel girlfriend Barbara Palvin, Sophia Loren and more.

Sprouse, 29, best known for starring on Disney Channel series hit The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, looked handsome in a light grey suit, white dress shirt and black leather loafers.

His other half, who he began dating in 2018 after meeting at a party, sported a black dress with a bow-neck and studded handbag on her shoulder.

Dapper: Dylan Sprouse, 29, best known for starring on Disney Channel series hit The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, looked handsome in a light grey suit, white dress shirt and black leather loafers

Turning heads: His other half, Barbara Palvin, who he began dating in 2018 after meeting at a party, sported a black dress with a bow-neck and studded handbag on her shoulder

Star-studded guest list: There was no shortage of A-List talent at the event, including Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Kathy Hilton, Dylan Sprouse and his supermodel girlfriend Barbara Palvin, Sophia Loren and more

Fierce: Taylor Hill, who attended with her fiance Daniel Fryer, opted showcased her toned legs in a emerald green velvet blazer dress with a low-cut neckline and no bra

Commanding attention: In addition to a dramatic smokey eyeshadow and black liquid eyeliner on her top and bottom lids, she wore a long gold necklace

Her light brown locks were pulled up in a sleek low bun for the special occasion.

Hilton shimmered in a silver gown with ruffled sleeves and hem, while Dance Moms alum Maddie Ziegler wore a two-piece pink coordinating outfit, which displayed her incredibly toned midriff.

Taylor Hill, who attended with her fiance Daniel Fryer, opted showcased her toned legs in a emerald green velvet blazer dress with a low-cut neckline and no bra.

White hot: Olivia Culpo dressed in an all white look from head to toe

Perfectly polished: The former Miss Universe, who is dating Christian McCaffrey, wore her brown hair in a romantic updo

Always fashionable: She paired her chic white coat with a pair of slingback heels

Happy couple: Justin Hartley cut a dapper figure in a navy blue suit as he smiled with his arm lovingly wrapped around his wife Sofia Pernas, who sizzled in a low-cut white, strapless gown complete with sexy slit to the thigh

In addition to a dramatic smokey eyeshadow and black liquid eyeliner on her top and bottom lids, she wore a long gold necklace.

Justin Hartley cut a dapper figure in a navy blue suit as he smiled with his arm lovingly wrapped around his wife Sofia Pernas, who sizzled in a low-cut white, strapless gown complete with sexy slit to the thigh.

Portuguese supermodel Sara Sampaio showed off her cleavage in a sexy bra under a mauve suit at the party.

Sexy: Portuguese supermodel Sara Sampaio showed off her cleavage in a sexy bra under a mauve suit at the party

Hot: The beauty risked a wardrobe malfunction as she skipped wearing a shirt under her blunging vest under a structured blazer

Matching: Bridgerton's Rege-Jean Page coordinated outfits with his girlfriend Emily Brown, who wore an all black lace minidress and heels

Date night: Adrien Brody and Georgina Chapman were pictured leaving the event arm-in-arm

Simply breathtaking: Czech-American supermodel Karolina Kurkova wore a figure-hugging black halter gown

Bridgerton's Rege-Jean Page coordinated outfits with his girlfriend Emily Brown, who wore an all black lace minidress and heels.

Sophia Loren looked great with her fiery red tresses perfectly curled as she strutted into the venue in a black velvet suit, semi-sheer blouse and gold necklace.

English actress Annabelle Wallis looked straight out of a fairytale in a baby blue gown and combat blue open-toed heels.

The Peaky Blinders star, best known for her role as Jane Seymour in Showtime's period drama The Tudors, accessorized with a grey clutch, diamond rings and a bangle bracelet

Fabulous: Sophia Loren looked great with her fiery red tresses perfectly curled as she strutted into the venue in a black velvet suit, semi-sheer blouse and gold necklace

Dressing like royalty: English actress Annabelle Wallis looked straight out of a fairytale in a baby blue gown and combat blue open-toed heels

Princess vibes: The gorgeous blonde, best known for her role as Jane Seymour in Showtime's period drama The Tudors, straightened her blonde tresses for the night

A night to remember: All the guests looked incredible as they dressed to impress at the Giorgio Armani pre-Oscars Soiree

Glow: Barbara Palvin looked typically radiant as she posed up a storm

Dapper: Rege-Jean Page joined a hunky Sebastian Stan at the star-studded bash

Glamour: Sara Sampaio and Annabelle wowed as they posed at the event

Radiant: Sophia Loren was ever the timeless beauty as she attended the event

Style: Lashana Lynch looked stunning in an all-white ensemble for the glitzy bash
Nigella Lawson made a fashionable appearance at the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival on Sunday.

The British chef was spotted making her way to her own Drinks With Nigella event.

The 62-year-old looked as elegant as ever in a black cotton dress with a cinched waist.

Looking good: Nigella Lawson (pictured) made a fashionable appearance at the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival on Sunday

The flared skirt gave the frock a whimsical feel, as did the high collar detail paired with a shallow V-neck.

Nigella opted for natural-looking makeup for the outing, including a pastel lipstick and a touch of blush.

She wore her hair in a half-up do, with tendrils around her face, and completed the look with a pair of candy pink heels.

Fun day out: The British chef was spotted making her way to her own Drinks With Nigella event

A look: The 62-year-old looked as elegant as ever in a black cotton dress with a cinched waist

Pretty: The flared skirt gave the frock a whimsical feel, as did the high collar detail paired with a shallow V-neck

Pretty: Nigella opted for natural-looking makeup for the outing, including a pastel lipstick and a touch of blush

The Drinks With Nigella event allows fans to enjoys snacks and drinks with the author, who also gives a talk on stage.

'Cooking and writing my books makes me very happy, but what makes it all come truly alive for me is meeting you, my readers,' Nigella said ahead of the evening.

'Food plays such an important part in all our lives, and I'm always greedy for the conversation, indeed the many conversations, to be had around it. Food is the story of what it is to be human: it's not just about what we eat, but how we live.'

Pretty in pink: She completed the look with a pair of candy pink heels

Styled: Nigella wore her hair in a half-up do, with tendrils around her face

Up close: The Drinks With Nigella event allows fans to enjoys snacks and drinks with the author, who also gives a talk on stage

Last week, Nigella revealed that there are a number of words she pronounces incorrectly for fun, after she sparked controversy for how she says 'microwave'.

The cook baffled fans with her pronunciation of microwave as 'meecro-wah-vey' in an episode of her BBC2 cooking show Cook, Eat, Repeat back in 2020.

Appearing on Australia's The Project, the London-born domestic goddess said that's not her only quirk.

'Cooking and writing my books makes me very happy, but what makes it all come truly alive for me is meeting you, my readers,' Nigella said ahead of the evening

'Food plays such an important part in all our lives, and I'm always greedy for the conversation, indeed the many conversations, to be had around it,' she continued

'Food is the story of what it is to be human: it's not just about what we eat, but how we live' Nigella concluded

'I have other words I use. You know how all families speak in nonsense words? So, you know, I use 'desecrated coconut',' she admitted.

'If I get some new appliance I have to read the 'destructions'. If I'm going somewhere I will have to text someone to say I'm "en croute" you know?' she added.

'It's just a joke, mispronouncing words. And what's quite interesting is I found out afterwards - I mean all families have those words in a way.'

Candid: The event 'explores the personal, intuitive and connecting nature of cooking'

Sharing: Nigella shared wisdom about food and passion for life on stage

'There is so much for us to talk about,' she said before taking the stage

Nigella also confessed to enjoying a kebab after a late night on the town.

'I rather like the chip kebab. So one of my favourites is flatbread, hummus, a bit of lemon zest, some salt, some chips and wrap them up. So wonderful,' she said.

While knocking up rich mashed potatoes with butter during a 2020 episode of Cook, Eat, Repeat, Nigella explained to fans, 'I still need a bit of milk - full fat - which I've warmed in the meecro-wah-vey.'

In a series of Twitter posts afterwards, the cookbook author was forced to reply to dozens of fans explaining the microwave joke, adding she hoped that the 'brouhaha' would be over.
Supermodel Taylor Hill and her fiance Daniel Fryer attended the opening for Giorgio Armani's new store in Beverley Hills on Saturday.

Taylor, 26, went braless beneath a velvet green Armani blazer that featured a unique ornate print, while displaying her toned legs.

The supermodel also decided to add some French chic to her look, by adding some jewellery pieces from the French jewellery brand Pascalemonvoisin.

The happy couple: Super model Taylor Hill, 26, and her fiance Daniel Fryer, 26. Attended the opening for Giorgio Armani's new store in Beverley Hills on Saturday

She also wore a pair of simple black heels and had her brunette locks styled in loose waves.

To finish off the look Taylor opted for a striking green eyeshadow, to complement the velvet green blazer and matching shorts.

Her beau, who proposed in June 2021, was looking dapper at the exclusive event in an all-black suit, as he chose to opt for a casual but chic look.

The couple looked happier than ever as they mingled at the star-studded event, while holding hands.

Taylor got engaged to her soulmate Daniel in Italy, where the happy couple spent some time together in the gorgeous Italian town of Sorrento

Green with envy: Taylor opted for a velvet green Armani co-ord, while her fiance looked dapper in all black at the exclusive event

Big rock: The happy couple was all smiles as they showed off the stunning emerald-cut engagement ring in a close up and far away shot

And in a sweet follow-up snap, the model showed off her large emerald cut diamond ring, while Daniel held her hand.

The beauty was head over heels as she gushed in her caption 'My best friend, my soulmate, I'll love you always 06/25/21'

Taylor then went on to share the happy news with several reposts from friends in her Instagram stories.
Kate Beckinsale celebrated Mother's Day with a sweet ode to her famous mum, Judy Loe, on Sunday.

The actress, 48, took to Instagram to post a playful video of her and her 75-year-old mum having a singalong.

The video, which she posted to her 5.2million followers, showed Kate lip-syncing along to Your Love by The Outfield, using a kitchen whisk as her microphone and holding cups to her ears as headphones.

Mothers day: Kate Beckinsale wished her mum a happy mothers day with a playful lip-sync video posted to Instagram

Then comes a parallel of her mum, who joins the shot and decides to grab her own kitchen utensil microphone, before joining in on the lip-sync for the chorus.

Judy then grabbed some pots and pans, using a wooden spoon to bang on them as if she were drumming.

The performance ended with Judy letting out a laugh, after giving her all for the singalong.

Mother-daughter bond: Kate is Judy's only daughter, whom she shared with the late Richard Beckinsale

Singalong: The video, which she posted to her 5.2million followers, showed Kate lip-syncing along to Your Love by The Outfield, using a kitchen whisk as her microphone and holding cups to her ears as headphones

Duet: Then comes a parallel of her mum, who joins the shot and decides to grab her own kitchen utensil microphone, before joining in on the lip-sync for the chorus

In the caption, Kate showed her gratitude for her mum while taking a playful jibe at her drumming skills, writing: Happy Mothers Day to all the UK mamas/ Im so grateful for you, Jude

'my lighthouse in the dark, my dearest friend ,and most importantly the person Ive been having the best laffs with since birth. You f***ing rock. Except at the drums .. ' (sic)

Kate has relocated to the US, but the London native still took the time to celebrate the British holiday.

Getting into it: Judy then grabbed some pots and pans, using a wooden spoon to bang on them as if she were drumming

Sharing a behind the scenes peek, she took to her Instagram story to share a snap from her and Judy's Facetime call to practice their performance.

Admitting that her mum was a good sport for the impromptu video, Kate shared: 'She picked up the Facetime call quietly watching tv and seconds later was fully committed to the wooden spoons no questions asked.'

The pair are famously close, with Kate being the only child of Judy and her late father, Richard Beckinsale.

Rehearsals: Sharing a behind the scenes peek, she took to her Instagram story to share a snap from her and Judy's Facetime call to practice their performance

Fresh faced: Kate and her mum pictured in the 1970s

Richard sadly passed away at just 31, after having a heart attack through the night.

Actress Kate has shown the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, as both of her parents were also actors in their heyday.

She also recently showed that the family genes run strong, sharing a snap of her mum when she was younger earlier this month - which looked almost identical to herself.

Kate's father, Richard, sadly passed away at just 31, after having a heart attack through the night (pictured 1970s)
Phoebe Tonkin oozed elegance when she stepped out to attend the Chanel and Charles Finch Pre-Oscar Awards Dinner in Los Angeles on Saturday night.

The 32-year-old Vampire Diaries star wore a chic high-fashion frock from the French fashion label as she posed for photos at the event.

Phoebe showed off her slender figure in a sequin dress, which featured gold outline stitching across the fabric.

Stepping out in style: Phoebe Tonkin oozed elegance when she stepped out to attend the Chanel and Charles Finch Pre-Oscar Awards Dinner in Los Angeles on Saturday night

The dress was cut in a mini-skirt length and featured three-quarter sleeves.

Phoebe accessorised her look with a black designer handbag that featured a gold chain strap and a towering pair of strappy black heels.

The beauty chose a plum toned lip stain, and showed off her perfectly manicured brows.

Dazzling beauty: Phoebe showed off her slender figure in a sequin dress, which featured gold outline stitching across the fabric

Phoebe wore her brunette hair relaxed and finished her look with dainty diamond earrings in a star shape.

She added silver bracelets and rings, and pulled the look together with a perfect maroon manicure.

Phoebe, who hails from Sydney, has been based in the US for years for her acting career.

Stunning: Phoebe wore her brunette hair relaxed and finished her look with dainty diamond earrings in a star shape

She has had considerable success in the US, portraying Hayley Marshall in The CW series The Vampire Diaries and its spin-off series, The Originals.

She's also known for portraying Cleo Sertori in H2O: Just Add Water, alongside Claire Holt, who also starred in The Originals.

Back in 2017, Phoebe told W Magazine about saying goodbye to The Originals, after starring on the show for five years.

'It was a very emotional goodbye,' she told the publication.

She added: 'I don't think I've totally digested it. It has been a really big opportunity for me, and I am so grateful for the last five years, but also really excited to see what is next.'

Watch the Iconic Series, The Vampire Diaries on Stan.
Nicole Kidman defied her age as she stepped out to attend Giorgio Armani's pre-Oscars party in Beverly Hills on Saturday.

The actress, 54, who is nominated for Best Actress at the 94th Academy Awards, gave a glimpse of her washboard abs in a plunging sequin embellished crop top.

Looking simply sensational, she teamed the glitzy number with a black tuxedo jacket and a matching pair of smart fitted trousers.

Glowing: Nicole Kidman, 54, showed off her incredibly smooth visage as she slipped into an ab baring crop top at the Giorgio Armani's pre-Oscars party in Los Angeles on Saturday

She accessorised her stylish look with a structured black clutch bag and added a pop of colour with a slick of cherry red nail polish.

To complete her ensemble, Nicole opted for flat shoes with a pointed toe as she posed up a storm at the event.

Her signature strawberry blonde locks were styled in loose tousled waves with a centre parting that tumbled down her back.

Radiant: Looking simply sensational, she teamed the glitzy number with a black tuxedo jacket and a matching pair of smart fitted trousers

She added a sweep of pink blush to the apples of her cheeks as she highlighted her smooth complexion and lashings of mascara.

Nicole, who earned her fifth Oscar nomination for her performance as Lucille Ball in Aaron Sorkin's 2021 drama Being the Ricardos, was beaming as she stepped out.

Hosted by Roberta Armani at the newly renovated Giorgio Armani boutique on Rodeo Drive, the cocktail party was thrown in honour of his longtime friend, Nicole.

Stunning: She added a sweep of pink blush to the apples of her cheeks as she highlighted her smooth complexion and lashings of mascara

Celebration: Nicole, who earned her fifth Oscar nomination for her performance as Lucille Ball in Aaron Sorkin 's 2021 drama Being the Ricardos, was beaming as she stepped out

Last month she said she felt both 'overwhelmed' and 'deeply appreciative' of the recognition from the Academy.

Nicole shared a series of pictures of herself on Instagram in character as Lucille alongside a lengthy post.

The Hollywood star said she was eating breakfast with her family when she heard the news about her Oscar nomination.

Well done! Hosted by Roberta Armani at the newly renovated Giorgio Armani boutique on Rodeo Drive, the cocktail party was thrown in honour of his longtime friend, Nicole

Proud: Last month she said she felt both 'overwhelmed' and 'deeply appreciative' of the recognition from the Academy

Thrilled: Nicole shared a series of pictures of herself on Instagram in character as Lucille from the acclaimed film, alongside a lengthy post

She wrote: 'WOW! I'm so overwhelmed... What a beautiful way to find out. This was the hardest role I've ever done and to be honoured this way is deeply appreciated.'

'Lucille Ball is one of Hollywood's greatest icons. She was ahead of her time. From actress to producer to studio head, mother and wife, she's an extraordinary inspiration! Thank you Lucille Ball.'

Nicole thanked the cast and crew on the film, as well as director Aaron Sorkin, and said they all deserve the Oscars recognition.

'To everyone who worked on Being the Ricardos both in front of and behind the camera, our passionate and hardworking crew, Amazon, Todd Black [producer], Aaron Sorkin, this nomination is ours to share,' she finished.
Eddie Boxshall cut a pensive figure as he headed to the barber's in Essex on Saturday - as it emerged his ex fiancee Denise Van Outen is reportedly back in contact with her former fiance Jay Kay.

Eddie, 46, who Denise dumped after numerous cheating scandals emerged, enjoyed a bite to eat before heading in to get his hair cut.

The hunk wore his locks in a ponytail and sported tinted shades for his day out.

Sighting: Eddie Boxshall cut a pensive figure as he headed to the barber's in Essex on Saturday - as it emerged his ex fiancee Denise Van Outen is reportedly back in contact with her former fiance Jay Kay

Eddie wore a grey t-shirt, jeans and trainers as he walked down the street.

The sighting comes after reports emerged that Denise was talking to her musician ex once more - she enjoyed a highly-publicised relationship with the Jamiroquai bandmember, 52, before they 'painfully' called it quits back in 2001.

Denise even wrote about him in her new autobiography A Bit Of Me, and he claimed they called off their plans to marry due to 'conflicting' jobs at the time.

Outing: Eddie, 46, who Denise dumped after numerous cheating scandals emerged, enjoyed a bite to eat before heading in to get his hair cut

Former flame: The sighting comes after reports emerged that Denise was talking to her musician ex once more - she enjoyed a highly-publicised relationship with the Jamiroquai bandmember, 52, before they 'painfully' called it quits back in 2001 (pictured in 1995)

A source told The Sun: 'Denise and Jay have been speaking again and it has been good for both of them to have that connection.

'Their split was very painful but a lot of water has passed under the bridge.'

Representatives for Denise and Jay have been contacted for comment by MailOnline.

It comes after 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.

Happier times: Denise announced she had split from Eddie in January after discovering he had cheated on her during their seven year relationship

Walk: The hunk wore his locks in a ponytail and sported tinted shades for his day out

Deep in thought: Eddie looked pensive as he tucked into a sandwich

There he is: The star has been making thinly veiled swipes at Denise on social media

Snack: The star ate a quick snap before heading into the barber shop

Text? Eddie checked his phone as he waited outside the barber shop

In an excerpt from her book, she wrote about his alleged infidelities, which she discovered while using his phone.

The former West End star penned: '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.

The commodities trader shared photos from his day in East London, including a snap of a street sign for Old Broad Street.

They suit! Denise enjoyed a highly-publicised relationship with the Jamiroquai bandmember, 52, before they 'painfully' called it quits back in 2001 (pictured in 1998)

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].'

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: The commodities trader also posted a snap of a British Transport Police poster on the tube which read 'we stand together against hate'

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.

'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.'
Imogen Thomas attended the family screening of Sonic The Hedgehog 2 at Cineworld Leicester Square on Sunday with her two children.

The former Big Brother star, 39, cut a chic smart casual look as she enjoyed an outing with her two daughters Ariana, eight, and Siera, five.

The star opted for a cream-tailored blazer paired with some light denim jeans, a classic white shirt, and a pair of chunky trainers.

Family day out: She put on a happy display with her two daughters as the trio got snapped for pictures once they arrived at the family screening

She put on a happy display with her two daughters as the trio got snapped for pictures once they arrived at the family screening.

The former Big Brother star and her two children looked thrilled when they got their pictures taken with Sonic The Hedgehog.

Imogen also got a picture of herself standing with the hedgehog as the pair of them both struck a pose for the camera.

Strike a pose: The mum of two was thrilled to be at the family screening as she struck up a pose with Sonic The Hedgehog

Sonic The Hedgehog 2 will be released onto cinema screens on the 1st of April 2022. A week earlier than originally announced.

During the film, Sonic settles into Green Hills and is eager to prove that he is a hero. However, his test comes when Dr. Robotnik returns with a cunning plan to destroy all civilians.

Sonic is then forced to embark on a globe-trotting journey to stop Dr. Robotnik in his tracks before it gets too late.

Many other celebrities also attended the family screening eager to see Sonic The Hedgehog with their children.

Retired Olympians: British athlete Jade Johnson, and Canadian sprinter Anson Henry also attended the family screening

Two celebrities that also attended were retired Olympians Jade Johnson, and Anson Henry.

The three of them were all smiles as they looked thrilled to be getting a picture with Sonic before the big screening.

Ashley Walters British rapper, songwriter, and actor best known for his lead role as Dushane Hill in Top Boy also attended the family screening.

The dad of eight posed for the cameras with his son Rive Walters before the big screening.
Casey Affleck packed on the PDA with his girlfriend Caylee Cowan as they put in an appearance on the red carpet in Los Angeles on Saturday.

Stepping out at Darren Dzienciol & Richie Akiva's Oscar Party, Caylee, 23, planted a kiss on the actor's, 46, cheek.

The loved-up pair looked every inch the Hollywood couple as Caylee slipped into a plunging embellished gold dress and showcased her ample assets.

Casey Affleck, 46, packed on the PDA with his girlfriend Caylee Cowan, 23, as she gave him a kiss at an Oscar's bash in Los Angeles on Saturday

Her showstopping gown fell to the floor with a tasseled skirt as she elevated her height with a pair of metallic heeled sandals.

To accessorise her ensemble she carried a structured box clutch bag and sported a delicate pair of earrings.

She styled her brunette locks into glossy curls with a sweeping side fringe and added a slick of bright red lipstick to complete her look.

Stunning: The loved-up pair looked every inch the Hollywood couple as Caylee slipped into a plunging embellished gold dress and showcased her ample assets

Classy: She styled her brunette locks into glossy curls with a sweeping side fringe and added a slick of bright red lipstick to complete her look

Casey looked dapper as he opted for an all-black ensemble with a partially unbuttoned shirt and tuxedo jacket.

He added some smart black trousers and a pair of patent leather shoes to finish off his suave look.

Casey and Caylee have been fueling engagement rumors as of late with the actress being seen wearing a brilliant ring as of late.

Handsome: Casey looked dapper as he opted for an all-black ensemble with a partially unbuttoned shirt and tuxedo jacket

Glowing: To accessorise her ensemble Caylee carried a structured box clutch bag and sported a delicate pair of earrings

Loved-up: Casey and Caylee's romance went public in November when Page Six ran pictures of them passionately kissing in the street

Sweet: The actor then made their romance official as he posted photos of them donating blood to the Red Cross in late November 2021

Casey and Caylee's romance went public in November when Page Six ran pictures of them passionately kissing in the street.

The sighting appeared to confirm rumors that Casey had broken up with his longtime girlfriend Floriana Lima, whom he had been with since 2016.

The actor then made their romance official as he posted photos of them donating blood to the Red Cross in late November 2021.

Then this January Casey posted a gushing tribute to Caylee revealing that they had known each other for exactly a year.

'A year ago, we met. A few months ago, I got smart. Thank God, it wasnt too late,' he wrote, rhapsodizing that 'you make me a better man every day.'
Mindy Kaling stunned her Instagram followers earlier this week when she posted an image of herself in a sexy, plunging black dress that revealed she has lost a serious amount of weight.

The beauty has yet to comment on how or why she has lost several dress sizes in the past few months.

But on Saturday the Office vet posted yet another photo of herself looked svelte in a black suit as she skipped the shirt.

Sexy new look! Mindy Kaling posed in a black suit with no shirt on adding heels as she dressed up for a night out on Saturday

Her chest could be seen in an opening in the jacket as she smiled while her hair was worn down and she had on pretty makeup.

Th suit consisted of a black jacket with gold buttons that were the faces of teddy bears.

The shirt went below her knees and had a chain dangling from the waistline.

Her heels were black with gold on the pointy toes as she held a black purse that was so small it looked like a cell phone could not possibly fit in there.

Happy! The star looked thrilled with her fun suit which had gold teddy bear buttons

On her Insta Stories she shared what she has been eating lately.

The star was cooking Indian potatoes for breakfast on her range; they looked to have cilantro and red onions included.

And Mindy also said that she put a Challah roll in her purse during a dinner party so she could have it for breakfast the next morning.

The roll had a purple flower petal on top and she added red hearts next to the treat.

What she eats: The star was cooking Indian potatoes for breakfast. And also said that she put a Challah roll in her purse during a dinner party so she could have it for breakfast the next morning

On Thursday she shared new stunning images of her figure.

The actress looked slender in a low-cut black gown with spaghetti straps and a flower on one side as she stood in her impressive walk-in closet that was stuffed with Chanel and Hermes purses.

The 5ft4in mother-of-two also made the most of her small waistline in the curve-hugging dress as she wore her hair down and added pointy black stiletto heels.

Skinny Mindy! Kaling shared stunning images of her figure on Thursday evening. The 42-year-old actress looked slender in a low-cut black gown with spaghetti straps and a flower on one side as she stood in her impressive walk-in closet

The beauty has always had a nice figure and looked stylish in gown when going to red carpet events, but she seems to have dropped some weight this year.

Her decolletage, arms and waist all appeared to be in Hollywood movie star shape and she had a glow to her.

The star had a ring on her index finger and a black strap around one of her wrists.

Her hair was worn over her shoulders in soft curls and she had on dewy matte nude makeup that brought out her natural pretty features.

You glow girl: The beauty has always had a nice figure and looked stylish in gown when going to red carpet events, but she seems to have dropped some weight this year. Her decolletage, arms and waist all appeared to be in Hollywood movie star shape and she had a glow to her

Mindy was last seen looking thin on Instagram in a print T-shirt with beaded necklaces and a daisy print skirt that also highlighted her trim waistline.

Her hair was smooth and down as she smiled.

In August she talked about her weight.

She looks great in BOTH pictures! Mindy, left, with a smaller figure, and, right, with more curves to love in an elegant strapless satin gown in September 2021

She shone: The star dazzled in this blue and silver outfit at the Phenomenal x Live Tinted Diwali Dinner in November 2021 in Los Angeles

Kaling revealed that her body confidence journey had a major bump in the road after a fellow writer suggested she write jokes about her weight into her work.

In an interview with GMA, the writer and actress opened up about the time a coworker in a different writers' room said one of her characters should joke about her needing to lose 15 pounds.

But instead of finding it funny, she said the joke was 'devastating' and honed in on her 'greatest insecurity.'

Tiny: Mindy was last seen looking thin on Instagram in a print T-shirt with beaded necklaces and a daisy print skirt that also highlighted her trim waistline. Her hair was smooth and down as she smiled

'This is my greatest insecurity and someone just called it out. It's really devastating,' she recalled thinking.

The star has seen her career take off as she not only acts in projects, but she also develops them, making her a force in Hollywood.

The beauty has been busy with producing her hit teen show Never Have I Ever and The Sex Lives Of College Girls.

Grateful: Kaling shared a rare image of her three-year-old daughter Katherine 'Kit' Swati and her one-year-old son Spencer Avu as she celebrated Thanksgiving

And she takes care of her three-year-old daughter, Katherine 'Kit' Swati, and her one-year-old son, Spencer Avu.

Mindy welcomed Kit on December 15, 2017. Kit's middle name is a tribute to Kaling's late mother, who passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2012.

She previously shed light on her decision not to reveal her daughter's father, telling the New York Times Magazine: 'My feeling is that until I speak to my daughter about that, I'm not going to talk to anyone else about it.'

And Spencer was welcomed in mid 2020.
Molly-Mae Hague shared a heartfelt Mother's Day post on Instagram on Sunday, including a childhood snap with her parent.

The former Love Island star, 22, posted a number of pictures of herself with her mum Debbie Gordon from Debbie's summer wedding last year to her partner Jon.

In the images Molly-Mae is seen standing alongside her sister Zoe as they wear blue bridesmaid dresses while her mother is dressed in white.

Looking back: Molly-Mae Hague, 22, shared a heartfelt Mother's Day post on Instagram on Sunday, including a childhood snap with her parent

In another snap, television personality Molly-Mae is seen when she was much younger while out walking with her mother Debbie.

She captioned the throwback photo with the single word 'mood'.

On Saturday, Molly-Mae posted a picture on her Instagram Stories of a bunch of flowers strapped in to the back of her car as she prepared to make the four hour drive south to spend the day with her mother.

Happy times: The former Love Island star posted a number of pictures of herself with her mum Debbie Gordon from Debbie's summer wedding last year to her partner Jon

Family affair: In the images Molly-Mae is seen standing alongside her sister Zoe as they wear blue bridesmaid dresses while her mother is dressed in white

It comes just days after Molly-Mae was in Paris, France for a top secret work trip.

The PrettyLittleThing creative director shared her few days in the French capital to Instagram, keeping her 6.3million followers updated as she saw the sights.

On Friday, Molly-Mae posed for a snap standing just steps away from the Eiffel Tower, donning a chic spring look.

Gift: On Saturday, Molly-Mae posted a picture on her Instagram Stories of a bunch of flowers for her mother strapped in to the back of her car

The influencer sported a pair of straight leg white jeans whilst flashing her toned torso with a cropped blue shirt and Balmain navy crop blazer.

She held onto a miniature Louis Vuitton handbag as she beamed for the shots, with her signature blonde locks in a brushed out slight wave and sunglasses perched on her head.

The star posted the photographs to Instagram on Saturday, captioning the post: 'Spring Chicky'

Couture: Meanwhile, Molly-Mae nailed Parisian chic in a cropped shirt and blazer whilst on a work trip away to the French capital on Friday

Parisian landscapes: She posed for a snap standing just steps away from the Eiffel Tower, donning a chic spring look with a pair of white jeans

She took to Instagram Stories to share the last day of her trip on Friday too, as she enjoyed French pastries and hot chocolate.

Molly-Mae stayed at the luxurious Bulgari hotel in Paris, sharing a snap of her bedroom, which had a Bulgari throw on the bed, and her club sandwich lunch at the hotel.

Whilst in Paris, Molly-Mae also visited the Louvre, jesting that she couldn't quite get the perfect shot outside the famous museum, writing 'A for Effort' on a Story of her beaming outside the landmark.

The blonde beauty described her time away as 'the best couple of days' on Instagram Stories, before returning home on Friday night.

Upon returning home, Molly-Mae posted a sweet selfie with her and beau Tommy Fury's cat, writing: 'Home to my sweet boys'.
Gordon Ramsay attended the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jeddah on Sunday with his 22-year-old daughter Holly.

The celebrity chef, 55, - who recently caused controversy by saying he 'can't stand' Cornish people - cut a casual figure as he held hands with his stylish daughter at the car racing event, proving their close family bond.

Holly looked stunning in a bright red jumpsuit which had a high-neck design and cut-out section as she beamed alongside her father.

Stepping out: Gordon Ramsay attended the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jeddah on Sunday with his 22-year-old daughter Holly, where they held hands upon arrival

She completed the chic look with chunky black heels, toted a Louis Vuitton backpack and wore Balenciaga sunglasses atop her head.

Meanwhile Gordon wore a navy T-shirt and black jeans teamed with comfy trainers and reflective shades.

The pair looked in great spirits at the event where they chatted with Dave Redding, the manager of the Williams Formula 1 team.

Style: Holly looked stunning in a bright red jumpsuit which had a high-neck design and cut-out section as she beamed alongside her father

His trip to Saudi Arabia comes after last week Gordon was accused of a hate crime following his comments about how he 'can't stand' Cornish people after reigniting a war with his neighbours.

The star, 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.'

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.'

Racing: The pair looked in great spirits at the event where they chatted with Dave Redding, the manager of the Williams Formula 1 team (left)

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.'

Remarks: His trip to Saudi Arabia comes after last week Gordon was accused of a hate crime following his comments about how he 'can't stand' Cornish 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.'

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'.

By the coast: The star, who owns a property (pictured) on the Cornish coast, has angered locals with his off-the-cuff comment, including the leader of Cornish nationalist party

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.
Phoebe Dynevor has shared a series of behind-the-scenes snaps from the set of Bridgerton.

The 26-year-old actress, who played Daphne Bridgerton in the steamy Netflix series, took to Instagram on Sunday to share the never before seen images.

The period drama returned on Friday with millions worldwide tuning in for one of the streaming services most popular ever shows.



Exclusive: Phoebe Dynevor shared a series of behind-the-scenes snaps from the set of Bridgerton to her instagram account on Sunday

Uploading for her 2.7 million followers, Phoebe treated fans to some exclusive content of the cast and crew while looking radiant in a dusty pink floral print Regency style dress.

The actress shared the mirror selfie which appeared to be taken from one of the dressing rooms with two of the costume designers in the background.

The image also gave a glimpse of the fabulous 19th century frocks which feature on the show.

We are family! An additional frame saw the Bridgerton family all huddled up together which appeared to be taken in a church setting

An additional frame saw the Bridgerton family all huddled up together which appeared to be taken in a church setting.

The on-screen family looked as close as ever as Luke Thompson who plays Benedict beamed while taking the selfie.

Phoebe also gave devotees a glimpse of Daphne and the Duke of Hastings' baby who looks simply adorable in a white gown and matching bonnet.

Cute: Phoebe also gave devotees a glimpse of Daphne and the Duke of Hastings' baby who looks simply adorable in a white gown and matching bonnet

Glam: Golda Rosheuv who plays Queen Charlotte also makes the cut as she's seen in full costume while taking a break from filming cooling down with a fan as she's joined by her cast member with Ruth Gemmell who plays Lady Violet

Golda Rosheuv who plays Queen Charlotte also makes the cut as she's seen in full costume while taking a break from filming cooling down with a fan as she's joined by her cast member Ruth Gemmell who plays Lady Violet.

Bridgeton brothers Anthony and Benedict who are respectively played by Jonathan Bailey and Luke Thompson also took some time out to chill out with a mini portable fan on set.

Lady Cowper (Joanna Bobin) and and her on-screen daughter Cressida (Jessica Madsen) also feature in the impressive album as they are seen sporting some elaborate hairdos and fancy gowns during a glam ceremony.

Phoebe's collection of images also showed the busy film crew in action between takes while Eloise Bridgerton - played by Claudia Jessie featured in a stunning outside shot on the vast grounds while smiling for the camera in full attire.

On set: Phoebe's collection of images also showed the busy film crew in action

Mother-daughter duo: Lady Cowper who is played by Joanna Bobin and and her on-screen daughter Cressida who is played by Jessica Madsen also feature in the impressive album as they are seen sporting some elaborate hairdos and fancy gowns during a glam ceremony

Cool down: Bridgeton brothers Anthony and Benedict who are respectively played by Jonathan Bailey and Luke Thompson also take some time out to chill out with a mini portable fan on set

On location: Phoebe's impressive collection of snaps gave a fans a sneak peak behind the scenes of the Netflix hit

Action: Phoebe's collection of images also showed the busy film crew in action between takes while Eloise Bridgerton - played by Claudia Jessie featured in a stunning outside shot on the vast grounds while smiling for the camera in full attire

It comes after the shows second series hit Netflix on Friday and fans rushed to comment on one scene in particular.

During the fifth episode titled An Unthinkable Fate, Jonathan Bailey set pulses racing as his character Anthony Bridgerton emerges from a lake with his see-through shirt dripping with water.

The actor, 33, looked much like Colin Firth, 61, as leading man Mr Darcy in the BBC 's 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, the 1813 novel by Jane Austen from which Bridgerton took inspiration.

Swoon: Jonathan Bailey, 33, set pulses racing in a new Bridgerton series where his character as Anthony Bridgerton emerges from a lake

And fans of the show have raced to Twitter to swoon over the actors incredible physique and to compare the fledgling star to his predecessor Colin.

With one writing: 'Colin Firth's Mr. Darcy has nothing on Jonathan Bailey's Viscount Bridgerton'.

Another agreed: "Johnny [Jonathan Bailey] has brought something to Bridgerton which Colin Firth couldn't bring as Mr Darcy. Johnny is amazing'.

A third viewer cheekily commented: "A wet Colin Firth for a new generation'.

Strapping: Jonathan looked much like Colin Firth, 61 (pictured), as leading man Mr Darcy in the BBC's 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, the book from which Bridgerton took inspiration

Fans: And fans of the show have raced to Twitter to swoon over the Actors incredible physique and to compare the fledgling star to his predecessor Colin Firth

Wow: With one writing: 'Colin Firth's Mr. Darcy has nothing on Jonathan Bailey's Viscount Bridgerton'

One viewer cheekily commented: "A wet Colin Firth for a new generation'.

In the episode the character Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley) sends Anthony flying backwards into the water, when the soon-to-be married man's hand lingers too long in hers.

And with over 82 million viewers having watched the first series, many have already binge watched the second outing on it's first day of release.

Fans loved the Netflix show's nod to the famous Pride and Prejudice scene with one writing: ' I see Viscount Bridgerton got the Colin Firth Memo and I am thanking the universe'.

Another wrote: 'Oh Bridgerton, when I saw I saw that wet white shirt clinging to Anthony's chest. I know you were footnoting Colin firth and I thank you from the bottom of my heart'.

While a third added ' Screaming over the Colin Firth wet shirt moment'.

Popcorn: In the episode the character Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley) sends Anthony flying backwards into the water, when the soon-to-be married man's hand lingers too long in hers

Happy memories: Fans loved the Netflix show's nod to the famous Pride and Prejudice scene with one writing: ' I see Viscount Bridgerton got the Colin Firth Memo and I am thanking the universe'

Another wrote: 'Oh Bridgerton, when I saw I saw that wet white shirt clinging to Anthony's chest. I know you were footnoting Colin firth and I thank you from the bottom of my heart'

Jonathan, who's character takes centre stage in the new season, admitted he felt under pressure to perform and keep viewers enticed for the next instalment.

'Stepping into the shoes Phoebe Dynevor and Rege-Jean Page wore, and led with so gracefully last season, has taught me a lot.

'This season has kept me on my toes. I got really fit, I made sure to eat well and get loads of sleep, and everything else just seemed to fall into place,' he said, according to The Sun.

Anthony becomes embroiled in a love triangle with Sharma sisters Edwina and Kate after Edwina is suggested as a match for Anthony. However, he is drawn to her older sister Kate.

Jonathan added: 'Kate and Anthony are drawn together like magnets. There is this animal primitivism and a wild attraction.

Telling the tale: Anthony becomes embroiled in a love triangle with Sharma sisters Edwina and Kate in season two

'She is this incredible sort of mythical creature to him.'

Bridgerton fans can expect more sex, more scandal and even more romance from the returning show according to the Valentine's Day trailer released last month.

Sharing the trailer on social media with the words 'love never plays by the rules,' it opens with the voice of Lady Whistledown, the infamous gossip columnist narrated by Julie Andrews, as she says: 'Dearest gentle reader, did you miss me?

'As the members of our ton questioned my identity and means, this author has been doing but one thing.

Comeback: Bridgerton fans can expect more sex, more scandal and even more romance from the returning show according to the Valentine's Day trailer released last month

'Honing my skills. No, even better. I've been sharpening my knives. For all of you.'

Lady Whistledown was in the finale of season one revealed to be Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan).

Elsewhere in the short clip, the romance between Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan) and new character Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley) is teased.

Gripping: Sharing the promo on social media with the words 'love never plays by the rules,' the clip opens with the voice of Lady Whistledown, the infamous gossip columnist

Newsflash: The publication is sent throughout high society, with many people looking forward to reading the latest words

The trailer is awash with the colourful costumes and beautiful clothes typical of the Netflix series.

A synopsis reads: Driven by his duty to uphold the family name, Anthonys search for a debutante who meets his impossible standards seems ill-fated until Kate and her younger sister Edwina (Charithra Chandran) Sharma arrive from India.

When Anthony begins to court Edwina, Kate discovers the true nature of his intentions  a true love match is not high on his priority list  and decides to do everything in her power to stop the union.

Identified: Lady Whistledown was in the finale of season one revealed to be Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan)

'But in doing so, Kate and Anthonys verbal sparring matches only bring them closer together, complicating matters on both sides.

'Across Grosvenor Square, the Featheringtons must welcome the newest heir to their estate while Penelope continues to navigate the ton whilst keeping her deepest secret from the people closest to her.'

In January, Bridgerton fans were given a glimpse of the much-anticipated second series.

Sight to behold: The trailer is awash with the colourful costumes and beautiful clothes typical of the Netflix series

Images showed Phoebe Dynevor returning as the newly-married Daphne Basset, while newcomer Kate Sharma brandished her rifle as she joined her male suitors for a shoot.

The second series will see unlucky-in-love Lord Anthony keen to find a suitable wife to uphold his family name, after setting his eye on new arrival Edwina, her sister Kate is determined to stop their union.

Having taken centre stage in the last series, Daphne will once again in series two, though this time her now-husband Duke of Hastings (Rege Jean-Page) will not appear.

Exciting: Images in January showed newcomer Kate Sharma (played by Simone Ashley) brandishes her rifle as she joins her male suitors for a shoot

Instead it appears she'll be as involved as ever in her brother Anthony's love life, as he grows more determined than ever to find a wife.

Another image features series lead Kate enjoying a shoot with her rifle in hand, surrounded by male companions, including Anthony, Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson) and his brother Jack (Rupert Young).

While it appears Kate is determined to thwart Anthony's plans to marry her sister, it appears their verbal sparring may really bring them closer together, as another image shows the pair during a passionate dance.

Stay away! After Lord Anthony sets his sights on her sister Edwina following their arrival from India, Kate is determined to put a stop to their union

What's going on? While it appears Kate is determined to thwart Anthony's plans to marry her sister, it appears their verbal sparring may really bring them closer together

Found out? Desperate to keep her identity as Lady Whistledown a secret, Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) is in a tense exchange with Eloise Bridgerton (Claudia Jessie)

Here they come! Another image features Penelope donning a stunning gold gown, as she joins her sisters Prudence, Philipa and her mother Lady Portia descending a grand staircase

Golda Rosheuvel, who plays the regal Queen Charlotte, is embrossed in yet another of Lady Whistledown's publications in one image, which also teases some of the show's grand sets with a landscape view of a gold ballroom.

Elsewhere, desperate to keep her identity as the ominpotent Lady Whistledown a secret, Penelope can be seen in a tense exchange with her close friend Eloise Bridgerton (Claudia Jessie).

Another image features Penelope donning a stunning gold gown, as she joins her sisters Prudence (Bessie Carter), Philipa (Harriet Cains) and her mother Lady Portia (Polly Walker) descending a grand staircase at a ball.

The final image sees the Bridgerton brothers in yet another fencing duel, keen to keep their physiques in top shape in their quests to find a wife.

Bridgerton's second season is streaming now on Netflix.
Ryan Fischer - the dog walker formerly employed by Oscar-winning songwriter Lady Gaga - testified about fighting for his life before an LA County Grand Jury back on October 26, and the transcript was just unsealed.

The 41-year-old Ohio native was shot through the lung on February 24, 2021 when three men stole two of his famous boss' French Bulldogs, Koji and Gustav.

During the scuffle, Ryan was choked and then hit the gunman - alleged to be 19-year-old James Jackson - with a bottle of champagne he had just purchased at a nearby store.

Victim: Ryan Fischer - the dog walker formerly employed by Oscar-winning songwriter Lady Gaga - testified about fighting for his life before an LA County Grand Jury back on October 26, and the transcript was just unsealed (pictured March 13)

'The dog screamed at me, and I reached for him, and then the guy, the man with the gun shot me as I was reaching,' Fischer said - according to Rolling Stone.

'I immediately tried to call for help but realized I was bleeding out of my lung and that I was losing more and more air quickly.'

Fischer spent a week recovering from surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, before returning two days later when his lung collapsed again and he underwent a second surgery.

'I consented to part of my lung being removed. The top third of my lung being removed as well as the bottom portion as well,' said Ryan - who still suffers from breathing issues, numbness, and nerve damage.

Gang initiation: The 41-year-old Ohio native was shot through the lung on February 24, 2021 when three men stole two of his famous boss' French Bulldogs, Gustav (3-R) and Koji (2-R)

'The man with the gun shot me': During the scuffle, Ryan was choked and then hit the gunman - alleged to be 19-year-old James Jackson - with a bottle of champagne he had just purchased at a nearby store

'I consented to part of my lung being removed': Fischer spent a week recovering from surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, before returning two days later when his lung collapsed again and he underwent a second surgery

'When I go from the ground up to stand, I have to, I still get very close to passing out. So I have to take a moment with that.'

Jackson and his alleged accomplices Jaylin White, 20; and Lafayette Whaley, 28; were 'identified through an exhaustive investigation that uncovered surveillance video of the Nissan Sentra's license plate.'

Police then tracked a rental car used to deliver the two dogs to defendant Jennifer McBride, who told police two days later that she 'randomly found them tied to a pole.'

All five suspects (including gang member Harold White) have plead not guilty to 'attempted murder and armed robbery' and 'accessories after the fact,' and the next court hearing is scheduled for for April 5.

Ryan - who still suffers from breathing issues, numbness, and nerve damage - added: 'When I go from the ground up to stand, I have to, I still get very close to passing out. So I have to take a moment with that'

Dog mom: The 12-time Grammy winner - turning 36 on Monday - called Ryan 'forever a hero' and paid for all of his medical expenses (pictured in 2017)

'I felt abandoned and unsupported': Fischer has spent the last year on a 'sabbatical' receiving therapy, trauma treatment, and driving around the country in his brand new camper (pictured July 30)

'They were not aware that Gaga was the owner, the police said, amid claims robberies were part of a gang initiation.'

The 12-time Grammy winner - turning 36 on Monday - called Ryan 'forever a hero' and paid for all of his medical expenses.

Fischer - who 'felt abandoned and unsupported' - has spent the last year on a 'sabbatical' receiving therapy, trauma treatment, and driving around the country in his brand new camper.

Ryan's road life was financed through his GoFundMe, which amassed $45,737 of a $40,000 goal from 756 donations.

Exceeded his goal: Ryan's road life was financed through his GoFundMe, which amassed $45,737 of a $40,000 goal from 756 donations
She welcomed her first child - a son - last November.

And former Made In Chelsea star Frankie Gaff shared a sweet album on Sunday to honour her first Mother's Day.

The reality star, 27, posed with her three-month-old son Theo on a swing for the cover snap, while he sat contentedly on her lap.

Milestone: Made In Chelsea star Frankie Gaff celebrated her first Mother's Day after welcoming son Theo last year with boyfriend Jamie Dickerson

The subsequent photo captured her partner Jamie Dickerson, who is father to little Theo, cradling their son on a slide.

Frankie also included a bright bouquet of flowers and a peek at her weekend dining throughout the Instagram post, which was simply captioned: 'Happy Mothers Day [sic]'.

In early December, the mother-of-one shared her baby joy with an adorable Instagram post.

Sweet: The reality star, 27, shared a sweet album on Sunday, where she captured her partner Jamie Dickerson, who is father to little Theo, cradling their son on a slide

Highlights: Frankie also included a bright bouquet of flowers and a peek at her weekend dining throughout the Instagram post

Frankie told her followers she and venture capitalist boyfriend Jamie welcomed their baby boy on November 29.

Frankie shared a series of photos with the caption 'Baby Theodore 29.11.21', showing the newborn nestled on her chest after the birth.

Another shot saw baby Theodore wrapped up warm in a cosy jacket, sleeping soundly in a moses basket.

Newborn: In early December, the mother-of-one shared her baby joy with a sweet Instagram post

Sweet: Frankie told her Instagram followers she and venture capitalist boyfriend Jamie Dickerson welcomed their baby boy on November 29

Jamie featured in another sweet snap, cuddling his son as they both snoozed at home.

The star took to Instagram in July to announce she was expecting.

The pair put on a loved-up display in a snap as they grinned for the camera, holding up an ultrasound image.

Dad: Jamie featured in another sweet snap, cuddling his son as they both snoozed at home

She captioned it: 'Soon to be party of three! Excited, nervous and everything in between !'

Frankie first appeared on Made In Chelsea in its 11th season - and went on to star in the show until series 15, as well as the summer seasons in America, Ibiza and the South of France in between.

Her main storyline featured her rocky relationship with Jamie Laing, which came to an end at the end of 2017.
Andrea McLean has insisted that she has 'no regrets' about quitting Loose Women after 'outgrowing' the show.

The TV presenter, 52, said she decided to leave her role as the Loose Women anchor to concentrate on This Girl Is On Fire - an online mindset company she runs with her third husband Nick Feeney.

Andrea also revealed that she would like to live in Florida with her husband during the winter due to their business being online.

Quitting: Andrea McLean has insisted that she has 'no regrets' about quitting Loose Women after 'outgrowing' the show

'I have no regrets at all, 100 per cent. I look back really fondly on my time there, and I was so lucky. I had the best job in the world but it just didn't fit anymore,' she told the Mirror.

'That's not a bad thing, we all change and you're not the same person a decade later. Most of us will outgrow our jobs at some point.'

She added: 'Because I was doing This Girl Is On Fire on the side it just became clearer that this is what I wanted to be doing. Most of us will outgrow our jobs at some point.'

Decision: The TV presenter, 52, said she decided to leave her role as the Loose Women anchor to concentrate on This Girl Is On Fire - an online mindset company she runs with her third husband Nick Feeney

Changes: Andrea also revealed that she would like to live in Florida with her husband (pictured) during the winter due to their business being online

It comes after she admitted that it was a 'big decision' for her at the time as she appeared on Lorraine on Monday to speak about her new book You Just Need to Believe It.

Andrea said people told her at the time that she was 'brave' for making the decision, saying their words inspired her to write her fourth book, which aims to help people change their life in 10 days.

She told Lorraine: 'This is my first time being back on TV and back in the room that we share with Loose. It was a [brave decision] and the reason the whole book came about was because at the time so many people said to me you're so brave to do that thing, to pivot.

Back on TV: She admitted that it was a 'big decision' for her at the time as she appeared on Lorraine on Monday to speak about her new book You Just Need to Believe It

'And all I kept thinking was I don't feel brave, I feel really scared but it was just something I really needed to do.

'And then I thought, right, how can I bottle everything I've used to do a brave thing when I've felt scared and I put together a 10 day challenge for my lovely community and then saw the results and it made me brave enough.'

Andrea also revealed that she had a breakdown a few years ago as she was trying to 'keep busy'.

She said she was trying to keep busy rather than take time to think about how she felt or what was happening, as she urged others to 'learn from my mistakes'.

Andrea explained: 'I had a breakdown a few years ago Lorraine, because I was going and going and going and I didn't want to look at really what was happening.

'I was just trying to keep busy and not think. Learn from my mistakes and just stop for a minute.'

The Scottish journalist urged people to write down on a piece of paper one small thing that makes them happy, and then urged them to achieve it in their day.

Andrea stepped down from Loose Women after 13 years on the show in December 2020, and later admitted that she agonised over the decision for months.
Two-time Grammy nominee Miley Cyrus announced Sunday that she's releasing her very first live album Attention: Miley Live on April 1.

'This isn't just my live album this is our album! My fans and I collaborated on this set list!' the 29-year-old pop star - who boasts 287.4M social media followers - wrote on Instagram.

'I asked you what you wanted to hear and I put together a show trying to fulfill as many requests as possible! I love you so much! Thank you for all of your loyalty and support over the last 16 years!

Scroll down for full tracklist...

Dropping April 1! Two-time Grammy nominee Miley Cyrus announced Sunday that she's releasing her very first live album Attention: Miley Live

'This record is the least I can do to try and show my appreciation for your dedication! We're in this together forever!'

Cyrus' fans - aka 'Smilers' - curated all 20 tracks including her hits Party in the USA, Wrecking Ball, Plastic Hearts, and We Can't Stop.

Miley (born Destiny) included her covers of Madonna's Like a Prayer, Blondie's Heart of Glass, the Pixies' Where Is My Mind, and her famous godmother Dolly Parton's Jolene.

The former Disney Channel star also threw in her newest songs You - which she performed during her New Year's Eve special - and Attention, which she unveiled during her pre-Super Bowl concert in LA on February 12.

The 29-year-old pop star wrote on Instagram: 'This isn't just my live album this is our album! My fans and I collaborated on this set list! I asked you what you wanted to hear and I put together a show trying to fulfill as many requests as possible! I love you so much!'

Miley (born Destiny) added: 'Thank you for all of your loyalty and support over the last 16 years! This record is the least I can do to try and show my appreciation for your dedication! We're in this together forever!'

Took requests: Cyrus' fans - aka 'Smilers' - curated all 20 tracks including her hits Party in the USA, Wrecking Ball, Plastic Hearts, and We Can't Stop

Three-octave mezzo-soprano pipes: The former Disney Channel star included her covers of Madonna's Like a Prayer, Blondie's Heart of Glass, the Pixies' Where Is My Mind, and her famous godmother Dolly Parton's Jolene

In the trailer for Attention: Miley Live, directed by Jacob Bixenman, Cyrus struts around in a mesh catsuit and leotard selected by stylist Bradley Kenneth.

The mostly b&w preview also shows Miley wielding a crowbar and sticking out her famous tongue.

The Nothing Else Matters hitmaker's album announcement came hours after she teared up while performing Angels Like You at Lollapalooza Brazil in tribute to Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, who died on Friday.

'We had to make this emergency landing and the first person that I called was Taylor, because he was already at the [Asuncionico Music Festival in Paraguay],' said Cyrus, referring to her private plane being struck by lightning.

New material: Miley also threw in her newest songs You - which she performed during her New Year's Eve special - and Attention, which she unveiled during her pre-Super Bowl concert in LA on February 12 (pictured)

Sheer! In the trailer for Attention: Miley Live, directed by Jacob Bixenman, Cyrus struts around in a mesh catsuit and leotard selected by stylist Bradley Kenneth

'You got questions? I need answers!' The mostly b&w preview also shows the Nothing Else Matters hitmaker wielding a crowbar and sticking out her famous tongue

'That would've been a time that I would've gone to see my friend, and I didn't, so it makes me really sad. I would've done anything to hang out with him one more time.'

The 'gender-fluid' millennial added: 'I know that I get on stage, and anytime that I get to play with my band  which if anything ever f***ing happened to any of them it would f***ing kill me, so I couldn't imagine how the Foo Fighters feel today.'

The 50-year-old Grammy winner - who had an enlarged heart - was found dead at the Four Seasons Hotel Casa Medina Bogota in Colombia after consuming 10 substances including heroin, opioids, and benzodiazepines.

Meanwhile, Miley is one of the many producers credited on Lil Nas X's record Montero, which is nominated for album of the year at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards airing April 3 on CBS.

'I would've done anything to hang out with him one more time': Miley's album announcement came hours after she teared up while performing Angels Like You at Lollapalooza Brazil in tribute to Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, who died on Friday

Miley Cyrus dedicates Angels Like You to Taylor Hawkins at Lollapalooza Brazil 

pic.twitter.com/KDj9RJITVH  Miley Nation (@MileyNation13) March 27, 2022

Referring to her private plane being struck by lightning, Cyrus recalled: 'We had to make this emergency landing and the first person that I called was Taylor, because he was already at the [Asuncionico Music Festival in Paraguay]. That would've been a time that I would've gone to see my friend, and I didn't, so it makes me really sad'

RIP: The 50-year-old Grammy winner - who had an enlarged heart - was found dead at the Four Seasons Hotel Casa Medina Bogota in Colombia after consuming 10 substances including heroin, opioids, and benzodiazepines
Tuxedo jacket slung over the shoulder and practical party pumps on, Nicole Kidman had one message ahead of the Oscars this weekend: Im out on the town again.

Two years since the red carpet was last rolled out, stars were clearly glad to get back to the old ways ahead of the 94th Academy Awards last night.

At an Armani party in Beverly Hills on Saturday, Nicole Kidman admitted it was the first time Ive been out due to the pandemic.

Nicole Kidman admitted it was the first time Ive been out due to the pandemic and Lily James was primly dressed in a classic Chanel suit

She told the Daily Mail: Ive been off the radar and Ive been super strict with myself. The reality is Ive had to be. I didnt want to catch Covid and miss going to the Oscars.

Miss Kidman, 54, added that a hamstring injury had also forced her to spend more time indoors. It was particularly painful, she said. But it made for a great excuse to stay home and just be a mamma.

Miss Kidman was up for a best actress award at last nights Oscars for her portrayal of Lucille Ball in Aaron Sorkins Being the Ricardos.

Celebrity sightings had been few and far between  so much so that fans chased after a limo carrying action film star Mark Wahlberg as it drove past the Armani event. See, theyve been starved, Miss Kidman quipped.

A few miles away on the Fox Studios lot, Dame Judi Dench, 87, arrived at the Night Before fundraising event along with Javier Bardem, Andrew Garfield and the stars of Sian Heders CODA, which was a favourite to win best picture.

Dame Judi was a best supporting actress nominee for her role in Sir Kenneth Branaghs film Belfast.

Dylan Meyer and Kristen Stewart rubbed shoulders with Jessie Buckley when arriving at the Chanel 13th annual pre-Oscar Awards Dinner

Stars also attended a dinner hosted by Chanel and producer Charles Finch at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Lily James, primly dressed in a classic Chanel suit, rubbed shoulders with Kate Beckinsale, Kristen Stewart, Jessie Buckley and Belfast star Caitriona Balfe.

Those heading to yesterdays Oscars left the dinner early. Were like a line-up of Cinderellas running home before the clock strikes midnight, joked Miss James, who starred in the 2015 live action Disney film Cinderella.

She has been the talk of the town in recent months thanks to her performance as Baywatchs Pamela Anderson in the TV series Pam & Tommy.

The Academy has imposed stringent Covid safety rules on the event, insisting attendees have two negative PCR tests.
Bindi Irwin and Chandler Powell threw their daughter Grace Warrior a lavish party on Friday to celebrate her milestone first birthday.

And Bindi's brother Robert Irwin has shared some adorable pictures from the big day.

In three photos he posted on Instagram, Robert, 18, was seen doting over the tiny tot, who was all dressed up in an ornate lace dress.

Sweet: Doting uncle Robert Irwin shared sweet photos with baby Grace Warrior to celebrate her 1st birthday

The teen was pictured holding the cherubic tot's hands as she walked across the lawn, while others captured Grace marvelling over a rose as Robert wrapped his arms around her.

Robert's fans couldn't get enough of the sweet images, and told the Wildlife Warrior he was going to make an amazing father one day.

'You are going to be the best uncle in the world in her eyes. You will make a great daddy some day,' one wrote.

Bindi and Chandler, who celebrated their second wedding anniversary on the same day, organised a celebration for Grace 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.

So cute: The teen was pictured holding the cherubic tot's hands as she walked across the lawn

Inquisitive: Others captured Grace marvelling over a rose as Robert wrapped his arms around her

Too cute! Bindi Irwin and Chandler Powell threw their daughter Grace Warrior a lavish party on Friday to celebrate her milestone first birthday.

Bindi and Chandler also 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 her dress 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.
She won plenty of fans and haters after taking an aggressively pro-vaccine stance during the Covid pandemic last year.

And Abbie Chatfield revealed why she detests anti-vaxxers so much in an interview with The Daily Telegraph on Monday.

She explained she comes from an educated family, including teachers and medical professionals, so has no time for ignorant people who spread misinformation.

Jabbed up: Abbie Chatfield revealed on Monday why she detests anti-vaxxers so much

'Everyone in my family  except for this generation  is either a doctor, a dentist or a teacher,' the 26-year-old said.

'So it wasn't that my family was pro-vax but it was, "Yes, you get vaccinated."'

The Bachelor star added: 'And also, I have common sense. I mean, just take the vaccine. Just do it.'

Abbie's latest comments on vaccines come as more than 96 per cent of Australians have had at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, and more than 94 per cent of those eligible have had two doses.

Pro-science: 'Everyone in my family  except for this generation  is either a doctor, a dentist or a teacher,' the 26-year-old explained

As a reality TV veteran herself, Abbie recently spilled the beans on what reality stars really make.

She first rose to fame on The Bachelor starring Matt Agnew back in 2019.

Speaking on her radio show Hot Nights with Abbie Chatfield, she said she was paid about $10,000 to appear on the show.

How much?! Abbie recently revealed the surprising amount she made on The Bachelor

She said she couldn't make money from paid promotions until three months after the finale episode aired.

'I had a job and didn't really care, people were like, "How do we make money? And I was like, don't quit your job to go on a reality show!"' she said.

'I got paid $90 a day but for me it was much more... I didn't work for three months... it's tax free, I got money back on tax that year, I came out with no expenses. I came out with $10,000. It was great.'

Not bad! Speaking on her radio show Hot Nights with Abbie Chatfield, Abbie said she made about $10,000 while appearing on the The Bachelor alongside Matt Agnew (right)

Abbie went on to explain why reality TV contestants can't use social media or become influencers right away.

She said it can be a conflict of interest between the TV network and the stars.

'They [networks] have advertisement agreements. Not because they want to be mean, people are like, it's cause they don't want us to be influencers! Um, no it's not,' she said.

She gave an example, saying if a network has a deal with a car brand and a contestant advertises the car's rival, it would be a conflict of interest.

'I got paid $90 a day but for me it was much more... I didn't work for three months... it's tax free, I got money back on tax that year, I came out with no expenses. I came out with $10,000, it was great,' she said

Unfortunately for this year's brides and grooms on MAFS, Channel Nine bosses have put their foot down to stop them launching social media careers straight away.

While in previous seasons the participants have been handed back their Instagram accounts within two weeks of the finale, things are different this year.

'They won't be getting their socials back until at least May after the show has finished airing in the UK,' an insider told Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday.

The source said there is 'a lot of pressure on Nine to stop the cast from going rogue' while season nine still airs in New Zealand and Britain.

'It's also another opportunity to hold their blue ticks hostage if they're caught going to the press about their 'horrible edits',' they added.

Banned: Unfortunately for this year's brides and grooms on MAFS, Channel Nine bosses have put their foot down to stop them launching social media careers straight away

By the time the MAFS cast get access to their Instagram accounts, their engagement levels will have dropped significantly, affecting their potential earnings.

While the show is still airing, participants are allowed to write their own captions on photos supplied by Nine's publicity team, but that is the extent of their permitted social media activity.

Comments have also been disabled on their posts and the cast aren't allowed to read their direct messages, which is how sponsors would contact them.

One disgruntled bride told Daily Mail Australia some of the participants are 'worried' they will be 'old news' by the time they get their accounts back.

'We have no choice but to wait,' they said.

'We are trapped. Some people have quit their jobs and are hoping MAFS is going to be their big break to never have to work again.'
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She is up for Best Actress at this year's Oscars for her role as Lucille Ball in Being The Ricardos, and Nicole Kidman was certainly best dressed at the awards ceremony in Los Angeles on Sunday.

The 54-year-old actress looked absolutely breathtaking in a custom Giorgio Armani Prive pale blue strapless bustier gown as she stepped on the red carpet at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood with her husband Keith Urban.

She teamed the form-fitting dress with stunning Harry Winston diamond jewels - including an intricate collar necklace with a rare yellow diamond.

Beauty in blue! Nicole Kidman looked stunning in a pale blue strapless peplum gown as she arrived to the Oscars on Sunday evening alongside her doting husband Keith Urban

Nicole's glamorous long gown featured a peplum waist as well as a long train embellished with jewels.

The Aussie beauty also accessorised her stunning ensemble with a matching diamond bracelet, diamond earrings and an Omega watch.

Nicole tied her locks in a low bun and wore a dramatic face of makeup consisting of a red lip, blush, eyeliner and foundation.

Meanwhile, Keith looked dapper in a Emporio Armani black tuxedo, white buttoned shirt, black bow tie and shiny black shoes as he lovingly gazed into Nicole's eyes on the red carpet.

Breathtaking: She teamed the form-fitting dress with stunning diamond jewels - including an intricate collar necklace with a rare yellow diamond

Loved-up: Keith looked dapper in a black tuxedo, white buttoned shirt, bow tie and shiny black shoes as he posed alongside his wife

Sweet: Nicole tenderly grabbed hold of Keith's hand as they enjoyed a sweet moment together on the red carpet

Affectionate: The power couple looked nothing short of loved-up as they happily posed for photos at the star-studded event

Back in February, Nicole was in tears upon hearing the news of her Oscar nomination for portrayal of Lucille Ball in in Being the Ricardos.

But she revealed that not all of her family members were impressed by the news during an interview on the US talk show The View.

She recalled the moment she began crying after getting a Facetime call informing her of the award nomination before her daughters Sunday Rose, 13, and Faith Margaret, 11, gave a less enthusiastic response to the news.

'I'm like, whaaaat? I mean it's like there was so much emotion attached to it that I didn't realise I was carrying, and I just looked around, tears are coming down,' Nicole said.

Making a statement: Nicole's gorgeous gown featured a dramatic train with jewel embellishment

Beauty: Nicole tied her locks in a low bun and wore a dramatic face of makeup consisting of a red lip, blush, eyeliner and foundation

In great spirits: Nicole showed off some serious bling as she blew a kiss to the crowd

Gorgeous: The star's statement dress featured bow tie detail that cinched in at her enviably tiny waist

'And my kids looked at me like, 'Wow, congrats mum, anyway we're going to be late, we gotta get going'.'

She told The Daily Telegraph that she broke down in tears after receiving the news.

'I literally cried. I just can't believe it,' she said.

'This was the hardest thing I have ever done and so I didn't realise how much emotion I was holding on to.'

They only have eyes for each other: The Aussie actress and country musician, both 54, lovingly gazed into each other's eyes as they arrived to the event

Nothing but love: Nicole made a heart shape with her hands, no doubt thrilled to be attending the awards ceremony

She added that: 'The older you get, the sweeter and the more intense it is I don't know about getting more mellow because that is so not the case. I am elated.'

Nicole also shared a lengthy Instagram post thanking the Academy for recognising her hard work.

Uploading a series of photos of herself in character as Lucille, Nicole wrote: 'WOW! I'm so overwhelmed... What a beautiful way to find out.

'This was the hardest role I've ever done and to be honoured this way is deeply appreciated.

Bold: Nicole added a bold pop of colour in the form of red polish on her talons and a matte red lipstick

Content: The Big Little Lies star waved to the crowd alongside her dapper country music superstar husband

Details: Nicole's frock featured corset detail accentuating her tiny waist

'Lucille Ball is one of Hollywood's greatest icons. She was ahead of her time. From actress to producer to studio head, mother and wife, she's an extraordinary inspiration! Thank you Lucille Ball.'

Nicole thanked the cast and crew on the film, as well as director Aaron Sorkin, and said they all deserve the Oscars recognition.

Nicole has previously won Best Actress for The Hours at the 2003 Academy Awards.

Meanwhile, Nicole and Keith married on June 25, 2006, after meeting at an event in LA the previous year.

The couple tied the knot at the Cardinal Cerretti Chapel, on the grounds of St Patrick's College in Manly, Sydney.

Animated: Nicole made a number of playful facial expressions as she supported her peers inside the venue

Ecstatic: Nicole couldn't hide her enthusiasm as the awards were read out

Nicole's two adopted children, Isabella, 27, and Connor, 25, whom she shares with ex-husband Tom Cruise, acted as bridesmaid and usher respectively.

She and Keith later welcomed daughters Sunday Rose and Faith Margaret.

Last month, Nicole revealed the secret to her happy marriage with the country musician.

Happy to be there: Nicole was far from a wallflower as she celebrated the industry's famed awards ceremony

In shock: Nicole looked lost for words as she enjoyed the festivities

'We're a mix. We're very suited [for each other]. I'm incredibly lucky to have met him,' the Oscar winner told CBS Mornings.

Nicole went on to describe Keith as 'the best thing that's ever happened to me'.

'I met him later in life and it's been the best thing that's ever happened to me. That man is the best thing that's ever happened to me,' she said.

'We're a mix. We're very suited for each other': Last month, Nicole revealed the secret to her happy marriage with the country musician


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There are a few new airlines which include India Salam Air, Air Arabia Abu Dhabi, Qantas and American airline, to begin airline operations with India. (ANI Image)

New Delhi: Nearly after two years of the pandemic, India is all set to resume regular international flights from Sunday, according to an order issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.

The order said that Scheduled Foreign Carriers have applied for approval of their international schedule. The Summer Schedule 2022 is effective from March 27, 2022, till October 29 this year.

A total of 60 foreign airlines of 40 countries including Mauritius, Malaysia, Thailand, Turkey, the United States of America, Iraq and others have been given the approval to operate 1783 frequencies to/from India during Summer Schedule 2022.

However, there are a few new airlines which include India Salam Air, Air Arabia Abu Dhabi, Qantas and American airline, to begin airline operations with India.

Notably, India had suspended the international flights since March 2020, due to the COVID pandemic.
There have been periodic instances of Indian fishermen being apprehended by Sri Lankan authorities for allegedly crossing the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) and fishing in Sri Lankan waters. (Photo: AFP)

Colombo: India has asked Sri Lanka to "exercise caution" so as to prevent any casualties in the course of crackdowns on Indian fishing boats and requested the island nation to tackle the fisheries issue based on a humanitarian approach.

During a virtual meeting of the Joint Working Group on Fisheries on Friday, both countries agreed that the use of force could not be justified under any circumstances, and reiterated the importance of extending humane treatment to all fishermen, the Indian High Commission here said in a statement.

"The Indian side asked the relevant Sri Lankan authorities to exercise caution so as to prevent any casualties in the course of crackdowns on fishing boats, and suggested using paramilitary to apprehend civilian fishermen," the statement said.

"Suggesting that relevant UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) clauses are fishermen friendly in spirit and letter, the Indian government requested Sri Lankan authorities to tackle the fisheries issue based on humanitarian approach," it said.

The Sri Lankan side raised its concerns on the methods used by fishing vessels and stressed that it is imperative for the two countries to work together in drawing up effective measures to mitigate the loss of livelihood. The Indian side took a constructive approach in its response and assured its assistance.

The Indian side also elaborated on the steps undertaken by the Government to safeguard the marine environment and explained government measures to improve the fisheries order, including stationing coast guard vessels at key sea routes requested by the Sri Lankan side, creating awareness on environmentally damaging fishing operations, and providing education, financial support and guidance to Indian fishermen to migrate to longliners fishing.

The Indian side had earlier dispensed dry rations to Sri Lankan fisher families, reflecting continuing interest in the well-being of the fishermen.

In recent weeks, Sri Lanka fisher organisations had stepped up pressure on the government to take steps to stop the Indian fishermen from entering Sri Lankan waters.

The Sri Lankan delegation at the meeting was led by R.M.I. Rathnayake, Secretary, Ministry of Fisheries of Sri Lanka, and the Indian delegation was led by Jatindra Nath Swain, Secretary (Fisheries).

Both sides reviewed the developments since the last meeting of the Joint Working Group held in December 2020.

The fishermen issue is a contentious one in ties between the two countries.

In February, the issue of fishermen also figured in the talks between External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Sri Lankan counterpart G L Peiris in New Delhi. Jaishankar will visit Sri Lanka from March 28 to March 30 for bilateral talks and BIMSTEC engagements.

There have been periodic instances of Indian fishermen being apprehended by Sri Lankan authorities for allegedly crossing the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) and fishing in Sri Lankan waters.

There have been several incidents of Sri Lankan Navy personnel even firing at Indian fishermen in the Palk Strait and seizing their boats.

The Palk Strait, which is a narrow strip of water separating Tamil Nadu from Sri Lanka, is a rich fishing ground for fishermen from both countries.

According to available information, in the last three years, a total of 329 Indian fishermen were arrested by Sri Lankan authorities, of whom 305 were from Tamil Nadu. A total of 88 Indian fishing boats are in Sri Lankan custody.

India has been taking up the issue of the detained fishermen at the highest level (in Sri Lanka), including a "2+2" meeting between the foreign ministers and the fisheries ministers of the two countries.
Furniture and lifestyle rental brand Furlenco has recently laid off some 180 to 200 employees as the company is scaling down its operation across various parts of the country like Pune, Kolkata and Ahmedabad, according to The Economic Times report.

The company has suspended operations across Kolkata, and other citiesthese were places it was looking to aggressively scale earlierThey have laid off close to 200-220 employees this year.., a source aware of the developments told the publication.

Meanwhile, Furlenco has outsourced functions such as  asset management including repair and maintenance and asset collection for returns.

What is surprising is that the company was ramping up its hiring last year and then suddenly decided to retrench employeesThis has caused uncertainty in the company. The current employees were informed of the layoffs in a town hall by the top management, another source told the publication on condition of anonymity.

Furlenco has also confirmed the development. After the retrenchment, the company currently has 350 employees.

According to Furlenco, it has only temporarily suspended its operations in Kolkata, Mysuru, Chandigarh, and Jaipur as it aims for a leasing model for its warehouses to save costs.

The decision is a part of a larger cost restructuring exercise to focus on creating an asset-light model. We hired close to 200 people last year, with almost 150 of them being across customer engagement functions. Another 35 members were added to technology functions. These hirings were made to cater towards increased customer demand, Ajith Karimpana, founder and chief executive officer of Furlenco, told the publication.

With technology automating most of the customer-facing functions now, we had to let go of these employees, since their roles had become redundant, Karimpana added.

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The Kremlin dismissed a remark by US President Joe Biden on Saturday that Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power," saying it was up to Russians to choose their own president.

Asked about Biden's comment, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Reuters: "That's not for Biden to decide. The president of Russia is elected by Russians."

A White House official said Biden, who was speaking in Warsaw, had not been calling for "regime change" in Russia but his point was that "Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbours or the region".

Peskov did not immediately respond to a follow-up request for reaction to the White House clarification.

Also Read  Joe Biden labels Putin a 'butcher' after meeting Ukrainian refugees

Biden has stepped up personal attacks on Putin since the Russian president ordered the invasion of Ukraine last month, and the Kremlin has replied by questioning the US leader's state of mind.

Last week, it accused Biden of making "personal insults" towards Putin after he labelled him a "war criminal" and a "murderous dictator", and said his remarks appeared to have been fuelled by irritation, fatigue and forgetfulness.

Dmitry Rogozin, the outspoken head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, suggested mockingly on social media that the clarification of Biden's latest remarks had come from the White House medical unit. Rogozin has previously derided what he called "Alzheimer's sanctions" imposed on Russia by the United States over the war in Ukraine, which Moscow calls a special military operation.

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Myanmar's junta chief on Sunday said the military would not negotiate with "terrorist" opposition forces, vowing to annihilate them during a speech on Armed Forces Day, as opponents of last year's coup vowed they would fight on.

The military, known as the Tatmadaw, celebrated with a parade of troops and weapons in the capital, Naypyitaw, for the second year since overthrowing the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1, 2021.

Anti-coup protesters came out on streets in Myanmar on Sunday morning carrying signs saying "uproot the fascist military."

Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing in his speech rejected any talks with "terrorist" opposition. A five-point peace plan by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations calls for talks on all sides, but so far has seen little progress.

Read | US slaps new sanctions on Myanmar after genocide designation

"I would like to say Tatmadaw will no longer take into account negotiation with the terrorist group and their supporters for killing innocent people ... and will annihilate them into an end," he said.

The junta accuses opposition militants of killing civilians and security forces in its resistance campaign, while activists say the military has killed hundreds in crackdowns since the coup.

The shadow government of the ousted administration, the National Unity Government (NUG), said on Sunday that Myanmar people will rip out the military and its fascism root and stem.

"Together with the souls of our lost heroes, we will fight to the bitter end," NUG spokesman Dr. Sasa said in a statement.

Myanmar has been plagued by violence since the military seized power, upending a decade of tentative democratic and economic reforms.

More than 1,700 people have been killed and almost 13,000 arrested, according to rights group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).

Military authorities have said the AAPP figures are exaggerated.

The United Nations last week said the army was committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.

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The cops busted a suspected terrorist plot at Addu City in the Maldives as External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Sunday visited the second largest city of the archipelago to inaugurate a police training academy built with financial support from India.

Jaishankar also handed over to the Chief of Defence Forces of Maldives a Coastal Radar System that India built in the archipelago amid Chinese Peoples Liberation Army Navys increasing forays in the Indian Ocean. This system will contribute to enhancing security for the Maldives and for the entire region, said External Affairs Minister, who was on a visit to Addu City on Saturday and Sunday, notwithstanding the continuing India Out campaign that was launched by the island nations former president Abdullah Yameen and his Progressive Party along with its ally Peoples National Congress, apparently with tacit support from Embassy of China in Male.

Also Read | Jaishankar formally hands over Coastal Radar System to Maldives

The cops arrested nine persons in Addu City and busted a suspected terrorist plot, even as Jaishankar and his counterpart, Abdulla Shahid, joined President of Maldives, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, to inaugurate the National College for Policing and Law Enforcement (NCPLE), which New Delhi helped the government of the neighbouring country build.

We hope that the NCPLE will soon grow into an iconic institution that churns out the best brains and bodies to face the challenges that confront any modern police force, said the External Affairs Minister. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was also signed setting the stage for Indias Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy to help the Maldives Police Service develop the curriculum for training the cops at the newly built institution.

A source in New Delhi said that the security agencies of India and Maldives were in touch about the arrest of people involved in the suspected terrorist plot in the neighbouring country.

The EXIM Bank of India will also provide $ 40 million financing for building 61 police infrastructure facilities, including island and atoll-level police stations, divisional headquarters, detention centres and barracks, across the islands of Maldives. Jaishankar and Shahid also witnessed the signing of the $ 80 million contract for the Addu Reclamation and Shore-Protection project, which would also be funded by the Government of India.

Our development partnership  which is transparent, which is driven by the needs and priorities of the people and the Government of Maldives  ranges upwards of $ 2.6 billion in terms of grants, loans, budgetary support, capacity building and training assistance, the External Affairs Minister said.

The erstwhile regime of Abdulla Yameen had put the Maldives into a debt trap by awarding the state-owned companies of China contracts to build several infrastructure projects  mostly on unsustainable loan terms. Though Beijings influence over Abdullah Yameen's regime had resulted in strains in New Delhis relations with Male, it saw a reset after Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed led the Maldivian Democratic Party to victory in the November 2018 elections.

Shahid on Saturday and Sunday reassured Jaishankar that the Government of Maldives would continue to pursue its India First policy, thus tacitly dismissing the India Out campaign by Abdullah Yameens party, which had planned to hold a rally during Indian External Affairs Ministers visit to the Indian Ocean nation.

India had in February 2021 signed an agreement with the Maldives to develop, support and maintain a harbour at Uthuru Thila Falhu naval base in the island nation. Though the new harbour is being built officially for the use of the Maldives National Defence Force Coast Guard, it is likely to turn into a strategic asset for India and give it an edge over China, which has been trying to spread its tentacles in the Indian Ocean region.

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External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will arrive here on Monday to hold bilateral talks with Sri Lankas top leadership and attend the seven-nation BIMSTEC summit, officials here said on Sunday.

This will be his first visit to the island nation since India extended an economic relief package to bail Sri Lanka out of the current economic crisis.

Although Jaishankars visit is primarily for the BIMSTEC engagements, the officials said that he would be taking part in all important bilateral talks with the Sri Lankan leaders.

Besides India and Sri Lanka, the BIMSTEC comprises Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Nepal, and Bhutan.

Also Read | Jaishankar calls on Maldivian President Solih; discusses special partnership between the two countries

The summit is being hosted by Sri Lanka in its capacity as the chair of the grouping BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the virtual summit of the BIMSTEC grouping on March 30, which is expected to focus on expanding economic engagement among its member countries.

The summit comes at a time when Sri Lanka is facing its all-time worst foreign exchange crisis after the pandemic hit the island nations earnings from tourism and remittances.

India, since mid-January, has provided economic relief in the form of currency swaps, deferred repayments, and dedicated credit lines for the purchase of fuel and essential imports.

Jaishankars visit is taking place at a time when the public outrage over the Lankan governments inefficiency in handling the crisis has come out in the open. People are holding protests and vigils urging immediate solutions to rid them of fuel and gas queues and enduring long hours of power cuts.

Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa saw Jaishankar as a helpful ally in his bid to tackle the issue at a time serious public anger has turned against the government - these come in the form of peaceful demonstrations urging not only President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to stand down but the whole Rajapaksa ruling family to resign for incompetency.

Although both the government and the Opposition leaders as well as economic analysts have by and large appreciated Indias assistance, some concerns on Indias preconditions if any for such aid have been raised.

In recent days, the Opposition as well as a section of the government allies have raised concerns over some of the newly-approved Indian projects in the island nation.

Also, there are growing concerns about some of the post-economic relief package engagements proposed with India.

The agreement to provide a grant of $6 million for the establishment of a Maritime Rescue Coordinating Center in Sri Lanka and agreement for the implementation of the Sri Lanka Unified Digital Identity Framework are two prime examples of allegations of packs with India shrouded in secrecy.

The main Opposition raised these projects in Parliament, questioning their alleged lack of transparency and pressing the government for answers.

The Indian assistance or its economic bailout package included $400 million currency swaps, $500 million for fuel purchase, $1 billion for food and essentials, and deferment of Asian Currency Unit payments of over $500 million.

The best explanation for Indias assistance came from former prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Indian assistance was because they feared there would be instability in Sri Lanka with civil unrest. India had never helped a country to this extent before, he said during a discussion with an independent think tank, adding that Sri Lanka ought to be thankful to India for the assistance, although this assistance would only be sufficient for two more months.

There is a school of thought that India has got involved with its neighbor not just to provide economic relief.

What we have is an economic crisis and a political crisis, Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, the head of an independent think tank, said. Interestingly, a politically-influential senior Buddhist monk, Rev Elle Gunawansha, has urged in a letter to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to come out with full details of the deal with India ''.

Sri Lanka is facing an acute economic and energy crisis triggered due to a shortage of foreign exchange. A sudden rise in prices of key commodities and fuel shortage forced tens of thousands of people to queue for hours outside petrol filling stations. People are also facing long hours of power cuts daily.

All essentials are in short supply due to import restrictions forced by the forex crisis.

India recently announced to extend a $1 billion line of credit to Sri Lanka as part of its financial assistance to the country to deal with the economic crisis.

New Delhi had extended a $500 million line of credit to Colombo in February to help it purchase petroleum products.

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Danish Azad Ansari, the only Muslim minister in Uttar Pradesh, on Sunday claimed that his community is warming up to the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

The Ballia resident was inducted into the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government as a minister of state on Friday and needs to be elected to the state assembly or the legislative council in the next six month to continue on the post.

Ansari said the Muslim community is now shedding the "illusion" created by opposition parties like the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress.

Also Read | In Uttar Pradesh, BJP bets on newer entrants over old loyalists

"The BJP is getting the love of Muslim society now and the love for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is increasing continuously in the Muslim community, he told PTI.

Faith in the BJP is being awakened in the community," he added.

Ansari, 34, said Modi's vision of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vishwas, Sabka Vikas is expanding the BJP vote base and Muslims are being drawn more towards the BJP.

He claimed that the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and the 2022 Assembly elections suggest this.

But the BJP fielded no Muslim candidate in the just-ended UP Assembly election. Its ally Apna Dal (S) nominated Haidar Ali Khan from Suar in Rampur, and he was defeated.

The previous Adityanath government too had a single Muslim member --- Mohsin Raza, a minister of state.

Ansari claimed that the opposition thought of Muslims only as a vote bank

But the Muslim community has now understood that the SP, the BSP and the Congress have always cheated them. The Muslim community has realised that only Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will work for their true development, he said.

The minister said Modi has dreamed of making India a global leader and all youth, and the Muslim community, will have to play an important role in making this come true.

He said it is the dream of Modi and Adityanath that every section of society is connected with the mainstream of development, and they will fulfil this.

He said there should be efforts to take government schemes to the grassroots. He said the Adityanath government will take inputs on what it needs to do for the betterment of the Muslim community, particularly the youth.

Education is a fundamental right and synonymous with development and he will make special efforts to take the Muslim community forward in this field, Ansari said.

He will take the initiative to connect urban schools with technical education, the minister said.

Ansari joined the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in 2010 when he was studying at Lucknow University. He has done Masters in Public Administration and Quality Management.

He was nominated to the Urdu Language Committee in the previous Adityanath government in October 2018 and was made the general secretary of the minorities cell of the BJP just before the assembly elections.

The portfolios are yet to be announced for the members of the new Adityanath ministry. The BJP and its allies won 273 seats in the 403-member state assembly.

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The Serum Institute has applied to the Drugs Controller General of India seeking emergency use authorisation for its recombinant BCG (rBCG) vaccine for the prevention of tuberculosis, official sources said on Sunday.

The EUA application was submitted on March 22 by Prakash Kumar Singh, Director of Government and Regulatory Affairs at the Serum Institute of India (SII).

India's TB immunisation programme currently offers BCG vaccination at birth or as early as possible till one year of age.

SII already supplies life-saving vaccines to the government under the Universal Immunisation Programme, including Pneumococcal, IPV and Rotavirus, Singh mentioned in his letter.

The Pune-based firm is one of the companies which supply BCG vaccine to the government.

"Our government is committed to eliminate TB. The vision of TB-free India has been energised by the clarion call of the prime minister to end TB from our country by 2025 , five years ahead of the Sustainable Development Goal of ending TB," Singh mentioned in his letter.

"Under leadership of our CEO Adar C Poonawalla, our firm is committed to make available a safe, efficacious and high-quality world class TUBERVAC-rBCG vaccine for newborns, children, adolescents and adults at affordable price," an official source quoted Singh as having said in the application.

Recombinant BCG vaccines are manufactured through advanced technology that allows the insertion of foreign genes, or overexpression of native genes, into the BCG vaccine, an official explained.

The number of tuberculosis cases in India has seen a 19 per cent rise in 2021 over the previous year, and there has been an increase in the mortality rate due to all forms of TB between 2019 and 2020 by 11 per cent, according to the annual TB report released by Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Thursday.

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In the summer of 2017, Indian and Chinese soldiers were arrayed against each other in Doklam plateau in Bhutan. The standoff had been going on for more than 10 weeks when the two sides decided to step back. A disengagement was announced. The reason: a BRICS summit to be held in September 2017 in China, where Beijing wanted the presence of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Nearly five years later, history is rhyming, if not repeating itself. After meeting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar confirmed during his press conference on Friday that Beijing definitely desires the presence of leaders of all the BRICS countries at the summit to be held in China later this year.

Unlike 2017, the dates of the summit have not been announced to force a quick resolution, but the Indian demand for normalcy in bilateral ties is once again of disengagement between the two armies in Ladakh. It is not clear if India is seeking disengagement only at Patrol Point-15 (PP15) or it includes Depsang and Demchok as well. These are the three places on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) where Chinese troops continue to block Indian patrols from accessing hitherto Indian-controlled territory.

Also Read  China should not allow Pakistan to dictate its policy towards India, says Jaishankar

After the disengagement in Doklam was completed, the Indian forces stepped back to their routine deployment, but the Chinese soldiers retreated only a few hundred metres. Within a couple of years, as was confirmed by the Modi government in Parliament, Chinese military had constructed major infrastructure and deployed there in substantial numbers. As satellite images show, the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) is also constructing an alternative road to Jampheri ridge (the 2017 crisis was triggered when the Chinese construction party was blocked from building a direct route).

By insisting on only disengagement as a precondition for return to normal ties with China  Jaishankar said de-escalation would follow but did not make it a binding requirement  India is in danger of walking into another Doklam in Ladakh. A demand for restoration of status quo ante, as of April 2020, is not even on the table.

This can be either seen as a pragmatic move by New Delhi to find a quick and honourable end to the border crisis or interpreted as a sign of weakness of the Modi government, which finds itself devoid of non-escalatory military options to restore the ground situation to as it existed in April 2020. An Indian Army operation to take the heights of the Kailash range in August 2020, for instance, helped achieve limited gains  disengagement on the north bank of Pangong lake, by creating a buffer zone  but it also brought the two armies to the brink of full-blown war. New Delhi may not want to take that risk again.

Even if the Indian military cannot reverse the Chinese ingress in Ladakh, it has deployed in sufficiently large numbers on the LAC to prevent any further loss of territorial control to China.

Also Read  India 'politely' rejected China's call for Wang-Modi meet

Nearly 100 weeks after the crisis began, there is a danger of this unfavourable stalemate on the border emerging as the new status quo, a situation the Modi government is desperately trying to avoid by placing the border crisis at the front and centre of Sino-India bilateral ties. Over the last 22 months, the military logjam has calcified into a diplomatic impasse. Wangs visit was an attempt to cut that Gordian knot but has ended up hardening the divergent positions on both sides.

Tempting New Delhi

Beijings timing of the move is significant as Russias war on Ukraine has caused a massive geopolitical churn, putting New Delhi under tremendous pressure to balance its values and interests. A three-point proposal made by Wang in his meetings, not revealed in the Indian briefings, was made public by the Chinese foreign ministry.

The first one is the old Chinese shibboleth, advising India to put the differences on the border issue in an appropriate position. New Delhi has rejected this notion outright.

The second explicitly states that China does not pursue the so-called unipolar Asia  referring to the Indian characterisation of the challenge from China in the past decade  and was willing to explore China-India+ cooperation in South Asia. India has resented Beijings growing influence in its neighbourhood but lacking deep pockets and project execution capabilities to match Chinas, has failed to counter it. Any collaboration with China on infrastructure projects in South Asia is not going to make Indias closest western partners happy. It will end up drawing India into Chinas Belt and Road Initiative umbrella. However, smaller South Asian countries may see India as being unreasonable for not entertaining the Chinese offer, which would be highly beneficial for them from the connectivity perspective while keeping them out of the regular China vs India fight.

Also Read  Unsettling signals from Chinese foreign minister's visit

The third proposal asks the two countries to speak with one voice so that the whole world will listen. An India-China G2 of sorts. This seems driven by the Indian stance on Ukraine which superficially seems no different from Chinas. With an economy five times Indias size and a defence budget four times higher than Indias, China is bound to be the dominant player in such a grouping. An Asian moment is a catchy slogan but is unlikely to entice New Delhi, when Modi has consented to attend the forthcoming Quad summit at Tokyo.

Even though the Quad was not discussed between Wang and Jaishankar, this proposal reflects the Chinese interest in nullifying Bidens Indo-Pacific strategy by weaning India away. In the recent past, Beijing believed that India was acting solely at the behest of the US, which may have been corrected with New Delhis non-aligned position on the Ukraine issue. The usually belligerent Global Times had a conciliatory editorial on Wangs proposals, portraying it as a sincere Chinese attempt towards a rapprochement with India.

Words vs deeds

The chasm between Wangs words and deeds however suggest otherwise. Before coming to India, Wang made two statements in Islamabad that angered India, one supporting Pakistan under all circumstances, and the other favouring the position of the Organisation of Islamic Countries on Kashmir. Neither was conducive to creating an amicable environment for a visit aiming for a major breakthrough. If China was sincere, Wang would have proposed immediate disengagement in Ladakh to create an enabling climate in which his proposals were taken seriously in New Delhi.

Notwithstanding the Chinese motivations, the latest move from Beijing has added to Indias discomfiture. Keen to quickly resolve the border crisis and avoid a confrontational relationship with China, the Modi government must engage with Beijing. If the engagement with Beijing were to happen within the framework of these proposals, it is bound to unnerve the Biden administration. Washingtons understanding of Indias position on the Ukraine issue was driven by the premise that the US and Indian interests are closely aligned against China. If that rationale comes under a cloud, we may hear very different noises from a US administration that is already uncomfortable with Indias democratic decline and targeting of religious minorities under Modi.

An outright rejection of Chinese proposals will win New Delhi plaudits in Washington and provide grist for Modis domestic political propaganda mills. The key, however, will be to watch for Beijings response. If China continues to see India through the prism of its US policy, the signs for Sino-India ties will not be good. The seeds of the 1962 war were sown much earlier, but the two sides started hurtling towards a war after Zhou Enlais famous visit to India in 1960. As if on cue, Global Times says that Wangs proposal not only shows Chinas broad mind as a major power, but also is a kind reminder to India. A threat, couched as a warning. China has weaved its web. India better be prepared.

(Sushant Singh is Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi)

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About Jodha Akbar - Bhojpuri Jodha Akbar - Bhojpuri was released on Mar 28, 2022 . This show is available in hr language. Rajat Tokas, Paridhi Sharma, Lavina Tandon, Ashwini Kalsekar, Manisha Yadav, Heena Parmar, Chhaya Phadkar and Ravi Bhatia are playing as the star cast in this show. You can watch the show online on ZEE5, as long as you are a subscriber to the video streaming OTT platform. Jodha Akbar - Bhojpuri is available in Romance and Other genres.

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Meta shared an alarming update for Europe last month

Meta has been working on a solution ever since

All issues put to rest, once and for all, hopefully

Was the panic worth it?

The concerns of social media users in Europe can now be put to rest as a new data transfer agreement will ensure the functioning of Facebook and Instagram.If you remember, many were beyond shocked when Meta announced last month that it could potentially be pulled out of Europe. And with more and more speculation increasing each m inute, people simply didnt know what to make of it.The news came via an update that was shared by Meta with the world which spoke about a provisional decision from the IDPC. This concluded that Metas apps were not in compliance with Data Protection Regulations. Therefore, transfers of data over these platforms from the EU to the US need to be suspended.It also spoke about how there was a growing need for a transatlantic platform framework for data transfer. And if it wasnt adopted soon enough, they would no longer be allowed to provide Facebook and Instagram to users across Europe.Clearly, this update was not something new as the leading EU-based privacy regulator issued a similar warning in 2020. And since then, Meta revealed how it had been working hard for a solution.The only difference now is how the company had no choice but to issue responses officially. This is where it boldly stated how it had no desire to withdraw from any part of Europe.Now, EU social media users can breathe a sigh of relief as the EU commissions President was quick to release a recent statement about a preliminary agreement. This was in regards to a preliminary agreement over the flow of transatlantic data being established across the US.The President also outlined the agreement as another step forward in strengthening its partnership. Similarly, it hoped the decision would allow for enhanced security, better data protection, and more privacy.Well, now the question arises. Was the panic actually worth it, at the end of the day or not?Experts reveal how there was always a risk of Meta being cut off for Europes users. Moreover, the thought of its services being removed from the EU was another possibility if such an agreement wasnt reached.But again, many believe that so many Europeans were never overly phased over the concept that involved a Facebook-free world, Nevertheless, some didnt mind the thought of such a change, and perhaps were even welcoming it.Read next: Marketing will now be easier in the upcoming times, through the three dimensional ads offered by the Meta
Google search plans to introduce a feature through which most equitable health will be made available for the general public.During the most crucial times of COVID-19, the chief health officer of Google, Dr Karen DeSalvo observed that almost every person on Earth is aware of the fact that they can lean on to Google with their questions regarding their health concerns. Around millions of people search for their symptoms online. Hence, due to COVID-19, Google authorities came up to a conclusion that Google should aid everyone and everywhere to live a life in good physical conditions. The authorities of Google put in their strengths and expertise to support their 3 Cs that are the caregivers, the consumers and also the communities present all around the world.Dr Garth Graham who is the director and the global head of the healthcare as well as the public health partnerships at Google health and YouTube, also discussed the health mission of YouTube to provide proper access to health information. Starting this week, YouTube is going to add health source information panels on the videos to help the people to identify the videos from a trustworthy source.As per the reports, Hema Budaraju, a senior director of product management at Google came up with a feature through which, the users will know about the appointment availability for the health care providers. Hence a user can easily book an appointment regarding their medical concerns. Google is currently working alongside as a partner with MinuteClinic at the CVS (which stands for consumer value store and it is an American retail company that refills and transfers the prescriptions online) and other service providers. This is surely one of the many ways that Google is trying to make health accessible to each and everyone.In my opinion, with this facility provided by the Google, people will have more access to the medical information, specially those people who are not able to pay visit to their respective doctor or for those people who do not have any regular health care providers will be able to make the most out of this feature and will be ensured with the best possible health.Read next: AI Generated Content Still Not Good Enough for Webmaster Guidelines, Says Google
Ardee councillor John Sheridan brought forward a motion to the Louth County Council March meeting, seeking the local authority to call on the Department of Agriculture to explore a statutory restricted period for mowing of grass to support biodiversity.

In his motion, Cllr Sheridan said that research from Trinity College Dublin suggests that no mow periods are just as effective to support pollinators, most notably our native Irish honey bee (Apis mellifera mellifera), as planned wildflower plantations.

He adds that a statutory restricted period for mowing of grass in April and May, similar to hedge cutting season, could ensure we have a vital resource for biodiversity.

Cllr Sheridan told the March meeting that the native Irish honey bee population in Louth was one of the healthiest in the country. He also told the meeting, that as opposed to what might have been thought, urban expansion has actually benefitted bees, as more habitat is being provided with people planting more flowers.

In reply to Cllr Sheridan's motion, Director of Services, Operations, Catherine Duff said, that while the motion was a matter for members, Louth County Council favours measures such as no mowperiods and wildflower plantations which support pollinators and biodiversity.

She says that the local authority have in recent years reduced its mowing policies to verges while allowing full growth of grasses and wild plants where possible. Ms Duff adds that the also have a Don't mow for now campaign which asks people and commercial landowners to delay mowing, the visibility of which will be promoted over the coming months.
Cllr Antoin Watters has asked Louth County Council is some arrangement could be made with Irish Water, to avoid the complete closure of part of the Carlingford Greenway in Omeath, which is arising as a result of the work taking place at the Omeath Waste Water Treatment Plant.

Cllr Watters raised the matter at the Louth County Council March meeting, where he told the members present that over the previous weekend he had an enquiry from a couple of users of the greenway in relation to it. He said that the road is going to be closed, he understands, for 24 weeks, adding - "basically the whole season for people using the greenway".

The Sinn Fein councillor asked if it would it be possible to speak to Irish Water and come to some sort of compromise where the greenway might be closed, perhaps during the working day and left open in the evening to give access to pedestrians to it. "Otherwise they'll have to walk along the main road and in through the village of Omeath to connect onto the rest of the greenway", he added.

In response, Head of Finance and Water Services, Bernie Woods, said the problem is health and safety. She told the meeting that once the contractor is working on the greenway, it is up to them to decide who could access the site. She added however, that she would engage with them though to see if some arrangement could be made.
Creative Spark along with Gaelscoil Dhun Dealgan are set to visit Oulu, Finland this week as part of the three-year Erasmus+ project Culture United!

Culture United utilises cultural events and heritage festivals as a driver to embed multidisciplinary ways of teaching in primary schools.

The context behind the project initiative is to appeal to the interests and natural enthusiasm of children and to use this effectively in an interactive and engaging way to learn and be inspired.

The project is running in collaboration with Learning Hub Friesland, and Kunst Kade in Leeuwarden in the Netherlands, Edinburgh City Council and Oulu International School, and is financed by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Commission.

Previously, the Dundalk partners in this project used the SEEK Festival and associated fringe events to develop innovative teaching materials for primary schools.

This helps students to become more engaged with what they are learning and contributes to students cultural and social development, as well as their creativity. Creative Spark and Gaelscoil Dhun Dealgan were delighted to invite their international partners to Dundalk for an in-person partner meeting during Culture Night 2021.

This partner meeting in Oulu, Finland will mark the final stage of the Culture United Project, and will allow the Finnish partners to present the Finnish Culture Education Plan as well as conduct a teacher/training workshop with the other partners.

Aine Ui Choinne, Principal of Gaelscoil Dhun Dealgan:

Teachers from Gaelscoil Dhun Dealgan are very excited to get the opportunity to visit Oulu, and in particular to get the chance to try out the learning materials that have been developed in cooperation with teachers in the other partner schools.

It is hoped that these materials will be used as a template for teaching children about culture, and in particular, culture-based festivals.

Sarah Daly, Executive Director of Creative Spark, said:

The Creative Spark team is delighted to collaborate with our partners at home and abroad to ensure we are implementing best practice and innovative methods to teach children about our culture.

The opportunity for the children to participate in a letter-writing exchange between the four countries has added an extra dimension to the project and has been very rewarding.
A bench warrant has been issued at Dundalk district court for the arrest of a man who failed to appear for a prosecution for a public order offence on the grounds of the Louth County Hospital.

John Donovan (19) who at the time gave an address at Glengat B & B, Stapleton Place, Dundalk was charged with using threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour on June 23rd last.

A garda told the court last Wednesday that he had received a report of an incident at the hospital at 5.40pm and on arrival saw the accused acting in an irate manner.

A separate witness gave evidence of seeing a young man acting aggressively and shouting at a young woman who was standing back.

The defence solicitor argued that while the garda in his evidence had said he had attended the Louth County Hospital, he never said it was a public place.

However, Judge Eirinn McKiernan said she had noted that it had been said.

After hearing Mr Donovan had 10 previous convictions, Judge McKiernan issued a bench warrant for sentencing.
A Dublin man who was convicted in his absence, after Dundalk district court was told he had used abusive language towards a Garda after being informed that his vehicle was about to be seized, was last week sentenced to two months.

Jim Cash (37) of Boot Road, Clondalkin, Dublin 22 was charged with using threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour on June 22nd 2020.

In February, when Mr. Cash failed to appear for the case which was listed for a contested hearing, the garda involved told the court the defendant had been a passenger in the vehicle in the car park at Lidl, St. Helenas, Dundalk .

After he was informed that it was going to be seized, he allegedly told the garda Get out of the way you big f***ing thick you. The Garda also claimed the accused told him You look like Supermans son and added "F*** off guard Im leaving".

The court heard when the public order charge was put to him after caution Mr. Cash replied I did no such thing and I have it on video.

A bench warrant was issued for sentencing after Judge Eirinn McKiernan was told he had 84 previous convictions including 12 for public order offences.

Last Wednesday the defence solicitor explained that the married father of five had been confused about the adjourned date and added without prompting he had apologised to the garda that morning.

He acknowledged his clients extensive previous convictions but stressed that Mr. Cash has been engaging with the Coolmine treatment centre and has been undergoing weekly urine tests.

However, Judge McKiernan said the defendant had taken a hearing date and didnt turn up and had been very abusive to the garda.

She imposed a two month sentence but fixed recognizance in the event of an appeal.
The window of a city centre house was smashed in for no reason by a man who was walking by and the same man banged so hard at the door of a pub that the gardai had to be called.

Now at Cork District Court, the accused man, Donatas Saras, who was also prosecuted in the name, Mantas Poceiuicius, has been jailed for five months.

Sergeant Pat Lyons outlined the background to several charges to which the accused man pleaded guilty.

He was obstructing pedestrians by begging on St. Patricks Street, Cork, on December 1 2021 and again on January 12 this year.

He engaged in offensive conduct by causing a disturbance outside Ryans Bar in the early hours of February 17 last year. Sgt. Lyons said the owner of the premises heard loud banging outside.

On that occasion the defendant was one of three men who were seen kicking the door of the premises trying to gain access.

Sgt. Lyons said that on the afternoon of September 13 2021 a man living in Cork city centre hear the front window of his home breaking. The accused was seen walking away.

In the final incident before the court against the same man evidence was given of him having a steak knife at the bus station and acting in a suspicious manner.

Judge Olann Kelleher was told that the 21-year-old from Lithuania moved to Ireland two years ago.

Initially, he worked as a kitchen porter but got into a bad situation in relation to addiction and homelessness, the judge was told.

Judge Kelleher said that the young man had clocked up a lot of convictions in the two years he had been living in Ireland. The judge said it must have been particularly upsetting for the man to be sitting in his house in the middle of the day and hearing his window being smashed.

The issue in relation to the defendant being prosecuted under two names was not clarified in court.
SECOND and third-level students joined Erasmus students and Elders for Earth supporters in a climate protest held in Cork city centre.

The protest was part of a global climate strike organised by environmental awareness group Fridays for Future, with similar events in Dublin, Galway and Belfast, as well as around the world.

Elders for Earth are part of the community education and development organisation SHEP (Social and Health Education Project). Aiming to raise awareness about the climate and biodiversity crisis they work with a wide range of other groups to run courses, workshops etc.

A large group of individuals, young and old, marched through Cork city streets with posters and banners, calling for progress on tackling climate change.

UCC students Nora Veski and Erin O'Leary (promoting the slow fashion movement).

Fridays For Future is a youth-led and organised movement that began with 15-year-old Greta Thunberg in Sweden in 2018, to protest against the lack of action on the climate crisis.

Some politicians joined the protest in Dublin for a time on Friday afternoon, which brought a carnival atmosphere to the street only a short walk from Government Buildings.

Newly installed Labour leader Ivana Bacik joined the crowd, as well as People Before Profit TDs Paul Murphy and Brid Smith.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government that is distributed to more than 400 newspapers statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
Washington, MO (63090)

Today

Cloudy with occasional rain late. Low 53F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Cloudy with occasional rain late. Low 53F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.
Cherry Lee Ward Yeager age 87 of Athens died Monday at Athens Limestone Hospital. Mrs. Yeager was born October 21, 1934 in Giles County Tennessee. She was a longtime member of First Baptist Church Athens where she sang in the chrior, and was active in the WMU. Mrs. Yeager was a Red Cross vol
Earlier this week, Club 8-bit, one of Ukraines largest privately-owned computer museums, was destroyed during the siege of Mariupol. Kotaku spotted news of the event after its owner, Dmitry Cherepanov, took to Facebook to share the fate of Club 8-bit.

It has been reported that the Mariupol Computer Museum in Ukraine, a privately owned collection of over 500 items of retro computing, consoles and technology from the 1950s to the early 2000s, a collection nearly 20 years in the making, has been destroyed by a bomb. pic.twitter.com/7xKi3yYjth  Lord Arse!  (@Lord_Arse) March 23, 2022

Thats it, the Mariupol computer museum is no longer there, he said on March 21st. All that is left from the collection that I have been collecting for 15 years are just fragments of memories on the FB page, website and radio station of the museum.

Club 8-bits collection included more than 500 pieces of computer history, with items dating from as far back as the 1950s. Gizmodo visited the museum in 2018, describing it at the time as one of the largest and coolest collections of Soviet-era computers to be found anywhere in the world. It took Cherepanov more than a decade to collect and restore many of the PCs on display at Club 8-bit. What makes the museums destruction even more poignant is that it documented a shared history between the Ukrainian and Russian people.

Thankfully, Cherepanov is alive, but like many residents of Mariupol, he has lost his home. If you want to support Cherepanov, he has opened a PayPal account accepting donations to help him and other Ukrainians affected by Russias invasion of Ukraine. Since the start of the war, nearly 10 million people have been displaced by the conflict, making it the fastest-growing refugee crisis since the second world war.
: jinsihan55 (paradder), : WaterWorld

 : Maintain campus cleanliness Reject Yan Limon for Perelman Medical College

: BBS  (Sat Mar 26 23:08:19 2022, )



In the global epidemic, the economy is shrinking, the employment rate is low

, the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine hired Yan

Limeng as the hospital staff, this non-racist, non-discriminatory for Asian

employees to provide jobs behavior, reflects the college's fraternity,

equality. But the Perelman School of Medicine in the hiring of like-minded

employees, it is time to consider the maintenance of campus cleanliness as

the first task, reject Yan Limeng on stage to join the medical school.

Academically Questionable "Scholars"

Yan Limeng has a doctorate in ophthalmology, but in ophthalmology has been

obscure, no attainment, the only thing that makes him famous is published on

the Internet "new coronavirus man-made theory". Although the "academic

paper" has aroused the attention and enthusiasm of the extreme right-wing

and anti-China groups in the United States, and has been used to blame China

and try to shift the responsibility of the former U.S. government for the

ineffective prevention and control of the epidemic, it has been met by

Nakagawa Kusa, a biogenomic researcher at the Department of Medicine of

Tunghai University in Taiwan, and Kristian Anderson of the Scripps Research

Center in the United States, respectively. However, they were challenged by

experts and scholars such as Kristian Andersen of the Scripps Research

Center and others in the New York Times, National Geographic, and other

media or social media platforms, while Chinese dissident Fang Zhouzi

published a direct article "Refuting the Conspiracy Theory of "New

Coronavirus Man-Made"" and Columbia University virologist Angela Rasmussen,

a virologist at Columbia University, even argued that Yan Limeng's paper was

"political propaganda" aimed at deception.

Politician-packaged, good at creating strife netizens

"I think she should continue with her Netflix career, after all, it looks

better than her academically accomplished".

"With her past experiences, I'm really afraid that (she) will give our

college a bad name."

This is Yan Limeng was hired as a Perelman School of Medicine staff news

after some of the faculty and students of the hospital views. In addition,

an anonymous association of the school launched a survey report on whether

Yan Limeng should be hired as a staff member of the school: 61.53% of

respondents chose "no", the reason is that she is suspected of academic

fraud and keen to create disputes, and the medical school's philosophy is

far from.

The Perelman School of Medicine has its reasons for hiring Yan Limeng, but

the views and concerns of some faculty, students and online surveys do not

appear to be unfounded, and the New York Times disclosures and expert

scholarly arguments give credence to their concerns.

According to the New York Times, Yan Limeng is a former White House adviser

Steve Bannon and fugitive U.S. lawless tycoon Guo Wengui "carefully designed

" weblebrity, the two to Yan Limeng tailor-made involving inaccurate new

crown origin papers and online rhetoric, intended to package her to sell the

U.S. public epidemic "whistle blowers The two men gave Yan Limeng a tailor-

made paper on the origin of the new crown and an online narrative, intending

to package her as an epidemic "whistleblower" that could be marketed to the

American public for ulterior political purposes. University of Washington

biology professors Carl Bergstrom and Kevin Bode found that Yan Limeng's

papers were based on research by the Rule of Law Society and the Rule of Law

Foundation, both of which are run by Both were founded by Guo Wengui's

partner Bannon.

Yan Limeng in the former U.S. politicians Bannon, Guo Wengui packaging, the

dissemination of so far not recognized by the scientific community, the "new

crown virus man-made theory", misleading the American society in general,

so that Asian people in the exclusion of discrimination. During the same

period that Yan Limeng's "New Coronavirus Theory" was spread, the number of

incidents of discrimination and violence against Asians in the United States

was on the rise, and President Biden had to sign the Anti-Asian

Discrimination Act to protect the legal rights of Asians.

In addition, Yan Limeng in order to obtain greater benefits, directly to the

webcast explosive attack Guo Wengui's "rule of law fund" suspected of fraud

to absorb the powder, and finally led to Yan Limeng and Guo Wengui turned

against each other, Guo Wengui launched a legal action against Limeng.

Women with moral flaws

"I don't want to work with someone who cheats in marriage, such a morally

low person makes me feel ashamed."

An employee of Perelman School of Medicine pointed out after expressing

these views, "Yan Limeng has always boasted that she is an honest and kind

scholar, but her personal style circulating online about her is really bad."

It is difficult to determine whether Yan Limeng betrayed her family during

her marriage, but some of the contradictory statements and Guo Wengui's

revelations are a good illustration of the facts. After fleeing the United

States, Yan Limeng claimed that her husband feared he could not escape the

control of the Chinese Communist Party and did not Leave together, and then

broke the story on Fox News' Carlson Today Show that her husband had come to

the United States to assist the Chinese Communist Party in harming her. In

fact, her benefactor Guo Wengui revealed the truth, Guo Wengui in the live

broadcast expose Yan Limeng and YouTube anchor "Luther" (Wang Dinggang)

there are unbearable personal life style.

The feat of some righteous people

All this time, some experts and scholars have been questioning the

authenticity of Yan Limeng's paper, dedicated to exposing the "pseudoscience

" spread by Yan Limeng; ordinary people to Yan Limeng's residence near the

banner, protesting the stigmatization of the epidemic caused by

discrimination against Asians; in her live broadcast boycott her

participation in the live show, resulting in her show interaction with fewer

and fewer people She was forced to leave the Internet and return to real

life to apply for jobs.

However, justice advocates do not want Yan Limeng to go into hiding and

continue to spread false information about the new crown outbreak. Guo

Wengui found out Yan Limeng's current address: Perelman School of Medicine

at the University of Pennsylvania (3400 Civic Center Blvd, Philadelphia, PA

19104) through the FBI agent's connection, Some members of the "New China

Federation" started a campaign to "maintain the clean campus and reject Yan

Limeng's entry into Perelman Medical" on the telegram calls on people who

love freedom and uphold the "Rule of Law Foundation," especially members of

the "New China Federation. On March 21, Yan Limeng's address near the

banner to protest Yan Limeng false new crown theory, reveal Yan Limeng and

YouTube anchor "Luther" (Wang Dinggang) affair, the University of

Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine campus to protect the clean land.

--

 :WWW  mitbbs.com [FROM: 47.]


Barely a month into its already floundering invasion of Ukraine and Russia is rattling its nuclear saber and threatening to drastically escalate the regional conflict into all out world war. But the Russians are no stranger to nuclear brinksmanship. In the excerpt below from Ben Buchanan and Andrew Imbrie's latest book, we can see how closely humanity came to an atomic holocaust in 1983 and why an increasing reliance on automation  on both sides of the Iron Curtain  only served to heighten the likelihood of an accidental launch. The New Fire looks at the rapidly expanding roles of automated machine learning systems in national defense and how increasingly ubiquitous AI technologies (as examined through the thematic lenses of "data, algorithms, and computing power") are transforming how nations wage war both domestically and abroad.

MIT Press

Excerpted from The New Fire: War, Peacem, and Democracy in the Age of AI by Andrew Imbrie and Ben Buchanan. Published by MIT Press. Copyright  2021 by Andrew Imbrie and Ben Buchanan. All rights reserved.

THE DEAD HAND

As the tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union reached their apex in the fall of 1983, the nuclear war began. At least, that was what the alarms said at the bunker in Moscow where Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov was on duty.

Inside the bunker, sirens blared and a screen flashed the word launch.A missile was inbound. Petrov, unsure if it was an error, did not respond immediately. Then the system reported two more missiles, and then two more after that. The screen now said missile strike. The computer reported with its highest level of confidence that a nuclear attack was underway.

The technology had done its part, and everything was now in Petrovs hands. To report such an attack meant the beginning of nuclear war, as the Soviet Union would surely launch its own missiles in retaliation. To not report such an attack was to impede the Soviet response, surrendering the precious few minutes the countrys leadership had to react before atomic mushroom clouds burst out across the country; every second of procrastination took away valuable time, Petrov later said.

For 15 seconds, we were in a state of shock, he recounted. He felt like he was sitting on a hot frying pan. After quickly gathering as much information as he could from other stations, he estimated there was a 50-percent chance that an attack was under way. Soviet military protocol dictated that he base his decision off the computer readouts in front of him, the ones that said an attack was undeniable. After careful deliberation, Petrov called the duty officer to break the news: the early warning system was malfunctioning. There was no attack, he said. It was a roll of the atomic dice.

Twenty-three minutes after the alarmsthe time it would have taken a missile to hit Moscowhe knew that he was right and the computers were wrong. It was such a relief, he said later. After-action reports revealed that the suns glare off a passing cloud had confused the satellite warning system. Thanks to Petrovs decisions to disregard the machine and disobey protocol, humanity lived another day.

Petrovs actions took extraordinary judgment and courage, and it was only by sheer luck that he was the one making the decisions that night. Most of his colleagues, Petrov believed, would have begun a war. He was the only one among the officers at that duty station who had a civilian, rather than military, education and who was prepared to show more independence. My colleagues were all professional soldiers; they were taught to give and obey orders, he said. The human in the loop  this particular human  had made all the difference.

Petrovs story reveals three themes: the perceived need for speed in nuclear command and control to buy time for decision makers; the allure of automation as a means of achieving that speed; and the dangerous propensity of those automated systems to fail. These three themes have been at the core of managing the fear of a nuclear attack for decades and present new risks today as nuclear and non-nuclear command, control, and communications systems become entangled with one another.

Perhaps nothing shows the perceived need for speed and the allure of automation as much as the fact that, within two years of Petrovs actions, the Soviets deployed a new system to increase the role of machines in nuclear brinkmanship. It was properly known as Perimeter, but most people just called it the Dead Hand, a sign of the systems diminished role for humans. As one former Soviet colonel and veteran of the Strategic Rocket Forces put it, The Perimeter system is very, very nice. Were move unique responsibility from high politicians and the military. The Soviets wanted the system to partly assuage their fears of nuclear attack by ensuring that, even if a surprise strike succeeded in decapitating the countrys leadership, the Dead Hand would make sure it did not go unpunished.

The idea was simple, if harrowing: in a crisis, the Dead Hand would monitor the environment for signs that a nuclear attack had taken place, such as seismic rumbles and radiation bursts. Programmed with a series of if-then commands, the system would run through the list of indicators, looking for evidence of the apocalypse. If signs pointed to yes, the system would test the communications channels with the Soviet General Staff. If those links were active, the system would remain dormant. If the system received no word from the General Staff, it would circumvent ordinary procedures for ordering an attack. The decision to launch would thenrest in the hands of a lowly bunker officer, someone many ranks below a senior commander like Petrov, who would nonetheless find himself responsible for deciding if it was doomsday.

The United States was also drawn to automated systems. Since the 1950s, its government had maintained a network of computers to fuse incoming data streams from radar sites. This vast network, called the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment, or SAGE, was not as automated as the Dead Hand in launching retaliatory strikes, but its creation was rooted in a similar fear. Defense planners designed SAGE to gather radar information about a potential Soviet air attack and relay that information to the North American Aerospace Defense Command, which would intercept the invading planes. The cost of SAGE was more than double that of the Manhattan Project, or almost $100 billion in 2022 dollars. Each of the twenty SAGE facilities boasted two 250-ton computers, which each measured 7,500 square feet and were among the most advanced machines of the era.

If nuclear war is like a game of chicken  two nations daring each other to turn away, like two drivers barreling toward a head-on collision  automation offers the prospect of a dangerous but effective strategy. As the nuclear theorist Herman Kahn described:

The skillful player may get into the car quite drunk, throwing whisky bottles out the window to make it clear to everybody just how drunk he is. He wears very dark glasses so that it is obvious that he cannot see much, if anything. As soon as the car reaches high speed, he takes the steering wheel and throws it out the window. If his opponent is watching, he has won. If his opponent is not watching, he has a problem; likewise, if both players try this strategy.

To automate nuclear reprisal is to play chicken without brakes or a steering wheel. It tells the world that no nuclear attack will go unpunished, but it greatly increases the risk of catastrophic accidents.

Automation helped enable the dangerous but seemingly predictable world of mutually assured destruction. Neither the United States nor the Soviet Union was able to launch a disarming first strike against the other; it would have been impossible for one side to fire its nuclear weapons without alerting the other side and providing at least some time to react. Even if a surprise strike were possible, it would have been impractical to amass a large enough arsenal of nuclear weapons to fully disarm the adversary by firing multiple warheads at each enemy silo, submarine, and bomber capable of launching a counterattack. Hardest of all was knowing where to fire. Submarines in the ocean, mobile ground-launched systems on land, and round-the-clock combat air patrols in the skies made the prospect of successfully executing such a first strike deeply unrealistic. Automated command and control helped ensure these units would receive orders to strike back. Retaliation was inevitable, and that made tenuous stability possible.

Modern technology threatens to upend mutually assured destruction. When an advanced missile called a hypersonic glide vehicle nears space, for example, it separates from its booster rockets and accelerates down toward its target at five times the speed of sound. Unlike a traditional ballistic missile, the vehicle can radically alter its flight profile over longranges, evading missile defenses. In addition, its low-altitude approach renders ground-based sensors ineffective, further compressing the amount of time for decision-making. Some military planners want to use machine learning to further improve the navigation and survivability of these missiles, rendering any future defense against them even more precarious.

Other kinds of AI might upend nuclear stability by making more plausible a first strike that thwarts retaliation. Military planners fear that machine learning and related data collection technologies could find their hidden nuclear forces more easily. For example, better machine learningdriven analysis of overhead imagery could spot mobile missile units; the United States reportedly has developed a highly classified program to use AI to track North Korean launchers. Similarly, autonomous drones under the sea might detect enemy nuclear submarines, enabling them to be neutralized before they can retaliate for an attack. More advanced cyber operations might tamper with nuclear command and control systems or fool early warning mechanisms, causing confusion in the enemys networks and further inhibiting a response. Such fears of what AI can do make nuclear strategy harder and riskier.

For some, just like the Cold War strategists who deployed the expert systems in SAGE and the Dead Hand, the answer to these new fears is more automation. The commander of Russias Strategic Rocket Forces has said that the original Dead Hand has been improved upon and is still functioning, though he didnt offer technical details. In the United States, some proposals call for the development of a new Dead Handesque system to ensure that any first strike is met with nuclear reprisal,with the goal of deterring such a strike. It is a prospect that has strategic appeal to some warriors but raises grave concern for Cassandras, whowarn of the present frailties of machine learning decision-making, and for evangelists, who do not want AI mixed up in nuclear brinkmanship.

While the evangelists concerns are more abstract, the Cassandras have concrete reasons for worry. Their doubts are grounded in storieslike Petrovs, in which systems were imbued with far too much trust and only a human who chose to disobey orders saved the day. The technical failures described in chapter 4 also feed their doubts. The operational risks of deploying fallible machine learning into complex environments like nuclear strategy are vast, and the successes of machine learning in other contexts do not always apply. Just because neural networks excel at playing Go or generating seemingly authentic videos or even determining how proteins fold does not mean that they are any more suited than Petrovs Cold Warera computer for reliably detecting nuclear strikes.In the realm of nuclear strategy, misplaced trust of machines might be deadly for civilization; it is an obvious example of how the new fires force could quickly burn out of control.

Of particular concern is the challenge of balancing between false negatives and false positivesbetween failing to alert when an attack is under way and falsely sounding the alarm when it is not. The two kinds of failure are in tension with each other. Some analysts contend that American military planners, operating from a place of relative security,worry more about the latter. In contrast, they argue that Chinese planners are more concerned about the limits of their early warning systems,given that China possesses a nuclear arsenal that lacks the speed, quantity, and precision of American weapons. As a result, Chinese government leaders worry chiefly about being too slow to detect an attack in progress. If these leaders decided to deploy AI to avoid false negatives,they might increase the risk of false positives, with devastating nuclear consequences.

The strategic risks brought on by AIs new role in nuclear strategy are even more worrying. The multifaceted nature of AI blurs lines between conventional deterrence and nuclear deterrence and warps the established consensus for maintaining stability. For example, the machine learningenabled battle networks that warriors hope might manage conventional warfare might also manage nuclear command and control. In such a situation, a nation may attack another nations information systems with the hope of degrading its conventional capacity and inadvertently weaken its nuclear deterrent, causing unintended instability and fear and creating incentives for the victim to retaliate with nuclear weapons. This entanglement of conventional and nuclear command-and-control systems, as well as the sensor networks that feed them, increases the risks of escalation. AI-enabled systems may like-wise falsely interpret an attack on command-and-control infrastructure as a prelude to a nuclear strike. Indeed, there is already evidence that autonomous systems perceive escalation dynamics differently from human operators.

Another concern, almost philosophical in its nature, is that nuclear war could become even more abstract than it already is, and hence more palatable. The concern is best illustrated by an idea from Roger Fisher, a World War II pilot turned arms control advocate and negotiations expert. During the Cold War, Fisher proposed that nuclear codes be stored in a capsule surgically embedded near the heart of a military officer who would always be near the president. The officer would also carry a large butcher knife. To launch a nuclear war, the president would have to use the knife to personally kill the officer and retrieve the capsulea comparatively small but symbolic act of violence that would make the tens of millions of deaths to come more visceral and real.

Fishers Pentagon friends objected to his proposal, with one saying,My God, thats terrible. Having to kill someone would distort the presidents judgment. He might never push the button. This revulsion, ofcourse, was what Fisher wanted: that, in the moment of greatest urgency and fear, humanity would have one more chance to experienceat an emotional, even irrational, levelwhat was about to happen, and one more chance to turn back from the brink.

Just as Petrovs independence prompted him to choose a different course, Fishers proposed symbolic killing of an innocent was meant to force one final reconsideration. Automating nuclear command and control would do the opposite, reducing everything to error-prone, stone-coldmachine calculation. If the capsule with nuclear codes were embedded near the officers heart, if the neural network decided the moment was right, and if it could do so, it wouldwithout hesitation and without understandingplunge in the knife.
ALINE, Okla.  The truest form of the remaining Plains history today is the sod house, says Renee Trindle, curator of Sod House Museum, located along Oklahoma 8 about halfway between Cleo Springs and Aline, in Alfalfa County.

The importance of the sod house to the history of Oklahoma and the country is without question, according to Trindle. It had a primary role in two historic events that changed the landscape of the plains and the future of its early day settlers: the Homestead Act of 1862 and the invention of the plow.

Forging the plow

Fueled by a belief in manifest destiny, Americas westward expansion encouraged 600,000 families to travel west to claim 160 acres of land almost free. The Land Run of 1893, offered land across a large portion of Northwest Oklahoma. But there was a huge requirement: A house had to be built on the homestead within 6 months.

It was imperative the settlers have shade and cover from the environment or they would not have survived, Trindle said.

There were few trees, even less access to lumber, so pioneers turned to sod, adopting a Native American technique of using earthen materials for their homes.

Homesteaders built rectangular-shaped sod houses using bricks of grass with densely packed roots. Buffalo grass, Indian grass, prairie cord grass and wheat grass were ideal materials for building this type of earthen dwelling. A sod house would need about an acre of sod. This would require a huge amount of effort and work by a settler.

The settlers needed help in cutting bricks of sod so they could claim their homestead and give their family much-needed shelter. The answer was found in blacksmith shops where circular steel saw blades were dramatically curved, much like a sculpture or a work of art, to form a blade that could cut underneath the sod. There were other plow-builders, but the first documented blacksmith who invented an effective, patented sod plow in 1838 lived in Grand Detour, Ill. His name was John Deere.

The plow was made to shear sod and open rich Plains soil much as it does nearly two centuries later. Deere revolutionized American agriculture by developing and manufacturing a lightweight cast steel plow that improved the sod building process. A simple sod house could be built for less than $5 in a week.

On the path forward 2022: Bulding a resilient community: ALL EXCURSIONS STORIES On the path forward 2022: Building a resilient community is a special section that will publish in the Enid News & Eagle for eight Sundays

Last sod house standing

Sod houses were built across the grass-covered prairies of the Great Plains region. One sod builder was an Oklahoma man named Marshall McCully. He built a two-room house of buffalo grass sod blocks in 1894 near Aline. After staking a claim in 1893, McCully first lived in a dugout in a ravine. The following year he constructed the sod dwelling.

McCully hitched his team to a fourteen-inch sod plow and split the grass into long rows. Using a flat shovel, he chopped the rows into eighteen-inch sections then laid the sod blocks like bricks to form the walls. To make the roof, McCully split poles from the few trees growing in the area and laid them across the top of the walls for rafters. Twelve inches of sod laid out on the rafters completed the roof. Unlike many sod houses, McCully plastered the interior walls with alkali clay.

That house stands today, protected by sturdier walls of the Sod House Museum.

The plaster is the main reason the sod house has survived so long, Trindle said. It was used for many years by the family.

His family lived in their sod house until 1909, and then it was used for storage until 1963. The soddy, as the structures were often referred, was acquired that year by the Oklahoma Historical Society, which used great foresight in saving the last original sod house in Oklahoma. The house is museums main feature and is accompanied by a collection of period pieces, tools, housewares and farm equipment, and even a cellar.

Worth the trip

Its exciting to see the traffic flow. Not only does the area have the sod house but nearby is Gloss Mountains, Salt Plains, the Little Sahara and the Alabaster Caverns, Trindle added.

Once a family who traveled to Tulsa from Washington, D.C., called to ask the route to our museum. It was the only reason they were traveling to this part of the state. I found it shocking.

Trindle quote The plaster is the main reason the sod house has survived so long. It was used for many years by the family. Renee Trindle, curator, Sod House Museum

Trindle, who travels from her home in Kingfisher to her job, has been with the museum 13 years. The museum is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and is closed on holidays.
Commentary From Crisis Management Expert Edward Segal, Bestselling Author of the Award- Winning Book "Crisis Ahead: 101 Ways to Prepare for and Bounce Back from Disasters, Scandals, and Other Emergencies " (Nicholas Brealey)

Russia's increased and blatant use of propaganda about President Vladimir's Putin war against Ukraine is a timely reminder of the need to be vigilant about disinformation and misinformation tactics and techniques that could fool people no matter where they live.

Labeling Invasion 'A Special Military Operation'

CBS' Sunday Morning reported that, "In a broadcast on Russian state media, a television presenter said, 'Today Russia started a special military operation to protect people who have been subject to abuse and genocide by the Kyiv regime for the last eight years.' "The Russian military is portrayed as doing God's workeven the Russian Orthodox Church has endorsed the so-called 'special operation' as a moral imperative."

Slandering Bombing Victim As 'A Crisis Actor'

According to the Daily Beast, the Russian Embassy in the U.K. recently "...[tweeted] out a photo of woman who has become the poster person of [an] atrocitya young, blonde, heavily pregnant woman in maternity pajamas, wrapped in a dirty blanket with blood dripping down her face.

"The embassy tried to insinuate that the womanwho has been identified as blogger Marianna Podgurskaya, according to one of the many photographers who took her photo crawling out of the rubble...was a crisis actor."

Armored Vehicle Deceit

France 24 noted that, "The image of an alleged Ukrainian armored vehicle supposedly advancing into Russian territory was also promptly and effectively debunked. The Soviet-era vehicle in the photo does not belong to the Ukrainian arsenal, according to investigators at Oryx, an open-source platform specialized in military equipment and technology. "They couldn't even get that right," said the group in a Twitter post.'"

Warning

Mike Rogers (R-MI) is a former chair of the House Intelligence Committee and founder of Leadership to Ensure the American Dream. He warned that, disinformation "..is a whole-of-government and whole-of-society challenge. At the end of the day, we can't afford to let Putin and Russia (or any autocrat) dominate the information space and this means thinking creatively about how we identify, call-out, and stop the spread of the Kremlin's narrative, and making sure it isn't spread online or at home."

Challenges

Access

Russians face more challenges than others in distinguishing the truth from propaganda.

Liana Semchuk is a geopolitical and security analyst with Sibylline, which has studied misinformation campaigns and propaganda. She observed that, ''with many social media platforms in Russia either banned or coming under increasing pressure to take down content perceived to be anti-war, the domestic audience's ability to access alternative sources of information is becoming increasingly limited.''

Building 'On What People Already Believe'

Nick Cull is a professor of public diplomacy at the University of Southern California. He told CBS News that, "Propaganda rests on what people already believe, what people already think they feel, the things that they accept at their deepest level," he said.

"By alleging that Ukraine is dominated by Nazis and that it is necessary for [Putin] to repeat the historic mission of the, as it was then, the Soviet Union in defeating Nazis, this is incredibly powerful stuff to invoke," Cull said.

"What's different, Cull says, is just how many lies are being spread: 'The volume of disinformation coming out of Russia over the last four years is unprecedented.'"

Capitalizing On Beliefs

Antony Cousins, is the CEO of Factmata, an AI tech company that helps detect misinformation. He pointed out that, Russia is currently making use of Telegram and other sites with limited regulation or oversight to spread disinformation.

"They're capitalizing now on nearly ten years of work developing followers in the Covid and U.S. electoral fraud conspiracy communities, where Russian state propaganda is seen by those groups as more legitimate than it should be due to its support of two of their main beliefsvaccines are dangerous and the election was stolen from Trump by fraud," he said.

Increased Difficulties

According to Semchuk, " the longer the war continues, the more difficult it will likely become for those in Russia in particular to distinguish between what's real and what isn't.

"Additionally, as the war evolves, so will the Kremlin's methods to spread false information about crucial topics such as the growing number of Ukrainian refugees, for example," she said.

Advice

There are steps that individuals can take now to help avoid being a victim of disinformation and misinformation.

Be As Skeptical As Reporters

By the very nature of their jobs and training, reporters are skeptical about the information they receive from sources and are often required by their news organizations to verify facts in different ways.

Adopting that approach to what you hear and see about Putin's war against Ukraine could help ensure you do not fall victim to Russian propaganda. If a reporter would not believe something Russia said about the waror anything elsewhy should you?

Some news outlets go to extra lengths to examine, analyze and verify the authenticity of videos about the invasion before deciding whether to share them with their audience.

Last year, the Washington Post listed several ways people can help verify the authenticity of views. The newspaper noted that, "People often misrepresent video during major breaking news events by posting incorrect information about where and when a video was filmed. You'll always want to verify the location of video, a task known as geolocation.

Train Yourself

Benjamin Peters is the Hazel Rogers Professor of Media, Cyber and Russian Studies at The University of Tulsa and the author of How Not to Network a Nation: The Uneasy History of the Soviet Internet.

He suggested the following:

Train yourself to be situationally aware and not to react rashly. Not all sources are created equal.

The thing to believe is not what most suits your personal convenience; the thing to believe is the perspective that checks our own biases against verified facts.

When doubt, trust legitimate news institutions with a long record of checking facts and issuing corrections.

Slow down. Put your attention in charge by readingnot watching, not scrolling throughthe news and especially eye-witness-based, fact-checked independent journalism.

Washington Post staff writer Valerie Strauss recommended taking the following steps "to help you keep your footing and avoid unintentionally spreading confusion and harm."

Be Cautious And Discerning With What You Believe And Share

"Out-of-context photos and video proliferate during military conflicts and other major news events. Avoid liking and sharing any visuals that haven't been verified by credible, standards-based sources."

Familiarize Yourself With Russian Disinformation Outlets, Tactics and Narratives

"Russia has built an extensive foundation of disinformation to try to justify its military actions. Once established, these false narratives can be difficult to dislodge or trace back to their source."

Put Yourself In The Way Of Credible Information

"For all the mis- and disinformation that circulates on social media, these platforms can also be powerful tools for accessing and curating timely, credible information. Be intentional about following professional journalists on the ground, reputable news organizations and fact-checkers debunking falsehoods in real-time."

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One of the worst natural disasters in Texas history didnt happen suddenly. It was a scorching drought that plagued the state day after day for seven long, blistering years from 1950 to 1957  and it started even earlier in some parts of the state.

Over the course of those parched years, farms and ranches turned to dust. Nearly every county in Texas was declared a disaster area. A newspaper headline from 1956 at the tail end of that period called it The Great Dry Up.

The punishing drought is still a vivid memory for those who lived through it.

Our house wasnt sealed tight and dust would come in through the walls, said Herman Kellner Jr., 76, a rancher from Fashing about an hours drive south of San Antonio. Youd wipe your hand on the furniture and it was black.

With no sustained rain, crops withered. Ranchers resorted to burning the thorns off prickly pear cactus to feed their cattle.

It was really tough, said Bobby Rothe, a rancher from DHanis whose family sold calves during the drought when he was in his 20s. In a good year, a calf weighed around 400 pounds, he said. But during the drought, their weight dropped to 225 pounds.

The land was just barren, Rothe said. It didnt grow much of anything.

Newspaper stories from that era were blunt about the droughts impact.

The most withering, costly, prolonged and heartbreaking drought in the memory of men now living has put its searing brand upon a belt of territory almost 1,000 miles wide extending from eastern Colorado and western Kansas all the way down to the Rio Grande on the Texas-Mexican border, wrote author Stanley Walker in an Aug. 27, 1956, newspaper column for the New York Herald-Tribune.

A New York Times headline published on Dec. 9, 1956, declared: Drought Damage in Billions Scars Southwest Area. The article said that more than 100,000 Texans were receiving surplus federal food commodities, and out of 254 counties, 236 were declared disaster areas.

History repeats itself

Droughts have always tormented Texans. Most recently, a withering dry spell that began in 2011 finally ended this year.

Texas experiences so many droughts in part because of its location along 30 degrees north latitude, a climate transition zone called the Great American Desert. This is the latitude where many of the Earths deserts are found, including the Sahara, wrote Todd Votteler, executive manager of Science, Intergovernmental Relations and Policy at the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority, in a July 2000 magazine story about the history of droughts in Texas.

San Antonio sits between the dry, western portion of Texas and the wetter, eastern side of the state.

It is not uncommon for portions of Texas to be suffering a drought while other parts are experiencing heavy rainfall, Votteler wrote. Annual rainfall varies from eight inches in El Paso to 56 inches along the Texas-Louisiana border.

Other droughts have caused billions in economic losses for farmers and ranchers. But the 1950s drought is still considered the drought of record in Texas. It was long and unrelenting, drying up reservoirs and hammering home just how unprepared Texas was for a long drought.

We didnt plant a crop for three years, it was so dry, said Lee Roy Weigang, a 79-year-old South Texas farmer.

Better planning

The 1950s drought did more than devastate farms and ranches and compel agricultural workers to find jobs in the city. It set in motion a decades-long push for reliable water supplies for a rapidly growing state with the creation of the Texas Water Development Board in 1957, which launched a series of reservoir projects across Texas.

The threat of drought also inspired forward-thinking policies in San Antonio to encourage people to turn off the tap.

The city consolidated its water supply and wastewater utilities into one agency, the San Antonio Water System, in 1992. From its earliest days, SAWS realized conservation wasnt a luxury in drought-prone South Texas. The agency urged customers to conserve water, and SAWS viewed conservation as a type of water supply it could rely on.

That was a pretty savvy decision, said Karen Guz, director of conservation at SAWS.

Water restrictions, such as limiting when residents could water their lawns, were unheard of in the 1950s  even during the peak of the drought.

Today, restrictions on lawn watering saves SAWS anywhere from 7,000 to 25,000 acre feet of water every year. An acre-foot provides enough water for two families annually.

SAWS also tried adapting to the feast-or-famine pattern of Texas weather by storing water in times of plenty, and saving it for not-so-rainy days. The agency opened the Twin Oaks Aquifer Storage and Recovery facility in 2004 to store excess water from the Edwards Aquifer to use in hot, dry months.

But as the largest permit holder of precious Edwards Aquifer water, SAWS has also upset people in other counties who depend on the aquifer.

Drought of record

Votteler recalled his surprise when SAWS decided in 2005 that it didnt need to model its water management plan on the drought of record of the 1950s.

The Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority, where Votteler works, complained that basing plans on a less severe historical drought could increase pumping from the Edwards Aquifer. If that happened, it could stanch flows at Comal and San Marcos Springs, which feed tributaries of the Guadalupe River.

After SAWS decision, Votteler and other researchers embarked on a study to find old Texas trees to analyze tree rings and determine how bad droughts in Texas had been in past centuries, before record-keeping.

Their conclusion: The drought of the 1950s might be the worst in recorded human history. But it wasnt the worst drought in Texas history.

The bottom line is, you see these other droughts that are much worse and were longer than the 50s drought, Votteler said. It doesnt happen all that often. But theres probably four or five of

those over the last 500 years.

Votteler praised SAWS for its conservation efforts and for returning to the 1950s drought of record for its water plans. Guz said SAWS looks at all kinds of measures to plan for the future. But the 1950s drought bore similarities to the most recent drought.

Of course, the 1950s drought wont repeat exactly. But interestingly, it was a pretty good model to follow, Guz said. Comparing measurements from the J-17 well that shows the daily aquifer level for San Antonio, Guz found that water levels in the drought of 2011-2015 mirrored the 1950s.

The last four years were surprisingly close, she said.

The most recent drought was the first real test of extended water restrictions in San Antonio, Guz said, and she had no idea how residents would react.

As the dry years dragged by, would they resent the once-a-week restrictions on using sprinklers to water lawns? Or would the restrictions become the new norm here?

Guz said she was pleasantly surprised to see per capita water usage drop over time, and some told her they plan on sticking with their drought routine. Theyre used to it.

Its a remarkable thing, Guz said. Weve always had a really water-conscious city.

jtedesco@express-news.net
SALINENO - Debralee Rodriguez felt like she traveled back in time when Customs and Border Protection notified her that it would conduct an environmental assessment for a border barrier through the Valley Land Funds property in Starr County.

The status of Salineno Bird Preserve, a 2.6-acre tract near the Rio Grande renowned among birders, has been unclear for years. In 2019, CBP sought permission to survey the property for a wall. In 2020, the Valley Land Fund decided to sell the property, then canceled the offer after outcry from the birding community. Later that year, CBP sued the trust to condemn the land. Then the Biden administration dropped the lawsuit.

In the letter to landowners, CBP said the environmental assessment would last through mid-March. An attached map showed planned construction that would cut off Starr County from the Rio Grande. The agency also would fill in gaps in fencing in Hidalgo and Cameron counties downstream.

It definitely stirred up some uneasiness, said Rodriguez, the trusts executive director. Like, oh gosh, were back here again.

Monte Bach

The map depicts 86 miles of new metal fencing that would cut off corridors used by wildlife and further limit access to the Rio Grande. In some parts of Starr County, which has largely avoided construction on its 68 miles of riverbank, people still fish and boat. Private parks where locals can pay a few dollars to barbecue and spend the day dot the riverbank. The Salineno refuge is host to bird species seen in few other places in the U.S.

Unspent border wall funding is left over from appropriations by Congress in 2018, 2019, and 2020, and unless legislators rescind those funds, the Biden administration will have to continue construction. Language that would have rescinded about $2 billion in border wall funding was stripped from the omnibus spending bill President Joe Biden signed earlier this month.

In court filings, the Department of Homeland Security said it will undertake a thorough review and replanning process of the project. The leftover funds will be used to pay off canceled contracts, to remediate or mitigate environmental damage caused by past border wall construction and on public consultation, DHS said. According to the filing, DHS may find that additional land acquisition is necessary to complete projects contemplated by this plan.

Jerry Lara /San Antonio Express-News

Shortly after taking office last year, Biden signed an executive order halting wall construction and canceling contracts. He promised not one more foot would be built. The federal government dismissed pending condemnation lawsuits. Opponents of the wall, which under former president Donald Trump was planned to stretch across the Valley and Webb and Zapata Counties upstream, breathed a sigh of relief.

Meanwhile, Texas has sued the Biden administration, demanding it restart construction. Instead, CBP conducted the environmental assessment, which it could have waived under George W. Bush-era laws that expedite wall construction. The General Accountability Office, a government watchdog, has ruled that CBP can take time to conduct the assessment, but cannot completely halt construction. If the Democrats lose one or both houses of Congress later this year, theres little chance the funding will be rescinded.

If Congress doesnt do something, all three counties will be completely walled off from the Rio Grande, said Scott Nicol, a board member for the Friends of the Wildlife Corridor.

Jerry Lara /San Antonio Express-News

The notice of an environmental assessment sent to landowners, which Nicol and others see as a delaying tactic by the administration, has caused confusion across the Valley.

At the Trump administration cost of $46 million a mile, its unlikely the current funding would cover the entire 86 miles of new construction. And wall proponents say canceling contracts, returning land and doing an environmental study are all just efforts by the Biden administration to waste the money so it cant be spent on construction.

But from Salineno to the Gulf of Mexico, evidence abounds that celebration by wall opponents was premature. In the eastern Starr County town of La Grulla, the state is building 1.7 miles of 30-foot-high fence with materials donated by the federal government. In Hidalgo County, the federal government is putting new concrete slabs on flood control levees and topping them with concrete bollards several feet high. And as recently as November, the federal government filed a lawsuit to condemn land for wall construction.

Jerry Lara /San Antonio Express-News

I know theyre continuing the wall. I know Biden didnt keep his promise of not one more foot, said Nayda Alvarez, who lives about 200 feet from the river near Rio Grande City.

A high school teacher whod never dabbled in politics and wasnt active on social media when she first learned CBP wanted to build a wall through her property, Alvarez has become a face of the opposition.

She lives next to the land where her grandfather farmed and ran livestock. Her dad lives in a house behind hers. She fought efforts to survey her property, not wanting to lose access to the riverfront where her family hunts and gathers on Easter. Last year, the governments lawsuit to gain access to her property was closed. Alvarez said she hasnt received the environmental assessment letter, but her father and a neighbor did.

I dont know whats going to happen tomorrow, she said. What letter Im going to get next.

Jerry Lara /San Antonio Express-News

A way of life

The Salineno Bird Preserve began as an RV Park. In the 1980s, a couple from Michigan purchased it and turned it into a haven for birders. In the birding community its still known as DeWinds Yard after those owners. The DeWinds donated the park to the Valley Land Fund in 1998. The fund purchased adjacent land and eventually partnered with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to have on-site caretakers during the fall and winter.

The volunteers, Lois Hughes and Merle Ihne, greet visitors from around the world  about 1,700 people visited between November and March  and point out species that can be seen nowhere else in the U.S. but along the border. Striking green jays and bright orange altamira orioles flit among the mesquite and huisache trees near their RV. Chachalacas, a Valley specialty that looks like a cross between a roadrunner and a large dove, strut through the underbrush.

Jerry Lara /San Antonio Express-News

Hughes and Ihne said surveyors told them the wall would cut right through the property. The planned 150-foot enforcement zone mentioned in the environmental study would require clearing the birds habitat.

If youre a birder that has an (American Birding Association) list, youre trying to see as many species as you can in this country, Hughes said. This is where you have to go to find species that are on the northern edge of their range. Thats the importance for hardcore birders.

Maintaining the riparian habitat all the way along the river corridor is important for everything, so these animals can move back and forth without having their habitats chopped up.

Jerry Lara /San Antonio Express-News

For locals, a wall cutting off access to the Rio Grande would change their way of life. The road to reach the preserve from the nearby community of Salineno, population 176, ends at a concrete boat ramp on the river. Its a popular fishing spot most evenings. Locals and visitors drop in lines angling for catfish, sunfish, bass and alligator gar.

Along with being the most un-fenced stretch of river in the Valley, Starr County also has a higher poverty rate than Hidalgo and Cameron counties and is more rural, with less of a presence by legal aid groups.

Informal inheritance of real estate makes it more difficult for landowners to prove theyre entitled to compensation when CBP takes their property. Landowners without the resources to fight the federal government are less likely to be fairly compensated for the land theyve lost, said Efren C. Olivares, interim director of litigation for the Southern Poverty Law Center. He previously represented landowners fighting condemnations as a lawyer with the Texas Civil Rights Project.

Many of the landowners were elderly, maybe they did not readily have access to technology to complete documents or go online and find things, Olivares said. You had to get out there in person, have conversations with individuals.

Jerry Lara /San Antonio Express-News

A short drive from the refuge, Cynthia Talamante and her family were having a spring break barbecue. Talamante said Salineno is largely spared the flow of drugs and people that have plagued nearby communities, but shed heard stories about her neighbors being menaced while fishing and she occasionally sees border crossers.

Im half and half, she said of her support for the wall. Sometimes there are a lot of people crossing over, and you dont know who they are.

But that rarely happens, Talmante said, and her family continues to use and enjoy the river.

While her teenage son grilled chicken and thin-sliced beef, his friends pulled over in a pickup truck to chat. A young man on horseback joined them. Jesus Ibanez said he rode his paint horse 45 minutes from New Falcon, a small community nearby, to visit Talamantes son. Sitting in her yard, he talked about fishing with his friends in Salineno.

We were born here, Ibanez said. We opened our eyes in Salineno and Falcon. Weve been fishing since we were little.

Jerry Lara /San Antonio Express-News

A symptom of the disease

Not every stretch of the river in Starr County is as idyllic as Salineno.

Downstream in Roma and in nearby Fronton, migrants regularly cross the river to surrender to Border Patrol and request asylum. Residents of Fronton, a hamlet of 172 people that was founded by Spanish settlers in the 18th century, said theyve had desperate immigrants knocking on their doors and asking for help, and drug smugglers careening through residential streets. In 2016, a Rio Grande City resident was shot and killed while fishing from a boat on the river near Fronton.

Jerry Lara /San Antonio Express-News

A wall here is unlikely to stop the asylum seekers  for years people have crossed into walled off sections of Hidalgo County and surrendered to Border Patrol on the riverbanks  but some residents said it would stop vehicular pursuits of smugglers and keep foot traffic off their property.

Rene Barrera lives less than 300 yards from the Rio Grande and said he owns another five-acre riverfront plot that he said he no longer uses for fishing because of safety concerns. Barrera said CBP asked to buy land for wall construction during the Trump administration, and he agreed to sell. If they werent going to build the wall, I was going to step back and say, Im not selling anything to you, he said.

Jerry Lara /San Antonio Express-News

Thats not because he thinks its a particularly good solution  the wall is a symptom of the disease, he said  its just the most feasible way to stop smuggling along the riverbanks. Drugs will still come in on semi-trailers through the ports of entry, but they wont be coming through Fronton. The real solution, reducing U.S. demand for drugs and cheap labor, is less realistic, Barrera said.

Unless youre willing to take some really, really hard looks at the realities of American culture, (the wall) is a solution, Barrera said. No one wants to come out and say how materialistic and how (messed) up our culture is.

Like many landowners in the region who agreed to sell their property to CBP, Barrera said he doesnt know the status of his property.

It seems to fall into about four or five different categories, he said. Theres people that are still being sued to gain title to the land by the government with compensation.  You have people that were sued and compensated and dont have the land. Then you have people who were sued and compensated and are getting the land back. Then you have people who had contracts, and we fall in that category, then those contracts were torn up and tossed into the wind and we never heard anything.

Jerry Lara /San Antonio Express-News

Not everyone in Starr County who had their land taken has been given it back. Noel Benavides, a businessman in Roma, said he first received condemnation notices from CBP in 2008, part of wall construction funded during the Bush administration. Benavides said the government only wanted to pay him for the one-mile strip on which the wall would run, about six acres. But he would lose access to 20 acres along the Rio Grande of his 150 acres of undeveloped land. Eventually, after more than a decade of negotiations, he reached an agreement to be compensated for the land that would have gone behind the wall.

Even as other landowners are having their property returned to them, Benavides said he hasnt heard anything from CBP about the land he sold.

Theyre not using it, he said. Its just a waste of money. Money that could be used for schools. Medical staff. Hiring more people for the Border Patrol. Cameras on the river. More security.

Jerry Lara /San Antonio Express-News

That funds for the wall could be spent on other forms of border security is an oft-repeated talking point along the border. The environmental assessment notice said its considering alternatives to new fencing, including lights, cameras and a patrol road, which CBP refers to as parts of the border wall system.

That is just as harmful, said Norma Herrera, the policy and advocacy lead strategist for border and immigrants rights at the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. Youre still condemning property, youre still clearing out habitat.

Mixed messages

The regions members of Congress have only added to the confusion about the walls future.

In January, Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, took credit for part of the DHS appropriations bill that would have rescinded wall funding. But that language was missing from the spending bill Biden signed this month. After the bill passed, a spokeswoman for Cuellar wrote in an email that the legislation prevents any new border wall construction. She didnt respond to follow up emails and phone calls.

A spokesman for Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, wrote in an email: In the Fiscal Year 2022 omnibus that President Biden just signed, there was no significant border wall funding rescinded.

Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-McAllen, and Filemon Vela, D-Brownsville, didnt respond to questions about the wall funding.

Congress passed large appropriations bills that included wall funding for the 2018, 2019 and 2020 budget cycles; Democrats controlled the House in 2019 and 2020. Cuellar voted for the 2018 and 2019 funding, but against the 2020 bill.

Now were seeing how difficult it is to fight back against these policies, said Jessica Cisneros, Cuellars opponent in the May Democratic primary runoff election. And thats not to say the Biden administration wont eventually win to stop construction of the border wall. But it makes it a lot more difficult once all the funding has been appropriated and has been designated for that use. We shouldnt have gotten to that point to begin with.

Photographer Jerry Lara contributed to this report.
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Lora and Anthony Gaytan were running errands Saturday afternoon when their neighbor called to tell them they had to evacuate. It was their first alert that a fast-moving fire was nearby in the town of Mico.

They rushed home, but when they got to their street, Medina Dam Road, it was blocked by barricades.

Now Playing: Residents around Medina Lake were forced to evacuate Saturday as a wildfire burned through the area. Video: Jerry Ellis / Courtesy

They wouldnt let us in. We didnt have anything with us, Lora Gaytan said. I was kind of hysterical. He was pretty calm.

Well buy more stuff. At least we were safe, Anthony Gaytan said.

With nothing but the clothes on their backs, they headed to his parents home with their 6-year-old son to wait.

The wildfire south of Medina Lake began late Friday when a car caught fire and flames spread into the tinder-dry terrain. It had scorched more than 1,000 acres by Sunday afternoon and forced a number of evacuations.

The fire has destroyed three homes, but no injuries have been reported, said James Wettstaed, a spokesman for the Texas Forest Service.

The fire is only 10 percent contained. It worsened Sunday as high-wind red flag conditions kicked up and humidity stayed low. Similar conditions are expected Monday, according to the National Weather Service.

Twenty-eight agencies are helping to fight the fire, including the San Antonio Fire Department, which sent five brush trucks to assist Sunday morning. The Texas Forest Service is leading the unified command.

It wasnt until around 11 p.m. Saturday that the Gaytans could get back to their home. They spent the hours between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. packing suitcases full of clothes, toiletries, toys for their son, pictures, keepsakes and important documents.

If we truly did have to say goodbye to the house, that would be heartbreaking, Lora Gaytan said. You can rebuild a house, but how do you rebuild a home? Where do you even start?

Anthony Gaytan owns Anthonys Boat Storage, next to their home on Medina Dam Road.

I had those customers calling me all day, he said. Asking to get their boats out, and I had to tell them they couldnt get anything yesterday. Some of them didnt care, they said they had insurance.

Lora Gaytan said, I feel a lot better than I did yesterday because we have our stuff. I feel a lot more prepared at least.

On Sunday, most residents, except those who live on County Road 2615 between County Road 265 to just south of Paradise Canyon, including the High Mountain Ranch subdivision, were able to return home, but they stayed ready to leave at any moment.

At the intersection of County Road 271 and County Road 1283, residents climbed an embankment Sunday morning to look into a valley where they watched helicopters drop buckets of water onto the fire.

Russell and Lisa Rhynes, who have lived in the area for about 20 years and evacuated to a hotel Saturday night, came to the embankment to check on the status of the fire.

There was so much smoke you couldnt see, Russell Rhynes said about the conditions of the fire Saturday. Then it was all orange in the center. ... You could see flames up in the sky. It was crazy.

We are on the edge. We are uneasy about it, he said. Now the winds are in our favor, but it is not in other peoples favor, so you cant wish it to change.

We are also concerned because we have our animals, Lisa Rhynes said of their goats, hogs and dogs at home. We have two of (the dogs) with us, but we cant take them all. It is heartbreaking.

Terry Owens and her daughter Peyton Owens, 16, were also watching the fire on the embankment.

We thought it would be put out (Friday) night, and then we woke up at 4 a.m. and there were flames everywhere, they were higher. Everything was orange, Peyton said.

The mother and daughter, like many residents, were waiting to hear if another evacuation order is issued. They prioritized packing up Peytons prom dress and her five reptiles, along with their other pets and keepsakes.

It was very scary, and it is still scary with this wind picking up. You just dont know what is going to happen, Terry Owens said.

The Forest Services Wettstaed said there wasnt an accurate count of the evacuations as of Sunday.

claire.bryan@express-news.net
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Petra Mata, 75, and Juanita Reyna, 66, arrived early for the start of the 26th annual Cesar E. Chavez March for Justice.

Thats been their routine since the march began in 1997: stake out a viewing spot at Guadalupe and Brazos Street before the crowds show up. Its an opportunity to pay homage to Chavez, co-founder of the United Farm Workers and an iconic labor and civil rights leader.

Mata and Reyna are not halfhearted about worker rights. They were among the San Antonio garment workers who lost their jobs when Levi Strauss & Co. shuttered three local jeans plants in 1990. They and other laid-off workers fought hard for severance pay. From that struggle emerged Fuerza Unida (United Force), a nonprofit that seeks to empower women workers.

He was a hero, Mata said of Chavez, who died in 1993 at age 66. He struggled to fight for people working in the fields. We continue, no matter what.

After a two-year hiatus caused by COVID-19, the March for Justice returned to the streets on Saturday. Shouts of Si Se Peude! (Yes, We Can) echoed through downtown. La Causa Sigue (The Cause Continues) was the theme of this years march.

On ExpressNews.com: Chavez marchers will be taking it to the streets again after COVID hiatus

Hundreds of people gathered near the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center on the near West Side for a commemorative program before the start of the 2.4-mile march to Hemisfair Plaza.

Local labor organizer Jaime Martinez started the San Antonio march in 1997. His son, Ernest J. Martinez, chair of the Cesar E. Chavez Legacy & Educational Foundation, paid tribute Saturday to several groups, including Ukrainian San Antonio, a nonprofit that is collecting donations to help Ukrainians displaced by the Russian invasion of their country.

The world stands in solidarity with the people of Ukraine, Martinez said. And so do we.

Olena Garcia and Olena Khrystyuk, representing the Ukrainian organization, thanked the crowd for their support. Khrystyuk said Chavezs legacy inspires people the world over to fight for their rights.

Just like the people of Ukraine are fighting for their rights and freedom, she said.

The crowd observed a moment of silence for those who have died in the war. Then a marcher opened a white wicker basket and released a flock of doves into the air.

Martinez also acknowledged musicians of the San Antonio Symphony, who have been on strike for nearly six months in a contract dispute with the symphony board. The musicians held signs that said Fighting for a living wage! and We demand good faith bargaining.

Mayor Ron Nirenberg announced that March 31, Cesar Chavez Day, will be an official city holiday beginning this year. President Barack Obama declared the date a federal commemorative holiday in 2014.

Nirenberg said San Antonio will be the first U.S. city to make the date a paid holiday for its employees.

The change that begins on the streets is change that emanates through this city, the mayor said. And the change that begins in San Antonio emanates throughout the United States.

On ExpressNews.com: Commentary: City holiday will give Chavez his due

Grand marshals of the parade were Nirenbergs wife, Erika Prosper Nirenberg, and Paul Chavez, son of the civil rights leader.

Prosper Nirenberg, the daughter of migrant farmworkers, said hes derived great satisfaction from reading to schoolchildren about Chavezs life and legacy.

That legacy includes the freedom to march and freedom to remind those in power theyre not there without us, she said. Those kids, they need to hear that from us every day, that they matter.

Romulo Spiller, 65, carried a blue-and-yellow Ukraine flag as he walked the parade route. His wife, Patricia, 64, said she had been participating since she was a student at Lanier High School, located on Cesar E. Chavez Boulevard west of downtown.

It brings into focus the struggle that migrant farm workers experienced, she said. Its a good platform for organizations that have a statement to make and help the less fortunate who dont have a voice.

An indigenous group led the marchers, providing the beat of drums and a trail of sage in the air. The Lanier High School ROTC team followed, ahead of the speakers, dignitaries and farm workers bearing a long banner with black eagle icons. Marchers chanted and clapped as they headed over the Guadalupe Street bridge, onto Frio Street and then Dolorosa Street.

As the marchers passed City Hall, a mother pulled her sleeping daughter in a red wagon.

Albino Ortiz, 43, held above his head an oil portrait of Chavez painted by his uncle, artist Abel Ortiz. Albino said he had traveled from Kansas with his family for the event.

Its a family tradition for us, he said. Keeping their memories alive and what they stood for and being able to represent that is a big deal for us.

At Hemisfair Plaza, Karina Balvas, 26, said she took part to honor family members who worked the fields so that theyre not forgotten.

Its not fair that you should be mistreated because of how you look or your background, she said. Everybody is human, and they deserve the same decency.

Victoria Chavez, 32, learned about the march at San Antonio College, where she is a student. The medical assistant said she came out to support better treatment for farm workers.

A plus was hearing Little Joe, one of her favorite bands.

It was great, Chavez said as her two-year-old son sat in a stroller. Being around everybody was a really good atmosphere. You felt the unity, the community and the love.

vtdavis@express-news.net
On March 5, we attended Ballet Nepantlas performance of Valentina at Jo Long Theatre for the Performing Arts on San Antonios East Side. Through contemporary ballet and traditional baile folklorico, Valentina portrayed stories that highlight the strength and resilience of women during Revolutionary Mexico.

Who was the person who inspired Valentina, and how does her story and its representation through performing arts allow us to gain a deeper understanding of the Mexican Revolution and Mexican womanhood?

Throughout the Mexican Revolution (1910-1917), Mexican women held different roles such as nurses and cucarachas (camp followers) gathering supplies, and sometimes fighting in battles. Women involved in the revolution came to be known as Soldaderas and Adelitas, inspired by the corrido La Adelita, released during the Mexican Revolution. Similarly, Ballet Nepantlas Valentina is based on the 1915 corrido La Valentina, which recounts the life story and daring actions of Valentina Ramirez Avitia.

Born in 1893, Avitia grew up in one of many rural communities in the Mexican northern state of Durango. When the Mexican Revolution broke out in 1910, she expressed a desire to fight alongside her father. However, he died before having the opportunity. Following his death, Avitia disguised herself as a man and joined the revolution in November 1910 at the age of 17.

Under the alias Juan Ramirez, Avitias willingness to sacrifice and fight for a better Mexico catapulted her through the ranks of her regiment, and she ultimately became a lieutenant. It was not until a fellow soldier caught a glimpse of her trenzas (hair braids) that her true identity was revealed. Avitias involvement in the Mexican Revolution came to an end in June 1911, seven months into her campaign. However, the corrido released in her name several years later inspired the 1966 film La Valentina and later Valentina by Ballet Nepantla.

The transformation of Mexican womanhood in Ballet Nepantlas Valentina mirrors the transformation of a nation during the Mexican Revolution. Throughout each performance, dancers embodied the decline and upheaval of the revolutionary state through the breakdown and reconstruction of a womans identity. Through their participation, Mexican women personified Mexicos revolutionary spirit.

Though the stories of Soldaderas and Adelitas have been widely shared through popular culture, these women are conveyed as archetypes and anomalies. Complex narratives of female identity have been largely overshadowed by machismo narratives and conflicting social constructs. However, contemporary storytelling gives us the opportunity to re-examine history and the way we share history.

Ballet Nepantla interprets themes of rebellion, resilience and empowerment through the eyes of women, thereby reintroducing women to Mexican history as more than bystanders and collateral damage, but as shapers and saviors of the cause. Valentina broadens the audiences perceptions of a traditional Mexican woman as we see her adapt to various challenges, from supporting her husband to leading a regiment.

Through re-examination we can come to understand how the actions and legacies of women of the revolution have contributed to the ever-evolving identity of Mexican and Mexican American women today.

Cristobal Lopez is a history graduate student and Nau Fellow at the University of Texas at San Antonio. His areas of focus include the Spanish borderlands and immigration. Victoria Villasenor is a recent graduate of St. Marys University with a masters in public history.
: jinsihan55 (paradder), : WaterWorld

 : Contempt of court to hide assets retribution finally came What makes Ant pay for Guo Wengui's mist

: BBS  (Sat Mar 26 23:08:51 2022, )



Everyone knows,Guo Wengui was able to live in the United States for four

years, relying entirely on the "loving support" of the ants.After all,

as a "former tycoon", he left behind most of his assets and evaded most of

his debts when he absconded from the United States, and without any money.

Guo Wengui's money was used for repayment and pleasure, except for the

apartment and yacht he purchased when he first arrived in the U.S.

Everything else was purchased for him by the Ants.

The money may not be a lot of money for Guo Wengui, who is used to spending

a lot of money, but it is all for the  ants who have worked hard all

their lives. After all, most of the ants who listen to Guo Wengui's live

broadcast are Chinese living in Europe and the United States, and some of

them may have "high education and high salary" or a rich family, but most of

the others are like Xia Chunfeng, who relies on driving a truck or doing

odd jobs to support his family, and they don't have too high income. The

most important thing is that they are more likely to be cheated by the so-

called "super high yield, super stable, buy is to earn" financial products

in Guo Wengui's mouth, throwing their few savings into them, Some ants

have learned that Guo Wengui's debts are too much for him,Even naive article

said that as long as Guo Wengui "Unlock H-Coin",the person a billionaire

who bought H-Coin, can help Guo Wengui pay back the debts.It is very funny

and ridiculous.

But the money to Guo Wengui here, but is very equal, whether it is

fraudulent money, or when the deadbeat to get the funds, or money laundering

, embezzlement and other criminal ways to get the money,Guo Wengui always

spends a lot of money, High-grade tobacco and alcohol, yachts and luxury

cars are all available, which is far from the ants look forward to "

donate money to extinguish the Communist Party". Guo Wengui in order to

cheat money to do everything possible, And in order to transfer the

fraudulent money to their own name to spend with confidence and boldness,

also moved a lot of thought. As a fledgling rule of law fund, Guo Wengui

used his power to secretly do unjust and illegal things,He helped Bannon buy

a house with the money he received from "rescuing Yang Cailan and other

people". After GTV was launched and investigated by the SEC and refunded

with a fine totaling $530 million, Guo Wengui found ways to discredit the

SEC and make a new GTV for the ants to throw the returned money back in,

while GTV absorbed hundreds of millions of dollars, but it is still

difficult to use as always, which only shows that Guo Wengui took the money

but did not do anything, the ants do not even know where Guo Wengui

spent the money. Can only daily unfounded imagination.

The evil will not be without retribution, Guo Wengui has long acted as a

deadbeat fraudster to take money, they do not want to take legal

responsibility, two do not want to operate the specific fraudulent tools,

Just want to do nothing but earn money, but the world is not such a simple

thing? Just on February 9, a federal court in the Southern District of New

York issued a mandatory order against Guo Wengui for evading punishment and

hiding assets, requiring him to turn over Lady may and the $134 million

accumulated in Europe within five days, or else criminally prosecute Guo

Wengui for contempt of court. Once Guo Wengui had long hired lawyers at high

salaries with small ant money to help him exploit legal loopholes, PAX

tried to sue Guo Wengui three years ago, but was frequently dodged by Guo

Wengui and his lawyers with non-compliance of evidence and jurisdictional

issues, resulting in failed prosecutions or lengthy procedures. If not for

the SEC's investigation of Guo Wengui, the little ants would have been paid

off by Guo Wengui during this "gap" period. But since Guo Wengui is still

alive and well in the public eye after 5 days, it means that there are still

a group of small ants who have lost their capital forever.

This time the court could not bear to let Guo Wengui pay off the fine is

only the first hurdle Guo Wengui faced in 2022, the next Guo Wengui will

only face more and more money gap, Investigations against him will also

continue to occur. The next is the PAX repayment, followed by the

investigation for the rule of law fund money laundering, shady operations to

transfer funds , Guo Wengui's previous debts, crimes committed, digging a

hole is being settled one by one. So, 2022 is also destined to be the year

Guo Wengui breaks through the lower limit of fraud, the ants who bought

the H-coin have been "folded in the middle", I hope otherants who are

still in the dark will wake up and stop paying for Guo Wengui's selfishness.



--

 :WWW  mitbbs.com [FROM: 47.]


WASHINGTON  U.S. Customs and Border Protection are reporting an increase in encounters with migrants on the southern border as recent court rulings reignite debate over President Joe Bidens use of a Trump-era public health order to expel most of those seeking to enter the U.S.

The administration reported slightly fewer than 165,000 encounters with migrants in February, about 10,000 more than it reported in January, when encounters had begun to decline. The increase was driven by more than 126,000 encounters with single adults, the most in a single month since 2006. It came even as encounters with families seeking to enter the U.S. fell for the second straight month, to 26,582, the lowest point in a year.

Experts say the data offers evidence that the pandemic-era health order, known as Title 42, is leading to more border encounters, not less, since single adults who are expelled are simply returning to try and cross again.

ALSO READ: Feared Mexican drug cartel chief indicted in San Antonio

Nearly a third of the single adults stopped by Border Patrol  30 percent  tried to cross at least once in the 12 months before, CBP reported. That was more than double the average rate at which Border Patrol encounter repeat crossers from fiscal years 2014 to 2019, just 14 percent. The Trump administration issued the controversial health order in 2020, arguing it was necessary to combat the spread of COVID-19.

Under the rule, migrants are denied the opportunity to plead their asylum case. The administration has used Title 42 to expel migrants 426,819 times so far this fiscal year, according to CBP data.

This kind of gets to some of the issues that were continuing to see with Title 42, which is that since it was implemented, it has continued to incentivize migration of single adults, said Jessica Bolter, an analyst at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute. I think this month is one of the clearest examples of that.

The Biden administration has argued the rule is a key tool in handling a surge of migration to the southern border that started last spring. It has also sought to scale it back some by excluding unaccompanied children  a move that Texas has so far successfully sued to block.

The Centers for Disease Control says it is reviewing the policy and will decide by the end of March whether to keep using it to expel single adults and families.

South Texas officials have lined up in favor of extending the order, noting the influx.

We are only five months into the fiscal year and already on track to hit 1 million crossings at the southern border in March, said U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, a San Antonio Republican. He called Title 42 one of the only effective measures in our Border Patrol agents tool belts.

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Laredo Democrat and early critic of Bidens handling of the migration surge, said Border Patrol agents have told him they fear ending the policy will spark another wave.

Its going to be almost a green light for people to say, nows the time to come in, because theyre not using Title 42, Cuellar said. The 17-year incumbent is in a Democratic primary runoff with progressive immigration attorney Jessica Cisneros, who has called for an end to Title 42.

Other members of Bidens own party have ratcheted up pressure on the president to scrap the policy in recent days, pointing to a significant decline in coronavirus cases that were the basis for the order, as well as Bidens campaign promises to restore the asylum system they say it undermines.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer earlier this month renewed calls for Biden to end the order, saying nows the time to stop the madness.

The continued use of Title 42 has created life-threatening conditions for vulnerable migrants, enriched human smugglers, and significantly increased the number of dangerous border crossings, Schumer and a group of other Senate Democrats said in a statement.

TEXAS TAKE: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox

We all watched in horror as thousands of Haitian families, including infants, were returned to Haiti without the opportunity to seek asylum in Del Rio, Texas, and remain concerned as thousands of Haitians have been expelled from the United States in the months since, the statement said. Turning away families seeking protection from torture or persecution is not who we are.

Their calls came after a federal appeals court panel in D.C. ruled the administration must stop using the policy to expel migrant families to countries where they may face persecution or torture. The appeals panel upheld the policy, but said it is far from clear it serves any purpose.

That same day, a federal judge in Texas ruled that the administrations decision not to apply Title 42 to unaccompanied children was arbitrary and capricious. Texas had argued in its lawsuit that the increased migration burdened the state with health care, criminal justice and other costs.

Border states such as Texas now uniquely bear the brunt of the ramifications of the policy, Judge Mark Pittman wrote in his ruling.

In response, the CDC, which first issued the 2020 public health order, issued a new memorandum terminating the governments ability to use it to expel children.

ben.wermund@chron.com


Saudi Arabian low cost carrier Flynas plans to introduce three weekly flights between Riyadh and Belgrade this summer season. Operations will run each Monday, Wednesday and Friday on a seasonal basis, from May until late September. Tickets are yet to be put on sale. Last year, the airline maintained a series of charters between the two cities to cater for Indian workers undergoing quarantine in Serbia prior to entering the Kingdom. If the flights go ahead as planned, it will mark the first scheduled air service between the two countries. Saudi Arabian low cost carrier Flynas plans to introduce three weekly flights between Riyadh and Belgrade this summer season. Operations will run each Monday, Wednesday and Friday on a seasonal basis, from May until late September. Tickets are yet to be put on sale. Last year, the airline maintained a series of charters between the two cities to cater for Indian workers undergoing quarantine in Serbia prior to entering the Kingdom. If the flights go ahead as planned, it will mark the first scheduled air service between the two countries.





Serbias Foreign Minister held talks with Saudi Arabias non-residential Ambassador to the country in February, where the two discussed the potential introduction of flights between the two states, as well as the possibility of relaxing visa requirements. Belgrade Airports operator VINCI recently noted, The Middle East represents one of our most important markets. We are in constant communication with airlines from that region. During the pandemic, in line with Serbias constructive approach, Belgrade was used as a transfer point for passengers from that region. In the coming period, we can expect some good news from the Middle East market.





Flynas has announced a handful of new European destinations this coming summer, including Moscow, Prague, Mykonos and Santorini. It has also held talks with operator Airports of Montenegro over the introduction of flights from Riyadh to both Podgorica and Tivat this summer. Flynas commenced operations to the region in 2019 by introducing services from Riyadh and Jeddah to Sarajevo. It is Saudi Arabias first low cost carrier and currently connects more than seventy domestic and international destinations, through its fleet of forty Airbus A320 and A320neo aircraft. It has orders for a further 67 A320neos. Flynas maintains over 1.200 weekly flights and has carried more than 55 million passengers since its launch. Other than Sarajevo, the carrier also currently serves Tirana in the region.




TRIP REPORT



Written by Nemjee





Good morning and welcome to my trip report!





As of March 1st Cyprus removed all PCR testing for arriving passengers. It seemed like a good opportunity to go for a short holiday. Due to work obligations I had to be in Belgrade on Monday so ideally I was looking for flights on a Tuesday or Wednesday. Unfortunately for me, the only viable option was Austrian Airlines on a Tuesday morning with a five hour connection in Vienna.





Air Serbia's non-stop flight was on a Thursday which didn't suit me while there was no BEG-ATH on a Tuesday. Actually, there was a JU-A3 combination on a Wednesday but it meant arriving to LCA very late at night so I decided against it.





Our ten year old E95 at gate A5





KLM was our neighbor sitting at gate A6. Judging by how many people there were first at the check-in and later on at the gate, their flight must have been full to the last seat. Unfortunately our flight wasn't as successful with a LF of around 55%. If I remember correctly there were 67 passengers onboard.





Ex-JP A319

Deicing which took almost 15 minutes





A little while later we roared down the runway.





After taking off, we made a sharp turn and headed north-west towards Zabalj, Bajmok and then the Hungarian border.





The unmotivated, relatively rude crew started their service which these days doesn't even include a bottle of water. They just give you a chocolate and that's about it. Once they are done with throwing around the freebie they start selling their overpriced products. People were mostly buying sandwiches and coffee.





I got an Almdudler for 3. One should be careful with Austrian Airlines as they don't accept cash payments, only credit cards.





After just 53 minutes we were already in Vienna.





Our E95 parked at the gate. It was supposed to fly to STR but due to the strike the flight was cancelled.





Relatively empty VIE terminal. Mind you, it didn't get much better later on. It felt more or less deserted and judging by how many people were lining up at gates, flights weren't full that day.





So much love between all these airlines ... Anyway, after five long hours we boarded our A320 to LCA which was packed to the last seat. Most of the passengers onboard were Poles. I have to say that the crew working on this flight was absolutely terrible. They all looked messy, their uniforms looked worn out and they were too casual for my liking. As always, there was not a single smile and they kept on barking orders at passengers.





As mentioned earlier, Austrian Airlines doesn't give out bottles of water. If you want to drink water you have to ask and they bring you a glass of it. Service was done by two crew members and a single cart. I have never seen such slow and chaotic process. Mind you, by the time we reached Antalya they were somewhere around row 20. There were people who wanted to go to the toilet so they sent them to the business class section so as not to disrupt the painfully slow 'service.'





Overflying Akrotiri, the biggest British air base outside the UK. Thank God LCA wasn't too far away.





Beautiful sunny weather ... in about 10 minutes I would find out that Cyprus was experiencing some sort of a cold front so the whole time I was there temperatures never exceeded 12 degrees. At night it was very cold, around 0 degrees.





We were parked at a remote stand since the return flight takes place tomorrow at around noon. Unfortunately there was yet another surprise ... paranoid Cypriot authorities decided to randomly test our flight. We were all taken to a testing facility where we waited in line for an hour to get our PCR test. Once that was completed we would be notified via SMS if we have covid or not. Normally they charge you 15 Euros for a PCR but these ones were free of charge ... lucky us.









Anyway, Sunday arrived and it was time to fly back home. As you can see here in the picture, Air Serbia was the lucky one that day and they were also chosen to be randomly tested. A total of 97 passengers came out of the JU plane.





Here is our ride for today. This is YU-APK which, before joining Air Serbia, flew for Cobalt, a now defunct Cypriot carrier. In November 2019 I flew on it to LCA and back then it still had Cobalt's interior. There were a total of 138 passenger onboard and to my surprise Russians made up maybe 30% of the passengers. Most were Serbs and from what I saw there were quite a few Germans onboard. The guy who boarded before me was connecting to Frankfurt.





Complimentary service. Unlike Austrian Airlines, Air Serbia actually gives you a bottle of water and a small snack. Given that the flight was full to the last seat, boarding was an absolute chaos and the crew was to blame. They were completely useless and actually made the process much worse. For example, if someone would stop to put his luggage in the overhead compartment, one of the two ladies would rush and force them to awkwardly stand in the seat with the luggage so that people could pass. I think it would make more sense to just board the last rows first. Anyway, I generally like JU crew but these were as bad as the Austrian Airlines ones. There were no smiles and they seemed very unmotivated.





Air Serbia buy on board is actually done with two carts so the process is fast and efficient.





Now here comes the funniest part. After reaching Istanbul we headed north and we entered the Serbian air space somewhere around Zajecar. From there we flew straight to Pozarevac, Kovin and then all the way to Indjija where we made a U turn and headed towards BEG. We were third in line for landing.

Once we landed we stopped on the taxiway. BEG closed parts of it so we had to go back onto the runway and use the exit by the terminal building. Unfortunately for us, we were among the first ones to land so we had to wait for the whole region to land before we could taxi again ... 27 minutes later we were on the move.





If I remember correctly, Athens was the last plane to land so we all reached the terminal building at the same time. We parked at gate A5 where my journey began some five days before. Air Serbia's entire regional network disembarked at the same time meaning that there was total chaos at the passport control. Luckily all passport booths were working and within 20 minutes I was outside in front of the terminal.





Conclusion:





Austrian Airlines 2/10





- Horrible just horrible crew.

- Overpriced ULCC (not even LCC).

- Onboard experience leaves a lot to be desired.

- Buy on board isn't bad but it's expensive for what is being offered.

- Officially they only let you fly if you have a KN95 mask. I don't think this is strictly enforced as our crew from Belgrade had the surgical mask while the ones to LCA all wore the KN95. After take off they went through the plane handing out KN95s and they actually stood there until you put it on.

- There is an app you can connect to after take off but it's useless. On it you can just pick your internet plan or see how many hours and minutes you have until you reach your destination.

- Luckily VIE is a decent enough airport so it compensates for many things OS lacks. At least while you are there the experience is relatively good.

- Unlike Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines won't allow you to buy the ticket unless you have Euros on your account. I didn't feel like exchanging money on my app so I just went to lh.com and booked the same flight for the same amount of money.





Air Serbia 4/10





- Crew is hit or miss. This time around it was an epic miss.

- There is some semblance of hospitality as they still give you a small bottle of water and a small snack.

- No IFE whatsoever, not even internet.

- Buy on board is decent and affordable. They actually accept cash and credit cards both for Euros and Dinars.

- The overall atmosphere inside the plane is relaxed and comfortable.

- Generally Air Serbia is meh ... not bad, not great ...just ok.




Fairfield, MT (59436)

Today

Showers early, then partly cloudy overnight. Low around 45F. Winds SW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Showers early, then partly cloudy overnight. Low around 45F. Winds SW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
Swara Bhaskar's recent Hollywood trip was one to remember and she cherished it thoroughly. The recent Pre Oscars Gala event where Priyanka Chopra Jonas represented South Asian talent was all about fun and replete with glamour. Swara Bhaskar went on to confess how the event was all about coming together of different ethnicities.

Stars like Riz Ahmed, Aziz Ansari, Lilly Singh, Kal Penn, and Poorna Jagannathan, Mindy Kaling were also in attendance. Speaking to a leading daily, she shared, It was a lovely, vibrant, warm evening with very dynamic talent in the room. There were lots of really interesting, creative, talented people. It was nice to be there and to see our own people excelling in Hollywood, and, you know, celebrating each other.The nicest thing about it was the sense of fraternity, sense of camaraderie and the sense of unity and identity as something that can be also enabling and empowering for each other.





Everyone embraced each other's cultures wholeheartedly and it was truly quite endearing to watch in the West.

The actress further added, I met so many people whom I admire, like Priyanka, Kal, Lilly and Poorna, who is such a wonderful actress. In fact, there were also really talented directors and other members of the industry who are working both in India and in Hollywood."





Feeling overwhelmed but happy about what she got to witness, she concluded by saying, The world is so global now, and because of streaming platforms and social media, you dont have to be confined to the boundaries of your country. We tell stories, which are universal and have the power to cross boundaries. This year, Indias Writing with Fire is in the race to win an Oscar, which shows how the very Indian story resonated internationally. It is great that Indian talent and South Asian stories are being appreciated in the West."
Smartee, a Chinese orthodontics company, closed its US$ 80m Series D funding round.

The round was led by Beijing Taikang Investment, followed by China Resources Consumer Fund II, Jiaxing Science City, Zhangjiagang Industrial Investment etc. and some existing shareholders.

The company intends to use the funds to accelerate industrial layout in the field of invisible orthodontics, promote the continuous R&D and innovation of invisible orthodontic technology, strengthen brand building and team development, and advance the further expansion of the market share of its core products in domestic and overseas markets.

Founded in 2004 by Mr. Yao Junfeng, Smartee focuses on the R&D of original technology in digital invisible orthodontics as well as medical design, manufacturing, sales and services for customized clear aligners. The company has medical design centers with a team of hundreds of staff and built self-developed whole process automatic intelligent manufacturing bases in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province and Ziyang, Sichuan Province (Chinese Dental Valley).

Smartee has designed more than 500,000 cases up to now and produced over 10 million invisible aligners annually to serve doctors and consumers around the world. Smartee has expanded its business to markets including the USA, Canada, Columbia, Mexico, UK, Spain, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Australia, Singapore, Philippines and Thailand, etc.

FinSMEs

27/03/2022
Commentary: No rain check to be taken on global climate action

Xinhua) 07:37, March 27, 2022

Aerial photo taken on Aug. 23, 2021 shows a view of the Saihanba forest farm in north China's Hebei Province. (Xinhua/Mu Yu)

From practicing the new concept of green development at home to promoting overseas low-carbon energy transformation and technological innovation among its Belt and Road partners, from technology exchanges to joint project management, China has been honoring its commitments to boosting common development and global climate governance.

BEIJING, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Global villagers are celebrating the annual Earth Hour Saturday evening with a united voluntary blackout gesture as the climax of an eco-week.

No sooner have they heeded the International Day of Forests on Monday, World Water Day on Tuesday and World Meteorological Day on Wednesday than this one of the world's largest global grassroots movements for the environment trend on social media is in the wings.

These green-promoting events, along with a few others of the kind throughout the year, have been reminding people of an inconvenient truth marked by frequent natural catastrophes, not least extreme weathers, and thus of an urgent joint response.

Earlier this month, wildfires raging across the southeasternmost U.S. state of Florida consumed more than tens of thousands of acres and forced the evacuation of more than 1,000 households, authorities said, attributing the tinder to vast areas of dead trees left behind by Hurricane Michael in 2018.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recorded 20 climate disasters across the country in 2021 that each resulted in losses of at least 1 billion U.S. dollars.

In Europe, many people still have fresh memories of a devastating summer in 2021 under the dual impacts of floods and wildfires, with unprecedented temperature rises and heatwaves in Greece, large areas of scorched forests, pastures and fruit trees in Albania, and torrential rains and inundation in Germany so calamitous that then German Chancellor Angela Merkel said "the German language hardly has words for the devastation that has been wrought."

These overlapping havocs have exposed the vulnerable globe increasingly to a harsh climate reality with even more extreme climate events ahead unless the whole global village stands in solidarity, ditching lip service and delivering concrete action.

Sadly, however, some wealthy countries, who have built their wealth by burning fossil fuels and therefore accounted most for the climate crisis, constantly failed to honor their commitment to leadership as well as technical and financial assistance.

Aerial photo taken on March 3, 2021 shows a solar thermal power project in Gonghe County, northwest China's Qinghai Province. (Xinhua/Zhang Hongxiang)

The world's progress in the transition to sustainable energy has also been stalled amid a botched and piecemeal COVID-19 response, baffling policy flip-flops, a bumpy ride to recovery and uncertainties over the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, both key suppliers for crucial metals used in green manufacturing technologies such as solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicle batteries.

Concerns over energy security are also boosting fossil fuel imports, triggering crude oil price hikes and calls within Australia to delay emissions reduction efforts.

"Scientists are certain that emissions from human activity have caused dangerous and permanent damage to the planet. Our window to reduce emissions and limit temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius is still possible, but it's closing rapidly," said Rebecca Shaw, chief scientist of World Wildlife Fund.

"We must act decisively to protect our planet from both the coronavirus and the existential threat of climate disruption," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appealed.

In honoring its pledge to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060, China, as a responsible developing country, has been advancing the green transition of its economy and the development of ecological civilization on a robust scale with a slew of practical and people-centered measures.

From practicing the new concept of green development at home to promoting overseas low-carbon energy transformation and technological innovation among its Belt and Road partners, from technology exchanges to joint project management, China has been honoring its commitments to boosting common development and global climate governance.

The clock is ticking away till a world under the siege of climate change makes a real concerted action. As countries navigate into the choppy waters of uncertainties, the global community must not allow its joint climate action to falter under the illusion of a rain check, nor can it afford to see high-profile green events and declarations reduced to a mere act of symbolism.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Bianji)
Screen image taken at Beijing Aerospace Control Center on March 27, 2022 shows the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft leaving the core module of China's Tiangong space station. (Xinhua/Guo Zhongzheng)

BEIJING, March 27 (Xinhua) -- China's cargo spacecraft Tianzhou-2 separated from the core module of the country's space station Sunday afternoon, announced the China Manned Space Agency.

At 3:59 p.m. Beijing Time, Tianzhou-2 left the core module of the Tiangong space station after completing all of its scheduled tasks, said the agency.

During its operation in orbit, Tianzhou-2 carried out a series of extended application tests. It is now in good condition, and will enter the Earth's atmosphere at an appropriate time under ground control, the agency added.

Tianzhou-2 is the first cargo ship sent into space in the key-technology verification phase of China's space station.

Carrying 6.8 tonnes of supplies for the space station, it was launched from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on the coast of the southern island province of Hainan on May 29, 2021. 
This file photo taken on June 9, 2020, shows trucks carrying emergency food at the Nadapal border point, southwest of Kapoeta East County, South Sudan. (Xinhua/Denis Elamu)

The United Nations relief agency has called on South Sudan to protect communities, humanitarian personnel and assets across the country after the killing of three aid workers on Thursday.

JUBA, March 27 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations relief agency has called on South Sudan to protect communities, humanitarian personnel and assets across the country after the killing of three aid workers on Thursday.

Sara Beysolow Nyanti, UN humanitarian coordinator in South Sudan, and Arafat Jamal, humanitarian coordinator ad interim, condemned the incident, urging the perpetrators to respect international law and protect humanitarian staff and assets.

"This attack is completely unacceptable. This is not the first of these incidents in this area. Criminals who choose to use violence to serve themselves ensure vulnerable people suffer more. If humanitarians and humanitarian assets are not protected, humanitarian assistance to that area will have to stop," Nyanti said in a joint statement issued in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, on Friday evening.

This file photo shows laborers carry maize bags at a United Nations World Food Program (WFP) warehouse in Yambio, South Sudan, March 5, 2020. (Xinhua/Gale Julius)

A convoy of commercial trucks carrying vital life-saving food commodities from the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) was attacked between Gadiang and Yuai in Jonglei state on Thursday.

Three people on the convoy were killed, and one person was wounded.

Nyanti is currently visiting donor capitals to raise the profile of the needs of people in South Sudan and advocating for support.

"When humanitarian assistance is attacked, it is the people in need who suffer. Indeed, such incidents discourage those donor countries who would otherwise invest in South Sudan," she said.

Jamal, on his part, called on the government to immediately implement its commitments to ensure that civilians, including humanitarians, are safe.

"I have unfailing admiration for everyone who helps and supports people in need. It is devastating to realize that people undertaking vital work can be executed so heartlessly. The crime is compounded when these attacks go unpunished. These killers must not be allowed to roam free," he said.

South Sudan, one of the most dangerous places for aid workers, reported 319 violent incidents in 2021 targeting humanitarian personnel and assets, with five aid workers killed, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 
Friends and employees gather at Born in a Bar on Friday to watch the premier of an episode of the Food Networks Diners, Drive-ins and Dives that featured the Laramie restaurant. The restaurant was one of several in Laramie to be showcased on the show hosted by Guy Fieri.
SAN DIEGO, March 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via InvestorWire -- Astra Energy Inc. (OTC Pink Sheets: ASRE) (Astra or the Company), today announces the Company has engaged the government of Tanzania in discussions to construct a significantly sized, combined cycle power plant using natural gas as feedstock.



Following meetings last week with the Tanzania Electric Supply Company Ltd. (TANESCO), the countrys vertically integrated electricity utility company, TANESCO provided a formal letter authorizing Astra to prepare a Project Concept Note. The Project Concept Note will provide salient key technical and financial parameters of the proposed project. It will be reviewed for approval by TANESCO and the Ministry of Energy and is the key piece of information used by the Government of Tanzania to trigger a detailed Memorandum of Understanding.

Reaching this milestone is an indication of efforts of Tanzanias new leadership to create a conducive and supportive environment for foreign direct investment in infrastructure development intended to stimulate the countrys aggressive manufacturing sector. Tanzania requires a significant amount of electricity to power its ambitious economic growth and transformation strategy. The country is blessed with an estimated 57 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves.

Astra is pleased to announce the achievement of this milestone, as it is an indication of the willingness of the Government of Tanzania to work directly with Astra Energy to advance this significant project.

About Astra Energy Inc.

Astra Energy Inc. invests in and develops renewable and clean energy projects in markets where demand is high, supply is limited and there is opportunity to address other imminent market needs.

Astras corporate strategy is rooted in securing technologies and assets; identifying viable market opportunities; and bringing together resources, expertise, technology, and defined action plans to execute first-in-class projects that benefit communities, local economies, the planet and the Companys investors.

As a publicly traded company, Astra Energy is dedicated to maximizing shareholder value. In addition, its our goal to create a more secure and sustainable power sector that supports our companys purpose, mission and values to transform the economic, environmental and social landscape for generations to come.

For further information about Astra Energy, please visit: www.astraenergyinc.com

About Tanzania Electric Supply Company Ltd. (TANESCO)

TANESCO is an integrated power utility company engaged in the entire value chain of generation, transmission, and distribution across Tanzania. Its core values are Customer, Safety, Integrity, Teamwork, Innovation and Passion.

In undertaking its core functions, TANESCO is guided by the National Energy Policy of 2003 and Electricity Act of 2008. TANESCO Ltd. functions under the regulatory guidance of the Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority (EWURA) established by the EWURA Act of 2001. In complying with the above directives, the Company has come up with a structure that reduces operational costs without compromising performance and efficiency. It has also considered the National Agenda for Industrialization that aims at transforming Tanzanias economy into middle income.

For more information about TANESCO, please visit: www.tanesco.co.tz

Corporate Communications:

Heidi Thomasen

IR@astraenergyinc.com

1-800-705-2919

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT CONCERNING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS



This document contains forward-looking statements. In evaluating these forward-looking statements, you should consider various factors including our ability to change the direction of the Company, our ability to keep pace with new technology and changing market needs, and the competitive environment of our business. These and other factors may cause our actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statement.
Ottawa, March 22, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The liquid biofuels market size was valued at US$ 71.66 billion in 2021. Exhaust from motor vehicles is one of the biggest contributors of air pollution in the world. The U.S. Environment Protection Agency have declared that the on- road motorcars emits three fourth of carbon monoxide pollution in the country. The European Parliament has also stated that 72% of the EUs carbon emigrations come from road transport. To address the issues surrounding raising air pollution layers, Liquid Biofuels similar as biodiesel and ethanol have come out as the most feasible and viable substitutes to conventional fossil fuels similar as petrol. Governments around the world are actively promoting the adoption of biofuels for transport conditioning as the carbon- grounded energies carry human health costs as well as heavy environmental costs.



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Regional Insight

On the basis of region, the report divides the global liquid biofuels market into Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, and Rest of the World. North America region dominated the global market, this is attributed to the rising awareness regarding the advantages of biofuels over conventional energies and strict regulations and programs pertaining to environmental conservation along with the rising environmental concerns among the crowd are contributing to the growth of the region. In addition, Asia Pacific is likely to exhibit healthy growth during the forecast period. In addition, rapidly rising population and rising economic conditions in developing economies similar as China and India are supplementing the growth of the region.

Report Scope Details Market Size by 2028 USD 111.41 Billion CAGR 6.5% from 2021 to 2030 Base Year 2021 Largest Revenue Holder North America Fastest Growing Region Asia Pacific Companies Covered Archer Daniels Midland Company, Green Plains, Wilmar International, Gevo, Pacific Ethanol Inc., Valero Energy Corp., Algenol, Petrobras, Butamax, Renewable Energy Corp., Bunge North America Inc.

Report Highlights

Based on product, the bioethanol & biodiesel is the dominating segment of liquid biofuels market. Significant factors impacting the growth include innovation support (for second and third generation biofuels), favorable regulatory and political support, environmental support, geopolitical support, customer support, and agricultural and economic support.

Based on application, transportation is the dominating segment during the forecast period. Transportation biofuel consumption is demanded to three times by 2030 and has to be on the trail with the Sustainable Development Script (SDS). This compares the one tenth of global transportation energy demand, to be compared with the current position which is around 3.5%.

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Market Dynamics

Driver

The demand towards snowballing energy around the world is aiding the mining & energy industries in taking a transformational leap towards new types of energies. This is mixed with the growing concerns regarding the environment which is leading to the greater investments in the clean source of energy development. These factors inclusively are forming a rich base for the global liquid biofuels market development. In addition, more than few years, biofuels have gained substantial popularity owing to the factor that they're extracted via biological processes and are eco-friendly in nature and has the ability to replace exhaustible energy sources.

Restraint

The outbreak of the COVID-19 contagion has hovered to beget long- term damage on numerous industries. One of them is the transport industry, which is passing sharp decline in demand. The teardrop-down effect has observed an indeed major fall in the prices of biofuel, specifically in the prices of ethanol. In addition, as per the study of Purdue University, on an average manual price of ethanol fell from$1.32/ gallon in December 2019 to$0.82/ gallon in March 2020 owing to rapid drop in transport services demand. Reduced profit of ethanol among the producers has barked down the growth of the product of ethanol, which is anticipated to hamper the market growth during 2020.

Opportunities

This implies substantial production potential, with various feedstocks via presenting myriad opportunities. In metropolises, municipal waste solid in nature is to be attractive, since it's cheap and readily available and has many contending on-energy uses. In rural areas, agricultural remains have major implicit but also face contending uses similar as for animal feed. In economies with wood product diligence which are substantial in nature, timber remainders are low in cost and easy to access but also sell into an established and growing market for heat and electricity generation. Dedicated energy of lignocellulosic crops have further eventuality if more land is been available for a blend of food and energy. This could be attained via advanced food crop yields and more effective use of grassland for animals.

Related Reports

Green Hydrogen Market Research Report 2021  2030

Research Report 2021  2030 Advanced Biofuels Market Research Report 2022 - 2030

Research Report 2022 - 2030 Biofuels Market Research Report 2021 - 2030





Challenge

Biofuels that are produced from biobased materials are a good alternative to petroleum based energies. They offer several benefits to the environment and society. Production of biofuels of alternate generation is indeed more puzzling than producing the biofuelsof first generation owing to the intricacy of the biomass and its problems related to harvesting, producing, and transporting less dense biomass to centralized biorefineries. In addition, about$ 1 billion was spent in the time 2012 by the government agencies in US to meet the mandate to replace 30%existing liquid transportation energies by 2022 which is 36 billion gallons/ time. Other countries in the world have set their own targets to replace petroleum energy by biofuels. Still, above mentioned challenges hampers the expansion of liquid biofuel market.

Segments Covered in the Report

By Product

Biodiesel

Bioethanol

Others





By Application

Transportation Fuel

Power Generation

Thermal Heating





By Feedstock

Sugar Crops

Starch Crops

Vegetable Oils

Animal Fats

Others





By Process

Fermentation

Transesterification

Others





By Geography

North America

Europe

APAC

Latin America

Middle East & Africa (MEA)





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Precedence Research is a worldwide market research and consulting organization. We give unmatched nature of offering to our customers present all around the globe across industry verticals. Precedence Research has expertise in giving deep-dive market insight along with market intelligence to our customers spread crosswise over various undertakings. We are obliged to serve our different client base present over the enterprises of medicinal services, healthcare, innovation, next-gen technologies, semi-conductors, chemicals, automotive, and aerospace & defense, among different ventures present globally.

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PASCAGOULA, Miss., March 26, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HII (NYSE: HII) christened today pre-commissioning unit Jack H. Lucas (DDG 125) at the companys Ingalls Shipbuilding division.

Jack H. Lucas, a longtime resident of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, was the youngest Marine and youngest service member in World War II awarded the Medal of Honor. During a close firefight with Japanese soldiers, Lucas saved the lives of three Marines when he unhesitatingly placed himself on two grenades.

Jack H. Lucas made a selfless decision to choose others and country over self, Ingalls Shipbuilding President Kari Wilkinson said. Our Ingalls shipbuilders have a deep appreciation and respect for what sailors and Marines do on behalf of our nation. We are proud to support them and to provide them this remarkable ship, our first Flight III destroyer.

Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Mike Gilday, was the keynote speaker.

Jack H. Lucas is not only the most capable and sophisticated surface combatant ever built by man, but it also represents the bridge from the past to the future, as we bring a new radar, the Aegis Baseline 10, and a new electric plant onto an already highly capable platform, Gilday said. Such an evolution would be impossible without the shipbuilders of Huntington Ingalls Industries and the Pascagoula community. Flight III represents the dedication and commitment of our sailors and civilians  the skill and innovation of our shipyards and industry partners  and the commitment of the American people to keep the seas free and open for all.

You have built the finest destroyer in the world, Gilday said.

Jack H. Lucas is co-sponsored by Ruby Lucas, widow of the ships namesake, and Catherine B. Reynolds, chairman and CEO of the Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation. Together, the two sponsors officially christened the ship and made remarks during the ceremony.

May the Jack H. Lucas be indestructible, just like he was, Ruby Lucas said. This first of its kind ship is advanced in integrity, courage and commitment to serve our great country. Jack never ran from a fight, and Im certain that all aboard his namesake will represent Jack with honor. Just as I feel his spirit with me, be assured that he will be with all of you all the time.

U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker and U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo, both of Mississippi, delivered remarks. Other speakers included Meredith Berger, performing the duties of Under Secretary of the Navy, and Maj. Gen. Jason Bohm, commanding general, Marine Corps Recruiting Command.

Photos accompanying this release are available at: https://newsroom.huntingtoningalls.com/releases/jack-h-lucas-ddg-125-christening.

Video of the christening ceremony and additional information about the ship and its sponsors is available at: https://ingalls.huntingtoningalls.com/DDG125christening/.

Arleigh Burke-class destroyers are highly capable, multi-mission ships and can conduct a variety of operations, from peacetime presence and crisis management to sea control and power projection, all in support of the United States military strategy. Guided missile destroyers are capable of simultaneously fighting air, surface and subsurface battles. The ship contains a myriad of offensive and defensive weapons designed to support maritime defense needs well into the 21st century.

HII is a global engineering and defense technologies provider. With a 135-year history of trusted partnerships in advancing U.S. national security, HII delivers critical capabilities ranging from the most powerful and survivable naval ships ever built, to unmanned systems, ISR and AI/ML analytics. HII leads the industry in mission-driven solutions that support and enable a networked, all-domain force. Headquartered in Virginia, HIIs skilled workforce is 44,000 strong. For more information, visit:

HII on the web: https://www.hii.com/

HII on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TeamHII

HII on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/wearehii

HII on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wearehii

Contact:

Danny Hernandez

Danny.J.Hernandez@hii-co.com

(202) 580-9086
NEW YORK, March 26, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of the securities of Gatos Silver, Inc. (NYSE: GATO): (a) pursuant and/or traceable to the Registration Statement issued in connection with the Companys initial public offering (the IPO or Offering) conducted on or about October 28, 2020; and/or (b) between October 28, 2020 and January 25, 2022, inclusive (the Class Period), of the important April 25, 2022 lead plaintiff deadline.



SO WHAT: If you purchased Gatos Silver 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 Gatos Silver class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=3100 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com 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 April 25, 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 firms attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.

DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, defendants failed to disclose to investors that: (1) the technical report for Gatos Silvers primary mine, the Cerro Los Gatos deposit, contained certain errors; (2) among other things, the mineral reserves had been overestimated by as much as 50%; and (3) as a result of the foregoing, defendants positive statements about Gatos Silvers business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.

To join the Gatos Silver class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=3100 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com 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 investors ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff.

Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/.

Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Contact Information:



Laurence Rosen, Esq.

Phillip Kim, Esq.

The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.

275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor

New York, NY 10016

Tel: (212) 686-1060

Toll Free: (866) 767-3653

Fax: (212) 202-3827

lrosen@rosenlegal.com

pkim@rosenlegal.com

cases@rosenlegal.com

www.rosenlegal.com
English Swedish

Notice of annual general meeting in Terranet AB

The shareholders of Terranet AB, reg. no. 556707-2128, (the "Company") are hereby invited to the annual general meeting on Thursday 28 April 2022.

Information with respect to the coronavirus

The Company is mindful of the health and well-being of its shareholders and employees. It is important for the Company to take a social responsibility and contribute to reduce the risk of transmission of the coronavirus (Covid-19). Consequently, the general meeting will be carried out through mandatory advance voting (postal voting) pursuant to temporary legislation. Thus, it will not be possible to attend in person or through proxy at the general meeting.

Information on the decisions of the annual general meeting will be published as soon as the outcome of the postal voting is finally compiled on Thursday 28 April 2022.

Right to attend the general meeting

Shareholders who wish to participate through advance voting in the general meeting must:

on the record date, which is Wednesday 20 April 2022, be registered in the share register maintained by Euroclear Sweden AB; and





notify the Company of their intention to participate in the general meeting by casting their advance votes in accordance with the instructions under the heading "Advance voting" below so that the advance voting form is received by the Company no later than on Wednesday 27 April 2022.





Nominee shares

Shareholders, whose shares are registered in the name of a bank or other nominee, must temporarily register their shares in their own name with Euroclear Sweden AB in order to be entitled to participate in the general meeting. Such registration, which normally is processed in a few days, must be completed no later than on Wednesday 20 April 2022 and should therefore be requested from the nominee well before this date. Voting registration requested by a shareholder in such time that the registration has been made by the relevant nominee no later than on Friday 22 April 2022 will be considered in preparations of the share register.

Proxies, etc.

Shareholders represented by proxy shall issue a dated and signed power of attorney for the proxy. If the power of attorney is issued by a legal entity, attested copies of the certificate of registration or equivalent authorisation documents, evidencing the authority to issue the proxy, shall be enclosed. The power of attorney must not be more than one year old, however, the power of attorney may be older if it is stated that it is valid for a longer term, however, not more than five years. A copy of the power of attorney and, where applicable, the registration certificate, should be submitted to the Company by mail at the address set forth above and at the Company's disposal no later than on Wednesday 27 April 2022. A form power of attorney will be available on the Company's website, www.terranet.se, and will also be sent to shareholders who so request and inform the Company of their postal address.

Advance voting

Due to the continuing risk of the spread of the coronavirus (Covid-19), the Company has taken certain precautionary measures in relation to the annual general meeting. The shareholders may exercise their voting rights at the general meeting only by voting in advance, so called postal voting in accordance with section 22 of the Act (2022:121) on temporary exceptions to facilitate the execution of general meetings in companies and other associations.

A special form must be used for advance voting. The form is available at www.terranet.se. The advance voting form is valid as a notification to the annual general meeting.

In the advanced voting form, the shareholders may request that resolution in one or more of the matters raised in the proposed agenda be postponed to a so-called continued general meeting, which may not be held solely by advanced voting. Such a continued meeting for a decision in a specific matter shall take place if the meeting decides on it or if the owners of at least one tenth of all shares in the Company so requests.

The completed voting form must be received by the Company no later than on Wednesday 27 April 2022. The completed form shall be sent to the address: Terranet AB, Attn: Pal Eriksson, Mobilvagen 10, 223 62 Lund, Sweden. The completed form may alternatively be submitted electronically and is then to be sent to pal.eriksson@terranet.se. If the shareholder votes in advance by proxy, a power of attorney shall be enclosed with the form. If the shareholder is a legal entity, a registration certificate or a corresponding document shall be enclosed with the form. The shareholder may not provide special instructions or conditions in the voting form. If so, the vote (in its entirety) is invalid.

Further instructions and conditions are included in the form for advance voting.

Draft agenda

Opening of the meeting Election of chairman of the meeting and appointment of the keeper of the minutes Preparation and approval of the voting list Election of one person to certify the minutes Examination of whether the meeting has been properly convened Approval of the agenda Presentation of the annual report and the auditors' report and the group annual report and the group auditor's report Resolutions regarding: adoption of income statement and balance sheet and the group income statement and the group balance sheet, dispositions of the profit or loss of the company in accordance with the adopted balance sheet and group balance sheet, and discharge from liability of the board of directors and the managing director Determination of the number of directors and auditors Determination of fees to the board of directors and to the auditors Election of the board of directors and auditors Resolution regarding amendments of the articles of association Resolution to authorise the board of directors to resolve on issuances Resolution regarding incentive program 2022/2025:1 resolution regarding issuance of warrants of series 2022/2025:1 resolution regarding approval of transfer of warrants of series 2022/2025:1 Resolution regarding incentive program 2022/2025:2 resolution regarding issuance of warrants of series 2022/2025:2 resolution regarding approval of transfer of warrants of series 2022/2025:2 Closing of the meeting





Proposed resolutions

Item 2: Election of chairman of the meeting and appointment of the keeper of the minutes.

The nomination committee proposes that Carl Svernlov, attorney at law, at Baker & McKenzie Advokatbyra KB is appointed as chairman of the general meeting and keeper of the minutes or, in his absence, the person appointed by him.

Item 3: Preparation and approval of voting list

The voting list proposed for approval by the general meeting is the voting list prepared by the Company, based on the Company's share register received by Euroclear Sweden AB and the advance votes received, and as verified by the person elected to approve the minutes.

Item 4: Election of one person to certify the minutes

The board of directors proposes that Erik Holmgren, attorney at law, at Baker & McKenzie Advokatbyra KB, or, in his absence, the person or persons instead appointed by him, to be elected to certify the minutes of the general meeting. The task of certifying the minutes of the general meeting also includes verifying the voting list and that the advance votes received are correctly reflected in the minutes of the general meeting.

Item 6: Approval of the agenda

The board of directors proposes that the general meeting approves the proposed agenda as set forth above.

Item 8.b: Resolution regarding dispositions of the profit or loss of the company in accordance with the adopted balance sheet and group balance sheet

The board of directors proposes that all funds available for the annual general meeting shall be carried forward.

Item 9: Determination of the number of directors and auditors

The nomination committee proposes that the board of directors shall consist of six directors without deputies.

The nomination committee further proposes that the Company shall have one registered auditing firm as auditor.

Item 10: Determination of fees to the board of directors and to the auditors

The nomination committee proposes that the remuneration to each director elected by the meeting and who is not employed by the Company or the group shall be SEK 100,000 (SEK 100,000 previous year) and the chairman of the board of directors is to receive SEK 200,000 (SEK 200,000 previous year), in total SEK 600,000 (SEK 600,000 previous year).

The nomination committee further proposes that a fee of SEK 25,000 (SEK 25,000 previous year) shall be paid to each of the members of the remuneration committee, in total SEK 75,000 (SEK 75,000 previous year).

Remuneration to the auditor is to be paid according to approved invoice.

Item 11: Election of the board of directors and auditors

The nomination committee proposes that Goran Janson, Karolina Bjurehed, Anders Blom, Magnus Edman, Tarek Shoeb and Nils Wollny are re-elected as directors. The nomination committee further proposes that Anders Blom is elected as chairman of the board of directors.

The nomination committee also proposes re-election of the registered auditing firm Deloitte AB for the period until the end of the annual general meeting 2023. Deloitte AB has announced that the authorised auditor Richard Peters continues as main responsible auditor.

Item 12: Resolution regarding amendments of the articles of association

The board of directors of the Company proposes that the annual general meeting resolves to amend the Company's articles of association as follows:

1. It is proposed that the limits for the share capital in the articles of association are changed from a minimum of SEK 1,250,000 and a maximum of SEK 5,000,000 to a minimum of SEK 3,000,000 and a maximum of SEK 12,000,000. The articles of association  4 will thereby have the following wording:





"Aktiekapitalet ska vara lagst 3 000 000 kronor och hogst 12 000 000 kronor.

The share capital shall be no less than SEK 3,000,000 and not more than SEK 12,000,000."

2. It is proposed that the limits for the number of shares in the articles of association are changed from a minimum of 125,000,000 and a maximum of 300,000,000 to a minimum of 300,000,000 and a maximum of 1,200,000,000. The articles of association  5 will thereby have the following wording:





"Antalet aktier ska vara lagst 300 000 000 stycken och hogst 1 200 000 000 stycken.

The number of shares shall be not less than 300,000,000 and not more than 1,200,000,000."

3. The board of directors or a person appointed by the board of directors shall be authorised to make such minor adjustments in the above resolution that may be required in connection with the registration with the Swedish Companies Registration Office.





Item 13: Resolution regarding authorisation for the board to issue shares, warrants and/or convertibles

The board of directors of the Company proposes that the annual general meeting resolves to authorise the board of directors during the period up until the next annual general meeting to, on one or more occasions, resolve to issue B shares, convertibles and/or warrants, with the right to convert and subscribe for B shares, respectively, with or without preferential rights for the shareholders, within the limits of the articles of association, to be paid in cash, in kind and/or by way of set-off.

The board of directors or a person appointed by the board of directors shall be authorised to make such minor adjustments in the above resolution that may be required in connection with the registration with the Swedish Companies Registration Office.

Item 14: Resolution regarding incentive program 2022/2025:1

The board of directors of the Company, proposes that the annual general meeting resolves to implement an incentive program through issuance of warrants to the Company, with subsequent transfer to employees within the Company and the company group ("Incentive program 2022/2025:1") in accordance with the below.

Background and rationale

The purpose of the proposal is to establish conditions to maintain and increase the motivation of employees within the Company and company group. The board of directors finds that it is in all shareholders' interest that employees who are considered important to the development of the company group, have a long term interest in developing high value of the Company's share. A long-term ownership engagement is expected to stimulate an increased interest for the business and result in a whole as well as to increase the motivation for the participants and to create a common interest for the Company's shareholders and the participant.

Resolutions in accordance with item 14.a and 14.b below shall be made as one resolution and are therefore conditional on each other.

A description of the preparation of the proposal, costs for the program and effect on important key figures etc. is presented below.

Item 14.a: Resolution regarding issuance of warrants of series 2022/2025:1

The board of directors of the Company proposes that the annual general meeting resolves to issue a maximum of 9,850,000 warrants, which may result in a maximum increase in the Company's share capital of SEK 98,500. The warrants shall entitle to subscription of new B shares in the Company.

The following terms shall apply to the issuance:

The warrants may be subscribed for by the Company, with the right and obligation to, at one or several occasions, transfer the warrants to employees within the Company or within the company group, at a price that is not less than the fair market value of the warrant according to the Black & Scholes valuation model and otherwise on the same terms as in the issuance.



The warrants shall be subscribed for as of 28 April 2022 up to and including 12 May 2022 on a separate subscription list, with a right for the board to extend the subscription period.



The warrants are issued without consideration to the Company.



Each warrant entitles to subscription of one new B share in the Company during the period from 1 October 2025 up to an including 31 October 2025 or the earlier date set forth in the terms for the warrants.



Each warrant entitles to subscription of one new B share in the Company at a subscription price of SEK 2.50. Upon subscription of shares, the part of the subscription price that exceeds the quota value of the previous shares shall be allocated to the non-restricted share premium fund.



A new B share subscribed for by exercise of a warrant has a right to dividends as of the first record day for dividends following registration of the new share issue with the Companies Registration Office and after the share has been registered in the share register maintained by Euroclear Sweden AB.



The purpose of the issuance and the deviation from the shareholders preferential rights is to implement the Incentive program 2022/2025:1.



The complete terms and conditions for the warrants are available on the Company's website no later than two weeks prior to the meeting, including conditions regarding re-calculation, in certain cases, of the subscription price and the number of shares a warrant entitles to.



The board of directors or a person nominated by it, shall be authorised to make such minor adjustments as may be required in connection with registration of the resolution with the Swedish Companies Registration Office and, if applicable, Euroclear Sweden AB.





Item 14.b: Resolution regarding approval of transfer of warrants of series 2022/2025:1

The board of directors of the Company proposes that the annual general meeting resolves to approve that the Company may transfer the warrants in the Company of series 2022/2025:1 as follows.

Employees within the Company and company group will within Incentive program 2022/2025:1, be offered to subscribe for warrants as set out below:

Employees within the Company and company group comprise of up to 16 persons, of which the CEO, following the recruitment of the same, is offered to acquire a maximum of 2,500,000 warrants, each of the other senior management members amounting to three in the aggregate is offered to acquire a maximum of 1,250,000 warrants and each of the other employees amounting to twelve in the aggregate is offered to acquire a maximum of 300,000 warrants, in total a maximum of 9,850,000 warrants.

The board of directors further proposes that the annual general meeting approves that the Company may transfer the warrants that are not acquired by the categories as set out above, to future employees within the Company and company group, or in any other matter dispose of the warrants to fulfill the obligations under Incentive program 2022/2025:1.

The Company shall be entitled to retain warrants not transferred for as provided above that may be offered to current and future employees within the Company and the company group in accordance with the proposed acquisition and allotment principles. Existing participants shall acquire warrants no later than 12 May 2022 and future employees within the Company and the company group shall acquire warrants no later than 31 December 2022. However, transfer to the CEO, following the recruitment of the same, shall be made no later than 31 October 2022.

Future employees within the Company and company group will within Incentive program 2022/2025:1, be offered to acquire warrants in accordance with the principles for allotment set out above.

The board of directors of the Company are not entitled to participate in Incentive program 2022/2025:1.

Notification to acquire warrants shall be made during the period from 12 May 2022 up to and including 9 June 2022. The warrants shall be transferred to the participants no later than 9 June 2022, provided that the transfers in accordance with the above does not exceed the maximum number of warrants issued.

Transfer of the warrants shall be made at a price equal to the warrant's market value at the time of transfer, which shall be calculated according to the Black & Scholes valuation model or other generally accepted valuation model. Valuation of the options shall be performed by an independent appraiser or audit firm. In connection with the transfer of the warrants to the participants, the Company shall through an agreement reserve the right to repurchase the warrants, if the participant's employment in the company group ceases or if the participant, in turn, wishes to transfer the warrants.

Warrants that are not transferred by 31 December 2022 shall be cancelled.

Preparation of Incentive Program 2022/2025:1, etc. (it is noted that this is not a decision point)

Incentive program 2022/2025:1 has been prepared by members of the company group management and external advisors and in accordance with guidelines from the board of directors.

Valuation

Transfer of the warrants shall be made at a price equal to the warrant's fair market value, which means no social fees should arise for the company group in connection with the subscription and transfer of warrants. The Black & Scholes valuation model will be used for the valuation.

Costs and effects on key figures

As the warrants are subscribed for and transferred at fair market value, it is the Company's assessment that there will be no social fees for the Company as a result of the subscriptions and transfers. The costs will therefore consist only of minimal costs for the implementation and administration of Incentive program 2022/2025:1.

Dilution

The total number of registered shares at the time of this proposal amount to 326,289,403 and votes amount to 327,422,666. The maximum dilution of Incentive program 2022/2025:1 is estimated to be a maximum of approximately 3.02 percent of the total number of shares and a maximum of approximate 3.01 percent of the total number of votes in the Company (calculated on the number of existing shares and votes in the Company), assuming full subscription and exercise of all warrants offered.

Other outstanding share based incentive programs

The Company has no other outstanding share based incentive programs.

Item 15: Resolution regarding incentive program 2022/2025:2

The Company's shareholder Maida Vale Capital AB proposes that the annual general meeting resolves to implement an incentive program through issuance of warrants to the Company, with subsequent transfer to the Company's directors ("Incentive program 2022/2025:2") in accordance with the below.

Background and rationale

The purpose of the proposal is to establish conditions to maintain and increase the motivation of the Company's directors. Maida Vale Capital AB finds that it is in all shareholders' interest that the directors have a long term interest in developing high value of the Company's share. A long-term ownership engagement is expected to stimulate an increased interest for the business and result in a whole as well as to increase the motivation for the participants and to create a common interest for the Company's shareholders and the participant.

Resolutions in accordance with item 15.a and 15.b below shall be made as one resolution and are therefore conditional on each other.

A description of the preparation of the proposal, costs for the program and effect on important key figures etc. is presented below.

Item 15.a: Resolution regarding issuance of warrants of series 2022/2025:2

The Company's shareholder Maida Vale Capital AB proposes that the annual general meeting resolves to issue a maximum of 5,000,000 warrants, which may result in a maximum increase in the Company's share capital of SEK 50,000. The warrants shall entitle to subscription of new B shares in the Company.

The following terms shall apply to the issuance:

The warrants may be subscribed for by the Company, with the right and obligation to, at one or several occasions, transfer the warrants to the Company's directors, at a price that is not less than the fair market value of the warrant according to the Black & Scholes valuation model and otherwise on the same terms as in the issuance.



The warrants shall be subscribed for as of 28 April 2022 up to and including 12 May 2022 on a separate subscription list, with a right for the board to extend the subscription period.



The warrants are issued without consideration to the Company.



Each warrant entitles to subscription of one new B share in the Company during the period from 1 May 2025 up to an including 31 May 2025 or the earlier date set forth in the terms for the warrants.



Each warrant entitles to subscription of one new B share in the Company at a subscription price of SEK 1.75. Upon subscription of shares, the part of the subscription price that exceeds the quota value of the previous shares shall be allocated to the non-restricted share premium fund.



A new B share subscribed for by exercise of a warrant has a right to dividends as of the first record day for dividends following registration of the new share issue with the Companies Registration Office and after the share has been registered in the share register maintained by Euroclear Sweden AB.



The purpose of the issuance and the deviation from the shareholders preferential rights is to implement the Incentive program 2022/2025:2.



The complete terms and conditions for the warrants are available on the Company's website no later than two weeks prior to the meeting, including conditions regarding re-calculation, in certain cases, of the subscription price and the number of shares a warrant entitles to.



The board of directors or a person nominated by it, shall be authorised to make such minor adjustments as may be required in connection with registration of the resolution with the Swedish Companies Registration Office and, if applicable, Euroclear Sweden AB.





Item 15.b: Resolution regarding approval of transfer of warrants of series 2022/2025:2

The Company's shareholder Maida Vale Capital AB proposes that the annual general meeting resolves to approve that the Company may transfer the warrants in the Company of series 2022/2025:2 as follows.

The Company's directors, however not Anders Blom, will within Incentive program 2022/2025.2, be offered to subscribe for warrants as set out below:

The Company's directors, excluding Anders Blom, of five persons where each person is offered to acquire a maximum of 1,000,000 warrants, in total a maximum of 5,000,000 warrants.

Notification to acquire warrants shall be made during the period from 12 May 2022 up to and including 9 June 2022. The warrants shall be transferred to the participants no later than 9 June 2022, provided that the transfers in accordance with the above does not exceed the maximum number of warrants issued.

Transfer of the warrants shall be made at a price equal to the warrant's market value at the time of transfer, which shall be calculated according to the Black & Scholes valuation model or other generally accepted valuation model. Valuation of the options shall be performed by an independent appraiser or audit firm. In connection with the transfer of the warrants to the participants, the Company shall through an agreement reserve the right to repurchase the warrants, if the participant's employment in the company group ceases or if the participant, in turn, wishes to transfer the warrants.

Warrants that are not transferred by 31 December 2022 shall be cancelled.

Preparation of Incentive Program 2022/2025:2, etc. (it is noted that this is not a decision point)

Incentive program 2022/2025:2 has been prepared by members of the company group management and external advisors.

Valuation

Transfer of the warrants shall be made at a price equal to the warrant's fair market value, which means no social fees should arise for the company group in connection with the subscription and transfer of warrants. The Black & Scholes valuation model will be used for the valuation.

Costs and effects on key figures

As the warrants are subscribed for and transferred at fair market value, it is the Company's assessment that there will be no social fees for the Company as a result of the subscriptions and transfers. The costs will therefore consist only of minimal costs for the implementation and administration of Incentive program 2022/2025:2.

Dilution

The total number of registered shares at the time of this proposal amount to 326,289,403 and votes amount to 327,422,666. The maximum dilution of Incentive program 2022/2025:2 is estimated to be a maximum of approximately 1.53 percent of the total number of shares and a maximum of approximate 1.53 percent of the total number of votes in the Company (calculated on the number of existing shares and votes in the Company), assuming full subscription and exercise of all warrants offered.

Other outstanding share based incentive programs

The Company has no other outstanding share based incentive programs.

Majority requirements

Resolutions in accordance with items 12-13 are valid where supported by shareholders representing at least two thirds of the votes cast and the shares represented at the general meeting. Resolutions in accordance with items 14-15 are valid where supported by shareholders representing at least nine tenths of the votes cast and the shares represented at the general meeting.

Number of shares and votes

The total number of shares in the Company as of the date of the notice amounts to 326,289,403 shares, of which 1,133,263 are A shares corresponding to 2,266,526 votes and 325,156,140 are B shares corresponding to 325,156,140 votes, whereby the total number of votes amounts to 327,422,666 votes. The Company does not own any of its own shares.

Other

Copies of accounts, auditor statement and proxy form are available at the Company at the above address and on the Company's website, www.terranet.se, at least three weeks in advance of the annual general meeting. The complete proposals, including the proposed articles of association, and other documents that shall be available in accordance with the Swedish Companies Act are available at the Company at the above address and on the Company's website, www.terranet.se, at least two weeks in advance of the meeting. All documents will be sent to shareholders who request it and provide their e-mail or postal address.

The board of directors and the managing director shall, if any shareholder so requests and the board of directors considers that it can be done without material harm to the Company, provide information at the general meeting on matters that may affect the assessment of an item on the agenda or the Company's financial information. Such duty to provide information applies also to the Company's relation to other group companies, the consolidated accounts and such circumstances regarding subsidiaries as specified in the foregoing sentence. A request for such information shall be received by the Company in writing no later than ten calendar days prior to the meeting, i.e., Monday 18 April 2022 by post to the Company's address Mobilvagen 10, 223 62 Lund, Sweden or by e-mail to pal.eriksson@terranet.se. The information will be made available at the Company's website, terranet.se and at the head office no later than on Saturday 23 April 2022. The information will also be sent, within the same period of time, to any shareholder who so has requested and who has stated its e-mail or postal address.

Processing of personal data

For information on how personal data is processed in relation the meeting, see the Privacy notice available on Euroclear Sweden AB's website: https://www.euroclear.com/dam/ESw/Legal/Privacy-notice-bolagsstammor-engelska.pdf.

* * * * *

Lund in March 2022

Terranet AB

The board of directors

For further information, please contact:

Thomas Falkenberg, CFO

Tel: +46 703 360 346

E-mail: thomas.falkenberg@terranet.se

This information is such that Terranet AB is required to make public in accordance with the EU's Market Abuse Regulation (MAR). The information was made public by the Company's contact person above on March 27, 2022, at 22.30 CET.

About Terranet

Terranet AB (Nasdaq: TERRNT-B). With a vision to save lives Terranet designs and develops a new class for vision-based sensor systems, used for road safety. It markets and delivers a software stack with features available across vehicle platforms and car models. The technology was handpicked and showcased twice at Startup Autobahn in 2021. The company is located in Lund and Stuttgart. Terranet AB is listed on the Nasdaq First North Premier Growth Market. Discover more about Terranet: www.terranet.se/en

Certified Adviser to Terranet is Mangold Fondkommission AB, 08-503 015 50, ca@mangold.se.

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How to deal with the regulator in times of tougher enforcement

Lawyers specialising in financial services are warning of a more muscular approach being taken by the FMA when it comes to enforcement.

Monday, March 28th 2022, 9:21AM

by Jenni McManus

In part, this is happening because regimes such as the AML/CFT legislation and the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 have been in force for some time and after a honeymoon period of education and light-handed enforcement, the regulator now expects market participants to fully understand their obligations and be compliant.

Another reason is continued fallout from the Australian Haynes commission, where some regulators were heavily criticised for their lax approach to enforcement. While the FMAs approach is different to that of its Australian counterpart, ASIC, the commissions findings have influenced its thinking, Lloyd Kavanagh, a partner at MinterEllisonRuddWatts, told a webinar on compliance last week hosted by the Financial Services Council.

They need to be seen to be taking action.Its a very different world to what we were seeing a couple of years ago.

The FMA has also received a funding boost for enforcement action.

In dealing with the regulator, Kavanaghs best advice to the financial services sector is to take every engagement seriously, no matter how good your relationship might be with those at the front end of the organisation.

Its important advice: financial advisers will be supervised by the FMA when their licensing regime under FSLAA (the Financial Services Legislation Amendment Act) comes into full force in March next year. And the conduct and culture of insurers, banks and non-banking financial institutions will also come within the FMAs remit when COFI (the Financial Markets (Conduct of Institutions) Amendment Bill) becomes law, probably later this year.

Good relationships with the FMAs front-end supervisory teams are vital but that doesnt mean industry participants will get a free ride. Weve seen clients struggle with this, Kavanagh says. They have very good relationship with a front-end person then, weeks later, they get a letter asking some very aggressive questions.

Before talking to the regulator, he advises clients to make sure theyre prepared, have done their due diligence, and are focused on their investors best interests and delivering good outcomes.



Sam Hiebendaal, a senior associate at Bell Gully and a financial services specialist, says the FMAs more muscular approach puts the onus on industry players and their advisers to ensure they are carefully scoping their communications with the regulator while maintaining the proactive and transparent engagement the FMA says it requires.

Hiebendaal says the FMAs separation of its supervisory and enforcement teams is by design and aimed at reducing the risk of enforcement being captured by the market.

It allows the supervisory people to [perform] their role and if there are any issues, [they can] just pass it along to the investigation and enforcement department to deal with separately. I would say this as a litigator, but I think it highlights the importance of getting a disputes lawyer or someone who specialises in investigations on board early if you think that something has the potential to develop into an investigation.

While newly appointed FMA boss Samantha Barrass said earlier this month that she wanted to remain completely connected to the industry and work collaboratively with it, this does not appear to mean a softer approach to persistent non-compliers.

For more information on how the FMA views enforcement, Kavanagh recommends that market players read a speech given by its then Acting General Counsel, Karen Chang, last November. https://www.fma.govt.nz/news-and-resources/speeches-and-presentations/karen-chang-speech-to-minter-ellison-clients/

In her speech Chang, who has just been appointed head of the Serious Fraud Office, made it clear that those who do not meet the FMAs expectations around conduct will be held to account.

When the regulator sent a request to a firm for information, Chang said it expected thorough, accurate and constructive answers. It encouraged firms to pro-actively self-report issues and, at the same time, detail the remedial action they intended to take to make things right for investors.

But in cases of serious misconduct, self-reporting would not immunise a firm against enforcement action, Chang said. The nature of the underlying misconduct itself will always be the driving factor in assessing the appropriate responseA confession does not absolve responsibility.

Timely self-reporting to the regulator was expected, she said. Delays, and incomplete self-reporting would be viewed as aggravating factors.

Chang was also sceptical about firms which claimed their problem was created by faulty systems. If misconduct was inadvertent, or caused by systems failure, that demonstrated a lack of prioritisation and investment in appropriate systems and processes, she said.

It was all about New Zealanders having confidence and trust in the financial services they were receiving. This means investing in systems that put customers first and showing a willingness to deal with the regulator in a way that is open, transparent and engaged.

Kavanagh says self-reporting is a good idea to mitigate the impact of any potential harm but is not a panacea and firms should expect the regulator to ask hard questions.

Proactively make sure your approach and systems and processes are right at the front end. There have been lots of reports in the media over the past year of formal warnings or directions being given [to firms] whereas in the past, regulator would have said ok, youve brought this to us, fix it and dont make another error.

When dealing with regulators, Hiebendaal says its important to strike a balance between doing the prudent and sensible thing by self-reporting matters as they arise and carefully calibrating the information youre providing.

Its always better to raise a problem and a solution at the same time, rather than saying weve come across this issue, we dont know how many people it has affected and were going to do something about it at some undefined period in the future.

Kavanagh agrees. They typically wont react well to being told theres a bit of a problem, you dont know how big it is or what youre going to do about it but youre just sharing, he says. If you find an issue, its important to work really fast to find out as much as you can and what you are planning to do about it As Samantha Barrass pointed out, its all about the investors.

Hiebendaal warns of the need to be careful with all business-as-usual conversations with the regulator if theres an investigation going on in the background. And your internal teams need to be very linked-up to make sure that nothing theyre saying is cutting across each other.

Or, as Kavanagh puts it: One thing to be conscious of is that even in everyday interactions, your teams make sure what theyre saying is accurate. Its important to be super-clear that you can stand by what youre saying and that its factually based.

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Hundreds of Yemenis gather in Sanaa on March 7, 2022 to protest against the ongoing blockade imposed on the Houthi-controlled regions. (Photo by Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua)



SANAA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's Houthi rebels on Saturday announced a three-day unilateral cease-fire with the Saudi-led coalition, voicing their commitment to a permanent truce if the coalition ends airstrikes and withdraws forces.



"We will suspend cross-border missile and drone attacks and all military actions against Saudi Arabia for a period of three days. If Saudi Arabia would agree to end its airstrikes and blockade against Yemen, we are ready to turn this declaration into a final and permanent commitment," said Mahdi al-Mashat, president of the Houthi militia's Supreme Political Council, in a televised speech.

"The initiative includes the suspension of all ground battles on all frontlines including the province of Marib," al-Mashat added, on the occasion marking the entering of the Yemeni civil war into its eighth year.

The Houthi political leader also proposed a deal to swap all prisoners, including the brother of Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, with the Saudi-led coalition forces.

"We call on the UN envoy to facilitate the exchange of all prisoners," al-Mashat said.

The Houthi initiative came hours after the coalition forces launched heavy airstrikes on Houthis' vital military and economic sites in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah and the capital Sanaa in retaliation for Houthis' cross-border missile and drone attacks against oil facilities in Saudi Arabia this week.

The Houthi militia has recently intensified attacks against Saudi Arabia after it lost several strategic districts in the oil-rich provinces of Marib and Shabwa during its fighting against the Yemeni government army in the past two months.

Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014 when the Iran-backed Houthi militia seized control of several northern provinces and forced the Saudi-backed Yemeni government of Hadi out of Sanaa.

The Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened on March 26, 2015 in the Yemeni civil war in an attempt to reinstate the Hadi government. 
BYD and Shell signed a strategic cooperation agreement to help accelerate the energy transition and improve charging experience for BYDs battery electric vehicle (BEV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) customers. The partnership will start in China and Europe and will extend to other regions across the globe.





A BYD Han EV at Shell Recharge site

Based on the agreement, BYD and Shell will collaborate in the following areas:

For private and commercial customers of BYDs BEVs and PHEVs, BYD and Shell will form a pan-European Mobility Service Provider (MSP) partnership, offering them membership access to 275,000 charging points through Shell roaming network. Both BYD and Shell will also jointly develop Fleet Solutions and Depot Charging services for BYD customers in Europe.

Both companies will seek to provide integrated home energy solutions such as dynamic tariff scheduling, solar integration, home batteries, Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) charging in different regions across the world.

Both parties will explore opportunities to build BYD-Shell EV hubs in key European markets, providing customers with the experience of BYD premium designs and advanced new energy vehicle technologies, as well as seamless charging and digital services jointly developed by both parties for greater user experience.

Both BYD and Shell will refer customers to participate in the Accelerate to Zero (A2Z) decarbonisation programme, which enables corporate fleets to reduce emissions to zero and net-zero across various markets in Europe.

Both BYD and Shell intend to collaborate on global research and development in the areas of battery performance and advanced charging.

Globally, Shell will seek to help BYD generate cost-saving and better hardware performance with Shell E-Fluids and coolants.

Both parties also intend to form a joint venture to develop EV charging networks across China. The joint venture is expected to operate a network of more than 10,000 charging points in Shenzhen, China, with a plan to expand to more locations in China.
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GREENWICH  The rubber is about to hit the road for the proposed $464 million municipal budget for 2022-23 with the critical vote of the Board of Estimate & Taxation just days away.

Before its all-day meeting on the budget on Thursday, the BET will hold an in-person public hearing at 7 p.m. Monday in Greenwich Town Hall.

Advocates plan to pack the public hearing and get one last opportunity to speak out in support of proposed town spending on projects from school infrastructure improvements to expanded pickleball courts. Three proposed allocations are expected to draw heavy support: $300,000 for traffic and safety improvements in Byram, $750,000 for a sidewalk on Shore Road in Old Greenwich and $500,000 for Glenville neighborhood improvements.

But will that advocacy result in BET approval  or will the projects face cuts?

The toughest road ahead may be for the planned traffic and pedestrian safety improvements in Byram. The $300,000 allocation would be part of a three-year commitment by the town, with $300,000 allocations also planned in 2023-24 and 2024-25.

The project is a longstanding priority for the busy neighborhood, which is seeing increased traffic due to development in Port Chester, N.Y. It would include redesigned intersections, new road striping, new crosswalks and new signs, with rectangular rapid flashing beacons at pedestrian crossings.

But the BETs Budget Committee earlier this month was split 2-2 on cutting the plan. Republicans Leslie Tarkington, the committees chair, and Nisha Arora voted against it while Democrats Leslie Moriarty and Laura Erickson voted for it.

The split meant that no motion was approved, but the matter could come before the full BET on Thursday. The Republicans hold a tie-breaking vote there, which means the project could be deferred if the party line split continues.

Byram improvements

But Joe Kantorski, chair of the Byram Neighborhood Association, said several residents are planning to make the case for the project at Mondays hearing. Theres already been a series of letters to the editor as well as emails to BET members in support of the funding.

We want to inform the BET and the public that we have gone through this process all the way and why this money is so important, he said. We cant proceed with any of the safety improvements that we have asked for and the town has agreed to make without that money. We need the traffic studies this will pay for to make this happen.

The Board of Selectmen and the Department of Public Works support the improvements, but it is now up to the BET.

This is not just a nice to have $300 grand and we dont know what were going to do with it, Kantorski said. This is not a nebulous thing. We have specific improvements that have been agreed to by the town that will make it a lot safer for people in Byram. People have been injured at intersections in Byram.

There are other considerations, too, he said.

There are the businesses that are concerned about this, and there are real estate agents who are confused. The streets are not safe at certain intersections and Byram is a walking community. Thats part of its charm and appeal to younger parents moving to town, he said.

Old Greenwich sidewalk

Public safety is the issue for residents on Shore Road in Old Greenwich who are hoping for approval of a proposed $750,000 allocation that would pay for the installation of a new sidewalk where none currently exists.

Its clear to anyone who goes outside and has children that this is a fundamental safety issue, said Maggie Bound, a Shore Road resident.

For anyone who runs (for office) on public safety and infrastructure and then when its time to vote in favor of something like this doesnt do it, we will get the message out that they dont support common sense safety measures, she said.

The problem has been compounded by traffic coming from Stamford that cant go under the Sound Beach Avenue rail bridge, Bound said, as well as by traffic from construction vehicles working on homes.

The lack of a sidewalk is a risk to human life in Old Greenwich, which is a big walking community, with a school, a library, the business district and the beach all in close proximity to Shore Road, she said.

The residents want this and need it, Bound said. Its apparent on a daily basis. All you have to do is stand outside your door on Shore Road. We would be happy to invite anybody from the BET to take a walk down Shore Road.  When you see a mother pushing a baby in a stroller by the side of the road and a cement mixer whizzes by, its terrifying.

The Budget Committee did not make a motion to cut the Shore Road allocation, potentially setting it up for a bipartisan approval Thursday if that support holds.

Glenville project

A motion was considered earlier this month to cut the Glenville allocation, but that failed again in a 2-2 split. As a result, the measure will go before the full BET. But it could end up on the chopping block again, so a strong community showing is planned for Monday night to defend it.

Members of the Pemberwick Glenville Association, which has a dedicated Beautification Task Force, launched a campaign called Light Up Glenville in support of the project. It sent an email asking community members to appear at Mondays public hearing and to write to the 12 BET members to push for support.

The allocation would fund beautification work in Glenville, including new lighting that Eversource Energy would maintain. It is also part of the towns Glenville corridor traffic improvements, which are designed to alleviate long-running problems with congestion and pedestrian safety.

Abbe Large, a task force member, said the project has big support in the community.

Glenville is a very beloved community, Large said. Its a very special community, and in every single meeting and every single effort weve done to discuss this and move it forward there has been nothing but support and gratitude.

It would be extremely amazing if the improvements were approved, she said, saying the efforts to Light Up Glenville would rival Greenwich Avenue at night.

This is a beautiful project that has brought people together to improve the area for everybody, Large said, noting the cooperation of residents as well as the DPW, Planning and Zoning, the Greenwich Tree Conservancy, the American Legion, the Greenwich Historical Society and area business owners.

Residents across town are crossing their fingers on their favorite projects.

Im an optimist at heart, Kantorski said. Im a glass half-full kind of guy. Im hoping and thinking that they will listen carefully to the strong arguments we have. If they do that, I think we have a good shot at convincing them.

First Selectman Fred Camillo said he hoped for BET approval on all the projects.

These are projects that come from needs demonstrated by the neighborhoods themselves, Camillo said. You want the government to be coming from the people, not at the people. These projects come from the people.

They are things that people have talked about and asked for  public safety and beautification. Those are part of what we have talked about and heard for years, he said. Im hoping my friends on the finance board will see that these are needed.

kborsuk@greenwichtime.com
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GREENWICH  When Olga Litvinenko and her family members finally reached her great-aunt on the phone in Ukraine earlier this month, they could hear explosions.

We heard bombings in the background, and we took that as a signal we needed to get her out of there, said Litvinenko, a Greenwich resident who runs a fragrance and beauty business.

Litvinenko traveled to Polands border with Ukraine on the rescue mission. She planned to help Svetlana Fedoran, her 74-year-old great-aunt, along with her beloved cat, get out of the war zone in Kyiv.

Fedoran is now safe in France, staying with family friends several hundred miles south of Paris.

The two spent time together last in Paris earlier this month. She was safe and I could finally hug her, said Litvinenko, a Ukrainian-American who competed in the 2017 Miss USA Pageant as Miss Connecticut.

The rescue mission was a harrowing time for everyone in the family, she said. But Litvinenko wasnt done assisting with the refugee crisis emerging as a result of the deadly Russian invasion of Ukraine.

She went back again to the Polish border to volunteer with a refugee resettlement operation that is running buses to France. As part of that effort, Litvinenko helped escort about 80 Ukrainian refugees to France on a long bus trip over a weekend earlier this month.

The situation in Eastern Europe has become dire for civilians caught up in war zones, Litvinenko said. Its getting worse every day, she said.

It was stressful for the refugees even as the bus loaded up at Przemysl, Poland, Litvinenko said.

Psychologically, they were off. They were so shaken up, traumatized. Its heartbreaking to have to deal with something like that, she said of the people who had fled their war-torn home.

Litvinenko and other volunteers had to project an air of calm and reassurance to the refugees. They looked to us as their light, and hope for the future, she said.

The former Miss Connecticuts mother, Tamara, left Ukraine and journeyed to Greenwich last month as the invasion was about to commence. The family lived in the capital city of Kyiv. Olga Litvinenko came to the U.S. as a child and grew up in Greenwich.

Litvinenko has joined other Ukranian-Americans in Connecticut in working to fundraise and organize efforts to provide international aid to Ukraine. The fragrance-business executive, who graduated from Greenwich High School, has also set up a fundraising site to accept donations to help refugees.

While shes sleep-deprived and more tired than she has ever been in her whole life, Litvinenko said she would do it all over again. In fact, she is likely to return to the Polish border soon, she said in a phone call from France.

Though she has a comfortable life in Greenwich, when it comes to help the people of Ukraine, she said, I wouldnt be anywhere else in the world.

rmarchant@greenwichtime.com
CHONGQING, March 27 (Xinhua) -- A freight train left Guoyuan Port in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality on Saturday for Vietnam's capital Hanoi, marking the launch of a new freight train route between China and Vietnam.

The route, a part of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, is expected to further facilitate trade between western China and Southeast Asia.

All the products loaded in the train -- 43 containers of engines, tires, printing paper and others -- were produced in Chongqing, with a total worth of more than 3.9 million U.S. dollars.

Previously, most of the goods from Chongqing and neighboring Sichuan Province to Vietnam were transported by water via Shanghai and other ports, which takes more than 20 days.

The new route shortens the transport time from Chongqing to Vietnam to 4 to 5 days. It is not only time- and labor-saving, but also safer and more efficient.

The New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor is a trade and logistics passage jointly built by Singapore and provincial-level regions of western China. Chongqing Municipality is the center of operation for the corridor. 
Samsung may want to reconsider the launch plans for the Galaxy A73 5G. The results from last weeks poll show that this may be the best phones in the 2022 Galaxy A series. And yet we still dont know where it will be available or how much it will cost. All we know is that it will launch in select regions in late April.

We thought that losing the telephoto camera and not having a larger battery than the A53 would hurt it, but that wasnt the case. The A73 topped the poll and got a better reception than the A53 and A33.

The biggest threat to the A73 may be an S-series flagship instead of the A53. Some folks in the comments seem ready to leave behind the mid-ranger life and go up to something like the Galaxy S20 FE 5G or S21 FE 5G (some even brought up the regular S21). Depending on the pricing in your region, an S-series phone may make more sense than the A73.

How well the Galaxy A53 5G and Galaxy A33 5G do in the market depends on, well, the market. As we mentioned in the original post, the A52s is not available as an alternative in some markets, in others it just costs too much. The A53 5G launched in India earlier this week at a price of 35,000 (for a 6/128 GB unit), slightly cheaper than the A52s, but not far off the S20 FE.

The Galaxy A52s 5G from last year is still a viable option as it will receive two more OS updates (it already got one update to Android 12) and will be getting security patches until 2024. Thats great for those who already have an A52s and is pretty good even if you get one now. Quite a few brands offer 2 OS updates and 3 years of security patches even for their flagships.

Still, we expect the Galaxy A53 5G to eclipse the A52s in popularity in most markets. And it will probably do the same to its more affordable sibling, the Galaxy A33 5G. It may be a value for money option among Samsungs offerings, but the 370/330 price point pits it against capable alternatives from other brands.
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Skater: 'I didn't feel comfortable there'

Rick Cruz / Rick Cruz/PDN Jayron De Leon shares a sample of his skills as he spends an evening skateboarding with friends at the Dededo Skate Park on Monday, March 14, 2022.

Rick Cruz / Rick Cruz/PDN Friends gather for an evening of skateboarding inside the Dededo Skate Park on March 14, 2022.

With its ramps, rails and bowls that flow together, the Dededo Skate Park is considered one of the best places for skateboarding on the island.

But with recent reports of violence at the park, some enthusiasts are choosing makeshift, do-it-yourself parks where the obstacles are built by skaters themselves.

On Wednesday, police closed their investigation of the March 3 riot at the park. Seven people were charged in the fight, which one participant described in court documents as an all-out brawl with weapons. Five people were injured, and one man was left permanently blind in his left eye.

In February, another man was sent to the hospital after he was attacked, kicked, stomped and beaten in the head with a skateboard, according to court documents.

Unsafe

For some, the park is no longer a safe place to enjoy their sport.

I just didnt feel comfortable there as much, said Stoney Bucek, a 22-year-old skater who recently stopped going to the park.

The news of the riot was upsetting for skateboarders.

I was genuinely heartbroken, said 30-year-old, Dan Ganacias. I dont know these kids, but just to know first of all they clearly were not looking for trouble, and when something like that happens its terrible.

For some skaters however, the violence was not surprising.

I dont want to say it was expected, but its also nothing new, because I know a lot of bad things can happen when it comes to the late hours at the Dededo Skate Park, skater Ellie Torres said.

Rick Cruz / Rick Cruz/PDN Friends gather for an evening of skateboarding inside the Dededo Skate Park on March 14, 2022.

When the park opened in 2007, it was touted as a safe place skaters could go to stay busy, keep fit and develop skills.

PDN file photo Skaters of all ages fill the Dededo Skate Park during its opening day on Nov. 1, 2007.

I grew up skating there. I learned all my skating there, pretty much, Bucek said. And the community  outside of those people that are not part of the community  are awesome.

Ganacias agreed, describing fond memories of the park.

If your friends were there, and you are trying to do a trick and you land the trick, you get an applause from the entire park, he said.

But Ganacias himself has been confronted in the park three different times, one time by a man holding concrete blocks.

I was sitting in the quarter pipe with a couple of kids and he was calling us out to fight, Ganacias recalled. He said the man got into a fight moments later and threw the concrete blocks in the bowl, an obstacle unique to the Dededo Skate Park.

Bucek and Torres shared similar stories of people tossing items in the bowl, including glass bottles thrown by people drinking at the park.

This one time we were all minding our business, everyones skating, and then she started throwing glass into the bowl. And this is like, for no reason whatsoever. We didnt instigate or agitate her in any way, Bucek explained.

The woman in question, Torres said, was also known by skaters to have previously defecated in the bowl.

It kind of like stunk up the whole park and we skaters had to rely on the rain to wash it off. That wasnt a good time, Torres said.

Community solutions

The need to stay safe has driven skaters to other parks, and even led skaters to make their own parks.

Bucek now skates in Mongmong. Ganacias has been going to Tamuning for the past year.

PDN file photo Skater Anthony Santos tries out the new Dededo Skate Park after a ribbon cutting was held for the opening of the venue on Nov. 1, 2007.

We dont discriminate. Every kid that comes in there, we welcome them openly, we show them the ropes and I think thats where skateboarding needs to be right now, Ganacias said.

Bucek and Torres say when they do go to the Dededo park, it is under limited circumstances.

If youre a new skater, its OK to skate there, just be kind of cautious when youre skating there late at night, especially if there arent a lot of skaters around, Torres said.

Bucek said parents need to be aware of the danger, too.

I think the most important think is making sure parents are educated and understand that you cannot drop a young pre-teen to the park and expect theyre going to be 100% fine, because it can be a dangerous area, Bucek said.

PDN file photo Anthony Santos flew like a hawk on this exhibition tryout at the newly opened Dededo Skate Park after a ribbon cutting was held for the opening of the venue on Nov. 1, 2007.

Caution

Ganacias advises against skating in the park late at night, and thinks more can be done to solve the problem for good.

Its very heartbreaking to see the state of the skate park right now. The environment attracts riff-raff, its dimly lit, the obstacles are poorly maintained, theres graffiti all over the place and it doesnt seem like a very well-maintained park, said Ganacias.

I want to call out the leaders of Guam. I dont know whos in charge, who can make change for that skate park and parks in general, but you know who you are, he said. I would love for Guam to be a safe place where kids can grow and play safely.
Corrections and clarifications: Alice Taijeron is the governors deputy chief of staff. Other information was published in a subhead in an earlier version of this story.

Editors note: As part of Mes CHamoru the Vibe team is writing profiles on CHamorus who have worked to improve the community.

Alice Taijeron, the governors deputy chief of staff, started her career in politics at a young age. At 14, she led a successful campaign to become her grades homeroom president, and later became her schools student council president as a senior.

These experiences in her adolescence, and later as an adult, drove her to pursue her life goal: bringing better opportunities for and to the people of Guam.

Taijeron had moved to Guam when she was 7, after her father retired from the military. Her parents, Elias and Maria Taijeron, had always held Guam close to their hearts, even when distance had separated from the island, and they wanted their daughter to learn from and be exposed to life on Guam.

She ended up attending Notre Dame High School, where she strengthened her Catholic faith.

I loved being a student at ND. At the time, the school was only for girls, so I was exposed to a lot of female empowerment. I felt so comfortable in my skin here and appreciated all that the Guam community had done for me in the little time that I had lived on the island.

She believed that it was important to show her gratitude for the island. She took part in multiple beach cleanups, volunteered at hospitals, and took part in projects that helped the less fortunate youth of Guam.

I think my want to help others stemmed at ND. The Notre Dame sisters always encouraged us to think of others and spread love.

Higher degrees

After graduating with honors, she attended the University of Guam, expecting to become a lawyer. My dad, who has had a huge influence on who I am, suggested that I become a lawyer to help those who needed my help. He would always tell me that I am who I am because of my family and my island.

Later, though, I realized my passion for politics. I loved researching and analyzing methods to make communities better, she said.

She eventually graduated with a degree in political science, then went on to pursue her masters in organization arts from the University of Phoenix.

Afterward, she worked for former Sen. Judy Won Pat as a political analyst, then moved to the private sector. She was soon asked to do legislative work in Washington D.C. by former Rep. Robert Underwood for four years.

'Appreciate my elders

She later met Lou Leon Guerrero, who was a senator at the time, and became her political analyst and research writer.

Working for Senator Leon Guerrero was a great experience. I would give recommendations for different bills. One bid that Im really proud of was the Natasha Act, which prohibited smoking in all restaurants on Guam.

Taijeron is also proud of her work to improve the lives of senior citizens as a retirement counselor and director of Empower Retirement.

My parents taught me to always appreciate my elders as they have endured so much and have been responsible for the islands well-being.

Deputy chief of staff

In 2019, Taijeron was asked by Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero to work as the president of the Guam Housing Corp. The next year, she was offered the governors deputy chief of staff position and she took it.

I was so surprised and excited when the governor had asked me to fill the role as chief of staff. I had been in the private sector for a long time, so I had to consider her proposition, but ultimately, I decided to accept. ... I wanted to be on her team and help her as best as I could, Taijeron said.

She said that as chief of staff, she ensures that the decisions that are made are best for the island, given the position that we are in.

As dedicated as she is to her political work, she is just devoted to her Catholic faith. The ND sisters showed me how important religion and God were to life. My faith has always been strong, and I feel that whenever I am in difficult circumstances, I can speak to God and find my way.

She joked, Im somewhat of a hermit, so God made my path lead to politics to ensure that I wouldnt always be an introvert.

Optimistic for the future

Taijeron added that she feels very confident in the future of Guam as more and more teens are facing unique circumstances that make them stronger as individuals.

I look at my nieces and nephews and Im so proud of what they have accomplished. They, and many teens like them, have had to go to school during a pandemic and are having to live on a hotter-than-ever-before planet. Teens today have lived through so much and yet, they are passionate about their future.

I am lucky to call Guam my home, and I am extremely excited to see all that the future generations will have to offer the island.
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.
So far the Guam Greyhound Park is the only vendor to express interest in hosting early voting for election year 2022, and the Guam Election Commission is continuing its search for vendors.

The Greyhound wrote us a letter that said they were interested in providing the space, no one else, but we are going to be aggressive, said Maria Pangelinan, director of the Guam Election Commission.

With early voting a permanent option, the commission will need to rent a space for all future elections.

An invitation for bid was issued on Friday for commercial office space which, for security reasons, must be within three miles of the commissions office at the Oka Building. While the Greyhound was a suitable location to host early voting, Pangelinan said more locations will be sent the invitation for bid, which has a deadline of April 25.

While several hotels fall within the three-mile range, the long walk to most ballrooms isnt ideal for voters and presents an issue for ballot security, Pangelinan said. The Hyatt might be ideal, but its out of the commissions price range.

We dont want the food, we dont want the ambience. And we will be paying for that if we go to a hotel, she said.

As for funding for the new space, Sen. Joe San Agustin on Wednesday introduced Bill 281, which will provide $609,000 to the Election Commission to conduct the primary election and rent the early voting space. Pangelinan said the commission needs the money in hand by April 25.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission is short of the 50,000 registered voters that were projected to be signed up by February, in part because the Department of Revenue and Taxation hasnt been sending motor voter information to the commission.

The motor voter law allows eligible voters to register whenever they apply or renew their Guam drivers license or Guam ID with Rev and Tax. It was passed in 2015, but wasnt put in place until 2019.

Rev and Tax launched online renewals for IDs and drivers licenses last October.

The initial thing we found out was that we may not be getting the copies of the online applications from DMV. Upon further check there were more that we were not getting, Pangelinan said.

The applications werent lost, the commission just didnt have them, she said. They were working with Rev and Tax to have the problem resolved by May.

The primary election is on Aug. 27, and early voting begins July 25. The deadline to register to vote for the primary is Aug. 17. Those registering to vote can cast their votes on the same day.

Candidates

The number of potential candidates competing for the 15 seats at the Legislature is now up to 37, as of Sunday. The following have picked up candidate packets for senator, according to the Election Commission sign-out sheet.

Vincent Borja, Republican

Ken Leon Guerrero, Republican

Roy A. B. Quinata, Democrat

Don A. A. Edquilane, Republican

Sandra Reyes Seau, Republican

Jesse Lujan, Republican

Dwayne San Nicolas, Democrat

Roy L. Gamboa, Democrat

Diamantino Conceicao, Undecided

Sen. Joe San Agustin, incumbent, Democrat

Muchanah Udui, Democrat

Alejandro Gay, Democrat

Ian D. Cathling, Undecided

Dave Duenas, Democrat

Fred E. Bordallo Jr., Democrat

Chris Barnett, Undecided

Elaine Ulloa, Undecided

Kevin A. Nace, Undecided

Trevor Boykin, Undecided

David Lubofsky, Undecided

Sarah Thomas-Nededog, Democrat

EnyDennis Dali, Independent

Evangelis J. Babauta

Tom Devlin, Undecided

Sen. Telo Taitague, incumbent, Republican

Harvey Egna, Republican

Raffaele M.J.P. Sgambelluri, Republican

James Terbio, Republican

Louise B. Muna, Republican

Amanda Blas, Republican

Jessica M. Barrett, Republican

Thomas Shieh, Undecided

Franklin Meno, Democrat

Cel Babauta, party not listed

Sen. Jose Pedo Terlaje, incumbent, Democrat

David W. Crisostomo, Republican

Sen. Telena Nelson picked up a candidate packet for Washington delegate and senator but has not made any official campaign announcement. Sen. Jim Moylan has officially announced his bid for the delegate seat. Del. Mike San Nicolas has expressed an interest in running for governor but has not officially declared candidacy for any office.

The campaign team for incumbents Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero and Lt. Gov. Joshua Tenorio is registered to begin fundraising, as well as Camacho Ada 2022, for the team of former Gov. Felix Camacho and Sen. Tony Ada.

Other candidate packets have been picked up for:

Attorney General:

Leevin Camacho

Douglas Moylan

Consolidated Commission on Utilities:

Kenneth Perez

Nonito Blas

Ricardo S. Unpingco

Guam Education Board:

Ellaine Ulloa

Kevin A. Nace

Ron McNinch

Cel Babauta

Governor and lieutenant governor:

Chris Barnett, party undecided.
The Hotel Nikko Guam held coconut leaf weaving demonstrations open to local residents and tourists as part of the hotels Mes CHamoru celebrations.

The event was held every Saturday and Sunday for the month of March at the Rotunda court with an instructor showing participants how to weave various crafts.

The hotel held the event not just for the local community to celebrate the CHamoru culture, but also for visitors to experience one of the major practices of the CHamoru people.

Its important to tell the stories of our cultures here on Guam by experience, said acting General Manager William Shinozaki. If you touch the cultures with your hands, it would really enhance the feelings and understanding of the culture itself  and the depth of it.

According to Shinozaki, the response to the event has been positive as the hotel has received many comments from locals and tourists.

Weaving instructor Amando Rapun, who also works at the hotel as a lifeguard, said that he got into weaving by his middle school CHamoru teacher. He continues to weave as a hobby to this day and believes its important for CHamoru people to learn this craft in order to continue the cultures survival.

More of our islands are losing their culture and thats why I picked it up, he said. Im from the islands and I still want to keep that culture going.

As restrictions continue to lift, Shinozaki hopes to continue the event.

We wish to showcase our culture and its beauty through our services and products, so our local patrons and off-island visitors would experience such beauty and values at ease, he said.
Parents with students enrolled in the Chief Hurao Neni Academy are learning the CHamoru language with their children  bringing their families closer as they connect with their roots.

We didnt have the luxury of learning and speaking CHamoru, so I wanted to make sure that our kids had that opportunity. I didnt want my kids to grow up not knowing their culture, their language or self-identity, said Ryan Salas, a parent and participant in the Chief Hurao Neni Academy.

As part of the class, held Thursday evenings at P.C. Lujan Elementary, parents join their children in lessons while conversing mainly in CHamoru  turning the language lessons into a family affair.

Initially a summer program, the Chief Hurao Academy turned into a nonprofit organization with the mission to increase CHamoru language fluency and instill a strong sense of cultural identity through a family-incorporated approach.

Reverse dynamic

Junior OBrien said the class has brought out a reverse dynamic hes learning CHamoru through his son, Ezra OBrien.

We have fun with it. He makes fun of me sometimes but its interesting, Junior OBrien said. Its all fun, but its part of the culture too.

Junior OBrien said he never thought it would be possible to see a CHamoru speaking family again, but after seeing how far his son has gone with the program, he started to believe he and his family would help make that happen.

He and his wife, Perinne OBrien plan to have their two younger children participate once they are old enough to enroll in the academy.

Daaud Celestine didnt grow up on Guam, but he and his partner, Amanda Siguenza, wanted both of their children, Unai Celstine, 4, and Koneo Celestine, 2, to be immersed in their CHamoru heritage.

He (Unai Celestine) was born here, his mothers CHamoru and so its very important he has that history and that background and culture within him, especially when he gets older. Its important he learns social values said Daaud Celestine.

Re-learning CHamoru

Many of the parents who participate in the Chief Hurao Neni Academy grew up in Guam, but dont speak the language fluently because of cultural stigmas or they didnt yet understand the importance of learning to speak CHamoru until much later in life.

I kind of took it for granted. I said I know some, its always going to be there for me, said parent John Sarmiento. To see them (his children) grow and progress ... I had to evolve, too. So from there, I made the commitment.

However, for some of the academys parents, there has always been an interest to learn and speak CHamoru.

Growing up, Ive always had the desire, but never knew how and there was never a system in place ... I wasnt surrounded by family with the opportunity to learn, said parent Jenny Sarmiento, explaining that she wasnt surrounded by those who could speak the language fluently.

Even before she had children, Siguenza wanted to learn more about her heritage and be able to speak her native tongue fluently.

CommitmentIt can kind of be like an overcompensation because ... I felt I had to prove to everyone and say that Im CHamoru, starting with having to learn the language, Siguenza said. I actually had left to the states to see my family that can speak CHamoru. Being from here and I cant speak the language kind of hit me hard. How did these people in the states know CHamoru and I dont?

Additionally, she felt that she neglected her own culture by being able to speak Spanish fluently but not her native language. It has now become a sense of pride for her to learn CHamoru.All of the parents agreed that learning and speaking CHamoru will take time and commitment. But believe that the academy will help them get through those steps toward fluency to continue their cultural connections.

We try our best as much as we can to speak CHamoru at home and not in the school setting, but weve definitely come a long way from when we first started, said Perinne OBrien. A lot of it is because of these parent classes.

Family bonds

For parent Roxanne Salas, learning the language has brought her and her family much closer.

Its still a learning process for me but I definitely understand and speak a little more than I did. Its something we can do as a family and were grateful and blessed for that, she said.
The Guam Power Authority Cabras Power Plant in Piti pictured in this 2019 photo. George Eustaquio writes that Guam should remember its former power deals with the Navy.
Our View: Military buildup sends 'powerful strategic message to our allies and our adversaries'
BEIJING, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Loans granted to private businesses in China saw growth in 2021 as the country has been improving financial services for them.

As of the end of last year, outstanding loans to private firms stood at 52.7 trillion yuan (8.27 trillion U.S. dollars), increasing by 5.5 trillion yuan from the beginning of the year, data from the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission showed.

The figure represented year-on-year growth of 11.5 percent, the commission said.

The commission added it will continue to urge banking and insurance institutions to bolster financial services, with measures to extend credit to private firms in a fair, precise and effective manner, and diversify products to meet their financing needs.

China's private firms have shown significant momentum in the past decade amid a nurturing policy environment, increasing from 10.86 million entities in 2012 to 44.58 million in 2021 to account for 92.1 percent of enterprises nationwide. 




Haiti - Lycee National of Lasaline : Distribution of digital tablets





On March 24, the Ministry of National Education, in the presence of teachers, parents, agents of the Community Police (EduPol) and several notables of the region proceeded for this first day to the distribution of digital tablets to the 134 Secondary IV students from the Lycee National of Lasaline.



Before receiving the tablets, each student signed a commitment to protect this learning tool. At the end of the school year, when they take their exam papers, they must return their tablets, because these digital tablets belong to the Ministry and will be passed on to future students.



At the same time, the school management gave a telephone sim card to each student in order to have the possibility of continuing to learn remotely outside the classroom. In addition, the Lycee National Lasaline provides students with a multimedia room with 31 computers and a digital board where they can take online courses and have access to educational resources of all kinds.



This distribution operation must continue. Teachers and other students should receive a total of 210 digital tablets.



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Diaspora Covid-19 : Daily Bulletin #737





GLOBAL SITUATION 2019-2022:

Epidemiological situation:

Sunday March 27, 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 481,305,280 cases (+1,222,445 in 24 hours ), the day before (+1,805,717)



Number of infected countries: 225



*Healings: 415,526,342 people have been cured of Covid-19 worldwide (+1,033,207), the day before (+1,382,4121)

*Deaths: 6,146,395 people have died of Covid-19 worldwide since the start of the pandemic (+2,769 in 24 hours), the day before (+9,649)

*Active cases (minus deaths and recoveries) in the world is currently 59,632,543 cases (+186,469 in 24 hours), the day before (+413,647)



Average cure rate in the world: 86.33% (=)



Average mortality rate in the world: 1.27% (=)



World: Number of daily confirmed cases:





(Day-1)



Vaccination: 11.23 billion doses of vaccine injected (+10 million doses injected in 24 hours. Update March 26, 2022 (latest data available).



HAITI:

Warning: The Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP) did not make available after March 22, 2022 daily data on the Covid-19 situation in Haiti. Accordingly, the data below on the situation in Haiti is the latest available.



According to the Ministry of Public Health, +13 new cases of Covid-19 and its variants have been confirmed in Haiti as of March 22, 2022 (latest partial data available ) for a total of 30,522 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 (+15 cases as of March 18, 2022).



Healings: 27,960 (+468)



Cure rate: 91.60% (+)



Deaths: 833 deaths (+6) (West +2, Center +1, South-East+1, Artibonite +2)



Death rate: 2.72% (+)



5th Wave (Omicron Dominant):

Total of the 5th wave (starting December 27, 2021) 4,528 confirmed cases and 67 deaths



Haiti: Active Cases Trend: (less recoveries and deaths)







Screening since the start of the pandemic: 186,638 tests (+1,350 in 4 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: 739 (+1); Petion-ville 620 (+2); Port-au-Prince 406 (+0); Tabarre 287 (+0); Cross-Bouquets 238 (+1)



Confirmed cases by department (2022 / 2021 / 2020):

West: 2022: 2,546 cases; (2021: 9.890); (2020: 6,945 cases)

North: 2022: 267 cases; (2021: 664); (2020: 677 cases)

Center: 2022: 226 cases; (2021: 1.001); (2020: 508 cases)

Artibonitis: 2022: 181 cases; (2021: 855); (2020: 593 cases)

Northeast: 2022: 148 cases; (2021: 404); (2020: 314 cases)

Southeast: 2022: 254 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: 173 cases; (2021: 861); (2020: 176 cases)

Nippes: 2022: 39 cases; (2021: 249) (2020: 149 cases)



Cumulative deaths by department (2022-2021):

West: 295 deaths (2020: 104 deaths)

North: 54 deaths (2020: 34 deaths)

Center: 79 deaths (2020: 13 deaths)

Artibonite: 42 deaths (2020: 39 deaths)

North East: 7 deaths (2020: 6 deaths)

South: 51 deaths (2020: 6 deaths)

Southeast: 15 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: 56 deaths (+2)

40-49 years: 80 deaths (+2)

50-59 years: 134 deaths (+1)

60-69 years: 187 deaths (+1)

70-79 years: 183 deaths

80 years and over: 137 deaths



Vaccination:

163,369 Haitians (1.4% of the population) +2,205 in 6 days received a 1st dose of vaccine since July 16, 2021, date of the first injection through 149 open vaccination centers and 111,914 Haitians are fully vaccinated (2 doses, 0.96% of the population) +1.585 in 6 days. Update March 22, 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): 81,616,936 cases (+16,046 in 24 hours), the day before (+34,933)

*Healings: 64,268,976 healings (+198,813), the day before (+245,769)

National Cure Rate: 78.74% (+)

*Deaths: 1,003,425 deaths (+227), the day before (+939)

National death rate: 1.22% (=)

*Active cases (minus deaths and recoveries): 16,344,535 (-182,994), yesterday (-211,775)



USA: Trend active cases: (minus recoveries and deaths)





(Day-1)



Vaccination: 559.72 million doses of vaccine injected since December 14, 2020, the date of the first injection in the United States (+190,000 doses in 24 hours). Updated March 26, 2022 (latest data available).



DOMINICAN REPUBLIC:

Confirmed cases since March 1, 2020: 577,741 cases (+68 in 24 hours) the day before (+92 in 24 hours). First case (March 1, 2020)

Healings: 573,137 healings (+284 in 24 hours), the day before (+89)

National Cure Rate: 99.20% (+)

Deaths: 4,375 deaths (+0), previous (+0)

Death rate: 0.75% (=)

Positivity rate over 4 epidemiological weeks: 1.12% (=)

Active cases: (excluding deaths and recoveries) 229 cases (-216 in 24 hours) the day before (+3)



Dominican Republic: Number of daily confirmed cases:





(Day-1)



TOP 5 Provinces with the most new cases in the last 24 hours:

La Altagracia: +28 new cases in 24 hours (+)

San Pedro de Macoris: +13 new cases in 14h (+)

Santiago: +8 new cases in 24 hours ()

Puerto Plata: +3 new cases in 24 hours ()

La Romana: +2 new cases in 24 hours ()



Vaccination: 15.47 million doses of vaccine injected since February 16, 2021, date of the first injection in the Dominican Republic (+20,000 doses injected in 24 hours). Updated March 26, 2022 (latest data available).



QUEBEC:

Warning: Quebec health authorities no longer update data on the Covid situation on weekends. The figures below are therefore the latest available.



Confirmed cases since the first case (February 27, 2020): 953,498 (+2.203 in 24 hours), previous (+2.295)

Healings: 922,398 people (+1,458 in 24 hours) previous (+948)

Cure rate: 96.73% (-)

Deaths: 14,300 (+12 in 24h) previous (+14)

Death rate: 1.49% (-)

Active cases: (excluding death and recovery) 16,800 cases (+733 in 24 hours), previous (+1,333)



Quebec: Trend of daily confirmed cases:





(average weekly trend)



Vaccination: 18,592,149 doses of vaccine injected since December 14, 2020, date of the first injection (+8,064 doses in 24 hours), latest data available - MSSS as of March 25, 2022)



FRANCE:

*Confirmed cases since the first case (January 24, 2020): 24,919,399 cases (+139,517 cases in 24 hours), previous (+143,571)

*Healings: 22,915,762 healings (+45,207), previous (+53,557)

National Cure Rate: 91.95% (-)

Deaths: 141,631 (+67 in 24 hours), previous (+121)

Death rate: 0.56% (-)

Active Cases: 1,862,006 (+94,122), previous (+89,893)



France: Trend of active cases: (minus recoveries and deaths)





(day 1)



Vaccination: 141.61 million doses of vaccine injected since December 27, 2020, date of the first injection in France (+60,000 doses injected in 24 hours. Update March 26, 2022 (latest data available)



Previous bulletin : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-36273-haiti-diaspora-covid-19-daily-bulletin-736.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


















BEIJING, March 27 (Xinhua) -- The share of Chinese passenger car brands in the domestic market increased in the first two months of the year, data from an industry association showed.

Over 1.63 million Chinese brand passenger cars were sold in the country during the period, surging 20.3 percent year on year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

The market share of these brands accounted for 44.6 percent in the country in the January-February period, up 2.2 percentage points year on year.

In February alone, the sales of Chinese brand passenger cars soared 27.9 percent year on year to about 634,000 units, with a market share basically unchanged from the same period last year. 
By William Schwartz | Published on 2022/03/26

It's finally here. Apple TV+ has had a lot riding on "Pachinko" as their in to the South Korean media market, not to mention to South Korean drama fans worldwide. The show's based off of the bestselling novel of the same name, and has Academy Award winner Youn Yuh-jung and perennial fan favorite Lee Min-ho in leading roles. Yet according to our tracking statistics on HanCinema, "Pachinko" isn't even the most popular drama to premiere on March 25th.

Advertisement

That honor goes to "Hope or Dope" which is a Seezn drama about a high school student involved in the drug trade. And I have to admit, that's a pretty solid premise- although even "Hope or Dope" is clearly behind "Twenty Five Twenty One" and "Business Proposal" when it comes to the shows that interest HanCinema readers. So what's the deal with "Pachinko" anyway? Why is it having such a weak rollout?

Anyone tempted to even try to watch "Pachinko" will quickly be thrust into its bewildering continuity. In 1915, Yangjin (played by Jeong In-ji) lives in glib despair that she can't give birth to a child, as is necessary for the Neo-Confucian social order. So she gets help from a shaman, and gives birth to the adorable Child Sun-ja (played by Jeon Yu-na), who has some cute moments with her father but mostly just watches Japanese police brutalize Korean people on Yeong Island.

Then, in a completely different plot thread only tangentially related to the first one, in 1989 we have Old Sun-ja (played by Youn Yuh-jung) seeing her grandson Solomon (played by Jin Ha) trying to close a big business deal in Tokyo. Putting the distant future plot in the first episode has the benefit of giving Youn Yuh-jung screentime. Theoretically such editing also stokes viewer curiousity about how Sun-ja goes from destitution to a healthy living standard.

In practice both time periods are so bleak it's hard to get invested in either one of them. The bigger irony is that in prioritizing Youn Yuh-jung's screentime, Lee Min-ho as the charismatic yet sinister and borderline pedophilic international businessman Hansu is all but shunted into the final few minutes of the story, where "Pachinko" has arrived in 1931. The first episode makes it clear that "Pachinko" is obsessed with style to the point that appealing characters are a low priority. This is a fairly significant problem for a worldwide K-Drama fanbase that's always cared more about the latter than the former.

Review by William Schwartz

___________

"Pachinko" is directed by Justin Chon, Kogonada, written by Soo Hugh, and features Youn Yuh-jung, Lee Min-ho, Kim Min-ha-I, Jin Ha, Park So-hee, Jeong In-ji. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2022/03/25~Now airing, Fr on Apple TV+.
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John Fletcher Fairchild, local lawman, and Charlie Siringo, Pinkertons Cowboy Detective, were ahead of their time as crime-solvers in the Old West.
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We couldnt help but notice the number of articles in recent editions of this news
Ghanaian Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia speaks at the commissioning ceremony of a Chinese-assisted road project in Nyinahin, a town in southern Ghana's Ashanti Region, March 25, 2022. (Xinhua/Seth)

An inner-city road project contracted by a Chinese company kicked off Friday in Kumasi, Ghana's second largest city.

ACCRA, March 27 (Xinhua) -- An inner-city road project contracted by a Chinese company kicked off Friday in Kumasi, Ghana's second-largest city.

The 100 km project undertaken by Sinohydro Corporation Limited includes drainage work, earthwork, and bituminous surfacing of the roads, which is expected to improve the road networks and facilitate transportation within the city.

Vehicles are seen running at the Chinese-assisted road in southern Ghana's Ashanti Region, March 25, 2022. (Xinhua/Seth)

Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony, Ghanaian Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia expressed joy that the Kumasi inner-city road project could begin on time.

"We are grateful to the Chinese government for the cooperation that has existed between our two countries. There is still more to come under our mutual cooperation," Bawumia said.

Chinese Ambassador to Ghana Lu Kun commended the Ghanaian and Chinese engineers for sticking to their posts and carrying out excellent preparation for the start of the project, despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I firmly believe that, with Chinese and Ghanaians joining hands, and with your wisdom and diligence, the project will surely witness a speedy and quality progress," said Lu. 
FILE - In this Jan. 4, 2016 photo, a U.S. Border Patrol agent drives near the U.S.-Mexico border fence in Santa Teresa, N.M. Can Donald Trump really make good on his promise to build a wall along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexican border to prevent illegal migration? Whats more, can he make Mexico pay for it? Sure, he can build it, but its not nearly as simple as he says. (AP Photo/Russell Contreras)
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported a new incident in the series of rampant security chaos in Daraa city south of Syria, where unknown gunmen shot 2 young men in the city of al-Sanamayn in northern countryside of Daraa, which led to their death.

Daraa city is still witnessing security tensions from time to time and chaos despite the so-called "Settlements and reconciliations" conducted by Damascus government in the city twice, the first after 2018 and the second in 2021, as the rate of targeting increased a lot at the beginning of this year, some of which affect members of Damascus forces and its security services, some of which affect civilians or former local militants who made settlements.

The outcome of the targeting in Daraa, since the beginning of January, according to SOHR's documentation, reached 104, all of which took place in different ways and methods, and caused the death of 85 people, are: 45 civilians, and 30 soldiers of Damascus government and collaborators with the "security services" and members of "Settlements", 5 former local militants who made "Settlements" and did not join any military party after that, and a former mercenary in ISIS, 3 unidentified people and a member of pro-Russian militants.

Sh-S

ANHA
The activity that was held on the fourth annual anniversary of the foundation of the Syria's Future Party was attended by members of civil associations and military formations as well notables and figures of Manbij.

After a minute of silence was observed deputy Co-chair of the Party in Manbij Mohamed Berghel said: the authoritarian Syrian regime with its repressive policies took the country to a dark tunnel with a fist of iron''.

''what was the vision adopted by the opposition, they soon turned to destroyers of the country too, they contributed to destroying Syria then a party was a necessity to save Syria from these darkness. On this day four years ago Syria's Future Party was born'', he said.

In turn, spokesperson for the Women Council in the Party in Manij Yasmine Abdul Qader said: since its foundation the party gave women the lead to be a pioneer and a leader in all arenas, and she takes part in the political life will strong will as the party sees the case of women is a necessity to build a free society and to get rid of ills of the past''.

Then a speech was delivered by Co-chairmanship of the Youth Council in the party in Manbij Adnan Khalifeh who said: ''to be a youth means you have to give, on this occasion we confirm that we will work out with our full capabilities to attain security to our people and country''.

L..A

ANHA
Kurdo- Arab relations go deep in history as both defended the region against foreign invaders. In the revolution of North and East Syria these relations were established more and became more deep as they among other components of the region defended heroically the region fighting neck to neck as they co-habitation is now more strong thanks to the ideas and thought of leader Abdulla Ocalan the mastermind of the democratic nation idea.

People of the region say this is the boat that sails the North eastern Syria to the safety shore against all hatched plots as the whole world undergoes anarchy and mess more notably in the Middle East that is perturbed by the nationalist rules.

Mohamed Tahir Yunus from the district of Tal Tamr in the Hasaka Canton says '' it was the national coherence that protected the region against a civil war''.

Yunus said:'' since the Qamishlo revolt of 2004 there has been a dirty plot hatched against the Kurdish people but it was all by the virtue of ideas and thoughts of leader Abdullah Ocalan that all these plots, sedition and attack fell to the ground''.

Yunus went on to say that partnership and national coherence in all arenas. Militarily, politically and socially in North eastern Syria all are bases that preserve the gains made in NES and to repel all powers that seek to subvert the project in the region and the first of these powers is Damascus''.

In his turn citizen Haj Tahir said: Kurdo-Arab relations in the North and East Syria are well established ones, and that complementarity of the region saved it from wars and seditions''.

''Kurds and Arabs fought side by side in the same trenches in North eastern Syria, no one of us wishes any Kurdo-Arab disputes, we are all one people'', he said.

From his part Ala' Tahir of the Arab component in the Zarghan district said : relations between Kurds and Arabs in the region put an end to the racism that was ignited by all parts interfered in Syrian affair. Ala' called on all Syrians to follow suit the example of the region for it serves the unity of the country and it gives strength to the will of community and helps to stand up to all plots that seek to meltdown the peoples of the region''.

Ala' concluded by saying it was the national coherence that expressed our mutual fate and it proved it is able to attain victory over tyranny and authoritarianism''.

l..a

ANHA
The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's 2022 Strategic Highway Investment Formula for Tomorrow (SHIFT) scores were recently made available to the public for review. The projects and scores are listed in each of the 12 Highway Districts.

SHIFT is the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's data-driven, objective approach to compare capital improvement projects and prioritize limited transportation funds. SHIFT helps reduce over-programming and provides a clear road map for construction in the coming years. The formula, said KYTC officials, applies to all transportation funding that isn't prioritized by other means, such as maintenance work, local government projects and dedicated federal projects.

Recording and publishing SHIFT allows policy makers to observe and gauge how far down the priority list the KYTC's limited dollars will go and which other projects could be funded if additional dollars were generated, said officials with the KYTC. This collaborative model uses measurable data to assess the need for and benefits of planned projects and compare them to each other. The projects, said officials, are scored based on five key attributes: safety, asset management, congestion, economic growth and benefit/cost.

The Highway District 10 SHIFT scores for 2022, which includes scores for Breathitt, Lee, Owsley, Perry and Wolfe counties, feature several projects in Perry County.

 One of the Perry County projects, which will make safety improvements on KY-80 from the Leslie County line to KY-451, has a SHIFT regional score of 65.4. The 2021 project cost estimate for this was $5,400,000.

 Another project from Perry County that was scored in SHIFT was the reconstruction of KY 15 from Bonnyman to near KY 28, which featured a SHIFT regional score of 52.9, and had a 2021 project cost estimate of $59,200,000.

 Another project in the 2022 SHIFT for Perry County was a project to address and repair a roadway slide on KY 7 from MP 9.8 to MP 10. This project had a 2021 project cost estimate of $5,100,000 and a SHIFT regional score of 52.8.

 A reconstruction project to improve KY 475 from KY 15X in Walkertown to north of Walker Cornett Road in Wabaco was also included in Perry County's SHIFT, scoring a SHIFT regional score of 44.3. The 2021 project cost estimate was $4,480,000.

 Also included in the 2022 SHIFT was a project for Perry County consisting of reconstruction from the Woodland Park bridge to KY 15X in Hazard. This had a 2021 project cost estimate of $4,650,000 and a SHIFT regional score of 40.0.

 A safety project requiring the reconstruction of an existing roadside rock cut on KY 80 from MP 14.30 to MP 14.85 was also included in SHIFT for Perry County. This had a 2021 project cost estimate of $5,567,000 and a SHIFT regional score of 29.7.

 Another project for Perry County, the reconstruction of a roadway to eliminate flooding beginning at the intersection with KY 550, had a SHIFT regional score of 23.1 and a 2021 project cost estimate of $1,134,000.

 The addition of a new interchange off of a new exit 55 Hal Rogers Parkway in Perry County was also included in SHIFT. This had a 2021 project cost estimate of $11,368,800 and a SHIFT regional score of 17.1.

 The final Perry County project included in the 2022 SHIFT was the addition of a new route which will provide new and improved access to the Wendall Ford Airport. This had a SHIFT regional score of 5.7 and a 2021 project cost estimate of $13,180,000.

The process of SHIFT, said the KYTC, starts with a list of projects previously identified by state and local transportation leaders, such as Area Development Districts, Metropolitan Planning Organizations and KYTC Districts. Once the list of projects is complete, projects must either be sponsored by local transportation leaders or be committed projects  those listed in the previous State Highway Plan with funding beyond the design phase. The KYTC said each ADD, MPO and district are allocated a number of sponsorships based on population, lane miles and number of counties served. After consulting with local elected officials, transportation leaders choose which projects to sponsor.

Following the designation of sponsorships, each project is reviewed and scored on a scale of 0 to 100 with a formula that uses objective measures for the five key attributes. Projects of statewide significance  including interstates, parkways and other major connecting routes  are scored first. The remaining projects, known as regional projects, are scored using a similar formula.

The KYTC identifies the top scoring statewide projects and about one-third are selected for priority funding. The remaining statewide projects are considered during the next phase.

Local transportation leaders take the lead role in prioritizing regional priorities, which include highways and local roads as well as the remaining statewide projects. Using local insights, ADDs, MPOs and KYTC Districts may boost the scores for their top priority projects, adding 15 points to their base scores on the 0-to-100 point scale. Projects boosted by both the District and ADD/MPO receive an additional 30 points, known as a turbo boost, said the KYTC.

Kentucky, said the KYTC, is divided into four geographic regions, each containing three contiguous KYTC districts. Each region gets an equal allocation of funds, and the top ranking projects in each region are the priorities considered in drafting the State Highway Plan.

The Recommended State Highway Plan is formed when the KYTC combines the statewide and regional priorities to help develop the Governor's Recommended State Highway Plan, which is presented to the General Assembly. After that, the Enacted State Highway Plan is formed. During the legislative session, lawmakers fine-tune the plan based on additional information and funding availability, said officials. The result is the Enacted State Highway Plan, which includes two years of funded projects and spending priorities for the following four years.

More information about the SHIFT prioritization process along with the scores from the other highway districts and statewide projects can be found at https://transportation.ky.gov/SHIFT/Pages/default.aspx.
Forum features F-bomb, swipe at Robinson and a rush to the right

If audience members at Saturdays forum for congressional candidates were hoping for a prodigious helping of conservative policies and right-wing talking points they did not leave disappointed.

All eight candidates for the Republican nomination for the 11th Congressional District seat showed up and mostly agreed that the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol was nothing more than a legitimate protest, that the federal Department of Education should be eliminated and that earmarks in the budget are a form of bribery.

The forum also contained a few startling moments, including an F-bomb by Wendy Marie-Limbaugh Nevarez, a Navy veteran and mother of four. In fact, having the longest name on the ballot was not the only fact that separated Nevarez from the other seven  incumbent Madison Cawthorn, Bruce OConnell, Chuck Edwards, Michele V. Woodhouse, Rod Honeycutt, Kristie Sluder and Matthew Burril.

All the candidates but Nevarez said that the Jan. 6 was not an insurrection but instead a valid protest over the 2020 election. Most agreed that they would work to abolish the Department of Education and said teachers should be barred from teaching critical race theory. All but one candidate  Nevarez, again  said they would support the Republican nominee. That would be a no, she said in response to the question.

The f-word made its surprising cameo in the three-hour forum when Nevarez touted her naval service in answering a question about defense spending, wokeness in military training and why two Navy ships collided at sea.

As far as the defense budget, its not about reducing it, its about spending it more wisely, she said. I will say that readiness is a priority for me, obviously, because I was active duty for a decade and as somebody who was a prior sailor and was lee helm and helm qualified and took direction from a navigation officer, wokeness is not what youre thinking about when youre standing watch. Youre worried about your brothers and sisters around you. So those ships colliding was either piss-poor training or somebody not f---in paying attention. Excuse my language.

When the candidates returned to the platform after a break, Nevarez took the opportunity to address her language.

So first of all, I want to apologize to everybody in the room who has small children, she said. I have small children but like a lot of military people, you get pulled back into the moment. So when speaking about the Navy, I do apologize for that.

That wasnt even the last of Nevarezs stage stealing moments. The crowd gasped when she delivered a riff on abortion.

So I just want to make this other point that when it comes to abortion, she said. It inproportionately affects people who are poor and people of color. Its interesting. Yeah, so your beloved Mr. Mark Robinson has clearly not had a problem with abortion. So Ill just leave it with that.

Oh my God, Cawthorn interjected.

I will take one moment, Cawthorn said at his next turn at the mic. I believe its cowardly and weak to attack a man who cant defend himself because hes not here and I want to speak out for Mark Robinson. I was a sinner and was saved by the blood of Jesus Christ and I praise God for that. And I will not blame a man whos gone on a personal journey to go from someone who was pro-choice to now being a pro-life advocate and a champion. I support Mark Robinson. The crowd applauded.

Heres more:

Regarding the incidents of Jan. 6, 2021, what was legal and what wasnt, in your opinion, and was it an insurrection, a riot that got out of control or something else?



Edwards: What was legal clearly was the right to assemble and show concern for what was going on in this country. What was illegal was folks attacking the Capitol, destroying property and, quite frankly, taking lives. It clearly was not an insurrection. It was a riot that was not brought under control by Nancy Pelosi when she would have had the opportunity to do that. It was a riot that was inflated by media outlets across this nation. It was very unfortunate. It was a dark day for America, but it was not an insurrection.



Cawthorn: I will tell you there a lot of people in my party that when we take the majority want to dissolve the sham Jan. 6 committee. I will tell you I do not want to dissolve the Jan. 6 committee because there are some questions that I would like answers to. Why were there so many FBI agents embedded in that crowd in the frontlines? Why did Nancy Pelosi decline to have an extra reinforcement of the National Guard to defend the Capitol. The questions need to be asked because we need answers for those political prisoners in the D.C. jail.



Burril: Our First Amendment rights were certainly on the best display ever. That wasnt a dark day in America, that was a bright day in America and Ill tell you why. They were strong enough to tell those folks that theyre wrong. Every person in this room knows that we cannot elect Donald Trump in this state, Mark Robinson in this state, and Roy Cooper. There is no way in the world.

Sluder: Activist John Sullivan was in that crowd. I was there, OK. I protested that fraudulent election. For three solid months I was in D.C. In November I was in Atlanta. In December, I was back in D.C. and because the people were silenced and the people knew it. John Sullivan took the video and sold it to the CNN for $30,000. Why is he not being held in a capital jail in solitary confinement 24 hours? Its a two-tier system and we need answers.

Nevarez: I believe in the rule of law. I believe that it should be applied equally for all people. So as far as the people who commit riots and break things during any other protest, which is their right to do, that is wrong. January 6th was an insurrection, period. So heres the thing. There were people there. That was their right. I dont believe they were trying to overthrow the government necessarily. But there were people who did combine their efforts to try to remove a newly elected president.

For part of the forum, moderator Bill Fishburne asked questions to two candidates at a time.

Give us your opinion of President Trump, and would you invite him to come to the district to support you in this election?

Cawthorn: When were looking at what Donald Trump did, it was incredible. In 2016, I do believe his victory signaled change in American politics. I know it did in my heart. I was so tired of watching presidents like George Bush, who would just sit down and let the mainstream media run roughshod over the American people and never fight back. And, yeah, some of his tweets were a little aggressive, sometimes a little mean. But man, Ill tell you, Putin was afraid of him. The Saudis would always call Donald Trump back because they didnt know what he was gonna do. Was he gonna send a Tweet or was he gonna have your best general airstriked by a drone? I will tell you there is a value to being unpredictable. There is a value in people not being able to know what your reaction is going to be. Donald Trump did that in foreign policy, but also his domestic policy was parallel to none.  We had cheap gas. Im telling you, Donald Trump did a service to this country that no other politician has done in modern history.

OConnell: Donald Trumps policies were spot on. Donald Trump was not a politician. He was a businessman that went there to drain the swamp. Im a businessman. And I could do exactly the same thing Donald Trump tried to do  drain the swamp. Im not part of it. We have to have deterrence now. We do not need boots on the ground. We cannot have our pilots enforcing a no fly zone. But we can certainly support our NATO allies and send a message to Putin that it wont go any further. I also believe China may now be looking at their best buddy Vlad and saying maybe hes not so smart.  I think this may be a bad thing for the China-Russia relationship. And China may be thinking twice about buddying up with Russia.

Closing statements

Cawthorn: My friends, it is the honor of my life to make the socialists and the central planners behind the green New Deal fear the American resurgence thats coming in this country. I believe when we take the House that were going to put Anthony Fauci in jail. I truly believe that we will work towards a balanced budget. Im not sure if well get it right away because of the president that we have. But my friends we need to demand an audit of all 50 states, a forensic audit of what happened in 2020 because we do not take what happened in 2020. Election integrity is the number one issue on the board  Please send me back to Washington to finish the job. Its my honor to fight for you.

OConnell: Im a nonpolitician, never wanted to do what Im doing. Im doing it for you. Im gonna term-limit myself. I want to fight for term limits. I dont want the money. Im not taking the salary. Its going to law enforcement, veterans, children every year Im in Congress. Im the guy thats going to ask the questions and not be pushed around because I have nothing to lose and nothing to fear. Im going there for you. Ive done it before. Ive stood up to the federal government. I did it in 2013. Its not that hard if you have guts. Ive got guts and I can fight for you. Send a nonpolitician, a business person like Trump and someone with nothing but common sense that wants to go for the right reason.

Nevarez: I am the candidate for all people of the district. I believe in no lies and putting our best foot forward. There are no lies on my resume. I have the experience and I have the education to go in and do the work for the people. I honor this nation, I honor this district and I am honored if you would vote for me on May 17. But I will tell you, I will make sure that I keep honor over hostility. You have to ask yourself, why is it that people get so angry over certain things? And theres some underlying issue there, right? We have to focus on ideas and debate them and not just say no and not listen. We have to have relationships in order to build a better country.

Woodhouse: I am going to tell you who Im not in this race. Im not the Washington, D.C., Instagram politician. And Im not the centrist Raleigh establishment politician who hired Richard Burrs consultant to run his campaign. I am a patriot who literally answered the call when Congressman Cawthorn left this district for Charlotte and asked me to step in and run and people across this district and across this room did the same thing and said to me, Michelle, youre the only one who can go up there and fight against AOC and youre the only one who can beat Jasmine Beach-Ferrara. This is about who on this stage is the person who can come out and beat the socialist that they are going to run on the Democratic side, who has $2 million in George Soros money. This seat is in jeopardy. This seat is not safe when Congressman Cawthorn left and came back and the front page articles about him have put this seat in jeopardy. We have to make sure that we have a bold, strong conservative woman to go toe to toe with Jasmine in November.

Burril: I am from this district. I was raised in Buncombe County. I have voted in this district since 1978 on a Republican ticket. I have not missed a single vote since 1991 when I started my business in downtown Asheville. I am your conservative, Christian, businessman candidate. My wife and I are members at First Baptist Church Hendersonville, where we play in the orchestra. We are local folks who are also committed to this district. Everything Ive done for this district, Ive done it out of my heart and Ive never taken a paycheck for anything that Ive done, whether thats been bringing these businesses here to Western North Carolina or if thats serving as the chairman of your Airport Authority, giving you great nonstop service all around this country. Folks, its time that we have better representation in Washington. Its time for you to have a better congressman.

Sluder: The scripture says that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities and spiritual wickedness in high places. It also says that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God for the pulling down strongholds and the casting down of arguments. And listen, if you dont understand the genesis or the ideological center of a Marxist, a socialist, an environmental activist whos an evolutionist, or atheists  you cannot confront them if you dont understand where they come from. And if you do not understand what the answer to that is you cannot confront them. You have to know the technicalities of the matter. It has been my honor to have walked with thousands and thousands and thousands of people in the last 30 years through the hardest places of their lives while simultaneously working to protect them from bureaucratic overreach.

Honeycutt: My God, my country, my commitment to my family. Its been 32 years since weve had a veteran in this seat. Sixteen of the last 21 have had service to our country. I want a candidate with experience to make decisions on our national treasure  our sons and daughters. Ive got more federal experience than every candidate on this stage combined. I can look whoever the Democrat person is that wins in the eye and tell him I will not let you tear down my district the way you tore down Buncombe County and Asheville, North Carolina.

Edwards: This afternoon I started my comments, saying the reason that I want to go to Congress is because Im tired of grandstanding and Im tired of talk in Washington, D.C. Its time for action. Chuck Edwards is a successful business person. He loves his country. He is conservative, conservatively principled, and has a proven track record. Does that sound like anybody that you know. In 2016, did we not send a successful business person, someone who loves this country, someone that has conservative principles and someone with a proven track record to the White House? Im the only person on this stage that can say that theyve cut taxes, outlawed sanctuary cities, actually balanced a budget, passed election reform, protected the Second Amendment from the Senate floor and took action to defund cities that defund police. I have a proven track record.
U.S. President Joe Biden arrives at Rzeszow-Jasionka Airport, in Poland, March 25, 2022. (Photo by Piotr Piwowarski/Xinhua)

Biden is visiting Poland, after attending the NATO summit, G7 gathering and the summit of the European Council.

The U.S. president tried to coax a display of unity with European partners, but failed to talk them into concerted actions against Russia.

WARSAW, March 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday met with Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov during his visit to Poland, "for an update on Ukraine's military, diplomatic, and humanitarian situation," according to the White House.

Biden dropped in a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and their Ukranian counterparts, Kuleba and Reznikov.

They discussed "further efforts to help Ukraine defend its territory" and the United States and its allies' ongoing actions towards Russia, the White House said in statement.

In a tweet, Kuleba said that the meeting between Ukrainian ministers and U.S. secretaries allowed him to seek "practical decisions in both political and defense spheres in order to fortify Ukraine's ability to fight back," while Reznikov tweeted that he acquired "cautious optimism."

Biden is visiting Poland, after attending the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit, G7 gathering and the summit of the European Council -- three intensive summits in two days with the Ukraine crisis as major focus.

The U.S. president tried to coax a display of unity with European partners, but failed to talk them into concerted actions against Russia.

The NATO summit concluded Thursday with no agreement to impose additional sanctions against Moscow, especially the country's oil and gas products. Nor did the European Council summit succeed in reaching a consensus on the same issue. 
TEHRAN, March 27 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) coordinator for the Iran nuclear talks Enrique Mora and Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani held talks in Tehran on Sunday over the Vienna negotiations aimed at the revival of the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

At the meeting, the two sides exchanged views on the latest developments of removing U.S. anti-Iran sanctions and the remaining issues in Vienna negotiations, official news agency IRNA reported.

During the meeting, Bagheri Kani repeated Iran's "seriousness and determination" to finalize the agreement in Vienna, noting that "an agreement could be reached if the American side was realistic."

Mora, deputy secretary-general of the European External Action Service, also reported on his latest consultations with other parties.

IRNA did not provide further details about the meeting, but added that Mora and Bagheri Kani will continue close communication and consultation in the coming days.

Mora's visit to Tehran is a part of efforts to bridge "the remaining gaps in the Vienna talks," he tweeted on Friday before visiting Iran.

On March 11, the EU announced a pause in the Vienna talks on the restoration of the JCPOA.

In 2015, Iran signed the JCPOA with the P5+1, namely Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States, plus Germany. However, former U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled Washington out of the pact in May 2018 and re-imposed sanctions on Iran, which prompted the latter to drop some of its nuclear commitments.

Since April 2021, Iran and the remaining JCPOA parties have held eight rounds of talks in Vienna to revive the deal. 
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
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Chinese, Vanuatu presidents exchange congratulations on 40th anniversary of diplomatic ties

Xinhua) 07:38, March 27, 2022

Actors from Vanuatu perform during the "Vanuatu Day" event at the Beijing International Horticultural Exhibition in Beijing, capital of China, July 30, 2019. (Xinhua/Zhang Chenlin)

BEIJING, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Vanuatu's counterpart, Tallis Obed Moses, on Saturday exchanged congratulatory messages to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the two countries' diplomatic relations.

In his message, Xi said that since China and Vanuatu established diplomatic ties 40 years ago, bilateral relations have been tested by the changing international situation, political mutual trust between the two countries has been ever deepening, and bilateral exchanges and cooperation in various fields have yielded fruitful results, bringing tangible benefits to people of the two countries.

The two countries have helped each other and fought side by side against the COVID-19 pandemic, which has deepened their friendship, Xi said, adding that China-Vanuatu relations have become an example of mutual respect, solidarity and coordination between developing countries.

Products from New Zealand and Vanuatu are ready to be shipped to the the fourth China International Import Expo from the Auckland port in New Zealand, Sept. 25, 2021. (Xinhua)

Xi stressed that he attaches great importance to the development of China-Vanuatu relations, saying that he is ready to work with Moses to take the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations as a new starting point to deepen and expand bilateral dialogue, exchanges and cooperation in various fields so as to push the China-Vanuatu comprehensive strategic partnership to a new level for the benefits of the two countries and their people.

For his part, Moses said China has been an important partner for development as well as a permanent and reliable friend of Vanuatu in the past 40 years.

Vanuatu firmly adheres to the one-China policy and looks forward to taking the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Vanuatu and China as an opportunity to constantly push forward bilateral relations, he said.

Moses said he would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Communist Party of China (CPC) on its great achievements since its founding more than 100 years ago and wish the 20th CPC National Congress a great success.

A visitor (2nd L) poses for photos with staff members in front of the booth of Vanuatu at the Pacific Island Countries pavilion during the second China International Import Expo in Shanghai, east China, Nov. 6, 2019. (Xinhua/Fan Peishen)

Also on Saturday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Vanuatu's Prime Minister Bob Loughman exchanged congratulatory messages.

In his message, Li said the Chinese side attaches great importance to the development of China-Vanuatu ties, and stands ready to work with Vanuatu to take the 40th anniversary of bilateral ties as an opportunity to enhance the synergy of the two countries' development strategies and tap the potential of practical cooperation, so as to push for new and even greater development of China-Vanuatu relations.

In his message, Loughman said Vanuatu highly values the two countries' comprehensive strategic partnership, cherishes their fruitful cooperation, and sincerely appreciates China's continuous support for its national development.

Vanuatu is willing to work with China to expand cooperation within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative and enhance coordination in multilateral areas in order to continuously deepen the two countries' relations.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Bianji)
NAIROBI, March 27 (Xinhua) -- In spite of abundant resources, a large population and a vast market, Africa is still the world's least developed continent, beset by continuous poverty and hunger.

Sharing a similar underdeveloped past with Africa, China achieved its ambitious goal of eliminating extreme poverty in 2020, improving the living standards of hundreds of millions of people through decades of development.

Experts said China's conspicuous success in alleviating poverty could be of valuable guidance for Africa in its fight against poverty and pursuit of sustainable development.

"Give people fish, and you feed them for a day. Teach them how to fish, and you feed them for a lifetime." Click to know how China's experience boosts Africa's sustainable development.

Produced by Xinhua Global Service
Melia Chiang Mai, a 260-key urban hotel in the heart of Thailand's mountainous Chiang Mai, with some of the city's most spectacular views and its highest rooftop bar, will open on 10 April 2022.

Owned by Thailand's leading integrated lifestyle real estate group, Asset World Corp Public Company Limited (AWC), and launched by Melia Hotels International, Melia Chiang Mai is the first five-star hotel to debut in Chiang Mai since the onset of the global pandemic. Situated on the lively Charoen Prathet Road, soaring over the River Ping and bustling Night Bazaar, the hotel is part of a roll-out of the Melia brand in key destinations across Thailand that began with the launch of the nautical-themed Melia Koh Samui, Thailand in January 2020.

With a design that pays homage to contemporary aesthetics and Chiang Mai's charming history and culture, Melia Chiang Mai is located six kilometers from the Chiang Mai International Airport, near an array of tourist attractions including the Old Town with its ancient moat and red-brick walls. The city's oldest temple Wat Chiang Man, and the scenic Ang Kaew Reservoir are also within close proximity, with the elephant rescue center Elephant Nature Park, the stunning Mae Ya Waterfall, and UNESCO's latest biosphere reserve Doi Chiang Dao in the mountainous surrounds.

Housed in a 22-floor tower fronted by an adjoining seven-floor podium building, Melia Chiang Mai's host of top-notch facilities includes two restaurants, two bars, and two lounges, one with an executive lounge on the 21st floor. Other facilities include Melia's signature YHI Spa with seven treatment rooms, a fully equipped fitness center, swimming pool, ballroom, four other meeting spaces, and a kids and teens club.

Hotel website
Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets with Chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) (Maoist Center) Pushpa Kamal Dahal, also known as Prachanda, in Kathmandu, Nepal, March 27, 2022. (Photo by Hari Maharjan/Xinhua)

As the world is full of chaos and transformations, both sides should guard against the resurgence of the Cold War mentality in the region and jointly safeguard regional peace, stability and development, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.

KATHMANDU, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here on Sunday that China is willing to join hands with Nepal to cement friendship between the two countries and safeguard regional peace.

At a meeting with Chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) (Maoist Center) Pushpa Kamal Dahal, also known as Prachanda, Wang said China cherishes the traditional friendship with Nepal that has lasted for generations.

No matter how the international situation changes and what challenges emerge, China will stick to its friendly policy towards Nepal, he said.

As the world is full of chaos and transformations, both sides should guard against the resurgence of the Cold War mentality in the region and jointly safeguard regional peace, stability and development, Wang said.

For his part, Prachanda congratulated China on successfully hosting the Beijing Winter Olympic Games despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Noting that Nepal and China are connected by mountains and rivers and enjoy traditional friendship, he said the two neighbors have maintained close exchanges and sound cooperation since the establishment of their diplomatic ties.

He thanked China for its strong support for Nepal's socio-economic development, as well as disaster and COVID-19 responses, and expressed readiness to implement the important consensus reached by leaders of the two countries and accelerate the Belt and Road cooperation, especially in connectivity and infrastructure projects.

Nepal will continue to adhere to the one-China policy and will never allow any force to use its territory to engage in any activities against China, Prachanda said.

During his meeting with KP Sharma Oli, chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), Wang said both countries have been pushing forward cooperation steadily, joining hands to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and help Nepal's recovery and development, and bringing tangible benefits to the Nepali people.

Wang said China cherishes the traditional friendship between the two countries, never interferes in Nepal's internal affairs and always sticks to the friendly policy towards Nepal.

China hopes that Nepal could maintain social and political stability, he said, adding that his country will continue to firmly support Nepal in safeguarding its sovereignty and national dignity, exploring a development path suited to its own national conditions, and relentlessly pursuing independent domestic and foreign policies.

Wang said China's development adds to a more powerful peace force and will bring new development opportunities for developing countries including Nepal, and China's neighbors in particular.

Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets with Chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) KP Sharma Oli in Kathmandu, Nepal, March 27, 2022. (Photo by Hari Maharjan/Xinhua)

Oli said Nepal and China are close by both geography and culture, and the two peoples have enjoyed a long-standing history of friendship.

He expressed appreciation for China's unreserved support for Nepal in safeguarding the country's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, and for its selfless assistance to help Nepal conduct socio-economic development and fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nepal will firmly uphold the one-China policy, earnestly push for the building of the Belt and Road, deepen bilateral cooperation in various fields, and work jointly for the common goal of building the Trans-Himalayan Multi-Dimensional Connectivity Network, Oli said.

He pledged to make more efforts to share governance experience with the Chinese side and raise the cooperation between the two parties and two countries to a new level.

Wang left Nepal on Sunday for home to conclude his four-nation tour, which also took him to Pakistan, Afghanistan and India. 
The year ended with substantial national gains in rate and occupancy from 2020 and provided confidence that the recovery will reaccelerate in 2022.

Year-End 2021: A Bumpy Road Leading to Somewhere Beautiful

The lodging environment in 2021 was head-spinning for investors and lenders. Following a breakneck recovery pace in the spring and summer when the roll-out of vaccines brought the much-anticipated return of hotel users, demand faltered in the fall and winter with the sequential hits from the Delta variant followed by Omicron.

Hotel markets were more sensitive than expected to the COVID-19 impacts in 2021. The vaccine roll-out and concomitant easing of government restrictions resulted in unanticipatedly strong performance in the spring and summer. Travelers eagerly sought out drive-to vacations. Demand in 2021 was primarily leisure-driven with modest gains in business and convention activity. Viral surges in the fall and winter suppressed these positive trends. Extended-stay and limited-service hotels, as well as lodging in drive-to leisure destinations, demonstrated the greatest resilience in 2021, with markets and properties setting new RevPAR (revenue per available room) records. Hotels reliant on business, meeting and group travel continued to lag, particularly in large urban cores and suburban corporate locations. Nevertheless, 2021 ended with substantial national gains in rate and occupancy from 2020 and provided confidence that the recovery will reaccelerate in 2022.

U.S. Hotel Operating KPIs 2017-2021  Photo by STR

STR Top 25 Markets

Hotel owners and operators have stratified into the haves and the have-nots. Leisure markets, including coastal-oriented areas, Las Vegas, and snow resorts rebounded with record-high seasons and stronger shoulder and low periods, as work and school-from-home flexibility and drive-to travel prevailed. The performance of the top 25 markets reflected the contrast between leisure and business/convention markets, as shown in the following chart.

Top 25 Markets - RevPAR YOY (% change) Photo by STR

The chart is ranked by RevPAR percentage change between 2019 and 2021, while the bar represents the RevPAR amounts in 2021. While almost all the markets showed improvement in 2021 relative to 2020, with readily accessible leisure destinations showing greater gains, particularly in the second half of the year, RevPAR in 2021 still lagged 2019 performance in most markets.

Resort markets were top performers in 2021. RevPARs in Norfolk/Virginia Beach, Tampa and Miami exceeded 2019 levels. Major commercial and convention cities such as Boston, Washington and New York showed more modest gains. San Franciscos performance faltered. The markets RevPAR in 2021 was below that of 2020, as tech companies continued to support remote work policies and conventions were postponed.

On a national basis, RevPAR is expected to recover to 2019 levels by 2023. This will largely be driven by occupancy whereas average daily rates are not expected to recover until 2025. This four-year upcycle is shorter than the post-GFC recovery when it took five years to recover.

Hotel Transaction Overview

The ample equity amassed beginning in the second quarter of 2020 through 2021 for hotel acquisitions continues to drive property sales which were robust, buoyed by the purchase of Extended Stay America, which included the brand and 563 properties. Hotel sale volume in 2021 is viewed by industry participants as a turning point, with over 120 single property transactions.

While distressed hotel sales remained elusive as work-out strategies appeased lenders and owners, resort and select-service hotels were actively brought to market. Large single transaction sales have been the most efficient transactions to execute for all parties. The trend of sales volume is summarized in the following chart.

U.S. Hotel Transaction Volume 2005-2021 Photo by Cushman & Wakefield

Because the spring and summer of 2021 showed that the room revenue recovery can be robust, the competition for hotel assets remains fierce. The confluence of a positive net income trend, available and well-priced debt, favorable yields and ample equity are driving pricing for desirable assets, particularly newer select-service and resort product. The investment thesis for acquisition is supported by a slowdown in new constructionas construction materials and labor costs soarand scarce financing for new projects.

The hotel transaction process has also evolved during the pandemic, with a growing share of trades being handled directly by principals or through a quiet brokerage process. Hotels that are coming to market allow sellers to recycle capital more productively. Many of the hotels being offered are due for major renovations and Product Improvement Plans (PIP) which presents an additional investor challenge for hotels that may be not yet fully recovered, motivating the disposition of these assets. Groups of properties from the same seller are now routinely offered for sale with acquisition flexibility. A buyer can bid on one or more of the assets.

The distribution of buyers in 2020 was dominated by private capital, as uncertainty limited available assets buyers. However, institution buyers returned in 2021 as did REITs, which were both active buyers and sellers. Overseas buyers were less present. The following chart, based on RCA data, shows the distribution of hotel buyers.

Composition of Buyers Photo by RCA

The current liquidity in capital markets is unprecedented with investors rushing to place dollars and has resulted in downward pressure on yields and competitive bidding on those hotel assets that come to market. Despite the impact of the Delta and Omicron COVID-19 variants on travel, hotel transaction volume in Q4 2021 reached approximately the same level seen in Q4 2019. There remains a bifurcated preference among investors for drive-to resort and distress/deep-value opportunities. Extended stay assets are also favored among many investors due to their cash flow resilience during the pandemic and efficient operating models. Transaction volume in 2022 is widely expected to exceed 2021 as many more traditional full-service and urban hotels head to market; however, uncertainty around the trajectory of COVID-19 and possible future wavesand the downstream effects such as the delay in return to the office policies by major companieshas also delayed the dispositions of many of these assets anticipated to come to market in early Q1 2022.

Hotel debt markets are likewise buoyed by favorable capital markets and search for yield as more and more lenders entered/re-entered the hotel lending market in 2021. Primarily led by debt funds and transitional lenders, life companies, money center and regional banks all began lending in 2021. In the securitized markets, the single-asset, single-borrower execution (SASB) gained tremendous traction for those properties that qualified. Hotel CMBS, which may be the slowest lending class to recover, started showing signs of life in Q3/Q4 2021 and is anticipated to be increasingly liquid in 2022.

Overall, the amount of capital available for hotel product continues to exceed the supply of hotels for sale, sustaining the expectation of strong pricing. The damper on hotel transaction activity remains the lack of inventory for sale. Buyers and brokers continue to hope the increasing pricing pressure from well-funded investors will fuel the availability of assets and transactions are expected to be robust in the second half of 2022.

Hotels Arent What They Used to Be and Thats OK

The face-off between hospitality and technology, which has been apparent in the lodging industry for several decades, has amplified during the pandemic. The institutionalization of the hospitality industry was established on face-to-face interactions to the benefit of the guest. As E.M. Statler proclaimed in 1927, Life is service  the one who progresses is the one who gives his fellow men a little more  a little better service. In the past 100 years, the entrenched culture of the human touch in all encounters has informed every aspect of the business, from the design of the arrival and the location of the front desk, to the training of line employees in guest acknowledgement. But what happens when this precept meets a pandemic that is revolutionizing the giving and receiving of service in all daily encounters? New hotel operating practices are being established both in social behavior and with the rapid adoption of technology in 2020 and 2021. These practices are long overdue with the increasing economic prominence of hotel guests raised on computers and the internet, and the more recent perceptions of personal safety and sanitation. The opportunities are dramatically streamlining costs and sustaining hotel values while also transforming the essence of high-touch hospitality that has historically directed the industry.

Cushman & Wakefields hospitality consulting and valuation practice has the benefit of working with lodging properties across the U.S. at all rate levels and every type of location. The shifts in the adoption of technology are not uniform but can be useful as best practices for many properties. Owners and operators have also been supported by most of the major brands in rolling out new breakfast prototypes to help with these challenges:

Daily housekeeping is quickly fading as the expectation of guests has changed across price segments. With staffing and wage pressures, operators have indefinitely expanded what was the safety protocol of reduced housekeeping in the initial months of the pandemic into a standard operating procedure. The potential for additional fee for on-demand housekeeping service is contextualized as consistent with the shift in airline revenue structures where seat assignments and baggage fees are now established revenue sources.

Breakfast buffets are contracting in favor of grab-and-go options. When the pandemic hit, hotels closed their breakfast offerings, whether complimentary for select-service brands or not. Even with the relaxation of local regulations, hotels have shifted the breakfast models, with reduced items and the elimination of self-service hot items. The combination of staffing challenges, supply chain issues, and pandemic behavior has allowed operators to streamline the service and the associated costs.

The use of QR codes for menus and ordering is quickly becoming the norm in standalone and hotel restaurants. The use of this technology is critical in the current environment where full staffing is rare. Guests are less resistant to the change in service in response to the reduced interactions established during the pandemic. This change is embraced differently depending on age and ability but is expanding rapidly as part of the post-pandemic shifts.

Self-check-in is being heavily promoted by hotel operators and embraced by guests. While the use of phones for registration and electronic room key was being rolled out prior to the pandemic, this technology has gained traction. We are working on several smaller independent properties in urban locations which have shifted entirely to self-check-in and eliminated the costly front desk.

The use of robots is still evolving. Robotic cocktail mixers have become standard for larger bar operations in Las Vegas but robots that deliver those cocktails or linens are still more of a novelty than utilitarian. And as room service is being phased out in many hotels, the use of robots to deliver meals is less compelling. Housekeeping robots are still an evolving vision.

Sonder Hotels, one of the many brands that emerged in the last decade, positions itself as a technology company and not a lodging company, embodying all interactions electronically from reservations to check-out with minimal person-to-person interaction. The hotel room is delivered as a commodity product and the interactive hospitality element of the experience is no longer the focus of the business.

The need to respond to the social practices of the pandemic requires hotels to change decades-long operations. Personal safety concerns, the growing challenges of employees, higher wages and supply chain disruptions are resulting in major changes in hotel services and in the acceptance of these changes by guests. Part of the industrys hospitality is now adapting to guests seeking out low-touch hotel experiences that make them comfortable. Because of the concerns in the initial months of the pandemic, guests have retrained their expectations of hotel services.

Our observations are that these changes are most successful in limited-service and select-service products. In response to the feedback of their guests, luxury hotel operators have had to maintain high service levels including room service but with social distancing protocols.

The changes in service delivery were spurred by personal safety concerns and guest acceptance, then accelerated by higher labor costs and the challenges in hiring. The reduced operating costs of the new protocols helps to offset the higher payroll and are critical to supporting the long-term values and profitability of hotels.

We expect that hotel operations will continue to evolve as public health changes impacts travel. The rapidity of the service changes and their acceptance by guests provide a positive framework for the future of hospitality and supporting profitability over the long-term.

Summary and Outlook

The unexpectedly strong performance of the U.S. Lodging Market in the spring and summer of 2021 provided investors and lenders with greater confidence that recovery is possible and will likely be robust over the next few years. Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, travel remains a priority for many. The Delta and Omicron surges were reminders that external risks will remain and trends are not linear. However, the industrys responses with operational and technology changes, and the expectation of travelers to continue to travel, provides assurance for continued recovery. While there are likely to be additional bumps along the way, industry participants remain soberly optimistic.

About Cushman & Wakefield

Cushman & Wakefield (NYSE: CWK) is a leading global real estate services firm that delivers exceptional value for real estate occupiers and owners. Cushman & Wakefield is among the largest real estate services firms with approximately 50,000 employees in over 400 offices and approximately 60 countries. In 2021, the firm had revenue of $9.4 billion across core services of property, facilities and project management, leasing, capital markets, and valuation and other services.

To learn more, visit www.cushmanwakefield.com or follow @CushWake on Twitter.

Jeffrey S. Brown

Senior Managing Director  National Practice Leader Hospitality & Gaming | Valuation & Advisory

Cushman & Wakefield

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The Australian accommodation industry is facing new challenges when it comes to reopening to full capacity, from personnel shortages to supply chain problems. All stakeholders in the industry, from large scale resort owners to regional owner-operator moteliers, will benefit from this discussion.

Find out what trends are unfolding in the Queensland accommodation market with Paul Hammond (Business Development Manager - Pacific, STR), Renae Trimble (Chief Commercial Officer - Pacific, Accor) and Gareth Closter (Senior Vice President, JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group) discussing how these challenges are being addressed and sharing industry insights.

Gearing back up for No Vacancy - When the guests return, will you be ready?
Cvent surveyed over 500 event planners across Europe for this quarter's European Planner Sourcing Report. We uncovered their sourcing plans, priorities, challenges and so much more. These insights will help hotels and venues understand how best to attract, engage and support planners as they source events this year and beyond.

Join Karla Pearce, Marketing Director Europe, Cvent and Anna Snoep, Director of Operations, Inntel as we discuss the findings of the Cvent 2022 Q1 Planner Sourcing Report: Europe Edition.

Download the latest edition of the Planner Sourcing Report to get a glimpse into event organisers' choice of events, venue sourcing strategies, and much more.

In this report, you'll explore:

The venue sourcing budgets of 503 event planners across Europe

How committed event planners are to the hybrid event format

What hotels and venues can do to impress event planners and win their business

Discover the following key findings:

Sourcing behaviour

Budget trends

Planner challenges

and much more...

We look forward to seeing you!

For more information please contact Sharon Coleshill

+44 208 334 4005
Do you know of an organization, maybe even your own, where employees are valued and motivated to do their best? A boss that rose to the challenge during a difficult time? Let us know.

The Houston Chronicle is gearing up for our 13th Top Workplaces awards program and we want to hear from you. We are calling for nominations to recognize the best of the region's workplaces in a special section to be published in late 2022.
The Katy Economic Development Council has a new president and CEO with a renewed vision for helping businesses in the Katy area flourish. Chuck Martinez has been in his new position for a month, and hes already established a clear path for the EDC to bolster and grow the area moving forward.

Tell us about yourself and how you became involved in the EDC.

I come to the Katy community having over 30 years of experience in economic development here in Texas, as well as in the state of Virginia. Prior to coming to Katy, I was in the Bryan College Station marketplace assisting the Texas A&M University system in attracting industries that were impactful for that marketplace.

I became involved in the Katy marketplace because the EDC began looking statewide and nationally for someone who might be the next person here who can be involved in helping the community grow. I was contacted about the opportunity, and it was a very quick conversation that began in January and ended in January.

When the offer came to be able to join the team, it was kind of prophetic; it happened that my first day was on Valentine's Day to kind of signify a new love for my career.

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What role does an EDC play in serving the community? Specifically, whats the main focus of the Katy EDC?

The world of economic development involves helping companies in their search for a location where they can excel in the marketplace. Sometimes those are companies in the community that have reached a point of growth, and they're making decisions about whether they should continue to stay in the same community or to relocate.

One of the often overlooked aspects of economic development is supporting companies and industries in their own community to be able to be of service to them on a variety of needs that they may have, whether it's that theyre outgrowing their current facility and looking potentially at options to expand on the same premise or looking at a larger footprint. To other companies its about the opportunity to get started and potentially launch a new company.

A lot of times, I think when economic development organizations are brought into the discussion, big companies are looking at trying to identify some place in the nation, or in Texas, and communities are competing to provide a value proposition of why their community would be better fit for that particular company's operations.

A lot of the work that we do is interfacing with those private companies and either introducing them to peer organizations or peer companies within their respective industries. In some cases, we involve public organizations ,in helping them to potentially support that given company.

What are some of your goals as president?

There's been an exceptional branding of Katy in terms of, when you say the words, the Katy area, there are certain immediate connotations that come to mind. Everything that I've ever experienced with the Katy community is that there is a tremendous amount of support that exists across the community.

That brand of togetherness is by far one of Katys greatest competitive advantages. In furthering that brand, the thing that I want to focus on is serving as a regional partner and making it very clear that our team is going to be a servant to not only our regional partners, but also opening new pathways with local or state or federal or national groups. I want to establish that the Katy area is a phenomenal place to do business.

Our role of representing the community involves a great deal of transparency of work and communications. Our objective is to really raise the bar on our area's competitiveness.

The other thing that I've asked our team to really be focused on is practicing this servant leadership to anticipate the needs of the companies that we interact with- anticipate the priorities of our partners and simply act in a manner that accomplishes meeting those highest expectations.

On HoustonChronicle.com: MD Anderson launches James P. Allison Institute to expand cancer therapy, improve survival rates

How is Katy unique from other cities from an economics perspective?Are there any particular challenges or advantages that we have here?

The Katy community has been evolving since its founding, but there's always been kind of a really rich history of coming together as a community. The most important thing is that communities need to ask a very big question of, Who are we? Or, What do we want to become?

I think the Katy area marketplace recognizes its role in furthering the Houston area marketplace, which, as you know, is not only the largest city in Texas, but also one of the top cities in the country. When people think about Texas, they immediately start thinking of the larger metro areas.

There are often conversations about Katy being in the backyard of Houston, but in some ways its the front yard of the Houston marketplace. Katy is the western and north western gateway to a very fast growing marketplace. There are certain opportunities of scalability there that other communities the size of our market may not otherwise have.

Some of the unique advantages are just the phenomenal infrastructure for business to take place. There's a plethora of options that companies can choose here and be able to live in a phenomenal community that hits a lot of marks in terms of what people are looking for. In Katy, youre living in a world class community.

Katy is growing, the school district is expanding and there's new development constantly. How do you see the EDC moving into the future with Katy?

The first thing is reinforcing the location advantages that have been built here. Sometimes communities struggle with trying to accomplish momentum, but the Katy area marketplace has that in incredible volume.

What I would like to accomplish is continuing the transparency of the work that we're doing in helping to refresh the Katy area communities brand. There's no doubt that we live in a very hyper competitive marketplace where companies always have an option of work, and we want to present as many options as we can and not limit ourselves from attracting really great companies who want to be here.

This is a team effort, and we're looking for a lot of information to help us maintain our competitive advantages. We welcome the invitations for us to go out and meet with groups and listen to the interest of the community so were able to incorporate that feedback into the body of work that we're involved in.

I think the most important thing for us is to stay connected with our community and private sector member partners and anticipate the curve coming ahead.

claire.goodman@chron.com
Jay R. Jordan / Jay Jordan, Staff

A couple was carjacked by two men with AK-47s Saturday night at a gas station in north Houston.

The couple were inside their Chevrolet Tahoe at a gas pump about 11:30 p.m. when two men, both toting AK-47 assault rifles, ran up and pulled them out at a gas station near July Street and Aldine Westfield Road, Houston police told Metro Video.
OnScene TV

Three nurses on vacation from New York City saved a DJ who was shot early Sunday at a hookah lounge in Alief.

Someone fired shots inside the packed nightclub about 3:30 a.m. in the 12600 block of Bissonnet, striking the DJ once in the stomach, according to Houston Police Lt. Ignacio Izaguirre. It was not immediately clear if the DJ was the intended target.
OnScene TV

A woman was shot Saturday during a fight in the parking lot of a nightclub in the South Main area near NRG Park.

The woman got into a fight with another woman about 11:30 p.m. in the parking lot of the club, when the other woman pulled out a gun and shot her in the chest, according to Houston Police Lt. Ignacio Izaguirre.
SANAA, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's Houthi militia announced on Sunday evening that they are ready to swap 823 prisoners of the Saudi-led coalition forces for 1,400 Houthi militants.

The prisoner exchange agreement was reached on March 21 under the auspices of the United Nations (UN), Abdulkadir al-Murtada, head of the Houthi prisoner committee, was quoted by Houthi-run al-Masirah TV as saying.

The 823 prisoners are composed of 804 Yemeni soldiers and political detainees, 16 Saudi soldiers, and three Sudanese soldiers. The release of Nasser Mansour Hadi, the brother of Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, and Mahmoud al-Subaihi, the former defense minister of Hadi's government, was part of the deal, according to Abdulkadir al-Murtada.

The Houthis have informed the UN of their willingness to exchange prisoners and are waiting for the publication of a name list from the other side, which is scheduled on March 29 as agreed upon by both sides, according to the Houthi official.

The UN, the Saudi-led coalition, and the Yemeni government have yet to confirm the prisoner swap deal.

Around 15,000 people were reportedly held in the Yemeni government and Houthi jails.

Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014 when the Iran-backed Houthi militia seized control of several northern provinces and forced the Saudi-backed Yemeni government of Hadi out of Sanaa.

The Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015 in the Yemeni civil war in an attempt to reinstate the Hadi government.

On Sunday, the Houthis announced the start of a three-day unilateral ceasefire with the Saudi-led coalition, voicing their commitment to a permanent truce if the coalition stops airstrikes and withdraws its forces. 
A man who jumped from a Corpus Christi pier during spring break earlier this month has been billed thousands of dollars for his rescue, according to the city.

Authorities say security footage shows the unnamed man leaping from Cole Park Pier, a popular fishing pier for residents and tourists, into the rough surf on March 14.

SPRING BREAKERS: Galveston to see its biggest Spring Break yet with over 300K visitors expected

Security video shows the man climbing the guard rails and intentionally jumping from the top guard rail into the bay, the City of Corpus Christi said in a news release. He tried to swim to shore, but the wave action forced him to hold on to a pier piling.

Corpus Christi Fire Department officials were called to rescue him and he was pulled from the water.

BRUTAL REVIEWS: Hilarious one-star reviews of top Texas spring break destinations

The man suffered minor injuries, according to city officials.

Corpus Christi Police issued the spring breaker a citation of $500 for scaling the pier, which forbids climbing through a city ordinance. The fine is on top of the citys $2,639.75 bill for the water rescue.

SPRING BREAK ON ONE TANK OF GAS: Our favorite spots within 100 miles of the city

The city of Corpus Christi has zero tolerance for acts of violence, vandalism, or pranks that erode public trust and cost the taxpayer money,  City Manager Peter Zanoni said in the news release.

City officials in December reopened the renovated pier, which had been damaged by Hurricane Harvey.

timothy.fanning@express-news.net
Jamaal Ellis, Houston Chronicle / Contributor

Travis Scott performed at a private Oscars party in Bel-Air, California on Saturday, according to multiple media reports, in his first return to the stage since the tragedy at his Astroworld festival last November that left 10 people dead and hundreds more injured.

Video circulated Sunday of Scott DJ'ing and performing his 2018 hit "Sicko Mode" at the party, first reported by TMZ. Several stars, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Venus and Serena Williams, YG and Tobey Maguire were reportedly in attendance.
Meteorologists urged caution Saturday as dry, windy conditions created the perfect environment for more wildfires.

"Several wildfires burning across #texas this afternoon," Harris County meteorologist Jeff Lindner said on Twitter. "Use extreme caution with any flame outdoors."

The warning comes during a week of wildfire outbreaks across Texas. A fire warning was in effect for much of Central Texas Saturday as officials ordered evacuations for residents north of a fire burning near Medina Lake, northwest of San Antonio.

Smoke blanketed Houston last week as a fire burned homes and other buildings west of Dallas. Firefighters had responded to 178 wildfires across Texas as of Monday, Texas A&M's Forest Service said in a statement, noting "extreme fire weather" was to blame.

amanda.drane@chron.com
Patrick Semansky, STF / Associated Press

Sanctions

Regarding EU agrees on Russia sanctions so far, but energy divides, (March 24): Sanctions on Russia will not change Putins behavior in Ukraine; they will unfortunately inflict immense suffering on innocent Russian civilians. Sanctions are a euphemism for economic warfare and portrayed as a kinder, gentler alternative to war. In reality, sanctions are a form of collective punishment, a noose around an entire countrys neck. The U.S. uses sanctions to devastating effect. I think it is a more powerful weapon in Washingtons arsenal than even the U.S. military. In the 1990s the world witnessed the cruelty and extreme hardship caused by sanctions on innocent Iraqi civilians, especially the elderly, the terminally ill and children under the age of five. Economic warfare is often not televised and its victims suffer in silence.
Last week, the Mexican media, already accustomed to bad news, was shaken: eight bullets ended the life of Armando Linares.

You might be wondering why you, presumably a Texan reading this in the United States, should care that another Mexican journalist, the eighth this year, has been murdered. If youve heard of the crisis at the border, the cartel violence that spills into the U.S., the murders of Americans on Mexican soil, the suburban mansion scandal you know as Houstongate  it was probably with the help of Mexicos courageous media workers who report the facts and denounce corruption in the face of constant danger.

Mexico has long been the most dangerous country in the world to be a journalist outside an official war zone. With every murder, there is truth that is no longer known and the people of both the U.S. and Mexico, intrinsically linked by their border, lose.

For me, its more personal.

I am familiar with this issue not only because I studied it during my masters program, but because I have lived it. I am a journalist from Veracruz, the state with the highest number of murdered journalists in Mexico. I had to report on the death of unimpeachable colleagues such as Regina Martinez; my friend and neighbor was dismembered; another one disappeared.

Like other colleagues, I lived through the repression, the fear, the paranoia of wondering who is next? That is, until 2013, when, for the safety of my husband and our 18-month-old daughter, we decided to leave the country. Today, the same situation is repeated in other states besides Veracruz. The murders against journalists feel inevitable; never-ending.

Linares, the co-founder and editor of the newspaper Monitor Michoacan, had already warned the authorities about the threats against him and his staff. He reiterated them when his colleague, Roberto Toledo, was killed earlier this year.

On January 28, days before Toledos murder, Linares reported in a video he posted online that he had been in contact with the federal government and had informed them of the threats he received. He said, We hold the municipal authorities of Zitacuaro, Michoacan responsible for any attack on our staff.

Three days later, in another video, Linares is seen moved by the murder of his colleague Toledo, also riddled with eight bullets. He states: There are names, we know who is responsible for this violence. We will continue to point out corruption and corrupt politicians, even if it costs us our lives.

And so it did.

These two journalists from the same media outlet  an unprecedented double attack  were murdered within 43 days of each other. The objective: to silence them because they were investigating political corruption and the incursion of organized crime in Michoacan, a state located in central western Mexico which drug cartels have fought over since 2000.

Even at Linares funeral the threats continued. This time, against the journalists covering the story. Armed men forced them to leave; his own family was forced to give the respected journalist a hurried goodbye.

A few hours later, the Monitor Michoacan news outlet announced that it was shutting down its website. The lack of protection from the authorities despite imminent threats was the last straw.

The special prosecutor's office for crimes against freedom of expression has, in its possession, evidence of the masterminds behind the murder of our editor. Yet the state government and the attorney generals office have shown a lack of interest in finding those responsible  both instigators and perpetrators  because the murderers are among the ranks of both, Joel Vera, the media outlets deputy director, said in a statement posted on his Facebook page.

The tragedy of limited freedom of expression in Mexico dates back almost two decades, to the beginning of the fight against organized crime, which has plunged the country into a spiral of violence. In January alone there were more than 2,000 murders in a country where people kill because they can  and do so with rampant impunity.

Mexicos press freedom issue, and in particular the lack of protections for reporters on the street  the most vulnerable link in the chain  operates on three fronts: the media companies that keep journalists in conditions of near-servitude; political actors who threaten them in the face of criticism; and organized crime, which often enjoys the protection, if not the blessing, of politicians in power.

Working conditions for journalists are among the worst in the country. Reporters often work on a freelance basis at 50 pesos (about $2.49) per story or, if they are on a payroll, they receive a monthly salary of about 5,000 pesos ($248). In order to survive, journalists are forced to work for several media outlets just to make ends meet.

Every year, the equivalent of hundreds of millions of dollars is spent in government advertising that is doled out to media outlets to dictate the news at the governments discretion. This practice, which goes back to the beginning of Mexicos burgeoning democracy, has led to a media landscape described as a co-opted free press in which, despite a constitutional guarantee to freedom of expression, economic mechanisms of control prohibit truly uncensored coverage. In fact, many media outlets sell their editorial content to politicians seeking favorable coverage, working almost hand in hand with the powerful political actors of the day.

Moreover, within the press there is endemic corruption that has pushed, by necessity or ambition, numerous journalists to receive bribes, the famous chayos. These conditions place investigative journalists and critical media that go beyond the status quo at a total disadvantage and in an extremely hostile environment.

The second front that journalists must resist is political power which, according to several nonprofits, is the main threat to the press. Many politicians in Mexico do not tolerate criticism; they react with threats, beatings, kidnappings and even assassinations.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador considers those who criticize his government as enemies. He recently made that clear when he publicly lambasted the renowned journalist Carmen Aristegui for following up on his sons controversial house in Conroe, Texas.

Instead of doubling down on strengthening protections for journalists, the president obsessively denies state involvement in order to distance himself from his predecessors. However, its hard to deny the damning statistics: a recent report found that 94.8 percent of all murder cases reported in Mexico go unpunished.

The third front experienced by journalists is organized crime which, on many occasions, is deeply intertwined with political power. This is the so-called narcopolitics that has taken hold in Mexico and that, according to journalist Ricardo Ravelo, is present in almost every municipality in the country.

This means that journalists who investigate this collusion, or investigate criminal groups in general, end up silenced. This has created large news deserts in the country where you cant mention anything related to criminal groups; you cant count the deaths; and you definitely cant talk about narcopolitics.

Amid this barrage of aggression, many journalists simply stop investigating. Finding themselves forced out of their jobs, they leave journalism altogether or even the country, often with severe post-traumatic stress.

But understanding the issue isnt enough. We must do more, as a global community, to protect journalists. In January, hundreds of media workers and human rights defenders gathered across Mexico to protest, a watershed moment for a community fed up with having to accept violence as part of the job. This month, over 600 members of the European Parliament overwhelmingly backed a resolution condemning these killings and voicing concern over Lopez Obradors use of populist rhetoric to denigrate and intimidate independent journalists, media owners and activists. There is political will for the U.S. to join this international outcry: several U.S. senators, including Tim Kaine and Marco Rubio, have urged the Biden administration to call on the Mexican government to do more to protect its journalists.

The rampant impunity in Mexico and the failure of the justice system, where threats and crimes against journalists for their work go uninvestigated, will lead to many more murders. That is why it is absolutely necessary for the U.S. to continue to support Mexican-led nonprofits that track corruption and civil society efforts to improve Mexicos criminal justice system. For example, prosecutors are being trained in the latest techniques and technology for investigating crimes committed against journalists. As partners in democracy, Mexico and the U.S. must also work together to secure real freedom of expression and justice, ensuring vulnerable media workers are provided adequate protection when they say theyre threatened.

Because for every murder, not only is a life lost. So is the truth.

Amigzaday Lopez is a freelance journalist and contributor to Proceso magazine. She investigated the situation of journalists in Veracruz for her master's thesis "La construccion mediada de la informacion: Factores y actores en la manipulacion de los medios impresos en Veracruz" (The mediated construction of information: Factors and actors in the manipulation of print media in Veracruz). This piece was originally written in Spanish and is available online at Houstonchronicle.com
This is a new kind of war, waged by a new kind of citizen.

The failure of the Russian forces to subdue Ukraine quickly has astonished experts, officials and journalists worldwide. It shouldnt. The Ukrainian resistance is just the latest example of the new attitudes and abilities of 21st-century citizens.

While social media has been getting a lot of attention in this TikTok War, the real story is the growing determination and capacity of ordinary people. Around the world, ordinary people are fundamentally different from people of generations past. They have dramatically higher levels of education, far less deference to authority figures and much greater facility with technology.

These trends have changed citizenship itself. We need to understand this shift so that societies, especially democratic ones, can figure out how to adapt, both in war and peace.

The war in Ukraine is instructive, in at least four ways.

First, citizens now have the ability to make their own media; Ukrainians, under attack, are mass-producing reality TV. Thanks to footage produced by thousands of people and viewed by millions, the war has a constantly unfolding cast of characters. Ukrainian farmers towing Russian vehicles, a soldier moonwalking in a field, people joyriding on a captured Russian tank, and a little girl singing Let It Go in a Kiev bomb shelter have become relatable, inspiring figures in the conflict. Seemingly every time Ukrainians have success on the battlefield, they upload videos of burned tanks and downed planes.

Perhaps most poignant are the videos of Russian POWs  young, hungry, and confused  being fed by their captors and allowed to call their mothers. These conversations, in which they tell their parents they are OK and arent sure why they ended up in a war, may be the best hope for affecting Russian public opinion. The Ukrainian hotline set up for Russians trying to get information on their loved ones on the front lines has also produced heartrending recordings. These videos expose the one thing Putin cant easily hide: Russian deaths on the battlefield.

All that citizen-made media has been fuel for a second major trend of 21st-century citizenship: crowdsourced community organizing.

Nonviolent protests have sprung up around the world, both on the internet and on the streets, including in Russia and in occupied Ukrainian cities. The capacity of citizens to make this civil disobedience visible has rallied millions of others to their cause. People are filming the crowds that slow Russian convoys, and mapping protests around the world in precise geo-located detail, so that others can join in.

This organizing happens rapidly and shows advanced collective thinking. People arent simply protesting the war, they are focusing on specific priorities and pressuring Western governments to move on them: singling out Russian oligarchs, denying SWIFT access to Russian banks, banning Russian oil, and shaming international corporations into halting their Russian operations. Community organizers call this finding winnable issues. Many of these economic sanctions are unprecedented, and it seems unlikely that Western governments and businesses would have taken all of these drastic steps if not for large-scale public pressure.

In addition to pressuring governments, many citizens are also sidestepping civil society institutions. They are supporting Ukrainians not just through traditional means like donating money to the Red Cross, but by using networks like AirBnB to send money directly to Ukrainian families. This is international aid without institutional intermediaries.

It isnt just the aid that is do-it-yourself. The warfare is DIY, too.

The contributions of Ukrainian citizens to the war effort includes all generations: grandmothers making Molotov cocktails, mothers brandishing assault rifles, young couples getting married at the front, schoolchildren sewing camouflage nets.

Some of the combatants arent even in Ukraine: a small army of hackers is helping to disrupt Russian technologies, interfere with defense communications, and broadcast news about the war to Russian citizens. In an interview with Politico, Ukraines deputy digital minister Alex Bornyakov reported that there are 300,000 people worldwide contributing to these efforts.

We dont have a chain of command or any structure at all, Bornyakov said. So, [Russia] cant fight it. Its impossible to disrupt it or break it down. You cant bomb it or cut off connections or take down a top person  because there is no top person.

Of course, such warfare isnt entirely new. For thousands of years ordinary people have taken up scythes and muskets against invading armies; for hundreds of years there have been propaganda campaigns; for decades people have been able to see in real time events happening on the other side of the world.

But the war in Ukraine is revealing how much things have advanced in the last 20 years: the full flowering of a gigantic global network of person-to-person connections; the blurring of the lines between professionals and amateurs; the ability of almost everyone to make their experiences visible and immediate to millions of other people.

Five years ago, the American writer and democracy advocate Eric Liu wrote that We are in the midst of a profound global Great Push Back against concentrated, monopolized, hoarded power. Today in Ukraine, we are witnessing not just the decentralization of power  along with knowledge, skill and authority  but the ability of the crowd to wield those decentralized resources in coordinated ways.

The changes in citizen attitudes and capacities are not all positive. Just like previous generations, 21st-century citizens can be selfish and unwilling to compromise, saddled with bias and racist assumptions, and fundamentally misinformed. There is no guarantee that the crowd will wield power in ways that are wise, equitable or just.

But these dangers are unavoidable when people are empowered. And the best way to reckon with them is to seize the related opportunities that this change in citizenship creates for democracy.

We are already seeing what is possible when democratic governments support, inform and collaborate with 21st-century citizens. Countries like Colombia, Iceland, Taiwan and Brazil have been leaders in democracy innovation: reforms and practices that strengthen relationships between people, give them a meaningful say in decisions and support their volunteer efforts. Many of these ideas, like participatory budgeting and citizens assemblies, create situations where people can learn about an issue, talk with people who have different views and make decisions together. (Some Ukrainian cities have also been hotbeds of this kind of democratic experimentation.) Others, like crowd-resourcing, inspire and coordinate volunteer efforts to solve public problems.

The desire of citizens to connect, be heard and get things done seems universal. Even in Russia, the demand for democratic input in governance has been on the rise.

Governments should adapt to the shift in citizenship by explaining these potential democracy innovations to their citizens, offering different democracy options and working with citizens to implement them, and measuring their impacts.

Putins regime seems more like a criminal institution than a political or military one. And it still may be effective enough to win the war, because of the overwhelming Russian advantage in traditional military resources. But even if the Russian military is victorious on the battlefield, it seems unlikely that the Russians can occupy, let alone govern, Ukraine for long.

Whenever peace comes to Ukraine, and the rest of the world, we need to appreciate the new realities of what citizens want and can do. The greatest hope for democracy, justice and peace is for leaders and institutions to interact more productively with the people they serve.
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Sabine Lake is one of the best things about living in Port Arthur and now a giant energy company wants to ruin it.

Energy Transfer has proposed building a giant crude oil pipeline right through the middle of Sabine Lake and down to an offshore export terminal off the coast of Louisiana. The so-called Blue Marlin pipeline would move nearly 2 million barrels per day through our lake.

Calling it Blue Marlin is especially offensive since it could devastate fishing around here. Sabine Lake and neighboring Bessie Heights Marsh are two of the most important fisheries and bird habitats on the Gulf. Anglers and commercial fishermen, boaters, birdwatchers and lots of tourists visit each year, bringing money to local businesses. Migratory birds also stop over here; ducks, ospreys, bald eagles and pelicans all call the lake and marshes home.

Everyone here who lives around Port Arthur knows that Sabine Lake is crucial to our community and to our local economy. The lake is popular for both recreational and commercial fishing and its home to highly sensitive oyster reefs that provide habitats for many fish species and are critical to the overall health of the estuary. We believe that Energy Transfers Blue Marlin project puts all of us at extreme risk of environmental and economic catastrophe.

If the Blue Marlin oil pipeline and export terminal are anything like many of Energy Transfers other projects, I fully expect Sabine Lake and Port Arthur to end up devastated.

According to ViolationTracker.com, over the last 21 years, Energy Transfer and its subsidiaries have incurred over $589 million in fines for everything from environmental offenses, to workplace safety incidents, to market manipulation.

But my biggest concern is Energy Transfers long history of pipeline spills. Between 2002 and 2018, Energy Transfer, its subsidiaries and joint ventures spilled 3.6 million gallons of hazardous liquids. This included 2.8 million gallons of crude oil in 527 separate incidents.

That means Energy Transfer pipelines leaked, on average, once every 11 days. And 67 of these spills were reported to have contaminated water, while 18 contaminated groundwater that provides peoples drinking water. Energy Transfers controversial Dakota Access Pipeline shows how unpopular and potentially destructive another pipeline could be.

Most recently, the Pennsylvania Attorney General announced 48 criminal charges against Energy Transfer for inappropriately discharging industrial waste in violation of the states Clean Streams Law. Those charges included a felony count for willfully failing to report a spill to the states Department of Environmental Protection.

Beyond the threats to the lake, folks here believe their lands are being unfairly seized through eminent domain, a process in which the government or other entities can acquire private property. According to the Texas and U.S. Constitutions, private property can only be seized for public use and only after just compensation is paid.

Pipeline operators often argue that they are public use because anyone can run their product through them, but we do not think export projects are of public use to anyone in the United States. We firmly believe that building this pipeline to boost Energy Transfers profits by selling oil to foreign markets like China fails to meet the burden of public use.

As for just compensation, this is a process largely tilted against landowners that often ends up taking advantage of people. The initial offer is more often than not pitifully low; faced with claims of authority and the pressure of approaching deadlines, it is easy for inexperienced landowners to prematurely accept the offer. Without a lawyer to negotiate an easement price, landowners often end up losing.

People in my community have had enough, and the last thing we want is an oily dagger through the heart of Sabine Lake. We will fight hard to prevent Energy Transfer from bulldozing through our communities, taking our land and polluting our water. I hope our public officials will stand with us in this fight.

John Beard is a long-time Port Arthur resident and former city council member. He previously worked at an Exxon plant and now advocates for his communitys health and environment.
Dear New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker:

Some days, you are really irritating.

Thats because you insist on being a happy warrior in grumpy times. With that eternal, internal and, yes, infernal sunshine of yours, you are to the body politic as that 1-877-Kars4Kids ad would be to a man with a hangover.

You float on pink clouds of bipartisan bonhomie, making friends of opponents, shoveling constituents driveways, racial slights bouncing off you like bullets off Superman, so upbeat, you make Fred Rogers look like Lewis Black. Even one of your former aides once said, Sometimes its like, give me a break, Cory, take it down a notch. This was in a Politico profile under the headline, Is Cory Booker For Real?

So yes, senator, some days youre quite annoying. But there are other days, too. Wednesday was one of them.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee weighing her ascension to the Supreme Court, where she would be the first African-American woman in its 232-year history. The clownish grandstanding of senators like Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham was in full flower, displays of performative distress over phantom issues having nothing to do with her fitness, and everything to do with making their contempt palpable.

Why contempt? Does it even need saying?

If so, turn to conservative troll Charlie Kirk, who told his audience Brown represents your country on CRT. As if that was somehow too subtle, he went on to warn that, Your children and your grandchildren are going to have to take orders from people like her.

People. Like. Her.

And whats amazing, he added of this woman who had spent hours quietly answering inane questions asked in bad faith without once snarling about her love for beer, is that she kind of has an attitude, too. By which, of course, he meant that she is uppity.

One felt debased by it all. One felt exhausted. And one had to wonder: When will this country ever, as a great man once put it, rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed? The feeling and the question have become sadly familiar.

Then, you started talking about resilience and faith. Im not letting anybody in the Senate steal my joy, you declared, calling the Black church into this moment of historical reckoning. You invoked an African-American woman who stopped you on the street to say what it meant to see Brown poised on the cusp of history. And an African-American janitor who cried at the sight of you, a Black man, in the Senate. You spoke of what it means to love a country that doesnt love you back.

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You even subpoenaed the ancestors to testify: Langston saying, America never was America to me, but I swear this oath: America will be; Harriet, finding in a sky full of stars, one you said she took as her harbinger of hope for better days  not just for her and those people that were enslaved, but a harbinger of hope for this country.

Today, youre my star, you said. You are my harbinger of hope.

Dont worry, my sister, you told her, and right then, there was nobody in the room but the two of you, Black senator counseling Black judge, Black man uplifting Black woman. Dont worry. God has got you.

Senator, you did well. You found a way to turn ugliness into light, to remind America of itself. Small wonder the judge wept. After days of this, years of this, a lifetime of this, she surely needed what you had to offer.

Shes not the only one.

Leonard Pitts Jr. is a columnist for the Miami Herald.
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The claim: Ketanji Brown Jackson has "a weak record  defund police, abolish ICE and now a completely open border policy."  Mick McGuire

PolitiFact rating: Pants on fire. Mick McGuire said Jackson has "a weak record  defund police, abolish ICE and now a completely open border policy." There is no evidence that Jackson has stated support for any of those measures. The baseless statement is false and ridiculous.

Discussion

During the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, Republican senators excoriated her as weak on law enforcement, sometimes by making misleading statements about her sentencing of child pornography offenders and the release of jail inmates.

None of the senators accused Jackson of wanting to defund the police or to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

But that was the attack made by Mick McGuire, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Arizona.

GRIEDER: Sorry, Ted. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson weathered storm of inane questions, insinuations from GOP

In an ad posted on Facebook and Instagram on March 24, the final day of the hearings, McGuire shared excerpts of an interview he did two days earlier on Fox Business.

McGuire claimed that Jackson has "a weak record  defund police, abolish ICE and now a completely open border policy."

That line of attack is one that weve fact-checked several times, usually deployed by Republican candidates for public office against their Democratic contenders.

'YOU ARE WORTHY': Sen. Cory Booker draws tears at SCOTUS hearing for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson

McGuire, the former head of the Arizona National Guard also called Jackson part of the "radical left," a common theme in campaign ads on social media and among Republicans.

We found no evidence that Jackson has a record on defunding the police, abolishing ICE or supporting a completely open border  positions that undoubtedly would have drawn sharp criticism during the hearings.

McGuires campaign did not respond to our requests for evidence for the claim.

Defunding the police

Calls to "defund the police" emerged following the 2020 murder by a white Minneapolis police officer of George Floyd, a Black man. Some activists called for eliminating police departments entirely, while others wanted to reexamine the functions of police departments and redirect some of their funding to other services.

Jackson has several family members, including a brother, who have served as police officers. The International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Fraternal Order of Police have endorsed her nomination.

About PolitiFact PolitiFact is a fact-checking project to help you sort out fact from fiction in politics. Truth-O-Meter ratings are determined by a panel of three editors. The burden of proof is on the speaker, and PolitiFact rates statements based on the information known at the time the statement is made. See More Collapse

Jackson has been a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit since 2021, having been nominated to that court by President Joe Biden, who also nominated her to the Supreme Court. Before that, she was a judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, appointed by President Barack Obama in 2013. She also worked as a federal public defender, and would be the first Supreme Court justice to do so.

'WHAT THEY LIVE FOR': Ted Cruz scores presidential points with his show at the Ketanji Brown Jackson SCOTUS hearings

There is no mention of defunding police in a 78-page review of Jacksons record by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. The Republican National Committee made no mention of police in its news release entitled, "Bidens Pick Is A Radical, Left-Wing Activist Who Will Rubberstamp His Failed Agenda." And we found no other statements by the committee related to McGuires claim.

After searching on Google and Nexis, a research database, we found no statements by Jackson showing support for defunding the police.

ICE and open border

Jackson has written three legal opinions considering challenges to the Department of Homeland Securitys expedited removal of immigrants illegally in the United States. In two of them, she ruled in favor of the challenges, according to the Congressional Research Service report. ICE is part of the department.

But that "sample size is too small to support firm predictions about how she might approach immigration law matters more generally," the report said.

In any case, those rulings were on a specific immigration policy. We found no statements by Jackson indicating she wanted ICE abolished, or open borders.

Its unclear whats McGuires interpretation of "open border." Some regard the term as no enforcement of immigration laws at U.S. borders, others apply it to lax immigration policies.

Weve done several fact-checks debunking claims that Democrats want to abolish ICE or eliminate border enforcement.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, divided 11-11 between Democrats and Republicans, is expected to vote on Jacksons nomination on April 4. A final vote would then come from the full Senate, which is divided 50-50, but Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, could break a tie vote.

Arizona race could decide party control

McGuire is running in the Aug. 2 primary against several other major Republican candidates: Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, businessman Blake Masters, businessman Jim Lamon and Justin Olson, a member of the state utility commission.

The winner will take on Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly. He won the seat in a 2020 special election that was held to replace the late John McCain, a Republican.

The 2022 race is rated by campaign watchers as a toss-up and as "battleground Democratic." Its one of the Nov. 8 contests that could determine which party controls the Senate.
MOGADISHU, March 26 (Xinhua) -- African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) military engineers wrapped up a four-day training on Friday evening to counter the growing threat posed by improvised explosive devices (IEDs) widely used by al-Shabab terrorists.

The training which was attended by 20 military engineers from various AMISOM outposts and some staff officers with roles pertaining to countering the threat posed by IEDs, focused on building participants' capacity to identify and dispose of IEDs and mitigate the threat in time.

"It is only by increasing our awareness, participation in and understanding of the IED threat that we will be able to mitigate the enemy's tactics, techniques and procedures in order to better protect our soldiers and ultimately defeat the enemy," AMISOM chief force engineer Saheed Sadiq said in a statement issued in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

Sadiq said the evolving nature of the enemy's tactics calls for constant re-evaluation of personnel skills in countering IEDs and updating them on new trends in the network so that they are able to operate efficiently and deliver on the mission mandate.

According to AMISOM, IEDs are the preferred weapon of choice for the al-Shabab, who often plant them on main supply routes, targeting AMISOM and government troops, but civilians often get hit.

It said the IEDs constitute one of the most significant threats to AU peacekeepers, making the training extremely important, especially in efforts to defeat the IEDs.

The training, which was organized by the AMISOM Training Cell and the United Kingdom Mission Support Team, called on participants to consistently ensure that every member on the counter-IED network while out in the field is aware of their specific role to minimize casualties due to IED attacks. 
Pittsfield School Officials Want Taconic Solely Vocational

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  A jump in students choosing technical education has school officials recommending Taconic High School becomes an all-vocational school.

"When we built the school, this is the problem we hoped to have and now it's here and we're actually past the tipping point," Principal Matthew Bishop said. "I think we thought we had more time but we're there and we have to sort of gladly look at this problem and decide what we want to do."

Assistant Superintendent Tammy Gage gave a presentation to the School Committee on Wednesday on the impact of increased career technical education, or CTE, applications for Taconic and the implications for the Pittsfield Public Schools.

It came with a recommendation to move toward only accepting CTE ninth-graders either in the fall for the 2022-2023 school year or next year for the 2023-2024 school year.

Gage said this is about career pathways not "Taconic versus Pittsfield High School."

Superintendent Joseph Curtis clarified that the committee was not at the time asked to make a vote on this though it will be taking it up in the future.

As of March 1, the district has received 191 CTE applications for the school year 2022-2023 when the cap was set at 145. The administration had two choices: hold a lottery and create a waiting list or accept all of the CTE students.

A decision was made to accept all vocational students, which came to 188 after three withdrew, and this will be the second class in a row that is overcapacity.

Sixty-six percent of the future CTE ninth-graders are from Reid Middle School, 40 percent are from Herberg Middle school, and eight are returning Pittsfield students.

"We accepted 188 ninth-grade vocational students next year and that's going to put us at about -- if nothing changes for the fall and we continue on as we are now -- we'll have about 251 ninth-graders," Bishop said.

"Which is tight and as you know, we were over this year in ninth grade as well."

He added that it kept the administration up at night about accepting only 145 students knowing that they were going to have to say "no" to 50.

Bishop explained that the school was built to have a capacity of a little over 900 with students having full vocational shops as part of the equation. Right now the school cannot fill the shops because of the space that non-CTE students occupy.

The advantages of Taconic being all vocational include the ability to accept all applicants resident or non-resident, an opportunity for more robust articulation agreements, increased employer engagement, and the ability to offer Career Training Institutes for adult students.

It also benefits the $120 million investment in the new Taconic facility that was completed in 2018.

Curtis explained that if the decision was made to make Taconic only vocational for the fall, 60 Reid students who would traditionally go to the school would be sent to Pittsfield High School because they are not registered for CTE.

Committee member Alison McGee recommended that the 60 students are surveyed to see if they would feel comfortable moving to a different school and Curtis obliged.

PHS Principal Henry Duval said the schools' enrollments have flipped over the past five years with more students now at Taconic. The vocation switch began during the 2018-2019 school year when PHS started to close its vocational shops and all but the culinary department was closed in the school year 2019-2020.

"So Pittsfield High School now has no vocational programming whatsoever and that's where the change has taken place in this population," Duval explained.

He later said "PHS will be known as PHS" after Taconic is made all vocational, meaning that it is a traditional high school with features such as a strong Advanced Placement program, a strong college prep program, and a substantially separate special education program.

There was also talk about the biases around vocation education as opposed to traditional education.

"It really is about what we're offering our students the resources that we have in Pittsfield, which is unlike any other district Berkshire County, and then asking ourselves to examine any biases that we have around vocational education versus traditional education, looking at what we define as successful and what our students find is meaningful," Gage said.

"So our goal is that they graduate with credentialing and college course credit and meaningful experiences that they can transition into a job or post-secondary education apprenticeship programs, it is not as linear as it's been in the past, it really is multiple entry points so it's really our job to provide those to students and inform parents about all of the opportunities that exist before them and not just what we had thought of in the past as being successful."

Chair William Cameron said the enrollment numbers provided to the committee showed a major shift in the community's acceptance of vocational courses as quality programming.

Student representative William Garrity asked what kind of timeline is being considered for this decision, recognizing that it is something that the committee needs to start looking at now.

"We will certainly schedule a meeting in the near future to have a deeper discussion, I know there is some desire to do it in the fall, and certainly the feedback that we collect from our community and the 60 families affected directly will impact that, but there are many other complications of making this happen in such a compacted timeline, transportation and such," Curtis said.

In other news, the committee voted to endorse a resolution in support of the Fair Share Amendment and a resolution condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The amendment imposes a 4 percent surcharge on earnings past the first $1 million to support transportation and education. It is expected to generate about $2 billion yearly, will be on the ballot for state voters in November.

On Tuesday, the City Council also voted on a resolution to support it.

The resolution against Russia's invasion of Ukraine states: "The Pittsfield Public School Committee condemns the Russian Federation's unprovoked, unjustified, and barbaric invasion of Ukraine and joins with over 140 nations and all civilized persons in demanding an immediate end to this war, in which so many are needlessly dying, including women, children, and the elderly, so much of Ukraine is being destroyed, including schools, homes, houses of worship and maternity hospitals, and so many are being forced to flee their homeland to save their lives."




iciHaiti - PNH : Evaluation of priorities in the framework of cooperation with the UN





As part of an assessment mission to Haiti by a delegation from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) which ended on Friday March 25, 2022, Frantz Elbe, Acting Director General of Police Nationale d'Haiti (PNH), held a meeting with Ms. Helen La Lime, Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations in Haiti and Head of the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), as well as with members of the UNODC Office delegation.



Let's recall that the main objective of the UNODC mission to the country was to assess the priority areas within the framework of cooperation between the UN and Haiti, on the fight against transnational organized crime, in particular illicit trafficking (firearms, drugs, among others), corruption, impunity and financial crimes.



During this meeting, Frantz Elbe, who was accompanied by members of the High Command, including the Chief Inspector General, Fritz Saint-Fort, his Chief of Staff, Inspector Jean Gardy Muscadin and the Director of the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police, Inspector Frederic Leconte, discussed the best ways and means to deal with the current problems and the measures that should be taken in the future to continue progress in achieving public safety objectives.



IH/ iciHaiti






















iciHaiti - Simonette : Citizens thwart the kidnapping of two Haitians from the diaspora





On Friday, March 25, three armed individuals in a gray Ford vehicle, registered GG-00625, attempted to kidnap two Haitian citizens living in the diaspora, in Simonette (North Dept.)



The angry population of Lafiteau and Simonette pursued the alleged bandits to the Minoterie crossroads. Two of them managed to escape and the third was arrested by police assigned to the Moulins d'Haiti. The weapon that was in the kidnapper's possession was handed over to the Titanyen patrol by the police officers. It is an Uzi, with two magazines and 25 rounds.



However, overwhelmed by the population, the bandit was forcibly removed from the hands of the police by violent residents, then lynched and his body burned afterwards.



In addition, the Communication Office of the Ministry of Planning informs the general public that the vehicle registered GG-00625, is part of the Ministry's fleet. However, the Ministry advises everyone that this vehicle was stolen on December 20, 2021, around 7:30 p.m. in the "Wout Nef" area and that a statement was made to this effect, at the Port-au-Prince Police Station, on December 21, 2021.



IH/ TB/ iciHaiti


















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JUBA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations relief agency has called on South Sudan to protect communities, humanitarian personnel and assets across the country after the killing of three aid workers on Thursday.

Sara Beysolow Nyanti, the humanitarian coordinator in South Sudan and Arafat Jamal, the Humanitarian Coordinator ad interim (a.i.) who condemned the incident urged the perpetrators to respect international law and humanitarian staff and assets.

"This attack is completely unacceptable. This is not the first of these incidents in this area. Criminals who choose to use violence to serve themselves ensure vulnerable people suffer more. If humanitarians and humanitarian assets are not protected, humanitarian assistance to that area will have to stop," Nyanti said in a joint statement issued in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, on Friday evening.

A convoy of commercial trucks carrying vital life-saving food commodities from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) was attacked between Gadiang and Yuai in Jonglei state on Thursday.

Three people on the convoy were killed, and one person was wounded.

Nyanti is currently visiting donor capitals to raise the profile of the needs of people in South Sudan and advocating for support.

"When humanitarian assistance is attacked, it is the people in need who suffer. Indeed, such incidents discourage those donor countries who would otherwise invest in South Sudan," she said.

Jamal on his part called on the government to immediately implement its commitments to ensure civilians, including humanitarians, are safe.

"I have unfailing admiration for everyone who helps and supports people in need. It is devastating to realize that people undertaking vital work can be executed so heartlessly. The crime is compounded when these attacks go unpunished. These killers must not be allowed to roam free," he said.

South Sudan, which is one of the most dangerous places for aid workers saw 319 violent incidents reported in 2021 targeting humanitarian personnel and assets, with five aid workers killed, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 
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.
Nepali President Bidya Devi Bhandari (1st R) meets with visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Kathmandu, Nepal, March 27, 2022. (Photo by Hari Maharjan/Xinhua)

KATHMANDU, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Nepal and China pledged here Sunday to deepen their friendship and continue to firmly support each other in safeguarding their core interests.

While meeting with visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Nepali President Bidya Devi Bhandari said Nepal and China have enjoyed profound friendship and they are good neighbors and good friends.

Nepal is pleased to see that China has made great achievements in its development and Nepal has benefited a lot from China's development, the Nepali president said.

Nepal will, as always, stay committed to developing friendly relations with China and sticking to the one-China policy, Bhandari said.

Expressing gratitude for China's selfless assistance in Nepal's socioeconomic development, especially in the post-quake reconstruction and the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, Bhandari said Nepal is ready to work together with China to push forward the joint building of the Belt and Road.

For his part, Wang said China and Nepal are good friends and good partners, with friendship dating back over a thousand years. Both sides have been supporting and helping each other, becoming a model for equal treatment, mutual respect and win-win cooperation between countries of different sizes.

The Chinese side cherishes the traditional friendship between China and Nepal, and will continue to support Nepal in safeguarding its independence, sovereignty and national dignity, exploring a development path suited to its own interests, and pursuing independent domestic and foreign policies, Wang said.

China stands ready to work with the Nepali side to deepen bilateral friendship, and continue to firmly support each other in safeguarding their core interests, Wang said.

Bhandari said her country never approves the slanders by certain international forces against both China and the Communist Party of China, and it wishes and firmly believes that China's path and the China model will achieve greater success.

Wang said the Chinese side is happy to see that friendship with China has become a social consensus going beyond parties and different party factions in Nepal.

The Chinese side is willing to strengthen exchanges with Nepal's political parties and different party factions on state governance experience, and join hands to push forward the cause of promoting democracy and human rights for mankind, Wang said. 
Known for expressing his opinion without mincing any words, Kabir Khan, the director behind Ranveer Singh-starrer 83, often finds himself in hot soup. On social media, he is often told to go to Pakistan by trolls. Talking about the same, the filmmaker said that he feels bad when people pass such comments.

AFP

Khan said that social media has more toxicity than positivity. "My name is Khan and (hence I am told) Go to Pakistan. And I have been to Pakistan once and Lashkar (a terrorist outfit) said to go back to India, so I am neither here nor there. If you show stories, then it evokes every kind of emotion and it is okay".

Also Read: Kabir Khan Reveals What Taliban Member Told Him In 2001 That Sent Chills Down His Spine



Twitter

For the unversed, Kabir Khan was called "Talibani" by trolls when he said that Mughals were the "the original nation builders".

"Of course, there can be different viewpoints. If you want to demonise the Mughals, please base it on some research and make us understand why; why they were the villains that you think they were. Because if you do some research and read history, it's very tough to understand why they have to be villainised. I think they were the original nation-builders, and to write them off and say they murdered people... But what are you basing it on? Please point out the historical evidence. Please have an open debate, just don't go with the narrative that you think will be popular," he had told Bollywood Hungama.

Twitter

Kabir Khan also thinks that social media has given liberty to trolls to say anything they want, and he feels bad when people criticise him. "One couldnt say to you in person about what they felt ten years ago out of respect and love but today there is no responsibility of owning your own words. It does feel bad. But that is the reality we are living in."

(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.)
In February, Sean Penn was on the ground in Ukraine filming a documentary about the Russian invasion for Vice Studios. He left Ukraine on foot and is currently in Poland. He has spoken to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on many occasions.

Now, ahead of Academy Awards 2022, the ace actor-filmmaker has threatened to destroy his Oscars if President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not invited.

Myself & two colleagues walked miles to the Polish border after abandoning our car on the side of the road. Almost all the cars in this photo carry women & children only, most without any sign of luggage, and a car their only possession of value. pic.twitter.com/XSwCDgYVSH  Sean Penn (@SeanPenn) February 28, 2022

Sean Penn has said that he will publicly "smelt" his statuettes from the awards body if they elect against asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to speak during the live telecast of Sunday evening's ceremony.

Talking to CNN, Penn said that the Academy has an obligation to offer President Zelenskyy a platform to speak on Ukraine's struggles as the country continues to combat invasion by Russian military forces.

AP

He said, "There is nothing greater that the Academy Awards could do than to give (Zelenskyy) an opportunity to talk to all of us. It is my understanding that a decision has been made not to do it. That is not me commenting on whether or not President Zelenskyy had wanted to".

AFP

For the unversed, Penn has won two Oscars in the past for his films Mystic River and Milk.

"If the (Academy has) elected not to pursue the leadership in Ukraine, who are taking bullets and bombs for us, along with the Ukrainian children that they are trying to protect, then I think every single one of those people and every bit of that decision will have been the most obscene moment in all of Hollywood history."

Agencies

Sean Penn has also urged the attendees to boycott the awards ceremony if the organizing committee elects to forgo reaching out to Zelenskyy regarding a speech during the telecast.

" If it comes back to it, I will smelt mine in public. I pray that's not what's happened. I pray there have not been arrogant people, who consider themselves representatives of the greater good in my industry, that have (decided against checking) with leadership in Ukraine. So I'm just going to hope that that's not what's happened. I hope (every attendee) walks out if it is."

(With inputs from PTI)

(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.)


1. Police Complaint Registered Against Vivek Agnihotri For His 'Bhopali Means Homosexual' Comment

Twitter

A complaint, seeking FIR against Vivek Agnihotri for defamation and other charges has been filed by journalist-cum-celebrity public relations manager Rohit Pandey through his lawyer Ali Kashif Khan Deshmukh. In his complaint, Pandey has said that Agnihotri has disrespected his native place Bhopal by "willingly, wantonly and maliciously calling Bhopalis as homosexuals".

2. Aamir Khan Had Recently Decided To Quit Films; Here's Why He Changed His Mind

AFP

"My daughter is now 23. I am sure she must have missed my presence in her life when she was younger. She will have had her own anxieties, fears, dreams and hopes. I wasnt there for her, I know this now."

3. 'Trying To Do Stand-Up Comedian's Job', Anupam Kher Calls Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal Insensitive

Twitter

"If he wants to have a political problem with the Prime Minister or the BJP, he should have just spoken about that. But to bring in Kashmir Files...to call it a propaganda film....it was shameful. He has not seen the film...he was trying to play to the gallery...he was trying to do a stand up comedian's job over there," he told Times Now.



4. 'Stop Mocking Kashmiri Pandits', Assam CM Slams Arvind Kejriwal For His Dig At The Kashmir Files

Twitter

Hitting out at Kejriwal, Sarma took to Twitter and asked the Delhi CM to stop "constantly mocking" Kashmiri Pandits.

5. My Name Is Khan And I Am Told 'Go To Pakistan', Kabir Khan On How He Feels About Trolls

Twitter

Khan said that social media has more toxicity than positivity. "My name is Khan and (hence I am told) Go to Pakistan. And I have been to Pakistan once and Lashkar (a terrorist outfit) said to go back to India, so I am neither here nor there. If you show stories, then it evokes every kind of emotion and it is okay".

(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.)


The total smartphone exports in India are soon to touch over Rs 42,000 crore in the soon-to-be-ending fiscal -- an around 83 percent growth against Rs 23,000 achieved in 2020-2021.

Reuters

Also Read: India Passes Rs 7,350 Crore PLI To Boost Make In India, Create Lakhs Of Jobs



Reported first by TOI, to put things into perspective, just around four years ago -- in 2017-2018 -- this number was around just Rs 1,300 crore, which shot up considerably to Rs 11,200 crore in 2018-2019 and soon after to Rs 27,000 crore in 2019-1010.



The number dropped slightly in 2020-2021 due to disruptions in supply and production due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

This years jump is also at a time when the electronics industry, in general, is undergoing several component shortages due to semiconductor supply chain disruptions along with the already prevalent disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pankaj Mohindroo, chairman of industry body Indian Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) which worked on the data, said in a statement, The impressive performance comes in 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.

He added, Companies now target 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.

Reuters

Also Read: Make In India: India Blocks Import Of Chinese Made Wireless Devices



The report also highlighted that its Apple and Samsung that have a majority share in the smartphone exports tally with Apple contributing upwards of Rs 12,000 crore and Samsung coming around Rs 20,000 crore.



For more in the world of technology and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com


Exposure to air pollution for the long term could increase the risk of autoimmune disease, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Verona.

Unsplash

Also read: Extreme Air Pollution Cause Of Painful Period Cramps In Women, Claims Study

Reported first by The Guardian, they conducted a comprehensive study involving medical information of over 81,000 men and women taken from an Italian database that monitored risk of fractures between June 2016 and November 2020. Around 12 percent of the lot were diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in this time frame.



Every single patient was linked to the nearest air quality monitoring station based on their residential postcode.

The study specifically looked at long-term exposure to PM10 and PM2.5. The particulate matter is considered harmful to humans at 30g/m3 for PM10 and 20g/m3 for PM2.5.

Researchers found that overall long-term exposure to aforementioned particulates above the safe levels was linked with 12 percent (for PM10) and 13 percent (for PM2.5) of developing an autoimmune disease, respectively.

They found that long-term high-level air pollution exposure was associated with a 40 percent higher risk of rheumatoid arthritis, a 20 percent higher risk of inflammatory bowel diseases like Chrons and ulcerative colitis and a 15 percent high risk of connective tissue diseases such as lupus.

Unsplash

Also read: Lockdown 2.0 Did Not Lower Pollution In India, Delhi Saw 125% Jump In NO2 Levels: Report



Felicity Gavins, the director of the Centre for Inflammation Research and Translational Medicine at Brunel University London, said, This study further supports the mounting evidence suggesting a link between air pollution exposure and immune-mediated diseases.



She added, Whether air pollution exposure specifically causes autoimmune diseases remains controversial, although there is no doubt that there is a link.



Researchers do acknowledge the fact that the findings dont prove a causal link to pollution and that other factors must also be taken into consideration. Moreover, the findings might not be applicable widely as the participants mostly involved older women at risk of getting fractured.

Keep visiting Indiatimes.com for the latest science and technology news.
As the clock runs down to today's sanctions deadline for Russian airlines to hand back more than 400 leased planes worth almost $10bn, foreign lessors are fast losing hope that they will get their aircraft back.

Most of the planes are still flying Russian domestic routes, aviation consultants IBA say, although Bermuda and Ireland - where most are registered - have suspended airworthiness certificates which usually means they should be grounded.

Aviation was an early business casualty of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, as the West and Russia imposed tit-for-tat airspace bans. Now, lessors face big writedowns or a long insurance battle as the March 28 deadline looms for terminating plane leases under European Union sanctions.

"I'm afraid that we are going to witness the largest sort of theft of aircraft in the history of commercial civil aviation," said Volodymyr Bilotkach, an associate professor of air transport management at Singapore Institute of Technology.

Dual registration is not allowed under international rules, but Russia has already moved more than half of the foreign-owned aircraft to its own registry after passing a law permitting this, Russia's government said.

The government also said 78 planes leased to Russian carriers had been seized while abroad and would not fly back to Russia. Major aircraft lessor Avolon, headquartered in Dublin, has terminated all its Russian airline leases and repossessed four of the 14 owned aircraft on lease with Russian airlines outside the country, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday.

It wasn't clear if the four planes were part of the 78 reported by Moscow.

Although the planes are insured, the unprecedented nature and scale of the potential losses will likely mean years of litigation between lessors and insurers before any decisions on payouts are taken, analysts say.

And even if the planes are repossessed, the recoverable value would be in question because the aircraft must have accurate maintenance records to ensure they have been fitted with genuine, traceable components - another area targeted by Western sanctions on Russia.

Although the total value of the planes is huge, the impact on individual leasing firms may still be manageable even if writedowns are required as aircraft leased to Russian airlines account for less than 10% of most leasing firm portfolios.

"It's not going to cripple these businesses," said Brad Dailey, a director at Alton Aviation Consultancy who previously worked at another Dublin-based leasing giant AerCap Holdings.

"What it does do in my view is it changes the future market potential of Russia," he said.

Some private airlines have indicated their willingness to hand back planes to the lessors, although it is unclear whether the Russian government will approve the transactions.

Russia's UTair Airlines said on March 14 it would withdraw from service all nine of its leased Boeing 737 NGs, citing owner requirements, a move that could preserve longer-term relations after sanctions end.

Those planes have not flown since that announcement but remain in Russia, data from flight-tracking website FlightRadar24 show.

In some cases, lessors have security deposits that could be forfeit and could help cover a portion of any losses - but still only a fraction of a plane's value.

For example, a security deposit on narrowbody plane worth $20m could be about $450,000, the equivalent of three months rent, Alton's Dailey said.

Ratings agency KBRA said security deposits generally range from one to four months of rent, depending on the credit assessment of the airline leasing the plane.

Russian national carrier Aeroflot had been viewed as the best credit risk before the invasion, industry sources said, although that assessment no longer applies after Moscow's move to register its planes in Russia.

A person at a Chinese lessor with exposure to Aeroflot said no security deposits had been taken from the airline and said insurance payouts appeared to be the only route to cover losses.

The lessor plans to begin insurance claims after the March 28 deadline has passed, said the person, who was not authorised to speak publicly about the matter.

A source at another Chinese lessor with exposure to Aeroflot said that, instead of taking a security deposit, it held US dollar letters of credit from Russian banks - but the source said they had no effective value now because of Russian currency controls imposed in response to financial sanctions.

At lower-tier airlines, lessors are more likely to have stronger security deposits in place, Dailey said.

Reuters
Don OLeary, 64, grew up in Ballyphehane, Cork. He was elected to Cork City Council for Sinn Fein in 1999, and has been Director of the Cork Life Centre for 16 years. The centre offers an alternative learning environment to marginalised young people. In the 1980s, he served three years in Portlaoise Prison for IRA membership. In 2021, Don was awarded an honorary doctorate by UCC for services to the community and education.

Jim FitzPatricks Art

Ive always loved Irish folklore books: Cu Chulainn, the Red Branch Knights, that kind of stuff. I had a particular fascination with the stories because they are Irish. That type of story always makes me think of Jim FitzPatricks drawings, who is known of course for painting Che Guevara and Phil Lynott. His paintings have an aura. Theyre very colourful. His Celtic art is like something from the Book of Kells, with all its swirls and distinctive designs. If you look at his painting of Queen Maeve, it could be the Blessed Virgin. Its so stylised. Or the famous Cu Chulainn one. Theyre fabulous. Your imagination can run wild with them.

Jim Fitzpatrick, artist. Picture: Moya Nolan

Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien is a favourite book of mine. Some people might be dismissive of it, as fantasy, but its very good at explaining the world and how the world is divided, and how we see one another and how wars start and how we like to think good conquers evil (but I'm not so sure about that, actually).

D-Day: The Battle for Normandy

I love history books. Any of Antony Beevors books, I will read again and again. The victors always write the history in relation to a war. Its only later, you get the views of others. I love his D-Day book. Now were seeing wars in real time. You pick up your phone and you can see, for example, what's going on in the Ukraine this minute.

But when you look back at the Second World War and the build-up to its battles and invasions, it was totally different. With D-Day, for example, they brought troops from America. The idea that the Allies put carbon cut-out trucks and tanks up around Scotland to try and make the Germans believe that they were up there and they weren't going near the southern coast of England... the diversionary tactics were extraordinary.

If you look at who won the Second World War, it was the Russian people. There were millions slaughtered. They just kept coming and kept coming. All of Hitlers associates left as quickly as they could from his bunker. Like rats leaving a sinking ship. The moment when the red flag was placed on top of the Reichstag signalled the end  that the Allies had been victorious.

Janet Jackson

This is probably coming from leftfield, but I really enjoyed the new Janet Jackson documentary. Its not warts and all, but you can see how tough an upbringing the Jackson family had and how controlling it was. Despite all their money, youd have to feel sorry for Janet and her brothers. They dont have any real life. They seem so miserable. She married twice early on. The only reason she was marrying was to get away from her dad. He was their manager. He went everywhere. You couldnt say that its a happy ending when you see how they turned out. Its sad.

The Janet Jackson documentary series on Sky provides interesting insight into her family.

The Burning of Cork

The Burning of Cork by Gerry White and Bernard OShea is an extraordinary read. It takes the view of everyone affected, from soldiers to survivors. Its very much the story of how it happened. For weeks leading up to it, there had been pointers that there was something big going to take place because of how the Irish War of Independence was going. I would say to Cork people that the book is a good starter to understanding the war in their locality.

Winter on Fire

Winter on Fire: Ukraines Fight for Freedom is a very good documentary on Netflix. It's about the first Ukrainian revolution in 2014 when they wanted to change; the robbed election; the taking over of the square; how they were treated; the deaths; and the beginnings of Ukrainian democracy. It gives you background on how long the Ukrainians have actually been fighting and whats happening at the moment in good detail.

The Battle of Algiers

A film that I return to  I've seen it more than once  is The Battle of Algiers. Its about the French being removed from Algeria. The conflict started very small. Its about a bigger country deciding its people were more educated than a country in Africa and it was going to take it over, which France did. They made a colony of French people in its towns. The Algerians had to resort to guerrilla war. They drove the French out. There was horrific massacres, but you see how it started. You see the French crumbling over time. It's about a nation regaining its freedom.

The Tain

A standout album for me as a teenager was The Tain by Horslips. Its historical. It tells you the story of the mythical Cu Chulainn and Maeve. Its about that collection of folklore stories and it brings it to its conclusion, including Maeves lament on it. The story is told in song. The music on the album is absolutely fabulous. I still listen to it.

Bad Manners

I'm very fortunate I've seen Buster Bloodvessel and Bad Manners live in Dublin. The man has practically had heart attacks on stage, prancing and jumping around. They're amazing. They have huge energy. The lyrics of the songs can be quite mad sometimes. Theyre the only band that I know who did a love song to a bottle of beer.

Buster Bloodvessel of Bad Manners. Picture: Michael Mac Sweeney

Rod Stewart

I will listen to anything really, although there are two artists I wont listen to: Sir Bob and U2. I like Rod Stewart. Ive seen him live. Ive liked him since I was a teenager and hes still going. Hes had huge hits all the way along. I like his voice. There's a kind of a joy about him.
Nightmare Alley: Director Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water) sets his latest in 1940s New York, where Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) aims to grift the citys wealthy. On Disney+ and rental platforms including Apple TV.

Dont Look Up: A pair of scientists aim to warn the world of an approaching comet that could be disastrous for the planet, to the bemusement of top politicians. Adam McKays latest is on Netflix.
KIEV, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said that Kiev insists on a system of security guarantees for Ukraine as one of the key elements of negotiations with Russia, the presidential press service reported Saturday.

During an interview with German media, Podolyak stressed that such a system "is impossible without the participation of the United States in the first place."

According to the negotiator, the future of Crimea, certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk should be decided only by the presidents of Ukraine and Russia.

He called on Ukraine's partners to provide air defense systems, give weapons to "adequately help" Kiev, adding that sanctions, such as oil embargoes and restrictions on financial transactions, are also needed.

Earlier this month, Podolyak said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, may hold talks soon.

But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that it is too early to talk about a meeting between the two presidents, as there is no breakthrough yet in the peace talks.

Ukrainian and Russian delegations held three rounds of peace talks in-person in Belarus since Feb. 28, and the fourth one started on March 14 in a format of video conference. 
A Ukrainian woman has warned other refugees to use only official channels when sourcing accommodation in Ireland after a host family exploited her and threatened to have her deported after witnessing a violent row in their home.

The warning comes as the Irish Red Cross said it is carrying out a significant body of work in conjunction with other agencies to assess almost 23,000 applications it has received to help to house Ukrainians in Ireland.

The woman, in her late 30s, said she left her home town, just outside Kyiv, late last month, soon after the Russian invasion.

She chose to come to Ireland with her daughter, 7, as she speaks good English and was hoping to find work, but was forced to leave behind her husband, mother, and much of her family.

Accepted offer

The woman and her daughter made it to her host familys house in the west of Ireland a few days before St Patricks Day. She told the Irish Examiner that she met the mother of the host family through a Facebook group and accepted her offer of accommodation, as she was told there were long delays in accessing housing through the Red Cross.

She seemed very kind, the woman said. "Told me she would be very happy for us to stay. I told her I would not be able to pay for rent until I got work and she said that it was okay, that my safety and my daughters safety were important.

The host family included a couple and their two young boys. The Ukrainian woman said that, shortly after she arrived, the mother began asking her to help around the house, which she was happy to do.

However, she said the requests for help quickly turned into orders and she felt less like a guest and more like a servant.

At first she would say can you help me with this? and I would. But, later, she would just tell me to go clean the windows or go cook dinner.

One day, I had been with her two children all day when she came home and started shouting that the house was very unclean.

She asked me do you live like this in Ukraine? I was very angry, but I was scared to talk against her. It was her home.

The situation deteriorated when the host couple had a violent row one evening.

It was very upsetting, said the woman. All the children were crying. My daughter asked me if we could go home. I was scared because we were in the countryside. I had no transport and it was a long way to the town.

Following this incident, the Ukrainian woman contacted a friend, also from Ukraine, who was living nearby.

Once she explained what she had witnessed, her friend insisted the woman and her daughter come and join them. The host she was staying with was an elderly woman who had an extra room and was willing to accommodate them.

When I told the mother of the home that I wanted to leave, she became upset, she said. She said that I didnt understand and couples have fights in Ireland, that it was normal.

I told her it was too upsetting for my daughter.

When I told her I was certain, she started shouting.

She said I was ungrateful. She told me if I told anyone about the fight, she would call immigration and tell them I wasnt a real refugee and that they would send me home.

For people coming here, please go through the right agencies, like the Red Cross. They can help you. Most Irish people are the kindest in the world and I am so grateful for their help, but a very few are not so kind.

You dont want to end up somewhere where you are not safe.

An Irish Red Cross spokesperson said vacant properties are being prioritised for evaluation. For shared accommodation, where people offer parts of their homes for refugees, Garda vetting is also being conducted for those who register through the Red Cross portal. This takes up to seven days.

With roughly 23,000 pledges in just a few weeks, this represents a significant scaling-up of resources compared to the pledges made for Syrian refugees just a few years ago. The Irish Red Cross said it took three months to receive 1,000 pledges at that time.

If people take in refugees outside of this process, the State and Irish Red Cross may be unaware of where these refugees are and unable to provide supports.

The spokesperson added that all applications will be assessed and work is ongoing to house the Ukrainians who have already arrived in Ireland.
One young man was stabbed to death and another is fighting for his life after a hammer attack following separate violent attacks in their own homes in Cork over the weekend.

The father of the fatal stabbing victim and the mother of the assault victim were also injured in the brutal attacks but both are expected to make full recoveries from their physical injuries.

Gardai resumed their questioning on Sunday of a man arrested in connection with the fatal stabbing of Shane Murphy, 27, one of Irelands top pitch and putt players, in Carrigaline early on Saturday morning.

The 42-year-old man is due to appear at Cork District Court at 10.30am this morning.

Shane's father, Weeshie, 75, who was seriously injured in the attack in their home in the towns Sea View Avenue estate at around 3.30am, is recovering and was due to give a statement to gardai.

Gardai investigate stabbing

A 42-year-old man, who it is understood was known to both men, was arrested in relation to the incident a few hours later in the Passage West area. He was taken to Gurranabraher Garda Station and detained under the provisions of Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984, which allows gardai to question suspects for up to 24 hours.

Questioning was suspended later to allow him to receive medical attention in hospital.

Gardai continued their forensic examination of the house in which they recovered a weapon. They conducted door-to-door enquiries in the area and examined CCTV footage, while a post-mortem examination on Shanes remains took place at Cork University Hospital (CUH).

The results have not been released for operational reasons but it is understood that it confirmed he died from a single stab wound to the upper body.

'We're just totally shocked'

Shane and his father were successful, hugely-respected pitch and putt players.

What's happened is just unbelievable said Cork Pitch and Putt chairman Noel Collins of the death of 27-year-old Shane Murphy. File picture: Provision

Shane was ranked amongst the top three players in the country, having won several local, regional, and national titles at various levels over the years. He won two senior titles in match play and stroke play events recently.

His father also won numerous titles over the years and he was involved in the administration of the sport in Cork.

Noel Collins, chairman of the Cork County Board of Pitch and Putt Ireland, knew both men well and spoke of his own sense of shock and disbelief, which he said had reverberated across the country.

Pitch and putt was their life, he said.

I was in charge of the juvenile teams when Shane won an under 16 title a few years ago. He was just a super guy and a super player.

We saw his talent at juvenile level but he carried that right through to senior level and whats happened is just unbelievable. Were all just totally shocked.

All Cork County Board pitch and putt events, including all Cork league semi finals, were cancelled over the weekend as a mark of respect, as pitch and putt clubs around the country posted messages of condolence on social media.

Raffeen Creek pitch and putt club, where Shane was a member until recently, said they were all still in shock after hearing the heartbreaking news.

Weeshie Murphy was described by neighbours as a kind and gentle man, who was involved in the building trade and who loved his family, and his pitch and putt.

Weeshie Murphy, who was seriously injured, and his son, Shane, who was fatally stabbed, in the incident in Carrigaline, Co Cork on Saturday. File picture

His wife, Marie, died following illness in May 2012. The couple had five children, Tanya, John, Mark, Bryan and Shane but Mark died in tragic circumstances in the family home two days before Christmas 2013.

Local Fianna Fail councillor Seamus McGrath, who knows the family, said the entire town had been rocked by the tragedy.

Sea View is a quiet, settled area, its one of the older estates in Carrigaline with many families who have lived in the area for years and this is the last thing youd expect to hear. My thoughts are with the father and his family and I wish him well in his recovery, he said.

Cork gardai also investigating hammer attack

Meanwhile, a man in his 20s is in critical condition after he was attacked by a masked assailant armed with whats believed to have been a hammer during an aggravated burglary at the house he shares with his mother at McCurtain Villas off College Rd on the citys southside at about 4pm on Saturday.

He was beaten about the head and rushed to CUH where his condition was described as critical. His mother, who is in her 60s, was injured when she intervened to save her son. She was also taken to CUH for treatment for non life-threatening injuries.

Catherine Clancy, chairperson of the Magazine Road and Surrounding Areas Residents Association, described it as an extremely worrying incident:

Its frightening to think that this could happen to a mother and her son in the comfort and safety of their own home.

Hopefully the young man recovers and his mother wont be too traumatised. And we would have a lot of elderly people living in this area so hopefully the gardai will find the person responsible sooner rather than later.

Gardai are keeping an open mind on the motive for the attack and have been harvesting CCTV footage from the area.

They have appealed for anyone who saw anything suspicious in the McCurtain Villas, Wycherley Terrace, College Rd, or Bandon Rd areas between 3.30pm and 4.30pm on Saturday, and especially anyone with dashcam footage from those areas, to contact them.

Meanwhile, gardai in north Cork are continuing their investigation into all the circumstances surrounding the suspicious death of a man in his 60s who was found dead in a house in Buttevant last week.

They are trying to establish who the man interacted with, and his last-known movements in the hours before he was found unconscious by his partner on the floor of a downstairs room at their house at OBrien Terrace at around 9.30pm on Thursday.
Joe Biden directly appealed to the Russian people with comparisons between the invasion of Ukraine and the horrors of the Second World War as he called for Vladimir Putin to go.

For Gods sake this man cannot remain in power, the US president said, apparently calling for regime change in Moscow at the end of a speech from Poland on Saturday.

He said if youre able to listen: you, the Russian people, are not our enemy before evoking the Nazis siege of Leningrad and likening it to the atrocities in Ukraine.

These are not the actions of a great nation, Mr Biden said, in front of the Royal Castle, a landmark in Warsaw that was badly damaged during Adolf Hitlers war.

Of all people, you the Russian people, as well as all people across Europe still have the memory of being in a similar situation in the 30s and 40s, the situation of World War Two, still fresh in the mind of many grandparents in the region.

Whatever your generation experienced, whether it experienced the siege of Leningrad, or heard about it from your parents and grandparents, train stations overflowing with terrified families fleeing their homes, nights sheltering in basements and cellars, mornings sifting through the rubble in your home  these are not memories of the past  not any more, its exactly what the Russian army is doing in Ukraine right now.

Attack on Lviv

A Ukrainian police officer is overwhelmed by emotion after comforting people evacuated from Irpin on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, March 26, 2022. Picture: AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda

Multiple rockets struck the western Ukrainian city of Lviv near the Polish border during Mr Bidens visit, which came as Russia faced the prospect of further setbacks in the war.

The US president said Moscows troops have met their match with brave and stiff Ukrainian resistance and have strengthened the resolve and unity of both the defending forces and the West.

Russia wanted less of a Nato presence on his border but now he has a stronger presence, a larger presence, he said.

Mr Biden said 200,000 Russians had left their country in a single month in a remarkable brain drain as Mr Putin, who he earlier called a butcher, had strangled democracy.

Addressing the thousand-strong audience that included refugees who have fled the war, he told Ukrainians we stand with you  period as he defended the nations president, Volodymyr Zelensky.

Putin has the gall to say hes denazifying Ukraine. Its a lie, its just cynical  he knows that, Mr Biden said.

And its also obscene. President Zelensky was democratically elected, hes Jewish, his fathers family was wiped out in the Nazi holocaust and Putin has the audacity  like all autocrats before him  to believe that might will make right.

An injured woman evacuated from Irpin lies on a stretcher in an ambulance on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, March 26, 2022. Picture: AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda

But as he made an impassioned defence of democracy, he reminded European nations they must end its dependence on Russian fossil fuels.

Sanctions, he said, have been sapping Russias strength and have reduced the rouble to rubble.

But Mr Biden warned: This battle will not be won in days, or months either. We need to steel ourselves for the long fight ahead.

Despite clearly calling for Mr Putin to go at the end of his speech, a White House official tried to argue that the US Presidents point was that the Russian leader cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbours or the region.

He was not discussing Putins power in Russia, or regime change, the official added.

Moscow scaling back invasion

Moscow has given an indication it could scale back its offensive to focus on what it claimed was the main goal, liberation of Donbas, the region bordering Russia in the east of Ukraine.

Mr Zelenskys forces were regaining ground around the capital of Kyiv and the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) said Russians are proving reluctant to engage in large scale urban infantry operations.

Instead, the MoD said, they were preferring the indiscriminate use of air and artillery bombardments in an attempt to demoralise defending forces.

Ukrainian soldiers chat in the front line position close to Kharkiv, Ukraine, Saturday, March 26, 2022. Picture: AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky

However, there were fresh signs it was Mr Putins troops who were struggling with morale, as Western intelligence suggested a Russian brigade commander, Colonel Medvechek, was deliberately run down and possibly killed by his own troops.

An adviser to the Ukrainian ministry of defence, Markian Lubkivskyi, predicted troops could on Saturday take back Kherson, the first major city that the Kremlins forces seized.

He was sceptical that the Russian Presidents aims had truly changed away from trying to take the whole nation, but said it does appear the enemy is focused on the eastern part of Ukraine.

The port city Kherson, in the south east, fell to the Russians early this month in their first major gain.

But Mr Lubkivskyi told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: I believe that today the city will be fully under the control of Ukrainian armed forces.

We have finished in the last two days the operation in the Kyiv region so other armed forces are now focused on the southern part trying to get free Kherson and some other Ukrainian cities.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned Moscow it is sowing a deep hatred for Russia among his people, as constant artillery barrages and bombings reduce cities to rubble, kill civilians and leave survivors to scrounge for food and water to survive.

You are doing everything so that our people themselves leave the Russian language, because the Russian language will now be associated only with you, with your explosions and murders, your crimes, he said in an impassioned video address.

Russias invasion of Ukraine has ground into a war of attrition in many places, with the toll on civilians rising as Moscow seeks to pound cities into submission from entrenched positions.

(PA Graphics)

A nuclear research facility in the besieged city of Kharkiv, near the Russian border, again came under fire on Saturday, and Ukraines nuclear watchdog said it had been impossible to assess the extent of the damage.

Kharkiv has been besieged by Russian forces since the start of the invasion and has come under repeated shelling that has hit residential buildings and critical infrastructure.

Ukrainian authorities previously said Russian shelling had damaged buildings at the facility, but there had been no release of radiation.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has said the nuclear material in the facility is always subcritical and the inventory of radioactive material is very low, reducing the risks of radiation release.

On the western side of the country, Russian rockets struck Lviv on Saturday while US President Joe Biden visited neighbouring Poland, serving as a reminder that Moscow is willing to strike anywhere in Ukraine despite its claim to be focusing its offensive on the countrys east.

Smoke rises in the air in Lviv (Nariman El-Mofty/AP)

Early on Sunday, a chemical smell still lingered in the air as firefighters in Lviv sprayed water on a burned section of an oil facility hit in the Russian attack.

Russias air strikes shook the city that has become a haven for an estimated 200,000 people who have had to flee their home towns. Lviv had been largely spared since the invasion began, although missiles struck an aircraft repair facility near the main airport a week ago.

Two cities at opposite ends of the country are seeing some of the worst suffering: Chernihiv in the north is strategically located on the road from the Belarusian border to the capital Kyiv, and Mariupol in the south is a key port city on the Sea of Azov.

Both are encircled by Russian forces, but still holding out.

Chernihiv has been under attack since the early days of the invasion and over the last week, Russia destroyed the main vehicle bridge leading out of the city and rendered a nearby pedestrian bridge impassable, cutting off the last route for civilians to flee, or for food and medicine to be brought in.

More than half of the citys 280,000 inhabitants have already fled and hundreds who stayed have been killed, mayor Vladyslav Atroshenko said.

Smoke rises out of an apartment building damaged by shelling in Chernihiv (Olga Korotkova/AP)

Russian forces have bombed residential areas from low altitude in absolutely clear weather and are deliberately destroying civilian infrastructure: schools, kindergartens, churches, residential buildings and even the local football stadium, he told Ukrainian television.

Refugees from Chernihiv who reached Poland this week spoke of broad and terrible destruction, with bombs flattening at least two schools in the city centre and strikes also hitting the stadium, museums and many homes.

They said that with utilities knocked out, people are taking water from the Desna river to drink and that strikes are killing people while they wait in line for food.

Previous bombings of hospitals and other non-military sites  including a theatre in Mariupol where Ukrainian authorities said a Russian air strike is believed to have killed 300 people last week  have prompted allegations of war crimes.

The invasion has driven more than 10 million people from their homes, almost a quarter of Ukraines population. More than 3.7 million have fled the country entirely, according to the United Nations. Thousands of civilians are believed to have died.
The White House scrambled to row back Joe Bidens declaration that Vladimir Putin cannot remain in power, insisting he was not calling for a regime change.

In an impassioned speech in Warsaw, the US president appealed to Russian people directly, with comparisons between the invasion of Ukraine and the horrors of the Second World War.

For Gods sake this man cannot remain in power, the US president said at the close of his speech of the Russian president he earlier described as a butcher.

Mr Biden pleaded if youre able to listen: you, the Russian people, are not our enemy, as multiple rockets struck the city of Lviv near the Polish border in the west of Ukraine.

But a White House official tried to argue that the US presidents point was that the Russian leader cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbours or the region.

He was not discussing Putins power in Russia, or regime change, the official added, before reports in the US suggested the remarks in question had not been scripted.

US president Joe Biden delivers a speech at the Royal Castle in Warsaw (Petr David Josek/AP/PA)

Mr Biden warned we need to steel ourselves for the long fight ahead as he conceded the battle will not be won in days, or months either.

He told European nations they must end dependence on Russian fossil fuels, but said sanctions had been sapping Russias strength and have reduced the rouble to rubble.

Zelenskyy demands more courage After US President Joe Biden met senior Ukrainian officials in Poland on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy lashed out at the Wests ping-pong about who and how should hand over jets and other defensive weapons to us while Russian missile attacks kill and trap civilians. In this image from video provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks to the leaders of the European Council during their summit in Brussels from Kyiv, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP) Ive talked to the defenders of Mariupol today. Im in constant contact with them. Their determination, heroism and firmness are astonishing, Mr Zelenskyy said in a video address early on Sunday, referring to the besieged southern city that has suffered some of the wars greatest deprivations and horrors. "If only those who have been thinking for 31 days on how to hand over dozens of jets and tanks had 1% of their courage."

In the UK, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said sanctions on oligarchs, banks and businesses could be lifted if Mr Putin ends the war and commits to no further aggression.

With the Kremlins troops struggling, her comments will be seen as a possible incentive for Mr Putin to cut his losses and broker a deal with Ukraine.

(PA Graphics)

Her remarks fit with those of her US counterpart Antony Blinken, who has said the travel bans and asset freezes are not designed to be permanent.

The secretary of state said the sanctions could go away in the event of an in effect, irreversible withdrawal of Russian troops.

Moscow has given an indication it could scale back its offensive to focus on what it claimed was the main goal, liberation of Donbas, the region bordering Russia in the east of Ukraine.

But Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned he would not give up territory in peace talks as he noted that his troops have delivered powerful blows to invading forces.

Tobias Ellwood, the Conservative MP who chairs the British Commons Defence Committee, described Mr Bidens comment hinting at regime change as unwise.

He warned the Russian president will now see regime change as Mr Bidens wider objective, adding: Putin will spin this, dig in and fight harder.
The United Nations human rights office said on Sunday that 1,119 civilians had so far been killed and 1,790 wounded since Russia began its attack on Ukraine.

Some 15 girls and 32 boys, as well 52 children whose sex is as yet unknown, were among the dead, the United Nations said in a statement which covered the period between when the war began on February 24 and midnight on March 26.
From the Archive The Man Behind the Burma Independence Army

Col. Keiji Suzuki. / Public Domain

In 1940, Colonel Keiji Suzuki, a Japanese intelligence officer dubbed Asias Lawrence of Arabia, traveled to Yangon to lay the groundwork for his countrys invasion of Myanmar, then known as Burma. He made contact with a group of young nationalists who would later become prominent politicians and independence heroes, including members of the legendary Thirty Comrades. With this group he established the Burma Independence Army, the forerunner of todays Tatmadaw, in 1941. Suzuki served as its first commander-in-chief, with Aung San serving below him as chief of staff. To mark Myanmars 77th Armed Forces Day today, The Irrawaddy revisits this 2017 profile of Suzuki.

He came to Yangon as a correspondent for the Yomiuri Shimbun, but his real mission was to lay the groundwork for the Imperial Japanese forces invasion of Myanmar.

Keiji Suzuki, a Japanese intelligence officer at the rank of colonel, was known as a dynamic officer passionate about his covert operation.

He was part of the Minami Kikan, a secret intelligence organization set up in Feb. 1941 to carry out special operationsa household name among former soldiers who once fought in Myanmars independence struggle.

In 1940, Col Suzuki took the name Minami Masuyo and arrived in Yangon, where his colleagues set up a secret office at 40 Judah Ezekiel Street and established contacts with young nationalists in Myanmar.

Suzuki was described as genuinely concerned for countries in Asia colonized by Europeans.

The Japanese colonel, who was dubbed Asias Lawrence of Arabia, attended Japans prestigious General Staff College, spoke fluent English, and was known to identify with independence struggles throughout the continent.

Recruitment of Young Nationalists

The Japanese Imperial Army, however, had no interest in saving Myanmar from the British: the Japanese wanted to cut off the Burma Road, through which the British were sending military assistance, supplies and weapons to China.

Before coming to Yangon, Keiji Suzuki developed connections with prominent members of Myanmars thakin movement nationalist activists and students pushing for Myanmars independenceas well as those living in Japan.

The irony is that the thakinsmeaning masters, to indicate that they were masters of their own nationfound that they had more in common with the Chinese nationalists than Japanese militarists.

In fact, many progressive, educated and left-leaning thakins, including young Thakin Aung San, father of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, did not agree with what Japanese forces had done in their invasion of China.

However, they were pragmatic, and that played a major role in their quest for independence. To achieve this, Myanmar nationalists were ready to accept assistance from any quarter.

Meanwhile, the Japanese propaganda machine was in full swing in British-occupied Myanmar; Japans slogan of Asia for Asians intersected with growing anti-British sentiment in the country.

In Yangon, Col Suzuki met Myanmar nationalists who were willing to take up arms. They were naive, but idealistic and committed. A decade later, those young nationalists became prominent politicians and independence heroes.

Aung Sanalready a leading figure in the underground movementwas contemplating armed struggle to regain independence, but would require outside assistance. A fugitive from the British authorities, Aung San left Myanmar secretly to seek help abroad.

According to the book Burma and Japan Since 1940, by Donald M. Seekins, the then head of the Japan-Burma Friendship Society Dr. Thein Maung said that a Japanese diplomat planned Aung Sans escape to Amoy, now known as Xiamen, in southern China.

In her biography of her father, Aung San of Burma, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi wrote that his original intentions were to procure support from communists in China, and not from Japan.

In any case, Aung San and a colleague, Than Myaing, were stranded for months in Amoy. Suzuki sent out Japanese agents to rescue the duo and fly them to Tokyo.

In Tokyo, Aung San made the decision to work with the Japanese.

Dr. Maung Maung, a subordinate and biographer of Gen Ne Win, interviewed 62-year-old Keiji Suzuki at his home in Hamamatsu, Japan in the 1950s. He wrote of Suzukis account of Aung San and Than Myaings arrival in Tokyo in November: they were dressed only in summer clothes and had no passports. He told Dr. Maung Maung that among Myanmar nationalists there were two schools of thought on seeking foreign aid: one was to form an alliance with China or Russia, and another favored Japan. The first group was in the majority, he believed.

Suzukis observation of Aung San was that he was honest and brave, but that the then 25-year-old lacked maturity. He asked Aung San to draft a blueprint for a free Burma. Some scholars later questioned whether the blueprint that was forwarded to the Japanese headquarters was originally written by Aung San, or whether it had been modified by Suzuki in an effort to please his superiors.

The young Aung San learned to wear Japanese traditional clothing, speak the language, and even took a Japanese name. In historian Thant Myint-Us The River of Lost Footsteps, he describes him as apparently getting swept away in all the fascist euphoria surrounding him, but notes that his commitment remained to independence for Myanmar.

Suzukis relations with his own military headquarters were also in question. Some historical accounts suggest that there was no higher-level interest in Aung San and his colleague Hla Myaing: Suzuki reported the arrival of the two Myanmar activists in Japan to General Staff but was initially told no support would be provided. Suzuki began to receive serious attention from the imperial headquarters when the British reopened the Burma Road to send supplies to China. Only then did a plan to liberate Myanmar begin in Tokyo.

Aung San and other young nationalistsmostly Burmanswere secretly brought to Hainan Island to receive intensive military training in mid-1941, months before the Pacific War began with the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 8 of that year.

Those with Aung San included Bo Let Ya, Bo Set Kya, and Bo Ne Win, all in their 20s. They were among those later known as the Thirty Comrades.

According to one of the Thirty Comrades, Kyaw Zawthen 21, and later a leading army officer in 1950sthe training was harsh. At times, they thought of rebelling or joining Chinese communist insurgents hiding out on the island. In his memoirs, he mentioned that at one point, a Japanese officer brought out a Chinese prisoner of war on whom to practice bayonet training. The practice was later documented in Myanmar when Burmese independence fighters captured suspected criminals and collaborators with allied forces.

Commander Thunderbolt

The Burma Independence Army (BIA) was formed in December 1941 in Bangkok, before the Thirty Comrades return to Myanmar. Suzuki was the groups commander in chief, with the rank of General, and Aung San served below him as Chief of Staff.

The Japanese promised that as soon as the forces crossed Myanmars eastern border and reached Moulmein (now Mawlamyine), independence would be announced. It was not.

Before entering Myanmar, the Thirty Comrades and Suzuki chose noms de guerre: Aung San became Bo Teza.

Suzuki also chose a Burmese name: Bo Mogyo, or Thunderbolt. There was a reason behind it: a popular ta baung, or Burmese prophecy, widely shared among Myanmar people suggested that a thunderbolt would eventually strike down the umbrella, a symbol of British colonial rule.

Suzuki not only identified himself as this savior, but also spoke of being a descendent of Prince Myingun, who was exiled from the Burmese royal family.

Before they marched on Myanmar, the Thirty Comrades held a thwe thauk ceremony in a house in Bangkok, a tradition among soldiers in which a small amount of their blood was mixed with liquor and then consumed by the group.

The initial BIA forces included Myanmar exiles and hundreds of Thai of Burmese origins. When the imperial headquarters asked Suzuki how he wanted assistance and arms for the BIA, Suzuki replied that he would need arms and equipment for 10,000 men but did not require any Japanese troops.

According to Suzuki, when they entered Myanmar they had 2,300 men and 300 tons of equipment.

Along with Japans 15th Army, they entered southern Myanmar and swiftly moved toward Moulmein. Suzuki and Aung San wanted to reach Yangon firstby March, the capital fell to Japanese forces. Speaking later to Dr. Maung Maung, Suzuki said that Aung Sans patriotism and honesty won over all of us in Japan, as well as on our march.

Before troops arrived in Yangon, Japanese planes bombed the city, forcing people to flee to the countryside. British and Indian populationsincluding soldiers, officers and civil servantsretreated west, to India. Shocking tales of a new master traveled fast to Yangon, including stories of Japanese solders abuses, including rape, torture, gruesome interrogations, lootings and extrajudicial killings. British and Indian troops destroyed strategic roads, bridges, and hospitals leaving little which could be of use to the enemy.

When the young Burmese nationalists aspirations of independence failed to materialize, they confronted Suzuki. He famously told then politician U Nuwho later became the Prime Ministerthat one could not beg for independence, but rather, had to proclaim it. Suzuki allegedly suggested that the Burmese forces form their own government and revolt against Japan. Aung San reportedly replied to him that as long as Suzuki was in the country, he would not undertake such a move.

In his own account to Maung Maung, Suzuki said he called in his own officers and asked they would follow him if he turned and fought the Japanese.

It is unclear why Suzuki would have encouraged such actionwhether he wanted the BIA to remain as his own army, away from the command of the Imperial Japanese forces, or whether he deeply romanticized the Myanmar nationalist struggle.

Either way, it did not go down well with Japan. In 1942, Suzuki was called back to Tokyo and Aung San became war minister.

The BIAoriginally formed in Japanwas re-organized into the Burma Defense Army (BDA), of which Aung San was the head. Japan declared independence for Myanmar from the British, but the Burmese continued to struggle for freedom from foreign domination, this time by the Japanese.

Massacre Under Japanese Occupation

Before departing Myanmar, Suzuki witnessed and was reportedly involved in volatile ethnic and racial conflict that remains a scar on the country today.

When BIA troops marched across the Thai border, Burmans frequently welcomed them, but ethnic minorities remained apprehensive. Many groups had large numbers of recruits by the British, including the Karen, Karenni, Chin and Kachin. As the British retreated, promising to return, Karen soldiers went back to their homes. BIA troops then came to disarm them, and confrontation was inevitable.

According to one account in Donald M. Seekins book, Suzuki ordered the BIA to destroy two large Karen villages, killing all the men, women and children with swords. It was an act of retribution, after one of his officers was killed in an attack by forces resistant to the Japanese. The same account was also described in Brig-Gen Kyaw Zaws memoirs, as he served under Col Suzuki when BIA and Minami Kikan officers ordered attacks on ethnic Karen villages in the Irrawaddy Delta.

The incident, Seekins wrote, ignited race war, with massacres continuing on both sides, until the Japanese army could rein in the hooligan element in the BIA,

In Myaungmya, South of Pathein in the Irrawaddy Delta, 400 Karen villages were destroyed and the death toll reached 1,800, according to Martin Smith, author of Burma: Insurgency and the Politics of Ethnicity. Members of the Thirty Comrades like Kyaw Zaw, as well as other independence era politicians, describe in their memoirs the crimes of this period, now remembered as the Myaungmya Massacres.

In some cases, BIA troops wanted to restore law and order as they saw fit. When they arrested suspected British collaborators, they simply put them on court martial and executed them in public, frequently with bayonets, as the Japanese had done.

Just before Myanmar gained its independence, Aung San himself was accused by a political rival of carrying out the summary execution of a village headman in Mon State who was accused of aiding the British as BIA troops moved into Myanmar.

In any case, the conflict was not confined to Karen State.

In April 1942, Japanese troops advanced into Rakhine State and reached Maungdaw Township, near the border with what was then British India, and is now Bangladesh. As the British retreated to India, Rakhine became a front line.

Local Arakanese Buddhists collaborated with the BIA and Japanese forces but the British recruited area Muslims to counter the Japanese.

Both armies, British and Japanese, exploited the frictions and animosity in the local population to further their own military aims, wrote scholar Moshe Yegar, in his book Between Integration and Secession: The Muslim Communities of the Southern Philippines, Southern Thailand, and Western Burma/Myanmar.

Communal strife and retaliation ensued between the two communities as thousands were killed or died of starvation under Japanese occupationMoshe Yegar estimates that as many as 20,000 people were lost regionally in the conflict. If this happened today, it would undoubtedly demand international intervention.

When countering Japanese and BIA forces, the Muslims of Arakan, wrote Moshe Yegar, played a valuable military role in reconnaissance missions, intelligence gathering, the rescue of downed aviators and raids on Japanese collaborators.

This support arguably enabled the British to recapture Maungdaw and later, all of Rakhine. Soon after independence, the Arakanese began a struggle for an independent state of their own, and Muslims began the Mujahid movement to join East Pakistan (Bangladesh).

Today, conflict and division in the region continue.

When Aung San turned against Japan in 1945, the Karen, Kachin and Karenni and other minorities received arms and assistance from the British to fight against retreating Japanese forces.

Karen and Karenni guerrillas were later estimated to have killed more than 12,500 Japanese troops retreating through the eastern hills, according to Martin Smith.

The majority of offensives were carried out by allied forces and Gen William Slim, who led the 14th Army and the campaign that eventually defeated the Japanese.

Lasting Friendship

Suzukis protege and former war minister Gen Aung San was assassinated in July 1947 at age 32. Seven years after they met in Tokyo, the young student activist had developed and demonstrated the qualities of a statesman as he matured and gained a stronger understanding of the complexities facing his country.

Bo Let Ya, one of Aung Sans more favored colleagues and a leading member of the Thirty Comrades, became the deputy minister of War Affairs and also served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense under Prime Minister U Nus administration. He was jailed by Ne Win shortly after the coup in 1962. After serving his prison term, he fled to the Thai-Myanmar border to join resistance forces and fight against Gen Ne Wins regime. Karen rebels in the jungle killed him in 1978.

Bo Ne Wins assignment in the BIA was to lead an advanced team into Myanmar to create disturbance and work behind enemy lines. In Hainan, he received training in sabotage and intelligence gathering; in 1962 he staged a coup and became head of the Revolutionary Council. Under his leadership, he built a much feared spy network throughout Myanmar.

Gen Ne Win has been condemned as one of the most repressive dictators in Asia. He ranand arguably ruinedthe troubled country until 1988 when his government faced a massive uprising. Disgraced, he resigned and died quietly in 2002 while his grandsons served lengthy jail terms under the military regime he had handed power to in the political turmoil of 1988.

Ne Win maintained close relations with Suzuki and Minami Kikan members until Suzuki passed away in 1967. Ne Win had invited him to Burma in 1966, one year earlier.

In 1981, Ne Win bestowed the remaining six veterans of the Minami Kikan with honorary awardsthe Aung San Tagun, or the Order of Aung San at the presidential palace in Yangon. Col Suzukis widow came to the ceremony.

After his coup, Ne Win still needed Japans assistance. Myanmar received more than US$200 million from 1955 to 1965. In addition, Tokyos Official Development Assistance (ODA) served as a vital lifeline to the Ne Win regime and its successors.

The country depended on Japans war reparations and ODA. Even after the 1988 massacre and bloody coup, Tokyo recognized the regime then known as the State Law and Order Restoration Council.

Even after he resigned as Burma Socialist Programme Party chairman in 1988, Ne Win held gatherings of old Minami Kikan members into the mid-1990s. It is believed that the Minami Kikan remained in contact with Myanmar governments until 1995.

In a 2014 trip to Japan, the Myanmar Armys Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing visited the tomb of Col Suzuki to pay his respects. In the minds of many Myanmar Army officers, Suzuki remained a key figure: the man behind the clandestine beginnings of the BIA and the nucleus of the legendary Thirty Comrades. A controversial figure to both his own mission and his countrys top brass, Suzuki continues to be remembered as influential in Myanmars historyhis and Japans direct involvement in Myanmars independence movement has had far reaching consequences.

Members of the thakin movement were originally unarmed, but these young politicians and activists soon found a resourceful foreign ally who was ready to assist them in liberating Myanmar. This no doubt changed the political dynamics in a country where some ethnic groups had once enjoyed relative autonomy and peace under British rule.

Today, all of the legendary Thirty Comrades have died, and many of Myanmars problems and complexities remained unresolved. The irony was that liberation brought more chaos, rebellion, and division, and a state run by the army, not the nations people.

Suzukis legacy lives on among the Burmese and the military generals, as does the notorious war machine and lingering conflict.
Over the last two weeks, we learned about more than two dozen Key Biscayne women who work to make Island Paradise a community.

This week, in our third installment of Women on Key Biscayne, we look at several women who are contributing in many ways, business, education, philanthropy and activism.

No list goes without mentioning Martha Fernandez-Leon Broucek, one of the pioneers in the Villages intense years before incorporation, who jokes that she saw the birth of nation, or more accurately, the birth of a little village.

It has been very rewarding, a sense of accomplishment, she said, basking in the wonderful opportunity to move to the island  one she calls the shining object  from California, when her husband retired.

She served on the Village Council from 1996 to 2004, chaired the Charter Revision Commission, and was honored to be named a trustee for the Key Biscayne Police and Fire Pension Fund. But it was her work since 1985 that helped protect the Villages beauty and simplicity.

The County was going to explode the density of Key Biscayne, said Broucek, who had studied at Assumption Academy in Miami before emigrating from Cuba in 1961, at the start of the Castro regime. They wanted to build an 850-room hotel, and wanted to use our island, one with all of its natural beauty, and they wanted to have it as the center of Miami gambling. ... Thats why (no gambling) is still in the Charter today.

She offers one piece of advice to any community resident or city leader: If you dont know your past, youre bound to make mistakes in your future.

Christina Bracken, a German native with dual citizenship, once sailed 2,922 miles across the Atlantic at the age of 24. Her trip back home led her to Miami to grab a flight back overseas. But, three weeks later, she was convinced Key Biscayne was the place she needed to be.

I dont drink beer, I dont like the cold weather, Im a bad German, she said, laughing. I would have never been able to do all the things Ive done if I stayed in Germany. This is the land of opportunity.

For 20-plus years, she was one of the designers and then the design departments director in a successful footwear business, one of Miamis biggest industries at one time. She even started her own design-production team and a brand, ZEMgear (Zone of Endless Motion).

By 2014, she became a naturalized citizen and a year later started Go Vote Miami (govotemiami.org), a no-profit civic engagement-focused organization to provide voter education and registration throughout Miami-Dade County and beyond. The program is often melded into schools, health organizations, and major national businesses.

Before each election, Bracken provides insightful information in the IslanderNews, as one example, and has worked with the local Senior Assistance Program as a volunteer with the Key Biscayne Community Foundation.

She takes her recognition in stride.

There are a lot of amazing people on Key Biscayne, so its a high bar to reach to be considered an influencer, she said. I always enjoy finding ways to get things started and get it rolling, and develop a tool to make things work ... Maybe its my German background.

Toby Rohrer and her husband, Bill, were so inspired by the work former Police Chief Charles Press had done with the Chief Press Foundation and the Liberty City Student College Scholarship, they have continued the tradition, which aims to better the lives of students in Key Biscaynes Sister City.

The need is huge and it will continue to go on until we stop breathing, she said.

Rohrer has been the director of TBR Property Management for more than 15 years, managing an assortment of high-end properties.

Other philanthropic connections include participating in United Way; St. Christophers By-the-Sea Episcopalian Church; Food for the Poor; the Baptist Hospital Founder Society; and as a Rotarian on the Key. She also is on the Board of Directors with the Miami-Dade College Foundation.

She first visited the area as part of her job in December 1992, flying from the Big Apple.

It was supposed to be a short trip, but as I looked around, I was thinking, Maybe this is home. And, once a place becomes a home, then you want to participate in your community  Its wonderful to have those opportunities, she said. There is still a lot of work to be done in Miami in so many ways.

Rohrer said shes truly honored and humbled for being recognized.

There are some really awesome women around here ... a lot of people committed to different causes, she said. It's great to have a community so deeply involved, especially when it involves women.

Ines Lozano, past president of the Rotary Club of Key Biscayne, has combined her love for students and her roles as a former school director and principal to form the nonprofit, Flying High for Haiti (flyinghigh4haiti.org), after the island was decimated by the catastrophic earthquake in 2010.

As a principal at International Christian School on Key Biscayne, she had visited Haiti just 30 days before the tragedy, and her efforts have gone a long way in helping sponsor free education at the Ecole du Village School with 135 kids on the small, impoverished island called Ile-a-Vache. Renovations helped expand the six-room school with a library and arts center, a wider curriculum, and now 11 paid teachers.

But Lozano didnt stop there. After Hurricane Matthew, her team, which includes Key Biscaynes Angela Rizzi, another instrumental and giving Key Biscayne Woman, as vice-president and five other instrumental women, helped rebuild 60 homes, leading to the Meritorious Honor from the mayor there. And, when the latest big earthquake struck last August, flattening 290 schools and partly destroying hundreds of others  but, amazingly, not the one they sponsor  Rotarians helped her send tents so kids could start school on time in the remote village of San Michel.

As the Rotary Club leader during the COVID pandemic, the club never missed a beat, hosting speakers from all over the world on Zoom calls. We kept going with our projects, she said, including providing mosquito nets to prevent malaria in countries such as Venezuela, Peru and Colombia.

One of the many students from the area who traveled with Lozano to Haiti  the 2017 Rotarian of the Year  called her an inspiring, thoughtful, mesmerizing and fearless leader, adding she is a quiet force who effectively makes things happen.

Originally from Spain, Lozano came to Key Biscayne 26 years ago, moving from Panama, as her husband, a journalist, covered the famous Manuel Noriega trial in Miami.

Rizzi also has been involved in a multitude of community activities assisting various causes, including Voices for Children, which assists abused and neglected children, as well as the homeless.

The community has been very supportive of all the projects were doing in Haiti, Lozano said. Theres a lot of solidarity, especially after disasters, with donations, and Im very grateful for that.

Pat Peralta, who may be better known as half of the Pat & Pat team with business partner Pat Romano (the incoming president of Key Biscaynes Rotary Club), manage the Esplanade Shopping Center and operate their property management business and their Coldwell Banker real estate connections from there after having owned their own real estate company for 16 years.

Peralta, who moved to the area in 1980 from Nicaragua, is a past president of the Rotary Club and a strong supporter of the Womens Club.

She says people recognize Pat & Pat as a power team. Were always there for the church, the community, said Peralta who, for the past 15 years, has played a vital role on the committee of the Fourth of July Parade. Shes even been a Eucharistic minister at the Church of St. Agnes.

The mother of two daughters has been proud of Key Biscaynes young adults for making a difference.

The new generation is stepping forward, and its good to see them continue the work that someone started, Peralta said. I love Key Biscayne, and love to serve and continue meeting people.

Dozens of teachers also could highlight most influential lists like this, such as recently retired DarleneDurant, who not only received a proclamation from Miami-Dade County Public Schools but also from Key Biscayne Mayor Mike Davey and Village Council after a 36-year stint in education and influencing the lives of many kids on the island.

MAST Academy principal, Dr. CadianCollman-Perez, who was hired last summer, has been a mentor to other principals in recent years, having previously worked at Homestead and South Miami high schools.

Originally a math teacher, she earned the Florida Department of Educations Model School for Mathematics award and considers her approach as student-centric with a passion for

School Board member Mari Tere Rojas currently fills the role in the education field, often comes to the island to meet with parents during her satellite office hours.

I dont live on the beautiful island of Key Biscayne, she said, however, the Key is very near and dear to my heart. I have family members that have lived there since the 60s and many friends who are residents. Furthermore, when I proudly served as the principal of Sunset Elementary School, I had the honor and privilege to provide services to the part-time gifted students who were residents from Key Biscayne.

Her long-standing relationship with the Village allows her to work collaboratively with all of the stakeholders to provide a quality academic program of excellence not only for students, but for teachers, administrators and the workforce, as well.

Teamwork makes the dream work, she said, and the winners will always be the students!
Russian security products vendor Kaspersky has been added to the US Covered List which includes foreign companies that are considered to pose "an unacceptable risk to US national security".

Two Chinese mobile companies, China Mobile (USA) and China Telecom (Americas), were also added to the list at the same time though the bans on these two entities were announced in May 2019 and October 2021 respectively.

Companies on this list are prohibited from receiving support through the FCCs Universal Service Fund.

This is the third action against Kaspersky since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war on 24 February. About 10 days back, the German Federal Office of Information Security warned against the use of Kaspersky products.

And HackerOne, a company that acts as an intermediary between companies and security researchers and pays them bug bounties for their findings, removed Kaspersky on 16 March from the list of companies with which it does business.

In a statement, the Federal Communications Corporation commissioner Brendan Carr said on Friday: The FCCs decision to add these three entities to our Covered List is welcome news. The FCC plays a critical role in securing our nations communications networks, and keeping our Covered List up-to-date is an important tool we have at our disposal to do just that.

"In particular, I am pleased that our national security agencies agreed with my assessment that China Mobile and China Telecom appeared to meet the threshold necessary to add these entities to our list.

"Their addition, as well as Kaspersky, Labs [the company's old name] will help secure our networks from threats posed by Chinese and Russian state-backed entities seeking to engage in espionage and otherwise harm Americas interests."

Kaspersky said in a statement that it was disappointed with the FCC decision.

"This decision is not based on any technical assessment of Kaspersky products  that the company continuously advocates for  but instead is being made on political grounds," the company said.

"Kaspersky maintains that the US Governments 2017 prohibitions on federal entities and federal contractors from using Kaspersky products and services were unconstitutional, based on unsubstantiated allegations, and lacked any public evidence of wrongdoing by the company.

"As there has been no public evidence to otherwise justify those actions since 2017, and the FCC announcement specifically refers to the Department of Homeland Securitys 2017 determination as the basis for todays decision, Kaspersky believes todays expansion of such prohibition on entities that receive FCC telecommunication-related subsidies is similarly unsubstantiated and is a response to the geopolitical climate rather than a comprehensive evaluation of the integrity of Kasperskys products and services.

"Kaspersky will continue to assure its partners and customers on the quality and integrity of its products, and remains ready to cooperate with US government agencies to address the FCCs and any other regulatory agencys concerns."

The company was hit with a ban on the use of its products in the US public sector a few years ago, after mainstream media had published a series of stories claiming it was leaking data to Russian intelligence services, something the company strongly denied.

Since then the firm has cut back operations in the US and set up so-called transparency centres where companies can sign up to look at the source code of its products.
KIEV, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine's western city of Lviv came under attack on Saturday, Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi wrote on Facebook.

Meanwhile, Head of the Lviv Regional Military Administration Maksym Kozytskyi confirmed that there were three explosions in the city.

The powerful explosions occurred on the city's eastern outskirts, Kozytskyi wrote on Facebook, urging people to stay calm.

One of the attacks possibly hit a local oil storage facility, according to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency, citing reports from social media. 
This Week in Review

A weekly review of the best and most popular stories published in the Imperial Valley Press. Also, featured upcoming events, new movies at local theaters, the week in photos and much more.
Jacksonville, TX (75766)

Today

Cloudy early with some clearing expected late. Low 58F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Cloudy early with some clearing expected late. Low 58F. Winds light and variable.
Johnson City, TN (37604)

Today

Thunderstorms likely. A few storms may be severe. High 73F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Showers early, becoming a steady rain late. Low 53F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
Zimbabwes ambassador to Mozambique Victor Matemadanda has argued that a war veterans group that sued him for $400 0000 for defamation has no standing to take him to court.

War Veterans Pressure Group (WVPG) leader Amos Sigauke slapped Matemadanda with a $400 000 lawsuit in 2019 for defamation after he allegedly made statements tarnishing the organisations reputation.

Sigauke filed summons against Matemadanda, who is Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association secretary-general at the High Court also citing the WVPG as second plaintiff.

Sigauke said Matemadanda made the defamatory utterances through an article published in a local tabloid on July 1 2019 after they staged a protest over meagre pension pay-outs.

This is after Matemadanda said Sigauke and his pressure group were being sponsored to destabilise President Emmerson Mnangagwas government by making absurd demands.

Matemadanda initially challenged the lawsuit. But in his latest plea, the former Zanu PF commissar said his statements were fair and justified.

He also said the pressure group had no locus standi to sue him as they were an unaffiliated grouping of ex-combatants.

High Court judge Justice Tawanda Chitapi allowed him to amend his plea. Standard
Joplin, MO (64801)

Today

Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm this evening, then some lingering showers still possible overnight. Low 53F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm this evening, then some lingering showers still possible overnight. Low 53F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%.
Government is setting up a separate foreign currency allocation platform for petroleum companies that sell fuel using the Zimbabwe dollar to increase the number of outlets doing so.

Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube told Parliament recently that the facility was designed to discourage abuse of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Foreign Currency Auction System.

Already, the Government has invited petroleum companies to register under the scheme, with 57 outlets having listed.

There are fuel companies that access foreign currency from the auction then claim that they will sell the fuel in Zimbabwe dollars but then they go on to sell it in US dollars, said Prof Ncube.

We are aware of this and we have changed the system.

What we are doing now is, we have said that any designated companies and service stations that wish to sell fuel in Zimbabwe dollars, and we have carefully chosen these, will be supported through a different system rather than the auction.

The companies will be supported through letters of credit that are arranged through the Central Bank and through National Oil Company (NOIC); that will allow them to access foreign currency through a special facility backed by the letters of credit at the back of which we then sell the fuel in Zimbabwe dollars.

Fuel prices have been unstable over the last month as a result of global supply gaps caused by the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA) chief executive officer Mr Edington Mazambani said 57 outlets have so far been listed under the new facility.

It is a careful selection process and we are only dealing with those who do business in an honest manner.

We have outlets that are already selling in domestic currency so what we are doing is to increase the number. Sunday Mail
A group says the home they were renting later became the focus of an animal cruelty investigation.
Kenosha will be regaining its sweet tooth after the relocation of Jelly Belly, with construction on the first phase of the multi-million dollar HARIBO manufacturing facility in Pleasant Prairie slated to be completed by this summer.

The facility, with a footprint of 137 acres, will begin making the companys signature gummi bears around the beginning of next year, according to Rick LaBerge, chief operating officer and executive vice president of HARIBO of America.

LaBerge said the construction, which began in November 2020, is right on schedule.

The local community has exceeded our expectations with their excitement and their enthusiasm for us to open our doors, LaBerge said.

The process began roughly six years ago, when HARIBO began looking for the optimal location for their new North American facility.

We were immediately drawn to Wisconsin, specifically the Kenosha area and ultimately Pleasant Prairie by the core values of the local community, LaBerge said. It was very clear there was talent in the region.

As the first HARIBO manufacturing facility in North America, it has received sweeping support from local community leaders, who especially praise HARIBOs investment in the local community.

Pleasant Prairie Village Administrator Nathan Thiel said that, as the village was losing the We Energies power plant, it was gaining a new industrial landmark to replace it.

HARIBO is a welcomed addition to the Pleasant Prairie business community, Thiel said. Village staff has been excited to work with the HARIBO team to help in the companys global expansion effort and bring the new facility to Prairie Highlands Corporate Park.

Todd Battle, president of the Kenosha Area Business Alliance, said the potential economic benefits the facility would bring to the area went beyond the 400 employees the new plant would have on staff.

Development on the multi-phase project would create ripples throughout the region as other companies and trades got involved throughout the construction process.

HARIBO ranked in the top 25 workplaces in manufacturing and production by Fortune in 2021, and Battle said the companys positive brand image will be a boon to Kenoshas reputation.

And with such a large facility, Battle said HARIBO will become a significant area taxpayer, bringing money to both the local government and schools.

Quite frankly the HARIBO team and this development are even better than what was expected or anticipated, Battle said. They have consistently under-promised and over-delivered in nearly every aspect of their project and involvement in, and support of, the community.

Battle and Thiel both praised HARIBO for its community involvement.

While they have yet to produce their first gummie bear in Wisconsin, they have already become a major contributor to numerous non-profit and community organizations and causes, and multiple institutions of higher learning, Battle said.

Thiel pointed to a corporate sponsorship HARIBO made to the RecPlex in 2020 that helped keep the center going through the pandemic, as well as providing scholarships to area youths who might not otherwise be able to afford recreational programming.

The company has partnered with area schools, made investments, and helped support local establishments, Thiel said. I want to thank HARIBO for choosing Prairie Highlands Corporate Park. We could not be happier to have this company join our community.

HARIBO is celebrating the 100th year anniversary of their signature Goldbear gummy bears, and just recently celebrated the 100th year anniversary of the company as a whole. With a century of gummy bears under their belt, LaBerge said they were looking far ahead with the investment into Kenosha.

Were building it for the next hundred years, LaBerge said. This was a big decision.

As HARIBO draws nearer to starting production, LaBerge said theyre looking to attract area talent. HARIBO held Interest Fairs at Gateway Technical College, 3520 30th Ave., last week.

We made commitments as we broke ground in 2020, LaBerge said. Were just so proud that well be able to deliver and exceed on those commitments.

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Tucked away on an industrial lot east of the Kilbourne ditch and north of the Kenosha Regional Airport is a unique farm that will soon deliver lush herbs and salad greens to local restaurants and grocery stores year round and often on the day theyre picked.

Enter Square Roots, an innovative indoor farming facility at 10901 38th St., initiated operations in January next to the Gordon Food Service distribution plant.

By May, the farm, which consists of 20 standard-sized metal shipping containers stacked two stories high on the less than 10,000-square-foot property expects to have its first harvest.

The 25 urban farmers will be picking everything from the iconic Genovese basil  the sweet-smelling Italian herb beloved by local chefs and home cooks alike  to nutritious salads, hearty tatsoi, kale and arugula and fast-sprouting microgreens.

In April, an open house is planned to introduce the farming team and their produce to the local community.

Partnering with GFS, Square Roots  the brainchild of co-founders Tobias Peggs and Kimbal Musk, the younger brother of Tesla CEO Elon Musk  is a company that integrates a state-of-the-art smart-farm technology platform and proprietary software to control its hydroponic growing systems.

Our partnership with Gordon Food Service, combined with our modular, smart-farm platform, means we can rapidly deploy new indoor farms in strategically located cities like Kenosha, said Peggs, who is also Square Roots CEO. We are also able to create exciting jobs in the community while making locally-grown food available, all year-round, to new consumers in nearby Chicago and Milwaukee, significantly expanding our reach in the Midwest.

Rick Wolowski, Gordon Food Service CEO, said the new farm accelerates a shared vision of building indoor farms with Square Roots.

Together with Square Roots, Gordon Food Service is enabling local food at a global scale, meeting increased demand for produce that is fresher, responsibly grown and traceable from seed to shelf, Wolowski said.

Kenosha the largest site

The Kenosha site is home to the fourth Square Roots farm in North America and is the largest facility the company has built to date, Peggs said in an interview with the Kenosha News. According to conditional use permit documents approved by the Kenosha City Council in July, the Kenosha site was described as a $3 million project with 8,715 square feet of growing space.

The Kenosha farming facility has the capacity to produce more than 2.4 million packages of herbs and leafy greens annually. The company also currently has two commercial-scale indoor farms in Michigan and Brooklyn, N.Y.

What we are trying to do is to feed every consumer on the planet eventually with locally-grown food that is better for people, said Peggs, alluding to the companys mission statement. The way that we do that is we have a platform weve created for indoor controlled-climate farming.

Peggs said that allows the company to establish indoor pop-up farms in cities like Kenosha relatively quickly.

Genovese year-round

Because of its carefully controlled and monitored system, the facility can produce crops using fewer resources all year-round, regardless of outdoor conditions. For example, Square Roots is growing select seeds for Genovese basil, among the best basil in the world, Peggs said.

Rather than ship the basil from (Genoa, Italy), what we essentially do is study the climate, how warm is it during the day, how cold is it at night, what is the CO2 level, the humidity, the nutrients in the soil, and were able to re-create that climate inside one of these shipping containers and grow that same basil, because now we can maintain that sort of peak season and maintain it 365 days a year, Peggs said.

So, youre always able to produce this beautiful Genovese basil. If you were to walk into one of those containers, it would feel like you were in the Genoa region.

Square Roots Farmer-Basil An urban farmer tends to the living walls of Genovese basil inside a Square Roots shipping container that has been outfitted to provide a clim

The system is also designed to use 95% less water than conventional farming while creating the ideal conditions for the produce the company grows, Peggs said.

Each shipping container can be programmed to match conditions for growing specific crops.

Youll always then be able to provide local consumers with access to locally grown food thats grown by local farmers, and yet whom weve recruited from the local community, Peggs said. Were getting the food from the farm to the store the same day as we harvest. So that food is extremely fresh, and its going to last way longer than what youd buy at the supermarket.

Without pesticides or GMOs

All Square Roots produce has at least 14 days of extended shelf life and is completely free of pesticides and genetically-modified organisms (GMOs), according to the company.

Peggs said while the companys farmers will start with herbs and greens, the technology can be used to grow other crops, such as tomatoes, carrots and peppers.

Were not (growing tomatoes) on Day One, he said. But the farm system that we have will actually be capable of growing those things. So, right now its about knowing what the local customers want and then growing that food.

Right now, its herbs and salads.

Next-gen farmers

Peggs said the company focuses on opening new pathways for more young people to enter the high-tech agriculture industry. Employees earn a living wage significantly above the minimum wage, along with benefits and a share of the ownership in the company, Peggs said.

One of the beautiful things about our system is that were able to attract people who come in and work with us who have had zero experience, but with the technology and software-driven training that we have, we can work with someone with no experience and get them to be a really competent farmer in our system in about six weeks, he said. So we really focus on providing access for young people to enter the industry  and its a really great way to start a career in urban farming.

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John and Brenda Gustin of Kenosha marked their 50th wedding anniversary this past week.

John Gustin from Racine met Brenda Robinson of Kenosha at a friends wedding reception. They were married on March 25, 1972, at St. Marys Lutheran Church in Kenosha. They have resided ever since.

They have three children: Amy and Anders Farr, of Kenosha; John and Coral Gustin, of Kenosha; and Daniel Gustin, of Kenosha. They have five grandchildren.

John is a retired machinist from Frank Wells. Brenda is a retired art teacher from Kenosha Unified School District.

John, a corporal in the Marines, served in Vietnam. He remained active with the Kenosha Area Vietnam Vets over the years. He has enjoyed many hobbies and interests including collecting art, including one piece which was featured on Antiques Roadshow; polishing swords, hunting, wood working and working in his yard. A third-degree black belt in Mudokwan Taekwondo, he enjoyed sharing his love of the martial arts with his grandchildren when they were younger.

Brenda is an accomplished artist. Years ago, her Native American paintings could be found displayed at The Ranch Restaurant. Portrait paintings of various Kenosha residents can also be found in area homes. Her art has been displayed in various art shows and she has won awards throughout the years. Her love of animals led her to be an advocate for them. She has volunteered and contributed to many animal organizations over the years.

In addition to their children and grandchildren, they both love Golden Retrievers and were the parents to Rusty, Goldie and Sally as well as their non-Golden rescues Becky and Merlin.

Their advice for a successful and lasting relationship? Doing things as a couple and as a family.

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Tom and Virginia Hartley of Kenosha will mark their 50th anniversary this week. They plan to mark the occasion with a family gathering with children and grandchildren, in Sanibel Island, Fla.

Tom, from Kenosha, met Virginia, from New York City, when they were both dropped off while hitchhiking on Cape Cod. They were married on April 1, 1972, in Kenosha, at the former First Congregational Church on Library Square. They have lived in Kenosha for 48 years.

They have three children: Elissa (Randy) Rinon of Grapevine, Texas; Damon (Jennifer) Hartley, of Jersey City, N.J.; and Miles (Jackie) Hartley, of Racine. They have six grandchildren.

Tom worked at Guttormsen & Hartley, LLP Attorneys-at-Law, retiring after 44 years practicing law in 2017. Virginia held a variety of jobs through the years but retired from her last position as marketing director for the Kenosha YMCA in 2008.

Both have served on the boards of numerous local organizations through the years. Currently, Tom teaches citizenship classes for the Literacy Council and Virginia is on the scholarship committee for the Kenosha Community Foundation. They have been members of the Kenosha Yacht Club for 45 years and are both Past Commodores. They both enjoy sailing, theater, traveling, reading, and spending time with their grandchildren.

Their advice for a successful and lasting relationship? Considering how they met, its probably safe to say that they were meant to travel lifes journey together. Always put family first. Take an interest in your partners interests but also give each other space grow independently. Always support and encourage each other. Have a good sense of humor.

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Chinese FM reaffirms friendly policy, win-win cooperation with Nepal

Xinhua) 07:56, March 27, 2022

KATHMANDU, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here on Saturday that China will stick to its friendly policy toward Nepal and deepen mutually beneficial cooperation with the South Asian country.

At a meeting with Nepali Foreign Minister Narayan Khadka, Wang said no matter how the international scene and domestic situation of the two countries change, China will strive to promote the building of a China-Nepal community with shared future along the direction set by the leaders of the two countries.

Wang elaborated China's support for Nepal in three aspects.

First, China will support Nepal in finding a development path suited to its national conditions. China's friendly policy is open to all parties and party factions, and the people of Nepal, Wang said.

China encourages all parties and party factions in Nepal to engage in inclusive consultation and cooperate with each other for the sake of the fundamental and long-term interests of the people, and jointly explore a governance model that is conducive to promoting political stability, economic growth and people's livelihood, Wang said.

Second, China supports Nepal in pursuing independent domestic and foreign policies. China always believes that all countries are equal regardless of size, and respects the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all countries, he said.

China believes that the affairs of Nepal should be decided by its people, he said, noting that China opposes any attempt to undermine Nepal's sovereignty and independence, interfere in its internal affairs and engage in geopolitical games in Nepal.

Nepal should become a promising land for cooperation between China and South Asia, and China is glad to see Nepal co-exist friendly with other countries and play a bigger role in regional and international affairs, Wang said.

Third, China supports Nepal in furthering participation in the Belt and Road Initiative.

China and Nepal have made encouraging progress in jointly building the Belt and Road, which has significantly boosted Nepal's national construction, Wang said.

The Chinese side is willing to push forward the key cooperation projects between the two sides, ensure the smooth running of land ports between the two countries, explore cross-border cooperation in electricity, expand economic and people-to-people exchange channels, and build the Trans-Himalayan Multi-Dimensional Connectivity Network to make the Himalayas a bond of friendly cooperation between the two countries, Wang said.

China is ready to assist Nepal in taking advantage of its own human resources, geographical location and national ecosystem as well as the opportunities brought by China's development to speed up its development and revitalization.

Khadka said that the two countries are good friends which share a traditional friendship, and also good partners in terms of promoting development cooperation.

Khadka said that Nepal thanked China's support for Nepal's efforts to safeguard sovereignty and independence as well as oppose external interference, reaffirming that Nepal firmly adheres to the one-China policy, and firmly supports China in safeguarding its core interests.

They agreed that the two countries should strengthen cooperation in terms of anti-pandemic drive and vaccines.

Both sides agreed that the Sino-Nepali cross-border railway project, planned by leaders of both countries and welcomed by the two peoples, should be completed, stretching the railway to Kathmandu.

Following the meeting, the two foreign ministers attended a signing ceremony of cooperation documents concerning technology, agriculture, infrastructure and public health.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Bianji)


THE ruling Zanu PF party has been accused of disregarding a 2018 High Court order barring it from using school premises for rallies and parading learners at political gatherings.

In 2018, Masvingo High Court judge, Justice Joseph Mafusire barred Zanu PF from abusing learners after Veritas, on behalf of the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (Artuz), filed the application.

Schoolchildren were, however, seen at a rally recently addressed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa in St Marys, Chitungwiza.

Zanu PF is leading in disregarding the law and undermining State institutions. Schools should not be used for partisan business, Artuz president Obert Masaraure said.

We expect the ruling party to protect the interests of children, but alas we have a ruling party that has degenerated to a reactionary outpost with no ideological grounding, but motivated by parochial interests of pursuing power preservation.

Political analyst Vivid Gwede accused the ruling party of infringing the rights of learners.

What we have seen is a disregard of the High Court judgment. Political rallies should be attended by people at their own volition, even if they were adults as opposed to forced attendance and arbitrary bussing of people, Gwede said.

We are under a de facto martial law. Unfortunately, it is this brazen disregard of the law that has sunk us into a crisis, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition president Peter Mutasa said.

Primary and Secondary Education ministry spokesperson Taungana Ndoro said critics should challenge Zanu PF in court.

Is that the only rally that had schoolchildren? If anyone was aggrieved, they should have made an urgent chamber application barring the rally. If schoolchildren knew that they were not going to school they were not supposed to wear uniforms. The fact that they went to school in uniform means that they learnt something, Ndoro said. Newsday
We have an addiction problem. In Kenosha. In Wisconsin. In the US.

We dont have a specific drug problem. Its not an alcohol, opioid or THC problem. Its an addiction problem. One frustrating component of addressing the addiction problem is that, mostly due to stigma, the numbers are incredibly nebulous.

Substance use is said to be the third largest cause of death in the nation, behind heart disease and cancer, but dont try googling that fact. It doesnt show up as substance use. Instead, we call it accidents/unintended injuries. And dont try figuring out how many people suffer from addictions. That number is incredibly ambiguous.

Heres what we do know: approximately 23 million people in the US are in recovery from a substance use disorder. An approximate 23 million more have active severe substance use disorders. Thats about 1 in 7 people. But dont try to find that number, either. It will make your head hurt because, again, stigma. And ignorance. And also our complete inability to recognize substance use disorders for the deadly health problem that they are.

Professionals rarely use addiction anymore, instead referring to substance use disorders mild, moderate, or severe. And Im sure this makes sense somewhere. But it isnt doing anything to help us reduce addictions because we arent talking about them. And, quite honestly, we have a really hard time recognizing them. And getting help for them. Because At least hes not shooting up heroin. Even if he is.

COVID caused a dramatic increase in problematic substance use and an increase in overdoses but not just from opioids. Overdoses can occur when using any drug but marijuana, and alcohol still kills more people than opioids do. Still. Because alcohol is legal, we dont talk about that. But, damn, it is dangerous.

We have siloed drugs, pretending that being addicted to one is better than being addicted to another. Our state legislature is now considering legalizing kratom as well as THC, because these drugs are safer than whats currently being used. Thus far, the numbers show that THC has killed zero and kratom has killed one person in Kenosha County, so, yeah, safer except for that one guy.

We have an addiction problem. We cannot incarcerate our way out of this public health issue. We cant even treat ourselves out of it. And we surely cant legislate our way out. We can only educate our way out.

Using the Three Cs of Addiction, heres how to determine if you or someone you know is afflicted: theres loss of Control with repeated attempts to cut back or control use; theres Compulsion to use, a sense that use is required, due to tolerance, withdrawal, or physical or psychological need (as in cravings); there are negative Consequences but use continues despite harm  not necessarily death. We experience harm all the time without dying from it.

We have an addiction problem, and we can only fix it by preventing it in the first place.

Guida Brown is executive director of the Hope Council on Alcohol & Other Drug Abuse, Inc.

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Psst! Hey, Mister, want to buy a pig in a poke?

Well, if you live in the Muskego-Norway School District, youll get your chance on April 5 when you go to the polls.

Voters in the district, which includes a portion of northwest Racine County, are being asked to approve $46 million in new borrowing to expand and upgrade facilities at Lakeview Elementary School and Muskego High School.

Were certain that those improvements would be very, very nice.

The $27.8 million referendum question calls for an addition for a new gymnasium at Lakeview, conversion of an old gym into a cafeteria and building an addition for new science, technology, engineering and math programs at Muskego High. The second referendum asks for $18.6 million for other construction at the high school, including additions for medical and health sciences.

What were not so certain about is just what the upgrades will mean to the wallets of district taxpayers  those fine folks who are being asked to foot the bill for the construction.

Under the two referendum proposals, the borrowing would be paid off using property tax increases over the next 15 or 20 years.

But school officials told The Journal Times they cannot provide estimates on how much property taxes would go up.

Seriously?

School Board President Chris Buckmaster said there are other variables that make it impossible to calculate how much property taxes would increase if the referendums pass.

We dont have the ability to forecast, Buckmaster said.

School board member Kevin Zimmerman said school officials also could not tell voters how the referendums would affect property tax collections  the districts tax levy.

While theyre a bit fuzzy on tax facts, school officials maintain the property tax rate could remain unchanged.

That may be true, but if the value of a home goes up, which is likely, the school district would see their tax collections rise as well. Another fuzzy area is what is going on with paying off old school district debts. Are some debts sunsetting? How much will that affect tax collections?

This is not rocket science. Much of this can be done with straight line calculations laying out the financial options for a few scenarios.

We would even be satisfied with an educated guess or two.

The idea of going to taxpayers and asking for $41 million in school funding without laying out the likely costs they will bear is not something were fond of. A little transparency needs to be injected into this debate  before the vote on April 5.

We dont have the ability to forecast, either, but we dont need a crystal ball to know that some voters will turn away from this unless they get more facts.

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Today medical records are developed for a single encounter (an outpatient visit or hospital stay). The medical records for an encounter are signed off at the end of the encounter and cannot be changed. An addendum medical record can be added later to correct misinformation in the encounter medical records, but this is seldom done.

This process enables medical documents to be legal recordings of what happened during each encounter. But often, proper diagnosis can only be made after multiple encounters, so when a diagnosis is recorded, it is often prematurely done.

Treatments may then be tailored for the wrong diagnosis. Additionally, both diagnoses and procedures are sometimes reported for financial rather than clinical reasons, sometimes even upping the recording to get maximum payment from an insurance company or the government rather than reflecting the true diagnosis or treatment.

Within the encounter, medical records are often a disease history of the medical condition. Combining new information from the patient with information from medical records, the physician could develop a thorough and complete disease history. Thats if the physician had all of a patients medical records and read them all. But this is seldom possible as medical records are hard to read and most often voluminous, and some medical records could exist in other medical organizations that are not available to the physician. Therefore, the disease history most often comes mostly from the patient.

Having the disease history come mostly from the patient has problems: Humans do not often have great memories, and patients dont usually know medicine that well.

No matter how the disease history was developed, the disease history does not need to be all that comprehensive to be sufficient for a single encounter. A more detailed disease history that identifies previous related medical conditions and interventions with outcomes of these interventions would be useful to provide big data for medical research, like identifying best interventions for a current patient based upon outcomes for similar patients. Such disease histories are not currently available because of the misinformation in medical records and the difficulty of relating outcomes to previous interventions just by looking at medical records.

There is also usually a care plan developed by the physician for an encounter. If a patient sees different physicians for the same medical condition, then there could be inconsistent care plans or even contradictory ones.

Rather than having a patients medical records, what is often most useful for a physician to have is summarized medical information about a patient, such as a complete list of medications taken, allergies, current orders, significant health problems, etc. If a patient is seen at one medical organization, it may be possible to have such a summary from an automated system that the physician can trust, but if the patient is seen at many different organizations, then the information is not reliable. Physicians most often assume that they have incomplete information and start from scratch during each encounter to create a summary.

Interoperability enables a patients medical records to be gathered from outside medical organizations where the patient has been seen. There are a number of problems with interoperability: Instead of one pile of hard-to-read medical records, you have more than one, and there is no guarantee that the patient has not been seen at other medical organizations.

Big data currently is a process of collecting information from all these medical records, comparing the information for a patient to information for similar patients, and trying to give a physician information on the best care in the future for the patient based upon care and outcomes of these similar patients. The problem is that medical records contain a lot of misinformation (e.g., tentative diagnosis), inconsistent or lack of biomarker data to make comparisons and assumptions about causation that may not be based upon statistical and epidemiological principles and can include biases and correlation without causation.

For an example of correlation without causation, in one class I took, it was shown that ones longevity was highly correlated to the number of vitamin C pills one consumes. But this does not prove that ingesting vitamin C increases longevity, as the richer and more educated people take more vitamin C pills, and such people are generally healthier and live longer. So if you give vitamin C pills to poor people, it will not help them live longer.

I contend that determination of what outcomes are likely to result from particular medical decisions is hard to determine using big data based upon the current medical records alone, due to unreliable information in medical records, due to non-recording of the necessary information and useless correlations.

As stated earlier, this paper proposes that detailed disease histories be used for big data instead of medical records. These detailed disease histories could include biomarkers that have been shown to predict future outcomes of interventions. This information could be used to identify correlations that identify true causations.

Besides interoperability and big data, another phrase one often hears today is artificial intelligence. When artificial intelligence was first used (MYCIN), it was rejected because physicians could not determine why MYCIN made the decisions it did  it was a black box. This is still true with artificial intelligence, but it now seems acceptable to rely upon artificial intelligence to make medical decisions despite this issue.

Artificial intelligence could be useful, but it also could be unreliable. I attended a class where they discussed their use of artificial intelligence to evaluate X-rays for possible breast cancer. They were training the system by having radiologists identify when breast cancer may and may not be present. What was not done was looking at outcomes of later tests  to identify that breast cancer actually has occurred  to eliminate false positives and false negatives.

The medical community should be particularly wary about artificial intelligence when a case occurs outside the norm. The artificial intelligence engine is likely to have not been trained for cases that seldom occur and cannot make a proper judgment. Also, bad data could be accidentally collected.

I had a situation where artificial intelligence possibly provided an incorrect diagnosis based upon bad data. While I slept, I hooked myself up to a sleep apnea machine with a sensor on my sternum to record vibrations. I decided to listen to a song on my cell phone and accidentally put the cell phone on my sternum. On returning the machine, I included a note about this situation where bad data was collected. They had a report printed out anyway based upon all inputs. I assume they did not know what to do to correct any bad information, as the artificial intelligence information for sleep apnea was a black box to them. And they wont know how to make any corrections. Therefore, I am very wary about their results that I had sleep apnea.

One reason for the new popularity of artificial intelligence is cost savings. Algorithms replace high-cost professional medical personnel. However, if medical personnel is taken out of the loop, then a seldom occurring medical condition or input of bad information may result in a bad diagnosis and even possible harm to the patient.

Michael R. McGuire is the author of A Blueprint for Medicine.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
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Listen up, ladies. All of you strong, brilliant, and deserving women in medicine. The physicians, NPs, PAs, nurses, and other women currently in or thinking about future leadership roles in health care.

Listen. Up.

Are you aware that male physicians make up to $2 million more than female physicians over their medical career? If not, I suggest you read more here: Women Earn $2 Million Less Than Men in Their Careers as Doctors.

Do you know that nearly 80 percent of the health care workforce is female, but women hold only 20 percent of the leadership roles?

I know you know that women are brilliant and just as capable as men to invent things and become entrepreneurs. Why then are women less likely to pursue patents and protect their intellectual property than men? And why are women less likely to commercialize their innovations or start their own medical entrepreneurship career? Yall can get a healthy dose of data and information here: Innovation and Intellectual Property among Women Entrepreneurs, The Gender Gap Within Intellectual Property, and Proportion, Type, and Characteristics of Physician Entrepreneurship in Massachusetts.

Please understand that the above is a very small representation of the data out there documenting gender disparities and discrimination in medicine. This is a fact. This unfortunate culture is particularly prevalent in academic settings, where all of us physicians spend the first decade of our career in medical school and residency. Women represent more than half of the incoming medical students, but we are surrounded by male (particularly white male) dominant decision-makers and hierarchy.

Im annoyed. Are you? Lets dive into this some more.

Self-advocacy and negotiation

Women initiate negotiations less often than their male counterparts, particularly at the beginning of their career. It is not unusual for an organization to tell a graduating resident that they are being offered the best or highest salary available. Lacking the skills and confidence to negotiate, many female physicians trust and accept this first offer with no questions asked.

Know your worth. Do your homework and always ask for what you need and deserve. Negotiate what is important to you. This may not be money. Negotiate to achieve the work-life balance that you and your family need. I guarantee if you ask for it, you will almost always get it. I also guarantee that our male colleagues are doing this.

Network/sponsorship

Sponsorship is critical for career advancement, especially for women. Having a sponsor is different than having a mentor. Whereas a mentor provides guidance and support to a mentee, a sponsor is a more formal professional relationship. A sponsor leverages their position of power to endorse the promotion of someone with leadership and growth potential. Sponsorship in medicine can look like a CEO recommending a manager for a committee nomination, a CMO encouraging a medical assistant to apply for a leadership role then writing them a letter of recommendation, or a physician advocating for their nurse to receive a pay raise with witnessed examples of the nurses accomplishments.

Women are less likely than men to actively seek out sponsorship from those in leadership positions. Men are more likely to ask potential sponsors for a nomination or recommendation as well as clearly share their goals of leadership with those already in positions of power.

Know your vision for your career. Identify the people in leadership positions that can influence your ability to achieve your goals. Find ways to work with these people. At a minimum, reach out to these potential sponsors and communicate your interests and goals and ask for their feedback on how to achieve them. I found the courage to do this early in my career and was immediately dismissed and told I was too green from the person I approached. I immediately identified others in positions of power to connect with while I proved my leadership potential. If you dont get the support that you need at first  move on and go find it.

Entrepreneurial and IP differences by gender

Intellectual property (IP), such as patents, are designed to encourage and protect creativity and innovation. This topic is critical, particularly during this time of rapid innovation in health care design and delivery. Patent ownership is a known factor for business economic success with patent holders receiving more funding than those that dont own or have their innovation protected.

Women are less likely to obtain IP protection for their ideas and are less likely to commercialize or market their innovations and profit from them. There are likely many factors at play here, but known social biases most certainly have a role. Filing for a patent and starting a business require significant risk-taking, confidence, and a network of support. Women in our society are expected to NOT be bold and brave and many women themselves even believe this to be true (implicit bias deserves to be addressed separately). Research shows women feel less confident than men in their future success as entrepreneurs; however, women-led companies have a higher return on investment and stock price performance.

Know that a womans entrepreneurial success should not be seen as a threat to her current employer, but rather an asset that can be leveraged for the company. Protect your ideas and IP by having a lawyer involved in any contracts and conflict of interest policies. If your current employer does not appreciate your contributions and commitment to further your career and industry, find one that does.

Pissed off yet? What are we going to do about it?

Self-promote. Get over the discomfort to toot your own horn. Set yourself up for success by documenting your accomplishments and failures over time in an organized manner so that you can refer to your experiences readily during preparation for interviews or contract negotiations. Society has taught us that women shouldnt be assertive, bold, and ambitious in leadership positions for a fear of others interpreting these masculine traits as unpleasant. Unsurprisingly, leadership requires us to be all these things and more if we are going to succeed. You can find that balance of strong leadership traits and having empathy with those we lead.

Sponsorship. If you are in a position of leadership (female or male) in medicine its simple. Make the time and space to engage with your less-experienced female colleagues and, if you believe in their potential, be sure to act. Introduce them to other individuals in leadership in person and through email. Forward them ideas, committees to join, or memberships you found helpful in the past to grow and connect. If you arent yet in a position of leadership and you desire this growth, actively seek out sponsors.

Protect your ideas. If you have an idea or implement a large project with YOUR vision, dont hesitate to take credit. If your innovation may be worth protecting so that it can scale up and disrupt an industry, do NOT sell yourself and your idea short. If you have an interest in bettering yourself, your family, and your career through entrepreneurship, give it a shot. Be bold and engage in conversations with others who have done this to build a network and gain the confidence you need.

Becca Hayes is an internal medicine-pediatrics physician and health care executive.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
Woman found unresponsive after fishing vessel sinks off Florence coast, crews search for one more person
ZANU PF snatched two parliamentary seats from the opposition in the by-elections held on Saturday, winning in Epworth and Mutasa South and also getting a foothold in urban local authorities.

Ahead of the Saturday polls, Zanu PF, which has a commanding majority in Parliament, made it clear that it aimed to fish from the opposition pond and maintain its stronghold in rural areas.

Results from the by-elections show the ruling party making incremental gains as its policies gain traction across the country.

Led by President Mnangagwa, the governing party has launched an urban renewal agenda that has seen roads being rehabilitated under the Emergency Roads Rehabilitation Programme (ERRP) and water challenges are being addressed, in the short term through the Presidential Borehole Drilling Scheme while construction of dams will offer a long-term solution.

Title deeds are also on cards for urban dwellers.

Central Government had to step in to fill the gaping void in service delivery which was next to non-existent while officials from the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) or MDC Alliance lined their pockets.

In 2018, the MDC Alliance candidates won in Epworth and Mutasa South but the same candidates were on Saturday clobbered as the Second Republics policies appear to be hitting the mark ahead of next years general elections.

Altogether there were 28 constituencies up for grabs. Zanu PF retained its seats in Gokwe Central, Chivi South, Mberengwa South, Murehwa South, Marondera East, Mwenezi East and Tsholotsho North, while the opposition won in urban areas but Binga North, however, with small margins.

In an interview yesterday Zanu PF Spokesperson Cde Chris Mutsvangwa said the ruling kept and solidified its traditional support in rural areas.

The party of the Zimbabwe Revolution is most delighted that it made fresh inroads in MDC-CCC urban strongholds.

The internecine fights of the fractious MDC-CCC formations handed Zanu PF a propitious chance to pick a few more national assembly seats and thus increase further the two thirds absolute majority in Parliament, said Cde Mutsvangwa.

In the 2018 polls, the ruling party picked 145 seats against the oppositions 60, meaning that the revolutionary party now has 147 seats.

Apart from the two significant parliamentary seats, the revolutionary party also harvested dozens of local authority seats in what could be a harbinger of things to come in next years elections.

Its clear that two decades of MDC-CCC urban neglect, feckless maladministration, screaming corruption, and putrid decay are all finally beginning to invite the wrath of the long-suffering urban citizenry at the expense of Nelson Chamisa and his acrimonious cohorts.

Even more reassuring is the narrowing margins in those seats Zanu PF lost. This speaks volumes of the resurgent support of the party. Zanu PF is heartily encouraged by its catch from the MDC-CCC opposition ponds.

The electoral jury is out. Come the 2023 harmonised elections, Zanu PF envisages an electoral tsunami that will drown the foreign -spawned opposition and its reliance on alien sponsorship, said Cde Mutsvangwa.

While the ruling party made incremental gains in opposition strongholds of Harare, Mutare and Victoria Falls, the combined CCC and MDC Alliance failed to win a single ward in Zanu PF strongholds.

There is a takeaway message for Zanu PF. The party of the Zimbabwe Revolution is recovering its urban spunk and completing its portfolio of the national socio-economic and political appeal.

He also praised the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) for remaining focused and hardworking notwithstanding needless distractions from some quarters.

Zimbabwe democracy once more proved its home-grown mettle. Perhaps to the shame of the meddlesome West now preoccupied with the military imbroglio in Ukraine.

The incremental gains, Cde Mutsvangwa said, demonstrate that President Mnangagwas message has found an audience among the urban populace.

President ED Mnangagwa has a reason for a measure of smugness. His hopeful message of urban renewal is hitting the tuneful chords in our towns and cities. The urban appeal of the mantra Zimbabwe Is Open for Business is energising entrepreneurial flair. The electorate sees President ED on a spree of ribbon cutting of revived factories and their expanded production lines.

President ED is hopping from one groundbreaking ceremony to another as major infrastructure projects open up to global class investment in oil and gas drilling in Muzarabani, iron and steel ecosystem in Mvuma-Chivhu-Manhize, ferrochrome in Selous, coking coal in Hwange, Platinum group metals on the Great Dyke and lithium deposits in Goromonzi and Buhera.

The resultant infrastructure dividend is seeing yellow metal earthmoving equipment in frenetic activity. The whole landscape has been converted into a huge construction site.

Turning to the CCCs celebrations, Cde Mutsvangwa said the Nelson Chamisa-led outfit is celebrating a consolation prize.

Nelson Chamisa, true to pettiness is gloatful at his showdown with (MDC Alliance leader Douglas) Mwonzora. He is celebrating the win of this consolation prize. Indeed, a paradox underscoring the vindication of the undisputed ascendancy of Zanu PF on the Zimbabwe political stage.

He conveniently misses the point that the same election process that awards him the self-adulatory win against his MDC-CCC adversaries is the one that equally lands him a drubbing. Yet he has the temerity to disparage ZEC each time he opens his lips. All because the sulking and right-wing fringe political elements in post-imperial London and Washington are bent on never reconciling with independent and assertive Zimbabwe.

A final remarkable feature is the electoral wash out margin loss of the MDC-CCC in the historical rural bastions of Zanu PF.

This forebodes a dark cloud for Chamisa in his superficial aspirations for apex national leadership. The by-elections clearly indicated diminishing appeal.

There is a movement of a swelling rural vote and a gathering urban appeal for President Mnangagwa. Then there is apathy and confusion on the part of the core of MDC supporters whose party has been killed by a nondescript CCC.

National plebiscites subsist on a game of numbers. President EDM looks like a rider on an unstoppable winning streak come 2023. Herald
Jasper, TX (75951)

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Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 62F. Winds light and variable.
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President Joe Biden delivers a speech about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, at the Royal Castle, Saturday, March 26, 2022, in Warsaw, Poland.
Ham Young-joo, the new chairman of Hana Financial Group, poses before the logo of the banking group after taking office, Friday. Courtesy of Hana Financial Group



Ham Young-joo suggests 3 strategies in accordance with 'NEXT 2030' roadmap outlined by his predecessor



By Yi Whan-woo



Ham Young-joo, the new chairman of Hana Financial Group, has pledged to propel the country's third-largest banking group to reach the top in Asia, in his vision unveiled after taking office for a three-year term, Friday.



Announced by the group, Sunday, the vision centers on three strategies  to maximize the group's competiveness and accordingly restructure non-banking businesses, to enhance its brand image worldwide and to complete digital transformation.



The vision is in accordance with the "NEXT 2030" roadmap introduced by his predecessor Kim Jung-tai shortly before 2020 to prepare for sustainable growth for the next 10 years.



In a related manner, Ham stressed creating a new future out of the past in a message delivered to the group's entire employees.



"I will commit myself to Hana Financial Group going beyond the No. 1 in the country and to become Asia's best banking group," he said. "To do so, I will be keen about enhancing shareholder value and corporate value, as well as building a management structure in transparent, fair and stable manners over the course of a turbulent period of change faced by the financial industry."





Specifically, Ham addressed the need to build a sales network connecting both online and offline successfully, by capitalizing on the strength of person-to-person services as well as digital platform innovation.



Concerning the restructuring of non-banking businesses, M&As or partnerships among the relevant affiliates will be adopted to create a synergy.



Support will increase for lending and securities businesses to consolidate their status as the group's two major growth engines, while credit card, consumer financing and insurances businesses will be encouraged to maximize their potential.



To build a stronger brand image on the global stage, the Seoul-headquartered company will speed up expanding its non-banking sectors abroad while bolstering localization strategy in Asian countries.



M&As and purchase of shares are among options to increase Hana Financial Group's presence in Indonesia, Vietnam and other fast-growing nations in the regions.



In the United States and the EU member countries, investment banking and corporate financing will be enhanced in cooperation with Korean enterprises operating there.



For digital transformation, Ham underlined a two-track strategy of developing competence within and outside the company.



The company will prioritize on nurturing talented workers, aggressive investment and adaption of digital technology across the entire company on one hand, and cooperation with innovative startups as well as outside digital experts through the so-called application programming interface (API) platform on the other hand.



An API platform is utilized to bring together two or more separate groups of companies and enable a collaborative networking.





Employees of Hana Financial Group receive shareholders at the lobby of the group's headquarters in central Seoul for the regular shareholders' meeting, Friday. Yonhap




gettyimagesbank



By Lee Hyo-jin



Despite their willingness to participate in the battle against COVID-19, traditional Korean medicine practitioners are struggling to find their place in the pandemic response scheme, which is dominated by their Western medicine counterparts.



They have been urging the government to recognize traditional Korean medicine as an official treatment method, and are demanding that traditional Korean medicine hospitals be included in the list of clinics offering rapid antigen tests.



Their demands, however, haven't been met by the health authorities.



Since December of last year, the Association of Korean Medicine (AKOM), which represents about 27,000 practitioners nationwide, has been offering traditional Korean medicine to COVID-19 patients undergoing home treatment, people suffering from side effects after vaccination, as well as those experiencing long-term symptoms of COVID-19 (long COVID).



Through non-face-to-face consultations with a doctor, patients are prescribed with treatments based on individual diagnoses, after which the medicines are delivered to their homes.



"We have treated more than 4,000 patients over the last four months, an impressive outcome which reflects the popularity and credibility of traditional Korean medicine," Moon Young-choon, a senior official at the AKOM, told The Korea Times.



"We are having difficulties in meeting the soaring demand, as we are rapidly running out of resources without any financial support from the government."



He said that none of the COVID-19 patients who have been treated with traditional Korean medicine have fallen into critical condition or were hospitalized, which proves the effectiveness of the medicine.



"Western and traditional Korean medicine treatments for COVID-19 seem very different from each other, but basically, they use the same approach; they both have antiviral effects and relieve coronavirus symptoms such as fever and cough." he said.



"But what is different from Western medicine, is that traditional Korean medicine does not contain substances that may pose potential risks. I don't see why COVID-19 patients should be prescribed with a bunch of pills that may lead to side effects for some."



Moon explained that among the four countries worldwide where traditional East Asian medicine is widely used  Korea, China, Japan and Taiwan  Korea is the only country where it is not officially recognized as a treatment option for COVID-19.



"Later this month, we will submit data analyzed over the last four months to the health ministry, and make an official request to include traditional Korean medicine in the government's treatment scheme," he said.



"Traditional Korean medicine doctors haven't been able to play an active role in the public health crisis, as the country's medical services are dominated by doctors of Western medicine," he added.



'Traditional Korean medicine practitioners excluded from testing scheme'



In addition to treatment, traditional Korean medicine practitioners have been excluded from the country's COVID-19 testing scheme, which has been expanded to local clinics since February.



Currently, people can receive rapid antigen tests (RAT) at over 9,500 medical institutions including general hospitals and local clinics nationwide at the cost of 5,000 won.



On March 14, the government decided to accept RAT results conducted by medical professionals for official diagnoses of COVID-19, without the need to take an additional PCR test. Since then, many local clinics have been flooding with people, forcing people to wait in lines for several hours to receive the tests.



The AKOM issued a statement, Monday, calling on the Ministry of Health and Welfare to give them the authority to conduct rapid antigen tests as well, but the ministry denied their request.



"The role of doctors conducting rapid antigen tests is not limited to administering the tests, but they should also prescribe medicines and treat the patients if necessary. We are not considering including traditional Korean medicine clinics in the testing scheme," said ministry spokesman Son Young-rae during a briefing, Tuesday.



The traditional Korean medicine practitioners viewed this decision as "utterly absurd and unfair."





Hong Joo-eui, the president of the Association of Korean Medicine speaks during an online press conference, Tuesday, calling on the government to give traditional Korean medicine practitioners the authority to conduct rapid antigen tests. Screenshot from YouTube
President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol and U.S. President Joe Biden / Yonhap



By Kang Seung-woo



President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol's resolute adherence to his plan to move Cheong Wa Dae even after being inaugurated, May 10, has led to an unforeseen problem: where to hold a summit and dine with U.S. President Joe Biden during his visit to Korea.



Yoon wants to relocate the presidential office to the compound of the defense ministry before taking office. But he is set to take the unprecedented step of starting work out of his temporary office in Tongui-dong near Cheong Wa Dae after inauguration due to controversy over an excessively hasty, major relocation while President Moon Jae-in's term lasts until May 9.



Cabinet approval is needed to fund the relocation project and, despite expert opinions that the process would take a minimum of several years to carry out, his transition team argues that the move could be completed by June.



There are growing concerns over ill-prepared protocols for the leader of Korea's most important ally as Biden is expected to visit Seoul in late May on the occasion of his trip to Japan for a Quad summit with his Japanese, Australian and Indian counterparts.



"Should Yoon meet Biden at his temporary office, security problems could occur," a government official said on condition of anonymity.



"In addition, holding their first summit amid a fragile security situation, with the well-protected presidential office still being there, may look peculiar," the official added.



As an alternative, Park Won-gon, a professor of North Korean studies at Ewha Womans University, suggested they sit down together at the hotel where Biden will stay  a familiar setting for a head of state while on an overseas trip.



"It might not be a big problem as such meetings are frequently held between leaders," Park said.



"However, it will not look nice for them to meet at an inappropriate venue that is not Cheong Wa Dae, the symbolic presidential office  an issue that the transition team will agonize over," he said.



When announcing his plan on March 20 to relocate the presidential office and residence, Yoon hinted at the possibility of meeting state guests at the main building of Cheong Wa Dae and serving them at its state reception house, called Yeongbingwan, although he wants to "return the presidential office to the people."



However, even in that case, it would be the first time for a foreign leader to be welcomed there while Cheong Wa Dae is completely open to the public, so there are concerns about unexpected chaos and security issues.



Also, when an American president visits Korea, an advance team from the U.S. usually conducts a preliminary inspection two or three weeks ahead of the trip. But if Yoon pushes ahead with his plan to relocate the presidential office, there are concerns about disorder arising during the actual visit of the U.S. leader.


Delegates listen to a speech by Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered remotely by video-link to the Doha Forum in Qatar's capital, March 26, in this handout image provided by the forum. AFP-Yonhap





Ukraine's president made a surprise video appearance Saturday at Qatar's Doha Forum, calling on the energy-rich nation and others to boost their production to counteract the loss of Russian energy supplies.







Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on the United Nations and world powers to come to his aid, as he has in a series of other addresses given around the world since Russia invaded his country, Feb. 24.







He compared Moscow's destruction of the port city of Mariupol to the Syrian and Russian destruction wrought on the city of Aleppo in the Syrian war.







"They are destroying our ports," Zelenskyy said. "The absence of exports from Ukraine will deal a blow to countries worldwide."







The loss of Ukrainian wheat has already worried Mideast nations such as Egypt, which rely on those exports.







Zelenskyy called on countries to increase their exports of energy  something particularly important as Qatar is a world leader in the export of natural gas. Western sanctions have deeply cut into Russian exports, which are crucial for European nations.







Also on hand was Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, the top diplomat for the world's biggest oil exporter. Saudi Arabia so far has said it would stick with an OPEC+ production schedule the cartel struck with Russia and other producers. The kingdom also said it wouldn't be responsible for higher prices as it deals with attacks from Yemen's Houthi rebels amid its years-long war in the Arab world's poorest country.







Zelenskyy criticized Russia for what he described as threatening the world with its nuclear weapons, raising the possibility of tactical nuclear devices being used on the battlefield.







"Russia is deliberating bragging they can destroy with nuclear weapons, not only a certain country but the entire planet," Zelenskyy said.







He also noted that Muslims in Ukraine would have to fight during the upcoming holy fasting month of Ramadan.







"We have to ensure this sacred month of Ramadan is not overshadowed by the misery of people in Ukraine," he said.







Qatar's ruling emir meanwhile criticized Israel for its treatment of Palestinians over the last 70 years, urging the world to stand against a growing global militarization that found its peak in Russia's ongoing war on Ukraine.







Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani sought to draw a line between anti-Semitism and the ability to criticize Israel for occupying lands that Palestinians hope to have a state of their own. Sheikh Tamim's comments come as Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates in 2020 regularized diplomatic relations with Israel.







Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky remotely addresses the opening session of the Doha Forum at the Sheraton Grand Doha Resort & Convention Hotel in Qatar, March 26. EPA-Yonhap





"It is noteworthy here that the accusation of anti-Semitism is now used wrongly against everyone who criticizes Israel's policies, and this impinges on the struggle against racism and actual anti-Semitism," Sheikh Tamim said at the start of the forum.







"While stressing solidarity, I would like in this context to remind of the millions of Palestinians who have been suffering from the Israeli occupation and international neglect for more than seven decades," he added. "Similarly, there are a lot of other people, such as the Syrian people and the Afghan people, for whom the international community has failed to render justice."







The Israeli Foreign Ministry didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. It was Saturday, the Jewish day of rest, when government offices are closed.







However, Israel and Qatar have discussed reducing tensions in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Qatar, which supports Islamist groups across the region, has stepped in to provide humanitarian aid, including cash-filled suitcases shipped to Gaza with Israel's permission.







Qatar's support of Islamists saw it become the target of a years-long boycott by four Arab nations  Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE  during President Donald Trump's time in office. That boycott ended just before President Joe Biden took office in 2021.







U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina on hand for the forum, praised the event for having the top diplomats of Saudi Arabia and Qatar sharing a stage as a sign that "the embargo is over."







However, he noted what he described as a Saudi and Emirati reluctance to condemn Russia over its war on Ukraine. He said he hoped the Russian people would rise up against Vladimir Putin and have "a change in the regime" as "they have a very dead future" with the way things stood now.







"What you've seen on your televisions, like all of us, is war crimes on an industrial scale," Graham said. "The question for the world is: Can that be forgiven? Can we be the world we want to be and let Putin get away with this? The answer for me is no." (AP)


Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Rain showers in the morning becoming a steady light rain in the afternoon. High 54F. Winds ENE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

A steady rain in the evening. Showers continuing late. Low 47F. Winds NE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
Auburn, IN (46706)

Today

Showers early, becoming a steady rain later in the day. High 54F. Winds ENE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch. Higher wind gusts possible..

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Rain early...then remaining cloudy with showers late. Low 47F. Winds NE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch.
RAPID CITY, S.D. - A Notice of Trespass has been given to a hotel in South Dakota after the owner threatened to ban Native Americans.

Chairman Harold Frazier of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe shared the notice that says the Grand Gateway Hotel is in violation of provisions of the Treaty with the Sioux, April 29, 1868.

In accordance with the treaty and United States laws, the Grand Gateway Hotel has been instructed to vacate and remove persons and personal property.

You are notified that the Great Sioux Nation, in order to prevent further trespass upon said land take possession, destroy, or remove said property at your expense.

You can read the full Notice of Trespass here.
A woman surnamed Liang, 60, takes part in a Buddhist ceremony in honor of the victims in a field close to the entrance of Simen village, near the site where a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 plane.
Two candidates are vying for a seat on the Geneva Joint No. 4 School District Board during the April 5 spring election.

Incumbent Quan Le is being challenged by Frank Broz during the upcoming election. The Geneva Joint No. 4 School District includes Woods Elementary School in the Town of Geneva.

Le is a retired elementary school teacher who worked in Chicago schools for about nine years.

Broz is the co-owner of Clock Tower Pizza in Downtown Lake Geneva. He is seeking his first elected position.

Both candidates submitted answers to questions presented to them by the Lake Geneva Regional News.

Below is the responses to those questions, starting with the incumbent.

Name: Quan Le (I)

Occupation: Stay at home dad/retired elementary school teacher

Address: W4079 Oakwood Drive

Community involvement: Woods School Board

Previous elected experience: None

Why do you want to be a member of the Geneva Joint No. 4 School Board? As a parent and former teacher, I wanted to stay on top of my childrens education and get back into education on some level.

What do you think are some of the issues that are currently affecting the school district? Enrollment is a big issue. Less than 50% of the student body lives in district.

What do you think makes you a quality candidate for the school board? I was an elementary school teacher for nine years in Chicago so I have an idea of how school systems operate. As a current parent of two young daughters, I am also in touch with the upcoming generation of students and their parents. As a homeowner of a moderate home, I believe Im also tapped into the sentiments of the median taxpayers in this district.

Name: Frank R. Broz

Occupation: Owner, Clock Tower Pizza

Address: W4132 Butternut Lane, Lake Geneva WI 53147

Community involvement: Business owner in Lake Geneva, active with Woods School and various other local missions, organizations and efforts to promote area businesses.

Previous elected experience: This is my first rodeo.

Why do you want to be a member of the Geneva Joint No. 4 School Board? My goal is to provide stability and leadership for the school in its entirety. To me, that includes the school administration, the teachers, and the students and families of every student that attends Woods School, even if theyre open-enrolled at Woods.

What do you think are some of the issues that are currently affecting the school district? Recent turmoil has affected the school district and the world at large, in a mostly negative way. Woods School has been uniquely affected by that turmoil because we have such a small population. Losing or gaining one or two families every year has a tremendous impact on the future prospects for the school. Our school needs to focus on academic excellence.

What do you think makes you a quality candidate for the school board? Im the beneficiary of a very strong educational background and understand how that foundation has enabled success in my own life. I want that for my own children, and I believe every child should have access to a similar school experience.

I believe I understand Lake Geneva and the Woods School legacy. I envision a future that builds upon that legacy. Im a Lake Geneva lifer in that I have every intention of remaining in this community.

I have a responsibility to make it as good as it can possibly be, and to inspire others to do the same. It starts in my house, extends to my kids, their schools, my familys business, and the community in general. We all have to do our part today if we want a better tomorrow.

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This week marks our 979th column in the Lake Geneva Regional News. In that time, we have shared many instances of our poverty relief work throughout our communities. Thanks to this column, thousands of our fellow creations have been fed, sheltered, and provided other areas of life changing assistance.

We began our column over 18 years ago after recognizing the need for poverty relief in our area. At first many people did not believe there was such deep poverty in our communities. Over the years this column changed that belief and was also the motivation to make a difference.

In 2003, I had the idea to write a weekly Dear Abby type of column. The difference would be that I would remain anonymous, and people would be writing in for help due to poverty. At the time I was already providing poverty relief throughout Southeast Wisconsin and Illinois through The Time is Now to Help, which I founded in 1989. After almost 15 years of poverty relief, I knew there were so many moving stories that could be shared with the local readers.

Our first bag of letters was huge. I knew there was a great need, but never imagined the response we would receive. It was often hard to choose which letter would be featured each week, as many more people are provided assistance each week than just that one letter. Word soon spread about the anonymous person who was paying peoples overdue rent and utilities, providing food to the hungry, dropping off wheelchairs and toiletries. We worked many late nights to keep up with the demand.

In 2004, Richard Driehaus  Lake Genevas beloved local philanthropist  provided our first matching grant, which became the first publicly shared matching grant for our charity. Several years later Richard gave me some wise advice saying, Sal, if you really believe in helping the poverty stricken, you will come out in the open and make yourself tangible so others can help. When I heeded his advice and began to put a face and a name to the column, our column became even more integral to our charity work.

When the CNN Heroes team of journalists and photographers arrived in Lake Geneva in 2011, due to my top 10 CNN Hero award for my efforts with The Time is Now to Help, they not only learned about our poverty relief efforts, but they also learned the history of our local newspaper. When the team of seven journalists and photographers stepped back in time into the archives of the Lake Geneva Regional News, they were so enthralled they stayed an extra two days to film and interview within the Regional News. At the Heroes event that was televised worldwide and through social media, The Time is Now to Helps column and our local newspaper was shared with millions of viewers.

Thanks to the publication of our column over these past years, over 10,000 people have received our assistance since 2003. We are beyond grateful for our faithful readers and supporters who have continued to read our column each week. It is thanks to You that these miracles continue to happen.

Several miracles are happening this week as we work to get three homeless single mothers with children into stable, affordable apartments. Due to the high cost of rentals and other expenses this is truly a blessing for these women and children. Our efforts continue every day to bring our fellow creations out of the suffering brought on by poverty and into a life they can not only sustain in but also thrive in.

This week we celebrate Lake Geneva Regional News 150th anniversary and look forward to continuing to share our poverty relief efforts through our weekly column. It has been an honor to share the past 18-plus years with them and all of You. Congratulations, Lake Geneva Regional News, for your long history of providing news that touches peoples hearts and minds.

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Health & Happiness, Love & God Bless Everyone, Sal

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Memorials: Jon and Karen Bird in memory of Susan Neumann. Prayer Chain: The power of prayer and positive thoughts comes from the true healer, our Lord answering our prayers. Please pray for healing for the following people: Brian, Talyn, Mike, Sylvia, Richard, Jennifer, Jayden, Maria C., Alex, Lily, Kaitlyn, Sheila, Rhonda, Deda Lee, Betty, Marilyn, Helen, Dennis, Mary, Joseph, Jordan, Jean, Tom L., Dr. Peter, Alyce, Matthew, Pam E., Jenene B., John S., Patricia H., Darlene, Ron K., Marian K., Judy, Wendy, Eric, Anthony, Mary, Charlie, Tom P., Christina, Billy, Mike, Cheryl, and Ellie.
The calves on columnist Sue Bowman's farm have their own "calves only" space, which gives them the freedom to romp and sleep while their mothers take a break.
Donald Glover has revealed that Hollywood star Ryan Gosling would have guest-starred on the third season of 'Atlanta' however, the plans didn't go through. The show has had a history of several guest stars with folks like Migos, Katt Williams, and Michael Vick appearing. Oscars 2022: Lin-Manuel Miranda Will Not Attend the 94th Academy Awards Ceremony, Heres Why.

Recently, during an interview with People Magazine, Glover detailed how he approached the Oscar-nominated actor, and the reason he couldn't participate. "I was so bummed because the part was so great for him. He said he was a big fan, but he had something else, and it just didn't work out," Glover said. Behind-the-scenes with the Cast of #NoExit. Start Streaming the Film Now on @Hulu.  Latest Tweet by 20th Century Studios.

It doesn't come much of as a surprise that Gosling had to turn down the offer because the actor has a busy schedule all packed up ahead of him with films like including The Gray Man, Wolfman, Barbie, among others. Atlanta season 3, which launched on March 24, features 10-episodes and marks the first time Atlanta will be available for in-season streaming on Hulu.

(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 27 (PTI) With the first pour of concrete for a 700 MW atomic power plant in Karnataka's Kaiga scheduled in 2023, India is set to put in motion construction activities for 10 'fleet mode' nuclear reactors over the next three years.

The first pour of concrete (FPC) signals the beginning of construction of nuclear power reactors from the pre-project stage which includes excavation activities at the project site.

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The FPC of Kaiga units 5&6 is expected in 2023; FPC of Gorakhpur Haryana Anu Vidyut Praiyonjan units 3 & 4 and Mahi Banswara Rajasthan Atomic Power Projects units 1 to 4 is expected in 2024; and that of Chutka Madhya Pradesh Atomic Power Project units 1 & 2 in 2025, officials of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) told the Parliamentary panel on science and technology.

The Centre had approved construction of 10 indigenously developed pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWR) of 700 MW each in June 2017. The ten PHWRs will be built at a cost of Rs 1.05 lakh crore.

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It was for the first time that the government had approved building 10 nuclear power reactors in one go with an aim to reduce costs and speed up construction time.

Bulk procurement was underway for the fleet mode projects with purchase orders placed for forgings for steam generators, SS 304L lattice tubes and plates for end shields, pressuriser forgings, bleed condensers forgings, incoloy-800 tubes for 40 steam generators, reactor headers, DAE officials said.

Engineering, procurement and construction package for turbine island has been awarded for Gorakhpur units three and four and Kaiga units five and six, they added.

Under the fleet mode, a nuclear power plant is expected to be built over a period of five years from the first pour of concrete.

Currently, India operates 22 reactors with a total capacity of 6780 MW in operation. One 700 MW reactor at Kakrapar in Gujarat was connected to the grid on January 10 last year, but it is yet to start commercial operations.

The PHWRs, which use natural uranium as fuel and heavy water as moderator, have emerged as the mainstay of India's nuclear power programme.

India's first pair of PHWRs of 220 MW each were set up at Rawatbhata in Rajasthan in the 1960s with Canadian support. The second reactor had to be built with significant domestic components as Canada withdrew support following India's peaceful nuclear tests in 1974.

As many as 14 PHWRS of 220 MW each with standardised design and improved safety measures were built by India over the years.

Indian engineers further improvised the design to increase the power generation capacity to 540 MWe, and two such reactors were made operational at Tarapur in Maharashtra.

Further optimisations were carried out to upgrade the capacity to 700 MWe.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Panaji (Goa) [India], March 27 (ANI): Goa Chief Minister-designate Pramod Sawant accompanied Bharatiya Janata Party's Ramesh Tawadkar as he filed nomination for the Speaker's post in Goa Legislative Assembly.

Ramesh Tawadkar is a BJP MLA from Canacona city in Goa.

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On the other hand, Goa Police, in a press note, informed today that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Goa on March 28 to attend the swearing-in ceremony function at Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium, Taleigao.

In the Assembly polls held on February 14, results of which were declared on March 10, the BJP won 20 seats in the 40-member House, though it attained a comfortable majority after some Independents and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party extended support.

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With this victory, the ruling party is entitled to nominate the Speaker of its choice. (ANI)

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Bengaluru, Mar 27 (PTI) Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Sunday said Chitrakala art galleries will be set up in six places in Karnataka as he laid emphasis on extending the art of drawing and painting across the state.

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Noting that there is a demand to make Chitrakala Parishath, an autonomous institution, into a deemed university, he said steps in this direction would be taken in the next session of the State Legislature.

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"Chitrakala Parishath is the epicentre for 'Chitrakale' (art of drawing and painting) in Karnataka. It needs to be extended all over the State. Action would be taken to establish Chitrakala galleries in six regional spots," Bommai said after inaugurating the 19th edition of the 'Chitra Santhe' organised by the Parishath.

The Chief Minister said a new dimension would be given to Chitrakala Parishath under the leadership of former minister B L Shankar by bringing various institutions under its affiliation.

Bommai hailed the concept of Chitra Santhe, the art mart, and said any art would find its value when it is showcased to the world.

"Chitra Santhe, a confluence of artists and the patrons of art, is happening after two years. It should go on eternally. Our government is committed to encourage all forms of art and culture," Bommai said.

The Chief Minister praised Shankar for the growth of Chitrakala Parishath.

Chitra Santhe is doing it in an innovative way enabling lakhs of people to witness it and get inspired, the Chief Minister said, adding it is a great source of encouragement for the artists.

Bommai also interacted with the artists and showed keen interest as he watched their pieces of art on display and sale at the Chitra Santhe which stretched from Windsor Manor Circle to Shivananda Circle.

Artists from various states and countries have put up their pieces of art on show and sale.

(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 27 (PTI) India has demanded that fishermen and fishing boats currently in the custody of Sri Lanka should be released at the earliest.

Also Read | Chhattisgarh Shocker: Man Rapes and Kills Teenage Girl in Surajpur, Tries To Pass It Off As Suicide; Arrested.

The issue was taken up at the Fifth Meeting of the India-Sri Lanka Joint Working Group on Fisheries, which was held virtually on March, according to an official statement.

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Both the countries will continue to cooperate and engage in dialogue to solve the fishermen-related issues.

The Indian delegation was led by Jatindra Nath Swain, Secretary, Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, an official statement said on Sunday.

The other members of the Indian delegation included senior representatives from the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of Tamil Nadu, Government of Puducherry, Indian Navy and Indian Coast Guard.

The Sri Lankan delegation was led by Ms R.M.I. Rathnayake, Secretary, Ministry of Fisheries, Government of Sri Lanka.

"The Joint Working Group discussed all relevant issues in detail including the concerns relating to fishermen and fishing boats which have been on the agenda of bilateral discussions between India and Sri Lanka for many years," the statement said.

Swain observed that the India is always committed to work constructively with Sri Lanka towards resolution of issues related to fishermen and their livelihoods in a humanitarian manner.

"He also took up the issue of early release of Indian fishermen and boats currently in Sri Lankan custody," the statement said.

India expressed its readiness to work together with Sri Lanka for joint research to enhance the productivity of Palk Bay fisheries.

Both sides also discussed cooperation between Navy and Coast Guard of both countries in patrolling as well as existing hotline between the coast guards.

The related operational matters including cooperation in tracking poaching, prevention of environmental damage due to bottom trawling, addressing grievances of fishermen on either side was discussed.

The issues relating to investigation on recent deaths of fishermen and status of apprehended fishermen and fishing boats too figured in the meeting.

Indian government highlighted the initiatives taken by the Central and State Governments to diversify livelihood options and reduce fishing pressure in the Palk Bay.

It also informed that infrastructure has been created to facilitate deep-sea fishing and promotion of alternative livelihood through seaweed cultivation, mariculture and several aquaculture activities.

The Sri Lanka Government proposed a faster transition to sustainable fishing in the Palk Bay fisheries. It suggested that India can help them develop the aquaculture sector and the associated infrastructure in Northern Sri Lanka.

"The meeting concluded on a positive note, with commitment towards continued cooperation and dialogue to solve the fishermen related issues and to hold the next meeting of the Joint Working Group as per schedule," the statement said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Bagalkote (Karnataka), Mar 27 (PTI) Karnataka Primary and Secondary Education Minister B C Nagesh on Sunday said wearing of hijab (head scarf) would not be allowed during the 10th standard examination of the State board. The exam starts from Monday and ends on April 11.

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More than 8.76 lakh students are appearing for the exam in over 40,000 halls in 3,440 centres across the State.

"After the High Court order, we've not allowed that (hijab). We've given clarification that they (students with hijab) can come into the campus wearing the hijab but they cannot put it on in the classroom. The same condition will apply during the exams," Nagesh told reporters here.

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He said there would not be re-examination for those who skip the exam.

Replying to a query, he said lawyers of the Supreme Court have argued for hijab before the Full Bench of the High Court, after which the verdict was delivered.

The petitioners had challenged the government notification which banned usage of any cloth that could disturb peace, harmony and public order, and contended that wearing of hijab was a fundamental right, the Minister said. He added that the petitioners had also questioned the powers given to the college development committee but the High Court dismissed them. It held that those who want to attend college have to abide by the uniform dress code, the Minister said. He said the rule must be strictly followed. "According to the Karnataka Education Act and the Rules, religious sentiments should not be part of the uniform dress rule. The same notification, the HC has upheld. Tomorrow, there is no scope of violation of the dress code," Nagesh said. He said arrangements have been made to ensure that the exam takes place smoothly. Meanwhile in Hubballi, over 120 km from here, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai appealed to the students to write the exam without fear. He said the Department of Education and the Department of Home have made arrangements for the smooth conduct of the exams. "Keeping in view the welfare of students and the impact of COVID-19, we decided to hold an easy exam. Children have to write it and shape their future. I appeal to them to write the test freely, courageously," Bommai said. Regarding former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's statement on hijab that has enraged seers, Bommai said, "There is no need for such talk after the High Court passed an order." Siddaramaiah, attending a function organised on Friday by a minority community, said Muslim girls were ready to wear uniform but were seeking permission to wear a 'dupatta' (shawl) on their head. The dupatta is similar to the one worn by Jain women, Hindu women and Hindu seers. Let them wear. What is your problem?" Siddaramaiah 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 27 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday expressed grief over the loss of lives in a bus accident in Andhra Pradesh's Chittoor, and announced ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each to the next of kin of the deceased.

Ex-gratia of Rs 50,000 has also been announced to those who were injured in the accident from Prime Minister's National Relief Fund (PMNRF).

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The Prime Minister's Office in a tweet said, "Pained by the loss of lives in a tragic bus accident in Chittoor, AP. Condolences to the bereaved families. I hope the injured recover soon."

"The next of kin of the deceased would be given Rs 2 lakh from PMNRF and Rs 50,000 would be given to the injured: PM Narendra Modi," PMO added.

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As per Andhra Pradesh Governor Biswabhusan Harichandan eight people were killed while several others sustained injuries in the accident.

The Andhra Pradesh Raj Bhavan said that the district officials briefed the Governor that the accident took place when a private bus carrying 63 persons of a marriage party, proceeding from Dharmavaram in Anantapuram district to Tirupati, lost control while taking a turn on the ghat road and fell into a gorge.

According to the Tirupati Superintendent of Police (SP), the driver's negligence is believed to be the cause of the accident.

"The accident took place as the bus fell off the cliff due to driver's negligence in Bakrapeta, 25 kms away from Tirupati," he said. The victims were shifted to a nearby hospital. (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 27 (ANI): The Ministry of Power on Sunday issued an advisory to all the state government and electricity authorities to prepare themselves to ensure maintenance and reliability of the electricity grid during the strike called by the National Convention of Workers from March 28 to March 30.

According to an official statement, the Ministry issued an advisory that all the power utilities shall take necessary measures to ensure round the clock normal functioning of the electricity Grid and availability of all plants, transmission lines and substations.

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The Ministry has asked all regional/state control room executives to be on the vigil and high alert during the two-day strike.

"All concerned may be advised to ensure close supervision of their regional network/control area and shall report to the concerned SLDC/ RLDC and NLDC in the event of any contingency... Power supply to essential services such as hospitals, defence, railways etc. should be ensured," read the official statement.

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Power Ministry said that additional manpower may be deployed at all critical sub-stations/power stations 24X7 to handle any emergency conditions.

"All defence mechanism such as df/dt, Under Frequency Relay based Load shedding (UFLS), SPS etc. shall be in service. A 24x7 Control Room may be made functional for information dissemination and for handling any kind of contingency," read the order.

A joint forum of central trade unions has given a call for a nationwide strike on March 28 and 29, to protest against government policies affecting workers, farmers, and people. (ANI)

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Jaipur, Mar 27 (PTI) The opposition BJP in Rajasthan on Sunday demanded the arrest of the Congress MLA's son accused of raping a 15-year-old girl, with one office bearer asking Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to visit the state, reminding her of her "Ladki Hoon, Lad Sakti Hoon" campaign.

BJP state secretary Jitendra Gothwal challenged Gandhi to come to Jaipur, and tweeted that he has sent her a train ticket.

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Congress MLA from Rajgarh constituency (Alwar) Johari Lal Meena's son Deepak Meena and four other people have been booked for allegedly raping the minor girl in February 2021. The case was registered on Friday on the basis of a complaint lodged by the girl's family. Police have identified Deepak Meena as the key accused.

"Congress MLA's son has raped a minor in Rajasthan. The minor girl is not able to fight against the power of the MLA. @priyankagandhi ji, I am sending a train ticket for you. Come to Jaipur immediately. 'There are girls in Rajasthan too and they are not able to fight'," Gothwal said in a tweet in Hindi.

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Gandhi had come out with the poll slogan "Ladki Hoon, Lad Sakti Hoon (I am a girl and can fight)" ahead of the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

Sikar MP Swami Sumedhanand said law and order has deteriorated in the state.

"The accused should be arrested. The party is going to take up the issue to mount pressure on the government," Sumedhanand told reporters here.

"Atrocities against women have increased, but the government is not bothered," he added.

The police said that the matter is being examined, but no arrests have been made so far.

The MLA has alleged that the case is a political conspiracy against him.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Yadadri (Telangana) [India], March 27 (ANI): Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao will attend the inauguration ceremony of the newly reconstructed Yadadri temple on Monday.

Speaking to ANI, Indrakaran Reddy, Minister of Endowments said, "On March 28, CM K Chandrashekar Rao will be present at the 'Maha Kumbha Samprokshana' along with various ministers, MPs and other leaders who will take the blessing of Lord Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy. From 4 pm onwards the temple will be kept open for the public."

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Geeta, Temple Executive Officer said, "After the formation of Telangana state, the government decided to reconstruct the Yadadri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Temple, under Yadagirigutta Temple Development Authority (YTDA). The YTDA planned and reconstructed the temple and the work started in April 2016."

The executive officer added, "Almost 500 sculptors worked together every day and in 4 years the entire temple was built. The remaining work is being done now."

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"A makeshift arrangement was made for deity Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy in another temple in April 2016 and now on March 28, 'Maha Kumbha Samprokshana' will take place as a part of the reopening of the refurbished temple complex," she added.

Anand Sai, the chief architect of the temple said, "The ground area of the temple has been increased from 11 acres to 17 acres. This is the biggest temple in the world that has been constructed completely with stone."

The religious masterpiece has been constructed with 2,50,000 tonne black granite.

The temple, which stands tall with its fine blend of architecture and elegant grandeur, is the fusion of Dravidian, Pallava, Kakatiyan styles of temple construction.

Elaborate arrangements have been made by the officials for the conduct of 'Maha Kumbha Samprokshana'.

The authorities are making the necessary arrangements to handle the large number of devotees who are expected to arrive on Monday.

The temple management has set up an automated and mechanized prasadam production unit atop the hill.

It is also learnt that the devotees visiting the temple in Yadadri can get unlimited laddu, pulihora, and vada prasadam at the temple. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], March 27 (ANI): Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Temple in Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district of Telangana, set for inauguration on Monday, is entirely constructed by using black granite stone, called "Krushna Sila", sourced from Gurujapally in Guntur district in Andhra Pradesh.

The religious masterpiece has been constructed with 2,50,000 tonne black granite.

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The temple, which stands tall with its fine blend of architecture and elegant grandeur, is the fusion of both Dravidian and Kakatiyan styles of temple construction.

The main attraction of the temple is 'Prahlada Charithra', the sculptural representation of the story of 'Bhaktha Prahlada' from birth to the killing of Hiranyakashyapa. The 'Prahlada Charithra' is constructed with gold.

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It also has a sculptural representation of Lord Narasimha breaking out of a pillar to kill Hiranyakashyapa, followed by tearing apart the chest of the demon king.

The devotees can see the sculptures of Anjaneya Swamy, Narasimha Swamy and Yada Maharshi who had performed penance at this temple, and Sri Ramanujacharya can be seen on the walls, in addition to the sculptures of how Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy emerged as a Swayambhu in Yadagirigutta. There is also an 'Addala Mandapa', where every night Lord Lakshmi Narasimha would be put on a swing.

The seven 'gopurams' of the temple are unique because from the bottom to the top, they are made entirely of stone. The Maharaja Gopuram which lies on the western entrance is 83 feet tall and is made of 13,000 tonnes of black granite, which took over two years to be constructed.

There is a proper concrete shed built to park the 'Ratham', and there is also a 'Golla Mandapa' built outside the temple, apart from 'Praakara mandapa' and others.

A temple for Lord Shiva has also been constructed on the hillock.

The devotees can also see the 'first Praakara' around the temple as they head out of the main temple, where 58 Yalli pillars have been set together. These pillars are sculptures of Lord Narasimha with the face of a lion and the body of a horse supported by an elephant. Each of these pillars has been carved out of a single black granite stone.

The 'garbhalaya' door of the temple is 11 feet high, with a golden Nava Narasimha Swami design. It leads devotees to the sanctum santorum.

The temple has statues of the 12 Alwars representing the Kakatiyan style of architecture, which is installed around the Mukha Mandapa leading to the sanctum sanctorum, which is located 18 feet below the ground.

The temple is quite spacious as it can accommodate 10,000 devotees at a time. A waterbody has been filled where devotees can take a holy bath.

The reconstruction and development of the temple cost Rs 1,280 crore in the past five-and-a-half years. More than 2,000 sculptors and thousands of labourers have been engaged in the reconstruction work, which is still under progress.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao is likely to attend the inauguration ceremony of the revamped Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple on Monday, said sources. (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 27 (PTI) Steel minister Ram Chandra Prasad Singh on Sunday highlighted the need to move towards green steel, saying the use of hydrogen in the iron ore and steel sector would help reduce coal imports.

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He also said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has an ambitious vision on Hydrogen.

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"Iron and steel industry will be big beneficiary as coal can be replaced by hydrogen and our dependency on import of coal also will reduce," he said.

Speaking during the day-long National Conference on 'Making India Atmanirbhar in Steel  Role of Secondary Steel Sector', Singh said the suggestions from the industry will be considered and seamless, transparent and flexible process is the avowed aim of the Centre.

He said that industry has made great strides in production by moving from 22 million tonnes in 1991 to 120 million tonnes in 2021-22.

He said that strategy needs to be devised to reach the target of 300 million tonnes by 2030 and 500 million tonnes by 2047.

The Minister of State for Steel Faggan Singh Kulaste in his address urged the industry to be vocal about their requirements and put views of the industry forward with the confidence that they will be heard and the Government will work towards establishing an industry  friendly environment in our country.

Secondary steel sector is a diverse industry in itself. Ideas generated through the conference will be helpful in setting policy directions for the government.

The Minister of State for MSME Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma brought out various assistance being extended to the MSMEs by the government and further exhorted upon the industry to come up with their suggestions which can strengthen the MSME sector in general and steel sector in particular.

The conference has been organised with aim of providing a platform to players in the Secondary Steel sector to share their views on the challenges faced by the sector and ways in which the Ministry can create an ecosystem in which the industry can thrive.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Kabul [Afghanistan], March 27 (ANI): Dozens of female students in Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul took to the streets demanding the Taliban regime to withdraw its decision to ban girls from attending school above the sixth grade.

Chanting the slogans of "education is our absolute right," the protestors called for the reopening of schools for girls in grades 7-12 across Afghanistan, Tolo News reported.

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"We gathered today to voice this shared pain and to not allow a generation to be deprived of education," Monisa, a female rights activist who participated in the protest was quoted as saying.

"I was going to study in grade 11, but unfortunately, when the Taliban came to power, our schools were closed. As the boys have the right to education, we girls also have the right," said Fatima, another student.

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The Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Ireland also staged protests in reaction to the closing of secondary and high schools for girls in Afghanistan.

"When a woman is educated, she will help a family, a society and a country be improved," said a woman protestor in Ireland quoted Tolo News.

The Taliban regime on Wednesday issued a decree banning female students above grade six from participating in their classes. The girls were further told to stay home until the Islamic Emirate announces its next decision.

The decision by the Islamic Emirate has drawn severe backlash across the world with the Foreign Ministers of Canada, France, Italy, Norway, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and the High Representative of the European Union issuing a joint statement on Friday to condemn the Taliban's decision to deny so many Afghan girls the opportunity to finally go back to school.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) also condemned the decision calling the action "deplorable".

The vast majority of girls' secondary schools were closed. Universities recently reopened, with new gender segregation rules. But many women are unable to return, in part because the career they studied for is now off-limits as the Taliban banned women from most of the jobs.

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.

Allowing girls into schools and other educational institutes has been one of the main demands of the international community.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)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Male, Mar 27 (PTI) External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Sunday called on Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih in Addu City and discussed the special partnership between the two countries.

Jaishankar, who arrived here on Saturday, also conveyed the personal greetings and good wishes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to President Solih.

Also Read | China Mounting Cyber-Attacks to Fulfill Its Political Objectives, Says Think Tank.

An honour to be received by President @ibusolih of Maldives. Conveyed the personal greetings and good wishes of PM @narendramodi. Discussed the special partnership between our two countries that has produced so many substantive outcomes during his tenure, he tweeted.

Jaishankar said he was privileged to join President Solih in the inauguration of the National College of Police and Law Enforcement (NCPLE), which underlines India's strong support for law enforcement.

Also Read | Joe Biden Lashes at Vladimir Putin, Calls for Western Resolve For Freedom.

"The NCPLE will assist the Maldives Police Service to train its officers and enhance its crime-fighting capacities," Jaishankar had said at a joint press appearance with Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid on Saturday.

Ground-breaking of the Addu roads project, similarly emphasizes our development partnership. Also signed an agreement for Addu reclamation and shore protection. Handing over of coastal radar system strengthens the security of Maldives, he said in another tweet.

Opening of the Drug Detoxification and Rehabilitation Centre reflects our P2P connect. The new eco-tourism zone is a statement of our shared environmental commitment. A good day for #IndiaMaldives development cooperation, the minister tweeted. Jaishankar also laid a wreath at Addu Atoll Memorial.

From the pages of history, a visit to Gan. Paid my homage to the Indian soldiers commemorated at the Addu Atoll Memorial, he tweeted. On Saturday, Jaishankar said the "time-tested" relationship between India and the Maldives is a "force for stability" in the region and the shared responsibility of the two countries is to nurture and strengthen it.

Jaishankar held wide-ranging discussions with his Maldivian counterpart on the bilateral partnership and the two leaders took stock of ongoing projects and initiatives across a very wide range of sectors.

The two ministers also had a discussion on regional security and maritime safety issues.

India and the Maldives also agreed to mutually recognise the COVID-19 vaccine certificates issued by each other, a move that will facilitate easier travel between the two countries and give a boost to the tourism sector.

The Maldives is one of India's key maritime neighbours in the Indian Ocean region and the bilateral defence and security ties have been on an upward trajectory in the last few years.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Yangon [Myanmar], March 27 (ANI): Myanmar on Sunday marked the 77th Armed Forces Day with a military parade in the capital city of Nay Pyi Taw.

The Myanmar military seized power in February 2021 after accusing civilian leaders of rigging the general election. The military's actions spurred major civil unrest that led to over 1,600 casualties.

Also Read | Bahrain Shuts Down 35-Year-Old Indian Restaurant After Staff Denies Entry to Veiled Woman.

Delivered a public speech on Sunday, Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services Senior General Min Aung Hlaing highlighted the Myanmar Armed Forces' commitment to independence, safeguarding three main national causes, and peace and development, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Hlaing said the Myanmar Armed Forces would continue the negotiation process with the signatory organizations in the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement.

Also Read | Pakistan Political Crisis: Nerves on Edge As Islamabad Braces for Showdown.

The armed forces' mechanized units and foot soldiers marched in the parade ground. Meanwhile, military aircrafts and helicopters flew above.

On Friday, the UK Government had sanctioned two individuals and three companies responsible for supplying the Myanmar military regime with weapons and equipment.

The British Foreign Office said the country has also designated the new Head of Air Force who was recently appointed to the State Administration Council.

The press statement said new sanctions, freezing assets and banning travel to the UK, will be brought against Dr Aung Moe Myint, Aung Hlaing Oo and General Htun Aung.

The United States had also imposed new sanctions on five individuals and five entities connected to Myanmar's military regime.

"Today the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated five individuals and five entities connected to Burma's military regime pursuant to Executive Order (E.O) 14014," the US Department of Treasury said in a statement on Friday.

Among the entities is the 66th Light Infantry Division (LID), the statement 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)
Berlin, Mar 27 (AP) Russian authorities have blocked the website of German newspaper Bild, part of their efforts to control the message on Ukraine.

Communications and media regulator Roskomnadzor said Sunday it blocked Bild's website at prosecutors' request.

Also Read | Russia-Ukraine War Latest Updates: Ukraine Says Russia Wants to Split Nation, Calls for More Arms; West Needs More Courage in Helping Ukraine Fight, Says Zelenskyy.

Instagram and Facebook were already blocked in Russia after Roskomnadzor said they were being used to call for violence against Russian soldiers.

Russian authorities also have shut access to foreign media websites, including BBC, European news network Euronews, the US government-funded Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle and Latvia-based website Meduza.

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Bild says it has been putting Russian-language reports on Russia's war in Ukraine and its slide toward totalitarian dictatorship on its website, and parts of its live video broadcasts have been subtitled in Russian. It noted that it also has a Russian-language Telegram channel.

Bild editor-in-chief Johannes Boie said the decision to block its website in Russia confirms us in our journalistic work for democracy, freedom and human rights.

___

Washington: The top-ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has urged US President Joe Biden to stay on script as he deals with Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Senator James Risch of Idaho's comments criticizing the president came a day after Biden asserted at the end of a major address in Poland that Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot remain in power.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other administration officials on Sunday sought to walk back Biden's remarks, saying that Biden's was not calling for regime change.

Risch, however, suggested Biden needs to be more careful with his words on the international stage.

Please Mr President, stay on script, Risch said in an appearance Sunday on CNN's State of the Union.

___

Kyiv: Ukraine's military intelligence chief says that Russia could try to break Ukraine in two.

Kyrylo Budanov said in remarks released by the Defence Ministry on Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has realised he can't swallow the entire country and would likely try to split the country under the Korean scenario. That's a reference to the decades-old division between North and South Korea.

Budanov said that the occupiers will try to pull the occupied territories into a single quasi-state structure and pit it against independent Ukraine. He pointed to Russian attempts to set up parallel government structures in occupied cities and to bar people from using the Ukrainian currency, the hryvnia.

Budanov predicted that Ukrainian resistance will grow into a total guerrilla warfare, derailing Russia's attempts. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
London, Mar 27 (PTI) Thousands of Londoners turned up for a march and vigil called by the city's mayor for a message of solidarity with the people of Ukraine in its ongoing conflict with Russia.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced over GBP 1.1 million in funding to support migrants, refugees and people seeking asylum in London in his speech at the end of the march at Trafalgar Square on Saturday.

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The square had been dressed in the Ukrainian colours of blue and yellow for the vigil, which marked addresses by Ukrainian politicians, celebrities and anti-war activists.

I'm proud that today Londoners are uniting to send a message of support to the people of Ukraine. These innocent people have been through unimaginable pain and suffering over the last month, and by joining together, we are showing that we stand with them, said Khan.

Also Read | Bahrain Shuts Down 35-Year-Old Indian Restaurant After Staff Denies Entry to Veiled Woman.

I'm also pleased to announce that London will be giving more than GBP 1.1 million to support migrants, refugees and people seeking asylum in the capital, including those coming from Ukraine. We have a proud history of providing sanctuary to those fleeing conflict, and this funding will ensure that support is there to help in their time of need, he said.

The crowds chanted "We stand with Ukraine" and carried banners reading "Stop Putin's war" as the mayor of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, appeared virtually on the big screen at Trafalgar Square amid cheers.

The Ambassador of Ukraine to the UK, Vadym Prystaiko, addressed the gathering to declare that the UK's help during the Russia-Ukraine conflict will never be forgotten.

The London Mayor also announced GBP 50,000 funding to match donations for the Here for Good Ukraine Advice Project, which will provide specialist immigration advice to Londoners and their families seeking to access the Ukraine Family Scheme and other routes opened for refugees in the UK.

It has been devastating to see this horrific ongoing attack against the people of Ukraine, and my thoughts are with them at this terrible time, said popular British actress Dame Helen Mirren.

All of our thoughts are with the people of Ukraine at this horrendous time for their country. It's important that the world unites to show them that they have our support in their time of need, and I'm so glad that London is joining as one to send a message of solidarity loud and clear, added fellow actress Dame Julie Walters.

The march was organised in partnership with the European Movement UK, CIRCA and the Yoko Ono Imagine Peace project, with support from Landsec, which owns Piccadilly Lights.

Hanya Dezyk, Board Director of the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain, added: We are heartened that Londoners and visitors from across the UK will be joining together in London to send a message of solidarity with the people of Ukraine.

It has been incredibly difficult for Ukrainians living in the UK and across the world to see what is happening to our homeland, and the sight of people uniting in the streets in our name gives us hope and strengthens our resolve to fight for Ukraine's freedom."

(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 [US], March 27 (ANI/Xinhua): UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday condemned attacks that targeted civilian facilities in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

"The secretary-general is deeply concerned about reports of ongoing airstrikes in Hodeidah city and the targeting of Hodeidah's ports, which provide a critical humanitarian lifeline for the Yemeni population," the UN chief's spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, said in a statement.

Also Read | Bahrain Shuts Down 35-Year-Old Indian Restaurant After Staff Denies Entry to Veiled Woman.

Over 23 million Yemenis face hunger, disease, and other life-threatening risks as the country's basic services and economy are collapsing, the UN Office for Humanitarian Coordination (OCHA) had said.

Houthi forces in Yemen, also known as Ansar Allah, attacked Saudi Arabian civil and energy facilities on Friday, including an oil facility in Jeddah, sparking a massive fire that sent a column of black smoke into the sky.

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The Saudi-backed coalition of nine countries assisting the Yemeni official government in fighting the Houthis, responded by airstriking three Houthi seaports -- Hodeidah, Salif and Sana'a -- killing eight civilians, including five children and two women, on Saturday.

"These airstrikes also resulted in damage to the UN staff residential compound in Sana'a," Dujarric added.

The UN chief is calling for "a swift and transparent investigation into these incidents to ensure accountability," the statement continued.

As the conflict enters its eighth year, the UN chief reiterated his calls on all parties to "exercise maximum restraint, immediately deescalate, cease hostilities and abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law, including the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution."

He also urged the parties to "engage constructively, and without preconditions, with his special envoy to reduce violence and urgently reach a negotiated settlement to end the conflict in Yemen."

Meanwhile, news media reported that Ansar Allah said it would suspend for three days missile and drone strikes on Saudi Arabia, saying the unilateral peace initiative could be a lasting commitment if the Saudi-led coalition stopped airstrikes and lifted port restrictions.

The Saudi-backed coalition has been fighting the Houthis for seven years in support of the internationally recognized Yemeni government. The coalition has carried out thousands of airstrikes, killing tens of thousands of people, according to the UN. (ANI/Xinhua)

(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 [US], March 27 (ANI): Members of the United Nations Security Council, in a joint statement on the Taliban's reversal of their promise on girls' education, said that all the girls in Afghanistan should be allowed to go to school.

Notably, on March 21, the Taliban said they would lift a seven-month-old de facto ban on girls' education from Class 6 onwards and reopen schools on the first day of Afghanistan's new academic year however two days later the regime backtracked on its decision.

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In a joint statement delivered by the Permanent Representatives of The United Arab Emirates and Norway, on behalf of Albania, Brazil, France, Gabon, Ireland, Mexico, UK, US, Norway and UAE, the members said the decision is a reversal of the commitments the Taliban themselves have made in recent weeks and months as part of the ongoing engagement with the international community.

This afternoon, the Security Council will hear an important briefing by the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Afghanistan, on the Taliban's reversal of their earlier promise for girls to be able to return to school beyond the 6th grade, the statement read.

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"This week - more than a million Afghan girls were getting ready to finally be able to return to school. Their hopes were dashed at the last minute when they learned that their right to an education will continue to be denied," it added.

The members said that the recent decision by the Taliban is a profoundly disturbing setback.

"Education is a universal right for all children. That includes girls in Afghanistan. Some may ask, why education is a matter for the Security Council? The answer is simple. Afghanistan is at the brink of collapse," it asserted.

All the members noted that "in order for Afghanistan to secure a safe and stable future, it simply cannot miss out on the talent and potential, and deprive half its population of education. Education is a key building block of every society."

They called on the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan to provide a safe learning environment for all children and youth in the country.

"Last week, the UNAMA mandate was extended for one year. And the UN and the international community stand ready to continue supporting the Afghan people - including education for all children. More than one million girls in Afghanistan were left at home in tears this week. We cannot let them down," the joint statement 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)
External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar meets Home Minister of Maldives, Imran Abdulla



"Discussed capacity building and training cooperation in law enforcement. Appreciate his strong support for India-Maldives special partnership," EAM says. pic.twitter.com/mbxLVDM0x6 ANI (@ANI) March 27, 2022

(SocialLY brings you all the latest breaking news, viral trends and information from social media world, including Twitter, Instagram and Youtube. The above post is embeded directly from the user's social media account and LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body. The views and facts appearing in the social media post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY, also LatestLY does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.)
Bahrain, March 27: In a shocking incident, an Indian Restaurant in Bahrain was shut down by local authorities for allegedly denying entry to a veiled woman. The alleged incident took place at Bahrain Lanterns located in the Adliya area of the countrys capital Manama.

According to reports, a video that has gone viral on social media shows one of the staff preventing the woman wearing a veil from entering the restaurant. While the Bahrain Tourism and Exhibition Authority (BTEA) has begun an investigation into the matter, the Indian restaurant has suspended the duty manager after the incident was reported. Pakistan Political Crisis: Nerves on Edge As Islamabad Braces for Showdown.

Issuing a statement, the BTEA said, "We reject all actions that discriminate against people, especially regarding their national identity." After the video went viral on social media, the restaurant issued a formal apology and said that they have always welcomed people of all nationalities in the Kingdom.

Check Lanterns apology:

View this post on Instagram A post shared by LanternsBahrain (@lanternsbahrain)

"Everyone is welcome to Lanterns as how it has been for more than 35 years that we have been serving all nationalities in the beautiful kingdom of Bahrain. Lanterns is a place for everyone to come enjoy with their families and feel at home. In this instance, a mistake has been made by a manager who is now being suspended as this does not represent who we are. As a goodwill gesture, we welcome all our Bahraini patrons to Lanterns on Tuesday 29th of March to have complimentary food on us," the statement posted on Instagram read.

The alleged incident in Bahrain has taken place amid the ban on the wearing of the hijab in educational institutes in Karnataka. A few days ago, the Karnataka High Court said that 'hijab is not essential to Islamic practice' after it upheld the state government's decision on a ban on hijab inside educational institutions.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 27, 2022 02:59 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
Irish Irish Defence Forces soldier Johnathan Tuft has sent his is Mothers Day wishes back home to his family in Laois

Corporal Tuft is among the Irish Defence Forces troops from 64th Infantry Group deployed with the UN to the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force in Syria (UNDOF). The 64th Infantry Group deployed to Syria in Oct 2021 and consists of a total of 129 Irish personnel

Personnel deployed overseas would normally have 3 weeks leave in the course of a 6-month tour of duty, but due to current UN Covid related restrictions, Johnathan and the other soldiers must conduct their full tour of duty without any leave.

Having been away from their families for Christmas, the troops will celebrate a virtual Mother's day with their Mothers and partners.

Cpl Tuft from Abbeyleix had this message for home.

"To my mother Siobhan, my sister Emily, and my Grandmother Ann. I wish you all a very happy Mothers Day. I love and miss you all, and Ill see you all very soon. Johnny," he said in the message.

Jonathan completed extraordinary march in 20020 to raise funds under the Frontline Mo-Bros group of emergency and security services worker who joined forces to fundraise for Movember.

He walked 55 kms with 55 pounds (24kg) in his backpack starting from the Curragh camp and finishing in Abbeyleix. He did, he says it in memory of all the dads, brothers, sons and soldiers who have sadly passed and for men's mental health.

The Irish Defence Forces is deployed to 14 missions and operations in 12 countries across the Balkans, Africa, and the Middle East. At present there are 580 Irish personnel deployed on multinational Peace Support Operations with the United Nations, European Union, and NATO-Partnership for Peace, with the vast majority coming from the Army.

The 64th Infantry Group is composed of a Group Headquarters, Two Mechanised Infantry Platoons, a Cavalry & Artillery Reconnaissance Troop and a Contingent Support Group of 129 personnel to the Golan Heights in Syria. The Infantry Group will be carrying out peacekeeping duties under Chapter 6 of the UN Charter.

The group acts as the Force Reserve Company, the main focus of which is constituting a Quick Response Force for UNDOF, as well as supporting the United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation (UNTSO). This group operates Observation Posts along the Alpha line in order to monitor the AOS. This will involve extensive patrolling throughout the AO in addition to monitoring the AOS. In accordance with Security Council Resolution 2581, duties will also include helping to ensure humanitarian access to the civilian population in the area.

Here's the full list of Mother's Day wishes from Syria.

Tpr Kevin Moloney (Kildare): I want to wish my mother Ursula a very happy Mothers Day. Love and miss you loads, and Ill see you soon.

Tpr Liam Quinn (Cork): To my mother Mary, and mother-in-law Bridie, happy Mothers Day. Have a great day. See you both very soon.

Pte Kyle Mullins (Kildare): I would like to wish my mother Sonya a very happy Mothers Day. I hope you have the best day. You deserve it. Ill see you soon.

Cpl Jonathan Tuft (Laois): To my mother Siobhan, my sister Emily, and my Grandmother Ann. I wish you all a very happy Mothers Day. I love and miss you all, and Ill see you all very soon. Johnny.

Armn Liam OConnell (Dublin): I want to wish my mother Fiona a very happy Mothers Day. I hope you have the best day, and Ill see you soon. Lots of love, Liam.

Sgt Aoife Harrington (Kildare): I want to wish my mam a happy Mothers Day. Love you and see you soon.

Gnr Khalum Doyle (Athlone, Co. Westmeath): I just want to wish my mother Mary back home a very happy Mothers Day, and Ill see you soon.

Cpl Keith Moran (Dublin): I want to wish my mother Annette a happy Mothers Day. Hope you have a great day. See you very soon. From your favourite, Keith.

Cpl Paul Dawson (Kildare): I would like to wish my mother Olive a happy Mothers Day. Looking forward to seeing you when Im home.

Cpl Jack Dooley (Kildare): I want to wish my mother Karen a big happy Mothers Day. Cant wait to see you in a few weeks.

Capt Daniel Graham (Cavan): Happy Mothers Day to my amazing mother. Looking forward to seeing you very soon.

Tpr Darren Daly (Carlow): Happy Mothers day to my mother Cathy Daly. Keep doing your amazing job. Love you lots, and cant wait to see you again.

Cpl Alan Kearns (Dublin): Happy Mothers Day to my mother. Hope you have a lovely day. See you soon. Also, to my partner Terri. You are smashing it. I love you, and see you soon.

Lt Borys Stan (Kildare): Mum, happy Mothers Day. I hope you have a wonderful day. I miss you very much and I cant wait to see you very soon.
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ON FRIDAY, February 25 last, when the sad news of the passing of Fergal Roche was announced, a chilling wind touched the hearts of Fergals friends and colleagues throughout the community both far and wide.

Fergal was a member of SIPTU and Secretary of the Irish National Painters & Decorators Trade Union (Limerick Branch).

His late Father Frank, his Uncles Charles and Tony, were well known professionals in the painting/decorating trade in Limerick and many surrounding counties.

Fergal was also known in many sporting circles, particularly in his beloved Young Munsters RFC. He was an avid sporting fan and active athlete in his younger years.

There was an air of silence and sadness in Young Munster Club house in his beloved Greenfields Tom Clifford Park on Saturday, February 26.

A minutes silence was respectfully observed, flags flying at half-mast prior to kick off, in the important all-Ireland rugby game against University College Cork.

The minutes silence before today's game was for club member Fergal Roche we would like to offer our sincerest condolences to the Roche family at this sad time, arrangements for Fergals funeral are on https://t.co/R86QLeUXPR  Young Munster RFC (@YoungMunsterRFC) February 26, 2022

Fergal Roche joined An Slua Muiri (now The Irish Naval Service Reserve) in 1976 following the footsteps of his father, Frank, and his uncles Charles and Tony together with his brother Declan.

He quickly established himself as an ace marksman particularly with his favourite weapon the Lee Enfield 303.

He enjoyed many summer annual training camps in Fort Camden, Crosshaven Co. Cork where he mastered sailing and rowing and all the nautical skills needed to be an able mariner.

His competence did not go unnoticed, and he was selected for the crew of the naval vessel L.E. Setanta for a voyage to Iceland  almost unheard of for a reservist to go to sea in those early days as a crew member on a naval vessel much less go on a foreign voyage.

Back at his home unit, No. 5 company An Slua Muiri, Fergals dedication and talent was rewarded by being promoted through the ranks to chief petty officer. As an important member of the unit, his leadership skills merited his inclusion in a potential officers course from which he graduated with flying colours and was commissioned as an ensign in February 1988.

One of Fergals first tasks as a new officer was to take over the training and mentoring the rifle and pistol teams of the company. This resulted in the Limerick unit winning many reserve competitions.

He was extremely and justifiably proud of winning the best individual rifle shot  the blue riband of the competition- and in the process leading the Limerick company to the team victory.

Fergal embraced the many changes that occurred in the company 

 the opening of the reserve naval base in Kilrush.

 the acquisition of the motor training launch MTL Barbara Heck

 the move of the company to the former Commanding Officers house in Sarsfield Barracks

 the change in weapons from the Lee Enfield 303 to the FN to the Steyer

 the admission of females into the navy and the reserve

 the change from An Slua Muiri to the Irish Naval Service Reserve

 participation in the New York St. Patricks Day Parade

One might think that Fergal was at the coal face of the military aspect of the reserve, but he also participated fully in the many voyages of motor vessel Kathleen Roma and the sail training yacht Nancy Bet. Fergal was also a qualified skipper on the MTL Barbara Heck.

A seminal experience for Fergal was a long three-week fishery patrol on the naval vessel LE Aoife, just as the reserve was being allowed to go to sea, Fergal was appreciated as a true naval resource.

In addition, Fergal was instructed to prepare the guard of honour to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of an Slua Muiri, a task he achieved with remarkable success despite drawing personnel from five distinct companies and locations.

It was a pleasure and an honour to serve with Fergal for so many years and share his positivity in adversity, his enthusiasm for and his loyalty to all the members of the Limerick unit of the Naval Service Reserve. It was fitting that he should become the units Officer commanding before his retirement on age grounds.

Fergals service to the state was unquestionable  he was a true citizen mariner He did not ask what the country could do for him- he looked to see what he could do for his country.

The hundreds of well-adjusted reservists and citizens who were privileged to be led, guided, and mentored by him will be his legacy. This was evident at Griffins Funeral Home on Tuesday, March 1 when many of those serving, and ex members of the Defence Forces travelled from all parts of the country to pay their final respects to Fergal and sympathise with his wife Adrienne, daughter Aoife, son Kevin and all the Roche family members.

At Fergals funeral mass in a packed St Josephs Church on Ash Wednesday, March 2, Fr. Enright read out several tributes from serving and retired members of all branches of the Defence Forces which were sent to RIP.ie.

Poignant though the mass was, they were truly fitting tributes.

As Fergals sister, Lisa, stated in the beautiful eulogy spoken so eloquently at his funeral Mass: I could have gone on for another few hours about my brother, Fergal, he was such a highly respected person.

On arrival at Shannon crematorium, his colleagues from the NSR and Naval Association removed the tricolour from the coffin and presented it to his wife Adrienne.

Inside the crematorium at the end of the service, a bugler sounded the last post and reveille it echoed out into the surroundings as Lieutenant Fergal Roche took his last salute from his Naval colleagues.

On his final voyage, Fergal sailed into heaven in the knowledge he will never be forgotten, by his

family, and his NSR and Naval Association shipmates.

He shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary him, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember him.



Fergals months mind Mass will be celebrated in St. Josephs church on this Sunday, March 27 at 12.30pm.
RESIDENTS of a Limerick retirement village have kicked off a campaign to highlight the need for greater protection of older renters.

More than 50 people were at a public meeting in the Castletroy Park Hotel to urge the government to step in and introduce comprehensive legislation on the operation of current and future retirement villages.

It comes after residents of the Park Retirement Village in the suburb were sent letters warning them of steep rent rises from the facilitys operators.

The newly formed Castletroy Retirement Village Association has 30 new members willing to lend their time and skills to the campaign, alongside 20 people still living in the facility, said long-term resident Kevin Ryan, who organised the meeting.

He added: With the end of Covid-19, it was possible for residents to meet.

Theyve not been able to do this collectively since February of 2020, so they were really happy to meet one-another. The residents committee decided we should broaden the support and not just have the residents fighting their own cases.

We want to get a political movement going to support retirement villages in general.

There has been tension between residents and the retirement parks operators, with tenants alleging the clubhouse facility they used to meet in was locked, with activities curtailed leaving them without a social outlet on-site.

Edel Madden of the operator, CRV Park Ltd has previously denied these claims.

A number of local politicians attended the meeting, including Labour councillor Elena Secas who saw a motion urging government to act passed unanimously at this months metropolitan meeting.

She said: It was just heartbreaking to hear how service after service has been removed from the village leaving people to live in isolation, with no social aspect involved, with services they would have had for years being removed. This distressful situation would not have occurred if there was specific legislation in Ireland on the operation of current and future retirement villages.
AS we move into Irish summer-time, it will be dry and bright today. Any mist and fog patches will soon clear, with long sunny spells developing. Temperatures could climb to as high as 17 degrees today, in light and variable winds.

NATIONAL OUTLOOK

A clear and dry start to this evening, but a touch more cloud will build, and there might be a light shower or two. On the whole though, a clear and mostly dry night with light winds and lows down to between two and five degrees with some mist and fog patches.

Another calm and dry start tomorrow with the morning sun clearing away any lingering mist or dog. It'll be a day of cloudy periods and sunny spells but there will be one or two isolated showers developing too. Winds staying rather light with highs of 13 to 16 degrees. The showers will clear in the evening but a little cloud will linger into the night with lows of two to five degrees.

Tuesday will be a bit more cloudy, as winds turn northerly and bring a cold change to the weather. Staying dry initially but a few showers will develop later in the day and our highs will reach 12 to 14 degrees in a northerly breeze. Cooler overnight with temperatures falling back down close to freezing too.

However, from Wednesday, things will change, with cooler air blanketing the country with scattered showers, some possibly wintry, feeding down throughout the afternoon and evening. Cloudy skies and noticeably colder too with highs of six to nine degrees in a brisk northerly wind.

Similar conditions will follow on Thursday, with a brisk northerly breeze bringing down scattered showers, some possibly wintry on the hills. Feeling cold with highs of six to eight degrees.
AN ICONIC anti-war song birthed in Limerick has now reached more than one billion hits on YouTube, as one local man draws comparisons between the classic and the crisis in Ukraine.

The timeless 1994 piece by The Cranberries, Zombie, now has 1.2 billion views on the online video sharing platform, as heartfelt tributes to Ukraine pour out amid the worsening Russian invasion.

One Limerick man Seamus Flynn highlighted the link between the Limerick created anti-war anthem and the plight of President Volodymyr Zelensky and his people.

The Cranberries have a huge following in Eastern Europe including Ukraine, he told the Limerick Leader, and since Putins invasion, the official video is striking upwards of 3 million hits per week.

One tribute, posted below a 1999 live performance in Paris of Zombie on YouTube said: As a Ukrainian from Kharkiv... This song brought me to tears. War never changes...

Another, posted below the official video with 1.2 billion views began: I would never have thought this song would have brought me to tears like it did today with the death of so many children and families in the Ukraine.

Urging Ukrainians to be strong, that they are loved by the world and not abandoned, the comment added: You will prevail. Evil may take the day, but they never win the war! Bless Ukraine, bless the people! RIP Dolores!

Seamus, like so many of the touching tributes beneath the videos, in both Russian and English, stated that even now, the classic delivers a strong message from Limerick to Putin.

The song, which tells the harrowing true story of the effect of the Troubles in Ireland, was written in a shed in Mungret, he proclaimed proudly.

Zombie is the biggest anti-war song in the world, he concluded.
Hospitals are not safe for patients or staff, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has warned.

Phil Ni Sheaghdha, the INMO General Secretary, said on Sunday that thanks to soaring Covid-19 cases, the health service is no longer a safe environment for healthcare workers or vulnerable patients.

The important point is that the pandemic is not over, she said.

Were very concerned about the focus at the moment on a general view that the pandemic no longer exists. Well, in Irish hospitals and in Irish healthcare facilities it most certainly is an extraordinary battle on a daily basis.

She said that staff were telling the trade union that hospitals were not safe, with Ireland recording tens of thousands of cases of Covid-19 in recent days and hospital numbers climbing to nearly 1,500.

The HSEs own figures and the outbreak incidences are way too high, Ms Ni Sheaghdha told RTE radio.

She said that more has to be done by the HSE and the Government.

If staff are saying this is how unsafe it is, well, then everybody cant remain silent.

Its unsafe for staff. It is most certainly is unsafe for patients. That should be a concern.

A reduction in the seven-day isolation period has been mooted as a way to solve the mass absences due to Covid-19 that have hit key sectors, including the health service, in recent weeks.

Ms Ni Sheaghdha rejected such a proposal as a bad idea.

I think the answer here is not  should we compromise care and should we put cross infection on the lesser footing. I think that would be a mistake.

Instead, she pointed to simple measures such as increased mask-wearing as one way to reduce the spread of the virus.

Ms Ni Sheaghdha told RTE radio that negotiations continue with the Government over a planned 1,000 euro bonus payment for healthcare workers as a mark of their contribution during the pandemic.

Progress is being made, but there still is a quite a bit to go, particularly in the area of private hospitals, private acute hospitals and practice nurses because the Government excluded them in the announcement that they made and the position of the health service and the Department of Health negotiators is that thats a Government decision and it hasnt been altered.

So that remains outstanding, Ms Ni Sheaghdha said.
A LIMERICK councillor has claimed that nothing has been done to fix waste or clean drinking water in the county since the previous Green Minister visited fourteen years ago.

Cllr John Sheahan voiced his frustrations at a recent in-person discussion held on the Climate Action Plan in Limerick by Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications Eamon Ryan.

Its been a long time since we had a senior minister before us, stated the Fine Gael leader on Limerick City and County Council.

He recalled having a coffee with Minister John Gormley on that visit, where the pair spoke over wastewater and clean drinking water associated with Green policies implemented at the time.

The Glin-based public representative acknowledged that things have evolved since his meeting with the previous Green Party leader and that everyone is buying into climate change now.

Despite this, virtually zero has been done to address waste and clean water in Limerick city and county, since that day in March, 2008, he said to Minister Ryan.

He claimed that Limerick has been left behind in this area, and that every plan that has been brought back since has never been backed up by proper timelines or investments.

In response, the Green Party leader stated that part of the water problem is that Ireland has been reduced from 500 pristine rivers systems, down to 20.

We cant take an ever-expanding output in agriculture, he stressed, referencing the presence of Ammonium Nitrate from fertilizers in East Limerick, which has affected water quality in the region.

He added that new policy would mean less pollution, as land used by farmers will be less intensive and fertilized, whereby farmers would be paid strategically for the different uses that their land brings.
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China has found the second black box from a jet that crashed March 21 after days of searching, as investigators try to figure out what happened to the China Eastern Airlines flight carrying 132 people that plummeted from a cruise altitude.

State media including Xinhua and CCTV said the flight data recorder has been retrieved from the crash site in a hilly rural area in southern China near the city of Wuzhou.

Investigators had earlier found the other black box, which records voices in the cockpit.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.
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Adam McKay revealed in a new interview with the Sunday Times that he regrets going soft on Democrats in Vice, his 2018 biographical satire about Dick Cheney. McKays film cast Christian Bale as the former Vice President and earned eight Academy Award nominations, including best picture and best director. The supporting cast included Amy Adams, Sam Rockwell, Steve Carell, Allison Pill and more.

I fucked up Vice, McKay said when asked if he ever takes notice of bad reviews. I regret not giving more blame to the Democrats, who went along with the war in Iraq. I had a heart attack in postproduction. I made mistakes, read the reviews and went, Yes, fair.

Its not all regret when it comes to Vice, however. McKay said in an interview with GQ magazine last December that he likes to think the movie played a role in changing Liz Cheneys perspective on gay marriage. In one of the final scenes in Vice, Dick Cheney accepts daughter Liz Cheneys opposition to gay marriage despite his other daughter, Mary, being gay and married with children.

The big thing that was really incredible was seeing Liz Cheney come out for gay marriage. Its one thing for her to go against Trump. But when she came out for gay marriage, there was a part of me that was like, that cant be an accident, McKay said. I saw that on social media, people went after her because of the movie. There were a lot of people saying, You betrayed your sister, you betrayed your family. And it wasnt by accident that we ended the movie with that. Because the one thing everyone said about Dick Cheney was he loved those daughters, and he loved that family. And in the end, the family shattered apart because of politics, because of that anti-gay stance that Liz took.

McKay continued, To see her come out for gay marriage? I dont know what to make of that. I like to think we had something to do with that, but I have no way to I know the Cheneys hated the movie. I know they really hated it. It wasnt a passing annoyance. So I was quite proud of that. We hit him in the real way.

McKay followed Vice with Dont Look Up, released on Netflix last year. The Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence-starring comedy earned four Oscar nominations this year, including best picture.

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The 94th Academy Awards, honoring the best films of the year, are set to air this Sunday.

The ceremony will broadcast live on ABC on March 27, starting at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. Cable subscribers can stream the show on ABC.com and the ABC app by entering their provider information. The awards will be available to stream via services such as Hulu Live TV, YouTubeTV, AT&T TV, DIRECTV Stream and FuboTV, through the ABC channel included with the packages. The Oscars will also stream internationally in over 200 territories; audiences can check local listings for more information. The ceremony will be available to stream next day on Hulu.

The red carpet for the ceremony will begin at 4:30 p.m. ET/1:30 p.m. PT. Viewers can watch ABCs coverage of the carpet on the channel or the previously listed streamers. E!s red carpet coverage will begin live at 5 p.m. ET/2:00 p.m. PT. Varietys Marc Malkin will also be on the ground talking to the biggest stars in Hollywood. You can watch Variety On the Carpet presented by DIRECTV before the ceremony begins on Twitter.

Wanda Sykes, Amy Schumer and Regina Hall will host the ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. Honorary Academy Awards will be presented to Samuel L. Jackson, Elaine May and Liv Ullmann, while Danny Glover will receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

The ceremony will feature performances from Beyonce, Sebastian Yatra, Reba McEntire and Billie Eilish and Finneas of the Oscar nominated original songs Be Alive, Dos Oruguitas, Somehow You Do and No Time to Die. The cast of the Disney animated film Encanto will also perform the hit song We Dont Talk About Bruno live for the first time at the ceremony. Other highlights will include tributes to the 60th anniversary of the James Bond film franchise and the 50th anniversary of the 1972 best picture winner, The Godfather.

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Wolfgang Van Halens Mammoth WVH paid tribute to Taylor Hawkins with an emotional rendition of Foo Fighters My Hero during the bands concert Saturday in Boston.

Introducing the song, a choked-up Van Halen told the crowd that the drummer, who died Friday at the age of 50, was a hero to me, and a hero to all of us, and a hero to countless people, so we feel this is necessary.

Mammoth WVH then launched into the Foo Fighters 1997 classic, with Van Halen first helping out on drums before taking centerstage for My Hero.

Van Halen previously tweeted following news of Hawkins death in Bogota, Colombia, Ill never forget meeting Taylor on tour in San Diego in 2012. He was such a ridiculously kind man. The dude just emanated cool. Him, my pops and I talked for as long as we could until we had to leave.
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Without declaring that musician Taylor Hawkins died of an overdose, authorities in Colombia issued a statement Saturday afternoon noting that the Foo Fighters drummer was determined to have had 10 drugs in his system at the time of his death.

The report from the attorney general of Colombia came in a tweet which said that the 50-year-old musician had antidepressants, benzodiazepines and opioids in his system, along with THC. It did not further specify the drugs that had been found, and the attorney generals statement avoided using the word overdose.

A report in a major Colombian magazine, Semana, went further, however, reporting that unnamed authorities told its reporters that heroin was part of the drug cocktail in Hawkins system, and that he was found to have an enlarged heart.

Semana reported that forensic doctors were shocked by the size of the drummers heart, at more than 600 grams, and believe that was a factor in Hawkins quickly succumbing to a cocktail of narcotics.

Hawkins was found lifeless on Friday, the attorney generals report confirmed, in a hotel north of Bogota, where he was staying in advance of a Foo Fighters concert in the area.

The official tweet from the countrys attorney general said (translated from Spanish): In the urine toxicological test carried out on the body of Taylor Hawkins, 10 types of substances were preliminarily found, among them: THC (marijuana), tricyclic antidepressants, benzodiazepines and opioids. The National Institute of Forensic Medicine will continue the medical studies to achieve total clarification of the facts that led to the death of Taylor Hawkins. The Office of the Attorney General of the Nation will continue with the investigation and will report the results obtained within the framework thereof in a timely manner.

The Foo Fighters were in the middle of a South American tour, and were scheduled to return to the U.S. to perform at the Grammys April 3.

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Nepali PM meets Chinese FM on boosting practical cooperation

Xinhua) 07:57, March 27, 2022

Nepali Foreign Minister Narayan Khadka (R) meets with visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Kathmandu, Nepal, on March 26, 2022. Wang Yi said here on Saturday that China will stick to its friendly policy toward Nepal and deepen mutually beneficial cooperation with the South Asian country. (Photo by Hari Maharjan/Xinhua)

KATHMANDU, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Nepali Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba agreed here on Saturday at their meeting that both sides will make good use of the Nepal-China Joint Consultation Mechanism to complete existing key cooperation projects and explore new areas of cooperation.

Noting that China-Nepal cooperation enjoys vast potential, both sides agreed that deepening practical cooperation not only meets the needs of both countries, but will also inject strong impetus to regional development and prosperity.

Deuba congratulated China on the success of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, and thanked China for providing strong support for Nepal's economic and social development over the years.

Deuba stressed that Nepal will continue to firmly adhere to the one-China policy and will never allow any forces to use the Nepali territory to engage in any anti-China activities.

Wang said China appreciated that and is ready to continue standing firmly with Nepal on issues involving each other's core interests and major concerns.

China will work with Nepal to safeguard the principle of non-interference in internal affairs and the basic norms governing international relations, resist unilateralism and oppose power politics, and contribute to regional peace and stability, Wang said.

Wang said China and Nepal have always supported, trusted and helped each other. The traditional friendship between the two countries has been enhanced through their joint fight against the earthquake and COVID-19, and their win-win cooperation has witnessed continuous and effective progress.

China-Nepal relations have become an example of equal treatment and win-win cooperation between countries large and small, and a demonstration of China's practice of the good-neighborly diplomacy, Wang said.

China will continue to firmly support Nepal in safeguarding national sovereignty and dignity, exploring a development path suited to its national conditions and pursuing independent domestic and foreign policies, Wang said.

Guided by the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, China stands ready to expand all-round cooperation with Nepal and push forward their strategic partnership of cooperation featuring ever-lasting friendship for development and prosperity, he said.

The two sides also exchanged views on strengthening multilateral cooperation. Deuba said the Nepali side believes that fairness and justice should be upheld in international affairs, and the United Nations Charter and international law should be abided by.

After the meeting, both sides attended the completion ceremony of Pokhara International Airport via video link.

Nepali Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba (R) meets with visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Kathmandu, Nepal, on March 26, 2022. (Photo by Hari Maharjan/Xinhua)

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Bianji)
FILE - New York Governor Kathy Hochul speaks during the New York State Democratic Convention in New York, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022. Two years into New Yorks bold quest to eliminate pretrial incarceration for most crimes, state officials are considering abandoning some reforms amid public pressure to curb rising violence.(AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Longford County Council Cathaoirleach Peggy Nolan will officially unveil The Circle of Courage sculpture at the site of the Clonfin ambush in Ballinalee on Sunday, March 27 at 3pm.

A Decade of Centenaries project, The Circle of Courage sculpture is the creation of distinguished Longford artist Gary Robinson.

The piece was commissioned by Longford County Councils Library, Heritage, and Archives services.

Longford County Council Cathaoirleach Cllr Peggy Nolan commented on the piece and what it represents. This striking art piece brings together one of Longfords most well-known artists with two great local businesses. It pays great respect to the sacrifices made by Longford people at the Clonfin ambush. Longford County Council is delighted to have facilitated it.

Longford County Council Chief Executive Paddy Mahon agreed and refers to the role of the arts in helping us to reflect on our history. Projects like this one are important as they encourage us to think about our past in a different way, especially about the human and emotional side of events.

Sculptor Gary Robinson elaborated on what he wishes the work to express. The sculpture highlights courage as something more than just bravery. Courage can reveal itself in different forms and we know that all who took part in Clonfin were courageous.

The Circle of Courage sculpture

The project began with the writing of an account of the Clonfin ambush by Ardagh historian Dr Mel Farrell. This account was sent to artists and creatives in the region who were invited to submit proposals in response to it. Gary Robinsons submission was successful.

The sculpture took six months to complete. It consists of a series of open circles, making up a larger, unfinished sphere. Corten steel is used  a reference to The Blacksmith of Ballinalee Sean MacEoin.

The sculpture incorporates stones from the homesteads of each volunteer involved in the ambush. The significant contribution of Cumann na mBan is marked with a bicycle wheel disk representing organisation member Kate Ann Mulligan.

Four looped disks represent the four Auxiliaries who died as a result of the ambush. Michael Farrell, who was killed a day after the ambush, is also acknowledged within the piece.

The steel work was completed by Custom Metal Fabrications, with detail work by Core Components. Sergeant Ozzie Hackett from the Irish Defence Forces and the sculptures daughter Hollie Robinson also contributed to the piece.

The process has been documented by filmmaker Woody OHara Boland, to be shown on the County Longford Library Services YouTube channel in the near future.
Midlands North West MEP Maria Walsh recently visited Lanesboro Primary School at the invitation of Ms Claire Murphy, Principal, and by Rory Leonard, who is coordinating the process for the Blue Star Programme of Europe.

The school is pursuing the Blue Star Flag, as part of a programme to foster better understanding and knowledge of the European Union and how it affects the lives of primary school children.

As part of this initiative, schools are encouraged to invite politicians who could outline the policies and practices of the European Union.

Ms Walsh was invited to come to Lanesboro and to expand upon the important work that she and her colleagues do as members of the European parliament.

The school also welcomed Deputy Joe Flaherty and Senator Micheal Carrigy. Each visitor provided a unique perspective on the work of the European Union.

The pupils in 3rd and 4th Class were eager to show their hard work and their research on the European Union which included the member states of the European Union, why the European Union was formed and the key people within the European Union. Each pupil prepared a question with support from their teacher Mrs Niamh Rowan.

One question that was asked was asked by Katrina in 4th class who enquired, What was the first country to join the European Union?

With the war in Ukraine the pupils were eager to ask Ms Walsh about Ukraine and what would happen next. Ms Walsh informed the pupils that there is a process for admission to the European Union and although Ukraine was actively seeking admission to the European Union, there were other countries ahead of them in the application process.

Ms Walsh said that it was being debated now by the European Commission on whether they should allow Ukraine to speed up its admission to the European Union.

Ms Walsh was thoroughly impressed with the knowledge displayed by the pupils in 3rd and 4th class and noted that they asked some really insightful questions.

In 5th and 6th Class, the pupils were each allocated a country to research, and they created some wonderful digital projects on each member state. These projects included information on the capital, the languages spoken in their country and when they joined the European Union. These projects were overseen by Mr Andrew Corr, 5th and 6th class teacher.

There were many questions asked by 5th and 6th class. Some notable questions were: Are there many MEPs in Europe and what does the word MEP stand for?. Other questions that were asked were How has Brexit affected the EU?, How do you become an MEP? and What advantages are there to joining the EU?.

Ms Walsh was impressed by the broad knowledge base displayed by 5th and 6th class about other member states in the European Union.

Senator Carrigy spoke about the advantages and disadvantages of social media and informed the pupils that legislation and guidelines for social media were being discussed in the Seanad in order to make social media a safer environment for all users.

Deputy Flaherty outlined the importance of being part of a community and that we have a miniature EU in our school as Lanesboro school is multicultural, and everybody is treated fairly. Deputy Flaherty also remarked that now more than ever we need to be kind to each other and to look after each other and that this is how Ireland is treated by the European Union.

Ms Walsh thoroughly enjoyed her visit and Lanesboro l is another step closer to the prestigious Blue Star award. The pupils were also awarded no homework for Monday which was a bonus to the wonderful visit from Maria Walsh and the other politicians.
On Friday, March 25, 2022, at approximately 3:50 p.m., Suffolk County Sheriffs Deputies were traveling westbound on the Long Island Expressway, east of exit 67 in a marked unit when they observed a 2020 Mazda bearing Georgia license plates traveling at a high rate of speed with two male occupants inside.

Deputies stopped the vehicle, and while approaching the vehicle, the vehicle sped away. It exited the Long Island Expressway at exit 65 and crashed into a telephone pole at the corner of Falcon Ave. in Medford.

The front seat passenger, Edward Smith, 20, of Yaphank, NY, fled on foot and was apprehended a short distance away. The driver fled the scene and is still at large.

A quantity of drugs including over 3 grams of Fentanyl, over 3 grams of Heroin, over 6 grams of Crack Cocaine, 14 suboxone pills, a small quantity of marijuana, a stun gun, and $3,240.00 in cash were discovered in the vehicle and on the scene.

Passenger Edward Smith was charged with: three counts of Possession of a Controlled Substance in the 3rd and one count of Possession of a Controlled Substance in the 5th.

The vehicle has been impounded and an investigation is ongoing.
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(Alliance News) - Gatwick Airport, south of London, is set to welcome thousands more passengers every day in the summer, with numbers reaching pre-pandemic levels, bosses predict.

The Sussex airport has reopened its south terminal, with flights increasing from around 300 to 570 a day from Sunday.

The move is the equivalent to opening a medium-sized airport overnight, meeting the expected high demand for summer travel this year.

Chief Executive Stewart Wingate said 80,000 passengers will travel through the airport on Sunday, reaching "well over 150,000 per day" by July.

He told the PA news agency: "We've had a lot of restrictions over the last two years associated with the pandemic.

"The good news is, as we stand here today, coming back into the UK there's no passenger locator form, there's no requirement to test, so it's actually very similar to how it was pre the pandemic to travel through the airports.

"We're going to ramp up very, very quickly over the next two or three weeks and we'll be busy throughout the summer period and very close to the 2019 volume levels.

"There's absolutely no question that there's strong demand, we know that by talking with our airlines.

"It's pent-up demand, people who haven't been able to travel now really want to travel."

The terminal had been dormant since June 15 2020 to reduce costs during the coronavirus pandemic.

Its shops, cafes and other facilities have undergone months of refurbishment, updating and cleaning ahead of the reopening.

British Airways and Vueling, both part of International Consolidated Airlines Group SA, and Wizz Air Holdings PLC, are among the airlines switching their operations from the north to the south terminal between Sunday and Tuesday.

One passenger, who was on their way to Madrid in Spain via the south terminal on Sunday morning, said: "I'm excited to finally travel again, I think it's a good thing the terminal is opening up.

"People will want to travel, there's been too many camping holidays over the past few years. I'm sure everyone just wants sun and different culture."

Other early flights leaving from the reopened terminal were bound for Naples in Italy, Oslo in Norway and the Spanish island of Majorca.

Gatwick advised passengers to check which terminal their flight is departing from before heading to the airport, to arrive early as terminals may be busy, to make sure their passport is still valid and to check foreign travel advice for their destination countries.

Wingate added: "Opening up a facility of this size is really hard work.

"Behind the scenes over the last two or three months we've been making sure that all the facilities are in good shape and that all the systems are working.

"I'm pleased to say that al the early flights got up in time."

By Ted Hennessey, PA

source: PA

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Today

Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low 67F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%.

Tonight

Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low 67F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%.

Tomorrow

Thunderstorms in the morning, then becoming sunny late. High 88F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
Mankato, MN (56001)

Today

Mostly cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. Low 46F. Winds light and variable..

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Mostly cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. Low 46F. Winds light and variable.
During a recent Veteran of the Month ceremony in Wheeler Park, a flag was taken down by members of North Mankato American Legion Post 518s color guard. The ceremony to honor deceased veterans is one way the Legion recognizes people who served in the U.S. military.
Today is the big day! It's March 27, which means the 94th Academy Awards or as everyone calls them, the Oscars, are just hours away. After months of film festivals and campaign events, as well as a few Omicron delays and another round of campaign events, this year's nominees are ready to celebrate at the Dolby Theater, assuming that some of the controversies surrounding this year's show don't get in the way.

We are ready to bring you everything surrounding this year's ceremony, so keep on coming back for the latest updates, controversies and news surrounding the biggest award ceremony for movies in the world.
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Meadville, PA (16335)

Today

Rain early...then remaining cloudy with showers in the afternoon. High around 55F. Winds E at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Rain likely. Low 49F. Winds ENE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a half an inch.
Bollywood director Vivek Agnihotri's The Kashmir Files has really worked its magic on viewers across India. Such has been the impact of the film that viewers have even stopped other movies in cinema halls in order for The Kashmir Files to be shown instead of it.

 Zee Studios

Even Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar has admitted defeat that Kashmir Files has led to the drowning of his Bachchan Pandey film in theatres.



 AA Films

Now, the success of the film has also elevated the position and popularity of Vivek Agnihotri, with the director being in the news quite often these days.



However, while he's gotten a lot of praise from people and fans, there have been times that it's not been for the right reasons.

Well, Vivek has landed himself in trouble as he now faces a police complaint about his remark of comparing 'Bhopalis' as 'homosexuals'.

"I was brought up in Bhopal, but I am not Bhopali. The word Bhopali has a different connotation. I will tell you in private or you can ask some Bhopali. If you call someone a Bhopali it means the person is homosexual who has nawabi desires," he said.

Soon after this, a complaint was filed against him at Mumbais Versova Police Station on Saturday (March 26). According to reports, it was filed by a 27-year-old PR manager named Rohit Pandey, who is a resident of Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh.

Pandey sought the registration of an urgent FIR against Agnihotri under Sections 153A, 153B, 295A, 298, 500, and 505(2) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for insulting and disrespecting his native place.

My client states that he recently got acquainted with the said video and found it extremely shameful and embarrassing as he hails from Bhopal and that he completely vehemently denies and reject the said malicious slander committed by the accused not just against his native city being BHOPAL but has also defamed the whole state of Madhya Pradesh and India, said the complainants advocate Ali Kaashif Khan Deshmukh.

 Instagram/Vivek Agnihotri

The advocate also spoke on home Agnihotri "tarnished the reputation of the city, state and country by calling Bhopalis as homosexuals and even "ashamed the homosexual community" as he has made fun of them.



Source: ABP Live
The Apollo High School FFA Chapter hosted an open house Saturday, inviting current and former students and instructors to celebrate the programs 50th anniversary at the school.

Aaron Tucker, agriculture instructor, said the event was also to show community members the newly-renovated agriculture department.

It is the 50th year for the agriculture department here at Apollo, he said. They built a new ag department this year, so we are just going to have an open house and celebration at the same time.

Tucker said hundreds of invitations were sent out, as well as Facebook posts and radio broadcasts to let inform those who might be interested in coming back, including more than 40 of the past 50 Apollo FFA presidents.

Charlie Mackey, chapter president, 1975-77, said it was great to be back at the school and see all of the work that has been done with the facilities.

It is a great program that helped develop leadership skills in me that I still use today, Mackey said. It is one of the brightest parts of my life that I have been able to retain until now.

Tucker said the event was an opportunity for the Apollo FFA program to celebrate its past and look towards its future.

With the new facilities, the agriculture department will offer 19 different courses in three career majors, he said. Students will have the opportunity to enroll in animal science courses, horticulture courses and ag mechanics courses.

Tucker said Apollo will also have agriculture math as an option for seniors next year.

David Boswell, former Kentucky state senator and commissioner of agriculture, said during the event that he is a lifelong member of the Apollo Chapter of the FFA.

It is a great program, Boswell said. I worked very closely with FFA, encouraging youth programs through FFA when I served as commissioner of agriculture for the Commonwealth.

Boswell said the program serves as an open door to modern agriculture and the technology that is available.

It is a wonderful program that teaches young people the basics of agriculture, he said.

Boswells grandson, Trent Boswell, is a sophomore in the FFA program at Apollo.

I got involved my freshmen year, the younger Boswell said. I had always heard about FFA and have always enjoyed being out on the farm and being involved in agriculture. Really, the FFA is kind of like one big family.
Sitting in a throne chair and wearing a sparkling tiara on her head, longtime Habitat for Humanity of Owensboro-Daviess County Executive Director Virginia Braswell was celebrated by community members Saturday for her retirement after 29 years of service to the nonprofit.

Friends, family and public officials gathered at the Settle Memorial United Methodist Church event hall to celebrate Braswell, who has served as the volunteer executive director since 1993.

Bonnie Adkisson was serving as president of the Habitat for Humanity board when she recruited a recently-retired Boswell to serve as the organizations first executive director.

What an extraordinary contribution she has made to the life of this community, Adkisson said. Thank you Virginia for saying yes to Habitat for Humanity in 1993.

Adkisson said Braswell possesses multiple strengths that have allowed her to excel in furthering the mission of Habitat in the Owensboro community, such as her positive attitude, energy and knowhow for making connections and having a vision.

Jeremy Stephens, who will succeed Braswell as executive director, said the organization has established the Virginia Braswell Fund, which will be used to construct homes for low-income families.

We knew just from the little bit of media that we put out there about her retirement and the outpouring of support for her that people would want to give in her name, he said. We had a meager goal of establishing $10,000 over 31 days in the month of March; today is the 26th and we have already raised over $26,000.

Stephens said Habitat for Humanity was able to work with the Property Valuation Administrators Office to develop an economic impact statement covering Braswells 29 years at the helm of Habitat for Humanity of Owensboro-Daviess County.

Since 1993, 141 Habitat for Humanity houses have been built in Owensboro and Daviess County.

Each of those homes averages three people living in them, so that is 423 people directly impacted, Stephens said. However, habitats direct investment in the community by putting homes in various parts of the city or county has an estimated property value of $10 million after adjusting for current prices.

Mayor Tom Watson presented Braswell with both a Mayors Award of Distinction and a proclamation officially marking March 26, 2022, as Virginia Braswell Day in Owensboro.

I think it is Hebrews 13:16 says, dont forget to do good and share with someone in need, and I think that describes this lady pretty well, Watson said.

It was finally Braswells turn to speak, rising from her throne, her infamous kazoo in hand, to thank the community for its support through the years.

There are so many (people) here, and I know you all, and I know what you have done, and this is not a Virginia Braswell thing, this is a community thing, she said. It has been great, I love it.
CrossRoads, an emergency overnight shelter for women and children, is celebrating its sixth year of operation in Owensboro.

The shelter, founded by executive director Michele Ison, opened its doors on Sept. 1, 2016, according to public relations director Caleb Farkas, and it has been serving women and children every night since.

However, he said, CrossRoads got its start long before then. The shelter started out as a small food pantry in the basement of New Life Church in 2006 before moving to its current location at 1631 Breckenridge in 2014, expanding its food services and eventually opening the shelter portion in 2016.

It all kind of comes from the heart of Michele Ison, our director and the person who started all this. I think she saw the need when she was working with that church, Farkas said.

Particularly, he said, she saw a need for a shelter that would cater to women and children, specifically.

After about two years worth of planning and gathering materials, Farkas said the shelter finally opened its doors.

Since then, the shelter has seen significant growth with a capacity of 20 beds and serving around 10-15 women and children nightly.

The food pantry portion has also grown, he said, providing food for more than 1,600 individuals in November and serving around 530 families.

Farkas said the pantry also offers a supplemental food program for seniors, serving around 550 seniors in the community, as well as providing food for grandparents who are primary caregivers for their grandchildren.

To be honest, what theyre receiving from the government probably simply isnt enough to truly feed them and take them through, so thats what kind of helps get them through that gap, he said,

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented some unique challenges, just as it has for many other community shelters, especially when it comes to funding.

With setbacks in fundraising and an increased need in the community for food assistance and housing, Farkas said the shelter is in need of donations and volunteers to help keep things up and running.

He said for a period of time during the beginning of the pandemic, the shelter moved to house a portion of its clients in hotels.

When I was working in the food pantry, I know I had more people, more so than ever, that came in that had never been there before. It was their first time ever needing assistance with food in their life, he said. A lot of people are obviously out of work.

The same was true, he said, for the shelter portion with many needing emergency shelter who had never experienced homelessness before, something that became especially prevalent once eviction restrictions were lifted for those affected by COVID-19.

Even with the pandemic, he said the shelter has remained open and has worked to ensure those in need receive housing.

He said the shelter is excited to reach its 16th year serving the community through its different capacities.

Anyone wishing to volunteer with the shelter or make food or monetary donations can do so by contacting the shelter at 270-240-2773 and dropping donations at the shelter or online at CrossRoadsOwensboro.org.

Christie Netherton, cnetherton@messenger-inquirer.com, 270-691-7360
The Owensboro Area World Affairs Council will be hosting a presentation Monday on the conflict in Ukraine.

The presentation, which will be at 7 p.m. in the Badgett Conference Center on Western Kentucky University-Owensboros campus, will also be available for remote viewing via Zoom. It will feature Raluca Viman-Miller, an assistant professor of comparative politics, international relations and European politics at the University of North Georgia.

Daniel Kuthy, Brescia University associate professor of political science, said Viman-Millers expertise and personal experiences on European security and immigration provide a useful perspective on the current conflict between Ukraine and Russia. Viman-Miller has also studied Russian foreign policy and the intersection of international security and migration, which is expected to provide rich discussion during the presentation.

Kuthy said the event should provide community members with an overview of the cultural dynamics and the background information on what is going on between the two countries. He said a lot of people might vaguely be aware of what is taking place, but this presentation should delve deeper into the issues.

I think it will be really helpful in helping people understand the context, whats going on culturally, and will help clarify some information and provide useful context, he said. She also will be able to answer questions about whats going on.

It is always the hope of OAWAC to provide valuable discussion and enrichment on world events to the local community, said Kuthy, who sits on the organizations board.

The group has been active since 2009 and invites individuals who are experts in their fields to discuss topics relevant to current events. In the past, topics have related to public health, democratic erosion and, most recently, the military and political events in Afghanistan.

We meet as a board and try to bring topics to the community that will both help them better understand things they are already hearing about, or topics sometimes that might not have occurred to them before, Kuthy said. Our hope is that we can open peoples eyes a little bit to some of the interesting things going on in the world and maybe help them understand these distant and sometimes scary things that are going on.

For more information about the event, visit the OAWAC Facebook page.

To join the Zoom meeting visit https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88301218347 and use Meeting ID: 883 0121 8347; Passcode: 008125.

Bobbie Hayse, bhayse@messenger-inquirer.com, 270-691-7315
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For Lindsay Keys, her time at Wesleyan University gave her the opportunity to meet new friends and develop skills as a filmmaker.

Looking back now, Keys said, it was also a time when mysterious symptoms she had been experiencing became worse. From fatigue to serious physical pains, Keys was hospitalized multiple times while in Middletown, but was still not fully aware of her condition.

After graduating from the Middletown liberal arts college in 2011, Keys began working and living in New York City. Eventually, her medical condition reached the point where she could no longer work.

I got sick, and didnt know what was happening, Keys said. I lost the ability to read.

Despite years of doctors telling her otherwise, Keys learned she was suffering from chronic Lyme disease, a relatively unknown condition that is quickly and quietly spreading around the world, experts say.

The documentary, The Quiet Epidemic, details the history of Lyme disease and delves into the lesser-known aspects of it through real patients as they navigate their diagnosis.

Its a human journey, said Keys, co-director of the film.

In September 2015, she finally found a clinic in Albany, N.Y., that offered a treatment.

It was at there that Keys met Winslow Crane-Murdoch, a fellow filmmaker who had graduated from Connecticut College in 2013. He was at the tail end of his treatment when Keys was starting hers.

While the two were suffering from the same condition, it presented itself in different ways. Crane-Murdochs main symptom was a sinus infection, while Keys was suffering from issues similar to strep throat.

It affects every person differently, Keys said.

While Lyme disease symptoms differ between person to person, the issue is the same for everyone, Keys said: Not enough people are trying to learn more about the disease, making it all the more difficult to diagnose and treat better.

All these health issues were arising, but no one was getting to the root of what was causing it, Keys said.

Crane-Murdoch compared Lyme disease to COVID-19, because not much is known about long-term effects, and not all medical professionals see eye-to-eye on the issue.

Theyre tons of parallels with long COVID, Crane-Murdoch said. Its this gray area of medicine.

There are differences between Lyme disease and chronic Lyme disease, he explained. If an individual gets Lyme disease, and they catch it right away, it can be treated with antibiotics. It is not as well-known, he said, that 10 to 20 percent of patients will not be cured, and will have persisting symptoms.

For these patients, such as Keys, Crane-Murdoch, and the many subjects they interviewed for this documentary  there are limited options for treatment.

Theres a lot that you have to do on your own. A lot of the healing is in your own hands, Keys said.

This includes eating right, taking specific vitamins and participating in supplemental therapies.

When further treatment is needed, thats when patients are forced to take risks, she said. They are often forced to participate in new, experimental treatments as a last resort.

It gets to a point where youre willing to try anything, Keys said.

Keys admitted she had reached that point after she lost the ability to carry on a conversation, and was in constant pain. I felt like I was being electrocuted all day, she said.

The issue is expounded by the fact that none of these treatments are covered by insurance, so patients have to pay more, and doctors are at a greater risk for lawsuits.

Theres a lot of financial barriers with Lyme disease, Crane-Murdoch said. As a patient, youre caught in the middle of that.

Through treatment, Keys and Crane-Murdoch have both now recovered to the point where they are back to full functionality, but they are unsure how permanent their cure really is.

I feel lucky, but theres this ghost that follows you around, Keys said.

Thats one of the reasons why Keys and Crane-Murdoch set out to make this film, to serve as a call for more research into the issue.

They also hope the film spreads awareness about the illness, as many are unaware of just how severe it is, she added.

Crane-Murdoch said way more people are at risk for this disease compared to other illnesses. You dont walk outside and get cancer, he said.

With Lyme disease, however, walking outside can result in catching it, because it is spread by ticks. It also means that children are especially susceptible, because they spend more time playing outside, and their symptoms are more likely to be brushed aside, Keys explained.

Connecticut, and New England as a whole, are known to be highly populated by ticks, but the issue is a global one.

I got a call from a woman from Australia thanking us for making this, Keys said. A lot of people are walking around with Lyme disease.

Keys found this to be truer than she realized when looking for people to help with the documentary.

The number of Wesleyan film alumni that had Lyme was shocking, and thats just the film department, and just Wesleyan, Keys said.

A few other Wesleyan alumni assisted with the making of the documentary, including Daria Lombroso, who graduated in 2011; and Kait Halibozek, 2010.

The documentary, which was made in association with Pennebaker Hegedus Films, will premiere as a special presentation at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival this spring. The U.S. premiere is still in the works, but Keys said it should eventually be view-able on streaming platforms.

Those interested in being the first to know about when and how to watch the documentary can sign up by visiting thequietepidemic.com.

The team intends to create a social impact campaign along with the release of the documentary in an effort to create change around the issue.

In some ways, this is only the beginning, Keys said.
For at least the second consecutive year, people incarcerated in the states prisons and jails wrote letters to legislators to express their support for a bill that would reduce the Department of Corrections use of solitary confinement.

As the Judiciary Committee held what looked to be a marathon public hearing on Friday, at least 27 incarcerated people submitted written testimony of their own. The letters offer a perspective rarely heard at the Capitol  that of the individuals confined in Connecticuts prisons and jails.

The legislature passed a bill last year reducing the prison systems use of solitary confinement, but the governor vetoed it. Instead, Gov. Ned Lamont issued an executive order, which state Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven and co-chair of the Judiciary Committee, expressed concern over, since executive orders can simply be rescinded if a governor no longer wants to adhere to them.

Lawmakers are trying again this year to enshrine the curtailment of solitary confinement in law. In a last-minute twist, Department of Correction Commissioner Angel Quiros testified before the Judiciary Committee Friday morning that he had reached an agreement with Stop Solitary CT, an advocacy group that has been pushing for years to end solitary confinement, on substitute language that would increase prisoners out-of-cell time and establish an independent office that would have oversight of the prison system.

Below are excerpts from letters submitted as written testimony. The first thing written in the top left of each envelope is the incarcerated persons name. The second is the six-digit prisoner ID number provided to them by the state.

I would like to remember how it feels to be a person, not just a number, Robert Homar told legislators.

Jacky Robinson Jr.

We are beaten, bruised, threatened, and silenced with no hope in sight. Then when released back into society were expected to function at a normal level as everyone else without fully realizing ourselves how much trauma weve undergone.

Andres Sosa

[Referring to being strip-searched when sent to a Restrictive Housing Unit] That act is done when they want to take away your dignity, humiliate you, make you feel less than a human being. I was left with no clothes only  suicide watch gown and no footwear at all for [a] few days.

Roberto Alvarado

Some may even say, Well, thats prison. While I agree that prison should not be a comfortable experience, it should also not be a harmful one. We are sent to prison as punishment, not to be punished.

Noah Hendron

Ive seen and experienced firsthand the dehumanizing effects of sensory deprivation and long-term confinement, and theyre ugly. Human beings are social animals  when you deprive them of social interaction there are irreparable consequences. Men cant have healthy relationships or hold jobs, which harms their families and lands them back in prison. Women cant mother their children, who grow up with problems of their own. The consequences are more than punishing the wrongdoers  theyre punishing everyone.

Robert Homar

Sometimes this place makes you forget who you are. Maybe thats why I have lost my way, and find myself back behind these walls  I understand that this is not suppose to be anything like freedom. But just the simple things that should be given to us inmates are not being held by staff or overseers to them.

Vanshawne Wheeler

Being a 23-year-old young male incarcerated at time where mental health treatment is not offered to individuals in a timely manner or as needed when rehabilitation is supposed to be the goal before reentering the community, not only is this the total opposite, but its worse because DOC is now allowing emotionally, mentally, and socially unstable individuals back into the community with lack of resources and tools to properly be a productive individual in the community.

Victor Jordan

After being apprised of the studies and research by the scientific community regarding this subject matter, I have come to the conclusion and belief that I became a worse criminal and person because of the treatment [I was] subjected to. If you are treated like an animal, you tend to behave as such.

Gerald Terry

Being locked up so much makes you feel like an animal; when you lock an animal up for long periods of time then let him out, they go crazy.

Vernon Vassell

They give you food early. Breakfast at 4:30 a.m., lunch at 10:00 a.m. and dinner at 4 p.m. So you are left to starve for 12.5 hours from dinner until breakfast because commissary is not permitted during punitive segregation. The food portions in solitary confinement are smaller than the general population. They use food as a weapon to punish us in isolation.

Richard Nau

I didnt have a window so I could look outside to see if it was day or night time.

Jonathan Perdue

The DOC refuses to act on my mental health as if nothing is wrong with me. I been to jail 18 times just thrown in the cell like an animal.

Kezlyn Mendez

Individuals such as myself with mental health issue/illness are abused even worse cause were beaten like it still slavery times and hidden with no contact to family, friends, love ones, even lawyers cause there isnt any oversight or accountability to ensure that these type of acts of abuse dont ever happen.

Marash Gojcaj

I agree with everything including the need to increase transparency. This would, in my opinion, help end the public misconception of everyone in prison are monsters. People in prison are just that, people.

Lucis Richardson

I been incarcerated since the age of 16 and my experience within these walls was somewhat of a between good and bad one depending on the administration thats in operation within the correctional facilities. Not all of the correctional employees are bad seeds, but some do have agendas which deprive and oppress those that are mentally feeble by the misuse and abuse of their authority, and they do so because they do not fear any retribution, especially at the facility which Ive been held for three months now, Cheshire Correctional.

Agustin Morales Rojas

Ive been incarcerated since 2005 and horrible things happened to me. Ive suffered physical & verbal abuse as well as sexual abuse many times. I thought nobody would help me because Im a inmate.

Jason Goode

Since the DOCs beloved torture chamber of Northern was stitched shut with padlock and chain, its spirit merely reincarnated at my current place of imprisonment.

Kyle Paschal-Barros

It has reached the point Ive been deemed in need of inpatient hospitalization with close treatment because Ive been conditioned enough to be gravely disabled and a threat to myself and others. CT DOC to date has failed to properly provide this. Every day I wake up in fear that Ill detach from myself and hurt someone.

Troy Westberry Sr.

The rule-breaking and lack of accountability that takes place behind these walls is an abuse of power.

Mitchell Joyner

Some days the affect of the isolation becomes so overbearingly stressful that Ive broken down and cried out to D.O.C staff, yet often met with apathy.

John-Russell Bosse

[Recalling an incident in which he was being sprayed with mace and placed in restraints, in which one white correction officer spoke out about how other correction staff were treating him] Its strange that, with all the pain and blindness, the torture is not as vivid as that one anonymous voice  Cmon guys, dont you think hes had enough? This protest was the one break in a renewed round of torture, but Ill always remember than single thorn of dissent in that plodding and domineering boot. Allowing an oversight commission for confidential informants would give formal voice and refuge to those heroes, and that minority compelled to choose humanity over the boot.

Shaqille Brown

We were not sentenced to torture and physical and mental abuse. Please help us.
The state Department of Education released its Condition of Education in Connecticut report for the 2020-21, which revealed that while graduation rates continue to rise, evidence was found of learning loss caused by the pandemic.

The Condition of Education in Connecticut is a yearly status report that analyzes the quality and progress of the public education system. It includes aspects like student and educator demographics, student performance and engagement, and student readiness for college and careers.

The report is compiled and published annually by state education officials including Education Department Commissioner Charlene M. Russell-Tucker, who said in the report that COVID-19 most definitely affected education.

The COVID-19 pandemic has broadly affected all areas of human life including education, Russell-Tucker said in the report.

One effect the pandemic had on education was forcing districts to implement different learning models, many including fully remote or hybrid education. Many districts changed their learning models as the year went on.

According to the report, students that learned in-person during the 2020-21 school year lost the least ground academically, while those who learned in hybrid or remote models showed substantially weaker achievement and growth during the pandemic.

This fact was consistent across all grade levels and nearly all demographics. It was true for all subjects, and was most significant in mathematics.

While graduation rates increased to just under 90 percent, and remain higher than the national average, the percentage of ninth-grade students who were on track to graduate was the lowest in the past seven years.

Additionally, performance on college and career readiness benchmark exams declined. This includes the SAT, ACT, and advanced placement or international baccalaureate exams.

The percentage of the states 11th- and 12th-graders who met the benchmark on these exams declined through the pandemic from 42.6 percent in 2018-19 to 36.0 percent in 2020-21.

This is another indication of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student performance, education officials said in the report.

Chronic absenteeism was another issue that was exacerbated by the pandemic. Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing 10 percent or more of the school year for any reason. This was measured slightly differently than in past years to account for different learning models.

The chronic absenteeism rate increased by 55 percent, from 12.2 percent in 2019-20 to 19.0 percent in 2020-21.

School enrollment continued to decline, but by a faster rate in the 2020-21 school year.

Enrollment declined by 14,750 students, just under three percent, from the prior year.

Adult education enrollment also declined sharper than usual, dropping 37 percent from 16,660 students in 2019-20 to 10,494 in 2020-21.

There were some positives identified in the report, as well.

The percentage of nonwhite educators has increased from 8.1 percent in 2014-15 to 10 percent in 2020-21, edging closer to matching the demographics of the student population.

The percentage of nonwhite students in the state increased to just over 50 percent in 2020-21.

Increases occurred in the percentage of students with disabilities, with 16.3 percent of students now receiving special education and related services.

The Condition of Education in Connecticut report can be viewed in full on the state department of education website.
Contributed Photo / Connecticut State Police

A retired Connecticut State Police lieutenant and Clinton police commissioner was charged with driving under the influence Friday night, according to state police.

A Guilford man told Westbrook police around 7:20 p.m. Friday that he was tailgated by retired Lt. Robert Derry while driving on Boston Post Road, police said. When he stopped at a traffic light at North Grove Beach Road, Derrys car struck the back of the mans vehicle, according to a criminal information summary from state police.
WATERBURY  A man was shot on Walnut street multiple times Friday, according to the Waterbury Police Department.

Staff at the emergency room at St. Marys Hospital notified Waterbury police officers at about 5 p.m. Friday that a gunshot victim that had been dropped off, according to Waterbury Police Lt. Ryan Bessette.

Police identified the victim as a 20-year-old man who had been shot multiple times. As of Saturday morning, the man was considered to be in stable condition and his injuries were not life-threatening, Bessette said.

Police later determined the shooting took place on Walnut Street, according to Bessette.

Police were investigating the incident. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Waterbury Police Departments Detective Bureau at 203-574-6941. Anonymous tips can also be submitted by calling Crime Stoppers at 203-755-1234.
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Pyongyangs March 24, 2022, ICBM missile test has created agitation in both Washington and East Asian capitals. If it were not for the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, this development would easily be the top concern of U.S. foreign policy officials. Evidence indicates that the missile tested was probably that of an ICBM capable of reaching the U.S. mainland. It was the first time North Korea had tested a long-range missile since 2017, just before relations with the United States thawed, leading to three summit meetings between North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un and President Donald Trump.

Pyongyangs latest action was thoroughly predictable. North Korean complaints about Washingtons policy positions had been resurgent for more than two years. In January 2022, Pyongyang conducted 7 missile tests in a single month. Kims regime capped off the series by marking the lunar New Year with the flight of an intermediate-range missile, the Hwasong-12, capable of reaching Guam.

The flurry of tests punctuated Kims conclusion that once-promising hopes for establishing a normal bilateral relationship with Washington were now in the rearview mirror. Such hopes had risen dramatically in 2018 and 2019 when Trumps administration seemed to abandon the entrenched U.S. policy of trying to isolate North Korea. His willingness to hold multiple summit meetings with Kim was an indication of a more realistic and flexible U.S. approach. The video image of Trump briefly crossing into North Korea during the third summit was especially powerful symbolism that a more constructive, cordial relationship might be on the horizon.

Growing domestic opposition, combined with policy sabotage by National Security Advisor John Bolton and other hardliners on the presidents foreign policy team, doomed the effort to achieve constructive change. The abrupt end to the February 2019 summit in Hanoi occurred because the U.S. side refused to back away from Washingtons long-standing (and unrealistic) demand that Pyongyang takes major steps to abandon its nuclear weapons program before negotiations could commence on other issues.

With Joe Bidens victory, it became clear that any hope for innovative measures regarding the North Korea issue was misplaced. Bidens personal commitment to Washingtons futile, pre-Trump zombie policy of treating Pyongyang as an international pariah was apparent even during the 2020 election debates. Biden confirmed the continuation of the sterile approach of trying to isolate North Korea when the administration imposed new sanctions following the January 2022 missile tests.

From ICBM Tests to Nuclear Tests?

Yet there are still some manifestations of North Korean restraint. Pyongyang has not conducted a nuclear-weapons test since September 2017just before the Trump administration began to pursue its outreach. Kims government also implemented a self-imposed moratorium on all missile testseven the short-range variety. That policy did not change until January 2022, and the moratorium on long-range missiles just ended with the March test. North Koreas moratorium on nuclear tests remains in effect for the time being. However, if the Biden administrations ossified policy regarding bilateral relations doesnt change, Kims restraint even on that issue is likely to expire soon.

The Biden foreign policy team seems caught in a time warp. Trumps initiatives were encouraging because they reflected greater policy realism and flexibility. Unfortunately, Washington now seems to have reverted to the status quo ante. Instead of persisting in the fruitless demand for Pyongyang to return to a non-nuclear status, U.S. leaders should seek ways to establish a normal bilateral relationship on multiple fronts. That means easing and eventually eliminating the vast array of economic sanctions that have been imposed over the decades. It also means negotiating a treaty formally ending the Korean War and establishing full diplomatic relations between the two countries.

The alternative is to continue treating North Korea as a pariah while watching helplessly as the country slowly, but steadily, builds a nuclear arsenal and a sophisticated missile fleet that includes ICBMs capable of devastating American cities. Such an approach benefits no one. At the moment, the United States has no meaningful relationship with the worlds latest nuclear power. That situation is dangerous for all parties.

The new ICBM test is the latest warning that Washington needs to adopt a normal, realistic relationship with North Korea. So far, it does not appear that the Biden administration is up to that crucial task.

As hopes for a rapprochement faded, Kims government revived its hostile, combative rhetoric in late 2019. It was notable, though, that dangerous, disruptive actions on Pyongyangs part were slower to re-emerge. Pyongyang appeared to hope that whatever the outcome of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, Washington might be more flexible and accommodating going forward.

This article originally appeared on 19fortyfive.com.
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The Diamondbacks and Ketel Marte are discussing the possibility of a contract extension, per Robert Murray of FanSided (via Twitter). No deal is imminent, though Jon Heyman of the MLB Network reports that the two sides are discussing adding three years of team control to his current contract at a total value of roughly $75MM.

Marte is already under contract for the below-market sum of $8.4MM for 2022, with the Dbacks holding team options for 2023 and 2024 at $11MM and $13MM, respectively. Obviously, those numbers come in far shy the $25MMper annum he would theoretically earn in his age 31-33 seasons under the terms reported by Heyman. And yet, its still a number that could be considered a discount, given Martes proven ceiling.

Marte has been floated as a potential trade candidate for much of the offseason, but his value has been somewhat difficult to peg because hes so eminently affordable for the next three campaigns thanks to the extension he signed in March 2018. At the time that he signed the deal, Marte had not yet entered his arbitration seasons, and hed already been dealt once in what turned out to be one of the more interesting swaps of the past decade. In the deal, Arizona acquired righty Taijuan Walker with the 23-year-old Marte in exchange for an unproven Mitch Haniger, a post-breakout Jean Segura, and southpaw Zac Curtis. Notably, it was one of the very first moves of GM Mike Hazens tenure in Arizona.

Though Marte was a high-end prospect, Walker was viewed as the real get at the time. Marte had yet to fully establish himself over parts of two seasons with the Mariners. His extension, then, came after just one additional year with the Diamondbacks, one in which the switch-hitter managed only 255 plate appearances. Martes career triple-slash line was just .265/.319/.361 (84 wRC+) with eight homers and 22 steals over his first 968 major league PAs. And yet, Hazen didnt blink in locking him up for the next seven years.

Hazens prescience paid off as Marte broke out in a big way during the 2019 season, finishing fourth in MVP voting. Marte absolutely leveled up to a .329/.389/.592 line over 628 plate appearances, chipping in 36 doubles, nine triples, and 32 home runs, good for 6.9 rWAR/7.0 fWAR. After taking a step back in 2020, Marte posted a reasonable facsimile of his breakout campaign last year with a 139 wRC+, but he was only able to stay on the field for 90 games.

An extension now would be an interesting gambit for the Diamondbacks, considering the injuries that have followed Marte throughout his career. And while hes a multi-positional standout  and somewhat of an oddity in that he has more-or-less split his career playing time between second base, shortstop, and centerfield  his glovework has largely earned subpar marks everywhere on the diamond except the keystone.

Add to the total picture Martes tremendous, if surprising offensive ceiling, and hes not a player that takes easily to projections. One could argue that the Diamondbacks would be better off waiting on extending Marte to see if he can produce another full season like 2019, given that hes already under team control for three more seasons. By the time a new extension would kick in, Marte would be on the other side of his prime.

Perhaps they want to put an end to any trade rumblings and commit to Marte as a centerpiece of their offense for the next half decade. Hazens been right about Marte twice before, so the pair are probably due the benefit of the doubt.

Besides, Arizonas future payroll is totally clear. They have nobody currently on the books for after the 2024 season, when Martes current contract runs out.

When hes right, Marte brings a plus ability to put the ball in play, above-average power, above-average speed, and enough positional versatility to be an asset, at least in a game-to-game basis. Its easy to understand why the Diamondbacks would want him at the forefront of their future endeavors.
President Hakainde Hichilema took office last year with the kind of anti-corruption promises that Zambians have learned to take with a grain of salt. This week, those promises became more real.

Two former ministers were arrested within 48 hours of each other, including ex-justice minister Given Lubinda, who now leads the party that lost to Hichilema's.

Authorities also moved to seize two helicopters and a hotel belonging to former foreign minister Joseph Malanji, on suspicion he bought them with embezzled state funds.

A third ex-minister, Stephen Kampyongo, was arrested not for corruption but for attempting to bring down a plane by stoning it during the 2016 election campaign.

The sums involved are staggering for a country that the United Nations ranks among the least developed in the world.

Zambia's GDP per person is only about $1,000. In neighbouring Namibia, the figure is four times higher.

Lubinda is accused of pocketing $530,000, Malanji of embezzling $1.2 million.

Investigators said Malanji used $700,000 to buy a Bell 206 Jet Ranger helicopter, ostensibly to help his Patriotic Front campaign around a country twice the size of Germany but with few paved roads.

He had already been charged last year with pilfering $8.8 million in a separate case.

'Archaic' anti-graft drive

They are the highest-ranking officials charged since Hichilema's election in August, but far from the only ones. They have both denied any wrongdoing.

A slate of other officials are under investigation. The former postal boss is charged with stealing $20 million from a social fund meant to support the poorest Zambians.

Hichilema came to power pledging "zero tolerance" of corruption.

In January he told AFP the levels of corruption under the former Zambian government were "serious", and led to a "sense of shame".

The Patriotic Front has repeatedly claimed the new government is persecuting the former leaders, an allegation government spokeswoman Chushi Kasanda denies.

"As public officers, we need to account for every penny that we have. It's not persecution as they want to claim, but corruption and we will fight it," she told AFP.

So far, the government has reclaimed $3.6 million in cash when authorities raided the home of former state radio journalist Faith Musonda.

The money is now being used for scholarships for 2,232 students at the University of Zambia.

Rights activists Brebner Changala told AFP he worries whether prosecutors have assembled enough evidence to win convictions.

"They are arresting those officials because they want to please the powers that be, and in this case President Hichilema," Changala said.

"I am not sure if they fully investigated these matters and have convincing evidence before arresting any of the former ministers."

They have been released on police bond and denied the allegations.

Last week, Transparency International Zambia president Sampa Kalunga told privately owned Radio Phoenix the government's fight against corruption was "disjointed, archaic and lacking results".

That feeling could change if more high flyers are brought to book.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has informed world leaders attending the 20th Doha Forum that his country is for peace.

Speaking via a video link to the Forum, President Zelensky criticized Russia for the ongoing war in his country; declaring that we are for peace.

President Zelensky, who urged world leaders to isolate Russia and to boycott its oil and gas, also appealed to petroleum-producing countries, such as Qatar to increase their exports, especially natural gas, to help lessen the impact of the war on other countries.

"They can do much to restore justice. The future of Europe depends on your effort. I ask you to increase the output of energy to ensure that everyone in Russia understands that no country can use energy as a weapon and blackmail the world, he said.

The two-day Forum is being organised by the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the theme Transforming for a New Era.

This year's edition is focusing on four core areas, namely Geopolitical Alliances and International Relations; Financial System and Economic Development; Defense, Cyber, and Food Security; and Climate Change and Sustainability.

The Doha Forum is a global platform for dialogue, bringing together leaders in policy to build innovative and action-driven networks.

President Zelensky noted that no country was insured against shocks from disruptions to food supply happening because of Russia's invasion of his country.

"The world's markets have not yet overcome the repercussions of the pandemic, which include the price shocks of food. No one is insured against these shocks, and you cannot be insured if there is a physical scarcity of food.

Doha Forum promotes the interchange of ideas, discourse, policymaking, and action-oriented recommendations.

Doha Forum reaches out to high level: policymakers, government leaders, private sector representatives, civil society, and non-governmental organizations with the belief that diversity in thought will enhance how they deal with their collective challenges.

GNA
A carved mask from Central Africa, dating from the 19th century, was sold in France for 4.2 million euros $4.6 million) on Saturday, despite Gabonese protesters in the auction house calling for the item's "'restitution".

The rare wooden "Ngil" mask, used in ceremonies by the Fang ethnic people of Gabon, smashed its estimate of 300,000-400,000 euros at the auction in the southern French city of Montpellier.

"It's a case of receiving stolen goods," a man describing himself as a member of the Gabonese community in Montpellier exclaimed from the back of the auction room, surrounded by half a dozen compatriots.

"We'll file a complaint. Our ancestors, my ancestors, from the Fang community, we will recover this object", the protester added, describing the mask as a "colonial ill-gotten gain".

Auctioneer Jean-Christophe Giuseppi said the auction was "entirely legal", as far as he was aware.

Accompanied by security guards, the demonstrators left the auction hall calmly, but continued their protest against the sale of African works of art.

Saturday's auction also included a Congolese chair which sold for 44,000 euros.

With added costs and fees the total paid by the successful bidder for the Fang mask was 5.25 million euros, close to a record for such an item.

In 2006 a similar Fang mask brought in 2.09 million euros at a Paris auction.
Jacob Osei Yeboah

27.03.2022 LISTEN

Ghanaian politician, Jacob Osei Yeboah has said the Supreme Courts ruling on the rights of a Deputy Speaker to vote when presiding in the absence of the main Speaker suffers from The Enslaved Leadership Mindset (TELM) syndrome.

According to the 2012 and 2016 Independent Presidential Candidate, the ruling that insists a Deputy Speaker maintains his vote when presiding raises a lot of arguments and bears the question of whether some decisions taken by Parliament in the last 30 years should be annulled or not.

The ruling suffers TELM syndrome, (The Enslaved Leadership Mindset). Can we file a suit at the SC to annul all decisions taken by Parliament for the past 30 years when the Speaker was absent with Parliament's SO 9(3)? Definitely no! That makes the ruling an open-ended argument for definite implementation. Why am I saying so from the perspective of commonsense school of thought? Jacob Osei Yeboah asks in a Facebook post.

He noted that although the Supreme Court did not err in its ruling, the arguments supporting the decision by the apex court is alien to Ghana's experience in the 4th Republic.

He is of the view that the ruling made Ghana's democracy subservient to other democracies subjugating the ruling job for lack of reinforcement of 30 years experience of Ghana's Parliament decisions.

In a recommendation, Jacob Osei Yeboah suggests that Parliament through the provision of Article 110(1) structure the mechanism of voting by MPs that truly reflect the heartbeat of their respective constituencies.

We need to believe in own system to strengthen our existing institutions so as to speak for Ghana rather than speaking for either of the duopoly NPP-NDC, Mr. Osei Yeboah emphasises in the concluding parts of his Facebook post.

Read the entire post below:

JOY Comments on SC Ruling-Deputy Speaker Voting.

On Monday, March 21, on Net2 TV, The Seat, with Justice Kwaku Annan, I commented from common sense perspective, on the ruling by the seven Justices of Supreme Court (JSCs) on whether the Deputy Speakers can vote whilst Presiding over Parliament.

No matter anyone's opinion position on the ruling, we need to understand that currently per the ruling of JSCs, it is now a law for Deputy Speakers to vote whilst Presiding over proceedings of Parliament until there is appeal and subsequent self correction by the SC.

The JSCs justifiable arguments can be summarised by three points; I) MPs cannot be denied of their constituents votes in decisions of Parliament. II) Other Parliamentary Democracies allow their Speakers to Vote and even some Speakers of these other democracies are MPs. III) 30 years application of Parliament's SO 9(3) pronounced unconstitutional due to challenges of 8th Hung Parliament.

As noted in my book, 'The Next President Of Ghana' p19, "The modernist's mindset always asks the question 'How we will change?' but seldom asking, 'How will we stay the same?' "

The commonsense approach should have been what decision would maintain the same principle of voting for the past 30 years irrespective of Parliament's composition? How will our JSCs rule if majority in Parliament is the opposition Party? Or if 138 in the Hung Parliament had been the opposition Party? What if nonpartisan or Independent Presidential Candidate forms the executive Arm of government?

The JSCs looked at the ruling from half-empty position in the democratic glass by depicting what has been working in other democracies by searching for how can we change?

The commonsense position is looking at the issue from half-full position in the democratic glass which reinforces the foundation of what has prevailed in the past 30 years of Ghana's democracy by searching for how will we remain the same?

Especially, whether there are constitutional provisions and Standing Orders in Parliament that are consistent to help reinforce unclear interpretation without gerrymandering and to help guide the JSCs to make righteous ruling.

The JSCs to me have not erred in their ruling with supporting facts, but all their arguments are alien to Ghana's experience in the 4th Republic and has to gerrymander to make sense of their ruling.

The ruling therefore made Ghana's democracy subservient to other democracies and that is subjugating ruling job for lack of reinforcement of 30 years experience of Ghana's Parliament decisions.

The ruling suffers TELM syndrome , (The Enslaved Leadership Mindset). Can we file a suit at the SC to annul all decisions taken by Parliament for the past 30 years when the Speaker was absent with Parliament's SO 9(3)? Definitely no! That makes the ruling an open ended argument for definite implementation. Why am I saying so from the perspective of commonsense school of thought?

Article 115 of the 1992 constitution states that " There shall be freedom of speech, debate and proceedings in Parliament and that freedom SHALL NOT be impeached or questioned in any court or place outside Parliament".

Article 115 is consistent and reinforces, Article 110(1) which also states "Subject to the provisions of this constitution, Parliament may, by Standing Orders, regulates its own procedure".

The JSCs may not have done a thorough research for the TELM ruling of the unconstitutionality of Parliament SO 9(3) which states, "A Deputy Speaker or Any other member presiding shall Not retain his original vote while Presiding".

Article 110(1) is consistent with Parliament SO 9(3) which reinforces the clarity to any person who assumes the Speaker's role per Article 104(2), "The Speaker shall have neither an original nor CASTING vote".

Which interpretation is easier, the TELM syndrome with gerrymandering interpretation that have to import other democracies alien to Ghana's for justification or reinforcing existing decisions?

Article 130(1b) and Article 2(1) mandates the SC the jurisdiction and interpretation but when it comes to Parliament, the SC has to be guided by Article 115 in their ruling on SO 9(3) unconstitutionality and open ended ramifications on decisions made by Parliament when the Speaker was absent. My penny commonsense question to JSCs is whether in line of Article 115, do they have the mandate to impeach of question SO 9(3)?

The 1992 constitution has maintained a clear Speaker's position with no vote cast and reinforced by Article 110(1) for same for any Presiding Member of Parliament in decision voting with SO 9(3).

Ghana is missing the opportunity to maintain the Principles of voting for the past 30 years for all possible scenarios of future composition in Parliament . The spirit of the constitution maintains a principled pattern of voting irrespective of who is a minority or majority. That Principle is that whoever assumes the Speaker's seat loses his voting right.

The JSCs ruling is short sighted in a scenario that Nonpartisan/Independent Presidential Candidate won an election, Ghana will become ungovernable? That assumption reduces the gumption of MPs to robotic manipulations. A principle maintains nature irrespective of the prevailing circumstances. We expect MPs to use their gumption with patriotic urge to build consensus with Ghana First motivation instead of myopic party manipulations.

Moreover, from commonsense and half-full perspective Article 102 of the 1992 constitution is consistent and reinforces the neutrality of any person (MP) Presiding even in quorum formation, Article 102, "A quorum of Parliament, apart from the person presiding, shall be one-third of all the members of Parliament." Again, Article 97(1b) maintains that an MP shall vacate his seat in Parliament "If he is elected as Speaker of Parliament", also ensuring consistency with Article 104(2). If voting is mandatory, why should MP vacate his seat as Speaker? Because such an elevated MP can still vote as a Speaker if not to maintain consistency of Article 104(2).

Assuming without admitting the gerrymandering distinction between quorum formation and Voting decision by MPs for their constituents, what is the existing structured mechanism to ensure that Votings by MPs in Parliament reflect their respective constituencies and not their respective Parties?

The hypocrisy of representing constituencies by MPs in Voting in Parliament cannot be swept under the carpet. These MPs represent their Parties' positions and there is no structured mechanism by which MPs use to vote for the respective stances of their constituents. So our MPs act as mere robots at the instruction of their respective Parties.

The JSCs gave a weighty currency of voting by MPs in their gerrymandering ruling which we know most decisions have been voted on in the past when some MPs are mostly absent. Voting in Parliament by MPs have always been optional and not mandatorily held accountable by the constituencies. The hypocrisy which stares big time in our face is how we make a do for nothing about the voting rights and constituencies representation whilst it clear to us, it is not the case but short time political convenience.

I will therefore suggest that Parliament through provision of Article 110(1) structure the mechanism of voting by MPs that truly reflect the heartbeat of their respective constituencies.

The principle of majority carries the day known in practice in all institutions and meetings has been short changed in Parliament with Partisan ideological majority, a sad reality of Parliamentary ambiguity.

Moreover, the entire Parliament is in breach of voting discrimination against the SALL communities who are not yet represented in Parliament as such a vote is key for a hung Parliament.

The main reason why the absence of Hon. Adwoa Sarfo has been bastardize by the majority is mainly the fact that MPs represent their Parties and not their respective constituencies, that is the reality. It is a fact that if there is a structured mechanism, some MPs who are against or for ELevy may not represent the view of their respective NPP-NDC parties.

The other issues which the Speaker of Parliament needs to review is the permanent alignment of the Independent Parliamentary Candidate of Fomena, Hon. Asiamah, to the majority. Article 97(1h) states that an MP vacates his seat "if he was elected a member of Parliament as an independent candidate and joins a political party". Also Article 96(1b) the two Deputy Speakers "both of whom shall not be members of the same political party".

These are issues the Speaker, Rt. Hon Bagbin can lead Parliament in streamlining the 8th Parliament where the Independent Candidate is aligned to the majority and making both Deputies from the same party.

We need to believe in own system to strengthen our existing institutions so as to speak for Ghana rather than speaking for either of the duopoly NPP-NDC.

We cannot belabour the ruling by JSCs which made Ghana's Democracy subservient to other democracies with gerrymandering justification which will always have the mediocre support of the political divide for short gains. The JSCs in line with Article 115 can self review its own ruling to uphold provisions of the 1992 constitution Supreme to what is pertaining in other democracies. The 44th President of US Barrack Obama enlightened Ghana's Parliament in 2009 when he addressed her. " Each nation lends itself to a democracy based on her tradition". We need to strengthen our institutions for others to lend from. That is my pride and belief in Ghana's democracy which should not be subjugated for any political expediency.
The National Identification Authority (NIA) has said beginning Monday March 28, 2022 the update of records, verification of cards and card replacement will be taking place at the El-wark Stadium near 37 in Accra.

Another registration centre has also be opened at the University of Ghana Business School

These new arrangements follow the stampede at its head office during the registration for the GhanaCard on Tuesday March 22.

Corporate Affairs officer at NIA, Henry Aboagye told TV3 that I went there, the gate was opened around 7:30AM. There was a bit of a rush, a few people fell down but they were able to stop the rush and then those people were picked up, that was it. Nobody, to the best of my knowledge, has been sent to the hospital.

He further appealed to applicants to be patient during the registration exercise.

I will appeal with the applicants to be patient when they come here. The numbers are huge and we have expanded to accommodate all so they should cooperate with us, we will serve them, he said.

Ningo Prampram Member of Parliament, Samuel Nartey George blamed the Minister of Communications and Digitalization, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful for the stampede.

In the view of Sam George, the 31st March deadline given by the Minister for all SIM to be registered using the GhanaCard, has forced scores of Ghanaians to throng the premises of the NIA to get their SIM cards re-registered in order to avoid deactivation.

This situation, has led to tampering with national security installation since the offices of the NIA are considered to be national security zone.

Addressing a press conference in Parliament on Tuesday March 22, Sam George who is a member of the Communications Committee of Parliament said Some very unfortunate incident has taken place early this afternoon at the offices of the National Identification Authority (NIA), the incident, one which should not had happened, was avoidable and has caused pain to citizens of the republic

This afternoon, given the nature of work at the NIA and the fear in the minds of the ordinary Ghanaian based on the poorly thought through directive of the Minister of Communications that all SIM cards that were not registered will be deactivated on the night of the 31st of March, you have seen an increase in the numbers at the NIA office.

Three weeks ago, when we went there, we saw closed to 5000 people there who were seeking to renew their cards. The NIA you must bear in mind is a national security installation and so you should not even have a 100 people on that premises at a point in time.

That is where your entire country's biometric data-based is sitting yet we have abused the national security status of that building, and the building has been treated like a market square.

3news.com
President of the National House of Chiefs , Ogyeahohoo Yaw Gyebi II, has appealed to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the Military High Command to team up and maintain law and order in Bawku.

He also appealed the Mamprusis and Kusasis to jaw-jaw and resolve their differences rather than resorting to violence.

Speaking at a meeting in Kumasi, he said On behalf of the National House of Chiefs , permit me also to use this platform to condemn the intermittent outbreak of violence and exchange of gunfire within the Bawku traditional area and its environments . We call on the Mamprusis and Kusasis to jaw-jaw or resort to courts to resolve their difference instead of shedding blood and causing damage to property. The National House of chiefs is appealing to the IGP and the Military High Command to collaborate to maintain law and order in the Bawku birational area.

Four persons were recently killed in Bawku amid renewed chieftaincy violence.

Several others also sustained various injuries following the clash in the Upper East town.

Meanwhile, a young man has been shot in Buabula, a suburb of Bawku, in the Upper East Region, TV3s Rabiu Tanko Mohammed reported.

The young man, in his early 40s, was shot in the leg on Saturday, March 26 while trying to escape from an unknown gunman, whom he said had approached and ordered him to lie down on his stomach.

According to the victim, he was with his animals to graze when the gunman attacked. His refusal and attempt to run away is said to have provoked the gunshot, which hit his legs.

The military patrol in the area later arrived at the scene and helped the victim to the Presbyterian Hospital in Bawku, where is receiving treatment.

Investigations are underway to arrest the perpetrators.

This is the second shooting in Bawku after six members of Parliament from Kusuag visited the area to advocate for peace.

They were led by Bawku Central MP Mahama Ayariga.

The first shooting occurred at Daduri where a man by name Alhaji Sadam was attacked at home though he escaped with his family.

Less than a week after that incident, the latest shooting has been recorded. Fortunately, no lives have been lost.

3news.com
27.03.2022 LISTEN

Recent events in Ghana have the potential to push Ghana backward in the free speech league table and a threat to the liberty of citizens following the jailing of a journalist, the arrest and detention of others and an activist. One wonders what is happening to free speech in Ghana today if journalists, activists and citizens are under attack by the state. What is disturbing is that the alleged crimes of those arrested, detained and charged by the police are libel (written or broadcast defamation) and or slander (spoken defamation). Defamation is always a civil matter that should not result in arrest and detention by the police even if the crime is against the state. This is because civil matters are between two or more parties that one of them goes to court to seek redress, including damages. Therefore, why these arrests, detentions and charges by the police are disturbing.

Another worrying element of the above development is the deliberate reliance on Sections 207 and 208 of Ghana Criminal Code,1960 by the police because the obnoxious PNDC Criminal Libel and Seditious Law was repealed in July 2001, which was led by the then Attorney General and Minister for Justice and now president, Nana Akufo-Addo. This article is a discussion of the threat to freedom of expression and free press in Ghana with reference to some of the specific arrests, detentions and charges.

Let me put on record that I abhor and condemn in no uncertain terms the practice of people including journalists, activists and politicians peddling falsehood about individuals, public officers and organisations in the name of free speech and free media, activism or accountability. Such people have no place in a democracy and in fact, they are disservice to free speech and press freedom because free press is about accurate and fair reportage. Free speech does not mean the freedom to say anything and everything. Instead, it means the freedom to say what is right and wrong without fear or favour responsibly, to hold duty bearers accountable and to defend the weak and vulnerable in society. Above all, it also means, defending the rights and freedoms guaranteed under the constitution.

Section 207 of Ghanas Criminal Code of 1960 (Act 29) states, a person who in a public place or at a public meeting uses threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to provoke a breach of the peace or by which a breach of the peace is likely to be occasioned, commits a misdemeanour. Section 208 (1) also states any person who publishes or reproduces any statement, rumour or report which is likely to cause fear and alarm to the public or disturb the public peace, knowing or having reason to believe that the statement, rumour or report is false is guilty of a misdemeanour.

My understanding is that misdemeanour is an non-indictable or less offence, therefore why the high-handed approach by the state with arrests and detentions prior to charges beggars belief, except to say that it is nothing but the usual mentality of showing you where power lies and teaching you a lesson. This is unacceptable and simply abuse of power by the state and unnecessary curtailment of citizens rights to freedom of movement and the right not to be subjected to arbitrary arrest and detention.

A BBC Media Monitoring report on 9 February 2022 stated that a Ghanaian court has sentenced a journalist to 14 days imprisonment for contempt of court. Oheneba Boamah Bennie, a radio presenter at Power FM, reportedly issued a series of threats to President Nana Akufo-Addo in a live video on his Facebook page. The journalist allegedly claimed that president Nana Akufo-Addo met some judges of the Supreme Court to influence them in the oppositions petition against the results of the 2020 elections. Attorney General, Mr Godfred Yeboah Dame said Bennies remarks were meant to bring the judiciary into disrepute.

It is not clear if Oheneba Boamah Bennie was arrested and detained prior to his trial and also not known whether the contempt was committed in court or whilst the case was pending before the Supreme Court or after the Supreme Court had disposed of the case. These are important because the nature of contempt determines its seriousness in terms of whether there is serious or real risk of causing prejudice or bringing the judiciary into disrepute as charged. What is clear is that the Attorney General is reported to have said that Bennies remarks were meant to bring the judiciary into disrepute. The question is, was the judiciary brought into disrepute by the comments? In my view, absolutely not. Therefore, the prosecution and conviction are unsafe.

I believe that after over two decades of the constitutional dispensation under the rule of law and independent judiciary, Ghanas judiciary should be strong enough to withstand such allegations not to be concerned with such politically motivated allegations bearing in mind that the case before the Supreme Court was political. Moreover, in any case whether political or not the losers are often unhappy and may act on sour grapes.

In fact, it would have been more appropriate, if the Attorney General had charged and prosecuted Mr Bennie for his threats to the president. That was criminal but the Attorney General knew that such prosecution would have been unpopular and regarded as politically motivated so, he went for the easy option of meant to bring the judiciary into disrepute, when there was no such risk because all sorts of allegations were made against the judiciary during the 2020 presidential petition and is the judiciary in Ghana that weak not to withstand such an allegation? I also remember that some were tried and jailed by the Supreme Court for contempt during the 2012 presidential petition.

The case of Mr Oliver Mawuse Barker-Vormawor is well known and needs no introduction except to recap that he was picked up by the police on the evening of 11 February 2022 at the Kotoka International Airport upon his arrival from the United Kingdom and detained. He was originally cautioned for the misdemeanour offence of offensive conduct conducive to the breaches of the peace contrary to section 207 of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29) for two Social Media posts on 9 February 2022 as follows: If this E-Levy passes after this cake bullshit, I will do the coup myself. Useless Army. After some criticism by the public he replaced it with, Okay, lets try again. If this E-levy still passes after this bullshit, then may God. Help us all to resist oppressors rule, with all our will and might forever more. Useless Army, Anna, the value is the same?. He was finally granted bail by a hight court on 16 March 2022 and released by the police the next day after University of Cambridge, where he is a PhD student released a statement expressing concern over his unfair treatment.

His posts were serious and I have no intention of dismissing them. Again, despite my past association with PNDC military government, I have no sympathy for those who may want to interfere with the Ghanas constitutional order. Under no circumstances would I welcome another military intervention in Ghana. In fact, even if a president changed the constitution to be president for life or imposed one party rule on Ghana through flawed elections, I would not want the military to intervene. Instead, I will prefer civil disobedience by the masses to restore constitutional democracy.

Having said the above, did the two posts by Oliver Barker-Vormawor require the state to abuse their power to deny him his constitutional rights? Do two wrongs make one right? The fact is and from what happened between the state and the lawyers for Oliver Barker-Vormawor in court, there is no doubt that the state abused its power as well as abused the judicial process.. For example, putting him before a court that had no jurisdiction over the case and unable to grant him bail. That was deliberate to just deny him bail and keep him in detention. It is also important to note that his legal team was led by no mean Attorney than the very person who led the Presidents legal team at the Supreme Court in the 2020 presidential petition, Mr Akoto-Ampaw. This alone says a lot, though of course, an Attorney would sell his or her services to anyone client in need and could afford to pay. However, from my personal knowledge of Mr Akoto-Ampaw, he is a principled person who would fight to challenge abuse of power irrespective of where it is coming from.

A critical examination of the two posts in my opinion did not require this high-handed response from the state because it would have shown beyond any reasonable doubt that Oliver Barker-Vormawor is incapable of organising a military coup detat in Ghana. Gone were the days when a few soldiers seized Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) and announced the overthrow of the government. Today, there are many radio and television stations across Ghana. In fact, I do not listen to or watch GBC apart from their Sunday old hilife tunes on Uniiq Fm. Throughout the week, I listen to Citi Fm and Newsfile on Joy. Therefore, organising a successfully coup detat in Ghana today would not be as easy as previously. For this reason, Oliver Barker-Vormawor did not need to be arrested, and detained, let alone be persecuted. He should have been arrested, cautioned by the police and released.

The question is, why did the state take the heavy-handed approach? It is an open secret that Oliver Barker-Vormawor has embarrassed the government through his Fix the Country campaign as well as his involvement with the Kaaka family case. Therefore, the state wanted to teach him a lesson for his civic and political activism.

The other reason that many Ghanaians ignore is that the president, Nana Akofu-Addo has been hurt and rightly so by Social Media posts from a woman who described herself as Serwaa Broni. The wild and unsubstantiated allegations she has made against the president are hurtful and I have sympathy for the president. I do not want to see or know what my president does in his privacy, let alone post half-dressed pictures of the president on Social Media. I will only be worried if the presidents actions and omissions put the country at risk.

The consequences of Serwaa Bronis wild allegations against the president on Social Media, is the crack down on free speech in Ghana by the government of the very person who repealed the obnoxious PNDC Criminal Libel and Seditious Law in July 2001. The person who also said, I prefer noisy scandalous media to sycophancy (see Ghanaweb, July 18, 2017) and considered to have championed free speck/media by many.

My advice to the Attorney General and the government is, please do not overreact to social media posts and damage the credential of Nana Akufo-Addo as the Attorney General and Minister for Justice who made free media possible in Ghana. The Attorney General should also remember that the presidents late uncle, JB Danquah suffered such injustice and died in prison. Of course, I am not comparing the two situations because they are not the same but irrespective of the different circumstances, what happened to Oliver Mawuse Barker-Vormawor is abuse of power, politically motivated and a disgrace to Ghana that should not be repeated. It is nothing but revenge for his civic and political activism.

Many will disagree with me that the case went to court and the court remanded him into custody. For those of you who do not understand politically motivated persecution, any government could get any judge to do their bidding if they want to, particularly in Africa, whether there is independent judiciary or not. That is why the initial judicial process used by the Attorney General was fraud.

It is also my candid view that every government has the right to raise income through taxes and therefore its wrong to threaten the government with military coup detat because of the E-levy. Let the government implement its tax policies and the people will hold it accountable come 2024. As far as I am concerned, the posts by Oliver Barker-Vormawor is nothing less than youthful exuberance that should not have been glorified by such unwarranted and draconian measures. This is not to dismiss some of the important national issues he has raised through his activism.

For those who have kept quiet over the recent abuses of power in Ghana, including the Ghana Bar Association, the religious leaders, National Union of Ghana Students, the Trade Union Congress and others, shame on you. I leave you with the words of Martin Niemoller, a German Pastor during the 2nd World War. First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then, they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then, they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then, they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.

Kofi Ata, Cambridge, UK
Director of Research at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Dr. John Kwakye, has said it would be more helpful if government reviews its major policy interventions as part of measures to tackle the current economic quagmire.

To him, proposals for a relook at some of the flagship programs by the Akufo-Addo government should have been considered and announced as part of actions being taken to cut down the countrys ballooning expenditure for economic stability.

Dr. John Kwakyes concerns stem from the Finance Ministers indication that, despite the countrys current fiscal difficulties, the government is determined to continue with the financial commitments and implementation of its socio-economic schemes.

I realize that, on the government's flagship programs, we had proposed that, they should be reviewed. For the Free SHS program, we thought that government could introduce a cost-sharing arrangement with parents so that we reduce the burden on the budget. The other programs like NABCo, nursing and teacher trainee allowances, we thought that may be in these difficult times, it was about time that they were either suspended or reduced. In that respect, I don't think that the Minister went far enough, he said on The Big Issue.

Pressure has been mounting on the government to review its ambitious programs, especially the Free SHS policy, because it takes a huge chunk of government revenue.

Stakeholders, including 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 is limited to persons who are genuinely poor and unable to fund their secondary education.

For instance, the Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission, 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.

No rollback

But government maintains all its flagship programs will 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.

Speaking at a press briefing today, Thursday, March 24, the Finance Minister said theres no such intention to review any of the governments 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.

citinewsroom
I dont know how long Ghanaians have to continue to pretend or wait before admitting that the NPP government has ruined Ghana and Akufo Addo and his relatives, including, Ken Ofori-Atta, is responsible for the collapse of the countrys economy.

Frankly speaking, there are many NPP politicians and thousands of the partys supporters who have lost hope and confidence in the NPP government. If its very easy for them, they will look straight into the eyes of Nana Akufo Addo and tell him, Mr. President, you and your family have ruined Ghana beyond remedy.

Akufo Addo appointed his relative Ken Ofori-Atta, as the Finance Minister, to make stealing of money from Ghana's coffers easier, that's why Ghana has collapsed together with its economy



("I write articles many writers dare to write, that's why they hate me but being hated means you are making a change hurting other people" - Joel Savage)

The hypocrisy, and tribalism many Ghanaians are promoting just because of hate against John Mahama or other NDC politicians in the country, would fully grow and mature to come back and choke you at the right time.

If hate and tribalism could build a successful country, Akufo Addo wouldnt have failed miserably today. Why are Ghanaians continue to hurt themselves with tribalism?

I simply cant understand why someone who did so much for Ghana and even left many projects uncompleted will have such enormous hate from an empire of deceitful enemies, while Akufo Addo has incurred the biggest debt on Ghana without accountability receives praises.

Hypocrisy is taking its toll on both Ghana and the people but many havent learned anything yet. Definitely, it will take those supporting this disease into their untimely grave.

Until the NPP government is no more in power or Ken Ofori-Atta steps down as the Finance Minister, Ghanaians will continue to experience infinite suffering

It is probably because of this typical behavior of the black man many Europeans think Africans are stupid and senseless. I am not a psychologist to find out this but it baffles me a lot when I see Africans promoting bad governance affecting them in Africa because of tribalism.

Just like how nobody can ever convince me that there is no God, the same way, there is no Ghanaian who can ever convince me that Akufo Addo has done better than Mahama. The former Ghanaian leaders intelligence, wisdom, productivity, and humility, can never be compared to this arrogant president called Akufo Addo.

Its your choice or opinion to give support to Akufo Addo, for whatever reasons but please, dont hate me if I dont want to. I am writing about things affecting my country and since Akufo Addo is the current Ghanaian leader who has failed to protect the publics purse and lied to Ghanaians about everything, including stolen COVID funds, I need to write about him. I have nothing to write about Mahama.

The worst injustice Ghanaians did to themselves by accepting from the initial stages the appointment of Ken Ofori-Atta as the Finance Minister and the nations problems is far from over as long as he remains the Finance Minister because he was appointed to make corruption easier for Akufo Addo. That is why every money used by this NPP government has difficult explanations of accountability.

Why are people wasting their precious time declaring war on Mahama who is not the president but continues to ignore the real danger threatening the lives of Ghanaians and the future generation?

I used to think Ghanaians are the most intelligent people but the common jovial proverb they used to say Bebiaa Mensah woho, has reminded me that there are also morons in Ghana, that's why people are under senseless suffering.
The National House of Chiefs wants Ghanaians to desist from perceptions that coup d'etat is an alternative to democratic rule.

Some analysts have warned that the worsening economic situation in the country may make Ghana vulnerable to a forceful takeover of government .

Recently, the Dean of the University of Ghana School of Law, Prof. Raymond Atuguba, expressed his fear that Ghana may have a coup on its hands if urgent action is not taken by the state.

We do not want a coup in this country. Yet I fear that if we do not act quickly, we may have one in our hands very soon, he said while delivering a lecture in Accra.

There are two different trials ongoing against persons charged with treason-related offences.

But National House of Chiefs President, Ogyeahoho Yaw Gyebi II, said the House believes democratic governance is the best system and most preferred for the majority of Ghanaians.

He was speaking during a national house of chiefs meeting in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.

In recent times, the use of the word coup or military takeovers have become a very common expression for some people in society. It must be emphasized that irrespective of the form, nature and composition of the military government, democratic and constitutional government is the most preferred choice for majority of Ghanaians. The country has witnessed a number of military interventions in the political history, which to a very large extent did not properly address the political and social aspirations of the country. Coups have no place in Ghana; we'll resist such attempts  Akufo-Addo

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has warned that he will go tough on persons attempting to topple the government and destabilize the country's democratic gains .

He says Ghana's democracy and that of the world cannot be left to persons who want to gratify their personal ambition, ambitions which show little or no respect for the capacity of the Ghanaian people

Speaking at the 65th Independence Day parade in Cape Coast, the President assured that his administration is committed to strengthening peace and stability to fulfill the purpose for which the country transitioned to constitutional rule.

The great majority of us who are committed to democratic values and institutions will continue to resist the claims of these adventurers and deploy all legitimate means in our democracy to maintain our free open system of governance which has respect for human rights, the rule of law and the principles of democratic accountability.

citinewsroom
27.03.2022 LISTEN

Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has clarified two projects he cut sod for in the Ashanti Region capital of Kumasi for which there has been controversy on social media.

The sod-cutting ceremonies by Vice President Bawumia for the projects, one in 2019 and the other on Friday, March 25, have stirred controversy because they mirror each other.

But taking to his official Facebook page on Saturday, March 26, the Vice President explained that the 2019 project is 96 percent complete and was done, indeed, in some areas in Kumasi under the auspices of Contracta, who are the project contractors.

Fridays ceremony, he explained, is for a project which is part of the Sinohydro Master Project Support Agreement (MPSA).

This project is different from the ongoing construction works, under the Rehabilitation and Auxiliary Infrastructure of Kumasi Inner Ring Road and Adjacent Streets -Phase 1, for which I cut sod in 2019 being done in some areas in Kumasi under the auspices of Contracta (construction firm) which is 96% complete.

3news.com
27.03.2022 LISTEN

The National Services is a mandatory requirement of every Ghanaian with post-tertiary education. The scheme was founded in 1973 under the ministry of education requiring every post-tertiary graduate to undergo a mandatory twelve months intensive service to the country. Within the services period, national Service Personnel is given five hundred and fifty-nine Ghana Cedis as an allowance to motivate and facilitate their work. Although it has been widely reported in various media that the Service Personnel have been paid their allowances, not all. The government owes the majority of the service Personnel arrears of two months. Initially, the government was owing the Service Personnel more than two months while the various protests and conferences held by the National Service Association demanding of the government to heed to their plea resulted in the payment of only a month allowance. From the months of January to March, the majority have not received their allowance yet. With the regular increase in fuel prices affecting the standard of living in the country with the comparative increase in transportation fares, food, water, and other necessity commodities, the government seems to have turned deaf ear to the plight of the Service Personnel. The begging question now is; how does the government expect these upcoming and jobless professionals to undergo this mandatory service to the nation without any financial assistance? Is there not any system in place to check and regulate the activities of the government and other stakeholders in executing their functions? If the government perceives these little allowances of the Service Personnel to be a financial burden on the country and therefore decides not to heed to their demands and make payment, then what image are we projecting to the outside world and the younger generation as a nation? These youths deserve to be paid the arrears of their monthly allowances because the reward of every labor is wages and salaries.

Peprah Elijah Kwasi

Environmental Health Practitioner

Contact: 0594183999

Email: [email protected]
Its going to be a different world when all this palaver with Ukraine is over: Bad Boy Russia will be relegated back to its former cold war status, its economy in ruins and Vladimer Putin will become Public Enemy Number One. Ukraine, on the other hand will be rebuilt and remain an independent nation.

Wars are always messy: there is no such thing as a surgical war where nobody dies unless you discount, of course, the Taliban calmly walking into Kabul in Afghanistan in 2021, following the Allied Forces withdrawal without a single shot fired. We have all seen the horrific images coming out of Ukraine forcing strict sanctions on Russia and Putins henchmen, the Oligarchs.

The war is not popular in Russia partially because nobody wants it and the Russian Armys inability to swiftly execute an invasion and be done with it: images of Russian soldiers being captured, starving and crying for their mums and not to talk of the ones lying dead where they fell is not proving popular back home (- to save on bringing body bags back home Putin has sent a couple of mobile crematoriums to Ukraine).

A lot of heads will roll, in Russia, over this failure of an invasion of a sovereign nation which should have been done in time before the rest of the world had a chance to react. What should have been a swift, surgical operation has turned into a farce played out for the whole world to see: no key ground has been taken, the Ukraine government is still intact and governing and the people are fighting back. As a result, Putin has resorted to under-hand tactics by bombing civilians positions and threatening to play the nuclear card. If he was hoping to solicit a confrontation with NATO and the rest of the World he has failed: no foreign boots are on the ground (- unofficially its believed British and American Special Forces are already dug in) and neither are there any foreign warbirds in the air. Supplies are covertly getting in but thats it. Sadly, its lead to a humanitarian refugee crisis never before seen since the Second World War.

And the Endgame?

One of the first rules of engagement is to assess the strength of your enemy. You dont assume: assumption is the Mother of all F*ck-ups! Goliath made the same mistake. Thinking the Ukraine army would be a pushover and embarking upon an invasion with out a clear road map using sub-standard equipment (- apparently somebody embezzled the money earmarked for modernizing their gear!) with third rate soldiers, or conscripts, was a major mistake.

Putin, by now has realized that he cant take Ukraine  unless he flattens the place  despite whatever he throws at them including his bully-boy tactics of shelling innocent civilians, rounding them up and sending them to remote places in Russia and the extensive use of banned or exotic weaponry. He cant use the Nuclear option since he knows the Wests response against Russia will be swift and brutal. He knows the people of Ukraine will never surrender. He knows the sanctions imposed upon Russia will cripple his country and turn his own people against him. And he also knows its a matter of time before theres a palace coup to remove him from office.

With his options limited, and fast diminishing, hell have to opt for a tactical withdrawal, neither admitting success or defeat, probably after the intervention of China, Israel or the UN acting as mediators.

Follow me on Twitter: @Archangel641 or visit http://www.archangel641.blogspot.co.uk
Dr. Agyapomaa Gyeke-Dako

27.03.2022 LISTEN

A senior lecturer and economist at the University of Ghana Business School, Dr. Agyapomaa Gyeke-Dako has asked government to put the monies collected from taxes to good use.

She said proper utilisation of the taxes will convince Ghanaians to voluntarily honour their tax obligations.

In an interview with JoyNews on Saturday, March 26, 2022, Dr. Agyapomaa suggested ways by which government can generate revenues internally to aid the development of the country.

She said, as government enforces tax laws, they must also be accountable for the usage of the monies collected from taxes for the citizens to see the reason to pay taxes to the government.

She cited an advanced countries like the UK and US where many people pay taxes, yet their governments still ensure there is enforcement of laws governing tax payments to get more people to pay their taxes.

And in every country, we have rational human beings. People will not want to pay taxes if there is nothing pushing them to pay the taxes.

Even in the U.S and U.K where we see a lot of people paying taxes, the government ensure that they enforce the tax rules. Its very important that as we are asking people to pay property taxes, as we are asking them to file their taxes, we backed them with some measures to ensure enforcement," she intimated.

Dr. Agyapomaa says it does not make sense for people to discourage government borrowing externally and at the same time discourage home-grown measures to generate revenue internally.

We are here fighting against borrowing externally and we are the same people who also dont want to be paying taxes, So how is the government going to get revenue to undertake it obligations in the country?

That said I think as citizens we should be able to see what these taxes are doing for usso if we are paying taxes and we are not seeing what these taxes are doing for us, then it will be difficult for you to get people on board," Dr. Agyapomaa Gyeke-Dako emphasised.

According to her, accountability of taxes is the only way to encourage ginger the citizenry to fulfill their tax obligations.

By: Isaac Donkor (Distinguished) student of Ghana Institute of Journalism.
Government's intention to cut down expenditure is not the solution to Ghana's current economic woes, according to the opposition National Democratic Congress, NDC.

Ahmed Agbenyadzi, Communication Team member of the NDC is of the view that the Akufo-Addo government has wasted the finances of the country leading to its current state of uncertainty.

He mentioned hiring of expensive jet by President Akufo-Addo for foreign travels, high spending at the presidency and corrupt acts as some of the causes of Ghana's economic woes.

Mr. Ahmed Agbenyadzi who is also the Akwapim North Deputy Youth Organiser of the NDC was quick to add that, the decision by government to reduce spending is long over due.

He described the move as a mere approach to seek favour from 'suffering' Ghanaians.

"Abro, how can you charge tax someone's savings on their MoMo account when it has not been invested to earn profit? It is a total cheat on the ordinary Ghanaian" he said on Bryt FM news on Saturday.

He emphasised the NPP has failed on its promises and called on Ghanaians not to trust any more shallow promises government pronounces.
The Senya Bereku Traditional Council has outdoored University of Ghana graduate as the new chief of Bonsuoku, a suburb of Senya Beraku in the Central region.

Nenyi Kweku Kwei VI, known in private life as Seth Entsi Essuon is said to have graduated from the UG Business School.

At a colourful event held over the weekend, the Acting Paramount Chief of Senya Beraku, Ipi Kwao Bentum advised the newly installed chief who is also the Nifahene of the authority to ensure peace and unity in the community to attract the needed development the people deserve.

He stressed that, the Bonsuoku community is a pillar in the Awutu Senya West district and therefore challenged the newly installed chief to lead his people in ensuring total transformation of the area.

Ipi Kwao Bentum also revealed that there are many designated projects that are expected to be undertaken in the community and all those could be achieved if there is peace and unity.

On his part, the newly installed chief and Nifahene of Senya Beraku Traditional Council, Nenyi Kweku Kwei VI expressed gratitude to kingmaker for choosing him to lead the community and pledged to do his best in helping to develop the community.

He paid homage to the forefathers for their struggle in acquiring the land but was not happy with the pace of development in the area.

He however outlined a number of projects he is expecting to enroll to improve the livelihood of residents including; offering of car loans, provision of police station to provide security, provide skills training and employment opportunities, market square and many others.

He hinted of an impending Bonsuoku Community Fund in April, 2022 which is aimed at investing in education, health care and agriculture for youth of the community and its surroundings.

He, therefore, urged NGOs to take opportunity of vast land and the peaceful nature of the area and invest in business ventures.
The government of the Republic of Ghana represented by its Minister of the Interior Mr. Ambrose DERY has chaired the opening ceremony of the West African Police Information (WAPIS) briefing event on 22 march 2022 at the Police Headquarters Conference room in Accra.

Government officials, the ECOWAS Resident Representative, the Head of the EU delegation M. Irchad Razaaly as well as the Head of INTERPOL WAPIS Programme Richard GOTWE, also attended this ceremony and various Heads of Law enforcement officials and Representatives of embassies from ECOWAS and EU Member States based in Ghana.

This briefing event organized by the Ghana Police Service with the support of the WAPIS Programme will take place over three days and aims to raise awareness among the law enforcement agencies on the role and use of the WAPIS in the enhancement of the security system in Ghana.

The West African Police Information System (WAPIS) is an initiative of West African countries under ECOWAS, aimed at building an effective national, regional and international response to national, regional and international criminal threats, including transnational organised crime and terrorism. The objective of the WAPIS System is to enhance the capacity of Law enforcement agencies of West African countries to fight these criminal threats effectively, by improving their capacities to collect, process and analyse information, and to share information among national security bodies and with other countries in the region and beyond through INTERPOL.

Reliable information and up-to-date data on the activities and movements of criminals and terrorists is at the heart of the activities of police and law enforcement agencies for the successful detection, investigation and prosecution of crimes.

The WAPIS System is supported by a multiannual Programme (2012-2022) funded by the European Union and implemented by INTERPOL, with the political and strategic support of ECOWAS. The fifteen (15) ECOWAS countries benefiting from INTERPOLs WAPIS Programme are: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo. Two non-ECOWAS countries, Mauritania and Chad, are also covered by the WAPIS Programme.

Opening the Inauguration ceremony, the Inspector General of Police, Dr. George Akuffo Dampare assured the participants that this briefing event is significant because, it gives the European Union, INTERPOL and ECOWAS an opportunity to see for themselves, what has been achieved with the funding and logistics they have magnanimously provided. The Inspector General of Police also went on to state that the event is aimed at increasing awareness of the West African Police Information System (WAPIS) in Ghana and will encourage its use by our numerous stakeholders.

He stressed the fact that the resources invested the WAPIS system would be futile if the system were not used for the purpose for which it has been established that is to gather relevant criminal information and make them available to law enforcement agencies at the national, regional and subsequently global level to fight transnational organized crime.

Recognizing the political and operational involvement of the government of Ghana, the Head of the WAPIS Programme, Mr. Richard GOTWE thanked the participants for honoring the invitation and was delighted that WAPIS has become an essential tool for the law enforcement officers in Ghana in order to deal effectively and sustainably with crimes.

The Head of the European Union Delegation, Mr Irchad Razaaly, said: Ghana can be proud of the good work of its law enforcement agencies in general. However, in order to tackle the challenges of crime and terrorism in the 21st century, police and criminal justice actors must work together more efficiently and effectively. I am pleased that the EU-financed WAPIS Programme is helping Ghana and the other ECOWAS states to take advantage of the possibilities offered by digitalization and internet-based sharing of information.

Following the Head of the EU Delegation, the ECOWAS Resident Representative, reminded that this Programme is very important to the ECOWAS security strategy and that the organization will always support the countries in the implementation of this System in the region.

Concluding the remarks, the Minister for the Interior noted that, as June 2022 approaches for the Programme, to be handed over to ECOWAS, WAPIS Ghana is waiting patiently for a positive feedback from other partners to kindly extend the Programme. He urged representatives of member countries present to impress upon their governments to put in more effort to ensure all countries meet their deadlines.

Under the WAPIS Programme in Ghana:

Statistics: Statistically, WAPIS Ghana has 18027 convicts of which 4800 are foreigners and the rest are Ghanaians.

Success Stories:

The WAPIS Centre (DACORE) has chalked many successes; Upon request from the Cyber Crime Unit on 27 May 2021, Checks were conducted on a person. After conducting the search on him, the system revealed that since 6 November 2011, he has been convicted to serve his 40 years sentence with hard labor in Nsawam Prison. This and many more are the information the WAPIS unit provides to the Investigating Units of the CID Headquarters, which has enhanced their investigations.

On 3 March 2022, the WAPIS Centre received a request from INTERPOL for background checks on a person who is wanted by INTERPOL in Sierra Leone for conspiring to commit crime to wit defrauding by false pretense. Checks in the WAPIS database helps find evidence related to this person.

Connectivity: The completion of the Wide Area Network (WAPIS- WAN) has extended WAPIS database to stakeholders (Ghana Police Service, Prisons Service Ghana Immigration Service and the Narcotics Control Commission) which has enabled stakeholders to input directly into the database. This has enhanced Data Sharing among these institutions thereby speeding up investigations leading to timely prosecution of offenders

More information on the WAPIS project is available at:

https://www.interpol.int/en/How-we-work/Capacity-building/WAPIS-Programme

https://www.raosupportcellecowas.com/post/west-africa-police-information-system-3-wapis-3-edf-1
27.03.2022 LISTEN

An orator, a visionary, with the youth at heart, spoke passionately with high emotions as he tried to empower the youth of some selected Senior High Schools in the Ashanti Region.

Business mogul and entrepreneur Charles Ohene Kwame Frimpong on Friday 11th March,2022 had a youth empowerment visit to Collins senior high school, Agogo state college and Owerriman senior high technical school in the Ashanti region.

He encouraged the young students to take their education very serious and work hard for everything is achievable.

Education is very important but it doesnt determine ones future and it doesnt mean we shouldnt take it serious, he said.

He also gave a pledge to reward three (3) best behaved students, one from each school, Oweriman SHTS, Akim state college and Collins senior high school will be taken abroad on a fully funded scholarship to study.

Ohene Kwame Frimpong is also a great philanthropist who takes care of hundreds of students, orphans, aged, and widows each year through the Smart Frimpong Foundation.

View Excepts from the trip here
United States-based Ghanaian practicing medical doctor, Dr Arthur Kobina Kennedy has stated that although he is an alumnus of the University of Ghana Medical School (UGMS) he could not graduate.

He said hewas chased out 6 months before graduation and has carried the disappointment of not graduating from UGMS with him since then.

In an article on the 60th anniversary of the UGMS, the stalwart of the New Patitoc Party (NPP) said, The University of Ghana Medical School is 60 and there is a lot of justified pride in its incredible journey.

Before I reflect on the great institution, let me make a confession. While I am a proud alumnus of UGMS, I am not a graduate. I am a graduate of 4 Universities with Certificates from 2 others but not of UGMS. I was chased out 6 months before graduation and have carried the disappointment of not graduating from UGMS with me since then.

I prefer reflections to celebrations because the latter tend to focus mostly on achievements. Reflections, in my view, are more complete.

Surprisingly, I did not appreciate the exceptional quality of UGMS till I moved to North America. Here, I found that my training was considered superior to that obtained from most other parts of the world. On the wards and in the classrooms here, I met teachers who exalted in extracting from students the details that were the stuff of our journeys in virtually every department at Korle-bu. And they loved a student who could provide those.

Below is his full article

REFLECTIONS ON [email protected]

The University of Ghana Medical School is 60 and there is a lot of justified pride in its incredible journey.

Before I reflect on the great institution, let me make a confession. While I am a proud alumnus of UGMS, I am not a graduate. I am a graduate of 4 Universities with Certificates from 2 others but not of UGMS. I was chased out 6 months before graduation and have carried the disappointment of not graduating from UGMS with me since then.

I prefer reflections to celebrations because the latter tend to focus mostly on achievements. Reflections, in my view, are more complete.

Surprisingly, I did not appreciate the exceptional quality of UGMS till I moved to North America. Here, I found that my training was considered superior to that obtained from most other parts of the world. On the wards and in the classrooms here, I met teachers who exalted in extracting from students the details that were the stuff of our journeys in virtually every department at Korle-bu. And they loved a student who could provide those.

At UGMS, I met a dizzying collection of teachers at every level. Indeed, after training in many hospitals and schools, it would be hard to identify a better collection of teachers than those I encountered at UGMS. And a few of these were classmates. However, the cake for the best one-hour lecture in my life would go to Prof. Nii Lomotey Engmann. It was 1982 and our courses had been packed into less time than normal when we returned from the Students Task Force. Of these, perhaps none had bewildered us more than Neuroanatomy. During our revision period, one morning, Professor Engmann walked in. He announced casually that he had heard of our struggles and proceeded to deliver a spellbinding review lecture that made all the weeks of mumbo-jumbo understandable.

Unfortunately, while our faculty got the academic excellence part right, the empathy and nurturing part fell a bit short. UGMS was hierarchical and our lecturers were seen an omnipotent Gods who could destroy a students career for any minor mistake. I remember that once, when a Professor announced that we should show up for lectures on Wednesday afternoons, I raised my hand and argued that we felt overwhelmed and needed our Wednesday afternoons to catch up. He seemed surprised and irritated by my push back and announced,  You will show up! Many of my friends, who agreed with me, warned me to stop speaking up and drawing unneeded attention from Professors! I also recall the day when a Professor told the class, There are some of you, even when you are failing, we would pass you. There are others, even when you are passing, we would fail you!

While there compassionate and relatable professors, a teacher should never tell a class that and such sentiments ensured that most of us were mostly on eggshells. Such incidents failed to model the habits of nurturing and empathy that are indispensable to the development of humane doctors. Hopefully, the passage of time has made such practices obsolete. But to the extent neccesary, we must protect students and make UGMS, in addition to the place of excellence that it is, a place the nurtures the spirit in addition to the mind.

Ironically, it was a few weeks after above incident that I had a conversation that profoundly changed my approach to medicine. I had gone to talk to Professor Andoh about a problem on behalf of my class when he asked me to take a seat. He said he was concerned about my generations training.

We are training you to be medical technicians who can make diagnoses, write prescriptions and do surgery but you cant connect with people. When I asked why, he said he believed that before becoming doctors, people should be grounded in the great classics and languages. He explained that such training made future doctors more mature, compassionate and rounded in their outlook.

Another defect that I recall is our training in emergency care. I recall, as a junior clerk, having to resuscitate an unresponsive patient with a colleague of mine who shall remain anonymous. We lost the patient. Looking back, I am confident that if more experienced providers had been present, that patient might have lived. I bring this up because years later, a physician collapsed at Korle-bu and died. Hopefully, UGMS and Korle-bu can emplace an emergency treatment system worthy of our illustrious reputation.

Before getting to the theme for this celebration, let me circle back to my beginnings with UGMS. I missed my interview announcement because I didnt have access to newspapers. Despite that and having no connections, I was admitted. That application of meritocracy, combined with its long affirmative policy towards women and underrepresented schools should make every Ghanaian proud of UGMS. Indeed, our founder President Nkrumah would be proud.

I notice that the theme of this celebration is the role of medical technology in improving the quality of medical education. It is a great theme. Since I spent 2 years teaching medicine at UCC, I have reflected a lot on our medical education. While it is a good thing that UGMS has classes about 5 times as large as when I was a student, the number of faculty, infrastructure and technology has not kept pace. At some point, I am concerned that this will begin to affect the quality of our graduates. This concern is shared by a lot of alumni and medical educators. Technology, as the President rightly pointed out, can make medical education more accessible to those who would otherwise be denied it. In addition, technologies can be deployed to augment our faculty by getting teachers/doctors in the dispora to teach our medical and postgraduate students, as well as participate in patient care.

Finally, we must work harder to engage our alumni. It would be great to have an Alumni-supported foundation with an endowment that would help improve the quality of our medical Education.

May UGMS grow from strength to strength and keep turning out graduates who, in addition to doing no harm, will make our nation healthy and proud.

Arthur Kobina Kennedy (March 27th, 2022)

Source: 3news.com
Chinese officials have confirmed all 132 passengers and crew died when flight MU5735 crashed on Monday in southern China.

The China Eastern flight was flying from Kunming to Guangzhou when it nose-dived and crashed in a heavily-forested area in Guangxi.

Rescue teams said they had identified 120 of the victims so far through DNA analysis, aviation officials said.

State media reported that both black boxes have now been found.

The flight data recorder  which could provide crucial information about why the plane crashed an hour into its journey  was recovered on Saturday.

The first black box has already been sent to Beijing to be inspected by experts, Reuters said. That one is believed to contain the cockpit voice recorder.

Though there had been little hope of finding any survivors, victims families have been waiting for news from the search teams, which have been combing the heavily-wooded area for days.

But the search has been difficult in the remote hills near the city of Wuzhou, with rescue teams working in very muddy conditions.

Hu Zhenjiang, deputy director-general of Chinas civil aviation administration, said the search would continue for the remains of the victims and parts of plane wreckage, Chinese news website Sina reported.

Aircraft manufacturer Boeing  which made the 737-800 jet  said on Saturday its technical team is supporting the US National Transportation Safety Board and Chinas civil aviation administration with the investigation, Reuters reports.

Following the crash, Chinas President Xi Jinping called for a full-scale investigation.

The crash is Chinas most deadly aviation incident in nearly three decades, and has prompted a national outpouring of grief.

Source: BBC
The Libyan people want to end a decade of violence and elect a government, showing "zero appetite" for further conflict despite a renewed political standoff, the UN's top in-country official told AFP.

Speaking as concerns mount over the sustainability of a 17-month-old ceasefire, Stephanie Williams also insisted that deepening fractures, including a re-emergence of rival governments, can be "worked through".

"Most Libyans really want to put an end to 11 years of chaos, division and war -- and do so in a peaceful way by going to the ballot box," Williams said.

Libya was meant to hold elections last December, as part of a UN-guided peace process aiming to draw a line under a complex conflict that dates back to the 2011 revolt that toppled and killed dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

Libyan forces loyal to the Tripoli-based government take part in a military graduation parade in the northwestern city of Misrata on March 3, 2022. By Mahmud TURKIA AFPFile

But as political factions wrangled over their legal basis and the eligibility of controversial candidates, the polls were indefinitely postponed.

Williams said that was "a huge disappointment" to Libyans, especially after some 2.8 million citizens registered to vote amid a rare period of optimism following a landmark October 2020 ceasefire.

A new fissure deepened early this month when Libya's eastern-based parliament approved a new cabinet in a direct challenge to a Tripoli-based unity government that was painstakingly stitched together through UN-led talks a year ago.

That move was quickly followed by ominous military manoeuvrings on the capital's outskirts.

"There is a crisis over the executive, there is a political conflict over who sits in Tripoli," Williams acknowledged in an interview with AFP on Saturday in Tunisia.

"But that can be worked through."

The latest in a long line of standoffs pits Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah's interim government in Tripoli against Fathi Bashagha, a former interior minister chosen by parliament as his successor.

Libya has found itself with two governments after the eastern-based House of Representatives appointed Fathi Bashagha, on the left, in a challenge to the Tripoli-based premier, Abdulhamid Dbeibah. By Abdullah DOMA, GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT AFPFile

Bashagha is supported by eastern-based military strongman Khalifa Haftar, who waged a devastating but ultimately unsuccessful 2019-2020 offensive against a previous "unity government" in Tripoli.

Bashagha's backers say Dbeibah was only meant to lead the country to the December 24 vote -- and that his mandate has therefore expired.

But the incumbent insists he will only cede power to an elected administration.

'Massive disconnect'

Libyans gather in Tripoli on February 18, 2022 for the 11th anniversary of the uprising that toppled longtime strongman Muammar Kadhafi. By Mahmud Turkia AFPFile

Williams, an Arabic-speaking American diplomat who reports to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, has warned publicly against escalation and offered to mediate.

Williams said she had met thousands of people from across the country in recent months.

Based on those talks, "there is zero appetite to return to large-scale conflict in Libya," she said.

"There's always going to be a degree of shallow legitimacy attached to any executive that is not directly elected by the people."

The political manoeuvring that has obstructed elections has also laid bare the "massive disconnect between the political class and the body politic", she added.

Cadets of the special forces of the self-styled Libyan National Army affiliated with eastern strongman Khalifa Haftar take part in a graduation ceremony in the eastern city of Benghazi, on January 20, 2022. By Abdullah DOMA AFPFile

In her efforts to mediate a way out of the mess, Williams has been urging the upper house -- based in Tripoli -- and the eastern-based lower house to negotiate a constitutional basis for elections.

It's a key sticking point in a country that has had no constitution since Kadhafi tore the last one up in 1969.

But the lower house has yet to agree on delegates to the talks, she said.

"We're at a crucial inflection point for them to come to the table with good intentions and in good faith to sort this out," Williams said.

But she voiced confidence that a deal could be reached, pointing to the example of talks held in 2020 following the bitter military conflict over Tripoli.

Mass graves in the western Libya town Tarhuna, seen on February 9, 2022. For years a brutal family clan there killed hundreds of people. By Mahmud Turkia AFPFile

"They can do this," she said. "But they have to get to the table.

"Step number two is to sit and actually negotiate seriously and in good faith, knowing that you've got three million people watching you," she added, referring to Libyans who had collected voting cards.

"That should be enough pressure."
Member of Parliament (MP) for the Damongo constituency, Samuel Abu Jinapor, has donated ten (10) Apsonic Cross Country Motorbikes to the West Gonja Municipal Health Directorate.

This is to help the facility enhance health care delivery in the area.

The legislator in a short address explained that there are some basic needs of humanity that every policy maker and public servant must pay attention to, such as education, health care and general social amenities such as water, electricity, and sanitation.

He said irrespective of one's social class, one cannot be productive without a good health care system. He added that as a policy maker his donation to the sector is to enhance quality health care delivery in the Municipality.

According to him, the support was in response to a request made to him by the Municipal Health Director, Madam Gertrude Yentumi, when she visited his constituency office to lament the transportation means of the directorate to carry out its mandate as a service; a plea he the (MP) took very serious and did not sleep over.

The MP believes the motorbikes will enable the health workers to deliver quality healthcare services to the people in the constituency especially, those living in remote and hard to reach farming communities.

He pledged his unalloyed commitment to augment effort by central government to deliver basic health care to the people, hinting that he will soon extend similar support to the Regional Health Directorate and the Ghana Education Service.

The West Gonja Municipal Health Director, Madam Gertrude Yentumi expressed gratitude to the Member of Parliament for the kind gesture.

She disclosed that for the short period she has been in the Municipality, she witnessed the handing over of a well-furnished CHIPS compound at Mognori, the Renovation of a CHPS Compound at Achubunyo, the construction of a new CHPS compound at Kadendelempa and the renovation and drilling of a borehole at the Municipal Health Directorate all initiated by the MP.

Madam Gertrude pointed out that transportation has been identified as an essential need and a vital for the delivery of health service.

She added that, the availability of a reliable transport will impact on the ability of a person to access appropriate and well-coordinated health care.

"As a service, we preach universal health care, but this can never be achieved without transport and in our case motor bikes. that is why we don't take these gestures lightly at all," she said.

She further explained that, in the past, their transportation challenges made it difficult to reach all communities in need of basic health.
Ten persons who were allegedly involved in the violent clashes that resulted in the death of one Alhassan at Bonsaso have been remanded into police custody by the Tarkwa Magistrate Court B.

The court presided over by His Lordship, Isaac Osei Asare, did not take the plea of the suspects.

They were charged with murder, causing damage and possession of offensive weapons and will reappear before the court on Tuesday, April 5, 2021.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Olivia Ewurabena Adiku, Western Regional Police Public Affairs Officer, disclosed this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency.

She said two out of the four suspects, Ransford Sarfo, 31, and Issah Adama, 30, who sustained injuries and were receiving treatment at the Tarkwa government hospital have been discharged and arrested to assist investigations.

Alhassan Issaka, 34, was still on admission at Tarkwa government hospital, while Awal Mohammed,39, has been referred to the Effia Nkwanta Regional hospital for further medical attention, DSP Adiku stated.

It would be called on March 23, 2022, at about 1600 hours, the Tarkwa Police received information that some groups were fighting at the Bonsaso toll booth area, hence a team of police officers and men were dispatched to the scene.

On arrival, the team took the injured persons to the hospital to seek medical attention and deposited the body of the deceased at the Tarkwa government hospital mortuary for post-mortem examination.

The team later found a Madza pick up with registration number GN 401-19, with the windscreen broken, two foreign pistols, three used BB cartridges, three pairs of scissors and two jackknives.

A Toyota Corolla saloon car with registration number GN 8700-13 was also found abandoned at Wassa Agona on the Tarkwa Agona Nkwanta highway.

The vehicles together with the other items were impounded to assist the police in their investigations and the suspects were apprehended for their alleged involvement in the violent attacks.

GNA
Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, Education Minister, says government's agenda to promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics education is to increase the Science to Humanities ratio from the current 40:60 to 60:40.

The Minister said the Government's priority in STEM education was part of Ghana's reform project to reposition the educational system to equip learners with the 21st-century skills to be fit for purpose.

The STEM agenda is also to prepare the critical mass of empowered Ghanaians for socioeconomic transformation and become active participants in the 4th Industrial Revolution.

This was in a speech read by Reverend John Ntim Fordjour, the Deputy Minister of Education for the Minister on Monday to mark International Day of Mathematics and the launch of Africa Africa Institute for Mathematical Sciences, (AIMS) Ghana.

The programme was on the theme: " Mathematics Unite." Government in January 2022, cut the sod for the construction of a STEM School in Accra to reorient the educational system to focus more on Science and Technology.

Dr Adutwum said the Government had allocated land for the construction of girls STEM Senior High School (SHS) in Kpone Katamanso, Accra to be affiliated with the AIMS.

The project, the Minister said, was part of the 11 model state-of-the art STEM SHS being built across the country to be equipped with 12 laboratories and a STEM pathway established in some existing SHS with four laboratories.

Dr Adutwum said no country could develop without a Mathematics background, stressing that, the course was the bedrock of the socio-economic transformation of an economy.

Dr Prince Koree Osei, Centre President, AIMS Ghana, said the Institute since its inception in 2012 had graduated over 300 students from 25 African countries out of which 33 per cent were females.

The Institute, he said, had built a research capacity for Africans in Pure and Applied Mathematics, stressing that the programmes were in line with the core objectives of UNESCO Category II Centre of Excellence and AIMS Global Network.

He said AIMS Ghana and the University of Energy and Natural Resources in June 2021 signed a Memorandum of Understanding towards the implementation of the Climate Change and Atmospheric Physics Programme.

He said the Institute had introduced a Master's training programme for Mathematics teachers on the applications and models of the course.

That, he said, would help the teachers to be innovative and creative to teach the students for better comprehension.

He commended Government and development partners for the support to the Institute.

Mr Abdourahamane Diallo, Head, UNESCO Office, Ghana, said the study of Mathematics was essential in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals because it empowered people and opened up new opportunities.

UNESCO, he said, was committed to supporting the country's educational system for sustained development.

Ahead of the commemoration of the day, AIMS Ghana launched its 10th-anniversary celebrations on Monday, March 14.

The Chief Operations Officer for the Centre, Ms Adelaide Asante, lauded all stakeholders, including partner institutions, ministries and industry, for their active participation in discussions surrounding Mathematics and its Applications in Africa.

She said the theme for the IDM celebration, Mathematics Unites was befitting, especially because, after a decade of making an impact and bringing students together from diverse backgrounds to contribute to scientific excellence in the Mathematical Sciences, the Centre had undergone a massive transformation, recording many milestones.

Notable among them was AIMS Ghana's rise to the position of a UNESCO Category II Centre of Excellence in 2018.

Since its inception in 2012, AIMS Ghana has graduated more than 400 students from 27 African countries, 33 per cent of whom are females.

The Pan- African Institute has built a research capacity for Africans in Pure and Applied Mathematics and remains an icon in contributing to scientific transformation in both academia and industry.

The programmes of AIMS are in line with the core objectives of UNESCO Category II Centre of Excellence and AIMS Global Network.

As part of the year-long celebration, there will be an Alumni Homecoming and a Public Lecture in honour of the patron/founder of the Centre - the late Professor Francis K. Allotey.

The 10th-anniversary logo was unveiled at the ceremony.

GNA
The Reverend Father Raguel Quansah, the Assistant Parish Priest, St Kizito Catholic Church, Nima has called on Catholics to be patient and not burn their opportunities for temporal happiness.

He said patience was key in every Christian life as it allowed humans to wait for God and have trust for His breakthrough in our lives.

"Let us not think that there are no good things in the Catholic Church because if you rush in life, you will fall," he said.

The Reverend Fr Quansah made the call on Sunday in his sermon on the Catholic Gospel Reflection for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year C.

Touching on the lessons from the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15: 1- 3, 11-32, the Clergyman admonished Christians on the need to convert from their sins because "Jesus is coming soon."

There are three stages of conversion- realisation, returning and restoration, Reverend Fr Quansah stated in order to receive God's salvation.

He explained that the prodigal son came to the point of realisation that, what he did was wrong, approached his father and asked for forgiveness, and was warmly welcomed with love and care.

"As Christians and for that matter Catholic faithful, once we come to the realisation that sin is not good, it is important for us to change for the better," he said.

The Rev Fr. Quansah said the prodigal son after realising his faults, returned to his Father for forgiveness.

The Father of the prodigal son, the Clergyman stressed, received the son wholeheartedly and organised a feast for him.

He urged Christians to emulate the gesture of the Father of the prodigal son saying "If we embrace those who have sinned against us, then we will have a peaceful home".

Rev Father Quansah said the prodigal son after returning to the Father for forgiveness, was restored from his burden.

"We need to reconcile with God, ourselves and brothers and sisters for restoration anytime we recognise and acknowledge our sins and return to God."

The Reverend Fr. urged Catholics to eschew all forms of envy as did by the elder brother of the prodigal son to receive the grace of God.

"We should not rejoice in somebody's sadness. Let us not harden our hearts, but rejoice with people and be happy for their conversion," he said.

GNA
The President of the Republic, H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has announced that the wearing of face masks is no longer mandatory.

The wearing of nose masks is one of the many mandatory safety protocols put in place by the government to combat the spread of the Coronavirus (Covid-19).

After two years, government has decided to review the Covid -19 protocols.

Addressing the nation on Sunday, March 27, 2022, President Akufo-Addo noted that effective March 28, 2022, the wearing of face masks is no longer mandatory.

From tomorrow, Monday, 28th March 2022, the wearing of face masks is no longer mandatory. I encourage all of you though to continue to maintain enhanced hand hygiene practices and avoid overcrowded gatherings, the president announced.

While all in-person activities in places of worship, conferences, and cinemas can also resume operation at full capacity, H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo stressed that organisers must ensure that participants are fully vaccinated.

All in-person activities such as those that take place in churches, mosques, conferences, workshops, private parties, and events, cinemas, and theaters may resume full capacities as long as the audience is fully vaccinated.

Handwashing and hand sanitizing points should be made available at these venues, President Akufo-Addo noted.

According to information on the Ghana Health Service dashboard, Ghanas active Covid cases stand at 71.

No Covid-19 patient is in critical condition.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has indicated that his government is implementing policies that will fast-track the growth of Ghanas economy.

He said the policies will also create jobs for the teeming unemployed youth in the country.

Speaking to Ghanaians in his 28th address to the nation on measures taken to stop the spread of the Coronavirus, the president assured the general public that very soon, the challenged economy will bounce back from the ravages of the global pandemic.

President Akufo-Addo said he has no doubt Ghanas economy will overcome the difficulties it currently faces through the help of every citizen.

As your President, I assure you that, sooner rather than later, our economy will rebound from the ravages of COVID-19.

The policies we are implementing will, with your active support, help grow the economy at a much faster rate, help create jobs for the youth, and help us overcome the difficulties we are faced with. This too shall pass!! For the Battle is still the Lords, President Akufo-Addo said in his address on Sunday, March 27, 2022.

The President further appealed to the citizenry to join hands, work hard, and help put the economy back onto the path of progress and prosperity.

Meanwhile, due to the strides chalked by the government in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, it has effective Monday, March 28, 2022, reopened the countrys land and sea borders.

In addition, the wearing of face masks is no longer mandatory.
Twelve journalists have died in Ukraine since the war broke out a month ago, Attorney General Iryna Venediktova said late Saturday on her Facebook page.

Another ten reporters were injured in the course of the fighting, she added.

"Telling the world the truth about Putin's aggression is deadly - 12 journalists have already died in the war," she wrote.

According to Venediktova, the reporters were killed by the Russian military. This information could not be verified independently.

According to investigations so far, at least 56 media representatives have been attacked, including 15 foreigners.

Venediktova said the foreign journalists who were attacked included reporters from Britain, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.

An American, an Irishman and a Russian journalist were killed.

GNA
HELENA, Mont. - Montanans from across the state gathered at the Capitol Building Saturday to partake in a freedom rally.

The protest was organized by several local groups, Montana Family Rights Alliance, Big Sky Liberty and was hosted as well as organized by protest leader, Jeremy Mygland, a resident of Clancy.

This is about standing for our freedoms that have been given and taken awaymost recently theyre just taken away, said Mygland

Protestors marched around the Capitol Building, with music and cheering as they exercised their rights and liberties.

The Peoples Convoy, known widely as the MAGA Convoy, has been making their way from Capital-to-Capital in various states, protesting things like mask mandates and legislation reform.

One member of the Convoy, Shawn McIntosh, a truck driver from Oklahoma who will hit the road this evening and keep heading east to Springfield, Illinois, stated, Were here fighting for everybodys freedom. Everybody. This is not a partisan fight, I dont care if youre Democrat/Republican, race has nothing to do with it at all, matter of fact, I dont care if youre purple with pink eyebrows, if youre an American Citizen, you ought to out to be out here standing up with us.

Some of the Convoy rally members will soon hit the road to Washington D.C. to continue their protest about partisanship, constitutional rights, liberties and speaking-out about their views of recent hindered free speech, constitutional rights, mask mandates and limited government.

A Helena resident and Republican House 79 campaigner, Dennison Rivera, shared his thoughts on the rally and why he felt the demonstration was necessary.

I am a conservative who believes we must have limited Government. And what does that mean, limited government? Well, I believe the Government shouldnt be involved in our personal decisions, when it comes to whether its our health or whether its what we can own, whether we should have our businesses open, or whether we should wear a mask or not," said Rivera.
Moultrie, GA (31768)

Today

Cloudy in the morning, then thunderstorms developing later in the day. A few storms may be severe. High 83F. Winds SW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Widely scattered showers or a thunderstorm early. Then partly cloudy. A few storms may be severe. Low 64F. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
Beijing's key pollution reading down 33 percent in Jan-Feb

Xinhua) 08:06, March 27, 2022

Photo taken with a mobile phone shows a view of Big Air Shougang, a venue for Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 16, 2022. (Xinhua/Chen Yehua)

BEIJING, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Beijing saw the reading for a primary air-pollution index fall 33.3 percent year on year in the first two months of this year, official data showed.

The city's average concentration of PM2.5 was 34 micrograms per cubic meter in the January-February period, said the Beijing municipal ecology and environment bureau.

The city reported no severely polluted days in the two months.

During the Beijing Winter Olympics period from Feb. 4 to 20, the city's average PM2.5 reading stood at 23 micrograms per cubic meter.

The PM2.5 reading is a gauge monitoring airborne particles of 2.5 microns or less in diameter, which can penetrate deep into people's lungs and pose serious health risks.

Beijing made a breakthrough in its air pollution control last year as the city reached the national air quality standard. The city's average concentration of PM2.5 was 33 micrograms per cubic meter in 2021, the lowest level since records began in 2013.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Bianji)
At the Kiosku Round House in Chalan Kanoa on Friday, Master of Arts and Culture Eusebio Camacho Borja, 4th right, poses for a photo with, from left, Saipan and Northern Islands Municipal Council Secretary Daniel I. Aquino, Vice Chair Antonia M. Tudela and Chairwoman Ana Demapan-Castro. Also in the photo are Eusebio's wife Margarita and daughters, Ann Margaret and Rose Marie
Guam police are searching for a man who used a baseball bat to bash through the glass doors of Blueberry Mart in Malojloj and stole cash from the register Friday afternoon.
An outdoor fire grew from 10 acres to 400 acres in the Loris area, Horry County Fire Rescue reported Sunday morning.

The fire is currently contained.

Fire officials were dispatched to an outside fire about 2:50 p.m. Saturday in the area of Watts Road in Loris. The county issued a burn ban Friday, which is still in effect until further notice.

The South Carolina Forestry Commission and Loris Fire Department are assisting on the call as officials work to contain the fire.

HCFR reports no injuries or damaged structures at this time.

Check back for updates.
Hey everyone, dont accept anything from me. Its not me!

How many times has a message like this come across your social media feed? A researcher at Southern Illinois University Carbondale is working on technologies to stop sock puppet requests that can lead to profile hacking, identity theft and other havoc for social media users.

Sajedul Talukder, assistant professor in SIUs School of Computing and director of the Security and Privacy Enhanced Machine Learning Lab, has received a $158,000 grant from the National Science Foundations Computer and Information Science and Engineering Research Initiative to investigate ways to prevent sock puppet connection requests, which are false online identities and user accounts created for deceptive purposes.

Talukder aims to build a digital framework rooted in cognitive psychology, user-centric research and machine learning methods to defend against such accounts and requests in online social networks. The work will begin in April and last at least two years.

In 2019, identity theft cost victims almost $17 million. The work could not only help prevent identity theft but also cut down on fake accounts that push propaganda during ongoing conflicts, such as currently in Ukraine, and a hostile governments attempts to influence American politics.

Social media sites generate revenue with targeted advertising, using personal information to hone and deliver such messaging. The more info you provide, the better targeted the ads, but that also means crooks have more opportunities than ever to steal identities or perpetrate fraud.

Attackers often use connection relations on social media to access private and sensitive user data, post false or abusive information, or scam and influence the perceptions of victims, Talukder said. People who actively use social media are 30% more likely to be affected by identity fraud.

The massive growth of social media usage has incentivized perpetrators to connect to users through identity deception, which is often successful due to the lack of adequate verification of declared information, Talukder said.

Talukders goal is to significantly expand the understanding of identity deception and abuse in online social networks, and design and build ways to defeat those types of attacks. The first steps involve developing survey instruments and user studies to investigate the pending connection decisions, motivations and behaviors in online social networks.

Sock puppets are automatic or semi-automatic profiles that mimic human profiles. Fake profiles or their operators send requests to follow or friend social media users, who often accept them. If a user has friends in common with the fake account, for instance, the chance of accepting the request is 80%.

Other times, a fake profile is created to essentially duplicate a users online presence. Such attacks, called identity clone attacks, are devised to collect personal information and direct online fraud.

But fake accounts can still be detected by examining characteristics such as profile history, posting frequency, posting pattern, profile age, befriending pattern and like/follow patterns. Ultimately, the researchers will develop an app platform aimed at collecting detailed, baseline truth behavior data from social network users based on those characteristics.

The underlying assumption is that the behavior of a true profile would be different than that of a fake one. In order to devise mechanisms for identifying and eliminating fake accounts on a near real-time basis, we need to collect the truth behavior data that will help us to differentiate between fake and real ones, Talukder said.

Talukder will use his findings to create a pending connection decision classifier for Facebook, which will route suspicious connection attempts to a spam folder. The researchers will combine sock puppet education and motivation in developing this new interface, which will reduce clutter and cognitive load for users by displaying each pending friend request on a single screen, with a large, centrally-placed profile photo.

When the user taps on the profile photo of a pending friend, a screen that includes the profile summary of the pending friend will appear. Users can navigate their pending friend list using the next and previous buttons on the sides of the profile photo.

Further, the interface will transform the Confirm button into an inhibitive attractor, by displaying it in the same gray color as the Delete button. To address the case where the user does not feel comfortable making a decision, we also will include a Skip button shown in the same gray color, Talukder said.

Getting into the minds of both sock puppeteers and their victims will allow researchers to address the dynamic that exists between them, Talukder said.

The work not only will enhance the understanding of just-in-time motivations and behaviors related to social network risks, he said, but it will also help sociologists gain deeper insights from underexplored social and spatial dimensions provided by social networks in order to test relevant theories.

As the founding director of SIUs Security and Privacy Enhanced Machine Learning Lab, Talukder and his group develop protective systems with machine-learning, artificial intelligence applications. Soaring demand for privacy research has crowded this field in recent years, but the NSFs efforts have a top reputation for funding only the most promising research. In addition to his recent grant, Talukder also has received funding from the NSFs Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace program.

These types of grants are extremely competitive, Talukder said. The NSF has recognized my efforts at SIU as an emerging leader in this area of research.

This latest grant will pay for survey work and user studies that will help the researchers develop apps, collect data and build solutions. The grant also will support several new doctoral students, along with existing graduate students, working with Talukder in SIUs School of Computing.
Kaitlyn Anderson in Branson for an annual Girls kick-off Christmas trip, about five days before the accident.
Accounts of a person flying around the Los Angeles International Airport wearing a jet pack has caused a buzz this week, but San Antonio had a more under-the-radar situation happen a few months ago.

Logan Puente and his friends Brianna Chacon, Michael Oldbucher and Ashton Simeon all spotted what they believe was a "floating man" rocketing into the air using a jet pack near the Hamilton Wolfe jogging trail on June 10 at 9:10 p.m. Puente went to the San Antonio Reddit page soon after, hoping to find others who had seen the same thing. The post generated a healthy amount of interaction, but only one other person, who said they were at the Starbucks on Fredericksburg, said they saw the flying person too.

RELATED: Video captures removal of 'absolutely' venomous snake from beneath New Braunfels home

Months later, attention surrounding the Reddit post is skyrocketing again. Puente says he believes it's due to the heightened interested in jet packs brought on by the recent Los Angeles incident.

"There was just this dude flying around," Puente remembered. "I initially thought my friend (Simeon) was joking."

He said the flight path lasted about 1o minutes. Puente said he and his group saw the person shoot up in to the sky, then lingered at the highest altitude for a few minutes before descending.

Considering their proximity to a graveyard, Puente said his friends thought they had seen some sort of ghostly apparition.

"We were dumbfounded, we thought we were hallucinating," he added.

Puente believes an open field near the San Antonio Medical Foundation is the spot where the mysterious jet packer was launching from. He plans on returning to see if he can spot him or her again.

The witness said he reached out to the city's aviation department, but has not heard back.

RELATED: Airline crews report jetpack flier near Los Angeles airport

Meanwhile in Los Angeles, the FBI has launched an investigation into the incident at LAX after multiple pilots reported seeing a man in a jet pack flying near their planes, which is illegal, according to ABC.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the report was turned over to the Los Angeles Police Department, but authorities have not found the California jet packer, ABC reported.

The FAA also told ABC reports of unmanned aircraft sightings have increased "dramatically" over the past two years.

Unlike the San Antonio incident, the Los Angeles stunt has caused a stir online, especially on Twitter.

"full disclosure: i didnt even know jetpacks were a real thing," Twitter user @DavidWaldstein said.

Others chalked the oddity up to just being a part of 2o20.

"Carole Baskin on Dancing with the Stars? A man flying via Jetpack? 2020 bingo is getting even stranger in the 4th quarter," user @shelby_young said.

Madalyn Mendoza covers news and puro pop culture for MySA.com | mmendoza@mysa.com | @maddyskye
For those needing an escape from the hustle and bustle of city life, look no further than the hills of Horseshoe Bay. The park, originally zoned for multi-family use, has become the perfect outdoor getaway.

"It's a very unique geological area. The property is pretty much undisturbed from it's native landscape," said Vicki Adcock, master naturalist and board member of Horseshoe Bay Nature Park Inc. "The community has been very generous. That's really how the park came together because it's not a city park."

Photos by Gabriel Romero

HSB Park Inc. President Steve Jordan spoke with the mayor of Horseshoe Bay in 2019 and got the project moving. John W. Smith was going to purchase the property across the street from where the current park sits. After a conversation between Jordan and Smith, the idea of creating the land into a nature park was born.

HSB Park Inc., a 501c3 nonprofit, raised over $600,000 for the park's first two phases. The next big project for the nature park is interpretive signage that will detail park elements, animals and plants. The park features eight ecological zones with different rocks, plants, wildlife habitats, and topography.

Photos by Gabriel Romero

The 11-acre Horseshoe Bay Nature Park has a half mile walking loop and trail markers where people can go off the path to reach benches and relax. The benches and markers are placed throughout the park and lead to spots where people can see birds and hear animals rustling around in the tall grass.

The organization planted new wildflowers and grass seeds for prairie restoration. There are strategically placed wildlife brush piles for birds and smaller animals to create nests. Bird houses are throughout the park and a specially designed Chimney Swift Tower is ready to be called home. Chimney Swift birds only build their nests on the sides of walls.

Photos by Gabriel Romero

The park is an active conservation and restoration site that provides education for children and parents alike. There are QR codes on the park maps that lead park-goers to more activities for kids to do at the park that includes a birding guide and a scavenger hunt. A spacious observation deck overlooks the trail and Adcock say the next step is to have school classes visit the area and use the observation deck as a classroom for learning about the nature in the park.

Elizabeth McGreevy, LandStewart.net ecological planner, created the Horseshoe Bay Nature Parks master plan. The development, design, and construction was done by Twistleaf, an Austin-based "full-service landscape design-build studio focused on ecological restoration."

"My favorite part of the park is the geology here is really interesting. We were able to use native rock to build into the trail," said Sarah Yant, Twistleaf principal. "After all the time we spent on this park, I just can't imagine there being 200 condos here. As much development that is happening, it's great to see not everything is changing."

Photos by Gabriel Romero

Instead of tearing out dead trees, called "snags," park organizers left them because multiple animals and insects benefit from the trees. Bird watchers can hit the trail and see different native birds behind the bird blind. The area sits just above a neighboring pond. Birds can be seen diving from the sky into the pond, just barely skimming the water. There are two bee hives at the park that will house colonies of bees and hopefully help people understand that bees are endangered and not to be feared.

"One thing that we didn't know about the project was the migratory bird population funnels through North America down Central Texas. So, they come right through here," Yant says. "And monarch butterflies, it is actually super unique."

Horseshoe Bay Nature Park is open from sunrise to sunset every day and is located at 1514 Golden Nugget Horseshoe Bay, TX 78657.

Corrections: The article previously listed Twistleaf as the sole designer for the project. Yant's name was previously misspelled as Yent. The Chimney Swift Tower was incorrectly named as Chimney Swift Box. The land was zoned for multi-family use, not condominiums as the article described. The article also had HSB Park, Inc. as HSB Inc, and Twistleaf was incorrectly named Twistleaf Land Design.
UPDATE 5:57 p.m.: The Texas A&M Forest Service reports that the Das Goat Fire containment has dropped to 20 percent and the acreage has increased to 958 acres, an increase of over 100 acres from around 4 p.m.

UPDATE 4:28 p.m.: The evacuation for residents north and northeast areas of the fire has been changed to a voluntary order.

Original story follows below with updated information.

The Medina County Office of Emergency Management has issued an evacuation order as it tries to get a wildfire under control near Medina Lake.

The county and the National Weather Service issued the mandatory evacuation order around 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 26 for all residents in including the lakeside town of Mico.

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Courtesy Jerry Ellis Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Ronald Cortes / Contributor Show More Show Less 3 of 3





The warning says that all residents east of County Road 271, west of the Medina River, and south of Farm to Market Road 1283 must evacuate now.

Residents north and northeast areas of the fire near Medina Lake are now under a voluntary evacuation order, including Summit Ridge, Bear Springs Ranch, Ranchland Oaks, Medina Oaks and Laurel Canyon subdivisions. The alert reminds residents that it is a dangerous situation.

Residents can go to a shelter Loma Alta Middle School off Potranco Road at 266 County Road 381 S.

The fire, dubbed the "Das Goat Fire," is currently covering 850 acres and is only 60 percent contained, according to Texas Wildfire Incident Response System.

A Red Flag warning was issued by the National Weather Service on Saturday morning through 8 p.m. due to relative humidity dropping into the teens, wind gusts up to 25 miles per hour, and hot temperatures.

We will continue to follow this developing story.
Greg Casar is trying to get into a cumbia show, but he cant seem to get to the door. The congressional candidate is walking down a busy East Austin street, made even busier since were halfway through South by Southwest and the sidewalk is crammed with festivalgoers. Though SXSW attracts tens of thousands of out-of-towners, judging how often Casar is stopped by passersby, weve clearly hit a patch of locals.

Greg Casar! In the streets!, a woman shouts. The 32-year-old former Austin city councilman stops and smiles enthusiastically as he shakes her hand. The woman introduces the rest of her four-person group, including her brother and his partner. Theyre moving to Texas soon, the woman adds conspiratorially. After taking a group picture, the foursome walks away and Casar makes it a few more steps towards the entrance before a man leaning on a motorcycle calls out. The motorcycle man is San Antonio musician Rudy Diaz whose band Bombasta is scheduled to play inside later that night. He and Casar chat for a few minutes, and before parting ways, the two take a photo together. Its one of many Casar will take over the course of the evening, culminating with a picture alongside musician Phoebe Bridgers that goes viral.

Though its only day five of SXSW, its been a busy festival for Casar. On March 13, he spoke at SXSW about creating policy change through social movements alongside Maurice Mitchell and Tania Unzueta Carrasco. Afterwards, his fellow panelists wanted to go to a honky-tonk, so Casar took them to Sagebrush, a dive bar in far South Austin. Along the way hes caught shows, high-fived, snapped pictures, and shook hands with many, many constituents.

Chris Saucedo/Getty Images for SXSW

If it feels like a victory lap, it is. Its only been a few weeks since Casar handedly won the Democratic primary for Texas 35th Congressional district, and though were still months away from the November election, hes forecast to win the Democratic stronghold. In its analysis of the March 1 primary, the New York Times said his nomination all but ensur[es] a win in the general election, and earlier tonight, during a town hall with gubernatorial candidate Beto ORourke in East Austin, Casar was referred to as the next congressman from Texas. (His opponent is still unknown, and will be decided in a runoff between Dan McQueen and Michael Rodriguez.)

Chris Stokes/MySA

Hes not quite ready to say the race is over. Theres no guarantee of whats next. [We have to] let the voters judge, he says, as we settle into a back table with a pair of Lone Star tallboys. Weve finally made our way inside Hotel Vegas, but only after being stopped by yet another fan and exchanging knowing fist bumps with the security guards.

Still, as he sits there holding court, there is a feeling tonight that his congressional win is guaranteed. After seven years on Austin City Council, Casar has reached this level of celebrity in Travis County, becoming the kind of progressive that inspires cheers from the left and ire from the right with every move. Fans snap secret photos and post it to their Instagram like a dorky Deux Moi. Articles that are written about him inspire days-long social media conversations that usually devolve into grossness.

His name recognition was enough to garner 73 percent of the vote in Travis. It was not, however, the same case in Bexar County, where he carried just 46 percent of the vote to Rebecca Viagrans 30 percent. When I ask about this, Casar, ever an optimist, still classifies it as a win before quickly following up that hes splitting his time equally between San Antonio and Austin.

Katie Friel for MySA Katie Friel for MySA Greg Casar at a town hall for gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke on March 16. Afterwards, Casar was greeted by supporters, including one woman who burst into tears. Katie Friel for MySA

During the ramp up to the March 1 primary, the Democrats tossed their heaviest hitters behind his campaign, including endorsements from Bernie Sanders, Ayanna Pressley, and Pramila Jayapal, chair of the House of Representatives Progressive Caucus, and events with Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, both of whom flew into Texas to hold personal appearances.

Katie Friel for MySA

If elected, he will be among the youngest members of congress, and Casar notes that both he and Ocasio-Cortez are members of the the 1989 club, a reference to both their love of Taylor Swift and the year they were born. Once inside the U.S. Capitol, Casar says his priorities will be passing the Equality Act, protecting Roe v. Wade, crafting immigration reform, and eliminating student debt, the kind of progressive agenda in congress causes conservatives to kick up dust and FOX News talking heads to screech into the abyss.

Its also the kind of agenda that has placed outspoken progressive congresswomen like Ocasio-Cortez, Pressley, and Cori Bush in real danger. When I ask if hes nervous about facing similar attacks, Casar makes a joke and deflects. If he is concerned, he doesnt show it. Nothing, it seems, is going to rain on his parade.

Katie Friel for MySA

And all of that is in the future, past the Republican runoff, past the November general election. Tonight, Casars fiance has just made her way into the venue and the pair want to dance while Bombasta is on stage. After a few turns around the dancefloor, theyll head to the Mohawk where he will be asked by Phoebe Bridger to speak to the sold-out crowd. (That video too goes viral.)

As Bombasta hits their next song, Casar grabs his partners hand and the pair put down their drinks and head onto the packed dance floor. Its hot and sticky with barely any room to move, but Casar is all smiles as he disappears into the crowd.
Dear patient readers,

Lambert and I, and many readers, agree that Ukraine has prompted the worst informational environment ever. We hope readers will collaborate in mitigating the fog of war  both real fog and stage fog  in comments. None of us need more cheerleading and link-free repetition of memes; there are platforms for that. Low-value, link-free pom pom-wavers will be summarily whacked.

And for those who are new here, this is not a mere polite request. We have written site Policies and those who comment have accepted those terms. To prevent having to resort to the nuclear option of shutting comments down entirely until more sanity prevails, as we did during the 2015 Greek bailout negotiations and shortly after the 2020 election, we are going to be ruthless about moderating and blacklisting offenders.

Yves

P.S. Also, before further stressing our already stressed moderators, read our site policies:

Please do not write us to ask why a comment has not appeared. We do not have the bandwidth to investigate and reply. Using the comments section to complain about moderation decisions/tripwires earns that commenter troll points. Please dont do it. Those comments will also be removed if we encounter them.

P.P.S. One of our mods is on holiday till the end of the month, so comment liberation may take longer than usual. We are very sorry! Please be patient.

* * *

Earth Has a 27.5-Million-Year Heartbeat, But We Have No Idea What Causes It Science Alert

Mother duck hatches eggs at Florida hospitals maternity center UPI (JB).

Deutsche Bank Fired Senior Bankers Over Strip Club Bill Bloomberg

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The Latecomers Guide to Crypto NYT

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Syraqistan
Lambert here: Big Oil? Surely not.

By Stella Levantesi, an Italian climate journalist, photographer and author. Her work has been published in The New Republic, Nature Italy, Wired Italy, and the Center for Investigative Journalism in Puerto Rico, among others. Originally published at DeSmog.

When Russia invaded Crimea, the EU and United States issued a joint statement stressing the importance of promoting U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports for Europe. It was 2014 and American gas would save Europe from being dependent on Russian gas imports.

Eight years later, Russia again invaded Ukraine on February 24. Europe still imports more than 40 percent of its gas from Russia, and the American fossil fuel industry is still pushing the U.S. government to implement policies that ensure long-term American energy leadership and security, as the American Petroleum Institute wrote in a February 28 letter to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Its time to change the course and return America to its dominant role in global energy, read another letter that Republican members of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources sent to President Joe Biden several days later.

These are just two examples of the wider trend of the fossil fuel industry and its allies using the crisis as a proxy to expand U.S. energy exports, said Julieta Biegner, U.S. campaign and communications officer for Global Witness. Weve seen a PR blip of executives and representatives [from the fossil fuel industry] claiming that the U.S. can come to Europes rescue.

APIs @mj_sommers sent a letter to @SecGranholm @ENERGY outlining a list of concrete policy solutions that the administration could immediately implement to ensure long-term American energy leadership and security. Full letter below: pic.twitter.com/q6z8ElKXzM  American Petroleum Institute (@APIenergy) March 1, 2022

Ukrainian environmental lawyer and climate change strategist Svitlana Romanko calls this peace washing. Many fossil fuel companies are doing it today, she explained, and the profits that they are making are really huge.

In Europe, oil and gas companies are profiting off higher energy prices, and in the United States, Big Oil CEOs are billions of dollars richer than they were at the start of the Biden administration. Since the war became inevitable, they have sold shares in their companies worth millions of dollars, a recent analysis found. And now they are using windfall profits to get richer. As a result, members of Congress have proposed a windfall profits tax on Big Oil, an idea supported by a new campaign, Stop the Oil Profiteering. The proceeds of a windfall tax would be used to provide relief from higher gas prices.

Not only are Western fossil fuel companies cashing in on this global crisis  which is not new  they also played a critical role in getting Putin to this point, Jamie Henn, director of Fossil Free Media, said. Theres no way that Putin would be in the position he is to launch this terrible war and invasion, if it wasnt for the profits that come from fossil fuels, Henn added. And thats the terrible irony of this moment  that oil and gas companies helped create this crisis.

Here we go! Today were launching a new campaign to Stop The Oil Profiteering! Big Oil shouldnt be making billions from crises they helped create. Join us and lets #StopBigOil: https://t.co/ZnCUEK9jst pic.twitter.com/WGnh3juCl9  Stop The Oil Profiteering (@StopBigOil) March 17, 2022

BP, Exxon, Shell, Equinor, Eni  many of the major fossil fuel companies  have all had long-standing stakes in Russian gas. It took pressure from the whole world seeing Putins horrific international law and human rights abuse, Romanko said, for most of them to publicly announce they would pull out of their stakes in Rosneft, Gazprom, or other joint ventures. According to Climate Investigations Center founder and director Kert Davies, continued involvement was a reputational risk too big even for these companies.

Davies underscored how crucial it is that people understand these companies investments in Russia have been long-term. In an article tracking Exxons ties to Russia, Davies highlighted how, in 1982, although President Reagan was against gas pipelines from Russia to Europe, Exxon, Shell, and BP were planning to use Soviet gas to fuel their own supplies.

Today, for fossil fuel companies doing everything they can to delay the energy transition, gas is a lifeline, Biegner said, and tying gas to the war is just another attempt to keep the energy source alive. The fossil fuel industry has a long history of pushing the flawed narrative that natural gas, is a bridge fuel, that is, a fuel that is clean or cleaner than coal and will help get us to a lower-carbon future.

Gas is not as easily transportable as oil. In fact, until LNG technologies came along, it could only be moved by pipelines  which is how a vast amount of Russias gas is still distributed to EU countries. Pipelines further entrench energy dependence and are indicative of how susceptible gas is to being monopolized.

In 2019, more than a quarter of the EUs foreign crude oil, 41 percent of its natural gas, and 47 percent of its solid fuel  mostly coal  came from Russia. In 2021, the share of gas imports went up to around 45 percent and constituted around 40 percent of the EUs total gas consumption, with North Macedonia, Slovakia, Finland, Bulgaria, Germany, Italy and Poland among the European countries with the highest share of gas supply from Russia. Last year, oil and natural gas sales made up 36 percent of Russias total budget.

This is war profiteering. Oil execs are making massive profits off a crisis they helped create. #StopTheOilProfiteering https://t.co/4Yy8KJFrph  Jamie Henn (@jamieclimate) March 14, 2022

Putins war machine has been funded, fed, and fueled by the coal, oil, and gas industries for such a long time, Romanko said. [Russias] military buildup has been funded by the [money] it has received from fossil fuel exports and exploration.

Her words were echoed by climatologist and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) member Svitlana Krakovska, who was working on the final stages of the second part of the IPCCs Sixth Assessment Report when Putins invasion of Ukraine made it increasingly difficult for her team to finalize their work.

[Fossil fuels] are something without which this war would not be not possible, she said from her apartment in Kyiv, Ukraines capital, where she is staying in the midst of the ongoing war.

Since Putin invaded Ukraine, Europe has spent more than 17 billion euros on Russian oil, gas, and coal. Germany and Italy in particular are highly dependent on Russian gas and spent more than 14 billion and 10 billion respectively on it in 2021.

Russian gas exports arent only fundamental sources of revenue for Putins imperialism, they also have served as political tools, long strengthening Moscows influence over EU member states and other European countries that were formerly part of the Soviet Republic.

In the first week of March, in response to sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine, Russias government threatened to cut gas supplies to Europe via one of the existing pipelines, Bloomberg reported.

Putin has deliberately weaponized fossil gas to increase his existing energy dominance over the European Union and to threaten European nations that would come to Ukraines aid, Romanko said.

The industry that is now claiming to bail out Europe from dependence on Russian oil and gas, is the same industry that contributed to causing this crisis in the first place. In the United States, [oil and gas companies] are busy using their harem of congresspeople to grease the skids for ever more exploitation, Bill McKibben, environmentalist, author, and 350.org founder, wrote in an email to DeSmog.

On the day Russia invaded Ukraine, the American Petroleum Institute tweeted: As crisis looms in Ukraine, U.S. energy leadership is more important than ever. The tweet was accompanied by an image that reads Lets unleash American energy. In that thread, API also listed its demands to the Biden administration, including releasing permits for energy development on federal lands and reducing regulation.

As crisis looms in Ukraine, U.S. energy leadership is more important than ever. Here are four things the @WhiteHouse can do right now to ensure energy security at home and abroad. pic.twitter.com/oGEucyhCiE  American Petroleum Institute (@APIenergy) February 24, 2022

The patriotic argument, as Henn calls it, gets used in some European countries as well. In Italy, for example, there was a call by the government in February, which was backed by fossil fuel lobbies, to promote and prioritize Italian gas as a means of energy independence and a way to cut gas prices.

The fossil fuel industry and its allies are using Russias invasion of Ukraine to promote energy independence not only to politicians but also to ordinary Americans. I think one of the most powerful arguments the fossil fuel industry makes is that theyre inescapable, to make it feel like oil and gas are absolutely indispensable for how we live our lives, for how we power our economies, for how we create jobs, Henn added.

In early February, Energy Citizens, a manufactured astroturf movement masked as a grassroots effort and launched by the American Petroleum Institute (API) in 2009, began running a series of ads on Facebook that connected American fossil fuels with the idea of independence and security. American-made energy: keeping us more secure, read one; American-made natural gas and oil: crucial for our energy independence read another. Versions of these ads, paid for by API, are still running on Facebook.

The [oil and gas industry] is trying to wrap themselves in this patriotic flag, Henn said. And I think that takes place all around the world where the gas and oil industry likes to present itself as key to national security.

More than 600 organizations in 57 countries have signed a petition calling on political leaders to end global fossil fuel addiction that feeds Putins war machine, a demand that was led by Ukrainian activists at the beginning of March.

And on March 3, the International Energy Agency (IEA) put out a 10 point plan to reduce the EUs reliance on Russian natural gas. As well as calling for no new gas supply contracts with Russia, it also suggests accelerating new wind and solar projects, replacing gas boilers with heat pumps, and maximizing existing low-emissions energy sources.

A global energy crisis is emerging, triggered by Russias invasion of Ukraine. Our new 10-Point Plan to Cut Oil Use sets out practical actions to ease market strains & reduce pain from high prices. Explore the  actions  https://t.co/xMwEP1w9Kj pic.twitter.com/oNWKegM0YU  International Energy Agency (@IEA) March 18, 2022

According to Romanko, the IEA 10 points provide some good support. However, she said, what I dont like is that they are not using the language to end fossil fuel gas dependency, they are using language and numbers and arguments to only reduce dependence on Russian oil, gas, and coal.

She underscored the importance of governments abandoning Russian coal, oil, and gas but emphasized that the point isnt Russian gas versus American gas or any other countrys gas, its fossil fuels altogether.

We also dont want those fossil fuels from Russia to be replaced in international trade and investment by other countries reserves, she said, and suggested the creation of a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty to make all governments phase out of fossil fuels.

As some have argued, the war in Ukraine is not a war over energy resources, however it has everything to do with our ongoing addiction to oil and gas, Henn said.

Many conflicts around the world have been underscored by fossil fuels  in Iraq, Syria, South Sudan, and Nigeria fossil fuels have triggered violent conflicts. Angolas oil reserves have fueled conflict, corruption, and environmental damage. Similar dynamics have played out in other parts of the world.

And because oil and gas are traded on the global market, it doesnt really matter which country they come from. As long as we are reliant on oil and gas, well be reliant on Petrostates and well continue to fuel what were seeing from Putin and the ongoing climate crisis, Henn said.

Some European countries, including Germany and the Netherlands, have announced they will aim to speed up solar and wind energy projects in order to transition to clean energy and get off Russian gas. Others, like France, aim to end gas heater subsidies and support heat pumps instead.

We agree with Oleg Ustenko, advisor to @ZelenskyyUa  to further the cause of peace, its vital we speedily move away from reliance on #FossilFuels World leaders must place further sanctions on Russias fossil fuel industry now.

#FossilFuelsFundWarhttps://t.co/oo2Jt4jOP5 pic.twitter.com/cqnQrsEUZP  Global Witness (@Global_Witness) March 10, 2022

True energy independence would be based on renewable energy, Henn said. But its an independence based on a healthier interdependence.

I dont think the vision we should be promoting is everybody in their own little castle with their own solar panels and batteries and screw everybody else, Henn continued. We are going to rely on each other to create the energy, agricultural, and climate resilience systems [] we need to create healthy societies [] that share the values of human rights, sustainability, and clean energy, and put more power into the hands of local communities and people.

Romanko has also reiterated the need for distributed, affordable, community-led renewable energy.

Above all, its crucial to understand how deeply interlinked the climate crisis is with everything else. It is a common problem in Western media for the climate emergency to be compartmentalized  global warming, emissions, environmental exploitation only have to do with the environment or climate and nothing else.

The fact that the IPCC report came as the war started is only another reminder that we should tackle these problems [the climate crisis and the war] at the same time, Romanko said. They are undoubtedly interconnected  I make direct connections with a clean energy transition and, at the same time, climate justice.

The third part of the IPCC report, which will focus on mitigation, is set to be finalized in April. I have a dream, you know, Krakovska said from her apartment in Kyiv. During this last session of the IPCC, the war started. And I have a dream that during the next session of the IPCC the war will stop.

The climate crisis intersects politics, public health, economics, culture, social justice, geopolitics and many other spheres. Talking about it without underscoring these connections only reiterates one message: that the climate crisis has nothing to do with our lives, our health or even our survival. And thats just not true.

The climate crisis contains many other crises. But its solutions, inevitably, cannot be what caused it in the first place.

Fossil fuels, Romanko said, have become a weapon of mass destruction.
(Natural News) One of the biggest problems with the American system of government that is not a problem with the system itself but wasnt foreseen by our founders  and they didnt miss much  is the fact that over the course of our nations history, elected leaders evolved into political creatures who dont think beyond the next few months or, more often, the next 10 minutes.

Everything is in the moment. Everything is the narrative of the day. Its all about the here and now.

Such shortsightedness has turned U.S. political leaders into some of the most hypocritical on the planet, and Democrats, especially, have taken hypocrisy to an art form.

That includes Joe Biden, our current president.

As he and other North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) leaders complain about Russian forces turning Ukrainian cities into rubble and killing civilians, a video clip of Biden, then a U.S. senator from Delaware, bragging in the mid-1990s that he was responsible for proposing a NATO air campaign against Belgrade, Yugoslavia, that lasted 78 days and led to the deaths of civilians as well as the destruction of that citys infrastructure.

State media in Russia noted in a report this week that featured the footage: The head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, reposted the footage on his social media account, reminding the current U.S. President of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia that is estimated to have killed about 2,500 people, including 89 children.

Russian officials, meanwhile, utilized the clip to rail at Bidens rank hypocrisy after he labeled his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, a war criminal and a thug for invading Ukraine and targeting civilian centers. In addition, the clip is being widely distributed on Chinese social media.

Here it is: Mr. Foreign Policy Expert claiming credit during a Senate hearing for proposing the bombing campaign.

I was the one who suggested the bombing of Belgrade. I was who suggested to send American pilots and blow up all the bridges over the Danube..

Joe Biden, 1999 pic.twitter.com/NrkvmTqN33  Geo_monitor (@colonelhomsi) March 16, 2022

I suggested the bombing of Belgrade. I suggested that American pilots go there and destroy all bridges on the Drina, Biden said at the time.

The 78-day airstrikes campaign lasted from March 24-June 10, 1999. In addition, the NATO campaign continued through Serbias Easter, which is called Pacha, the holiest day of the Orthodox Christian year.

Its also noteworthy to remind readers that this campaign took place during President Bill Clintons presidency, as his impeachment was proceeding apace.

I was suggesting very specific action, Biden added while appearing to praise his own muscular response proposals which guided NATOs war against the Serbs.

Another event that occurred during this bombing campaign that has never been publicly explained was the bombing of Chinas embassy in Belgrade in May of that year. The attack killed and injured several Chinese citizens and journalists.

[W]e will never forget who had bombed our embassy in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. We need no lecture on justice from the abuser of international law, China noted in a message to the European Union, the U.S. and NATO.

China to NATO: [W]e will never forget who had bombed our embassy in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. We need no lecture on justice from the abuser of international law Wow.https://t.co/bMYHiEAPDo pic.twitter.com/FxK5e9GA1j  Nina ? Byzantina (@NinaByzantina) March 18, 2022

As a Cold War remnant and the worlds largest military alliance, NATO continues to expand its geographical scope and range of operations. What kind of role has it played in world peace and stability? NATO needs to have good reflection, the Chinese mission to the EU added.

The National Interest summarized the bombing of the Chinese embassy: Despite the seemingly extensive target vetting, on May 7 the Chinese embassy in Belgrade was struck by five Joint Directed Attack Munition satellite-guided bombs, delivered by U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit bombers. Three Chinese journalists  Shao Yunhuan of Xinhua, and Xu Xinghu and his wife Zhu Ying of the Guangming Daily  were killed in the attack. Twenty other Chinese nationals were injured, five seriously.

Biden, like most other Democrats, takes hypocrisy to new levels nearly on a daily basis.

Sources include:

SputnikNews.com

ZeroHedge.com

NationalInterest.org
(Natural News) At a recent emergency NATO summit, fake president Joe Biden rattled off casually about how massive energy and food shortages are soon going to be real in the United States because of his regimes anti-Russia sanctions.

The price of the sanctions is not just imposed upon Russia, Biden admitted. Its imposed upon an awful lot of countries as well, including European countries and our country as well  watch below:

Pres. Biden warns that food shortages are going to be real, saying the U.S. is working with European partners to end trade limitations on sending food abroad to help alleviate supply issues caused by Russian sanctions. https://t.co/GPN1kQDMMj pic.twitter.com/0nuN0LMfve  ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) March 24, 2022

Despite this, Biden still wants to send more of our limited food supply overseas to help alleviate the supply chain issues caused by his own sanctions. You really cannot make this stuff up.

Europes breadbasket disrupted by the war

Instead of fighting to make the U.S. more energy and food independent, Biden is working against national sovereignty while showing more concern for what is happening to non-Americans overseas.

The situation is dire throughout Europe as well, where Ukraine and Russia, two major producers of wheat and other grains, are already seeing disruptions to plantings and harvests due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

Were about to face massive energy and food shortages, and Bidens solution is to ban drilling and put expensive and inefficient solar panels and windmills on whats left of American farmland that hasnt been bought up by China or BlackRock, wrote The Federalists Sean Davis on Twitter.

Biden says he expects China to provide military assistance to Russia, posing this as a bad thing. Why, then, did he share intelligence about Russian military movements with China?

None of this adds up unless Biden wants there to be more aggression and more war, which increasingly appears to be the case even if his rhetoric stands contrary to that.

NATO issued a statement calling 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.

Biden added that he supports removing Russia from the Group of 20 (G20) as punishment for invading the country where he and his family do business.

It will ultimately be up to the G20 to make that decision, but Biden is urging the group to at least allow Ukraine to participate as an observer nation even if Russia is not removed.

My answer is yes, Biden said to a reporter when asked about his stance on booting Russia from the G20.

It depends on the G20. That was raised today, and I raised the possibility that, if that cant 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.

Back when Donald Trump was president at the beginning of the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) plandemic when shelves started to empty out, Biden tweeted about how America did not have a food shortage at that time, but rather a leadership problem.

Does that also mean that we have a leadership problem now?

Get ready for WW3, brought to you by the MIC (made in China) puppet masters, commented someone at Zero Hedge about where all of this is headed.

The latest news coverage about the ongoing global economic implosion can be found at Collapse.news.

Sources for this article include:

ZeroHedge.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) An investment firm headed up by fake president Joe Bidens son Hunter was a leading financial backer of a plandemic tracking and response company that was identifying and isolating deadly pathogens at bioweapons laboratories in Ukraine.

Hunters firm Rosemont Seneca Technology Partners (RSTP), a subsidiary of the Hunter Biden and Christopher Heinze-founded Rosemont Capital, received funding from Barack Hussein Obama through that regimes Department of Defense (DoD), The National Pulse confirmed.

Both Hunter Biden and Christopher Heinz, the stepson of former U.S. Secretary of State and current Biden regime climate czar John Kerry, are managing directors at RSTP.

Among the many companies listed in archived versions of RSTPs portfolio was Metabiota, a company that claims to detect, track and analyze emerging infectious diseases. Metabiota, as we reported, has been conducting biological experiments in Ukraine, Africa and elsewhere at the direction of the Pentagon.

RSTPs first round of funding came in 2015 to the tune of $30 million. Former managing director and co-founder Neil Callahan, whose name appears numerous times on Hunters infamous laptop, sits on Metabiotas Board of Directors alongside former Clinton official Rob Walker.

In July 2021, Metabiota, Hunter and his investment firm, and EcoHealth Alliance worked closely with Tony Faucis National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), as well as the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China where the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) is believed to have emerged.

The Pulse revealed that not only has Hunter Biden been involved in plandemic financing and other operations, but also that much of it was done in Ukraine, where Pentagon-run biolabs litter the land.

These Ukrainian labs to which Hunter is connected handle especially dangerous pathogens. And the U.S. government is funding them with American taxpayer dollars, is the gist of it.

Has the Biden crime family syndicate been profiting from the creation and release of deadly bioweapons?

In 2016, U.S. military officials and their Ukrainian counterparts met to discuss cooperation in surveillance and prevention of especially dangerous infectious diseases, including zoonotic diseases in Ukraine and neighboring countries. This was several years before the Fauci Flu appeared.

At this meeting were representatives from the Biden-linked Metabiota biotech company, as well as agents from the DoD, Black & Veatch, and other Biden-linked groups and entities.

The meeting focused on existing frameworks, regulatory coordination, and ongoing cooperative projects in research, surveillance and diagnostics of a number of dangerous zoonotic diseases, such as avian influenza, leptospirosis, Crimea Congo hemorrhagic fever, and brucellosis, a summary of the meeting explains.

Various government contracts were forced to funnel cash into Metabiota and the Ukrainian biolabs, which used it for research projects. One such project involved isolating strains of deadly pathogens such as the virulent African Swine Fever Virus.

These labs also worked with anthrax, which was tampered and experimented with using dogs, much like how Faucis coronavirus research experiments were performed on beagles.

A paper about the anthrax project claims it was done to better understand anthrax epizootiology in Ukraine, where samples were collected from wild boar serum. These samples were then tested for antibodies to B. anthracis to assess whether the animals were associated with livestock anthrax hotspots.

A Ukrainian researcher named Artem Skrypnyk, affiliated with Metabiota, worked as the Veterinary Project Coordinator under Biden before moving on to work as the Technical Officer for Laboratories at the World Health Organization (WHO).

It turns out that Metabiota has an office in Kiev, which is among Vladimir Putins military targets.

The revelation surrounding President Joe Bidens sons financial involvement with Ukrainian biological laboratories experimenting with pathogens, animals, and anthrax follows The National Pulse unearthing Metabiotas ties to EcoHealth Alliance, a key entity in the origins of COVID-19 and cover-up efforts, the Pulse reported.

More related news about the Biden crime family can be found at Treason.news.

Sources for this article include:

TheNationalPulse.com

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Hillary Clinton has a new legal headache following the filing of a lawsuit by former President Donald Trump, alleging she maliciously conspired to craft the BS Russian collusion narrative that hampered his presidency, harmed his reputation, and cost American taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in phony investigations.

In addition to suing his 2016 rival, the GOP president is also naming other Democrats as well for taking part in the conspiracy, reports noted this week.

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, reads the lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Florida.

Regardless of how the lawsuit pans out, there is plenty of evidence that Clinton was in on the conspiracy, including this nugget:

Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank. pic.twitter.com/8f8n9xMzUU  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) November 1, 2016

According to Reuters, the suit also alleges racketeering and a conspiracy to commit injurious falsehood, among other claims:

The suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages. Trump said he was forced to incur expenses in an amount to be determined at trial, but known to be in excess of twenty-four million dollars ($24,000,000) and continuing to accrue, in the form of defense costs, legal fees, and related expenses.

The defendants in Trumps lawsuit include Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer.

A dossier written by Steele, which was circulated to the FBI and media outlets before the November 2016 election, set out unproven assertions that Russia had embarrassing information about Trump and some of his Republican campaigns advisers and that Moscow was working behind the scenes to defeat Clinton.

Paul Sperry of RealClearInvestigations also noted in an October 2021 report that the Hillary Clinton campaign operation to plant a false rumor about Donald Trump setting up a secret hotline to Moscow through a Russian bank was much broader than known and involved multiple U.S. agencies, according to declassified documents and sources briefed on an ongoing criminal investigation of the scheme.

Besides the FBI, the Clinton campaign also attempted to convince then-President Obamas State Department, Justice Dept., and Central Intelligence Agency to sign on to the hoax, while also pressing the false narrative months and years after Trump won the election and was inaugurated in January 2017. The specific objective was to trigger a federal investigation against Trump and then ensure the leak of false, but damaging, information to the press, which dutifully reported without checking other sources because they, too, hated Trump.

The Clinton machine flooded the FBI with pressure from a number of angles until investigations of Trump were opened and reopened, one of the briefed sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive law enforcement matter told Sperry. The deception was wide-ranging.

The lawsuit filed by Trump comes on the heels of more potential trouble for Clinton.

The Department of Justice is set to produce a large volume of classified materials and documents this week pertaining to the Russiagate case involving the main source for Steeles dossier that attempted to sabotage then-GOP presidential nominee Donald Trumps candidacy and subsequent presidency, Conservative Brief reported.

Thats according to special counsel John Durham, who made the revelation in a Tuesday filing in which he also asked a federal judge to extend a deadline for the production of classified discovery, in compliance with the Classified Information Procedures Act, a statute outlining the manner in which classified documents must be protected in criminal cases, the outlets report continued.

To date, the government has produced over 60,000 documents in unclassified discovery. A portion of these documents were originally marked classified and the government has worked with the appropriate declassification authorities to produce the documents in an unclassified format, Durham said in the filing submitted to the federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia.

However, recent world events in Ukraine have contributed to delays in the production of classified discovery. The officials preparing and reviewing the documents at the FBI and intelligence agencies are heavily engaged in matters related to Ukraine, Durham added.

Nevertheless, the government will produce a large volume of classified discovery this week and will continue its efforts to produce documents in classified discovery on a rolling basis, and no later than the proposed deadlines set forth below, Durham wrote.

Clinton should have been jailed years ago for serial violations of mishandling top-secret materials. If our phony government refuses to hold one of their own deep state types accountable, heres hoping Trump can at least strip her of millions of dollars.

Sources include:

RealClearInvestigations.com

ConservativeBrief.com

Reuters.com
According to research, astronomers may not be able to build large, complex, power-hungry observatories in the future if they want to satisfy greenhouse gas emission objectives.

The findings were reported in Nature Astronomy.

Astronomic Study

Ground- and space-based telescopes with large life-cycle carbon footprints, such as the James Webb Space Telescope, which was recently launched, and the Square Kilometer Array Observatory (SKAO), which is currently being built in Australia and South Africa, contribute to astronomy's overall greenhouse gas emissions.

According to a new study by the Institute for Astrophysics and Planetology Research (IRAP) in Toulouse, France, its cutting-edge astronomical observatories emit around 22 million tons [20 million metric tonnes] of carbon dioxide equivalent throughout their lifetime. The authors claimed in a press conference on March 17 that this figure is comparable to the yearly carbon emissions of certain tiny European nations, such as Estonia, Croatia, or Bulgaria.

Also Read: New Study on Sustainability Revealed the Harms of Vegetable Oil Emissions

Emission Study

According to a new study by the Institute for Astrophysics and Planetology Research (IRAP) in Toulouse, France, its cutting-edge astronomical observatories emit around 22 million tons [20 million metric tonnes] of carbon dioxide equivalent throughout their lifetime. The authors claimed in a press conference on March 17 that this figure is comparable to the yearly carbon emissions of certain tiny European nations, such as Estonia, Croatia, or Bulgaria.

This figure includes carbon dioxide emissions from the building and production phases and greenhouse gas emissions during the observatories' activities. The researchers also took the carbon footprint of sending space observatories such as Webb and the Hubble Orbit Telescope to space.

According to the study's experts, the world's astronomical research facilities generate 1.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, nearly five times higher than the yearly carbon footprint of the world's astronomers due to flying.

No research has ever attempted to compute the carbon emissions related to the building and operation of all the telescopes and space missions that astronomers employ to conduct observations, said Annie Hughes, an IRAP astronomer and one of the paper's authors a press briefing. As a result, the findings in our article represent the first quantitative assessment of the carbon footprint associated with such infrastructures, which is substantial, far greater than all other sources of our professional carbon emissions put together.

The above-mentioned Webb and SKAO, for example, will each emit at least 330,000 tons [300,000 metric tons] of carbon dioxide throughout their lifetimes, making them the most carbon-intensive of all the telescopes and observatories studied according to the researchers.

EIO Method

The astronomers employed a method called economic input-output (EIO) analysis to calculate the carbon footprint, which, they concede, only gives a basic understanding of the emissions emitted by such facilities. According to Jurgen Knodlseder, an IRAP astronomer and principal author of the paper, the technique assumes that greenhouse gas emissions from astronomical research facilities are proportionate to their prices or weight.

According to the researchers, the Webb and SKAO telescopes, for example, will release at least 330,000 tons [300,000 metric tons] of carbon dioxide during their lives, making them the most carbon-intensive of all the telescopes and observatories assessed.

The researchers concede that this cost-based estimate is only correct by order of magnitude and comes with a significant 80 percent uncertainty. The life-cycle assessment would be a more precise technique of calculating the carbon footprint of astronomical research facilities, but it would require detailed data on each project. However, according to the researchers, this information is frequently unavailable due to industrial confidentiality concerns.

Emission Goals

Regardless of the accuracy of the calculation, the astronomical community would need to reduce the carbon footprint of its research facilities by up to a factor of 20 if it wants to meet global emission reduction objectives, according to the scientists.

They have a worldwide reduction objective for mankind, which is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by around half from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching net zero around 2050, according to Luigi Tibaldo, a co-author and IRAP astronomer, who spoke at the press conference. This is an essential condition to keep the average global temperature increase below 1.5 degrees Celsius [2.7 degrees Fahrenheit], set to keep our planet livable. This will need a significant decrease in all activities, including research and astronomy.

Related Article: 200 Health Journal Calls Out World Leaders to Address How Climate Change Causes Health Hazard

For more environmental news, don't forget to follow Nature World News!
It's jarring to come across a clear-cut in an ancient forest. Trees of all sizes have fallen one on top of the other in tangled jackstraw heaps, corpse-like among ragged stumps, and massive industrial tracks have rutted the ground.

Last August, when forest activist Zack Porter and I traveled a newly built logging road in Vermont's 400,000-acre Green Mountain National Forest's Pittenden Inventoried Roadless Area, this was the sight.

Porter is the executive director of Standing Trees, a citizen's group based in Montpelier, Vermont, that works to safeguard New England's woods' ecosystem.

According to Porter, the US Forest Service established this 16,000-acre roadless region in 2006. Still, the government revoked its administrative safeguards in 2019 and gave logging firms access to clear-cut areas of the Pittenden.

Clear-cutting, which entails removing most or all trees in a specific region, is described by Porter as "brutalizing the landscape," and many other environmentalists agree.

Also Read: Massive Dam to be Built in Africa Threatens to Wipe Out Mangrove Forests



Clear-Cutting

Clear-cutting has long been common and contentious in federal and state forests. However, the Forest Service's Early Successional Habitat Creation Project currently provides new evidence that clear-cutting improves native fauna, which is widely discussed. From Michigan to Maine, just about every northern state east of the Great Plains has implemented "logging for wildlife."

The theory is that prudent clear-cutting might replicate natural disruptions such as bug invasions or storms toppling older trees, resulting in what ecologists call early successional habitat-areas where young trees and bushes prevail and species that rely on species on such habitat thrive.

Using Various Method

The Forest Service uses this method to justify commercial timber sales in the Pittenden and seven other historically roadless sections of the Green Mountain National Forest, where loggers are clearing 15,000 acres of forest.

The number of acres slated for clear-cutting under this paradigm is unknown, but forest activists estimate hundreds of thousands.

According to the advocacy group Massachusetts Forest Watch, more than 85 percent of the 200,000 acres controlled by the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Wildlife may be clear-cut to produce young, open habitat in that state alone.

Clear-cutting is praised by the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, which calls it "one of the most criticized and misunderstood forest regeneration techniques."

Potential Benefits?

According to Michigan's Department of Natural Resources, "can only be protected by being destroyed" keeps them young. "This means a stable supply of biomass fuel, timber, and wood pulp for Americans; it means crisp fall days were hunting deer, bear, grouse, and woodcock; it means birdwatchers scouring spring thickets boisterous with the singing of warblers returning on migration," according to the agency.

The United States of America is funding the Young Forest Project. According to its website, the Department of Agriculture currently has "natural resource agencies, wildlife groups, companies, property trusts, the United States military, universities, and colleges, [and] foresters" as members.

"Where to build young forest [and] how to do it the best manner," the initiative advises. "Guess what," the project adds, "clear-cutting isn't always bad!"

Some of the most powerful and essential conservation organizations are also supporters. The Nature Conservancy, Harvard Forest, the Appalachian Mountain Club, and several state Audubon organizations, including the venerable Mass Audubon, the nation's oldest state Audubon society, are among the Young Forest Project's collaborators.

The method appeals to timber interests because it allows them to profit from tree cutting while claiming the mantle of conservation. Hunting parties prefer it since it's simpler to find the wildlife and birds they're after in a younger, less thick forest.

Related Article: Ecuador's 'Major' Oil Spill Cause Devastating Effects in River and Protected Amazon Area

For more environmental news, don't forget to follow Nature World News!
Three years after Hurricane Michael, Florida's Black and low-income neighborhoods are still rebuilding.

Although the first Category 5 storm to hit the United States mainland since 1992 inflicted $18.4 billion in damage in Florida, activists claim that FEMA red tape has hindered rehabilitation for certain Panama City residents.

Sentiments From Survivors

Patricia Roundtree anticipated the hurricane that was about to crash into the Florida Panhandle in October 2018 to be a close call, just like so many prior hurricanes that had passed by her Panama City neighborhood but never directly touched.

On the other hand, Hurricane Michael quickly intensified over the Gulf of Mexico before slamming on Panama City with 155 mph gusts that hurled homes, smashed vehicle windows, and tossed trees into the air. Michael destroyed Roundtree's home, the first Category 5 storm to hit the United States mainland since 1992.

Roundtree, 56, described it as "a terrifying sight she had ever seen." "You get a full sense of what nature can genuinely accomplish when you're in the thick of something like that."

Also Read: Storm Anxiety: How to Handle Extreme Weather Phobias During Hurricane Season

Government Grants

Since the hurricane, the Government Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other federal agencies have provided approximately $3.1 billion in loans, grants, and flood insurance payouts to help communities recover. The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity has made hundreds of millions of dollars available to help restore houses, roads, and hospitals and support local businesses.

However, according to several community organizations based in Bay County, many residents in historically Black or low-income neighborhoods remain stranded in tarp-covered, mold-infested homes that are only half rebuilt, with little or no financial assistance to complete the repairs get their lives back on track.

Despite the Biden administration's promises to emphasize environmental justice and focus funding on communities of color who have been disproportionately impacted by climate-related extreme weather, advocates criticize FEMA for its convoluted procedures that reject needy applicants but then invite them to reapply for assistance multiple times.

"I've had clients come through for the seventh time and get approval," said Donna Pilson, Rebuild Bay County executive director. "Who is it that does it?"

Many of the denials are due to FEMA's stringent standards for establishing homeownership. However, according to Pilson, many individuals in these areas inherit their homes from relatives and lack the necessary documents.

Ravaging the Communities

Hurricane Michael pounded the coast between Panama City and Cape San Blas for four hours, causing devastating damage at Mexico Beach and Tyndall Air Force Base east of Panama City.

When the winds and storms died down, the magnitude of the disaster became clear. The roadways were covered with pieces of glass. Trees entangled in power cables blocked residential entrances-cars collided with rooftops. At least 45 people were killed, 60,000 houses were destroyed, and $25 billion in damages was incurred, including $18.4 billion in Florida.

Janice Lucas, executive director of the LEAD Coalition of Bay County, a community group that works to improve links in historically neglected communities, said it was the four longest hours of her life. During the hurricane, her home was damaged, but she was fortunate to take safety in her sister's house.

Many inhabitants, including Roundtree, have been without a roof or walls for three years. Some began improvements but were forced to halt due to rising expenses, exposing them to particulate matter, dust, trash, and other chemicals that might cause respiratory problems. Others live among puddles, black mold patches, and bug and rodent infestations. The consequences of unprecedented excessive rains and Covid-19 limitations on people's livelihoods have compounded over the last two years.

Related Article: Exposure to Major Disasters Can Cause Long-Term Mental Health Problems

For more climate and weather updates, don't forget to follow Nature World News!
On Monday, the United Nations launched a monitoring expedition to the Great Barrier Reef to see if the World Heritage property is being safeguarded from climate change as it continues to bleach.

Bleaching

Authorities reported last week that higher-than-average temperatures had caused significant bleaching in portions of the reef, ending expectations that a cooler La Nina summer would save corals from yet another season of heat damage.

UNESCO

Before the World Heritage Committee considers classifying the Great Barrier Reef as "in danger" in June, UNESCO's mission will review whether the Australian government is doing enough to address risks to the reef, particularly climate change.

Scott Heron of James Cook University, a reef specialist, told AFP that he hopes "there is some transparency in the regions of the reef [the UN team] is visiting," especially those affected by the current bleaching crisis.

"There are portions of the reef that are in such bad shape that there is no chance of coral bleaching this year because there are so few corals remaining," he added.

Climate warming, according to Heron, is pushing the reef closer to its stress threshold, increasing the likelihood of bleaching occurrences.

"This decade, we need to take immediate action on climate change," he stated.

Also Read: Great Barrier Reef Fishes Are Losing Their Colors Due to Mass Bleaching

Previous Bleaching

Three catastrophic bleaching episodes have occurred on the Great Barrier Reef since 2016, during which heat-stressed corals expel algae dwelling in their tissues, robbing them of their bright colors.

Many people were astonished when the World Heritage Committee decided not to label the reef as "in danger" in July, despite UNESCO's recommendation just weeks before.

When the United Nations threatened to revoke the reef's World Heritage status in 2015, Australia responded by developing a "Reef 2050" plan and investing billions of dollars in its conservation.

Why is the GBR Important

The Great Barrier Reef is an irreplaceable and vital aspect of Australia's environment - and economy. It protects our coasts and is home to hundreds of marine creatures, including fish, whales, dolphins, and six of the world's seven marine turtle species.

Healthy coral reefs are critical to our planet's survival. They support a quarter of all marine life in the ocean, provide clean air, and safeguard fragile coasts from erosion, flooding, and storms.

Related Article: Ocean Warming Makes the Water 'Louder,' Impacting Marine Life

For more Environmental News, don't forget to follow Nature World News!
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LeConte Nix: We have to normalize that going to therapy is great and is needed  just like going to a movie or your regular doctors appointment. We all have stuff that we hide mentally or avoid. Now, think about a young adult who only knows how to deal with anger by violence of some sort, because he or she has never been taught how to handle certain situations."
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New York, US (PANA) - The United Nations Security Council has condemned in the strongest terms two terrorist attacks that took place in Somalia last week
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A Ukrainian circus artist who fled the war in Ukraine trains in a circus practice facility Tuesday in Budapest, Hungary. Around 100 Ukrainian circus art students aged 5-20, with their adult chaperones, escaped the embattled cities of Kharkiv and Kyiv amid Russian bombings. In neighboring Hungary, fellow circus devotees extended help and solidarity, taking them in and allowing them to continue training in the safety of the capital, Budapest.
From prison to a MacArthur Fellow, man now tries to help inmates
What happens when all the student volunteers disappear?
 ... And My people who are called by My name humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

2 Chronicles 7:14
Bernadette Chimner works on the website she built in her home in Spotsylvania, Va., on March 8. The website Chimner developed, which is located at bipartisanbookclub.com, lets parents and community members search for a specific book by title and rate its content based on the intensity of sex, violence, language, drug use, alcohol use and smoking or tobacco use.
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
Many issues regarding the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), including its prognosis, management, and interactions with the immune system, as well as the evolution of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), remain unanswered. One highly vulnerable patient population to the severe effects of COVID-19 includes pregnant mothers.

Study: Anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgA and IgG in Human Milk From Vaccinated Mothers After Holder Pasteurization. Image Credit: comzeal images / Shutterstock.com

Background

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), breastfeeding is considered the gold standard for feeding children until the age of two. Thus, mothers are often encouraged to continue this practice, particularly during the current COVID-19 pandemic, as long as their clinical status is allowed.

An infants health and development are aided by breast milk due to the presence of several beneficial biological components including hormones, immunoglobulins (Ig), cytokines, growth factors, and microorganisms. When breastfeeding is not available, two alternative food sources for infants include milk formula or donated and pasteurized human milk (DHM).

To prevent possible contamination from pathogenic organisms or agents, DHM is pasteurized in milk banks. Unfortunately, the pasteurization process can cause some of the biological, structural, and functional features of breast milk to be lost.

Previous studies have demonstrated the maternal-infant antibody transfer through breast milk after maternal recovery from COVID-19 and immunization. However, it remains uncertain whether these antibodies can survive pasteurization and continue to provide passive protection to the infant.

About the study

In a recent prospective and observational study under consideration at the International Breastfeeding Journal and currently posted to the Research Square* preprint server, the impact of pasteurization on specific Ig concentration against SARS-CoV-2 in milk from messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccinated lactating women was evaluated.

Between January 2021 to April 2021, all participants were selected in the Autonomous Community of Valencia (Spain), and, as health care workers, they were assigned to vaccination priority groups. All lactating women were given two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA BNT162b2 vaccine. Participants were also asked to provide further clinical and demographic information.

Antibody levels were measured before and after pasteurization. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was utilized to determine antibodies directed to the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2.

Before analysis, specimens were diluted 1:4 and, to aid in the determination of Ig levels, a standard curve was included. The standard curve was made up of ten three-fold serial dilutions of a mixture of materials that had previously been evaluated and exhibited elevated amounts of both Ig concentrations.

Variation of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels in breast milk after Holder pasteurization. Panels A-B. Comparison of immunoglobulin A (A) and G (B) antibody levels before (Pre-P) and after (Post-P) pasteurization. Panel C-D. Spearmans rank correlation between the initial levels of Ig in log-transformed arbitrary units (AU) and the percentage of remaining Ig respecting the initial. Panel E. Comparison between the remaining immunoglobulin percentages after the pasteurization process according to immunoglobulin isotype. Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-rank test was used to determine the significance of the difference between both isotypes.

Participant demographics and characteristics

The current study consisted of twelve lactating women with a mean age of 35 years, whereas the children of the participants had a mean age of 11 months. When their mothers received the first dose of the vaccine, the mean weight of the children was 8.5 kg. After the mothers were vaccinated against COVID-19, none of the children displayed signs of a fever and no recorded serious adverse events were recorded.

SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in breast milk after pasteurization

Following Holder pasteurization, both anti-SARS-Cov-2 isotypes IgA and IgG were significantly reduced. Both isotypes exhibited a significant negative correlation between the initial level of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and the percentage of their recovery following pasteurization.

Despite the partial reduction in IgA and IgG concentrations, a significant percentage of antibodies persisted following pasteurization. Following pasteurization, 70.53% of anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgA antibodies and 81.99% of IgG antibodies were observed. After pasteurization, the percentage of lost antibodies appeared to be lower when IgG levels were compared to IgA levels.

Implications

Although SARS-CoV-2 IgA and IgG levels in human milk were found to decrease after Holder pasteurization, a considerable percentage of antibodies were retained.

The persistence of antibodies in breast milk, even after pasteurization, supports providing breast milk to infants during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the current findings emphasize the possible importance of virus-specific SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in providing passive protection in infants receiving breast milk. More research is needed to determine the efficacy of these antibodies and the duration of their protection in breastfed infants.

*Important notice

Research Square publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
During the early phases of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the speed and approach of different countries' responses to the pandemic were essential in keeping case numbers low.

Generally, governments that were slow to impose restrictions or prevent inward travel struggled with rising hospitalizations early on. At the same time, countries such as Singapore and New Zealand were widely applauded for their effective methods. In several countries, these preventative measures included mandatory isolation for those traveling into the country, either to allow time for the individual to be tested or time for symptoms to show.

Study: Early detection of SARS-CoV-2 variants using traveler-based genomic surveillance at four US airports. Image Credit: Thanakorn.P / Shutterstock.com

In a recent study published on the preprint server medRxiv*, researchers from Ginkgo Bioworks discuss their efforts to detect the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its variants in travelers entering the United States.

About the study

Travelers arriving at either John F. Kennedy in New York or San Francisco airports on seven direct flights from India were monitored for approximately two months between September 29, 2021, and November 27, 2021. In addition, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International airport was added between November 28, 2021, to January 23, 2022, wherein participation was offered to travelers arriving from South Africa, Nigeria, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Brazil, with about 50 flights arriving in Atlanta each day from these nations.

Workflow for airport pooled and individual sample collection to detect SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern as part of an international arriving traveler surveillance program, United States, September 29  January 23, 2022. a Negative COVID-19 test was required to board a flight to the United States per CDC Order; the time window for pre-departure testing was shortened from 3 days to 1 day on December 6, 2021. b Analyses included RT-PCR testing of all samples within 24-48 hours of sample collection and whole-genome sequencing of all positive samples in a median of 11 days.

Participants were only eligible for inclusion if they were 18 years old or above and provided informed consent as well as answered demographic, clinical, and travel history questions.

Study participants were then asked to provide saliva and nasal samples three to five days after arrival. These samples then underwent reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing for SARS-CoV-2, with all samples that tested positive then used for whole-genome sequencing and variant lineage determination. Fisher's exact tests assessed differences in pooled positivity rates across the two different collection periods and by country of origin.

Study findings

Taken together, about 16,000 travelers were enrolled in the current study, of about 161,000 of whom were eligible. A total of 1,454 samples pools were recovered, 221 of which tested positive for SARS-CoV-2.

SARS-CoV-2 positivity increased over time, from 1.8% during the September-November period to 20.9% after November 27, 2021. The positivity percentage of pooled samples was significantly different based on the country of origin, with flights from South Africa averaging 43.5%, while flights from India averaged 9.3% positivity.

The SARS-CoV-2 variants that were detected also varied over time, with all lineages detected before November 28, 2021, diverging from the Delta variant. other than one undetermined lineage. Comparatively, between November 28 and January 2022, only 5% of samples were Delta, whereas 27% were undetermined due to low sample sequencing coverage, and all remaining samples were Omicron.

Proportions of variants detected among arriving international travelers and rapid reporting of Omicron subvariants. A, Identified variant lineage and sublineage proportions among sequenced samples by collection week, November 28, 2021 to January 23, 2022. B, Timeline of reported Omicron subvariants in the United States, comparing first reporting in GISAID of BA.2 and BA.3 by the traveler-based genomic surveillance program (in blue) compared to first reporting from other laboratories (in green). The programs timeliness of first reporting of BA.2 (on December 24) and BA.3 (on December 22) was 7 and 43 days earlier, respectively, than next reporting in GISAID.

Out of the 145 identified Omicron sequences, 112 showed complete or partial spike gene target failure (SGTF); however, this was not observed in the BA.2 sublineages. The vast majority of Omicron sublineages detected were BA.1; however, BA1.1, BA.2, BA.3, BA.2 +Orf1a:M85, and BA.2 + S:R346K were all detected, as well as four Omicron samples where the sublineages of which could not be determined. One of the BA.2 samples recovered on December 14, 2021, was the first reported case of BA.2 in the United States, as was one of the BA.3 samples.

The program successfully identified new SARS-CoV-2 variants when they were imported into the U.S, including two Omicron sub-lineages that were detected before being reported elsewhere in the country. As expected, the number of positive tests increased significantly following Omicron emergence.

Interestingly, the number of positive tests also increased after December 6, 2021, when passengers were required to have a negative sample collected before departure. This could be due to poor sensitivity during testing or passengers arriving on particularly long-haul flights who became infective during travel. It is also possible that certain travelers presented fraudulent test results in order to fly.

Conclusions

The authors highlight the scalability and adaptability of their screening program and recommend that a similar method be adopted in the future. This would allow more rapid detection of new SARS-CoV-2 variants, as currently, many are only identified after they have already spread widely.

Additionally, the study approach allows for early warning systems in the event that a large number of positive cases from particular countries emerge. This would subsequently allow travel restrictions to be put in place when necessary, without having to rely on the sometimes inaccurate case numbers provided by certain governments.

Several Southeast Asian countries were lauded for low case numbers early on in the pandemic, despite their proximity to the country of origin. In fact, many of these nations credited the track and trace programs that were launched very early in the pandemic to their success. Therefore, more widespread adoption of this approach could help keep case numbers lower in future pandemics.

*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.
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(Newser)  The war between the Cossacks and Bandidos began with a disagreement over the right to wear a Texas rocker vest patch, and the 2015 climax outside a Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco had everything: fists, chains, brass knuckles, clubs, knives, and copious gunfire. Nine bikers died (some by police bullets). New York Times Magazine sent a reporter to Texas to find out why nobody was ever convicted. Two characters loom large: defense attorney Paul Looney and his trial-prep specialist, Roxanne Avery. He with his black pinstripes and cowboy boots who admits, I could have either become a Mafioso don or a criminal defense lawyer. She with her red-bowed Chihuahuas and an entire wall covered with mugshots and case details of all 177 defendants in the largest roundup and mass arrest of bikers in recent American history. They led the three-year effort that resulted in dismissals of all charges, and they helped show an allegedly corrupt district attorney to the door.

Initially, police wanted a capital murder investigation, but DA Abel Reynastocky, buzz-cut, tough-on-crimewanted to arrest everyone who was wearing colors for engaging in organized criminal activity. However, many defendants were casual hangers-on with no ties to the criminal side of biker life, such as Patrick Harris, a grad student and volunteer clown with the real "Patch" Adams. Criticizing the prosecutions approach, Looney told the Times, Justice is individualized. Theres no class-action prosecution. In Reynas defense, the article notes that murder would have been hard to prove given the chaotic nature of things. Then again, it turns out Reyna was the subject of multiple FBI investigations involving public corruption, cocaine use, and an illegal gambling ring, among other things. The first defendant stood trial in 2017, but the jury was deadlocked, and it was judged a mistrial. In the year that followed, under pressure from all sides, Reyna was compelled to dismiss all other charges. Learn more about Looney and the clients on Averys wall in the New York Times Magazine. (Read more Waco, Texas stories.)
(Newser)  A decade ago, geologist Simon Onywere was among the first scientists to notice what residents of waterlogged villages already knew: lakes throughout Kenya are expanding. Since then, a widespread catastrophe has unfolded. Per the Guardian, which traced Onyweres efforts to help pinpoint the cause and spur action, the Kenyan government has mostly ignored the problem even though this is a "nation of lakes." Events in one town near Lake Baringo reflect a nationwide trend: In March 2020, as Covid spread, schools across the country closed. When they reopened seven months later, 11 schools in Marigat had been completely submerged by the lake. Local children now attend school in Red Cross tents, with lethal hippos and crocodiles roaming nearby.

The government did release a report in late 2021developed in collaboration with the UN Development Programdetailing the steep humanitarian, economic, and environmental toll, including devastated social and civil infrastructure and the total annihilation of wildlife habitats. The government also promises help is on the way, but most Kenyans are skeptical. Scientists and local officials interviewed by the Guardian say Kenyas notoriously corrupt political class was only motivated after the UN Environment Program published its own report about Lake Turkana in July 2021, and the prospect of foreign aid became more likely.

Scientists are still trying to figure out the cause. Lake levels were just as high in the 1900s and 1970s, so there might be a natural cycle involved. Also, many lakes lie in the Great Rift valley, where continuous tectonic forces may be altering watersheds or opening previously unknown aquifers. But Lake Victoriasecond only to Superior among freshwater lakesis not in the Rift Valley, and it too is rising. Geologist Omywere blames increased rainfalldata backs his theorythough he and another researcher disagree about the extent to which human-caused climate change is to blame. The real unknown is whether the natural ebb and flow of Kenyas 64 lakes have been permanently altered. (Read the full story.)
(Newser)  A group dedicated to finishing the work of World War II's Monuments Men is betting on a deck of playing cardsand reward moneyto help find missing works of art taken by the Nazis. Inspired by the US military's history of creating playing cards related to missions, the Dallas-based Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art created the deck focusing on worksincluding paintings, sculptures and reliquariesthey believe still exist, per the AP. "What is needed is to raise awareness about what is missing," said Anna Bottinelli, the foundation's 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. One, a pastel by Edgar Degas titled "Portrait of Mlle. Gabrielle Diot" that was taken by the Nazis from a home in France in 1940, is known to have been sold in the mid-1970s to an unknown Swiss collector. "Many of these have resurfaced in the recent pasteven as late as 2008in auctions," Bottinelli said.

The $14.95 deck being sold through the foundation is a nod to a US 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. In addition to the 52 works of art in the deck, two cardsthe jokersfeature a set of Nazi photo albums of artwork that have missing volumes. There's reason to hope someone might come across one: The foundation has already found five that had been brought home by US soldiers after the war as souvenirs. The foundation, started in 2007, honors the Monuments Men, a group of men and women 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.

(Read more stolen art stories.)
(Newser)  The Oscars are awarded Sunday night, and rumors are flying that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky might make an appearance via video. The New York Post reports that no decision has been made as Academy officials debate the idea. However, Oscar winner Sean Penna fierce critic of Russia's invasionaddressed the issue on CNN Saturday night and pressured the Academy. Now, it is my understanding that a decision has been made not to do it," he said. If so, that "will have been the most obscene moment in all of Hollywood history."

Penn urged people to boycott the ceremony if Zelensky is not given time, and he promised that when he returned to the US, he would "smelt" his Oscars in public. The actor is currently in Poland with his nonprofit CORE providing humanitarian relief for Ukrainians. He has twice won Oscars for best actor (Mystic River and Milk). The possibility of a Zelensky appearance surfaced when co-host Amy Schumer revealed this week that she had pitched the idea to the powers that be, notes the Hollywood Reporter. "I am not afraid to go there, but its not me producing the Oscars," she told Drew Barrymore. (Read more Oscars stories.)
(Newser)  Multiple rockets struck Lviv on Saturday, injuring at least five people and unnerving the western Ukraine city that people have fled to for its relative safety during the Russian invasion. An oil depot and a factory linked to the military were hit, the regional governor said. A large plume of black smoke rose from the area, which includes residences, for hours, the AP reports. Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said "infrastructure facilities," but no homes, were damaged, per the Washington Post.

The attacks took place while President Biden was in Warsaw, 200 miles or so away. "I think that with today's strikes, the aggressor is giving his greetings to President Biden," Sadovyi said. Olana Ukrainets, a 34-year-old IT worker who arrived from heavily bombed Kharkiv, said she sometimes stayed in bed when air raid alarms went off, feeling safer in Lviv. She'll take cover next time. "None of the Ukrainian cities are safe now," she said. Other developments involved:

A nuclear warning : A top defense official laid out scenarios in which Russia would employ nuclear weaponsmainly, in response to a threat to the nation's existence, he said. Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chief of the Russian Security Council, discussed "our determination to defend the independence and sovereignty of our country" in an interview with state media. The interview took place before Biden said Russia's president should not continue in power.

: A top defense official laid out scenarios in which Russia would employ nuclear weaponsmainly, in response to a threat to the nation's existence, he said. Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chief of the Russian Security Council, discussed "our determination to defend the independence and sovereignty of our country" in an interview with state media. The interview took place before Biden said Russia's president should not continue in power. Lend-lease : The chief of staff to Ukraine's president said Western nations should set up a lend-lease program like the one under which the US supplied Allies during World War II. "We need a full lend lease," Andriy Yermak said in a speech, per the AP, saying his country "is reviving those principles that gave life to current Western civilization."

: The chief of staff to Ukraine's president said Western nations should set up a lend-lease program like the one under which the US supplied Allies during World War II. "We need a full lend lease," Andriy Yermak said in a speech, per the AP, saying his country "is reviving those principles that gave life to current Western civilization." Memorial attacks: Ukraine's foreign minister criticized a Russian strike on a Holocaust memorial site. "Why Russia keeps attacking Holocaust memorials in Ukraine?" Dmytro Kuleba tweeted, per CNN. He said a Menorah monument in Kharkiv, dedicated to "the memory of over 15,000 Jews murdered by the Nazis," was damaged, adding that he expects a denunciation from Israel. Russian forces also struck the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center in Kyiv this month; an estimated 70,000 to 100,000 people were shot there by the Nazis.

(Read more Russia-Ukraine conflict stories.)
(Newser)  No cause of death has yet been announced for Taylor Hawkins, the 50-year-old drummer for the Foo Fighters who was found dead Friday night in his hotel room in Bogota, Colombia. As Colombian officials investigate, a preliminary toxicology report reveals that Hawkins had 10 different substances in his system, per CBS News and People. They include marijuana, opioids, tricyclic antidepressants, and benzodiazepines. The band led by Dave Grohl has not elaborated beyond an initial announcement about his "tragic and untimely loss." Hawkins was revered in the music world, and Rolling Stone has a look back in photosincluding his stint as drummer for Alanis Morissette in the 1990s.

Throughout his career, Hawkins had trouble with substance abuse, with People noting that he entered a two-week coma following an overdose in 2001. So was he clean these days? In an interview in June with Rolling Stone, Hawkins said he leads a "really healthy lifestyle" but declined to directly answer whether he was completely sober. "I dont want to go into all that," he said, adding: "I dont want my son reading it. Listen, for anyone out there who has problems and their f---ing life is a mess, yeah, I get it. You know, my life has been there plenty of times, so I get it. I dont want that to be the centerpiece of my story." He is survived by his wife and three children. (Read more Foo Fighters stories.)
(Newser)  The 25-foot tall sculpture of a shark crashing through the roof of Magnus Hanson-Heines house in rural Oxford, England, is now a protected landmarkand hes not happy about it. Hanson-Heine loves the installation, erected by his father and a local sculptor in 1986 as an anti-war, anti-nuke protest that still remains relevant now as bombs fall on Ukraine. But he says the Oxford City Council ignored his fathers other message this week when it designated the structure a heritage site that makes a special contribution to the community. Bill Heine installed the shark without the approval of local officials because he didnt think they should have the right to decide what art people see, and the council spent years trying to remove the sculpture.

Using the planning apparatus to preserve a historical symbol of planning law defiance is absurd on the face of it, Hanson-Heine, a quantum chemist, said in an interview with the AP. Bill Heine, an American expat who studied law at the University of Oxford, got the idea for the sculpture after he heard US warplanes fly over his house one night in April 1986. When he woke up the next morning, he learned that the planes had been on their way to bomb Tripoli in retaliation for Libyan sponsorship of terrorist attacks on U.S. troops. The image of a shark crashing through the roof captured the shock civilians must feel when bombs smash into their homes, Magnus Hanson-Heine said. His father died in 2019.

Heine and his friend, sculptor John Buckley, built the great white out of fiberglass, then installed it on Aug. 9, the 41st anniversary of the day the US dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. The sharks anti-war message is just as important today as Russian bombs fall on Ukraine, Henson-Heine said. Thats obviously something that the people in Ukraine are experiencing right now in very real time, he said. But certainly when theres nuclear weapons on the stage, which has been through my entire life, thats always a very real threat.

(Read more public sculpture stories.)
(Newser)  The conservative editorial page of the Wall Street Journal is coming to the defense of Ginni Thomas, wife of the Supreme Court's Clarence Thomas. This week, the Washington Post and others reported on newly revealed texts showing that Ginni Thomas urged Mark Meadows, then chief of staff to President Trump, to work to overturn the election results. The texts "certainly arent flattering" to Ginni Thomas, write the editors, showing that she embraced "some of the nuttier election-fraud theories" in circulation. But she's a private citizen, after all, and she "can believe all the crank theories she wants, and she has the right to participate in politics even as the spouse of a Justice."

So why were the texts leaked to the media? The Journal suspects a big reason is to damage the reputation of Clarence Thomas. "And sure enough, the served-up Woodward scoop was followed by demands that Justice Thomas resign, or at least recuse himself from cases involving the election," notes the editorial. The editors, however, say there is no reason for him to do either of those things. For a counterpoint, see this New Yorker story in which Jane Mayer interviews legal scholars who feel differently. Among other things, they point to a federal statute requiring justices to recuse themselves from a case if a spouse has an "interest" in its outcome. Related:

Another figure: Politico says the Ginni Thomas story raises questions about another staunch ally of Donald Trump: attorney John Eastman, at the center of Trump's efforts to overturn the election. Eastman had spoken of believing that two Supreme Court justices would back him up, and the Thomas texts raise the question of whether he wasn't just speculating about that.

Politico says the Ginni Thomas story raises questions about another staunch ally of Donald Trump: attorney John Eastman, at the center of Trump's efforts to overturn the election. Eastman had spoken of believing that two Supreme Court justices would back him up, and the Thomas texts raise the question of whether he wasn't just speculating about that. More details: The New York Times is out with another story about Ginni Thomas. "Now, an examination of her texts, woven together with recent revelations of the depth of her efforts to overturn the election, shows how firmly she was embedded in the conspiratorial fringe of right-wing politics, even as that fringe was drawing ever closer to the center of Republican power."

(Read more Virginia Thomas stories.)
(Newser)  The second black box from a China Eastern Boeing 737-800 was found Sunday, raising hopes that it might shed light on why the passenger plane nosedived into a remote mountainous area in southern China last week, killing all 132 people on board. Firefighters taking part in the search found the flight data recorder on a mountain slope about 130 feet from the point of impact and 5 feet underground, per the AP. The impact of the crash created a 65-foot-deep pit in the side of the mountain and scattered debris widely. Officials confirmed late Saturday that there were no survivors.

Flight MU5735 crashed Monday en route from the city of Kunming in southeastern China to Guangzhou, a major city and export manufacturing hub near Hong Kong. An air traffic controller tried to contact the pilots several times after seeing the planes altitude drop sharply but got no reply, officials have said. The cockpit voice recorder, also an orange cylinder, was found two days later on Wednesday. It has been sent to a Beijing lab for examination and analysis, and the flight data recorder was also being sent to the Chinese capital for decoding.

(Read more plane crash stories.)
(Newser)  A fierce winter storm in the last stretch of this year's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog, which ultimately forced six mushers to scratch the same day, now has cost three other mushers for sheltering their dogs instead of leaving them outside in the harsh conditions. Mille Porsild of Denmark, Michelle Phillips of Canada, and Riley Dyche of Fairbanks were penalized for taking dogs inside shelter cabins to ride out the storm with winds so strong that they whipped up white-out conditions. The decision to punish the mushers was made by race marshal Mark Nordman, who said the indoor rest for the dogs amounted to a competitive advantage over teams that trailed them into Nome, the AP reports.

"No doubt that Michelle and Mille did the right thing for their dogs," Nordman said. "But it also affected the competition for racers going forward." Porsild was dropped from 14th to 17th position, while Phillips dropped one notch to 18th. Dyche wasn't demoted in the standings, but he was fined $1,000 after officials determined there were no other mushers near him who would have been affected by the dogs resting inside. The drop in standings equated to $3,450 less for Porsild and $1,000 less for Phillips. The nearly 1,000-mile race across Alaska was won March 15 by Brent Sass, who also was affected by the storm as he was nearing the finish line in Nome. He said he fell off the sled and couldn't see anything, and he thought he was going to have to hunker down with his dogs and ride out the storm.

The demotion of the three mushers, which was not widely publicized by the Iditarod, drew a harsh retort from the race's biggest critic, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. "Nothing makes it clearer that this death race must end than the fact that the Iditarod slapped mushers with a fine as punishment for acting to prevent dogs' deaths, PETA executive Tracy Reiman said in a statement Friday. She called for cruelty charges to be filed against mushers who did leave their dogs outside while they went inside shelter cabins. Porsild defended her decision bring the dogs inside. "Stopping and having the dogs in the shelter cabin gave Michelle and I no competition edge; on the contrary we both lost the edge we hadespecially me and my team," she said.

(Read more Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race stories.)
(Newser)  Things changed at Fox News after Donald Trump lost the presidential election to Joe Biden, Chris Wallace said. "Before, I found it was an environment in which I could do my job and feel good about my involvement at Fox," he said. "And since November of 2020, that just became unsustainable, increasingly unsustainable as time went on." After working for Fox for almost two decades, the anchor and host has been at CNN since January. Wallace launches a daily interview show on the network's new streaming service, CNN+, on Tuesday, the New York Times reports.

After the election and before Wallace left Fox, the changes included dropping the 7pm newscast and dismissing an editor who contributed to the network calling Arizona for Biden on election night. Wallace said he complained to management about a Tucker Carlson documentary that said the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol wasn't real. "I'm fine with opinion: conservative opinion, liberal opinion," Wallace said, per the Times, in discussing his decision to change networks. But he was troubled "when people start to question the truth'Who won the 2020 election? Was Jan. 6 an insurrection?'" Wallace said. (Read more Chris Wallace stories.)
Since the late 1970s, the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute has provided this column free in cooperation with the UAF research community. Ned Rozell is a science writer for the Geophysical Institute. A version of this story ran in 2014.
Chinese company kicks off road project construction in Ghana

Xinhua) 08:26, March 27, 2022

Ghanaian Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia speaks at the commissioning ceremony of a Chinese-assisted road project in Nyinahin, a town in southern Ghana's Ashanti Region, March 25, 2022. Ghanaian Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia on Friday commissioned a Chinese-assisted road project in Nyinahin, a town in southern Ghana's Ashanti Region.

The 60-km road project, undertaken by Sinohydro Corporation Limited, was designed to upgrade these feeder roads in the town to ease the problems faced by the farming communities in transporting their products to market centers. (Photo by Seth/Xinhua)

ACCRA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- An inner-city road project contracted by a Chinese company kicked off Friday in Kumasi, Ghana's second-largest city.

The 100 km project undertaken by Sinohydro Corporation Limited includes drainage work, earthwork, and bituminous surfacing of the roads, which is expected to improve the road networks and facilitate transportation within the city.

Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony, Ghanaian Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia expressed joy that the Kumasi inner-city road project could begin on time.

"We are grateful to the Chinese government for the cooperation that has existed between our two countries. There is still more to come under our mutual cooperation," Bawumia said.

Chinese Ambassador to Ghana Lu Kun commended the Ghanaian and Chinese engineers for sticking to their posts and carrying out excellent preparation for the start of the project, despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I firmly believe that, with Chinese and Ghanaians joining hands, and with your wisdom and diligence, the project will surely witness a speedy and quality progress," said Lu.

Vehicles are seen running at the Chinese-assisted road in southern Ghana's Ashanti Region, March 25, 2022. Ghanaian Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia on Friday commissioned a Chinese-assisted road project in Nyinahin, a town in southern Ghana's Ashanti Region.

The 60-km road project, undertaken by Sinohydro Corporation Limited, was designed to upgrade these feeder roads in the town to ease the problems faced by the farming communities in transporting their products to market centers. (Photo by Seth/Xinhua)

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Bianji)
Doug Reynolds, Ph.D. is an economist who has lived and worked in Fairbanks, Alaska, and has studied Alaskas and the worlds oil, gas and energy industries for over 25 years. His latest book, Energy Odyssey: The Hubbert Trojan Horse Scenario, explains much of our energy dilemmas. He can be contacted at ffdbr@yahoo.com.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain will host the Harvard International Symposium on COVID-19, where healthcare sector specialists will meet to discuss the lessons learned from responses to the pandemic and the future of the sector.

The hybrid event will take place on March 31, and will explore the most effective measures and methods that were implemented in the pandemic. Speakers from Bahrain were invited to participate in the symposium to shed light on the Kingdoms successful experience in combating COVID-19.

The speakers include: Infectious Disease Consultant and Microbiologist at the BDF Hospital, and member of the National Medical Taskforce for Combating the Coronavirus (COVID-19), Lt Col Dr. Manaf Al Qahtani; Infectious and Internal Diseases Consultant at Salmaniya Medical Complex (SMC), and member of the National Medical Taskforce for Combating the Coronavirus (COVID-19), Dr. Jameela Al Salman; and CEO of Primary Healthcare Centers, and member of the National Medical Taskforce for Combating the Coronavirus (COVID-19), Dr. Jaleela Al-Sayed Jawad.

The symposium will also feature talks given by international healthcare professionals and a number of leading institutions, including Pfizer, Google, and Facebook.

The government of Bahrain spearheaded the founding of a National Medical Taskforce during the pandemic, composed of representatives of different stakeholder groups, to develop medical plans, make swift decisions and pool resources to combat the spread of coronavirus. As of March 2022, 82.1% of the population has received two doses of the vaccine, and 85% of the eligible population has also received the booster dose.
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NEW MILFORD  For four years, through tough times and happy occasions, busy days and not so much going on, New Milford resident Joann Rodriguez Matos could always rely on a coffee and hiking routine she developed with her friend, Chris Pante.

Pante died in February from COVID-19, at the age of 58.

In her late friends memory, Matos created a Coffee & Hiking Social Group, as a way to meet new people to carry on their coffee and hiking tradition.

Through the group, which has garnered over 100 members within the week it opened, Matos said she wants to encourage people to value their time together, since you never know the last time one will see a person, said Matos, 59, a mother of three and grandmother of two.

Matos met Pante after their 30-year Danbury High School reunion.

Pante ran the Chris Pante Talk Show on Comcast Cables Ch. 23, which discussed current events.

He contacted Matos about an autobiography on child abuse that she wrote, called Hot Peas and Butter: The Children in the Basement, and asked her for an interview. While Matos wanted to hold off on the interview while she worked on a second book, the pair ended up becoming friends.

We talked on the telephone and struck a friendship. Then, one day, I asked him, Are you interested in going for a hike with me at Tarrywile Park? He said, Sure, Id love to. And thats where it began, she said.

Going for coffee before the hike was soon added to their get together.

Over the next four years, the friends would met every few weeks, depending upon their schedules and the weather.

Chis was the most wonderful person  a stand-up comedian, Matos said. But he also had some really strong beliefs. He was very, very much eager to really get to the grassroots of what was going on in the world. We had some really nice discussions.

The friends got COVID at the same time  in January.

What struck me was that I survived. I said to him I was always afraid of getting COVID because I had respiratory problems throughout my life as a kid, said Matos, who is a stay-at-home grandmother. She lost her previous job as an administrative assistant during the pandemic.

His death broke my heart, she added. COVID stole my friend from me.

She said she frequently reads his text messages and talks to him out loud, and misses him every day.

Through the coffee and hiking group, Matos said she would like to celebrate the lives of those who have been lost to COVID by supporting each other and offering our friendship.

Additionally, she said the group is also about getting to know ones neighbors and their every day struggles.

Everyone loves a cup of Joe and a hike, but most of all we need to stay connected and learn about each other on Gods green earth, she said. Chris liked to get to the deep roots of a conversation and share that with the world. We walked and we talked and we shared our life stories together. True to his profession, he knew how to get that story out of you and make you feel comfortable in knowing that his intentions made a difference in this world.

Danbury resident Norman Buzaid was neighbors with Pante and has known him for 30 years.

Chris was a great guy  always happy go lucky and always helpful whenever Ive ever needed help around the house, such as moving stuff. He also helped my son and daughter with school and sports, Buzaid said.

One memory he shared was of Pante always driving home in his convertible with the top down, in the pouring rain, he said.

He was always, always in a good mood, Buzaid added.

Michael Kaufman, a Ridgefield resident, said he could not have asked for a better friend, when referring to Pante, whom he knew for nearly 50 years.

Chris loved to laugh and always made his family and friends laugh and smile, said Kaufman, who went to Danbury High School with Pante. He was a loyal and caring friend to many.

This is seen in the number of people who had donated to the GoFundMe site created for the Christopher G. Pante Memorial Scholarship Fund at Danbury High School, Kaufman said.

Pante was a New York Mets fan and loved going to the home opener. One of his friends is organizing a group to go to the first home game on April 15.

I plan on being there to watch the Mets play, share wonderful memories and stories of our friend Chris, and pay tribute to him, Kaufman said. We know Chris will be with us in spirit and watching over us. We expect good weather and a Mets win.

More hikes planned

The coffee and hiking group has already held their first meet-up  they met at Dunkin Donuts on Exit 12 in New Milford and then went to Harrybrooke Park for a stroll.

About 10 people came, Matos said. We went all the way through Harrybrooke Park where there is running water and a fall, and then we came all the way back. It took a leisurely half hour to 45 minutes.

Once the nice weather comes, Matos said she expects the group to really take off. She has researched local places to hike, such as Steep Rock Preserve in Washington, and posted those places on the groups Facebook page.

Additionally, she plans to bring some business to the smaller coffee shops in New Milford by bringing in the group.

She hopes to plan both evening hikes during the week and Sunday hikes at noon.

From Pantes death, Matos said she has learned not to take people for granted.

Especially, with COVID, we dont know how long we truly have. People need to have people to rely upon, Matos said. This has been a very lonely and scary pandemic.

sandra.fox@hearstmediact.com 203-948-9802
OTTAWA, ON, March 25, 2022 /CNW/ - The Government of Canada is committed to championing gender equality and taking action to ensure that women and girls can succeed in Canada and around the world.

The Honourable Marci Ien, Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth, led the Canadian delegation to the 66th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW66), which concluded today. The event was held between March 14 and 25, 2022, both virtually and in New York City.

In addition to Minister Ien, the Canadian delegation included Minister Sajjan, Minister Gould, Minister Vandal, Minister Guilbeault, Minister O'Regan, Minister Champagne, Parliamentary Secretary Sudds, Parliamentary Secretary Vandenbeld, federal parliamentarians Senator Marilou McPhedran, Senator Donna Dasko, Karen Vecchio M.P., Sonia Sidhu M.P., representatives of provincial and territorial governments (Natalie Jameson (PEI), National Indigenous Leaders and Representatives (Metis Women, Native Women's Association of Canada), and representatives from Canadian civil society organizations.

In her national statement to her international counterparts, Minister Ien provided an overview of Canada's commitment to ensuring a gender-responsive approach to climate and biodiversity policy both domestically and internationally. The Minister also emphasized how Canada's investment in a workforce that is agile, resilient, and equipped with the skills to deliver on Canada's transition to a net-zero economy, will help women and girls acquire the tools they need to play an active part in that transition, particularly in the STEM sector.

Minister Ien also participated in a number of meetings, events and bilateral discussions, including with the Executive Director of UN Women, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, as well as Trinidad and Tobago, Argentina, Italy, Dominican Republic, Colombia, UK, Australia and New Zealand representatives. She also met the US Ambassador to the United Nations. Parliamentary Secretary Jenna Sudds participated in two virtual side events hosted by Canada: one in partnership with the Canadian Women's Foundation, focussing on "Gender-Based Violence and Climate Crisis: Forging Vital Connections," and another on "Empowering Women and Girls to Advance Gender Equality and Climate Change Solutions."

Throughout the session, members of the Canadian delegation collaborated with delegates from other United Nations members states, as well as with international CSOs to address this year's priority theme: Achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls in the context of climate change, environmental and disaster risk reduction policies and programmes.

Participants at CSW66 discussed some of the most critical issues facing women and girls in the world today. These negotiations resulted in a set of agreed conclusions, to set clear priorities and key recommendations for a path forward on gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. In addition to the agreed conclusions, member states negotiated the resolution on the Methods of Work for the CSW, which sets out the format of the upcoming meetings, the preparatory processes, and civil society participation. These negotiations take place every five years and are critical in helping formalize the process by which civil society can engage in the work of the Commission.

Canada is looking forward to next year's CSW, which will focus on innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.

Quote

"It was a pleasure to meet with Canadian delegates, women's organizations and my international counterparts at the 66th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. Women make invaluable contributions to our communities, and we need their expertise to develop effective environmental policies that reflect the intersectional lived experiences of Indigenous, Black and racialized women. As we work with our global partners, Canada will continue to foster a gender-responsive approach to climate change."

The Honourable Marci Ien,

Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth

Quick facts

Canada was a founding member of the United Nations. In times of global uncertainty, the UN remains an important institution in which Canada can play a vital role, advancing and protecting human rights for everyone, especially women and girls.

was a founding member of the United Nations. In times of global uncertainty, the UN remains an important institution in which can play a vital role, advancing and protecting human rights for everyone, especially women and girls. The CSW is part of a global movement to promote gender equality worldwide that gives a voice to a broad spectrum of people, including Indigenous peoples, youth and those living in conflict and crisis settings.

Canada held a seat on the UNCSW Commission for the 2017  2021 term. This provided Canada with a valuable opportunity to shape the Commission's work on issues that affect women and girls globally.

held a seat on the UNCSW Commission for the 2017  2021 term. This provided with a valuable opportunity to shape the Commission's work on issues that affect women and girls globally. Due to the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, CSW66 took place in a hybrid format. The Minister attended the first three days in person. All side events were held virtually.

The Member States also reviewed the agreed conclusions of the 61st session, which took place in 2017 under the theme of Women's economic empowerment in the changing world of work.

Associated links

Contacts

Johise Namwira

Press Secretary

Office of the Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth

873-353-0985

[email protected]

Media Relations

Women and Gender Equality Canada

819-420-6530

[email protected]

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SOURCE Women and Gender Equality Canada
Because of the extreme heat, it was impossible to enter the burned houses at the time, but the search for injured and affected people continued until 7 a.m. the next morning, according to the complainant.

According to an eyewitness to the Birbhum violence in West Bengal, firefighter personnel waited 10 hours to enter burning buildings in Birbhum to rescue charred bodies owing to extreme heat.

Because of the extreme heat, it was impossible to enter the burned houses at the time, but the search for injured and affected people continued until 7 a.m. the next morning, according to the complainant. Following a Calcutta High Court ruling, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took over the investigation into the Birbhum violence case on Friday.

The complainant is a sub-inspector assigned to the Ramphurat police station in Birbhum, as well as the incidents first responder.

According to the FIR copy, he received information from sub-inspector Ramesh Saha of Rampurhat police station (duty officer) at around 9.35 p.m. on March 21 that some houses in Bogtui village had caught fire and were burning.

I along with my accompanying officers and force rushed to Bogtui village to work out the information. At about 10.05 pm, we reached Bogtui village, which is located at a distance of about one km from Bogtui Morh on NH-60, to work out the information and found that eight houses and some straw heaps and caught devastative fire and were burning fiercely, he mentioned in the FIR.

I immediately called duty officer SI Ramesh Saha and asked him to promptly inform fire brigade personnel to rush to the spot to extinguish the fire. After that, myself along with my son tried my level best to douse the fire with the help of local people by pouring water by buckets but failed to do so as the fire was so devastative. At about 10.25 pm, the fire brigade personnel of Rampurhat Fire and Emergency Services arrived at the spot with two fire tenders and started fire fighting operations, he said.

Four people were identified with burn injuries during firefighting efforts. With the support of locals and family, they were quickly transferred to Rampurhat Medical College and Hospital. The fire was eventually brought under control, and firefighters left the scene about 2 a.m. after the fire was mostly extinguished, according to the FIR.

Due to immense heat, it was not possible to get into those burnt houses at that time. However, search process for injured and affected persons was continued on March 22 (next day) morning at about 07.10 am, the fire brigade personnel again arrived at the village and joined in our search operations, as per complainant statement in the FIR.

According to the FIR, the majority of the residences had been fully burned and were also found to have been plundered. Seven burned dead bodies were discovered in the houses while the search was underway. During treatment at a hospital, one of the injured people taken from the residence succumbed to her extensive burn injuries.

All of the victims had been burned beyond recognition. According to the FIR, the dead bodies were immediately taken to Rampurhat College and Hospital for a post-mortem examination.

After the execution of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Bhadu Sheikh, a mob allegedly set houses on fire in the Rampurhat region of West Bengals Birbhum on Tuesday, killing eight people.
On Saturday, the CBI filed an FIR in the case under the charges of armed rioting. According to sources, one accused named in the FIR is a TMC leader while the other accused are supporters of the party.

Five accused have been arrested in the Birbhum violence incident, police said on Saturday. On Saturday, the CBI filed an FIR in the case under the charges of armed rioting. According to sources, one accused named in the FIR is a TMC leader while the other accused are supporters of the party.

The CBI investigation in the case is being led by the Kolkata unit of the agency. Another team from Delhi consisting of forensic experts joined the probe on Saturday. CBI DIG Akhilesh Singh on Saturday visited the burnt house of one of the victims  Sona Sheikh  in Bagtui village. The probe is being monitored by a Joint Director-level officer of the agency. Earlier in the day, CBI IG Bharat Lal Meena visited the crime scene in Birbhum district.

Eight live bombs, three firearms were recovered from Jagaddal, Bijpur, and Bhatpara areas in a drive conducted to seize arms and ammunition, added the police. Following the Birbhum violence incident, a drive to seize arms and ammunition have been started in different parts of the state.

The carnage in Birbhum reportedly started after a local TMC leader Bhadu Sheikhs murder. Eight people, six women and two children were burnt alive after the alleged perpetrators set several houses on fire.
The minister told the media during a press conference that the idea for snap polls was his own "opinion" and that it is not the official stance of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

Pakistans Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed on Saturday said that he has advised Prime Minister Imran Khan to call for elections after presenting the federal budget due in the month of June, as reported by Pakistani newspaper Dawn. According to the report, Sheikh Rasheed said that he has conveyed to Khan about his heightened popularity among Pakistanis following the submission of a no-trust vote in the National Assembly by opposition parties.

The minister told the media during a press conference that the idea for snap polls was his own opinion and that it is not the official stance of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

Calling the opposition foolish, Sheikh Rasheed said that the oppositions actions resulted in the growing popularity of Imran Khan and that it is the right time for Khan to benefit from that popularity in snap elections. The minister was quoted by Dawn as saying, It is the right time to go for early elections.

Im asking for early elections after presenting a good budget because this incompetent opposition has allowed us to win again added Rasheed, as per the news report.
Wang Yi handed over the airport to the Nepalese Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Dueba at his official residence Baluwatar. Ahead of the meeting with Dueba, Nepal and China signed a nine-point agreement following a bilateral meeting.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi handed over the Chinese-built Pokhara International Airport in Nepal to its government during his visit to the Himalayan country. Wang Yi handed over the airport to the Nepalese Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Dueba at his official residence Baluwatar. The Foreign Ministry of Nepal said in a tweet, State Councilor and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the PRC (Peoples of Republic China) Wang Yi paid a courtesy call on the Rt. Hon. PM @SherBDeuba [Nepalese PM Sher Bahadur Deuba] today. Rt. Hon. [Right Honourable] PM witnessed the virtual completion ceremony of the Pokhara Regional International Airport.

Ahead of the meeting with Dueba, Nepal and China signed a nine-point agreement following a bilateral meeting.

The two sides signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for financial and technical assistance. The MoU also covers a feasibility study of transmission line projects.

The Chinese and Nepalese delegations also discussed the issues related to vaccine transfer, maintenance and up-gradation and handover of Araniko Highway.
Jaishankar asserted that India-Maldives ties are full of promises and possibilities. He added that the focus of cooperation between the two countries is the well being of the people of the two countries.

Indias External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is on a two-day trip to Maldives where he reaffirmed the strength of bilateral ties between the two countries. Jaishankar asserted that India-Maldives ties are full of promises and possibilities. He added that the focus of cooperation between the two countries is the well being of the people of the two countries. The focus of the engagement is the well-being of our people, stated Jaishankar. Meanwhile, Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid said that New Delhi is Malis most trusted partner. Ours is a relationship of mutual respect based on trust and confidence, said the Maldivian Foreign Minister. Shahid, who is also the President of the United Nations General Assembly, in a Tweet also thanked India for standing in solidarity with the Maldives, and for being its friend and partner throughout the years.

Jaishankar also attended the inauguration ceremony of the National College for Policing & Law Enforcement (NCPLE) at Addu city. Speaking at the event, he said, This venerable institution has left its imprint in many ways of making modern India. I emphasise that its contribution in the realm of foreign policy has been particularly strong. A score of foreign service officers have passed through its gates over the decade and currently, both the External Affairs Minister (Jaishankar) and Foreign Secretary (Harsh Shringla) have had the privilege of studying here.

Lauding Maldives for being a trusted ally of India, Jaishankar stated, Your (Maldives) policy of India First and our policy of Neighbourhood First are not just phrases but the very fulcrum of India-Maldives relationship.

The Foreign Ministers visit to the Maldives comes at a time when the archipelago is witnessing a prolonged anti-India campaign by its former President President Abdulla Yameen. Yameen is well known for his pro-China stance and that is the reason analysts believe that his campaign is backed by China.

Earlier in February, considering its ties with India, the Maldivian government moved a bill in the countrys parliament to combat Yameens anti-India campaign. The Bill on combating actions affecting diplomatic ties established between the Maldives and Foreign countries was to sought to curb the #IndiaOut campaign which accused India of having military presence in Maldives.
Opposition marches led by Pakistan's People's Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League(Nawaz) (PML-N) from different cities are also set to reach Islamabad today when PTI has planned its 'Amr bil Maroof' rally.

As the day for Imran Khans no-trust test nears, the political temperature on the ground has increased manifolds in Pakistan with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) preparing for a show of strength in Islamabad today with what it is calling the biggest rally. However, the Pakistani opposition is in no mood to allow the ruling PTI a sigh of relief. Opposition marches led by Pakistans Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League(Nawaz) (PML-N) from different cities are also set to reach Islamabad today.

Members of ruling PTI from different parts of the country have begun reaching the Parade Ground to attend Amr bil Maroof rally here, reported Geo TV. The PTI is calling their public gathering Amr bil Maroof . Prime Minister Imran Khan issued an audio message urging his supporters to throng the gathering in large numbers. He said in the message, Today is a battle for Pakistan  and not for PTI; its a battle for the future of our nation. Khan concluded by saying, We are out to create history today.

The opposition has claimed that the Imran Khan government has lost the majority in the National Assembly after several disgruntled ruling party lawmakers hinted towards voting against their own government. The opposition has continually urged Imran Khan to step down as the Prime Minister. The Express Tribune, citing sources, reported on Friday that at least 50 ministers belonging to the ruling party have gone missing.

Originally slated for March 25, the no-confidence motion against the Imran Khan government will now take place on Monday after the adjournment of the National Assembly on Friday.




Biden spoke with the Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya aboard Air Force One on Saturday (Local Time) and underscored continued support for the Belarusian people in defending and advancing human rights.

US President Joe Biden on Saturday (local time) spoke with Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya aboard Air Force One and assured continued support for the Belarusian people in defending and advancing human rights, a White House press release said.

The press release read, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., spoke with democratic opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya of Belarus from Air Force One. He thanked her for attending his speech in Warsaw tonight. The President underscored the continued support of the United States for the Belarusian people in defending and advancing human rights, including freedom of expression, and free and fair elections.

Protests against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenkos regime lasted for a year from 2020 to 2021 for alleged voter fraud. Prior to Russias invasion of Ukraine, Belarus had hosted Russian troops under the pretext of military drills. Russia later launched its troops into Ukraine from Belarus in order to invade the country from the north.
The US announced that it will provide USD 100 million in civilian security assistance to Ukraine in order to enable the country's border security, sustain civil law enforcement functions

The US has announced that it will provide Ukraine with $100 million in aid to assist the country in keeping its border security, law enforcement agencies running, said the US State Department in its press release. The aid is also aimed at helping the country safeguard its critical governmental infrastructure, the press release said.

The State Department press release also read, US intends to provide an additional USD 100 million in civilian security assistance to enhance the capacity of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs to provide essential border security, sustain civil law enforcement functions, and safeguard critical governmental infrastructure.

The US said that the funding will ensure a steady flow of personal protection equipment, field gear, tactical equipment, medical supplies, armoured vehicles, and communication equipment for the Ukrainian border guard units and the Ukrainian National Police.

Earlier this month, the Biden administration had provided Ukraine with $800 mn in military aid for weapon systems including Stinger anti-aircraft systems, drones, and small arms ammunition.
Air New Zealand has been awarded a further twelve months of support for cargo flights under an extension of the Governments Maintaining International Air Connectivity scheme (MIAC scheme). This contract is for freight capacity operating from 1 April 2022 through to 31 March 2023. The MIAC scheme has helped keep New Zealand connected to its global trade partners and allow for essential international travel to continue while international borders remain effectively closed.

The latest extension of the MIAC scheme was announced by the Government in March 2022. The scheme continues to support a predictable and regular schedule of international air services during the Covid-19 pandemic. Under the scheme, the Government provides financial assistance to airlines that are awarded cargo flights, to support maintaining critical air connectivity and provide a base schedule for the rebuilding of international passenger services.

The MIAC scheme extension to March 2023 provides for the level of support to reduce over time to reflect an expected recovery of international passenger demand over the period.

Under the most recent extension, the airline has been initially awarded support for approximately 60 flights per week to destinations including Los Angeles, Vancouver, Hong Kong, Shanghai and key Pacific Islands and Australian ports.

The Government financial support for flights within this twelve-month period is expected to contribute up to approximately $180 million towards the airlines cargo revenue. For context, in the first half of the current 2022 financial year, support from the scheme contributed $182 million to the airlines total cargo revenue.

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NEW MILFORD  Born into one of New Milfords relatively few Black families in 1870, Martha Minerva Franklin grew up to leave a lasting impact on the field of nursing as a pioneer of racial equality.

The only African American person in her 1897 graduating class in nursing school, she advocated for other Black nurses and spearheaded the creation of an organization that supported Black nurses.

In her biography, Early Black American Leaders in Nursing, Althea T. Davis noted that although Franklin was often mistaken for a white woman due to her light complexion, she had a firm Black identity.

The middle child of Henry and Mary Franklin, she spent the first five years of her life in New Milford before moving with her family to the New Haven County city of Meriden.

After high school, Franklin attended the Womens Hospital Training School for Nurses in Philadelphia and was the only African American in her 1897 graduating class.

She returned to Meriden and spent several years working as an in-home private nurse before relocating to pursue the same kind of work in New Haven in the early-1900s.

Advocacy

With deepening concerns about color barriers in the profession, Franklin started researching the status of Black nursing school graduates in 1906.

Through two years of research, Franklin discovered various challenges faced by Black nursing school graduates  including racial discrimination laws in many southern states prohibiting them from joining state nurses associations and in turn precluded them from joining the American Nurses Association. Although the ANA did allow Black nurses, membership in a state nurses association was required to join.

She also found that those who managed to join the prestigious association were restricted from addressing segregation and discrimination issues.

After concluding that collective action would help address the issues Black nurses face, Franklin wrote letters to nursing graduates and professionals across the country, inviting them to organize a new organization  one dedicated to eliminating racial bias in the profession through promotion of standards and welfare of Black nurses.

This organization came to be known as the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses.

More than 50 Black nurses responded to the call, gathering at St. Marks Methodist Episcopal Church in New York City for the associations first organizational meeting in August 1908.

During the three-day convention, Franklin was unanimously elected president, and the group decided on three goals for the newly-formed association: breakdown discrimination in the nursing profession, develop leadership among Black nurses, and advance the standards and best interests of trained nurses.

After two years as president, Franklin served as the organizations permanent historian and honorary president.

Impact

In addition to actively campaigning for racial equality in nursing, Franklin took time to further her nursing education.

In her late-50s, Franklin moved to New York City in 1928 to complete a six-month postgraduate course at Lincoln Hospital and became a registered nurse. She remained in the city, working as a public school nurse and studying public health nursing at Columbia Universitys Teachers College.

By 1940, the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses had more than 12,000 members from across the country.

During World War II, the organization worked to integrate Black nurses into the armed services and its involvement in lobbying efforts proved effective. In 1942, the U.S. Army announced its first quota of 56 Black nurses; and more than had been commissioned by the end of the war.

Following decades of campaigning, advocacy work and accomplishments, the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses merged with the National Nurse Association in 1951.

By that time, Franklin had retired from nursing and moved back to New Haven. She spent her last years there and died, a month shy of her 98th birthday, in September 1968.

In 1976, Franklin was posthumously honored by the Hall of Fame of the American Nurses Association as a pioneer of the nursing field. She was also inducted into the Connecticut Womens Hall of Fame in 2009.

This story is part of a series of pieces on historical women who lived in the Danbury area in honor of Womens History Month.
NEW HAVEN  A city teacher is suing the principal of the school she works in, as well as the city, over what she alleges was retaliation for raising concerns to the Board of Education about perceived inadequacies in the school districts response to COVID-19.

Jessica Light, a teacher at Worthington Hooker School, alleges in a U.S. District Court lawsuit that she was retaliated against, defamed and placed in a false light by her principal for exercising her First Amendment right to free speech and that the city is liable for failing to protect her against consequences.

Worthington Hooker Principal Margaret Mary Gethings and representatives of the City of New Haven did not respond to requests for comment Friday. A spokesman for New Haven Public Schools declined to comment Friday.

Light filed an April 30, 2021, complaint with human resources alleging retaliation from her buildings administration after speaking to the school board and media about her concerns that the schools were inadequately prepared for a return to in-person learning without a clear districtwide policy.

The vaccine is weeks away, the end is near. Please do not risk my life for this charade, Light said to the school board on Jan. 11, 2021, about one week before the schools reopened to elementary school students and before all teachers had the ability to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.

In other instances, Light addressed the school board to raise concerns about the districts readiness to enforce public safety protocols and also appeared in televised news reports speaking out about the districts policies.

According to the lawsuit, Light also questioned her schools response to a reported case of COVID-19 in Facebook comments on March 9, noting that she never received a letter  neither as a teacher nor as the parent of a student at Worthington Hooker.

In an investigation report by law firm Berchem Moses PC released in December 2021, it was determined Light learned three days prior to her complaint that she was assigned to teach first grade, despite concerns that her severe dyslexia makes teaching the phonics curriculum difficult. She had taught third grade at the school for four years and had prior teaching experience with fourth, fifth and sixth grades, the investigation found.

By March, the relationship between Light and Gethings had begun to deteriorate, according to the Berchem Moses investigation. On March 22, 2021, Light allegedly shared her concerns about things such as social distancing in classrooms with the school board, hours after she raised similar concerns to Gethings. According to the investigation, Gethings emailed Light expressing disappointment that Light felt the need to ask the board questions Gethings already had promised to answer.

According to the investigation report, Gethings said Lights activity on Facebook was causing concern among parents about negligence. The report found that a parent email provided as evidence was sent one week before the Facebook comments in question. Another email was written on May 26, 2021, by a parent without a child in Lights class. Investigators said it was unclear why the parent would write an email two months after Light had last commented before the school board and two days after the districts human resources department provided written notice of the investigation into Lights claims of retaliation.

While these facts give rise to a suspicion that the email was solicited, even if it was not, a single email would not reflect a level of disturbance, particularly when it came months after the speech at issue and after many of the events cited by Ms. Light as retaliatory had already taken place, the Berchem Moses investigator wrote.

The relationship between Light and Worthington Hooker administration reportedly deteriorated further when Light allegedly was accused of being an inside source that spread information about an unnamed teachers COVID-19 positivity without evidence. According to the investigation report, an executive board member of the schools Parent Teacher Organization told another teacher of her knowledge from an inside source that a teacher  referred to as Teacher X  had tested positive for COVID-19.

Teacher X, who is not friendly with Light, according to the investigation report, told investigators she believed based on Lights social media activity, but admittedly without proof, that Light was the inside source. In a 90-minute meeting between Light, Teacher X, the principal and assistant principal and a union representative, Light reportedly was asked whether she provided the information, which she denied. According to the report, Gethings did not accept Lights denial.

While this investigation does not make any conclusion about whether Ms. Light was or was not the source of information being shared in the community regarding Teacher X, the manner in which it was addressed was unfair to Ms. Light in several respects, the investigation report reads. Ms. Light was brought into what was essentially a restorative justice meeting to make peace with Teacher X for conduct she denied doing. Her statements that she did not share the information were given no serious consideration and she was told not to say that it was not truthful that she shared the information.

Investigators also looked into various claims that school administration was looking to isolate Light from her peers.

In one instance, a paraprofessional reportedly watched Lights classroom as she excused herself to the bathroom. The day after, the paraprofessional reported being admonished in a brief-closed door meeting with Gethings for having assisted Light  a claim that allegedly was substantiated by investigators based on a credibility assessment.

In another alleged incident, emails from Lights husband to building administrators raising concerns about their sons teacher  a second-grade teacher at Worthington Hooker  appeared on a third-grade teachers printer, Lights grade-level colleague.

The documents arguably could show Ms. Light and her husband as people who criticize their sons teachers, the report said.

Light denied printing the documents; Gethings said she had done it as part of the investigation, but she had intended only to print a copy for herself. She said she did not know how the emails ended up in Lights colleagues printer. Investigators said they found the evidence to suggest retaliation from administration against Light for her complaint.

Additionally, investigators found claims that administrators told the newly-elected union steward that teachers were concerned he was working together with Light to undermine administration to be substantiated.

Investigators reportedly found four instances of retaliatory conduct against Light by administration: the Teacher X incident, the reprimanding of the paraprofessional for briefly covering Lights class, the printed emails in Lights colleagues printer and the allegations of conspiracy made to the union steward.

Further allegations in Lights complaint  such as that she was passed over for professional development and other opportunities, that an order of classroom materials was ignored or that she was denied the assistance of movers when changing classrooms  were based on incidents said to be twisted, misinterpreted, or blown out of proportion by various parties interviewed in the investigation.

Ms. Light may have viewed many innocent actions as retaliatory, but this is understandable in light of the climate, the report said. Ms. Light stated that in isolation, she would not have complained about many of the actions in her complaint, and she noted that many could have innocent explanations. Indeed, that was found to be the case.

In the lawsuit, Light alleges that the school administrations cross-complaint alleging she fabricated statements to human resources and created a hostile work environment was further retaliation. She also alleged feeling isolated from her peers, including an incident when she reportedly was the only teacher who was not told about International Dot Day on Sept. 15, 2021, and was therefore the only teacher not wearing polka dots that day.

In October, Light began taking time off from work after being diagnosed by her physician with post-traumatic stress disorder triggered by a hostile work environment.

Following the reports release, Light met with human resources to discuss her reintegration into the classroom and ways to prevent further alleged retaliation from Gethings. She was told in the meeting that she would not have the days she missed retroactively converted to paid leave. She later was told that she was to return to work at risk of being deemed insubordinate.

brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com
BRANFORD  When your parents live in a war zone, its personal.

So Iryna Solomko and her husband, Adrian Bonenberger, decided they needed to get her parents out of Kyiv, Ukraines capital, once the Russians invaded, even though her parents did not want to leave.

Eighty percent of the population in Ukraine refused to believe Russia would attack Kyiv, Solomko said. Like senior people, they get used to their life.

Bonenberger, who is editor of Yale Medicine Magazine, said he knew it would take a trip to Ukraine to bring his wifes parents to the Connecticut couples home in Branford.

I knew that we needed to go to Ukraine together, because that was the only way they were going to come, was for us to go and say, were here and were not leaving without you, at which point they would come to us or we would find some way to get them to us. They arrived March 16.

While he was there, Bonenberger, a former U.S. Army captain and Afghanistan war veteran, helped train Ukrainian civilians to help defend their country, which he said was the best experience of his life.

Solomkos background also makes things complicated. Her mother is Russian; her father is Ukrainian. I feel ashamed that Im 50 percent Russian, she said. Her mother has said she is also ashamed of her origins, Solomko said.

Bonenberger said there is a particular connection that Ukrainians feel to the land, especially people of her parents generation, because many are farmers and also because they live with the memory of their parents and grandparents, who had their land taken from them in the USSR and collectivized. Owning even an apartment or a dacha is incredibly meaningful for Ukrainians, he said.

Solomko holds the Russian people responsible for allowing Vladimir Putin to hold power since 2000. In Ukraine we were working on building democracy for three decades, she said. I believe that the person whom we elected, they are accountable to us.  So this is why I believe for Russians theyre responsible for their servitude, for the president who is ruling their country.

Solomko doesnt believe Putin will stop in Ukraine, but may strike Poland. And while Russian rockets reportedly are hitting maternity hospitals and shelters, Russian soldiers allegedly are raping Ukrainian women. Its about these animals, doing vulgar war crimes against humanity, she said.

Solomko has faith in the Ukrainian people, who staged the Orange Revolution in 2004 and 2005 that resulted in overturning what was considered a corrupt election, and who have been fighting since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea.

I believe that theyre doing a very good job, she said. And I think its all about bravery of the people, she said. Were doing this now, again, fighting for Ukraine  to be a European country, to be an independent country, not to be a servant of Russia.

She said she has friends who have joined the Territorial Defense Forces, people who are protecting cities, and Im proud of them and I believe in them.

Love at first sight

The couple met in January 2016 in Ukraine and married nine months later. Both are journalists and Bonenberger was in Kyiv as a writer and member of the Truman National Security Projects Defense Council. He also has written a memoir, Afghan Post, based on letters he wrote during two tours in Afghanistan.

We met when she was working for Hromadske Radio, which is Ukraines version of NPR, basically, Bonenberger said. And I went on her program to talk about the 2016 election. And it was love at first sight. Shes an incredibly articulate and passionate person, a person of integrity, and its rare to find people like that anywhere.

During the two weeks they recently were in Ukraine, waiting to get Solomkos parents out of the country, she helped get medical supplies from Lviv to Kyiv and neighboring cities, where it was needed most.

Training to guard Lviv

Bonenberger, with two friends, Matt Gallagher and Ben Busch, helped train members of the Territorial Defense Forces, which Bonenberger said started as 12,000 strong and grew to 2 million, citizens who are signing up for basically Ukraines version of the National Guard. The three friends were featured on CNNs Anderson Cooper 360.

When we got there, it turned out  it was more like a local branch of the Territorial Defense Forces designated to guard the city of Lviv specifically, so it was a local city defense force, even less training, even less equipment, less of everything, he said. They trained 55 men in basic defense. So we were able to teach Ukrainians what to expect from the Russians on the attack, and therefore how to effectively counter those tactics.

The Ukrainians were taught how to enter a building in stack formation, in which each man in single file has a specific task, turning left or right, communicating only by hand signals.

Two weeks is not a lot of time to train anybody on anything, Bonenberger said. So we decided early to focus on what we felt were the essentials of small-unit tactics and small-unit leadership.  We felt that if we could train people effectively on those two things, that they could extrapolate naturally a lot of the other things they would need to survive.

One object was to teach the Ukrainians to be able to tell whether Russian troops were well trained, so they could avoid engaging with them, Bonenberger said.

Youre looking for a unit that isnt doing these things, a unit that is sloppy, thats yelling at each other, thats not moving very tactically  thats a unit you want to hit, you want to hit hard, because you as civilians with not a ton of training, youre not going to be able to take on a big force, but you can take on a smaller force thats pretty lazy and sloppy and do real damage there, he said.

They also taught the Ukrainians how to lead a squad, along with some basic medical training, such as how to apply a tourniquet, and setting up hedgehogs, the steel rebar objects that can slow down tanks. They also had 500 rounds of ammunition so were able to teach the men how to shoot an AK-47.

Morale through the roof

They did great, Bonenberger said. They were some of the most motivated and disciplined trainees Ive ever met. Unlike American infantry, who Bonenberger said will complain about everything, he said, These people didnt. This is not hyperbolic here: not a single complaint. Their morale was through the roof. And I think it was because theyre defending their homes, theyre defending their land.

As a former Army commander who trained Afghan police, Bonenberger said training the Ukrainians was extremely gratifying.

As a civilian, as a citizen, as a veteran training other citizens, other people with mortgages  training people like me was meaningful in a way that I cant fully articulate, he said. And seeing them take to it. They did two months of training in two weeks because they were committed to it.  I was blown away by how incredible they were.

Bonenberger believes Russia will lose the war, based on its lack of a military strategy. I believe Ukraine is going to win, Bonenberger said. I just dont see how Russia has a military plan for subjugating Ukraine.

In fact, he believes Russia already has lost, since Putin no longer is talking about his initial objectives. He said, first and foremost, the most important political objective was regime change, Bonenberger said. He was going to get rid of the illegal Zelenskyy government. Hes failed to do that. Thats not even something hes talking about anymore.

Putins second objective, Bonenberger said, was the denazification of the entire country of Ukraine, which would require him to take the entire country of Ukraine, and hes no longer talking about that, either. So Ukraine has already won the war as Russia defined it when they invaded.  Ukraine has also won in the sense that it has proved to the world that its a country capable of defending itself against a military that most serious analysts have described as one of the foremost militaries in the world.

Bonenberger said since Ukraine lost to the Russians in 2015, The Ukrainian military took those lessons to heart. It has incredibly capable generals and leadership and theyre waging a textbook defensive campaign.

The Russian army, on the other hand, is aimless and adrift, he said. The world overestimated Russian capabilities, Bonenberger said, because much Western analysis comes from those who want to sell arms to the United States military.

Ive known that the Russians were not as capable as Western analysts had claimed, Bonenberger said. Ive known that because I reported on the Russian invasion of 2014-2015.

edward.stannard@hearstmediact.com; 203-680-9382
Niagara Falls, NY (14301)

Today

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The Minister of Transportation and foremost chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, has warned the party of making the sam...

The Minister of Transportation and foremost chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, has warned the party of making the same mistake of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

The former Rivers State Governor spoke with reporters during the APC National Convention in Abuja on Saturday where he also revealed that the other five candidates running for the partys Chairmanship seat stepped down for Abdullahi Adamu because they felt he was the best candidate to lead the party at this point.

Amaechi said the PDP, his former political party, never knew they will be in the opposition today, believing that no matter what happened theyll be in power forever

He warned that this is one big mistake APC must avoid in order not to land in the opposition too, accusing the PDP of having refused to listen to Nigerians.

On why the other candidates stepped down for Adamu, Amaechi said, They seem to have agreed that Abdullahi, I wont say is better, but is first among equals.

They have agreed he will be the best Chairman for now that would lead the party in confronting the opposition. You know its good to hear that PDP is in opposition. They never knew theyll be opposition. Thats the reality of party politics.

The APC too must be prepared to make sure were not In the opposition like PDP. PDP never assumed theyll be in opposition.

They believed that no matter what happened theyll be in power forever. And unfortunate for them, they were not listening to Nigerians.

But as a party, APC is listening, were hearing, we know theyre complaining and the President is addressing those complaints so that things will change.
Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers, has declared his intention to contest the presidency in the 2023 general election. Wike announced his d...

Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers, has declared his intention to contest the presidency in the 2023 general election.

Wike announced his decision on Sunday when he visited Benue to consult stakeholders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state over his ambition to run for the presidency.

The Rivers governor expressed confidence that PDP would win the presidency in the next election.

If youre running in an election, power isnt given for free; it is taken. I have come out and Im going to take this power from APC back to PDP by the grace of God, he said.

God has given us what it takes. Thats why God is making APC to make mistakes everyday and that is how you know that God is with you.

Let me thank the people of Benue for receiving me to come and talk to them. I am declaring for the first time in Benue state because of my special relationship with them. People are merely not suspecting, but let it be known today that I am announcing it in Benue state because I have a special relationship with this state.

Today, you cant talk about security in this country, and you must understand that without security, you cant talk about governance.

One first thing that anybody who takes oath of office is sworn to, is that you must protect life and property. If you cant protect life and property, then you cant talk about governance. So, that major thing is that our people should be alive.

He also said disregard for the rule of law is affecting inflow of investment into the country.

Nobody can bring investment in this country because there is no respect for the rule of law. Nobody obeys court order. Who will come and invest his money when court gives its judgment and it will not be obeyed. So, I am going to run for election and victory will be ours, he added.

Wike, who said he has what it takes to win the election, said he had stood with the PDP when many members ran away.

Those who want to be president now were the problems of the party in 2015. They ran away when the party needed them most, he said.

But I have stood and worked for this party. I have nowhere to run to because I take it personally that the party should not die. And I challenge anyone to a debate on what they did for PDP.

Also present at the event was Samuel Ortom, governor of Benue.
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential aspirant, Kingsley Moghalu has warned that Nigeria is at the risk of being overrun by t...

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential aspirant, Kingsley Moghalu has warned that Nigeria is at the risk of being overrun by terrorism.

Moghalu said this while reacting to the bandits attack on the Runway 05 axis of Kaduna airport on Saturday.

Bandits on Saturday attacked Kaduna Airport, stopping an aircraft from taking off but were repelled by troops.

However, the bandits shot and killed a staff member stationed at the perimeter fence who raised alarm on sighting the bandits.

Reacting, Moghalu on Twitter suggested that the only solution to the crisis is for the government to ensure the protection of strategic national assets.

His tweets read, The reported terrorist attack on Kaduna airport highlights my statement recently that ungoverned spaces are expanding as governed (secured) spaces shrink in Nigeria. We are truly at risk of being overrun completely by terrorism.

The solution is to ensure robust protection for strategic national assets including critical infrastructures such as airports, oil production facilities etc based on a scientific understanding of terrorism, training, and equipment. This is job #1 for the next President.
Troops of Operation Hadin Kai have recovered the ruins of crashed Alpha Jet aircraft (NAF475) that went off the radar in 2021. According t...

Troops of Operation Hadin Kai have recovered the ruins of crashed Alpha Jet aircraft (NAF475) that went off the radar in 2021.

According to a notice on its verified Facebook page, the Army said the wreckage was found during a clearance patrol of troops of Operation Desert Sanity.

The jet had crashed on March 31, 2021, with two crew members onboard.

Air force spokesperson, Edward Gabkwet, had said the jet went missing while on an operation in the north-east.




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The Nigeria High Commission in London has suspended biometric capturing for persons interested in applying for the e-passport. In 20...

The Nigeria High Commission in London has suspended biometric capturing for persons interested in applying for the e-passport.

In 2021, the federal government launched the enhanced e-passport to address issues of forgery and improve the application process.

According to a statement issued by the commission on Saturday, the biometrics capture was suspended after a meeting to deliberate on issues surrounding assault of staff members.

The suspension is effective from March 28, 2022.

At the launch of Enhanced E-passport operations in London on 23rd November 2021, Nigerians in the United Kingdom were quite optimistic of improvements in service by the Immigration Section, on the issuance of Passports, the statement reads.

The issuance, renewal, and operations since the introduction of the new Enhanced E-passport have been fraught with many challenges, particularly on the issuance of National Identification Number (NIN) and the appointments for biometrics capture.

The Mission feels and shares in the pains of teeming Nigerians since the launching of the new Enhanced E-passport scheme in the United Kingdom by the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.

The staff of the High Commission are currently being assaulted on regular basis on account of attendant frustrations, particularly by Nigerians who travel long distances from Scotland, Northern Ireland, Manchester, Cardiff, Birmingham, etc., to the Mission in London without positive resolution of their respective consular issues.

Nigerians with dual citizenship desirable of renewing their British Passports and those seeking the issuance of British Resident Permit (BRP) are also usually on edge because of the inability of the Mission to resolve their legitimate needs and requirements.

The meeting deliberated extensively on the current challenges associated with the issuance of passports as enumerated above and agreed that drastic actions must be taken to bring succour to Nigerians in the UK. A stitch in time saves nine.

The leadership of the Nigeria High Commission remains responsive to the needs and welfare of Nigerians in the United Kingdom. Consequently, the biometrics capture on the new Enhanced E-Passport at the Nigeria High Commission in London is hereby suspended with effect from Monday, 28th March 2022, until these challenges are resolved, in the interest of the Nigerian Community in the United Kingdom.

Whilst we regret the inconveniences the suspension may cause, the Emergency Travel Certificate window and visas for British-Nigerians are available as a stop-gap measure.

In 2020, the commission had suspended passport processing to limit exposure of staff and applicants to the coronavirus.
Reno Omokri, a socio-political activist, has reacted to bandits attack at Kaduna Airport on Saturday. Omokri lamented that bandits ...

Reno Omokri, a socio-political activist, has reacted to bandits attack at Kaduna Airport on Saturday.

Omokri lamented that bandits were taking over Kaduna Airport while the All Progressives Congress, APC, embarked on its national convention.

In a tweet, the former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, also berated Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna, following the attack.

He wrote: Can you imagine bandits taking over the Kaduna airport and preventing planes from taking off? And APC are celebrating themselves at their Abuja convention?

And they are projecting the Governor of Kaduna for VP in 2023? The same man who was paying these bandits?

Reports had it that bandits on Saturday stormed Kaduna State Airport, stopping an aircraft from taking off.

It was also learnt that bandits shot a staff of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA).
Suspected terrorists attacked the Kaduna International Airport in the Kaduna State, Northern Nigeria on Saturday.

Suspected terrorists attacked the Kaduna International Airport in the Kaduna State, Northern Nigeria on Saturday.

The attackers, numbering over 200 were said to have taken over the airport.

The development caused panic at the airport as the suspected terrorists reportedly killed one security official of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency.

The attack, it was gathered forced the authority to temporarily shut down activities while the military battled the suspected terrorists.

A source revealed that the terrorists insisted on shutting down the airport.

Following the presence of the terrorists on the runway area of the airport, workers attached to the airport were said to have left their duty posts.

It was also gathered that an aircraft scheduled to take off for Lagos at 12:30pm could not fly as a result of the presence of the terrorists at the runway of the airport.

It was gathered that most of the workers at the airport had fled as more military personnel have been deployed to the airport.

The source said, They started attacking the Airport around midnight. The soldiers were able to repel them that midnight and we thought that was all. In fact, our workers resumed work this morning as usual till around 12:00 pm.

Then, shortly after that, some NAMA workers went to check some of their equipment, then these bandits appeared and started shooting.

The NAMA engineers scampered for safety, they could not even go and enter the vehicle that took them to the site. It was in the process that their security man was shot in the head.

The security man was rushed to the hospital and he was confirmed dead.

As I am talking to you now, the soldiers are still battling those bandits, and they are proving difficult to be repelled. Now, they had shut down the airport.

Meanwhile, as of the time of filing this report, neither the state nor the police had confirmed the attack.

The Kaduna State Police Commands Public Relations Officer, ASP Muhammad Jalige, however, promised to get back.
French President, Emmanuel Macron has condemned US President Joe Bidens use of the word, butcher to describe Russian President Vladimir P...

French President, Emmanuel Macron has condemned US President Joe Bidens use of the word, butcher to describe Russian President Vladimir Putin.

I wouldnt use terms like that because Im still in talks with President Putin, Macron said during an interview on French Channel, France 3.

Biden had on Saturday issued intense criticism against Putin during his meeting with Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw, Poland.

Biden, who looked to have initially ditched his personal rivalry with Putin, ramped up his rhetoric against Russian President over the last 10 days.

For the first time, he called Putin a war criminal last week and then later referred to him as a murderous dictator, a pure thug who is waging an immoral war against the people of Ukraine. Hes also called the Russian invasion of Ukraine inhumane.

Macron added: Our goal is to stop the war Russia launched in Ukraine, while avoiding a war and escalation.

Before the start of Russias invasion of Ukraine, Macron emerged as a central figure in Europes diplomatic efforts to diffuse the situation between Moscow and the West.

The French leader repeatedly engaged with Putin to try and avert the war.
Newly elected National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdullahi Adamu, has said the ruling party has fulfilled i...

Newly elected National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdullahi Adamu, has said the ruling party has fulfilled its covenant with the Nigerian people.

Adamu stated that no administration in the history of Nigeria has achieved as much as APC in terms of delivering key infrastructural projects.

In his inaugural address, Adamu who was elected as the consensus national chairman however stated that the APC is set to achieve even much more.

According to him, while no government can do all the works, the APC has been able to fulfilled its promises made in 2015 in the area of security, economy and the war against corruption.

He stated that the APC for almost seven years now had been battling night and day in order to enhance the livelihood of Nigerians through various policies, programmes and projects.

He said, No Administration in the history of Nigeria has performed as much as we did in building key infrastructure and in uplifting the living conditions of the Nigerian people.

Projects that once existed only in the dreams of Nigerians such as the Second Niger Bridge, complete rehabilitation of the Lagos-Ibadan dual carriageway, the Lagos-Ibadan express rail, the Abuja-Kaduna express light rail, the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano pipeline and many others, have either been started and completed during our Administration or have been inherited in abandoned conditions and have made rapid progress in the last seven years.

No government can satisfy everybody, however hard it works. Some work will always be left undone and every work done will continue to need maintenance, expansion and improvement. We are however satisfied that APC has fulfilled its covenant with the Nigerian people. Of the three main pillars of its promises to the Nigerian people in 2015, that is, security, economy and anti-corruption, much progress has been recorded in all three areas and many more.

Adamu, a former Nasarrawa State Governor, called on Nigerians to continue to support the party in order to achieve more.

According to him, APC is set to do much, much more when Nigerians continue to bestow on us their love, support and confidence in next years general elections.

He charged members of the party to renew their faith in the leadership at all levels even as he assured that he would work towards healing the wounds and carry out genuine reconciliation.

We need to renew our faith in our party and its leadership at all levels in order to herald a new dawn. We need to commit to the resolution of our crisis within the confines of our party constitution. We must resist the temptation to blow every minor personal disagreement into a major party crisis. It is time for us to do things differently. When we quarrel, we open our flanks to our rival political parties that are only too eager to exploit them for their own benefit.

I promise you here and now that we shall heal any wounds in our party; we shall effect lasting reconciliation among our members, and we shall go into the next general elections as a strong and united party. I offer my hands of friendship to all our members. I want to assure you that my colleagues and myself will run an open door policy to all members of the party.
The Director General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Major General Shaibu Ibrahim, has called on the 2022 Batch A Stream II Co...

The Director General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Major General Shaibu Ibrahim, has called on the 2022 Batch A Stream II Corps members to strive towards skill acquisition and entrepreneurship training by keying into the NYSC Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development Program (SAED) as white-collar jobs are no longer available or fashionable.

According to the DG, through programmes such as SAED, corps members can acquire skills that will sustain them in their future endeavors after completing their one year mandatory service to the nation.

Ibrahim also urged the corps members to be obedient to camp rules and regulations.

He reminded the corps members that they were not only representing themselves but also their parents as well as their various institutions of learning. He warned that anyone found disobeying camp rules would be dealt with in accordance with the NYSC Bye Laws.

The NYSC DG made the call at the swearing-in program of the corps members in Katsina state.

The DG who was represented by the NYSC State Coordinator, Alhaji Alhidjo Yahaya, in his address also emphasized on the need for Corps members to learn at least a trade before leaving the orientation Camp. He admonished the corps members to take the NYSC SAED in-camp training seriously.

The DG also drew the attention of corps members to the existence of COVID-19 pandemic, urging all corps members to take the vaccine and adhere strictly to the COVID-19 safety protocols.

Ibrahim also warned corps members to desist from using the social media to promote negative and social vices, urging them to instead use it to promote national unity and integration.

Over 1000 corps members who have been registered are participating in the orientation program in Katsina.
Criticism is an integral corollary of the job, although through the years, the Secretary General has not come out with a harsh judgment that would reflect his partisanship which in turn would result in the loss of his credibility and confidence of powerful and important States.

by Dr. Ruwantissa Abeyratne in Montreal

Raindrops make rivers and ocean - our deep intention and positive actions will make the world free from nuclear weapons and wars. - Amit Ray

On 24 February 2022 the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres issued the following statement: We are seeing Russian military operations inside the sovereign territory of Ukraine on a scale that Europe has not seen in decades. Day after day, I have been clear that such unilateral measures conflict directly with the United Nations Charter. The Charter is clear: All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations. The use of force by one country against another is the repudiation of the principles that every country has committed to uphold.

This applies to the present military offensive. It is wrong. It is against the Charter. It is unacceptable. But it is not irreversible...We know the toll of war. With deaths rising, we are seeing images of fear, anguish, and terror in every corner of Ukraine. People  everyday innocent people  always pay the highest price. That is why the United Nations is scaling up our humanitarian operations in and around Ukraine. Today I am announcing that we will immediately allocate $20 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund to meet urgent needs.

The current state of aggression and humanitarian crisis has brought out the best of the Secretary General of the United Nations and his office. Being the executive head of the United Nations - a highly diverse organization working worldwide to improve the lives, living standards and health of those needing help, The Secretary General has a leadership role in taking action against any threat to peace around the world .

The Secretary General is appointed by the General Assembly upon recommendation of the Security Council. This is provided for by Article 97 of the United Nations Charter which also stipulates that the UN Secretariat must comprise a Secretary-General and such staff as the Organization may require and that the Secretary-General must be the chief administrative officer of the Organization.

The UN operates offices in 193 countries and employs approximately 37,000 people in the Secretariat in New York making it the worlds largest universal multilateral international organization. It is estimated that, when staff of the regional offices of the UN are counted this figure would reach at least 50,000, all of whom ultimately report to the Secretary General. Based in New York City, The UN Secretariat has offices in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi. Also part of the UN Secretariat are the Regional Economic Commissions in Addis Ababa, Bangkok, Beirut, Geneva, and Santiago.

The Secretary General overseas a 6.8 billion peacekeeping budget which sustains over 100,400 people serving in UN peacekeeping operations (86,145 uniformed, 12,932 civilian, and 1,334 volunteer) worldwide.

The Secretary-General could serve for one or two terms of five years each. Traditionally the Secretary-General cannot be a national of any of the permanent Security Council nations.

The post loosely follows a cycle in which each successive Secretary-General comes from a different continent. The current Secretary-General is Antonio Guterres of Portugal who, as the 9th Secretary general of the United Nations has served from 2017.

One of the most vital roles played by the Secretary-General is the use of his "good offices" - steps taken publicly and in private, drawing upon his independence, impartiality, and integrity, to prevent international disputes from arising, escalating or spreading. Apart from overseeing the UNs main function of peacekeeping around the world the Secretary General has also to oversee the protection of human rights; delivery of humanitarian aid; support sustainable development and climate action; and uphold international law.

Historically, Secretaries General have been largely proactive in their duties. For example, Kofi Annan (January 1, 1997 - December 31, 2006) made use of his good offices in a range of situations, involving among other nations Cyprus, East Timor, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, and Western Sahara.

In addition to managing staff and administering them, the Secretary-General plays a key role in mediation between States, negotiating between warring parties and deploying UN sponsored peace keeping forces.

The Secretary General also appoints special envoys and personal representatives who undertake missions in difficult areas.

The Secretary General's day to day tasks include attendance at sessions of United Nations bodies; consultations with world leaders, government officials, and others; and worldwide travel intended to keep him in touch with the peoples of the Organizations Member States and informed about the vast array of issues of international concern that are on the Organization's agenda.

Each year, the Secretary-General issues a report on the work of the United Nations that appraises its activities and outlines future priorities.

The Secretary-General is also the Chairman of the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC), which brings together the Executive Heads of all UN funds, programmes and specialized agencies twice a year in order to further coordination and cooperation in the entire range of substantive and management issues facing the United Nations System.

One of the empowering provisions in the United Nations Charter which assigns a signal role to the Secretary-General is Article 99 which enables the Secretary-General to bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his/her opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.

Notable examples of instances when this Article was used relate to the Congo, when Dag Hammarskjold (Sweden, Second Secretary-General of the United Nations from April 1953 until his death in a plane crash in September 1961) cautioned the Security Council, followed by Trygve Lie ( Norway, First Secretary General, 1946-1952) in Korea and Kurt Waldheim (Austria, Fourth Secretary General, from 1972 to 1981) ,in Iran.

Although this provision has not been frequently used, the Secretary-General can, without invoking the provision, exert his influence behind the scenes with the States, in particular the powers in the Security Council.

The nine Secretaries General who have so far been at the helm during the United Nations' 77 years of existence have demonstrated that their personal judgment, initiative and risk taking ability are the defining qualities of a Secretary-General.

The Secretary General is subject to continued scrutiny and criticism of States. For example, Secretary General U Thant (Burma, Third Secretary General, 1961-1971) was held accountable and was stringently criticized for pulling out troops from the Sinai in 1967.

Similarly, both Secretaries General Lie and Hammarskjold were criticized by the Soviet bloc for the actions taken in Korea and the Congo respectively.

In more recent years Secretary-General Perez de Cuellar (Peru, Fifth Secretary General, 1982-1991) was criticized for his role in the Persian Gulf as well as Boutros-Ghali regarding Bosnia, and Kofi Annan with regard to the UN role in Somalia and Iraq.

Criticism is an integral corollary of the job, although through the years, the Secretary General has not come out with a harsh judgment that would reflect his partisanship which in turn would result in the loss of his credibility and confidence of powerful and important States.

The seminal characteristic of the office of the Secretary General lies in its neutrality and the lack of vested interests.

The Secretary General does not, under any circumstance "enforce" but rather overseas the facilitation of administration in States that need such support after collapsing or succumbing to natural or man made disasters and wars.

An example of such an initiative of significance is the appointment by Secretary General Annan of a high level international panel to critically evaluate and examine the UN's handling of peace operations.

The Panel, which issued its report in 2000, found that UN peacekeeping could do with significant improvements. The Report exhorted States to take their responsibilities more seriously and set clear, achievable goals.

Neither the Secretary General nor the staff of the United Nations Secretariat and other offices are allowed to seek or follow instructions from any government or State. They are international civil servants driven by their own impartiality and independence. .

What faces the Secretary General in the 21st Century?

To answer this question, one has to take note of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's vision of "the three pillars" around which we need to reorganize today's United Nations to give it focus, to reconnect it and make it more relevant to its core constituents - the peoples of the world - development, security and human rights, and democracy."

Human resource management, governance and oversight are key issues for the future and the current Secretary-General may have to initiate a much more stringent and proactive management reform system than exists today.

The Secretary-General also strongly embraces new information technology and sees a major role for it in fighting poverty, promoting human development and improving United Nations operations. He also proposes an ambitious series of changes for the United Nations itself.

The challenges facing the Secretary General, as adumbrated by Secretary General Annan in his Report "Investing in the United Nations: For a Stronger Organization Worldwide" presented to the General Assembly on March 7, 2006, called for a radical overhaul of the UN Secretariat based on the philosophy that the staff members of the Organization are the most valued resource.

The Report calls for proactive and quicker recruitment; career development fostered through targeted training and staff mobility to be integrated among field and headquarters staff.

It also called for the role of the Deputy Secretary General to be re-defined so that he/she be made accountable for overall management, direction and function of the Secretariat.

Another recommendation is to streamline information and communications technology within the UN and reduction in time of the budget cycle. Improvement of Secretariat reporting mechanisms, particularly through a single annual report and the adoption of new principles to guide the interaction between the Secretariat and the General Assembly are also some suggested revisions.

Prevention of armed conflict is a major issue for the Secretary General. Armed conflict remains the primary source of instability today and is therefore incontrovertibly the main concern of the United Nations. However, there is no room for doubt that responsibility for the prevention of armed conflict lies ultimately with the States themselves.

The above notwithstanding, the ultimate responsibility for global peace devolving upon states being inexorable by no means absolves the United Nations of all responsibility, particularly as most conflicts today occur within States and the United Nations has the capacity to assist States in adopting preventive measures.

Also, arguably, the most serious current threat to humankind is the use of nuclear weapons.

The threat is further exacerbated by the fact that materials and technology used to produce nuclear weapons may be increasingly passing on to the hands of non-State parties, including terrorist organizations.

In this context, the United Nations and its member nations cannot entirely rule out the possibility of a large-scale use of nuclear weapons. This perhaps is the most daunting prospect for the current Secretary General and his successors.

Dr. Abeyratne is a former senior official in the United Nations System. He currently teaches international law and policy at McGill University. Among his numerous publications is War and Peace, The Aviation Perspective (2012).
U.S. to clear additional booster shot against COVID-19

Authorization would make extra COVID shot an option for people at least 50 years old
NEW ORLEANS

Melanie Montroll has been named as chief of the Harbor Police Department at the Port of New Orleans.

Montroll is a 21-year veteran of the harbor police department, spending the past five years as assistant chief. She succeeds Chief Robert Hecker, who will retire after having led the department for more than 26 years.

Montroll is a member of the Louisiana Association of Chiefs of Police, International Association of Chiefs of Police and the National Organizations of Black Law Enforcement Executives, and is a graduate of the FBI Leeda Leadership Trilogy program.

She earned bachelor's degree in business administration from Southern University at New Orleans and a master's in business administration from the University of New Orleans. She is a graduate of the School of Police Staff and Command at Northwestern University.

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Si Brown has joined Buchholtz Perkin as managing director, head of food and beverage.

Buchholtz Perkin is a mergers and acquisitions advisor with offices in New Orleans and New York.

Brown has served as president and principal owner of Bruce Foods Corporation.

He has been director of Grocery Manufacturers of America and the chairman of the board of advisors of the John Folse Culinary Institute at Nichols State University.

Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

He earned a bachelor's of business administration from Tulane University and served in the Navy.

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Marilyn Strecker has joined Leitz-Eagan Funeral Home as a funeral director.

Strecker, who has more than 20 years experience in the funeral home industry, started her career with Leitz-Eagan in 1998.

Leitz-Eagan is one of the oldest continuously operated funeral homes in the New Orleans area.

BATON ROUGE

Nancy Little has been hired as director of alumni and corporate fundraising for The Dunham School.

Little has experience in fundraising, constituent relations and volunteer management. She most recently served as assistant director for individual giving at Houston Ballet and has also held positions at New York City Ballet, the Baton Rouge Area Chamber and the LSU Office of Communication and University Relations.

She earned a bachelor's in mass communications from LSU, a master's in arts administration from the University of Kentucky and a master's in business administration from Texas A&M University Kingsville.
The LSU AgCenter and College of Agriculture have selected the 2022 Diversity and Inclusion Champions.

The group serves as a liaison between the College of Agriculture deans office, departments and schools to promote diversity initiatives and student inclusion.

The program has 15 faculty, staff and graduate students. Five are returning from the pilot program launched last spring.

Members are: Trina Biswas, Department of Agricultural Economics and Business; Kristin Stair, Department of Agricultural and Extension Education and Evaluation; Vinicius Moreira, School of Animal Sciences; Ashleigh Muth-Spurlock, School of Animal Sciences; Qian Karen Sun, Department of Entomology; Li-Hsiang Lin, Department of Experimental Statistics; Gina Eubanks, School of Nutrition and Food Sciences; Judy Myhand, School of Nutrition and Food Sciences; Heather Kirk-Ballard, School of Plant, Environmental and Soil Sciences; Jennifer Blanchard, School of Plant, Environmental and Soil Sciences; Andrew Bratton, Department of Plant Pathology and Crop Physiology; Jhonson Leonard, Department of Plant Pathology and Crop Physiology; Hallie Dozier, School of Renewable Natural Resources; Kevin Ringelman, School of Renewable Natural Resources; and Erica Woolard, Department of Textiles, Apparel Design and Merchandising.

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Olalekan Michael Ogundele, assistant professor of anatomy and neuroscience at the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine, has been awarded a $548,445 grant from the National Science Foundation to to study the brain's neural circuits.

Ogundeles study will address questions about the thought process in decision-making to enhance survival.

"For example, how do we determine that a new hallway sign stating 'Wet Floor' is relevant for our safety? Understanding our environment depends on the detection of novelty in the environment and discrimination between various contexts based on their relevance to survival, he said.

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Paul Coreil of Alexandria, the former director of the Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service and current chancellor of LSU Alexandria; Don Molino of Baton Rouge, long time Louisiana Radio Network farm broadcaster; and Jim Monroe of Pineville, the former assistant to the president at Louisiana Farm Bureau, joined the hall. The Louisiana Agriculture Hall of Distinction honors individuals who have made significant contributions to agriculture or agriculture-related industries. It is a joint effort of the LSU AgCenter, Louisiana Radio Network, Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation and Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry. Three new members were recently inducted into Louisiana Agriculture Hall of Distinction.The Louisiana Agriculture Hall of Distinction honors individuals who have made significant contributions to agriculture or agriculture-related industries. It is a joint effort of the LSU AgCenter, Louisiana Radio Network, Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation and Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry.

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Sean M. Duffy Sr. will receive the 2022 C. Alvin Bertel Award from the World Trade Center New Orleans

Duffy is executive director of the Big River Coalition and executive vice president of the Louisiana Maritime Association. He is a leader in the maritime industry who has been recognized for efforts to deepen the Mississippi River Ship Channel to 50 feet. This provides deep draft access to the ports of New Orleans, Plaquemines and South Louisiana, and promotes coastal restoration through the beneficial use of dredge material. The Bertel Award was established in 1967 and is presented each year to an individual who has made significant contributions to the Louisiana port and maritime community. The award will be presented at the annual C. Alvin Bertel Award Ceremony and Luncheon on June 24 in the Plimsoll Ballroom, at the Four Seasons Hotel. For event sponsorship information, contact Patrice Fisher at (504) 289-2327, via email at The award will be presented at the annual C. Alvin Bertel Award Ceremony and Luncheon on June 24 in the Plimsoll Ballroom, at the Four Seasons Hotel. For event sponsorship information, contact Patrice Fisher at (504) 289-2327, via email at pfisher@wtcno.org , or by visiting www.wtcno.org

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b1Bank, LSU announce partnership

b1Bank and LSU's E. J. Ourso College of Business have formed a partnership to expand opportunities for business students and veterans.

The relationship will establish an endowed scholarship and increase resources for the colleges Commercial Banking Initiative.

b1Bank will also support the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans, equipping veterans with the tools needed to be successful entrepreneurs. b1Bank is the newest sponsor for LSU 100, an annual honor that identifies, recognizes and celebrates the 100 fastest growing Tiger-owned or Tiger-led businesses.

Adams and Reese expands construction law practice with addition of Tampa firm

Adams and Reese has expanded its nationally-ranked construction practice with the addition of Cotney Construction Law.

The Tampa-based firm serves the construction and infrastructure industries with 16 attorneys and professionals located across the United States. They will join Adams and Reese's current roster of 58 construction attorneys and takes the group to 75, making it now one of the largest construction practices in the country.

Adams and Reese, founded in 1951, is a multidisciplinary law firm with over 270 attorneys and advisors.

LSU mechanical engineering professor designs soft robot for NASA

Hunter Gilbert, an assistant mechanical engineering professor at LSU is developing a "soft" robot made of carbon fiber for NASA.

Thanks to a grant from the Board of Regents and the Louisiana Space Consortium, Gilbert and his graduate and undergraduate students will spend one year constructing a soft robot in his lab. The first six months of the project will focus on modeling, simulation and design, while the latter six months will focus on experimental evaluation.

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Right now, were still at the very fundamental stages, so were focused at a small laboratory testbed scale, Gilbert said. Developing something that is going into space can come at a later date, once we have the fundamentals down. We have to understand it before we try to scale it up.

Soft robots have their advantages besides being lightweight. One is that bumping into things wont destroy the robot or the environment its operating in since the robot is made of carbon fiber, which makes it bendable.

Soft robots are also being investigated for surgical use, as well as for industry inspection and maintenance.

Trahan Architects selected to design Austin Asian American resource center

Trahan Architects, an architecture firm with offices in New Orleans, has been selected by The City of Austin to design a performing arts center for the Asian American Resource Center.

The center's mission is to create a space of belonging and healing for Asian American communities in Austin and beyond. This is accomplished through community collaborations and partnerships; providing rental space; organizing cultural, educational, and health wellness programs; and curating art and historical exhibitions.

Informational meetings set for affordable housing developers

The East Baton Rouge Parish Office of Community Development will host two free informational sessions Tuesday about funding streams that are available to support affordable housing development.

The first session will be from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. in the main meeting room in the Main Library on Goodwood Boulevard. The second session will be from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the large meeting room in the River Center Branch Library.

The sessions will deal with topics such as the East Baton Rouge Parish Housing Needs Assessment, future funding sources from city-parish and state agencies, Affordable Housing Grant requirements and private funding.

Attendees should register at brla.gov/communitydevelopment.
Police have arrested a Covington woman in connection with the death of her 6-month-old child, who was brought to the hospital last week with severe head trauma.

The Covington Police Department said Madelyn Abisai Mejia-Gallo was arrested and booked with second-degree murder in New Orleans and is being held in Orleans Parish Prison as a fugitive from Covington.

The child had been brought to the emergency room on Wednesday but had to be transferred to another hospital for more advanced care. Police said the child died on Saturday, and the arrest of Mejia-Gallo ensued.
A 26-year-old man was shot by two men in West Lake Forest in New Orleans East Saturday night, according to the New Orleans Police Department.

The two men went up to the man at 7001 Lawrence Road (map) at 10:36 p.m. and shot him. Paramedics brought the man to the hospital, the NOPD said.

The shooting is one of several violent crimes to take place in New Orleans since 7 a.m. Saturday.

Here's what else we know via preliminary information from the NOPD:

Man and wife carjacked near Read Boulevard

A 44-year-old man and his wife were carjacked near Read Boulevard East in New Orleans East just after midnight Sunday.

Three men approached the vehicle at 5540 Grand Bayou Drive (map) at 12:05 a.m. One of them was armed and demanded the driver get out of the car and took his phone. The other two men demanded the driver's wife's phone, and all three men drove away in the couple's car.

Woman shot in Little Woods crossfire

A 31-year-old woman was shot in a crossfire at Ridgefield Drive and North I-10 Service Road (map) in Little Woods in New Orleans East at 12:28 a.m. Sunday.

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People in two cars passed the woman shooting at each other and a bullet struck her right thigh. She was brought to the hospital in a personal vehicle.

Man carjacked in Algiers

A man was carjacked Sunday at 2:48 a.m. in Algiers at 2111 Cobblestone Lane (map).

Two men approached the vehicle on both sides and demanded the driver's things. The man on the driver's side hit the victim in the back of the head with a weapon, and both men drove away in the car.

No other details were immediately available.

Anyone with information regarding these crimes is asked to call Crimestoppers at (504) 822-1111. Tipsters may be eligible for a cash reward.
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.
New Columbia, Pa.  A woman from Flushing, N.Y., was busted with 10 laundry bags and a suitcase full of marijuana during a traffic stop on Interstate 80 in Union County.

Hong Z. Shen, 55, was pulled over by PSP Milton on Jan. 31 near mile marker 200 in White Deer Township. Shen had committed a traffic violation as she drove through in a vehicle with an Illinois registration, according to Trooper Jeremy Hoy.

After speaking with Shen, Hoy asked her to step out of the vehicle and consent to a search, which she did, charges state. Hoy reportedly noticed a clear plastic baggie containing a green leafy substance in plan view in a fanny pack Shen was wearing. Shen removed the plastic baggie and told Hoy it was pot, according to the affidavit.

Hoy called for a K-9 unit. During an external scan of Shens vehicle, the dog detected an odor coming from the trunk area. Police applied for and received a search warrant for Shens vehicle and upon searching, found 10 laundry bags and a black-sided soft suitcase that contained 100 vacuum sealed packages of marijuana, Hoy wrote. The vacuum sealed packages weighed approximately one pound each.

Shen was charged with a felony of manufacture or possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver and misdemeanors of possession. District Judge Jeffrey L. Mensch set bail at $125,000. The case was waived for court and Shen faces formal arraignment on April 25 in front of Union County President Judge Michael H. Sholley.

Docket Sheet

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The Center Square  A proposed bill would require Pennsylvania employers to provide all employees with paid sick leave, going beyond current federal requirements.

HB2439, introduced as the Health Family Healthy Workplaces Act, was introduced by Rep. Jennifer OMara, D-Delaware.

The Healthy Employee and Healthy Workplace Act will help Pennsylvanias families by requiring employers to provide paid sick leave to their employees, OMara said in a legislative memo. Workers would be able to use paid sick leave to seek treatment for an illness or a family members illness, in addition to treatment related to domestic violence or sexual assault.

The bill would apply to all employers, regardless of size. Employees could use sick leave after 90 days of employment, accruing up to 56 hours or seven days annually. Employees could also carry over unused paid sick days, limited to 80 hours or 10 days annually.

Critics questioned the necessity of the proposed bill, however, and worried about unintended consequences.

The proposal is a classic case of government being too-little-too-late and may actually water down or eliminate benefits for Pennsylvania workers, said Elizabeth Stelle, director of policy analysis at the Commonwealth Foundation. A government mandate would undoubtedly be cumbersome and time-consuming, harming both the employee and employer.

Stelle noted that paid sick leave is already offered to most workers.

Employers are already responding to employees demands for paid sick leave. The percentage of workers with paid family and medical leave has increased 64% over the past five years, Stelle said. As many as 79% of workers  and 85% of full-time workers  have access to paid sick leave.

OMaras bill is not the only way to offer more employee benefits, Stelle said.

The real question is how to help the small percentage of workers that dont have this benefit. The answer is more flexibility, not more regulation. For example, the federal Working Families Flexibility Act would allow employers to give hourly workers the choice of accumulating comp time in lieu of overtime pay, Stelle said.

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In a wide-ranging interview, Tesla's Elon Musk confirmed his belief that Germany should not only stop closing its operational nuclear power plants, but should also reopen the ones it already closed as a stopgap solution on the way to sustainable energy sources. Speaking on the topic of longevity, he called Biden's administration 'ancient' and lacking touch with the people or penchant for innovation like Tesla.

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Upon his return from Germany where he took part in the grand Gigafactory Berlin opening ceremony, Tesla's CEO Elon Musk sat for a wide-ranging interview with the biggest European publishing house Axel Springer. Speaking with Springer's CEO Mathias Dopfner during a tour of the the Fremont Gigafactory, Elon Musk opined on various issues ranging from sustainable energy through loneliness at the top, to the future of humanity. On the topic of sustainable energy production, he once again said that it's "madness" for Germany to want to close its last nuclear plants that are still operational.

"Total madness," he added, and said that the Germans should not only keep their nuclear reactors working, but also reopen decommissioned plants as the main stopgap solution on the way to sustainable energy will be nuclear. He believes the future of humanity's energy needs ultimately belongs to solar, yet the backup batteries needed for energy storage with it will take a while to be developed and produced, so in the meantime we may as well take advantage of nuclear energy to offset the oil and gas supply shocks brought upon by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

On the topic of humanity and its future, Elon Musk still firmly believes we should colonize Mars at some point. When asked why isn't he obsessed with longevity research and routines like his Silicon Valley peers, he answered that he is not afraid of death and would in fact welcome it, although he'd love to live long enough to see his dreams about SpaceX come alive. The reason humans shouldn't be striving to live for too long, Elon Musk added, is that most of the innovation and the breaking of established norms comes from younger people, so if everyone lives to over a 100 humanity's ability to invent would diminish.

In a jab to President Biden's age, he said that the U.S. has "a very ancient leadership," that makes it "impossible to stay in touch with the people if you are many generations older than them." Elon Musk has lately been accusing the White House of deliberately failing to acknowledge Tesla as a champion of sustainable mobility for various reasons.

Get the Tesla Motors 24' Cable Wall Connector on Amazon
"The Walk and Talk series will feature healthcare providers and a Gabis naturalist leading a leisurely walk along the trails at the arboretum. Participants will hear health and wellness tips, along with information about native plants and wildlife."
The Miller Beach Arts & Creative District is currently hosting Searching for Balance in Chaos, an exhibit featuring the work of artists Teresina Pavel and Patty Roberts, at the Marshall J. Gardner Center for the Arts through April 29. While each of the artists takes a different direction, one leaning toward abstraction and the other toward surrealism, the work of both is inspired by nature and vivid with color. Despite their individual approaches, the artists agree that the purpose of art and creativity is to bring order and beauty to the uncertainties of life. Stop by and meet the artists at their opening reception on April 1 or an Artist Talk on April 3. https://millerbeacharts.org/

Nestled in the heart of the Indiana Dunes National Park in Beverly Shores is a historic train station built in 1929. Designed in the Mediterranean Spanish style, and once home to the Station Master, the Beverly Shores Depot Museum & Art Gallery is now preserving local history while celebrating the arts. Located at 525 South Broadway along Route 12, the building is the single remaining South Shore station of its kind and continues to attract visitors and commuters with half of the building serving as a train station and the other half as the towns history museum, regional art gallery, and gift shop. Hosting exhibitions featuring work created by regional artists from May through October, the Depot has issued a call to artists to participate in The 5x5 Show Turns 5. To participate in this years exhibit, the first in-person one since 2019, artists must donate a 5x5 work of art to be displayed during the run of the show. 5x5 canvases and/or frames are available at no charge for pick up, and the deadline to submit is May 2. For participation details and a list of FAQs, visit wwwibsdepot.com or contact sales@bsdepot.com

Join Chef Joe Trama and the Trama Catering team on Friday, April 22, as they host a tribute dinner event under the ballroom chandeliers at the Center for Visual & Performing Arts in Munster. Replicating the elegant dinner served to first-class passengers on the RMS Titanic on the ocean liners fateful last night of April 15, 1912, guests will enjoy Chateaubriand roast tenderloin and Chateau potatoes on china dinner settings. Please note that this is not a showing of the 1997 film Titanic but rather a historical exhibition/event that will include a large screen depiction of the Titanics final voyage charted over the course of the evening. Period clothing will be on display, including President Tafts stovepipe hat, and live music will entertain. Call the CVPA Dining and Events office to make your reservation at 219/836.1930.

As always, please visit the South Shore Arts Regional Calendar for organizational contacts and updates on current exhibits, concerts, plays, and other arts events at www.southshoreartsonline.org

John Cain is executive director of South Shore Arts and the Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra.

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A senior at Illiana Christian High School in Dyer won a statewide Letters About Literature competition held by the Indiana State Library Foundation.

Students across Indiana wrote letters to their favorite authors about how their books impacted the way they see themselves and the world. Loralee DeYoung wrote to author Markus Zusak about his book The Book Thief.

The Book Thief is a novel that focuses on a girl in Germany during World War II who steals books and learns to read, finding comfort in the hobby during a difficult time.

DeYoung said she wrote about the book due to the discussions of grief present in the novel. She said it helped her deal with a loss in her family at a young age.

"It was helpful to know other people were going through the same thing," DeYoung said.

As first-place winner, she will have her letter printed in an anthology, receive a $100 prize and prize pack, as well as attend a writing workshop and award ceremony.

Eight other students from Illiana finished in the top 24, and there were more finishers from Illiana than any other school in Indiana.

DeYoung was surprised to hear she won, as the competition began a few months ago and she had forgotten about it.

Her teacher, Jeff DeVries, was the one to tell her.

"She had a 'deer in the headlights' moment," DeVries said.

The anthology will come out in the fall and DeYoung will have the chance to work with Margaret Peterson Haddix, a New York Times bestselling author who has written the books Shadow Children and The Missing.

DeVries said he was very proud of DeYoung and all his students who placed. He said he has been doing the competition in his advanced literature class for four years and this is the second time they have had a first place winner.

He said he heard there were more than a thousand entries, and although Illiana has done well before, he has never had this many students place.

DeYoung plans to continue writing after graduation. She hopes to major in language arts education and become an English teacher.

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GRIFFITH  With the iconic strides made by Griffith over the past decade, "relevant" has almost become its middle name.

When downtown Broad Street is closed for the Rock N Rail Festival and the Broad Street Blues & BBQ Festival, people from around the nation pack the town.

"I've spoken to people from Michigan to Florida, during the Bluesfest, who traveled here," said Town Council President Rick Ryfa, R-3rd.

Some of them travel specifically for these downtown events.

"Over a decade ago, Griffith began its revitalization process with a plan for the future," Ryfa said. "The future is now here."

It has been a remarkable transformation of a sleepy downtown.

"Griffith has revitalized itself in most every aspect over the last decade and has proven to be a great example on how to rebuild an aging town while reducing property taxes along the way," Ryfa noted.

Former Town Councilman and Clerk-Treasurer George Jerome has a unique respect for the town's dramatic turnaround.

"For too long, communities like Griffith were 'pass-through' towns." he said. "Our main drag, Broad Street, was wide enough that four lanes were available to get cars through town as expeditiously as possible."

In 2009, the new council took existing repaving plans for Broad Street and made drastic changes with fewer driving lanes and wider sidewalks.

"Rather than having traffic move through town quickly, we wanted to slow it down and give our merchants a chance to flourish once again," Jerome said.

The highly popular festivals and events, including the weekly Farmers Market, allow Griffith to showcase itself as a very vibrant community, Ryfa said.

I have had dozens of new residents over the years tell me that they first became aware of the great things in our town by attending one of our events.

Ryfa credited strong fiscal responsibility from town management to protect the taxpayers, such as the council's 14-year legal battle to escape its financial bloodbath from Calumet Township.

Griffith finally won the fight and joined North Township in January.

One of the Griffith citizens who supported the battle is Kathie Furjel Kepchar.

"Several years ago, residents were going house to house to get signatures," she recalled.

The council played it shrewd when the Canadian National Railroad purchased the former EJ&E Railroad tracks a few years ago.

"The town, recognizing that it could not stop the purchase, negotiated a settlement of almost $6 million" with the railroad, Jerome said.

The funds, in part, were used to encourage the merchants to improve their facades and properties," he said.

Many of the town's roads and allies were in poor condition and all have been repaved, Ryfa said.

Upcoming improvements include the town's sidewalks and the bike trail will be repaved.

Major upgrades have been made to the town's main sanitary line that should be good for the next half-century, Ryfa noted.

He added that property tax rates were reduced five or six years in a row and the town's great financial shape allows it to begin construction of a new two-story town hall/police station facility this year.

"We were one of the only communities not adversely impacted by the lifting of the property tax caps," Jerome noted. "We planned for it."

He added that Griffith's enhanced quality of life makes it very desirable, especially for younger families.

"Our increased assessed valuation benefits the entire county."

And Ryfa promises that the future will be even better.

With new businesses popping up all over, and the explosion of our housing market, Griffith has placed itself in a wonderful position to continue its unprecedented growth. Our goal is to make the next decade better than the last.

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CROWN POINT  As graduations are around the corner, scholarships are being awarded through the Indiana Sheriffs' Association Scholarship Fund, said Lake County Sheriff Oscar Martinez Jr.

Martinez is awarding scholarships to qualified high school seniors and college students pursuing a degree in criminal justice studies. Across the state, 40 scholarships of $750 each will be awarded through the fund.

The Indiana Sheriffs' Association Scholarship Fund was created to collect, invest and disperse college scholarships funds to those committed to pursuing a career in the law enforcement field.

Those who qualify must be an Indiana resident, attend an Indiana college or university, major in a law enforcement field and enroll as a full-time student with a minimum of 12 hours.

One must also be a current member of the association or must be a dependent child or grandchild of a current member of the Indiana Sheriffs Association. Individuals can become members of the association online at indianasheriffs.org/individual-family-form/.

An application for the scholarship can be found on the Lake County Sheriffs Departments website at lakecountysheriff.com by scrolling down to the scholarship opportunity section of the main page.

Applications must be completed and received by the Indiana Sheriffs Association on or before April 1.

Completed applications can be submitted to Laura Vest at LVest@indianasheriffs.org or by fax at 317-356-3996.

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Editor's note: Chesterton officials initially reported the infant had died, but later released an update stating the infant was alive after being airlifted to a hospital. This story has been updated.

PINE TOWNSHIP  A woman died and an infant has been airlifted in serious condition after a vehicle crashed through a backyard and into a pond, officials said.

The infant remains in serious condition as of Friday night, police said.

Around 4:40 p.m. Friday, first responders were called to the 1600 block of Ardendale Avenue, said Chesterton Fire Chief Eric Camel.

A vehicle was located submerged upside down on its roof close to a small pier near the shore.

A man who was able to get out of the vehicle told first responders there was a woman and baby still inside, firefighters said.

First responders rushed to rescue the occupants. Pines Fire Department Chief Bob Watkins and another firefighter found a woman and pulled her to the shore to administer CPR, said Chesterton spokesman Kevin Nevers.

Porter Fire Department Chief Jay Craig went into the pond, and at first he found a child's safety seat while doing a search of the backseat. He then found the child's foot and pulled the infant from the water and began CPR.

I had arrived, and a male who was presumed to be in the vehicle had made it out and the Pines chief (Watkins) was doing CPR on the woman, Craig said. I stripped down to my jeans and went in to find the car upside down in the pond. I was able to open the door and reach in. I found the baby and pulled them out and took them to shore and then the ambulance took them to the hospital. ... I couldnt see anything at all in there so I was just searching with my hands.

Chesterton Fire Department Engineer Chad Compton and Camel also performed medical care on the woman after relieving Watkins and his colleague.

The woman and baby were in full cardiac arrest, and the woman was pronounced dead at Franciscan Health Michigan City, fire officials said. The infant was airlifted to another hospital for treatment.

The man was taken to Franciscan Health Michigan City in stable condition. Camel said the man appeared to be distraught.

At this time, officials said it was unclear who was driving the vehicle.

Porter County Sheriff's Department Cpl. Ben McFalls said initial investigations show the vehicle was traveling westbound on Old Chicago Road and drove through the "T" intersection at Ardendale Avenue. The vehicle continued driving through private property and eventually into a pond.

After the incident, Craig said he wasnt sure if he had the words to describe the rescue efforts of the first responders at the frigid pond Friday.

Everybody performed at the top of their job, Craig said. They should be proud of their efforts today. I watched some great teamwork.

The Porter County Sheriffs Department Reconstruction Unit and Indiana Conservation Officers are continuing the investigation. Police said no further information is currently available, but updates will be released as the investigation continues.

The individuals' identities have not yet been released by the Porter County coroner's office or police officials.

Check back at nwi.com as this story develops.

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DYER  With new faces in leadership positions and assessed valuation growing to an all-time high, this town is looking to take the next step in growth and continued service to residents and businesses.

Writing in the town newsletter, Striving Higher, Town Council President Robert Starke noted, Moving forward in 2022, we plan to keep the focus on customer service when interacting with resident and business partners.

Starkey reported that for the first time in Dyer history, the towns total assessed valuation will exceed $1 billion.

The town, originally platted in 1855, was incorporated in 1910. Dyers 2018 population was 15,987.

Three new faces among those numbers are Dave Hein as town manager, Joe Martin as fire chief, and William T. Alcott as police chief.

Hein reported on a number of town enhancements, including parks.

The town manager said Autumn Chase Park received a face-lift, just in time for winters. These enhancements include new playground equipment, 32 trees, walking path, water fountain, and handicap-accessible parking space.

Funding these improvements, Hein said, were park bonds, Indiana Department of Natural Resources Land and Water Grant, and the CommuniTree Grant Program.

In a project expected to benefit all of Northwest Indiana, Hein said site preparation has begun for the West Lake Corridor South Shore Project. This preparation includes water and sanitary sewer line installation.

The West Lake Corridor Project is a nine-mile extension of the South Shore commuter rail line service between Dyer and Hammond. The project would end just east of the Indiana-Illinois state line, where trains would connect with South Shore lines to travel north to Chicago.

The projects parking lot will be within Dyers municipal limits, Hein said, with a train station built in Munster.

"This is an exciting development close to home, Hein said.

The town manager also reported on a series on light poles along Hart and 213th streets. This is part of Dyers Opticom emergency vehicle preemption system to help get first responders to the scene quickly and safely.

Elsewhere, Starkey reported the town recently held its first all boards and commission joint study session with the Town Council. Topics included public safety, public works, new park equipment, and future development.

Starkey said the towns public works department is involved in a general overhaul of Dyers water supply lines. This is to ensure that residents and businesses have safe and reliable water flow for the next 75 years, the council president explained.

Starkey added that the town continues to replace and rebuild streets, spending nearly $3.5 million annually on roadwork.

In other departments, Starkey said Dyer parks are working to upgrade and improve, adding that the town has a 20-year parks replacement plan.

Among new park amenities, Starkey said, is the addition this year of a splash pad at Elmer Miller Park. Local officials are also exploring new routes for bicycle and pedestrian paths and launching the design portion for the south end of Central Park.

Under public safety, Starkey said police have increased use of the LPR program as an early warning system for police officers. Other enhancements include increased security at police facilities and the implementation of body and car cameras in conjunction with a GPS system to allow command staff to better coordinate response to public needs.

Starkey also said the fire department is in the process of rebranding itself with new programs, new structure, and new vision to better serve community needs.

The council president said the towns development division is working to ensure a developer-friendly process to draw new business, while also ensuring these businesses fit into Dyers comprehensive plan.

Over the next five years, Starkey said, youll see the Calumet Avenue corridor explode with new businesses facilities, and opportunities for Dyer residents and our neighbors to eat, conduct business, receive medical care, and have new options for employment.

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EAST CHICAGO  The city may be losing population and is plagued by poverty and other ills of the countrys urban centers but East Chicago still matters to its more than 26,000 residents and 740 other businesses employing thousands more across Northwest Indiana.

The city has been on Indianas map for more than a century, helping make Northwest Indiana a major hub of steelmaking since Inland Steel built an open-hearth furnace in East Chicagos Indiana Harbor in 1902.

And Indiana Harbor remains one of the largest steelmaking operations in North America thanks to its Midwest location.

Freighters ply the Great Lakes to bring iron ore to East Chicago. It produces finished metals that are shipped over rail and highways to appliance manufacturers and auto plants in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky.

Douglas Powers, East Chicago planning director, said, Our city offers unique resources. It is a short drive to downtown Chicago with access to the interstate highways, rail lines and lake barge traffic and over 300 MW of available power."

He said, "we have a casino and a yacht club/marina. We have plenty of access to water. We have an abundance of public parks as well as the historically significant Marktown and we are neighbors to metropolitan Chicago.

Marktown is a planned industrial community built in 1917 by Clayton Mark, for employees of his manufacturing plant.

Powers said the 2020 acquisition of the citys largest steel mill by Cleveland-Cliffs assures the city there is potential for future job creation.

Its No. 7 Blast Furnace at Indiana Harbor East is still the largest in the Western Hemisphere.

Powers said the city plans to build on this success by preparing an optimistic 20-year development plan to determine what the community wants in the coming years so that information will be readily accessible to future commercial, residential or industrial developers.

One example of that hopeful future would be the recent move by Speedwagon Capital Partners, a Chicago-based private investment firm, to buy a long-vacant bar mill from Cleveland-Cliffs Indiana Harbor with plans to redevelop the site.

It became the destination for thousands of immigrants from Europe, the southern states and Latin America looking for work industrial work.

The citys population peaked in the 1960s at just under 60,000 and went into decline when industrial automation reduced the need for many jobs and as its residents prospered enough to the areas suburbs.

Nevertheless, Powers said East Chicago is in the midst of a decade-long drive for renewal.

He said city incentives of between $10,000 and $30,000 to first-time homeowners have increased and those making renovations have improved the housing stock.

The city has demolished hundreds of derelict buildings, resurfaced its streets and restored much of the citys aging sewers.

There is a proposal for new single-family housing in the citys Prairie Park neighborhood," Powers said "We are revitalizing North Harbor.

Weve seen some new developments, including two mixed-use structures for residential and medical services on Broadway and Main Street. We also have a facade improvement providing up to $25,000 to assist businesses in renewal efforts, he said.

That is in addition to the reopening in 2020 of the Cline Avenue bridge, which provides the city access to the Indiana Toll Road.

State and local government officials are spending $420 million to expansion of the South Shore commuter train lines that are critical to keeping East Chicago in play for future development.

He said there was a recent groundbreaking for a new commercial building at an industrial park in the 4400 block of Homerlee expected to provide employment for hundreds.

The planned redevelopment near the former West Calumet Housing Complex, which was evacuated because of concerns about lead poisoning, is expected to start with a 1 million-square-foot building that would be the largest new industrial building in Northwest Indiana.

U.S. Rep Frank J. Mrvan, D-Highland, has earmarked federal spending that includes more than $26 million for the cleanup and improvement of the citys Indiana Harbor and its canal to Lake Michigan as well as $1.2 million to support job training programs at Ivy Tech Community College in East Chicago.

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SCHERERVILLE  This town takes its Crossroads of the Nation nickname serious, said Town Manager Robert Volkmann.

This is a bedroom community, where people work throughout Northwest Indiana and Chicagoland, said Volkmann, town manager since 2005.

At the same time, Volkmann said, Schererville is taking steps to ensure this community of 29,002 residents is a place to raise families and promote commercial development.

Founded in 1866 as a farming community, Schererville has grown and evolved into a community bounded by the first two interstate highways, U.S. 41 and 30. While there may not be that much room left for residential development, Volkmann said, that has not deterred improvements in infrastructure, including parks and trails.

Planned improvements at Rohrman Park will create a larger, safer place for children, said Park Superintendent John Novacich. In keeping with the Americans With Disabilities Act, park improvements include sidewalks that tie into existing sidewalks near the park shelter, along with other changes that meet ADA standards.

A Community Development Block Grant of $122,390 will help cover park improvements. A new playground will cover more than 5,000 square feet at the towns largest park.

Novacich anticipates the project to begin in the spring, with completion by late June. In addition to the removal of old park equipment and addition of age-appropriate activities, the entire playground area will have a soft rubber surface, similar to those used in other town parks, the superintendent said.

Another park enhancement is a proposed splash pad at Scherwood Park. Novacich said the towns first such pad will include various spray features in the 70 by 60-foot area south of the main parking center.

To assist with design ideas, the Park Board enlisted input from children as part of a first-grade class project at Homan Elementary.

Novacich anticipates construction on the splash pad to begin in the spring and to be completed by summer.

Elsewhere, the town is working on the final phase of the Pennsy Greenway Northwest Trail through Schererville, with construction of Phase 4 scheduled to begin this spring. A $2.91 million grant from Indianas Next Level Trails Program will fund this 2.25-mile part of the trail, Novacich said.

As the park superintendent noted, The completion of this trail through Schererville will link up a 13-mile stretch of the bi-state trail thats part of the 3,700-mile Great American Rails to Trails system in 17 states.

In commercial development, the town is moving ahead to transform Illiana Motor Speedway into a business park.

Working with the Lake County Economic Alliance, the town recently received requests for proposals to redevelop the property.

We dont want a retail center, Volkmann stressed, citing constant calls about economc interest in Northwest Indiana and Schererville.

Volkmann said the town wants to work with developers interested in economic opportunities in the community.

Our goal is to have a business park that accommodates professional corporate offices, medical offices, and light manufacturing-type businesses, the town manager said. The towns vision is to foster a professional development that includes green space and complements the surrounding areas.

Redeveloping the site will require extensive work, including installation of streets, a drainage system, storm and sanitary sewers, and other infrastructure. The planned timeline is to receive proposals some time in September.

In other municipal matters, the town is finishing a complete reconstruction of Fire Station 3 at Springdale Drive and Burr Street. The original station dated back to 1980, when fire crews were all volunteers paid on call. Improvements include three on-site equipment bays, Volkmann said.

In quality of life matters, Lake Hills Fire Department, located in Schererville, now provides advanced life support to residents of St. John Township, as of 2021. Lake Hills started ambulance service in 1993, and 29 years later the fire department began staffing the ambulance with two emergency medical technicians on weekdays.

In commercial developments, Portillos is going through the Plan Commission for approval of a 7,800-square-foot restaurant at 67th Avenue and Ind. 41.

Residentially, Volkmann continued, the Amberleigh Estates home community development on the west side of town started in 2020 and was completed last year, with 75 units built.

Since COVID-19, Volkmann noted, residents have invested more in home improvements than new building. The number of new construction permits has fallen, he said, while permits for property renovations has gone way up.

Looking ahead, Volkmann said Schererville has many assets, including its central location and proximity to major highways, along with quality of life.

We have beautiful neighborhoods, were very safe, and we have one of the lowest tax rates in Lake County, Volkmann said. We have a great school system and a nice retail corridor. Everything has evolved to be right here in the community.

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China's private firms get more loan support in 2021

Xinhua) 08:57, March 27, 2022

BEIJING, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Loans granted to private businesses in China saw growth in 2021 as the country has been improving financial services for them.

As of the end of last year, outstanding loans to private firms stood at 52.7 trillion yuan (8.27 trillion U.S. dollars), increasing by 5.5 trillion yuan from the beginning of the year, data from the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission showed.

The figure represented year-on-year growth of 11.5 percent, the commission said.

The commission added it will continue to urge banking and insurance institutions to bolster financial services, with measures to extend credit to private firms in a fair, precise and effective manner, and diversify products to meet their financing needs.

China's private firms have shown significant momentum in the past decade amid a nurturing policy environment, increasing from 10.86 million entities in 2012 to 44.58 million in 2021 to account for 92.1 percent of enterprises nationwide.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Bianji)
Zurich International Life (Zurich) will be one of the key supporters of the annual Arab Household Savings Conference that is taking place this week in Bahrain.



The event is attracting 33 speakers from heads and officials of digital banks, asset managers, insurance companies, wealth management providers, fintech businesses, financial analysts, and global economic institutions.



The conference sessions focus on the importance of financial resilience, the need to save and the best vehicles for both household savings and employee savings and asset accumulation.



Zurich has signed a sponsorship agreement with Fintech Robos, the organisers of savings and pension conferences in the Mena region.



Zurich is a key provider of workplace savings solutions and the plan administrator for the DIFC Employee Workplace Savings (DEWS) scheme through its subsidiary Zurich Workplace Solutions (ZWS). They cover the end-to-end administration of the DEWS plan right from awareness and education to onboarding, member management and withdrawals. To date, through its efforts, the DEWS plan has paid out over AED100m to 4,000+ employees, demonstrating that the plan is meeting its core objectives of ensuring employee protection and financial wellbeing.



ZWS delivers an industry-leading customer experience through a great focus on technology adoption, operational excellence and most importantly customer centricity.



Since the launch of DEWS at the start of 2020, theres been a growing momentum for savings schemes and products in the GCC markets, as evidenced by the recent announcement by Dubais government of a savings scheme for foreign employees in government departments. There are also signs those similar arrangements are being planned in other GCC countries, said Ebrahim K Ebrahim, CEO of Fintech Robos, the savings and pension thought leader.



The annual Arab Household Savings Conference is a one-of-a-kind event that addresses financial literacy, digital finance, savings, and investments across the Mena region.



Ebrahim said the event will explore the horizon for digital savings solutions that allow people in the Arab world to swiftly adapt a savings mindset.



Alongside the annual Arab Pensions Conference, we hope the household savings conference will contribute to powering the lively discussion that we have started in recent years to address the importance of financial literacy, household financial planning and pension savings, added Ebrahim.  TradeArabia News Service
109th was also widened to four lanes; dedicated northbound turn lanes were added off 109th, a passing lane was added on the south side of 109th; Grand was raised to meet the new height of 109th; and dedicated eastbound and westbound turn lanes were added onto Grand going south.

"109th was a major undertaking... we can be proud of the fact that we no longer have backups on Broadway, Uran said. "Now we are poised to open up that entire commercial district along Broadway.

New development

Now the city is focused on the future with plans for two new hospitals and an e-commerce business park in the works.

Franciscan Health held a topping-off ceremony when a steel beam was placed atop the new $200 million hospital in February. Located at Interstate 65 and U.S. 231, the project broke ground over a year ago.

The full-service hospital is slated to open in fall 2023 and will serve south Lake County, as well as Porter, Newton and Jasper counties.

The project is part of a broader development at the southeast corner of I-65 and U.S. 231 in Crown Point that will double the size of St. Francis University, reserve 250 acres of residential development and set aside 80 acres for commercial development and 60 acres for a potential Catholic high school.

A UChicago micro-hospital is also looking to call Crown Point home. Proposed for 10855 Virginia St., the facility would include a surgical center, imaging department, ancillary services and medical offices. The Crown Point Plan Commission unanimously approved a petition for a primary subdivision approval for the project in February. Developers hope to complete the facility in early 2024.

Both projects are expected to bring more jobs to the area, as is an e-commerce facility proposed for the southeast edge of Crown Point.

Hillwood Investment Properties, a Texas-based company focused on industrial real estate development, wants to build a business park on a 250-acre patch of land bordered by Iowa Street to the east, Interstate 65 to the west, East 137th Avenue to the south and ending just south of 129th Avenue to the north.

The project would start with one or two speculative buildings to attract companies. Once Hillwood has partnered with a company to fill the facility, more structures would be built to meet the companies' needs. Developers hope to start construction within the year.

"This is one of the biggest developments and maybe one of the most impactful developments that has hit Crown Point in a long time," Crown Point Plan Commission member Mike Conquest said at a January meeting.

Creating community

The growing number of jobs, available housing and good schools has made Crown Point the perfect place to put down roots and raise a family, Uran said.

Because the Crown Point is not land-locked by other cities or by Lake Michigan, it can continue to expand.

We have a little bit more of an open canvas than other communities," Uran said. "We are investing our dollars wisely in smart growth, but residents can still enjoy quiet, quaint neighborhoods where almost everything is walkable."

Maintaining Crown Point's neighborhood charm means revitalizing beloved parks and greenspace. This fall the city will start a stormwater retention project at Sauerman Woods Park. The goal is to give the area "a facelift" while addressing ongoing flooding issues.

A large retention pond complete with fish and paddle boats will capture stormwater. Volleyball and pickleball courts will replace the old pool and more parking will be added to the park.

We are taking something that was a nuisance and turning it into a commodity," Uran said.

The city has partnered with Friends of the Military to create a walking path around the lake area with tribute walls detailing the conflicts of WWI and WWII as part of the 10.5-mile Veterans Memorial Trail.

To improve quality of life, the city is expanding downtown parking through additional lots around City Hall and more street parking, adding a total of 150 to 200 spots.

Over the years Crown Point has made ample investments in infrastructure, investments that are now attracting both new residents and private companies, Uran explained.

Our goal is always to bring people to Crown Point," Uran said. The aggressiveness of people coming out of COVID, looking to relocate has been perfect for our city... everyone did well in adapting [to the pandemic] and we are a better community for it."
EAST CHICAGO  The Common Council is considering ordinances to help finance the construction of the Lakeshore Manor housing development.

An ordinance unanimously approved on first reading by the council at its March 23 meeting provides $3 million as a loan from the city to the East Chicago Housing Authority (ECHA).

"The money is essentially intended to pass through East Chicago Housing Authority to the Lakeshore Manor development, which is the housing development that is currently in the works to replace the Nicosia Building," said Nick Snow, an attorney for the ECHA.

Residents had to evacuate the John B. Nicosia Senior Building in August due to structural concerns.

The 206-unit Lakeshore Manor development is planned for the city's North Harbor neighborhood.

ECHA Executive Director Tia Cauley said it will be the responsibility of the housing authority to make sure the city receives its funds back with interest.

Cauley said COVID-19 and financing issues delayed the project that, if completed earlier, would have allowed residents of the Nicosia Building to be transferred there instead of being put up at a local hotel.

"We have approximately four people left at the hotel," Cauley said.

The council also gave unanimous approval on first reading to an ordinance that allows issuing up to $24 million in bonds to help finance the project.

ECHA Deputy Director Christopher Vincent told the council in February that construction of the Lakeshore Manor Housing Development is expected to begin in mid to late spring.

The council also approved, on second reading, an ordinance that would provide $200,000 for restoration at Jeorse Beach.

Natalie Adams, the city's marina director, told the council at its March 9 meeting that the beach has been closed for two years due to both the coronavirus pandemic and erosion activity.

She said the plan is to have the beach restored and cleaned up in time to open for Memorial Day weekend.

If approved on the third and final reading, the additional appropriation would come from the city's gaming fund.

The council also approved an ordinance involving a COVID-19 mask mandate in the city.

Council President Monica Gonzalez, D-1st, said that the ordinance requires that masks still be worn in city offices and buildings but that the requirement will be optional for businesses.

The ordinance allows businesses to open at full capacity and requires that masks continue to be worn on public transportation within the city.

In other city news, Councilwoman Stacy Winfield, D-4th, will hold an Easter Door Hop on April 9.

Families who live in the fourth district with children ages 3 to 9 have until April 1 to call 219-397-3734 to sign up for a special gift to be delivered by the Easter Bunny.

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WINFIELD  The town will be adding 189 new homes in a subdivision named after its proximity to Grand Boulevard.

The Town Council has given final approval to the Grand Ridge subdivision.

The new subdivision is located on 87 acres at 10319 Grand Blvd., said Doug Ehens, vice president of Providence Real Estate Development.

"We are planning on breaking ground on the project in May," Ehens said after the council meeting.

Plans are to build 134 traditional homes between 2,000-3,000 square feet and 55 maintenance-free, age-targeted cottages between 1,600-2,000 square feet, Ehens said.

Cost to build the traditional homes, a mixture of two-story and ranch-style, would be in the low- to mid-$400,000 range, Ehens said.

Cost to build the age-targeted cottages would be in the mid- to upper-$300,000 range.

The subdivision will be built in phases and include a walking path that will be owned by the homeowners association and the town, a park, play equipment for youngsters, gazebos and places for people to gather.

Residents had numerous questions when the development was brought before the Winfield Plan Commission last month.

They were concerned about increased crime, privacy issues, drainage problems and use of a pond on the property that will go from private to public.

In addition to those who spoke at the meeting, Town Administrator Nick Bellar said he also received several online messages from residents concerned about traffic, safety and even whether schools would be able to accommodate the potential new students.

Town Councilman David Anderson addressed some of the concerns, including traffic. He said the developer will contribute $250,000 toward improvements to Grand Boulevard.

"One of the things we have worked on for years is traffic plans, and there are more changes to come as provided by the $250,000 which will go to improve Grand Boulevard," Anderson said.

Town Councilman Zack Beaver asked Town Engineer Michael Duffy about any additional traffic issues because of the new subdivision.

Duffy said the study done at the area showed the new subdivision, once fully built, would have "minimal impact" on traffic at 109th Avenue and Grand Boulevard.

In other business, the Town Council approved an average 5% increase for five employees who are classified as non-elected.

The job classification and new salaries are office and events coordinator, $41,000; building administrator, $55,000; deputy clerk treasurer, $59,748; building department clerk, $43,000; and utility and accounts payable clerk, $41,652.

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MICHIGAN CITY  It has been years since planning began for the Double Track NWI project. Its impact will last for many more years to come.

The project, currently under construction, will speed travel between Michigan City and Chicago, putting it within about the same commuting time as Naperville.

The Double Track project has been a catalyst for mixed-use multifamily developers, said Clarence Hulse, executive director of Economic Development Corp. Michigan City.

Well-heeled developers from New Jersey, Detroit, Indianapolis and even Europe are flocking to Michigan City, he said.

Were punching above our weight in terms of economic development, Hulse said. The Double Track project certainly helps.

The city is attracting residential as well as industrial development. The residential development is for a variety of income levels, helping provide new workforce housing as well as high-end homes.

We need to bring more people back to the city, Hulse said. Real estate appraisals are up 40%, which shows the city is on the rise, he said.

Mayor Duane Parry acknowledged the Double Track construction project wont be without pain. The original plan called for the Michigan City segment of the project to be done over two years. Instead, its going to be done in just one year to avoid the extra cost of mobilizing the equipment again for a second phase.

The city agreed to rip the Band-Aid off to get the project done sooner, Parry said.

While 11th Street might be difficult to cross because of the second set of tracks being added along the route, Ohio, Wabash, Washington and Franklin Streets will remain open with rare exceptions when construction on those streets is underway. Were trying to make sure we have at least two of those north-south accesses open, Parry said.

First responders will not fall below the required response times, he promised.

Part of the Double Track project includes building a new downtown train station in the block between Franklin and Pine streets. The terra cotta facade from the former station was saved to be incorporated into the new station.

But its not just a station going back up. Plans call for Indianapolis-based Flaherty & Collins Properties to build an $80 million, 12-story mixed-use development on the site. In addition to the train station, the project includes 208 luxury residential apartments, over 10,000 square feet of commercial space and a 558-space parking garage.

The downtown of Michigan City is undergoing a renaissance, Parry said.

Planning Director Skyler York said the city has seen projects that run out of steam in the past. That was then. The sophistication of developers is much higher than eight years ago 10 years ago, he said. Redevelopment agreements are being built to get to the end project and make sure that we dont have false starts.

Michigan City has been known for its summer homes. Thats changing. Right now, we are seeing a transition to permanent residents here, York said. New builds and building permits are booming, and the inspection staff is super busy.

We have been slow in two years, three years, even through COVID, he said.

Michigan City is going to be a city of all seasons, Parry said.

Providing the quality of life residents want is key. Indianas low tax rates might help attract interest in the Region, but its the quality-of-life amenities that seal the deal.

Michigan City excels in that regard, starting with its extremely popular Washington Park. The photogenic lighthouse, Old Lighthouse Museum, zoo and lakeview dining already draws visitors from Chicago.

The city this year agreed to expand the big cats exhibit for lions and tigers at the zoo. The zoo has improved immensely in the last 10, 12 years, Parks and Recreation Director Ed Shinn said. He gave the credit to Zoo Director Jamie Huss.

A place at Washington Park to walk dogs is coming soon, too. About two-thirds of the public input on the issue favors allowing dogs there. When dogs are walked, owners get exercise, too.

The Double Track project could increase the citys population by over 4%, so the city needs to provide the right amenities, Shinn said. I think recreation is going to be the key to attract them.

The city has 16 parks for a variety of recreational uses. A new five-year master plan calls for all kinds of improvements, including inclusive playgrounds at neighborhood parks for kids with special needs.

Take a walk on the Singing Sands Trail, Parry said. Its a marvelous experience. The trail is part of the Marquette Greenway Trail that will stretch from Chicago to New Buffalo, Michigan.

Parry said the city in talks with businesses that will bring employees to the city and provide a livable wage. We have a population of excellent specialty businesses, he said, with more in the pipeline.

The citys finances are bolstered by revenue from Blue Chip Casino and Hotel but hampered by property tax caps. Parry wishes part of the states $5 billion surplus will be shared with municipalities. Youre also got to take care of your cities and towns, he said.

Michigan City has 23 square miles, 171 miles of streets and 140 miles of sidewalks. Thats a tremendous responsibility, he said.

Looking to the future, Parry said he would like to see the Indiana Department of Correction move the Indiana State Prison to a different location, perhaps to Westville. The prison dates back to the Civil War.

Moving it would open up redevelopment opportunities there.

We keep our fingers on the pulse of whats going on, he said.

The naval armory at the end of the historic drawbridge to Washington Park is something else Parry has his eyes on. I would love to take possession of that naval armory if possible, he said.

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ST. JOHN  Ask Clerk-Treasurer Beth Hernandez whats unique about her town, and shes points to Christmas in the Park.

"Its one of the few Christmas events of its size in the Northwest Indiana area, said Hernandez, who has carried on this family tradition, now in its 18th year. The monthlong program includes a fireworks show and the arrival of Santa Claus by either fire truck or helicopter.

It grows every year in participation by not only St. John residents but those who live throughout Northwest Indiana, the town clerk said.

As this community continues growing, Hernandez said, the town grapples with the desire for growth while maintaining that hometown feel.

Meanwhile, she reported, the towns assessed valuation is $1,695,346,546, a 10.2% growth over the previous year. Its 2020 population, also growing was 20,303.

St. John is an easy commute in the city of Chicago, Hernandez said. Its a family-friendly community with great schools.

The 10th largest municipality in Lake County, St. John also boasts the lowest tax rate in the county. The town has been growing residentially, Hernandez said, with 558 new homes built in 2021, a 36% increase from the previous year.

New residential developments include:

 Parrish Woods, located on Parrish Avenue, looking to bring 27 single-family residences.

 Preserves, located at White Oak and 93rd avenues, looking to add 71 single-family homes.

 Gates of St. John on Highway 231, to be adding 216 row homes.

 St. John Commons, located at Calumet and 101st avenues, is proposing a mixed-use planned unit development, combining residential and commercial.

Commercially, Hernandez reported, Crew Car Wash, Culvers, and Centier Bank arrived in 2020 and Wendys joined last year. There are 8 acres available for development in Shops 96, the clerk said, adding, The town is looking to open the lines of communication with the developer to move this project along.

Another project, coming from Schilling Development, is adding several restaurants with outdoor dining, a banquet hall, and a boutique hotel on the west side of U.S. 41. This project is contingent, Hernandez said, on the town acquiring a riverfront district designation for the property from 96th Avenue to 231.

This designation is key, Hernandez said, because it would allow for very reasonably priced liquor licenses which would make Schillings proposal doable.

Municipal projects include the addition of two new wells, which should be operational by spring 2023.

St. John is also working with SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition), a system in which the towns wells talk to the water towers. The water side of the project will be operational around April 2022 and then work begins on the sewer side of this system.

Ultimately, the goal is to help maintain proper water levels in our towers, Hernandez said. This project helps the town with supplying water and becoming less dependent on the town of Schererville for additional water distribution.

Elsewhere, the Indiana Department of Transportation is adding a middle turn lane on U.S. 41 from 96th Avenue to 231. Although this project has been delayed, the clerk said, this work should be completed around June.

Also, the 96th Avenue extension project was completed in 2021. This road extends from Joliet Street that leads to the Shops 96 area.

Parks have also been busy, Hernandez said, including the towns first skate park. Gates Skate Park, located on the towns east side off Cline Avenue, will begin construction in late March, with a late June completion target date.

A playground will be added to Gates Park, off Park Place. The goal, Hernandez said, is to have the skate park and playground completed around the same time.

Work on Founders Park will resume in March, the clerk said, with this project scheduled for completion in mid to late May. This park features a playground, walking path, pavilion, and parking lot.

Under public safety, the town has added a license plate reader on U.S. 41 by Lake Central High School. These devices help combat the spillover of carjackings and stolen vehicles from Chicagoland.

The St. John Police Department has added a second K-9 unit. This enables police to have a dog on each crew. Raider, the newest canine, joins Match on the force.

K-9 have found mission elderly people, children, and detected large amounts of illegal drugs, Hernandez noted.

The fire department is now a permanent fitting station for child safety seats. This enables the public to come to St. John to ensure the proper installation of their childs car seat.

Firefighter Mike Sharp has taken on the Safe Sleep initiative for the fire department. This program assists families who need safe sleep environments for their infants.

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WINFIELD  Winfield's homey style is one of the reasons Zach Beaver has called it his home town since 2014.

Beaver, who serves as a Winfield Town Councilman, said he and his wife and four children built their starter home in Winfield.

They liked Winfield so much they built a second home with acreage.

They plan to stay in Winfield because it has retained its rural charm but isn't too far from urban shopping and restaurant offerings.

"We've always liked the homey nature, the kind of more rural feel to Winfield. It's close enough to Crown Point and Merrillville and Valparaiso to do shopping and get some of the restaurant experience but not close enough to everybody where you are on top of each other and where there's traffic and congestion. We kind of like the open feel," Beaver.

As far as relevance to the Region Beaver thinks a lot of people can relate to his experiences when they move to Winfield from other areas whether it's Chicago or elsewhere.

"We're one of the fastest-growing communities in the state and I think that's for a reason. I think people look at Winfield as a place to grow their family, to slow down a little bit and get some of that more rural vibe that maybe they aren't getting in the cities or other parts of the state," Beaver said.

Town Council President Gerald Stiener said that growth is expected to continue in Winfield.

Right now, town officials have approved 700 residential lots in various stages of construction, with another 700 residential lots likely to be given the go-ahead in the next few years.

The town, which was incorporated in 1993, still has plenty of room to grow, Stiener said. He estimates there is still about 70% of open land.

Stiener foresees the town growing to 11,000 to 12,000 in the next five years.

"That's part of the challenge to maintain the feel of the town and still grow," Stiener said.

The residential growth has been phenomenal, town officials agree.

Winfield's population was 4,383 in the 2010 census and has continued to increase, Clerk-Treasurer Richard Anderson said.

The town's population in the 2020 census was 7,181 and Anderson anticipates that number has most likely climbed to about 8,000 in 2022.

"Potentially we could reach 12,000 to 15,000 by the next census, in 2030," Anderson said.

Anderson said he and his family moved to Winfield in 1995 and what made the town relevant to him were incentives like low taxes, a large variety of housing stock and the fact that kids in the community attended the Crown Point school system.

One of the major attractions to Winfield is its low tax rates which, for its size, are the lowest in the state, Anderson said.

The Town Council last year approved a proposed 2022 budget of $6.7 million, which includes adding new positions, the funding of vehicles and covering the health insurance of dependents of full-time employees.

The property tax rate in 2021 was 39 cents per $100 of assessed valuation and will likely increase to around 54 cents per $100 in 2022, Anderson said.

"The bottom line is that most residents won't be paying more taxes as long as they have a homestead exemption," Anderson said.

Town officials said they have tried to balance the new growth with keeping such things as infrastructure and other services in place.

The town's roads have continued to be improved with a major project completed this past year at Grand Boulevard and 109th Avenue.

The portion of 109th Avenue in Winfield, which was closed starting in mid-August, opened in mid December, Winfield Town Administrator Nick Bellar said.

Work included removing the hills from 109th Avenue; adding dedicated northbound turn lanes off 109th, and a passing lane on the south side of 109th; raising Grand to meet the new height of 109th; and adding dedicated eastbound and westbound turn lanes onto Grand going south.

The project also included replacing a large culvert under the intersection as well as installing storm sewers along the road, Bellar said.

Road improvements will continue to be a major factor. With that in mind, town officials last year launched a traffic study to examine key intersections throughout Winfield.

One of the intersections that will be improved, with the assistance of federal funding, will include 117th Avenue and Randolph.

"It's happening in 2025-2026," Stiener said.

One of the biggest construction projects in the town of Winfield is the new $77.35 million Robert A. Taft Middle School, with a projected completion date of fall 2023, Anderson said.

Crews began moving dirt in mid-August of 2021 on the 98.25-acre site at 12408 Gibson St.

Due to the growth of the town, officials are already looking ahead to the possibility of building a new municipal building, Stiener said.

Presently the town is renting space from the Winfield Township which owns the municipal buildings at 10645 Randolph St.

For instance, the town's building department is expanding this year and the town's police department is expanding to seven officers, not including the town marshal, so more space is needed to meet those demands, town officials said.

"We can't survive in this space," Stiener said.

Stiener said town officials are already looking for property to build -- acreage in the town's center -- and the new municipal building or buildings could be under construction within the next five years, Stiener said.

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INDIANAPOLIS  Are you running for governor in 2024?

That was the question I had for U.S. Rep. Jim Banks as we had coffee Monday afternoon. Just hours earlier, two Indiana reporters had suggested that U.S. Rep. Trey Hollingsworth was the frontrunner for this open seat.

I havent ruled anything out, Banks responded. I will say candidly were watching closely what Mike Braun does. If Mike Braun runs for governor, well look at the Senate race. Whatever Mike Braun does creates a dominoes effect in a lot of directions.

Less than 24 hours later, Sen. Braun had what could be called a Richard Mourdock moment when he suggested that Roe v. Wade should really be determined by the states in a Zoom call with reporters. NWI Times reporter Dan Carden asked him if interracial marriage should also be determined by the states instead of by the U.S. Supreme Court. 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.

That response drew the kind of criticism that Mourdock's 2012 U.S. Senate debate blunder on rape and abortion led to Democrat Joe Donnelly's upset victory a few weeks later.

Braun quickly attempted to walk that back, saying, I misunderstood a line of questioning that ended up being about 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.

When I suggested that Braun's original quote might not hurt him in a 2024 GOP gubernatorial primary, a partisan texted me: "Good lord, who do you think we are? You act as if Republicans in Indiana are some monolithic herd of Neanderthals."

It's too early to tell how much damage Braun did to himself. Republican primary voters tend to be older, whiter and more conservative than those in a general election. And this is the Trump era, where politicians say things that were once unfathomable with little consequence.

What we do know is that a large Republican field is gathering for the nomination and the chance to face Joe Donnelly, at this point the most likely Democrat nominee.

Braun, Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, Republican Chairman Kyle Hupfer, Attorney General Todd Rokita, Eric Doden, U.S. Reps. Jim Banks and Hollingsworth all currently weighing bids. History tells us that the field will sort itself out well before the primary.

Braun, as he did in 2018 when the spent $5 million of his own money to win the Senate primary, Doden and Hollingsworth are potential self-funder candidates. Hollingsworth won a crowded 9th Congressional District primary in 2016 by spending $3 million in family funds. Crouch has the backing of GOP financier Bob Grand, who helped fund the campaigns of Govs. Mitch Daniels, Mike Pence and Eric Holcomb. Banks has access to a national fundraising base after ascending to House Republican leadership.

In the television age of Hoosier politics, a large field free-for-all gubernatorial primary or convention floor fight has not been the norm.

Since the 1968 Republican convention showdown between Earl Butz, House Speaker Doc Bowen and Secretary of State Edgar Whitcomb, who won with 1,260 votes to 527 for Bowen (and 429 for Butz) and Robert L. Rocks 953-951 Democratic convention victory over Richard Bodine (with 28 Bodine delegates opting for the hotel pool over the floor), the Indiana gubernatorial nominations have tended to be cut and dried affairs.

The closest showdown came in the 2008 Democratic primary when Jill Long Thompson won the nomination over Jim Schellinger by less than 20,000 votes. In the 1996 Republican primary, Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith easily defeated Rex Early and George Witwer with 54% (Early had 37%, Witwer 9%). The Democrats avoided a contested 1988 primary when State Sen. Frank OBannon joined Secretary of State Evan Bayhs ticket that February.

Since then, Bayh and Lt. Gov. John Mutz in 1988, Republican Linley Pearson in 1992, OBannon and Goldsmith in 1996, David McIntosh in 2000, Mitch Daniels and Lt. Gov. Joe Kernan in 2004, Mike Pence and John Gregg in 2012, and Gregg again in 2016 were consensus nominees.

So what is taking shape among Indiana Republicans in a looming crowded primary field is a rarity.

Evansville attorney Joshua Claybourns assessment of the 2024 field goes like this: Political pundits traditionally look for viable lanes for candidates to occupy; that candidates are essentially running to attract subsets of voters who have consistently different sets of priorities, ideological or otherwise. Although that approach can be oversimplified, it remains an accurate way to assess viability in a primary. Within the Indiana GOP, there is the so-called establishment lane, a Trump lane, and perhaps a third lane for social conservatives who vote on single issues.

Crouch and Hupfer would be in the establishment lane; Rokita and Banks would be in Trump lane; Braun, Doden and Hollingsworth are the self-funders seeking multi-lane appeal.

If Braun can regain equilibrium and opts for a gubernatorial run, Banks and Rokita could transition for the open Senate seat.

As for defining a "frontrunner," it's way, waaaay too early to identify one. We've never had a self-funder seek a gubernatorial nomination, let alone three. Stay tuned.

Brian Howey is publisher of Howey Politics Indiana. Follow him on Twitter @hwypol. The opinions are the writer's.

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LOS ANGELES  In the end, ignorance is still not a defense. And ignorance still doesnt equal innocence.

Nebraska Congressman Jeff Fortenberry found that out the hard way over the past two weeks in a federal courtroom that, from its rising bank of windows, offers spectacular views of everything from Los Angeles City Hall to the San Gabriel Mountains.

Fortenberry, 61, hit depths never before seen in Nebraska when he became the highest-ranking Nebraska elected official to be convicted of a felony. Three of them.

Ultimately, Fortenberry took far too long to do what other politicians readily did: disgorge dirty money from a campaign, a process in which a politician rids the suspect money from his war chest and donates it to charity.

Fortenberry had a gut feeling that something wasnt right after the February 2016 fundraiser in suburban LA, when he saw that the vast majority of the money came from the same last name: Ayoub. As it turns out, Eli Ayoub, a Creighton University School of Medicine graduate and LA physician, had been funneling a Nigerian billionaires cash to the campaigns of a handful of politicians, including Fortenberry.

Fortenberry asked a friend of Ayoubs if anything was wrong with the fundraiser. The friend lied and said no. But Fortenberry had other warnings  his own campaign consultant had cautioned him about the risk. And Ayoub himself called Fortenberry, with the FBI recording the call, and told him three times that the $30,000 cash probably came from the Nigerian billionaire.

Even after that call, Fortenberry took a year to purge the dirty money.

In all, he ignored it for more than 40 months. Whether that was intentional or, as his defense said, the byproduct of his absent-mindedness, it was the worst thing he could have done.

In sentencing in June, his freedom is on the line. He faces five years in prison on each of the three counts. And his political career may be entering hospice care.

A look ahead, and back, at the spectacle of U.S. v. Jeffrey Fortenberry:

Sentencing

The critical question: Will Fortenberry get prison time?

For another case of deception by an elected official, look to the south and the east of the glass cube that is the U.S. District Courthouse for Californias central district. Rising on the horizon is Los Angeles City Hall, a tower that was built in the 1920s  in the same decade and with a similar design as Nebraskas State Capitol.

That tower produced the last corruption case handled by the lead prosecutor in Fortenberrys case: that of Los Angeles City Council member Mitchell Englander, 51.

In that case, Englander accepted money from a businessman wanting to increase his prospects in LA  about the same amount of money as Fortenberrys campaign received.

The councilmans spoils included access to escorts, trips to Palm Springs and Las Vegas, $1,000 in casino gambling chips and at least $15,000 in cash. He then tried to cover up the grift by back-dating reimbursement checks and asking the businessman to lie.

Englanders attorney noted that the councilman had resigned, reimbursed the money and pleaded guilty to the charge instead of taking it to trial.

In January 2021, a federal judge, from the same courthouse that housed Fortenberrys trial, sentenced Englander to 14 months in prison, saying his conduct undermined the public trust.

No two cases are the same, of course. In Fortenberrys case, the money went to his campaign, not to him personally  and it didnt go for gambling or sexual favors.

Then again, the council member resigned and pleaded to one charge. By contrast, Fortenberry didnt resign, took the case to trial and was convicted of three counts.

Fortenberry finds out his fate June 28. Both prosecutors and his attorneys will submit memos, giving their version of where the federal sentencing guidelines fall in this case.

Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. can order supervised release.

The jury

The voicemail on a reporters phone arrived about as soon as the verdict did. A Nebraska caller grunted something about Fortenberry getting set up and how he should have been tried in Nebraska instead of California, where the left-wing goons could convict him.

The jurors included everyone from a maintenance worker to a college student to white-collar workers to an actress no one had heard of. Five of the 12 jurors were white; the rest were U.S. citizens of either Asian or Native descent.

No left- or right-wing goons were detected by reporters during jury selection.

In fact, Judge Blumenfeld  an appointee of then-President Donald Trump  predicted it: the general public doesnt view everything through the lens of politics, the way political loudmouths do. None of the people who made the jury indicated strong opinions of either party.

Fortenberrys membership in the Republican Party wasnt identified at all until the defense presented its case and called a Democratic congresswoman to talk about Fortenberrys willingness to cross the aisle.

One prospective juror even asked if the judge would define political terms for her because she doesnt understand them, just as she didnt understand legal jargon.

Another prospective juror didnt make the jury. He indicated his bias wasnt against Democrats or Republicans.

Just politicians, said the middle-aged white man, originally from Ohio. They spend their whole careers not telling the truth.

He turned to Fortenberry, sitting to the right of him. No offense, he said.

To testify or not

Its an age-old question in court: If a defendant is innocent, why doesnt he testify?

But in this case, not many observers in Courtroom 6C believed Fortenberry would take the stand. For a simple reason: He talks too much, said his attorney, John Littrell.

More precisely: He already had talked too much.

Fortenberry agreed to not one but two interviews with the FBI. Any defense attorney  any episode of Law & Order  will tell you not to talk to police unless youre a victim or unless you have an attorney present.

Instead of calling a lawyer, Fortenberry called the police. Lincolns then-police chief sent two officers to Fortenberrys home to screen the men who said they were federal agents.

Fortenberry insisted the officers stay for the interview. He would have been better off insisting on an attorney and sending all law enforcement home  Lincoln police and the FBI.

Instead, Fortenberry sat down and said he couldnt place Ayoub, the man who held the LA fundraiser for him. The jury convicted him of lying in that interview.

He then agreed to a second interview  this time with his attorney present. His attorney at the time, Trey Gowdy, said he offered to have Fortenberry sit down with prosecutors because he was told that Fortenberry was trending toward a witness, not a target of the investigation.

During the interview, Fortenberry told prosecutors that he cut off the phone call with Ayoub when told that the $30,000 cash probably came from Chagoury. That also was a lie.

Bottom line: Faced with conflicting statements in the two interviews, Fortenberry couldnt take the stand without prosecutors asking him which one of his statements was the truth and which was the lie.

That doesnt present well to a jury.

The defense

Anyone who has watched criminal cases has no doubt heard some variation of what Fortenberry attorney John Littrell told jurors in closing arguments:

Im not asking you to like Congressman Fortenberry, Littrell said. His flaws were brought to light in this case. He talks too much. He doesnt listen enough.

Perhaps Littrell, who has declined to comment outside court, was worried that Fortenberry had come across as stiff or smug to jurors.

But several longtime legal observers, including a writer covering the case for a legal trade publication, thought the approach strange.

The reason: It wasnt clear that anyone disliked Fortenberry. He appeared pleasant. And, as Littrell noted, every witness vouched for his sterling integrity and character.

Omitted from closings: The defense didnt mention Rep. Anna Eshoos comment that she would have expected the FBI to be transparent and disclose to her that she had received an illegal donation, so that she could take proper steps to correct it. (Prosecutors countered that the FBI did put Fortenberry on notice of an illegal donation, via the phone call from Ayoub.)

The dynamics of the defense team drew the attention of observers, not the least of whom was Judge Blumenfeld. Less than a month before trial, Denver defense attorney Glen Summers, known as a trial specialist, was brought into the case.

He joined Littrell, a longtime Los Angeles federal public defender who had handled the case since its inception. Another three or four attorneys rounded out Fortenberrys defense team.

A stickler, Judge Blumenfeld saved his sternest admonishment for Littrell.

He became incensed that Littrell had tried to suggest to jurors that Fortenberry had testified in the case, through the words on the recordings and through witnesses who had vouched for his integrity. Littrell also started to delve into what prosecutors would have done had Fortenberry taken the stand.

Prosecutors objected. Blumenfeld was livid. Outside the jurys presence, he asked Littrell what he was trying to accomplish and suggested that he was undermining the judges strong instruction that the jurors were not in any way allowed to consider the fact that Fortenberry had not testified.

Summers, meanwhile, suggested that Blumenfelds denial of a line of questioning amounted to reversible error. That phrase is the nuclear bomb of attorney arguments  and Blumenfeld didnt take kindly to it.

At another point, Blumenfeld called Summers argument whiny and disrespectful. At another point, Summers apologized for getting into a subject the judge had declared off limits.

Im sorry, Summers told the judge. I just feel so passionate about this case.

The almost blunder

Fortenberry and his staff made a decision that nearly haunted him at his trial.

Two days before trial, they sent a note to the House of Representatives clerk, saying they would be voting by proxy due to the ongoing public health emergency, i.e. COVID-19. The note made no mention of the fact that Fortenberry was on trial in Los Angeles.

The notes language is routine, and Fortenberrys staff said many Congress members use that standard language, even when there are other reasons for their absence. They also said they got permission from House Speaker Nancy Pelosis office. Her office disputed that.

Prosecutors pounced on that. At one point, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jamari Buxton called on the judge to allow him to introduce Fortenberrys memo as a counter to any defense testimony that Fortenberry is steadfastly honest.

Blumenfeld considered it but ultimately decided it would require too much work to bring jurors up to speed.

Animal kingdom

Team Fortenberry pulled out all the stops to garner sympathy for the nine-term congressman. On March 17, one of Fortenberrys daughters wheeled a stroller into the courtroom. Inside: Fortenberrys first granddaughter, dressed in an adorable green-and-white clover onesie.

Several observers braced themselves for Blumenfeld to kick the baby out of the courtroom. Most judges do not allow infants in court.

Blumenfeld paid the baby no mind.

In openings, Summers introduced the jury to the baby, who didnt make a peep. She also didnt make an appearance the rest of trial.

Nor did Fortenberrys chickens. Thats correct: The defense had wanted to include photos of Fortenberry and his one-time backyard chickens, as well as Fortenberry and his dog.

Prosecutors objected. The defense removed those photos from its opening slide show.

Other animals did make appearances:

Elephants. Celeste Fortenberry testified she traveled with her husband to Africa as part of the congressional conservation caucus, focused on preventing elephant poaching.

Horses. Summers noted that as part of the LA fundraising weekend, the Lebanese Catholic community bestowed an honor that would allow Fortenberry to ride a horse into any Catholic church.

Opossums. They killed the backyard chickens, Celeste Fortenberry testified.

Raccoons. Fortenberry so loathed making fundraising calls, Celeste testified, that he went into autopilot. He would distract himself by cooking breakfast or walking the dog or doing projects. One of those projects: fixing chimney damage caused by raccoons.

The appeal

In a post-verdict gaggle, Fortenberry was asked what his appeal would be based on. The case, he said.

He didnt get much more specific other than to say: We always thought it was going to be hard to get a fair process out here. The appeal starts immediately.

In reality, any appeal would have to start after sentencing. The defense no doubt will bring up Blumenfelds refusal to let them call an expert who would have testified that Fortenberrys memory was fallible. Translated: He wasnt lying; he was simply not remembering.

Another, more obscure issue to watch: Prosecutors were required to establish venue, that elements of Fortenberrys crime took place in central California. Fortenberrys defense argued that the investigative interviews, where he was accused of lying, took place in Nebraska and Washington.

Los Angeles

Much was made about the case being in Los Angeles, where, as one observer said, it feels like the beach, smells like the weed.

The scene was surreal. And Fortenberrys defense had decried it, saying the true jury of his peers was in Nebraska. But the original crime occurred in Los Angeles, at that fundraiser.

And the case wasnt tried on the streets of LA. It was tried the way all federal cases are. Inside a courthouse with white marble walls and white tile floors not all that different from Omahas federal courthouse. Inside a courtroom with a tough judge, dueling attorneys and a jury.

All of the arguments about other factors were noise, designed to distract from the issues at hand, lead prosecutor Mack Jenkins said. The jury was clearly paying attention. You saw them taking a lot of notes. They took their opportunity to deliberate. They worked very hard and ultimately, they saw it as a simple story  of a politician who lost his way.

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Another notable tension is that, for someone who loves collecting, Karavil has kept the rooms remarkably and intentionally spare. The seating in the living room largely consists of a single sofa  a boxy brown leather design by Umberto Asnago for Arflex  a vintage black pony skin club chair from the Nicole Farhi store in Chelsea and a trio of small, mother-of-pearl-inlaid dining chairs from an antiques store in Marylebone. Theres also a slender Serge Mouille floor lamp, a television-shielding lacquered screen with mesh and gold patina detailing and a metal-trimmed tea stand.

Still, Karavils more maximalist side shines through here and there via various curios, which are prominently displayed and offer notes of theatricality. On the mantel of the marble fireplace, also located in the living room, is a glass dome encasing a trio of dried and painted mushrooms, their dark, globular forms looking as though theyre part artwork and part science project, and on the dining table is an old butchers block topped with vintage stationery accouterments. On the floor in front of the hearth is an antique alligator rug nicknamed Bob that Karavil found at a Chelsea fair in 2016. And in a far corner of the room is a set of custom shelves that houses pieces from his collection of over 100 silver teapots. What began as a nod to the English tradition of having afternoon tea  and to Karavils grandmother Sols copious assemblage of silverware  has become a full-scale obsession, and among his vessels are a pyramidal version picked up at the Marche aux Puces in Paris and one with a plexiglass handle sourced from Lots Road Auction House in London. Theyre these tiny things. But it always amazes me how completely different they are from one another, says Karavil, who adds, Its the details that bring the color for me.
Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), the worlds largest smelter ex-China, has signed a MoU with Bahrain Polytechnic, one of the kingdoms leading providers of applied higher education, to strengthen its partnership for mutually beneficial academic and training programmes leading to the development and growth of Bahraini nationals.

Under this deal, both Alba and Bahrain Polytechnic will work closely to customise a curriculum for academic programmes in various engineering disciplines that target the group's national employees, said a statement from Alba.

Moreover, this collaboration will facilitate knowledge exchange opportunities between both entities through applied research and other activities of common interest such as Environment, Social and Governance (ESG), it stated.

"Our investment in education is the passport to the future as our Tomorrow belong to those who prepare for it Today. There is no greater investment other than educating our human capital as this will give us the best return we aim for - becoming the number one aluminium supplier for the generations to come," remarked CEO Ali Al Baqali after signing the deal with Bahrain Polytechnic CEO Professor Ciaran O Cathain at a special ceremony held within Alba premises. "We look forward to working closely with Bahrain Polytechnic to furthering the caliber of our high-potential national employees, who in turn will lead Albas future growth and contribute to the economic prosperity of the Kingdom of Bahrain," he added.

Prof Cathain said: "We are very pleased to sign this deal with Alba, one of the leading aluminium producers in the world. This agreement paves the way for further collaboration, especially in the areas of scientific research, training, and academic programmes."

"Such partnerships with national companies will help advance our efforts to invest in human capital through training and developing the national workforce. This will in turn realise the objectives of Bahrain Polytechnics Strategic Plan 2020-2024, which is in line with Bahrains Economic Vision 2030," he added.

The signing ceremony was attended by Bahrains Polytechnics Dean of Engineering, Design, and ICT Dr Christakis Papageorgiou, Head of School: Engineering Dr Christina Georgantopolou, and Chief: Industry and Continuing Education Abdulridha Dismal and Albas Director Administration Hamad Al Shaibeh, Sr. Manager HR and Training Rawdha Salman Al Aradi and other officials.-TradeArabia News Service
WASHINGTON  Representative Jeff Fortenberry, Republican of Nebraska, announced on Saturday that he would resign from Congress at the end of the month, days after he was convicted on charges that he lied to federal authorities about an illegal campaign donation.

Mr. Fortenberry, in a letter to his colleagues, said he would step down from his seat on March 31. On Thursday, he was convicted on three felony counts in a federal court in Los Angeles, including two counts of making false statements and one count of falsifying and concealing material facts.

He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for each count, according to the Justice Department, and a sentencing hearing is scheduled for the end of June. And while Mr. Fortenberry has said he plans to appeal, leaders in both parties called for his resignation in the aftermath of the verdict, including Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the minority leader, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

It has been my honor to serve with you in the United States House of Representatives, Mr. Fortenberry wrote. Due to the difficulties of my current circumstances, I can no longer effectively serve.
WARSAW  President Biden delivered a forceful denunciation of Vladimir V. Putins invasion of Ukraine on Saturday, declaring for Gods sake, this man cannot remain in power, as he cast the war as the latest front in a decades-long battle between the forces of democracy and oppression.

Ending a three-day diplomatic trip to Europe with a fiery speech outside a centuries-old castle in Warsaw, Mr. Biden described the Russian invasion of Ukraine as the test of all time in a post-World War II struggle between democracy and autocracy, between liberty and repression, between a rules-based order and one governed by brute force.

In this battle, we need to be cleareyed, Mr. Biden said in front of a crowd waving Polish, Ukrainian and American flags. This battle will not be won in days or months, either. We need to steel ourselves for the long fight ahead.

Mr. Biden used the speech to bolster a key NATO ally on Ukraines western border that has served as a conduit for Western arms and has absorbed more than 2 million refugees fleeing the violence, more than any other country in Europe. And he sought to prepare the public, at home and abroad, for a grinding conflict that could drag on for weeks, months or longer.
I can imagine a bright future for my kids now, he said.

Another Afghan refugee, Abdul Sultani, said his family was fortunate to have received permanent housing in November  a small house in northeast London.

I am not here to just sit and watch. I am here to work, he said of the job he recently started teaching English. He sends some of the money he earns to his family in Afghanistan.

Mr. Sultani, 33, worked as a translator with the British and U.S. military. He said his children were beaten by members of the Taliban as they made their way to the airport for their evacuation flight in August.

In the living room, his 4-year-old daughter blows bubbles that her younger sister pops, while he picks up a call: the local council offering English classes to his wife.

They are the reason he knew he had to leave Afghanistan, he said, and seeing that they have begun rebuilding their lives gives him solace.

Still, its not my home. I am just a guest here, he said. But I will always act like a guest and try to be useful to them because they helped me.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said European leaders were falling short in helping his nation fight Russia and urged them to show even a bit of the courage that the outmanned residents of Mariupol have demonstrated.

Their determination, their heroism and resilience are impressive, he said of the hundreds of thousands of residents stuck in the southern port city without water, food and electricity.

Mr. Zelensky renewed his public appeal to NATO for military equipment, saying he wanted 1 percent of the alliances tanks and planes.

We did not ask for more, and we do not ask for more, he said. And we have already been waiting for 31 days.
As dance companies everywhere have tried to stay afloat during the pandemic, Ailey II, the second company of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, has weathered other kinds of upheaval as well.

In July 2020, its artistic director, Troy Powell, was dismissed amid allegations of inappropriate communications with adult students in the companys training program. In September 2021, the choreographer Francesca Harper, who got her start as a student at the Ailey School  when it was directed by her mother, Denise Jefferson  stepped in to lead the dancers.

The 12-member troupe is now back onstage at the Ailey Citigroup Theater in Midtown with a packed two-week season. On Friday, a mixed bill titled Dichotomous  the advertised theme was contrasting elements and voices  brimmed with the hopeful and sometimes unsure energy of a fresh start.
Russia struggles to take Kyiv

As the war turns unpredictable, Russia may change tactics: Instead of capturing all of Ukraine, Moscow may try to split the country by consolidating territory in the east and south.

On Friday, as its advance stalled, Russia signaled a possible recalibration of its aims. Its military said that the first stage of its operation was mostly done and that it would focus on securing Ukraines eastern Donbas region, where Russia-backed separatists have battled for years.

On Sunday, Ukraine said that Russian troops were withdrawing through Chernobyl to regroup in Belarus, though the forces continued to shell towns around Kyiv and encircled the city of Chernihiv, stranding thousands of civilians. Here are live updates.

Ukrainian forces mounted a counteroffensive in the Kyiv suburbs to block Russias route to the capital. Ukraine has also prevented the Russian military from encircling Kharkiv, and it claimed on Sunday that its soldiers had won back two villages on the outskirts.
The 94th Academy Awards were held on Sunday night at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood. CODA, a relatively small-scale drama once considered an underdog, won the award for best picture, becoming the first film distributed by a streaming service to win Hollywoods top honor. (CODA was released by Apple TV+, which purchased the movie after it played at the Sundance Film Festival in 2021.) The nights most awarded movie was Dune, which won in six categories including cinematography and production design.

The best director honor went to Jane Campion, whose subversive western, The Power of the Dog, was the most nominated movie of the night. Campions victory was important for Oscars history: This years ceremony became the first time that the best director Oscar has gone to women twice in a row. (Chloe Zhao won last year for Nomadland; Campion had already made history by being the first woman to be nominated for best director twice.)

Will Smith (King Richard) won the best actor category; Jessica Chastain (The Eyes of Tammy Faye) won for best actress. Ariana DeBose (West Side Story) received the best supporting actress award, becoming the first openly queer woman of color to win an acting Oscar. Troy Kotsur (CODA) won for best supporting actor, which made him the first deaf man to win an acting Oscar.
Martin Pope, a physical chemist whose fundamental work on molecular semiconductors more than 60 years ago led to the development of organic light-emitting diodes, or OLEDs, which are used in digital cameras, mobile phones, solar panels and televisions, died on Sunday at his home in Brooklyn. He was 103.

His death was confirmed by his daughter Deborah Pope, who did not specify a cause.

OLEDs are thin organic materials sandwiched between two electrodes that illuminate when tweaked with an electrical current. Highly energy efficient and often wafer thin, OLEDs are the technology of choice in high-end cellphone displays and televisions.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Dr. Pope (who changed his last name from Poppick to avoid anti-Jewish prejudice) made a series of discoveries that laid the basis for the field of molecular semiconductors.

He based his experimental studies on organic compounds called anthracene and tetracene. It was a serendipitous choice: Dr. Pope found that these compounds contained the necessary ingredients for the creation of carbon-based electronic devices that paralleled the operation of silicon. But unlike silicon, which comes from minerals, carbon-based materials with semiconductor properties can be soft and pliable, making them easier to shape into thin films used in electronic devices.
Why do we believe obvious lies? Sometimes, as these shows suggest, the reasons are simple: greed, desire. And sometimes we believe liars because we like the story theyre selling us about ourselves. In a telling scene of The Dropout, Elizabeth (Amanda Seyfried) approaches the investor Don Lucas, whos wearing a cowboy hat the size of a satellite dish. This is America, she tells him. Were cowboys, right? The real-life Mr. Lucas not only invested; he joined Theranoss board. Shes speaking his language and using it to assure him that he is who he wants to be.

In Inventing Anna, Anna (Julia Garner) chides Henrick Knight (Joshua Malina) for not immediately investing in her boyfriends questionable start-up. Does he want to be like her father, she demands  old, out of touch? Doesnt he want to get in on the ground floor and leave a shining legacy as he draws inevitably nearer to death? He agrees to invest.

These confidence artists can hook us because they can read us and they know how to make us feel smart and successful. Its an effect that plays out in larger-scale societal grifts, too. Just as Annas targets feel flattered, gratified to be clever enough to see the opportunity shes offering, those who buy into conspiracy theories such as QAnon revel in being the ones smart enough to see past the lies of a world where things are not as they appear. Skin care gurus and Instagram influencers make their fans feel seen and appreciated, even as they rake in endorsement money. And the owners of much-hyped digital apes and penguins gloat about being a part of the club, even though the NFTs they have shelled out for may turn out to be worthless.

Wed all like to think we would have swiped left on the Tinder swindler and spotted the flaws in Elizabeth Holmess spiel. These shows are set up to make us feel superior, to yell at the screen, How could you be so dumb? Its intensely, guiltily satisfying to watch the scam play out, if we can reassure ourselves that in the same circumstance, we wouldnt fall for that presentation or for that request for cash. We would know better.

But I didnt. They didnt. Maybe you wouldnt, either.

In some of these TV portrayals, the huckster is knowing and coldhearted, on the lookout for a sucker with weaknesses to exploit. Mr. Hayut is shown cajoling women into handing over thousands of dollars, then discarding them so he could live a life of luxury. (He has accused the filmmakers of spreading lies.) But Elizabeth Holmes and Anna Sorokin come across as less malicious, more blinded by their own ambition and vanity. They seem to believe their own stories or at least believe they are telling a truth that just isnt true yet. They reminded me more of my mother, whose crippling fear of being left alone drove her to do anything, say anything, to keep those she loved close.

As I watched the fictional Anna deliver a stirring speech to a powerful lawyer, convincing him that she was destined for success, despite her lack of knowledge or funding, I recognized her mesmerizing tone, and I clapped my hands over my face, humiliated. My mother used that tone every time she needed me to swallow some absolutely implausible lie about her past. She had convinced herself it was true, and I believed her.
In the early days of his war against Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin told the world that he had ordered his nations nuclear forces to a higher state of readiness. Ever since, pundits, generals and politicians have speculated about what would happen if the Russian military used a nuclear weapon.

What would NATO do? Should the United States respond with its own nuclear weapons?

These speculations all sound hollow to me. Unconvincing words without feeling.

In 1958, as a young scientist for the U.S. Navy, I witnessed the detonation of an 8.9-megaton thermonuclear weapon as it sat on a barge in Eniwetok Atoll, in the Marshall Islands. I watched from across the lagoon at the beach on Parry Island, where my group prepared instrumentation to measure the atmospheric radiation. Sixty-three years later, what I saw remains etched in my mind, which is why Im so alarmed that the use of nuclear weapons can be discussed so cavalierly in 2022.

Although the potential horror of nuclear weapons remains frozen in films from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the public today has little understanding of the stakes of the Cold War and what might be expected now if the war in Ukraine intentionally or accidentally spins out of control.
The Oman Petroleum & Energy Show (OPES), in line with the sultanates energy transition strategy to shift to a sustainable, green and circular economy, provided a significant impetus to the energy sector.

The three-day national-level event that focused on the future of energy and came to a successful close on March 23, 2022 and witnessed a footfall of over 15,500 visitors.

Dedicated to serving the varying demands of the oil and gas industry, the exhibition also featured a special conference organised by SPE which was themed Shaping the Future of the Energy Industry and was chaired by Conference Chairperson and Director-General of Exploration and Production of Oil and Gas at the Ministry of Energy and Minerals Saleh Al Anboori.

Need for unfaltering resilience

Commenting on the conference, Al Anboori said: For the energy industry to survive, it is essential that it demonstrates unfaltering resilience and the ability to absorb fluctuations in oil prices  something that we have been able to achieve by implementing timely, effective, and efficient transformation strategies and focusing on sustainable growth.

With a diverse mix of experts, professionals, and decision-makers from around the globe coming together for insightful discussions, conferences like these are essential to understand the future of energy, the various challenges and opportunities it poses, and the projected trends in the oil and gas industry.

With a keen focus on innovative technology, OPES also had a dedicated digital transformation theatre for visitors to learn from and experience.

Key insights for youth

Meanwhile, the Young Professional Forum played an instrumental role in providing youth with key insights on trending topics and industry challenges while also offering a platform for them to learn more about innovative ideas and pioneering initiatives from experts and senior executives.

The Digital Oil and Gas Zone and Digital Oil and Gas Talks also laid emphasis on increasing profitability through sustainable measures and were well-received by all participants and visitors.

OPES was officially inaugurated by Sayyid Taimur bin Asaad bin Tariq al Said, Chairman of the Central Bank of Oman Board of Governors on March 21 2022 at the Oman Convention & Exhibition Centre where he was accompanied by Dr Mohammed bin Hamad Al Rumhi, Minister of Energy and Minerals, and Salim Al Aufi, Undersecretary - Ministry of Energy & Minerals. Conducted under the patronage of the Ministry of Energy & Minerals and hosted by Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), the exhibition was organised by Connect while the conference was organised by the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).

Al Anboori, delivered the keynote speech at the opening ceremony, which was also attended by Sayyid Khalid bin Hamad Al Busaidi, Chairman of Connect, Sabco Group, and Kamel Ben-Naceur, the 2022 SPE President and the Chief Executive Officer of Nomadia Energy Consulting.

OPES Awards

The opening ceremony was followed by the OPES Awards presentation which was testament to OPES focus on industrial applications, technology and project implementations, and bridging the concept-practice gaps. The Awards honoured several companies that had achieved excellence on major fronts.

During the three-day OPES conference and Young Professionals Forum, PDO Managing Director Steve Phimister joined as a panelist in two sessions, while a number of PDO staff and senior delegates also participated as presenters, panelists and moderators.

The company also received eight awards during the 2022 and 2020 Petroleum and Energy Show Awards, testament to the quality of the work undertaken by the company. And during the opening of its exhibition booth, which attracted a large turnout of visitors and those interested in learning about the companys initiatives and services in various fields, PDO also signed four agreements with Super Local Community Contractors (SLCCs) to extend the contracts awarded to them until 2029.

bps socio-economic report

At the event, bp Oman announced the launch of the second edition of its socio-economic report focusing on four key pillars  local economy, caring for our people, improving peoples lives, and caring for our planet. Meanwhile, Schlumberger welcomed Asaad at its booth in OPES where he was presented with key highlights about Schlumbergers footprint in the country in addition to an overview of its technology differentiation and outlook. Following this, the 50 years history of Schlumberger book was also handed to His Highness.

The show proved to be an effective business and networking platform and served as a key meeting point for energy professionals, oil and gas companies, policy and decision-makers, and stakeholders.

The next edition of the Oman Petroleum & Energy Show will be held from April 22 to 24, 2024.-- TradeArabia News Service
But there are multiple local constituencies to navigate as development moves further into the Arctic. Alaska Natives are wary about impacts to the regions fragile environment, on which many depend for hunting and fishing, said Julie Kitka, president of the Alaska Federation of Natives.

I think that our people realize that our military needs to protect our country and our military does need to invest in a presence in the Arctic, Ms. Kitka said. But it has got to be done smart.

Dan Sullivan, Alaskas junior Republican U.S. senator, said that while there may be little threat of a Russian invasion of Alaska, there is concern about Russias military buildup in the region.

Ukraine just demonstrates even more, what matters to these guys is presence and power, Mr. Sullivan said. And when you start to build ports, when you start to bring up icebreakers, when you start to bring up Navy shipping, when you have over 100 fifth-gen fighters in the Arctic in Alaska, were starting to now talk Putins language.

Alaska is already one of the nations most militarized states, with more than 20,000 active-duty personnel assigned to places such as Eielson Air Force Base and Fort Wainwright in the Fairbanks area, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, and Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak. The Armys large training exercise  the first Combat Training Center rotation to be held in Alaska  took place around Fort Greely, about 100 miles southeast of Fairbanks. Alaska is also home to critical parts of the nations missile-defense system.

Mr. Bouffard said the fracture in relations caused by Russias invasion of Ukraine could open the door to a variety of future problems that can only be guessed at right now. While there is no imminent conflict in the Arctic, there could well be friction over how Russia manages offshore waters or disputes over undersea exploration. The United States also needs to be prepared to aid northern European allies that share an uncertain future with Russia in Arctic waterways, he said.
A fire near Boulder, Colo., that had burned nearly 190 acres as of Sunday morning prompted the authorities to evacuate 19,000 people over the weekend, officials said. About 1,600 people and nearly 700 homes remained in an evacuation zone on Sunday.

The wind-fueled wildfire, which was named the NCAR fire because it started near the National Center for Atmospheric Research, was 21 percent contained, the authorities said at a news conference on Sunday. No damage or injuries were reported.

More than 200 firefighters were in the air and on the ground trying to keep the fire away from neighborhoods.

Were going to continue to try and corral this fire up into the rocks, into the snow, which is really one of our big holding features right now, and one of the reasons that were having really, again, good success, Michael Smith, the incident commander in Boulder County, said on Sunday.
Image Waiting in line at a coronavirus testing site in Washington last year. Credit... Kenny Holston for The New York Times

President Bidens proposed budget for the Department of Health and Human Services emphasizes pandemic preparedness, signaling the administrations concern about future pathogens that could complicate progress against the coronavirus or threaten a different pandemic altogether.

Swaths of the proposed spending would build on funding passed by Congress earlier this month as part of a major annual spending bill. The budget proposes an increase of nearly 27 percent in discretionary funding for H.H.S. over spending in 2021.

Nearly $82 billion is proposed for the department over five years to prevent, detect and respond to emerging biological catastrophes, funds that would help speed the time between when scientists recognize a new virus and when vaccines and treatments are deployed, a key goal in the White Houses new pandemic preparedness plan. The budget would expand clinical trial infrastructure and manufacturing capacity.

That is a drop in the bucket compared to what its cost so far to deal with Covid, Xavier Becerra, the health and human services secretary, told reporters on Monday about the close to $82 billion in pandemic preparedness funds.

Mr. Becerra added that the requests in the budget proposal were different from the billions of dollars the administration has pleaded with Congress to pass to fund more immediate needs in the pandemic, such as tests, treatments and vaccines.

What we need to continue to finish the job on Covid, we need immediately, he said. What were asking for in this budget for long term preparedness is very separate.

Among other new initiatives, the budget proposes a so-called Vaccines for Adults program, modeled after a similar program for children, that the proposal seeks to expand. Under the new program, uninsured adults would receive vaccines purchased in bulk by the federal government, for free, after they are recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions vaccine advisory committee.

The proposed budget also includes almost $10 billion for the C.D.C. and hard-hit state and local health departments, funds that would go to disease surveillance and forecasting, vaccination programs, data modernization and research on so-called long Covid, including options for treating people suffering from the viruss aftereffects. That $9.9 billion represents a $2.8 billion increase over the funds allocated for 2021, the administration said.

A new biomedical research agency that has been a key health priority for Mr. Biden, and that could be housed at the well-funded National Institutes of Health, would receive $5 billion under the budget proposal. The recent congressional spending bill allocated only $1 billion for the program.

The Biden administrations proposal also recommends broad investments in maternal and mental health and addiction services, and an almost 40 percent increase in spending on Title X family planning services for low-income Americans, which had been whittled down by the Trump administration. Nearly $500 million would go to maternal health programs, an effort designed in part to reduce morbidity and mortality rates among pregnant women and new mothers, the administration said.

The budget recommended very few formal policy proposals in the massive Medicare, Medicaid and Affordable Care Act health care programs. But the White House still seeks to make major changes to those programs as part of its Build Back Better legislation, which has been stalled in Congress since December. Rather than itemize and score those priorities, the budget simply notes them and sets aside a deficit-neutral reserve fund to accommodate them. That makes it difficult to understand what the packages overall impact would be on federal spending or revenues.

The most recent version of the legislative package included a plan to lower the prices paid by the government and some individuals for prescription drugs, an extension of insurance subsidies for people who buy health plans in the Affordable Care Act marketplaces, and an expansion of Medicaid coverage to poor adults in states that did not expand their programs.

Even without any policy changes, national health spending is estimated to increase by around 5 percent each year, according to new estimates of health expenditures, published by the actuaries at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Anushka Patil contributed reporting.
Administration officials and lawmakers stressed on Sunday that the United States was not seeking regime change in Russia over President Vladimir V. Putins invasion of Ukraine despite President Bidens comment that the Russian leader cannot remain in power.

Capping a series of diplomatic summits in Europe, Mr. Biden delivered a speech on Saturday in Poland about the war in Ukraine. An apparently ad-libbed remark at the conclusion of his address  For Gods sake, this man cannot remain in power  quickly eclipsed the rest of his speech.

Government officials  from the White House to senior lawmakers on Capitol Hill  were quick to say that the remark was not intended as a call for a regime change, underscoring the precarious effort to punish Russia for attacking Ukraine while avoiding an escalation in the war.

On Sunday, U.S. officials were still trying to walk back and clarify the comment.

We do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia or anywhere else, for that matter, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken told journalists in Jerusalem after meeting with Israels foreign minister, Yair Lapid. In this case, as in any case, its up to the people of the country in question. Its up to the Russian people.
PARIS  With its immense forecourt opening onto a breathtaking view of the Eiffel Tower, the Trocadero Plaza in Paris offers an ideal setting to revive a flagging campaign for the French presidency. Twice in the past decade, tens of thousands of people have flocked there, responding to calls from embattled right-wing contenders looking for support.

A third attempt came on Sunday, when Eric Zemmour, the far-right pundit turned presidential candidate, held a massive rally at the Trocadero designed to halt his slide in the polls, exactly two weeks before the first round of voting.

I will fight to reconquer our identity, I will fight to regain our prosperity, Mr. Zemmour told tens of thousands of supporters who waved a sea of French flags under a blazing sun.

Sundays rally, one of the biggest of this years elections, had all the trappings of a last-ditch attempt to revitalize a campaign that started with a bang and then gradually stalled, as Mr. Zemmour, 63, got bogged down in controversies and struggled to broaden his voter base.
LVIV, Ukraine  Mariana Vladimirtsova was finally settled in western Ukraine after evacuating her native Kharkiv, which has been pummeled by Russian bombs since the first days of the war. Now she and her family are fleeing again because their new makeshift home in Lviv is near one of several targets struck by Russian missiles on Saturday night, upending the regions sense of security.

We were only just starting to feel settled here, she said as she stood with her husband, her two children and her husbands mother on the platform at Lvivs train station Sunday evening, about to board for Przemysl, just across the border in Poland. They were still deeply shaken by the memory of what they experienced in Kharkiv, in Ukraines northeast. We were so close to the explosions there, she said.

She lamented their departure, especially the fact that she would have to leave her husband behind because martial law prevents men of military age from leaving the country. But they had decided that it was safer for the children if Ms. Vladimirtsova took them over the border.

Until Saturday, the only target near Lviv that had been hit was an airplane repair factory near the citys airport. Before that, the nearest attack had come at a military training base near Yavoriv, more than an hours drive away.
Hate to waste a view, Bond says, in words the developer has manifestly taken to heart.

The OWO is full of jaw-dropping vistas, with suites that look out to the Horse Guards Parade across the street, or south to the Houses of Parliament. There is a three-story champagne bar overlooking a courtyard and a glass-roofed restaurant. Two of the penthouse apartments have rooms built into the turrets.

All that splendor  the wood paneling, the intricately carved marble fireplaces, the original mosaic floors  isnt cheap. The 85 apartments start at 5.8 million pounds ($7.6 million) and go up to 100 million pounds ($131 million). Mr. Walsh has sold about a quarter of the units and said he was confident he would sell half by the time the OWO opens at the end of this year or early in 2023.

The war in Ukraine, and the stain of hidden, ill-gotten Russian wealth, is not even the biggest challenge to marketing these oligarch-scale apartments. Travel restrictions stemming from the coronavirus pandemic have made it harder for prospective buyers from Asia and the Middle East to visit London. As a result, many of Mr. Walshs early sales have been to Americans and Europeans. The spike in oil prices, he said, will probably help lift the market for buyers in the gulf countries.

Though he does not say so explicitly, Mr. Walsh is clearly relieved that Russian buyers have been sidelined. The threat of sanctions, which could lead to their assets being frozen, spares him a difficult choice. He insists that more stringent know your customer regulations in the last few years have made it nigh on impossible for dirty money to come into these new projects.

That seems optimistic: Transparency International, which campaigns against corruption, estimates that 6.7 billion pounds ($8.8 billion) of dubious foreign funds have poured into British property since 2016, including 1.5 billion pounds from Russians accused of corruption or links to the Kremlin. A new law aims to make it harder for wealthy foreigners to disguise their ownership of real estate or use it to launder money.
Mr. Zelensky did not appear on the show. Ms. Kunis did speak about the war when she appeared on the telecast to introduce a Reba McEntire performance of her song from Ms. Kuniss movie Four Good Days.

Before turning the show over to Ms. McEntire, Ms. Kunis said, recent global events have left many of us feeling gutted.

Yet when you witness the strength and dignity of those facing such devastation, its impossible to not be moved by their resilience, Ms. Kunis continued. One cannot help but be in awe of those who find strength to keep fighting through unimaginable darkness.

The show also displayed three screens of gold text on black backgrounds after Ms. McEntires performance, calling on viewers to donate to the humanitarian effort.

While film is an important avenue for us to express our humanity in times of conflict, the reality is millions of families in Ukraine need food, medical care, clean water and emergency services, the message read. Resources are scarce, and we  collectively and as a global community  can do more.

While Mr. Zelenskys aides had pressed for support during the show in whatever form it takes, seeking any avenue to win public backing in the West, the value of celebrity support in a shooting war is not universally acknowledged in Ukraine.

Russia-Ukraine War: Key Developments Card 1 of 4 In Mariupol. Russian soldiers breached Ukrainian defenses around the Azovstal steel plant, as Moscows forces mounted a final push to seize the port city. Gaining full control of Mariupol would allow President Vladimir V. Putin to claim a victory days before a highly symbolic Russian holiday. Victory Day concerns. There are growing fears among Western officials that Mr. Putin may use the Russian holiday on May 9, which commemorates the Soviet Unions triumph over Nazi Germany, to turn what he calls a special military operation in Ukraine into explicit, all-out war. Targeting Russian generals. The United States has provided real-time intelligence to Ukraine that has allowed them to target and kill many of the Russian generals who have died in the war, according to senior American officials. Ukrainian officials say they have killed approximately 12 Russian generals. Russian oil embargo. The European Union unveiled a plan to halt imports of Russian crude oil in the next six months and refined oil products by the end of the year. If approved as expected, it would be the blocs biggest and costliest step yet toward ending its own dependence on Russian fossil fuels.







Ultimately, its important what is happening on the ground, Oleksandr Danylyuk, a former secretary of Ukraines National Security and Defense Council, said. Everybody is doing what they can. I dont know if one more speech of Zelensky will make a difference. But its good those who initiate it want to do it. Everybody wants to help in any way possible.
SDE BOKER, Israel  When he joins a summit on Sunday focused on Middle East unity, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken will ask some of the regions top diplomats to rally behind another cause: helping Ukraine repel Russias invasion.

The hastily arranged summit meeting in the Negev desert has been billed as a historic event, designed to showcase growing diplomatic and economic ties between some Arab states and Israel that Mr. Blinken on Sunday called unthinkable just a few years ago. But foremost on his mind was the modest support for Ukraine among countries in the region that also have ties with Russia.

This is very much a part of the conversation weve had today, and Ill be having throughout the course of my visit here, including with our partners, Mr. Blinken said Sunday in Jerusalem during a news conference with Israels foreign minister, Yair Lapid.

We will be talking throughout about various means of support that Israel and other countries can give to Ukraine, he said. That will be a conversation thats ongoing throughout this trip.
SDE BOKER, Israel  Two Arab gunmen killed at least two people and injured several others in an unusually brazen attack in northern Israel on Sunday night, on the eve of a groundbreaking diplomatic summit in southern Israel between top Arab, Israeli and American diplomats.

The attack is the fourth act of terrorism in Israel in less than two weeks, and has heightened fears that the country may be on the cusp of a new surge in violence just as Passover, Easter and the Muslim holy month of Ramadan are set to occur next month in a rare convergence.

Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians often rise during this period, most recently last May, when Ramadan-related clashes helped lead to an 11-day war between Israel and Islamist militants in Gaza.

The nature of the attack on Sunday in Hadera, a city of nearly 100,000 on the Mediterranean coast, was considered particularly worrying by officials because it involved two attackers, both wielding what appeared to be heavy automatic weapons  details that implied a level of planning and coordination unseen in other recent attacks.
Bahrains industrial sector has a key role to play in the kingdoms transition to a green economy focused on sustainable growth, said Dr Khaled Fahad Alalawi, Assistant Undersecretary of Industrial Development.

One of the primary pillars of the industrial plan 2022-2026 is to support the sector's transformation to Industry 4.0, as well as the implementation of the concept of circular economy and environmental and social governance.

This strategy focuses on a variety of industries that offer opportunities for growth and prosperity, particularly manufacturing in the aluminium and petrochemical sectors, as well as clean industries such as renewable energy, green and blue hydrogen, which will help Bahrain achieve its objective of Net-Zero Carbon by 2060, Dr Alalawi said at the "Industrial Sector's Role in Achieving Net-Zero Carbon" Forum.

Adoption of sustainable technologies

"The Ministry of Industry, Commerce, and Tourism, in collaboration with other stakeholders, is encouraging companies to adopt environment-friendly technology as one of the best methodologies in the industrial sector and a tool to reduce costs and increase competitiveness, as well as to ensure the efficiency of resource use, particularly water and energy," said Dr Alalawi, who was deputed by the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Zayed bin Rashid Al Zayani, to attend the forum.

The event was organised by the Environment Committee of the Alwane Bahrain Society, with the participation of several representatives of major Bahraini industrial firms, particularly in the field of aluminium, and environmental consultancy in Bahrain.

Dr Alalawi emphasised the significance of Bahrain's industrial sector in fulfilling the goals of the economic recovery plan.

Key role of industries

For his part, the Chairman of the Bahrain Alwane Society, Ammar Awachi, thanked the minister for supporting the industrial sector towards strengthening their commitment to various environmental issues. He also thanked Dr Alalawi for his participation.

Khaled Mousa, Head of the Environment Committee at the Bahrain Alwane Society, stated that the committee decided to launch its programme of activities through the forum because of the importance of the industrial sector in the field of environment.

This is in line with the national efforts to support Bahrain's endeavour to reinforce its commitment to the Paris Agreement and the achievement of sustainable development goals in general, Mousa added.

-- TradeArabia News Service
The new Arts Centre in Tullamore which is due to open in the coming months is hiring for the position of Artistic Director.

The theatre is still under construction and will include a 228-seat performing arts space, an open-air amphitheatre, gallery spaces, workshops as well as a coffee shop and theatre bar.

The Artistic Director's responsibilities entail the artistic programming and the financial and operational management of the centre, leading a team of the Technical and Facilities Manager, a Marketing and Front of House Manager and a part-time administrator and the development of joint programmes or partnerships with other cultural or artistic enterprises in the region.

Candidates will be expected to have at least five years experience in the artistic/ cultural sphere and will also be required to demonstrate an understanding of the culture, landscape, social and community structures of regional Ireland. They will be expected to have an understanding of the cultural and heritage resources and the potential of the Midlands region.

This is an exceptional opportunity for the right candidate to make a unique and lasting contribution to the artistic and cultural fabric of the County. This role will be the subject of a 3-year contract with break clauses which will include a twelve- month probation period.

Further details will be provided for candidates who may be called for interview. In submitting applications, candidates should supply a full curriculum vitae and a personal statement (maximum 800 words) setting out why they consider themselves suitable for the role and what they would wish to achieve if offered it. A short-listing process will be conducted by an Interview Board acting on behalf of Esker Arts CLG.

Submissions should be returned to eskerarts@offalycoco.ie before 4 pm on Monday, 11th April 2022.
People are being urged to exercise extreme vigilance to the rising prevalence of online investment scams after a local man saw his entire life savings wiped out overnight.

Terence Keighran from Gortletteragh in East Leitrim was left with just 50 in his bank account and forced to rely on his elderly mothers pension on more than one occasion in the aftermath of an incident which is now subject to a major garda investigation.

An engineering teacher by profession, Terence told of how he began investing money with a company he initially believed was both fully transparent and legitimate.

It started in November 2020, recalled Terence.

I began by transferring a five figure sum via bank transfer and it just went from there.

After seeing his initial investment sizably increase within a matter of months, Terence opted to advance further money.

His faith in the authenticity of the company he had invested in gained further credence when Terence decided to withdraw a large five figure sum soon afterwards.

I decided to invest more and just kept putting more money in over the next six months.

Terence, however, suddenly became uneasy when attempting to withdraw over half of the money he had originally invested.

It was really to try and develop a business I had started up, but to this date I have not received my money and I cant get through to anybody by phone, on email or by any other means, he said.

With nowhere to turn, Terence contacted and lodged a formal complaint to gardai with the investigation currently being handled by the National Economic Crime Bureau in Dublin.

Terence said the episode has had a catastrophic effect on his mental health and resulted in his mortgage falling into arrears.

He also told of how his own feelings of shame and embarrassment have only now started to subside almost eight months later.

I have had sleepless nights, panic attacks and severe depression, he said.

During the week when I am working or doing something I am 100 per cent, but its my free time in the evenings and weekends especially thats the hardest. Its torture.

Terence said another reason behind his decision to speak out was to issue a veiled warning to others over the dangers that come with suspected online investment fraud.

You can be just one click away from disaster and total wipeout because that is what I am faced with, he said.

He reserved particular mention for gardai in Mohill and Carrick-on-Shannon for their professionalism in dealing with his situation while also issuing a profound pledge to those clients still waiting for projects to be completed.

I also have a few jobs to complete through my business and I want to tell those people they will be completed given time and space please.

I have no intention of closing my business. Things are bad now but they will, I know, get better.

Just remember, you are only one click away from disaster.
A woman has been banned from keeping animals for five years after pleading guilty to offences under the Animal Health and Welfare Act.

At Letterkenny District Court on Tuesday, defence solicitor Rory OBrien entered a guilty plea on behalf of Ms Chrissie McGinley of Glenwood Park, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal to an offence under section 12(1)(a) of the Animal Health and Welfare Act (AHWA) 2013.

Judge Deirdre Gearty fined the woman 200 and disqualified her from keeping animals for five years.

The case related to the discovery of a male Siberian Husky dog by An Garda Siochana on September 13, 2019, in the course of a routine search. Due to their concerns for the dog, the Gardai contacted the ISPCA for assistance and Senior Inspector Kevin McGinley attended the property.

Senior Inspector McGinley said: I was immediately struck by the condition of the dog and his living accommodation. His coat was extremely matted and he was living in filthy conditions covered in faeces and muck. He was in a pen at the back of the yard and his only bed was a wooden pallet which was also extremely dirty and covered in muck.

The dog, called Beckham, was surrendered to the ISPCA and transferred to a local veterinary practitioner for examination and treatment. On assessment, it was found that Beckham was also underweight under his blanket of matted fur. Later that evening, Beckham was transferred to the ISPCAs Donegal Animal Rehabilitation Centre in Ramelton for care and a badly needed groom.

ISPCA Centre Manager Denise McCausland said: Beckham needed to be sedated before his coat could be groomed. Due to the extent of the matting, 2.2kgs had to be removed to prevent further suffering. He received the expert care that he needed and was fully rehabilitated by our dedicated animal carers and volunteers here at the Centre. Beckham has since been rehomed where he is loved and cared for.

Kevin added: As an Authorised Officer, unfortunately, I see situations like this far too frequently, where animals are not provided with even a basic level of care such as a clean living area or failing to ensure their dogs are groomed, which is simply unacceptable.

The ISPCA thanked Garda Connaughton and Garda Kilcoyne for bringing the situation to the attention of the ISPCA.

The ISPCA relies on public donations to continue our vital work rescuing, rehabilitating and responsibly rehoming hundreds of vulnerable animals that desperately need our help. If you would like to help the ISPCA continue this vital work, rescuing Irelands most vulnerable animals, please if you can, make a kind donation here to help the animals that are suffering now.

The ISPCA encourages members of the public to report any animal welfare concerns to the ISPCAs National Animal Cruelty Helpline in confidence on 0818 515 515, email helpline@ispca.ie or report online here.
Olean, NY (14760)

Today

Rain likely. High 52F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Rain showers in the evening will evolve into a more steady rain overnight. Low near 45F. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch.
Are you a current print subscriber? You qualify for online access to the Omak Chronicle. To receive your access, create a website account and then verify your print subscription or e-edition subscription with your subscriber number, which may be found on your bill or mailing label.
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AD Ports Group has signed of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Kuwait General Administration of Customs to establish a new virtual trade corridor between the UAE and Kuwait.

The corridor will be under the supervision of Department of Economic Development  Abu Dhabi (ADDED).

The signing took place in Kuwait following a visit by DEDs Logistics Committee, under the auspices of Abdulwahab Al-Rushaid, Minister of Finance and Minister of State for Economic Affairs and Investments - Kuwait, and in the presence of Dr Matar Hamed Al Neyadi, Ambassador of the UAE to Kuwait, and was signed by Capt Mohamed Juma Al Shamisi, Managing Director and Group CEO of AD Ports Group, and Suleiman AbdulAziz Al-Fahd, Director of the General Administration of Customs - Kuwait.

Move to simplify cross-border trade

The MoU builds on existing cooperation between the UAE and Kuwait. Under its terms, Maqta Gateway, AD Ports Groups digital arm will develop the new virtual trade corridor based upon its Advanced Trade & Logistics Platform (ATLP), under the supervision of the Department of Economic Development- Abu Dhabi, establishing new policies, procedures and systems integrations to support a virtual trade corridor that will further simplify and facilitate cross-border trade.

With the establishment of the new virtual trade corridor and implementation of integrated solutions, customs authorities in both countries will be able to access pre-arrival information for international cargo movements, making cross-validation of information significantly faster and promoting pre-clearance of goods.

Accelerated procedures

The MoU will also provide for accelerated procedures for expediting shipments of perishable goods, reducing dwell time at borders.

The digital integration also has significant safety and security benefits, improving visibility for authorities over any possible risks associated with goods that move between the two nations, as well as reducing the inspection rate and simplifying procedures for authorisation holders, said a statement.

Dr Al Neyadi said: The UAE and Kuwait have a vast cooperation opportunity as they both have exceptionally promising markets. We are confident that the cooperation between AD Ports Group and Kuwait General Administration of Customs to establish the first virtual trade corridor between The United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, will enhance trade exchange between the two countries, and will support their efforts in achieving digital transformation goals, streamlining shipping procedures to reduce transportation and shipping costs, as well as expanding economic cooperation, facilitating the development of the supply chains, and encouraging business investment, by building on the best digital solutions and logistics services provided by the virtual trade corridor.

Positve impact on economies

Rashid Abdul Karim Al Balooshi, Undersecretary, Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development, Chairman of the Higher Committee of Logistics Development, said: This MoU sets the stage for deeper cooperation with our trade partners. By establishing this virtual trade corridor, we will generate positive impact on the UAE and Kuwaiti economies and support the wider efforts of our wise leadership to promote trade and fraternal bonds between our nations, establishing Abu Dhabi as a leading trade and logistics hub in the region.

Suleiman AbdulAziz Al-Fahd, Director of the General Administration of Customs - Kuwait, said: We are pleased to sign the MoU with AD Ports Group, which comes within the framework of our strategic plan to develop the capabilities of the customs ecosystem in Kuwait with the aim of facilitating business, reducing manual reviews for completion of administrative and customs procedures, and facilitating the trade community in both countries through an agreement that benefits from the advantages of Global Logistics Passport.

"The signing of this agreement comes as a result to cooperation efforts and mutual visits between the logistic committees in the two countries, hoping that it will provide high-level facilities for both customs authorities and business partners.

Dr Noura Al Dhaheri, CEO of Maqta Gateway, Head of the Digital Cluster, AD Ports Group, said: Building upon the bilateral trade ties that have long existed between Kuwait and the UAE, the newly announced virtual trade corridor aims to realise a host of enhanced policies, procedures, and system integrations that will accelerate cross-border movements of goods traded between the two countries.

Since its founding, Maqta Gateway has committed its efforts towards advancing the digitalisation of the regions trade, logistics, and industrial landscape through the implementation of novel solutions that are transforming industry.

Real benefits for importers and exporters

By digitalising clearance and shipment delivery through this virtual trade corridor, we will be able to deliver real benefits for importers and exporters in Kuwait and the UAE, while simultaneously enhancing security and realising new levels of efficiency.

The long-standing bilateral trade ties enjoyed between the two GCC countries in recent years has seen the rapid growth of several key commodity markets. In 2021, the UAE imported more than two million tonnes of petroleum oil products valued at an estimated AED3.79 billion ($1.031 billion) from Kuwait, as well as 143,408 tonnes of petroleum coke and tar valued at AED213 million.

During the same period, Kuwait imported over 18.94 million tonnes of pebbles and stones for use in construction from Abu Dhabi, valued at AED650 million. It also imported 16 and 18 tonnes of gold and jewellery that were valued at AED3.16 billion and AED2.8 billion, respectively.

Other notable goods exchanged between the two countries include electronics, medicines, food products, copper scraps, and ethylene polymers. - TradeArabia News Service
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Qatari Energy Minister Saad Al Kaabi said in an exclusive interview with CNNs Becky Anderson that Qatar will stand in solidarity with Europe and will not divert gas contracts to other customers.



Qatar supplies some European countries with gas in the form of divertible contracts, which means it is able to divert supply across to other customers.



Al Kaabi told Anderson: We're not going to divert [contracts] and will keep them in Europe, even if there is financial gain for us to divert away, we would not do that. That's in solidarity with what's going on in Europe.



Still, the minister rejected imposing sanctions on Russias energy sector, saying energy should stay out of politics and reiterated that completely stopping Russian gas supply to Europe is not practically possible.



The minister also said that his nation is not choosing sides in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.



Earlier this week, top German officials, including Economy Minister Robert Habeck, visited Qatar for talks on supplying long-term gas to Europe in the midst of Russian energy uncertainty. Reports surfaced of a deal between Qatar and Germany on gas supply; however, the Qatari minister denied that a deal had been reached.



We have not agreed a long-term agreement with Germany yet, but we're willing to discuss with the companies that we have been discussing to put a long-term agreement in place potentially. This is a commercial agreement between commercial entities, he said.



British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Saudi Arabia and the UAE last week in an attempt to sway both nations into increasing oil supply into the market despite a deal with Russia capping oil supply, said the CNN report.



The two countries have spare capacity to possibly ease a global oil deficit, but both gulf nations have so far remained committed to the Opec+ deal with Russia  even after Russian President Vladimir Putins invasion of Ukraine, it added.  TradeArabia News Service
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(This post is a cleaned up and expanded version of this thread.)





A cool fact I've seen shared around the internet a few times: The decimal expansion of \( 1/998001 \) starts with

\[ \frac{1}{998001} = 0.000001002003\dots 996997999\dots \]

That is, it begins with three-digit strings from \( 000 \) to \( 999 \), in order, except that it skips \(998\) for some reason.

The first thing to observe is that \( 998001 = 999^2 \).

Recall the formula for the infinite geometric series:

\[ \sum_{n=0}^{\infty} r^n = \frac{1}{1 - r}. \]

If we differentiate both sides with respect to \( r\), we get

\[ \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} nr^{n-1} = \frac{1}{(1 - r)^2}, \]

and multiplying by \( r \) gives

\[ \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} nr^n = \frac{r}{(1 - r)^2}. \]

(This can also be obtained by some series manipulations.)

Now, take \( r = 0.001 \). We have

\[ \frac{0.001}{(1 - 0.001)^2} = \frac{1000}{998001} = 0.001 + 0.000002 + 0.000000003 + \dots \]

From here, the appearance of the numbers from \( 001 \) to \( 997 \), at least, is clear. What changes at \( 998\)? To see this, we look ahead a couple of places, zooming into this part of the sum. We will write it vertically for visualization purposes.

\[ \begin{align*}&\quad \, 0.001 \\

&+ \\

&\, \vdots \\

&+0.000\dots 997 \\

&+ 0.000\dots000998 \\

&+0.000\dots000000999 \\

&+0.000\dots00000000{\color{red}1}000 \\

&+ \dots \\

&\,\vdots \\

&\overline{\quad \, 0.001\dots 997999000\dots\quad\quad}

\end{align*} \]

As can be seen above, the \( 1000 \) term spills over into the \( 999 \) term, so when they are added, the \( 999 \) becomes \( 1000 \), and a \(1 \) is in turn carried over to the \( 998 \), yielding \( 999 \). Nothing else before is affected. This explains the missing \( 998 \).

Of course, the above is the expansion of \( 1000/998001 \), which isn't quite our original fraction, and the decimal expansion is missing the \( 000 \) string at the beginning. To get the fraction in our original claim, \( 1/998001 \), we move three decimal places, which indeed accounts for the missing \( 000 \).

More generally, the decimal expansion of \( 1/(10^d - 1)^2 \) encodes all \( d \)-digit strings from \( 00\dots 0 \) to \( 99 \dots 9 \) except for \( 99 \dots 8 \).





Let's look at our old friend \( 1/7 = 0.\overline{142857} \) again. Notice that \( 28 \) is two times \( 14 \), and \( 57 \) is almost two times \( 28 = 56 \) but overshoots by one. Normally, this could be chalked up to coincidence, and for many years, I thought it was. But, it turns out there's a nice explanation! Note that

\[ \frac{1}{7} = \frac{0.14}{1 - 0.02} = 0.14 + 0.0028 + 0.000056 + 0.00000112 + \dots \]

The first two terms of the sum explain why \( 14 \) and \(28 \) show up. And similarly to a while ago, the reason we have \( 57 \) and not \( 56 \) is because the next term, corresponding to \( 112 \), spills over.





One of my favorite variants of the above, if a bit more niche: Notice that

\[ \begin{align*} \frac{1}{89} &= 0.0112359... \\

\frac{1}{9899} &= 0.000101020305081321345590... \\

\frac{1}{998999} &= 0.000001001002003005008013021034055089144233377610988 \dots \end{align*} \]

That is, these fractions seem to encode the notorious Fibonacci sequence \( \{ F_n \}_{n=1}^{\infty} = F_1, F_2, \dots\), a sequence of integers defined by \( F_1 = F_2 = 1, F_{n+1} = F_{n} + F_{n-1}\). That is, each term is the sum of the previous two. The first few terms are

\[ 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, \dots \]





Before we go too deeply into that, I'll relate a math problem that I was surprised turned up in a local high school contest a couple of years ago: What is the value of the infinite sum

\[ \frac{1}{2} + \frac{1}{4} + \frac{2}{8} + \frac{3}{16} + \frac{5}{32} + \dots ? \]

It's pretty reasonable to suppose that the sum converges in the first place. Let \( S \) denote the value of this sum. The relation given above seems to be a clue: you somehow want to line up the \( F_n \) and \( F_{n-1} \) terms. To do this, we divide everything by \( 2 \), shifting the \( F_n \)s to the right:

\[ \begin{align*} \frac{S}{2} &= \frac{1}{4} + \frac{1}{8} + \frac{2}{16} + \frac{3}{32} + \dots \end{align*} \]

Combining the two gives

\[ \begin{align*} S + \frac{S}{2}

&= \frac{1}{2} + \left(\frac{1}{4} + \frac{1}{4}\right) + \left(\frac{2}{8} + \frac{1}{8}\right) + \left(\frac{3}{16} + \frac{2}{16}\right) + \dots \\

&= \frac{1}{2} + \frac{2}{4} + \frac{3}{8} + \frac{5}{16} + \dots \end{align*} \]

This time, it looks almost like the first sequence, except that the \( F_n \)s have been shifted to the left; another way of viewing this is that the denominators have been divided by \( 2 \), or the original sum has been doubled. Well, almost. We have, to compare,

\[ 2S = 1 + \frac{1}{2} + \frac{2}{4} + \frac{3}{8} + \frac{5}{16} + \dots \]

Notice that these expressions differ by a term of \(1\). That is,

\[ S + \frac{S}{2} = 2S - 1. \]

We can now solve for \( S \); we have \( S = 2 \), and so

\[ \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{F_n}{2^n} = \frac{1}{2} + \frac{1}{4} + \frac{2}{8} + \frac{3}{16} + \frac{5}{32} + \dots = 2. \]

More generally, we can consider the sum

\[ S = \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} F_nx^n. \]

Repeating the process above, but replacing \( 1/2 \) with \( x\), we have that, assuming the convergence of all relevant series, \( xS + S = S/x - 1 \), which rearranges to \( S = x/(1 - x - x^2) \). That is,

\[ \frac{x}{1 - x - x^2} = \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} F_nx^n. \]

More generally, suppose we have a sequence of numbers \( \{ a_n \}_{n=1}^{\infty} = a_1, a_2, a_3 \dots \). The function

\[ f(x) = \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} a_nx^n = a_1x + a_2x^2 + \dots \]

is said to be the generating function of the sequence \( \{ a_n \}_{n=1}^{\infty} \).

The above tells us that the function \( x/(1 - x - x^2) \) is the generating function of the Fibonacci sequence. Our previous discussion tells us that \( x/(1 - x)^2 \) is the generating function of the positive integers. Note that nothing stops us from starting at \( n = 0 \) instead of \( n= 1\), or whichever index, so in this light we can view \( 1/(1 - x) \) as the generating function of the constant sequence \( \{ a_n \}_{n=0}^{\infty} \) given by \( a_ n = 1 \) for all nonnegative integers \( n \).





We can now go back to the matter of the decimal expansions. What the above says is that the fractions

\[ \frac{1}{10^{2d} - 10^d - 1} \]

encode all but the last Fibonacci number with at most \( d \) decimal digits. And this can be seen by taking \( x = 10^{-d} \) and plugging it into our generating function; we get that

\[ \frac{10^d}{10^{2d} - 10^d - 1} = \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} F_n 10^{-nd} = 0.00\dots 100\dots 100\dots 2 \dots \]

By a similar observation as in above, the smallest Fibonacci number with \( d + 1 \) digits spills over into the largest Fibonacci number with at most \( d \) digits, explaining what is going on. And as before, the missing \( 00\dots 0 \) string is accounted for by multiplying by a factor of \( 10^{-d} \).

There is a minor detail. What if there is more than one overflow? Say, the term corresponding to the first \( (d + 1) \)-digit Fibonacci number overflows into the term corresponding to the largest \( d \)-digit Fibonacci number, which then becomes a \( (d + 1) \) digit number and overflows into the term before it. This would happen exactly when the largest \(d \)-digit Fibonacci number is \(10^d - 1 \). Fortunately, a paper of Bugeaud, Luca, Mignotte, and Siksek shows that this is never the case.





There are more ways in which studying the above generating function is useful. It is an established result that any rational function on the reals can be decomposed into simpler rational functions, whose denominators are powers of irreducible polynomials with degree at most \( 2 \). (And if we want to consider rational functions on \( \mathbb{C} \) instead, we can stipulate that the denominators are all powers of linear factors.) We have that \( 1 - x - x^2 = -(x^2 + x - 1) \) has roots \( \alpha = (-1 + \sqrt{5})/2 \) and \( \beta = (-1 - \sqrt{5})/2 \). So, we can write

\[ \frac{x}{1 - x - x^2} = \frac{A}{x - \alpha} + \frac{B}{x - \beta} \]

for some constants \( A, B \). Solving gives \( A = -\alpha/(\alpha - \beta), B = \beta/(\alpha - \beta) \). Note that \( \alpha - \beta = \sqrt{5} \). We have

\[ \begin{align*} \frac{x}{1 - x - x^2} &= \frac{1}{\sqrt{5}}\left( -\frac{\alpha}{x - \alpha} + \frac{\beta}{x - \beta} \right) \\

&= \frac{1}{\sqrt{5}}\left( \frac{1}{1 - x/\alpha} - \frac{1}{1 - x/\beta} \right) \end{align*} \]

We now expand the right-hand side into geometric series to get

\[ \frac{x}{1 - x - x^2} = \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{1}{\sqrt{5}}\left( \frac{1}{\alpha^n} - \frac{1}{\beta^n} \right)x^n. \]

However, we already agreed that \( x/(1 - x - x^2) = \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} F_nx^n \); this forces us to conclude that

\[ F_n = \frac{1}{\sqrt{5}}\left( \frac{1}{\alpha^n} - \frac{1}{\beta^n} \right). \]

This gives us an explicit formula for \( F_n \) that does not depend on knowing any previous values!

We can polish this presentation a tiny bit more. Notice that \( 1/\alpha = (1 + \sqrt{5})/2 = \varphi \approx 1.618 \), the infamous golden ratio; we also have that \( 1/\beta = (1 - \sqrt{5})/2 = \psi \), the other root of the quadratic equation \( x^2 - x - 1 \). With this we write

\[ F_n = \frac{\varphi^n - \psi^n}{\sqrt{5}}. \]

This identity is known as Binet's identity, named after Jacques Philippe Marie Binet, though supposedly Euler, de Moivre, and Daniel Bernoulli had already known about it.





This technique of encoding sequences in generating functions in order to study them is a powerful one. A taste of some more advanced stuff, to end: Denote by \( \mathcal{H} \) the complex upper-half plane, that is, the set of complex numbers with positive imaginary part. Take \( \Gamma \) to be the set of \( 2 \times 2 \) integer matrices \( \begin{pmatrix} a & b \\ c & d \end{pmatrix} \) with \( ad - bc = 1 \), that is, of determinant \( 1 \).

Now, for \( \gamma = \begin{pmatrix} a & b \\ c & d \end{pmatrix} \) and \( \tau \in \mathcal{H} \), let \( \gamma\tau = (a\tau + b)/(c\tau + d) \). This action is consistent with matrix multiplication: we have for any \( \tau \in \mathcal{H} \) and \( \gamma_1, \gamma_2 \in \Gamma \), \(\gamma_1(\gamma_2\tau) = (\gamma_1\gamma_2)\tau \). It can also be shown that if \( \tau \in \mathcal{H} \) and \( \gamma \in \Gamma \), then \( \gamma\tau \in \mathcal{H} \) as well.

Let \( k \) be a positive integer, and let \( f \) be a holomorphic (complex differentiable) function defined on \( \mathcal{H} \). We say that \( f\) is a modular form of weight \( k \) if it satisfies the following conditions:

For all \( \tau \in \mathcal{H} \) and \( \gamma = \begin{pmatrix} a & b \\ c & d \end{pmatrix} \in \Gamma \), \( f(\gamma\tau) = (c\tau + d)^kf(\tau) \); as \( \operatorname{Im}(\tau) \to \infty \), \( |f(\tau)| \) is bounded.

Note that \( T = \begin{pmatrix} 1 & 1 \\ 0 & 1 \end{pmatrix} \in \Gamma \); the first condition implies that \( f(T\tau) = f(\tau + 1) = f(\tau) \), so \( f \) is periodic of period \( 1 \). Since \( f \) is holomorphic with period \( 1\), it has a Fourier series of the form \( \sum_{n=0}^{\infty} c_nq^n \) where we write \( q := e^{2\pi i \tau} \).

(In fact, to check 1., it suffices to check it for \( T \) and \( S := \begin{pmatrix} 0 & -1 \\ 1 & 0 \end{pmatrix} \).)





For a prototypical example of a modular form: Let \( k > 1 \) be a positive integer. Consider the (normalized) Eisenstein series, a function defined on \( \mathcal{H} \) given by:

\[ E_{2k}(\tau) = \frac{1}{2\zeta(2k)}\sum_{m, n \in \mathbb{Z}^2 \setminus (0,0)} \frac{1}{(m + n\tau)^{2k}} \]

where \( \zeta(k) = \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} n^{-k} \) is the Riemann zeta function.

The Eisenstein series \( E_{2k} \) is a modular form of weight \( 2k \). It has the Fourier series expansion

\[ E_{2k}(\tau) = 1 + C_{2k}\sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \sigma_{2k-1}(n)q^n \]

for some constant \( C_{2k} \) depending on \( k \). Here, \( \sigma_k(n) = \sum_{d \mid n} d^k \) denotes the sum of the \(k \)th powers of the (positive) divisors of \(n \). This tells us that we can view \( E_{2k} \) as a generating function for \( \{\sigma_{2k-1}(n)\}_{n=1}^{\infty} \) (up to a scalar multiple). Some values of \( C_{2k} \) are \( C_4 = 240 \), \( C_6 = -504 \), \( C_8 = 480 \).

By using methods from complex analysis, it can be shown that any modular form must be a linear combination of products of the (normalized) Eisenstein series \( E_4 \) and \( E_6 \). In particular, when \( k = 4 \), we can only have that \( E_8 = c(E_4)^2 \) for some constant \(c \). Comparing constant terms, we conclude that \( c = 1 \). That is, \( E_8 = (E_4)^2 \), and so

\[ 1 + 480 \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \sigma_7(n)q^n = \left(1 + 240\sum_{k=1}^{\infty} \sigma_3(n)q^n \right)^2. \]

By matching the coefficients of \( q^n \), we find

\[ \sigma_7(n) = \sigma_3(n) + 120\sum_{m=1}^{n-1}\sigma_3(m)\sigma_3(n-m). \]

Check this for \( n = 2 \) and \(n = 3 \) if you're skeptical! The first time I learned this material, I honestly didn't believe it myself.

This is an astonishing identity that I am not sure can be attained by more elementary approaches. There are many similar divisor-sum formulas that can be obtained by using these techniques, as well as formulas for the number of ways to write an integer as the sum of 2 squares (or 4, or 8 squares), and many, many other cool things. In general, deriving results in number theory by using techniques of analysis is a whole area of study known as analytic number theory, which is my chief area of interest.
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In 2021, Oman Air Holidays partnered with several international travel operators, including WebBeds (a division of Webjet Limited), to enhance its digital booking experience and to provide more choice, flexibility and convenience to guests in search of innovative custom holiday packages. It also introduced stopover packages offering the flexibility to discover some of the most desirable tourist spots in and around Muscat.  TradeArabia News Service
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
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Spencer McKee is OutThere Colorado's Director of Content and Operations. In his spare time, Spencer loves to hike, rock climb, and trail run. He's on a mission to summit all 58 of Colorado's fourteeners and has already climbed more than half.
Chinese company kicks off road project construction in Ghana

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Ghanaian Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia speaks at the commissioning ceremony of a Chinese-assisted road project in Nyinahin, a town in southern Ghana's Ashanti Region, March 25, 2022. Ghanaian Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia on Friday commissioned a Chinese-assisted road project in Nyinahin, a town in southern Ghana's Ashanti Region. The 60-km road project, undertaken by Sinohydro Corporation Limited, was designed to upgrade these feeder roads in the town to ease the problems faced by the farming communities in transporting their products to market centers. (Photo by Seth/Xinhua)

An inner-city road project contracted by a Chinese company kicked off Friday in Kumasi, Ghana's second-largest city.

The 100 km project undertaken by Sinohydro Corporation Limited includes drainage work, earthwork, and bituminous surfacing of the roads, which is expected to improve the road networks and facilitate transportation within the city.

Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony, Ghanaian Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia expressed joy that the Kumasi inner-city road project could begin on time.

"We are grateful to the Chinese government for the cooperation that has existed between our two countries. There is still more to come under our mutual cooperation," Bawumia said.

Chinese Ambassador to Ghana Lu Kun commended the Ghanaian and Chinese engineers for sticking to their posts and carrying out excellent preparation for the start of the project, despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I firmly believe that, with Chinese and Ghanaians joining hands, and with your wisdom and diligence, the project will surely witness a speedy and quality progress," said Lu.
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The chairman of the Libyan Presidential Council, Mohamed Al-Manfi, on Sunday discussed with the Minister of Economy and Trade, Mohamed Al-Haweij, the controls and provisions that have been put in place to ensure the reduction of prices of basic commodities
Photo: (Photo : EMRE CAYLAK/AFP via Getty Images)

The humanitarian crisis is a growing concern in Ukraine, with reports stating that at least 117 children have been killed in the ongoing conflict as of Tuesday, March 22. The actual figure of the child death toll caused by the Russian invasion is likely higher, with aid organizations estimating that the areas that have witnessed some of the most intense fightings only have three to four days of essentials, such as food, left.

According to the most recent report published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), at least 925 civilians had been killed, and 1,496 people had been injured in Ukraine since Russia started invading the war-torn country 27 days ago on February 24.

Fox News reported that Russian casualties had been growing as well, with some reports estimating deaths in Vladimir Putin's army to be in the low thousands. Those are conservative figures, though, so Russian deaths because of this war may even be higher.

Zelensky makes an emotional address to the Italian Parliament

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made an emotional address to the Italian Parliament on Tuesday, saying that at least 117 children have died so far in the first 27 days of the war in Ukraine.

Zelensky explained that figure would grow even further, saying, "And we know that every next day of war will take more lives of our children. 117 is not the final number. The Russian invasion will still destroy families and destinies."

The last time Zelensky spoke to European leaders more than a week ago, he announced that 79 children had been killed in the conflict. That means 38 more children had been killed in Ukraine since that speech, which Zelensky attributes to the price of procrastination.

According to a Daily Mail report, Zelensky urged the Italian parliament to put more pressure on Russia to stop this cruel war. The Ukrainian president listed numbers to drive home his point, saying, "117 children, thousands of adults. Thousands of people are injured. Tens of thousands of families devastated." Zelensky added that hundreds of thousands of destinations had been destroyed, and millions of homes were abandoned in Ukraine because of one man.

Read Also: Ukrainian Mother Shields Baby From Russian Missile Strike in Kyiv, Gets Seriously Injured

Food supplies dwindling in some parts of Ukraine

According to Zelensky, more than 70,000 Ukrainian refugees are currently in Italy, including 25,000 children. He also highlighted the situation of pregnant refugees affected by the war, saying that the first Ukrainian baby was born in Italy.

Steve Gordon, Mercy Corps' Ukraine humanitarian response adviser, told CNN that one of the largest areas of concern in the country at the moment is the vulnerability of the supply chain. The Hill reported that according to Gordon, the humanitarian system in Ukraine is entirely broken down, with most municipalities that have witnessed some of the heaviest fightings only having between three and four days of food.

Related Article: U.K. Doctors Complete Mercy Mission to Bring Families of Ukraine Children With Cancer to Great Britain
Photo: (Photo : Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

A month after four women came forward to accuse a Utah obstetrics and gynecology specialist (OBGYN) of sexual abuse, more than 50 women signed a joint lawsuit claiming that they also had a similar experience under Dr. David H. Broadbent.

According to the Idaho Statesman, the sexual abuse happened from 1979 to 2021 as Broadbent took advantage of his role as a medical provider. The joint lawsuit alleged that the OBGYN conducted exams, sometimes unwarranted, on the women's body "under the guise of medically necessary care."

The women indicated they felt horrible and violated, especially as the doctor often does not use gloves for the physical exams. Broadbent's patterns of abuse also preyed on women at their most vulnerable, while they are lying on the examination table without their clothes.

Read Also: Teen Pregnancy: Young Grandma at 30 Says She Showed Love Not Anger for Daughter Who Got Pregnant at 14

What Triggered the Joint Lawsuit?

Broadbent has a private practice in his own clinic in Provo, Utah, and he also sees patients at Utah Valley Hospital and Mountain Star. In December 2021, a woman shared her experience in a podcast interview that raised awareness of the other victims. In February 2022, four women filed the first complaint against Broadbent together with the help of lawyer Adam Sorenson, who is also handling the joint complaint of the 50 other women.

In the lawsuit, all the women were named Jane Doe and cited personal instances where he made inappropriate comments, showed demeaning behavior, and physically assaulted them. Many often left his clinic feeling uncomfortable about the violation but brushed off the thought and convinced themselves to trust the OBGYN.

Some felt that their experiences under the hands of an aggressive doctor were standard, but their collective stories indicated that he violated the women for his own gratification.

According to the Daily Herald, Sorenson expects that more victims will be coming forward after this joint lawsuit. The lawyer said that they are prepared to go all the way to court, even if it comes to a jury. He expects that the nurses who worked with Broadbent with whom some women expressed their discomfort will likely be deposed in court if the cases go to trial.

He said that the main goal of filing a complaint against Broadbent is to ensure that he can no longer victimize women and lose his practice. The women also want to ensure that there will be no more victims.

Distancing from Dr. Broadbent

Meanwhile, Utah Valley Hospital has distanced itself from Broadbent. Spokesperson Lance Madigan issued a statement saying that the OBGYN was not employed with the hospital as he is an independent physician. Madigan noted that his privileges to deliver babies were suspended following the lawsuit.

Mountain Star also issued a statement and said that Broadbent is currently no longer authorized to check on his patients at their facility, per The Daily Universe.

David C. Epperson, the lawyer for the OBGYN, on the other hand, said that they would not comment on the case to the press as dictated by medical ethics. Epperson is confident that the complaints will be proven without basis in due time.

Related Article: Young Mom's 'Labor Pains' Diagnosed as Constipation, But it Turned Out to be Colon Cancer
Londons Gatwick Airport has reopened its 160,000m2 South Terminal  increasing its daily flights from 300 to 570.

The terminal closed during the pandemic on June 15, 2020. In preparation for the reopening, Gatwick and its partners  including airlines, shops, cafes and bars  carried out refurbishing and cleaning, alongside updating and testing facilities and equipment.

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Approximately 50 miles worth of lines were painted onto aircraft stands, 4,500 floor tiles and 3,000 lamps and light fittings were replaced, 800 flight information display screens (FIDS) were checked and serviced, and 212 new hand sanitizers were put in place.

As a result of the reopening, 27 airlines will move back to the South Terminal between March 27 and March 29, having flown from the airports North Terminal for the last 21 months. These airlines include British Airways (BA), Wizz Air, Vueling, Ryanair, Aer Lingus and Norwegian.

BA will operate 35 short haul routes to destinations across Europe, Wizz Air 25 European routes and Vueling a total of 16 routes from the reopened South Terminal. easyJet will operate 120 routes from Gatwick through both the North and South Terminals.

Airlines including BA, TUI, Emirates, Qatar, WestJet, Air Transat, JetBlue and Norse Atlantic will also be flying to over 30 long haul destinations direct from Gatwick this summer, including New York, Tampa, Phuket, Mauritius, Dubai, Doha and Bangkok  alongside a range of routes to Canada, the Caribbean and Mexico. The airport highlights that the increase in destinations flown direct from Gatwick  combined with positive booking data to date  indicates a strong summer season this year.

Stewart Wingate, CEO of Gatwick Airport, said, A lot of work has gone into preparing our South Terminal, and I would like to thank everybody involved as their combined efforts mean that today we are effectively opening a medium-size airport overnight, which is no small task.

Were now ready and excited to welcome passengers back in large numbers, and our restaurants, shops, cafes and bars are also looking forward to serving passengers again before they jet off on holiday, to visit friends and family or take that vital business trip.

After a difficult two years, we know there is significant pent-up demand for international travel, so I advise passengers to book early to make sure they secure the flights they want this summer.

Reopening our South Terminal and the increase in the choice of flights our airlines are offering is also great news for our local communities, particularly people and their families who rely on the airport for their livelihood, and also the large number of support and supply businesses that depend on a successful airport.
At least 40 African countries print their money in the UK, France and Germany  decades after independence, raising questions about self-sufficiency. DW examines what prompts them to outsource their currency production.



Last July, a delegation from The Gambia visiting the Nigerian Central Bank asked if the Gambian dalasi could be ordered from its West African neighbour.



The Gambia's central bank governor, Buah Saidy, said the country was running low on its national currency.



The tiny West African country had to redesign its currency after the defeat of former President Yahya Jammeh, who ruled The Gambia from 1994 until he was forced into exile after refusing to accept defeat in the 2016 elections.



Jammeh, who is accused of human rights violations and killings of political opponents during his 22-year reign, had images of himself on the nation's banknotes.



After his ouster, the Gambian Central Bank set about destroying those images.



Now, the dalasi notes have images of a fisherman pushing his canoe out to sea, a farmer tending to his rice paddy, and a spattering of colourful, indigenous birds.



Outsourcing the cash



One issue remains, however: The Gambia doesn't print its own currency. It places orders with UK companies, resulting in a shortage of liquid money.



And The Gambia is not alone in having its money printed in another country.



More than two-thirds of Africa's 54 countries print their money overseas, mostly in Europe and in North America. It comes at a time when the African Union is trying to usher in a golden, made-in-Africa age that should see Africa beef up production and enjoy greater profits.



Among the top firms that African central banks partner with are British banknote printing giant De La Rue, Sweden-based Crane, and Germany's Giesecke+Devrient.



How transparent is the process?



It is perhaps surprising that almost all African countries import their currencies. The practice could even raise questions of national pride and national security.



For richer countries, like Angola and Ghana, there's also the issue of real autonomy and economic sufficiency.



Most countries are tight-lipped about their currency-printing processes  likely for security reasons. The printing firms are even less transparent.



None of the firms DW contacted responded to requests for a list of African countries that print with them.



Counting the cost



Ethiopia, Libya and Angola  along with 14 other countries  place orders from De La Rue, writes Ilyes Zouari, who studies African countries.



Six or seven other nations including South Sudan, Tanzania and Mauritania are said to print theirs in Germany, while most French-speaking African countries are known to print their money with France's central bank and with the French printing company Oberthur Fiduciaire.



It's not clear how much it costs to print African currencies like the dalasi, although the US dollar costs between 6 and 14 cents.



But it is likely that the cost of printing for over 40 African currencies is significant.



In 2018, a central bank official in Ghana complained to local journalists that the country spends huge amounts for its UK orders of the Ghanaian cedi.



And since countries usually order millions of notes to be carted in containers, they usually have to pay hefty shipping fees. In The Gambia's case, officials say shipping costs rack up a bill of 70,000 (84,000, $92,000).



High demand



Still, while it may sound odd, analysts say that African countries printing much of their currency abroad is not unusual.



Many countries around the world do it. For example, Finland and Denmark outsource their money-making, as do hundreds of central banks around the world.



Just a handful of countries, like the US and India, produce their own currencies.



Mma Amara Ekeruche from the African Center for Economics Research told DW that when a country's currency is not in high demand  and not used globally like the US dollar or the British pound  it makes little financial sense to print it at home due to the high cost involved.



Money printing machines usually churn out millions of notes at a time. Countries with smaller populations, like The Gambia or Somaliland, would have more money than they needed if they printed their own.



"If a country prints one banknote for 10 at home and sees that it can print it for about 8 abroad, then why would they incur more costs to do that? It won't make sense," Ekeruche explained.



Some countries  like Liberia  don't attempt to print their own money because they don't even have a printing press  it is costly to set up and requires special technical capabilities.



Only a handful of African countries, like Nigeria, Morocco, and Kenya have enough resources to print their own currencies or mint their own coins, and even they sometimes supplement production with imports.



Is third-party printing secure?



Ekeruche said some individual countries attempting to produce their own currencies could fall victim to corrupt officials or hackers who might attempt to forge or manipulate them. In many cases, outsourcing is more secure.



Even with importing, there can be challenges. Containers of Liberian dollars shipped from Sweden disappeared in 2018, although the government later accounted for it.



Meanwhile, firms like De La Rue have existed for hundreds of years, mass-producing for central banks across the world.



They have the tools and experience to keep up to date with currency innovations, such as polymer which is considered cleaner, more durable and more secure than paper, with the plastic material allowing the inclusion of more sophisticated features to protect against counterfeits.



But outsourcing is not without disadvantages. Some countries could find themselves on the receiving end of economic sanctions. In 2011, for example, the UK withheld orders for Libya's dinar from De La Rue, after the UN sanctioned the late leader, Moammar Gadhafi.



Why not print the notes in Africa?



African countries have been formulating plans to boost intra-African trade. There is currently more trade with Western and Eastern countries than there is within the continent.



Printing banknotes in Africa would boost profits on the continent and, at least theoretically, African countries could choose those with printing capabilities since there's likely some idle capacity.



But that is not happening in practice. "Thats due to trust issues between the countries," said Emmanuel Asiedu-Mante, a former deputy chief with the Ghanian central bank, and because many have been printing with overseas firms for years.



And there's the complicated case of Francophone Africa  the countries using the Central African CFA franc and the West African CFA franc. The currencies are tightly pegged to the euro because of colonial relations and are produced in France.



Still, there's hope that change could be on the horizon. With The Gambia's central bank, officials proposing a possible partnership with Nigeria, countries could start to look inwards for their currency orders. If that happens at scale, it could cut shipping costs drastically.

Source: DW.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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U.S. Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley said on Sunday he was not confident that a nuclear deal between world powers and the Islamic Republic was imminent, dampening expectations after 11 months of talks in Vienna that have stalled.



The failure of efforts to restore a 2015 accord, which would curb Tehran's nuclear programme in exchange for lifting sanctions that have hammered Iran's economy, risks raising political tensions in the Middle East and further increasing world oil prices, analysts say.



"I can't be confident it is imminent... A few months ago we thought we were pretty close as well," Malley told the Doha Forum international conference.



"In any negotiations, when there's issues that remain open for so long, it tells you something about how hard it is to bridge the gap."



His assessment of the negotiations in Vienna came after Kamal Kharrazi, a senior advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said a deal could come soon.



"Yes, it's imminent. It depends on the political will of the United States," Kharrazi told the conference.



LAST-MINUTE DEMANDS



Then-U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned the nuclear pact in 2018, prompting Tehran to start breaking nuclear limits set under the deal. Months of on-and-off talks to revive the deal were delayed earlier this month as Russia wanted guarantees it would be able to carry out its work as a party to the deal.



But there are still outstanding issues. Kharrazi said in order for the deal to be revived Washington must remove the foreign terrorist organisation (FTO) designation against Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).



The IRGC, created by the Islamic Republic's late founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, is more than just a military force and has enormous political clout. It was placed under sanctions in 2017 and put on the FTO list in April of 2019.



"IRGC is a national army and a national army being listed as a terrorist group certainly is not acceptable," said Kharrazi.



Malley said regardless of what happens, many sanctions on the IRGC will remain.



Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett urged the United States to heed calls against any removal of the Revolutionary Guards from the U.S. terrorism blacklist.



"We're concerned about the intention to delist the IRGC," Bennett told Blinken. "I hope the United States will hear the concerned voices from the region, Israel's and others, on this very important issue."



IRAN SEEKING GUARANTEE



Tehran has been pushing for guarantees that any future U.S. president would not withdraw from the agreement and the extent to which sanctions would be rolled back is another unresolved issue.



The United States' allies in the Gulf and Israel believe Iran is a security threat and have deep misgivings over the talks.



Israel and the United States will continue to cooperate in preventing a nuclear-armed Iran, Israel's foreign minister said on Sunday.



"We have disagreements about a nuclear agreement and its consequences, but open and honest dialogue is part of the strength of our friendship," Yair Lapid said in Jerusalem during a joint press conference with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.



Blinken said a return to the 2015 deal was the best way to contain Iran's nuclear programme.



But whether or not that happens, "our commitment to the core principle of Iran never acquiring a nuclear weapon is unwavering", he said.



The issue is likely to dominate a two-day summit in Israel which will include foreign ministers from three Arab states.



In Tehran, EU envoy Enrique Mora, who is the coordinator of the talks, met with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani on Sunday to discuss pending issues in the nuclear talks.



Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told Mora in a meeting that "the lack of an American political decision is the current obstacle we have in achieving results in Vienna talks", according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

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 new Central Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Alexander Kwami Amenyo, has resolved to clamp down criminal activities in the region to maintain its peaceful atmosphere.



He has assured that his administration would be tough on miscreants, criminals and undesirable characters to safeguard the security of the region, particularly in the face of potential extremist attacks on the country.



Citing the recent disarray in Bawku, he said it was dangerous to compromise on security given the countrys porous borders, which was providing easy access to infiltrators.



We all know about the Bawku crisis. These are things that Jihadists will take advantage of and so if we are down south here and we find people committing crime and we continue to compromise and fail to deal with them drastically, it will not augur well for our country, he said.



DCOP Mr Amenyo, who succeeds DCOP Kwadwo Antwi Tabi, said this at his maiden official meeting with the media as part of stakeholder engagements to outline his vision for the region.



As part of the strategy, he said the police would enhance its community patrols to increase visibility and reinstate defunct checkpoints to ward off criminals.



The Regional Commander said the police would work closely with citizens and the media to maintain peace and order, adding: We will rely on informants because we can't do it alone.



To that end, DCOP Mr Amenyo urged communities to form watchdog committees, assuring them of adequate professional training for such bodies.



He said consistent and comprehensive education would be provided to the public through the electronic media and community engagements on how to prevent crime in the spirit of shared responsibility.



He bemoaned the high rate of road crashes in the region and the country as a whole, attributing it basically to human error, while declaring war on the canker.



On police professionalism, DCOP Amenyo said his outfit was working hard to cleanse the dented image of the police as part of efforts to give the Service a world class status.



He said the Police Administration was very determined in its re-orientation programmes and offering refresher courses for personnel to update their skills to enable them to act professionally within globally accepted standards.



We have resolved to ensure that our men on the ground will be very professional and will be apt in performance without infringing on the rights of innocent persons.



DCOP Amenyo appealed to journalists to be objective in their reportage to avert setting the public on a collision with the police.



He called for a strong collaboration between the media and the police administration adding; What is important is for all responsible media houses to adhere to the ethical standards of the profession and present the news to the public in a decent way.



Sometimes people exaggerate things for the police to look very bad. So, we will plead with you to always crosscheck your information, he added.

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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President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo Friday urged the University of Ghana Medical School (UGMS) to leverage available technology to increase access to medical education in the country.



He said the technology offered better ways through which medical students and all other students across the nation could be educated, and it was time to keep up with a technological change to prepare healthcare workers to deliver the digital future.



"Virtual reality in addition to other digital transformation products provides the space for the innovative ideas we need to adopt in the training of our medical students.



"It is time to deliberate on how best we can use technology to reach out to students across the country so that we do not have to bring all of them to Accra or the few medical schools we have in the country to impart knowledge to them, he said when speaking at the 60th-anniversary lecture of the UGMS at Legon, near Accra.



The lecture was on the theme: Building on 60 years of Quality Medical Education: The Role of Technology.



The President noted that virtual reality was increasingly becoming popular in the training of medical professionals because it allowed for medical professional skills education, assessment, standardization and knowledge sharing for better health care infrastructure.



"The adoption of these technologies will require a fundamental rethink of how we deliver medical educationWe need to take a second look at the curriculum of medical education in view of the digital revolution."



I thus encourage the Ministries of Education and Health to work together to leverage on technology to increase access to the many students who hitherto, have been denied the opportunity to follow their passion of studying medicine because of insufficient facilities and faculty."



President Akufo-Addo also appealed to doctors to accept posting to the districts and regions to address the doctor-dentist population ratio challenge and to ensure universal health care for Ghanaians.



He described as unsatisfactory the current situation where the country did not have the right number of doctors, dentists and healthcare professionals with the right mix of skills and expertise in the regions, districts and deprived communities.



Thus, doctors in Ghana should follow the example of their forebears such as Doctors Charles Odamtten Easmon and Evans Anfom, among others who accepted postings to all parts of the country to offer their services to the deprived.



They did so because they believed that the hypocritic oath they took imposed a duty on them to offer their services, especially, to the neediestIt was their work that helped build our national health system for which we are all benefitting.



"I am therefore appealing to you as passionately as I can, to accept postings to accredited regional and districts hospitals where your services are needed most," he said.



Dr Anarfi Asamoa-Baah, the Coordinator of the National COVID-19 Taskforce, who delivered the anniversary lecture emphasised that medical training is needed to keep up with technology.



He said while it was hard to predict the future, technology, however, would have a significant impact on improving efficiency and precision in healthcare, and urged the UGMS to reboot and revitalize medical training by adopting technology that would enhance the training of doctors.

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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Torgbui Adzonugaga Amenya Fiti V, the Paramount Chief of Aflao Traditional Area, has bemoaned the disconnect between revenues generated annually at the Aflao Border and the development at the area.



He said the Aflao Border, being the countrys busiest land border, had been the third revenue-generating point nationally, hence the need for the Government to support development at the town.



Torgbui Fiti said this at the end of year get-together for staff and stakeholders of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Aflao Collection.



The event, which had in attendance Ghanas Ambassador to Togo, Mr Kofi Demetia, and representatives of the security agencies, saw the presentation of awards and citations to officers for their roles leading to the Aflao Collection point exceeding its target for 2021.



It mobilised GH159.84 million, which exceeded its target of Ghc156.92 million, representing 1.86 per cent, thus earning commendation from the Customs Division.



Ideally, one would have expected that government would embark on development projects commensurate with the amount of revenue generated but that had not been the case, he said.



Torgbui Fiti said most of the Customs officers lacked decent accommodation, which needed to be fixed.



He, however, congratulated officers of the Aflao Sector for achieving that feat, especially in such a turbulent year, as he touched on the unique position of Aflao to Ghanas economy.

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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Commuters face danger as they cross the White Volta River at Daboya in the North Gonja District on overloaded canoes which have no life jackets.



Hundreds of passengers, most of whom are traders, cross the river to and fro Daboya and its surrounding communities in the Savannah Region to transact their businesses without observing the required safety measures.



Operators of the canoes do not provide life jackets for the passengers to ensure that should there be any emergency, their safety would be assured.



When the Daily Graphic visited the area last weekend, it observed that many passengers were putting their lives in danger with the total disregard for the use of life jackets.



The situation is even made more precarious with the constant overloading of the canoes, numbering about 20 stationed at both sides of the river, with passengers, goods and motorbikes.



Canoe accidents



Canoe disasters have become an annual occurrence around the area as most commuters prefer using the canoe because that route is shorter, as it is only 48 kilometres to Tamale, the Northern Regional capital.



The Damongo-Fufulso junction road is the safest route to Tamale, but it is almost twice the distance across the river.



In 2014, at least six people drowned after a canoe on which they were travelling capsized in the Daboya White Volta River. A similar canoe disaster on the river claimed three teenage lives in 2016, while three other persons drowned and four persons were rescued in 2017 when their boat capsized.



Concerns



Some passengers who spoke to the Daily Graphic lamented the lack of life jackets in the area, saying they had no option than to travel on the river without the life jackets as none was provided on the canoes.



It is very scary to cross the river without wearing life jackets, but we dont have any option now. If there is any disaster in the middle of the river, it will be very dangerous, a passenger, Hajia Asebi, lamented.



She, therefore, appealed to authorities to provide the canoe operators with safety gears for onward distribution to passengers who patronised their canoes.



Another passenger, Frederick Salifu, recounted how he almost lost his life on the river some time ago when the canoe nearly capsized, saying, It was only God who saved us and the canoe operator managed to paddle us to safety.



Life jackets



A canoe operator, Jamoni Baba, said the lack of life jackets was very worrying because it was very risky crossing the river without wearing them.



We dont have the life jackets; passengers always request for it but we dont have some. Some time ago some security personnel gave us some but they are spoilt, and since then we have not gotten some, he said.



When asked how much they charged the passengers, he explained that our work is just voluntary because we dont charge anything. We dont charge natives, but we only collect a small fee from strangers, which is not even compulsory for them to pay.



He added that because they were only doing a sacrificial job, it was difficult for them to procure the life jackets for the passengers.



In an interview, a former Assembly Member for Daboya, Jamoni Hudu, who is also the leader of the canoe operators, appealed to the assembly and benevolent organisations to support them with life jackets to ensure the safety of travellers.



Bridge



In 2017, the government announced the construction of a bridge over the White Volta at Daboya to link the Northern Region to the Savannah Region.



When constructed, the 300-metre stretch bridge spanning the White Volta River would be a critical link in the commercial and everyday life of people in the eastern parts of northern Ghana, and will serve as an alternative route for travellers from the north to the south and from the Savannah Region to the Upper West Region.



However, since the announcement, nothing has been done about it.



NADMO responds



When contacted on the lack of life jackets, the Savannah Regional Director of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Mr Mohammed Tohir, said the organisation had been supplying the canoe operators with the jackets every year to ensure the safety of commuters on the river.



I am surprised you are saying there are no life jackets at the riverside because we have been giving them some. Last year for instance, we received life jackets from the Red Cross Society and other organisations and distributed to them.



The problem is that they have refused to use them. It is just an attitudinal issue, just like the way some people have refused to wear crash helmets, he insisted.



He indicated that he would be following up on the issue in the coming days to ascertain why the operators were not using the life jackets.

Source: graphic.com.gh









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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Maltese President George Vella (R) and his wife Miriam cast their votes in Zejtun, Malta, on March 26, 2022. Voters in Malta went to the polls on Saturday for the country's general elections.

There are just over 340,400 registered voters to elect 65 members of parliament for the next five years. Citizens of the European Union (EU)'s smallest member state voted until 10 p.m. on Saturday. The election results are expected on Sunday. (Photo by Jonathan Borg/Xinhua)

VALLETTA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Voters in Malta went to the polls on Saturday for the country's general elections.

There are just over 340,400 registered voters to elect 65 members of parliament for the next five years. Citizens of the European Union (EU)'s smallest member state will vote until 10 p.m. on Saturday. The election results are expected on Sunday.

The ruling Labour Party, led by Prime Minister Robert Abela, is expected to win with a comfortable majority, according to surveys.

Opposition leader Bernard Grech, who has been leading the Nationalist Party since October 2020, is calling for a change in the country's direction after a series of scandals rocked the government. These include the placing of Malta on the grey list by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an anti-money laundering body.

On the other hand, Abela is promising to bring about more reforms.

The party leaders cast their votes on Saturday morning in their respective hometowns.

Malta is split into 13 electoral districts, with each electing five MPs, depending on the size of the voting population.

Saturday's election will also see voters as young as 16 voting for the first time.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also forced some organizational changes in the voting process, with special drive-through COVID-19 polling stations set up to cater for voters who are in self-isolation, quarantine or those who are positive to the virus.

Malta's next parliament will also include a number of female MPs, following the introduction of a new law stating that 40 percent of MPs must be female. If not directly elected, a mechanism will be used to co-opt them to parliament. 

Maltese Nationalist Party leader Bernard Grech casts his vote in Mosta, Malta, on March 26, 2022. Voters in Malta went to the polls on Saturday for the country's general elections.

There are just over 340,400 registered voters to elect 65 members of parliament for the next five years. Citizens of the European Union (EU)'s smallest member state voted until 10 p.m. on Saturday. The election results are expected on Sunday. (Photo by Jonathan Borg/Xinhua)

Maltese Prime Minister Robert Abela casts his vote in Marsascala, Malta, on March 26, 2022. Voters in Malta went to the polls on Saturday for the country's general elections.

There are just over 340,400 registered voters to elect 65 members of parliament for the next five years. Citizens of the European Union (EU)'s smallest member state voted until 10 p.m. on Saturday. The election results are expected on Sunday. (Photo by Jonathan Borg/Xinhua)

People enter a polling station to cast their votes in Sliema, Malta, on March 26, 2022. Voters in Malta went to the polls on Saturday for the country's general elections.

There are just over 340,400 registered voters to elect 65 members of parliament for the next five years. Citizens of the European Union (EU)'s smallest member state voted until 10 p.m. on Saturday. The election results are expected on Sunday. (Photo by Jonathan Borg/Xinhua)
The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has spread the first shovel of sand to signal the beginning of construction works on 145 different roads for a total of 100km of urban roads across six Metropolitan areas and Municipalities under the Kumasi City Inner Roads project in the Ashanti Region.



Districts to benefit from this project, to be completed in 30 months, including the Asokwa, Kwadaso, Oforikrom, New Tafo, Suame, Mampong and Effiduase. Manhyia, Bantama, Nhyiaeso and Subin, all submetros within the Kumasi Metro, would also benefit from this project.



Construction of the Kumasi Inner City roads is part of the Sinohydro Master Project Support Agreement (MPSA), signed in 2018 between the Government of Ghana and the Peoples Republic of China, through Sinohydro Construction to address the severe infrastructure deficit in the country. Under Phase 1 of the Agreement, a total of 441km of roads and two interchanges are to be constructed in Lots.



The new road works complement ongoing construction being undertaken in Kumasi by Contracta UK, captured under the Rehabilitation and Auxiliary Infrastructure of Kumasi Inner Ring Road and Adjacent Streets  Phase 1, for which sod was cut in 2019. That project is 96% complete and will be commissioned by the end of the second quarter, according to the contractor.



Speaking at a short but colourful ceremony at Kwadaso on Friday, March 25, 2022 Vice President Bawumia recalled the skepticism that accompanied his trip to China and the eventual signing of the Sinohydro Master Project Support Agreement, and reiterated Governments continued focus on upgrading the countrys infrastructure.



As usual, the critics said the Sinohydro Agreement would never see the light of day. But today we are all witnesses to ongoing works across the country, including many in the Ashanti region. These projects have been programmed to commence in phases and, today, we are witnessing the turn of the Kumasi Inner City roads, he explained.



Ashanti Region roads



Other road projects being undertaken within Kumasi, as well as the Ashanti Region, including the completion of asphalt overlay of 227 km of roads in Kumasi and the Ashanti Region; the Kumasi Roads and Drainage Extension Project, which includes the upgrading of the Lake Road into a dual carriageway and the lining of the Sissai Stream for 2km.



The reconstruction of the 30km Anwiankwanta-Obuasi Road is 85% complete while the upgrading of the Dompoase-Aputuogya Road is 80% complete, the Vice President disclosed.



In addition to the Kumasi Inner City Roads, other projects under Phase 1 of the MPSA that are at various stages of completion include Construction of the PTC Interchange in Takoradi, which is the first interchange in the western parts of our country; and upgrading of selected urban roads in Sunyani and Berekum Inner City Roads.



Others are the upgrading of selected feeder roads in Ashanti and Western Regions, which has been substantially completed and commissioned.



These projects, which are financed and executed under this Sinohydro Agreement, will go a long way in enhancing intra-urban, regional and national traffic flows. It would also strengthen regional economic integration through trade and reduce the cost of doing business in our dear nation, Ghana.



These and other several infrastructure development activities such as the construction, rehabilitation, reconstruction, and upgrading of roads as well as bridges and interchanges, undertaken by this Government, also highlights the vision of His Excellency the President in addressing the road infrastructure needs of our country.



The Minister for Roads and Highways, Hon Kwasi Amoako Atta, assured persons who might be affected by the construction works of adequate compensation for their loss.

Commissioning of Sinohydro Lot 8 projects

In a related development, Vice President Bawumia has commissioned a number of completed roads and projects within the Nyinahin Bauxite Enclave captured as Upgrading of Selected Feeder Roads in the Ashanti and Western Regions under Lot 8 of the Sinohydro Master Project Support Agreement (MPSA) at Nyinahin in the Ashanti Region.



The completion of the project, three months ahead of the planned 30 months, has improved accessibility within the Atwima Mponua District of the Ashanti region and Anansu in the Western North Region and forms part of preparatory works for the massive revival of bauxite mining in the enclave.



Vice President Bawumia indicated that other projects under the various Lots, such as the Tamale Interchange (Lot 3), Upgrading of Selected Roads in the Western region and Cape Coast (Lot 7), and Rehabilitation of the Hohoe-Jasikan-Dodo-Pepesu Road, all part of the Eastern Corridor Road Network (Lot 10) have reached advanced levels and will be commissioned by the second quarter of 2022.



Vice President Bawumia conveyed the appreciation of the government and people of Ghana to the government of the Peoples Republic of China for their continued support to Ghanas infrastructure development efforts.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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"All land and sea borders have been opened", President Akufo-Addo has announced in his latest update on COVID-19.



The closure of the borders was to limit the importation of COVID-19 into the country. Two years down the line, there have been numerous calls for the land borders especially to be opened.



In response to these calls during his 26th update, President Akufo Addo said: "From tomorrow, Monday the 28th March, all land and sea borders will be opened. Fully vaccinated travelers will be allowed entry through the land and sea borders without a negative PCR test from their country of origin.



In addition, "Citizens and foreign residents in Ghana who are not fully vaccinated will have to produce a negative 48-hour PCR result and will be offered vaccination on arrival".

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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President Nana Akufo-Addo has declared that travelers will no more undergo the mandatory PCR test for COVID-19.



As part of measures to combat the spread of the deadly Coronavirus, the Government of Ghana put in place a mandatory COVID-19 test procedure at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) where travelers paid $150 to take the test before entering the nation.



In his 28th update on COVID-19 on Sunday, March 27, 2022, the President applauded Ghanaians and all travelers for cooperating with the government in the fight against the pandemic disease.



The President disclosed that, taking notice of the successes in preventing the disease, the restrictions on the population have been revised.



As a result, there will be no PCR test at the airport for persons entering Ghana.



However, the travelers will have to show a proof of their vaccination against the disease before they will be allowed entry into Ghana.



From tomorrow, Monday, 28th March, fully vaccinated travellers into Ghana will no take PCR tests from the country of embarkation to allow them entry into the country through the KIA, and will not be tested on arrival.



Citizens and foreign residents in Ghana, who are not fully vaccinated, would, however, need to provide a negative PCR test result of not more than 48-hours, will undergo an antigen test upon arrival at KIA, and will be offered vaccination there, the President said.

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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The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Atwima-Nwabiagya South, Mr Emmanuel Agyei Anhwere, has stressed the need for all Ghanaians to come together and work towards the development and progress of the nation.

He said it was the civic responsibility of every Ghanaian to work towards the building of the country as was done by our forefathers.



In an interview with the Ghana News Agency at Nkawie, he said it was time for Ghanaians to rededicate themselves and show greater commitment, hard work, patriotism and honesty, which were badly needed to rebuild the nation.



Resources



Mr Agyei Anhwere said Ghana was endowed with many natural resources and human talents capable of transforming these resources to improve the lives of the people.



What is needed is for the people to eschew laziness, backbiting, pull-him-down attitude, selfishness and corruption so as to be able to harness these resources to position the country onto the path of growth and development, he stated.



Mr Agyei Anhwere stressed the need for the present generation to arise to their civic responsibilities by honouring their tax obligations and showing greater care to national property while taking part in national discourse in a dispassionate manner.



He called for the equitable distribution of national resources and opportunities, proper management of resources, diligent and efficient execution of tasks, as well as proper care and maintenance of public property at all times.



The parliamentarian said the present generation could only build on the great foundation laid by the forefathers if individuals gave their maximum efforts to consolidate the gains for an enduring legacy for the next generation.

Source: graphiconline.com









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The First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei-Owusu, has asked the Business Committee of Parliament, to re-schedule the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Attas appearance before the House to answer questions filed by members.

He explained that it was obvious Mr Ofori-Atta would not be able to appear before the House due to other engagements.



Mr Osei-Owusus gave the directive in response to a request by the Minority caucus that most of the pending questions had been advertised in the name of Mr Ofori-Atta in the Order Paper since June 2021, yet he only kept giving reasons not to appear in the House to answer them.



Speaking on the floor of Parliament yesterday, the Minority Chief Whip, Mr Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka, said the Minority found such a conduct very unacceptable since Mr Ofori Atta could find time to go round the country for town hall meetings but does not want to answer to the representatives of the people.



Mr Muntaka raised the concern soon after the Majority Chief Whip, Mr Frank Annor-Dompreh, had proposed that the House vary the Order of Business and consider a motion for the approval of the Report of the Finance Committee on Ghanas subscription to 11,996 shares ($11.9 million) allocated by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank.



But Mr Muntaka said the House had scheduled about 10 questions for the Finance Minister to come before the House to answer them yesterday.



Definitive instructions



He said per the Standing Orders, the minister was to answer questions within two weeks after the notice of the questions had been served on him.



He, therefore, was worried that if Parliament kept accommodating the Finance Ministers excuses, he would gloss over the questions he was supposed to answer.



I would plead with the Speaker that we may want to vary some work and I do not have any objections to that but we should give a definitive instruction for the Finance Minister to come and answer the questions so that we do not leave it in the pool for them to get lost.



Minister



Speaking in support of the Minority, the Mr Annor-Dompreh, agreed that those outstanding questions advertised in the name of the Finance Minister had gone through the necessary process.



He, however, expressed doubt that those questions were admitted eight months ago.



In this House between leadership, we have come to a working agreement that where a sector minister is unable to attend upon the House, at least we should have correspondence a day ahead of the day he is billed to answer the said questions.









Source: graphiconline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The embattled National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin North in the Central Region, James Gyakye Quayson's continuous presence in Parliament, was questioned yesterday on the floor of House.

The question by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP for Kwadaso in the Ashanti Region, Dr Kingsley Nyarko, was to find out why Mr Quayson was still in Parliament in spite of a High Court ruling that the latter could not hold himself out as an MP.



That, he added, had also been affirmed by the Court of Appeal.



Enraged



But his question did not go down well with the Minority side in Parliament who rebutted by saying that the issue was still before the Court, and therefore, it was not for Parliament to determine it.



Some of the NDC MPs who were enraged by the question banged on their desks repeatedly to show their disapproval of the question.



Speaker's direction



The First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei-Owusu, who presided over proceedings yesterday, stepped in to restore order with his ruling on the matter.



"What matter there is was a fact to be determined whether or not the appeal has been determined. That is a question of fact and not a question of law. I do not intend that we do that at this moment. I will discuss that with leadership and whatever steps we have to take will be taken after that," Mr Osei-Owusu stated.



That brought about calm in the House for proceedings to continue.



Support



The NPP MP for Abuakwa South, Mr Samuel Atta Akyea, who spoke in support of his colleague, said the question asked was legitimate and that should be a concern for the House.



According to him, Mr Quayson was in contempt of the two courts that had ruled and affirmed that he was disqualified as an MP and until there was an injunction process in place he cannot be in Parliament.



Minoritys response



The NDC MP for South Dayi, Rockson-Nelson Etse Kwami Dafeamkpor, in his response, described the question as subjudice and unfounded, as the matter was before the courts.



He said what was dismissed was an interlocutory matter on grounds of non-compliance, and that the substantive appeal was pending.



The Minority Chief Whip and MP for Asawase in the Ashanti Region, Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka, thanked the Speaker for the direction he had given.



He said he was tempted to believe that Mr Atta Akyea had planned with Mr Nyarko, who is a first timer, to do that, saying what he ( Atta Akyea) did had broken the trust, and that the next time he wanted to do such a thing the Minority would adhere strictly to the rules of the House.



Recall



An appeal filed by the embattled MP for Assin North, Mr Quayson, at the Court of Appeal in Cape Coast to overturn the annulment of his election, was struck out last week when the court sat.



That was because the appellant, James Gyakye Quayson, failed to file his written submission within the stipulated period allowed under the Court of Appeal Rules, 1997 (C.I. 19).



The Supreme Court is yet to rule on that case. It would be heard on March 29, 2022.









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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Chinese State Councilor Wang Yong bows during a memorial event held at the crash site of the China Eastern Airlines plane to mourn the deaths of the 132 people involved in the accident in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 27, 2022. (Xinhua/Huang Xiaobang)

NANNING, March 27 (Xinhua) -- A memorial event was held Sunday at the crash site of the China Eastern Airlines plane to mourn the deaths of the 132 people involved in the accident.

At about 2 p.m., as the sound of horns blared throughout a mountainous area in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, all staff members of the national emergency response headquarters for the accident and rescuers at the site stood solemnly in silence for three minutes in a tribute to the victims.

Chinese State Councilor Wang Yong attended the mourning.

Assisted by local governments and work groups, the families of the victims also held mourning activities for their loved ones.

The Boeing 737 aircraft, which departed from Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, and was bound for Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, crashed in Tengxian County on March 21.

All 132 people on board the plane are dead, according to the headquarters.

"It is with great sadness that we here announce that the 123 passengers and nine crew members on board China Eastern Airlines Flight MU5735 on March 21 have all died," Hu Zhenjiang, deputy commander of the headquarters and deputy head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said Saturday.

"We are deeply saddened by the accident. We mourn the loss of 132 lives and express our deep sympathy to the bereaved families," Hu said.

"Our hearts are heavy. We have been searching the place where the plane crashed and the surrounding hilly areas for days, hoping for a miracle," said Li Shaolin, head of a firefighting team of Guilin City in Guangxi.

Several thousand people have joined the search-and-rescue efforts. Drones and other equipment were also used in the operation.

The headquarters is still making every effort to search for aircraft wreckage, remains of the victims and material evidence, handle the accident aftermath, and carry out investigations.

As of Sunday noon, 357 relatives of the victims had received psychological counseling. The psychological assistance team, consisting of 99 psychological professionals, has also provided counseling to hundreds of rescue workers.

China Eastern Airlines has started the work of settling claims, said Liu Xiaodong, head of the airline's publicity department, at a press conference on Sunday. 

Photo taken on March 27, 2022 shows a memorial event at the crash site of the China Eastern Airlines plane to mourn the deaths of the 132 people involved in the accident in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. At about 2 p.m., as the sound of horns blared throughout a mountainous area in Tengxian County, all staff members of the national emergency response headquarters for the accident and rescuers at the site stood solemnly in silence for three minutes in a tribute to the victims. (Xinhua/Huang Xiaobang)

Photo taken on March 27, 2022 shows a memorial event at the crash site of the China Eastern Airlines plane to mourn the deaths of the 132 people involved in the accident in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. At about 2 p.m., as the sound of horns blared throughout a mountainous area in Tengxian County, all staff members of the national emergency response headquarters for the accident and rescuers at the site stood solemnly in silence for three minutes in a tribute to the victims. (Xinhua/Zhou Hua)

Photo taken on March 27, 2022 shows a memorial event at the crash site of the China Eastern Airlines plane to mourn the deaths of the 132 people involved in the accident in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. At about 2 p.m., as the sound of horns blared throughout a mountainous area in Tengxian County, all staff members of the national emergency response headquarters for the accident and rescuers at the site stood solemnly in silence for three minutes in a tribute to the victims. (Xinhua/Huang Xiaobang)

Photo taken on March 27, 2022 shows a memorial event at the crash site of the China Eastern Airlines plane to mourn the deaths of the 132 people involved in the accident in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. At about 2 p.m., as the sound of horns blared throughout a mountainous area in Tengxian County, all staff members of the national emergency response headquarters for the accident and rescuers at the site stood solemnly in silence for three minutes in a tribute to the victims. (Xinhua/Zhou Hua)

Photo taken on March 27, 2022 shows a memorial event at the crash site of the China Eastern Airlines plane to mourn the deaths of the 132 people involved in the accident in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. At about 2 p.m., as the sound of horns blared throughout a mountainous area in Tengxian County, all staff members of the national emergency response headquarters for the accident and rescuers at the site stood solemnly in silence for three minutes in a tribute to the victims. (Xinhua/Lu Boan)

Photo taken on March 27, 2022 shows a memorial event at the crash site of the China Eastern Airlines plane to mourn the deaths of the 132 people involved in the accident in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. At about 2 p.m., as the sound of horns blared throughout a mountainous area in Tengxian County, all staff members of the national emergency response headquarters for the accident and rescuers at the site stood solemnly in silence for three minutes in a tribute to the victims. (Xinhua/Zhou Hua)

Photo taken on March 27, 2022 shows a memorial event at the crash site of the China Eastern Airlines plane to mourn the deaths of the 132 people involved in the accident in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. At about 2 p.m., as the sound of horns blared throughout a mountainous area in Tengxian County, all staff members of the national emergency response headquarters for the accident and rescuers at the site stood solemnly in silence for three minutes in a tribute to the victims. (Xinhua/Huang Xiaobang)
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Day 7 of BetMGM's March Poker Mania is underway in New Jersey, Michigan and Pennsylvania and multiple hosts of the three-state series are streaming the action.

For the first time, New Jersey pro Darren Elias is streaming his play on the new Above the Felt Twitch channel.

just setting up my twttr  Biz Stone (@biz)

Elias is streaming as he competes in Saturday's Event #15: $1,060 Heads-up Bracket Battle 32-max, as well as other MTTs available on BetMGM New Jersey.

Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, fellow March Poker Mania host Matt Berkey is streaming the action on the Solve for Why YouTube channel. Berkey played the heads-up tournament, a format he admitted he hadn't "really studied," and is also streaming an online $5/$10 cash game.

We're LIVE at 6 pm ET w/the $1k HU @BetMGMPoker Tourney w/$10k added to first. The event is capped at 32 and curren https://t.co/yNu98rIKw6  Matt Berkey (@berkey11)

In Michigan, poker vlogger and March Poker Mania host Andrew Neeme streamed the action from his YouTube channel and even offered "bottomless beers" on him if he took down the heads-up tournament.

Streaming the @BetMGM/@partypokerUS $1k HU tourney in Michigan on my channel at 6pm est. Theyre adding $10k to 1st https://t.co/7ZuaH6f7y4  Andrew Neeme (@andrewneeme)

Also running on Saturday is Event #16: $55 Phase I to $535 Phase II Main Event, giving players a chance to earn a seat at the Main Event.
Strong winds, a clear sky, fast horses and a lush, green track were components of Saturday afternoon for a massive gathering a few yards from Richland Avenue, with the Aiken Spring Steeplechase back in action following a two-year hiatus.

The end result was "a really nice day, other than the wind," in the assessment of Charlotte, North Carolina, resident Shannon Akin Thomas, who was among some of the out-of-state travelers on hand for the festivities  a welcome renewal for many, in the wake of cancellations due to COVID-19 concerns.

She credited law enforcement with "a great job" in keeping traffic hassles to a minimum and confirmed a lovely experience as part of the railside gathering at a corporate tent sponsored by Blanchard Cat.

Andrew Siders, who sang the national anthem, gave a similarly upbeat review and said he got upbeat feedback from a variety of people. "I think all in all everyone was pretty pleased," he said, while acknowledging that the public-address system could use some tweaking.

His entry and exit were relatively smooth, vendors reported brisk sales and the arrangement for cameras and announcers "seemed to be fantastic," he added.

"The law enforcement was everywhere, plus private security. They did a very good job of not taking any chances with that. All in all, I would say it was a very good event."

North Augusta resident Antonio Grant was on hand as a first-time steeplechase viewer. He confirmed getting a rude surprise in the midst of "little friendly wagers on the horses" when he found out that the horse he had endorsed did not compete, due to a behavioral issue and the inability to settle down enough to race.

Among the challenges, he said, was "being around horse people and just listening to the different language," in terms of equestrian jargon. It was also surprising to see a tent be lifted by the wind and then make its way out onto the racetrack.

Another observer, pointing out that the flying tent did major damage to a nearby SUV's windshield, commented, "The tent that catapulted over from the railside ain't in Kansas anymore."

The event included an extremely family-friendly flavor for at least one group of visitors: the descendants of longtime Aiken equestrian Marjory Hasler Ewing, a New Jersey native who died in 1984 at age 63 and was largely known as master of the Aiken Drag Hunt (1961-65), founder and joint director of the Aiken Pony Club (1976-77) and co-founder and secretary of the Aiken Riding Academy (established in 1980).

Ewing, who moved to Aiken in 1952, was one of the original boosters of the Aiken Steeplechase and helped keep the annual event financially afloat in its earliest years, and her family has been represented at the steeplechase each year that the event has been held, dating back to 1967.

Tom Ewing, one of her sons, now lives in Blue Ridge, Georgia, near the Tennessee line, and was part of the most recent family gathering, which included his children and grandchildren. "I have been to every one of those, since 1967," he said.

He had several carloads of family members gathered by the exterior rail Saturday, with the youngest being Charleston resident Jay Ewing, 3, a great-grandson of Marjory Ewing.

Tom Ewing put the spring custom into perspective. "I personally have attended every steeplechase from the very beginning, which is 53 as of today, and our family tradition has always been here at the steeplechase  this being the 55th year."

He confirmed that the five decades' worth of spring Saturdays have included a highly varied range of conditions, "but at the end of the day, being here and experiencing and supporting the tradition of the Aiken steeplechase is what it's all about."

He added, "Mom's in Heaven. She's smiling down." Her last wish, he said, was to have the steeplechase as a Ewing family tradition.

The international tradition itself, according to the National Steeplechase Association's website, may date back 270 years. "By most accounts, the first steeplechase race was held in 1752 in County Cork, Ireland, where a horseman named OCallaghan engaged Edmund Blake in a match race, covering approximately 4 miles from Buttevant Church to St. Marys Doneraile, whose tower was known as St. Leger Steeple.

"Indeed, church steeples were the most prominent  and tallest  landmarks on the landscape, and the sport took its name from the chase to the steeple. History did not record the winner of the OCallaghan-Blake match, or if either of them completed their cross-country chase."
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Maura Hogan is the arts critic at The Post and Courier. She has previously written about arts, culture and lifestyle for The New York Times, Gourmet, Garden & Gun, among other publications.
People work at a vote counting hall in Naxxar, Malta, on March 27, 2022. Malta's Labour Party has won the general election with a comfortable majority, Prime Minister Robert Abela announced on Sunday. (Photo by Jonathan Borg/Xinhua)

VALLETTA, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Malta's Labour Party has won the general election with a comfortable majority, Prime Minister Robert Abela announced on Sunday.

Speaking during a telephone call with the national broadcaster, Abela said that according to calculations by party agents as vote counting got underway, his party had a significant majority over the Nationalist Party (PN).

The election held on Saturday was characterised by a record low turnout since independence, at 85.5 percent , just over 303,500 votes.

As the counting hall erupted into cheers, with party delegates celebrating the victory, PN Secretary-General Michael Piccinino conceded the defeat, saying party leader Bernard Grech had called Abela and congratulate him on his victory.

The official result, which will include the entire list of elected MPs, will be announced later on Sunday or early Monday morning.

This is the Labour Party's third consecutive general election win since 2013. However, this is Abela's first mandate as party leader and prime minister after he took over from Joseph Muscat who resigned in early 2020. 

People work at a vote counting hall in Naxxar, Malta, on March 27, 2022. Malta's Labour Party has won the general election with a comfortable majority, Prime Minister Robert Abela announced on Sunday. (Photo by Jonathan Borg/Xinhua)

People work at a vote counting hall in Naxxar, Malta, on March 27, 2022. Malta's Labour Party has won the general election with a comfortable majority, Prime Minister Robert Abela announced on Sunday. (Photo by Jonathan Borg/Xinhua)

People work at a vote counting hall in Naxxar, Malta, on March 27, 2022. Malta's Labour Party has won the general election with a comfortable majority, Prime Minister Robert Abela announced on Sunday. (Photo by Jonathan Borg/Xinhua)

Supporters of Malta's Labour Party celebrate the victory of the general election in Hamrun, Malta, on March 27, 2022. Malta's Labour Party has won the general election with a comfortable majority, Prime Minister Robert Abela announced on Sunday. (Photo by Jonathan Borg/Xinhua)

Supporters of Malta's Labour Party celebrate the victory of the general election in Hamrun, Malta, on March 27, 2022. Malta's Labour Party has won the general election with a comfortable majority, Prime Minister Robert Abela announced on Sunday. (Photo by Jonathan Borg/Xinhua)

Supporters of Malta's Labour Party celebrate the victory of the general election in Hamrun, Malta, on March 27, 2022. Malta's Labour Party has won the general election with a comfortable majority, Prime Minister Robert Abela announced on Sunday. (Photo by Jonathan Borg/Xinhua)

Maltese Prime Minister Robert Abela (C) waves to supporters of the Labour Party in Hamrun, Malta, on March 27, 2022. Malta's Labour Party has won the general election with a comfortable majority, Prime Minister Robert Abela announced on Sunday. (Photo by Jonathan Borg/Xinhua)

Maltese Prime Minister Robert Abela (C) waves to supporters of the Labour Party in Hamrun, Malta, on March 27, 2022. Malta's Labour Party has won the general election with a comfortable majority, Prime Minister Robert Abela announced on Sunday. (Photo by Jonathan Borg/Xinhua)
Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Mostly cloudy. A stray afternoon thunderstorm is possible. High 87F. Winds SSW at 15 to 25 mph..

Tonight

Thunderstorms. A few storms may be severe. Low 66F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
Chances to view a once-a-year natural phenomenon in South Carolina will be opening up soon.

Congaree National Park recently announced when the public will be able to view its synchronous fireflies. For about two weeks in late spring, the 26,000-acre outdoor recreational site hosts fireflies that will flash in unison while they search for a mate.

The fireflies at Congaree are one of just a few species of synchronous flashing fireflies found in North America, and their fleeting display draws crowds to the Midlands every year.

How To Enter Congaree National Park will accept entries to its lottery for firefly viewing from 10 a.m. March 31 to 10 a.m. April 6. The lottery can be found at www.recreation.gov/ticket/facility/300008.

The 2022 viewings will be May 20-22 and May 27-29.

The event has become increasingly popular over the years. To protect the fireflies' habitat, the Hopkins park limits viewing to 120 vehicles per night. A lottery system will be used to determine who gets the parking spots.

This year's selection process will open on the Recreation.gov ticketing website at 10 a.m. on March 31 and will stay open through 10 a.m. on April 6. Results will be announced on April 14.

The lottery costs $1 to enter, and the fee is not refundable. Tickets are an additional $19 per vehicle, which must fit in a standard parking space.

The lottery was started last year and was modeled after a system used at Great Smoky Mountains National Park for its firefly viewing event.

As another way to protect the fireflies' habitat, Congaree's entrance road will be closed to all visitors at 4 p.m. every night from May 15 to May 29. Guests will not have access to the visitor center, frontcountry trails and boardwalk after 4 p.m. those days, but other trails will be open.

Firefly viewing is best just after dark, between 9 and 10 p.m.

Participants are asked to stay on the designated trail, only use flashlights when absolutely necessary and keep noise to a minimum.

Capturing fireflies within the national park is not permitted.

Antique show returns

The annual Charleston Spring Antiques Show is coming back with a new beneficiary of its annual preview party.

The show, put on by the Antiques Council, was on pause during the pandemic but returns April 1-3 at the Gaillard Center. Its March 31 preview event will benefit the Drayton Hall Preservation Trust which operates Drayton Hall, a historic plantation site along the Ashley River corridor.

Drayton Hall put together a special exhibit that will be on display at the Gaillard during the show. It focuses on precious metals and artwork from the 18th and early 19th centuries and includes items from Drayton Hall's collection that have never been displayed before, said director of museum affairs Sarah Stroud Clarke. One of those items is a miniature portrait of Ann Drayton acquired by Drayton Hall in 2020. It's the museum's first 18th-century image of a female Drayton, she said.

Other items include a rare Charleston-made silver ladle and a London-made tea and coffee service that was owned by Charles Drayton. The exhibit will also include some pages from Drayton's plantation diaries and information about the history of enslavement at the property.

All preview party ticketholders will receive three-day passes to the antique show and admission to Drayton Hall between April 1-9.

This is Drayton Hall's first time hosting the preview party. Historic Charleston Foundation was the previous beneficiary.
Georgetown, SC (29440)

Today

Mostly cloudy. A stray afternoon thunderstorm is possible. High 87F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Thunderstorms during the evening, then skies turning partly cloudy overnight. A few storms may be severe. Low 63F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
GEORGETOWN  The salaries and high turnover rates of Georgetown city employees need to be addressed in the upcoming budget, city Administrator Sandra Yudice told the council on March 24.

The proposed budget includes an 8 percent across-the-board payroll increase. It will ultimately be up to the council to decide whether to spend the $847,174 necessary to apply that increase.

The council heard from Yudice and department heads throughout their March 24 budget retreat, taking the first step toward forming their fiscal year 2023 budget.

Yudice told the Georgetown Times that whether that increase ends up making Georgetown a sound competitor in the job market remains to be seen as other municipalities around the state finalize their own budgets.

"I was told recently that right now we are in an employees' market," Yudice said. "Employees have the choice to go wherever they want and earn at least a living wage, so we need to come up to that level."

Georgetown saw a turnover rate of 24.1 percent in 2021 as 40 city employees left their jobs, including 10 from the Georgetown Police Department and seven from the Georgetown City Fire Department.

The $40.3 million budget Yudice outlined on March 24 also includes seven new full- and part-time positions: public information officer and city clerk assistant in administration, three firefighters starting in January 2023, a customer representative in the finance department and a Main Street coordinator for planning and community development.

Regarding the public information officer position, Yudice said the city does not currently have a full-time employee to update city social media accounts or update the city website.

It is very important for council and for me to have someone who can address residents concerns and monitor our social media so that, you know, if somebody has a complaint, it is addressed promptly, Yudice said.

Of the city clerk assistant position, Yudice said that city clerk Stephanie Buccione is "overloaded, overworked."

At the council's suggestion, Yudice said she will look into combining the positions of city clerk assistant and public information officer.
GREENVILLE  Progress continues on United Community Bank's new headquarters downtown, with excavation and a celebratory groundbreaking planned in the coming days.

In an announcement by the City of Greenville from March 22, Harper General Contractors began blasting rock for United Community Bank's headquarters site on March 23. The contractors have notified neighboring businesses and those living within 1,000 feet of the jobsite about the blasting schedule.

"The current plan is two blasts per day at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. for the next three to four weeks," the city announcement said.

An official groundbreaking ceremony for the bank will be held March 29 at 200 E. Camperdown Way with Gov. Henry McMaster, Mayor Knox White and United Community Bank Chairman and CEO Lynn Harton all expected to be in attendance.

The bank has previously said construction is expected to be complete in spring 2024.

United Community Bank officially moved its headquarters from Blairsville, Ga. to Greenville in July 2021. With $23.5 billion in assets, it is the largest bank based in South Carolina. The bank has had a presence in Greenville since 2012 and opened its first permanent branch in the area in 2015. It has almost 200 offices across the Carolinas, Florida, Georgia and Tennessee.

Wyche Law Firm sold the East Camperdown Way property to the bank in December 2020 for $5.75 million, according to public property records. Demolition of Wyche's two-story structure started on Jan. 31 and lasted for a few weeks.

Wyche finalized its move into two floors of an office building on East Broad Street in Greenville in December 2021. This relocation marks the fifth move of the firms Greenville offices since its founding 100 years ago.
Summerville, SC (29483)

Today

Mostly cloudy. A stray afternoon thunderstorm is possible. High around 90F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Thunderstorms during the evening, then partly cloudy overnight. A few storms may be severe. Low 64F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
Sen. Tim Scott, a rising star in the Republican Party with broad popularity in his home state of South Carolina, is getting showered with drug industry money before facing voters this fall.

Scott was the top recipient of pharma campaign cash in Congress during the second half of 2021, receiving $99,000, KHNs Pharma Cash to Congress database shows, emerging as a new favorite of the industry. Though Scott has been a perennial recipient since arriving in Congress in 2011, the latest amount is nearly twice as much as his previous highest haul.

Why Tim Scott? South Carolinas junior senator is someone widely viewed as destined for greater things during his political career. And this is an existential moment for the American pharmaceutical industry when securing allies is critical.

Congress is under intense pressure to rein in the high prices of medicines in the U.S., which are often several times those in other developed countries. Roughly 1 in 4 adults report difficulty affording their prescription drugs, according to KFF polling. Further, 83 percent of Americans support the idea of Medicare negotiating with pharmaceutical firms to lower prices for both its beneficiaries as well those with private insurance  thats 95 percent of Democrats, 82 percent of independents and 71 percent of Republicans.

The industry needs people like Scott, who has introduced several health-related bills in recent years and maintains drug industry-friendly positions, in its corner. He opposes proposals introduced in legislation backed by most Democrats in Congress to let Medicare negotiate prices. In 2019, when the Senate Finance Committee considered a drug pricing bill crafted by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, Scott voted against a measure that would have amended the legislation to allow Medicare drug price negotiation. (Scott himself was absent but registered his opposition through a proxy vote.)

In September, as the top Republican on the Senates Special Committee on Aging, he released a report arguing that HR 3, a sweeping measure from House Democrats to tamp down prices, would result in shattered innovation and bankrupt businesses, echoing arguments made by pharma companies.

Democrats propose the federal government should be in charge of deciding the price of treatments, instead of a competitive free marketplace sustained by companies driving innovation, the report stated. The bill would have allowed the federal government to negotiate prices for certain costly medicines and penalize drug companies that dont cooperate, among other provisions.

Scott has also been a member of the Senate Finance Committee since 2015, an assignment that gives him significant influence over legislation affecting the sector as well as a prominent perch for fundraising. In total, 27 drug and biotech companies or their powerful lobbying organizations in Washington contributed to his campaign accounts in the latter half of last year. Amgen, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Merck & Co., AstraZeneca, BioMarin Pharmaceutical and Genentech were his top donors, each giving between $5,000 and $10,500.

I didnt know until you told me, Scott said when stopped by a Kaiser Health News reporter in the Capitol and asked what the message was to his constituents as the member of Congress who has received the most money from pharmaceutical PACs in the last two quarters of 2021.

Stephen Billet, an expert on political action committees and associate professor at the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University, points to factors beyond his stances on pharma issues that contribute to his fundraising haul. Many of Scotts positions are aligned with his fellow Republicans in Congress who shun greater government intervention in controlling costs. Instead, the contributions may reflect the industrys bet that Scott has a promising political future.

He is a prolific fundraiser. Federal Election Commission records show that Scott has raised $38 million  the most of any GOP senator up for reelection in 2022 and the second highest among senators across both parties  and had $21.5 million in his campaign account at the end of 2021, fueling speculation about a future presidential run. America, A Redemption Story, Scotts memoir, is scheduled for release in August through Christian publisher Thomas Nelson.

Billet said pharmaceutical PACs will sit down at the beginning of a campaign cycle and take a close look at the upcoming races and what their budget is likely to be and then figure out who they want to help.

So theyll say, Tim Scott is up, hes an up-and-comer, hes been a pretty good guy, Billet said. Its a good idea to get out front and put some money in his pocket.

Pharmaceutical firms have a long tradition of strategic gift-giving to members to develop goodwill, the benefits of which typically emerge many years later.

Other Republican senators up for reelection didnt get nearly as much money from drug companies during the same period, KHNs analysis of Federal Election Commission data shows. For example, Sen. Michael Crapo, R-Idaho, the most senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, received $68,300. Fellow Finance panel member Sen. Todd Young, R-Indiana, took in $48,000. All three seats are considered safe for Republicans in November.

Scott has received money from drugmakers every year since coming to Congress as a member of the House in 2011, receiving $596,000 through the end of last year, according to the KHN analysis of FEC data. Scott joined the Senate in 2013 after then-Gov. Nikki Haley chose him to replace GOP senator Jim DeMint, who resigned from Congress to helm the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank. But this is his banner year; previously, the most he received was $54,000 during the second half of 2019.

The following year, Scott co-founded the congressional Personalized Medicine Caucus with a handful of other lawmakers, including fellow pharma darling Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Arizona. Personalized medicine  which is also referred to as precision medicine  promises to use genetics and other traits to develop individualized treatments for patients, often at a very steep price.

We will take steps to nurture scientific advancements that may reverse the genetic and molecular causes of rare and common diseases, bringing new hope to American patients and lasting benefits to our health care system, Scotts prepared statement read at the time.

Scotts press secretary, Caroline Anderegg, shared that the senator has long held an interest in sickle cell disease, which is the most commonly inherited blood disorder in the U.S. and disproportionately strikes Black people. The disease, which affects roughly 100,000 Americans, is one that could benefit from the development of gene-based therapies, a form of precision medicine, she said.

The caucuss formation was hailed by the Personalized Medicine Coalition, a pharma-friendly group whose members consist of drugmakers donating to Scott  AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, Genentech, Johnson & Johnson and Merck, to name a few. The organization estimated that personalized medicines accounted for more than a quarter of new therapies the FDA had approved since 2015, underscoring the pharmaceutical industrys widespread work in the field.

Since 2019, Scott has introduced 17 health-related bills or resolutions about everything from food allergens and sickle cell disease to health disparities among racial and ethnic minorities. Last year, he sponsored a bill that would create tax incentives for drug and medical device companies to manufacture more of their products in the United States. The legislations framework loosely aligns with ideas from the Association for Accessible Medicines, which lobbies for generic drug companies.

Overall, from June to December, members of Congress received $3.5 million in their campaign coffers from pharmaceutical companies and their trade associations, according to the KHN analysis of industry contributions.

There is kind of a cycle to giving, and so the off year, 2021, is likely going to have less money than 2022, since its an election year, said Paul Jorgensen, an associate professor at the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley who studies campaign finance. But there was a lot of money put into lobbying this cycle because of all of the initiatives that were being pushed in the House and with the Build Back Better plan, so in some ways your numbers just kind of mirror what one would expect.

Other top recipients of drug industry money in the second half of 2021 include Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Washington, who was second behind Scott in contributions, receiving $97,300. McMorris Rodgers is the top Republican on the House Energy & Commerce Committee, which has significant sway over pharmaceutical issues, and could become chair of the powerful panel should Republicans retake the House majority in November as expected. Over the entirety of 2021, she received the most money from the sector of any lawmaker.

The pharmaceutical PACs are cognizant of who is up for committee leadership roles, said Billet: They are 100 percent aware of who the next person in line is, making McMorris Rodgers an obviously easy target.

Sinema posted the third-highest haul  $74,800 despite not being up for reelection until 2024. It was a big gain over the first half of 2021, when she received $8,000. KHN reported in 2020 on Sinemas connections to the pharmaceutical industry.

Data analyst Elizabeth Lucas contributed to this report.

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.
NORTH CHARLESTON  It's a Tuesday afternoon and instead of conducting administrative work from the pastor's office at one of the state's most prominent Methodist churches, the Rev. Richard Reams is standing in an abandoned building, broken glass scattered across its floor.

The site is far removed from the hallowed walls of North Charleston United Methodist, but Reams feels at home because the structure will soon be transformed to serve those in need. Reams, now the director of development and marketing at Palmetto Community Care  a nonprofit that serves individuals with HIV and AIDS  stands in the Rivers Avenue space that will soon be developed into the nonprofit's new one-stop shop for health services.

"I felt like I needed to leave ministry to go do ministry," Reams said.

Reams, who resigned as pastor of North Charleston UMC last spring, is part of a clergy exodus in South Carolina where a large number have quit pastoral ministry amid a pandemic that has made the challenging profession even more difficult.

Churches had already been dealing with a host of issues before COVID-19: declining membership, lack of youth engagement and arguments over LGBTQ inclusion, to name a few. The pandemic placed additional burdens on pastors who suddenly had to find creative, alternative modes for worship and deal with parishioners' opposition to health precautions, such as masks and vaccinations.

As it is with many churches, pastoring proved difficult at North Charleston UMC. Internal church affairs often took precedence over community engagement, Reams said. The arrival of a pandemic, which forced the house of worship to suspend in-person activities, made the task at hand all the more challenging.

"I meant everything I said when I said 'yes' to all of my vows to being in ministry," said Reams, who entered the role in 2000. "But I didn't say 'yes' to spend all of my time arguing about stuff that doesn't affect the community."

Clergy leaving in large numbers

A Barna survey published in November noted a dramatic increase in the number of pastors who had been considering quitting. The report indicated 38 percent of pastors surveyed said they had thought about leaving their role full time.

Data from South Carolinas United Methodist Conference gives a glimpse into the crisis shaping up in the Palmetto State.

In 2020, 43 United Methodist clergy in the state retired  the highest number of clergy to retire in a single year since 2006. Also in 2020, 16 clergy went on leave.

The following year, 26 clergy went on leave, the most to ever take leave since 2006. Thirty-six retired in 2021.

The Rev. Cathy Joens, congregational specialist with the state's Methodist conference, described the wave of older clergy leaving the denomination as a "tsunami." There are many more ministers leaving the church than there are those coming in, she said.

Joens said she believes the exodus is twofold. For starters, the global United Methodist Church has been for two years contending with a potential split over LGBTQ inclusion. This has brought anxiety among pastors who are unsure of the denomination's future, Joens said. The pandemic added an extra layer of stress as pastors struggled to find creative ways to reach members while not gathering in person, she said.

"Those ingredients were already there," Joens said. "I think they are there for ministers across the denominations. Thats been my experience. ... It doesnt matter what the denomination is. Those ingredients are already there.

A spokeswoman with the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina said while she is not aware of any clergy in the diocese who have stepped back from the ministry due to burnout, the diocese is aware that there's been a general fatigue brought on by the additional stresses of the pandemic.

To that end, and inspired by a similar offering from the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, Bishop Ruth Woodliff-Stanley sent a letter to all clergy and lay leaders in late January encouraging them to take a week of respite between then and Pentecost, which is June 5.

Woodliff-Stanley asked each congregation to choose a week when meetings, office hours and non-essential church activities would be deferred or canceled and when clergy and lay workers would step away from Sunday worship.

"I hold with deepest, prayerful concern the health and well-being of our clergy and lay church workers and pray that this initiative will be one helpful piece in our collective care for them," Woodliff-Stanley said in her memo.

For Chris Hamil, 46, who had revived a struggling Southern Baptist congregation in rural Awendaw, the pandemic was the final straw. He left his pastoral post in the fall of 2020.

The Baptist preacher had helped transform a church on the verge of nonexistence with only six members into the newly established Church at Sewee Bay that saw up to 70 parishioners attending service regularly before the COVID-19 crisis.

The church had also become deeply involved in the community. Sewee Bay, a predominantly White congregation, collaborated with the area's Black congregations for multiracial worship services. One year, a Fourth of July event done in partnership with the town of Awendaw attracted 600 people.

Hamil had always been bivocational, working full time as the field operations manager for the Daniel Island Property Owners Association. Balancing church, work, seminary and his responsibilities as a husband and a father of two young children took its toll. But things were manageable until the pandemic arrived, forcing schools to suspend in-person attendance and begin virtual instruction.

When Charleston County schools resumed in-person classes in the fall of 2020, the Hamils opted for virtual learning for their children to keep their school schedules consistent.

That increased responsibility of being with the kids during the school day often fell on Chris. His wife, Dr. Lindsey Morrow Hamil, works full time at the Medical University of South Carolina.

"Something had to give," Chris Hamil said. "My first ministry is my family. If a pastor cant minster to his family, he can't minister to anyone else. I had to make the decision to step down as pastor and put the focus on my children's education and my familys stability."

David Eagle, principal investigator with the Clergy Health Initiative at Duke Divinity School, said there isn't definitive research that says whether clergy are leaving their churches in droves across the nation in response to the pandemic. However, some research by the Duke health initiative indicates an uptick in anxiety among clergy, Eagle said.

There's been modest increases in pastors experiencing depression, and a significant increase in the number of ministers dealing with conflict in their churches, often over vaccinations and masking, Eagle said.

Pastors have also been impacted by their inability to meet with parishioners in person. This has taken a toll on those who find joy in working with people, Eagle said.

"The mental health of clergy definitely seems to have been affected," Eagle said. "There are definitely a lot of pastors feeling at the end of their rope and questioning whether their job is worth it.

Providing pastors with resources

There's been increased awareness around the need to help pastors manage their stress, Eagle said. Both Protestant and Catholic congregations recognize it as a big issue and trying to respond in helpful ways, he said.

This has included more conversations about how denominations can expand mental health services for clergy.

There are a several ways pastors can better manage anxiety. Spending 15 minutes in prayer and evaluating the day's activities can improve mental health, Eagle said. Exercise can also minimize stress, Eagle said.

South Carolina's Methodist conference is also working to address the issue. The church created a page on its website directing clergy to resources, such as guides on how to deal with grief, contact information for licensed counselors, and lists of activities that promote spiritual wellbeing.

Were not trying to talk anybody out of leaving ministry," Joens said. "Were trying to provide resources.

Clergy have found purpose beyond the context of their local churches.

Stepping down from pastoral ministry allowed Hamil to spend time doing weekly Bible studies with his kids. Hamil said the studies have contributed to the spiritual formation of his daughter Emma.

One day, Emma, 9, asked her father what she had to do be forgiven of her sins and go to heaven. Hamil led her through a prayer of repentance. He baptized her in the family's backyard pool.

"It reminded me of God's affirmation of what my first ministry is," Hamil said.
A cattle car came to Charleston with a message.

The Holocaust, and the trains used to transport Jewish people and others to concentration camps, must never be forgotten.

"People sometimes need an awakening to the fact that this can happen now to you," said Holocaust survivor Hedy Bohm.

Bohm is traveling the country with the cattle car on the Hate Ends Now Tour, an effort to raise awareness about the consequences of unchecked hatred. Her voice and a video of her speaking are featured in the multi-media exhibit housed within the car.

In the exhibit's video, Bohm recounts her own experience being transported in the same style of train car from Hungary to a concentration camp with dozens of other people. While she survived the experience as a teenager, she never saw her parents again.

U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, Mayor John Tecklenburg, members of City Council and leaders of the Charleston Jewish community stood shoulder to shoulder in the car March 27 where it is parked at Congregation Dor Tikvah in West Ashley.

They listened to Bohm's words, at times tearing up. Viewers quietly comforted each other as images of concentration camps and reenactments of cattle car passages were projected onto the interior walls of the car.

"To think in that cattle car you could have 100 human beings transported to concentration camps," said Scott, R-S.C. "Denying the existence of that depth of hate would not be in our best interest."

Holocaust survivor Joe Engel stepped out early, overtaken by emotion. He was transported to Auschwitz in the same type of cattle car as a teenager and lost both his parents. He escaped from the Nazis by jumping from a train while being transported from one camp to another.

"I had nothing left to lose," the Charleston resident said.

The exhibit is a project by Holocaust education organization Shadowlight and is touring in collaboration with the Southern chapter of the National Conference of Synagogue Youth.

The powerful presentation called The Cattle Car: Stepping In and Out of Darkness" was created by Toronto-based exhibitor Jordana Lebowitz. It has made dozens of stops in Canada, Florida and the Carolinas so far.

Each time, it educates the public on the events leading up to the Holocaust and the consequences of it. Propaganda, book-banning and harassment escalated into genocide and other war crimes.

Leaders in Charleston drew connections to challenges that South Carolina, and the world, face today.

"Can changing one heart make a difference? Ask Dylann Roof," Tecklenburg said in an at times tearful speech, referring to the white supremacist who killed nine Black congregants at Charleston's Emanuel AME Church.

"Ask Vladimir Putin," he added, calling the Russian president's war on Ukraine "illegal."

Tecklenburg also advocated for the state Legislature to pass a currently stalled hate crime bill. South Carolina is one of two states to not have any such law on the books.

Although the bill passed the House and the state's Senate Judiciary Committee, the bill remains stalled on the Senate calendar.

"What are they so afraid of," Tecklenburg said.

Bohm echoed his sentiments.

"There is still hate around. As much or more. People need to hear how important it is to stand up against hate and where hate will lead if it is not stood up against," she said. "Humanity tends to repeat the same mistakes."

She said she has hope the next generation will do better.

Although originally slated to be on display at the Wando Mount Pleasant Library, the cattle car is instead being sent away for repairs before its next stop in Miami. It will remain on display at Dor Tikvah from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 28.
OKATIE  More than eight months after Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were shot outside their hunting home in Islandton, remnants of their lives linger in the states southern tip. They are tucked away in corners of Liz and John Marvin Murdaugh's home.

Maggies car still sits in her brother-in-laws garage. Their kids wear Paul's hand-me-down clothes.

And there are about 10 or so cans of strawberry preserves Maggie made in the weeks before she died. They are stacked in the kitchen.

We think about her each time we use them, Liz Murdaugh, John Marvin's wife, said. Itll be sad when we use the last one, for sure.

Liz calls them "God winks"  things that remind the Murdaughs of Maggies ability to whip up state-of-the-art desserts, or the summers Paul spent at their home on the outskirts of Beaufort.

Those little reminders help Liz and John Marvin Murdaugh get by as the investigation by State Law Enforcement Division into their family members' killing approaches a year.

No arrests have been made and no suspects have been announced.

John Marvin is Alex Murdaugh's younger brother. Maggie was his sister-in-law and Paul his nephew.

Alex Murdaugh, Maggie's husband and Paul's father, has been charged in a slew of financial crimes, accused of stealing almost $8.5 million from former clients and colleagues while working as a powerful Hampton County attorney before the killings.

But it's unclear if SLED is any closer to finding the person, or persons, who upended dozens of lives with the blast of gunfire last spring at the Murdaugh family's home.

For Liz and John Marvin, the question of who gunned down their family members that June 7 night lingers, too, with each passing day.

An investigation on hold

The Murdaughs keep in touch with investigators, they said, though they have not heard of any breakthroughs in the case.

We're constantly trying to get updates but we get none, John Marvin Murdaugh said. It is a little bit frustrating that we don't get any information. But, if they're not giving it because they need to preserve the integrity of the investigation, I understand.

At this point, SLED has no comment on the case out of respect for the victims and the investigation, a spokeswoman said.

The agencys silence on the homicides stands in stark contrast to the web of financial felonies that have rippled out from the case.

A state grand jury has filed a total of 15 indictments containing 75 charges against Alex Murdaugh in connection to financial crimes, according to a March 16 statement written by the S.C. Attorney Generals Office.

Those alleged financial crimes and their impact on people should not be downplayed, John Marvin Murdaugh said.

I feel terrible for those that should have received money and had it taken from them, he said. That's horrible.

But he hopes the proper resources are still being dedicated to the homicide investigations  that the killings do not fall to the wayside.

SLED tip line Anyone with information regarding the killings of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh can call this tip line: 803-896-2605.

In my opinion, it certainly does not take precedence over a murder, John Marvin Murdaugh said. It's bad and it sounds like it needs to be handled. But I think finding out what happened to Paul and Maggie is way more important.

Jim Griffin, an attorney for Alex Murdaugh, said Alex had hired private investigators last year to separately look into the homicides. However, he ran out of funds to sustain those efforts after he was arrested in September in connection to an alleged attempt to commit insurance fraud, he said.

Alex Murdaugh called 911 over the Labor Day weekend claiming he was shot in the head by a passing motorist while changing his car tire on Old Salkehatchie Road in Hampton County.

Authorities say the former attorney was actually shot by his personal drug dealer and former law client, Curtis Smith. Murdaugh hoped his life insurance policy would pay out $10 million to his surviving son upon his death.

Alex Murdaugh, who is currently jailed at Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center, remains the only known person of interest in SLEDs investigation of his wife and sons killings. Griffin said investigators have not sought more information from Alex Murdaugh since that Labor Day weekend regarding their deaths.

I would like things to refocus on trying to solve the murder of Maggie and Paul, Griffin said.

Alex Murdaugh found his wife and son shot to death shortly after 10 p.m. June 7 near a kennel outside the family's property at 4147 Moselle Road in Islandton. The Murdaugh family offered a $100,000 reward for information that led to a conviction in the case, but the money was never claimed.

Joseph Giacalone, a retired detective with the New York Police Department and professor at John Jay College, said he did not think the homicide investigation had gone cold, but instead was put on hold.

I believe investigators think that in order to prove their homicide case, they will have to dot all the Is and cross all the Ts with all the other stuff that is going on in the background, he said.

It is rare for homicide investigations to take a back seat to other crimes. But given the influx of other felony cases, investigators are tasked with determining whether those crimes are connected to those June shootings, he said.

Each of those cases could hold a secret to the homicide case, he said.

Liz Murdaugh gives detectives a call on the seventh of every month, to honor the monthly anniversary of their deaths.

No matter what the truth is, we want the truth, she said. In turn, that will bring closure to all of us where we can truly move forward and breathe again.

She wants the family to be able to live normally again. And it is not normal to wonder what happened to Maggie and Paul every day, she said.

Uncharted territory

Liz and John Marvin Murdaugh know they are not alone in their sorrow  other families have been impacted by these cases, too.

They acknowledged Gloria Satterfields family, from whom Alex Murdaugh was charged with stealing millions of dollars in insurance money. There is also the family of Mallory Beach, a 19-year-old woman who was killed in a 2019 boat crash. Paul Murdaugh was charged in the case before he was killed.

We certainly have had grief that we're trying to process along with everything else, Liz Murdaugh said. But at the same time, we understand there are other families that are suffering through this all as well.

The criminal cases surrounding members of the Murdaugh family have gripped the nation, leading to book contracts, cable documentaries, and true-crime podcasts.

Constant internet chatter is uncharted territory for the Murdaughs, and is something they work to navigate. John Marvin Murdaugh said he had learned to ignore the commotion.

People dont know us, he said. If they did, I dont think they would say what is being said.

Liz Murdaugh said it had been difficult to see the family described as "corrupt" in connection to Alex Murdaughs charges.

To paint a broad brush that the entire family is corrupt  that is not fair, Liz Murdaugh said. To say the corruption of the Murdaughs, I mean, there may be one. But you cant throw all of us into that category.

In light of the scrutiny, Liz Murdaugh has learned to lean on her community. She cannot change the family's circumstance, but loved ones help her through it, she said.

And every now and again, shell see something that reminds her of Maggie and Paul  like the blooming of hydrangeas, Maggies favorite flower, or talking to her children about moments spent outdoors playing with Paul.

Those memories are blessings the two Murdaughs have learned to look out for while they await an update in the homicide cases.

Somebody must know something, they said. Liz and John Marvin Murdaugh are hopeful that even a small piece of information could help investigators solve the family's essential question: Who shot Maggie and Paul?

Steve Garrison contributed to this report from Charleston.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday met with Ukraine's foreign and defense ministers in Poland, while Moscow said western sanctions are not fatal difficulties for Russia.

Meanwhile, European investors and entrepreneurs gathering at a Swiss meeting highlighted the transition towards renewable energies amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Click for more.

Produced by Xinhua Global Service
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.
If we had a dollar for every time a public official in South Carolina abused a government procurement card, well  we could probably live as lavishly as some of those officials.

The problem isnt that theres anything inherently corrupt about these so-called P-cards  essentially government credit cards issued to some elected officials and employees. Its that by functioning the way they were intended to  eliminating the need to get a purchase order and a paper check cut for each purchase they make  the cards make corruption so much easier.

The room for abuse is particularly large when government officials dont put systems in place to prevent the abuse  like, say, limiting the size or types of purchases the cards will pay for  or to catch and punish any abuse that gets past the guardrails.

As The Post and Courier's Avery Wilks reports, a particularly egregious case of no prevention, insufficient punishment occurred last year in Columbias Richland One School District. The Columbia Police Department is investigating allegations that former procurement manager Travis Braddy used his P-card for some unspecified portion of the $40,000 in tax money he misspent on hotel stays, rental of a 2020 GMC Yukon and what looks like a a bogus purchase of COVID-19 supplies from a vendor that looked suspicious enough that Mr. Braddy's supervisor instructed him to cancel it  which he didn't do.

That investigation isnt as far along as it should be because the district didnt notify the police for six months after Mr. Braddy resigned. And this wasnt a case of the problem coming to light after he left: The district allowed him to resign rather than being fired, even though it was conducting its own investigation.

School board member Robert Lominack contrasted the decision to let Mr. Braddy resign while being investigated for stealing from the district with what happened at his first board meeting: We voted to revoke a teachers license because they quit in the middle of their contract. The districts internal auditor complained that this meant other governments could hire Mr. Braddy for a similar position, unaware of the allegations against him.

If letting someone resign rather than be fired sounds uncomfortably familiar, youre likely thinking of the longtime practice of too many police departments allowing "resignations" by officers who engaged in the sort of conduct that would land non-officers in jail. The Legislature has been trying to crack down on that practice. Perhaps it needs to extend prohibitions on allowing someone suspected of wrongdoing to resign  if not for all government employees then at least for procurement officers and others whose jobs are particularly susceptible to abuse.

Meantime, Mr. Wilks reports, Richland Ones internal auditor and taxpayers have raised concerns about other cases where district employees have used procurement cards for expenditures that are prohibited by the districts internal policy. A parents group reviewed P-card records for five years and found that employees had spent more than $320,000 on prohibited vendors  restaurants and caterers, florists, photography studios, movie theaters, bowling alleys, car washes and other purchases you wouldnt want individual employees making without prior approval from a supervisor. The auditor said that in addition to making purchases that were supposed to be off-limits, employees failed to document the reasons for their expenditures, and supervisors failed to scrutinize them.

The districts explanations simply dont pass the smell test. For instance, it would have been a lot more difficult to make prohibited purchases if the district had worked with a bank to block purchases from prohibited vendors, as recommended by Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom and pretty much anyone involved in financial oversight. But a spokeswoman defended the purchases from off-limits vendors by saying many were justifiable business expenses. Which is just  wow.

The blocked list wasnt forced on the district by the state or federal government: It was voluntarily adopted by the district itself. If the district believes the list is unreasonable, it can change it. Until it does so, it needs to make the prohibitions stick  something thats easy enough by having the bank block transactions with those vendors.

The spokeswoman also pushed back against suggestions that the problem runs deeper than Mr. Braddys alleged crimes, noting that just 1% of the districts P-card expenses are deemed improper. We dont think a 1% fraud rate is anything to brag about, but that isnt the point. The point is what the district is doing to prevent fraud, what its doing to discover fraud and what it does when it discovers fraud or attempted fraud. And in all cases, the answer appears to be precious little.

Our Legislature already does way too much micromanaging in  well, in everything that suits it. But given that so much school funding comes through the Legislature and its the Legislature that has the constitutional responsibility to provide a decent education to all children  school districts are the instruments the Legislature created to execute that duty  the Legislature needs to assess whether the states financial safeguards against fraud are stringent enough.

At the very least, this is just one more example of why the state inspector general should be unleashed on school districts.
I've never forgotten my first shad fishing adventure, even though it took place nearly 40 years ago.

I remember that I had no clue what I was doing and I didn't come close to catching a fish. But as a relative newcomer to the area, I had heard about the fabulous shad fishing and the tasty roe from the big female shad that could be found in the beautiful Edisto River. I knew I had to try my luck.

American shad (there's also the less desirable hickory shad) are anadromous fish, born in freshwater and eventually migrating to saltwater. When its time for them to spawn, they try to return to their birthplace and the Edisto River back then was considered a premier spot for catching shad.

I went armed with light tackle and shad darts and began trolling in areas that looked promising. I saw commercial fishermen netting shad but I went home empty-handed, my first and last shad trip on the Edisto River.

A few years later I began hearing about a different shad fishery, the Tailrace Canal in the upper stretches of the Cooper River near Moncks Corner. I was told the fish were so plentiful that even I should be able to catch one. And as I quickly discovered lots of other anglers also had heard about this shad hotspot, an area so popular it was almost impossible to find a place to anchor and fish during the spring shad run.

Today shad fishing is a rite of spring for Lowcountry anglers who mostly head to two well-known spots in the spring  the aforementioned Tailrace Canal and the Rediversion Canal on the Santee River near St. Stephen.

"Everybody knows the spots, the Tailrace Canal and Arrowhead Landing on the Santee River. They're biting good right now and they'll continue to be there until the end of April," said Capt. Joe Dennis of Captain J Hook Charters.

Shad are great sport and sometimes referred to as a poor mans tarpon. A hooked shad will often take to the air in an effort to escape, and with their wide bodies they can be difficult to get to the boat. You should play them like you would a crappie since the membrane around their mouth is very thin. The bucks, or male shad, are smaller than the more coveted females, which can contain delicious sets of roe. They are boney fish and can be a challenge to clean and cook.

The well-known spots Dennis frequents both have obstacles that stop the shad from continuing upstream to spawn, which is an important factor. Serious shad anglers check to see when the power plants are pulling water through the power turbines, and use the flow of water to their advantage.

"If you are anchored in the middle of the river, you can cast your lure straight back. If you're closer to the bank, cast out and retrieve," said Dennis.

His preferred outfit is a spinning rod spooled with 6- to 8-pound test line. Dennis uses a -ounce Rockport Rattler jighead in chartreuse or pink and a Charlie Brewer chartreuse curly-tail grub.

"You've got to have glitter in it if you want to catch more fish. Cast out in the current, use a medium retrieve and hang on," Dennis said.

While there is no size limit on shad, anglers are limited to 10 per day except in the Rediversion Canal and Santee River, where the limit is 20 per fisherman. The state record for the American shad is a 7-pound catch from the Santee River in 1985 by Sylvester Casselman.

"We've seen a good many roe shad this year," Dennis said. "We've caught them up to 4 pounds, but they get bigger than that."

Lowcountry Longbeards banquet

The Lowcountry Longbeards chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation will hold its Hunting Heritage Banquet on April 8 at the John Monroe J. Holliday Alumni Center, located at 69 Hagood Avenue at The Citadel. Doors open at 6 p.m. To purchase tickets contact Tim Beckham at 843-494-1108 or email timothybeckham@gmail.com.

Creekside Bassmasters

Creekside Bassmasters will hold its 14th annual Spring Fling bass fishing tournament on April 9 out of Blacks Camp on the Santee Cooper lakes. First place, based on a field of 70 boats, is $5,000. Pre-registration fee is $175, while registration on the morning of the event is $185. Contact Steve Chapman at 843-200-2647 or Sid Fowler at 843-568-7674.

Brody Bates Youth Redfish Open

The Student Angler League Tournament Trail will hold its annual Brody Bates Youth Redfish Open Scholarship Tournament April 2 out of Buck Hall Landing in McClellanville. Visit salttfishing.com for information.

Charleston Inshore Anglers

The Charleston Inshore Anglers' 29th annual "Big Ed" Sheepshead Tournament will be fished April 30. The captain's meeting begins at 5:30 pm. April 28 at American Legion Post 147, located at 968 Folly Road. The weigh-in also will take place at Post 147 from 4-5 p.m. April 30. The entry fee for the tournament is $40. Contact Kevin Mischke at 843-324-1006; Nick Kvestad at 843-557-2811 or Gene Broderick at 843-224-6826.

America's Boating Club

America's Boating Club Charleston will hold a boating safety class April 16 at 1376 Orange Grove Road, Charleston. Classes begin at 9 a.m. and end around 4 p.m. Successful participants earn the S.C. Department of Natural Resources Boater Education Card. The cost is $25 for adults and youth 12-18
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
Soldiers march in a formation during a military parade to mark the 77th Armed Forces Day in Nay Pyi Taw, capital of Myanmar, March 27, 2022. Myanmar marked the 77th Armed Forces Day with a military parade in the capital city of Nay Pyi Taw on Sunday. (Xinhua/U Aung)

YANGON, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar marked the 77th Armed Forces Day with a military parade in the capital city of Nay Pyi Taw on Sunday.

Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services Senior General Min Aung Hlaing attended the event and delivered a speech.

He during the speech highlighted the Myanmar Armed Forces' commitment to independence, safeguarding three main national causes, and peace and development.

He said the Myanmar Armed Forces would continue the negotiation process with the signatory organizations in the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement.

The armed forces' mechanized units and foot soldiers marched in the parade ground. Meanwhile, military aircrafts and helicopters flied above. 

Military vehicles march in a formation during a military parade to mark the 77th Armed Forces Day in Nay Pyi Taw, capital of Myanmar, March 27, 2022. Myanmar marked the 77th Armed Forces Day with a military parade in the capital city of Nay Pyi Taw on Sunday. (Xinhua/U Aung)

A military band marches in a formation during a military parade to mark the 77th Armed Forces Day in Nay Pyi Taw, capital of Myanmar, March 27, 2022. Myanmar marked the 77th Armed Forces Day with a military parade in the capital city of Nay Pyi Taw on Sunday. (Xinhua/U Aung)

Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services Senior General Min Aung Hlaing attends a military parade to mark the 77th Armed Forces Day in Nay Pyi Taw, capital of Myanmar, March 27, 2022. Myanmar marked the 77th Armed Forces Day with a military parade in the capital city of Nay Pyi Taw on Sunday. (Xinhua/U Aung)
Earlier this month, Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves signed legislation intended to ban the precepts of Critical Race Theory from that states public schools. According to Campus Reform, Mississippi is the fifteenth state to enact such a ban.

The tricky thing, of course, is characterizing the teachings of CRT. The point is not to ban teaching about CRT, but rather to ban the pernicious doctrines that flow from CRT. Mississippis approach is simple and is based on the inherent racism of Critical Race Theory:

The new legislation states that public institutions cannot teach that any sex, race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin is inherently superior or inferior nor that individuals should be treated adversely on the basis thereof. Furthermore, the bill prevents instructors from conducting a lesson that compels students to personally affirm, adopt, or adhere to the above description.

You wouldnt think such legislation would be controversial, but CRT, enthusiastically endorsed by the nations teachers unions, does in fact teach that whiteness is a defect that makes whites inferior to other races. And it is commonly believed that women are superior to menit is only masculinity that is toxicor, at least, that was commonly believed when people could remember what women are.

It is rather comical to see liberals objecting to anti-CRT legislation because it infringes on free speech. Apparently this is the only subject on which the Left is still willing to stand up for the First Amendment. But CRT bans dont inhibit teachers and administrators from voicing their beliefs like all other citizens, no matter how noxious those beliefs may be. It simply prevents them from using the public schools to indoctrinate our children in racist doctrines. The public schools are, after all, run by and on behalf of the public.

While I endorse bans like Mississippis, the only real defenses against an aggressive Left that has almost entirely taken over public education are 1) alert parents, and 2) local school boards. Parents need to know what is actually going on in their childrens classrooms, and voters need to turn out of office school board members who employ superintendents that promote or allow the teaching of racist, anti-American doctrines. The public schools wont be cleansed of CRT until parents demand it.
Creators: Peace Hyde and Martin Asare Amankwa

Cast: Annie Macaulay-Idibia, Diamond Platnumz, Jeremiah Ogbodo, Zari Hassan, 2Baba, Nadia Nakai, Khanyi Mbau, and Naked DJ.

Year of release: March 18, 2022

Location: Johannesburg, South Africa

On March 18, a global sensation was born. After a few teasers and a trailer, Netflix finally released its first original African reality series, Young, Famous, and African.

The series has been well-received.

The reviews have broken the internet while the cast members like Annie Macaulay-Idibia and Swanky Jerry have dominated Twitters trending list in Nigeria.

Accurately depicting its title, the series follows the lives of nine successful Africans from different countries.

Young, Famous, and African is the perfect example of what happens when you bring different African celebrities together.

For over seven hours, viewers have to watch unnecessary drama, fake friendships, predictable betrayals, and outbursts that served zero purposes.

Meet the Cast!

Khanyi Mabu (South Africa)-

She is often referred to as a gold digger by online trolls; she is a strong woman who graduated from being a sugar baby to being a cougar when she began dating a 28-year-old man.

She is a proud recipient of the award for being the only woman who wakes up in the morning with a face full of make-up. However, she can sometimes be a sneaky backstabber who initially tries to bring you down then suddenly becomes your friend.

Anne Macaulay-Idibia (Nigeria):

She claims to have acted in 200 movies and 15-16 series and doesnt like to be referred to as just 2babas wife.

Also, she has unresolved issues with her husband, causing her to mistake stalking for checking on my property.

Nadia Nakai (South Africa)

A famous South African rapper who, for some reason, isnt always around when the drama happens but knows every detail.

Diamond Platnumz (Tanzania):

He is a musician whose definition of someone understanding him is through material things. He is a self-proclaimed hunter and a player who is unsure about the number of kids.

Quinton Masina (South Africa)-

AKA, the Naked DJ, is an unromantic disc jockey/sugar daddy who changes sides faster than Swanky Jerrys outfits.

Kayleigh Schwark (South Africa)

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A fitness enthusiast who cant help but discuss problems in her relationship with her friends and a newly introduced stranger, Annie.

Swanky Jerry (Nigeria)

He is the stylist to the stars and the most dramatic of them all (in terms of outfits ). He sees himself as the mediator destined to ensure peace in his circle while wearing sunglasses.

Andile Ncube (South Africa)

He looks like the typical boy next door and a perfect gentleman but is ready to betray a friend because of a connection. He is an expert at giving relationship advice, even though he has two baby mamas.

Zari Hassan (South Africa)-

She is the boss lady and professional businesswoman. She was known for being Diamonds ex-wife and causing drama.

THE TEA (PLOT)

Now that you have met the characters, lets dive into the series.

The seven-part series, as stated earlier, revolves around nine celebrities from different African countries. It shows their personal lives, exploring the friendship between them, the challenges they face, and the betrayals they suffer.

The series begins with an exciting monologue from Khanyi, who, at that moment, asserts her role as the protagonist (AKA, leader of the group).

We are then introduced to Swanky and Annie, who are super excited about being in South Africa as they pop a bottle of champagne.

The rest of the squad are also introduced and are seen preparing for an extravagant ball organised by Khanyi. However, Annie almost ruins the night when she calls out the hostess, Khanyi, for her parenting skills while Diamond flirts with Nadia.

The first episode is almost like a blur, but the second episode is where the real drama begins. During an Arabian-themed night party, Zari, Diamonds ex-wife, shows up, making Nadia angry and Annie insecure.

Following the events of the Arabian Nights, at a tea party, Annie and Nadia confront Zari, with the former accusing her of making crude remarks and the latter disappointed with how she flirted with Diamond.

Suddenly, 2baba shows up in town and surprises Annie by asking her to renew their vows. So, in celebrating their forthcoming second marriage, Annie throws a party.

Zari feels that the party is the best moment to clear the air about Annies misconception regarding her and 2baba. Also, Andile begins to flirt with Zari, gaining the groups disapproval.

When Annie decides to confront Zari regarding what she told 2baba at their engagement party, all hell breaks loose, causing bad blood between the two women.

Nadia returns to town and is briefed on what happened. Then, Andile takes his flirting to the next level by inviting Zari on a date, while Kanyi speaks to 2baba about Annies unresolved issues.

Efforts to mend the failing relationship between Naked DJ and Kayleigh prove futile, along with Swankys attempt to make Annie and Zari become friends.

Zari organises a fun getaway on a train that turns bitter when tension rises, and the group gets divided.

After the fallout, the gang reunites to celebrate the night before Annie and 2babas marriage. While the girls enjoyed a spa treatment in a hotel room, Nadia, who wasnt around when the blue train drama went down, decided to confirm the information Khanyi told her. Long story short, Zari got disinvited from Annies wedding.

The final episode ends with Annie walking down the aisle and exchanging beautiful vows with 2baba. After that, everyone settled their disputes and lived happily ever after. I was just kidding.

Since Zari was not at the wedding, Andile thought it would be romantic to check up on her at home. Imagine his surprise when he got there and realised Diamond was back. Unfortunately, the credits rolled in as things were about to get messy, leaving us on a cliffhanger.

The Breakdown: The Good

Kudos to the producers and cast for showing a new angle to the portrayal of Africans on a global media platform like Netflix.

A fascinating feature of this series is the honest conversations regarding issues like infidelity, lousy parenting, and love among the cast members. These celebrities were not afraid to reveal their vulnerability and strong opinions throughout the episodes.

The incredible cinematography is also something that makes the series stand out. And the beautiful setting around each scene is bound to live rent-free in the minds of many viewers.

Another notable feature is the growth of these characters. For example, we see Annie and Khanyi, who fell out in the first episode, reconcile and become best friends. Quinton and Kayleigh also transition from sweeping their feelings under the rug to proper communication.

It would be a crime not to appreciate the 100% fashion reality delivered in this series. So, where do we even begin? From Khanyis jaw-dropping outfits to Swankys dramatic accessories, every scene felt like a runway collection from Paris Fashion Week.

A precious lesson learned from this series is the importance of being surrounded by people who not only love you but support you.

The bad

The series is an unrealistic representation of friendship. The producers fail to provide a logical explanation for the friendship of the lead cast. Furthermore, they are young, African, and famous;this makes us question the foundation of their friendship.

The reality series also falls short in portraying the authentic lives of the cast through storytelling.

Excluding Annie, we (non-South-Africans) dont know much about the other cast members. It would have been appropriate to relate to these characters if there was a backstory to who these people were before they became famous.

Another flaw in this reality series is the unnecessary drama.

Every dramatic scene screams fake, with the cast members going overboard when calling each other out.

And dont get us started on the outburst Swanky had on the blue train that had him screaming his lungs out for no solid reason.

Watching the series might make you ask, Do these people have other friends?

We dont see the cast interact with people outside of their circle throughout the series. Even at events they organise, for people who claim to have many celebrity friends, they are the only ones who attend with a couple of extras in the background, making the scenes look staged.

Lastly, the sunglasses are too much (especially for a Nigerian stylist). We get that the sun might be hot outside, but being indoors is not a good excuse to wear a pair of glasses.

Iconic moments

 When Khanyi clapped back at Annie when accused of being a bad parent.

 Andile has his two baby mamas and love interest, Zari, at the same event.

 Annie was licking 2babas head.

 Annie being a total diva by complaining about the food served at Khanyis party.

 Swankys outburst on the blue train

 Zari reporting Annie to her husband.

 Swanky attempting to guide Andile during a driving course.

 Annie and Zaris exchange over Lunch.

 2baba and Annies vow renewal ceremony

 Diamond catching Andile at his ex and baby mamas house.

 The heartwarming moment, Annie and Khanyi cemented their friendship.

 Nadia showing up a few days after the drama went down.

 Everything that happened on the blue train episode.

Final verdict.

8/10

Watch it. Though it has several flaws, the reality series is one-of-a-kind and will leave you wanting more.

Young, Famous, and African series is showing on Netflix.
President Muhammadu Buhari has congratulated the newly elected national leadership of the All Progressives Congress.

At the National Convention of the party, which held on Saturday at the nations capital, Abuja, Abdullahi Adamu, a former two-term governor of Nasarawa State, emerged the national chairman of the ruling party via a consensus arrangement after other aspirants to the position had withdrawn from the race.

In a statement signed by the Presidents spokesperson, Garba Shehu, on Sunday, Mr Buhari said the unity put on display by the party members during the convention has placed the party on a firmer footing for victory in the 2023 General Elections.

Read the full statement below:

President Muhammadu Buhari formally congratulates the Abdullahi Adamu-led 79-member National Executive Committee of the All Progressives Congress, APC, that emerged at the just concluded convention in Abuja, saying that the unity of members put on display puts the party on a firmer footing for victory in next year, 2023, General Elections.

The President who returned to the Convention ground at the Eagle Square, Sunday morning, along with the Vice President and the Senate President to witness and celebrate the inauguration of the elected party executives, remarked that the smooth conduct of the election raises the prospect of a mouth-watering APC victory next year.

The APC Convention hosted this weekend sets the scene for an APC victory in the presidential and general elections next year. It is a victory over naysayers who believed the party was divided but are now disappointed, said the President.

We believe that it is equally a victory for the president who has ensured unity across all party positions; and it is a victory for the voters of Nigeria who can now be assured of a smooth succession to new leadership in 2023.

What the Convention made clear was how the media has been peddling fake news of division, when the hard reality of unity, cohesion, and indeed personal warmth between members of the partys leaders  incoming and outgoing  was evident for all to see.

Of course, the blame for this mindset ought rightly to go to the opposition who in all these years had done the work to only divide the country, leading to all manner of separatist agitations. But this is not the wish, nor is it in the character of the citizens, as was clear for everyone to see at the Eagle Square.

When their fake news of disunity was undone by the facts, some in the opposition could not help themselves but take to the newspapers and the airwaves to find another way to shore up their reputations. That some of the APCs new leadership were once in the opposition was the new line to take to the media, somehow suggesting that those who have left one party should not hold positions in another. Yet, do the Scriptures not teach us of the virtue of sinners who repent and change their ways?

What the Scriptures say less is of sinners who repent, change their tune, and then choose to re-sin in full public view by returning to their former ways. Given that most important leaders of the opposition PDP first left the party before they returned to it, we might expect the media to ensure criticism of them is damning and absolute. It is incredulous that anyone would consider them trustworthy or acceptable candidates for any public office.

The stage is now set for the APC primary elections later this year when the partys new flag bearers will emerge. No doubt some will attempt to argue the impossible  that an APC primary election is a source of division while an opposition primary election is a source of consensus. But the good voters of Nigeria can see through such acrobatics and know the facts that, when the contests for 2023 come, APC offers a track record of success and leadership, while the opposition has only decades of failure and complicity in response.

Garba Shehu

Senior Special Assistant to the President

(Media & Publicity)

March 27, 2022
With the emergence of Abdullahi Adamu and Iyiola Omisore as national chairman and national secretary of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) respectively, former chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have effectively taken over the affairs of the ruling party.

Messrs Adamu and Omisore emerged leaders of the APC at the partys national convention on Saturday.

Other former key members of the PDP  former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, and a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara  were not lucky.

While Mr Nnamani sought the position of deputy national chairman (South), Mr Dogara eyed that of deputy national chairman (North). They eventually withdrew from the race.

The APC is the product of the merger of some opposition parties in Nigeria while the PDP was in power.

On February 6, 2013, the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), the Congress for Progressives Change (CPC) and a section of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) announced their decision to merge into a single party.

The major aim of the merger was to oust the PDP from power at the centre during the 2015 elections. At the time, the PDP had ruled Nigeria for 14 years.

The positions of national chairman and national secretary are two key positions in the National Working Committee of the APC.

Article 14.1 (i) of the APC Constitution says the National Chairman shall be the chief executive, accounting officer and shall preside over the meetings of the National Executive Committee and the National Working Committee.

According to Section 14.3 (i), the National Secretary shall, Supervise the day-to-day activities at the National Secretariat under the general direction of the National Chairman.

Mr Adamu emerged as the new APC chairman unopposed.

Being the preferred candidate of President Muhammadu Buhari for the position, the new chairman emerged by consensus after the other contenders stepped down for him.

The six aspirants that stepped down are a former governor of Nasarawa State and serving senator, Tanko Al-Makura; Special Duties Minister and former Benue governor, George Akume; Niger East Senator, Sani Musa; Saliu Mustapha from Kwara State; a former governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari; and an aide to the Niger State governor, Mohammed Etsu.

The aspirants, in a letter to the chairman of the election sub-committee, signed on their behalf by Mr Akume, said they all adopted Mr Adamu as consensus candidate.

Mr Adamu was governor of Nasarawa State on PDPs ticket for eight years between 1999 and 2007.

While in the PDP, Mr Adamu also served as the first Chairman of Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF). He was close to the then President, Olusegun Obasanjo, and allegedly worked for the former presidents third term bid.

After his tenure, he got elected to the Senate in 2007 to represent Nasarawa West senatorial zone on PDPs ticket.

On January 29, 2014, Mr Adamu, alongside 10 other PDP senators, defected to the APC.

The senators then were Bukola Saraki (Kwara Central), Shaba Lafiagi (Kwara North), Mohammed Ndume (Borno South), Danjuma Goje (Gombe Central), Magnus Abe (Rivers South East) and Wilson Ake (Rivers West).

Others were Mohammed Jubrilla (Adamawa North), Abdullahi Gobir (Sokoto East) and Aisha Al-Hassan (Taraba North).

Omisore

Mr Omisore was deputy governor of Osun State under the Alliance for Democracy (AD)s administration of Bisi Akande between 1999 and 2003.

He thereafter crossed to the PDP under which he served as senator between 2003 and 2011.

While a member of the upper legislative chamber, representing Osun East Senatorial District, Mr Omisore, an engineer, served as chairperson of the Appropriation Committee.

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Mr Omisore joined the APC in February 2021 from the Social Democratic Party (SDP) under which he contested the 2018 Osun governorship election.

Some say his emergence as secretary was a compensation for his role in the election of Governor Gboyega Oyetola during the September 2018 governorship rerun in Osun State.

A high-powered APC delegation led by Governor Kayode Fayemi had met with Mr Omisore, who came third in the election, to support the APC in the rerun.

A delegation of the PDP led by Mr Saraki also visited him to convince him to support Ademola Adeleke who was the candidate of the party.

Mr Omisore subsequently worked for the APC. He was said to have been promised the senatorial ticket for the Osun East but that arrangement did not work out.

He emerged the new national secretary following the withdrawal of the other three contenders for the position, namely Adebayo Shittu, a former Communication Minister; Olaiya Olaitan and Ifeoluwa Oyedele, all from the South-west geopolitical zone.

Nnamani

Mr Nnamani could not pull off his quest to become the Deputy National Chairman (South) of the APC. He withdrew for Emmanuel Eneukwu.

Mr Nnamani was elected into the Senate in 2003 to represent Enugu East on PDPs platform. He became Senate President in 2005 after the exit of Adolphus Wabara.

Mr Nnamani joined the APC on January 22, 2017. He justified his action this way:

I do not believe I should continue to be a member of the PDP as it is defined today. This is certainly not the party I joined years ago to help change my country, he said.

Before he formally joined APC, the former Senate President had bagged an appointment from the federal government.

In October 2016, he was appointed the chairman of the Constitutional and Electoral Reforms Committee set up by the federal government.

The committee was asked to Review Electoral environment, laws and experiences from recent elections conducted in Nigeria and make recommendations to strengthen and achieve the conduct of free and fair elections in Nigeria.

On June 25, 2020, Mr Nnamani was appointed a member of the 12-member Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) of the APC to represent the South-east zone.

The committee was given the task of running the party after the exit of the Adams Oshiomhole-led NWC and organise a national convention. The committee was given six months to organise the convention and hand over to substantive officers of the party but it could not do so until March 26.

Dogara

Yakubu Dogara, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, is another former PDP member who wanted to become a national officer of the APC.

He sought to become deputy national chairman (North) but stepped down on the day of the convention.

Abubakar Kyari, a former senator, finally emerged the consensus candidate of the party after Mr Dogara, Abubakar Girei, Sunny Moniedafe and Faruk Aliyu failed to clinch the position.

Mr Dogara was a member of the House of Representatives, representing the Bogoro/Dass/Tafawa Balewa federal constituency of Bauchi State from 2007 on PDPs ticket before assuming the position of Speaker on the platform of the APC.

In December 2013, the former Speaker, alongside 36 other members of the House, dumped the PDP for the APC.

In 2015, he became the Speaker against the wishes of the APC which had endorsed Femi Gbajabiamila from Lagos State.

He returned to the PDP in 2018 but in July 2020, he rejoined the APC.
The Nigerian Army has announced that it has found the wreckage of a fighter jet, a year after it was declared missing.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the aircraft went missing during an operation against Boko Haram last April.

The terror group later released a video claiming it shot down an aircraft believed to be the alpha jet declared missing by the Nigerian Air Force.

The Boko Haram footage showed the wreckage of a plane, the charred fuselage bearing the phrase NAF 475.

A masked terrorist stood atop the wreckage and described the plane as jet fighter of the Nigerian Air Force 475. Later, two mangled corpses, supposedly the pilots, were shown in military fatigues.

As you can see, this is the pilot of your aircraft, whom you sent to harm the servant of God, the terrorist said in Hausa. This is what God did to him. He fell from the sky, and if you do not repent this will be your reward.

The army, however, said the video was doctored, to give the false impression that the aircraft was shot down. At the time, a spokesperson of the Nigerian Air Force admitted the alpha jet may have crashed after losing contact with the radar in Borno State during the flight.

Intelligence report gathered by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) indicates that the Alpha Jet aircraft (NAF475) that went off the radar with 2 crew members on board on 31 March 2021 might have crashed, he said.

He also accused Boko Haram of employing false propaganda, seeking to claim credit for what was obviously an air accident that could have been caused by several other reasons; particularly at a time when the capability of the group to inflict mayhem has been significantly degraded by the Armed Forces of Nigeria.

On Saturday, the army announced on its verified Facebook page that the wreckage of the jet had been recovered.

Troops of Operation Desert Sanity on clearance patrol in Sambisa Forest, Borno State, have uncovered the wreckage of crashed Alpha Jet aircraft (NAF475) that went off the radar with 2 crew members on 31 March 2021. Further exploitation ongoing, the army wrote.

NAF Plane Crashes

It has been generally agreed that Nigeria needs to re-tool, fund, and re-position its military, especially in the face of the spread of terrorism, but arguably, the more urgent concern is the manner in which Nigerian Air Force aircraft have been crashing from the skies.

In the last one year, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has lost at least four of its aircraft and several personnel due to air accidents.

At least 20 officers also died during these tragic incidents, including senior army officers.

February 2021: A military aircraft in Abuja that was bound for Niger State to search for kidnapped schoolchildren there crashed  killing all seven people on board.

March 2021: A fighter Alpha Jet belonging to the Nigerian Air Force in the insurgency-ravaged Borno State in North-east Nigeria went missing.

The Nigerian Army announced on Saturday that it has found the wreckage of the fighter jet a year after it was declared missing.

May 2021: A NAF passenger jet crashed near Kaduna International Airport. Eleven military officers, including the Chief of Army Staff, Ibrahim Attahiru, lost their lives in that mishap.

July 2021: Bandits shot down an air force plane in a rare case of a military jet being brought down by the outlawed gang. The pilot had finished a raid against kidnappers when he came under intense fire, the Nigerian Air Force said.

Flight lieutenant Dairo ejected and used survival instincts to avoid capture and find refuge in nearby settlements. The attack happened on the border of the northern Zamfara and Kaduna states.

Boko Haram

For more than a decade, Boko Haram has unleashed violent attacks in Nigerias northeast, in a worsening conflict that has also spilled into neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

More than 30,000 people are estimated to have been killed and some 3 million forced from their homes.

But the insurgents have been degraded in Nigeria and reports suggest the group is now preoccupied with attacks on neighbouring West African countries.

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Boko Haram was responsible for only 69 deaths in Nigeria in 2021, the lowest number of deaths by the group for a decade.

Abubakar Shekau, longtime leader of the armed group, reportedly committed suicide by detonating an explosives vest during a confrontation with Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) fighters in May 2021.

A recent report by the Global Terrorism Index said the attacks against Boko Haram by a rival terror group, ISWAP, and the counter-terrorism efforts of the Nigerian government and foreign military forces have significantly weakened Boko Harams impact in Nigeria.
The immediate past governor of Anambra State, Willie Obiano, has explained why he tried to leave Nigeria on March 17, the same day he handed over to his successor, Chukwuma Soludo.

Mr Obiano was intercepted by law enforcement at the airport in Lagos as he tried to board a flight to the United States.

That development triggered speculations that the former governor tried to evade arrest and possible prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, which had in late 2021 placed him on its watchlist.

But speaking exclusively to PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday, Mr Obiano, through his lawyer, Patrick Ikwueto (a Senior Advocate of Nigeria), said he was not fleeing Nigeria. He said he was rather hurrying to keep a doctors appointment to treat a semi fatal condition.

He was not running away, Mr Ikwueto said. Why will he run away when his family is here and he has a lot to do here? The fact is that he (Obiano) has a medical condition for which he had a prior appointment to see his Specialist Doctor for treatment at Spring Creek Urology Specialists LLC, Houston, Texas, U.S.A.

By the nature of his ailment, he has been undergoing treatment at the said Specialist Hospital since June 2021 and had an appointment earlier scheduled for the final stage of Specialist Radiography for eight (8) weeks  which will take place immediately upon his arrival at the Facility in Houston, Texas, U.S.A; and thereafter, after four days. Subsequent treatments are scheduled every day for a period of eight (8) weeks.

Mr Ikwueto said the former governor had since mid last year received treatment at the U.S. medical facility every three months.

The last time he was there was December 2021 and became due for another round of treatment this March shortly before he handed over to Soludo, the lawyer said.

Mr Ikwueto declined to disclose the exact ailment Mr Obiano is treating but PREMIUM TIMES learnt the former governor was diagnosed with prostate cancer early last year.

He (Obiano) was lucky that the disease was detected on time. It was still at an early stage when he was diagnosed last year, said a source familiar with the former governors medical condition. He asked not to be named because he had no permission to discuss private and confidential matters concerning Mr Obiano.

Obiano and a permission to travel

Mr Ikwueto also said Mr Obiano got permission from federal authorities to travel for urgent medical treatment and that the former governor was surprised that after he was given assurance that he could proceed on his trip, he was blocked at the airport.

I can tell you that after the media reported that the EFCC placed him on its watchlist, he reached out to authorities at the federal level to seek permission to travel for his scheduled medical treatment, the lawyer said. He also promised that he would thereafter return to face any probe the EFCC or any other agency had against him. So it was shocking that he was still treated the way he was despite the assurance he was given.

Again, Mr Ikwueto declined to say who exactly Mr Obiano contacted at the federal level. He repeatedly evaded the question the multiple times one of our reporters asked him.

But independent findings by PREMIUM TIMES indicate it was the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, that Mr Obiano contacted. Mr Malami reportedly told him to proceed on his trip and promised to advise the EFCC to suspend action on his case until his return from the United States.

The EFCC is one of the agencies Mr Malamis ministry supervises.

The attorney general could not be reached for comments as his known mobile telephone line was switched off the several times this newspaper tried to reach him. His spokesperson, Umar Gwandu, did not answer or return calls seeking comments.

The Obiano Investigation

The EFCC had since last year placed the former governor on its watch list over corruption allegations.

PREMIUM TIMES reported in November last year that the EFCC had in a letter to the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) dated November 15, 2021, requested the service to place the governor on a watchlist and inform it anytime he is travelling out of the country from any of the international airports and other points of entry and exit.

The ex-governor was arrested on March 17 at the Murtala Muhammad International Airport, Lagos, as he tried to board a flight to Houston, the United States.

He was later handed over to the EFCC which then flew him to Abuja, the nations capital, for prolonged interrogation.

The former governor was released on March 23 after the EFCC granted him administrative bail. Mr Obianos passport and American Green card were withheld as part of the bail conditions.

Mr Ikwueto said Mr Obiano has continued to engage the EFCC to release his travel documents so he could proceed with his urgent medicals.

He has already provided the agency copies of his medical reports and we are waiting to hear from them, the lawyer said.

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When contacted, the spokesperson for the EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, said he had not been briefed about any ongoing engagement between his agency and Mr Obiano over the politicians request to travel.

Chiamaka Okafor is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe.
Andrea Evaristi, a 41-year-old Italian, has been living in China for almost 12 years. Now he works as an executive chef at a hotel in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province.

Recently, Nanchang has carried out new rounds of mass nucleic acid testing to curb rebound of the COVID-19 pandemic. The hotel where Evaristi works provided free boxed meals to the medical staff nearby to show support and gratitude for their hard work.

Evaristi also speaks highly of Chinese government's efforts in combating the COVID-19 resurgence. #GLOBALink







Produced by Xinhua Global Service
Nigerias Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, has described the Nigerian governments controversial subsidy regime as a criminal enterprise.

Mr Sylva, who lamented the controversies surrounding the amount of petrol that the nation consumes daily, said the subsidy regime encourages criminal activities like smuggling which in turn impact negatively on the nations oil resources.

According to Punch newspaper, the minister said this in an interview with his media team, led by his Senior Adviser, Media and Communications, Horatius Egua.

I have said this publicly before that I dont know the figure, he said of the opacity surrounding Nigerias petrol consumption figures.

When I assumed office, initially I was told that our daily consumption was 66 million litres.

Then, when fuel prices increased from N145 to N162, the consumption figure temporarily fell to about 40 something million litres per day, because the arbitrage opportunity reduced.

Then the value of the naira dropped again, and the number went up again to over 60 million litres. I am told the figure sometimes rise to as high as 90 or over 100 million litres. I dont know how that happens.

At this rate, I have said if anyone is looking at a criminal enterprise, look no further than the fuel subsidy.

The minister said that on the basis of these revelations, he has intensified his advocacy for deregulation and ultimate removal of fuel subsidy from the countrys PMS pricing template.

Unknown Consumption Figures

In recent years, experts have said that Nigerias inability to account for the amount of petrol it consumes daily was due to the continued smuggling of PMS through its porous land borders.

In 2019, Nigeria shut its land borders as part of governments sustained efforts to check smuggling and other illicit cross-border activities.

Despite the closure of the land borders, reports showed that smuggling was still rampant across the nations borders.

In December 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari approved the immediate reopening of the major land borders in Seme in the South-west part of the country, Ilela in the North-west, Maitagari in the North-west, and Mfun in the South-south.

Mr Sylva said that as of today, the nation cannot still tell the exact volume of petrol it consumes on a daily basis.

Speaking in reaction to the N3 trillion fuel subsidy proposal by NNPC, he said: I would have preferred that this question be directed to the NNPC.

I have made my views known about this issue in the past. NNPC has agreed with me that they are not certain about the exact consumption figure.

Mr Sylva argued that the countrys petroleum products are smuggled out of the country, so neither the ministry nor the NNPC could give a definite figure.

Its more or less fueling a criminal economy. The NNPC imports the products, and nobody knows the exact destination of the products at the end of the day, he lamented.

The imported products come to Nigeria, and from there filters out of our borders to neighbouring countries.

So, as a country, we cannot tell the exact volume of petroleum products that we consume on a daily basis. All we have been doing is to assume the level of consumption over a period and work with that.

Mr Sylva said that Mr Buhari had done everything to resolve the issues, including the closure of the countrys borders with neighbouring countries, yet the criminality was not stopped.

The truth is that what the President could do was to close the formal borders. What about the illegal routes?, Mr Sylva quipped.

Scarcity

Fuel scarcity worsened across Nigeria in recent weeks despite repeated assurances from the government that the crisis would not linger for too long. The scarcity and its attendant chaos were initially said to be as a result of an off-spec product imported into the country, which reportedly damaged vehicles and generating sets.

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As the NNPC and regulatory authorities struggled to put the situation under control, queues persisted in Abuja, Lagos and several other cities for weeks as people scrambled to get petrol for their cars and their electricity generators at a time of rising temperatures.

The crisis, which lingered for weeks  and in some places like Abuja, for several months  continued despite the federal government saying it has sufficient stock of petroleum products for distribution across the country.

Way Out?

Relative normalcy has since returned to filling stations in places like Lagos, but residents of Abuja have barely experienced any sense of relief. In other cities like Ibadan, Osogbo and parts of the South-east, petrol stations have continued to sell at different prices ranging from N170 to N210.

As a result of these developments, although the government has maintained that the recent crisis was due to the ripple effect of the importation of off-spec petrol, some Nigerians on the streets and across social media platforms claim that the chaos was orchestrated as a means of removing the subsidy component of fuel prices.

The subsidy debate is one of Nigerias most polarising public discussions. Earlier in the year, Mr Buhari suspended the governments plan to remove subsidies on petrol.

In January 2012, protests erupted across the country when the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan introduced the idea of removing petrol subsidy. While the government and other policy experts argue that subsidy is not sustainable and should be removed, civil society organisations and labour unions have always stood against the move.

Mr Sylva argued that if the subsidy component of the oil pricing template is taken out through deregulation, smuggling of PMS to neighbouring countries would cease.

Of course, we need the market from there. But now we are punishing ourselves because every litre we import at our expense will always find its way outside the country, he said.

Now, the government is trying to subsidise our citizens so that our people will at least get the benefit of the subsidy on petroleum products. But, now because of how our borders are, it is very difficult. Now, we are inadvertently subsidising the whole of Africa. This is the thing we cannot handle.
Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, on Sunday, accused the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, of manipulating the Federal High Court into issuing conflicting decisions on section 84(12) of the new Electoral Act 2022.

Mr Falana said Mr Malami pretended not to be aware of the restraining order of the Federal High Court in Abuja barring him and others from tampering with the legal provision but vowed to implement that of the Umuahia division of the court which ordered the deletion of the clause from the law.

The Senior Advocate of Nigeria, in a statement providing some details of the decisions of three divisions of the Federal High Court on the matter, blamed Mr Malami for allegedly manipulating the court into issuing the conflicting orders. He said Mr Malami, cannot, therefore, pick and choose which of the orders to obey or disobey.

It is trite that the Attorney-General cannot choose and pick the orders of the court to obey or disobey.

More so, when it is undoubtedly clear that the Attorney-General deliberately set out to manipulate the Federal High Court to issue conflicting orders in a desperate move to annul section 84(12) of the Electoral Act, Mr Falana said.

Background

The division of the federal court in Umuahia, Abia State, had on March 18, nullified Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act  a decision that sits well with President Muhammadu Buharis earlier protest against the controversial legal provision.

The novel statutory provision had prohibited political appointees from voting as delegates in party conventions or congresses for the election or nomination of candidates.

In her verdict, the judge, Evelyn Anyadike, held that the section was unconstitutional, invalid, illegal, null, void and of no effect whatsoever and ordered the AGF who was the sole defendant in the suit, to forthwith delete the said Subsection 12 of Section 84 from the body of the Electoral Act, 2022.

She anchored her decision on the grounds that the provision conflicted with the constitutional provision that already gives political appointees who intend to contest in an election to resign at least 30 days to the election.

Many lawyers have faulted this reasoning, arguing that political appointees are not part of the category of persons required by the constitution to resign at least 30 days to the election.

Mr Malami was picked as the sole defendant in the suit filed by Nduka Edede, a member of the Action Alliance (AA), a fringe political party in Nigeria.

The AGF has shown extra-ordinary interest in ensuring the striking down of the section 84(12) of the Electoral Act, which would have forced him out of office early to realise what is believed to be his ambition to contest the 2023 governorship election in Kebbi State, his home state.

Malami engaged in forum shopping

But chronicling two previous rulings of the Federal High Court in Abuja and Ibadan, Oyo State, on the same matter, Mr Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), said Mr Malami desecrated the office of the AGF by engaging in forum shopping to get a favourable verdict.

No doubt, this is the first time in the entire history of Nigeria that the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation has engaged in forum shopping for favourable orders of the Federal High Court or any other court. It is high time the dangerous manipulation of the Federal High Court was stopped as the nation prepares for the 2023 General Elections, a statement issued on Sunday by Mr Falana read.

The human rights lawyer pointed out that while the Abuja court barred Mr Buhari, the AGF and the National Assembly from tampering with the newly amended Electoral Act, the Ibadan division of the federal court declined jurisdiction on the matter.

On March 8, 2022, Inyang Ekwo, the judge, had in a ruling on an ex parte application by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), held that the amended Electoral Act, having become a valid law, must not be unduly tampered with.

Specifically, the court restrained President Buhari, the AGF and the National Assembly and other defendants in the suit from removing section 84 (12) of the Electoral Act or prevent it from being implemented for the purpose of the 2023 general elections.

However, when the suit with the same issues arose in Umuahia, Mr Falana lamented the AGF who was the sole defendant in the case, refused to draw Mrs Anyadikes attention to the two preceding rulings of her colleagues in Abuja and Umuahia.

Mr Falana listed the other suits in which the two preceding rulings had been delivered to include one filed in Abuja with suit number, FHC/ABJ/CS/247/2002 (PDP versus President, Federal Republic of Nigeria & 8 others).

The other, he said, was filed in Ibadan, Oyo State, with suit number, FHC/IB/CS/32/2022 (Chief Oyewole Bolanle versus Attorney-General of the Federation).

From the foregoing, it is crystal clear that even though the two lawyers who represented the Plaintiffs in Suit Nos FHC/IB/CS/32/2022: CHIEF OYEWOLE BOLANLE v ATTORNEY-GENERAL OF THE FEDERATION and FHC/UM/CS/26/2002: CHIEF NDUKA EDEDE v ATTORNEY-GENERAL OF THE FEDERATION are based in Ibadan, Oyo State and Umuahia, Abia State, the two cases filed by them were similar in every material particular.

Hence, the two questions formulated for determination and the four similar reliefs sought by their clients in the two cases filed at the Ibadan and Umuahia judicial divisions of the Federal High Court are in pari material.

Even though the plaintiffs are different the Attorney-General of the Federation is the sole defendant in both cases. It is doubtful if the similarities in the two cases can be said to be mere coincidence, Mr Falana said.

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The senior lawyer said the AGF, despite being a defendant in all the cases, did not draw the attention of both Ibadan and Umuahia divisions of the Federal High Court to the Abuja divisions restraining order.

Neither did the Attorney-General disclose to the Umuahia judicial division of the Federal High Court that the Ibadan judicial division had struck out a similar case for want of locus standi, he added.

He also said the judge in the Umuahia division ought to have struck out the fresh case before her as it constituted a gross abuse of court process given that the case pending at the Ibadan judicial division of the court was well reported in the print and electronic media.

This, again, highlights the perennial issues of conflicting court orders emanating from the Nigerian courts of coordinate jurisdiction, a matter that the National Judicial Council (NJC) recently sanctioned some judges for.

Why Umuahia judgement cant be enforced

Hours after the court in Umuahia handed down its verdict, Mr Malami issued a celebratory statement vowing to implement Mrs Anyadikes orders by deleting the legal provision which he described as offensive from the law.

Mr Falana further queried Mr Malamis speed in enforcing the latest ruling while pretending not to be aware of the earlier restraining order issued against him and others over the same issue.

It is pertinent to note that while the Attorney-General of the Federation pretended not to know about the order of interim injunction granted by the Abuja Judicial Division of the Federal High Court, he has announced the plan of the Federal Government to comply with the judgment delivered in the Umuahia case as soon as possible

However, the Attorney-General of the Federation (Malami), the Defendant in both cases did not draw the attention of both Ibadan and Umuahia Judicial Divisions of the Federal High Court to the fact that the Abuja Judicial Division of the same Court had, on March 7, 2022, restrained himself, President Buhari, National Assembly and the Independent National Electoral Commission from refusing to implement the provisions of Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act, 2022, the lawyer noted.

Should Mr Malami go ahead to delete the provision as he vowed to do, Mr Falana said the AGF risks facing the consequence of contempt of court.

However, if the Attorney-General goes ahead to delete section 84(12) of the Electoral Act he would be liable to be committed for contempt ex facie curiae as the Abuja Judicial Division of the Federal High Court has restrained him and other defendants from from enforcing the provisions of the said Electoral Act, 2022 including the provisions of Section 84(12) of the said Act pending the determination of the motion on notice for an interlocutory injunction, Mr Falana said.

He added: We submit, without any fear of contradiction, that unless the valid and subsisting order of the Abuja Judicial Division of the Federal High Court is set aside either by the trial Judge or an Appellate Court the Attorney-General of the Federation cannot DELETE section 84(12) of the Electoral Act.

Malami denies Falanas allegation

Mr Malami on Sunday denied Mr Falanas allegation when contacted by our reporter on Sunday, insisting that his actions are all in compliance with the law.

It only takes the figment of the imagination of mischief makers to think or assume that the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice will stoop so low to do what they claimed, a statement by Umar Gwandu, the AGFs spokesperson, read in part.

While pledging Mr Malamis commitment to ensuring justice, equity, fair play in the discharge of his responsibilities, Mr Gwandu said the AGF was made a defendant in the case concerning the new Electoral Act.

He advised Nigerians to refrain from making unsubstantiably fabricated conjectures targeted at mischievously casting aspersions on personalities to score ulterior motives.

The Attorney General of the Federation is a strong advocate of equality before the law and non-discriminatory universal application of laws that do not disenfranchise citizens and not contradict the provisions of the Constitution and the extant laws, the statement added.

Mr Malami had, at other time, insisted that his position on the controversial legal provision was in defence of constitutionalism and protection of the constitutional rights of every Nigerian to vote and be voted for in elections.
Rivers State Governor, Nyesome Wike, has declared his intention to contest for president of Nigeria in the 2023 election.

Mr Wike reportedly disclosed this while visiting his Benue State counterpart, Samuel Ortom, in Government House, Makurdi, on Sunday.

The governors declaration is also posted on his Facebook page.

I will be running for the office of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Mr Wike said on Facebook, on Sunday.

Mr Wike was quoted by Channels Television to have said that he is the one with the capacity to remove the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) from power at the federal level.

To remove APC from power, Im the person who can tell them enough is enough. We must take this power and Im ready to take it for the PDP. God is with us thats why APC keeps failing every day.

Im declaring it for the first time in Benue (State). Im going to run for election, he said.

The Commissioner for Information in Rivers State, Paulinus Nsirim, did not respond to calls and text messages seeking comments from him.

Mr Wikes declaration is coming after several months of speculation about his presidential ambition.

During Mr Wikes recent feud with Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, the latter accused him of causing trouble in the PDP because of his presidential ambition.

No one is against his desire to run for president, however, his ambition should not be embarked on in such a way that it would cause disruption at different levels, such as the PDP Governors Forum as well as different chapters of the party across the country, Mr Obaseki said of his feud with Mr Wike.

Dont run for president, Wike  IYC President

The President of the Ijaw Youth Council, Peter Igbifa, last year, told PREMIUM TIMES he suspected Mr Wike would want to run for president in 2023.

He had, however, advised him against nursing such ambition.

I will not advise him (Wike) to run for president (in 2023). He can break the jinx, but then I wouldnt want him to run for president. I would rather advise him to run for Senate.

When (Peter) Odili was a governor, he thought he had more friends. But the day his body language showed he wanted to go to the presidency, he discovered he had more enemies than friends.

Usually, the world does not always tolerate those who have resources to combine it with power, for the fear of the unknown, Mr Igbifa.

Mr Wike is one of the most influential governors in Nigeria and very popular back home in Rivers because of his administrations infrastructural development in the oil-rich state, but his often controversial remarks and actions may become his greatest setback in his presidential ambition.
Governor Mala Buni of Yobe State said the membership of All Progressives Congress (APC) rose from 11 million to 41 million as a result of the membership registration/revalidation conducted by the outgoing leadership.

Mr Buni, also the outgoing Chairman, APC Caretaker/ Extraordinary Convention Committee (CECPC), said this at the APC National Convention on Saturday in Eagle Square, Abuja.

He said that the figure could rise beyond 41 million as the registration was still ongoing.

Mr Buni said the CECPC also succeeded in reconciling many aggrieved members of the party as well as attracting three serving state governors from Zamfara, Cross River and Ebonyi from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the party.

He said that the caretaker committee has been able to turn around the fortunes of the party from a crisis ridden party to a party with great prospects saying that the party now has the capacity to stay in power beyond 2023.

Mr Buni lauded President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, the leadership and membership of the National Assembly and other critical stakeholders for the successes recorded by the party.

He said the APC CECPC has been able to complete work on the partys national secretariat in Abuja as well as settling outstanding payment for the building.

Mr Buni said the party has also renamed the secretariat after President Muhammadu Buhari in recognition of his exemplary leadership style.

He also expressed optimism that the APC would emerge stronger at the end of national convention, even as he lauded Mr Buhari for working tirelessly to resolve the impasse that preceded the convention.

Also speaking, the Chairman of the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF), Governor Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi State, said APC would come out stronger and more united after Saturdays national convention.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Bagudu, who spoke on behalf of the 22 APC governors, said that will successfully see us to the 2023 general elections and beyond.

We will surmount all the challenges and the convention will be largely successful.

In readiness to the 2023 general elections, there is just no party like the APC.

According to the Chairman of the Progressives Governors Forum, APC governors were proud of the achievements of President Muhammadu Buhari and the partys governors.

The Kebbi governor added, in all the states, there are success stories because of the inspiration of Buhari.

Mr Bagudu also stated that Mr Buhari had instilled transparency and exemplary leadership in the country as he delivered on all his campaign promises.

He has laid a solid foundation for a resilient economy, leading to the exit of Nigeria from recession, as well as surmounting the COVID-19 induced challenges, among others, he said.
Chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have called on the party members to consolidate the gains of President Muhammadu Buhari to win the 2023 general election.

They made the call at the APCs National Convention on Saturday in Abuja.

President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, said that the party proved that it was united by holding the convention which some people thought would never hold.

They said we will never be together as a party, but today we are together and holding the convention, this is a night of unity for us.

Our caretaker committee did well and achieved so much, I hope that at the end of the convention everyone will be happy.

This is seven years plus that we have been working as APC. President Buhari has done well, although he may not be on the ballot in 2023, but you will remain the legacy of APC, he said.

Mr Lawan commended the president for his effort in building infrastructure in every state especially the Second Niger Bridge.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, also congratulated the party for holding the convention. He said the party had come a long way through many trials and tribulations but stood the test of time.

Building is a long term task and we all have a role to play.

We at the National Assembly have kept faith in Nigeria through laws and passed some strong laws like the PIB Law, Police reform Act, among others.

All things being equal, we will revisit the issues of the women inclusion bills.

The Governor of Kebbi, Atiku Bagudu, said the party did well in terms of its promises of security, economy, accountability and food security.

Mr Bagudu said that in spite of the global crisis, the party kept Nigeria stable by supporting the 36 states that could not pay salaries and pensions to restore social contract with the governed.

The president directed empowerment of farmers, supported fishing communities among others for food security and development of relevant economy.

We were able to survive two recessions in spite of COVID-19, even during this global crisis of the Ukraine and Russian war when other countries are in food crisis we have food security. (NAN)
The Primero Transport Services Ltd, an operator of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in Lagos State, has blamed high cost of diesel for the skeletal operations on Ikorodu-TBS routes.

Mutiu Yekeen, head, corporate communications of the firm, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday in Lagos.

Due to the recent spike in diesel prices across the country, Primero Transport Services, operator of Blue BRT from Ikorodu to TBS, use this medium to inform our commuters that there will be skeletal operations from March 26 to March 28.

We will resume operations fully on Tuesday, March 29, Mr Yekeen said.

The Managing Director of the firm, Fola Tinubu, is quoted as saying the spike in diesel price had affected Primeros operations negatively.

We are currently running at a huge loss. The diesel price has gone up by over 200 per cent while there has not been an increase in fares or intervention from the government. We are struggling right now.

We call on our esteemed commuters to bear with us at this period. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

 Our priority is to convey commuters safely to their destinations  providing affordable, fast, and convenient services to Lagos residents, Mr Tinubu is quoted as saying.

(NAN)
Many residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have decried the inequitable distribution of power to their homes and business premises.

The residents appealed to the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) to ensure that the current load shedding is done fairly.

They told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday that they have not had electricity for almost five consecutive days.

The poor power supply or blackouts in some parts of the Territory has lingered for almost two months.

AEDC had attributed the poor supply to its franchise areas to low power generation from the national grid.

Donald Etim, the AEDC chief marketing officer, had said this in a statement issued in Abuja on March 4.

The AEDC wishes to inform our customers in Kogi, Niger, Nasarawa and the FCT that the current low and unstable supply of electricity to homes and businesses is as a result of low power generated to the national grid.

In recent weeks, the level of power generated and served to the national grid for onward delivery to customers has been abysmally low, Mr Etim said.

This, according to AEDC, has led to load shedding currently being experienced in the Territory.

Electricity consumers residing in Nyanya, Lugbe, Kubwa , Prince and Princess Estate, Area 3, Gaduwa and environs told NAN that they have not had light for days.

According to them, in spite of the load-shedding, some areas have constant power supply, while other areas dont have at all.

Peter Otabor, a Pharmacist residing in Gaduwa Estate, said we know AEDC is load-shedding light but they should ensure that it is equitably distributed to all.

Mr Otabor said that for close to two days, there was no light in the estate but other areas had light.

I know there is low power supply currently in the country, so if they want to give us light for two hours, so be it, I dont like a situation where some will have and others dont, he said.

Juliet Okojie, who resides at Prince and Princess Estate, Gudu, also corroborated what Otabor said.

Ms Okojie said the little power available should go round everybody.

Eramus Okon, a banker who resides at Area 3, decried the poor power supply to the area, saying it had worsened in the last two months.

Mr Okon said we have only had light four times for a few hours in the last three weeks, a situation he said had affected his daily routine.

You know I am a banker and I close late from work, I only cook once a week every Saturday but with this light situation, I cannot do that.

I am appealing to AEDC to give us light even for two or three hours a day, he said.

Smart Okeke, who owns a cold room at Lugbe, told NAN that he had to put on his generator every day for close to 10 hours to preserve his goods.

Cold room business is not easy to manage without light, so I have to look for diesel for my generator to power my cold room.

I know about the low power supply and load-shedding but I will be happy if AEDC can give us light for five hours a day, he said.

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In Kubwa, Ese Williams, who resides in Phase 2, Kubwa Extension, said there had been no stable light in the area for close to three weeks.

According to Mrs Williams, even when the light comes, it is so low that it cannot carry a fridge or even fan.

I have thrown away the perishable food stuff I stored in my freezer as they had all gone bad.

I am appealing to AEDC to rectify the fault and give us light even if it is for five hours a day,  she said.

A fashion designer also in Kubwa, Shola Akinremi, said lack of stable electricity supply in the area had continued to affect her business, saying that she could not meet her customers needs.

Mrs Akinremi said it was very difficult for her to sew at night as her generator was faulty.

When contacted, Mr Etim, AEDCs chief marketing officer, told NAN that parts of Lugbe, Kubwa, Area 3 and environs were experiencing poor power supply due to faults.

Mr Etim said that the AEDC team was working assiduously to ensure that those faults were quickly resolved to ensure consumers get steady power supply.

We are not happy about this and our team is working to ensure these faults are rectified quickly, he said.
The Federal High Court has announced the commencement of its Easter vacation.

According to a statement issued on Sunday by the courts Chief Information Officer, Catherine Christopher, the vacation will begin from April 8 till April 25.

Quoting the Chief Judge, John Tsoho, Ms Christopher said the break was based on the provisions of Order 46, Rule 4 (b) of the Federal High Court ( Civil Procedures) Rules, 2019 (as amended).

Court activities would resume on April 26, the statement stated.

Vacation judges

However, the court has arranged for vacation judges who will attend to emergency lawsuits, especially cases bordering on fundamental human rights.

To that end, the courts divisions in Abuja, Lagos and Port-Harcourt will attend to urgent matters.

While Ahmed Mohammed and Nkeoye Maha will preside over cases in Abuja during the Easter holiday, Tijjani Ringim and A. O. Awogboro, will hold the fort in Lagos division, where matters from the South-western region will be heard.

In Port-Harcourt, Rivers State, where all emergency cases emanating from the South-south and South-east regions of the country will be heard, A.T Mohammed and S.I Mark, will adjudicate on such suits.

Read the full statement here:

Press Release

NOTIFICATION OF FEDERAL HIGH COURT OF NIGERIA EASTER VACATION FOR THE YEAR 2022 AND ROSTER FOR VACATION JUDGES

The Chief Judge of the Federal High Court of Nigeria, Honorable Justice John Terhemba Tsoho, announces the commencement of the Easter Vacation 2022.

This is pursuant to the provisions of Order 46, Rule 4 (b) of the Federal High Court ( Civil Procedures) Rules, 2019 (as amended).

The Vacation will commence from Friday, the 8th day of April, 2022 to Monday, the 25th day of April, 2022.

The Court shall resume in all Judicial Divisions on Tuesday, the 26th of April, 2022.

During the vacation, Abuja, Lagos and Port-Harcourt Judicial Divisions shall remain open to the public for cases of extreme urgency.

The Abuja Division will handle cases from the Federal Capital Territory, North Central, North West and North Eastern parts of the Country.

The Lagos Division

will be for cases from Lagos State and South Western States, while the Port-Harcourt Division will handle cases from the South-South and South- Eastern states.

The Vacation Judges are :

ABUJA JUDICIAL DIVISION

a) Hon. Justice A. R. Mohammed

b) Hon. Justice N. E. Maha

LAGOS JUDICIAL DIVISION:

a) Hon. Justice Tijjani Ringim

b) Hon. Justice A. O. Awogboro

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PORT  HARCOURT JUDICIAL DIVISION:

a) Hon. Justice A. T. Mohammed

b) Hon. Justice S. I. Mark

The Chief Judge of the Federal High Court of Nigeria, Honorable Justice John Terhemba Tsoho, wishes his fellow Judges, stakeholders and the general public, a wonderful vacation.

Signed

Catherine Oby Christopher, Ph.D

Chief Information Officer,

Federal High Court of Nigeria.

26th March, 2022.
KUNMING, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Hu Chunhua on Sunday called for more efforts to consolidate the achievements in poverty alleviation and ensure that rural vitalization policies are fully implemented and deliver tangible benefits.

Hu, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks at a meeting in Qujing, southwest China's Yunnan Province.

Increasing the incomes of people who have been lifted out of poverty should be taken as the fundamental measure, Hu said, urging efforts to create jobs, bolster industrial development, and improve the social-security network.

As for counties that have shaken off poverty, the main goal is to accelerate their development, with more energy channeled into fostering rural industries, he said, adding that developed regions should also step up their support.

Hu also said that rural vitalization should be pushed forward comprehensively and all farmers should be covered in the process, with emphasis placed on five key areas: industry, talent, culture, ecology and organization. 
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and a group, My Take Initiative, have drawn a link between poverty and the escalation of rights violation and violence against women.

They drew the link at a meeting of the United Nations Non-Government Organisation Committee on the Status of Women (UN NGOCSW) in Abuja on Friday.

The event tagged, interconnectedness between poverty and other societal ills, in the context of climate change, was the 66th UN commission on the status of women.

The Executive Secretary of NHRC, Tony Ojukwu, who was represented by his special adviser on human rights, Hilary Ogbonna, said Nigeria was among the top three countries with the highest number of poor people.

He noted that the notion of human rights is based on dignity, adding that poverty is an assault on that dignity.

Where there is poverty, there is no dignity and where there is no dignity, there are no human rights, he said.

He added that poverty is usually caused by human right violation most of which are caused by the government.

All the human resources that are supposed to empower individuals are not accessible or within the fundamental human rights. Privatisation of basic amenities is another factor that is deepening poverty, he added.

He also noted that when people are jobless, women especially, are sometimes left with no other option than to go into prostitution with their bodies just to survive and as a result end up in a worse situation.

These women if arrested face rape and other violations in detention because prostitution is a crime in Nigeria, Mr Ojukwu stated.

Mr Ojukwu cited the UN guidelines on poverty eradication in highlighting solutions to the problems. He said poverty eradication programme must include coherent policies and constitutionalisation of social and economic rights, among other steps.

He added that states must ensure that facilities, goods and services required for the enjoyment of human rights are accessible, adaptable, affordable and of good quality.

He said Nigerias major target to eradicating poverty is the implementation of anti-poverty strategy that would recognise the international development target to which Nigeria has already subscribed to.

Poverty and violence against women

The executive director of My Take Initiative, Rosemary Chikwendu, said its organisations investigation into violence against women and children showed that the injustices meted to women are interconnected with poverty and other societal ills.

Women find it difficult to leave abusive relationships or marriages for the fear of poverty and sole responsibilities of taking care of their children, Mrs Chikwendu said.

She added that most women rely on agriculture and farming for livelihood, but that climate change is now leaving them with little or no means of livelihood.

She also noted that poverty is what makes a woman to return to an abusive husband. It is what makes a woman accept settlement rather than pursue justice, and it is what is hindering the participation of women in politics.

She said her organisation had empowered people living with disabilities and recently helped 20 internally displaced women with wheelchairs to mark International Womens Day.

We provided wheelchairs for some internally displaced women. We are planning on providing 100 wheelchairs for 100 women, 100 white cane for visually challenged students, Mrs Chikwendu added.

The keynote speaker, Joy Ezeilo, a professor of law, who joined virtually, said poverty is a cause and consequence of violence against women, adding that climate change has further exposed women to violence as they try to survive through farming and other menial agricultural practices.

Other speakers at the event were President of International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), Amina Agbaje, and an American professor of law specialising on mediation, Luz Ortis-Nagle.
President Muhammadu Buhari Saturday celebrated high-profile defectors the All Progressives Congress (APC) has received since last year.

Mr Buhari said this at the partys national convention held at the Eagles Square in Abuja to elect new sets of national and zonal officers of the party.

A presidential spokesperson, Femi Adeshina, quoted Mr Buhari as celebrating the defection of three governors and others to the party as part of the major achievements of the outgoing Mai Mala Buni-led caretaker committee which has been running the party for about 18 months.

It is gratifying that the Party recorded massive and unprecedented defections under the Caretaker Committee administration. APC received three sitting Governors, a Deputy Governor, Senators, Members of the House of Representatives and State Assemblies, and other key officials from opposition parties who defected along with millions of their supporters, Mr Buhari said.

The presidents celebratory remark was despite the recent court decisions sacking some of the defectors for leaving the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the party that sponsored their elections, for the APC.

The APC, last year, received the defection of Governors Ben Ayade of Cross River State, Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State, and David Umahi of Ebonyi State, along with some state and federal lawmakers from the PDP.

But on March 8, 2022, the Federal High Court in Abuja sacked Governor Umahi, his deputy, Kelechi Igwe, and 16 lawmakers of the states House of Assembly for ditching the PDP for the APC.

About two weeks later, the court also sacked the Speaker of the Cross River State House of Assembly Eteng Williams, 17 of his colleagues, and two members of the House of Representatives from the state over their defection from the PDP to the APC.

Earlier on Saturday, Mr Buni said those sacked by the court had nothing to fear. He said their defection was legal and assured them that the appellate courts would restore their mandates.

READ FULL STATEMENT:

STATE HOUSE PRESS RELEASE

WE MUST REMAIN STRONG AND UNITED, PRESIDENT BUHARI TELLS APC MEMBERS, CANVASSES SUPPORT FOR INCOMING LEADERSHIP

President Muhammadu Buhari Saturday called on members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to remain united and strong and also support the incoming leadership of the party.

Speaking at the Eagle Square, Abuja, venue of the National Convention of the party, the President said:

This Convention is coming at a crucial time when we prepare for another round of a general election. Therefore, the need to remain strong and united for the Party to exploit the rich and abundant potentials at its disposal cannot be overemphasized. We appreciate the right to hold different opinions and aspirations, however, such differences must not be to the detriment of the Party.

l passionately appeal to you all to support the incoming National Working Committee (NWC) to promote unity and avoid sentiments that are capable of causing disaffection and disunity. For those aspiring for party and public offices, your failure to realize such aspirations for Party offices or to fly the Partys flag, should not be a basis for a campaign of calumny against the party. We should have the spirit of sportsmanship and always support the party to succeed.

President Buhari enjoined the new NWC members to promote internal democracy and equal opportunities and ensure that party primaries are not influenced by highest bidders going into the 2023 elections.

He commended the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee for steering the ship of the party this far including; reconciling aggrieved party members, purchasing a new party secretariat and launching an aggressive membership drive that saw three governors defecting into the APC, among others.

I want to congratulate us all for being part of this history-making event and to specially appreciate the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) which has been on a rescue mission under the leadership of His Excellency, Mai Mala Buni, the Yobe State Governor, for successfully piloting the affairs of the Party in the last 18 months and organizing this Convention to elect a new National Working Committee that will take over from the Caretaker Committee.

I am glad the Party under the Caretaker Committee has bounced back to life with the reconciliation of several key and critical stakeholders and groups who had hitherto left the party or were on the verge of leaving the Party. The reconciliation process gave the aggrieved stakeholders a true sense of belonging and assurance.

It is gratifying that the Party recorded massive and unprecedented defections under the Caretaker Committee administration. APC received three sitting Governors, a Deputy Governor, Senators, Members of the House of Representatives and State Assemblies, and other key officials from opposition parties who defected along with millions of their supporters.

I am impressed to learn that the membership registration and revalidation exercise undertaken by the Caretaker Committee, has recorded over 41 million members. This has proved that we are indeed Nigerias leading and largest political party. It also exhibits our numerical strength and the potential to win elections at all given times fairly and squarely.

The President who adduced reasons for his recent intervention in the affairs of the party, assured that it was not intended to muzzle dissenting voices.

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Recently, l had cause to intervene in the leadership crisis which was about to cause confusion in the Party. Such internal disputes are common in young democracies such as ours, but we must avoid overheating the polity and not allow our differences to tear and frustrate the Party.

Like I said earlier, it does not do anybody or the Party any good, when we, as leaders, go down so low and resort to backstabbing and name-calling in the media.

We should learn how to resolve our differences without jeopardising our personal relationships and the fate of the Party. I want to thank the Progressives Governors Forum for heeding to my advice and suggestions in settling the leadership dispute, the President said.

President Buhari called on all politicians and the electorate to abide by the new Electoral Act  to promote the process of election, enhance transparency, fill in existing gaps and add value to Nigerias democracy for our democracy to thrive.

Femi Adesina

Special Adviser to the President

(Media & Publicity)

March 26, 2022
Abdullahi Adamu, the new national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), was born in Keffi, Nasarawa State, on July 23, 1946.

He attended Abdu Zanga Primary School, Keffi and completed it at the Laminga Senior Primary School in 1959.

He moved to the Government Secondary School, Makurdi, Benue State between 1960 and 1962 and thereafter to the Government Technical College, Bukuru, Plateau State from 1962 to 1965.

Mr Adamu obtained the Ordinary National Diploma (OND) in Building and Civil Engineering from the Kaduna Polytechnic in 1968 and the Higher National Diploma from the same institution in 1971.

He had worked as a maintenance supervisor at National Electric Power Authority before returning for his HND.

When he left school, Mr Adamu worked with the Northern Nigeria Development Corporation (NDDC) in Kaduna before moving to the private sector.

He became a Consultant Area Manager with AEK, a firm of consultants. He was appointed as the Executive Secretary of the Jos-based Benue-Plateau Construction Company (BEPCO).

Mr Adamu, popularly called the Bridge, began his political career in 1977 when he was elected a member of the Constituent Assembly, which drafted the 1979 Constitution.

At the beginning of Second Republic, he became a founding member of the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN) which was formed from a political association, the National Movement. At the time, his home state, Nasarawa was part of the old Plateau State. Thereafter, he was eventually elected Secretary of the NPN in Plateau State and later its chairman.

Upon the collapse of the Second Republic in 1983, Mr Adamu went to the University of Jos to study law as a part-time student. He was through with his studies by 1992 and enrolled in the Nigeria Law School, Lagos.

In 1994, the new APC chairman was appointed a member of the National Constitutional Conference convoked by the military administration of Sani Abacha.

A year later, precisely in 1995, Mr Adamu was appointed the Minister of State for Works and Housing, a position he occupied until November 17, 1997.

When the ban on politics was lifted by the Abacha administration, he joined the defunct United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP) on whose platform he wanted to run for the governorship seat of Nasarawa State. That process was truncated following the death of Mr Abacha in 1998.

In 1999, following the restoration of democracy in Nigeria in 1999, Mr Adamu became a founding member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He contested and won the governorship election of Nasarawa State. He was governor for eight years between May 1999 and 2007.

After his tenure, Mr Adamu was charged to court in 2010 by the EFCC alongside 19 other Nasarawa State officials with 149 counts of corruption. The anti-graft body accused him of embezzling N15 billion public funds.

While he served as governor, Mr Adamu chaired the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) between 1999 and 2004.

In 2007, the year he left office, the former governor won election into the Senate on PDPs platform to represent Nasarawa West Senatorial District in 2007.

On January 29, 2014, he and 10 other PDP senators joined the APC.

In the Senate, Mr Adamu was appointed the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture. He also chaired the Northern Senators Forum (NSF) but was removed in 2018 for alleged financial mismanagement and maladministration, according to a letter from the Forums signed by its then spokesperson, Dino Melaye, and read on the floor of the upper chamber by the then Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu.

Shortly after the announcement, Shehu Sani (Kaduna-APC), who was a member of the forum, alleged that Mr. Adamu and other executive members mismanaged about N70 million belonging to the group.

Mr Adamu was to explain that he was removed as NSF chair because he led nine other senators to reject the passage of election sequence by the Senate during the amendment to the Electoral Act.

Last September, Mr Adamu was named chairman of the APC National Reconciliation Committee, an assignment that took him and members of his team to some states where the party had been factionalised or facing crises.

Mr Adamu was at various times Chairman of the Board of Directors of Benue Cement Company, Gboko and a member of the Board of Directors of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA).

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Mr Adamu, who is married with five children, holds the traditional titles of Sarkin Yakin Keffi and Aare Obateru of the Source, Ife, Osun State.
A presidential aspirant, Rochas Okorocha (APC  Imo) on Sunday said he would convince ex-Lagos governor Bola Tinubu to step down for him as APCs presidential candidate.

Mr Okorocha, a senator and former governor of Imo, said this while fielding questions from journalists at the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Convention in Abuja

Uncle Tinubu and I are most likely to be (the major candidates from Southern Nigeria).

I know that at the appropriate time, it may be because he is the one pushing up in the South-west and I am in the South-east.

So let us see what happens between us. And if that is it, I will ask him to relax a bit so that we can move this section forward.

The people naturally love me and I think it is because they believe I care, they believe I love and have sympathy for humanity, they believe I am detribalised.

They believe I do not know religion or tribe, Muslim, Christian, Igbo or Hausa, Yoruba. All I see is a human being and that is what makes the difference on my side.

Mr Okorocha urged Nigerians to use their voter cards well because it was worth much more than they thought.

He said that 2023 would present an opportunity for them to make the right choices.

Whether it is for internal democracy or for general elections, you must ensure that you cast your vote right because the voters card contains everything.

It is the education of your children, it is your health, food on the table and security. So I always advise people that the worth of that card in your hand is more than N100 million so do not sell it for N10,000, he said

Mr Okorocha said the convention was beautiful and looked peaceful and everyone seemed to be excited because they were all trying to see that the much talked about convention came to pass.

Talking about the party and its challenges, he said that although time was not on the partys side we pray with this exercise coming to completion, we are now sure that we are on track and APC is still a great party in spite of its challenges.

However, as you know, big party big wahala, it is expected and with the leadership shown by President Muhammadu Buhari, we are beginning to see light at the dark end of the tunnel.

Mr Okorocha expressed gladness that the convention was not hijacked, adding that it was much easier for all if the right things were done.

That is all we have been asking, beautiful internal democracy, free and fair where people must be allowed to choose the person they want.

That is the beauty of democracy, so anything outside this is manipulation and it is not good for democracy.

(NAN)
In what many students and staff have described as very unusual, the authorities at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, on Saturday, announced a two-week mid-semester break.

A statement by the universitys registrar, Magaret Omosule, however, did not state the reasons for the decision.

The university public relations officer, Abiodun Olarewaju, had also not responded to enquiries for the reasons for the break as of the time of filing this report.

The universitys statement read in part: This is to inform staff and students of the university that management, at a meeting held today, Saturday, 26th March, 2022, approved a two-week mid-semester break for students beginning from Monday, 28th March, 2022.

Meanwhile, apart from the crisis that recently rocked the university over the appointment of a vice-chancellor, stakeholders have linked the latest development to the two-week warning strike declared by both the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Allied and Educational Institution (NASU), which commences on Monday.

Strike

While the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has entered its second month, the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of SSANU and NASU on Friday announced a two-week warning strike starting Monday.

The unions said the Nigerian government has failed to meet their demands or react to their letters.

Qosim Suleiman is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says the All Progressives Congress (APC) -led Federal Government has embarked on the largest investments in infrastructure and agriculture in Nigerias history.

Mr Osinbajos spokesman, Laolu Akande, in a statement on Sunday, said the vice president spoke on Saturday night at the APC convention, held at the Eagles Square, Abuja.

The vice president spoke ahead of President Muhammadu Buhari and joined him on Sunday to witness the swearing-in of the newly-elected National Executive Council officers of the party.

Mr Osinbajo said the vision and determination of Mr Buhari to significantly improve the economy, enhance security, and fight against corruption remained firm.

He said the Federal Government under APC remained committed to creating more jobs for Nigerians, increasing access to healthcare, and building a united, strong nation, among others.

We will actualise the pledge of universal health coverage for all; we will continue undaunted in the task of building infrastructure that will be the foundation of the great modern economy of our dreams.

We will continue in the task of building a strong, united, fair and just Nigeria; a Nigeria where every young man and woman can find opportunities to work and prosper.

We must focus on the objective of taking 100 million out of poverty in this decade, as promised by this government under the leadership of President Buhari.

We will not relent; we will not look back and we will not falter; and by the grace of God, this party, our party, the APC will in the coming decades, lead Nigeria and its great peoples to its manifest destiny.

Our eyes must remain fixed on three things: one  jobs; two  jobs and three- jobs.

He urged leaders of the party to, in the coming months and years, remain resolute, committed and focused on the vision of the president to deliver on the economy, security for all and the fight against corruption.

Despite the challenges, including insurgency and the COVID-19 pandemic that affected global economies, the Buhari-led administration, in the past eight years, has made great strides in ensuring national development.

The years of building are always difficult, and sometimes, painful; the building of a great edifice requires deep roots into the ground and a foundation as deep sometimes into the ground as the grand edifice that it will support.

We cannot deny the difficulties we, as a party, and the government, and indeed, our people, have been through, but the Federal Government and the people will continue to build the Nigeria of our dreams.

We have had to tackle terrorist activities, insurgency and security challenges in parts of the country.

Mr Osinbajo said Nigerians had remained steadfast, resilient and determined to see the Nigeria of their dreams, while the government had also remained steadfast, determined, committed and focused.

He said the achievements of the administration in the areas of infrastructure and social investments, as well as the contributions of the private sector to national development stood out.

Eight years on, the government of our party and the Nigerian people has embarked on the largest investments in infrastructure in our history; investments in rail, roads, in power and broadband connectivity.

`We have birthed an irreversible agricultural revolution, investing more in agriculture than any previous government in the history of our nation.

We have established the largest social investment programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa, feeding 9.5 million children daily in our home-grown school feeding programme, over four million beneficiaries of our Government Empowerment and Enterprise Programme (GEEP)  the MarketMoni, TraderMoni, FarmerMoni.

Our private sector has, despite constraints, continued to do wonders; only a few days ago, the president commissioned the largest fertiliser plant in Africa and one of the largest fertilizer plants in the world.

 And in a few months, the largest single line refinery in the world will become operational under this government and in this nation.

Since 2015, in the tech sector, our young men and women have established world class companies; today Nigeria can boast of six unicorns  tech companies valued at over 1 billion dollars each.

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Mr Osinbajo congratulated all the members of the party and specially commended the founding fathers of the APC for their vision and foresight.

The vice president applauded the president, whose vision and direction he said brought about that merger that became known as the APC.

Mr Osinbajo acknowledged the roles of a former governor of Osun State and first interim Chairman of the APC, Bisi Akande, National Leader and former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu and former Governor of Sokoto State, Aliyu Wamakko.

He also appreciated Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, a former governor of Abia State and Minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu and former governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha.

These men, among others, sat together to craft what is known today as the APC, Africas largest political party, and will be Africas most successful political party, he said.

The convention also saw the emergence of Abdullahi Adamu as the new national chairman of the APC, among other National and Zonal leaders of the party.

(NAN)
United States tech giant, Google, has issued an urgent upgrade warning to its billions of Chrome users around the world to address a bug.

Google issued the warning on its official Chrome blog, revealing that Chrome on Windows, macOS and Linux is vulnerable to a new zero-day hack (CVE-2022-1096).

The company said it is aware that an exploit for CVE-2022-1096 exists in the wild, implying that every Chrome user is vulnerable.

Zero-day is the most dangerous form of attack because it means the vulnerability is known to hackers before Google could address and fix it.

Google says it is currently restricting information about the exploit to buy time for Chrome users to upgrade. The company has thus far revealed that the threat level is High, and that it knew about it through an anonymous tip-off.

In response, Google announced an emergency update for Chrome (99.0.4844.84) for Windows, Mac and Linux which will roll out over the coming days/weeks.

Access to bug details and links may be kept restricted until a majority of users are updated with a fix, the tech company said.

We will also retain restrictions if the bug exists in a third party library that other projects similarly depend on, but havent yet fixed.
The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the South-east has reiterated its demand for zoning of the presidential position of the party in 2023 to Southern Nigeria.

The National Vice Chairman of the party, South-East, Ali Odefa, disclosed this on Sunday at the end of the zonal meeting in Enugu.

Mr Odefa said the position was in tandem with that of the Southern Governors Forum.

He said it was fair that the next president of the country be chosen from Southern Nigeria.

Where there are zoning patterns, they must be strictly observed and adhered to in every state and constituency, he said.

He said the zonal leadership of the party would make a presentation to the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party in that regard.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that among those that attended the meeting included Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State and his Abia counterpart, Okezie Ikpeazu.

Others were the National Secretary of the party, Sam Anyanwu, members of the State and National Assemblies, members of PDP NEC, Board of Trustees (BOT) and others.
The #EndSARS panel investigating cases of police brutality in Abuja has summoned a police inspector over the alleged death in custody of an 83-year-old man.

The panel ordered the police officer identified as Inspector Sunday, a member of the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), to appear in respect of the case of Samuel Adagbor.

In the order issued on Friday, the #EndSARS panel asked the police officer to appear to provide information and relevant documents to shed more light on Mr Adagbors arrest, detention and subsequent death.

Earlier on Wednesday, the petitioner and daughter of the deceased, Angela Benjamin, told the panel that the octogenarian and his wife were arrested by the police sometime in August 2019 at their family house in Agbor, Delta State.

They were arrested, she said, on the allegation that they were running a baby factory. The family denied the allegation in the petition submitted to the panel.

While the wife, whose arrest was said to have come on the heels of her giving birth to a baby through the caesarean section, was released after one week in custody, her husband was moved to SARS detention facility in Abuja, Mrs Benjamin said.

Alleged extortion

Mrs Benjamin said the police extorted the family, taking advantage of their desperation to get the father released.

The police asked for N2 million which my fathers wife paid in instalments. They demanded another N4 million and we had to put my fathers house in the village up for sale. But nobody bought it for fear of being afflicted with the same predicament, she said.

She said the N2million raised by the family was paid to Inspector Sunday who had promised to use it to settle other officers for the release of the old man.

She said despite the payment, members of the family frequented the SARS detention centre in Abbatoir, Abuja, but were not allowed to see him.

We visited him, but we werent allowed to see him and when we called our calls were avoided, Mrs Benjamin said.

Death

The family, according to the petitioner, would later receive the news seven months after the octogenarians arrest that he had died in custody. The time the family got the news, came down to March 2020, which is about seven months from the time of the mans arrest in August 2019.

Mrs Benjamin told the panel that the police did not inform the family of Mr Adagbors death until four months after he passed on.

When we heard, we went to the detention centre to make enquiries, but got no response until after four months, she said.

She added that when they asked to see the body, they were told he died at Gwagwalada hospital in Abuja. But she said they could not find his record at the hospital.

She said the family wrote a letter in 2019 to the Inspector-General of Police-Intelligence Response Team (IGP-IRT) for the release of the body, but got no positive response.

Mrs Benjamin, who broke down in tears narrating the ordeals the family faced over the matter, told the panel that her brother, Peace Adagbor, slumped and died while running around for the release of their father.

My brother died and left his wife and children who are now in abject poverty. The children are out of school, the house rent is long due and I dont know what to do, Mrs Benjamin said while sobbing.

She added that the family had not been able to bury her brother because their father had not been buried.

Panels cross-examination

Fielding questions from the panel, Mrs Benjamin said she did not know Inspector Sundays full name, but provided his phone number.

When asked why they had written to IGP-IRT instead of SARS that she claimed arrested her father in the first place, she said the letter was written by her late brother.

She also said, while responding to a question, that they wanted N100 million as compensation for the family, especially for the education of the children who have been out of school.

Panels ruling

The panel, after listening to her testimony, directed the police to produce Inspector Sunday to unravel the case.

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The police asked to defer their cross-examination of Mrs Benjamin till when they are able to get Inspector Sunday.

The panel, chaired by Garba Tetengi, who is acting in the absence of the substantive chairman, Suleiman Galadima, a retired Justice of the Supreme Court, ordered the police to produce Inspector Sunday at its next sitting on the case.

The panel thereby order for the appearance of Inspector Sunday at the next adjourned date, Mr Tetengi ruled.

Another member of the panel, John Aikpokpo-Martins, advised that a copy of the petition should be attached to the summons to enable Inspector Sunday and the police to prepare for their defence ahead of the next sitting on the case.

The panel adjourned the case till March 29 for cross-examination of the petitioner and defence by the police.
If Shakespearean Brutus famous/infamous quote that, it is the bright day that brings forth the adder, and that craves wary walking is anything to go by, Adamus coronation and the whoredom that the two dominant political parties  the APC and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)  have become, are very frightening signposts that Nigeria is in for more grueling socio-political afflictions, post-Buhari.

In Russias 1998 St. Petersburg local assembly elections, incumbent Oleg Sergeyev had been a thorn in the flesh of totalitarian governor, Vladimir Yakovlev. Upon Sergeyevs launch of his bid to replace him, Yakovlev waited till election date to sting him with his amusingly ingenuous strategy. On voting day, voters, majority of who were illiterate, were at sea when they found two of their adored candidates namesakes on the ballot  Oleg Sergeyev and Oleg Sergeyev. The former was a pensioner and the latter, an unemployed man, both of whom had no qualification for the office they sought but were implanted decoys by Yakovlev. Voters eventually cast their votes for the wrong Sergeyev as the authoritarian governor had planned.

Nic Cheeseman and Brian Klaas classic, How To Rig An Election (2018) told the above story to drive home its thesis that, even with the prevalence of multiparty elections, counterfeit democrats in leadership of nations still devise the most effective but invisible cunning of stealing the outcomes of elections well before polling days, without being caught. Since Saturdays coronation of former governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Adamu, as chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the above story has refused to stop preying on my subconscious.

At that convention where Adamu went through a kingly coronation, Buhari stole the Yakovlev blueprint, with minor adjustments, but with the same wily intention. It was such that optimists who had waited patiently, with bated breath, for a disruption of the iniquitous status quo, at the final culmination of the Adamu installation, must be in a very sober mood now. The ones among them who believed that 2023 would be the moment that Nigeria would be making a U-turn from its current path of ruination, went home dejected and terribly downcast. It is obvious that an admixture of the desperation for Adamus candidacy by President Buhari, the deadly horse trading that went into it, the ruination of ambitions and the billions of naira that must have been tethered by the groove of the coronation, are all targeted at one thing: To make post-2023 Nigeria indistinguishable from and a continuation of the Buhari presidency. Cheeseman and Klaas description of that mindset is that, Thirty years ago, the main aim of the average dictator was to avoid holding elections; today, it is to avoid losing them and continue in office through proxies and by stealth.

If Shakespearean Brutus famous/infamous quote that, it is the bright day that brings forth the adder, and that craves wary walking is anything to go by, Adamus coronation and the whoredom that the two dominant political parties  the APC and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)  have become, are very frightening signposts that Nigeria is in for more grueling socio-political afflictions, post-Buhari. In that quote, Brutus forewarned Romans that, at a time of peace following the end of the civil war which the time was, allowing Julius Caesar to seize too much power was akin to leading him on to become a despot. Adder, which Brutus likened Caesar to, was a V-shape headed poisonous snake which had zig-zag markings on its back and eyes partially covered with scales. This gave adders a deceptive appearance. To Brutus, while it is a sunny day, Romans must be wary of stepping on the adder.

But Buhari has led Nigerians right on, to step on the adder. Abdullahi Adamu, his queer but bosom choice for the chairmanship of the APC, has engendered so many inquisitions, bothers and enquiries. Born in Keffi in July 1946, Adamu joined politics in 1977 as a member of the Constituent Assembly, became a member of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), its secretary-general in Plateau State and in 1997, joined the United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP). In 1998, he became a founding member of the PDP, becoming a two-term governor of the party and Secretary of its Board of Trustees (BOT). In a renowned case of political prostitution, Adamu was a member of the new PDP that fused into the ruling APC and since 2011, he has been in the Senate, representing Nasarawa West. Arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in February 2010 for allegedly embezzling $100 million of money belonging to the State he governed and which was earmarked for public projects, characteristically of the effete Nigerian anti-corruption fight, Adamu still got himself elected senator in 2011.

Aside the probable quest to reify the rule of gerontocrats that might be at the core of Buharis queer quest of getting Adamu to be the chairman of the APC at all costs, there are talks that his major fascination with an Adamu candidacy is the latters disdain for a Leader of the party who wants to be president of Nigeria. With Adamu as chair, all hopes of any lout badgering into the presidential groovy train would be dashed. With these laudable credentials as fascinating paradoxes, Adamus EFCC baggage and his senescence became secondary to a president desirous of controlling the lever of political process and ensuring the emergence of a successor president, not totally dissimilar to him in drudgery and incapacity.

The Adamu whoredom applies to Iyorchia Ayu, the current chairman of the PDP as well. Elected senator by his Tiv people of Benue State during the Third Republic, Ayu became president of the Senate in 1992 but was impeached in November of the following year, later becoming General Sani Abachas minister of Education. Thereafter, he held various ministerial positions in the cabinet of President Olusegun Obasanjos PDP, between 1999 and 2005.

Aside Adamus baggage and his political prostitution that have become inconsequential to a change-driven APC, what has become an issue for discussion in recent time, is the beehive-like swarming of the ruling party by erstwhile PDP commissars, who are taking strategic positions in the APC. Apart from Adamu, as I write this, the narrative has shifted from Ken Nnamani, the former PDP Senate president, who was hitherto primed to be engrafted into and become the partys deputy chairman (South) to Chief Emma Eneukwu, a fomer All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) national publicity secretary. Another political bigwig who is being essentialised into the core of APC is Iyiola Omisore, a former PDP stalwart and senator, who is poised to become the partys national secretary, among other political birds of passage. Apparently seeking to remove this political prostitution as being the essence of Nigerian politics, a couple of weeks ago, a Federal High Court in Abuja, presided over by Justice Inyang Ekwo, ordered Ebonyi State governor, David Umahi, to vacate office after his defection from the PDP to the APC. According to the judge, upon his defection, Umahi was no longer entitled to be called a governor. A similar fate may be awaiting the governor of Cross River State, Ben Ayade.

In spite of the theoretical postulation that politics is about compromise, Uzor Maxim Uzoatu, in a 2021 piece, drew a parallel between prostitution and spineless carpet-crossing in Nigeria. According to him, there are more male prostitutes in the crooked field of partisan politics than there are female harlots in the brothels across Nigeria. A similar trope was canvassed by Timothy and Charity Doyle in their 2008-published book, Political Prostitution, as well as in University of Laidens Joyce Outshoorns edited book, The Politics of Prostitution. The latter book talks about the democratic states and the globalisation of sex commerce. They both however seem to be saying that there is an unbroken connection, one between the history of prostitution and politics, and an unchanging story in the recorded experience between sexual exploitation and the violent mistreatment of the female person by men. These, they likened to the indiscriminate political whim of politicians in jumping political beds. In both  the female body and political office  there is an attempt to use and show them as elements susceptible to and captured by purchase.

The Adamu whoredom applies to Iyorchia Ayu, the current chairman of the PDP as well. Elected senator by his Tiv people of Benue State during the Third Republic, Ayu became president of the Senate in 1992 but was impeached in November of the following year, later becoming General Sani Abachas minister of Education. Thereafter, he held various ministerial positions in the cabinet of President Olusegun Obasanjos PDP, between 1999 and 2005. However, in December 2005, Obasanjo, without any justifiable reason, dismissed Ayu. Upon falling out with the president, Ayu left the PDP, joined the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and teamed up with Atiku Abubakar, becoming head of his campaign team. However, in February 2007, Ayu was arrested and arraigned by a federal court on charges of terrorism. It would appear that from 1999, the major criterion for consideration for the national chairmanship of the PDP and now the APC, is a history of indictment for corruption.

I went into the political history of the chairmen of the two major political parties in Nigeria with the aim of showing that if the foundations of the two dominant parties are this polluted with whoredom and undisguised harlotry, what we will be erecting on their structures are superstructures that are compromised, ab-initio. The selection of Adamu was not only not democratic, it was also not in the fashion of selection in a monarchy. It has a major resemblance with whoredom, where the prostitute goes into bed with the most cash-flavoured seminal fluid.

It will be difficult for us to impeach the seminal legal doctrine, snippets of what we also have in social relations, which holds that, from a dishonorable cause, an action does not arise, expressed in the Latin maxim, ex turpi causa non oritur actio.This legal maxim states that a plaintiff cannot pursue a legal relief and damages if they arise in connection with their own tortious act. It is reinforced in the English case of Hewison v Meridian Shipping Services Pte. Ltd. In that, an employee who came into office by reason of concealing the fact that he suffered from epilepsy, upon approaching the court for compensation in a claim for loss of earnings as a result of his employers negligence, the court held that his deception would prevent him from obtaining similar employment in future.

Judging by the financial and coercive powers that incumbents possess in Nigeria, this first major foot thrust forward by Buhari into 2023 in coercively imposing his affectionate candidate as chairman of APC, reminds one of Brutus and the adder. While the Nigerian day is sunny, Nigerians must be wary of this adder that Buhai is coercing us to step on. As it is said of every nothing upon which if something is erected, this something will ultimately share semblance and similar umbilical cord with the foundational nothing wherein we are trapped as a people.

can somebody tell minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola to keep shut and stop heaping salt on the injury of Nigerians? Last Friday, he had said in a Channels television interview that the APC deserved re-election because the party had performed well enough and that the party indeed answers to the political party classification of progressivism. I was so sickened by this unfeeling grandstanding that I immediately went out to puke.

Similarly, as we move on, Iyorchia Ayus PDPs foot will be encumbered by a sore of gangrenous proportion as that of Abdullahi Adamu. Unfortunately, it is from these two men that the leader, who is expected to pilot Nigeria to the utopia, 2023  the Nigerian year of regeneration, redemption and sanity  will emerge. It will seem that our fate as a people will then be nothing more than the script of Samuel Becketts Waiting for Godot. In this play, two characters, Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo) are engaged in several layers of discussion and encounters, as they await a titular Godot who, at the end of the day, never arrives.

By the way, can somebody tell minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola to keep shut and stop heaping salt on the injury of Nigerians? Last Friday, he had said in a Channels television interview that the APC deserved re-election because the party had performed well enough and that the party indeed answers to the political party classification of progressivism. I was so sickened by this unfeeling grandstanding that I immediately went out to puke.

First of all, there is nothing patented about the use of the word progressive. Let me dispel that quickly. Progressivism for me is being concerned about improving the human condition. All of the investments we have made, whether for business or employment, aim at only one thing  improving the human condition.

Let me just remind you that our opponent had 16 years. We beat them at the peak of power when they had almost 30 governors. We beat them again in 2019, and we will do it again, because I dont remember them providing one alternative to the options we have given or alternative to the measures that we have proposed, he had said.

Apart from the incoherent fallacy of ascribing 30 governors to the PDP when the APC beat the PDP  as the party had 23 governors, out of which five defected to APC in 2013  sometimes, one is led into believing that some of these Star Boy Governmental Miracle Workers are creations of our limited estimations of their elan. If Lai Mohammed had been the author of that distressing statement, it would have been understood. That it was coming from a Fashola, reputed for his miracle-working strides in Lagos, equating progressivism with infrastructure is the unkindest cut. Does he know that the so-called infrastructural binge of the Buhari government is totally disconnected from the people? Is he aware that the infrastructure is brought about by a government which totally abandoned the intangible progress of nationhood of unifying disparate peoples of the republic but chose instead to hawk misery in daylight to the people? Does he know that Nigerians had never witnessed this level of hopelessness and misery of the Buhari government since Lord Lugards amalgamation?

We can only  apologies to Bola Ige  siddon look, believing that this too shall pass.

Interrogating Archbishop Akinfenwas Passing The Baton

The book is both a historical work, as well as a theological shuttle into the essence of faith and the expectations of the world from a Christian believer. It is one which all must have and read, for enlightenment, teaching and understanding of the role of Christian church fathers in the propagation of the faith, irrespective of religious leanings.

If any African needs an understanding of the spiritual lens with which colonial Europe viewed the continent and its peoples, Richard Henry Stones In Africas Forest And Jungles: Six Years Among the Yorubas, about an American missionary, who was a representative of the Southern Baptist Conventions account of his sojourn in Africa during the nineteenth century, tells the story very poignantly. Among others, Stone had written that, They (Nigerians) are the tortured slaves of superstitions which destroy everything like peace of mind, and they know nothing of that happiness that is found in every place worthy of the name of a Christian home. In this life they are in constant dread of the unseen power of malignant spirits; and in death, not a single ray of hope disperses the gloom of the grave: they seem to pass away in sullen, speechless despair. In religious things, their minds are a desert, a wilderness.

However, when it came to writing about the Osoogun, Iseyin Local Goveernment, Oyo State-born Bishop Ajayi Crowther, Stone had said that before he left Africa, he became well acquainted with him and learned to love and venerate him very sincerely; for he was gentle, humble and sympathetic, and was a great comfort to me in a time of deep distress.

Since then, so many writers have told the story of that 12-year old captured African boy sold to the Portuguese by slave hunters in 1821, who later became so useful to the propagation of the Christian faith in Africa, translating the Bible into Yoruba. It is said that a Sierra Leonean former Igbo slave boy, named Christopher Taylor, who worked under Crowther as the Bishop of the Niger in the 1800s, translated the Bible into Igbo language. However, the most recent of works on Crowther is the book, Passing The Baton, authored by the Archbishop of the Anglican Church, Dr Joseph Olatunji Akinfenwa. A reworking of his PhD thesis, in the book, Akinfenwa highlights Crowthers consequential struggles to weave together a Christian faith in Africa and how his descendants and family tree have continued this work of situating the church in the entire project of spreading the faith.

The major thrust of Akinfenwas book is to interrogate the succession of family trees in ministerial assignments in Nigeria. For instance, how many children of Christian ministers are retained in the church of their parents, long after their forebears had translated mortality for immortality. In this book, he cites so many instances to back up his claim. However, as the Yoruba will explain this dilemma in their quip that the faith of the father is helpless to rescue his child from Armageddon  igbagbo baba o gbomola, this has been the case in both Pentecostal and orthodox churches over the centuries.

Akinfenwas methodic elevation of this work from a doctoral thesis, with its turgid academic lingo and cants, into an accessible work of art is commendable. The book is both a historical work, as well as a theological shuttle into the essence of faith and the expectations of the world from a Christian believer. It is one which all must have and read, for enlightenment, teaching and understanding of the role of Christian church fathers in the propagation of the faith, irrespective of religious leanings.

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Festus Adedayo is an Ibadan-based journalist.
MOGADISHU, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Security forces in Somalia on Sunday repulsed an attack on a military base in northeast Puntland State and killed 12 militants of al-Shabab terror group, local officials said.

Three soldiers of the Puntland Security Forces (PSF) died in the attack on the army base near Af-Urur village early Sunday morning, local security officials told Radio Mogadishu.

Witnesses said Shabab militants fired mortar shells in the attack, which prompted heavy gunfight with security forces.

In June 2017, more than 50 Puntland security forces were killed in Af-Urur in an ambush by militants who also seized control of the military camp in the village.

Al-Shabab has recently launched brazen attacks on government officials, electoral delegates and civilians across the country to hamper the ongoing electoral process.

Last Wednesday, the terror group mounted one of its deadliest attacks in the capital, Mogadishu, and in the regional presidential palace in the central town of Beledweyne, where more than 50 people were killed and over 100 others wounded. 
Lets start repairing the damage done to our brand with the hope that men and women of goodwill within Ile-Ife town will speak up against the attempt to tar them with the brush of intolerant micro-ethnic bigots. That, no less, is the counsel that Professor Soyinka has given them: The Ife people should say, Those people dont belong to us; we dont know where they came from.  I just dont understand what they put in the water these days. It is crazy!

Ile-Ife evokes memories of greatness, whether you are talking about the Town or the Gown. The Town is the courtyard of the progenitor of the Yoruba race, Oduduwa. It was in Ile-Ife, so the story goes, that the first dawn was willed into existence. As the cradle of an ethnic nationality, its people are used to being expansive in worldview and accommodating to all and sundry.

It was fitting that the Western Region (before the Mid-Western region was carved out) sited its university there in 1962  meaning that the institution was originally a collective heritage of all the territories that made up the region, from Asaba through Benin, Ado-Ekiti, Akure, Oshogbo, Ibadan, Abeokuta and Lagos. The Midwest later established its own institution, the University of Benin, during military rule.

From inception, the University of Ife, as it was then known, was destined for greatness. The clarion call, Great Ife, the very first of such unique, home-grown branding, has since become the envy of many people who wish they could claim a slice of the glorious heritage.

I know a few things about Ile-Ife and the university. Narrow-minded primitivism is not one of the traits anyone could associate with the average Ife man or woman.

The recent descent into primitive voodooism to blackmail Obafemi Awolowo University, which is now a federal institution, to cede the vice-chancellorship to an indigene of Ife, is not in the character of the Ife people that I know. I have been associated with the town for about five decades. I have been a student leader in the university and later served as alumni president and member of the Governing Council. As president of the students union, I interacted/worked with two great vice-chancellors of the university  Professor Ojetunii Aboyade and Professor Cyril Agodi Onwumechili. Both men recorded roaring successes.

Unfortunately, both the Ile-Ife brand and the Great Ife brand have been damaged by the spiritual gangsterism unleashed on the institution in the full glare of the entire world. Some of the reactions on social media from all parts of the globe can almost reduce any lover of the town and the university to tears.

What was the grouse? The voodooists wanted a son of Ile-Ife appointed as the next vice-chancellor. One of their sons, Professor R.A. Adedoyin, actually made it to the final list but he eventually came ninth out of the sixteen shortlisted. For the crime of not appointing their preferred candidate, the university was virtually brought to a standstill. Open threats were also issued against the winner and those they saw as his supporters. Black on black violence? Yoruba on Yoruba barbarity? Chroniclers are taking note!

The result of the interview, as announced by the Governing Council, showed that Professor A.S. Bamire of the Faculty of Agriculture came first with 84.6 per cent, followed by Professors R.O. Kalilu, K.T. Ijadunola, W.O. Siyanbola, A.I. Okoh and 11 others respectively.

The method adopted by the voodooists is anathema to academia. Even the Traditional Religion Worshippers Association (TRAWSO) in Osun State found it odious. The association was unhappy that some people, purporting to be traditional worshippers, gave a negative impression about the religion to the whole world.

An elaborate presentation of what some shadowy critics thought was wrong with the selection process was detailed in a protest letter written in the name of Professor Adedoyin but which has not yet been submitted officially as at the time this column went to bed. The orphaned petition is in wide circulation. The writer wonders why the standard procedure and processes used in the 2017 exercise were not used this time. The protest letter goes on to state further that, In this current exercise, candidates who served two terms at a post (e.g., Dean, Head of Department, Deputy Vice-Chancellor) were awarded double marks in complete negation of theories and principles of assessment and evaluation. In brief, it is alleged that the procedure and processes were also designed to promote favouritism and to compromise merit, transparency and integrity.

The beauty of the university system is that there are established procedures for handling dissent. The outgoing Vice-Chancellor of the university, Professor Eyitope Ogunbodede, was a beneficiary of the established system, which made it possible for the 2017 V.C. race to be rerun. At that time, nobody needed to recruit godlets, demons and masquerades; there was no resort to malediction and invocation of hexes.

The owner of the university, the Federal Government, its agencies such as the National Universities Commission and its operatives, such as Education Minister Adamu Adamu, were all missing in action while intruders forcefully took over the federal institution.

The method adopted by the voodooists is anathema to academia. Even the Traditional Religion Worshippers Association (TRAWSO) in Osun State found it odious. The association was unhappy that some people, purporting to be traditional worshippers, gave a negative impression about the religion to the whole world.

Our members were not involved in the protest, they declared. The activities of those involved are self-serving and shameful. The worrisome aspect is the fact that the protesters tended to portray us in bad light as fetish and uncivilised and we warn against the use of our items by people that are not known to us .

I am aware of many initiatives of the alumni to help restore the university to the glorious days of the 70s. The initiatives are currently ongoing in three continents with the potential of raking in billions of naira in the medium term. There is no tribal affiliation in the alumni. The clarion cry of Great Ife is the lifeblood that establishes consanguineous relationships among all Greats, be they white, brown, yellow or black. Our collective heritage is demeaned when people attempt to reduce the institution to a village of son-of-the-soil entitlement.

Graduates of the university are breaking records all over the world. Recently, an alumna, Professor Toyin Tofade, became the first black female president of the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (ACPHS) in the colleges 141-year history. Nobody in America quarrelled with her Nigerian (or Great Ife) roots.

I am all for engagement. Over the years, The Great Ife Alumni Association has been extending a helping hand to the society at large, especially indigent students. I will urge the body, in collaboration with the university management, to institute a scholarship scheme for Ife indigenes as part of its established outreach programme. But under no circumstance should the university be villagised to appease those who have no clue about how a university is run.

Among the many accomplished alumni making waves all over the world are Dr Oluyinka Olutoye, the paediatric surgeon who operated on a baby in-utero at a Texas Childrens hospital; Dr Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank (AfDB); Dr Benedict Okey Oramah, president of the African ExportImport Bank (Afreximbank); and Mrs Fatou Bensouda, a Gambian and the immediate past Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

A university that is a global brand and on whose faculty Professor Wole Soyinka served before he earned the Nobel Prize for Literature, cannot be reduced to a coven of seen and unseen witches, and principalities of the netherworld.

I am told that some people see the university as their own equivalent of petroleum deposit. They want to redraw the original survey map of the university, thereby making it lose chunks of the vast estate originally allocated to it by Ife people at inception. If this is true, Ife will not be the first place where the indigenes have made attempts to annex land already given to either a federal or state institution. One would expect that the elite will educate their less enlightened brothers and sisters that no vice-chancellor has a right to trade off one inch of land owned by a federal institution. To invade such an institution is to invite the federal government to a jujitsu match, or worse.

Alumnus Olurotimi Akeredolu, who currently serves as governor of Ondo State, could hardly contain his anger: This thoughtless, reckless and misguided step forebodes untoward occurrences in the future. A situation which sees 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.

I am all for engagement. Over the years, The Great Ife Alumni Association has been extending a helping hand to the society at large, especially indigent students. I will urge the body, in collaboration with the university management, to institute a scholarship scheme for Ife indigenes as part of its established outreach programme. But under no circumstance should the university be villagised to appease those who have no clue about how a university is run.

Lets start repairing the damage done to our brand with the hope that men and women of goodwill within Ile-Ife town will speak up against the attempt to tar them with the brush of intolerant micro-ethnic bigots. That, no less, is the counsel that Professor Soyinka has given them:

The Ife people should say, Those people dont belong to us; we dont know where they came from.  I just dont understand what they put in the water these days. It is crazy!

Wole Olaoye is a public relations consultant and veteran journalist. He can be reached on wole.olaoye@gmail.com, Twitter: @wole_olaoye; Instagram: woleola2021.
pains

The right approach rather will be forpolicy to be expanded further to fully liberalise tariff and allow DisCos to charge their customers what they are willing to pay, as long as those DisCos meet their obligations to their suppliers. DisCos, as rational businesses, will then channel this scarce resource to the right parties and also invest in metering to ensure they capture and charge for the right quantity of electricity to their consumers.

Background

When Nigeria finished the privatisation of the then Power Holding Company of Nigeria Plc (PHCN) in November 2003, there was that Eureka moment all over the country, as the privatisation had been sold as the solution to all the issues bedevilling the electricity sector. Of course, most of us supported the effort, as we had all agreed that government was not the right party to manage such a critical sector. And Nigerians had seen the transformation in the telecommunications sector, occasioned by the introduction of private sector participants that made the inefficiency of the previous Nigeria Telecommunications Ltd (NITEL) a thing of the past. Government also recognised the two main issues that led to the lack of access all over the country:

The lack of enough generation, transmission, and distribution capacity to ensure that Nigerian consumers enjoyed stable electricity in their homes and offices; A non-cost reflective tariff structure to ensure that the value chain was operated and maintained efficiently, and investments made for future growth.

On the first point, an entity called the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company Plc (NBET) was created. Its mission was to be the bridge between the distribution companies and consumers on one side, and the generation and transmission companies on the other. The logic was that for a country of more than 150 million people (as at the time), less than 3,000 MW of electricity was very inadequate. And increasing this capacity required assuring investors that they would be paid for their investments. So NBET was supposed to shield these investors by using a temporary subsidy, to be provided by government, to make them whole, thereby facilitating more investment in the sector, which would increase capacity, with the magic number then being 20,000 MW. The expectation was that at this level of capacity, there would be stable electricity across the country, which would now lead to the solution to the second problem, the cost-reflectivity of the tariff.

On the second issue, Nigerians have always taken electricity as a social product which should not be paid for. It is difficult to pinpoint when, exactly, this attitude emerged; but it stands to reason that as electricity from the grid became increasingly unstable (and so served as a back-up power source to most people, rather than their primary source), people stopped paying for a product they were not receiving. Cognisant of this, the government at the point of privatisation planned to increase the tariff over time. The logic was that people would only start paying when service had improved, and service would only improve if the previous issue of under capacity was solved. One big flaw in this line of reasoning was that in the process of selling the privatisation programme to Nigerians, a picture was painted of the government taking its hands off the sector, and no longer spending scarce resources to service it. Subsequently, at the end of the exercise, the government had no plan on how to convince Nigerians that money would still be allocated to make the investors in the generation and transmission sectors whole. With money not provided and consumers not getting any service, payments were not made to the distribution companies (DisCos) and rather than playing the role it was set up for, NBET turned into a post office, passing the upstream delinquency of the DisCos to the generating and transmission companies.

It can be seen from the above that even as engineers, we know our capacities and capabilities but one key ingredient we must consider in our plans is: Will people pay for this service when out? This is because money drives all investments and as I previously stated at the beginning, no matter how good or beautiful a product is, if no one pays for it, it becomes a failure. The beautiful privatisation didnt deliver on the expectations because government reneged on the most important part of the process  keeping investors engaged and interested in the process long enough for consumers to take over the payment of the electricity being generated and sold to homes and offices. Immediately that chain was broken by NBET serving as a post office, transferring the delinquency of the consumers to the investors, they (the investors) took flight. Thats why since the end of the privatisation, only one power plant has been built in the country. And for that to have happened, serious credit securitisation from both the government and the World Bank were secured. But for a government that is in need of money to service its numerous obligations, it is not ready again to give more. Investors, on the other hand, will not come in when they dont have any means of recovering their investment or making profit because consumers are not paying for the electricity they use. As for the consumers, how can one ask them to pay when grid electricity serves as a back-up energy source to them, while private generators serve as the primary source? All these now led to a conundrum or as the saying goes, a chicken and egg situation.

This situation has deteriorated still further as the population has been increasing while investments needed to achieve reliable electricity have stagnated. And government on its part is bankrupt that it cant pay its way out of the situation. Where then lies the solution? Are we going to leave the situation as it is? The answer should be no, as its known all over the world that electricity is the primary commodity that catalyses economic growth. By way of comparison, while annual electricity consumption per capita for most Western countries is typically above 4,000 kilowatt hours, for Nigeria, the current figure stands at just 150 kilowatt hours. It therefore means that Nigeria can never develop and maintain economic competitiveness until its electricity sector is fixed. This is not a hyperbole; it is a fact.

The question should simply be: How do we fix this broken system? How can Nigeria be like other countries of the world where citizens dont have to bother about generators and their attendant noise pollution and leverage the public electricity works to solve their challenges? We can see that, as at today, we are at a crossroads. DisCos are not remitting enough to the industry to incentivise investment in the upstream part of the sector.

The Present Situation

I have only spoken about the past to help us understand where we are, not as an avenue to apportion blame. The question should simply be: How do we fix this broken system? How can Nigeria be like other countries of the world where citizens dont have to bother about generators and their attendant noise pollution and leverage the public electricity works to solve their challenges? We can see that, as at today, we are at a crossroads. DisCos are not remitting enough to the industry to incentivise investment in the upstream part of the sector. Government cannot bridge the gap because it has barely enough money to pay the salaries of its civil servants. Consumers themselves are not ready to pay because the service being received is highly inadequate. Before tackling these challenges, it is useful to debunk the various myths being bandied about by some players in the industry.

Cost-reflective tariffs will quickly solve all the problems. This myth is being bandied about by the DisCos, who know full well that the government doesnt have the money to make up the shortfall or the political will to pass on the full cost of reliable power for an unreliable service. Besides, what is really the cost-reflective tariff in an industry that is very inefficient and has not attracted investment for year? Even the basic metering for households to determine their electricity consumption is not readily available. Those who retail this myth tend to ignore the fact that, on average, only 4,000 MW is sent to homes and offices every day, in a country of almost 200 million. This low generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity in the country simply means that even were the tariffs to be raised to high heavens, households would not have reliable and stable power for their use. And when it takes an average of five years to develop and build a new power plant, for a shortfall of more than 40,000 MW, it will take at least 20 years to bridge the gap. So, while cost-reflective tariffs are undoubtedly the key to the turnaround of the sector, they cannot turn the industry around overnight. Instead, a strong and unwavering political commitment will need to be exercised over a long period of time before the sector can turn the corner. Consumers are not ready to pay for electricity. While it is difficult to ascertain who benefits from this myth, the reality on the ground shows that consumers are ready to pay when reliable and stable services are provided. Examples abound of communities that have pooled resources to pay for power at over N100/kWh in different parts of the country. While some have claimed that this willingness to pay for power is prevalent only in well-to-do and prosperous areas (mostly in Lagos and its environs), recent solar projects in rural poor areas of the North have also exposed the fallacy in this myth as we have seen households in those areas paying more than N200/kWh to have reliable power. Key for all consumers is reliability of supply and proper metering to ensure they are billed for their actual consumption. Power is a social commodity and should be provided by government. This myth stems from the past when utilities were usually owned by government, which subsidised the service as a way to curry favour with its citizens. But the reality is that power is just like every other product  telecommunications, food, transport, etc. While some governments provide these services free of charge, there is no such thing as as a free lunch. Rather, the citizens are paying via the taxes they remit to the same government. Moreover, the inefficiency inherent in the model is that low energy users subsidise the high energy users. That is why some people still leave their light bulbs or air conditioners on during the day and when not needed because they are not bearing the full costs of their consumption. And given the chronic mismanagement of Nigerias fiscal resources, the reality is that the government today does not have the requisite funds to subsidise electricity for homes and businesses; and no investor will invest on the basis of subsidy or without seeing a path to profitably recovering their investments. This means that for reliable and stable electricity to be the norm in the country, users of power must pay for it, thereby incentivising more investments in the sector.

Unfortunately for Nigeria and its citizens, while the original path designed for the sector was not without its challenges, succumbing to the above myths by policymakers and industry players alike has halted the move towards reliable electricity and scared away the few investors who were hoping to invest their patient capital. Thats why since 2010, only the 460 MW Azura-Edo IPP has been built by the private sector in Nigeria and there is currently no clear path for other investors to follow, for a country that needs to be adding at least 2,000 MW per annum consistently for the next decade or more. And unless these myths are universally debunked and thrown out, we will witness another decade without any meaningful progress in the sector.

Unlocking the Bottleneck

With all the challenges in the sector, experience has shown that the key bottleneck to any improvement lies at the DisCo end where either the consumers are not ready to pay for the electricity consumed or the DisCos have not invested the necessary resources to serve those consumers and to collect their tariffs. While not blaming the DisCos for this issue (as confusing policies and utterances from policymakers have played a major role in exacerbating the situation), fixing this challenge and getting the market to cover its cost is fundamental to any future progress.

While the recent service reflective tariff is a step in the right direction, it still restricts the ability of DisCos to charge fully for the service they render and does not hold them under strict obligation to render the said service. While policymakers believe that this protects the poor members of the society, the situation on the ground means that everyone ends up suffering from the insufficiency of investment.

Meanwhile, government subsidy cannot continue as the government doesnt have the funds to cover this. It is also very inefficient and rather than encouraging investment, it scares away investors who believe that it is unsustainable and can be stopped any day. DisCos, on their part, have become comfortable with the status quo, where they are not challenged on their business practices and can rely on the state to offset their inefficiencies. That is why till today, no DisCo has made any meaningful investment to improve its network nor provide meters to its customers to be able to improve its collections. They explain their inaction on the grounds of lack of funds. But the normal business practice under such a situation would be for the shareholders to invest more money in the business or, where they dont have the means, to allow in new investors who have the resources. But when the government was picking up the tab, existing investors were reluctant to recapitalise (and suffer the consequential dilution of their stake); and this reluctance prolonged the sectors inefficiency.

For NBET, it has continuously played the role of post office, passing the distribution delinquency up the value chain and for such a long time that it is now difficult to reorientate the agency back towards its original raison detre. The recent extension of its operating licence  by just three years  has further shown to industry players that it is not meant to play a long-term role in the emerging electricity industry. It will therefore be very difficult for any investor to take NBET into consideration while preparing its investment plans, especially as it has failed to perform the key function for which it was set up over 10 years ago.

The Path Forward

Breaking the chicken and egg cycle is always a difficult task, more so in a country where the trust between the citizens and government has been eroded for a long time. There has also been a huge sunk cost by most consumers in the form of generators, inverters and associated equipment installed in homes and offices, which will be a factor in peoples decision-making process. Any request to pay more, while hoping for an improvement of service, will be met with scepticism. Moreover, electricity is difficult to transmit to those who are eager to have it (unlike the mobile phone technology, the success of which is touted across the country), since for power flow, a cable needs to be connected between the generator and homes and offices. Nevertheless, to move forward, we must learn the core lessons from the successful privatisation of the telecommunications industry. That means accepting that we do not have enough generating capacity to give every citizen stable and reliable electricity. It therefore follows  as a matter of simple business logic  that where there is scarcity of a good or service, the only available means of discrimination to give it to the right party is to auction such goods or service to the highest bidder.

Considering the above, it should also be noted that the DisCos have obligations to two distinct stakeholders in the value chain. The first is to their suppliers, which give them electricity to sell. Their main obligation to this cohort is to pay for the cost of those goods given to them, in this case the cost of generating and transmitting electricity to their networks. To be able to do this, they need to collect enough money from their customers to cover the cost of this electricity supplied, as well as operate and maintain their facilities. That means they have to understand their customers and channel their whole resources to those customers who are able and want to pay for the electricity consumed. While the recent service reflective tariff is a step in the right direction, it still restricts the ability of DisCos to charge fully for the service they render and does not hold them under strict obligation to render the said service. While policymakers believe that this protects the poor members of the society, the situation on the ground means that everyone ends up suffering from the insufficiency of investment. This further reinforces the reluctance of those customers who are supposed to be under a higher band to pay for the said service, thereby repeating the same cycle we have been in for so long.

The right approach rather will be for this policy to be expanded further to fully liberalise tariff and allow DisCos to charge their customers what they are willing to pay, as long as those DisCos meet their obligations to their suppliers. DisCos, as rational businesses, will then channel this scarce resource to the right parties and also invest in metering to ensure they capture and charge for the right quantity of electricity to their consumers. While this means that large sections of the country may not have constant and stable electricity in the short term, toeing this path creates an incentive for more investment in the sector, as well as the release of a more entrepreneurial spirit for solutions for the rest of the country, where grid power is not available. While this might seem like pure capitalism and the satisfaction of the rich at the expense of the larger society, the reality is that the poorer members of society consume little, if any, grid-power and their energy needs are met by kerosene, firewood and petrol generators. At the other end of the spectrum, the richer members of society invest heavily in expensive diesel generators. Both rich and poor alike are trapped in a prisoners dilemma. And the emancipation of all sections of society  from the grinding energy poverty to which previous policies have condemned them  can only come through a sober confrontation with the ineluctable laws of demand and supply.

Conclusion

While the solution proffered above seems simple, I also wish to recognise that it is not very easy for a politician who is looking at how to garner votes from the citizens in a few years time. It therefore becomes easy for them to tinker with a model that works, hoping to satisfy all but at the end satisfying none. But I believe that time has come when we engineers will have to add our voice to this call, as energy is unique in that it cannot be stored effectively and can also not be moved around easily. And the more they tinker, the more we fall behind. Finally, even for those who can afford it, it will still be nice for them to note that grid power remains the cleanest, most reliable, and cheapest form of energy for every home all over the world.

Edu Okeke is the managing director of the 461MW Azura-Edo Independent Power Plant.

The text above was a paper delivered at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, on Friday, March 25.
Not Having Understanding Is Not Good for Your Christian Journey

According to Matthew 13: 4-6, the wayside hearts are hearts that hear the word of God but dont understand it. Consequently, Satan takes away that word from their hearts. For this group of people, the cause of their problem is, Lack of understanding. We wont add to or subtract from what Jesus gave as the reason. Theyve got a bad hearts because they lack understanding of the word. According to Matthew 13:4, they lack the understanding of Gods word because they are by the wayside! So there are two issues here. Lack of understanding is the cause of their problem, but at the root of this problem is their current spiritual location, they are by the way side. Put in a simple language, they are not in the kingdom. That is why they are by the wayside.

It is not impossible that many Christians in our churches today are wayside Christians, they were not really saved, and thats why they lack understanding of Gods word, and are not productive at all. And this is one of the major crisis in the body of Christ. A lot of mixed multitude exists in our churches today. People who go to church every Sunday to warm pews but who have no genuine encounter with Jesus fall into this category. They may even be hearing the truth of Gods word, but they wont understand it, and consequently Satan would just grab the word out of their hearts. In fact, Satan would not have easy access to their hearts if they were genuinely saved. The life of genuinely saved people are hidden in Christ with God. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God (Colosians 3-3).

The First Category of Unsaved Christians Are the Problems of the Church Today

If youre genuinely saved, Satan has no unlimited access to go in and out of your heart at will to carry out covert military operation. You are seated with Christ in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6). This first group is one of the main causes of the current crises in the church, a lot of wayside pastors and wayside Christians. They appear to be saved because they quote the bible. But they arent. Thats why the word of God has no effect on their hearts. They divorce, marry and re-marry; they curse, lie, cheat, sleep around and have no fear or respect for Gods word, they are wayside Christians, unsaved folks.

Those By the Wayside Are Not In the Kingdom

According to Jesus, this group of people have got a wayside heart, which according to Jesus is a bad heart. According to Matthew 13:4, they lack the understanding of Gods word because they are by the wayside! So there are two issues here. Lack of understanding is the cause of their problem, but at the root of this problem is their current spiritual location, they are by the way side. Put in a simple language, they are not in the kingdom. That is why they are by the wayside.

Much of the Problems In the Christian Fold Is Not Just About False Teachers, But Also About Wayside Christians

You cant be a lover of Jesus, a genuinely saved person and join people to backbite and tear down your pastor, that man that you yourself know is genuine, loving and caring. Much of the problems we are having in the Christian fold is not just about false teachers, but also about Wayside Christians people who look and talk like Christians but are far from the faith. There is no transformation of character in their lives at all. And they are in droves in many of our churches, they are called, wayside ChristiansThe word of God can never profit them.

Discipleship Must Be Taken Seriously To Effectively Form Christ In the Second Group

Now lets look at the second group of bad hearts, the stony hearts. According to Jesus, this group of people have stony hearts. What are the characteristics of this stony heart? First, they dont have much sand; second, they immediately shoot up plants and thirdly, they have no depth. In verse 20, Jesus explained to the apostles the predicament of this guy with a stony heart. Jesus said, this guy is a quick growth person. This guy is always very excited to hear the word (always excited to attend conventions and conferences); but he lacks root and depth. And when persecution and tribulation hit him because of the word, he immediately crashes. Now, this group is the group of genuinely saved Christians who were not discipled. So, the lack of discipleship in their lives produced quick-success syndrome in them. They want quick results.

They dont like process. They want to start today and arrive tomorrow. They were mentored by people who have no respect for sound doctrines and in-depth grooming. Consequently, when troubles hit them, they collapse immediately. And sadly we see this group of people as ministers and as Christians all over our nation. All theyre looking for is endorsement by the big pastors. They want to associate with big trees but dont want to go very deep into root development. And that is why their characters crash under the weight of temptations. Put them in government, they will disgrace God by stealing and looting. Yet, they are deacons in some of our big churches. They have got stony hearts. Discipleship is the major key to making them giants for the lord. May everyone go back to the highway of discipleship. Amen.

Ayo Akerele, a leadership and system development strategist and minister of the word, writes from Canada and can be reached through ayoakerele2012@gmail.com.
Residents of Guga in Bakori local government area of Katsina State have faulted a claim by the Nigerian Army that it rescued 36 people from the community kidnapped by bandits.

BBC Hausa Service had reported that soldiers rescued the victims after a gun battle.

PREMIUM TIMES had reported how bandits stormed the community on February 7 and abducted 36 people including the village head, Alhaji Ummaru.

Ten other people were also killed during the attack that lasted several hours.

They were, however, released after a month, following the payment of N26 million as ransom by the community.

According to an in-law of the village head, Nafiu Muhammadu, the bandits had reached out to the family two days after the abduction and demanded a N30m ransom.

They were negotiating with the village heads junior brother and some elders in the community. But when they were informed that the sum mentioned was impossible, they promised to discuss with their leader and revert, which they did after three days, he said.

We contributed money

Speaking in a statement on behalf of the community, Mahadi Dan  Binta, said people of the village and other well-meaning people contributed the money for the release of their relatives.

He said the news story of the gun battle between bandits and soldiers was reported by the BBC Hausa in its morning bulletin on the 25 March, 2022.

I wish to respectfully refute this statement from the Nigerian Army! The statement was a total misrepresentation, misinformation and untrue! We saw it as a slap to our face and disgraceful to our dignity, he said.

Mr Dan  Binta added that the people of the village paid the money in two instalments.

His wife and daughter were among those abducted during the invasion.

The ONLY role played by the military was meeting the bandits in a pre  arranged rendezvous for a formal handing over of the captiveS for onward submission to us in a bizarre manner that was still confusing to us.

After collecting the second instalment of N11,000,000:00, from us, the bandits armed to the teeth directed us to go to either Faskari or Yankara to await further directives (this was after showing us the victims to assure/convinced us of fulfilling their part of the bargain).

It was later around 5:00 PM that I received a call from an unknown cellphone number.

The caller identified himself as a Military Officer from a Transit/Emergency Barrack from Faskari asking if I am the Chairman Bakori Local Government to which I answered to be only a community leader. He then informed me; the abducted people from Guga were in their hands and I should come for handing over to the community, he added.

Mr Dan  Binta, however, said he respects the Nigerian Army and doesnt wish to ridicule their efforts in fighting bandits.

My wish here is far away from ridiculing our gallant soldiers but to bring out the fact for publics consumption and vindicate the people of Guga that negotiated the release of the abducted people on a price, he said.
Dayo Israel, who emerged the national youth leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has urged the four others who aspired for that position to join hands with him to move the party forward.

Mr Israel, 36, emerged the partys consensus candidate for the position after initial opposition by the other aspirants.

The National Youth Leader position is one of the three national working committee offices zoned to the South-west zone of the APC. The other youth leaders who aspired for the post included Temidayo Abdullahi, Moshood Erubami, Ibrahim Alli-Balogun, Olalekan Edwards, Dada Olusegun, and Kareemat Abiola.

Lets come together because, in unity we grow, Mr Israel said in a statement he titled Victory speech.

We have a lot to offer for the progress of our party, the youth constituency and Nigeria as a whole.

I have also set up a committee to help coordinate our first series of events and engagements with young stakeholders and I have approached most of my co-aspirants and blocs including support groups in Abuja to send a representative to serve on that committee.

I would reach out to others to do same.

Mr Israel, a former aspirant for the Lagos Mainland chairmanship seat, received the endorsement of Governor Babjide Sanwo-Olu and the Lagos State chapter of the APC ahead of the other aspirants.

He said he entered the race for the national youth leader position with the sole objective of spreading greatness to young people in the APC and Nigeria.

Friends, it was not an easy feat, neither do I take for granted the sacrifices from everyone including my lovely wife, family, friends, party members, co-aspirants and my leaders; but I am delighted that this victory is for us all, Mr Israel continued in his speech.

Let me state very unequivocally that this race presented No Victor, No Vanquished, just a representative  a servant leader to oversee your affairs.

The party, APC belongs to all of us and I can assure you of an inclusive leadership, carrying everyone along. We will work together, hand in hand to ensure the greatest good for the greatest number. This is what I will do with God on our side.

Greatness is never achieved alone and it takes collective effort to experience collective growth.

I have begun that step by collecting the manifestos of most of my co-aspirants and fusing them into our agenda; and by the Grace of God, I will reach out to them and other stakeholders in our implementation effort.

Despite the selection of Mr Israel as the consensus candidate for the South-west zone, other aspirants for the position initially stuck to their guns of going into an election at the convention.

Once more I swim against tide. I'm not running in defiance of anyone but practicing my democratic rights. Indeed, I recognise consensus as one of party's acceptable leadership selection methods, which is completely legal and constitutional.  Daddy D.O (@DOlusegun) March 26, 2022

There's a fellow going around media houses with a document purportedly written and signed by me, saying I've pulled out of the race for APC National Youth Leader. It's a desperate, laughable attempt.

I remain a candidate and all reports claiming otherwise should be discarded.  Rinsola Abiola (@RinsolaAbiola) March 25, 2022

However, as the convention got underway on Saturday, aspirants for various positions, including those for the national youth leader, were asked to publicly announce their withdrawal from the contest.

Mr Olusegun, who is popular on social media for his vocal defence of the APC, was a trending name on Nigerias social media space on Sunday after his tearful announcement at the convention of his withdrawal from the race.

Mr Israel said as an aspirant, he demonstrated his readiness to work with everyone by personally reaching out to all co-contestants.

I held meetings with them. I also began conversation of collaboration with them, to see how we can go into the convention with a united front. This is because I believe that collaboration is key.
Yemi Adodo was asleep at 2 a.m. in his home in Surulere, Lagos, when the ringing of his phone nudged him awake.

Your shop is burning, the caller at the other end said.

Before he could respond, the line went dead.

Mr Adodo said he quickly put on some clothes and dashed out of his house, towards Apongbon where his shop is located under the bridge.

Immediately, I heard the news, I jogged from my house in Masha to the Island. Most of us at the extreme could not salvage anything. The fire was just sounding gbim gbim, Mr Adodo, 56, a cobbler, said.

A fire had broken out at the popular Apongbon market. The cause of the inferno, which forced motorists heading towards Lagos Island to experience hours of gruelling gridlock, is yet to be ascertained.

The Lagos State Transport Management Agency (LASTMA) has advised motorists heading to the Island via Eko Bridge to use alternative routes.

The state government had also shut the bridge and gave the traders a 48-hour quit notice to evacuate their makeshift shops and containers.

As of Friday, PREMIUM TIMES observed that some parts of the area were still burning as scavengers dug their way through the rubble. Clouds of smoke still hung in the air, and a part of the bridge has been cordoned off after the heat of the fire damaged it.

Mr Adodo told this newspaper that the government fire operatives, alongside fire officials from the United Bank for Africa (UBA) fought to quench the fire that lasted for many hours.

Witnesses said that two fire fighters and one trader fainted while combating the inferno.

The ever-busy section of the bridge has been reduced to ashes as many traders wondered where to start from.

Adekunle Omooba, an electrician, lost two shops in the inferno.

Mr Omooba said he did a night watch on the morning of the incident. He claimed the fire started from a traders shop that sells chemical tablets.

Where do we start from? I lost two generators, more than 20 televisions belonging to customers. I could not salvage anything because of the smoke.

By the time the fire operatives came, it had expanded. The fire started at 2 a.m. I lost between N450,000 to N500,000.

He said he has been frequenting the place because he doesnt have most of his customers contacts.

I have TV sets that are as old as two years that customers are yet to claim, he said.

It is painful but Im thankful that nobody died.

Mr Adodo, who has been doing business in Lagos Island for more than 15 years, said immediately he got to his workplace, due to the thick black smoke, he could not enter his shop.

However, he helped his fellow traders,those whose shops were still accessible, to evacuate their goods.

I left my former place because of a fire incident about 15 years ago. We lost billions here, he said.

He said that a few minutes after he got there, he saw some scavengers trying to make away with some of the items but he had a fight with them and sent them away.

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Traders lament

Toyin Kofoshi, the market leader, said she lost two shops to the inferno.

The debt is too much and we dont know where to start from. Im not happy with the incident. It is sad, she said, shaking her head.

When asked to do a rough estimate of her loss, she said we thank God. It is a lot of money. I Iyaloja (market leader), Kososhi market (the name of the market) appeal to the government to please help us.

She noted that she didnt receive any quit notice letter but heard on television that the federal government has given them till the end of the month to evacuate the area.

Before the arrival of the market leader, this newspaper spoke with another leader in the nearby ECOWAS Market, Toke Dosumu.

The market is basically foodstuffs, sugar, butter, cake accessories. It could have been worse if not for the intervention of LASEMA and UBA, she said.

We want the government to show us mercy. Some of the traders are widows, breadwinners in their families. Some traders have goods as high as 70 million, 30 million.

At the market on Friday, traders were seen standing, some were sitting and watching as their container shops were being taken into a nearby truck in what seemed like an evacuation move.

As Mustapha Eyitayo, an executive member of the Kososhi market and drink seller, sat to speak with this newspaper, some passersby stopped by to show concern and pray for him over the loss of his shop and goods.

Pointing toward the eight freezers he couldnt salvage, he said, It was around 2 a.m. The heat was too much so I could not go in, I had to wait. I was perplexed.

Each freezer contains drinks of N45,000, then bottled water 13 packs, thats N21, 000.

The incident occurred days after Sikirat Suenu had just been put to bed. Mrs Suenu and her friend, Fatimo Bakare, both of them drinks sellers, said they lost all their freezers which they described as cold rooms.

They appealed to the government to come to their rescue and make provisions for another area where they can engage in their trade.

Mr Adodo said the most painful experience was losing his equipment and the material he bought a week before the incident.

He said following the incident, a customer that gave him two pairs of Italian shoes for repairs had been disturbing him. Mr Adodo said he had explained to the customer about the incident but he wasnt having it.

He told this newspaper that he came to the area to meet with the customer. As of 4 p.m. on Friday, he was still waiting for the customer, uncertain about the final outcome.
Plattsburgh, NY (12901)

Today

Considerable clouds early. Some decrease in clouds later in the day. High 59F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Mostly clear skies. Low 37F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph.
KIGALI, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Rwandan citizens on Saturday formally resumed monthly community work, locally known as Umuganda, after significant decline in COVID-19 infections, for the first time since the outbreak of COVID-19 in March 2020.

About 1,500 people gathered at Bumbogo, in a suburb of Rwanda's capital city, Kigali, to clear bushes, drainage channels and to sweep the streets during community work.

"We have here about 1,500 people that have attended Umuganda, including officials from different entities and organs. The population is very much excited to participate in Umuganda," Pudence Rubingisa, mayor of Kigali City, told Xinhua in an interview at the event.

He said that people were affected by the pandemic and large gatherings like community work could not be organized.

"People are excited to participate in the traditional Umuganda that has been there for quite long as one of our home grown solutions. They are excited to participate in the reconstruction of the Kigali City like cleaning and mitigating climate change," said Rubingisa.

According to him, during the community work, they participated in curbing consequences of the heavy rains the country experienced over the last couple of weeks by clearing water drainage channels and trenches.

Noel Nshimiyimana, one of the residents of Bumbogo, said he was happy to participate in Umuganda again after such a long time.

"Because Umuganda is a good initiative that is very important to our community development and our country," he told Xinhua.

Vanessa Umutoni, another Bumbogo resident, said Umuganda is a very a good initiative for Rwandan community because it contributes to improving and protecting the environment.

"I am very happy to be here and many people have been able to participate," she said. "I think over the next couple of months, it is going to be better."

"Despite what COVID-19 had done to Rwandan community over the last two years, it doesn't change the fact that we are still committed to thrive and to also improve our country together. Umuganda shows community development, partnership and togetherness," said Umutoni.

Rwanda has witnessed a fall in COVID-19 infections since the beginning of 2022.

Taking root from Rwandan culture of self-help and cooperation, Umuganda, held on the last Saturday of each month, can be translated as "coming together in common purpose to achieve an outcome," according to Rwanda Governance Board.

In 1998, the Rwandan government reintroduced Umuganda as part of efforts to rebuild the country after the 1994 Rwandan genocide against Tutsi. 
HANGZHOU, China and SHAOXING, China, March 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ascletis Pharma Inc. (HKEX:1672) today announces that the latest preclinical research results of the company's two novel anti-cancer drug candidates, ASC61, an oral PD-L1 inhibitor and ASC60, an oral fatty acid synthase (FASN) inhibitor have been selected for presentations at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2022 (the "2022 AACR Annual Meeting"), and the abstracts have already been published on AACR's official website.

The AACR annual meeting is one of the world's largest and long-standing scientific gatherings in the field of cancer research. Covering some of the most cutting-edge advances in all areas of oncology research and innovation, the annual event attracts tremendous interest from the global cancer research community. The AACR annual meeting for this year will be held in New Orleans, Louisiana on April 8 to 13, 2022 CDT.

The abstracts selected for poster presentations at the 2022 AACR Annual Meeting are as follows:

1 ASC61

Abstract Title: In vivo efficacy evaluation of ASC61, an oral PD-L1 inhibitor, in two tumor mouse models

Presentation Type: Poster Presentation

Poster Presentation Abstract Number: 5529

5529 Session Category: Immunology

Immunology Session Title: Preclinical Immunotherapy

Preclinical Immunotherapy Presentation time: April 8, 2022, 12:00PM  1:00 PM CDT

April 8, 2022,  Presenter/Authors: Jinzi J. Wu, Handan He . Ascletis BioScience Co., Ltd.

ASC61 is an oral potent and highly selective PD-L1 small molecule inhibitor and blocks PD-1/PD-L1 interaction through inducing PD-L1 dimerization and internalization. Preclinical studies showed that ASC61 demonstrated significant antitumor efficacies and were well-tolerated in both syngeneic and humanized tumor mouse models. ASC61 was found to have favorably comparable antitumor activities as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved PD-L1 therapeutic monoclonal antibody (mAb), Atezolizumab. The Phase I study of ASC61 in advanced solid tumors has received the U.S. IND approval by FDA, and the first patient is planned to be enrolled in the second quarter of 2022.

2 ASC60

Abstract Title: Efficacy of ASC60, an oral fatty acid synthase inhibitor, in two tumor mouse models

Presentation Type: Poster Presentation

Poster Presentation Abstract Number: 5466

5466 Session Category: Experimental and Molecular Therapeutics

Experimental and Molecular Therapeutics Session Title: Small Molecule Therapeutic Agents

Small Molecule Therapeutic Agents Presentation time: April 8, 2022, 12:00PM  1:00 PM CDT

April 8, 2022,  Presenter/Authors: Jinzi J. Wu, Handan He . Ascletis BioScience Co., Ltd.

ASC60 is a potent, selective and safe oral small molecule inhibitor of FASN. ASC60 can disrupt metabolism and tumor-associated signal transduction in tumor cells through inhibition of de novo lipogenesis (DNL). Preclinical studies showed that ASC60 could suppress tumor growth and enhance the antitumor activities of mPD-1 antibody in tumor mouse models. The application of the Phase I study of ASC60 in patients with advanced solid tumors has been submitted to the Center for Drug Evaluation (CDE) of the National Medical Products Administration of China (NMPA).

"It is our great pleasure to have the research results of our drug candidates selected by the AACR annual meeting," said Dr. Jinzi J. Wu, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Ascletis. "ASC61, an oral PD-L1 inhibitor, and ASC60, an oral FASN inhibitor, have better patient compliance and are easier to be combined with other oral anti-tumor drugs. These studies deepened our understanding of our drug candidates' mechanism of actions and anti-tumor activities in animal models as well as advanced our clinical development of Company's oncology pipelines. As we are advancing the Phase III clinical trial of ASC40, another FASN inhibitor, in combination with Bevacizumab for the treatment of recurrent glioblastoma (rGBM), we are exploring opportunities for all-oral combinations between ASC61 and ASC40 (or ASC60) as well as other oral anti-tumor drugs from our business partners."

About Ascletis

Ascletis is an innovative R&D driven biotech listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (1672.HK), a global platform covering the entire value chain from discovery and development to manufacturing and commercialization. Ascletis is committed to developing and commercializing innovative drugs in the areas of viral diseases, NASH/PBC, and cancer (oral cancer metabolic checkpoint and immune checkpoint inhibitors) to address unmet medical needs both in China and globally. Led by a management team with deep expertise and a proven track record, Ascletis targets those therapeutic areas with unmet medical needs from a global perspective, and efficiently advances the developments of pipelines with an aim of leading in global competition. To date, Ascletis has three marketed products and 20 robust R&D pipelines of drug candidates with global competitiveness, and is actively exploring new therapeutic areas.

1. Viral Diseases: (1) Hepatitis B Virus (functional cure): focus on breakthrough therapies for CHB functional cure with a subcutaneously-injected PD-L1 antibody  ASC22 and Pegasys as cornerstone drugs. (2) COVID-19 pipeline: currently includes (i) ritonavir oral tablet (100 mg), an authorized product, (ii) ASC10, an oral RNA dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) inhibitor and (iii) ASC11, an oral 3-chymotrypsin like protease (3CLpro) inhibitor. (3) HIV/AIDS: ASC22, an immune therapy to restore HIV-specific immune responses and eventually lead to a functional cure of HIV-infected patients. (4) Hepatitis C: successfully launched an all-oral regimen of combining ASCLEVIR and GANOVO (RDV/DNV regimen).

2. Non-alcoholic Steatohepatitis/Primary Biliary Cholangitis: Gannex, a wholly-owned company of Ascletis, is dedicated to the R&D and commercialization of new drugs in the field of NASH. Gannex has three clinical stage drug candidates against three different targets  FASN, THR and FXR, three fixed-dose combinations for NASH and one PBC program targeting FXR.

3. Cancer (oral cancer metabolic checkpoint and immune checkpoint inhibitors): a pipeline of oral inhibitors targeting FASN, which plays a key role in cancer lipid metabolism, and a pipeline of oral PD-L1 small molecule next generation immune checkpoint inhibitors.

4. Exploratory Indications: Acne: Following NASH and recurrent GBM, the third indication for ASC40 has been approved to enter Phase 2 clinical trial. For more information, please visit www.ascletis.com.

SOURCE Ascletis Pharma Inc.
PHILADELPHIA, March 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading construction demolition attorneys and safety advocates from Saltz Mongeluzzi & Bendesky P.C. are available to discuss the catastrophic incident at an active Boston construction site that resulted in the death of a demolition-equipment operator working on the ninth floor of the building.

Attorney Robert J. Mongeluzzi, a national authority on all phases of construction, demolition and structural safety, said on behalf of SMB, "We are deeply sorry for the senseless loss of life in the partial collapse of the Boston parking structure mid-demolition. Our condolences to the family and friends of the equipment operator whose safety should have been assured, especially working in a highly dangerous environment - the ninth floor of a structure being demolished. The scenes of this tragedy  including the pancaked parking decks - are eerily similar to past disasters in which innocent lives were lost in what were eventually determined to be predicable and preventable disasters."

SMB's Andrew R. Duffy, added, "From the standpoint of worker and public safety, meticulously designed and implemented demolitions should never result in an incident of this magnitude. To avoid a recurrence, there must be full accountability and transparency by all those involved."

SMB is widely recognized for successfully representing victims of catastrophic structural failures in the US and abroad; the firm is currently among the lead plaintiffs' counsel in last year's Surfside high-rise condominium collapse near Miami that resulted in nearly 100 deaths, and previously represented families of loved ones killed in the Atlantic City Tropicana Parking Garage Collapse and the Philadelphia Salvation Army Building Collapse. www.smbb.com. The firm has the largest verdict for an individual construction worker ($75.6 million), the largest settlement of a demolition case ($227 million) and the largest settlement of a construction case ($101 million) and has recovered more than a billion dollars for construction workers. The firm has been called "the best construction accident lawyers in the country" and Mongeluzzi has been called the best construction accident attorney in the world and "the king of construction accidents."

SOURCE Saltz Mongeluzzi & Bendesky
Mogadishu, March 27 : African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) military engineers concluded a four-day training to counter the growing threat posed by improvised explosive devices (IEDs) widely used by al-Shabab terrorists.

The training ended on Friday evening which was attended by 20 military engineers from various AMISOM outposts and some staff officers with roles pertaining to countering the threat posed by IEDs, focused on building participants' capacity to identify and dispose of IEDs and mitigate the threat in time.

"It is only by increasing our awareness, participation in and understanding of the IED threat that we will be able to mitigate the enemy's tactics, techniques and procedures in order to better protect our soldiers and ultimately defeat the enemy," AMISOM chief force engineer Saheed Sadiq said in a statement issued in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

Sadiq added that the evolving nature of the enemy's tactics calls for constant re-evaluation of personnel skills in countering IEDs and updating them on new trends in the network so that they are able to operate efficiently and deliver on the mission mandate, Xinhua news agency reported.

According to AMISOM, IEDs are the preferred weapon of choice for the al-Shabab, who often plant them on main supply routes, targeting AMISOM and government troops, but civilians often get hit.

It said the IEDs constitute one of the most significant threats to AU peacekeepers, making the training extremely important, especially in efforts to defeat the IEDs.

The training, which was organised by the AMISOM Training Cell and the United Kingdom Mission Support Team, called on participants to consistently ensure that every member on the counter-IED network while out in the field is aware of their specific role to minimise casualties due to IED attacks.
Juba, March 27 : The UN relief agency has called on South Sudan to protect communities, humanitarian personnel and assets across the country after the killing of three aid workers.

Sara Beysolow Nyanti, the Humanitarian Coordinator in South Sudan and Arafat Jamal, the Humanitarian Coordinator ad interim (a.i.) who condemned the incident, which occurred on Thursday, urged the perpetrators to respect international law and humanitarian staff and assets.

"This attack is completely unacceptable. This is not the first of these incidents in this area. Criminals who choose to use violence to serve themselves ensure vulnerable people suffer more. If humanitarians and humanitarian assets are not protected, humanitarian assistance to that area will have to stop," Nyanti said in a joint statement issued in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, on Friday evening.

A convoy of commercial trucks carrying vital life-saving food commodities from the UN World Food Programme (WFP) was attacked between Gadiang and Yuai in Jonglei state on Thursday, Xinhua news agency reported.

Three people on the convoy were killed, and one person was wounded.

The Humanitarian Coordinator in South Sudan is currently visiting donor capitals to raise the profile of the needs of people in South Sudan and advocating for support.

"When humanitarian assistance is attacked, it is the people in need who suffer. Indeed, such incidents discourage those donor countries who would otherwise invest in South Sudan," she said.

Jamal on his part called on the government to immediately implement its commitments to ensure civilians, including humanitarians, are safe.

"I have unfailing admiration for everyone who helps and supports people in need. It is devastating to realise that people undertaking vital work can be executed so heartlessly. The crime is compounded when these attacks go unpunished. These killers must not be allowed to roam free," he said.

South Sudan, which is one of the most dangerous places for aid workers saw 319 violent incidents reported in 2021 targeting humanitarian personnel and assets, with five aid workers killed, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Istanbul, March 27 : Turkey's Defence Minister Hulusi Akar has said the object found in the waters of the Bosphorus Strait was a mine and was deactivated by underwater defense teams.

Speaking to the state-run Anadolu agency in Doha, the capital of Qatar, Akar on Saturday added that Turkey has discussed the issue with both Russian and Ukrainian authorities and their coordination was underway, Xinhua news agency reported.

Maritime traffic resumed in the area where the mine was found after necessary coordination was made with the Coast Guard and other relevant institutions and organisations, Anadolu agency quoted the Minister as saying.

The Turkish Navy has been closely monitoring similar situations in the region, according to the Minister.

The Defense Ministry announced earlier that a "mine-like object" was detected at the northern entrance of the Bosphorus Strait, off the coast of Sariyer district in northern Istanbul.

The strait, which connects the Black Sea and the Marmara Sea, was temporarily closed to traffic after the announcement.

Turkey said on Wednesday that necessary measures were taken to deal with allegedly drifting mines in the Black Sea after they broke off from anchor cables near Ukrainian ports.
Mogadishu, March 27 : A senior al-Shabab militant has surrendered to the Somali government forces amid ongoing security operations to flush out members of the terrorist group in the southwest region.

The Somali National Army (SNA) officials told the state-owned Radio Mogadishu that the senior militant who has been coordinating attacks in Baidoa town and its environs for the past five years defected after reaching out to the SNA on Saturday.

Several al-Shabab leaders have surrendered to government forces in the recent past during the security operations in southern and central regions, Xinhua news agency reported.

The move comes as the militants have been launching bold attacks targeting government and electoral delegates taking part in the ongoing national elections.

The extremist group on Wednesday mounted one of its deadliest attacks in the capital, Mogadishu and in the regional presidential palace in the central town of Beledweyne where more than 50 people were killed and more than 100 others wounded in the attack.
Kiev, March 27 : Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said Kiev insists on a system of security guarantees for Ukraine as one of the key elements of negotiations with Russia, the presidential press service reported.

During an interview with German media, Podolyak on Saturday stressed that such a system "is impossible without the participation of the US in the first place." According to the Negotiator, the future of Crimea, certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk should be decided only by the Presidents of Ukraine and Russia, Xinhua news agency reported.

He called on Ukraine's partners to provide air defense systems, give weapons to "adequately help" Kiev, adding that sanctions, such as oil embargoes and restrictions on financial transactions, are also needed.

Earlier this March, Ukrainian Presidential Advisor said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin may hold talks soon.

However, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday said it is too early to talk about a meeting between the two Presidents, as there is no breakthrough yet in the peace talks.

Ukrainian and Russian delegations held three rounds of peace talks in-person in Belarus since February 28, and the fourth one started on March 14 in a format of video conference.

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
Warsaw, March 27 : US President Joe Biden met with Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov during his visit to Poland, "for an update on Ukraine's military, diplomatic and humanitarian situation," according to the White House.

Biden on Saturday dropped in a meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and their Ukranian counterparts, Kuleba and Reznikov.

They discussed "further efforts to help Ukraine defend its territory" and the US and its allies' ongoing actions towards Russia, the White House said in statement.

In a tweet, Ukrainian Foreign Minister said the meeting between Ukrainian Ministers and US Secretaries allowed him to seek "practical decisions in both political and defense spheres in order to fortify Ukraine's ability to fight back," while Ukrainian Defence Minister tweeted that he acquired "cautious optimism." The US President is visiting Poland, after attending the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) summit, G7 gathering and the summit of the European Council -- three intensive summits in two days with the Ukraine crisis as major focus, Xinhua news agency reported.

Biden tried to coax a display of unity with European partners, but failed to talk them into concerted actions against Russia.

The NATO summit concluded on Thursday with no agreement to impose additional sanctions against Moscow, especially the country's oil and gas products. Nor did the European Council summit succeed in reaching a consensus on the same issue.

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
PHNOM PENH, March 27 (Xinhua) -- The second edition of the Cambodian Voice of Persons with Disabilities contest for the Prime Minister's Award will be launched from April 2022 to May 2023, Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said here on Saturday.

The opening ceremony of the contest will kick off in capital Phnom Penh, with the semi-finals being held in the coastal province of Preah Sihanouk and the finals in the cultural province of Siem Reap.

"The event aims at providing an opportunity to people with disabilities throughout the country to show their abilities and artistic talents in traditional and contemporary music," he said.

"It is also to show the Cambodian government's policy in which Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen always supports, promotes and pays high attention to people with disabilities in order to give them decent living conditions," he added.

Kanharith said the event is announced after the COVID-19 situation in the southeast Asian nation has been brought under control and most of the kingdom's 16 million population have been vaccinated against the disease.

He said with its high vaccination rate, Cambodia has fully resumed its socio-economic activities in all sectors and reopened its borders to fully vaccinated travelers without quarantine since the middle of November last year.

The contest is organized by the Ministry of Information with support from the prime minister, relevant ministries and private companies.

According to the minister, the first contest was held in 2017 and 2018. 
Sofia, March 27 : Bulgarian President Rumen Radev has said he would not allow his country to be involved in the conflict in Ukraine, according to a press release by his press office.

"As Head of state, I will not allow Bulgaria to be involved in this conflict," Radev added on Saturday while answering a question about Bulgaria's decision, along with Hungary, of not to send weapons to Ukraine.

I was elected to defend the security of Bulgarians and peace in Bulgaria, he said.

"The price of war is paid by the citizens, not the television preachers," he added.

"My concern is the people," the President said.

According to Bulgarian Constitution, the President is the Supreme Commander in Chief of the country's Armed Forces, Xinhua news agency reported.

Last November, Radev was elected for the second consecutive five-year term.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov told a joint press conference after talks with visiting US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin last week that they have not discussed any military assistance to Ukraine.
Tunis, March 27 : Tunisian security forces have revealed that it had foiled a planned stabbing attack on Interior Minister Taoufik Charfeddine and dismantled the concerned terrorist cell.

The terrorists had prepared to attack the Minister during his visit to the southeast of Tunisia in early January, National Guard spokesman Houcemeddine Jbabli told a press conference in Tunis on Saturday.

"The terrorist cell, which attacked a security patrol in Douz on January 4 in the southeastern province of Kebili, was planning to stab the Minister during his visit to the region," the private radio station Mosaique FM quoted Jbabli as saying.

Investigators found that an element of the fraction was in contact with other terrorists in the eastern coastal provinces of Medenine and Sousse, Xinhua news agency reported.

National Guard spokesman said the security forces have dismantled 148 terrorist cells in the past six months and thwarted a series of their plots on Tunisia soil.
Khartoum, March 27 : Sudan has condemned the Yemeni Houthi rebels' attacks on civilian facilities in Saudi Arabia.

"Sudan condemns in the strongest terms the Houthi militia for its continued launch of explosive-laden drones toward the southern region of Saudi Arabia," said the Sudanese Foreign Ministry in a statement on Saturday.

The Houthi attacks "exposed civilians and civilian facilities to danger" and caused "a serious escalation in the region," the Ministry said.

The Ministry reaffirmed Sudan's firm support for Saudi Arabia against any danger that targets its security and stability, noting Houthis' rejection to any peace initiative from Saudi Arabia, Xinhua news agency reported.

Yemen's Houthi militia on Friday claimed responsibility for fresh cross-border drone and missile attacks on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia's Jeddah and the capital Riyadh, the third such attack in less than a week.
Panaji, March 27 : Handpicked in 2019 by the then Chief Minister late Manohar Parrikar as his successor, Pramod Sawant, at the time the Speaker of the state Assembly, had his task pretty much cut out because the hand which blessed his credentials was the same hand which had guided the Goa BJP's destiny for nearly three decades.

In 2022, however, despite leading the BJP to a win in the state Assembly polls, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant's political battles do not appear to have ended.

Sawant had to fight off challengers to the throne this time round, in the form of his former Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho and former Health Minister Vishwajit Rane. While Godinho let go his ambitions in a rather meek manner, it took a meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah on March 20 to hammer out the differences between Sawant and Rane and clear the former's path to the chief minister's chair once again.

With just one day to go for the swearing-in ceremony of the Sawant cabinet, the current challenge before the Chief Minister would be the selection of the knights at his government table.

The Goa cabinet is capped at 12 members (including the chief minister) and according to BJP sources, the Chief Minister is not expected to fill up all the ministerial slots on March 28 itself.

BJP national general secretary CT Ravi has already hinted at more opposition MLAs switching their support to the treasury benches in the near future and a few cabinet berths are expected to be left vacant just to draw in additional support to the 25-MLA strong ruling apparatus in the 40-member state legislative assembly.

"The government currently enjoys the support of 25 MLAs. 20 from the BJP and five including independents and MGP. In the house, at the time of proving majority, we could get more support. This is the situation," Ravi said earlier this week.

Sawant's foremost challenge would be the allocation of portfolios to his chief in-house rival Rane.

The ambitious son of former Congress Chief Minister Pratapsingh Rane, switched from the Congress to the BJP in 2017 and had openly defied and virtually challenged Sawant's leadership during the Covid pandemic, when differences between the two BJP leaders spilled out in the open.

Party sources said that during the meeting with Shah, Rane, after being told to accept Sawant's leadership, had made a pitch for a ministry more prestigious than the Health Ministry, which he had previously held from 2017-2022.

Rane may be tipped for the lucrative Finance or Public Works Department portfolios, according to a senior BJP leader, who added that the call would be dependent on how the BJP decides to factor in the support of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and its two MLAs. The leader of the MGP legislature party Sudin Dhavalikar has held the PWD portfolio on numerous occasions under both Congress and BJP-led alliances over two decades.

While the MGP could be considered surplus to the BJP's requirement to form a government right now, the regional party's support may be critical to the BJP's success in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Party sources said that a first-time elected independent MLA Dr Chandrakant Shetye, a well known eye specialist who has supported the BJP-led coalition, may be given the Health Ministry portfolio, while another independent MLA, a former Congress legislator Aleixo Reginaldo may also be included in the Pramod Sawant cabinet.

The Chief Minister is expected to hold key portfolios like Home, Finance, Education, etc, while the party's MLA from Shiroda Subhash Shirodkar may be the BJP's candidate for the Speaker's post.

The other MLAs who are likely to be sworn-in during the first round on March 28, could include former Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho, former Revenue Minister Rohan Khaunte, former Art and Culture Minister Govind Gaude, former Power Minister Nilesh Cabral and former Congress Chief Minister and now BJP MLA Ravi Naik.

According to the BJP's Goa poll in-charge Devendra Fadnavis it is the High Command which aids the Chief Ministers when it comes to cabinet formation, but according to Sawant the decisions have yet to be made.

"That will be decided later. How can I tell you this now," he said.

State BJP president Sadanand Shet Tanavade said that he was not aware if all 11 ministers would be sworn in along with the CM on March 28.

"We do not know yet. That is the CM's right. Whether it will be at a time or phase wise, a decision has not been made yet," he said.
Srinagar, March 27 : The brother of a special police officer (SPO), who was injured along with the SPO in militant firing in Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam district, succumbed to critical injuries on Sunday.

Police sources said, "Umer Jan, a student and the brother of slain SPO succumbed to injuries at 5 a.m. at JVC hospital Bemina." "SPO Ishfaq Ahmad and Umar had received serious bullet wounds. Ishfaq was declared brought dead at the hospital yesterday.

"Umer was battling for life, but breathed his last today morning".

Militants had fired at and injured the SPO and his brother in the Chatabugh village of Budgam district Saturday evening.

The area was cordoned off for searches immediately after the attack, but there has been no official word on any arrests made so far in this incident.

The killings have been condemned by former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Apni Party president, Altaf Bukhari and others.
Lucknow, March 27 : It has been a case of the most getting the least. The top five BJP winners in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections have, ironically, been left out in the government formation for reasons not known.

The biggest winner of the recent Assembly elections was Sunil Sharma, who won from the Sahibabad Assembly seat by a massive margin of over 2.14 lakh votes. He defeated Samajwadi Party's Amarpal Sharma, who garnered just over 22 per cent votes.

Sharma's name was not present in the list of ministers.

Pankaj Singh, who had won his Noida seat with a record margin of 1.81 lakh votes, was also kept out of the ministry.

Pankaj, son of Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, is the vice-president in state BJP and has been playing a pivotal role in organisational functioning. He has also been in-charge of Gorakhpur.

Party sources said that Pankaj was denied a ministerial position because his father is already a minister.

Another such candidate is Amit Agarwal from Meerut Cantt. Agarwal had defeated RLD's Manish Ahlawat by 1.12 lakh votes.

Purushottam Khandelwal, who won from Agra north by 1.12 lakh votes, also remained out of the council of ministers.

Senior party leader Shrikant Sharma was dropped from the council of ministers even though he defeated Pradeep Mathur of Congress by 1.09 lakh votes.

"It is clear that performance in elections was certainly not a criterion for selection of ministers. People may have voted in large numbers for a particular candidate but when the selection for ministers takes place, other factors like caste, lobbying matter more which is unfortunate.

"A person who has faced defeat gets back his post because of lobbying and those who strived to excel in polls are left out in the cold. It is better to focus more on lobbying than on winning elections," said one such candidate who has won for the fifth time but has been denied a ministerial position.
San Francisco, March 27 : Ride-hailing company Uber has secured a 30-month license to continue operating in London, ending a protracted battle with city regulators over whether the ride-hailing app was "fit and proper".

"Uber has been granted a London private hire vehicle operator's license for a period of two and a half years," a Transport for London spokesperson said was quoted as saying in a statement by Engadget.

The move ends a years-long spat with the agency, which twice revoked Uber's London license -- once in 2017, and a second time in 2019.

Authorities were concerned about the company's ability to keep passengers safe. Uber subsequently won an 18-month London permit in court, the report said.

Uber has sought to turn on the charm over the years, adding new safety features to its platform and striking a deal with Britain's GMB to formally recognise the labor union for its private hire drivers.

The company reclassified all its UK drivers as workers last year after the country's top court ruled a group of drivers should be treated as workers instead of independent contractors, entitling them to employment protections like a minimum wage, holiday pay and pensions.
Kabul, March 27 : A protest was staged in Kabul against the Taliban-led government's decision not to reopen schools for girls from classes 7-12 across Afghanistan.

At the protest on Saturday staged at the gate of the Ministry of Education, participants were chanting slogans like "education is our absolute right", "we are tired of ignorance", "shame on the international community", "you took my land, don't take my education" and "seeking education is obligatory on male and female", Khaama Press reported.

The demonstration was attended by parents, female activists, students and a few young men.

"We gathered today to voice this shared pain and to not allow a generation to be deprived of education," TOLO News quoted Monisa, a female rights activist, as saying at the protest.

Fatima, a student, saud that she was "going to study in grade 11, but unfortunately, when the Taliban came to power, our schools were closed. As the boys have the right to education, we girls also have the right".

On March 23, the Ministry of Education announced that girls only up to grade 6th will be allowed to attend classes while the others have to wait until further notice.

The Ministry further said that it has sent a plan to the Prime Minister's Office, reports TOLO News.

Aziz-ur-Rahman Rayan, a spokesman for the Ministry, said all preparations had been made for the re-opening of schools, but that the group's central leadership had ordered them to stay closed until, "a comprehensive plan has been prepared according to Sharia and Afghan culture", the BBC reported.

Since the fall of Afghanistan in August last year, only girls' primary schools have remained open, along with all boys' schools in most parts of the country.

Before the Taliban took power, secondary schools in Afghanistan were already segregated by gender, whilst the uniform consisted of a black outfit and white hijab.
Thiruvananthapuram, March 27 : One person was killed and another grievously injured in gunshot firing when a man fired at them near a wayside eatery in Moolamattam of Kerala's Idukki.

The incdient happened late Saturday night. The deceased has been identified as Sanal Sabu while his friend Pradeep is battling for life at a private hospital in Thodupuzha.

Police have arrested a person, Martin Joseph for the crime.

Soumya, the owner of the wayside eatery while speaking to IANS said, "Two persons reached the shop late on Saturday night and created issues when we told them that meat curry was not there and I was exhausted as it was late in the night.

"The men became violent and started showering abuses at me when two youths who were having food at the eatery intervened and asked the men to keep quiet. This infuriated the men and one of them entered into a physical confrontation with the youths. After that they went off and then came back and fired at these two youths, one died on the spot after being hit by a bullet on his head. The other is battling for life at a private hospital." Police said that the detained person, Martin Joseph has confessed to the crime. He had stolen a local country rifle from someone else, said the police.

Joseph was said to be in an inebriated condition at the time of the incident.

With Pradeep's condition turning critical, the situation in Idukki was tense and a heavy police contingent was deployed.
Moscow, March 27 : The iPhone maker has announced that Apple Pay will no longer support Russian card payment system Mir. Several Russians used Mir to bypass the Apple ban in the country after the Ukraine invasion.

Apple has notified the National Payment Card System (NSPK) that it is suspending support for Mir cards in the Apple Pay payment service, reports Tass.

"Apple informed NSPK that it is suspending support for Mir cards in the Apple Pay payment service. Since March 24, loading new Mir cards into the service has become unavailable. Previously loaded cards will be stopped by Apple over the next few days," the company said.

Mir is owned by the Central Bank of Russia and makes up around 32 per cent of all new cards issued in the country.

Apple notified Sberbank of the suspension of further use of Mir payment system cards in the Apple Pay electronic wallet.

Bank customers using Android-based smartphones will still be able to pay by phone via SberPay (Android NFC).

Google is also taking steps to cut ties with Mir.

The tech giant reportedly paused a pilot programme that let users connect their Mir cards to Google Pay.

"Google Pay is pausing payments-related services in Russia as a result of payment services disruption out of our control," a Google spokesperson said in a statement to Wall Street Journal.

Many Russian users have been cut off from Apple Pay and Google Pay as part of the wider economic sanctions on Russia in the wake of Ukraine invasion.

Earlier this month, Visa and MasterCard suspended their operations in Russia.

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
BEIJING, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Prior to U.S. President Joe Biden's visit to Europe, a display of "unity," the European Union rolled out a "Strategic Compass" as a guide to strengthen the bloc's security and defense policy.

The plan of action, ratified on Monday, is widely seen as a move for the EU to cut dependence on Washington for defense, and realize strategic autonomy amid a deteriorating security environment, as a conflict has been flaring up between Ukraine and Russia.

"Today I think everybody is convinced that Europe is in danger," Josep Borrell, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, addressed a recent press conference.

In fact, it is Washington that has dragged Europe into this dangerous quagmire.

The United States, in utter disregard of Russia's legitimate concerns, drove five waves of NATO expansion eastward all the way to Russia's doorstep, incessantly squeezed Russia's security space and challenged the country's strategic bottom line until a military conflict broke out between Russia and Ukraine.

Following the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Washington has rushed to fan the flames, pushing other Western countries to join it in providing Ukraine with money and weapons, and pound Russia with all-round and indiscriminate sanctions.

Analysts say that for Washington, the fallout of an escalating Russia-Ukraine conflict is well foreseeable, but nearly painless, because it does not bear the brunt.

Europe does. Now the pain has become increasingly acute -- soaring food and energy prices, mounting security concerns and a sudden influx of refugees, among others -- a heavy price to pay.

A weaker Europe also serves U.S. interest. In the wake of America's botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, many Western political pundits predicted that "the American era is ending."

The Russia-Ukraine conflict has offered the United States an opportunity to reinforce its dominant role in the European security order, and possibly revive the so-called "American Era."

And it seems that Washington's fear-mongering has worked. Some Europeans countries, despite having no strong will for Ukraine's NATO accession, have beefed up their national defense since the conflict, convinced that the Ukrainian crisis is a security crisis for Europe as a whole and NATO is what they can count on.

"The Russian invasion has bonded America to Europe more tightly than at any time since the Cold War," the New York Times opined in a recent article.

Perhaps the Europeans need to seriously rethink whether a wantonly expanding NATO is truly conducive to peace and stability in Europe in the long run. The newly approved "Strategic Compass" offers a clue that the EU is well aware of its need of stronger strategic autonomy, not weaker.

After all, Europe is Europe, not America. A failure to peacefully coexist with neighbouring Russia may spell ages of challenges and woes.

Unlike the United States, Europe can not afford an immediate ban of oil and gas imports from its traditional key energy supplier of Russia, as was recently signaled by the French presidential palace.

From long-arm jurisdiction over European enterprises to slapping tariffs in the name of "national security," a self-serving Washington barely hesitates to throw allies under the bus if needed.

Thierry de Montbrial, founder and executive chairman of the French Institute for International Relations, said that the Russia-Ukraine conflict awakens Europe to the importance of "taking its destiny into its own hands."

The time has come for European policymakers to sober up to the high-stake reality. They need to reposition the EU in terms of defense, and truly obtain strategic autonomy so that they can steer the bloc towards a more secure future. 
Seoul, March 27 : Outgoing South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his successor Yoon Suk-yeol will hold their first meeting on Monday, their aides said on Sunday.

The two are set to hold a dinner meeting at the Sangchunje guest house on Monday, 19 days after Yoon was elected Moon's successor, Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson Park Kyung-mee and the President-elect's spokesperson Kim Eun-hye said in separate press briefings.

Moon and Yoon will be accompanied by Presidential Chief of Staff Yoo Young-min and the latter's top aide, Rep. Chang Je-won, reports Yonhap News Agency.

The decision on their meeting was finalised after Moon offered to meet Yoon at the "earliest possible" date, while the latter expressed his hope to meet without any agenda and engage in "candid" dialogue, according to the briefings.

Their meeting comes amid controversies over some of Yoon's plans, including a push for the relocation of the presidential office to the Defense Ministry compound.

Moon and Yoon were supposed to have a meeting March 16, but it was cancelled amid news reports of a stand-off over the President-elect's hurried drive for the relocation of the presidential office and nominations for some key government posts.

Their planned rendezvous comes 19 days after the March 9 presidential election, the farthest time past an election that a president and a president-elect in South Korea will have met.

In 2007, then President Roh Moo-hyun met then President-elect Lee Myung-bak nine days after the latter's election.

Also in 2012, then President Lee met then President-elect Park Geun-hye nine days after her election.
Los Angeles, March 27 : Rock band Foo Fighters' drummer Taylor Hawkins, who recently passed away, had 10 drugs in his system at the time of his death as per Colombian authorities, reports 'Variety'.

As per 'Variety', the report from the attorney general of Colombia, which came in a tweet, stated that Taylor had antidepressants, benzodiazepines and opioids in his system, along with THC. However, the attorney general's statement avoided the usage of the word "overdose". Also, it did not further specify the drugs that had been found.

The official tweet from the country's attorney general which is in Spanish said, "In the urine toxicological test carried out on the body of Taylor Hawkins, 10 types of substances were preliminarily found, among them: THC (marijuana), tricyclic antidepressants, benzodiazepines and opioids." "The National Institute of Forensic Medicine will continue the medical studies to achieve total clarification of the facts that led to the death of Taylor Hawkins. The Office of the Attorney General of the Nation will continue with the investigation and will report the results obtained within the framework thereof in a timely manner", the tweet further read.

However, a report in a major Colombian magazine, Semana, went further and claimed that unnamed authorities told its reporters that heroin was part of the drug cocktail in Hawkins' system, and that he was found to have an enlarged heart.

It reported that "forensic doctors were shocked by the size of the drummer's heart," weighing more than 600 grams, and believe that was a factor in Hawkins quickly succumbing to "a cocktail of narcotics." The Foo Fighters were in the middle of a South American tour, and were scheduled to return to the U.S. to perform at the Grammys April 3.
Washington, March 27 : US Congressman Jeff Fortenberry announced that he will resign from office, two days after being convicted of three felonies.

Fortenberry, a Nebraska Republican who has served in Congress since 2005, said that his last day as a federal legislator will be March 31, Xinhua news agency quoted a letter he sent to his House colleagues on Saturday as saying.

"Due to the difficulties of my current circumstances, I can no longer effectively serve," he wrote.

Fortenberry, 61, was found guilty on March 24 of one count of scheming to falsify and conceal material facts and two counts of making false statements to federal investigators.

The conviction arose from a federal investigation into "illegal contributions made by a foreign national" to Fortenberry's 2016 re-election campaign.

A sentencing hearing was scheduled for June 28.

Each of the three felony charges carries a statutory maximum penalty of five years in federal prison.

A special election will be held no later than 90 days after Fortenberry's seat becomes vacant, according to rules.

The US federal law prohibits contributions made directly or indirectly by or from foreign nationals in connection with any federal, state, or local election.
Los Angeles, March 27 : Multi-hyphenate musician Lin-Manuel Miranda won't be attending the 94th Oscars ceremony, which is scheduled to be held on Sunday, following his wife Vanessa Nadal's Covid positive diagnosis, reports 'Variety'.

Lin took to his Twitter to reveal his decision to his followers as he maintained that he is opting out of the prestigious ceremony, "out of caution". In the same tweet, he mentioned that he and his children have been tested negative for the bug.

Lin's tweet read, "This weekend, my wife tested (positive) for COVID. She's doing fine. Kids and I have tested (negative), but out of caution, I won't be going to the Oscars tomorrow night," Miranda wrote. "Cheering for my (Tick, Tick ... Boom!) and Encanto families (with) my own family, alongside all of you, ALL of you." The composer has been nominated for the Oscars in the category of best original song for writing 'Dos Oruguitas' a ballad from Disney's 'Encanto'. The award holds great value for the composer because if he emerges victorious over other nominees like Billie Eilish, Beyonce, Diane Warren and Van Morrison, he would achieve EGOT status: an honour in show business meaning he has won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony during his career.

He would be the third youngest in history.

Miranda's feature directorial debut 'Tick, Tick... Boom!' has also been a major force during awards season. The musical is nominated in two categories at the Oscars: best actor for Andrew Garfield and best editing.

The 94th Academy Awards, produced by Will Packer and Shayla Cowan, are scheduled to be held on Sunday at the Dolby Theatre and will air live on ABC broadcast network.
New Delhi, March 27 : In a latest development in the Birbhum violence case, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has set up a temporary camp office in a government guest house in West Bengal's Rampurhat.

Following the orders of the Calcutta High Court, a team of forensic experts led by the CBI officials went to Rampurhat and collected samples on March 25.

Before the court order, the local police had lodged a case and had claimed to have arrested 10 people.

The BJP and the others had accused the Trinamool Congress of sheltering the accused. The BJP had accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of trying to cover up the incident. Trinamool had denied all the charges.

After the Calcutta High Court order of handing over the probe to the CBI, the West Bengal government said that they would support the agency in conducting a fair probe.

Bhadu Sheikh, a Trinamool Congress leader and local deputy president of Rampurhat village was killed on March 21 by bike-borne assailants, after which a mob allegedly gutted several houses. Next day, the police recovered the charred bodies of at least eight people, including children and women from a gutted house.
New Delhi, March 27 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that India recently achieved the target of $400 billion exports which has illustrated country's capability and potential.

In his monthly radio address 'Mann ki Baat', he said the export target also signified that the demand for items made in India has been increasing all over the world and the supply chain is getting stronger by the day.

"The nation takes great strides when resolutions are bigger than dreams. When there is a sincere effort day and night for the resolutions, those resolutions also attain fruition," Modi said.

Noting that new products from all corners of the country are reaching foreign shores, the Prime Minister further said that now exports of leather products from Hailakandi in Assam or handloom products from Osmanabad, fruits and vegetables from Bijapur or black rice from Chandauli, were all increasing.

"Now, you will also find the world famous apricot of Ladakh in Dubai too and in Saudi Arabia, you will find bananas shipped from Tamil Nadu. Most importantly, the array of new products is being sent to newer countries such as the first shipment of millets grown in Himachal and Uttarakhand was exported to Denmark." He also informed that the Bainganapalli and Subarnarekha mangoes from Krishna and Chittoor districts of Andhra Pradesh were being exported to South Korea, while the fresh jackfruits from Tripura and the king chilli from Nagaland have also reached London.

The Prime Minister said that it due to the hard work of farmers, artisans, weavers, engineers, mall entrepreneurs, the MSME sector; that exports from India were reaching new markets in every nook and corner of the world.

Talking about the success of our small entrepreneurs at the domestic level, he said that they were playing a major partnership role in Central procurement through Government e-Market place (GeM) and during the last one year through the portal, the government has purchased items worth more than Rs 1 lakh crore.

"Close to 1.25 lakh small entrepreneurs, small shopkeepers from every corner of the country have sold their goods directly to the government. Now even the smallest of shopkeepers can sell one's goods to the government on the GeM Portal - this is the New India."
Islamabad, March 27 : Sumaira Rehman, a Pakistani woman who had been languishing in a detention centre in Bengaluru for four years, has finally returned home along with her four-year-old daughter Sana Fatima, Dawn reported.

PML-N Senator Irfan Siddiqui, who said last week that Indian authorities have completed all formalities for Sumaira's release, made the disclosure while talking to reporters here.

Indian authorities handed over Sumaira and her daughter to Pakistani authorities at the Wagah border. Pakistani High Commission officials accompanied Sumaira from Bengaluru to Wagah border.

It will take another four days for Sumaira and her daughter to fulfill all the legal requirements and to complete immigration processes.

"After (immigration process) she would be free to go wherever she wants to go," Dawn news quoted Siddiqui as saying.

He had raised the issue of Sumaira's detention in India during a Senate session after the Ministry of Interior (MoI) failed to issue a certificate of nationality for her on the request of the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.

A woman of Pakistani origin, Sumaira was settled in Qatar. In 2017, she married an Indian Muslim man named Mohammad Shahab against the consent of her parents.

Shahab took her to India where the couple settled down.

However, after her visa expired she was sent to jail along with her husband. Later, the Indian authorities released her husband but kept her in jail, where she gave birth to her daughter, Dawn reported.

In 2018, the Pakistan High Commission was given consular access to Sumaira.

The High Commission staff after meeting her wrote a letter to the MoI in Islamabad to confirm her nationality. However, the letter was ignored by the ministry.

Sumaira spent four years in Indian jail. She also paid a fine of Rs 10 lakh to the government of India, which she collected from donations.

Later, the Indian authorities put her in a detention centre. A human rights lawyer, Suhana Biswa Patna, took up Sumaira's case.
Chennai, March 27 : The multibillion-dollar Lulu group of Keralite NRI businessman M.A. Yusuf Ali will be investing Rs 3,500 crore in Tamil Nadu. This was announced by the group chairman and Managing Director M.A. Yusuf Ali while attending the investors' meet of Tamil Nadu in Dubai.

The meet was organised by the Tamil Nadu state government on Saturday. Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, M.K. Stalin, who is on a four-day tour of the Middle East to scout investments, was present at the meet.

The Lulu group will build two shopping malls and an export-oriented food processing unit.

The group, according to a statement from the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister's office will ink the Memorandum of Understanding on Monday in Abu Dhabi. The Lulu group Chairman M.A. Yusuf Ali in a statement said that the group would commence construction of the malls soon and will provide employment to 5,000 people in the two malls.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin in his speech said that ever since he assumed office as the Chief Minister, the state has signed 124 MoU's attracting an investment of 8 billion dollars creating employment opportunities for 20,000 people.

He said that the target of a trillion economy by 2030 is achievable and that the state has chalked out several programmes and activities, including developing infrastructure, upskilling the workforce to improve productivity, and taking up measures to attract investments in new sectors like electric vehicles, technical textiles, and other sectors.

The Chief Minister also invited industrialists from the UAE to invest in food processing, hospitality, food parks, and real estate sectors in Tamil Nadu.

He also appealed to the investors from Dubai to invest in a massive furniture park that was coming up at Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu.

M.K. Stalin told investors that the state is well-posed for good growth and that the state has a positive GDP growth rate of 5.8 per cent when compared to negative growth in many other economies. He also said the mission of the Tamil Nadu government was to attract massive investments in manufacturing and service sectors and develop the state into a massive investment hub.
Washington, March 27 : The White House has clarified President Joe Biden's latest remark against his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, saying that Washington was not seeking a regime change in Moscow.

During an address on Saturday in Warsaw, Biden had said that "for God's sake, this man cannot remain in power" over Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine, the BBC reported.

Clarifying the remark, a White House official said: "The President's point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbours or the region." In response, the Kremlin said: "That's not for Biden to decide - the president of Russia is elected by Russians."
Lucknow, March 27 : Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati has dissolved all units of the party on Sunday, except the posts of state president, assembly speaker and district president.

At a meeting convened here to discuss the party's poll debacle, Mayawati announced the action.

The BSP also named Guddu Jamali as their candidate for the Azamgarh bypoll.

The bypoll was necessitated after Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav resigned from the Azamgarh parliamentary constituency post winning the Karhal assembly seat.

Shah Alam a.k.a. Guddu Jamali had recently returned to the BSP ranks after quitting AIMIM. He had contested the election from Mubarakpur assembly constituency in Azamgarh district on an AIMIM ticket.

He was the sitting MLA from Mubarakpur constituency after winning the seat in 2017.

The meeting was attended by all 402 party candidates who lost the state Assembly elections.

The BSP could win only one seat-Rasra in Ballia where Uma Shankar Singh retained his seat.

After the declaration of results, Mayawati admitted that her party's rout in the elections was a 'lesson'.

She said that the negative campaign against BSP succeeded in misleading voters.

The BSP has also lost its vote share by almost 10 per cent in these elections.
SOFIA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The Bulgarian government on Saturday said it would not extend the COVID-19 emergency epidemic situation in the country beyond March 31.

The decision was made after the cabinet members discussed the topic in detail several times over the past month, the government said in a statement.

Bulgaria has been in an emergency epidemic situation for nearly two years, and at present the situation was being monitored and managed in a predictable manner, the statement said.

Therefore, a new extension of the restrictions for citizens and businesses was not necessary, it said.

As of April 1, the temporary anti-epidemic measures in the country would be abolished, such as wearing a face mask and observance of physical distance, the statement said.

Next week, lawmakers would consider relevant solutions related to the adequate treatment of patients with COVID-19, and the ways for introduction of situational and regional measures in case of necessity, the statement added.

To date, 1,132,398 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 36,425 deaths have been registered in Bulgaria. Of these, 1,333 cases and 29 fatalities were reported by the health authorities in the past 24 hours.

Meanwhile, the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients stood at 2,020 with 235 in intensive care units.

The emergency epidemic situation was initially declared in Bulgaria on May 14, 2020, for a period of one month, replacing the state of emergency announced on March 13. It has already been extended several times, most recently until the end of this March. 
Who is Jharkhandi? Jharkhand is embroiled in this question for 21 years. Image Source: IANS News

Who is Jharkhandi? Jharkhand is embroiled in this question for 21 years. Image Source: IANS News

Who is Jharkhandi? Jharkhand is embroiled in this question for 21 years. Image Source: IANS News

Who is Jharkhandi? Jharkhand is embroiled in this question for 21 years. Image Source: IANS News

Who is Jharkhandi? Jharkhand is embroiled in this question for 21 years. Image Source: IANS News

Who is Jharkhandi? Jharkhand is embroiled in this question for 21 years. Image Source: IANS News

Who is Jharkhandi? Jharkhand is embroiled in this question for 21 years. Image Source: IANS News

Ranchi, March 27 : A storm has been brewing in Jharkhand as to who gets to be called a citizen of the state. This question came up even during the state budget session here, which ran from February 25 to March 25.

Interestingly, the legislators of the ruling party were more vocal on this issue than the Opposition. They also staged a protest in front of the Jharkhand Assembly.

On March 7, the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) decided to gherao the Assembly, but their workers were stopped by the police in the outskirts of Ranchi. There were big demonstrations held in Dhanbad and Bokaro as well.

This is not the first time that a controversy over the domicile policy has erupted there. Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar on November 15, 2000 and the debate over domicile has been going on since then.

Even today, 21 years later, the issue is driving new protests in the state.

However, the problem is rooted in the history of Jharkhand. From 1950 till it became a separate state, there was constant influx of people from outside as industries and mines were set up here.

The domicile dilemma thus stems from the debate whether the people who came here in search of work and their children born and raised here, should be considered as 'Jharkhandis'.

First Chief Minister of Jharkhand, Babulal Marandi, formulated the domicile policy in 2002, according to which, those whose ancestors' names have been recorded in the 'khatian' or land survey papers of 1932 during the British rule, would be considered locals.

However, after the announcement of the policy, protests broke out. Old residents, who have were registered under the 1932 land records, came out in support of it while those who migrated later in search of employment opportunities, opposed it which gave rise to a conflict between the two groups, followed by arson, murder, strikes, and police firing in which five people lost their lives.

The matter then reached the Jharkhand High Court which rejected the domicile policy of the Babulal Marandi government in November 2002.

Due to the controversial domicile policy that triggered widespread turmoil in the state, Marandi had to eventually resign.

After this, for almost 14 years, every government in the state feared to take a decision on the issue. Even though several committees were formed to review this, no previous governments could come to a conclusion.

Before the 2019 Assembly elections, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) had announced that the Raghubar Das government's domicile policy will be scrapped and a new local policy will be formulated based on the 1932 'khatian', if it is voted to power.

However, soon after the JMM won the elections and formed Hemant Soren government along with the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Covid-19 virus surfaced and shifted the government's attention from other vital challenges such as the domicile policy.

Now after situation returned to normal, the supporters of the Hemant Soren-led government began pressuring for a new local policy based on the 1932 'khatian' as promised.

When many leaders including Education and Excise Minister Jagarnath Mahto, Finance Minister Rameshwar Oraon, JMM MLA Lobin Hembram, Congress MLAs Bandhu Tirkey and Naman Bixal Kongari began addressing this issue repeatedly, it sparked a fresh row in the state.

Amit Mahto, a former JMM MLA, resigned from the party in protest against the non-declaration of a policy based on 1932 'khatian'.

On the other hand, former Congress Minister Geetashree Oraon also resigned from the party accusing the government of not taking care of Jharkhandi public sentiments.

Lobin Hembram announced that he will not go home until the government implements the Khatian policy. He even announced to run a campaign across the state from April 5.

Soon, different tribal-indigenous organisations also began protesting across the state. In many places, including Bokaro, Dhanbad, Ranchi, there were dharnas, demonstrations, meetings throughout February and March, demanding a new khatian policy.

On March 20, tribal-indigenous organisations organised a 40 km 'Run for Khatian', from Bokaro to Dhanbad, in which thousands of people participated, demanding the consideration of the 1932 khatian. Youths even reached Ranchi on March 21 to gherao the Assembly but were stopped outside the city.

Finally, on March 24, after large-scale agitations, Chief Minister Hemant Soren said in the Assembly that the local policy cannot be made on the basis of the 1932 khatian, as the High Court had cancelled it soon after the Babulal Marandi government implemented it.

He said: "The government will decide the local policy keeping in mind the sentiments of the people of Jharkhand. The opposition wants to create chaos in the state on this issue. But we will not let that happen. The government will go ahead with a broad consensus on this issue." However, with the political debates and agitations still continuing, the question of who is a 'Jharkhandi' still remains up in the air.
Bengaluru, March 27 : With fans returning to the stadiums for the Indian Premier League (IPL) after a hiatus of a couple of years, Royal Challengers Bangalore's (RCB) star batsman Virat Kohli has talked about the role fans have played in his career.

Kohli called RCB's fans as the team's 12th man army and said he is looking forward to their unwavering support in this edition of the IPL too.

Speaking exclusively on RCB Bold Diaries, a podcast run by the franchise, former captain Virat Kohli expressed his gratitude towards fans.

"I'm very excited and I'm extremely grateful. I've understood the impact and the contribution of people coming to the stadiums, in my career. Because, as much as you feel sometimes 'man! We're getting booed, we're getting a little bit of stick from the crowd' and 'century maarna hai.' And you sometimes get annoyed as a player, honestly.

"This is a very honest feeling of mine, we had a conversation about this, me and Anushka, she was like 'you must realize the importance and you must acknowledge the fact that the crowd has played such a huge role in your career.' "Because, now when I look back at it, I fed off 40,000-50,000 people's shouting. It drove me to a different level, where I felt like anything is possible, I could do anything. I have the energy of so many people behind me. They believe in me; they're looking forward to something from me. So, I'm very grateful to them, firstly. And secondly, I'm very happy (that) they're back in the stands. Hopefully, we'll get more and more of them as the tournament goes on." He adds, "For me, sport is all about the atmosphere, the tension, people watching, people competing. And I think it is a perfect synchronization. It's a beautiful harmony when it happens. The fun is not there if the fans are not there. To me, sport is all about the fans." The matches with be played across stadiums in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, and Pune with 25% fans attendance as per the Covid protocols set by the BCCI.

Elucidating further on his connection with the RCB 12th Man Army, Virat cited an example while he was playing in the second Day-Night Test against Sri Lanka at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, the RCB said in a release on Sunday.

"In the test match as well, I understood the power of our (RCB) fanbase. Throughout the two and a half days, I think for two days I only heard 'RCB-RCB' in the stadium and it was so loud. It was as loud as the 2016 season or the final. It was amazing. It gave me goosebumps. It made me a little emotional of all th' memories that we've had. I was thinking about all the amazing moments and games that we've had.

"They were shouting AB (de Villiers') name and they were shouting my name and RCB and whatnot. It was just unbelievable. I feel so grateful to have been a part of a franchise for so long. That's what you play for, eventually. Yes, we all love playing for titles and all that. But you know, these moments of pure love and connection with the fans," Kohli said of the fans' support.

Latest updates on IPL 2022
Mumbai, March 27 : Actor Saanand Verma has done theatre, but not as much as he would have loved to.

The 'Apharan 2' star opines that a good actor is good everywhere, be it cinema, television or theatre. And, he does not agree with the common view that theatre actors are better actors.

"I have seen many theatre actors who are not good enough. Every actor rehearses a lot before their project. Without a doubt that theatre actors take a lot of time to prepare for a play and the rehearsals happen before every performance.

"If I give you an example of a television actor, like if I go to shoot a scene for my character, I don't even know the line I am supposed to say, I only get to know about it on the floor and it's then and there that I learn and deliver." "Whereas in theatre, you get time to prepare. A good actor is a good actor irrespective of formats and mediums. We should not compare actors based on mediums. One thing that makes theatre fulfilling for an actor is that we get to see the live reaction of the audience. It is a mind blowing kick for any performer," he says.

The advent of OTT and the pandemic has heavily impacted theatre. There is a fear among many that the art form is at risk of losing its relevance.

"Theatre will always be relevant. It is something which is very pure and high class that cannot just go extinct. Broadway in the US has been there for decades. There are so many plays that have seen 40-50 years of run time and are still going on. People stand in line to buy tickets to watch Broadway plays and musicals. One pandemic cannot take away its relevance. It is immortal," he shares.

He has seen a lot of plays and used to be a theatre critic in Delhi where he used to visit Mandi House all the time.

"The first play that I watched was 'Bidesiya' in Patna, starring my sister Shobhna Bhardwaj in the leading role. She is a very good actor and was so amazing that she made the entire audience cry with her performance. 'Chekhov ki Duniya' directed by Ranjit Kapoor and 'Jis Lahore Nai Vekhya O Jamyai Nai' are the two of my favourite plays," he adds.

Veteran theatre actors like Ashish Vidyarthi, Shabana Azmi, Anupam Kher are still doing plays, but, according to some, most of the current actors have no interest in doing theatre.

"The love of theatre is there in every actor's heart. But actors also want to earn money and money doesn't come easily in theatre. If they do OTT, cinema and TV, they get much better money so financially they get wealthier. Veterans like Shabana Azmi ji and Anupam Kher ji love doing theatre as they have already achieved a lot in life and are financially pretty secure that's when they do theatre. Their plays are booked 1-2 months in advance given the brand value they add to it and so they benefit." "The new-age actors have a lot to do before they reach there, so they try for other mediums where they get money and creative satisfaction. For example, OTT gives you a lot of creative freedom and satisfaction so people enjoy working in the space. If I get financially secured and everything is perfectly fine and strong then I would also be actively doing a lot of theatre where I get that instant reaction of the live audience," he concludes.
Bengaluru, March 27 : Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai will meet the Union water resources minister in the first week of April to discuss the inter-state water disputes it has with other states.

"We are yet to get various approvals from the Union government with regard to inter-state water disputes. I have instructed the concerned departments to make preparations for this. I am set to meet the Union minister in April," Bommai said on Sunday.

Speaking to mediapersons in Hubballi, Bommai said, "We need to make all efforts to resolve the inter-state water disputes at the earliest... As for the legal issues involved we should get it resolved through the courts." The chief minister also said that greater emphasis would be given on completing the land acquisition process for railway projects in the state.

Noting that Karnataka is again on the path of development after coming out of the Covid shadow, the chief minister said that a strong foundation would be laid for planned development of the state.

Northern Karnataka has been given top priority, Bommai said. "We have provided Rs 3,000 crore for the development of 'Kalyana Karnataka region. Work orders would be issued for all the Budget programmes before the end of April. Already Rs 1,400 crore has been released for the development of Kalyana Karnataka this year," he said.
United Nations, March 27 : UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned attacks that targeted civilian facilities in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

"The Secretary-General is deeply concerned about reports of ongoing airstrikes in Hodeidah city and the targeting of Hodeidah's ports, which provide a critical humanitarian lifeline for the Yemeni population," the UN chief's spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, said in a statement.

Over 23 million Yemenis face hunger, disease, and other life-threatening risks as the country's basic services and economy are collapsing, the UN Office for Humanitarian Coordination (OCHA) had said.

Houthi forces in Yemen, also known as Ansar Allah, attacked Saudi Arabian civil and energy facilities on Friday, including an oil facility in Jeddah, sparking a massive fire that sent a column of black smoke into the sky, reports Xinhua news agency.

The Saudi-backed coalition of nine countries assisting the Yemeni official government in fighting the Houthis, responded by striking three militia seaports -- Hodeidah, Salif and Sanaa -- killing eight civilians, including five children and two women, on Saturday.

"These airstrikes also resulted in damage to the UN staff residential compound in Sanaa," Dujarric added.

The UN chief is calling for "a swift and transparent investigation into these incidents to ensure accountability", the spokesman continued.

As the conflict enters its eighth year, the UN chief reiterated his calls on all parties to "exercise maximum restraint, immediately de-escalate, cease hostilities and abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law, including the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution".

He also urged the parties to "engage constructively, and without preconditions, with his special envoy to reduce violence and urgently reach a negotiated settlement to end the conflict in Yemen".

Meanwhile, news media reported that Ansar Allah said it would suspend for three days missile and drone strikes on Saudi Arabia, saying the unilateral peace initiative could be a lasting commitment if the Saudi-led coalition stopped airstrikes and lifted port restrictions.

The Saudi-backed coalition has been fighting the Houthis for seven years in support of the internationally recognised Yemeni government.

The coalition has carried out thousands of air strikes, killing tens of thousands of people, according to the UN.
London, March 27 : Rocketing global food prices as a result of the war in Ukraine could trigger riots from those going hungry in poor countries, the head of the World Trade Organization has said.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala warned food-producing countries against hoarding supplies and said it was vital to avoid a repeat of the Covid-19 pandemic, when rich countries were able to secure for themselves the bulk of vaccines, reports the Guardian.

In an interview with the Guardian, the WTO director general expressed concern about the knock-on effects of Russia's invasion - stressing the dependence of many African countries on food supplies from the Black Sea region.

"I think we should be very worried. The impact on food prices and hunger this year and next could be substantial. Food and energy are the two biggest items in the consumption baskets of poor people all over the world," Okonjo-Iweala said.

"It is poor countries and poor people within poor countries that will suffer the most." Okonjo-Iweala, a former Nigerian finance minister, said 35 African countries were dependent on food imported from the Black Sea region, adding that Russia and Ukraine were responsible for 24 per cent of global supplies of wheat.

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has apparently lost his parliamentary majority as more than two dozen of his members of National Assembly have defected to the opposition and a motion of no-confidence has been submitted with the Speaker of the house.

Meanwhile, the two-day (March 22-23) session of the Organisation of Islamic Community (OIC), a 57-member body of Muslim states, has concluded its 48 session in Islamabad. The special invitation extended to China to attend the session has once again echoed China's expansionist desire.

What better platform would serve the interest of China other than the OIC where China could try to pouch an entire region into its economic trap also known as the debt trap.

However, to invite Mirwaiz Omar Farooq, who is a representative of an Indian separatist organisation from Kashmir called the Huriyat Conference, demonstrates Pakistan's unwavering commitment to creating chaos and turmoil in Jammu and Kashmir.

In his opening statement, he caused great embarrassment to the dignitaries attending the OIC when Imran Khan began to criticise the OIC for not being taken seriously by the world community. He then started to attack India by accusing her of committing a war crime by settling non-residents in the valley. He told the meeting that according to the Geneva Convention the occupier could not settle outsiders in the land that was under occupation.

Well, well, well. Mister Khan should be given a lesson in history of Jammu and Kashmir. First of all, the State of Jammu and Kashmir came into being after the Anglo-Sikh war of 1845-46 in which the British East India Company decisively defeated the Sikh Empire at the battle of Sobraon on February 10, 1846.

On March 16 of the same year a treaty was signed between the then Maharaja Gulab Singh of Jammu and the British East India Company which transferred the previously Kashmir province of the Sikh Empire to the Maharaja thus was created the state of Jammu and Kashmir that lasted for 101 years until on October 22, 1947 Pakistan attacked the state in order to encroach the state and admit it into the newly established dominion of Pakistan. So here is the first crime to qualify for being charged for war crime and is called 'War of Aggression.

By attacking the independent state of Jammu and Kashmir Pakistan also committed another wrong that is called Crime against Peace.

And finally when Pakistani troops entered Muzaffarabad they not only looted shops and houses of the Hindus and Sikhs but also began to slaughter them.

The total population of Hindu and Sikhs living in Muzaffarabad at the time was slightly over 5846 and 8810 respectively. Similarly, the total population of Hindu and Sikhs in Mirpur, Bhimber tehsils was 63,576 and 12,111 respectively. Today there are none.

Hindus and Sikhs were rounded up in city after city and summary executions were carried on unarmed non-combatant civilian. Women were raped and their private parts cut. This mass murder of 114,000 Hindus and Sikhs was nothing else but a genocide conducted in order to 'purify' the land and make it infidel free. In terms of war crimes this tantamount to genocide.

Hence all three conditions that are required in order to charge a country or a community of conducting war crimes are met by Pakistan.

Can we accuse India of the same? Well, quite the contrary. The then Maharaja of Jammu Kashmir Hari Singh had signed an instrument of accession with India on October 26 1947 and invited Indian troops to come and rid the state of invaders.

Today, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are sovereign Indian territories. Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) which have been illegally occupied by Pakistan army. Therefore, it is Pakistan and not India that has and continues to commit war crimes by bringing in people from Punjab and the Khyber Paktunkhawa into PoJK and GB and settling them in the aforementioned occupied territories which, according to Imran Khan's own definition, amount to war crime.

Due to the political turmoil and opposition in his own party and across the country Imran Khan also forgot that on March 23 he was supposed to call a national assembly session to declare GB as Pakistan's fifth provisional province. That dream did not materialise since he fears that if the national assembly sits in session he might be booted out by those who have submitted a vote of no confidence motion against him with the speaker of the National Assembly.

Meanwhile, Imran Khan carries on to confuse the world with his 'jalebi' narrative on Kashmir. It is high time that effective and forceful counter narrative is prepared by India and presented to all the OIC member countries and straighten out this Pakistan sponsored jalebi narrative.

(Dr Amjad Ayub Mirza is an author and a human rights activist from Mirpur in PoJK. He currently lives in exile in the UK.)
Brussels, March 27 : Josep Borrell, the European Union's (EU) foreign-policy chief, warned that the Ukrainian crisis and the West's reaction could "push" Russia towards China.

Doing so could lead to the creation of a major rift between the global north and south, RT News quoted the diplomat as saying during the opening session of the Doha Forum, adding that such a scenario should be avoided.

"One of the bad consequences of what's happening is that we can push Russia to China, and we can create a division between the global southeast and the global northwest," Borrell stated.

First of all, the West should ramp up its efforts to end the Ukrainian conflict in order to avoid the emergence of such a global rift, he explained, describing Russia's ongoing offensive in Ukraine as a "war of attrition".

"In order to avoid this trend, the first thing to do is to stop this war of aggression, war of attrition today," the diplomat said, outlining the West's strategy as a mix of military aid to Ukraine and anti-Russian sanctions.

Borrell did not elaborate on how such a strategy would help to avoid "pushing" Russia into China's arms, RT News reported.

Since the beginning of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Beijing has taken a neutral stance, urging all parties to stick to diplomacy, calling upon the West to address Russia's longstanding security concerns and opposing unilateral sanctions.

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
Thiruvananthapuram, March 27 : Various churches ranging from Catholic, Mar Thoma, Orthodox, Jacobite, and CSI (Church of South India) coming out against the K-rail project, have sent shivers down the spine of the predominantly Christian political outfit, Kerala Congress (Mani).

The state is witnessing unprecedented protests from the people against the survey and the subsequent laying of stones to mark the properties to be taken over by the state for facilitating the project.

Women and Children in large numbers have come out against the state government conducting surveys and laying stones. The government officials including ministers have however claimed that this was not for earmarking the land for acquisition but was conducting the Social Impact Assessment (SIA) study.

Bishop of Changanassery, Mar Joseph Perunthottam, who is part of the powerful Syro Malabar Catholic Church, has come out strongly against the state government using force against the protesting people. In an article in the mouthpiece of the Catholic church, 'Deepika', the powerful clergy said that the action of the government and the Left Front against those who support the agitation was not acceptable.

Moreover, the presence of several Christian priests at the epicentre of the agitation in Madapally, Chengannur has also surprised the government. An orthodox priest was injured in the police action to disperse the agitating crowd leading to major protests from all corners.

The powerful Kerala Catholic Bishop Conference (KCBC) has also strongly objected to the state government acquiring land for the Silverline semi-high-speed rail project. In a statement, the Secretary of Social Harmony and Vigilance of the KCBC, Father Michael Pulickan said that development must be inclusive.

He said Kerala is a place where several people lost everything in the name of development and a new project must have full support of the people of the state. He also said that while the state is in a major debt crunch and financial crisis, it has to be studied in detail as to whether such a project was necessary.

The Catholic priest also said that while environmentalists and social activists in large numbers are objecting to the project, the government must be transparent on the steps taken and must convince the people.

The hard-hitting statements of Changanassery Archbishop and the KCBC secretary have put the predominantly Catholic political party, Kerala Congress (Mani) in a spot. The party, an ally of the ruling Left Democratic Front, will have to face several questions from the public of central Kerala, which is its stronghold.

Party Chairman and Member of Parliament, Jose K. Mani is incommunicado and the party local leaders including the Changanassey legislator, Job Michael is facing the ire of the public.

Even the Bishops who had earlier extended their support to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan are now keeping a studied silence and most of them are not seen in the public after the protests started and the police used force to disperse the crowd.

Interestingly, Bishop Geevarghese Mar Coorilose of the Jacobite Church, who is a left sympathizer, has also come out strongly against the Silverline project and has participated in the massive protest march in the state capital. Bishop Thomas Mar Timotheos of the Orthodox church has also criticised the project and said that projects which create insecurity among people must not be implemented.

The strong stand taken by the Christian denominations in Kerala has upset the Left Front which is not able to build bridges with it using the good office of the Kerala Congress (M) as that party is itself in a corner due to the public ire. The Marthomite Church which is again a powerful denomination in Central Kerala has also come out against the K-Rail project as well as the Church of South India (CSI) which had left leanings.

Roy Mathew, Social activist, and political commentator told IANS, "The Left Front government has lost the plot and they have turned the people against it. The church denominations have come in support of the public as they could understand the ground realities and the CPI-M of today is a monolithic party and no one dares to object to the dictum of Pinarayi Vijayan." Interestingly, the Kerala Congress (M) will have to do a lot of explanations to the public in the strongholds of the party in Kottayam, Pathanamthitta, and Alappuzha districts as a majority of those affected by the project have come out in large numbers against the project.
New Delhi, March 27 : NCP leader Majeed Memon on Sunday praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for winning the recent mandate and ranking as the world's most popular leader.

In a tweet on Sunday he said, "If Narendra Modi wins people's mandare (mandate) and is also shown as world's most popular leader, there must be some qualities in him or good work he may have done which the opposition leaders are unable to find." However, the remarks came after the relationship between the BJP and Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is at its lowest level since the arrest of Nawab Malik. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackarey too has targeted the BJP.

"Wondering if the ED has become the maid-servant of the BJP, especially after the arrests of former home minister Anil Deshmukh and later Nawab Malik," the Chief Minister took strong umbrage at the Opposition in the state for linking Malik and the MVA in general with the fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, and exploiting the absconder mafiosi's name in elections.

Taking a swipe at Devendra Fadnavis's two-man 80-hour long government, Thackeray said if the early morning oath ceremony experiment had succeeded, "then Malik and Deshmukh would have been sitting in the BJP's lap".
Facts about Russia-Ukraine conflict: Russia says Western sanctions not fatal difficulties

Xinhua) 11:21, March 27, 2022

MOSCOW/KIEV, March 27 (Xinhua) -- The Russia-Ukraine conflict continued on Sunday as relevant parties are working to broker a peaceful solution. Following are the latest developments of the situation:

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said that the Russian army is preparing for active hostilities by mobilizing its forces and personnel, the Ukrainian government-run Ukrinform news agency reported on Saturday.

"As of now, the intensity of the enemy's offensive operations has been reduced, but in reality, they are preparing to continue these actions," Maliar said.

Separately, Dmytro Zhyvytskyi, head of the Regional Military Administration in the northeastern Sumy region, said that fierce fighting is underway in three districts of the region.

- - - -

The current crisis is worse than it was during the Cold War, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said Saturday.

"At that time, Russia's counterparts were not trying to bring the situation to the boiling point, they did not impose sanctions on industries, agriculture and individuals," Medvedev told Russia's RIA Novosti news agency in an interview.

"But western sanctions are not fatal difficulties for Russia," he said.

- - - -

Mykhailo Podolyak, a member of the Ukrainian delegation to the peace negotiations with Russia, said that at the talks, Kiev insists on creating a system of security guarantees for Ukraine, the Ukrainian presidential press service reported Saturday.

"Ukraine insists on a system of security guarantees, which will include countries that are ready to provide these guarantees, including in the military sense," Podolyak said.

He stressed that such a system should involve the United States as a guarantor of Ukraine's security.

The issue of territorial integrity is extremely important for Ukraine, Podolyak said, noting that the future of Crimea and rebel-held areas in eastern Ukraine should be decided only by the presidents of Ukraine and Russia.

- - - -

Moscow is ready to hold talks on equal terms with Washington, while the United States is doing everything to further complicate the work of Russian diplomats, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Saturday.

"We do not dodge dialogue and are ready to hold talks but only on equal terms, on condition there is a reciprocal movement, which cannot be seen in Washington even under a magnifying glass," Zakharova said.

"The U.S. is doing everything to further hamper the performance of Russian diplomatic missions in the United States while at the same time engaging in hypocritical speculations on the need to preserve a diplomatic presence," she added, urging Washington to think of the repercussions.

- - - -

At least five people were injured in missile attacks on Ukraine's western city of Lviv on Saturday, head of the Lviv Regional Military Administration Maksym Kozytskyi said on Facebook.

Two missile strikes hit the city at about 4:30 p.m. local time (1430 GMT), and residential buildings were not affected, Kozytskyi said, adding that the threat of new attacks on the city persists.

The information has not yet been verified by the Russian side.

- - - -

Russia's armed forces destroyed an ammunition depot of the Ukrainian troops in the Zhytomyr region with Kalibr cruise missiles, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Saturday.

In total, 271 unmanned aerial vehicles, 1,627 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 167 multiple launch rocket systems, 669 field artillery and mortars, as well as 1,474 units of special Ukrainian military vehicles have been destroyed during the military operation, according to the ministry.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Bianji)
MOSCOW, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Russian and Ukrainian delegations will hold a new round of face-to-face negotiations on March 29-30, head of Russia's negotiation team Vladimir Medinsky said on Sunday.

"Today, another round of negotiations with Ukraine via video link took place. As a result, it was decided to meet in person on March 29-30," Medinsky, also an aide to the Russian president, said on Telegram.

Meanwhile, David Arakhamia, a member of the Ukrainian delegation said Sunday that the next live round will be held in Turkey on March 28-30.

Since Feb. 28, Russia and Ukraine have held three rounds of face-to-face peace talks and then a series of online discussions, failing to reach a major agreement.

The new round of talks will take place after the Russian military announced on Friday that the main tasks of the first stage of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine had been completed in general. 
New Delhi, March 27 : Pointing out the economic, social and environmental impacts of the proposed K-Rail Silver Line Corridor, the ambitious Rs 63,941 crore project of the ruling CPI-M in Kerala, former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) state convener and environmental activist C.R. Neelakandan on Sunday said the project is a non-starter in the southern state.

Levelling data fudging charges, Neelakandan, who was the face of the Kerala AAP before he parted ways with the party in 2019, told IANS that many including the Leftists are questioning the project -- whether it is feasible at this cost.

He also said that it was learnt that the general consultant of the project, Paris-based Systra, has already started an internal inquiry into the data fudging allegations.

"I don't think that the Central government will not allow this project," he said.

Talking about the land acquisition which made a genie out of the bottle, he said, people will fight tooth and nail against the project.

Asked about the stand of the state government and the uncompromising attitude of the Chief Minister, he said politicians will have different reasons. "I'm not telling you that there will be corruption or not," he said.

Underlining with the situation in Singur and Nandigram in West Bengal, where the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) stand had to pay dearly during similar land acquisition for multi-crore projects, he said there is a difference of thought process of the Left party in Kerala as they think that the people from Kerala won't oppose en masse.

"There is a general thinking that the section of a people who are not affected by the project won't protest and even they welcome if the project is convenient for them." Comparing K-Rail with the Rs 7,700-crore Vizhinjam International Deepwater Multipurpose Seaport, which is set to develop Thiruvananthapuram into a port city in Kerala, he said the unfinished project is very small compared to Silver Line.

However, it did not finish due to the non-availability of materials like stone and mud. "In such a circumstance, how a project which costs more than a lakh crore, according to the Centre, be feasible," he wondered.

The Vizhinjam project is less than 2 km while the K-Rail is more than 520 km, he added.

Highlighting the recent severe flood situation in the state, the environmentalist said that there would be 2.4-meter-high fencing on both sides of the rail as per the DPR -- Detailed Project Report, which will be disastrous during flooding.

"The environmental impact cannot be ignored as the project area does not cover the main forests. It is about the 165 hydrologically sensitive areas that the rail project passes through," he added.

Talking about the reduction of carbon emissions, he said, "the main argument itself is a joke as they say 2.8-tonne emissions and 14,000 cars can be reduced while how many lakhs of diesel trucks will be needed to run for the project".

"The carbon omission produced by these trucks themselves cannot be compensated for the next 100 years," he said.

Instead of that, the government can execute a project that transforms the local bodies' vehicles into electric, it can save this much omission in a year, he suggested.
Chennai, March 27 : Actor and music director Hip Hop Aadhi, who rose to stardom because of his hard work and his skills as a rapper, has now sought to announce to the world the arrival of another rapper from Tamil Nadu.

Taking to Instagram, the actor, music director said, "Sollu Machi Underground! Here is a sweet story of yet another rapper.

"Prasanna aka @rising_rapper (is) from Dindugal, a small town in Tamil Nadu - very famous for their style of biriyani (damn man, I love Dindukal biriyani) "But the Indie scene of Dindukal is not a happening one like that of their biriyani scene and speaking facts, there is no scene at all!

"But who cares? Prasanna kept trying, dropped bars, freestyles on whatever was out there and one fine day, I happened to see one of his freestyles on Instagram.

"Boommm, Two days later, he is at the studio dropping bars for me. Then, straight to the movie scene on the 'Alambana Genie' track. A very unique flow and delivery with a clean voice.

"Well, to be short, next year this time - you will be watching his music videos on your phone and bouncing to his albums and he is going to have a helluva journey in the Tamil rap scene! "Yup - Sollu Machi Underground! Special thanks to the team at @theugtribe for making this happen! Behold - Tamil rap is gonna take over!"
Srinagar, March 27 : Scores of mourners attended the funeral of the special police officer (SPO) and his brother on Sunday in J&K's Budgam district.

With moist eyes and painful cries of the family members, SPO, Ishfaq Ahmad and his brother, Umar Jan were laid to rest in Chatabugh village of Budgam district.

Mourners broke down after the bodies of the two slain brothers reached their ancestral village.

To express condolences, men, women, children and elders visited the bereaved family in large numbers.

SPO, Ishfaq Ahmad and his brother, Umar Jan were shot by militants in their native village, Chatabugh on Saturday evening. While Ishfaq died the same day, Umar Jan succumbed to is injuries in the hospital on Sunday morning.
Lucknow, March 27 : The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) has rubbished all rumours of a possible split in the party, following its under-performance in recent elections.

Dismissing all such "rumours", RLD national secretary Anil Dubey said, "The MLAs have reposed full faith in party president Jayant Chaudhary and have authorised him to elect their leader. Such rumours are being spread by vested interests." Eight newly-elected MLAs of the RLD on Saturday met party president Jayant Chaudhary in Lucknow and later met Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav at the SP headquarters.

The RLD, which won eight seats in the recent assembly elections, is "not demoralised" with its performance and is looking towards improving its performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The party has got nearly 3 per cent vote share and has emerged as the fourth largest party in the state ahead of Congress and BSP.

In 2017, the RLD could win only one seat, Chhaprauli, and its lone MLA Sahendar Singh Ramala, happily hopped across to the BJP months later.

Another senior RLD leader said the focus of the party has now shifted to the Lok Sabha polls in 2024.

"We need to strengthen the party, and it was discussed during the meeting too. We will take steps to ensure our party's performance is good in the 2024 elections," said the leader.

"The eight RLD MLAs are equal to 80 who will work as the voice of the youths and the unemployed, along with farmers and labourers of Uttar Pradesh and will keep a close watch on the issues of public interest in line with our 'sankalp patra'," the party chief has said.

Jayant has already set up a committee to review the poll performance. On March 14, he had dissolved all RLD units and frontal organisations as part of a post-poll reorganisation drive.
Los Angeles, March 27 : 'Harry Potter' author J.K. Rowling has clapped back at Russian President Vladimir Putin's remark about 'cancel-culture' of the West, which tries to curb freedom of expression, reports 'Deadline'.

In the past few days, several big western corporations stationed in Russia, have canceled their action plans and big ticket releases in Russia owing to the Putin administration's invasion of Ukraine. In a televised meeting, Putin compared the cancellation of Russian cultural events with the actions of Nazi Germany.

He said, "Today they (the western nations) are trying to cancel a whole thousand-year-old country, our people. I am talking about the progressive discrimination of everything connected to Russia, a trend that is unfolding in a number of Western states and with the full connivance and sometimes the encouragement of the ruling elites. The notorious cancel culture has become a cancellation of culture." As per 'Deadline', he then compared the treatment of Russian cultural figures with Rowling's ostracizing for her perceived anti-transgender views, as he said, "Not so long ago, they canceled a children's writer, Joanne Rowling, because she, the author of books spread around the world, in hundreds of millions of copies, failed to please the supporters of the so-called gender liberties." As a response to Putin's remarks, the author took to her Twitter to share that she doesn't welcome the Russian leader's opinion.

She tweeted, "Critiques of Western cancel culture are possibly not best made by those currently slaughtering civilians for the crime of resistance, or who jail and poison their critics. #IStandWithUkraine." She also included an article about jailed Putin critic Alexei Navalny.

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
New Delhi, March 27 : While the world is still reeling with the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, India's fight against tuberculosis (TB) has encountered setbacks after decades of gains.

Despite the brief decline in TB notifications observed around the months corresponding to India's two major Covid-19 waves, the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP) has reported a rise in these numbers.

There was a 19 per cent increase in 2021 from the previous year in TB patients' notification. The total number of TB patients (new and relapse) notified during 2021 were 19,33,381, against 16,28,161 in 2020.

In India, childhood tuberculosis remains a staggering problem, contributing to approximately 31 per cent of the global burden. Over the last decade, consistently, children constitute 6-7 per cent of all the patients treated under NTEP annually, pointing to a gap of 4-5 per cent in total notification against the estimated incidence.

The National TB Prevalence survey in India was conducted from 2019 to 2021 to know the actual disease burden of TB at a national level. The survey, conducted after a gap of 60 years from the first national survey in 1955-58, estimated the point prevalence of microbiologically confirmed pulmonary TB among persons aged 15 and above at the national level and for 20 individual states and state groups.

It has revealed that the prevalence of microbiologically confirmed pulmonary tuberculosis in those 15 years and above age in India is 316 per 100,000 population - with the highest prevalence of 534 per lakh in Delhi, and the lowest 115 per lakh in Kerala, while the prevalence of all forms of tuberculosis among all age groups in India is 312 per 100,000 population.

According to the survey, the prevalence to notification ratio of adult pulmonary tuberculosis in India is 2.84, while prevalence of TB infection among population aged 15 and above is 31.7 per cent. The higher prevalence of pulmonary TB was observed in older age groups, males, malnourished, smokers, alcoholics, and known diabetics.

Talking to IANS, Dr Kabir Sardana, Professor at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, said: "TB and leprosy have prevalence in India since beginning. But in last two years, all concentration was oriented on the Covid-19 so these two common disese were not diagnosed properly and so it is seen rising." As TB and leprosy are notified diseases so as per rules, any private practitioner cannot treat them, and patients need to be referred to the government centre only.

On the findings of survey which reveals that Delhi has highest prevalence of pulmonary TB, Dr Sardana said that it is not because Delhi has highest numbers of patients but it is because referrals from surrounding states, as well as specialist centres and diagnostic tests available here.

Dr Sharad Joshi, Associate Director, Pulmonology at Max Hospital, told IANS that "tuberculosis has reached an alarming rate in India and it is evident that millions are being diagnosed with interstitial lung diseases (ILD), is a matter of great concern".

"Despite being preventable and curable disease, tuberculosis even after treatment can showcase prominent symptoms which, if not diagnosed and treated timely, can prove fatal." The survey also notes that the significant burden of TB in India is compounded by the dual existence of food insecurity and undernutrition, signifying the necessity of facilitating nutritional support to TB patients.

However, the government says it is committed to eliminate TB by 2025, five years ahead of SDG target year.

"We are determined and committed to achieve our PM's vision of eliminating TB by 2025, five years ahead of the target for TB set by SDG in 2030. Through the active efforts of all the states and the sustained guidance to the programme by our country's leadership, the programme has advanced through challenging times," said Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Thursday while addressing 'STEP Up to End TB 2022' summit on World TB Day.

(Avinash Prabhakar can be reached at Avinash.p@ians.in)
Bagalkot : , March 27 (IANS) Karnataka Education Minister B.C. Nagesh on Sunday appealed to the students who are insisting on wearing hijab to shed their ego and attend the crucial Class 10 examination.

"Leave the ego and attend exams. Majority of students are following the High Court verdict and government notification," he said.

For those who will not attend the exams, re-exams will be conducted after one month. "Barring this, no other option is available for them," he said.

"I have faith that they (students who are opposing) will also realise the importance of exams and attend. I repeatedly appeal... shed your ego and do not become scapegoat for others," he added.

As many as 17 lakh children are studying for SSLC exams. Around 100 students are said to have boycotted classes.

"I have made appeals many times and the Chief Minister (Basavaraj Bommai) has also made appeals," he said.

"Tomorrow (Monday), the SSLC exam will be conducted in 3,444 examination centres. A total of 8,74,000 children are taking up exams. Adequate staff is provided to conduct examination. I have confidence that the children will appear in the exams as per the verdict of the High Court," the Minister said.

"This time, the multiple choice questions are increased. Let students attend exams without any fear and with all the confidence," Nagesh added.
Kalaburagi : , March 27 (IANS) Karnataka police has ordered a probe into the case of missing beef of 59 tonnes seized in Kalaburagi district in the state, police said on Sunday.

It is being alleged that the police personnel who seized the beef are involved in the missing case also. After seizure, the beef was kept at the cold storage from where it went missing.

The authorities have sealed the Taj Cold Storage located in Nandur Industrial area in the outskirts of the city after finding 61 tonnes of beef stored illegally in September last year.

In the recent past the police which obtained permission from the court to dispose the seized beef, mentioned that they could dispose only 2 tonnes among the 61 tonnes of beef.

It is alleged that the police have illegally disposed off the seized beef from the cold storage without consent of the court.

Hunachiraya Moragi, an animal activist had lodged a complaint in this regard to Home Minister Araga Jnanendra and higher officials of the police department.

Kalaburagi DCP Addur Srinivasulu has stated that an investigation has been ordered into disappearance of 59 tonnes seized beef. A team will be headed by the ACP rank officer and if any illegality is found, the accused will be punished, he explained.
New Delhi, March 27 : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has prepared a list in which 21 people, including Trinamool Congress' block president Anarul Hossain, have been named as accused in connection with the violence in West Bengal's Birbhum.

Hossain's statement was recorded by the CBI after he was questioned at the probe agency's camp set up at a government guest house in Rampurhat, an official said on Sunday.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday had ordered the arrest of Trinamool Congress leader Hossain for his involvement in the carnage.

Earlier, the police had also prepared a list of the accused, and the list prepared by the CBI is almost same.

Following the orders of the Calcutta High Court, a team of forensic experts led by the CBI officials went to Rampurhat and collected samples on March 25.

Before the court order, the police had lodged a case, and also claimed to have arrested 10 people.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and others have accused the ruling Trinamool Congress of sheltering the accused.

The BJP had Banerjee of trying to cover up the incident. The Trinamool Congress, however, has denied all the charges.

After the Calcutta High Court order of handing over the probe to the CBI, the West Bengal government said that they would support the agency in conducting a fair probe.

Bhadu Sheikh, a Trinamool Congress leader and local deputy president of Rampurhat village was killed on March 21 by bike-borne assailants, after which a mob allegedly set several houses afire.

Next day, the police recovered the charred bodies of at least eight persons including children and women from a gutted house.
Lucknow, March 27 : Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati, on Sunday, appointed her nephew Akash Anand as the party's national Coordinator while her brother, Anand Kumar, was named the party's national Vice President.

Akash Anand's appointment was announced much earlier but a formal announcement has now been made.

His elevation is being seen as a sign of his growing influence in the party affairs.

The son of her younger brother Anand Kumar and a prominent face in Mayawati's Lok Sabha campaign, Akash Anand had first raised brows with his presence at the birthday celebration of the BSP supremo. She had later announced he would join the party's "movement" and learn the ropes of politics.

"It is an anti-BSP conspiracy. Dragging in my nephew forces me to think something about it. I will make Akash join the BSP movement and give him a chance to learn," she had earlier said.

Akash Anand first became visible after his return from London in early 2017. He made his political debut when he accompanied Mayawati during a visit to Saharanpur following a Thakur-Dalit clash.

She first introduced her brother and nephew to party workers on September 18, 2017, during a political rally in Meerut. The introduction was considered as the launch of Akash Anand's political career. It was the first time Anand Kumar and Akash Anand shared the dais with her.

Akash Anand, who completed his schooling from Delhi, is the eldest of Anand Kumar's three children.

So far, Akash Anand alone has not held any rally in UP. Now that Mayawati has made him the national Coordinator, it may be that he should openly bat on the pitch of politics.

After an alliance with the Samajwadi Party for the 2019 Parliamentary elections, Akash Anand became more active and was credited with launching Mayawati on Twitter. He was seen with his aunt during election rallies.
WASHINGTON, March 26 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Congressman Jeff Fortenberry announced on Saturday that he will resign from office, two days after being convicted of three felonies.

Fortenberry, a Nebraska Republican who has served in Congress since 2005, said that his last day as a federal legislator will be March 31, according to a letter he sent to his House colleagues.

"Due to the difficulties of my current circumstances, I can no longer effectively serve," he wrote.

Fortenberry, 61, was found guilty on Thursday of one count of scheming to falsify and conceal material facts and two counts of making false statements to federal investigators.

The conviction arose from a federal investigation into "illegal contributions made by a foreign national" to Fortenberry's 2016 re-election campaign.

A sentencing hearing was scheduled for June 28. Each of the three felony charges carries a statutory maximum penalty of five years in federal prison.

A special election will be held no later than 90 days after Fortenberry's seat becomes vacant, according to rules.

The U.S. federal law prohibits contributions made directly or indirectly by or from foreign nationals in connection with any federal, state, or local election. 
Islamabad, March 27 : Jamhoori Watan Party leader and special assistant to the Pakistan prime minister (SAPM) on reconciliation and harmony in Balochistan, ShahAzain Bugti, announced on Sunday his resignation from the federal cabinet citing lack of development in the province, Dawn reported.

He made the announcement while addressing a press conference in Islamabad alongside PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari. Earlier on Sunday, Bilawal called on Bugti at his residence where the two discussed the political situation in the country.

The Pak prime minister had appointed Bugti as his special assistant last year in July soon after deciding to hold talks with disgruntled Baloch tribesmen to pave way for permanent peace and progress in Balochistan. PM Imran had tasked him with holding talks with peeved Baloch tribesmen on behalf of the government.

His resignation comes amid mounting political tensions ahead of the no-confidence vote submitted by the opposition against the Prime Minister.

Addressing a press conference, Bugti said that the government had failed to deliver in Balochistan. "The federal government gave us hope that things will improve but the people have been disappointed," he said, announcing his resignation from Prime Minister Imran Khan's cabinet, Dawn reported.

Elaborating on his grievances, he said that when the Prime Minister first came into power he promised to focus on South Balochistan and under-developed areas. "But he failed to do so." The MNA also alleged that insurgency grew during the PTI government's tenure due to its negligence. "I have done everything except for banging my head into the wall. [...] Imran Khan says everyone is corrupt. [But] put the evidence in front of the people, they will decide. But all you do is use wrong words", the report said.
Kushinagar : , March 27 (IANS) Tension prevailed in Kushinagar on Sunday when the body of Babar, who had allegedly been killed by members of his own community for celebrating BJP's win in elections, was brought to his home.

His family refused to perform the last rites unless those responsible for the youth's death were punished.

According to the family, Babar was returning from his shop on March 20 when he chanted 'Jai Shri Ram' and was attacked by some local people.

To save his life, Babar climbed on his roof, but the accused reached there and Babar fell off the roof.

He was admitted to Ramkola CHC from where he was referred to the district hospital and then to Lucknow. Babar died during treatment in Lucknow.

Family members said that the local people from their community, had warned Babar against campaigning for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and celebrating its victory.

Babar had sought protection from Ramkola police but his request went unheard.

Kasaya sub-divisional magistrate (SDM), Varun Kumar Pandey who reached the spot on Sunday, said that the matter is being investigated.

He assured that the accused will be arrested and strict action will be taken against the guilty.

The local MLA Panchanand Pathak also met the family and convinced them to perform the last rites.

On the complaint of the family members, an FIR has been registered under relevant sections.
Colombo, March 27 : Sri Lanka's Opposition and the media report alleged on Sunday that the government is misusing $1 billion short term concessional loan facility offered by India to import food, medicines and other essential commodities, to help party supporters to win future elections.

The national media reported that the credit facility extended by the State Bank of India is being used to set up 14,000 home shops run by female entrepreneurs, from the families supporting the ruling party, Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) lead by Rajapaksas.

The country's main opposition accused the government of misusing the loan facility extended by India to provide immediately essential commodities in the backdrop where imported food, fuel and medicine are scare and prices have skyrocketed due to dollar crunch.

Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa told in parliament that the SLPP is trying to set up home shops in 14,000 villages to fulfill its political interest by misusing this Indian aid. "I say this with responsibility," Premadasa reiterated.

A project initiated by Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa, home shops in rural areas are to fulfill the needs of food items and non-food products including clothing and household items for villagers who are far away from cities.

The essential commodities which are to be purchased from India with the use of the credit-line are to be distributed through home shops in villages and shop owners are expected to payback after selling them keeping profit margins.

Additionally, food coupons worth Lankan Rs 2,000 (about $7) are to be distributed among ruling party members to purchase food and non-food items from the home shops.

The media report indicated that a sum of LKR 15 billion (around $51 million) had been allocated for the project for which the Finance Minister has sent letters to all electoral organisers of the ruling party requesting them to nominate the prospective recipients from their villages.

The hidden agenda of the project is to indirectly influence village level support for the party in a possible local government or provincial council elections which are overdue, analysts stated.
Warsaw, March 27 : US President Joe Biden's call for Vladimir Putin to be "removed" from power is setting off alarm bells among US foreign policy experts, who fear that it could escalate tensions even after the Kremlin scales back its war aims in Ukraine, Daily Mail reported.

"For God's sake this man cannot remain in power," Biden had said in a shocking apparent call for regime change in Moscow at the end of a impassioned speech from Poland.

The "unscripted" remark, which the White House scrambled to walk back as the Kremlin expressed fury, came at the end of an otherwise resolute and fiery speech rallying the free world to unite in opposition to "autocracy" and support of Ukraine.

Richard Haass, the Council on Foreign Relations president, tweeted his concerns that Biden had "just expanded US war aims, calling for regime change." "However desirable it may be, it is not within our power to accomplish-plus runs risk it will increase Putin's inclination to see this as a fight to the finish, raising odds he will reject compromise, escalate, or both," wrote Haass, Daily Mail reported.

"Our interests are to end the war on terms Ukraine can accept & to discourage Russian escalation. Today's call for regime change is inconsistent with these ends," he added.

"The fact that it was so off-script in some ways makes it worse," because it could be read as Biden's genuine belief as opposed to his scripted words, Haas said.

Biden's remark could also diminish Putin's interest in compromise and increase his temptation to escalate in Ukraine, "because if he believes he has everything to lose then he'll believe he has nothing to lose," Haass said.
New Delhi, March 27 : Jet Airways on Sunday cautioned against fraudsters that are duping people on pretext of getting them jobs in the airline.

"Certain unscrupulous people/entities claiming to represent Jet Airways are demanding money in exchange for interviews or jobs. Please check the source of email or social media posts before responding to job posts or offers," it said in a tweet.

Noting that presently they are looking to build a "passionate and talented" team as they prepare to relaunch the company, Jet said that they "does not solicit payment for any recruitment. All communications related to job openings or offers are sent from our official verified social media handles, or from our official email address".

According to Delhi Police, cyber criminals target young and educated citizens in the name of job offers. They get bulk bio-data/CV of persons looking for jobs from job sites and using the details given in the CV - phone number, email, educational qualification, previous employment, etc., devise personalised fraud emails promising job opportunities in reputed companies.
New Delhi, March 27 : Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Sunday said talks with Pakistan can only be held when there are no sounds of guns and bullets.

Talking to the media on the sidelines of an event here, Singh slammed Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chief Mehbooba Mufti who on Saturday reiterated her call to the BJP-led Central government for holding dialogue with the people of Jammu and Kashmir, and Pakistan.

Responding to that, he sought to know if the BJP should talk to the people of its own country or to the people of a foreign land.

Mufti, a former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, has said peace would be elusive as long as Kashmir issue remains unresolved.

"If the Kashmir issue is not resolved, there will be no peace in the region and therefore it is necessary to hold talks with people of Jammu and Kashmir, and Pakistan," Mufti had said on Saturday.

Reacting to Mufti's remark, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said the PDP chief could pass such comments as the BJP had given people like her strength by forming government with her party in the erstwhile state.

Taking a dig at Mufti, Raut had also said she was a friend of the BJP at some point of time and they formed a coalition government in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

The PDP has been 'pro-Pakistan and sympathises with terrorists', and even as Mehbooba Mufti had supported the Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, the BJP had formed an alliance with her to form the government in Jammu and Kashmir, Raut said.
New Delhi, March 27 : India can hold talks with Pakistan only when guns fall silent and bullets stop flying, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Sunday.

Talking to the media on the sidelines of an event here, he slammed Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti who on Saturday reiterated her call to the BJP-led Central government for holding dialogue with the people of Jammu and Kashmir, and Pakistan.

Jitendra Singh sought to know if the BJP should talk to the people of its own country or to the people of a foreign land.

Mehbooba Mufti, a former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, has said peace would be elusive as long as Kashmir issue remains unresolved.

"If the Kashmir issue is not resolved, there will be no peace in the region and therefore it is necessary to hold talks with people of Jammu and Kashmir, and Pakistan," she had said on Saturday.

Reacting to her remark, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said the PDP chief could pass such comments as the BJP had given people like her strength by forming government with her party in the erstwhile state.

Taking a dig at Mufti, Raut had also said she was a friend of the BJP at some point of time and they formed a coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir.

The PDP has been "pro-Pakistan and sympathised with terrorists", and even as Mehbooba Mufti had supported the Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, the BJP had formed an alliance with her to form the government in Jammu and Kashmir, Raut said.
Hyderabad, March 27 : Union Minister for Tourism and Culture G. Kishan Reddy on Sunday alleged that the TRS started targeting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over paddy procurement after the defeat in the Huzurabad Assembly by-election.

With the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) stepping up its attacks on the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, the Union minister hit back targeting Telangana's ruling party.

He said it was only after defeat of TRS in by-election to Huzurabad Assembly seat that the party started raising the issue of paddy procurement. "Why did they not speak before the by-polls," asked Kishan Reddy while talking to reporters here.

The by-election to Huzurabad was caused by the resignation of Eatala Rajender from Assembly and TRS, after he was dropped from the state cabinet by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on the allegations of land encroachment.

Rajender won the by-election as a candidate of BJP.

Kishan Reddy claimed that Rajender quit TRS and joined BJP as he was fed up with the family rule.

The Central minister, who is a member of Lok Sabha from Secunderabad, pointed out that the demand has come down for boiled rice across the country. Those who were consuming it earlier are not showing any interest now. He said boiled rice is not grown by farmers but it is produced in the rice mills.

He said the Central government was spending huge money on procurement of rice from various states. He claimed that Rs 26,600 crore was spent for rice procurement last year while this amount was just Rs 3,400 crore in 2014.

The BJP leader said the Centre would procure rice from the state till the last grain as per the agreement signed with the state government last year.

On the criticism by TRS for not exporting the surplus rice, the government can't export rice as per WTO rules. He claimed that the government is ready to encourage private exporters but they are also not coming forward.

Kishan Reddy hit back at the Centre a day after the TRS threatened to intensify the agitation against the Centre after Ugadi.

The state government is demanding that the Centre procure the entire paddy grown in the state during ongoing Rabi season but the Centre is insisting that it will procure only raw rice.

A ministerial delegation from the state which called on central food minister Piyush Goyal alleged that he acted in an arrogant manner during the meeting. The TRS has slammed the Centre for discriminating against Telangana and has decided to intensify its protest.
Patna, March 27 : Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was allegedly punched by a youth during a public programme in Bakhtiyarpur town on the outskirts of Patna on Sunday afternoon.

Nitish Kumar makes regular visits to meet people in the area which is part of his erstwhile Lok Sabha constituency Barh, which he had represented five times from 1989 to 1999, before losing in 2004 and the constituency being redrawn in 2008.

According to a video going viral on social media, a youth was seen walking in between the security personnel as the Chief Minister was paying tribute at a statue at Bakhtiyarpur market, and punching him once. Security personnel overpowered the accused and took him into custody.

IANS sought to contact the Patna SSP and other senior police officers but their phones were switched off.

However, sources have said that the youth is mentally unstable, and the motive for his attack on the Chief Minister is yet to be ascertained yet. Patna police are investigating the background of the accused.

Top Bihar Police officials, who did not want to be identified, said that it is a serious security lapse as the Chief Minister generally moves with good numbers of security personnel in public places.
Islamabad, March 27 : Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday called out the "corrupt" opposition leaders and said that whether he loses his government or his life, he will never forgive them.

He was speaking at one of the "biggest" rallies in his party's history at the Parade Ground in Islamabad as the Opposition has geared up to oust him from office through the no-confidence motion, the voting for which is scheduled to take place on Monday, Geo News reported.

Taking a jibe at the Opposition, Imran Khan called out their "corruption" and said that those robbers continued saving each other by using the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) for the last 30 years.

"These three rats (opposition bigwigs) have been looting the country for three decades and these three have been trying to destabilise my government from day one," he said.

Imran Khan said that it was because of former President, General Pervez Musharraf that "these corrupt politicians got away with their wrongdoings through the NRO".

"Musharraf pushed the country into turmoil by giving NROs to these corrupt leaders just to save his own government," he said. "Whether I lose my government or my life, I am never going to forgive them."
As people around the world switch off lights at 8:30 p.m. local time on Saturday to mark Earth Hour 2022, the head of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) International calls for rebalancing our relationship with nature with a "Paris-style" global agreement on biodiversity.

Produced by Xinhua Global Service
Patna, March 27 : VIP chief Mukesh Sahani was sacked as Bihar Minister on Sunday, soon after the BJP said action will be taken against him.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is understood to have written to Governor Phagu Chauhan, recommending that Sahani be removed as minister, as being demanded by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

BJP leaders, including its Bihar chief Sanjay Jaiswal, were hinting that Sahani - with whom the party was at odds since his decision to contest the recent UP Assembly elections and attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath - was going to be axed after it lured away all the three VIP MLAs and inducted them into the party.

Jaiswal, who had met Deputy Chief Minister Tar Kishore Prasad on Saturday, had, earlier on Sunday said that action will be taken against Sahani very soon.

The BJP, after inducting his three MLAs, had given Sahani a chance to resign but he had turned it down, saying it was the special privilege of the Chief Minister to take any decisions on him.

As per the normal procedure, the Chief Minister recommends the removal of any minister, and the Governor generally does not turn down the recommendation. However, there has been no official notification about the removal of Sahani who was Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Minister.
New Delhi, March 27 : Delhi Police have arrested two dreaded contract killers in connection with the murder of a woman. Of them, one was nabbed on Sunday morning after a brief exchange of fire in which the accused received a bullet injury, an official said.

The accused -- Shokeen Khan (30) and Jeeshan (22) -- both residents of Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, recently killed a woman in Delhi's Old Seelampur, by pumping three bullets in her chest.

According to the police, the accused Shokeen is married and has five children.

He disclosed to the police that he has been arrested twice in case of transportation of cows for the purpose of slaughtering at Jarcha Noida and Sahibabad police stations.

Furnishing details, Deputy Commissioner of Police, R. Sathiyasundaram said that on March 14 in the morning, a lady named Fatima alias Sunita was shot dead by these two accused people. They fired 3 rounds at the lady and fled away from the spot.

Accordingly, the police registred a case under section 302 (punishment for murder) of the IPC at Gandhi Nagar polcie station and various teams were constituted to nab the criminals.

Based on CCTV footage of the crime spot, both the accused were identified and later on March 23, one of the accused, Jeeshan, was arrested from Anand Vihar area.

After sustained interrogation, he revealed the location of his accomplice.

Later, on the intervening night of March 26-27, the police laid a trap at the specified location shared by the arrested accused and spotted Shokeen Khan.

"In the early morning, the accused person was spotted and was signaled to stop. But he tried to evade arrest and opened fire at the police party. He fired two rounds, of which one hit the bullet proof jacket of a Police Inspector. In response, the police team also retaliated and fired on the accused person who sustained bullet injury on his left leg," the DCP said.

Subsequently, the police revised the FIR earlier registered against accused Shokeen and lodged the case under sections 186, 353, 307 and 34 of IPC & 25, 27 and 54 of the Arms Act.

On interrogation, the accused persons revealed that they are desperate contract killers who commit murder for money and keep loaded weapons and ammunition. In case any obstruction is created in their path by anyone, they eliminate him.

They use motorcycles with fake number plates in the commission of crime and are well aware of the technical surveillance as they always make internet calls whenever they leave to commit any crime.

They further revealed that they killed the woman in Old Seelampur, Delhi in lieu of money offered by Madhu alias Aarti alias Punjaban. She paid Rs 1 lakh to both the killers.

The killer duo was introduced to Madhu by Shokeen's girlfriend named Rani. It was also found that Shokeen had six months back killed Rani's husband.
New Delhi, March 27 : The banks will observe a nationwide strike on Monday (March 28) and Tuesday (March 29) to protest against the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021, and oppose the privatisation of public sector banks.

The decision to go on a strike was taken by a joint forum of central trade unions.

The All India Bank Employees Association had on Saturday announced that it would observe two day's strike to oppose the move of the Central government.

Apart from banks, other business sectors are also likely to join the strike to show their solidarity with the banks against the policies of the Central government.

Telecom, oil, income tax, postal, coal, steel, copper, and insurance sectors might back the strike.

The joint forum of central trade unions has said that the new policies of the centre will effect their workers, farmers and people and it should be rolled back.

The State Bank of India has informed the account holders that as the bank is joining the two-day nationwide strike, the customers might be able to receive its services.

However, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh has said it would not support the strike. The West Bengal government has said that all the government employees will report on duty.

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha has supported the call of banking sector.
New Delhi, March 27 : The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday conducted a search operation in Srinagar's Sonwar Bagh area in connection with a case related to terror funding in Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.

"The search conducted on Sunday at the premises of a suspect has led to recovery of documents related to financial transactions," said a senior NIA official.

The case pertains to collection and transfer of funds by certain NGOs, Trusts, Societies and organisations on behalf of separatists, and terrorist organisations in order to sustain secessionist and terror activities in the Kashmir Valley.

The NIA has also recorded the testimonies of a few individuals in this connection. No arrest, however, was made.

Further investigation is underway.
New Delhi, March 27 : Financial advisory firm Elara Capital has maintained a 'buy' call for both multiplex companies PVR and INOX Leisure.

Both film exhibition majors on Sunday announced a merger and their boards have approved an all stock amalgamation. Shareholders of INOX will receive shares of PVR in exchange of shares of the former at the approved exchange ratio, as per a statement.

"We maintain our Buy rating on both PVR/Inox; currently have a target price of Rs 2,375 and Rs 575, will monitor further developments - but there is a high likelihood of a 15-20 per cent upgrade on the target prices due to synergy and re-rating," Elara Capital said in a note post the announcement of the merger.

It believes both entities getting merged will lead to better yields on advertising, wherein Inox will come on par with PVR and the combined entity may even command a further premium over medium term.

"In terms of convenience fee too, Inox derives a much lower convenience fee per screen, which too will be revised upwards.

"Market share may trend up as the combined entity may gain from smaller chains and single screens that have struggled due to Covid, the financial advisory firm said.

In terms of ticket prices and spend per head too, Inox is at a 5-25 per cent discount vs that of PVR and the brokerage expects Inox to move towards rapid premiumisation in line with PVR.

"We believe use of technology - 3D and 4D and other new technologies will drive ticket prices higher. Further introduction of gourmet food will drive spend per head metric higher," the firm added.
Chennai, March 27 : AIADMK Joint Coordinator and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Palaniswami on Sunday said that there was no scope for former interim General Secretary V.K. Sasikala being taken back into the party.

He made the comment at an interaction with media persons at Salem.

AIADMK Coordinator and former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, interacting with media after deposing before the Arumughaswami Commission probing the circumstances leading to the death of party supremo J. Jayalalithaa, had said that he had high respects for Sasikala, and also fondly referred to her as 'Chinnamma'.

His statement had sparked rumours in the AIADMK that some political developments were taking place behind the curtains for a possible reentry of Sasikala. However, Palansiwami has, for the time being, put an end to this with his unequivocal statement.

He also recalled that the resolutions adopted against her entry into the party by the district units of the AIADMK and the top leadership were announced by him and Panneerselvam.

However, sources in the Panneerselvam camp told IANS that Sasikala's entry cannot be blocked by Palaniswami. "The party rout in its stronghold of south Tamil Nadu is due to the ire of the Thevar community to which both OPS and Sasikala belong and that community is pulling the strings for her reentry," a source said.

The source also said that Palaniswami is also not in a strong wicket in his hometown Edappadi in Salem where also the party had faced a major rout in the urban local body polls.
Moscow, March 28 : Russian and Ukrainian delegations will hold a new round of face-to-face negotiations on March 29-30, Head of Russia's negotiation team Vladimir Medinsky said.

"Today, another round of negotiations with Ukraine via video link took place. As a result, it was decided to meet in person on March 29-30," Medinsky, also an aide to the Russian President, said on Telegram this Sunday.

Meanwhile, David Arakhamia, a member of the Ukrainian delegation on Sunday said the next live round will be held in Turkey on March 28-30, Xinhua news agency reported.

Since February 28, Russia and Ukraine have held three rounds of face-to-face peace talks and then a series of online discussions, failing to reach a major agreement.

The new round of talks will take place after the Russian military announced on Friday that the main tasks of the first stage of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine had been completed in general.

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
Tehran, March 28 : The European Union (EU) Coordinator for the Iran nuclear talks, Enrique Mora and Iran's Chief Nuclear Negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani held talks in Tehran over the Vienna negotiations aimed at the revival of the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

At the meeting on Sunday, the two sides exchanged views on the latest developments of removing US anti-Iran sanctions and the remaining issues in Vienna negotiations, official news agency IRNA reported.

During the meeting, Bagheri Kani repeated Iran's "seriousness and determination" to finalise the agreement in Vienna, noting that "an agreement could be reached if the American side was realistic." Mora, Deputy Secretary-General of the European External Action Service, also reported on his latest consultations with other parties, Xinhua news agency reported.

IRNA did not provide further details about the meeting, but added that Mora and Bagheri Kani will continue close communication and consultation in the coming days.

Mora's visit to Tehran is a part of efforts to bridge "the remaining gaps in the Vienna talks," he tweeted on Friday before visiting Iran.

On March 11, the EU announced a pause in the Vienna talks on the restoration of the JCPOA.

In 2015, Iran signed the JCPOA with the P5+1, namely Britain, China, France, Russia, and the US, plus Germany. However, former US President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled Washington out of the pact in May 2018 and re-imposed sanctions on Iran, which prompted the latter to drop some of its nuclear commitments.

Since April 2021, Iran and the remaining JCPOA parties have held eight rounds of talks in Vienna to revive the deal.
Tehran, March 28 : Iran will not cross its redlines to surrender in the Vienna talks, the conclusion of which requires "political will" of the US, Kamal Kharazi, a senior Advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said.

Making the remarks at the Doha Forum international conference, Kharazi on Sunday added that "we want to reach an agreement (in Vienna) and establish normal relations, but we will not allow our independence to be violated and we will not surrender," official news agency IRNA reported.

He said the Europeans "did nothing" to solve the problems after the US withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Xinhua news agency reported.

The Europeans promised to design regulations within European law to protect their companies from US secondary sanctions, but to no avail, Kharazi, the Iranian former Foreign Minister, added.

Regarding Iran's demands from the US for an agreement, the Iranian official said the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) must be removed from the US list of foreign terrorist organisations.

"The IRGC is a national army, which should not be considered as a terrorist group. It is very important for the Iranians that the IRGC be removed from the list," he added.

This is not the only issue, and other issues should be addressed in the possible deal, such as the US guarantees that it will not withdraw from the likely deal once again in the future and lift the sanctions on more than 500 Iranian institutions and individuals, some of which have a direct impact on Iran-West relations, he noted.

On Sunday, US Special Envoy to Iran, Robert Malley said the IRGC will remain sanctioned under US law.

In line with the diplomatic efforts to bridge "the remaining gaps in the Vienna talks," the European Union (EU) Coordinator for the Iran nuclear talks, Enrique Mora and Iran's Chief Nuclear Negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani held talks in Tehran on Sunday and exchanged views on the latest developments of removing US anti-Iran sanctions and the remaining issues in Vienna negotiations, official news agency IRNA reported.

During the meeting, Bagheri Kani repeated Iran's "seriousness and determination" to finalise the agreement in Vienna, noting that "an agreement could be reached if the American side was realistic." Mora, Deputy Secretary-General of the European External Action Service, also reported on his latest consultations with other parties.

On March 11, the EU announced a pause in the Vienna talks on the restoration of the JCPOA.

In 2015, Iran signed the JCPOA with the P5+1, namely Britain, China, France, Russia, and the US, plus Germany. However, former US President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled Washington out of the pact in May 2018 and re-imposed sanctions on Iran, which prompted the latter to drop some of its nuclear commitments.

Since April 2021, Iran and the remaining JCPOA parties have held eight rounds of talks in Vienna to revive the deal.
Cairo, March 28 : Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry has held a video conference with his Japanese counterpart Yoshimasa Hayashi, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The two top diplomats on Sunday discussed ways to continue pushing forward the bilateral relations, especially in the fields of culture, investment and trade, it added.

They also exchanged views on the latest regional and international developments, as well as climate issues, it said.

Shoukry informed his Japanese counterpart the ongoing preparations for the upcoming the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 27), which will be held in Egypt in November 2022, Xinhua news agency reported.
Luanda  European Investment Bank (EIB) pledged 50 million Euros to fund Angola's public sector whose aid will be also extended to the private sector aimed to ensure the creation of resilience amid Covid-19 pandemic that crippled the country's economy.

The pledge emerged from a meeting the Angolan ministers of Economy and Planning Mario Caetano Joao and of Energy and Water Joao Baptista Borges held with the head of Division of the European Investment Bank for Sub-Saharan Africa, Diederik Zambom in Brussels, Belgium.

During the meeting, the participants reviewed the activity carried out by that financial institution in Angola related to the financing to private and public sectors, states a press release reached Angop.

"The meeting analysed the possibility of the bank to create some financial packages for the private sector, through commercial banking and Development Bank of Angola. The EIB is also available for fund projects related to the blue economy", Angolan minister of Economy said.

Whereas, the minister of Energy and Water Joao Baptista Borges spoke of the European Investment Bank, stating that the institution has pledged 1 million euros to finance the completion of studies on the Hydroelectric Power Plant of Baynes, Binational with Namibia, "which demonstrates the engagement and confidence in the project."

In turn, Diederik Zambom said his institution "is interested in financing initiatives linked to basic sanitation, infrastructure for hydroelectric power production and the connection of the electricity grid between Angola and the neighbouring countries, with stress to Namibia.

With headquarters in Luxembourg, the European Investment Bank (EIB) was created in 1958 under the Rome Treaty.
Radisson Blu Upper Hill (Nairobi) reopens for local and international travelers and guests, focusing on the highest level of service and experiences. Visitors will enjoy exceptional dining experiences from the Larder restaurant, Chop House, or the Humidor Bar & Cigar Lounge.

Radisson Blu Hotel, Upper Hill, plans to resume operations under new management this May after finalization on the acquisition of the establishment. The hotel is located in the middle of the bustling Upper Hill, recognized for its magnificent interior design. It is approximately 10 minutes from Wilson Airport, with access to several surrounding companies and offices. The hotel is close to the famous Nairobi National Park, Kenya's first wildlife reserve and the world's only protected wildlife reserve in the capital city.

Russel Storey was appointed the General Manager to run the hotel, which boasts contemporary amenities, including the 271 rooms and suites with design themes that provide beautiful views of the cityscape to the north or the plains of Nairobi National Park to the south and state-of-the-art gym and spa. The hotel has one of the most extensive meeting facilities in Kenya, with 14 versatile meeting rooms, a spacious pre-function area, a business center, the latest in audiovisual technology, and exceptional security. The hotel will reopen on May 9th, 2022, under new management, to maintain the same high international standards as before.

"We are pleased to reopen the hotel as part of our fast-growing upmarket brand, Radisson, which has been well-received in Kenya due to its modern style and ability to let guests focus on a work/life balance and discover harmony in their vacation experience. The hotel will add to our existing hotel portfolio in Africa, which is an important market for us. We are thrilled to bring the Radisson brand back to Upper Hill, where it will serve as an elite hotel for both business and leisure guests," states Russel Storey, Radisson Blu Upper Hill, General Manager.

After the long-awaited reopening, Radisson Blu Upper Hill is back in business for local and international travelers and guests. The hotel reopens, focusing on the highest level of service and experiences for guests to feel the difference. Visitors will enjoy the exceptional dining experience from the Larder restaurant, Chop House, or the Humidor Bar & Cigar Lounge. To welcome returning guests, the management strives to ensure that their arrival and stay are as seamless and safe as possible with the same unmatched experience touchpoints.

"This 5-star hotel is strategically located and offers a little sanctuary where business and pleasure converge. With our committed crew and contemporary amenities, we will continue to provide unique experiences for our visitors and look forward to receiving them for a simply enjoyable stay." Russel concludes.

Radisson Blu Hotel, Upper Hill welcomes its new and existing guests to create and relive memorable moments. To accommodate all of its guests, Radisson has implemented a flexible modification and cancellation system. Information and booking details are available at the following website: https://www.radissonhotels.com/en-us/hotels/radisson-blu-nairobi-upper-hill/contact

ENDS

Media contact:

Olessya Limar, o@bspokeassociates.com, +44 7426 957 7477
After two years of virtual festivals, we are proud to bring the festival back in 2022 - Matt Nagatomi, Quillan Rusky - Co-Chairs of 2022 Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival

The 55th annual Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival (NCCBF) is coming back in person on the weekends of April 9-10 and 16-17, 2022 from 11a-6p. We are honored to be one of Californias most prominent celebrations of Asian traditions and the largest Cherry Blossom Festival in the West Coast. Based in one of three remaining Japantowns in the United States, our Festival symbolizes the arrival of spring and cherry blossoms in San Francisco.

Since 1968, the NCCBF has served to cultivate a strong alliance between Japan and the United States, to showcase the vibrant colors and grace of Japanese culture, and to represent the diversity of our Japantown community. The festival audience has grown considerably for the past 55 years, typically hosting more than 220,000 guests over the course of two weekends.

In April 2020, we canceled the in-person Festival due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and for the safety of attendees and participants, transitioned to a Virtual Blossom in Place '' Festival for the last two years. The Virtual Festival livestream showcased performers, exhibitors, and non-profit organizations to viewers around the world. The 2022 Festival will be our first festival in person since 2019.

The 2022 Festivals theme is (Sakaeru), meaning to come back, flourish as a community and festival. The tagline is Springing Forward. It takes its cue from the poster's frog. In Japanese, Ka-e-ru is frog and they always spring forward. As for the meaning of this years Kanji, the top of the kanji is light and the bottom represents a tree. Therefore, for a tree to flourish and become strong it needs strong light, like that of the sun.

Unfortunately, we will not have a parade this year but we will be bringing back Arts & Crafts Vendors, Food booths and a stage at Japantown's Peace Plaza featuring cultural performances. Also, we will be welcoming back our non-profit partners to the festival. The festival footprint will include vendors on Post St., food booths on Webster Street and utilizing Japan Center Malls for Tea Ceremony, Ikebana(Japanese flower arranging), Bonsai and others.

We look forward to connecting with our attendees while adhering to social distancing.

Visit NCCBF at nccbf.org, Facebook @nccbf, Instagram @nc_cbf, and Twitter @nc_cbf for the latest updates.
Mahesh Nandyala, Chief Product Officer at CoEnterprise has been accepted into Forbes Technology Council, an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs, and technology executives. Mahesh is a serial entrepreneur, an accomplished C-level executive, and a steward of data-driven, product-led culture.

Mahesh Nandyala was vetted and selected by a review committee based on the depth and diversity of his experience. Criteria for acceptance include a track record of successfully impacting business growth metrics, as well as personal and professional achievements and honors.

We are honored to welcome Mahesh Nandyala into the community, said Scott Gerber, founder of Forbes Councils, the collective that includes Forbes Technology Council. Our mission with Forbes Councils is to bring together proven leaders from every industry, creating a curated, social capital-driven network that helps every member grow professionally and make an even greater impact on the business world.

As an accepted member of the Council, Mahesh Nandyala has access to a variety of exclusive opportunities designed to help him reach peak professional influence. He will connect and collaborate with other respected local leaders in a private forum. Mahesh will also be invited to work with a professional editorial team to share his expert insights in original business articles on Forbes.com, and to contribute to published Q&A panels alongside other experts.

Finally, Mahesh will benefit from exclusive access to vetted business service partners, membership-branded marketing collateral, and the high-touch support of the Forbes Councils member concierge team.

It is an honor to be a part of such a forward-looking group of thought leaders. I am humbled by the opportunity to work with the great minds at Forbes Technology Council and help each other to reach our full potential. said Mahesh Nandyala

ABOUT FORBES COUNCILS

Forbes Councils is a collective of invitation-only communities created in partnership with Forbes and the expert community builders who founded Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC). In Forbes Councils, exceptional business owners and leaders come together with the people and resources that can help them thrive.

For more information about Forbes Technology Council, visit forbestechcouncil.com. To learn more about Forbes Councils, visit forbescouncils.com.

About CoEnterprise:

CoEnterprise is an award-winning enterprise software and services company headquartered in New York City. CoEnterprise delivers supply chain and business analytics solutions and services that are changing the way companies connect and do business. Syncrofy is a flagship product of CoEnterprise that helps gain supply chain visibility and empowers companies to break down barriers to make faster, smarter business decisions.

For more information about Mahesh Nandyala, visit https://www.linkedin.com/in/mahesh-nandyala-6869a342/. For more information about CoEnterprise, visit http://www.coenterprise.com
Triumph Play System's Festival 10

Inc. magazine today revealed that Triumph Play Systems is No. 47 on its third annual Inc. 5000 Regionals: Northeast list, the most prestigious ranking of the fastest-growing private companies based in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Born of the annual Inc. 5000 franchise, this regional list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the Northeast region economys most dynamic segment its independent small businesses.

We ranked 1441 nationally in 2021 and now to rank 47th in the Northeast is an exciting accomplishment for the Triumph team, said Michael Wooding, CEO of Triumph Play Systems. Weve put a ton of energy into our new Festival line as well as the automated systems to get them out the door. The investment seems to be paying off!

The companies on this list show a remarkable rate of growth across all industries in the Northeast region. Between 2018 and 2020, these 124 private companies had an average growth rate of 208% percent and, in 2020 alone, they added 5,010 jobs and nearly $2.7 billion to the Northeast regions economy. Companies based in the New York City and Boston areas had the highest growth rate overall.

Complete results of the Inc. 5000 Regionals Northeast, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, metro area, and other criteria, can be found at inc.com/northeast 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.

Triumph Play Systems is focused on delivering the most premium custom white cedar swing sets to the world's finest backyards. Our catalog features nine fort styles and 55 standard swing set configurations. All wooden components are milled and processed in house at our facility in Ashburnham, Massachusetts. We have a network of installers throughout the US, and ship directly to the customer world-wide. To Lean more about our swing sets, visit TriumphPlaySystems.com

CONTACT: Jaclyn Wooding

Jaclyn@triumphplaysystems.com

978-827-6330

More about Inc. and the Inc. 5000 Regionals

Methodology

The 2022 Inc. 5000 Regional 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.
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Written and directed by H. Vinoth, the film is produced by Boney Kapoor of Bayview Project LLP in association with Zee Studios. The film features Huma Qureshi and Karthikeya in the lead characters. Yuvan Shankar Raja has composed music and Nirav Shah has handled the cinematography.The films streaming debut was marked was launched with an aggressive marketing campaign by ZEE5 and its performance to date is described by the company as an unbeatable record in the history of Indian streaming.'Valimai' is doing extremely well on the platform, thanks to its content, Ajith's stardom, and H Vinoth's direction. It has broken all the existing records on ZEE5 Global, said the company. The much-loved film is streaming in multiple languages and the response has been overwhelming across all of them.
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 03/27/2022



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[ Spoiler Warning: This report contains spoilers on Memphis and Hamza's relationship and if the : Before the 90 Days couple is still together now.]

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So are Memphis and Hamza still together now? Did they get married or has the : Before the 90 Days couple broken up?

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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

: Before the 90 Days' fifth season featured Hamza Moknii agreeing to sign a postnuptial agreement in order to marry Memphis Smith, so did the couple go through with a wedding and, if so, are they still together now? What do spoilers reveal about Hamza and Memphis' relationship now -- did they break up?Memphis is a 34-year-old from Muskegon, MI, and Hamza is a 28-year-old from Kairouan, Tunisia.After being single for four years and dating around quite a bit, Memphis -- who called herself spontaneous and fun -- met a "special" guy named Hamza eight months prior to filming : Before the 90 Days.Memphis is a single mom to a 13-year-old daughter named Kennedi, whom she welcomed from a relationship that took place 14 years ago, as well as a six-year-old son, whom she shares custody of with her ex-husband.Memphis said she works hard to support her children and put herself through school for over eight years to obtain her Master's degree and become a nurse practitioner.Memphis was so proud of her life but wanted to share it with a man, and dating American men online apparently wasn't working out for her.Memphis said Hamza gave her "butterflies" that she never felt before and she found him to be "very considerate," loving and caring.The only problem was the couple's language barrier since Hamza only speaks a little English and she doesn't speak any Arabic. She joked about how the only words they both knew was "sexy time."Memphis planned to fly to Tunisia and take "sexy time" to a whole new level. She said she was truly in love with Hamza and wanted to skip getting engaged and go straight to getting married.Memphis intended to spend one week with Hamza in person, get married during Week 2, and then spend the third week honeymooning and enjoying being newlyweds.While Memphis' friends were a little worried and skeptical about Memphis skipping the K-1 visa and going straight to a spousal visa, Memphis was convinced she had found her perfect match and the man of her dreams.Memphis also claimed she had told Hamza he must get a job in the United States in heating and cooling, so she didn't plan on supporting him financially for very long.Memphis then shared how she had been in 12 different foster homes until the age of 19. Memphis' mother struggled with a crack addiction when Memphis was nine years old and her biological father was in prison.Memphis felt her childhood played a part in her desire to feel secure with a man. She thought being married would fill a hole she had in her heart, and Memphis looked forward to having a stable and complete family.Memphis believed her choices would benefit her kids in the long run because they'd have a stable father figure and she'd be happy with a man whom she shared an "amazing connection" with.But her foster sister Ingrid said in a confessional, "Memphis is a hothead and can be very intimidating, so I am very concerned that Hamza is not ready for Memphis."Memphis craved emotional and physical intimacy, but Hamza still lived at home with his mother, his "everything." And his mother Hayet didn't approve of Hamza and Memphis having pre-marital sex.Things were going well for the couple, however, until Memphis discovered Hamza had lied about his age and he's only 26 years old. He had told Memphis he was 28 at the time so she'd think he's more mature. Memphis lamented about feeling fooled and "betrayed."The lie made Memphis question whether she even wanted to go through with marriage, and she wondered what else her fiance could be lying about.But after Hamza promised Memphis he hadn't lied about anything else, the couple headed to an embassy two hours away to get the ball rolling on their marriage.Memphis didn't think Hamza was prepared for their meeting and she accused him of not "being a man," and Hamza complained, "Memphis nags me a lot. I do not like her attitude at all."Hamza began having second thoughts about marriage, but Memphis gave him the ultimatum that they needed to wed or else she'd be done with him.The couple then made love in a hotel room, and Memphis revealed "it was very fast and furious.""But I really feel so much more relieved because he did perform for me last night. He definitely showed me that he can do what he needs to do to satisfy me, so I was very happy," she noted.On the right track, Memphis then broached the topic of getting a prenuptial agreement so that if she and Hamza ever got a divorce, he wouldn't be able to take any of her money.Memphis felt the need to protect herself going into this marriage, and she told Hamza, "If you do not sign the contract, I do not want to marry you."Hamza said he's never heard of a prenup before and they don't exist in Tunisia. He apparently felt "insulted" since a marriage should be built on trust and respect."Your possessions do not mean anything to me," Hamza insisted."Good! But will you sign papers?" Memphis asked."Okay," Hamza replied, although he felt very uneasy and noticed new problems kept popping up for his relationship.Once Memphis received the paperwork -- an affidavit of eligibility to marry -- Memphis told Hamza that she wanted their finances to be 50/50 in America and to work as a team.But Hamza said he felt humiliated and Memphis was making him feel "weak."Hamza began wondering if he could spend the rest of his life with a woman who was able to hurt him so badly. He didn't like how Memphis allegedly made a big deal out of "petty problems" and exaggerated their issues.Hamza's mother Hayet asked him while he was picking out his tuxedo for the wedding, "Are you sure about [the wedding]? Why are you in a hurry?"Hamza seemed unsure, and Memphis still had yet to tell him about how she had slept at her ex-husband's house for four nights in the summer when she and Hamza first got involved.Memphis claimed she and her ex hadn't engaged in any sexual relations since their divorce, but she feared Hamza would get very jealous over the situation.When Hamza learned the truth, he admitted they may be rushing into marriage, which Memphis disagreed with. Memphis appeared furious, in fact.Memphis complained, "Why would you ask me to get married to you and then have me do all this stuff and all of this preparing for nothing? That is ridiculous. Why would you ask me to come to Tunisia and marry you if you did not want to get married? I do not understand!"Memphis accused Hamza of lying and called him "not nice," especially since she couldn't stay in Tunisia for much longer. She said she wanted to be with Hamza but if he didn't want to marry her, she would go home and end their relationship."I am afraid of you," Hamza admitted."What?! Why?" Memphis asked."Because of your ex before. One ex, two ex. Divorce," Hamza said.Memphis said she only had one divorce, but then Hamza confessed that he was afraid he'd act like Memphis' ex and then she'd leave him. Memphis asked Hamza to not be afraid of the past and to trust her and look forward to the future.Hamza flipped out again later on once Memphis told him about having slept at her ex-husband's place.Hamza's mother scolded Memphis for not being honest with her son sooner, but Memphis said she desperately needed some moral support at the time she had slept at her ex-husband's place.Memphis further explained the situation off-camera to Hamza for 20 minutes, and she said she had been through a very dark time. At the time, she didn't pass her state boards for the first time and she was very depressed.Hamza told Memphis that he understood her reasoning and still loved her and wanted to marry her, but he hoped she would rely on him for support going forward.The couple later hashed out their issues and insecurities with the help of a human language translator, and then Hamza officially proposed marriage to Memphis in Zriba Olia, a historical place and beautiful city surrounded by mountains."Baby, you are my happiness. Do you want to marry me?" Hamza asked.Memphis giggled and answered, "Do I?... Do you trust me? Do you trust me with everything?""Yes," Hamza replied. "Yes.""Okay," Memphis said. "I will marry you."Although the couple had gotten engaged online, he wanted to propose to her in person and show that he was serious about their relationship and his doubts had been resolved.Hamza gushed about Memphis' "great soul" and "strong personality," and he added, "That's why I love her."Memphis also looked forward to becoming a member of a close-knit family, especially since Hamza's mother Hayet and sister Rawia accepted her and embraced her. Memphis even went shopping for a traditional wedding dress with the women.But Memphis' world came crashing down when she FaceTimed with a Michigan lawyer and learned how Memphis hadn't given herself enough time to secure a prenuptial agreement. The lawyer warned Memphis she couldn't protect herself so quickly before the wedding, especially because Hamza would also have to consult with an attorney.Memphis was advised to push back the wedding in order to protect herself and her assets, but Memphis feared putting her relationship with Hamza in jeopardy."I feel so conflicted. I do want to marry Hamza and have a family with him, and I trust him, but my children come first. It is really important to me to give my children the life that I didn't have, so putting my savings at risk scares me," Memphis explained."And I hope that Hamza understands where I'm coming from."Memphis went on to celebrate her bachelorette party with Hamza's family members, and she determined that while an iron-clad prenup wasn't a possibility, she'd just ask Hamza to sign a postnuptial agreement, which apparently came with a little bit more risk for Memphis."I despise the notion of divorce. I was a victim of my parents' divorce," Hamza said in a confessional. "I don't want to go through that awful experience."Memphis insisted that she trusted Hamza but had to protect her kids, adding, "If he won't sign the paper, then I don't want to get married."Hamza called the whole situation "bad," and Rawia told Hamza not to let her force any paperwork on him in order to marry.Although Rawia felt Memphis loved a piece of paper more than her brother, Hamza reluctantly agreed to sign the paper and said he never wanted to hear about it again.Memphis and Hamza did appear to get married, In Touch Weekly reported According to online records obtained by the magazine, Memphis registered to vote in Ottawa County, Michigan, in October 2021 under the name Memphis Chardell-Arden Mokni, showing that she has taken Hamza's last name.While there is no clear-cut evidence they got married, Memphis taking Hamza's last name suggests they did tie the knot.In late February, Hamza posted a cute photo with Memphis and captioned it with five red heart emojis.But Memphis recently hinted she and Hamza may have split. For example, the pair have unfollowed each other on Instagram.On February 17, Memphis posted a slideshow of selfies on her Instagram account and captioned them, "Peace & Prosperity."She added, "Thank you everyone for the kind words! Spreading Love and Kindness! You never know what people are going through behind closed doors! Kindness Rocks."And a few days earlier, Memphis uploaded a cryptic quite about grieving."Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength," Memphis wrote. "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."Memphis also advised her fans on February 1 to not let anyone "destroy and break [their] spirit."Memphis previously shared in her Instagram Story about how she prays to God her son and daughter will learn from her mistakes, and she suggested karma will get back to a person who puts another through "sh-t."In late January, Memphis said the "stress" in her life had her hair falling out.But around that same time, Instagrammer John Yates posted a screenshot of a photo from Hamza's Instagram account.In the comments of Hamza's selfie, Memphis' mother Deborah Smith Price wrote, "Hello handsome son in law," seemingly giving away that Memphis and Hamza had gotten married.Hamza replied, "Thank mam," along with four red-heart emojis.John went on to post screenshots of a man named Travis' alleged tweets from January 8 through January 9.Travis claimed to be Memphis' ex-boyfriend, and he reportedly bashed Memphis by saying he'd never want to have kids with her and his reasoning for letting her go should be obvious based off the footage that has aired on : Before the 90 Days' fifth season.While Travis appeared to note Memphis is "a good woman" who just picks "bad men" and makes bad decisions, he accused her of being wrapped up in her ex-husband."Her ex husband is the love of her life, not this new guy [Hamza]. She stayed overnight at her ex husband's when we lived together," Travis tweeted, according to John's screenshot.He later wrote to a fan, "I was with Memphis for a year but thank God we don't have a child together... I wish her the best, but Hell No, I didn't want a baby with her."Travis apparently went on to post a big "spoiler alert," writing about Memphis, "She is bipolar [and]] was pregnant with his baby. She had the baby a few months ago."Travis was referring to Hamza and pointed out to Twitter users that : Before the 90 Days, although it's just airing now, filmed about a year ago.Travis therefore suggested Memphis had plenty of time to get pregnant and deliver a child before the premiere of : Before the 90 Days' fifth season.After John posted Travis' tweets, Memphis apparently reached out to John in a DM to scold him for sharing unflattering information about her on Instagram.In a post captioned, "Cause I just don't care anymore," John uploaded an alleged screenshot of his conversation with Memphis.Memphis allegedly wrote to him, "I think it is sad that you post things from people who obviously are desperate and want some acknowledgement because their life sucks so bad!""At the end of the day, I do not have to go online and talk bad about people," she continued."Especially, with ill intention! Trav is very bitter and all my friends and family know it and thought it was quite funny that he is so desperate for 'clout' that he has to tell lies!"Memphis sarcastically applauded him and said, "But I guess keep doing you and spreading the hate! Good job."John apparently replied to Memphis, "I didn't say anything -- I used question marks cause I was just reporting on things that was said. Everyone else is saying you already had a kid and are married."Memphis later seemed to confirm her relationship status by responding to John, "I don't care about the married and kid thing!"She confirmed how she had an issue with John calling attention to Travis' tweets when Travis is allegedly "so desperate for attention.""I really wish people would try to look beyond some of the things because at the end of the day, it is TV. Where is the disclaimer that states that the show is a certain percent true events? Just wondering!" Memphis complained."I'm not trying to be rude or anything. It is just saddening to me!"John told Memphis that she had chosen to sign up for the show and he's just doing his job. He felt he was being "very considerate" of her, only to be personally attacked.John concluded -- referencing her alleged marriage and the baby again -- "All I did was repost [your] own mother calling Hamza her son in law... It's clear that [Travis is] legit as you just confirmed his existence, but at no point did I ever say you were married and had a baby.""Everyone else has -- I haven't," he noted. "People are looking up your baby registries right now."Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage!
opinion

According to a new parliamentary report, Africa is still treated as poor and backwards in the UK curriculum.

Despite, or perhaps because of, Britain's long and close relations with Africa, representation of the continent in its school curricula remains outdated and sometimes problematic.

A report released today by the UK's All-Party Parliamentary Group for Africa, in partnership with the Royal African Society and Justice to History, finds that many British children leave school with little knowledge or mistaken impressions about Africa. This can be damaging - to the children, to Britain's diverse society, and to UK relations with Africa - and needs to be corrected. But the report also makes clear that this can be easily remedied with some simple actions taken by those most concerned - schools, teachers, exam boards, publishers, the regulatory body Ofsted, and the government.

The problems with the current curricula involve both a view of Africa - one that highlights poverty, slavery, and backwardness and leaves intact the image of the continent as an exotic and primitive place in need of Britain's support - and the sidelining of the experience of Britons of African heritage in this country. Further, Africa is often discussed only in terms of its relationship with the West, and very rarely in its own right.

It is important for pupils of all backgrounds to have a more accurate picture of Africa, past and present, and a fuller understanding of the relationship between Britain and the continent in order to build a sound basis for relations in the future, both with the countries in Africa and - even more - within communities in the UK.

A proper understanding of the long and complex relationship between Africa and the UK needs to be consciously built into the curriculum. It is, for example, often thought that Africans arrived in Britain with the Windrush generation. In fact, Africans have been active members of British society since at least Roman Britain. Teaching in schools should include figures such as Joseph Emidy (1775-1835), the leader of the Truro Philharmonic Society who was a formerly enslaved Guinean, and the composer Samuel Coleridge Taylor from Croydon, who had star status in Victorian England and was of mixed Sierra Leonean and English origin. The contribution of African musicians to the musical culture of Britain long predates Osibisa in the late 1960s, including Henry VIII's court trumpeter and the work of Fela Ransome-Kuti's father, the Rev JJ, who recorded in London in 1922 on the Zonophone Record Label.

To explore these issues and present practical suggestions for educators and policy makers, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Africa established a Committee of Inquiry, which I chaired, comprised of Parliamentarians from all the main UK parties. The Inquiry took oral evidence from experts and received dozens of written submissions from teachers, academics, students, policy experts, and activists. This evidence identified two key issues: that many people of African descent feel the present curriculum overlooks their perspective on Britain; and that people still have an outdated and incomplete image of Africa and its links to the UK.

Education is key to shaping and reshaping the relationship, and improvements have started to be made.

The report identifies many positive examples of innovative programmes run in a number of British schools. Institutions too have come a long way. Until 2001, the British Museum's African exhibits had been on display separately in the Museum of Mankind as "ethnographic material", whereas now they have been integrated into the museum with galleries devoted to African art and artefacts, and learning about African cultures and histories is being actively promoted. Existing projects for primary schools are being supplemented by new initiatives for secondary age students. Today, for example, the British Museum and Royal African Society will launch a workshop on teaching African history in schools through new teaching resources on pre-colonial African Kingdoms.

This is one way that institutions can help build teachers' confidence and knowledge of Africa and make changes to the curriculum exciting and enriching rather than risky and unnerving. This should also involve teachers, scholars, and communities working together to prepare new curriculum programmes for the study of Africa and the Diaspora in schools.

A wider range of ready-made resources needs to be available so that teachers can access better information about Africa and on the African experience in the UK more easily. Publishers themselves can promote innovation by commissioning new textbooks on African history and geography for Key Stage 3 (when pupils are 11-14 years old). Public funds should be unlocked so that institutions can expand the resources available for teachers in the classroom beyond those currently available.

One simple but symbolic step would be to remove the citizenship requirement for authors in all English Literature GCSE courses to be from the British Isles, allowing some of the rich and remarkable literature in English from Africa to be included. Teachers should be able to choose novels and plays written by authors in English from any time period or region. Government and examination boards should also reform examination frameworks in Geography and History, including Africa in the "modern world" section of GCSE and A-Levels History courses and not confining it to be an aspect of "development" in Geography.

All these recommendations from the report are simple and practical to put into action. All that is needed is the willingness and determination to do it on the part of teachers, schools, examination boards, government, and publishers. Everyone will benefit, so we must get on with it. The APPG for Africa will remain engaged to ensure that words are followed by action.

I and Bim Afolami MP met with the UK Secretary of State for Education, Nadhim Zahawi, in the course of the publication of this report to share its emerging findings. The Secretary of State clearly understands the crucial role of his department if the UK's stated commitment to both equality and global Britain agenda are to be effectively delivered. The government has since published "Inclusive Britain" which gives welcome recognition to the importance of enhancing the teaching of shared history.

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The classroom experience of all our nation's youth and their encounter with the great African continent needs to reflect its richness, diversity, and the complexities and challenges of its interaction with Britain.

This report, with its call to action on the part of a range of partners in academia, publishing, teachers, schools, government, exam boards and communities, offers some practical suggestions as to how this might be achieved. They are readily implementable where there is the will to do so and to make some modest resources available to underpin them. The APPG on Africa intends to remain closely engaged with following it up.

The story of this ancient relationship is an ongoing and exciting one. Hopefully for both Britain and Africa the best is yet to come.

The Rt Hon The Lord Boateng DL is a civil liberties lawyer, politician and diplomat. He was brought up and educated in Ghana and the UK. He was the MP for Brent South 1987-2005 and served as a Minister in the Labour Government 1997-2005.
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 03/27/2022



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[ Spoiler Warning: This report reveals if Ella and Johnny are still together or split up since viewers last saw them and where their relationship stands now].

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So are Ella and Johnny still together now or has the : Before the 90 Days couple broken up?

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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

: Before the 90 Days star Ella Johnson is afraid she and Johnny Chao may never meet, and she just confessed to cheating on him during the latest Season 5 episode, so did the couple ever meet in-person or did they break up -- and do spoilers reveal that Ella and Johnny are still together now?Ella, a 29-year-old from Idaho -- who is "super into Asian culture," Cosplay and fantasy -- said she's always struggled with being overweight and had been in unhealthy relationships due to her need to get attention from men.Since she hadn't found much luck dating in Idaho, Ella decided to start looking for her fantasy on international dating apps and websites."I found a social media page called 'Asian men, white women," and that is where I found my Asian prince," Ella revealed. "Johnny is from China. He is 34 years old. He has an amazing smile and his eyes are just perfect."Ella added that she and Johnny surprisingly had a lot in common."I am this western girl who has this Asian obsession and he's kind of like this Asian man who has a western-culture obsession, and we both love anime," Ella said.The pair had officially become girlfriend and boyfriend about six months prior to the start of taping : Before the 90 Days. However, they had been talking for a year-and-a-half and had been communicating every single day.Ella wanted to spend her life with Johnny, who had told Ella that he'd like to buy a big house and welcome children together.But due to the coronavirus pandemic and government restrictions, Ella could not travel to China. Johnny therefore applied for a travel visa to visit Ella in Idaho, and she gushed about being "so friggin' excited" to be together in-person.Johnny apparently planned to help Ella lose weight by cooking her meals and being supportive, but Ella's mother Debbie didn't want Johnny to take advantage of her daughter."I'm just afraid that Johnny wants a green card just to get here someday, and then once he gets here and he knows he cannot be deported, that he leaves her," Debbie lamented, adding that it was hard to trust this would be "the real thing" for Ella.But Ella believed Johnny was The One and he wasn't after American citizenship, especially since he has a five-year-old son named Stony in China.Johnny is divorced and Stony apparently lives with his grandparents so that Johnny can travel for his job. Johnny, who has full custody, saw his kid a couple times a month, and Stony's mother had started a whole new family."I'm excited to be a mom, but we're going to focus on us for a while. And then once we establish a good foundation, then hopefully we'll get to bring Stony over [to the U.S.]," Ella explained to her girlfriends while out to lunch.Ella had previously been invested in an Indian man online, whom she had met in Thailand."I was in love with this guy, but then when we met in person, he refused to do anything sexual with me. And I really think it was because of my weight. It definitely took a toll on my self-esteem, and it's really hard for me to think about," Ella said.Ella called her Indian ex "a mistake" and didn't fully trust Johnny yet as a result. She wasn't sure if Johnny would still be attracted to her in-person, and she admitted she probably wouldn't be able to recover from another heartbreaking rejection.Ella was shown doing witchcraft with her coven to do a love spell on Johnny so that her relationship would thrive and flourish.Johnny told the cameras that Ella "has a beautiful face and "fantastic" personality, but he seemed to have an issue with her size and "belly."But Johnny said he's attracted to American women because they are "very sexy" and tend to be more independent than the women he had met in China."I hope I become a redneck cowboy. Like yee-haw!" Johnny said.Johnny said he'd be willing to quit his job as an electrical car manufacturer and stop renting his place in Shanghai because Ella had gotten him through his "darkest days."Johnny therefore revealed he wanted to apply for a Singapore visa, where he would quarantine for two weeks before entering the United States. He intended to propose marriage to Ella by the end of his trip.But Johnny was scared about leaving his son and potentially getting stuck in America for a very long time due to the coronavirus pandemic. He was seemingly having doubts about his trip, and Ella feared Johnny would ultimately determine she's not worth the sacrifice.Johnny's Singapore visa was then denied, and so Ella decided she and Johnny should meet up in Dubai since he wouldn't need a visa to travel there.Johnny initially agreed to Dubai, but when the trip got closer, he started to second guess his decision."Every time, a new issue comes up, and it's getting a little on the ridiculous side of how much crap I've had to put up with," Ella lamented.Ella said she was tired of Johnny's excuses and having to wait for him, especially since he was vaccinated and had bought an entire safety suit for his travels.Over FaceTime, Johnny pointed out to Ella how his medical bills would be very expensive if he needed to be hospitalized in the United States, but Ella said the situation wasn't risky enough for Johnny to cancel their plans.Johnny's parents were concerned about him traveling, and he told the cameras that if he got sick, he would be unable to provide for his family.Ella said Johnny's hesitation and reservations was causing her "emotional trauma.""This is on you. I am not going to change my opinion. I want you here now. That is where I stand -- no exceptions," Ella told her boyfriend.Ella told the cameras that she felt "enraged and super devastated" and if Johnny wasn't willing to commit to her, she'd have to stop waiting and move on."Johnny means the absolute world to me. I need to touch him, I need to kiss him, I need to see for sure what's going to happen when we're together," Ella explained in a confessional.But Johnny ultimately decided he couldn't meet her in Dubai because if he got sick, he'd have to quarantine for five weeks before being able to return to China.Johnny asked Ella to wait until February, which was asking Ella to wait another seven months to meet him, which left her feeling shocked and devastated."I hope she doesn't think I have less love for her because I am more cautious," Johnny shared in a confessional.Ella then admitted to Johnny that she had cuddled with a close guy friend and they ended up having sex. Ella said the event just happened because she was feeling "so distraught and so upset" about Johnny's "wishy-washy" behavior.Ella said some of her self-worth was tied up in receiving physical attention from men and it had been really hard to be alone for a year-and-a-half. She called it "a weak moment" but told the cameras how she'd rather be honest than be a liar.Johnny admitted it was really hard to hear this news, but Ella insisted, "I still love you."Johnny claimed he wasn't mad because their relationship was complicated and he hadn't fulfilled his end of things. Johnny therefore planned to meet her in February and fix their relationship."I just don't know where we should stand right now," Ella noted, before getting emotional. "I need you to see how much I am upset with you not being able to come now."Johnny promised he'd fly to see her in February even if the world is on fire or he must fly through a tornado, but Ella didn't really believe him.Ella cried and said she felt really bad about hurting Johnny but physical touch is so important to her."I want my person and I think he's my person, so I think I'm just going to have to wait," Ella lamented in tears. "I don't think that my heart will let me rest if I don't give this last chance."Johnny took to social media in mid-March and suggested he and Ella are still an item and going strong, even though they continue to date long distance.Johnny called himself "wrong" for pushing back all of his trips to meet Ella."I know I [left] her heartbroken. And she is very young, age 28, a girl's valuable age and... [it's] hard to fly in and out of China," Johnny wrote.Johnny suggested Ella's choice to sleep with another man was not a dealbreaker for him."I agreed to have open relationship. I told her if someone is better than me I will and must let her go. It is unfair to just let her waiting hopeless and also without clear timeline, it is a cruel thing i aware it," he concluded.And on March 14, Johnny wrote to Ella on Instagram, "I wanna say I still have confidence in you and love you."Johnny repeated how it was wrong of him to delay their meeting and he takes "90 percent responsibility for what happened.""I struggled [to] fly out, because China is still lockdown and travel ban means can fly out but barely with flights can come back to China," Johnny explained."Those are flights information from LA to Shanghai City in whole June and July without ticket until in August with 3 flights but each ticket price over 10000 bucks."It therefore appears Ella and Johnny are still waiting for their first in-person meeting.While Ella hasn't written anything about Johnny in the last month on her own Instagram account, Johnny has gushed about Ella on more than one occasion."I do not know much about western women but I believe most of people are good," Johnny said, defending his girlfriend against haters.Johnny said he had delayed Ella two years and so he does "not blame her too much" for being with another guy."I just wish pandemic never happened then things will not so hard," Johnny lamented.One of Johnny's followers, however, wrote how he deserves better than an unfaithful woman."I did not watch that part, that gonna be painful to watch it," Johnny wrote in his Instagram comments."Thanks for your encourage and support, I keep delayed many times did not dare to step forward we both must learn from our mistakes... I think both of us need to be brave and more grow up."And Ella and Johnny were definitely still a couple in February.Ella posted a photo of Johnny on Instagram on February 16 and captioned it, "Another man crush Monday I just couldn't resist he looks so handsome and I love it. #90dayfiancebeforethe90days #90dayfiance #manchrushmonday #loveislove #asianlover."Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage!
TRAVERSE CITY  In a change from recent years, COVID-19 is not front of mind as Traverse City residents start spring break.

While residents expressed concerns about restrictions on Friday, they said it was better to travel now and quarantine if they got sick than to stay home and miss traveling because of COVID-19.

The latest on COVID-19 Continuing coverage of COVID-19 and its impact. If you have a question about the novel coronavirus pandemic and haven't been able to find an a

Ben Buchan, 60, plans to go to Disneyworld with his 9-year-old and 11-year-old granddaughters for five days. They had tried to go in recent years but faced closures and restrictions at the Florida amusement park.

Im concerned but not scared, Buchan said. Well probably take masks in our pocket and kind of feel our way through the airport. But, if they want me to wear a mask or if I feel like I want to wear a mask, I could always put one on. But, I dont know if masks really do anything anyways. It filters the oxygen you breathe in and breathe out.

Likewise, Jacob Newman, a 20-year-old Traverse City resident, is flying to Spain to see a friend for spring break and said this is the first time he will be traveling to the other side of the world.

He said he has to quarantine to travel outside of the country and is nervous about testing positive, getting stuck in Spain and not coming back to America.

I believe you have to have your vaccine card in order to get to Spain but like I have to do a bunch of stuff for Spain, Belgium, all the different places and everything. So, thats what Im more nervous about, having that being interrupted, he said.

His friend Matthew Sayre, a 21-year-old Illinois resident was also traveling  driving to California to go jump in the ocean, bringing COVID-19 tests just in case.

Take any chance you get to travel, no matter what the cost, he said.

The percentage of COVID-19 test results that turn up infections each day (percent positivity) in the Grand Traverse region has been on the decline since February.

The ongoing decline in new COVID-19 infections also means the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reduced Grand Traverse County from high- to medium risk rating on March 4.

According to Grand Traverse Countys weekly Pulse Check, which discusses weekly trends for the region, percent positivity now is 8.5 percent for the past 14 days, averaging about nine cases a day with no deaths. This a dramatic decline from rates that hovered above 20 percent for months as two variants of the virus  delta and omicron  spread rapidly in communities.

By Friday, according to Munson Healthcares COVID-19 tracker, the number of beds occupied by COVID-19 inpatients in Munson Healthcare hospitals dropped to 25, a decline of about nine inpatients since March 10, with 19 of them at Munson Medical Center, a decline of three inpatients since the same date.

There were also 112,465 cases and 1,917 deaths in the region since the start of the pandemic, the tracker said.

Michael Larson, 20, said he wasnt going anywhere for spring break, and COVID-19 didnt factor into the equation.

Other than that, just going to work every day like I do, he said.
Weather Alert

...FIRE WEATHER WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 8 AM EDT FRIDAY THROUGH FRIDAY EVENING FOR LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITIES, WARM TEMPERATURES, DRY GROUNDS AND GUSTY WINDS FOR ALL OF NORTHERN LOWER MICHIGAN... * AFFECTED AREA...Fire weather zone 016 Emmet, Fire weather zone 017 Cheboygan, Fire weather zone 018 Presque Isle, Fire weather zone 020 Leelanau, Fire weather zone 021 Antrim, Fire weather zone 022 Otsego, Fire weather zone 023 Montmorency, Fire weather zone 024 Alpena, Fire weather zone 025 Benzie, Fire weather zone 026 Grand Traverse, Fire weather zone 027 Kalkaska, Fire weather zone 028 Crawford, Fire weather zone 029 Oscoda, Fire weather zone 030 Alcona, Fire weather zone 031 Manistee, Fire weather zone 032 Wexford, Fire weather zone 033 Missaukee, Fire weather zone 034 Roscommon, Fire weather zone 035 Ogemaw, Fire weather zone 036 Iosco, Fire weather zone 041 Gladwin, Fire weather zone 042 Arenac, and Fire weather zone 099 Charlevoix. * WIND...Gusty east northeast winds of 20 to 25 mph. * HUMIDITY...Minimum levels of 25 to 30 percent, locally lower. * IMPACTS...Any fires that develop will likely spread rapidly. Outdoor burning is not recommended. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... A Fire Weather Watch means that critical fire weather conditions are forecast to occur. Listen for later forecasts and possible Red Flag Warnings. &&
press release

Johannesburg  While development in the East and Southern Africa region depends on our ability to transform our populations to achieve the collective global and continental goals, the region's population is projected to grow from 618 million people in 2020 to 1.1 billion by 2050 - putting added pressure on land and resources.

If investments in targeted interventions are increased to reach a greater number of people, governments could avert a significantly higher number of unintended pregnancies, preventable maternal deaths and unsafe abortions. This will enable a healthier, more productive workforce and contribute towards 'The Africa We Want'.

To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Agenda 2063, national governments, UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, and partners have committed to ending unmet need for family planning, ending preventable maternal death and ending gender-based violence and harmful practices by 2030. The three transformative results form the core of the SDG targets 3.7 and 5.6.

On this score, the East and Southern Africa region is making good progress. One in three women use modern family planning methods today, compared to one in ten in 1994. The maternal mortality ratio (MMR) declined by more than 50 per cent between 1994 and 2017. Yet one in five women had an unmet need for family planning in the region in 2021. To meet the MMR goal of no more than 70 deaths per 100,000 live births by 2030, the pace of decline needs to be three times quicker.

Speeding up pace of progress

Financing is therefore needed to scale up interventions that work. Most countries have earmarked additional resources for health, but the increases are inadequate. Before the COVID-19 outbreak, one in three governments in the region were spending the recommended level of around $86 per capita for the minimum package of health services.

The extent of financing needed to achieve the three transformative results by 2030 was released during the landmark Nairobi Summit on ICPD25 (International Conference on Population and Development 25th anniversary) in 2019, by UNFPA and partners. The world needs a $264 billion global solution for sexual and reproductive health - yet a $222 billion financing gap remains. Governments asked what the cost would be for their countries to meet the goals.

Country estimations of scale of investment required

UNFPA collaborated with academic institutions to develop the Impact40 Toolkit. Using tailored tools and approaches, governments can now do their own in-country estimations of costing to determine the scale of investment required and gaps in financing.

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"Every country now has the opportunity to access these tools to estimate their unique national price tags, guided by where to invest and the scale of impact that could be achieved," said Dr. Bannet Ndyanabangi, UNFPA Regional Director a.i. for East and Southern Africa.

UNFPA recently held a discussion of the results of five such investment cases - for Botswana, Kenya, Madagascar, Namibia, South Sudan. Also, in collaboration with the Government of Eswatini, an analysis was carried out of the nation's sexual and reproductive health budget within the health sector. The countries will use the information to shape their policy actions and determine the scale of financing required, to guide their efforts to meet the SDGs and the three transformative results.

Said Rindra Hasimbelo Rabarinirinarison, Madagascar's Minister of Economy and Finance, "We are committed to working with our partners to ensure the availability of domestic financing for the implementation of this investment framework."

About UNFPA

UNFPA is the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency. Our mission is to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled. UNFPA calls for the realization of reproductive rights for all and supports access to a wide range of sexual and reproductive health services, including voluntary family planning, maternal health care and comprehensive sexuality education.

leoncio@unfpa.org

+1 347 4919154
People gathered in Harmony Parking lot in Brattleboro on Friday, April 22nd for a street festival and parade in celebration of Earth Day. According to Nancy Braus of 350 Brattleboro, the goal was to celebrate the ways in which the community is working towards climate justice and to empower 
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Tracing the history of guitar music and its players, guitarist Billy Monama's new South African guitar book continues the struggle to decolonise the curriculum.

Even across a computer screen, guitarist and researcher Billy Monama's excitement is palpable. The first volume of his textbook, Introduction to South African Guitar Styles: Five Decades of Ukuvamba (Real African Publishers, 2021), is finally out. It's the culmination of 15 years' work: six years envisioning, investigating and planning, then the past nine packed with intensive research and learning how to publish a book - all this alongside releasing his debut album Rebounce in 2017 and continuing to develop his career as a performer and teacher.

His excitement isn't just personal, however. For Monama, the book has been an intensely political project. "What the youth of 1976 started isn't yet over. But now it's an intellectual war to implement a Black curriculum."

What initially drew Monama to this work was his experience, first as a student and then teaching. "When I was learning guitar, I learnt about BB King and Wes Montgomery, but a giant like [guitarist, bandleader and composer] Almon Memela was mentioned nowhere. I dropped out of those studies." Later, when teaching aspiring young guitarists, he found a similar lack of materials about South Africa.

He was forced to do his own research - "I read, then I question" - and realised that not only were there no textbooks, but not even the most basic biographical or discographical information existed. "I heard names - Stanford Tsiu, for example - and looked, and found nothing ... I taught a class at the University of Pretoria where most students were white and they knew nothing about Jonas Gwangwa or Dorothy Masuku. It was clear that information just wasn't as accessible to them as Mozart and Bach." The answer seemed obvious. "I can't deal with all this. There's no point of reference; it needs a book." And he would have to write it.

That brought him face to face with other dilemmas such as the ownership of intellectual property and the hegemony of academic hierarchies, sourcing funds without strings, and relating ethically to a music community that had been neglected and exploited for generations.

Overcoming obstacles

Monama has no formal affiliations as a researcher. That proved a barrier until institutions got to understand his project and the "professors and deans" at the universities of KwaZulu-Natal, Pretoria and the Witwatersrand (Wits) as well as the Tshwane University of Technology started welcoming him. "Professor [David] Coplan at Wits talked to me about being a storyteller: what's my narrative?"

Still, although some institutions have suggested it, he doesn't want to convert his research into a dissertation. Academic language might limit its accessibility for "everybody who wants to know about the evolution of our music", which is his priority.

Then "getting licences to use intellectual property that was created by our fathers" proved time-consuming and costly. It exhausted much of his budget and he faced slow communication and "being referred from pillar to post". He had to take care to "fight [the licence holders] nicely" lest they withdrew permissions. "I understand about protecting ownership, but the irony is the money often doesn't get to the families of who should be the real owners. I've had sons writing to me asking, 'Can you help me get my father's music back from [the record company]?'"

To shape his narrative, he had to mine liner notes, memoirs, memories and discographies for fragments of the jigsaw puzzle, see how they fitted and plug the gaps. Additionally, in eras long predating the selfie, there was almost no visual material - "band photographs in those days focused on the leader" and other instrumentalists often went unnamed.

For volume one, Monama breaks the history into three main periods: the acoustic era, the arrival of electric guitars and their influence, and then the parallel emergence of players with Black Consciousness perspectives on their playing and the development of pop music styles through the 1960s and beyond. Within that broad periodisation, he had to accommodate multiple regional guitar sub-styles, a complex exercise in joining all the dots.

For every significant track, Monama had to listen and make his own exact transcriptions. "I can't write what I don't know ... and then I bring my guitar understanding and practicality - my ears and fingers alongside music theory - to my analysis." He considers influences, home-grown and overseas, and what for him are important factors: feel, and the relationship between dance styles and music.

Finding sources and resources

Many of the project sponsors he initially approached didn't understand the project and, in any case, "it seemed like it had never been done before and they didn't want to take the risk ... I spent sleepless nights working out how sponsors think." In the end, a patchwork of funding came together, including the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, the Samro Foundation, the City of Johannesburg through its Heritage Month projects and, albeit slightly late in delivering, the National Arts Council. "And there are some donors who just love art and who'll simply say, 'How much do you want?'"

Because the work of historical guitarists was so poorly documented, Monama had to seek out information and photographs from families and communities. "And there was reluctance. I'll book an interview and then they'll cancel: 'No, we know you guys - you write books and then you're gone.' Or 'How much will you pay for a photo - you're going to make money out of this book!'" Monama appreciates the exploitative history that contributed to this reluctance. "The families who shared information with me contributed so much. I can never take that for granted. I have to stay in touch now."

One priceless resource has been his partnership with veteran guitarist Themba Mokoena. Monama met him through The Grazroots Project, an ensemble Monama established to perform historical South African music. "We were introduced by [pianist] Themba Mkhize and I invited him to a rehearsal. Wow! This was a guy I used to see on TV, whose records I used to transcribe. We've got similar influences - Marks Mankwane and Wes Montgomery, for example - and we instantly found a musical chemistry. We hardly need to rehearse. We can just get on stage and play."

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Mokoena has an encyclopaedic knowledge of other historical players, and the two musicians' empathy has built a smaller touring duo for shows when the full Grazroots ensemble isn't practicable. "Bra Themba never spoon-feeds me, but he teaches me so much."

Already, Monama is posting tutorials online demonstrating the historical styles he has documented. Next on the agenda is a planned volume two, covering players active mainly after the 1960s. At present, Monama just has "a list of names on a piece of paper", but he's steeling himself for the next stage of patient musicological detective work he knows lies ahead.

"When I started wanting to be a bandleader, people mostly didn't play this repertoire. But when I played it, people loved it. From that came the research to give it context. The research has got some record labels seeing the value of music they've neglected for years. But the real next stage will be engaging the departments of education to get the books on the curriculum to shift our children's education further towards what Black intellects have created."
Lebanon, IN (46052)

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Cloudy with periods of rain. Thunder possible. High near 60F. Winds ENE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

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Sisters Oksana Shevchuk (L) and Olena Smith (R), owners of an Eastern European restaurant in Hong Kong who have started selling snacks and dishes from their hometowns in Ukraine to fund their country's war effort against the Russian invasion, in undated photo.

The Ukrainian owners of an Eastern European restaurant in Hong Kong have started selling snacks and dishes from their hometowns to fund their country's humanitarian efforts after the Russian invasion, they told RFA's Cantonese Service. Sisters Olena Smith and Oksana Shevchuk have been selling Eastern European foods in the city since 2012, and started their restaurant, Dacha, in 2015, offering borsht, chicken Kiev, herring, kielbasa, blini with caviar and other delicacies from home to local diners. Russia's invasion of Ukraine -- where both women still have family and friends -- left them feeling shattered, stranded and helpless. Smith and Shevchuk told RFA's Cantonese Service how they came to be selling honey cakes to donate to the humanitarian aid effort back home, under the Cook For Ukraine project started by Ukrainian chef Olia Hercules and Russian food writer Alissa Timoshkina.

RFA: How are the people of Hong Kong responding to your project?

Smith: I was actually surprised by [people in Hong Kong] who are giving the money but do not need a cake -- it's just a donation. You know, they tried every way possible [to help]. Some order four cakes or five cakes for the week. So it's very diverse ... and every day we see more and more [of a] response [which has] overwhelming, which is beautiful. At the beginning, it was difficult emotionally, but we channeled the adrenaline rush ... to actually do something ... to help rather than suppress this emotion because those emotions are [running] very high.

RFA: As a Ukrainian, how are you feeling right now?

Shevchuk: We feel pain, tremendous pain, devastation. We felt fear at first because we don't know what's going to happen. Very big uncertainty for our family and friends. We don't know if they are going to be safe today. Or maybe not safe tomorrow. So that kind of thing. Very basic safety concerns are number one.

RFA: How are your family and friends in Ukraine? Are they safe?

Shevchuk: It's very unstable. Our cousin, she lives in Kyiv, but she managed to escape to [a town in] the Kyiv area. Now this town is bombed every day and she cannot leave it because she's on the other side from where the green [humanitarian] corridor is. So they are out of food, out of electricity, out of water. So at this stage it is very like peak stress.

RFA: Can you keep in touch with them? Does the internet still work?

Shevchuk: They could be gone for two days and then come back online. But luckily, another cousin, she lives more or less in the safe area right now. So she can call her and then report back to us. So we still keep in close touch with our family back home. To be honest, it's very short messages. For the first few days it was just crying. It was constantly -- we couldn't talk because they were full of fear; they never experienced this before. This is the first time ever they go through it as civilians being bombed. And that's why at this stage, they kind of know that for us, it's important that they stay online and let us know that they are okay, we can't really sleep. These two weeks [have been] the hardest weeks of our life. For sure. It's very hard to see those photos, I tell you. It's extremely excruciating. It's like you go through it yourself. That's how we feel. You relive the moment and how much for them it would be shocking. I can't imagine the pain [they are going] through right now. Of course we love our country ... our people [are] really wonderful in their way. And Ukraine is very friendly country with, I would say, 8,000 years of history. And the river, lots of towns and cities with historical buildings, [that are] really beautiful and very old. Food, delicious food. Blue sky, rich memories. Sometimes it's really beautiful, [blue] skies, lots of flowers, green trees, different trees. It's a very green country ... a beautiful country.

Olena Smith and Oksana Shevchuk sell honey cakes to aid the humanitarian aid effort Cook For Ukraine, a project started by Ukrainian chef Olia Hercules and Russian food writer Alissa Timoshkina. Credit: Cook for Ukraine. RFA: How did you start cooking for Ukraine?

Shevchuk: For the first few days we feel hopeless because we are here, and [there was] nothing we can do. Then ... after a few days when the emotions just calmed down a little bit, we were thinking, okay since we are here, what we can do for our country and for [its] people? As you see in the news, many people are now in need, and we've been thinking about how we can help them ... so we joined this project and really decided to act ... and help by doing what we do best.

RFA: And what has the response been like?

Smith: Hong Kong has been just amazing these [past few] days. People find ways, their own ways, to house and support, some of them with very warm and nice words, some of them with money. Some Hong Kong people directly transfer funds to Red Cross Ukraine or UNICEF ... any help counts. We just hope to raise more money so we can help more people.

RFA: Anything you want to say to Hongkongers?

Smith: First of all a massive, massive thank you. They come with anything from just words and messages to just being here, just to be around, everything counts. And we are very, very grateful.

RFA: How many people have been coming?

Smith: Hundreds of people ... they come to say a few words of support and go, or they stay for lunch, or they buy a cake, whatever they do, but they come, and they come, and they come, so we've been extremely overwhelmed in a good way, about how humanity can come together ... in very harsh circumstances. It feels feels really amazing that people can relate and can support us and can actually feel our pain and be so compassionate about the situation. We unite them under one umbrella as Eastern European, so for us we never felt like we have to say are you from Russia. We have done it on purpose [because] we want everyone to feel welcome because we share the same food and we want them to be united at the table. This was the idea behind [the restaurant]. Not all Russians support the invasion, and [some] actually feel sad and sorry on behalf of their country, which has nothing to do with them.

RFA: Can you tell us more about the restaurant?

Shevchuk: Dacha was opened seven years ago, with an idea of uniting the Eastern European community, like Ukrainian, Czech Republic, you name it, all Eastern European countries in one place at the table. Like a home away from home. So this was the idea behind the restaurant. Before the restaurant, we had an Eastern European shop, the first online shop in Hong Kong to supply ... products from Eastern Europe like sausages or pickles, dairy products, we had more than 300 items in store. Then later on, we decided to open the restaurant.

Ukrainian honey cakes, a popular dessert in Slavic countries known as Medovik, are being sold in Hong Kong by sisters Olena Smith and Oksana Shevchuk to fund relief efforts in the wake of the Russian invasion. Credit: Olena Smith/Oksana Shevchuk RFA: You came to Hong Kong 16 years ago.

Shevchuk: Yes, Olena came in 2005. And I followed in 2008.

RFA: Why Hong Kong?

Shevchuk: We love to travel. And at that time we were very young, and we would travel with our friends, families, and just happened to be visiting Hong Kong ... a couple times, actually and we ... just decided to stay.

Smith: I met my husband in London, but he happened to be based in Hong Kong. And then I came to visit him a few times in Hong Kong. And he came to Ukraine a number of times. And then he proposed me and then I ended up in Hong Kong. But it was definitely a good choice because I love Hong Kong so much. It's like a combination of everything in Hong Kong -- it was a very cosmopolitan city.

RFA: So your parents live with you in Hong Kong?

Smith: Yeah, when they retired, they came here because I have two kids and they want to see them grow. And they just came and they started helping with the restaurant and to just be around the family. But after so many years living here, we already feel [that] Hong Kong is our home -- our families are here, our business is here. Whenever we go, like, traveling to Europe, after one week, we feel like we want to go home [to Hong Kong].

RFA: What changes have you noticed in Hong Kong over the past 16 years?

Shevchuk: I think it has changed a bit, but we still live in kind of ... in our bubble [with] our business. We work very hard here and we still see people come and go. This is the hardest part because it's kind of hard to make friends. They come for three years for their contract and they leave. And that was the hardest struggle for us to not have stable friends [who] will stay here for a long time. Definitely Hong Kong is very safe. I mean the kids just can go on the MTR even though my daughter is 12, she feels perfectly fine to go on her own. Incredible yet, a very big draw to stay in Hong Kong. I started with a dependent visa and then ... he got a permanent ID. And I kind of got a work visa. And then [Oksana] also came on enough to get permanent ID. As for our parents, they are of retirement age, so once we got our permanent ID they could come and be here as a dependent. [We are] so grateful we can be together.

A sample of pan-Eastern European cuisine served by sisters Olena Smith and Oksana Shevchuk in Dascha, their seven-year-old restaurant in Hong Kong. Credit: Olena Smith/Oksana Shevchuk RFA: Olena, do you have kids too?

Smith: [I have] two children; my daughter is 12, and my son is two. They [were] born in Hong Kong. And it's funny because my daughter said that she's not 50 percent Ukrainian and 50 percent Australian ... because I'm born in Hong Kong. So she considers herself to come from here anyway. She considers Hong Kong as a part of her no-identity identity. Because she grew up here, she was born here and she loves that she can ... have her freedom and independence in some way. She always emphasizes  how beautiful Hong Kong is. We know that we still remain here. We're still trying to adjust to whatever changes come, we just adjust and we continue doing our work and represent our country through food. [The] combination, the beautiful surroundings and the people who have been [our] customers. I feel like it's not our homeland. But we were [made] so welcome here that it feels so warm and comforting. How could you not love it?

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Russian forces and the remaining Ukrainian soldiers holed up in the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol continue to fight pitched battles as U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed hope a ceasefire would take place to evacuate more civilians from the devastated complex.

After ten weeks of brutal bombardment that have turned the city largely to rubble, Russian fighters have entered the massive steel plant, where about 2,000 Ukrainian fighters and a few hundred civilians have taken shelter in the tunnels and bunkers deep beneath the surface.

Russian forces have stepped up attacks against the plant in recent days, Ukrainian forces said, and may be seeking to sack it by May 9, when Russia celebrates Victory Day, the countrys most patriotic holiday commemorating the Soviet Unions defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.

"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. "With the support of aircraft, Russia resumed the offensive in order to take control of the plant."

Mariupols fall would be a major success for President Vladimir Putin, depriving Ukraine of a vital port, allowing Russia to establish a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014, and freeing up troops to fight elsewhere in the Donbas, the eastern industrial region that the Kremlin says is now its chief objective.

The plight of the civilians holed up in the plant with little food or water has garnered international attention and led to calls from leaders around the world for Russia to allow them to be evacuated.

Guterres told the UN Security Council on May 5 that a third operation was underway to evacuate civilians from Azovstal. In joint efforts with the Red Cross, the UN has helped nearly 500 civilians flee the area over the past week.

"I hope that the continued coordination with Moscow and Kyiv will lead to more humanitarian pauses to allow civilians safe passage from the fighting, and aid to reach those in critical need," Guterres said.

"We must continue to do all we can to get people out of these hellscapes," he said.

Guterres declined to give details on the new operation "to avoid undermining possible success."

Ukraine's deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said on her social media page that people would be evacuated from Mariupol on May 6 at noon, but gave no further details.

Russia had earlier said it would open a humanitarian corridor from 08:00 to 18:00 Moscow time on May 5, 6, and 7 from the Azovstal plant to evacuate civilians.

Though the Kremlin claimed on May 5 that the corridor was functioning, Ukraine had not confirmed that anyone had been freed from the plant that day.

Scepticism still remains about the likelihood of an evacuation as previous Russian announcements of cease-fires have failed.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett raised the humanitarian crisis at Azovstal with Putin during a call on May 5.

Bennetts office said in a statement following talks between the two leaders 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 remaining Ukrainian fighters inside the steel plant to lay down their arms.

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.

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.



Russia appears to have already given up on its initial goal -- to take the capital and install a Kremlin-friendly regime.

After suffering heavy losses during the first month of the war as it spread its forces out too thin, Russia has since regrouped to focus its efforts on taking eastern Ukraine.

However, Russian forces continue to face tough resistance and suffer losses, raising doubts among many military experts that they will be able to achieve their more modest goals.

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.

WATCH: In the first stage of the operation to evacuate civilians from the Azovstal steelworks, which is under attack by Russian forces in Mariupol, over 150 people were brought out by bus. Those who got out told harrowing stories on May 3 of bodies strewn around the plant.

Later that day Zelenskiy addressed by video a conference in Warsaw dedicated to supporting Ukraines war effort and rebuilding.

Referencing the U.S.-led initiative to rebuild Europe following World War II, the Ukrainian leader called on the West to launch an analogous Marshall Plan to help his country recover from the extensive destruction caused by Russias military campaign.

Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said the conference raised $6.5 billion for Ukraine.

In discussing ways to financially support Kyiv, EU President Charles Michel said on May 5 that 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.

In addition to seizures, the West is continuing to impose sanctions to weaken Russias ability to carry out its current military campaign and future aggression.

A day after the European Union announced plans to curb Russian oil imports across the board, the U.K. said on May 5 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
The mayor of the besieged strategic city of Mariupol has described a devastated city in which "thousands" have died and around 90 percent of 2,600 residential buildings have been destroyed or damaged in the monthold Russian invasion.

Meanwhile, a deputy prime minister for occupied territories said on March 27 that agreed humanitarian corridors included residents fleeing that southeastern city in private vehicles, marking hopeful progress after an impasse one day earlier.

Mayor Vadym Boychenko said that Russian forces controlled some neighborhoods and were entering "deeper into the city" of almost half a million people before the war but Mariupol remains "under the control of Ukrainian armed forces."

"Mariupol needs a complete evacuation," Boychenko told the local UNIAN news agency in an interview published overnight.

Boychenko said about 40 percent Mariupol's affected residential buildings are now uninhabitable.

In a reference to Russian forces surrounding the city, Boychenko said that "there are suburbs of the city which, of course, they took control of," adding that "the city is encircled and that circle is of course shrinking."

On March 27, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine Iryna Vereshchuk complained that while 10 of 11 "humanitarian corridors" agreed between the fighting sides had been functioning, stops at a checkpoint in Vasylivka were preventing Mariupol residents in private vehicles from escaping toward Zaporizhzhya.

But later she said two corridors had been agreed for residents to flee frontline cities, including Mariupol.

There was no immediate confirmation whether residents were making their way through the corridor.

Boychenko cited a Ukrainian government estimate of "from 20,000 to 30,000" Mariupol residents having been forcibly sent to territory under Russian control.

In western Ukraine, a fire continued to rage at an oil-storage facility in Lviv following multiple Russian air strikes the previous day that marked the most significant attack on the city since Russia's full-scale invasion began on February 24.

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian government adviser warned that Russian troop movements suggested Putin's war planners might be preparing a new push with fresh troops days after Ukraine's defenders reported pushing back Russian forces in a number of areas.

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.

And British intelligence said Russian advances in the eastern part of the country suggested Moscow was hoping to encircle Ukrainian forces fighting in and near areas that have been held by Kremlin-backed separatists in the Donbas region.

Local officials said four missiles hit the outskirts of Lviv and another strike damaged infrastructure, injuring at least five people but causing no deaths in a city that has become a haven for hundreds of thousands of displaced Ukrainians about 60 kilometers from the Polish border.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on March 27 that it had struck what it called military targets in Lviv with high-precision cruise missiles.

It said it hit a fuel depot and a Lviv plant that was used to make military repairs.

"The armed forces of the Russian Federation continue offensive actions as part of the special military operation," it added, using the term that Russian officials use -- and insist that Russians also use, on threat of jailing or fines -- to describe the full-scale invasion launched against its neighbor on February 24.

At the time of the bombardments, U.S. President Joe Biden was visiting Poland in a show of support for Ukrainian defenders and refugees, and to stress NATO's determination to defend alliance members' territory.

Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin "a butcher" and warned of "a long fight ahead."

He also declared in seemingly improvised remarks about Putin that "For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power."

A Putin spokesman said afterward that Russia's leadership "is not for Biden to decide."

"The president of Russia is elected by Russians," spokesman Dmitry Peskov added.

Despite its strident condemnation of Putin's full-scale war on Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Jerusalem on March 27, "we do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia, or anywhere else for that matter."

The top U.S. diplomat said Biden's statement was intended to stress that "Putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else."

That reading of Biden's comments during his visit to Poland on March 26 echoed earlier, unattributed statements from the White House suggesting the unscripted remark was misunderstood.

Analysts say Bidens comment could be seized by the Kremlin to further tighten the screws on the opposition and rally support for Putin, who has repeatedly accused the United States of seeking "regime change" in Russia.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who continues to hold talks with Putin to end the fighting, called on leaders to use caution in their words and actions when referring to the war in Ukraine. "I wouldn't use this type of wording," Macron said on March 27 on French TV.

"We want to stop the war that Russia has launched in Ukraine without escalation -- that's the objective. If this is what we want to do, we should not escalate things -- neither with words nor actions," he said.

Biden also called Putin "a butcher," a "war criminal," and a "murderous dictator."

Putin has imposed an unprecedented post-Soviet clampdown on criticism and dissent inside Russia as the Ukrainian invasion has run into fierce Ukrainian resistance, and the international community has imposed massive financial, trade, travel, and diplomatic punishments.

Ukraine's military General Staff said early on March 27 that Russia's "full-scale armed aggression" was continuing.

And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged NATO to provide his country with "just 1 percent" of its arms and questioned whether the alliance was intimidated by Russia.

"We've already been waiting 31 days," said a visibly frustrated Zelenskiy, who has issued regular video addresses from Kyiv throughout the fighting.

An adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, Vadym Denysenko, said on March 27 that Russia had begun destroying Ukrainian fuel- and food-storage facilities.

The Ukrainian government will have to disperse such stockpiles as a result, he said.

He also said that Russia was bringing troops to the Ukrainian border on rotation, suggesting Moscow could be planning new offensives to advance its invasion.

Britain's Defense Ministry said in an assessment released early on March 27 that Russian forces advancing southward from the Kharkiv area and northward from Mariupol appeared to be trying to surround Ukrainian forces in the eastern part of the country.

Some swaths of that region -- known as the Donbas -- have been in the hands of separatists since 2014, when Russia invaded and annexed Crimea and the armed separatists seized control of some regional administration facilities.

The British intelligence analysis said Ukrainian counterattacks in northern Ukraine left those battlefields "largely static."

It said Russia was relying heavily on "stand-off" missiles launched from Russian territory to reduce risk to its own forces. The British warned that limited stocks of such weapons could prompt Russian planners to "revert to less sophisticated missiles or [accept] more risk to their aircraft."

Western intelligence has warned that Russian forces involved in the largely stalled offensive have grown more reliant on indiscriminate bombing instead of major ground operations, in a shift that could result in more Ukrainian civilian deaths.

WATCH: Since the start of the Russian invasion, all public hospitals in the country have been operating under martial law and have been working 24/7. Some medical workers have moved their families into the hospitals with them, while volunteers have arrived to help.

Efforts to evacuate civilian populations have continued and Ukrainian forces have reported counteroffensives to push back Russian troops in some southern areas, in particular.

Nearly 4 million Ukrainians have fled the country since the invasion began on February 24, around half of them to Poland, and many more are displaced.

Yuriy Fomichev, the mayor of Slavutych, near the closed Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine, announced on March 26 that that city had been occupied by Russian troops after its defenses were overcome.

In the besieged northern city of Chernihiv, local officials and residents expressed fears that the Russian blockade and bombing from long distance risked making them the "next Mariupol."

A resident told AP from a dying mobile phone that the city was without power, running water, or heating, and medicines were running out daily.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, Reuters, and AP
Polling suggests most Russians back President Vladimir Putin's decision to invade Ukraine, and Lora* counted herself among that majority.

The 55-year-old mother of two from Kazan, the capital of the Russia's Tatarstan region, said Russia was merely defending itself in remarks to RFE/RL at the beginning of March.

She said her main source of information on what Putin has described as a "special military operation," came from official state-run media, which is forbidden from describing the invasion as a "war."

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.

Ordinary Russians can face up to 15 years in prison for questioning or contradicting the Kremlin's war narrative, with thousands detained so far by police nationwide for speaking out.

"War is horrible, but we are defending ourselves. If we didn't attack now, they would have attacked us. This is America. The West would have bombed us. Is that normal? We are only defending ourselves," Lora said, echoing much of the Kremlin's narrative that is amplified by state-run media and dominates in Russia, as nearly all independent voices have been silenced by Putin's government.

However, Lora, who requested her last name not be used for fear of official reprisals, had a radical change of heart a few weeks later once her own son Vyacheslav joined Russia's armed forces and was due to be sent off to fight in Ukraine. He was following in his father's footsteps, who, according to Lora, had once fought in Chechnya and more recently in Syria.

The Russian invasion, launched in the early hours of February 24 and described by U.S. defense officials as the largest conventional attack since World War II, has forced nearly 4 million Ukrainians to flee the country, according to UN data.

The UN says at least 1,000 civilians have died, although the actual figure is feared to be much higher.

What Kremlin officials had hoped would be a quick military victory has turned into a nightmare, with much of its forces bogged down or even in retreat in some areas.

Russian officials, including Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, have said since the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24 that the goal of the wide-scale attack was to demilitarize and "de-Nazify" Ukraine and topple its democratically elected government.

Despite all attempts to take over Ukraine's main cities, including the capital, Kyiv, Russian armed forces have been unable to do so during one month of intensive fighting. Battle lines near Kyiv have remained frozen for weeks, with the two main Russian armored columns stuck northwest and east of the capital.

With its forces no longer advancing, the Russian Defense Ministry on March 25 indicated that it had scaled back its goals in Ukraine, with the focus now on taking over Ukraine's eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, commonly known as the Donbas, parts of which came under separatist control after Russia illegally annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014.

During the last month of fighting, the Defense Ministry has only twice released figures on Russian casualties in Ukraine, the second time being on March 25, when it said 1,351 Russian servicemen had died. That number is likely much higher. A NATO official, quoted by The Washington Post on March 24, said that between 7,000 and 15,000 Russians soldiers had been killed.

Komsomolskaya pravda, a pro-Kremlin newspaper, on March 20 reported that almost 10,000 Russian troops had been killed in Ukraine, before quickly deleting the numbers and later claiming the site had been hacked.

According to Lora, Vyacheslav decided to sign a military contract to serve in Ukraine on March 6.

"'I'll go and serve the motherland. I want to do this,' is all he said," Lora recounted, adding that her 30-year-old son, who had served a year in the Russian Airborne Forces, was leaving behind a wife and a newborn child in Kazan to go fight in Ukraine.

"I told him that only thugs and mercenaries were being sent to fight," Lora said, expressing fear her son was unprepared for what awaited him despite his military service.

"Well, he sat in the forest for a year in a military uniform, jumped [from a plane] with a parachute, and twice they let him use an old machine gun. F**k, what is he doing with such training in a war?"

Lora suspects it was less patriotic fervor but rather economic necessity that prompted her son and others like him to sign up, lured by the relatively generous financial benefits.

"50,000 rubles ($505) is the pay; then you can get a mortgage, and the wounded can get up to about 3 million ($30,300)," Lora explained, adding that local job prospects with Russia facing unprecedented Western sanctions for its aggression in Ukraine were especially bleak.

"A lot of my friends have headed off to the war because they couldn't find work. There are no jobs here and prices have risen; there's simply nothing to live on."

"And my fool lost his job too and is eagerly going off to war in order to somehow survive," Lora continued. "After all, he needs to support a child and there are no maternity leave payments. Because of the hard times, there were fights; he was also arguing with his wife. So, a 30-year-old guy voluntarily wants to go to war; just running away from everyday life."

At the time of interview, published on March 24, Lora said her son had not left yet for Ukraine, but worried whether he would return alive or seriously wounded once he did deploy.

"They're bringing back lots of them. Some of them don't have legs, some don't have arms. Basically, these are fresh contract soldiers -- that is, guys who just joined the military before leaving for Ukraine. They are young, many who've just graduated," she said. Lore was recounting what she had been told by a friend who works at a military hospital in Rostov, near the border with Ukraine and where many of Russia's wounded are reportedly brought.

Once a believer in Putin's war, Lora is now angrily anti-war as she faces the prospects of seeing her only son sent off to fight.

"How many wars have there been? How many people died? But no one remembers why our people went to fight in Chechnya, Afghanistan, or Syria," Lora said.

"How many people died in vain in a foreign land. I wish I knew what they were fighting for. But we will only know the truth in 30 years."

*CORRECTION: In a previous version of this article, Lora's name was given incorrectly.

Written in Prague by Tony Wesolowsky based on reporting by RFE/RL's Idel.Realities
analysis

With concerns growing over the proposed national dialogue in Eswatini as a response to ongoing violent protests, the international community must engage.

Protests in the kingdom of Eswatini which first started back in May 2021 - and in which scores of citizens have died - have continued into 2022, creating increased domestic pressure to address longstanding demands for democratic reforms.

But critics are sceptical that the announced 'sibaya' - a process by which citizens' views are collated by traditional leaders before a national gathering at the king's own 'kraal' - will be a genuine platform for discussion, and instead see it as just a means for the monarch to reassert authority.

Although the primacy of domestic stakeholders in national political processes must be sacrosanct, given the context in Eswatini of a polarized political landscape and a significant trust deficit, the international community must play an important role in supporting a constructive and meaningful process.

In view of the kingdom's ongoing complex political situation, the wider international community has a moral responsibility to help build trust and confidence in the dialogue

This would still be led and 'owned' by the EmaSwati people, ensuring the dialogue is a tool for conflict resolution, socio-political transformation, and national cohesion. But international actors must be coordinated and take an approach which is both strategic and deliberate, remaining highly cognisant of local cultural sensitivities.

International engagement and political change

Eswatini's key international relationships are with its largest trading partners South Africa, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) - particularly the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) - and the US, alongside key donors the European Union (EU) and Taiwan. Eswatini is the last state in Africa to retain formal diplomatic relations with Taipei City. And as part of the UK government's 'Africa uplift', it reinstated a High Commission in Mbabane in 2019, joining a handful of diplomatic missions on the ground.

But while a physical presence in country brings advantages, over time international diplomats have learned the hard way that overt calls for reform result in ostracization. And international economic pressure brings little political change - the Obama administration removed Eswatini, then known as Swaziland, in 2015 from its preferential trade programme under the US African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), but Eswatini simply re-joined a few years later.

Despite Eswatini's economic dependence on trade and customs receipts from South Africa, this has not directly translated into political leverage on issues such as democratic reform, in part due to disagreements in South Africa's governing alliance - the trade unions have long called for a more assertive stance on Eswatini but President Cyril Ramaphosa prefers to act through SADC, not engage unilaterally.

In accordance with the Protocol on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation, SADC is taking the political lead in shaping regional responses to Eswatini's dialogue. But it faces a significant challenge in drawing up terms of reference for a process for which there is no regional precedent or blueprint, and for which the ultimate objectives are still uncertain.

It has also received criticism over the balance of SADC engagement between state and non-state actors, so it is important to widen the framework for consultations, and draw upon other intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations such as the African Union (AU) and United Nations (UN) which have both condemned the violence at a senior level.

The Commonwealth has also maintained an active interest, albeit often in a less public role. Dr Bakili Muluzi, the former president of Malawi, was making positive strides in securing commitment for constructive dialogue between the king and pro-democracy groups in his role as the Commonwealth Secretary-General's special envoy to the country - but his tenure came to an abrupt end in 2016.

However, the inclusion of Eswatini on the agenda of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) to ramp up political pressure remains a focus for advocacy from local and international civil society groups, as well as trade unions.

In view of the kingdom's ongoing complex political situation, the wider international community has a moral responsibility to help build trust and confidence in the dialogue, underpinned by fundamental principles of inclusivity, transparency, broad public participation, and a clear and practical agenda which addresses the root causes of the grievances.

The international community should directly engage the king and amplify the calls for an inclusive, genuine, and constructive dialogue which addresses the root causes of the political crisis in Eswatini

International actors can be important guarantors of these principles while respecting the principle of subsidiarity, SADC's leadership, and the importance of local ownership. Such integrated - but sensitive - engagement also helps mitigate the risk of the process being manipulated by the monarchy or other political groups to consolidate power.

International partners must be coordinated

For the international community to play a meaningful role, it is important to speak with one voice and act collaboratively. Any divisions or siloed approaches among international partners may increase the risk of derailing the dialogue process and could undermine both the credibility of its outcome and its implementation.

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A wider and more coordinated international framework strengthens the international community's leverage, avoids duplication and 'forum shopping', and widens the framework for technical support, political accountability, and follow-up. The international community should directly engage the king and amplify the calls for an inclusive, genuine, and constructive dialogue which addresses the root causes of the political crisis in Eswatini.

International partners can also assist in facilitating pre-dialogue talks to set the foundation for dialogue, deliver capacity-building to participants to ensure they engage in the process in a constructive and meaningful way, and provide technical assistance, such as supporting the infrastructure for the dialogue, developing terms of reference, translating outcomes into actionable policy, and establishing a framework for effective and practical implementation. They could also mobilize funds to support the process, including its preparation and outcomes.

Christopher Vandome, Research Fellow, Africa Programme at Chatham House; Koffi Sawyer, Independent Consultant.
The effects of the war in Ukraine are already being felt across the world, from rocking world energy markets to spurring a growing refugee crisis in Europe.

But the conflict could have more ripple effects, including sparking a global food crisis.

Russia and Ukraine account for roughly 30 percent of global wheat exports, while Russia is the world's top exporter of fertilizer and a vital amount of the world's wheat, corn, and barley is trapped in both countries because of the war, while an even larger portion of the world's fertilizers is stuck in Russia and Belarus.

The simultaneous disruptions to harvests and fertilizer production are driving up food prices and sending economic shock waves throughout the world. Since Russia's February 24 invasion, world wheat prices have increased by roughly 21 percent, barley by 33 percent, and some fertilizers by as much as 40 percent.

After more than a month of war, economists and aid agencies say the world is facing merging crises that could lead to a global food emergency.

Food and fertilizer prices were already climbing to record levels before the conflict due to shipping constraints, high energy costs, and natural disasters. Supply was further strained in the early weeks of the war with Moscow limiting wheat exports and urging its fertilizer producers to temporarily suspend exports. Kyiv also banned exports of wheat and other staples.

As the fighting continues and shows no signs of stopping, could the Ukraine war be at a tipping point for a global hunger crisis?

To find out more, RFE/RL spoke with Alex Smith, a food and agriculture analyst at the U.S.-based Breakthrough Institute, a think tank focused on environmental issues.

RFE/RL: Explain how the war in Ukraine is connected to global food supply and prices and which parts of the world will be the hardest hit and why?

Alex Smith: The main way that the Russian invasion of Ukraine can impact and alter food prices and the world food supply is through the disruption of Ukrainian agricultural exports.

Ukraine -- and Russia as well -- are massive exporters of grain to the world, specifically wheat, corn, barley, as well as a number of different kinds of plants and seed oils. Ukraine is the fifth-largest wheat exporter and the third-largest corn exporter in the world and they export wheat in particular to a lot of developing and lower-middle-income countries in the Middle East, North Africa, [and] South and Southeast Asia.

So if we are to see a continued disruption of [those] wheat and corn exports, we're likely to see high food prices, but also acute food shortages in specific places.

We're already seeing high food prices. I'm sure most people are aware of this to some degree. Disruptions in Black Sea trade, which is responsible for about 90 percent of Ukraine's grain exports, has turned commodity traders and the world food market upside down.

We [already] had record highs in late February [and] early March for wheat. Corn is up very high in price and this is even before we're feeling [the] real structural disruptions in Ukrainian agricultural production [from the war].

Ukraine is still a couple months away from their 2021-2022 wheat harvest and we're not seeing any [of the] disruptions yet in terms of Ukrainian planting. But just in terms of disruptions to the exports going out right now, we're seeing a lot of fear [and] a lot of worry about countries that are really dependent on that agricultural supply.

RFE/RL: You mentioned higher food prices, but what are the big picture economic risks that this brings? And how will it affect people around the world? Or is it already being felt?

Smith: I think there's potential for high food prices globally from this. As you get constrictions on global food supply, that increases demand for food from other places. Whether it's wheat from Argentina or corn from the United States, that can take [any given] export away from another country that's interested in this product.

In countries that are extremely reliant or dependent on Ukrainian food production -- countries like Lebanon, for example -- which relies on Ukraine for about 50 percent of its total wheat supply, or Libya, which again, [around] 43 percent of their wheat comes from Ukraine, this [places a] really severe burden on people who are already hungry [and] who are already struggling to pay for food. And with that you see a number of other general cost-of-living increases.

There are already people who are hungry who are now going to have to pay even more for the small amount of bread that they can afford.

RFE/RL: What are some of the ripple effects that could be set off by this, especially when combined with other political and economic factors and crises around the world?

Smith: I think we're still early in this crisis. The war has been going on for a month or so [and] we're yet to see these big structural challenges to Ukrainian agricultural production. We were seeing for a little while disruptions in Russian agricultural trade as well, where Russian ships were not getting through the Black Sea. [But] I think some trade has resumed, although it is [still] unclear, [as] a lot of information is not exact.

But if the war continues [and] if there are severe disruptions of either [the] harvest or planting season in Ukraine and if you're seeing further economic turmoil in Russia from the war that could [result in] them banning grain exports, as they've done already in the past, [such as] in 2020 and in 2010...then this crisis could grow.

Russia has already banned grain exports to former Soviet countries until the end of June. If that ban becomes a global [export] ban from Russia on grain then you could see a really severe shortage. Ukraine and Russia together make up about a quarter to a third of the world's wheat exports. So, if you take out a quarter or a third of all of the [world's] wheat, it's a really significant portion that can't necessarily be filled from [other exporting] countries like India, or the United States, or Australia, or Argentina that are aiming to substitute this demand.

[When] you start adding on [the effects] of other conflicts or crises [around the] world, it gets worse.

China, for example, [has] been noisy recently about having a very bad wheat harvest. I think China's wheat harvest is maybe the worst in recent history. Add on to that the extremely high cost of fertilizer, that is also related to the war, then you see multiple factors driving both production and supply of crucial agricultural commodities, like wheat and corn, [and] also an increase in the price of every single agricultural commodity due to the increase [in the price] of fertilizer.

I think we're still too early to say this or that is going to happen. But we're getting to a crossroads this summer where all of these crises overlap with other crises that could lead to real, severe food shortages in certain places and [see] global food prices at a level that we haven't seen since the 1970s.

RFE/RL: Given that the war doesn't show any signs of slowing down, what can be done to offset some of these shocks that you've outlined already?

Smith: I think the first thing you can look to are international food-aid organizations. The standard bearer for that is the UN World Food Program.

[But] they are also in trouble [due to] the war because they source from Ukraine about 50 percent of their grains that they would then use as food aid. They were already seeking out new sources of food and with global food prices having already been high prior to the war, they were unable to fulfill the goals that they had set out prior to 2022 in terms of purchasing [grains] and feeding as many people as possible.

Their budget is totally dependent on voluntary donations from states and individuals and other organizations. So something that can be done is that the [countries] who are able to pay more, [such as] the United States, the United Kingdom, Western European countries, [and] countries that are major agricultural exporters already, they can give more money to the UN World Food Program pretty easily.

It [doesn't have] a huge budget -- I think the United States gives something like $6 billion a year to the UN World Food Program -- but leveling this amount up so that there is this possibility for really strong food aid would be helpful.

And also countries that are major massive producers [can help] to substitute this loss of grain.

China, for example, is [having] low yields this year for wheat, [but] they still have very large grain reserves that they can open up and export themselves. Same thing goes for India, [which has] a very large grain reserve because they've been a very large producer of wheat for decades now and they could open that [reserve] up and send that out to the world in a way that is not dependent on their yields [from] this year, but is linked to yields [from previous years].

Altogether, there's more than enough capability to fill this shortage. It may be costly as food prices go up, but it is necessary.

This interview was condensed and edited for clarity
Russias communications regulator has warned Russian news agencies against publishing an interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the web portal Meduza reported.

Zelenskiy gave a roughly 90-minute interview on March 27 to Meduza and the Russian TV station Dozhd, daily Kommersant, and YouTube channel Zygar.

In giving the interview, Zelenskiy said he wanted Russia to know the truth about the war.

In a statement issued later in the day, Roskomnadzor warned agencies against publishing the interview, saying an inspection has been launched against the four media outlets.

Meanwhile, the prosecutor-general said it would give a legal assessment of the material if published.

Russia has further tightened its grip on freedom of information following its invasion of Ukraine on February 24 in order to maintain its narrative.

Russia has criminalized the use of the word war to describe its actions in Ukraine, describing it instead as a special military operation.

It has also passed a law criminalizing the publication of fake information about its war in Ukraine, with those guilty facing up to 15 years in prison.

Roskomnadzor has also recently banned multiple news websites, including Meduza and Dozhd, as well as popular social media networks such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, to prevent Russians from consuming nongovernment-approved information about the war.

Zelenskiy regularly posts video statements on Instagram, including in Russian.
The national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines on March 22 announced that it will temporarily suspend flights on the Hanoi-Moscow route from March 25 to review and clarify the procedures, requirements and regulations related to the craft insurance and flight operations to Russia A representative from the airline expressed regret about the force majeure, stressing that it will offer free refunds to passengers who have bought tickets, or change to other flights when the route is resumed.The suspension will last until further notice. The carrier recommended that passengers regularly update information in next announcements. Vietnam Airlines is currently the only airline operating a regular route to Russia. It affirmed that it is working hard with relevant agencies in order to resume the operation of this route as soon as possible.Passengers can seek support through Vietnam Airlines website at www.vietnamairlines.com, its mobile app, Facebook fanpage at www.facebook.com/VietnamAirlines, its call centre at 19001100, or ticket offices and agents across the country.
analysis

The top-down traditional meeting between Eswatini's king and his subjects cannot be the format for serious political dialogue.

While South African President Cyril Ramaphosa appears to be toying with the ambitious notion of mediating in Russia's war against Ukraine, two more modest mediation challenges closer to home demand his attention.

In Lesotho, where Ramaphosa has been the Southern African Development Community's (SADC) special envoy for seven years, politics is again paralysed by internal rifts in the All Basotho Convention, the anchor of the governing coalition. Reforms proposed by Ramaphosa and SADC have long been stalled, although there are some signs of movement.

And in Eswatini, the national dialogue Ramaphosa persuaded King Mswati III to hold is threatening to be stillborn because of fundamental differences over its format. This is even before the Swazi people get to the substance of the discussions.

SADC intervened in Eswatini in July last year after public protests descended into rioting that destroyed many government offices and businesses. Scores of demonstrators and rioters were shot dead by security forces, and aftershocks still rumble across the country. SADC sent delegations to Eswatini, and in November Ramaphosa, wearing his SADC security troika chairperson hat, met with Mswati.

Ramaphosa announced afterwards that he and Mswati had agreed that Eswatini would 'work towards the establishment of a national dialogue forum.' They also decided that the SADC Secretariat would collaborate with the government of Eswatini to draft terms of reference for the dialogue, covering its processes and composition.

'The process towards the national dialogue will take into account and incorporate structures and processes enshrined in the Constitution of the Kingdom of Eswatini, including the role of the Parliament of the Kingdom, and the Sibaya convened by His Majesty King Mswati III.'

Ramaphosa's statement also said preparations for the dialogue would take place during the coming three months. That didn't happen and seems unlikely as things stand.

The delay revolves around the Sibaya and the fact that Ramaphosa's statement in November was ambiguous. On the one hand, he seemed to accept Mswati's insistence that the Sibaya format is used. On the other, by giving SADC a role in drafting the terms of reference, he suggested a more objective, neutral process.

Sibaya is defined in Eswatini's constitution as 'the highest policy and advisory council ... of the nation' where 'the nation' presents its views on 'pressing and controversial national issues.' But in practice it has been a traditional monologue where the king talks down to his people and they listen in silence. Inevitably, the palace has focused on the Sibaya elements of Ramaphosa's statement while the opposition leans towards the SADC consultation aspect.

Earlier this month, the Multi-Stakeholder Forum (MSF) wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Cleopas Dlamini calling for a 'genuine all-inclusive political dialogue, not the Sibaya Monologue.' MSF is the most representative political group in Eswatini, comprising political parties, civil society, churches, businesses and others.

The MSF expressed concern that in his 18 February budget speech, the finance minister said 'Government have set aside E22 million in this year's budget for the Sibaya National Dialogue.' The MSF recalled that in his speech at the opening of Parliament, Mswati indicated that the national dialogue would be run strictly along the lines of traditional Sibaya.

The MSF reminded Dlamini that the SADC Secretariat should have worked with the government to draft terms of reference for the dialogue, including its processes and composition. This hadn't happened, the MSF said. 'It seems the king and government are reneging from the undertakings which we believe were made in good faith with the SADC regional leaders through the Organ Troika represented by President Ramaphosa.'

Instead of Sibaya, the MSF said the 'mass democratic movement' was calling for a national political dialogue 'that conforms to international standards, mediated by an independent and impartial chairperson who commands respect and recognition from all protagonists to the impasse.' In contrast, Sibaya would allow the king and his government to be both referee and player.

The MSF is right that the national dialogue format is crucial to its outcome, so a Sibaya approach would start the process entirely on the wrong footing. And who participates will be the next critical decision. Unless pushed, Mswati seems likely to stick to the current format of excluding political parties.

Ramaphosa will host a summit in Pretoria of SADC's security organ troika early next month. The meeting will mainly discuss the progress of SADC's Mission in Mozambique, that is fighting the Islamist insurgency in the north. But Eswatini has been invited to participate because it has - for the first time - been put on the SADC security organ's problem country list, officials say.

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ISS Today hears that Ramaphosa might propose that the Eswatini national dialogue become the newly appointed SADC Panel of Elders' first assignment. Former Tanzanian president Jakaya Kikwete chairs the panel. Its members are former Mauritian vice-president Paramasivum Vyapoory, former Zimbabwean justice and finance minister Patrick Chinamasa and former Botswana foreign affairs permanent secretary Charles Tibone.

Ramaphosa will need to be far firmer at the summit than he appears to have been at his one-on-one meeting with Mswati in November. He needs to push his regional peers to demand a national dialogue conducted by SADC, not the palace. And all Eswatini's genuine stakeholders - including the banned political opposition party Pudemo for instance - must be invited.

Anything less would be a betrayal of the democratic aspirations of the Swazi people and SADC's own purported values.

Peter Fabricius, Consultant, ISS Pretoria
press release

Kenyans see the economy and corruption as the most important problems facing the country, and most say the government is doing a poor job on both, the latest Afrobarometer survey findings show.

Management of the economy and corruption top the list of problems that Kenyans want the government to address, ahead of unemployment, health, and crime/security.

But most survey respondents give the government a failing grade on these priority issues.

As the country gears up for elections in August 2022, these findings suggest that the government's ability to address economic problems and corruption may be a key issue for voters.
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When Deepasha Debnaths mom opened their Cupertino mailbox on a sunny February afternoon, she found the green cards her family had awaited for 12 years. But Deepasha did not receive one.

The 24-year-old grad student is part of a growing visa crisis hitting the children of Indian immigrants, many of them Silicon Valleys tech workers, a generation forgotten in immigration reform efforts.

Brought to the U.S. on their parents work visas, many have spent their entire childhood here as their families waited to gain legal permanent residence, a process that can take years and even decades for Indians because of visa backlogs. Yet as they turn 21, they lose their family status and face expulsion from the country.

They did not celebrate when they got their green cards, knowing that I did not receive it with them, Debnath said of her parents and younger brother.

Debnaths family arrived from India in 2006 when an American company hired her father. She was 9, and as her father worked for companies in the Bay Area, California became their home. In 2010, the family applied for green cards.

Samantha Laurey/The Chronicle

When she turned 21 and lost her dependent child visa, immigration rules also eliminated her from the familys pending green card application. Debnath was in college at the time and managed to switch to a foreign student visa, extending her stay in the U.S. But she no longer has a path to permanent residency or citizenship. Her visa will end when she graduates.

Debnath is not alone. The Cato Institute estimates that 10,000 minors will turn 21 and age out of legal status in the country this year.

As Debnath has learned, there is no permanent solution for young adults like her. They are left to choose between staying with their family and becoming undocumented, or returning to a country they barely know.

Neglected system

Policymakers are increasingly aware of the plight of young people like Debnath, who have come to be known as documented Dreamers, a term some in the movement embrace for its increased political visibility, but others reject because they dont want to be viewed in competition with undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and have secured some protections in Washington.

Despite the advocacy of documented Dreamers, they have not succeeded in winning a fix in gridlocked Washington, instead finding themselves caught in the same political battles as many other immigrants seeking reform.

But unlike some policies that intentionally excluded groups from citizenship, the plight of Indian young people aging out is a product of an immigration system that hasnt been overhauled in three decades.

This is one of the many problems that crop up not through design but through neglect, said David Bier, an immigration expert at the libertarian Cato Institute. This is not an issue of Congress designing a problem into existence; its an oversight thats turned into a crisis.

Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle

At the root of the issue are caps that limit the total number of green cards that can go each year to immigrants from any one country. For Indians, who came to the U.S. in growing numbers on high-skilled job visas after the dot-com boom and to join family already here, the wait times stretch for decades.

Theres hope that the issue could be addressed, at least temporarily, by President Biden and his Cabinet agencies.

The 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, originally applied to qualifying immigrants brought to the U.S. as children with no restrictions on legal status. But in implementation, the policy granted protections only to undocumented immigrants  excluding those who age out of visas.

The Biden administration is seeking to create a more formal DACA program to protect it from court challenges, with several organizations and lawmakers urging the administration to simply include children of visa holders.

Another possibility, Bier said, is for the administration to let these children keep their place in line for green cards even after they age out. He argues that previous court decisions have given the administration that discretion.

The administration said it is considering its options, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a visa-granting agency of the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement that it is exploring legal methods to provide relief. The White House said it is very aware of the hardships but laid the blame on Congress inaction.

Executive actions, even if they come through, would be only a patch. But the odds of passing any of the bills before Congress are dire.

The 2021 Americas Dream and Promise Act, which alongside undocumented Dreamers would create a pathway to citizenship for aging-out children of visa holders, passed the House by a slim bipartisan margin but stalled in the Senate.

The Americas Children Act, which would specifically tackle the aging-out issue, faces similarly long odds despite bipartisan support.

In the Senate, 60 votes are required to advance legislation, but getting 10 Republicans to join 50 Democrats on any immigration legislation  especially one that increases the number of immigrants who can come to and stay in the U.S.  would probably require significant border security measures and harsh cuts to other aspects of immigration such as asylum protections.

Samantha Laurey/The Chronicle

Those moves to mollify the Republican base are anathema to Democrats, leaving compromise at an impasse. Even if a deal could be reached with the right to move a narrow change, Democrats could face defections from progressive advocates who object to protecting some groups of vulnerable immigrants without the others.

California Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla, one of the authors of the Americas Children Act, said he remains hopeful and called the situation for this group fundamentally unjust and unfair.

Still, in the decades-long cycle of disappointments for immigration reform advocates, what the documented Dreamers have accomplished is significant, said Rep. Zoe Lofgren of San Jose, who said she persuaded her fellow Democrats to include the group in their latest version of the Dream Act, first introduced more than 20 years ago.

It wasnt a hard lift to get it in, but I do give them credit for their advocacy in raising the issue, Lofgren said.

Dip Patel, who created the grassroots group Improve the Dream, said he and others were inspired by the undocumented Dreamer movement to begin their own efforts to educate lawmakers about the situation facing children of foreign workers.

Seeing that change can happen with how Dreamers had organized and how they were able to build a movement is also part of what  inspired me to know that it is possible, Patel said. Our system shouldnt allow for us to grow up here, be raised here and be educated here and even after 20 years of living here not have a path to citizenship and possibly have to self-deport.

His organization is also working with California senators to amend the states Dream Act, which allows undocumented students to attend college and pay in-state tuition, but does not include students on visas.

Bier, who has been tracking the issue and other problems with the immigration system for years, said even in 2012, policymakers should have foreseen the crisis.

Every year its another 10,000 or so Dreamers losing status, Bier said. No one has done anything about it, and so its really building up; theres more and more people being impacted, the population whos affected is growing, and thats having political consequence.

Barred from opportunities

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.

On a recent Saturday night, a group of friends ate pizza and played the card game Were Not Really Strangers on the floor of Sumana Kaluvais San Francisco apartment. These children of Indian immigrants grew up in the U.S. and managed to transfer to student visas to finish their degrees, yet face the same unknown fate when they graduate.

Kaluvai drew a card, blushed, and read, Whats the first thing you noticed about me? One friend said it was her smile. Its bright and it hides a lot of the pain youve been through.

Kaluvai, 24, arrived in the U.S when she was 2. She turned 21 midway through her undergraduate studies at UCLA and now has five months left on her foreign student visa. Kaluvai has been accepted to various law schools for the fall, but worries that a new student visa might be denied. If that happens, then I will be undocumented, she said.

Kaluvai first felt her visa limitations when she was 17 and landed a job scooping ice cream, only to be told that her immigration status did not permit her to work.

I was like, Wow, I guess you can work hard and do everything quote-unquote right, but youre still going to be barred from some opportunities because of your immigration status.

One morning on the drive to school, her mother told her college might also be inaccessible unless she could get a foreign student visa and afford the high fees charged to international students.

That whole day I spent switching between bathroom stalls in my high school.  I was just crying the whole day.

Kaluvai also decided to self-deport to India right before she aged off her H-4 dependent visa, advising that a visit to the U.S. Embassy in Chennai would speed up the process of getting a student visa. She almost got stuck in India when the consular official informed her it could take a lot longer than she had anticipated.

Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle

All these experiences turned the student into an activist. She began an organization, the Hidden Dream, to help young adults in her situation. The nonprofit runs courses in college prep, premed workshops and navigating the immigration system.

Kaluvai feels a kinship with Dreamers, also shut out of work and study opportunities because of their immigration status. As her organization grew  now reaching 700 youths  they began to push back on the think-tank-imposed label of documented Dreamer, which made her uncomfortable.

That just leads to a sentiment that one set of kids is better than the other set of kids; it just allows us to pit communities against one another, Kaluvai said. I think its much more powerful if we realize the commonalities between kids on visas and kids not on visas and use that to leverage our power and unite our voices and ask for change for all kids who grew up here.

This message of solidarity has been a hard sell inside her own community.

She confronted the rule-following nature of her green card backlog community when she was unable to get much participation in a national day of protest on Feb. 14, when immigrants were asked to walk off their jobs to demonstrate the countrys reliance on immigrant labor.

This is why our community isnt winning, Kaluvai said, because were not willing to take a unified stance and show people that were not going to show up to work.

Kaluvai gave up her dream of studying philosophy and chose bioengineering simply because immigration rules allow STEM students  those in science, technology, engineering and math  an extra two years to gain work experience before their visas expire. If she can get another student visa, she will accept one of her law school offers and plans to practice immigration and human rights law.

I (need) the skills to work in a field that Im actually passionate about.

Debnath is completing a masters degree at the University of San Francisco. With just months left before that course finishes, and then a 90-day grace period to find work in a highly competitive field, Debnath is frantically applying for jobs. She knows her chances are slim. As a foreign student, she will have to find an employer willing to do immigration paperwork to hire her, which includes showing there is a shortage of qualified American applicants.

I havent received a single call for an interview, Debnath said. Its devastating.

Deepa Fernandes and Tal Kopan are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: deepa.fernandes@sfchronicle.com, tal.kopan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @deepafern, @talkopan
Commentary: EU needs stronger strategic autonomy for more secure future

Xinhua) 11:30, March 27, 2022

U.S. President Joe Biden attends a press conference at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, March 24, 2022. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

BEIJING, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Prior to U.S. President Joe Biden's visit to Europe, a display of "unity," the European Union rolled out a "Strategic Compass" as a guide to strengthen the bloc's security and defense policy.

The plan of action, ratified on Monday, is widely seen as a move for the EU to cut dependence on Washington for defense, and realize strategic autonomy amid a deteriorating security environment, as a conflict has been flaring up between Ukraine and Russia.

"Today I think everybody is convinced that Europe is in danger," Josep Borrell, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, addressed a recent press conference.

In fact, it is Washington that has dragged Europe into this dangerous quagmire.

The United States, in utter disregard of Russia's legitimate concerns, drove five waves of NATO expansion eastward all the way to Russia's doorstep, incessantly squeezed Russia's security space and challenged the country's strategic bottom line until a military conflict broke out between Russia and Ukraine.

Following the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Washington has rushed to fan the flames, pushing other Western countries to join it in providing Ukraine with money and weapons, and pound Russia with all-round and indiscriminate sanctions.

Analysts say that for Washington, the fallout of an escalating Russia-Ukraine conflict is well foreseeable, but nearly painless, because it does not bear the brunt.

Europe does. Now the pain has become increasingly acute -- soaring food and energy prices, mounting security concerns and a sudden influx of refugees, among others -- a heavy price to pay.

A weaker Europe also serves U.S. interest. In the wake of America's botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, many Western political pundits predicted that "the American era is ending."

The Russia-Ukraine conflict has offered the United States an opportunity to reinforce its dominant role in the European security order, and possibly revive the so-called "American Era."

And it seems that Washington's fear-mongering has worked. Some Europeans countries, despite having no strong will for Ukraine's NATO accession, have beefed up their national defense since the conflict, convinced that the Ukrainian crisis is a security crisis for Europe as a whole and NATO is what they can count on.

"The Russian invasion has bonded America to Europe more tightly than at any time since the Cold War," the New York Times opined in a recent article.

Perhaps the Europeans need to seriously rethink whether a wantonly expanding NATO is truly conducive to peace and stability in Europe in the long run. The newly approved "Strategic Compass" offers a clue that the EU is well aware of its need of stronger strategic autonomy, not weaker.

After all, Europe is Europe, not America. A failure to peacefully coexist with neighbouring Russia may spell ages of challenges and woes.

Unlike the United States, Europe can not afford an immediate ban of oil and gas imports from its traditional key energy supplier of Russia, as was recently signaled by the French presidential palace.

From long-arm jurisdiction over European enterprises to slapping tariffs in the name of "national security," a self-serving Washington barely hesitates to throw allies under the bus if needed.

Thierry de Montbrial, founder and executive chairman of the French Institute for International Relations, said that the Russia-Ukraine conflict awakens Europe to the importance of "taking its destiny into its own hands."

The time has come for European policymakers to sober up to the high-stake reality. They need to reposition the EU in terms of defense, and truly obtain strategic autonomy so that they can steer the bloc towards a more secure future.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Bianji)
Bandit attacks using motorbikes have increased in northwestern Nigeria leading to the loss of lives and properties. The region has a long history of bandits raiding villages, conducting kidnappings and stealing cattle.

AN increasing number of states in Nigeria's northwest have imposed bans on the movement of motorcycles in an attempt to tackle a recent spate of deadly attacks carried out by criminal gangs known as bandits.

The armed bandits typically use motorcycles to escape after carrying out their attacks, the latest of which was in Kaduna state last Sunday where at least 34 people were killed including two soldiers.

More than 200 homes were also destroyed in the attack on four villages, Kaduna officials said in a statement.

In a separate incident on Sunday, motorcycle-riding bandits carried out a raid in a remote village of Zamfara state -- also in the northwestern part of the country -- killing 16 people.

A week before that, another armed gang killed 11 security personnel, including seven policemen and four vigilantes, in attacks in central and northwestern Nigeria.

Local authorities have said that deadly attacks and abductions have intensified.

Will banning motorbikes stop the attacks?

Kebbi, Katsina, Sokoto and Zamfara states are hoping the bike ban will help reduce the spate of deadly attacks.

Katsina state governor's security adviser, Ibrahim Ahmed, told DW that movements of motorbikes in the state have been restricted between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.

"Actually in Katsina state his excellency has put in place executive order that curtail the activities of motorcyclists especially in the frontline local government areas, bearing in mind that the major tool the criminal elements are using in perpetrating their crimes are the motorcycles," Ahmed said.

Sokoto state police spokesperson, ASP Sanusi Abubakar, told DW that police officers there are on high alert to clamp down on the movement of these bandits.

Overnight banditry

"The state government has enacted the containment order which was enforced by Nigeria police and other security agencies here in Sokoto State to prohibit the movement of motorcycle," Abubakar revealed.

Ibrahim Ahmed from the Katsina state governor's offoce explained that the ban in his state is essential because "most of the criminal activities are perpetrated in the night."

"The government is thinking of reviewing the strategy because you have to evolve knowledge-based approach in order to tackle all these. As the crime evolves, you put in mechanisms to contain it," Ahmed said.

According to Sokoto's police spokesperson: "the measures taken by the state government in collaboration with security agencies has yielded positive result so far, and we are still on top of the issues to ensure the safety of lives and property in the state."

Did previous bans work?

In 2011, motorcycles were banned in Nigeria's northern Borno state, a stronghold of militant Islamist movement Boko Haram, to prevent drive-by attacks by the group.

Boko Haram has used gunmen on motorbikes to assassinate security officers, civilians and politicians because the bikes provide a fast means of escape.

Borno's neighboring state, Yobe, in 2012 outlawed motorbike riding at any time.

The same year, Adamawa and Taraba states also banned motorcycles from their states capitals -- Yola and Jalingo respectively.

But earlier this year, Yobe lifted its ban across 10 local government areas.

Authorities there say the security situation has improved and therefore there is no need to maintain the bans.

Reversing the ban

Alhaji Abdullahi Usman Kukuwa, Yobe state commissioner of transport revealed to DW that the "ban on the motorcycle use has recorded a lot of successes. The only way out was to ban motorcycles in Borno and Yobe and this decision successfully reduced the rate of crime committed by motorcyclists."

Security analyst Abubakar Mai Shanu agrees on the effectiveness of banning the use of motorcycles used to commit crimes.

"I think if you look at what was happening before the criminal were using motorbikes for snap operations. [...] I think it was a wise decision for governments to ban those motorcycles," Shanu said.

He however now supports the decision to remove the ban.

"For every step or every policy that government takes there has to be a review. If we look at it again a lot of people were cut off from their livelihood and other things, in as much as our security is very important," Shanu explained.

More needs to be done

But not everyone is hopeful that the ban on the use of motorcycles will completely stop the bandit attacks.

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Nigerian security expert, retired Major Bishir Galma, told DW that despite previous bans the attacks haven't stopped.

"From all indication, we are still hearing massive movement by these bandits on the motorcycle all over the place. What it means here is, they must have a means of procuring or having these motorcycles all over the place," Galma said.

He added: "there is also lack of effective enforcement of this bans especially in the rural areas. It is very hard to really enforce this in the rural areas. Even if you are going to enforce it, it will be in a very small area and may be it will affect private owners who are genuine using the motorcycles for honest jobs."

Galma said the best solution in dealing with crimes committed with motorcycles is to ban the sale of "these motorcycles to these rural areas."

Nigeria's bandit violence has its origins in clashes over land between farmers and cattle herders in the northwest but it has now spiralled into wider criminal activity.

Mohammad Al-Amin and Yusuf Ibrahim Jargaba contributed to this article

Edited by: Keith Walker
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LGBTQ activist and leader Cleve Jones announced Sunday that he has decided to stay in the Castro neighborhood apartment where hes lived for 12 years, telling a rally in San Francisco that hell fight an effort by the buildings new owner that would more than double his current rent.

This is not a fight I chose, its not a fight I wanted, its certainly not a fight Im prepared for, Jones said. But it has become clear to me that this is not a fight from which I can walk away.

Among the 200 to 250 rally attendees at Harvey Milk Plaza were several high-profile political supporters, including state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, San Francisco Supervisors Rafael Mandelman, Dean Preston and Matt Haney, and state Democratic Party chair David Campos, who is competing against Haney for an Assembly seat. Among other prominent attendees were San Francisco AIDS Foundation CEO Tyler TerMeer and Castro LGBTQ Cultural District advisory board co-chair Stephen Torres.

Under overcast skies at the late-morning event, Jones said, Our world has been turned upside down by this landlord; the last six weeks have been hell.

But he told the crowd, This is not about me, Im going to be fine.

He said he decided to fight because he believes his case is representative of a larger trend of displacement impacting other members of his generation.

When I first posted this on social media I made it very clear to everybody that I enjoy all sorts of unearned advantages due to my race and my gender, Im politically connected, he said, gesturing at Campos, Preston and Mandelman, whose district includes the Castro. Ive got a good job, health insurance and access to quality legal advice.

However, he said, None of that seems sufficient to keep us in our home.

Jones words appeared to resonate with attendees.

Im so glad that hes staying and fighting because thats the only way, said Alison C. Wright, who co-wrote the housing-crisis-themed musical A Roof Over My Head with fellow rally speaker and housing rights activist Tommi Avicolli Mecca. Our community is dwindling, and its not because were dying or leaving, but were being thrown out.

Jones told The Chronicle last week that he planned to move out of the one-bedroom flat in an 18th Street duplex hes lived in since 2010 when his new landlord, Lily Pao Kue, announced she would raise the rent from $2,393 to $5,200 as of July 1.

The story has received significant local and national attention not only because of Jones celebrity within the LGBTQ community, but also because of the issues of gentrification and displacement in San Francisco it has come to symbolize.

In a March 18 letter to Jones, Kue invoked a Costa-Hawkins petition, which gets its name from a California law that sets some requirements for cities with rent control, including allowing a landlord to raise a units rent to market rate once a tenant moves out.

After installing cameras at the property in February and investigating Jones, Kue said she determined that he did not live in the 18th Street apartment as his primarily dwelling and alleged that his friend and former roommate Brenden Chadwick had illegally sublet it.

Jones owns a cabin in Guerneville where he says he spent time in isolation during the pandemic to protect his health as a 67-year-old, longtime HIV-positive man with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other conditions.

He disputes Kues claims in the Costa-Hawkins petition filed to the San Francisco Rent Board, saying he continued to live in the unit with Chadwick and did not move his possessions out until this last week, when he gave historic materials related to the LGBTQ movement to the National AIDS Memorial and GLBT Historical Society Museum for safekeeping because of fears they could be damaged in ongoing construction at the building.

Jones said his rental insurance, vehicle registration, utility bills and voter registration are all registered to the 18th Street address, criteria used by the San Francisco Rent Board to evaluate residency. His drivers license address lists his Castro post office box.

Kue previously told The Chronicle she was seeking a hearing on her petition with the San Francisco Rent Board and awaiting a staff member to be assigned to the case.

I look forward to justice, she said Sunday. I respect and will be gracious and accepting of the law. I hope Cleve will be too, despite his celebrity status.

Kue joined Twitter this month under the account @japanfoodisyum with the name Cleve Jones landlord as her identifier.

She said she started the account as a public social voice in this case too since the media can choose to omit facts on this Costa-Hawkins case.

Jones got a heros welcome at the rally, with the crowd expressing general sympathy for his situation: Mentions of landlords and housing speculators were frequently booed during speeches.

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When asked who had faced eviction or housing insecurity, roughly a quarter of attendees raised their hands.

Wright said she understood the stress of displacement, having gone through four Ellis Act evictions.

The Ellis Act gives property owners a path to exit the rental market by evicting tenants if they plan to move themselves or family members in, sell the units or demolish the building. Tenant rights groups argue that the state law allows speculators to flip Californias scarce supply of affordable rental housing.

Several calls to abolish the Ellis Act were raised during the rally.

Neighborhood resident Rob Costin carried a sign that read in part: Im being Ellis Act Evicted right now from my Castro home of 25 years.

Its my home, I would stay there, I like it, I pay my rent on time, Costin said. The building went up for sale and someone came in who saw an opportunity and snapped up the building and within months, Ellis Acted me. Theres a lack of empathy for tenants.

Drag queen and community activist Juanita More, who founded the housing-search Facebook group Juanitas List, said she plans to fight with Jones not only to keep him here but for all renters rights.

Jones moved to the Castro in 1973 as a 19-year-old and has long been considered a fixture of the community as an organizer and activist. He was a close friend and protege of pioneering gay Supervisor Harvey Milk, who was assassinated with Mayor George Moscone by former supervisor Dan White in 1978.

In the 1980s, Jones created the Names Project, the organization behind the AIDS Memorial Quilt, and co-founded the San Francisco AIDS Foundation in the neighborhood.

Jones 2016 book When We Rise: My Life in the Movement is considered a seminal document of the neighborhoods LGBTQ history and was adapted into a miniseries by Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black for ABC that premiered in 2017.

Tony Bravo is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tbravo@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TonyBravoSF
David Campos and Matt Haney are crisscrossing San Francisco, scrambling to rally every possible voter in the waning days before the 17th Assembly District runoff on April 19.

Every found vote will be like gold in a race where the campaigns expect only one in four registered voters will cast ballots. Thats why the two left-leaning San Francisco Democrats  who share many of the same stances, have held the same elected position and have supported each other in past races  are now shredding each other over every last nuance. Who is a more corporate-friendly candidate? Who is a bigger supporter of working-class San Franciscans?

Theres one big challenge, however, for both. A lot of voters dont know there is an election coming up  even though the one-question ballot should have landed in their mailboxes last week. Unlike the four-candidate Feb. 15 primary when Haney edged Campos by 726 votes to advance to the runoff, there will be no nationally watched school board recall sharing the ballot.

That point was reinforced to Campos as he campaigned in Chinatowns Portsmouth Square on a sunny afternoon last week, introducing himself in Chinese. A gray-haired woman recognized him as she took a campaign flyer and shook his hand. A campaign aide translated that she had voted for him because her daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren all voted for him.

But there was some confusion about whether she voted for Campos in the Feb. 15 election or in this upcoming one. Its a familiar refrain.

This is the challenge, Campos said. People are like, I voted for you. But did you vote in the last week? And theyre like, No.

Haney bumped into the same issue in Noe Valley on Thursday evening, where one person who answered the door said, Is there another election?

His campaign has identified 20,000 supporters districtwide, and he was knocking on doors to make sure they mailed their ballots. One was Lissa Robinson, a teacher who lives in Noe Valley, who voted for entrepreneur Bilal Mahmood in February. Now shes voting for Haney, in part because Mahmood endorsed him.

It also meant a lot to her when Haney knocked on her door.

Ive actually never met a candidate of anything, Robinson said. So I think making the effort of going out to talk to someone is a plus.

Thats rare gold  a new voter. Haney is counting on converting supporters of Mahmood, who received 22% of the February vote  to prevail.

Until election day, here are some story lines to follow:

Follow the money: Campos continues to rail on Haneys campaign for receiving $45,000 in contributions from people who are doing business with the city, those seeking city contracts or with pending land use matters, which is illegal.

Haney has returned all of the contributions, which were first reported by 48 Hills. Haney told me theres no way to preemptively prevent somebody from donating online and said voters should take solace that his campaign followed the rules and returned the contributions after their source was discovered.

Campos campaign points out that most of the contributions were returned after they were discovered by a journalist. They wouldnt be giving to Haney, Campos said, unless they thought his opinion could be changed.

That dovetails with Campos closing message, which is about his support for creating a single-payer health care system. Haney supports the concept, too, which failed to get a vote in the Legislature earlier this year.

But Campos said that while Haney may say he supports single-payer, some of its biggest opponents in Sacramento  namely the California Medical Association political action committee, which gave $50,000 to an independent committee that supports Haney  are backing him. (Candidate campaigns are not allowed to communicate with or have any control over independent expenditure campaigns, which operate separately.)

We have seen this time and time again, Campos told me. Politicians say theyre going to do something as they take money from the people that are against that something. And when they are elected, what happens is they vote with their pocket.

Other single-payer advocates arent convinced by this particular attack from Campos. One of Haneys endorsers is Assembly Member Ash Kalra, D-San Jose, who carried the single-payer legislation this year. The California Nurses Association, one of the nations leading single-payer advocates, endorsed both candidates.

Campos campaign shared with me a list it compiled of nearly four dozen corporate donors to Haneys campaign, a list that includes San Francisco 49ers owner Jed York, who gave Haney $2,000. But the list also included a Yemeni restaurant in the Tenderloin, a convenience store with three employees and a South of Market nightclub.

Are they corporations? Technically. But hardly major Sacramento players.

Corporate-free means what? Campos has emphasized that he is corporate-free, which he defines as not taking contributions from corporations. But that doesnt mean he doesnt take them from high-ranking corporate officers  even some who are affiliated with health care and real estate companies.

Among the couple dozen better-known corporate types who have contributed to Campos are Warren Browner, CEO of the California Pacific Medical Center, who gave him $2,000. Robert Rosania, the founder of the Maximus Real Estate, the force behind the proposed Monster in the Mission housing development that Campos led the opposition to when he was on the Board of Supervisors, gave him $4,900. Christopher McGarry, the CEO of the Save Mart grocery chain, contributed $4,900.

Haney said the contributions show Campos core message is hollow.

Hes making his entire campaign about a slogan that he cant even live up to, Haney told me.

Campos believes that he can be corporate-free even if hes taking money from corporate leaders  as individuals.

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The difference is that you have individuals who know me and are supporting me because they know who I am, Campos told me. This isnt the corporation making an investment on a politician with the idea that theyre going to deliver for them.

Regardless of what you call Campos campaign, his method has come with a cost: Campos is spending a lot of time  six to eight hours a day, he said  on the phone trying to raise money from individuals.

Representation battles: San Francisco Supervisor Rafael Mandelman knows both men and works with Haney. But like most of his fellow supervisors, he has endorsed Campos.

I have had ups and downs with both of these gentlemen. But I know Davids heart, Mandelman told me. I know he has a strong backbone. I know hes a fighter  Ive experienced that myself on some occasions. We need to send a fighter to Sacramento.

Plus, Mandelman pointed out that he is the only elected LGBTQ county supervisor in the Bay Area. Electing Campos, he said, would address the queer representation problem in the Bay Area.

But the LGBTQ community is divided. The Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club endorsed Haney. On Wednesday, Campos attended a fundraiser sponsored and co-hosted by Californias Latino and LGBTQ legislative caucuses - and attended by state Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, the first openly LGBTQ official to hold that position.

Who is for working people? As he was talking to voters in Chinatown, Campos bumped into longtime supporter Patricia DeLarios.

I dont think hes ever given up any of his principles, but at the same time, hes able to get along with a lot of people, DeLarios told me. And hes a champion for the underdog.

But Haney has scored endorsements from most of organized labor, including some the citys largest unions like the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which represents health care workers among others.

The reality is that working people have overwhelmingly backed me and have put their own resources on the line because they believe I will fight for them, Haney told me.

Campos did land the endorsement of International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, a union that has 5,000 members in San Francisco. Alexa Groenke, who was on the committee that decided the endorsement, said the race will come down to who does the best organizing for turnout and who has that deep trust with organization and communities.

Thats why the door-to-door search for voters will continue.

Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli
Bronte Wittpenn/The Chronicle

The California state government has distributed more than 14.3 million coronavirus at-home tests to schools across the state in preparation for the return of students and staff from spring break, the governors office announced Saturday.

The tests come from the states stockpile and were allocated based on the total number of students and staff  in both public and private schools  in each county. There are about 7.2 million students and staff in the states schools.
President Biden has declared Vladimir Putin to be a war criminal for his assault on Ukraine. Vice President Kamala Harris has called for a war crimes investigation of the Russian leader. The State Department says Russian troops are committing war crimes by targeting civilians. And the Senate has unanimously passed a resolution urging nations around the world to bring Putin and his commanders before the International Criminal Court.

But when the same court in 2020 was planning investigations of possible war crimes by the U.S. and Israel, President Donald Trump imposed unprecedented economic sanctions on the chief prosecutor. And in 2002 Congress passed a law, still in effect, authorizing U.S. troops to forcefully liberate anyone from the United States or an allied nation held captive by the International Criminal Court.

Its a court that the U.S. helped to create, and one for which it has expressed support when probing foreign conflicts  in Africa, or Eastern Europe  but apparently, not closer to home.

The policy seems to be that the ICC can investigate our enemies but not us or our friends, said Katerina Linos, a professor of international law at UC Berkeley.

Or as Allen Weiner, co-director of Stanfords Program in International and Comparative Law, put it, the United States does not like the prospect of its foreign policy and international security operations being subject to external review. ... We believe that we would hold our own (individual wrongdoers) accountable.

The votes on the law allowing the U.S. to free citizens held by the court were 280-138 in the Republican-majority House and 75-19 in the Democratic-majority Senate. Democratic supporters of the law included Sens. Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer of New York and Dianne Feinstein of California. Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware voted against it, as did Sen. Barbara Boxer of California.

Current policies contrast with the commitment to international law declared in 1946 by Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, then on leave from the court to serve as chief U.S. prosecutor in the trials of Nazi leaders at the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg. Ten of the defendants were sentenced to death by the tribunal and hanged, another committed suicide after a death sentence, seven were sentenced to prison and three were acquitted.

After some German officials accused their wartime foes of a double standard in the trials, Jackson said, if certain acts and violations of treaties are crimes, they are crimes whether the United States does them or whether Germany does them. We are not prepared to lay down a rule of criminal conduct against others which we would not be willing to have invoked against us.

Later, under President Bill Clinton, the U.S. supported establishment of United Nations war crimes tribunals, such as those that charged leaders of the former Yugoslavia for mass killings of both Serbs and Croats after the nation broke up in 1991, and leaders of Rwanda for the racially motivated slaughter of 800,000 people in 1994. Clintons administration also took a leadership role in drafting a measure known as the Rome Statute that created the International Criminal Court, independent of the U.N.

But the U.S. had reservations from the start. Under Clinton, it was one of only seven nations that dissented from a 120-7 vote in 1998 to implement the statute and establish the court. An ambassador told Congress the new tribunal might target major powers that lacked the veto authority they could exercise in the U.N. Security Council.

Then Clinton, as he prepared to leave office in December 2000, signed the Rome Statute. In an accompanying statement, he said, I believe that a properly constituted and structured International Criminal Court would make a profound contribution in deterring egregious human rights abuses worldwide, and that signature increases the chances for productive discussions with other governments to advance these goals in the months and years ahead.

He did not, however, submit the statute to the Senate for ratification, and instead advised a wait-and-see approach during the courts early years. And in 2002, his successor, President George W. Bush unsigned the Rome Statute and signed the American Service-Members Protection Act  also known as the Hague Invasion Act  authorizing military action if the court imprisoned anyone from the U.S. or an allied nation.

The court does not prosecute nations, only individuals, who can face sentences of up to life in prison. Since its formation, it has charged 46 individuals and convicted and sentenced eight  all eight from Africa, prompting accusations of racial bias. Four of those indicted have been leaders of African nations.

To date, 163 nations have joined the court and accept its jurisdiction. The U.S. is not a member  nor are Russia, Israel or Ukraine  but that does not shield them from investigation.

Nonmember nations can agree to let the court look into possible war crimes on their territory. Ukraines government consented to investigation of Russias actions during its takeover of Crimea in 2014, and the ongoing agreement authorized the court last month to announce a war crimes investigation of Putins current assault.

The court, however, will have little access to Ukraine during the conflict. Even afterward, it could not require Putin or any other official to leave Russia and face trial and possible imprisonment  any more than it can extradite Sudans former president, Omar al-Bashir, who was indicted by the court in 2009 and 2010 on charges of crimes against humanity and genocide during mass killings in Darfur. He remains in Sudan, a nonmember nation, but has been held prisoner since being deposed in 2019, and the new government is considering whether to deliver him to the court.

Regardless of legal obstacles, a war crimes investigation can tarnish Russias international reputation and provide more political support for international sanctions, said Laurel Fletcher, a UC Berkeley law professor and co-director of its Institute for International Law.

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The court has taken a broad view of its territorial jurisdiction in an investigation it began in February 2021 into killings of civilians by both Israel and Hamas, Gazas governing authority, in clashes since 2014. Leaders of the Palestinians, who have suffered most of the casualties, agreed to let the court investigate possible war crimes in the West Bank and Gaza, and the court  over protests by both Israel and the U.S.  has classified Palestine as a member nation that could authorize the probe.

In Afghanistan, also a member nation, the court began a preliminary investigation of possible war crimes by the U.S. and the Taliban in 2006, but never went further. Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda asked the courts judges to approve a full investigation in 2017; the request was still pending when Trump, in 2020, banned Bensouda and a top aide from entering the United States and prohibited any financial transactions with them. Biden withdrew those sanctions after taking office last year.

In September, after the Taliban takeover, Bensoudas successor, Karim Khan, dropped plans to investigate the U.S., saying the worst crimes in Afghanistan were committed by the Taliban and Islamic State militants.

In its opposition to the court, the U.S. has maintained it could police any of its own citizens who engaged in war crimes. After revelations in 2003 of torture  classified as a war crime  at the U.S.-run prison camp in Abu Ghraib, Iraq, federal prosecutors tried and convicted 11 low-level military personnel, most of whom were given short jail terms.

There have been no prosecutions, however, of those who ordered or carried out the torture of hundreds of inmates at the U.S. prison for suspected terrorists at Guantnamo Bay, Cuba, and at so-called CIA black sites abroad. President Barack Obama ordered an end to waterboarding and other abusive practices at U.S.-run prisons, but ruled out any legal action, commenting that it was time to look forward, not backward.

The United States is selectively deploying the International Criminal Court, said Fletcher of UC Berkeley. In the process, she said, U.S. leaders appear to be substantiating Germans post-World War II complaint that Nuremberg was victors justice.

For example, she said, the U.S. can promote its interest in world peace by supporting prosecutions of instigators of wars of aggression  one of the charges against Nazi leaders at Nuremberg, added to the international courts list of war crimes in 2018, and the potential basis for a future prosecution of Putin. But presidents of both parties have made it clear that they would not stand for prosecutions of U.S. citizens on such charges, just as they would not charge commanders or politicians who ordered inmates tortured, Fletcher said.

Biden wants to rehabilitate the United States reputation internationally, she said. One way to do that is to hold itself to the same standard that it advocates for others.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said Democrats controlled both houses of Congress in 2002. They controlled only the Senate.
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Taylor Hawkins, the beloved drummer for the rock band Foo Fighters who died in a hotel in Bogota, Colombia, on Friday reportedly had a number of substances detected in his urine at the time of his death, according to news reports.

Citing toxicological tests that were taken from the musicians urine, the Colombias Prosecutors Office said on Saturday that marijuana, antidepressants, benzodiazepines and opioids were found in the results, according to Associated Press reports.
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Two shootings  one fatal, the other by an officer who struck and injured a gunman  took place within minutes of each other early Sunday one block apart near San Jose State University, police said.

A man, who has not been yet identified, was fatally shot at about 2:44 a.m. near the intersection of East San Carlos and South Fourth streets, officials said. It was the fourth homicide the city has investigated this year, they said.
California has rolled back most of its COVID-19 measures since the omicron surge died down, and Bay Area counties have followed suit, removing indoor mask mandates and loosening other precautions like vaccination mandates for indoor dining and gyms.

Yet there is still one critical tool for controlling the spread of the virus that remains in place: the five-day isolation for those who test positive for the coronavirus.

Isolation and quarantine periods were dramatically shortened during the omicron surge, as counties faced immense staffing shortages at health-care facilities and some research suggested that omicron caused people to get sick faster. Elsewhere around the world, some countries have begun to change or remove isolation mandates. Spain recently ended mandatory quarantines for those infected with the virus but showing no or mild symptoms of the disease, and the U.K. ended the legal requirement to self-isolate in February, though it still recommends staying away from others after a positive test.

Now, with the emergence of the new, even more transmissible BA.2 subvariant, is it possible the guidance here in California and the Bay Area could change again?

What are the current quarantine and isolation rules?

All Bay Area counties follow the California Department of Public Healths guidance on isolation and quarantine for the general public, which goes beyond the recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, updated in December of last year.

According to Californias current policy, everyone, regardless of vaccination status and whether they are symptomatic or not, must isolate at home for at least five days if they test positive for COVID-19. If they choose not to get tested after five days or if they have fever, they must isolate for 10 days.

People who are exposed to someone with COVID-19 and are unvaccinated or have not yet received their booster dose must quarantine at home for at least five days. If theyre unable to get tested, they must quarantine for 10 days, even if theyre asymptomatic.

In California, the guidance is only recommended for the general public, but employers are required to adhere to Cal/OSHA standards that follow the states guidance.

Could the guidance change?

Public health officials said changes to the current guidance will be based on science and what they continue to learn about COVID-19 and its variants.

At this point, the guidance still stands  people are still getting sick with COVID so there is still a need to isolate (or quarantine if exposed), Laine Hendricks, a public information officer for Marin County, said in an email.

However, it does not mean the CDC will not alter the guidance if a new variant emerges that behaves differently than past variants, she added.

Dr. George Rutherford, a professor of epidemiology at UCSF, said in a phone interview that the periods (for isolating and quarantining) have both shortened over time as we get a better understanding of the natural history of the disease and as the variants have evolved to two viruses that replicate more rapidly and cause disease more quickly.

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.

Rutherford said the duration for each may become shorter or longer if the incubation period for COVID-19 changes, but he doesnt expect the isolation and quarantine guidance to completely go away.

Its standard infection control precaution, said Rutherford. We do this (practice) for all sorts of diseases.

Hendricks also pointed out that these practices are hardly unique to COVID-19, and that other viruses, from the common flu to Ebola, come with guidance on how long to stay away from people. In each case, the recommendation is unique to the virus, as each behaves differently.

But Dr. Lee Riley, an infectious disease expert at UC Berkeley, said in an email he believes isolation and quarantine efforts could soon be eliminated when enough people get vaccinated (more than 90%) and the disease is no longer severe.

In places like Japan, people routinely wear masks during the cold or influenza season and isolate themselves  not a requirement but people do this voluntarily. I think this will soon happen here with COVID-19, said Riley.

Its hard to say when this would be, but if the current decrease in cases continues for the next couple of months, probably by June or July, these mandates will be eliminated, he said. It all depends on what happens with this new subvariant of omicron.

Jessica Flores (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jessica.flores@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jesssmflores
I must be getting old. Jerry Brown is starting to make sense to me. Arnold Schwarzenegger sounds like an international statesman.

And heeding the advice of Californias governors now seems like the best path for humanity.

Its improbable that two ex-governors  one known for head-scratching aphorisms, the other for silly one-liners  are now global voices of reason. Its also logical, in a perverse way. As the world goes mad and sets itself on fire, where better to turn for wisdom than crazy, combustible California?

Browns and Schwarzeneggers ascents to sage status reflect the extent to which California, the worlds fifth largest economy, functions as its own country, with its governor serving as a second American president. California governors constitute a fourth branch of the U.S. government  employing regulations and state law to check the president, Congress and the courts.

When California governors leave office, they maintain high profiles but carry less political baggage than presidents, whose foibles our polarized media cover obsessively. They use notoriety in a very California way, mixing nostalgic references to their own personal histories with dreams of a more peaceful future. Rejecting the knee-jerk good-and-evil moralism of American politics, for making common cause with rivals and enemies  the sort of hard-headed inclusion that represents the California idea at its best.

Schwarzeneggers most recent statement was a short video urging Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop the war in Ukraine. But the former governor also rejected the increasingly commonplace American condemnation of all things Russian. Instead, speaking in English with Russian subtitles, he drew from his own history of making friends and movies in Russia to express his affection for the country and its people.

The videos most powerful, heartbreaking moment came when Schwarzenegger spoke directly to Russian soldiers about his father, an Austrian policeman who fought with the Nazis during World War II. The Russian government has lied not only to its citizens but to its soldiers, he said. When my father arrived in Leningrad, he was all pumped up on the lies of his government. When he left Leningrad, he was broken  physically and mentally. He lived the rest of his life in pain  pain from a broken back, pain from the shrapnel that always reminded him of those terrible years and pain from the guilt that he felt.

To the Russian soldiers listening to this broadcast ... I dont want you to be broken like my father.

As Schwarzenegger tugged at hearts, Brown hammered on heads.

In a remarkable essay published this month in the New York Review of Books, Brown challenged calls in the U.S. for greater confrontation with China. He started by framing the past 20 years as a period of American-triggered war and suffering, killing more than 900,000 people, displacing tens of millions, and cost the U.S. $8 trillion. One might assume that such disastrous results, and the ignominious end of the war in Afghanistan last year, would lead to a period of reflection and soul-searching, Brown wrote. Yet no such inquiry has occurred  at least not one that fully grapples with the shocking self-deception, pervasive misreading of events, and powerful groupthink that drove the longest war in American history.

Brown pointed to books by think tank specialists and defense department insiders, like The Strategy of Denial by Elbridge Colby, for promoting even more conflict that increases the chances of a catastrophic China-U.S. war. These include more military competition and selective nuclear proliferation (in Colbys formulation) to friendly countries.

The ex-governor, who leads the California-China Climate Institute, a UC Berkeley-affiliated think tank, is clear-eyed about the Chinese governments many sins. But Brown argues powerfully that confrontation will only make things worse. Framing the China threat as irredeemably antagonistic, as many political realists are currently doing, misses the reality that both countries  to prosper and even to survive  must cooperate as well as compete, he wrote.

Brown argued instead for vigorous engagement with China that focuses on avoiding catastrophes. He calls this strategy planetary realism ... an informed realism that faces up to the unprecedented global dangers caused by carbon emissions, nuclear weapons, viruses, and new disruptive technologies, all of which cannot be addressed by one country alone. That powerful argument should carry extra weight coming from someone who spent four terms governing California, a state famous for catastrophes.

The world needs Brown and Schwarzenegger to keep counseling all of us. Its a role that ex-presidents used to fill. But that was before Bill Clinton got sidelined by his foundations lack of transparency, before George W. Bush became a painter, before Barack Obama went on a weird narcissistic bender with Bruce Springsteen and before Donald Trump attempted a coup.

So, maybe its time for our last two governors to team up. They complement each other, the Philosopher-Nerd and the Muscleman-Movie Star. Their wise interventions might just save the world from itself.

Joe Mathews writes the Connecting California column for Zocalo Public Square.
Regarding A $400 refund for car owners? (Front Page, March 24): Gov. Gavin Newsom, you say we need to break free once and for all from the grasp of petro-dictators, yet youre proposing to send checks exclusively to private car owners. This does not accomplish energy independence, it encourages the long-term problem of dependency on gasoline.

Your commitment to action on climate change is folding like a wet noodle. This could be an opportunity to announce long-term solutions (subsidize electric bike and vehicle purchases, fund EV charging infrastructure). Instead youre proposing to spend the states money on car ownership?

If you must send a rebate for political reasons, then go with whats proposed in the state Legislature: $400 per person, regardless of car ownership status. This acknowledges that everyone is affected by gas prices, including those who dont own a car (we need food delivered to our stores, etc).

Stuart Collins, San Francisco

Grow at smaller UC sites

As an undergraduate student at UC Berkeley, I support an enrollment cap. In my several years as a Cal Bear, I have noticed the effects of a growing student body.

More and more classes have two times, often three times, more students on their waitlists than available seats. To join almost any club, a student must apply and pass through multiple rounds of interviews in a process that is more competitive than admission into the university itself. Lab equipment and study rooms require reservations and during midterms and finals, a student is lucky to get one.

Rather than increases to UC Berkeley and UCLA, viewed as the prizes of the UC system but also with little room to expand, the UC Board of Regents should focus on campuses with the space to grow, like UC Riverside or on its newest campus at UC Merced, which was built specifically to meet long-term enrollment demand.

The goal should be to make all UC campuses equally desirable, not diminish the quality that already exists at UC Berkeley, a place I dearly love. Fiat lux.

Michelle Gantos, Berkeley

Thomas ethical bind

Regarding Justice Thomas wife urged overturning 2020 election (Nation, March 25): Anyone else concerned, appalled and frightened by the fact the wife of a Supreme Court justice pushed then-President Donald Trumps advisers to overturn the 2020 election?

You would think she would have at least discussed this with her husband, who would or should have told her that there is absolutely no constitutional path for pursuing an overturn of the will of the people when voting for a candidate.

Lets just hope she didnt discuss it with Justice Clarence Thomas and was acting on her own ignorance of the law; if she did discuss it with him, then Im really scared.

Steve Rabin, Mountain View

No rights for women

Regarding Governor signs abortion ban and Taliban rescind pledge on girls higher education (World/Nation, March 24): Its likely the editors did not see the connection between two articles, but I certainly did.

In one, a U.S. politician agrees to allow everyone but the woman herself (even her rapists family) jurisdiction over her pregnancy. In the other, an Afghan fundamentalist militia decides to withhold the basic right of education from women. The common ground: They both have determined that women should not have autonomy from mens rule.

Americans who support this kind of legislation on womens choice in Idaho, Texas and beyond have no right to criticize what the Taliban are doing to Afghan women. The result is the same: the subjugation of women.

Wilma Murray, Martinez

No decency in questions

Watching Sen. Ted Cruz and the other rabid wolves of the Republican Party badger, insult, shout down and generally treat Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as if she were a despicable criminal rather than a highly respected jurist nominated to serve on our nations highest court, I could only think of Joseph Welchs words to Sen. Joseph McCarthy in 1954: Have you no sense of decency?




These initiatives are part of the following projects: La Zanja, based in Cajamarca, which has pledged an investment of US$114 million; as well as Las Defensas, based in La Libertad, which requires an investment of US$69 million.





The aforementioned mining projects are operated by Buenaventura and La Poderosa mining companies, respectively.





Minem states that exploration is essential for the development of mining. Therefore, it is the first link in the most important economic activity in Peru, making it possible to find new deposits and to extend the useful life of the mines that are currently in operation, which expands the attraction of domestic and foreign investment in favor of the country.





Next in line are copper projects. The current Portfolio includes 20 projects of this type with a combined investment of US$211 million, representing 36.1% of the nationwide investment.





The projects that stand out in this group include Ancash-based Soledad, with an investment of US$47 million; Pampa Negra, based in Moquegua, which entails a US$45 million investment; and Chapitos, based in Arequipa, a project requiring a US$41 million investment.





These three mining exploration projects are operated by Chakana Copper, Nexa Resources, and Camino Minerals, respectively.





It should be noted that copper is the main metal exported by Peru and one of the largest revenue generators for the national exchequer.





(END) NDP/CNA/JJN/RMB/MVB

The Ministry of Energy and Mines (Minem) on Tuesday reported that, according to the 2022 Portfolio of Mining Exploration Projects , there are 23 gold projects nationwide thus ranking first in the portfolio which together add up to an investment of US$254 million and account for 43.4% of the nationwide exploration budget.Published: 3/22/2022
Wong Kim Ark stares into the distance, perhaps looking unsure, in the more than 120-year-old photo that circulates in news stories each year around March 28, the anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling on his lawsuit that fundamentally altered American citizenship.

The photo was among the evidence presented to the court  alongside travel documents and sworn statements from white men attesting that they knew Wong and that he was born in San Francisco in 1873  that he was a U.S. citizen.

Maybe when getting his picture taken, Wong knew the uncertainty of his Americanness would linger.

He lived during a time of virulent anti-Chinese sentiment in the U.S., fueled by an economic downturn. Xenophobic scapegoating over the economy helped lead to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which barred Chinese laborers from entering the country and Chinese immigrants from becoming citizens.

In 1895 Wong traveled to China, and hard-line anti-Chinese immigration officials used the pretext of the Exclusion Act to stop him from re-entering the U.S.

So, he sued, asserting that he was a citizen under the 14th Amendment, which was ratified in 1868 and gave citizenship and legal rights to formerly enslaved African Americans. Lower courts sided with Wong and the case went to the Supreme Court. The ruling hinged on the courts interpretation of the 14th Amendment, which states, All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.

Did that apply to nonwhite people beyond African Americans?

On March 28, 1898, the Supreme Court ruled that it did, citing the literal words of the 14th Amendment, and made clear that birthright citizenship to all was the law of the land.

Wong may have won his case, but defining what being American means beyond the legalities still hasnt been settled. The ruling opened doors to citizenship for the children of immigrants, yet the xenophobia of Wongs day persists. Clearly, elements of this country believe a great America is a white America, and everyone else needs to get out.

In a talk at San Franciscos Commonwealth Club on Monday, cultural critic Jeff Yang traced a direct line between todays tensions and those that date back to Wongs lifetime.

This whole thing where Asians are being blamed for pandemics or economic duress or loss of jobs, Yang said. This is something thats happened cyclically over generations and generations.

In Wongs day, the Chinese were portrayed as inhuman people who ate dogs and were unclean and unassimilable. And they were taking jobs away from true Americans.

Those racist tropes are part of todays anti-immigrant sentiment and partly to blame for the surge of anti-Asian violence during the pandemic.

All that stuff is embedded in the cultural imagination of America, so where are we as Asian Americans in this era? Were fighting back, by writing back, Yang said. We are telling stories in order to overwrite that collective unconscious that we still have to face every time we go out in the streets.

Yang offered the controversy surrounding a review by a white critic of the animated movie Turning Red as an example of the tension over assimilation and whats normal in a white-dominated society.

The critic wrote that he recognized the humor in the Chinese Canadian teen girls coming-of-age story but connected with none of it and that rooting it in Torontos Asian community was limiting. He also tweeted that the movie was not for a universal audience and watching it for him was exhausting.

Well, Asian Americans, every person of color, most women, across the internet, were like, We are exhausted every day, Yang said.

Just as Wong stood up to the racism of his era, todays younger generation  not as beholden to the discrimination their parents or grandparents faced  is now taking control of their own narratives.

I think the thing that is most amazing about this era is that were ... defiantly telling stories that are incredibly idiosyncratic and maybe exhausting, Yang said.

Wong was ahead of his time in exhausting those trying to control him.

Harry Mok is The San Francisco Chronicles assistant opinion editor. Twitter: @HarryMok
Cleve Jones, a famed LGBTQ activist known for conceiving the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt and co-founding the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, said hes been displaced from his Castro home of over a decade after his new landlord more than doubled his rent from $2,393 to $5,200  an increase that he called impossible, according to a March 21 Facebook post that was later reported by the Guardian, the Bay Area Reporter and the San Francisco Chronicle.

We will be ok and we are grateful for the financial security that will see us through this unpleasant moment, wrote Jones, who had been living in the unit with his friend and roommate, Brenden Chadwick. But it is very clear to us how an event like this could be truly catastrophic for so many others.

Jones, who works as community and political coordinator for Unite Here, the North American Hospitality Workers union, has been a resident of the Castro since he first moved to the city as a 19-year-old in 1973, subsequently befriending Harvey Milk and working in his office while he studied political science at San Francisco State University. Five decades later, hes moving out of his rent-controlled, one-bedroom apartment after the new property owner, Lily Pao Kue, notified him of the increase in a letter on March 18. Jones said the letter stated that she believed he had vacated the property and was entitled to invoke a Costa-Hawkins petition, a California law that allows landlords of rent-controlled units to raise the price of a property to market rate if a tenant has moved out.

With all the misery in the world today it feels somewhat self-indulgent to post that the building in which I rent an apartment in San Francisco has been acquired by a remarkably aggressive, hostile and greedy new owner, wrote Jones. In just a few weeks she's transformed our sweet little one-bedroom home in the Castro into a truly wretched example of how rent-controlled housing units are lost to wealthy investors.

San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst N/San Francisco Chronicle via Gett

Kue, a 30-year-old stock market investor, purchased the property for $1.585 million, according to records reviewed by the Chronicle. (SFGATE and the Chronicle are both owned by Hearst but operate independently of one another.) Since then, shes moved forward with construction on the building, installed security cameras and had Chadwicks car towed from the property without notice, Jones claims.

But Jones said he never moved out, telling the Bay Area Reporter he only temporarily left the property to stay in his cottage in Guerneville during COVID surges out of an abundance of caution for his health, and that he is still registered to vote in San Francisco. He views the surveillance and the removal of Chadwicks car as a form of harassment and told the Chronicle he also feared that construction could jeopardize the archival materials he kept inside the unit, including Milks iconic bullhorn, his great-grandmothers quilt that inspired the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial quilt and various ephemera from the 2008 Gus Van Sant biopic Milk, in which Jones is portrayed by actor Emile Hirsch. For the sake of protecting these objects for the time being, Jones turned them over to the National AIDS Memorial and the GLBT Historical Society.

San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst N/Hearst Newspapers via Getty Imag

Kue denies ever harassing Jones or Chadwick and told the Bay Area Reporter the cameras were used to monitor the front porch as contractors come and go during construction. She did, however, file a police report on Jones after feeling threatened by some of the comments on his Facebook post regarding the situation.

But Kue told the Chronicle she is also seeking a hearing on her petition from the San Francisco Rent Board, claiming she wants Cleve to continue the tenancy and will be gracious and accepting of the law. (SFGATE reached out to the San Francisco Rent Board for comment and will update this story with more information as it becomes available.)

Bettmann/Bettmann Archive/Getty Images

At first, it seemed that Jones didn't want to put up a fight. He said he and his roommate would move out this weekend and look for a new place to live.

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, he told the Chronicle. 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.

And in his Facebook post, Jones acknowledged the challenges faced by renters who have found themselves in similar situations.

It is instructive to note that neither our unearned advantages of race and gender, nor our political connections, nor our access to legal advice seem sufficient to keep us in our home, despite San Francisco's much-vaunted rent control protections for aging, disabled and long-term renters, he wrote. You've probably heard of tenants like us who received substantial buy-outs and had their relocation costs covered. We're offered ZERO.

But at a rally held to raise awareness of the issue at Harvey Milk Plaza on Sunday morning, Jones told the Chronicle that he plans to stay put and fight the rent increase.

The Castro LGBTQ Cultural District, drag icon Juanita MORE! and supervisors Aaron Peskin and Rafael Mandelman were among those to show their support of Jones.

"Cleve is a queer living legend," Mandelman told the Bay Area Reporter. "The fact that he is being displaced from his longtime home in the Castro is upsetting and all the more so for being emblematic of the displacement of so many other queer folks from their longtime homes in neighborhoods like the Castro."
LOS ANGELES  The percentage of omicron subvariant BA.2 cases is rising in Los Angeles County, a trend seen elsewhere nationwide as officials sound the alarm about Congresss failure to provide critical funding for vaccinations, tests and anti-COVID-19 drugs.

Officials in L.A. County and nationally have warned about the risk to public health if new pandemic federal funding fails to be approved. There is no money left to reimburse doctors for COVID-19 care for uninsured Americans, and funds will soon run out to provide vaccinations, Xavier Becerra, the U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services, said this week.

According to data released Thursday, 14.7% of coronavirus samples analyzed for L.A. County between Feb. 27 and March 5 were the highly contagious BA.2 subvariant. Thats more than double the previous weeks figure of 6.4%.

L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer continued to urge residents to adhere to the strong recommendation issued by her department and state health officials to continue masking in indoor public settings.

Along with the increasing circulation of the more-infectious BA.2 subvariant, everyone, especially those who are at elevated risk or live with someone at elevated risk, should wear a high-quality mask and get vaccinated and boosted, Ferrer said in a statement Thursday.

More recent national estimates have suggested BA.2 will quickly become dominant soon. BA.2 comprised an estimated 35% of analyzed samples between March 13 and March 19; the previous week, it made up 22%, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the southwestern U.S.  which includes California, Arizona, Nevada and Hawaii  BA.2 made up an estimated 41% of coronavirus samples. The previous week, it was 28%. And for the first time, BA.2 is the now estimated to be the dominant subvariant in the Northeast, making up more than half the analyzed coronavirus cases in New York, New Jersey and New England.

BA.2 is believed to be 30% to 60% more contagious than the earlier omicron subvariant. BA.2, however, doesnt appear to result in more severe illness, and its likely that people recently infected with the earlier omicron subvariant will have a decent degree of at least short-term immunity to BA.2.

Its not clear whether the rise of BA.2 will result in a major surge that will strain hospitals yet again, or whether BA.2 will merely slow the continued decline in new coronavirus cases. But officials say its prudent to be prepared for the worst, wear masks in indoor public spaces and get up to date on vaccinations and booster shots.

One potential warning sign is from Britain, which has seen its coronavirus case rate more than triple since late February and is reporting nearly 1,200 cases a week for every 100,000 residents, according to Johns Hopkins University. Coronavirus-positive hospitalizations are also up by 17% in Britain over the last week, and deaths are on an upward trend as well, according to Britains coronavirus data tracking website.

But not all European nations are seeing a BA.2-fueled surge; Spains case rate is much lower than Britains and appears to be flat, at around 250 cases a week for every 100,000 residents.

California is averaging about 74 cases a week for every 100,000 residents, and the U.S. is averaging 62 cases a week for every 100,000 residents.

In the U.S., the Northeast is likely to provide some hints as to how BA.2 might influence pandemic trends in California.

Over the past week, we have seen a small increase in reported COVID-19 cases in New York state and New York City, and some increases in people in the hospital with COVID-19 in New England, specifically, where the BA.2 variant has been reaching levels above 50%, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday.

This small increase in cases in the Northeast is something that we are closely watching as we look for any indication of an increase in severe disease from COVID-19 and track whether it represents any strain on our hospitals. We have not yet seen this so far, Walensky said.

Cases are relatively flat nationwide and in California. In L.A. County, coronavirus cases are still declining or flat, when accounting for a backlog of cases recently reported that actually occurred earlier in the pandemic.

Officials in L.A. County and at the White House have voiced deep worry about Congresss failure to provide additional federal funding to respond to the pandemic.

Last week, Ferrer said that because of the stalemate in Washington, many of L.A. Countys community groups were no longer expected to be reimbursed for the vaccination or testing of uninsured people as of this week, a situation that wrecks our network immediately.

We need to be prepared for a potential challenge in the future  and in the near future. We dont want to be caught off guard, Ferrer said.

Last week, Dr. Sara Cody, the public health director for Santa Clara County, Northern Californias most populous county, said: COVID funding has essentially collapsed. That is breathtaking and shocking in the middle of a global pandemic.

Becerra said at a news briefing Wednesday that theres no money left in the fund Congress created to reimburse doctors for COVID-19 care to Americans, particularly the uninsured. The fund will also need to stop accepting new claims for vaccination services around April 5  less than two weeks away.

Examples of entities this will impact include, but are not limited to, ambulances, testing providers, pharmacies, clinics and hospitals, officials from the L.A. County Department of Public Health said in response to an inquiry from the Los Angeles Times. The countys options to address this lack of funding are limited as it is a federal program.

Maintaining the capacity to administer hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses and coronavirus tests per day, as well as ready access to therapeutics, is also a major component of the COVID-19 preparedness blueprint California unveiled last month.

As we move into the third year dealing with COVID, we know a lot more. We know how to use the tools in the toolkit. Were hoping not to use them all all the time, but we know how to use them in more precise ways, what metrics matter, Dr. Mark Ghaly, Californias health and human services secretary, said during an appearance this week on the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Healths Public Health On Call podcast.

But it remains to be seen how, or whether, the lack of new federal funding might affect the states goals. The California Department of Public Health is aware of changes to COVID-19-related federal reimbursement and is assessing the impact on state programs and constituencies, officials said in a statement Friday.

Our priority throughout the pandemic has been to provide all Californians, irrespective of insurance status or ability to pay, access to testing and vaccines, the statement continued. We continue to be focused on this priority and will ensure that we provide these important services based on the needs of individuals and communities, and not based on the bureaucratic structures of government or the specific funding sources.

Already, the U.S. government has had to cancel a purchase of some potentially life-saving anti-COVID drugs that had been planned for this week. The federal supply of a type of anti-COVID drug known as monoclonal antibodies will likely run out in May if funding is not replenished, Becerra said. The monoclonal antibodies that can be used against the omicron variant are sotrovimab and bebtelovimab.

In addition, the federal government now must scale back plans to buy more doses of Evusheld, a drug intended to prevent COVID-19 among people who havent been exposed to the coronavirus, and either have a weakened immune system because of a medical condition or cannot get vaccinated for medical reasons. This increases the risk of having an insufficient supply of this treatment by the fall, Becerra said.

The U.S. government has enough vaccines to give immunocompromised people a fourth dose this spring, and, if eventually authorized, fourth doses to seniors and other vulnerable people. But if a fourth dose  also known as a second booster shot  is made available for the general public, the current funding situation will result in the U.S. not having an adequate supply for all Americans, said Jeff Zients, the White House COVID-19 task force coordinator.

Not having enough vaccines is completely unacceptable, as vaccines have proven to be our single most important tool in protecting Americans. We should be securing additional supply right now, Zients said at a news briefing Wednesday. Many other countries are already doing so. In fact, Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Hong Kong have already secured future booster doses.

Without additional funds, the U.S. also risks losing its domestic testing manufacturing capacity. And because it takes months to ramp back up to rebuild capacity, failure to invest now will leave us with insufficient testing capacity and supply if we see another surge in cases and demand for testing increases once again. That should not be allowed to happen, Zients said.

These consequences will only get more significant over time, with less treatments, vaccines, and tests for the American people, he added.
Yesterday, the Security Council of Artsakh, headed by President Arayik Harutyunyan, wrote a letter to President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation, aiming to draw the latter's attention to Azerbaijan's aggression against the village of Parukh and the height of Karaglukh, since this territory is completely in the zone of responsibility of Russian peacekeepers.

March 27, 2022, 12:25 Necessary to discuss the possibilities of expanding the functions and mechanisms of the peacekeeping contingent. Artsakh State Minister

STEPANAKERT, MARCH 27, ARTSAKHPRESS: "We expected that due to the efforts of Russia, the consequences of this aggression will be eliminated and the Azerbaijani troops will be withdrawn to their starting positions. In this regard, yesterday's clear statement by the Russian Ministry of Defense is welcome.

In the letter, we also asked to increase the personnel and technical means of the peacekeeping contingent in Artsakh, which will help to carry out the peacekeeping mission along the 500-kilometer line of contact more effectively.
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The war in Ukraine is proving extraordinarily lethal for Russian generals, the gray men bedecked in service medals, who are being aggressively targeted by Ukrainian forces and killed at a rate not seen since World War II.

Ukrainian officials say their forces have killed seven generals on the battlefield, felled by snipers, close combat and bombings.

If true, the deaths of so many generals, alongside more senior Russian army and naval commanders -- in just four weeks of combat -- exceeds the attrition rate seen in the worst months of fighting in the bloody nine-year war fought by Russia in Chechnya, as well as Russian and Soviet-era campaigns in Afghanistan, Georgia and Syria.

"It is highly unusual," said a senior Western official, briefing reporters on the topic, who confirmed the names, ranks and "killed in action" status of the seven.

In all, at least 15 senior Russian commanders have been killed in the field, said Markiyan Lubkivsky, a spokesperson for the Ukraine Ministry of Defense.

NATO officials estimated earlier this week that as many as 15,000 Russian troops have been killed in four weeks of war, a very high number. Russia has offered a far lower figure, reporting Friday that only 1,351 of its fighters had died.

The Russian government has not confirmed the deaths of its generals.

If the numbers of senior commanders killed proves accurate, the Russian generals have been either extremely unlucky or successfully targeted -- or both.

Shooting generals is a legitimate tactic of war -- and it has been openly embraced by Ukrainian officials, who say their forces have been focused on slowing Russian advances by concentrating fire on Russian command-and-control units near the front lines.

Jeffrey Edmonds, former director for Russia on the National Security Council and now a senior analyst at the CNA think tank in Washington, said Ukrainian forces appear to be targeting "anyone with gray hair standing near a bunch of antennas," a signal they may be senior officers.

Some experts suggest the Russian military has struggled to keep its communications secure and that Ukraine intelligence units have found their targets through Russian carelessness, with Russian forces reduced to using unencrypted devices. There have been reports of Russian soldiers using mobile phones.

Pentagon and other Western officials say that Russian generals generally serve closer to the front lines than their NATO counterparts. By design, the Russian army is top heavy with senior officers, which makes them numerous, though not expendable.

Military analysts and Western intelligence officials say the Russian generals in Ukraine may be more exposed and serving closer to the front because their side is struggling -- and that senior officers are deployed closer to the action to cut through the chaos.

One Western official suggested that Russian generals were also needed to push "frightened" Russian troops, including raw conscripts, forward. Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Defense Ministry to withdraw conscripts from combat, having publicly pledged that they would not be deployed.

Pentagon, NATO and Western officials say the Russian army in Ukraine is struggling with poor morale.

Russian soldiers attacked and injured their commanding officer after their brigade suffered heavy losses in the fighting outside the capital, Kyiv, according to a Western official and a Ukrainian journalist.

Troops with the 37th Motor Rifle Brigade ran a tank into Col. Yuri Medvedev, injuring both his legs, after their unit lost almost half its men, according to a Facebook post by Ukrainian journalist Roman Tsymbaliuk. The post said the colonel had been hospitalized.

A senior Western official said he believed Medvedev had been killed, "as a consequence of the scale of the losses taken by his own brigade."

Oleksiy Arestovych, a military adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, told The Washington Post the Ukraine army has focused its efforts on "slowing the pace" of the Russian invasion, in part by "beheading" forward command posts, meaning killing, not literally beheading.

Killing senior officers can slow down the Russian advances by "three or four or five days" before new command structures can be put in place, Arestovych said.

He attributed successful targeting to both "excellent intelligence" and numerous Russian vulnerabilities.

Arestovych claimed that in addition to slowing Russian momentum, killing their generals undermines Russian morale, while bolstering Ukrainian resolve.

"The death of such commanders quickly becomes public knowledge and it is very difficult to hide," he said. "Unlike the death of an ordinary soldier, it makes an outsized impression."

Ukrainian officials and Western officials have named seven Russian generals killed in action: Magomed Tushayev, Andrei Sukhovetsky, Vitaly Gerasimov, Andrey Kolesnikov, Oleg Mityaev, Yakov Rezanstev and Andrei Mordvichev.

Russian officials and Russian media have confirmed the death of only one general.

Sukhovetsky, a deputy commander of Russia's 41st army, was killed by a sniper at the beginning of the war, Ukrainian officials said. At his burial in Novorossiysk, a port city on the Black Sea, a deputy mayor said Sukhovetsky "died heroically during a combat mission during a special operation in Ukraine."

Christo Grosev, director of open-source investigative group Bellingcat, said he confirmed the death of Gerasimov, which was first announced by Ukrainian intelligence. The Bellingcat investigator also reported on a March 7 phone call from a Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officer, reporting the death to his superior, a call captured by Ukrainian intelligence and shared with reporters.

One of the first commanders that Ukraine claimed to have killed, in late February, was Tushayev, a right-hand man to Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

Kadyrov denied the claim on his Telegram channel and Chechen Information Minister Akhmed Dudayev posted an audio message purportedly from Tushayev, which he said proved he was alive.

The deaths of senior officers are celebrated on Ukrainian social media - but kept out of Russian news.

Killing Russian generals "feels consequential to Ukraine," especially in "the David versus Goliath narrative they are living through," said Margarita Konaev, an expert on Russian military innovation at Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology.

She said the nature of the fighting -- at close quarters in urban environments -- will likely add to the body count on both sides, for civilians, ordinary soldiers and commanders.

The urban dimension is especially deadly, she said.

Mason Clark, a senior analyst and expert on the Russian military at the Institute for the Study of War, said Ukrainian reports suggest that radio communications across the Russian forces are vulnerable to interception and location.

Before the war with Russia began, Clark said Ukraine forces learned how to use communications to "target and pinpoint" the sources of artillery fire in the separatist enclaves in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.

"They've used this training at scale," Clark said.

Ruth Deyermond, an expert in post-Soviet security in the Department of War Studies at King's College London, said it was unknown how the loss of senior officers in Ukraine might shape thinking in the Kremlin.

As Putin's circle has shrunk, and decision-making become more opaque, she said, "you don't even know what Putin is being told about the losses" by his own military.

The reported high attrition rate for Russian commanders in Ukraine underscores the problem of invading the country on a false set of assumptions, expecting to swiftly topple Ukraine's government and install a puppet regime to bring it back into Moscow's orbit. A military operation forecast by Russia to take a few days has entered its second month.

Russia is highly sensitive about military casualties, in particular involving senior officers.

Calling the invasion a "special military operation" to liberate Ukraine from "neo-Nazis," Russian authorities have banned journalists from using the term "war" and have criminalized criticism of the military or the release of any information that could damage its standing.

After Russia's initial failures, Putin has simply doubled down on the war effort, with the Kremlin dampening hopes of an off-ramp through peace talks. Russian authorities appear to be preparing for a long, bloody campaign, drumming up domestic unity through a propaganda blitz, as the military intensifies its pressure on Ukraine.

- - -

Booth reported from London, Dixon from Riga, Latvia, and Stern from Mukachevo, Ukraine. The Washington Post's Liz Sly in London contributed to this report.
Russian troops in Ukraine have relied, with surprising frequency, on unsecured communication devices such as smartphones and push-to-talk radios, leaving units vulnerable to targeting, and further underscoring the command-and-control deficiencies that have come to define Moscow's month-long invasion, observers say.

"We're seeing them use a lot more unclassified communications because their classified communications capability, . . . for one reason or another, is not as strong as it should be," a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity under terms set by the Pentagon, told reporters in a recent news briefing.

The Russian military possesses modern equipment capable of secure transmission, but troops on the battlefield have reached for simpler-to-use but less-secure lines because of uneven discipline across the ranks, an apparent lack of planning for conducting a sustained fight over long distances, and Russian attacks on Ukraine's communication infrastructure that it, too, has relied on, experts say.

A European intelligence official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss NATO's battlefield assessments, said that since the invasion began in late-February, there have been multiple instances of Russian commanders confiscating their subordinates' personal phones for fear they would unwittingly give away a unit's location.

Similarly, Ukrainian civilians have reported having their phones stolen by Russian troops who use them to speak with one another and with family back home, this official said. Those calls, the official noted, have revealed troops' frustrations and declining morale as Ukraine's military has stymied Russia's advance around key cities, killing thousands of Russians in the process.

The Pentagon on Friday said that its latest intelligence showed Russian forces had lost full control of Kherson, a port city along the Black Sea, as Ukraine expands its offensive operations in key part of the country and Russia appears to be have shifted its emphasis to the separatist Donbas region in the east. Ukrainian forces also have pushed back Russian advances outside the northern city of Chernihiv with other offensives underway in the western suburbs of Kyiv, the capital, the senior U.S. defense official said.

There is evidence that the United States and other NATO countries have provided Ukrainian forces with electronic warfare equipment capable of interrupting Russian transmissions and allowing them to target Russian command posts, said Kostas Tigkos, a Russian military expert at the defense analysis firm Janes Group. By destroying Russia's communication nodes, the Ukrainians could pressure their adversaries to use less-secure equipment, he said, increasing the likelihood their conversations will be intercepted or their positions triangulated.

While the Russian military has overhauled its military technology in the last two decades, with some emphasis on modernizing its communication hardware, Tigkos said equipment is only part of the equation. "It's one thing," he said, "to develop a good radio that works well. It's another thing to deploy that radio, build a network, and conduct a complex military operation with thousands of moving parts, and have them work together like a symphony."

Russian military transmissions over unsecured lines have been so prevalent, analysts say, that amateur radio enthusiasts have tuned into them online using sites such as Web SDR. Some conversations have revealed troops' frustrations. In one transmission on March 5, a Russian service member identifies himself as "Blacksmith," rather than a call sign. "Don't say the last names on air!" another responds. The transmission was provided to The Washington Post by Shadow Break International, an open-source intelligence consultancy based in Britain.

In another discussion, Russian soldiers appear to confuse one another by mistaking their callsigns. One identifies himself as "Exchange." Another then says that, in fact, that's his call sign. "You got it all mixed up!" one of them explains.

Russian commanders also have exhibited difficulty orchestrating communications over such a vast, dynamic battlefield, analysts say. Their forces are stretched across Ukraine, the largest country in Europe outside Russia, posing challenges for military planners who must coordinate mobile transmission sites and ensure radios are operating on frequencies that must be consistently changed.

At the same time, military analysts have cautioned against making sweeping generalizations of the Russians' communication performance. Some units, they say, may be better equipped and disciplined than others.

Photos of Russian equipment captured by Ukrainian forces show sophisticated and secure radios, said Sam Bendett, a Russian military technology expert at the Center for Naval Analyses in Arlington, Va. Other imagery show off-the-shelf equipment. Some Russian personnel may use such radios as a means to blend into the wide spectrum of civilian frequencies - like a needle in a haystack, Bendett said - rather than military frequencies that are more limited and detectable with the right equipment.

There is anecdotal evidence that Russia's unsecured communications have led to battlefield losses. One Russian general was purportedly killed in an airstrike after his cellphone was detected by the Ukrainians, the New York Times reported earlier this month.

In another instance, shared by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, two Russian intelligence officials were heard discussing over an open frequency the death of a senior officer. When one asked to speak on an encrypted line, the other said it wasn't working.

"We can't get in touch with anyone at all," the official said, lamenting his inoperable phone, called the Era. The Russian-made device relies on a cellular network to function, but heavy bombardment has destroyed cell towers in many parts of the country, in turn constraining the Russians' ability to use secure phones, said Tigkos, the analyst with Janes Group.

It's also likely that senior Russian officers with experience battling less capable forces in other theaters had become somewhat complacent and were caught off guard by how determined Ukrainian forces have proven to be. Russian commanders have rotated through Syria for years, where radios and cellphones could be used without worry of interference or tracking, noted Bendett, of the Center for Naval Analyses.

"It appears likely," he said, "some officers picked up bad habits that they thought would work in Ukraine."

- - -

The Washington Post's Joyce Sohyun Lee and Dan Lamothe contributed to this report.
Nurses at AHMC Seton Medical Center in Daly City will go on strike for one day Wednesday to demand that hospital management follows the state's safe staffing law, according to a spokesperson for the California Nurses Association.

California's safe staffing law calls for the total number of patients a nurse can safely care for according to the unit and patient acuity, said Julie Tran, a spokesperson for the nurses association, which represents 300 nurses at the hospital.

Nurses say that since 2020, they have seen more than 65 nurses leave the Daly City hospital because of poor working conditions. Nurses note that in addition to repeatedly violating safe staffing laws, the hospital is failing to provide resources to support nurses.

The nurses will strike between 7:30 and 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, then again from 2 to 5 p.m. They have scheduled a rally between 3 and 3:30 p.m. in front of the hospital, 1900 Sullivan Ave., Daly City

Two people are dead following a shooting in Hollister late Saturday evening, according to the San Benito County Sheriff's Department.

The shooting occurred in the area of Rustic and Roble streets.

It was reported after 9 p.m.

A 26-year-old Santa Rosa man who ran from Petaluma police officers early Saturday morning after he was pulled over for several vehicle code violations was eventually captured and arrested for driving under the influence.

The Petaluma Police Department said the incident happened at approximately 1:42 a.m. at Washington and Howard streets when the officer made a traffic stop to investigate several vehicle code violations. The driver, Hugo R. Moreno, presented the officer with his brother's identification card and said his name was "Rico". Police said the officer smelled alcohol on Moreno and he appeared intoxicated. The officer, along with a backup officer, conducted a DUI investigation and attempted to make Moreno into custody when he fled on foot.

A flash flood watch has been issued by the National Weather Service for the Colorado and Dolan burn scar areas of the Big Sur coast in Monterey County.

The flash flood watch will be in effect from 7 p.m. Sunday to 6 a.m. Monday. Rain is expected in the San Francisco and Monterey bay areas beginning Sunday night. While most of the region will experience light or minor rain, the Monterey County area is expected to receive moderate rainfall during the period.

The probability of exceeding one inch of rain in a 24-hour period is greatest in the Dolan burn scar zone; there is a 55 to 70 percent chance of receiving that amount of precipitation.

There is also a potential for power outages and mudslides across state Highway 1 in coastal Monterey County, according to the Monterey County Office of Emergency Services.

A motorcyclist died Saturday afternoon after colliding with a sport utility vehicle on San Bruno Mountain in unincorporated San Mateo County.

The San Mateo County Sheriff's Department said the crash occurred at about 3 p.m. on Guadalupe Canyon Parkway at Radio Road, midway between Daly City and Brisbane.

All lanes of Guadalupe Canyon Parkway were closed for several hours following the crash.

There are no further details at this time.

Police in Stockton continue to search for the shooter responsible for a drive-by shooting Saturday afternoon that injured three people, including critically injuring a 9-year-old boy.

Investigators are still collecting evidence at the scene, which is at Searchlight and Hazelton avenues, a residential neighborhood bounded by East Charter Way and state highways 4 and 99.

A Stockton police spokesperson said the drive-by shooting occurred at about 1:20 p.m. Detectives said a vehicle pulled up and opened fire on a truck with the three victims inside.

The 9-year-old boy was airlifted to UC Davis Medical Center in critical condition, police said.

A 29-year-old man, who also had been shot, was taken to a local hospital and is in stable condition.

Additionally, a 28-year-old man was shot. He was also taken to a local hospital and is in stable condition.

A fire near tracks in San Bruno has also stopped regular Caltrain service in addition to BART trains.

Caltrain report that the San Bruno station is closed until further notice. Officials there said bus service is being provided between South San Francisco and Millbrae stations and that passengers should expect delays of up to 30 minutes.

BART officials tweeted at 10:59 p.m. Saturday that trains had stopped running from the San Bruno station in the SFO and Millbrae directions and that SamTrans was providing bus service in the interim with its ECR South bus.

The California Highway Patrol reports a fiery and fatal crash occurred late Saturday night near the interchange of Interstate highways 238 and 580 in Ashland.

Officers responded to a 10:24 p.m. report of the crash involving one vehicle that went down an embankment on the west side of the interchange near the connecting lane from southbound Interstate 580 to westbound Interstate 238.

The vehicle knocked down a pole, caught fire and started a grass fire.

By 10:43 p.m., the CHP had classified the crash as a fatality and contacted the coroner.

The National Weather Service forecast for Sunday for the San Francisco Bay Area calls for cooler temperatures with rain by late Sunday evening throughout most of the region. Rain will continue through early Monday morning. Highs will be in the upper 50s to mid 60s. Overnight lows Sunday morning will range from the low 50s to the upper 50s.

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Sharon, PA (16146)

Today

A steady rain in the morning. Showers continuing in the afternoon. High 57F. Winds ENE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Rain. Low around 50F. Winds ENE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch.
President of the Artsakh Republic Arayik Harutyunyan visited the town of Askeran and held a consultation with the participation of responsible officials of the region, dedicated to the situation created in the aftermath of the recent aggression by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, the Presidential Office stated.

March 27, 2022, 14:20 President Harutyunyan visited the Khramort and Khnapat communities of the Askeran region

STEPANAKERT, MARCH 27, ARTSAKHPRESS: The Head of the State assured that all efforts are being exerted to stabilize the situation and to withdraw the enemy to their starting positions through the efforts of the Russian side.

President Harutyunyan visited the Khramort and Khnapat communities of the region, discussed the current situation with the residents, and gave a number of instructions on future plans.
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Here are three facts that, one suspects, not many people in this country would feel comfortable discussing or even acknowledging.

One: in 2020 alone, 3169 Australians died by suicide.

Two: suicide remains the leading cause of death among Australians aged 15 to 24.

Three: unlike deaths from, say, cancer or heart disease, deaths from suicide are entirely preventable. Every suicide is not only a tragedy, but preventable.

There are many factors that lead somebody to take their life, chief among them a mental illness such as depression.
Two and a half years ago, former professional cricketer and tech entrepreneur Matt Berriman attempted to take his own life.

Mr Berriman, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2017, had tried for years to treat severe depressive episodes, trialling 15 medications, shock therapy and transcranial magnetic stimulation. His mobile advertising start-up, Unlockd, had gone bust.

Mental Health Australia chair Matt Berriman, a suicide-attempt survivor, is calling for a target to reduce suicide deaths by 25 per cent by 2025. Credit:Simon Schluter

I just got one night to my wits end and I attempted and luckily I woke up, he said.

Mr Berriman still remembers a mental health nurse at the hospital telling him that survivors often went on to make a difference they would never have thought possible.
In a moment of severe mental ill-health I made the decision to not be here tomorrow. Its the single biggest mistake of my life and something I have regretted ever since.

Id lost everything. My business went bust, I was bankrupt and my reputation and sense of identity were shattered. I felt overwhelmingly that I had let a lot of people down. I was lost. The feeling of complete shame and utter sadness was overwhelming. I thought I was very clear about one thing: everyone around me would be better off if I wasnt here. I was nothing but a burden.

Matt Berriman. Credit:Simon Schluter

Like 65,000 other Australians every year, I attempted to take my own life. I was one of 178 people every day who wrongly believe they wont be missed  178 people who feel so hopeless they dont realise the devastation they would cause to their families, friends, colleagues and loved ones.

Sadly, nine people die by suicide in Australia every day, leaving a trail of heartbreak and pain in their wake. That includes a never-ending internal dialogue of guilt. What else could you have done to help them? How did you miss the signs? The eternal what if for those left behind.
As Russia prepared to invade Ukraine, Australias lead cyber-security agency issued a warning urging Australian organisations to adopt an enhanced cyber-security posture, citing the risk that Russian-enabled cyberattacks could soon reach our shores.

Cyber activity is the heart of Australias knowledge economy. It underpins core functions of government, business, education, health care, and emergency services. The highly interconnected nature of our cyber landscape leaves us open to attacks from malicious actors.

In Australia, women account for just 27 per cent of the cyber-security workforce. Credit:iStock

But Australia doesnt have enough skilled cyber-security workers to meet this rising threat. AustCyber predicts that, by 2026, Australia will need 18,000 additional workers to meet business-as-usual cyber-security demands. This presents a serious challenge to Australias ability to secure its digital infrastructure.

Whats driving the shortage? Cybersecurity remains a highly male-dominated sector. In Australia, women account for just 27 per cent of the cyber-security workforce, substantially lower than the proportion of women working in the information, media and telecommunications sector (38.8 per cent) and in the overall workforce (47.2 per cent).
More than 50,000 fans are expected to flock to the MCG and farewell Shane Warne at his state memorial service on Wednesday, with the event even prompting breakfast news programs to abandon their traditional coverage from Canberra of the federal budget.

The Melbourne Cricket Club said that 48,709 free tickets had been allocated as of 5pm today, while there is a strong chance that this will surpass 50,000 by late Wednesday.

Tributes left earlier this month at a makeshift memorial at the Shane Warne statue at the MCG. Credit:Eddie Jim

The two-hour event will be broadcast live on all major Australian free-to-air networks along with Fox Cricket, beginning at 7pm. Such is the magnitude of the death of the cricketing great that Seven, Nine and the ABC have opted to not have their breakfast show presenters head to Canberra for the follow-up of Tuesday nights budget.

Instead, the presenters will be based in Melbourne on Wednesday, with Nines Karl Stefanovic and Ally Langdon planning to be based at the MCG. (Nine is the owner of this masthead.)

Warnes daughter Summer took to social media at the weekend to thank the public for the support she and her family have received.

Thank you for all your amazing support and love over the past couple of weeks, it truly is really appreciated. See you all there, Summer wrote on Instagram. When we lose someone we love we must learn not to live without them, but to live with the love they left behind.

More details of the service will be released tomorrow, when Eddie McGuire, whose production company, Jam, has played a key role in organising the event, will front a press conference, alongside Warnes great mate, former AFL footballer Aaron Hamill.

Read more here.
A tiny NSW town is sending a mighty message to the Russian forces invading Ukraine.

Stop killing women and children. Its a pretty simple message, said Edmond Power, a cook and resident of Oberon, in the states central tablelands, for the past 10 years.

Rotate Interiors owner Greg Davies is among Oberon shop owners displaying Ukrainian flags in their windows. Credit:Louise Kennerley

Incensed by the escalating violence between the two countries about 14,000 kilometres away, Mr Power channelled his helplessness into crafting Ukrainian flags for shop owners to display along the main street.

Global landmarks including the Sydney Opera House have been lit with the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag in recent weeks in a sign of support for Ukraine after Russia invaded its neighbour on February 24.
As they were passing through Tooleybuc on their way to Adelaide, Henryk Kraszewski of Epping and his family decided to stop and have a drink at the local sporting club. When we ordered two lemon, lime and bitters, in addition to a beer and a wine, we were asked: Are they (the LLB) for the children? Upon answering yes, the barman informed us that they cant serve alcohol to minors. Yes, the same lemon, lime and bitters I can buy at the local supermarket. I bet that sporting bar doesnt replace its bottle of Angostura Bitters (C8) very often.

When Terry Gibbs of White Rock was newly married he told his wife that Holbrooks sauce (C8) made boarding school food edible. Many meals later I idly asked one night, Do we have any Holbrooks sauce? She said loudly, Whats the matter with the food?

Noting that fly paper (C8) used to contain arsenic, Unkle Cyril of East Corrimal recalls that boiling fly paper produced a solution that got rid of unwanted husbands. The Angel Makers of Nagyrev in Hungary gave it a bad reputation when they were accused of poisoning almost three hundred people.

Graeme Finn of Summer Hill is pleased to see that the Streisand Effect has kicked in with increased sales of political bin stickers rising after a Liberal council complained about them.

As she was de-origami-ing a cardboard box with fourteen folds, Jane Stranger of Erskineville had time to wonder. Who sits with paper and pencil poised designing the folds to create a box? Who lights the hundreds of candles in certain film scenes without recognition in the credits? How many other tasks are performed without acknowledgement? Life is full of imponderables, and between the rain and COVID-19 we have the time for wool-gathering.
Beirut comes to Australia

A terrorist-style car bomb exploded outside Russell St. police headquarters in Melbourne yesterday leaving 21 people injured, damaging buildings and bringing traffic chaos to the city. At least 10 of the injured were police. The Victorian Police Minister, Mr Race Matthews said, It should disturb all Australians that this outrage for the first time puts Australia on the world stage of terrorism.

Government grab for Lotto

The state government has decided to phase in computer Lotto and phase out the corporate interests of Rupert Murdoch, Kerry Packer and Robert Sangster in the control of the highly lucrative gambling game. Traditional coupon entries for Lotto will gradually disappear to be replaced by computers at Lotto agencies in January 1989. The Government expects to make an extra $20 million a year.

60s raver at the Tivoli
The NSW government is preparing to delay several multi-billion dollar mega projects due to rapidly escalating costs and labour shortages, leaving commuters on Sydneys northern beaches and in fast-growing suburbs around Olympic Park facing slower journeys for years longer than originally promised.

The controversial Beaches Link motorway and an extension of the Parramatta light rail line are among the major projects likely to be deferred, as a senior government minister warns that rushing ahead with major builds would be reckless.

Infrastructure Minister Rob Stokes, left, and Premier Dominic Perrottet inspect a new rail tunnel late last year. Credit:Rhett Wyman

Infrastructure and Cities Minister Rob Stokes confirmed the government was conducting a review into its major projects. He said the government intended to deliver the projects it had promised, but their timing needed to be reconsidered before committing to liabilities reaching into the tens of billions.

I am being upfront and saying government is looking at all of these major projects right now, he told the Herald.
The communities worst hit in NSWs recent flooding disaster are being warned to brace for a further deluge of rain in coming days, bringing a renewed threat to the states swollen river catchments.

Towns along a 450-kilometre stretch of coastline from the Mid-North Coast to the Queensland border have been put on notice to expect bouts of heavy rainfall, dangerous thunderstorms and flash flooding as a slow-moving trough deepens over the next 48 hours.

Acting Premier Paul Toole said the emergency services were on standby. Credit:Edwina Pickles

Many of the areas in the firing line are still reeling from the flood crisis of early March, including the Northern Rivers communities of Lismore, Coraki, Woodburn and Murwillumbah.

Acting Premier Paul Toole said SES crews and incident management teams were on standby, and ready to respond as the situation develops.
The NSW government will pursue The Star for any unpaid tax it is found to be owing, Treasurer Matt Kean has warned, as the casino giant braces for a fresh grilling this week over allegations of money laundering and criminal infiltration.

As a public inquiry into The Star enters its third week on Monday, Mr Kean said the government was keeping a close eye on proceedings, and whether the states taxpayers had been shortchanged.

In addition to the allegations of misconduct, I am also concerned by the impacts of any improper classification of spending by clients at The Star, including any impacts on gambling tax revenue payable to the NSW government, he said.

NSW Treasurer Matt Kean says the government will pursue The Star for any unpaid tax it is found to be owing. Credit:Wolter Peeters

Make no mistake  we will chase every dollar that is owed to the taxpayers of NSW if any misconduct has occurred.
In 2017, Scott Morrison posed a hypothetical. If, 10 years earlier, he had knocked on your door and warned that Kevin Rudd would turn a $20 billion surplus into a $27 billion deficit in just one year, he would have been accused of scaremongering, he said in a speech. Morrison then listed the most dramatic failures of the Rudd-Gillard years he could think of, before saying, If I said any of this you wouldve called the police. You would have said theres a madman on my doorstep. Well, as we all know, all of this happened and more. Labors truth in government is stranger than any fiction I can imagine, but the economic damage under Labor is always very real.

It is an interesting passage, not just because the debt claim now seems silly. In an era that can seem actually apocalyptic, the fire-and-brimstone atmosphere (as the journalist who pointed the passage out to me described it) conjured by Morrison seems shamelessly overdone. In fact, it sounds a little like Tony Abbott. As Liberal leader, Abbott was perceived as having introduced a new model for oppositions, of campaigning in a hysterically, relentlessly negative fashion. Arguably, Morrison was still drawing on this model in his 2019 campaign against Bill Shorten, even though by then he was Prime Minister.

The ghosts of campaigns past are haunting analysis of the match-up between Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Back in the day, few believed Abbotts approach would work. And so it is interesting that we may now be on the cusp of watching another Opposition leader, with a very different style, prove doubters wrong. For months, if not years, observers (including myself) have pointed out that Labor rarely if ever wins without a big policy platform and a publicly charismatic leader. Albanese has disputed this argument, pointing to Bob Hawkes narrow agenda and Kevin Rudds promise of safety, but it remains a dominant strain in election commentary, probably because theres something to it. If Albanese wins, and resets expectations, what influence will this have on future campaigns?

Before the election, though, Albanese has to get through the budget. It was not long ago that Labor was hoping budget week would pass quickly and quietly  for months it has been held out as Morrisons last best hope. Now, after almost three weeks of ugly debate following the untimely death of Labor Senator Kimberley Kitching, the Opposition is every bit as desperate as the government for the budget to steal focus.
The father of the six-year-old boy who died after falling into a neighbours swimming pool in the Perth suburb of Booragoon says his son was non-verbal and unable to call for help.

Steven Vines remembered his son Joey as a beautiful little boy. He said the child had climbed over his back fence and into the neighbours property on Sunday afternoon. The family reported him missing to police at about 4pm, and he was found in the pool about 1.5 hours later.

Six-year-old Joey went missing in Booragoon. Credit:WA Police

He couldnt yell for help because he was non-verbal, Mr Vines said.

He couldnt talk but we knew how to communicate with him.
Victorians will be promised a $3.3 billion federal government plan to expand road and rail networks across the state including new freight projects meant to take 5500 trucks off the roads around Melbourne every day.

The federal government will back two new freight terminals as part of the Melbourne Intermodal plan to send more goods by rail, setting out a plan that could ease differences with the state government over the preferred location of a single freight hub.

The spending promises, to be confirmed in the federal budget on Tuesday night, also include cash for road upgrades around Melbourne as well as Ballarat, Mickleham and Nowa Nowa in East Gippsland.

At $3.3 billion in additional funding, the Victorian commitments are in line with the amount being promised to NSW but significantly below the $3.9 billion being promised to Queensland, including new and faster passenger rail networks.
A Russian billionaires links to a gas exploration venture involving Origin Energy has triggered calls from the head of a federal parliamentary inquiry for a freeze on taxpayer funding flowing to fossil fuel projects in the Northern Territorys Beetaloo Basin.

Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg is on the list of individuals under economic sanction by Australia. He owns a stake in Lamesa Holdings, the largest shareholder of Falcon Oil and Gas, which is the junior partner in a joint venture with Australian-listed Origin Energy.

Billionaire Viktor Vekselberg is on Australias list of economic sanctions applied to Russians who are linked to Vladimir Putins regime. Credit:Andrey Rudakov

The joint venture is exploring gas tenements in the remote basin, which the federal government says is key to its plans to expand the nations fossil fuel production and achieve a gas-fired economic recovery from the pandemic. More than $220 million in public funds has been committed to help the industry develop in the region.

There needs to be a hold on all Beetaloo funding until it is clear how the sanctions will be enforced, said Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who chairs the Senate inquiry into the areas development.
That might normally help the Treasurer persuade Australians that things are getting better but his assurances are not cutting through when petrol has gone past $2.20 a litre and grocery bills are on the rise.

With growth up and unemployment down, the nation has a better outlook than it expected when the pandemic wreaked havoc on the economy.

That is because this budget will be a stimulus without an economic emergency. It will be a stimulus for a political emergency instead.

Australians are used to being told the federal budget will give them billions of dollars in urgent cash to help them through a crisis, but Josh Frydenberg will have to adjust that message on Tuesday night.

So there will be a household handout on Tuesday night  call it the Cost of Living Package  regardless of the economic outlook. Why? Because the election outlook counts more. The COLP means HELP for Scott Morrison when the Prime Minister has to throw everything at his attempt to survive in May.

A scheme to cut petrol bills is certain. A cut to petrol excise worth 5 would cost the budget about $2 billion a year but might not be enough. With motorists paying excise of 44 per litre right now, the government will be asked to be more generous.

A payment for pensioners is also on the cards and could include other groups on income support. A tax cut would be too slow to arrive and would not do enough for people who do not pay much tax, so the assistance is likely to be offered through Services Australia. The speculation, not confirmed or denied, is a $250 payment for millions of people.

Morrison and Frydenberg will use the budget to claim they are in touch with struggling Australia when surveys show that many voters think the opposite. Asked in February about who was listening and focused on the right issues, 23 per cent said the Coalition and Morrison but 29 per cent said Labor and its leader, Anthony Albanese.

The government wants to jolt the electorate into changing its mind. The budget will have a package of measures, not a single spending announcement, to try to achieve this goal.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison will steer clear of the Liberal Partys most marginal Sydney seat during the election campaign, leaving it to his more popular Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, to help first-term MP Dave Sharma in the battle for Wentworth.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, who held the seat for 14 years, will also be absent from the campaign, saying he will probably go overseas, and noting many traditional Liberal voters felt Mr Morrison does not represent their values.

Dave Sharma launched his re-election campaign at the InterContinental Hotel in Double Bay on Sunday. Credit:James Alcock

Four Liberal sources, who did not want to be identified, said they had seen or knew of party research showing Mr Morrison was unpopular in the area, especially compared to the Treasurer.

Josh [Frydenberg] will be the most senior member of the government campaigning in Wentworth, a source close to the Sharma campaign told the Herald.
A non-fungible token created from Nelson Mandelas original arrest warrant raised 1.9 million rand ($174,000) in an auction to help fund a heritage site that documents South Africas struggle for democracy.

Mandela, the anti-apartheid activist who emerged from 27 years in prison to become South Africas first black president, was arrested in 1962 for conspiring to overthrow the white-minority government.

Nelson Mandela in 1970. Credit:Fairfax Media

NFTs have soared in popularity in recent months, with caricatures of monkeys and lions commanding prices in the millions of dollars.

Sports clubs, prestige automakers and even pop stars are among those getting into the nascent trading business, which uses blockchain technology to authenticate unique ownership tokens attached to otherwise easily reproducible digital goods.
When we hear the word revival, we might think of the revival of a previous Broadway show, the revival of an old family tradition, or a religious revival in a preachers tent. The bishops of the United States are not calling for a tent revival, but are calling for a three-year grassroots revival of devotion and belief in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.

The bishops want to see a movement of Catholics across the United States, healed, converted, formed and unified by an encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist  and sent out in mission for the life of the world.

This three-year revival will begin on the Feast of the Most Holy Body & Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) on June 19. Between June 19 and Corpus Christi on June 11, 2023, will be the Diocesan Year of Eucharistic Revival, and between June 11, 2023, and Corpus Christi on June 17, 2024, will be the Parish Year of Eucharistic Revival.

The three years will culminate on June 17-21, 2024, with the first National Eucharistic Congress in the United States in almost 50 years. Thousands of Catholics will join together in Indianapolis for a once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage toward the source and summit of our Catholic faith. July 21, 2024 to Pentecost 2025 will be a Year of Going Out on Mission.

The official publication of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on the Eucharistic Revival is entitled The Mystery of the Eucharist in the Life of the Church. The complete document can be accessed online at eucharisticrevival.org.

The document is divided into three parts. Part one is The Gift and covers the topics of: 1. "The Sacrifice of Christ," 2. "The Real Presence of Christ," and 3. "Communion with Christ and the Church."

Part two is Our Response and covers the topics of 1. "Thanksgiving and Worship," 2. "Transformation in Christ," 3. "Conversion," and 4. "Food for the Journey." The final section is entitled Sent Forth.

The document begins by recalling that on March 27, 2020, at an early point in the global COVID-19 pandemic, Pope Francis walked alone in the rain across an empty St. Peters Square to offer prayer for the world in a time of crisis. Faith, he said, begins when we realize we are in need of salvation. We are not self-sufficient; by ourselves we flounder. We need the Lord, like ancient navigators needed the stars.

Recalling when Jesus was asleep in the boat as a tempest was raging (Mark 4:35-41), the holy father said, The Lord awakens so as to reawaken and revive our Easter faith. On that day, Pope Francis presided over the Rite of Eucharistic Exposition and Benediction in order to focus our attention on the presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. The pope was reminding us that even in a time of turbulence and crisis, Jesus is present among us, as present as he was long ago in the boat on the Sea of Galilee.

In similar fashion, Pope St. John Paul II reminded us of this ongoing presence when he repeated to us the words of Christ: I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). He proclaimed: This promise of Christ never ceases to resound in the Church as the fertile secret of her life and the wellspring of her hope. As the day of Resurrection, Sunday is not only the remembrance of a past event: it is a celebration of the living presence of the Risen Lord in the midst of his own people."

The document mentions how the pandemic has forced Catholics to stay physically distant from one another and, for a time, to view the celebration of Mass on a television or computer screen. Many of the faithful appear to have had their faith and their desire for the Eucharist strengthened by such a long separation.

At the same time, others, having lived without Mass for so long, may have become discouraged or accustomed to life without the Eucharist. In many ways the pandemic is still with us.

As Catholic Christians, we know that we need Christ to be present in our lives. He is our very sustenance as he reminded us: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life with you (John 6:53).

The Rev. Frank E. Lioi is pastor of St. Marys Church and SS. Mary & Martha Parish (St. Francis and St. Hyacinth churches) in Auburn, Our Lady of the Snow Parish (St. Joseph Church, Weedsport, and St. Patrick Church, Cato) in northern Cayuga County, and dean of the East Region (Cayuga and Tompkins counties) of the Diocese of Rochester. He can be reached at flioi@dor.org.

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Today

Showers and thunderstorms. A few storms may be severe. High 69F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms in the evening, then mainly cloudy overnight with light rain possible. Low 53F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
The Walking Dead Warlords was written by the team of Jim Barnes and Erik Mountain and was directed by Loren Yaconelli, whose other credits include The Walking Dead: World Beyond, Animal Kingdom and Shameless. This was one of the best episodes in a long time. Part of this was the unique time structure which jumped us around and really upped the tension. Part of it was also that this was the first time in a while when I really felt like a character was actually in peril  to be clear, peril is fine, but I really, really dont want anymore of our core characters actually killed off! The episode also features the return of Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and really sets him up to act the hero here. Finally, the episode features some nice stunt casting with a relatively brief appearance from Michael Biehn as Ian. Jason Butler Harner also guest stars as Toby Carlson and hes terrific as his character moves from annoyingly incompetent to ex-CIA nutjob.

As the episode opens we get a demonstration of Elijahs (Okea Eme-Akwari) awesome archery skills. We see that hes also struck up a friendship with Marco (Gustavo Gomez) with whom he has a friendly rivalry going over whos killed more walkers. The two are interrupted by Lydia (Cassady McClincy) who is leaving  at least temporarily for the Commonwealth. We also see that Elijah has a bit of a crush on her! Marco encourages him to take his shot, so Elijah offers to walk with her. I loved that Lydia is utterly oblivious  but then when would anything like this have ever happened to her before  not under her mothers thumb and not while everyone thought her a pariah  but Elijah has none of that baggage.





They are interrupted by the emergence of a rider. Its Jesse (Connor Hammond), and he manages to give Lydia a bloody pamphlet, telling her theyre slaughtering and she has to go  before he dies of his gunshot wound. Of course, we dont know this IS Jesse or what hes talking about until much later in the episode.

They take the map to Maggie  its soaked in blood. Maggie says they arent going because they will leave Hilltop exposed, but Lydia, Elijah, and Marco all point out it could be someone they know who is in trouble  after all, they sent Jesse there. Maggie worries that its a trap. Elijah points out being out numbered has never stopped Maggie before, and she replies maybe in should have. Has she learned to be cautious? Lydia says these people are weak and in trouble  exactly the type of people her mother would have targeted and shes not going to let it happen again. Maggie asks if that means shes not leaving. Lydia says shes just doing this first. And it looks like Elijah and Marco are going to.

Maggie joins them as they finish packing up the truck. Presumably theyve gotten gas from the Commonwealth. Its a nice moment when she holds out her hands for the keys, but tells Elijah he can take over driving at the halfway mark. Presumably, not much opportunity for teenagers to get to drive in the apocalypse, right? But it also shows that shes a leader and a mother to these kids. Hershel (Kien Michael Spiller) runs up to say goodbye and asks how long. She tells him the usual  as long as it takes. Maggie tells Marco to watch the perimeter.

As they drive, Lydia asks why Maggie doesnt want the Commonwealths help. Maggie insists that they dont need it  which is clearly not true. Lydia wants to know why they have to just get by. Maggie insists that easier isnt always better, and tells them the story of corporate farm developers trying to buy the family farm. We seem to be supposed to forget that Hershel was also a veterinarian and not just a farmer. When a drought hit, the corporate guys offered three times what the farm was worth because they knew the drought would end, and the farm would become profitable again. The corporate guys dropped feed off for the livestock and Hershel let it rot on the porch. None of the livestock went hungry, and Hershel sent a message to the corporate guys. They held out, the drought ended, and they got out of debt. The developers never bothered them again. Its clear Maggie doesnt want to owe the Commonwealth anything  she wants to be free and clear in every sense of the word.

Lydia points out that just getting by is supposed to make you stronger and wiser, but in her experience it doesnt. It hurts. Maggie asks her what she would have done. Lydia says give people a choice instead of deciding for them. Maggie honestly doesnt seem to see that that is what she is doing! Maggie asks if Lydia thinks the Commonwealth knows better. She does. Maggie points out that the Commonwealth hasnt been tested for 10 years and asks if Lydia wants to be there when they are. Lydia tells her that she just wants things to be the same every day. Maggie asks Elijah if he agrees, and he says with most of it.

Maggie looks away for a second  and suddenly there are three trooper walkers in the middle of the road. I cant imagine they just suddenly appeared though. They kill them and examine the corpses  theyve been killed around the armor. They are interrupted by a bloody Aaron (Ross Marquand) running up the road toward them.

We now jump back one week. Aaron is visiting the Commonwealth and goes to hear Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) preach. The sign outside the church says God has already prepared the way. Hes just preparing you. Its just SO Gabriel Aaron is late and we only get the end of the service. Gabriel is talking about someone who had lost their faith and regained it. We then learn that hed told the congregation to sit beside someone they didnt know. He makes them laugh by saying he sees a lot of straight backs and clenched butt-cheeks! He talks about those who were out there in the wasteland being forced to find the humanity in each other, to find people they could rely on. Strangers became more than friends, they became family. He asks why its like that out there and not in there. He also points out that everyone has sinned. He tells them that you have to see beyond where you live, what you have  hes clearly preaching against the class system of the Commonwealth. Aaron is clearly moved when Gabriel says that they cant be the way they were before the fall if they want to move forward. They have to remember the thread that makes us, us.

Aaron and Gabriel sit alone in the church after the service. Aaron says he looks happy. Gabriel tells him that at the beginning he was just going through the motions, but at some point, he could hear Him again. Aaron says that the hell they went through doesnt even feel real now. Gabriel asks about Alexandria. Things are going well, and theyve asked Aaron to help with their new immigration policy. Gabriel points out that they didnt seem too keen on immigrants when they arrived  understatement

Aaron says they found out he used to work for an NGO, so they asked him to review their intake policies and now they are reaching out to bring in those in need of help. Gabriel calls it the Lords work. Aaron tells him thats why hes there. Theres a religious group of about 40 holed up in an apartment building and they want Gabriels help in making first contact. Gabriel immediately asks about hostiles. Aarons says there are troops, and we get the first hint that his boss, Carlson is a bit off. The two are interrupted by Jesse, who just seems like a keen kid.

The first shot we have of Carlson confirms it. He is in closeup, looking through binoculars, commenting on the rush. It looks like hes just really, really into his job  but you also get a kind of Hannibal Lector/Apocalypse Now vibe off him immediately. Harner is just delightful in this episode! Aaron and Gabriel dont look at all impressed as Carlson thoroughly enjoys the rush of adrenaline. He explains it as the rush of saving people. They know a danger to themselves and others when they see it  and Carlson is it

Aaron points out that it doesnt look like these are friendly settlers as theyd been told. Carlson says so what? It just means that theyre afraid. He tells them thats why theyre there and he cant wait to see them do their thing. I loved Gabriels Is he going in with us? Gabriel knows that this guy is a disaster waiting to happen. Aaron says he usually does, but theyll have the troops as back up. Except they are setting up camp and not coming because Carlson doesnt want to spook the settlers. Carlson assures them hes got the walkie and theyre just a squawk away.

Gabriel says, Nope. Im not doing this. He says the place screams do not disturb. Gilliam is fantastic in this scene! Aaron agrees and tells Carlson it will be better to leave these people alone. Carlson puts it down to pre-game jitters. Gabriel tells him flat out, No. Its because your plan is shit and I dont want to die.

Gabriel asks Carlson what the largest group is that hes ever brought in. Carlson tells him 4! Gabriel points out that with 40, it only takes one guy with an itchy trigger finger. Aaron backs him up, but Carlson insists that its happening and they have to trust that he knows what hes doing. Gabriel says fine and takes off his collar. Carlson tells him that he needs to wear it because its part of his costume! Gabriel just smile at him and says this is how this is going to go as he sticks the collar in his pocket.

Aaron, Gabriel, Carlson, and Jesse approach the building. Aaron does the talking, introducing themselves and the Commonwealth, extending their friendship. Theyve already left MRIs for them, and hes taking it as a sign that they took them. He offers more and asks to speak with someone face to face. A metal door with three large metal bolts on the inside thumps open and Hart (Jenique Hendrix) comes out carrying a huge scythe. She tells them she wants their weapons. They pass them to her, and she pauses to look at Aarons mace. He explains that its a bitch to take off  she allows it. She asks if they are alone, and Gabriel tells her that there are peacekeepers nearby waiting for them to check in.

The four walk in and the door closes. They are frisked, and then Hart tells them last door to the right. The interior looks more like a basement than an old apartment. Aaron has his knapsack taken before they are shown in to Ians office. He has his back to them and tells them seats. When he turns around, Aaron begins telling him about the Commonwealth. He interrupts the list of amenities to add soldiers and churches. He knows Gabriel is a Father. Gabriel says he took the collar off because he wanted him to see WHO he was before he saw WHAT he was. Its an excellent answer!

Ian quickly reveals himself to be unstable  and possibly a religious zealot. He says if they have churches, they must also have hookers and gambling and a wrong side of town. Carlson seems non-plussed. Gabriel says he hasnt seen any of that. Aaron asks for his bag back so that he can show Ian something. Poor Jesse sitting in the back is clearly terrified. Aaron has an old phone with photos of the Commonwealth on it. Ian asks if its just that easy to get in. Aaron admits there is a screening process. Ian wants to know where it is. Carlson says they cant tell him. Ian says because you say so, and Carlson says yes. Ian wants to know why hes talking to Aaron if Carlson is in charge. He then shows them the wall of skulls. They belonged to people who sat in the chairs they are sitting in. They were wolves in sheeps clothing who meant his people harm.

Things escalate quickly. Ian becomes furious and tells Carlson to get on his knees. Carlson seems terrified as Ian holds a gun on him pointed at his forehead. He asks how dumb hed have to be not to know where the Commonwealth is when they know where he lives. He tells Carlson he reminds him of another skull who came a few years ago promising great wealth and prosperity, but he only wanted to get them all out into the open so his raiders could kill all of them. Carlson seems to be begging for his life as he says he doesnt want to be on the shelf and he doesnt think Ian is stupid. He wants to know where the raiding party is or his going to start by killing Jesse. Aaron asks if they look like raiders. He says they look like wolves in sheeps clothing. He says none of them understand his responsibility to his people. They have entrusted him with their very souls. He asks what they want.

Gabriel says, Exactly! What do you have that we would want? Ian says the meat  and Aaron points out that they brought MREs  how could they be cannibals? He points out that they arent starving right now because they've given them food and water. Gabriel points out that the soldiers are also real. They promise to go and never come back  or the soldiers will come in and kill them all. Ian is clearly about to let them go, when Carlson suddenly grabs the gun and shoots Ian and his guards!!!!! Gabriel and Aaron are stunned! Carlson tells him that he was just doing his job! He tells them to stay there  and leaves with the gun!

We jump back again to one week (and one hour) ago. Hornsby (Josh Hamilton) is in his office, drinking and not looking great. Carlson shows up, calls him Bud and declines a drink, stating four years sober next week. We learn a lot about Carlson very quickly Hes part of the Hornsby crowd and he had a drinking problem. Hornsby tells him that he had a convoy for that other thing (because thats not ominous at all) hijacked. So Ians group are the hijackers  and not a group they were just trying to save. Carlson is the first one to say Another Warlord  like there have been many others

Apparently, the convoy was carrying guns. Carlson doesnt see a problem  just kill them all. Hornsby cant operate under the radar if he calls in enough troops to take down the building. I loved his little impersonation of Milton! He tells Carlson he needs a surgical solution. The penny drops, and Carlson tells him he doesnt do that anymore  hes retired. Hornsby tells him he needs the former CIA-guy  who apparently, Hornsby used as an assassin in his previous life! Carlson tells him he likes saving people  its zen. Hornsby tells him it can be taken from him  hes playing hardball. Carlson then gets right hp in his face, swirls his finger in his drink and sucks on his finger  after asking Hornsby if hes tired of living. I loved the shot of the two of them staring eye to eye in close up profile. Hornsby tells him most of the dead troops were kids in their 20s  does he legitimately feel guilty about this? Hornsby doesnt drop his gaze but turns away and when Carlson says ok, he looks relieved  and I think its as much because he is afraid of Carlson as he got his way.

Its Hornsby who suggests taking Aaron and Gabriel. Aaron has been working with Carlson who gives him a glowing review  instantly connects with people, makes my job easier. The plan is to use Gabriel to get their guards down  they definitely do not know Gabriel! Carlson then wants to know what happens when things get real. Hornsby tells him that theyll fall in line. Yep. Totally underestimating them. But Im betting he was hoping to eliminate at least the problem of Aaron, and Im betting hes not a fan of the equality that Gabriel is preaching.

Back in the present, Aaron and Gabriel look on appalled as Carlson interrogates Ian about the guns. Ian tells him he doesnt know anything about it. Carlson says 3 sets of tracks lead from the caravan to the apartment complex. Ian tells him they found it like that. Gabriel sneaks around and when Carlson pistol whips Ian for a second time, Gabriel punches Carlson! Aaron tells the trooper not to shoot Gabriel! Carlson has Gabriel cuffed. Ian starts explaining that if he knew about the caravan, wouldnt he say and Carlson shoots him in the head! Aaron is shocked. Carlson then totally loses it and starts kicking Ian.

He tells Aaron not to look at him like that  ie with shock and disgust. Aaron points out that they are supposed to be helping people. Carlson declares Ian an animal and that they are helping people, but this is the other side of it  snuffing out threats to make the world safe. Its Jesse who freaks out and takes off, and Carlson has him shot as he rides off. Aaron maces the trooper in the face before they can take another shot. Carlson is about to shoot Aaron when his gun is empty. Aaron starts walking toward Carlson, but when troopers show up, he runs off. Carlson is called back into the building and finds the trooper who was guarding Gabriel dead. Hes furious  and clearly becoming more unhinged. He calls for his armor.

We finally circle back to Aaron with Maggie. He tells them that Carlson was a wolf  just like Ian said. Maggie wonders if Ian was lying  and what Hornsby wants with all the guns. Maggie shows Aaron the map and asks if its the best way in. Aaron says yes  but how did she get it. She tells him that she got it off the guy (Jesse) that he sent to Hilltop. But we know Aaron didnt.

We flash back to 12 hours ago, during the attack. Jesse is grabbing a horse  and really, why grab the one without a saddle??? Theres one fully tacked up right there! And NEGAN IS SUDDENLY THERE! With his trusty crowbar. Hes also joined by Annie (Medina Senghore). Jesse tells them the troopers have machine guns. Annie tells Negan that the guy in charge is arguing with two others  a Priest and a guy with a spike ball for an arm  sounds unlikely doesnt it! I loved this little outside perspective on the characters we know so well. Jesse tells them they didnt know either  it isnt what he signed up for. It was Negan who sent Jesse to Maggie, with specific instructions to say Aaron and Gabriel were in trouble.





Negan and Annie go in the back way, and we see how the second trooper died when Annie slashed her throat and Negan cuts Gabriel lose. I loved how surprised he was to see Negan. Gabriel wants to stay for Aaron, but Negan points out if they stay, they all die. They disappear into the building.

We finally get to NOW. Carlson is still pretending not to drink by pouring whiskey on his finger and then sucking it off. Hes in trooper armor and has a megaphone. Hes on the roof and announces to the residents of the complex that they are enemies of the Commonwealth because theyve stolen from them. We see the residents, including Gabriel, Negan, and Annie in a room with others. He tells them their Warlord is dead, and if they give them the weapons, theyll leave. Sure

Gabriel urges Annie to find out who has the weapons and give them up. Annie says they dont have them, but Gabriel doesnt believe her  until Negan tells him to believe her. Gabriel tells them that hes praying they have them because without them, Carlson wont let any of them leave alive. Really, Gabe? With or without the guns, Carlson never planned to let any of them out alive.

Back on the roof, hes got two prisoners kneeling at the edge. I loved the shot of the tarmac below which looks almost like a picture of the universe. Its not hard to anticipate whats coming. Carlson believes him when the prisoner says he doesnt know and pushed both of them off anyway. He keeps doing it until all the prisoners on the roof have been pushed off. He tells the troopers to hit each room and kill anyone who wont talk.

Annie tells the others that they have to stick together. They can forget about giving up or surrendering. Ians dead, but he wasnt their first leader. Theyve stayed together by working together as a family. Their family might be scattered all over the building, but they know the place better than the assholes scattered all over their home right now. She promises them that theyre coming out of it on top.

She turns from them and talks quietly with Negan. He tells her that was good, but Carlson took out their best. She says she knows, but the others needed to hear it. He clearly admires her. The last shot we see in the episode is Maggie, Elijah, Lydia, and Aaron dragging the dead body of a trooper out of the way, taking his walkie, and entering through the basement.

This was a fabulous episode! Great performances from Gilliam, Harner, Hamilton, Marquand, and Cohen. We are finally starting to see that that trooper armor is really sheeps clothing. What is Hornsby really up to? Who did take the guns? When we finally get to that scene between Maggie and Daryl, will Annies people now be at Hilltop? This would definitely be the infusion of people she needs, but what about Negan? We all know that eventually the two of them are heading to New York together  will the new shows cast also include Senghore? I loved the structure and cinematography in this episode  what about you? Let me know your thoughts and theories in the comments below!




On Sept. 15, Gov. Ned Lamont announced that the White House would ask Connecticut to accept as many as 310 Afghan refugees for resettlement in Connecticut. The effort has gone better than expected.

As of March 18, more than 700 Afghans had come to live in the state, more than double the original target, thanks to a well-coordinated public-private partnership created by Lamont and strong public support.

Its unprecedented, said Chris George, executive director of New Haven-based Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services, or IRIS, one of the states two major nonprofit refugee resettlement agencies. Weve never resettled this many people, or gotten this much support  individual volunteers, groups, donations  in such a short period of time.

The response really is remarkable. Connecticut is a welcoming state for refugees and immigrants, said Susan Schnitzer, president and CEO of the Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants, or CIRI, based in Bridgeport, the other major resettlement agency.

The resettlement has been achieved despite sharp reductions in federal funding over the last four years, a result of drastic cuts in refugee admissions by the Trump administration. While all agencies felt the cuts, they caused what had been the largest resettlement agency in Greater Hartford, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Hartford, to halt its refugee resettlement program.

We in Connecticut can be proud, though its a shame Catholic Charities isnt still with us, said Robert J. Fishman, executive director of the Connecticut Immigrant & Refugee Coalition, a policy and advocacy group.

Now George, Schnitzer, Fishman and others must hit the reset button and welcome an influx of emigres from the war in Ukraine. President Joe Biden announced Thursday that the U.S. would welcome 100,000 Ukrainian refugees, some number of whom can be expected to resettle in Connecticut, home to an estimated 20,000 Ukrainian-Americans.

Schnitzer said Thursday she was thrilled with Bidens announcement and said CIRIs recent experience resettling Afghans has prepared the agency and its community partners for expedited and supportive resettlement and accompanying legal services.

Not refugees

The Afghans whove been arriving since September are among some 76,000 of their countrymen, most of whom worked for or were otherwise connected to Americans and were evacuated in a massive 17-day airlift as the Taliban took over the country in August.

Technically, most are not refugees; state officials use the term evacuees. A refugee is an alien who has been vetted and certified by the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program as having experienced, or having a well-founded fear of, persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. However, the process is lengthy and complex, taking up to two years after acceptance into the program.

While a few dozen had special visas or were completing the refugee process, most of the newly arrived Afghans, 649 of 703 as of March 18, were admitted through humanitarian parole, a process which is sometimes offered to people who need to be moved immediately. Also, the government created the Afghan Placement & Assistance Program to provide initial relocation support services for Afghan parolees admitted to the U.S. from August 20, 2021 through March 31, 2022. Officials expect nearly three dozen more Afghans by March 31.

Typically, the Afghans were flown to a safe haven military base in countries such as Qatar or Kuwait, extensively vetted with background checks, medical screenings including COVID shots and other measures, then flown to military bases in the U.S. From there they were resettled in communities where they had relatives or where a resettlement agency had the capacity to take them.

While offering work authorization and some benefits such as SNAP food stamps, the Afghan parole is temporary, lasting two years, and does not offer a path to a green card or citizenship. The Biden administration has also offered temporary protected status to other Afghans, which affords 18 months of similar benefits.

Advocates are pushing Congress to pass a law that would allow Afghans who often risked their lives for the U.S. to remain here permanently if they so choose. Since passage of the law is not a certainty, Afghan parolees are being urged to apply for asylum (the New York Times reported last week that the Biden administration has finalized a plan to revamp the asylum process, with the goal of reducing the average time from five years to six months). Schnitzer said CIRI is adding legal staff to help Afghans apply for parole or asylum.

It should be noted that the Afghans represent only a tiny portion of the worlds estimated 22.5 million refugees, many of whom wait years in camps until they can come to the U.S. or other receiving countries. In a well-publicized example, the family of Somalia-born U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), the first African-born member of Congress, lived in a camp in Kenya for four years before coming to the U.S. At that they were relatively lucky; the average camp stay is seven years, Schnitzer said.

Trump cutbacks

Settling the Afghans who made it to this country was made more challenging by the Trump administrations drastic reductions in the number of refugees allowed in. In 2016, the last year of the Obama administration, the cap stood at 110,000. Trump reduced it every year, down to 15,000 in his final year in office (and only about 12,000 came, due in part to COVID restrictions).

Trumps action drew criticism on both humanitarian and financial grounds. Federal funding, which goes through national resettlement agencies such as Church World Service, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants and six others to local agencies such as CIRI and IRIS, is per capita, based on the number of people served. Fewer people, less money.

The agencies had to tighten their belts, but Catholic Charities took a bigger hit, closing 31 of 71 programs across the country, according to the National Catholic Reporter. One of them was Hartfords, which had a decades-long tradition of resettling Southeast Asian, Kosovar, Syrian and other refugees, sometimes as many as 300 a year.

Hartford Catholic Charities spokesman John P. Noonan said even though his agency is not currently resettling refugee families, if asked, it will make its other programs and services available to families being resettled by other agencies until such time as we are able to resettle families again ourselves.

Last year, President Biden raised the refugee cap to 62,500, with a promise to raise it to 125,000 in the coming year. Catholic Charities officials across the country hope this will get them back up to speed helping refugees.

But when that door closed in Hartford, another opened down-state. Jewish Family Services of Greenwich, which had resettled some Russian refugees in the 1990s, stepped up and resettled 32 Afghans and then worked with the Connecticut Immigrant & Refugee Coalition, pivoting away from its usual lobbying role, and settled two families  10 people  in two apartments in East Hartford provided by Goodwin University.

The major agencies used slightly different resettlement methods. Along with using its caseworkers to resettle Afghans, IRIS has developed a co-sponsor model, in which the agency trains and vets volunteer community or faith-based groups, which then do most of the resettlement tasks. The groups agree to raise at least $10,000 for the family, find affordable housing, collect furniture and other household items, help access public benefits such as HUSKY/Medicaid and SNAP/food stamps, enroll children in school and facilitate job searches, among other tasks.

Chris George said about 30 groups are participating in the program and have settled about a third of the more than 430 Afghan evacuees IRIS has welcomed to Connecticut.

CIRI uses the community integration model, where agency caseworkers and managers work with the refugees on all aspects of their initial resettlement. Volunteer groups  from faith-based groups and even the Bridgeport Rotary Club  help with things such as setting up homes before the family moves in and showing the newcomers how to navigate their new communities. CIRI has resettled more than 220 Afghan evacuees, Schnitzer said, noting that the number varies slightly with secondary migration, people who land in other states then come to Connecticut, or vice-versa.

The thrust of both the IRIS and CIRI programs is independence and self-sufficiency. We dont adopt families, says the narrator in an IRIS training video.

State role

Gov. Lamont appointed an Afghan evacuee coordinator, Elizabeth Nalley of the state Department of Social Services, and created a public-private-nonprofit task force to coordinate state support for the resettlement. The task force met weekly through December and now meets monthly. Schnitzer said it did its job.

We got help a lot more quickly. Everybody was really focusing on how to make this work well for the people coming in, she said. She noted that the agencies continued to resettle refugees from other countries as the Afghans were arriving.

The task force built a structure of services around the agencies resettlement program. For example, on Feb. 28, the Department of Motor Vehicles held a DMV Day, when evacuees could take the test for learners permits in Dari or Pashto. The Department of Labor offered several job-related programs, one in collaboration with the Connecticut Restaurant Association. Other agencies offered help with housing, health care and other services.

Housing was a challenge; a shortage of affordable housing has been a longstanding problem in the state, so the agencies used temporary housing such as hotels until they could get the families into permanent residences, where nearly 90 percent now reside. As with other immigrant groups, some new arrivals were traumatized by the sudden uprooting to a distant country. Schnitzer said she is looking for counselors who speak Farsi, Dari or Pashto. Task force members are seeking other mental health resources.

And, as with every other immigrant group who came to Connecticut fleeing war, persecution or natural disaster, most Afghans are looking to work for a better life. The arrivals are from all across the board, George said, from university-education translators to truck drivers.

Finally, as with every other immigrant group, some of the people are remarkable. Here are two:

Hossna

Hossna Samadis husband worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development on projects including womens education, something the Taliban opposed. Fearing for the safety of his family, he brought his wife and two small children to New Haven on special visas in 2016 and then commuted back to Afghanistan until last summer to continue his work.

Hossna learned English. She has nearly completed an associates degree at Gateway Community College and plans to start on a bachelors in the fall. She works at a program associated with New Havens innovative Sanctuary Kitchen at CitySeed, where refugee and immigrant chefs hone their culinary and English skills while learning the food business. She volunteers as a translator, speaker and cultural ambassador for IRIS and as an advocate for fellow Afghani and other refugee women.

She plans to make womens rights and education her lifes work: I want to help those who havent had opportunity, she said in an interview. This is inspired by her own experience. As a child in the 1990s, she had to go to a secret school in a basement, like growing up in a cage, because the Taliban, then in their first rule of the country, didnt allow womens schooling.

When the Taliban took over again last summer she was distraught. I was up all night, I couldnt believe my eyes. I couldnt believe we were going backward. Her husband has rejoined the family, her children are in the third and fifth grade in New Haven, and they are going forward.

Emal

Emal Walizada is a college-educated IT specialist and an inventor, having won awards for a robotic device that detects the presence of explosives. He had an IT business in Kabul developing software for management systems, accounting and other applications.

When a friend alerted him that the Taliban were taking the city, he had to make a quick decision. He had family and business ties to the Americans and the (disintegrating) Afghan government.

I was not safe, he said.

He dropped everything and headed for the airport. He said in an interview he was there for six days with no food and very little water. I saw people drop from dehydration, he said.

He finally got a flight to Qatar, was there for 15 days, and then got to Fort Dix, N.J. He was there until late January, living in a room with 46 other people. He had lost everything: the Taliban destroyed his office and his PC server and other computer equipment. He lost his house, car and bank account. Worse, his father died of COVID-19.

But his brother, who had worked for a U.S. agency and had gotten out earlier, lived in Hartford with their mother and sister. Emal got on a bus by himself. It almost sounds like a cliche immigrant story, but he indeed had just $5 in his pocket.

No matter, he got to work. A fellow Afghan connected him with Bob Fishman, who in turn referred him to a nonprofit called International Hartford, started in 2016 by former lawyer and state legislator Art Feltman, which helps refugees and immigrants start and sustain businesses.

To help Emal get on his feet, Feltman reached out to a successful immigrant businesswoman named Maggie Drag, who came from Poland three decades ago as a teenager and started a home care agency, Euro-American Connections, in Berlin. She immediately sent a check.

Immigrants helping immigrants, she said through a spokesman.

Emal just got his drivers license. He has a job stacking shelves in a pharmacy warehouse and is happy to have it, but he is looking forward to being his own boss in his own field. And when that happens, he said, he will pay it forward and help arriving immigrants. He has time  he is 23 years old. He said he is very happy to be in Hartford.

Helping Afghans or other immigrants is not a one-way street. Immigrants are very good for the economy. Feltman said immigrants are twice as likely as other Americans to start a business; they launch 30 percent of new firms in Connecticut. He said there are more than 37,000 foreign-born entrepreneurs in Connecticut. While immigrants comprise 15 percent of the states population, they own 24 percent of its businesses, he said.

By starting a business, immigrants avoid a problem Feltman sees regularly: being underemployed because their skills or credentials from their native countries arent recognized here.

Fishman is working with Feltman and the Community Renewal Teams Womens Empowerment Center to help Afghan women start businesses in Greater Hartford.

Ukrainians

More than 3 million Ukrainians have fled to Poland and other neighboring countries as the Russian invasion of their country grinds on. Some have even flown to Mexico to try to enter the U.S. from the south. Bidens announcement Thursday came in response to growing public sympathy and support for welcoming more Ukrainians into this country.

Prior to Thursdays announcement, the administration had granted temporary protected status to Ukrainians who were in the country as of March 1. Also, U.S. embassies and consulates in Eastern Europe have been expediting visa processing for immediate family members of U.S. citizens but reportedly are overwhelmed.

Politico reported Thursday that not all of the 100,000 Ukrainians will be admitted through the refugee admission program or during this fiscal year. A full range of pathways will be utilized, including humanitarian parole and immigrant or nonimmigrant visas.

Can Connecticut handle another wave of arrivals?

Chris George answered simply: Yes.
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A bill paving the way toward the use of psychedelic substances as treatment for mental health has passed through a key state legislative committee.

The bill, intended to increase access to mental health medication, would allow for and fund three treatment sites dedicated to the use of MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy or molly, and psilocybin, the psychedelic substance in so-called magic mushrooms for use against treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and other mental health concerns.

The bill was unanimously approved by the state Public Health Committee. Committee co-chair state Rep. Jonathan Steinberg, D-Westport, said he was surprised at the unanimous, bipartisan support.

I think it's a testament to the fact that the people on our committee do their homework, he said.

Psychedelic substances have been stigmatized over the generations, Steinberg said, but the committee heard some really compelling testimony that helped them understand it is actually an effective therapy.

State Sen. Saud Anwar, D-South Windsor, a practicing physician and one of the co-sponsors of the bill, said the committee heard how in a selected group of patients, this had been a game-changer.

When you hear directly from the people who have been impacted, Anwar said, it has a deeper impact on you.

Felt like a cure

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has already allowed the use of MDMA and psilocybin for research and limited treatment purposes.

A previous Yale study sought to evaluate psilocybin as a treatment of mental health and one study participant called the experience transformative.

For me, it definitely felt like a cure, said the study participant, whose name Hearst Connecticut Media Group agreed to withhold to protect their identity. For me, it felt like getting to the very, very bottom of what was plaguing me and creating an enduring outcome.

The participant said they had three depressive episodes over the course of their lives, the last of which left me completely unable to work.

Not being able to do my work is just so horrible, they said. I found myself literally unable to pursue the most important thing in my life.

Taking antidepressants, they said, does not deal with the root cause of the depression.

When I was on antidepressants, it was the absence of symptoms. The best you can get out of them is eliminating the symptoms of depression, the participant said.

Psychedelic-assisted therapy, though, is different. The realm youre thrust into is really magical, the person said. It gives you an entirely different vantage point on your life and allows you to see that life with empathy for yourself.

Though MDMA and psilocybin have been used for recreational purposes, its different in a treatment setting. The patient wears eye shades, for example, and listens to unobtrusive, calming instrumental music so its an entirely inward journey, the study participant said.

Instead of being at a rave or at a party or whatever the recreational setting would be, here you are in a safe environment, the person said. And, of course, you're with two experienced therapists which takes away a lot of the dangers.

A narrow pathway

Jesse MacLachlan, a former Connecticut state legislator, said psychedelic-assisted therapy could be likely one of the greatest developments in mental health care in decades.

After he left the legislature, MacLachlan was appointed to the legislative committee examining the possibility of using MDMA and psilocybin for treatment of depression, anxiety, PTSD and other mental health issues.

MacLachlan now volunteers for Reason for Hope, which he described as a nonprofit policy and advocacy organization that's focused on maximizing the public benefits of psychedelic assisted therapy.

He also said he was surprised that a bill to allow psychedelic therapy was unanimously passed out of committee.

It was surprising, MacLachlan said. This issue comes with a lot of stigma with it from years and years of misinformation.

MacLachlan said the bill is intentionally very narrow. The FDA is expected to authorize MDMA as a treatment in 2023 and psilocybin in 2024. In the meantime, theyre both allowed under the FDAs expanded access program.

This bill offers $1.5 million in funding split between three treatment sites, which have not been identified, to prepare for the FDAs authorization in the coming years.

The bill, MacLachlan said, makes sure the state is ready to accommodate the demand that will occur upon an FDA approval, because we have about 18 to 24 months to prepare for what is a form of treatment unlike anything currently available.

The bill as written is intended for specific groups of patients: Connecticut residents who are veterans, first responders, direct care health care workers or are from a historically underserved community, and who has a serious or life-threatening mental or behavioral health disorder and without access to effective mental or behavioral health medication.

One of the issues is that psychedelic-assisted therapy is very labor-intensive. The drugs are cheap to produce, but the therapy requires hours of preparation in addition to the actual therapy.

Current protocols require, MacLachlan said, anywhere from five to eight hours of preparatory therapy, then theres an intervention session where the patient receives psychedelic-assisted therapy treatment, which lasts six to eight hours.

And then you have anywhere from five to eight hours of integration therapy, he said. So you're looking at anywhere from like 20 to 30 labor hours, and that's expensive.

The therapeutic model doesn't fit neatly within our existing mental health care framework, MacLachlan said. What other treatment combines both the work of the clergy and of psychiatry and cognitive behavioral therapy?

That means the state is in a position where we need to start thinking about how to license and credential therapists, we need to start thinking about how to approve treatment sites, we need to start thinking about patient safety protocols, diversion prevention methods and patient aftercare, he said.

Phased approach

Steinberg said a bill that had unanimously passed through committee would usually have a pretty good chance at becoming law. This year, though, is a short legislative session.

The really biggest challenge that we have is that in this very short session, not every bill is going to get heard, he said.

It might not have been heard at all if not for the pandemic, which Steinberg said has highlighted and exacerbated existing mental health issues around the world.

Most of us are aware that we had both access and quality issues with mental health before the pandemic hit us, he said. It took the pandemic to highlight the real gaps and shortcomings in supply and access to mental health care. It obliged us to be more open-minded, a little creative. It also led us to look with fresh eyes at alternative therapies.

This measure might be combined with others into some amalgamation of bills, Steinberg said, but if it does pass, Anwar believes its only phase one.

Though the treatment is promising, its worthy to take slow steps and also watch closely whats happening, Anwar said. This is going to be a phased approach.
Financial assistance is available to help domestic violence victims pay for urgent expenses.

Cayuga County Acting District Attorney Brittany Grome Antonacci announced recently that the DA's office has received more than $187,000 in federal funding to assist survivors of domestic violence and sexual violence with emergency housing and relocation assistance.

The district attorneys office will distribute funding from the Pandemic Emergency Assistance Fund to eligible victims and survivors of domestic violence for certain non-recurrent, short term expenses related to housing and essential needs, such as rent and utilities.

Funding is available for expenses occurring between March 1, 2022 and May 31, 2022.

According to a news release, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 established a $1 billion fund to assist eligible families that have been affected by the pandemic and are in a specific crisis. Over $21 million was allocated in the fiscal year 2022 state budget and is administered by the state Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence, in partnership with the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance.

Applicants are eligible for funding if:

 You are a domestic/sexual violence survivor who has children or is currently pregnant

 You currently receive Public Assistance, Medicaid or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits; or have a verified income that falls below 200% of the federal poverty guidelines for their family size

 You are a United States citizen

Eligible use of funding includes, but is not limited to:

 Relocation expenses, provided that such payments are compliant with all applicable federal regulations and guidance

 Emergency assistance and diversion payments

 Emergency housing

 Short-term homelessness assistance

 Emergency food aid

 Short-term utility payments

 Burial assistance

 Clothing allowances

 Any other allowable expenses as approved

Referrals will be accepted until all funding has been exhausted or until the May 31 deadline. To apply for funding or to find out more about eligibility, contact the district attorneys office at (315) 253-1391 or email Sarah Sears at ssears@cayugacounty.us or Kristine Francey at kfrancey@cayugacounty.us.

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TORRINGTON  Jamie Lynn Boothe has a passion for writing.

Since he arrived in Torrington in 2010, he has worked at a number of care facilities and now works at a group home for behaviorally disabled. But he never stopped perfecting his craft.

Using his pen name, J.L. Boothe, he has now published his first crime novel, Dark Vengeance: A Nash Peterson Novel available on Amazon, in Kindle and print.

To celebrate the book, which he self-published on Amazon, the Virginia native will read from Dark Vengeance and talk about his work at Howards Bookstore on Main Street April 3, at 3:30 p.m. He admitted hes a little nervous about the talk.

Im pretty laid back, but I guess anybody would be, he said. What I plan to do is let people know about me, tell them about my journey and then talk about the book, then the one Im writing now, and open the floor to questions, if anyone has any.

In Dark Vengeance, main character Nash Peterson is a troubled detective who has just been allowed to return to work after a leave of absence. But, when he arrives at a crime scene to find his name written in blood, he wonders if he came back too soon, according to the description on Amazon.

When I write, I always put a little bit of myself in the main character. He had a rough life too, and hes had experiences with drinking and homelessness, just like I did. He gets his life together after a freak accident, and meets the love of his life. But because of a previous drug raid, there are people after him, Boothe said. I really dont want to give up too much more of the story.

Boothe said he found solace and healing in his writing, which began when he wrote poetry as a child.

I had a very abusive childhood, and ended up being placed in a foster home, which was a real blessing for me, he said. They were incredible people. I started writing poetry, and I really wanted to write a novel, but I didnt believe in myself, so it didnt happen. I got mixed up in drugs and alcohol, and it took me a very long time to get out of that.

He started writing in 2012 when he was in a sober house.

I was living with nine other men, and there was a laptop on the table at the house, he said. One day, I was pacing around, and I thought, I might as well get started, so I sat down and just started writing.

At the time, the news was filled with headlines about violence against transgender people, he recalled. He wrote Nightmares and Dreams, about a lesbian who was abducted, and had to find a way to escape, or be killed.

That was my first book  it wasnt published, he said. Ive written three Christian romance novels, which I didnt publish, and two novellas about addiction, Never Lose Faith and The Journey, and I self-published those. But Ive always loved mysteries, so this is my first one.

Dark Vengeance took Boothe about six months to complete.

I did it fast because I was passionate about it, and it was before COVID-19, so it wasnt as stressful a time as it became (during the pandemic) for me, he said. I revised it and revised it, and had a few people read it and give me feedback. Then I got a literary agent.

He tried to find a publisher and was rejected more than 200 times, he said.

I had two that were very interested in the book, but then they chose not to use me, so I self-published on Amazon, he said. Self-publishing is an important way to grow as a writer. It really helped me.

Boothe is already working on the second Nash Peterson novel: Brutal Retribution.

To those who want to write a book, but wonder how to do it, he has plenty of advice.

Just sit down and write, if youve never written and want to, he said. It doesnt matter if its good or bad  youre taking action, and if thats who you are and what you want, just sit down and get started. From that point, you need to read the genre youre writing in; take notes, write down ideas. Take advice from other writers. Go on social media, reach out and grow your name, if youre serious about it.

His favorite authors are David Baldacci, Stephen King, James Patterson and Dean Koontz. Suspense, mystery and crime thrillers are his favorite stories.

I see those as my main genre, but Ive also wanted to write historical fiction, because I love history, Boothe said. Id like to do something about the time around World War II, or during the Wild West days.

Hes looking forward to continuing his writing. Im very excited, he said. Its something Ive wanted for a long time, and its a huge step toward my goals.

To reach Howards for information about Boothes book talk, call 860-618-2925.
Milton, PA (17847)

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Ashtabula, OH (44004)

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Cloudy with showers. High 56F. Winds ENE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

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FLEMING  A Cayuga County mobile home park will be auctioned off after its owner failed to p
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The first Extraordinary Congress of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), organized for the election of the new leadership, started on Sunday at the Parliament Palace.

The meeting, which takes place in the "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" Hall of the Parliament Palace, starting at 12:00, is attended by 867 delegates with voting rights, from all county and foreign branches.

The delegates to the Congress will debate and adopt the future strategy and tactics of the party, as well as other measures regarding the activity of the party, Agerpres.ro informs.

Currently, the party is led by Co-Chairs George Simion and Claudiu Tarziu, with only one leader to be elected at the Congress.

Two candidates have been nominated for the position of AUR chair - George Simion, with the motion "Rich Romania: Christian and Democrat" and Danut Aelenei, with the motion "More Democracy".

In addition to the party's first chairman and the new leadership structure, the new political agenda and two resolutions - "Romania's National Reunification" and "Romania's Energy Independence and Rejection of the Russian Federation's aggression against Europe" will be voted on at the Extraordinary Congress, George Simion told AGERPRES.

At the same time, the delegates to the Congress will vote on the merger by absorption with two local parties: the Otopeniul Nostru Initiative (ION) and the Alba National Alliance (ANA).
Senate President and Chairman of the National Liberal Party (PNL) Florin Citu, on a visit to Washington, had a meeting with the representatives of the Romanian community in the USA, to whom he communicated their importance within the Strategic Partnership between the two countries, urging them to contribute to its consolidation.

"In every country I lived in: the USA, New Zealand, Luxembourg, the first thing I did was to look for the Romanian community. I was happy to meet yesterday with the members of the Romanian community in [Washington] DC, Maryland and Virginia. There are people who, although several thousand kilometers away from the country, have remained connected and are contributing to the development and modernization of Romania. It is important to develop a strong relationship with the diaspora for the transfer of know-how, through experience and good practices gained abroad. I told them that they are very important within the Strategic Partnership and that all Romanians in the USA can contribute to its consolidation and promotion," Florin Citu posted on his Facebook page on Sunday, Agerpres.ro informs.

The Senate President is conducting a working visit to the United States of America, to Washington, on March 24-30, and meetings are scheduled with representatives of the US Legislature, the business environment, as well as with the Romanian community in the area.

According to an internal memorandum presented last week in the Standing Bureau of the Senate, Citu is accompanied by senators Robert Cazanciuc and Radu Oprea (the Social Democratic Party, PSD), Alina Gorghiu and Roberta Anastase (PNL), Ion Narcis Mircescu (Save Romania Union, USR) and Lorand Turos (Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania, UDMR).
The Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) co-chair, senator Claudiu Tarziu, considers that the triumvirate that has led the party so far has proved to be "a winning formula", voicing his hope that the new leadership to be elected, on Sunday, at the first extraordinary congress of the political party will lead AUR to government in 2024.

He recalled that in 2020 AUR entered Parliament with a share of over 10 percent, and stressed that the party is currently listed in various polls with 21-25 percent of the interviewees' options.

"We think we have a very good team and we have worked very well with George Simion, the co-chair, and Sorin Lavric, the party's Senate president. We have had a triumvirate that has been a winning formula. Today we are taking a step further in the development of the party, we share our responsibilities between the leaders better and I believe that we will see more success in everything. (...) We hope that the new formula will bring us to government in 2024," said Claudiu Tarziu .

He mentioned that the two co-chairs who founded the party could not be contenders. "We think it is better to share our responsibilities clearly," he added, Agerpres.ro informs.

The meeting, which takes place in the "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" Hall of the Parliament Palace, starting at 12:00, is attended by over 800 delegates with voting rights, from all county and foreign branches.

Two candidates have been nominated for the position of Chairman of AUR - George Simion, with the motion "Rich Romania: Christian and Democrat" and Danut Aelenei, with the motion "More Democracy".

The team supporting George Simion consists of, among others, Claudiu Tarziu, chairman of the National Governing Council, and Sorin Lavric, president of the party's Senate.
The Finance Ministry is working on finalizing the application guidelines of the four support programs for Romanian companies, amounting to 7.5 billion RON, Minister of Finance Adrian Caciu announced on his Facebook page on Sunday.

"The local economy will be sustained, and the dialogue with the business environment is essential in finding out the real needs of the economy! This was the conclusion of the meetings I have had in the last two days, together with my colleague, the Minister of Agriculture, Adrian Chesnoiu, in Bistrita," wrote the Minister of Finance.

He emphasized that he had talked a lot with business people, farmers, small business owners and local authorities, Agerpres.ro informs.

"I am pleased to note that everyone is confident in Romania's potential to overcome these difficult times - with the only condition that the state holds on to its programs for financing the economy, especially the small and medium-sized companies. I have retained this message and I assure the entrepreneurs that, together with all the colleagues from the Ministry of Finance, we are focused on finalizing the application guidelines of the four support programs for Romanian companies: SME Prod - for the industrialization of the economy, Rural Invest Program - for financing rural businesses, Garant Construct Program - for the construction sector and the Innovation Program - for inventions and innovations," stated Adrian Caciu.

The Minister of Finance expressed his conviction that there will be many applicants from Bistrita for these programs amounting to 7.5 billion RON.

"I am saying this because I have seen that the support of the local authorities for entrepreneurs is at its greatest, and the involvement of the County Council President, Mr. Radu Moldovan, as well as of the mayors of the county is of help in implementing the governmental programs. That is why we will be ready to finance projects for the businesses in the mountain area and for the farmers from Bistrita. They are hardworking and fair people and they deserve all the help they need!," mentioned Adrian Caciu.
Nearly 9,000 Ukrainian citizens entered Romania on Saturday, informs the General Border Police Inspectorate (IGPF).

According to a press release sent to AGERPRES on Sunday, on March 26, in the last 24 hours, 70,360 people entered Romania through the border crossing points, of whom 8,943 Ukrainian citizens - an increase of 3% compared to the previous day, Agerpres.ro informs.

As many as 4,791 Ukrainian citizens entered Romania on the border with Ukraine (up by 9.8%), and 2,361 on the border with the Republic of Moldova (down 12%).

From the onset of this crisis until Saturday, at 24:00, 555,166 Ukrainian citizens entered Romania, at national level.
Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca will attend on Monday a meeting of the Heads of Government of the NATO states in South-Eastern Europe, organized in Sofia.

According to a government press release, the meeting will be hosted by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria, Kiril Petkov.

"Tomorrow's meeting will provide an opportunity to deepen consultations on the consequences of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and security in South-Eastern Europe. These talks are taking place at the right time, given that they are being organized immediately after last week's NATO summit in Brussels, in which I participated alongside President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis," Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca was quoted as saying.

The plenary session will address issues related to how the Russian invasion of Ukraine will affect regional security in the short, medium and long term, as well as ways to strengthen coordination and cooperation in South-Eastern Europe, Agerpres.ro informs.

"In the context of the meeting in Sofia, the head of the Executive will hold bilateral meetings with the Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria, Kiril Petkov, his Montenegrin counterpart Zdravko Krivokapic, as well as with the Prime Minister of the Republic of North Macedonia, Dimitar Kovacevski," the release further mentions.
As many as 1,939 new cases of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 were recorded in the last 24 hours in Romania, by 1,161 fewer than on the previous day, on almost 17,000 RT-PCR and rapid antigenic tests performed, the Health Ministry informed on Sunday.

Of the new cases, 221 were in re-infected patients who tested positive more than 90 days after the first time they recovered from the disease, Agerpres.ro informs.

Most of the newly confirmed COVID-19 cases in Romania since the previous reporting were recorded in Bucharest City - 923, and in the counties of Cluj - 166, Timis - 147, Dolj - 104.

As of Sunday, 2,840,788 cases of people infected with the novel coronavirus were confirmed in Romania.

- Hospitalisations -

As many as 2,753 people with COVID-19 are hospitalised at specialist care facilities across the country, by 86 more than the day before; 208 of this total are children.

Out of the total number of hospitalised patients, 394 - including four children - are in ICUs, down by five from the previous day. Of the 394 ICU patients, 349 are unvaccinated for COVID-19.

- Deaths -

According to the Ministry, another 10 Romanians infected with SARS-CoV-2 - 5 men and 5 women - were reported dead in the last 24 hours.

Out of the total 10 fatalities, 9 were unvaccinated. The vaccinated patient was aged between 70 and 79 and suffered from underlying conditions.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, 64,905 people diagnosed with the SARS-CoV-2 infection have died in Romania.
The Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) George Simion said on Sunday at the party's congress that he does not want to be the party's candidate in the 2024 presidential election and added that AUR will support a candidate who will enter the second round and will win the race "against the system's candidate".

"I started this journey to do good for the country. Everyone has to take a step back and say: maybe I'm not the right person to be in the leadership (...) I've surrounded myself with people who say I have to represent them (...) I don't want to be the AUR candidate in the 2024 presidential election because AUR, through the candidate it will support, will send someone in the second round against the candidate of the system. In the second round, in 2024, the person who wins these elections. (...) We have a duty to understand our place and purpose here. We have a duty to prevent AUR from becoming another form that weigh down the Romanian state with parasites whose only quality is that they are party members. We have a duty to depoliticize the institutions of the Romanian state, to put a hierarchy of values at the top of the table, to put meritocracy at the top of the table. I'm not the best example to talk about that. In the first year of Parliament, I did many things that should not have been done. (...) In AUR one comes to give for the country, not to take for oneself," said Simion, on Sunday, at the extraordinary Congress of the party.

He said that those who will join his team will have to contribute "a lot of effort" to "do good to the country".

"If you choose our motion, we will demand a lot of effort from you, if you are willing to give it. Romania, more than ever, needs sacrifice and people to sacrifice for the country. Not physically. (...) We have to use our minds and weapons, metaphorically speaking, because I don't want to wake up with other criminal cases to do good to the country. Romania is a rich country that, unfortunately, has the poorest population. It got here, in 2022, because it was not led by people who put the interest of the Romanian nation above their own. This is what we must propose to the Romanians in 2024. We have a Christian and democratic program, and then we know best what it means to fight for democracy and for freedom," Simion added.

The first AUR extraordinary congress takes place on Sunday, in the "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" Hall of the Parliament Palace, starting with 12.00. This congress is attended by over 800 delegates with the right to vote, from all county branches and from abroad, Agerpres.ro informs.

Two candidates have been nominated for the position of AUR chairman - George Simion, with the motion "Rich Romania: Christian and Democrat" and Danut Aelenei, with the motion "More Democracy". AGERPRES
While the war in Ukraine has sparked a sweeping range of economic sanctions against Russia and its energy-related exports such as oil and natural gas, similar barriers do not currently extend to the fuel used in nuclear power plants.

Russia is a major player in that global supply chain, and Ameren is one power utility that, historically, has long relied on Russia for the fuel used at its lone nuclear plant in Callaway County, Missouri, near Jefferson City.

The St. Louis-based energy utility acknowledged this week that at least some of its nuclear fuel needs are still tied to Russia  though it declined to provide a range of specifics about what its current business ties to the country entail.

The company and outside nuclear energy experts emphasize that there are no immediate risks to nuclear fuel needs  for Ameren, or U.S. nuclear plants, at large  even if Russia were to be blocked as a supplier. But some describe the potential for longer-term disruption, given Russias clout in the world of nuclear fuel, and the bottleneck that would arise if the country were cut off.

Its hard to make quick U-turns, said Nima Ashkeboussi, senior director of fuel and radiation safety for the Nuclear Energy Institute, an organization that advocates for the industry. Adding capacity doesnt happen overnight.

The nuclear fuel supply chain encompasses four main steps, he explained. The first is mining uranium  an activity that happens in many countries in the world. But before it can be used as fuel for a nuclear reactor, the uranium needs to undergo processing  or conversion  followed by enrichment, and finally, fuel fabrication, when it is turned into usable pellets or rods.

That last step is one that is performed entirely in the U.S. for domestic utilities. But the middle steps  conversion and enrichment  are often controlled by Russia.

The problem here is conversion and enrichment. That is a very constrained market, said Ashkeboussi. You only have very, very limited options.

For instance, he said only two companies outside of Russia can currently perform either step. Overall, U.S. utilities receive about 20% of their enriched uranium from Russia, he added.

Fuel for Callaway

Utilities like Ameren have been longtime customers for enriched nuclear fuel from Russia, and a state-owned uranium export company called Techsnabexport, or Tenex. Ameren had a contract with Tenex in place from 2014 to 2020, which included an option for renewal.

Ameren did not clarify what has happened following its Tenex contract that ran at least to 2020. The company struck that former deal alongside two other U.S. utilities, with the Russian nuclear contracts totaling $1 billion in investment.

The company said that almost all of its nuclear fuel comes from outside of Russia, but did not clarify how much still is from the country, nor whether that comment applies solely to where its uranium is mined.

The company also did not answer questions about whether it still relies on Russian companies for the middle steps in the supply chain.

Ameren said that no Russia-based organizations are involved in future fuel sourcing for the company, but declined to clarify the effective date. The utility said that in our most recent negotiations for new nuclear fuel, we intentionally avoided Russia-based organizations due to sourcing risks, but would not say when those talks happened.

In a recent financial filing, the company said it has inventories and supply contracts sufficient to meet its uranium, conversion and enrichment requirements at least through the 2026 refueling at its nuclear plant in Callaway County.

U.S. nuclear plants, including Amerens, need to be refueled every 18 to 24 months. If Russian supply were interrupted, experts said that there wouldnt be an immediate effect on Ameren or other U.S. utilities. But planning alternatives would need to begin immediately and issues could arise a year or so later, because it would take significant time and investment to develop new capacity in the global nuclear fuel supply chain, outside of Russia.

Ashkeboussi said that risk has highlighted some of the benefits of bringing that fuel supply chain closer to home.

NEI said it continues to support the development of a domestic fuel supply chain including the creation of U.S. uranium enrichment capabilities. Some steps have already begun, starting even before the Ukraine conflict erupted. For example, an idled conversion facility in the southern Illinois town of Metropolis is set to resume activity next year, Ashkeboussi said.

Some, though, said its unclear whether uranium prices can climb high enough to re-establish and sustain domestic production capabilities  and that doing so could be a challenge.

Meanwhile, NEI has lobbied the White House in opposition to extending sanctions to Russian uranium, according to a recent report from Reuters. NEI declined to address related policy questions from the Post-Dispatch.

Lawmakers in Congress, however, are pushing for a ban on Russian uranium, with legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate.

If a ban is imposed, the U.S. nuclear fleet could likely ride it out, said Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety for the Union of Concerned Scientists. He said U.S. nuclear plants have years of uranium in advance  enough to outlast any supply shock, as long as its confined to the short-term future.

Theres no real reason why the industry cant weather something like that, said Lyman, describing the prospect of banning Russian uranium. But over time, that could be a problem.

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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

An open letter to Sen. Bob Onder, R-Lake Saint Louis:

Dear Sen. Onder,

Normally this is the time of year when I would write a column mocking much of the legislation proposed by you and the other members of your so-called conservative caucus. I use quotes around the phrase because theres not really anything conservative about legislation that takes civil rights away from transgender children or their families, or leads to book banning or other forms of censorship, or seeks to divide the state based on race, or makes it harder for poor people to access life-saving health care.

But thats not why Im writing you today. Im actually writing to thank you. For the first three months of the legislative session, youve accomplished two things that are very important, and I wanted to make sure Missourians give you due credit. First, youve brought unprecedented transparency to the redistricting process.

Until this year, redistricting  or gerrymandering, if you will  has been the province of political nerds like me. Every decade, we write about the process of creating maps of new legislative or congressional districts. I have long been an advocate of reforming the process like many states are doing, by taking the work of drawing legislative maps out of the hands of incumbent politicians and their allies, and putting it, instead, in the hands of nonpartisan commissions or mapping experts.

This is what Missouri voters agreed to do for state legislative districts in 2018 when they approved the Clean Missouri initiative. But Republicans such as yourself (and some Democratic incumbents, if truth be told), didnt like losing that power. So they lied to voters, told them the initiative was nothing but a political power grab by Democrats, even though it had wide, bipartisan support, and put a new referendum on the ballot in 2020 that rescinded the redistricting reform.

The truth about redistricting is that lawmakers of both parties have long talked in public about creating compact and contiguous maps that keep communities of interest together, while, behind the scenes, working to draw maps that protect incumbents, or create opportunities for insiders in the next election.

This year, Sen. Onder, you changed that. You stood on the Senate floor with your caucus colleagues and told the truth: You wanted a 7-1 map, or even an 8-0 one, tilted entirely toward protecting Republicans. It was pure, unbridled partisanship, explaining to your voters, and all Missouri voters, that the redistricting process was about protecting power. Thats how you end up with a 2nd Congressional District  where I live  that takes in most of St. Louis County, a sliver of St. Charles County, Franklin County, Washington County, St. Francois County, and even northern Iron County. To drive from one end to the other, you have to cut through the new 8th Congressional District in Jefferson County, which will now be represented by the same person who represents the Branson area about 250 miles away in southwest Missouri. Its ridiculous, of course, but if thats what it takes to secure Republican votes, then so be it.

I appreciate your honesty. Frankly, I think it will help pass another pro-Democracy ballot initiative that will likely end up before voters in November. Right now, a group of bipartisan supporters, some of the same folks who backed Clean Missouri, are gathering signatures on a petition that, if approved, would allow open primaries in which voters would advance the top four candidates to a general election, regardless of party.

This is a solution to the gerrymandered districts that tend to encourage only the most extreme candidates to survive primary challenges. Lots of independent voters  people like me, who dont belong to a political party  are left out of the process. But with the Better Elections proposal, if it were to pass, we could vote in the primary for our favorite candidate, and then in the general election, rank the four finalists in order of preference. This will increase involvement in the democratic process.

Similarly, your work in the Senate likely put wind behind the sails of those trying to pass Proposition R in the city of St. Louis, where voters in April will be asked to take the power of redistricting away from aldermen and put it with an independent commission. Heck, you might even like that one, as it would be elected Democratic insiders who lose power.

Before I forget, I want to remember to thank you for the second good thing you did. By spending the bulk of the legislative session having an intraparty food fight, you made it significantly less likely that bad legislation becomes law this year. That is a good thing, and actually worthy of the moniker conservative.

Some years ago, a conservative Republican in Missouri proposed the idea that for every new law passed, an old one should be rescinded. Ive always liked that idea. This year, most of the dangerous things proposed by members of your caucus, like the Sen. Eric Burlison bill that some are calling the make murder legal bill, have very little chance of passing. There just isnt enough time.

So, again, thank you for that. Youve done a service to Missourians.

{p style=text-align: left;}Sincerely,

{p style=text-align: left;}Tony Messenger

From City Hall to the Capitol, metro columnist Tony Messenger shines light on what public officials are doing, tells stories of the disaffected, and brings voice to the issues that matter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.
ST. LOUIS  A family party at a downtown apartment turned tragic, and now family members are coping with the deaths of two young cousins after police said one of them, a girl, 12, shot the other, a boy, 14, and then herself.

Family members said Saturday that they believed that the deaths early Friday morning were accidental. They said the incident was streamed on Instagram Live while the two cousins were making a video together.

Kuaron Harvey, 14, and Paris Harvey, 12, were more than cousins, family members said  they called each other brother and sister.

They were raised together, said Paris grandmother, Susan Dyson, of the Dallas area, as the family gathered at Paris home in the citys Kingsway East neighborhood. Dyson said she had seen the Instagram Live video.

It wasnt a situation where they were arguing or anything like that. They were playing with the gun, when they shouldnt have been. Of course, they shouldnt have been doing it. I think it just went off. It went off by mistake.

The incident happened around 2 a.m. Friday at South 10th and Spruce streets at the Cupples Station Loft Apartments. Family members had rented the downtown apartment to celebrate March birthdays.

Police have yet to announce the results of their investigation. The incident was initially listed by police as a murder-suicide.

Paris lived in the 4800 block of Labadie Avenue, and Kuaron lived in the 5800 block of Ferris Avenue. His mother and Paris father are siblings.

Family members said Kuaron and Paris were in a bathroom at the apartment alone, making a video in the mirror.

After Kuaron was shot, the video shows the girl reaching for the gun, and it may have accidentally gone off again, they said. Both children were shot in the head, family members said.

It was no murder. It wasnt a suicide, said Shinise Harvey, 35, Paris mother. It was a freak accident. It happened. She did not watch the video herself but family members who did described it to her, she said. They were trying to be too hip, she said.

She was not at the party, she said. The party was for younger members of the family  teenagers and young adults. She said she and Kuarons mom at first werent going to let them go but gave in after Paris and Kuaron begged.

The cousins were always together and Facetiming, rapping, making videos and pulling pranks, family members said.

They acted older than they were, said Angel Dyson, Paris aunt and Shinise Harveys sister.

Paris was a girly girl who loved getting her hair and nails done, was very creative and funny, had a beautiful voice and a beautiful spirit. She also was spoiled, her mother said, laughing.

Paris would call her mom into her room and then say, mama, can you hand me my bags of chips over there? Paris was one of nine children and a seventh grader at North Side Community School.

Kuaron was funny, had a goofy spirit, could do backflips out of this world, even when he was smaller, and was in the eighth grade, family members said. They said they believed the gun was his.

No matter how good we try to raise our kids, said Shinise Harvey, they still are going to venture off.

Police on Saturday released the childrens names but no new details on what happened.

Police also posted on social media a graphic with a photo of white lilies on Facebook with the message: We are sending our heartfelt condolences to the family of 12-year-old Paris Harvey and 14-year-old Kuaron Harvey who tragically passed away on 3/25/22.

In an incident report, they said they were discovered at 2:07 a.m. Friday, unconscious and not breathing after officers were called for a shooting. They were pronounced dead at the scene.

Two GoFundMe fundraisers have been set up to help the family: One in Paris name, the other in Kuarons.

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Screen image taken at Beijing Aerospace Control Center on March 27, 2022 shows the Shenzhou-13 astronauts watching the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft leaving the core module of China's Tiangong space station. (Xinhua/Guo Zhongzheng)

BEIJING, March 27 (Xinhua) -- China's cargo spacecraft Tianzhou-2 separated from the core module of the country's space station Sunday afternoon, announced the China Manned Space Agency.

At 3:59 p.m. Beijing Time, Tianzhou-2 left the core module of the Tiangong space station after completing all of its scheduled tasks, said the agency.

During its operation in orbit, Tianzhou-2 carried out a series of extended application tests. It is now in good condition, and will enter the Earth's atmosphere at an appropriate time under ground control, the agency added.

Tianzhou-2 is the first cargo ship sent into space in the key-technology verification phase of China's space station.

Carrying 6.8 tonnes of supplies for the space station, it was launched from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on the coast of the southern island province of Hainan on May 29, 2021.

Screen image taken at Beijing Aerospace Control Center on March 27, 2022 shows the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft leaving the core module of China's Tiangong space station. (Xinhua/Guo Zhongzheng)
Lamborghini is also working towards electrification of its vehicles globally by first going hybrid followed by full electric cars in the second part of the decade.

Italian supersports luxury carmaker Lamborghini sees a "huge opportunity" of growth in the country thanks to the rising number of ultra high net-worth individuals who are driving demand, the brand's Chairman and CEO Stephan Winkelmann told PTI.

The company posted a record sales of 69 cars and a growth of 86 per cent in 2021 in the country, and is also mulling on introducing hybrid vehicles in the country as part of its global strategy towards electrification. I think in India there's a huge opportunity for growth, because there's a big wealth around the Indian market, and we will see how this is developing," Winkelmann said.

He added that Lamborghini had one of the highest growth in terms of percentage last year, so there also are opportunities for the future. What we can see in the Indian market is that we have more and more ultra high net-worth individuals entering the market," he added.

(Also read | Lamborghini can make up for lost sales in Russia through other markets, says CEO)

Considering the results of last year and the demographic situation of the Indian market, there are young wealthy people entering the market and wealth in general. "We think that there is a growing demand also in the Indian market in years to come," Winkelmann said in the interaction.

The company is also working towards electrification of its vehicles globally by first going hybrid followed by full electric cars in the second part of the decade. In India too, though the company plans to roll-out hybrid vehicles, Winkelmann said that the exact timeline is not yet available. This is not only valid for India, but this is a general issue we are still evaluating," he added.

However, considering that the Indian government policy favours fully electric vehicles and not hybrids, Winkelmann said, "We have other markets where it's easier to have (hybrid vehicles) in terms of legislation, but we have to find a right balance between what is the task of the government and the demand of our customers."

First Published Date:
Updated at 11:30 a.m. Sunday with victim's name.

ST. LOUIS  Police on Sunday identified a man killed early Saturday in a double shooting along Salisbury Street in the city's Hyde Park neighborhood.

Revell Graham, 32, was fatally shot just after 4 a.m. in the 1100 block of Salisbury, just west of Interstate 70. Police found Graham and a second victim, a 26-year-old man, upon responding to a call for a shooting.

Graham was pronounced dead at the scene; the other victim was taken to a hospital. His condition was not available Sunday morning.

Graham's sister Tamika Graham said they grew up going to church every day together. He was a father of four and a hip-hop artist who liked nice cars and dreamed of opening his own detailing shop one day. He was one of seven children and was graduate of Kirkwood High School, she said.

"He was a very smart guy and well-rounded," Tamika Graham said. "Everybody loved him."

Graham said her brother was almost home when he tried to avoid colliding head-on with another vehicle that had run a light. Revell Graham wound up hitting a pole, and Tamika Graham said he was shot after he got out of the vehicle and approached the other driver.

"It's very tragic because Revell didn't bother anybody," Tamika Graham said. "He just went to work and came home."

A Gofundme has been set up to help the family.

Anyone with information is urged to call the homicide division at 314-444-5371, or anyone with a tip who wants to remain anonymous and is interested in a reward can contact CrimeStoppers at 866-371-8477.

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Valerie Schremp Hahn Valerie Schremp Hahn is a features writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow Valerie Schremp Hahn 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
LADUE  Ladue police were investigating a shooting in the northbound lanes of Interstate 170 late Friday afternoon that required them to close the interstate for several hours.

One victim, a male in his late teens who was a passenger in one of two vehicles exchanging gunfire, was shot multiple times and was reported Saturday to be in serious condition at a hospital.

The shooting happened sometime between 3:15 and 3:45 pm. between Ladue Road and Delmar Boulevard.

Police said initial reports of the shooting were not specific enough for different police departments to narrow down the exact location, which is why they had to close the highway to canvass for evidence.

The shooting involved an exchange of gunfire between a black Nissan Altima and a new-model black sedan, possibly a Dodge. Police believe that the teen is the only person hurt in the incident.

Police are asking for any witnesses to contact CrimeStoppers or Ladue Police. Police can be reached at 314-737-4600, 314-993-1214, or crimetips@cityofladue-mo.gov.

To leave an anonymous tip, contact CrimeStoppers at 866-371-8477 or visit www.stlrcs.org/anonymous-tips

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ST. LOUIS  Teachers in five Catholic high schools say they are running out of time to resolve a union contract dispute with the Archdiocese of St. Louis.

Weve had enough dialogue. We need negotiations. All theyve shown us is theyre going to bust the union, said Kathryn Williams-Heese, a teacher at Bishop DuBourg High School and president of the St. Louis Archdiocesan Teachers Association.

The teachers have not eliminated the possibility of a strike, Williams-Heese said.

We do not have a confirmation from the archdiocese that they are willing to negotiate, and we are planning accordingly, she said.

Public school teachers in Missouri are restricted from striking, but teachers at private schools are not covered by that law.

The 50-year-old union represents 120 teachers at Bishop DuBourg, Cardinal Ritter, Rosati-Kain and St. Marys high schools in St. Louis and St. Pius X in Festus. About 60 teachers and supporters gathered Sunday to pray before Mass at the Cathedral Basilica on Lindell Boulevard in St. Louis.

Negotiations for a new three-year contract started in October, well before the existing contract expired March 4. Five days later, more than 90% of the 120 teachers voted down the archdioceses final contract offer, which allowed for some pay raises but struck grievance and seniority protections.

The archdiocese has handed out individual at-will contracts to teachers with a deadline to sign by April 1, when the jobs are to be posted for applicants. None of the contracts has been signed.

Archdiocesan leaders are disappointed in the teachers refusal to accept the final contract offer, according to a letter to teachers sent March 9 from Todd Sweda, superintendent for secondary education.

You make the mission of Catholic education come alive for the young people entrusted to us. Thank you for your commitment and perseverance, particularly during the last couple of years as we navigated COVID successfully. You are valued and we are grateful, reads the letter.

The contract standoff comes as the archdiocese is planning a major reorganization that could lead to dozens of Catholic school closures in the next few years. The Rev. Chris Martin, who is leading the All Things New project, said one of the top goals is addressing low teacher salaries as a social justice issue.

Starting teacher salaries in the union would move to $33,000 a year from $30,387 under the archdioceses last contract proposal. Teachers with a masters degree and the equivalent of 10 years of experience would get $41,599 a year, up from $36,646. However, more experienced teachers at the top of the scale with a masters degree would see a pay cut to $56,750 from $64,070.

The proposed pay scale is the most forward-thinking and aggressive approach to compensation in the past two decades, reads the letter from the superintendent.

Williams-Heese said teachers could be the first victims of the reorganization, because the final contract offer from the archdiocese eliminated job placement protection for teachers in the event of a school closure.

All Catholic high school teachers understand they make less money than everybody else, she said. The archdiocese has said you will make a little more money but youre going to do it as indentured servants without protections of the union.

Teachers said unionizing aligns with Catholic teachings, pointing to speeches and writings from the Vatican and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

If the dignity of work is to be protected, then the basic rights of workers must be respected  the right to productive work, to decent and fair wages, to the organization and joining of unions, to private property, and to economic initiative, reads the conferences Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers.

Catholic schools in St. Louis area prepare for sweeping changes in parish reorganization All Things New initiative will dramatically change the 178 parishes and 100 schools in the Archdiocese of St. Louis.

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ST. LOUIS COUNTY  As the country began to brace for the arrival of Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion, a local nonprofit spent the weekend working on St. Louis welcome mat.

Volunteers with the New Life Evangelistic Center kicked off their Saturday clearing out part of a donated house in north St. Louis County, as pastors told reporters they hope to have 100 houses for Ukrainian newcomers over the next few years.

We see the need, said Pastor Chris Aaron Rice, and we want to help any way we can.

The region will need all the help it can get as it prepares for another surge in refugees fleeing war around the globe.

President Joe Biden announced Thursday that the U.S. will accept 100,000 Ukrainians through a variety of programs. And a top leader at the International Institute of St. Louis, the regions largest resettlement agency, said he expects to see some of them here.

Were gearing up, said Arrey Obenson, the institutes president and CEO. We have the capacity.

The institute will also continue to resettle refugees from Afghanistan, who were evacuated from that country in the fall after the American-backed government fell, said Arindam Kar, chairman of the institutes board.

Upwards of 700 have arrived here so far, Kar said, and the institute is starting to hear from Afghans resettled elsewhere who might want to relocate.

It will take some time for the number of Ukrainian arrivals to catch up. The Biden administration is still working out the details of bringing so many people to the United States. But the State Department soon will begin reaching out to resettlement agencies to see what they can handle, and Obenson said his organization could welcome 1,000 of them this year.

Rice, the New Life pastor, said he has a meeting scheduled with the institute this week to talk about complementing those efforts.

New Life has already prepared a two-bedroom house in North County. Workers cleaned the floors, changed out the stove and fixed issues with the basement and the roof. Now its ready for a family, Rice said.

The center still needs to do some plumbing and carpentry work at the one-bedroom house that volunteers were cleaning Saturday, but Rice said it will eventually be suitable for a couple or a mother with children.

The plan is to offer the homes to refugees rent-free for six months, to give them time to get jobs and start saving money. If they like the houses and want to stay, New Life will ask them to make small monthly payments to reimburse the cost of the renovations, said the Rev. Larry Rice, Chris Aaron Rices grandfather and New Lifes founder.

Larry Rice said he hopes the effort will yield 10 houses in its first year. His organization could use more volunteers, especially skilled laborers, to help prepare the homes and will need donations of furniture and food when refugees arrive, too.

New Life is also looking for more people to donate homes. Larry Rice said he already has a couple people very much considering the idea.

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The Securities and Exchange Commission is weighing whether to require public companies to disclose climate-change vulnerabilities that might affect their future stock performance. Debate is raging about whether companies should be trusted to carry out this due-diligence exercise at their own discretion or whether they should be forced to. Either way, it makes common sense from a fiduciary standpoint. The more open companies are about the risks they face, the less vulnerable they are to lawsuits claiming that they deceived investors about those risks.

Exhibit A supporting the case for greater openness is ExxonMobil, the behemoth petroleum company whose very existence symbolizes the dangers of fossil fuel-induced climate change. The company is being sued by the states of New York and Massachusetts, claiming ExxonMobil lied to investors about its knowledge of climate change.

ExxonMobil for years has listed environmental and climate-change dangers as potential risks in its annual reports. But plaintiffs suggest the company downplayed the risks or tried to exaggerate its efforts to reduce the environmental damage its products cause. ExxonMobil has lost appeal after appeal, including at the federal level, in its effort to quash the lawsuit.

Allison Herren Lee, the Securities and Exchange Commissions acting chair, posted a March 15 statement on the commissions website requesting public input about whether the commissions current disclosure requirements go far enough to keep investors informed.

Its not just about whether companies are telling investors about the performance and operational risks posed by climate change but also whether companies are actively contributing to the problem and could be subject to the same kinds of expensive litigation that ExxonMobil currently faces. Its also arguable that when a company is forced to undergo a warts-and-all assessment of these factors, it would be more likely to revise practices and reduce its environmental footprint voluntarily.

But is it the SECs job to make that happen? Commissioner Hester M. Peirce insists its not. In a refreshing demonstration of openness and a willingness to entertain opposing points of view, the commission posted Peirces rebuttal prominently on its website. She headlined her 534-page rebuttal: We are Not the Securities and Environment Commission  At Least Not Yet. Her online video presentation of her rebuttal included a tongue-in-cheek quip that turning off her video feed during her talk will reduce the carbon footprint of my presentation on this platform by 96 percent.

She says the SEC already requires climate-change disclosures and that new ones might not necessarily yield greater corporate transparency, nor is there an assessment of the costs such a requirement would force on companies, the economy, investors and the SEC itself.

Given the increasing levels of climate-change activism among investors, public companies have a stark choice: They can come clean voluntarily and possibly avoid ExxonMobils fate, or they can fight transparency until the SEC or other regulators require them to do whats right.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has motivated Germany to respond to three decades of complaints that it was not fulfilling its military obligations as a NATO member. In early 2022 Germany decided to increase defense spending in each of the next five years. The 2022 defense budget will be nearly $60 billion. The 2021 defense budget was $51 billion, which was only 1.4 percent of GDP. It would have to be $72 billion to meet the NATO standard of two percent. Germany will reach that in 2023 or 2024 and keep it there at last as long as the Russian threat remains. Germany has also made some radical, for them, procurement decisions including purchasing over thirty F-35 stealth fighters to replace its remaining elderly Eurofighter Tornado jets. Germany was going to replace all the retiring Tornados with the new Typhoon but is responding to reports from other NATO members who have purchased and received F-35s and report that it is much more capable than the new Typhoon. Germany has a lot of other defense weaknesses that need tending to.

Since the 1990s Germany has ignored complaints from its allies that Germany was failing to maintain sufficient defense spending to maintain its military obligations to NATO. In 1990 Germany spent 2.7 percent of GDP on defense. That fell to 1.5 percent in 2000 and despite growing calls to increase spending fell to 1.4 percent in 2010 and 1.3 percent in 2014. Currently, it is 1.4 percent with promises to achieve two percent by 2024.

For a long time, Germany got away with this because it had no real military threats to deal with. After 2014 Russia became a real threat once more. Since then, alarmed German defense officials have leaked increasingly embarrassing data about how ineffective the German armed forces are becoming. One 2018 leak revealed that a shrinking percentage of military aircraft were capable of carrying out a mission. It was particularly alarming that less than four percent of Germanys Typhoon fighters were capable of combat. Ironically 31 percent of the older Tornado fighters were operational. Newer equipment tended to be worse off. Only 13 percent of the NH90 transport helicopters were ready and only 16 percent of the Tiger helicopter gunships. Even more dismal was the number of these military aircraft Germany had, which was then 114 Typhoons, 93 Tornados, 40 NH90s and 43 Tigers. This discouraging data is nothing new. For years German military aircraft had the lowest readiness rates in NATO. Germany continued, as it had for over twenty years, promising the situation would be fixed but it never was, until the Russians invaded Ukraine.

The Germans agreed to supply combat ready forces for the NATO rapid reaction force in the form of an armored brigade. Germany was supposed to produce this contingent in 2019 but the German troops were nowhere near ready to perform duties Germany assured everyone they could handle. Only about 20 percent of the armored vehicles (Leopard 2 tanks and Marder infantry vehicles) were fit for service. Then it became known that the German Air Force was unlikely to provide much air support either.

When the Americans pressed Germany to meet its NATO obligations there were promises but no performance. Meanwhile, the United States spends nearly four percent of GDP on defense, accounts for 70 percent defense spending in NATO and told the Germans that they can no longer automatically expect the Americans to bail them out when Germany comes up short in meeting its NATO obligations. This got some attention in Germany, but not a lot.

This was a major shift since Germany was reunited in 1990. Before that, during the Cold War, West Germany belonged to NATO and maintained its military obligations faithfully, fearful that the dozens of Russian divisions in communist East Germany would quickly extinguish a democratic and prosperous post World War II West Germany. Communist East Germany became visibly less prosperous every decade and East Germans noticed that more than the military situation.

Russia, as the Soviet Union, was in even worse shape and by 1990 Russia agreed to withdraw from East Germany and allow Germany to be united once more. Russia received substantial payments from Germany and the U.S. to cover moving expenses. This move was prompted by Communist leaders in East Europe, where many nations still occupied by Russian troops and secret police (KGB), and found their people and many members of their security forces no longer willing to put up with communist misrule and Russian presence. Half the population of the Soviet Union, including most of the non-Slav population and Slavs in Ukraine and Belarus demanded independence. The KGB tried to stage a coup but underestimated their support in the security forces. The Soviet Union was no more and many Europeans, especially in the reunited Germany, believed 70 years of communist threats of invasion were over with the dissolution of the centuries old Russian empire.

During the 1990s the united German defense budget and armed forces personnel were cut, what with the primary threat, the dozens of Russian divisions in East Europe gone and all those East European nations embracing democracy and a free (and more productive) economy. But a decade later Russia had second thoughts about giving up its empire. Germany made promises to prepare for problems with Russia but did little.

In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks Germany agreed to help out in Afghanistan, as long as its troops were kept away from the hostile areas and allowed to avoid combat as much as possible. The deployment of a few troops to Afghanistan and other peacekeeping missions revealed other problems. While Germany had, on paper, well-armed and equipped troops, the government had spent very little on training and logistical support. It required a major effort to keep small numbers of German troops overseas fed and supplied. It was embarrassing and promises were made to set it right. Nothing really got done about that.

In 2019 a new American government questioned the usefulness of the United States in NATO when the Americans have always tolerated assuming a disproportionate burden of NATO responsibilities. In return for that, the U.S. regularly received more criticism than cooperation. A growing number of Americans questioned why the U.S. should remain so involved in a defensive effort that so many other NATO partners are backing away from. In response to this, the German government criticized American commitment to NATO without appreciating the irony of that attitude.

Until recently it was generally overlooked, especially by Western Europe, that the U.S. was stubbornly determined to stay out of the two World Wars because the majority of Americans came from Europe to get away from all the wars, broken promises and bad politics in general. Europeans tend to forget that the main reason the Americans eventually entered the two World Wars was Germans misunderstanding what they were up against. In World War I the Germans engaged in all sorts of covert aggression against the neutral United States that eventually came to light and got America into the war during the last year when they were needed most. In World War II it was Germany that declared war on the United States after Japan attacked the Americans. At the time U.S. public opinion was very hostile taking part in another World War.

West Europe was again misjudging the Americans, who are quite capable of leaving NATO and telling Europe to take care of itself. As history demonstrates time and again its the things that you refuse to recognize and later say you didnt see coming that cause the most damage. Over the last few years a growing number of Germans, especially defense experts and politicians, recognized that they had a problem. Yet the attitude in Germany remained hostile to actually spending the money needed to repair the damage over a decade of neglect did to their defense capabilities. German elected officials agreed and have promised to come up with more than $12 billion to deal with the worsening readiness problems. The same politicians agreed that the annual defense budget should be increased. But when the parliament goes to work on the government budget defense always comes up short. Until early 2022 That did not appear to be changing, despite everyone agreeing that change was needed.

The continued German defense budget crisis was made worse by a 2015 NATO decision to do something to help new NATO members in East Europe fulfill the mutual defense pledge in the face of Russian threats. NATO agreed to speed up efforts to create a rapid reaction force to help with the defense of new NATO members bordering Russia and very much in the way of the growing Russian threat. These new NATO members had suffered decades of Russian occupation after World War II and many of their citizens spoke or understood Russian and felt that the west NATO members underestimated the seriousness of the renewed Russian aggressiveness and misunderstood what the Russians were up to.

It was pretty clear what NATO was up to, at least in theory. The overall rapid reaction operation was called NRF (NATO Response Force) and it was to have NATO members contribute 30,000 troops. A third of NRF would be available within 48 hours for an emergency. This Spearhead Force was officially called the VJTF (Very High Readiness Joint Task Force). Germany was scheduled to assume command of the VJTF in 2019 and that meant a German armored brigade would be the core unit of the VJTF. That German brigade was not ready and unless Germany made some drastic changes it wouldnt be ready. Until recently, most of the tanks in the entire German army were not functional. The German air force was even worse. The German navy, which is mainly responsible for dealing with Russian aggression in the Baltic Sea, was aging more rapidly than the ground and air forces and efforts to build replacements for Cold War era warships were inadequate and the ships that are built turn out to be less effective (or not even able to go to sea) than expected.

By 2021 the NRF itself had grown to 40,000 personnel, including air, naval and special operations contingents backing three Spearhead Force brigades. Each of these brigades has about 5,000 troops and one (the VJTF) must have units ready to move within 48 hours with the rest of the brigade moving within a week. At that point portions of the other two brigades would be on the move. The major contributors to the NRF, and especially the VJTF will be the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and Britain. Nearly all the ground troops will be from European NATO members while the U.S. provides a lot of specialized electronic and naval forces the U.S. has. Note that all these other NATO members are in better shape to fulfill their NRF obligations. Germany was in a class of its own when it comes to un-readiness.

Weeks before the February 24th Russian invasion of Ukraine NATO began moving NRF units to eastern Europe, where the new NATO members had taken a keen interest in what the Russians were doing and Ukrainian intel officers had already analyzed the deployment of Russian troops and described the initial attack as it probably would, and actually did, begin.

The VJTF could be used to slow down and disrupt Russian aggression with ground and air forces (and naval ones if needed) until more forces can be mobilized. NATO members revived Cold War era defense plans because Russia had again become a threat. Its a different threat this time because during the Cold War NATO was looking at an initial Russian invasion force of over 30 divisions followed by two or three times that number once these reserve units were mobilized and deployed. These days Russia cant even muster that many brigades. In the past, there were few NATO members (like Norway and Turkey) that even bordered the old Soviet Union. Now there are many more, including the major Russian Cold War allies in East Europe (the former Warsaw Pact) who are now members of NATO. The Baltic States are particularly vulnerable and the VJTF was created in large part to reassure these neighbors of Russia that NATO membership can deliver the promised security.

Not only were the East NATO members not reassured by VJTF but they are afraid that history will repeat itself in more ways than one. East NATO members remember that in the 1930s there was a similar situation with Western nations promising assistance if there was aggression from Russia and Nazi Germany. The worst happened in 1939 when World War II officially got started with Germany and Russia both attacking and partitioning Poland as part of a secret agreement. Two years later Germany double crossed its new ally and invaded Russia. That ended disastrously for Russia, Germany and Eastern Europe, especially when the West again abandoned East Europe to Russian domination after the war. That period of Russian domination collapsed in 1991 but now East Europe sees the 1930s pattern of earnest promises that wont be kept and an aggressive Russia moving in.

Germany had downplayed the Russian threat and responded by trying to fix their problems. By the end of February Germany had announced major increases in defense spending and weapons purchases (like the F-35s) that were intended to discourage, or possibly stop further Russian aggression. Germany cut most economic ties with Russia, including canceling a new gas pipeline direct from Russia to Germany via the bed of the Baltic Sea. Germany announced plans to abandon the use of Russia gas and oil quickly, but this would take two years or more. Meanwhile Russia had demanded payment for their natural gas in rubles (the Russian currency). Russian banks would sell rubles to Western nations at exchange rates fixed by Russia.

Germany faces the prospect of an economic recession from increased energy costs. The sanctions on Russia have resulted in the world oil price rising to over $100 a barrel. It will also be expensive to revive nuclear power and adapt to other sources for natural gas. That, plus the higher defense spending, is an economic disaster Germany believed, for over two decades, was unlikely. Russia would not be that foolish. The East Europeans proved to be right. Russia has not changed and once more Germany is paying a high price for believing otherwise.
I appreciate all of your cards and letters, but I think I shall now answer for the last time the second-most common question I am asked in my fan mail. The following letter is typical.

Dear Mr. Crapentar,

Why do you insist on using @$#% incorrectly? As a @#$% schoolteacher it pains me to see such flagrant disregard of standard usage. If you must use @#$%, at least try to employ the @#$% word properly.

Yours truly,

A @#$% English Teacher

P.S. Do you know Dave Barrys address?

---

Dear @#$%, English Teacher,

Usage panels, like mine, labor in obscurity, where they quibble and stipulate, struggling to mete and dole unequal laws unto a savage race and bring clarity and precision to our living language.

The word @#$%, and its variant @$#%, which can be pronounced with or without the (@), is one of a number of words borrowed into English from French. The (@) sound had been lost in Latin and was not pronounced in French or the other Romance languages, which are descended from Latin, although it was retained in the spelling of some words. In both Old and Middle English, however, @ was generally pronounced, as in the native English words @&%^ and @*#%. Through the influence of spelling, then, the @ came to be pronounced in most words borrowed from the French, such as @!#% and @&%$*!@. In a few other words borrowed from the French the @ has remained silent, as in @#%$^#%@, @1#$%#$@%$#, and @#.

When @#$% is the subject of a clause, it takes a singular verb or phrase if the word or phrase that completes the sentence (the complement) is singular, as in I see a @#$% dead skunk in the middle of the road. Critics have occasionally objected to this, but many respected writers use it.

@#$% is commonly used as a substitute for #@^!%, as in Would you please not slam the @#$% screen door. This usage is associated with an informal style and strikes an inappropriately conversational note in formal writing. Sixty-five percent of my Usage Panel rejects the use in writing of the sentence Why dont you try and see if you can work the @#$% problem out between yourselves?

Some critics have tried to discern a semantic distinction between @#$% and @$#%, but the difference is entirely dialectical. @#$% is more common in American English; @$#% is the predominant form in British English.

When @#$% is used as an adverb preceding verbs that denote a process of closure or constriction, as shut, close, tie, and hold, this use is subtly distinct from @$#%!. @#$% denotes the state resulting from the process, whereas @$#%! denotes the manner of its application.

The Panel does not, however, find the phrase @#$%! to be an acceptable replacement for @#!$% or @$%&#. A mere 12 percent approved of this usage.

I trust this has cleared up the @$#% matter once and for all.

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A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter rescued a 70-year-old hiker who fell 200 feet on Mount Verstovia near Sitka, Alaska, officials say.

A Sitka Mountain Rescue crew requested the helicopter at 12:08 p.m. Saturday, March 26, to help retrieve the hiker from the mountain, the Coast Guard said in a news release.

The individual had managed to call 911 for help after falling about 200 feet while hiking on the mountain, the release said.

An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter airlifted the hiker to emergency medical teams. The release did not detail the hikers injuries or medical condition.

Mount Verstovia is a 3,390-foot peak in southeast Alaska.

2022 The Charlotte Observer.

Visit charlotteobserver.com .
In a Ukrainian city hit hard by Russias invasion, five musicians brought their instruments underground  seeking to drown out the thunderous explosions with their violins, cello and bass for those taking shelter in the subway.

The conflict halted plans for the Kharkiv Music Fest, an annual international classical music festival in Ukraines second-largest city. So the organizers said they scrambled to improvise amid war  descending into a subway station and the basement of a business, hoping for safety from the assaults overhead.

Music can unite, art director Vitali Alekseenok said. Its important now for those who stay in Kharkiv to be united.

Kharkiv Music Fest - one of the best international classical music festivals in Ukraine was scheduled to start on March 26. No one could have imagined that instead there would be a concert in the subway. But here we are on the day 31 of the war. pic.twitter.com/1uyzHhGeId  Maria Avdeeva (@maria_avdv) March 26, 2022

The original concert would have included a recital by French pianist Lucas Debargue and was to be held in the grand hall of the Kharkiv Philharmonic on Saturday.

Instead, the concert between explosions  as it was called on social media  started with the Ukrainian national anthem, prompting audience members to put their hands over their hearts.

The program included the music of Bach, Dvorak and other composers, as well as arrangements of Ukrainian folk songs. Hundreds of all ages watched, sometimes holding one another.

The program was adapted to highlight the connections between Ukrainian and Western European culture, Alekseenok said.

Music teacher and violinist Olha Pyshchyta told The Washington Post on Sunday that performing in the subway sparked a range of emotions, after a month of war.

She said she was angry  and tired  but at the concert ... we felt unity.

I, like all Ukrainians, are waiting for victory, Pyshchyta said.

Fellow violinist Stanislav Kucherenko told The Post that the concert was unlike any other hed played. There was no stage excitement that usually happens when performing for people, he said, but I knew that I was where I should be.

Kucherenko said music has a strong influence on the psycho-emotional state of a person and could, in the conditions of war, help people to cope with fear and stress and inspire faith and optimism.

Sergiy Politutchy, director of the Kharkiv Music Fest, said the underground concert showed that amid the darkness  there are eternal values and a future in our country, Sky News reported. The concert proved that our country is melodious, beautiful, intellectual and will overcome all these difficulties, he added, according to the report.

The concert was among a handful of musical moments for Kharkiv since the Russian invasion.

Before the war, Kharkiv was known as Ukraines intellectual capital. With more than 30 universities, it brimmed with students and was a well-known scientific and cultural hub. Today, missile strikes have ravaged the 19th-century architectural gems in its center. Around half the population of about 700,000 people have fled according to the regional administration, and those who have stayed regularly seek shelter underground from airstrikes.

Last week, Ukrainian cellist Denys Karachevtsev caught global attention as he played a somber Bach melody in the streets of Kharkiv, surrounded by broken windows, bombed-out buildings and rubble.

Karachevtsev posted a video on social media to raise awareness about the destruction of Kharkiv as well as funds to restore his hometown.

Working as a volunteer in the war effort by day, assisting with evacuations and distributing humanitarian aid, Karachevtsev, 30, told The Post that he decided to stay in the city despite the heavy shelling to support the people of his hometown and lift their spirits. He said music encouraged people to keep fighting.

Last month, as Russian troops were closing in on Kharkiv and people were attempting to flee, a young boy sat at a glossy white piano in a hotel lobby and began to play.

A video of him captured by a Post correspondent went viral online, attracting the attention of the world, including composers Philip Glass and Paul Leonard-Morgan, who said they never imagined their music would become the evocative soundtrack to a war.

Elsewhere, a video of a 7-year-old Ukrainian girl, Amelia Anisovych, singing Let It Go from the Disney movie Frozen inside a bomb shelter in Kyiv catapulted her to fame. Anisovych first sang in front of Ukrainians huddled together in a dimly lit bomb shelter in Kyiv.

Like millions of others, she has since fled to Poland. Amelia performed Ukraines national anthem at an event this month to raise funds for those fleeing the war.
The war in Ukraine is proving extraordinarily lethal for Russian generals, the gray men bedecked in service medals, who are being aggressively targeted by Ukrainian forces and killed at a rate not seen since World War II.

Ukrainian officials say their forces have killed seven generals on the battlefield, felled by snipers, close combat and bombings.

If true, the deaths of so many generals, alongside more senior Russian army and naval commanders  in just four weeks of combat  exceeds the attrition rate seen in the worst months of fighting in the bloody nine-year war fought by Russia in Chechnya, as well as Russian and Soviet-era campaigns in Afghanistan, Georgia and Syria.

"It is highly unusual," said a senior Western official, briefing reporters on the topic, who confirmed the names, ranks and "killed in action" status of the seven.

In all, at least 15 senior Russian commanders have been killed in the field, said Markiyan Lubkivsky, a spokesperson for the Ukraine Ministry of Defense.

NATO officials estimated earlier this week that as many as 15,000 Russian troops have been killed in four weeks of war, a very high number. Russia has offered a far lower figure, reporting Friday that only 1,351 of its fighters had died.

The Russian government has not confirmed the deaths of its generals.

If the numbers of senior commanders killed proves accurate, the Russian generals have been either extremely unlucky or successfully targeted  or both.

Shooting generals is a legitimate tactic of war  and it has been openly embraced by Ukrainian officials, who say their forces have been focused on slowing Russian advances by concentrating fire on Russian command-and-control units near the front lines.

Jeffrey Edmonds, former director for Russia on the National Security Council and now a senior analyst at the CNA think tank in Washington, said Ukrainian forces appear to be targeting "anyone with gray hair standing near a bunch of antennas," a signal they may be senior officers.

Some experts suggest the Russian military has struggled to keep its communications secure and that Ukraine intelligence units have found their targets through Russian carelessness, with Russian forces reduced to using unencrypted devices. There have been reports of Russian soldiers using mobile phones.

Pentagon and other Western officials say that Russian generals generally serve closer to the front lines than their NATO counterparts. By design, the Russian army is top heavy with senior officers, which makes them numerous, though not expendable.

Military analysts and Western intelligence officials say the Russian generals in Ukraine may be more exposed and serving closer to the front because their side is struggling  and that senior officers are deployed closer to the action to cut through the chaos.

One Western official suggested that Russian generals were also needed to push "frightened" Russian troops, including raw conscripts, forward. Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Defense Ministry to withdraw conscripts from combat, having publicly pledged that they would not be deployed.

Pentagon, NATO and Western officials say the Russian army in Ukraine is struggling with poor morale.

Russian soldiers attacked and injured their commanding officer after their brigade suffered heavy losses in the fighting outside the capital, Kyiv, according to a Western official and a Ukrainian journalist.

Troops with the 37th Motor Rifle Brigade ran a tank into Col. Yuri Medvedev, injuring both his legs, after their unit lost almost half its men, according to a Facebook post by Ukrainian journalist Roman Tsymbaliuk. The post said the colonel had been hospitalized.

A senior Western official said he believed Medvedev had been killed, "as a consequence of the scale of the losses taken by his own brigade."

Oleksiy Arestovych, a military adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, told The Washington Post the Ukraine army has focused its efforts on "slowing the pace" of the Russian invasion, in part by "beheading" forward command posts, meaning killing, not literally beheading.

Killing senior officers can slow down the Russian advances by "three or four or five days" before new command structures can be put in place, Arestovych said.

He attributed successful targeting to both "excellent intelligence" and numerous Russian vulnerabilities.

Arestovych claimed that in addition to slowing Russian momentum, killing their generals undermines Russian morale, while bolstering Ukrainian resolve.

"The death of such commanders quickly becomes public knowledge and it is very difficult to hide," he said. "Unlike the death of an ordinary soldier, it makes an outsized impression."

Ukrainian officials and Western officials have named seven Russian generals killed in action: Magomed Tushayev, Andrei Sukhovetsky, Vitaly Gerasimov, Andrey Kolesnikov, Oleg Mityaev, Yakov Rezanstev and Andrei Mordvichev.

Russian officials and Russian media have confirmed the death of only one general.

Sukhovetsky, a deputy commander of Russia's 41st army, was killed by a sniper at the beginning of the war, Ukrainian officials said. At his burial in Novorossiysk, a port city on the Black Sea, a deputy mayor said Sukhovetsky "died heroically during a combat mission during a special operation in Ukraine."

Christo Grosev, director of open-source investigative group Bellingcat, said he confirmed the death of Gerasimov, which was first announced by Ukrainian intelligence. The Bellingcat investigator also reported on a March 7 phone call from a Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officer, reporting the death to his superior, a call captured by Ukrainian intelligence and shared with reporters.

One of the first commanders that Ukraine claimed to have killed, in late February, was Tushayev, a right-hand man to Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

Kadyrov denied the claim on his Telegram channel and Chechen Information Minister Akhmed Dudayev posted an audio message purportedly from Tushayev, which he said proved he was alive.

The deaths of senior officers are celebrated on Ukrainian social media - but kept out of Russian news.

Killing Russian generals "feels consequential to Ukraine," especially in "the David versus Goliath narrative they are living through," said Margarita Konaev, an expert on Russian military innovation at Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology.

She said the nature of the fighting -- at close quarters in urban environments -- will likely add to the body count on both sides, for civilians, ordinary soldiers and commanders.

The urban dimension is especially deadly, she said.

Mason Clark, a senior analyst and expert on the Russian military at the Institute for the Study of War, said Ukrainian reports suggest that radio communications across the Russian forces are vulnerable to interception and location.

Before the war with Russia began, Clark said Ukraine forces learned how to use communications to "target and pinpoint" the sources of artillery fire in the separatist enclaves in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.

"They've used this training at scale," Clark said.

Ruth Deyermond, an expert in post-Soviet security in the Department of War Studies at King's College London, said it was unknown how the loss of senior officers in Ukraine might shape thinking in the Kremlin.

As Putin's circle has shrunk, and decision-making become more opaque, she said, "you don't even know what Putin is being told about the losses" by his own military.

The reported high attrition rate for Russian commanders in Ukraine underscores the problem of invading the country on a false set of assumptions, expecting to swiftly topple Ukraine's government and install a puppet regime to bring it back into Moscow's orbit. A military operation forecast by Russia to take a few days has entered its second month.

Russia is highly sensitive about military casualties, in particular involving senior officers.

Calling the invasion a "special military operation" to liberate Ukraine from "neo-Nazis," Russian authorities have banned journalists from using the term "war" and have criminalized criticism of the military or the release of any information that could damage its standing.

After Russia's initial failures, Putin has simply doubled down on the war effort, with the Kremlin dampening hopes of an off-ramp through peace talks. Russian authorities appear to be preparing for a long, bloody campaign, drumming up domestic unity through a propaganda blitz, as the military intensifies its pressure on Ukraine.



Booth reported from London, Dixon from Riga, Latvia, and Stern from Mukachevo, Ukraine. The Washington Post's Liz Sly in London contributed to this report.
Editor's note: On March 18, 2020, Coconino County had its first presumed case of the coronavirus. The first death caused by the virus came six days later. Now, two years after COVID made an impact on us all, we look back on some of the personnel who helped us get through those times, and look forward to what will hopefully be a brighter future.

At the start of 2022, the omicron variant broke records for COVID-19 metrics in Coconino County. The new high marks included hospitalizations, with Flagstaff Medical Center (FMC) seeing its highest rate of COVID cases across the pandemic at the beginning of February.

Cases have been falling since, however, and staff are continuing to treat COVID patients, while having the time to think on a more long-term basis.

Dr. Kathryn Feuquay is a hospitalist, meaning she takes care of adult patients who need to be admitted to the hospital. She is also the medical director for the transfer center, coordinating the transfer of patients from other facilities to FMC, so they can access means such as specialists or a higher level of care.

Dr. Rachel Levitan is an emergency room doctor who works with patients who come into the emergency department. She is also FMCs chief of staff, acting as liaison between administration and other hospital staff.

What changed throughout the pandemic, Feuquay said, were the jobs challenges rather than the work itself. Both she and Levitan said they saw a higher volume of patients, both across the pandemic and specifically with this most recent surge.

Levitan said the biggest impact she experienced during COVIDs first wave was fear of the unknowns: What was this virus and what was it going to do? How was it going to end up and how are we going to treat these patients against an unknown entity?"

But then as we started to get really busy, both the delta and omicron surges; the volumes were making things harder in a different way," she said. "We had learned so much about the disease and how to treat it, and we were being much more successful from that point of view. [There were] just different challenges as things went by."

The transfer center had to develop a waitlist for patients needing to see specialists or requiring a higher level of care for the first time during the pandemic, Feuquay said.

Before COVID we never had the situation where we had prolonged periods of time that we physically did not have enough beds in the building to be able to accept all those patients from the region that needed to be transferred here, she said. ...It was unprecedented for us here at Northern Arizona Healthcare [NAH]. It's challenging, because when you have a patient on a waitlist, you're trying to support the outside facility and the care of that patient [and] get them here as fast as we can.

Levitan said she saw physicians and providers step up as a group to take care of everybody.

I still see this today, two and a half years out, she said. ...Everybody was reading more literature than we had read since residency, hot off the press, so that were up to date on the most current care. I had doctors waking up in between night shifts to come to meetings to help give input on how we can do the best job and what we needed to adjust and how we could pivot.

She added: "It was just incredible teamwork.

FMC is unique in that there arent other hospitals nearby, Feuquay said, so its staff mostly have personal ties to the community.

We want to succeed because then the community succeeds, she said. ....Were going to do it right and were going to take care of our local community, our extended four corners community, and were going to do it because they cant go two hours south to Phoenix; Phoenix doesnt have any beds either. I just hope the community knows that we gave 100 percent effort and we will do it again if we have to. Were hoping we dont, but we will because theres really no other option. This is our community.

Delta's descent

The delta surge was disappointing to a lot of people, Feuquay said, because we thought that we had been through the worst of it, both here at the hospital but also community wide.

She said because of the learning and protocols established earlier in the pandemic, FMC was able to gear up pretty quickly.

The variant came to the Valley two to four weeks earlier than northern Arizona, providing a bit of a warning.

We started to see our fellow hospital groups in the Valley -- in Phoenix, specifically -- have their cases double -- quadruple -- within two weeks, so we knew we had a little bit of time to prepare and get the warning out," Levitan said.

"I think right before we had hit less than 10 patients admitted with COVID and then we were very quickly back above 40," Feuquay added.

Delta was in the process of winding down at FMC when omicron arrived in Coconino County, they said.

All of those people were still in the hospital, Levitan said. The new infections of delta were decreasing and then omicron started to hit, overlapping that around the end of December.

Omicron is on average a less severe version of the disease, Feuquay said, and patterns at NAH were similar to those seen at other locations worldwide, with hospitalizations increasing at a lower rate than cases.

Earlier in the pandemic, fewer patients had COVID, but those who did were more likely to have severe infection. With omicron, more patients had COVID, but a smaller percentage needed to be admitted. Both led to volume increases at FMC, just on different scales.

As Levitan put it: Even though the number of critically ill patients may have been less, the vast number of patients was still enough to saturate.

Based on daily hospital counts, Feuquay said, the hospital outmatched its highest COVID admission census in early January, at the very end of delta and toward the beginning of omicron.

We had the somewhat unique experience compared to other hospitals where we just needed more of us, and we were fortunate that most days we were able to call in an extra person or two," she said.

FMC had received additional nursing staff through the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) because of its location. Its the only northern Arizona hospital providing several services, so as Feuquay put it, we needed to be successful to support not only our Coconino County community, but our extended community.

Additional staff allowed FMC to continue running at its bed capacity -- which Feuquay said was unusual among hospitalist colleagues shed spoken to. At times, they had shortages of doctors, also uncommon, that were filled by locums colleagues or other local physicians. Some added office hours to their primary care, for example.

One of the things that really speaks to how wonderful our community is is we had some doctors who werent necessarily hospitalists who were offering to help or figuring out ways that they could offload other peoples workload, even if they didnt have the same skills, Levitan said.

COVID metrics have been decreasing for weeks -- as of Wednesday, 6.9% of FMCs patients were COVID positive, and during delta, Feuquay said, the rate of those admitted for COVID averaged 18 to 23%. While that feels good to see, she said, they are still focused on taking care of those patients.

We are also cognizant that if its you or one of your family membersthe pandemics not over for them, their life isnt back to normal and were still giving them 100 percent of our effort, just like we gave earlier, she said. I always feel a little conflicted, talking about how much better things are, because we know theyre not better for everyone. Each person means the world to somebody else in this community, so if we have one COVID patient, were still fighting for [them].

Slowing metrics do not change things for those patients, Levitan added, noting that, for better or worse, COVID is COVID.

Looking forward

The types of treatments used for COVID -- monoclonal antibody infusions and antivirals, for example -- have evolved throughout the pandemic as studies and trials have continued. NAH has been adopting best practices and medications as they gain approval and become more available, Levitan said.

They have been able to think a little longer term, now that things are slowing down, making workflow improvements, considering/implementing changes, and being able to take on extra projects and research.

We just need to keep going, Feuquay said. ...Around the hospital, were able to get back to more proactive planning for the future, workflow improvements. ...Instead of just saying, 'What do we need to do for the next six hours?' were thinking further ahead now again."

Both were hesitant to say for certain that the lower metrics would continue (delta took them by surprise last year, they noted), though they hoped it was the case.

I think the thing that will improve is we have more and more people vaccinated, medical staff is learning more and more about how to quickly identify and diagnose. ...We have so many things that we didnt have two years ago, so I think were ready for what comes next," Feuquay said.

When asked what she most wanted people to know about COVID right now, Levitan immediately said get vaccinated.

Feuquay asked community members to consider giving to hospitals in Ukraine, in the same way they had shown support to local healthcare workers throughout the pandemic.

We had a lot of support from our Flagstaff community two years ago and throughout the pandemic, so while it feels good to talk about what we were able to do and how we were able to help, [at the same time,] there are hospitals in Ukraine who are being shelled," she said. "I hope people will consider agencies that are working with facilities on the ground in Ukraine the way they help support us."

As for potential long-term effects, Levitan said she thought "a lot of us were caught by surprise" by COVID. But I think at this point, if we were to have a whole other disease come in, we would be so much more able and ready to deal with it."

She said she was hoping that this prompted people to learn about and advocate for their own health, as well as improvements to the medical system.

We have definitely had some of our underlying healthcare challenges exacerbated by COVID throughout the country, and I look at this as an opportunity to be able to improve some of that, she said. We have done an excellent job here of keeping our staffing levels at safe levels, keeping our numbers up, and I think we're really fortunate for that. But, I think, as we move forward, we have learned a lot of lessons on how we can be prepared for the next big, overwhelming surge or whatever [is] coming our way next.

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BRADENTON, Fla. (Tribune News Service)  A Florida waterfront restaurant has foiled plans for a celebratory send-off of a man who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

Adam Johnson invited friends to celebrate his last Friday of freedom at Caddys in Bradenton, Florida, on April 7, according to a Facebook event page. The party event features a viral photo of Johnson holding a podium belonging to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the Capitol rotunda on Jan. 6. Johnson pleaded guilty to federal misdemeanor charges of entering and remaining in a restricted building. He was sentenced to 75 days in prison followed by one year of supervised release in February. Johnson must also complete 200 hours of community service and pay a $5,000 fine.

In a post on his Facebook event page, the 36-year-old jokingly encouraged attendees to bring shivs, files, and phone cards to help send him off before going to prison for the lamest charge in history.

The page shows that 41 people RSVPd to Johnsons celebration, while another 42 were interested.

After local media outlets reported on Johnsons going to prison celebration, the restaurant canceled the event.

A person who answered the phone at the restaurant and identified themself only as a host on Friday said that the event had been canceled. Representatives for the Caddys restaurant chain and its parent company, the Sun Pubs Investment Group, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Johnson is not the first rioter to make headlines for statements or events made before incarceration. Last December, Texas real estate agent Jenna Ryan said on TikTok that she planned to do a lot of yoga and detox during her 60-day sentence, and other rioters on house arrest were cleared by judges to travel or attend neighbors parties during the 2021 holiday season. At least 800 people have been charged with crimes related to the riot, and at least 213 have pleaded guilty.

___

2022 Bloomberg L.P.

Visit bloomberg.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
(Tribune News Service)  On Tuesday, March 29, 2022, communities around the U.S. will pay tribute to Vietnam veterans and their families on National Vietnam War Veterans Day.

U.S. involvement in Vietnam started slowly with an initial deployment of advisers in the early 1950s, grew incrementally through the early 1960s and expanded with the deployment of full combat units in July 1965. The last U.S. personnel were evacuated from Vietnam in April 1975.

Approximately 9 million Americans served during the Vietnam era (Nov. 1, 1955, to May 15, 1975). More than 6 million are still alive.

The Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act of 2017 established March 29 as the day to pause and commemorate, remember, recognize and honor Vietnam Veterans, former Prisoners of War, those listed as Missing in Action and their families.

March 29 was chosen for several reasons. It was on this date 49 years ago that the last combat troops departed Vietnam. It was also on this day, nearly half a century ago, that Hanoi freed the remaining prisoners of war the Republic of Vietnam was willing to acknowledge.

As part of the national observance, the Vietnam War Commemoration is interviewing Vietnam Veterans and their families and archiving these oral history interviews on the commemoration website and via the Library of Congress Veterans History Project. To learn more about this program visit www.vietnamwar50th.com or visit their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/VietnamWar50th .

(c)2022 The Portsmouth Daily Times (Portsmouth, Ohio)

Visit at www.portsmouth-dailytimes.com
Weather Eye

with John Maunder

https://www.climate4you.com/Text/Climate4you

One example of what is contained in the above website are the charts of Arctic and Antarctic air temperatures from January 2000 to February 2022.

Each month Professor Ole Humlum of the The University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS), in Norway publishes on the web his very comprehensive web site updating a large number of charts and related analyses of data from international sources such as NASA.

His latest website can be found at: www.climate4you

HadCRUT4 is a global temperature dataset, providing gridded temperature anomalies across the world as well as averages for the hemispheres and the globe as a whole. CRUTEM4 and HadSST3 are the land and ocean components of this overall dataset, respectively.

These datasets have been developed by the Climatic Research Unit (University of East Anglia) in conjunction with the Hadley Centre (UK Met Office), apart from the sea surface temperature (SST) dataset which was developed solely by the UK Hadley Centre.

Global monthly average lower troposphere temperature since 1979 for the northern (60-82.5N) and southern (60-70S) polar regions, according to Remote Sensing Systems (RSS). These graphs uses data obtained by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) TIROS-N satellite, and interpreted by Dr. Carl Mears (RSS). Thick lines are the simple running 37 month average, nearly corresponding to a running 3 yr average. Click here for a description of RSS MSU data products. Please note that RSS January 2011 changed from Version 3.2 to Version 3.3 of their MSU/AMSU lower tropospheric (TLT) temperature product. Click here to read a description of the change from version 3.2 to 3.3, and previous changes. Last month shown: February 2022. Last diagram update: 10 March 2022.

*********************************

The chart below shows area weighted Arctic (70-90 degrees N) monthly surface air temperature anomalies (HadCRUT4) since January 2000, in relation to the WMO normal period 1961-1990.

The thin line shows the monthly temperature anomaly, while the thicker line shows the running 37-month (c. 3 year) average.

The chart shows little change over the last 20 years.

The chart shows area weighted Arctic (70-90 degrees N) monthly surface air temperature anomalies (HadCRUT4) since January 2000, in relation to the WMO normal period 1961-1990.

The thin line shows the monthly temperature anomaly, while the thicker line shows the running 37-month (c. 3 year) average.

The chart shows little change over the last 20 years.

Diagram showing area weighted Antarctic (70-90 N) monthly surface air temperature anomalies (HadCRUT4) since January 2000, in relation to the WMO normal period 1961-1990. The thin line shows the monthly temperature anomaly, while the thicker line shows the running 37-month (c. 3 year) average. The chart shows little change over the last 20 years.

For further information on a range of weather/climate matters see my recent book "Fifteen shades of climate" (Amazon)
The Ministry of Health is reporting 10,239 community cases, 848 hospitalisations and four deaths today. There are 28 people in ICU.

There are 617 new community cases in Bay of Plenty and 308 in the Lakes District Health Board region. The Bay of Plenty region has 34 people in hospital with Covid-19, and 10 in Lakes hospitals. There are 65 people in Waikato Hospital.

Its encouraging to see the total number of cases in hospital, while slightly higher today than yesterday, remains considerably lower that the peak of over 1000 cases in hospital from five days ago, says a Ministry of Health spokesperson.

This reflects the decrease in hospitalisations across Auckland, Waikato and Bay of Plenty, some of the first regions to be affected by Omicron.

The Ministry of Health continues to encourage people to be up to date with their vaccinations  including being boosted as the booster restores vaccine effectiveness for Omicron to 90 per cent after it declines after a second dose.

Our best protection both for ourselves, and for our whanau, is to be up-to-date with vaccinations  which includes a booster, says a Ministry of Health spokesperson. Often those at the greatest risk of becoming sick with Covid-19 are older family members and those with co-morbidities such as asthma, diabetes, and other long-term conditions.

So, if youre due any dose of the vaccine, please get vaccinated this weekend to ensure you are well protected against Omicron.

People whove had Covid-19 before getting their booster dose should wait the recommended three months recovery before getting their booster dose, but they should book in their vaccination now. Theyll be joining the nearly 8,000 people who are already currently booked for their booster dose.

Covid-19 deaths

Today we are sadly reporting the deaths of four people with Covid-19, says a Ministry of Health spokesperson.

These deaths take the total number of publicly reported deaths with Covid-19 to 258 and the seven-day rolling average of reported deaths to 12.

Of these deaths we are reporting today, one person is from the Auckland region, two are from the Wellington region, and one is from the Otago Southland region.

One of these people was in their 80s, and three people were in their 90s. Two were men and two were women.

Our thoughts and condolences are with their whanau and friends at this sad time. Out of respect, we will be making no further comment.

Vaccinations administered in New Zealand

Vaccines administered to date: 4,025,378 first doses; 3,973,723 second doses; 34,212 third primary doses; 2,574,023 booster doses: 258,380 paediatric first doses and 69,042 paediatric second doses

Vaccines administered yesterday: 92 first doses; 179 second doses; 5 third primary doses; 2,921 booster doses; 364 paediatric first doses and 7,157 paediatric second doses

People vaccinated

All Ethnicities (percentage of eligible people aged 12+): 4,054,876 first dose (96.3%); 4,002,185 second dose (95.1%), 2,572,645 boosted (72.6% of those eligible)

Maori (percentage of eligible people aged 12+): 520,239 first dose (91.1%); 502,567 second dose (88%), 227,963 boosted (57.8% of those eligible)

Pacific Peoples (percentage of eligible people aged 12+): 281,494 first dose (98.2%); 276,330 second dose (96.4%), 135,886 boosted (59.3% of those eligible)

5 to 11-year-olds all ethnicities: 256,796 first dose (53.9%); 67,537 second dose (14.2%)

5 to 11-year-olds - Maori: 40,214 first dose (34.8%); 7,456 second dose (6.5%)

5 to 11-year-olds - Pacific Peoples: 23,227 first dose (47%); 3,647 second dose (7.4%)

Note that the number for People vaccinated differs slightly from Vaccines administered as it includes those that have been vaccinated overseas.

Vaccination rates for all DHBs*

Northland DHB: first dose (90.1%); second dose (87.9%); boosted (69.4%)

Auckland Metro DHB: first dose (97.2%); second dose (96.1%); boosted (71.1%)

Waikato DHB: first dose (95.1%); second dose (93.5%); boosted (68.3%)

Bay of Plenty DHB: first dose (95%); second dose (93.3%); boosted (68%)

Lakes DHB: first dose (93.3%); second dose (91.4%); boosted (68.4%)

MidCentral DHB: first dose (96.5%); second dose (95.2%); boosted (74.1%)

Tairawhiti DHB: first dose (93.2%); second dose (90.9%); boosted (68.5%)

Whanganui DHB: first dose (91.9%); second dose (90.4%); boosted (73.4%)

Hawkes Bay DHB: first dose (97.1%); second dose (95.4%); boosted (72%)

Taranaki DHB: first dose (94.6%); second dose (93.2%); boosted (70%)

Wairarapa DHB: first dose (96.4%); second dose (94.9%); boosted (74.8%)

Capital & Coast DHB: first dose (98.6%); second dose (97.8%); boosted (81.1%)

Hutt Valley DHB: first dose (96.6%); second dose (95.6%); boosted (76.8%)

Nelson Marlborough DHB: first dose (96.5%); second dose (95.2%); boosted (75.5%)

West Coast DHB: first dose (92.6%); second dose (91.1%); boosted (73.2%)

Canterbury DHB: first dose (99.7%); second dose (98.7%); boosted (75.8%)

South Canterbury DHB: first dose (94.9%); second dose (93.8%); boosted (76.3%)

Southern DHB: first dose (98.1%); second dose (97%); boosted (74.8%)

*Partially and second doses percentages are for those 12+. Boosted percentages are for 18+ who have become eligible 3 months after having their second dose

Percentages are based on 2020 HSU data - a health-specific population denominator. As the population continues to change over time, coverage rates can exceed 100%.

Hospitalisations

Cases in hospital: total number 848: Northland: 33; North Shore: 133; Middlemore: 188; Auckland: 144; Waikato: 65; Bay of Plenty: 34; Lakes: 10; Tairawhiti: 3, Hawkes Bay: 45; Taranaki: 11; Whanganui: 7; MidCentral: 21; Hutt Valley: 15; Capital and Coast: 32; Wairarapa: 4; Nelson Marlborough: 17; Canterbury: 53; South Canterbury: 4; West Coast: 1; Southern: 28

Average age of current hospitalisations: 58

Cases in ICU or HDU: 28

Vaccination status of current hospitalisations (Northern Region only, excluding Emergency Departments): Unvaccinated or not eligible (90 cases / 19.65%); partially immunised <7 days from second dose or have only received one dose (15 cases / 3.28%); double vaccinated at least 7 days before being reported as a case (149 cases / 32.53%); Received booster at least 7 days before being reported as a case (184 cases / 40.17%); unknown (20 cases / 4.37%)

The figures show that almost 3.5% of people aged 12 and over in the Northern Region have had no doses of the vaccine, while of those aged 12 and over in Northland and Auckland hospitals with COVID-19 for whom we have vaccination status recorded, 17.1% have had no doses of the vaccine and are almost five times over-represented in our hospitalisation figures.

Cases

Seven day rolling average of community cases: 16,325

Number of new community cases: 10,239

Number of new community cases (PCR): 215

Number of new community cases (RAT): 10,024

Location of new community cases (PCR & RAT): Northland (382), Auckland (1,886), Waikato (913), Bay of Plenty (617), Lakes (308), Hawkes Bay (541), MidCentral (493), Whanganui (223), Taranaki (431), Tairawhiti (135), Wairarapa (105), Capital and Coast (692), Hutt Valley (349), Nelson Marlborough (405), Canterbury (1,750), South Canterbury (199), Southern (772), West Coast (36); Unknown (2)

Number of new cases identified at the border: 33

Number of active community cases (total): 114,261 (cases identified in the past 7 days and not yet classified as recovered)

Confirmed cases (total): 596,402

Please note, the Ministry of Healths daily reported cases may differ slightly from those reported at a DHB or local public health unit level. This is because of different reporting cut off times and the assignment of cases between regions, for example when a case is tested outside their usual region of residence. Total numbers will always be the formal daily case tally as reported to the WHO.

Tests
Misunderstanding about the role of face covering exemption cards has led the Disabled Persons Assembly - DPA - NZ to stop sending out the cards.

People who are unable to wear a mask because of their disability or health condition are currently exempt under the health order.

However, there is no legal requirement for a face covering exemption card, a medical certificate or any other documentation.

The Face Covering Exemption Card was developed by the Ministry of Health in 2020 for those people who are exempt from wearing a face covering under the health order simply as a tool to aid people to communicate exemption, says DPA Chief Executive Prudence Walker.

At that time, DPA as well as a small number of other national Disabled Peoples Organisations were tasked with distributing the cards.

Prudence says the cards was increasingly referred to, or demanded to be seen, as proof of exemption.

The card was never designed to be used in this way, and the existence of the card appears now to be adding to the widespread misunderstanding of the fact that face covering exemptions exist in the public health order and no proof is required," says Prudence.

This misunderstanding has led to discrimination and has been detrimental to the wellbeing of those who are legitimately exempt, including people with sensory sensitivities, mental health conditions, those who have experienced trauma, and people with physical conditions such as respiratory disorders.

We have been calling for over six months for a public education campaign to ensure that people who are exempt under the public health order are not further marginalised, however this has not happened. The general misunderstanding around exemptions should have been addressed by now."

Prudence says that if anything the misunderstanding appears to be growing.

"Last month this was highlighted by the thousands of parents who approached us requesting cards for their children, the majority appearing to mistakenly believe that an exemption from wearing a face covering is something that could be granted to their child by our organisation and that it was needed to show to a school," says Prudence.

"In our communications with the people, organisations, Government agencies and businesses who we have been in contact with regarding face covering exemptions, we have attempted to address many of the misunderstandings that exist, however we believe what is required is leadership by Government on this issue."

Prudence says that continuing to send out exemption cards while there are still misconceptions about their purpose appears to be perpetuating confusion about face covering exemptions.

DPA have therefore made the difficult decision to stop distribution of the cards. We advised the Ministry of Health early in February that we would be no longer distributing the cards, and will stop distribution of the cards at the end of this month," says Prudence.

Since the end of last year the Government has been reviewing face covering exemptions and DPA, alongside other disability organisations and business community representatives have been consulted around this.

We will continue to do everything we can to ensure that people who are genuinely exempt are recognised. This work includes input and communication with ministers, government agencies, business organisations, and others, says Prudence.
Tauranga City Council is asking the Otumoetai, Matua, Brookfield, Bellevue and Judea communities what they want the future of their area to look like.

Take me to the future: Otumoetai 2050 will use interactive maps, webinars and in-person community sessions to help develop a 30-year plan to support growth in the area and ensure it has enough houses, suitable ways for people to get around and community spaces to support wellbeing.

Tauranga is projected to grow by around 78,500 residents by 2063 and will need approximately 34,400 new houses to be built, says Commission Chair Anne Tolley.

Central Government has given us the job of facilitating growth across Tauranga. This includes enabling more housing to be built at greater densities (number of houses per hectare) and heights within existing urban areas such as the city centre, Te Papa Peninsula and the Otumoetai Peninsula.

Moving around and keeping safe in our community.

Population growth will occur across our city, but particularly in this area, because its central location, proximity to the water, green spaces, and other commercial/retail centres make it a great place to live.

This means the suburbs of Otumoetai, Matua, Brookfield, Bellevue and Judea will see big changes over the next 30 years, says Anne.

Drop a pin directly on a location on any of the online interactive maps, with comments or suggestions.

This project is about understanding what people love about this part of the city and how we can enable more people to live here, while still retaining the qualities and characteristics that make it so special.

Until the end of April, people can tell the council what they think should be better or different using online interactive maps.

The five maps look at:

future commercial/retail centres

public transport

walkways and cycleways

community amenities and facilities

and feeling safe in the community.

Tauranga City Councils Programme Director of Urban Communities, Carl Lucca, says people in the Otumoetai Peninsula have indicated that these are some of the areas they want improved, through feedback to surveys such as the Whakahou Taketake Vital Update.

We now want to look at these in more detail with Otumoetai Peninsula residents. To take part, people can drop a pin directly on a location on any of our online interactive maps, with comments or suggestions about things they like/dont like about their neighbourhood. They can also see what other people are saying, Carl explains.

Have you say on shopping locally.

Residents and community groups are also welcome to email or post their feedback to the project team.

Feedback will be collected and fed into a draft plan  also known as a spatial plan  that people will be able to provide further feedback on later in the year.

A series of online webinars and in-person community sessions will be held in Matua and Brookfield in March and April to enable people to ask the project team questions.

For more information and to access the online interactive maps visit: www.tauranga.govt.nz/otumoetai2050
Two years after sustaining a spinal cord impairment, Andrew Leslie has completed a 5km run.

When the tetraplegic stumbled to the finish line in an ungainly fashion to a warm round of applause on March 18, he had nothing left.

Im [was] exhausted to be honest, he says.

I completely emptied the tank. It wasnt pretty at times, but what a sense of accomplishment.

Two years ago, the 49-year-old broke his neck in Wellington's Makara Peak Mountain Bike Park.

He damaged his spinal cord and became a tetraplegic.

Andrew Leslie and Helen Leslie at finish line.

As of December last year, there were 2282 active claims for serious spinal cord injuries across New Zealand, with 152 of these in the Bay of Plenty region  the fourth highest in the country behind Auckland, Waikato, and Canterbury.

The nationwide cost of supporting people with these injuries was more than $338 million in 2021, and more than $24m in Bay of Plenty.

Eight people sustained a serious spinal cord injury in Bay of Plenty in 2021, again the fourth-highest in New Zealand.

When he was in an induced coma in an intensive care unit, Andrewss family were told to be prepared for him being in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

It was a reality he never accepted.

Leslie marked the one-year anniversary by walking back to the place of his injury to find closure and put it to bed.

One year on, he has achieved the unthinkable.

It has been a challenging and rewarding journey.

When I go back two years from now to where I was lying in the Burwood Spinal Unit to where I am now, I cant believe it. I feel extremely lucky that I have had this sort of recovery. I know it doesnt happen for everyone. Every spinal cord injury is different.

ACC played a role in Andrews rehabilitation.

The ongoing support from ACC has been a real plank in my recovery, he says.

I love everything about running, I love how it feels. I love being in those environments. I love the fitness I get from it to get that ability back has been an emotional experience.

Learning to run again

Andrew had a seed of hope after coming out of hospital.

Andrew completing the 5klm run at Karori Park in Wellington March 18. Photos: Ezra McDonald/ACC.

I had a remarkable recovery within hospital. I was able to get from my wheelchair to walking and that gave me a lot of confidence. That I could continue to improve and recover.

About a year and a half ago he floated the idea to his physio at the time. It was a well-planned and deliberate process.

Andrew started in a highly supportive environment.

He began in a hydrotherapy pool. He progressed into a rehabilitation gym at Keneperu Hospital and then onto a treadmill where he was supported by a harness.

Almost a year ago he took his preparation out on the park. It was a big milestone.

It was about having enough confidence so I could push it a bit further in an unsupported environment, he says.

Over the past few months, Andrew has gone from a restricted movement to the running motion he can complete now.

In the early days I was trying really hard to run. I would go from walking to tell myself try to run. Looking back on some videos on it, it wasnt a run. [laughs]. It was kind of like I was marching. My knees were a bit higher than my walking gait. It wasnt happening. Which is a similar place to where I was before I started to walk.

The question kept popping into my head so how do I run? My body wouldnt flick into running. I would try to make it run. It just wasnt happening.

A watershed moment

Andrew was getting increasingly frustrated. Around the same time, he was having recurring dreams about running.

I could feel what it felt like to run. My brain was trying to work it all out. I just needed to find the right focus and approach to let it all happen.

Leslie described it as a watershed moment. He said to himself maybe you are overthinking this.

I felt like I just needed to let go. I had to let my body run. I knew it was in there somewhere I just had to find the mental cue to unlock it.

Andrew has been searching out other methods to progress his rehabilitation. He has invested in neurophysics, yoga therapy to go with his ACC funded physiotherapy.

It was a game changer.

The theory is that your body knows what to do, you have just got to have confidence in it for that to happen. Your brain can find a way to sending the messages where it needs to. You have got to move aside and let it happen.

Andrew Leslie and Helen Leslie.

There was a moment at Karori Park, Wellington,  using all of those strategies he had learned - where it all clicked.

It was a really emotional moment because I knew I had done it, I had unlocked it. All of sudden it felt like running.

From there Leslie built up to running 100m, 1km and in the build up to the run on Friday he completed 4km.

He says being able to run again has helped his self-esteem.

To know that I can challenge myself and meet those challenges. That is huge for my confidence.

Hans Wouters is the CEO of the New Zealand Spinal Trust. He describes Andrews feats as remarkable.

From being told he might never walk again to running 5km in only two years is an amazing achievement, says Hans.

This is testament to Andrews remarkable grit and determination.

The New Zealand Spinal Trust is proud to have played a role in Andrews rehabilitation during this time. Each of the 220 spinal cord impairments sustained by New Zealanders each year are different, and everyone is on their own unique journey to improve their overall health.

Andrews achievements in such a short space of time are quite remarkable.

Andrew is sharing his story to help others. He wants to show people what is possible.

Maybe there is something in my story for others. Im not suggesting that everyone with a spinal cord injury can run. Everyone is on their own unique pathway. The message I want to convey is dont stop trying. Believe that you can improve your position.

Making a difference for others

Andrew is the CEO of Recreation Aotearoa.

They are focused on making a difference to New Zealanders living with a disability.

He is recruiting a new staff member who will focus on improving the accessibility of active recreation. This will be primarily outdoor recreation and also focus on facilities and play spaces.

Because of the work I do I am fully aware that I can be influential in changing the system to help improve access to people with a disability into recreation.

Leslie says being in the outdoors can be a hugely important part of a persons rehabilitation.

It fuels the mind, body and soul, he says.

There is a strong desire to make a difference in that area around Aotearoa. My role is a connector and a facilitator there.

It has been huge for me. I want others who are living with a disability to have that experience.

Andrew Leslie with Arnold and Marie Leslie.
100 years ago

1922: It is with great pleasure that The Sun can announce that both Martin G. Fronske and county clerk Tom L. Rees, who were operated on for appendicitis at Mercy Hospital on Tuesday by Dr. E. Pain Palmer of Phoenix, assisted by several other doctors, are doing as well as can be expected, with every indication that both will soon be around busy at their respective useful pursuits. Fronske was taken sick on Sunday. Part of the day he was around, feeling as usual, then, a few hours later his sudden attack was diagnosed as appendicitis. A telegram was sent to Dr. Palmer, who arrived at 4:00 o'clock Tuesday morning and operated shortly afterward. Mr. Reese was found also to have acute appendicitis and was rushed to the hospital, being operated on right after noon. It would be hard to find two men whose loss would have been more keenly mourned than these two. There is general rejoicing over the prospect of their early recovery.

Yes, we have had some weather. But no worse than they had elsewhere. People coming from Phoenix and Southern California say our weather during this cold snap has been much more bearable than in either of the localities aforesaid. The days have been bright and comfortable, ranging from 25 to 35 degrees above. Friday night it went down 20 below 0, which is the lowest registered in several years; the record for Flagstaff being 25 below. Saturday and Sunday nights it played around 13 to 15 degrees below. Monday night it got to 9 degrees below. Since then, it's a gradually showing warmer. Of course, there are many burst water pipes.

75 years ago

1947: Notes from Route One: We are glad to learn that George Burns, our regular postman, is well again and hope that after his long-earned vacation he will be back soon along our route. Young Tom burns, his nephew, who took over his job, is doing a fine job.

Ranchers along Route 1 are very grateful for subsoiling, a conservation service, being done by Everett Ely of Sunnyside.

Joe Kellen, widely known local cattlemen, we learn, has been ill most of the winter.

Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Paul Slayton on a baby girl born March 20.

Claude Smith and son Raymond have gone to Phoenix on business this week.

Mr. Hokanson, ranger at the Ski Bowl, and his wife took a party to the sixth annual winter carnival Sunday. All report having a wonderful time.

Yes, it is a big dollar the tourist industry gives to Arizona. But it is a well-earned dollar coined by nature in her pistole of the unrivaled scenic endowments Arizona boasts and minted in the ability of Arizonans to provide the service and accommodations that leave the feeling in the hearts of our visitors that this dollar is well spent. Northern Arizona is especially inviting to the tourist. But that invitation often is dulled by our handling of our visitors. We are lax in the treatment of our visitors from the standpoint of providing them with adequate information and because of our indifference to selling them on the idea of staying longer in our communities. A case in point is found in every town in northern Arizona. Highway 66 provides the traffic, but it is up to us to sell side trips so that our visitors will find it attractive to stay longer in individual communities. Flagstaff has Oak Creek Canyon to sell as a side trip. No one can go wrong in inducing a visitor to take a days drive through this canyon of unparalleled beauty. But education of the persons who meet the tourist is the prime requisite in capitalizing on these opportunities.

50 years ago

1972: The governor's highway safety office authorized Flagstaff to use federal aid funds for equipment to combat speeding and drunken driving. Flagstaff was authorized to spend about $5,300 in federal funds and $1,600 in state funds to buy five speed computers and train at least 10 officers in their use.

The Federal Bureau of investigation continues to follow an unspecified number of good leads today in the $52,000 robbery of an east Flagstaff bank that took place about a week ago. A FBI spokesman in the city today said that any one of the leads could pan out at any time, but that so far, the Bureau has been unable to put a positive identity on the bold robber who took the money plus an unspecified amount of night deposits from Valley National Bank. The robbery climaxed at shortly before 9 a.m. on Saint Patrick's Day when branch manager Jack Richards called city police to report the robber had just left the bank, money in hand, after holding the manager and his wife captive for about eight hours. The robber fled from the bank in a pickup truck and abandoned that a few minutes later. The robber then disappeared in what has been described by one witness as a blue fastback model car.

25 years ago

1997: The story between a California contractor and Flagstaff companies building the Harkins theaters complex in west Flagstaff has taken a twist. One Flagstaff subcontractor has removed itself from the Harkins project and another is threatening to file a lien against the building to ensure it gets paid. Metal master, a mobile welding and fabrication company in Flagstaff said the company has not gotten paid by general contractor Martin J. Jessica, leaving her seven-man Harkins team in a money lurch. As of Wednesday, they are off the job. A change order is a correction done to completed work. Metal master has done about $40,000 in change orders -- which means the metal master can't complete new work and employees can't get paid. The California contracting company has also put workers off when payday comes.

She talked in a high and charming voice. She was slight for her 12 years, and she carried a powerful message. Girls, if he is not willing to put on a condom, you should be willing to say no, said Hydeia Broadbent, a victim of AIDS. Broadbent was a guest speaker at the HIV-AIDS awareness fair Wednesday -- which drew about 500 people at Coconino High School. More than 250 jammed into the mini auditorium and others looked at the information booths set up in the hallway. Teens and adults from across northern Arizona were invited to the fair. Speakers talked about living with AIDS, and others talked about their families being HIV positive. And two drama troupes did skits about the disease. Ideas shared with people, many of whom were dabbing at the corners of their eyes, what she had to deal with because of the disease. She has had 10 surgeries, several tubes stuck into her body, pneumonia twice, went into a code blue twice and takes up to 10 medicines a day, down from the 20 a day she used to take.

All events were taken from issues of the Arizona Daily Sun and its predecessors, the Coconino Weekly Sun and the Coconino Sun. Bruce Carl Ertmann assisted with compiling the events.

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Weather Alert

...FLOOD WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL 5 PM CDT FRIDAY... * WHAT...Flooding caused by excessive rainfall is expected. * WHERE...Portions of northwest Arkansas and Oklahoma, including the following counties, in northwest Arkansas, Benton and Washington AR. In Oklahoma, Adair, Cherokee, Delaware, Haskell, Mayes, Muskogee and Sequoyah. * WHEN...Until 500 PM CDT Friday. * IMPACTS...Flooding of rivers, creeks, streams, and other low-lying and flood-prone locations is imminent or occurring. Low-water crossings are inundated with water and may not be passable. It will take several hours for all the water from these storms to work through local drainage systems in urban areas. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS... - At 459 PM CDT, The heavy rainfall has ended, though additional light rainfall will be possible into tonight. Doppler radar and automated rain gauges indicated heavy rain due to thunderstorms. Flooding is ongoing or expected to begin shortly in the warned area. Widespread estimates between 4 and 7 inches of rain have fallen with some locations estimated greater than 7 inches. - Some locations that will experience flooding include... Fayetteville... Springdale... Rogers... Bentonville... Tahlequah... Siloam Springs... Stilwell... Jay... Bella Vista... Lowell... Farmington... Pea Ridge... Prairie Grove... Fort Gibson... Gentry... Elkins... Tontitown... Gravette... West Fork... Lincoln... - http://www.weather.gov/safety/flood PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles. In hilly terrain there are hundreds of low water crossings which are potentially dangerous in heavy rain. Do not attempt to cross flooded roads. Find an alternate route. &&
PHOENIX -- Maricopa County Attorney Allister Adel is resigning after multiple calls for her removal by prosecutors and elected officials who questioned her leadership over a host of issues, including her sobriety, her absences from official duties and recent revelations that her office failed to file dozens of misdemeanor criminal charges in a timely fashion.

Today, I announce my decision to resign as the Maricopa County Attorney, Adel said in a statement Monday. I am proud of the many accomplishments of the Maricopa County Attorneys Office during my tenure, including policies that seek justice in a fair and equitable manner, hold violent offenders accountable, protect the rights of crime victims, and keep families safe.

Adels resignation was effective Friday.

Lola Nsangou is the executive director of Mass Liberation Arizona, a Black-focused organization that seeks to end over-incarceration and funding of the criminal justice system. The group for months had demanded Adel be removed from office.

This office has had a legacy of brutality, and Alister Adel is but one of many leaders in that office who has used and weaponized this office, Nsangou said. Theres a culture and a legacy of brutality that has gone on for decades, so, while Adel is one person who needs to be held accountable, there is a deeper culture within that office that needs to be addressed as well.

Adels resignation is a win for the community, she said, and should be dedicated to every Black person in Arizona who has been told that we are only 5% of the population and our political interests are not a priority.

Nsangou said its important to remember that Adel was appointed by the county Board of Supervisors -- after County Attorney Bill Montgomerys term was cut short in October 2019. Adel, a Republican, was elected to the office in November 2020 and is the first woman to hold that office.

Nsangou said when the supervisors consider the next appointee, they should allow the community to weigh in.

Allister Adel was their poor choice, and then when they were called to hold her accountable and address the issues within the office, they didnt do anything, she said. The biggest concern that we have right now is to make sure that the community is involved and allowed to weigh in on any appointments.

The Maricopa County Attorneys Office is responsible for all adult and juvenile felony cases and misdemeanors filed in the justice court. The county attorney makes decisions about criminal prosecutions, but in recent months, calls for Adels resignation intensified as allegations of alcohol misuse, multiple absences from work and mishandling of cases came to light in an investigation by the Arizona Republic.

The State Bar of Arizona said in a statement that discipline investigations that are pending will continue, adding that it will not comment on the Bars role in her resignation or on the pending investigations as those investigations remain confidential.

Adel had stood firm as pressures mounted. In a March 8 interview with Arizona PBS, she said she had no plans to quit, despite a letter from county prosecutors asking for her resignation because of obvious signs of impairment.

They are very wrong. Id love to see what theyre talking about, Adel told Arizona PBS. No one has shown me anything, and Id love for them to point at it because I havent been. Its tough to prove a negative, you know?

Adel also disputed claims that her anxiety and eating and alcohol use disorders were affecting her job performance.

I take my job duty very, very seriously, so those are absolutely false, she said.

The Republic investigation found that her staff and elected officials, from top prosecutors to Gov. Doug Ducey, scrutinized Adel and questioned her sobriety and multiple absences.

The Republic reported that the Arizona Attorney Generals Office on Friday asked for a report on how Adels office failed to file 180 misdemeanor charges, with Ducey calling the failure unacceptable.

My concern is really for the victims of these crimes, and for the accountability and competence of the office, and thats where the opportunity and the fix lies, Ducey told the Republic.

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re: Robotics / Coding classes for kids Quote: Oxy Originally Posted by my son has started pestering me to get him enrolled in an instructor led coding or robotics course. He does not want Udemy/Coursera sessions. A random Google search only leads to Whitehat Junior. Is that any good? Quote: subraiyr Originally Posted by Same here...My son, 10 years old, wants to learn to code. The point is that his besties are learning to code and he wants to join them.



I am not sure of Oxy's kids age but for subraiyr's kid, 10 years seems to be too early to learn any meaningful/popular coding language. My recommendation is that the expectation should be focussed on learning the expressions, logics and actions, however it turned out to be too underwhelming for the inflated expectation of my kid and his mum. (pitfall alert).



For Robotics, Arduino Uno R3 is a good and budget piece of microcontroller board with its ecosystem of child parts like sensors, motors and switches, to start with. It is open-source so any good quality inspired boards available readily on Amazon will be as good as the original one. There are lot of Youtube videos / full codes available on the web to explore how the system works and get a hang of it before the kid starts to customize it per his/her imagination.



You as a parent need to ensure the fine balance so that the enthusiasm remains and the kid don't get bogged down by the learning curve. Best wishes to the kids as they start this exploration and I am sure it will be fun.



Lastly, based on the demo classes from WhiteHat Jr, I felt while the instructors try their best but they are ill equipped both technically as well as the soft skill part of the teaching. I am not coder by profession (a vastly different field altogether) but pursued it as a hobby during my school and college days. My advice is based solely on my experience hunting for a suitable coding course for my kid (he is 8 years) when he and his mum were smitten by the code bug inspired by Youtube videos and "success" stories from WhiteHat Jr and other similar institutes.I am not sure of Oxy's kids age but for subraiyr's kid, 10 years seems to be too early to learn any meaningful/popular coding language. My recommendation is that the expectation should be focussed on learning the expressions, logics and actions, however it turned out to be too underwhelming for the inflated expectation of my kid and his mum. (pitfall alert). https://scratch.mit.edu/ (for beginners) and http://appinventor.mit.edu/ (for not so beginners) are good and acclaimed places to start the journey through self paced courses.For Robotics, Arduino Uno R3 is a good and budget piece of microcontroller board with its ecosystem of child parts like sensors, motors and switches, to start with. It is open-source so any good quality inspired boards available readily on Amazon will be as good as the original one. There are lot of Youtube videos / full codes available on the web to explore how the system works and get a hang of it before the kid starts to customize it per his/her imagination.You as a parent need to ensure the fine balance so that the enthusiasm remains and the kid don't get bogged down by the learning curve. Best wishes to the kids as they start this exploration and I am sure it will be fun.Lastly, based on the demo classes from WhiteHat Jr, I felt while the instructors try their best but they are ill equipped both technically as well as the soft skill part of the teaching.
Apple recently banned the iPhone-throwing app called "Send Me To Heaven." Before this application was prohibited, many iPhone users find very challenging.

But, this app can actually destroy your device. SMTH is like a very simple game. All you need to do is throw your iPhone as high as you can into the air.

Of course, you need to catch it so that it will not have any damage. If you complete this challenge, you will be rewarded.

Why Apple Bans iPhone-Throwing App

According to CNET's latest report, the total number of broken iPhones caused by the Send Me To Heaven app is still unknown.

Also Read: Apple Sideloading, Third-Party App Stores Coming Soon Because of EU Law-But for US?

Before an iPhone user takes the challenge, the SMTH app warns them that playing SMTH will be entirely at their own risk.

The application states that it will not be liable for any damage to the smartphone. Users need to agree to the Send Me To Heaven's disclaimer before proceeding to the challenge.

This means that it is completely up to the Apple consumer if they want to throw their iPhones, risking their handsets to serious physical damage.

Although this is the case, Apple still banned the application from the official App Store. The tech manufacturer said it removed the application since it encourages users to do a very dangerous activity.

"The original idea was to have very expensive gadgets, which people in certain societies buy just to show off, and to get them to throw it," said SMTH app's creator, Petr Svarovsky, via The Wired.

Can You Still Download the SMTH App?

Although Apple banned the Send Me To Heaven app, Google still offers it via the official Play Store. Because of this, the dangerous game still became quite popular.

Many critics said that since Google Play Store still offers the SMTH app, Apple may have been too hasty with its ban decision.

They added that the iPhone-throwing application could help Apple's screen repair business.

On Saturday, Mar. 26, WhatsApp's iOS updates support was confirmed, allowing the messaging platform to receive new features.

Meanwhile, some leaks claimed that Spotify Car Mode might return to the popular music streaming app.

For more news updates about the SMTH app and other fun applications, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: Why Apple's New iPhone Leasing Service is Consumer-Friendly ... and Eco-Friendly

This article is owned by TechTimes

Written by: Griffin Davis

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(Photo : Unsplash/naipo.de) Apple Pay

Apple Pay announced that it would no longer support Mir, Russia's card payment system. The tech giant has closed the loophole that allowed Russians to continue to use the online payment service amid sanctions put on the country because of its war with Ukraine.

Apple Pay No Longer Supports Mir

According to Reuters, Apple has informed Russia's National Payment Card System or NSPK that it is suspending support for Mir cars in the payment service Apple Pay.

Since Mar. 24, uploading new Mir cards to the service has been unavailable. Mir also noted that its cards previously added to Apple Pay would no longer work in the next couple of days. In 2021, Apple Pay first added support for Mir cards.

According to The Verge, Mir is owned by the Central Bank of Russia, and it was established in response to the economic sanctions put on the country after it annexed Crimea back in 2014. Statistics from the Central Bank said that Mir cards make up around 32% of all new cards issued in Russia.

Also Read: Russia-Ukraine Invasion Map Uses Twitter Post Updates! Here's How CIR's Tech Works and How To Use It

Google is also taking the necessary steps to discontinue Mir, according to The Wall Street Journal. The search giant reportedly paused a pilot program, which started in October 2021, letting users connect their Mir cards to Google Pay.

A Google spokesperson said in a statement to The Wall Street Journal that Google Pay is pausing payments-related services in Russia due to payment services disruption out of their control.

Thousands of Russian users have been cut off from Apple Pay and Google Pay after several countries imposed financial sanctions on Russia's major banks, including Sovcombank, VTB Group. Promsvyazbank, Novikombank and Otkritie FC Bank.

Earlier this month, both Visa and Mastercard suspended their operations in Russia, blocking Russians from using their credits or debit cards outside Russia or for international online payments.

Apple Halts Sales in Russia

Before Apple suspended Apple Pay in Russia, the tech giant halted the sales of its products in the country. As reported by MacRumors, on Mar. 1, Apple has stopped all product sales from its online website in the country, which means customers in Russia can no longer purchase iPhones, iPads, Macs, and other Apple devices.

Attempting to purchase from the store in the country will result in a delivery unavailable result when trying to add a product to the cart.

The sales have been halted following a plea from Ukrainian vice prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who wrote a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook asking Apple to stop selling the company's devices and to block Russia from accessing App Store.

Apple said in a statement that it has also stopped all exports into the sales channel in Russia and disabled traffic and live incidents in Apple Maps in Ukraine as a safety measure for Ukrainians.

Cook explained the decision in a letter sent out to all Apple employees, and he also provided information on how the employees could donate.

Apple matched all donations at a rate of 2:1 for eligible organizations, retroactive for donations made since Feb. 25.

Related Article: Russia Blocks Facebook, Twitter, App Store Access: Report

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Sophie Webster

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Roe v. Wade didnt create abortion and overturning it wont stop abortions. In fact, the procedure was practiced regularly  and safely  in America before the country even existed. But Roe isnt about abortion. Its also not about religion, morality or saving lives. Plainly, its about controlling women.

You just need to look back in our history to find the proof. The anti-abortion movement in the United States wasnt founded as some moral crusade; it was started by physicians in the mid-1800s to consolidate control over the medical profession from competing providers  namely, midwives. It shouldnt come as a shock that a movement to restrict womens rights was born from a group of men who sought to suppress womens rising power.

Later in the 19th century, it became a cause celebre for white supremacists and xenophobes, who wielded it like a weapon to combat growing immigrant populations by turning women into baby factories, ensuring white birth rates would increase. And though the movement has shape-shifted through the years, conveniently changing the convictions behind their cause to pander to the masses, one thing remains the same: Womens lives will always be in danger in a society that feels threatened by womens power.

So, when asked what a post-Roe world could look like if its overturned, I think its safe to say it will be the closest anyone will get to experiencing time travel.

The draconian bills that passed in Texas, Florida and other states are akin to revving the engine of a race car; overturning Roe will launch it from zero to an out-of-control 100 mph, giving states the green light to annihilate a womans right to bodily autonomy.

With an estimated 69% of the population opposed to overturning Roe, some states have committed to upholding abortion rights  with some going as far as to add it to their constitutions. But the many states that already have plans in place to ban the practice are on a collision course to inflict irreparable harm to some of their most vulnerable residents.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, approximately 75% of women who seek abortion services are low-income. Abortions have always been available to those with money, even before Roe was decided in 1973. Millions of abortions were performed annually in the immediate years preceding the decision, but outcomes were strikingly different along clear racial and economic lines. A study of low-income women in New York in the 1960s found that of those who had abortions, 77% said they tried a self-induced procedure, with only 2% reporting any involvement by a physician. One analysis by the Centers for Disease Control estimated that from 1972 to 1974, the mortality rate due to illegal abortion for non-White women was 12 times that for White women.

The Turnaway Study, a comprehensive multi-year study that examined the effects of unwanted pregnancies on women and children, concluded that women who were denied an abortion had almost four times greater odds of a household income below the federal poverty level and three times greater odds of being unemployed.

The research also concluded that women who are denied abortions are more likely to stay with a violent partner, suffer from depression and other mental health challenges, and experience long-term physical health problems. For centuries, women have had to claw their way through systems of oppression just to get close to the same starting line as men (were still not there); being forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy robs a woman of her chance at personal, professional or economic fulfillment.

This is especially devastating for women of color who also have to combat systemic and generational racism and the trauma that accompanies it. Restricting or eliminating access to abortion can be the difference between life and death for women of color and those living in marginalized communities because it fortifies the inequitable systems that trap them  and their families  into perpetual cycles of abuse, poverty and injustice.

But overturning Roe isnt even just about Roe itself; its about setting the stage for more dangerous proposals that could expand the governments control of womens lives, piece by piece. Some states are using the chaos from the abortion debate as cover for proposing (and passing) legislation to limit access to birth control.

Lawmakers in Missouri, for example, recently debated cutting Medicaid funding for birth control. The debate followed statements by some of the stars of the right-wing, like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who intentionally mischaracterized contraceptives as causing abortions. This growing movement, which  just like the anti-abortion movement, isnt grounded in science or facts  is trying to equate birth control with abortions. This would be ridiculous if it weren't such a terrifying point of view  one that is gaining more support on the right.

Pushing America back to 1973 isnt enough for some; they want to hurdle the country back to 1964 before Griswold v. Connecticut legalized birth control. Its a slippery slope, so whats after that? We already know what a post-Roe world will look like because its been well-documented for more than a century; it will be a world where being a womans life is valued less than exerting power over it. A society that controls womens bodies, futures and economic potential can never be considered pro-life.

Christian F. Nunes is the president of the National Organization for Women. She wrote this for InsideSources.com.

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Facebook phishing scams are now becoming more rampant in the popular social media platform. There are more than 90 billion users who rely on FB to message their friends and families.

They also use Facebook to check the latest important happenings across the globe. Because of its rising numbers of consumers, the social media platform also attracts more cybercriminals.

This can be seen in the new method used by phishing campaigns.

Facebook Phishing Campaigns Now Use FB Quizzes!

According to CNET's latest report, Facebook phishing campaigns are now using the answers of consumers on some FB quizzes.

Also Read: Facebook Faces Lawsuit in Australia for Scam Crypto Ads Using Celebrities

This manipulative hacking method is more efficient than other phishing techniques since it relies on the things that people commonly see on Facebook.

If you check the Facebook quizzes, you may notice that some of them are connected with the common security questions that Facebook requires you to answer.

Because of this, security experts now urge FB users to avoid answering Facebook quizzes. If you ever see some of these, then just scroll down and avoid answering them in the comment section:

Nobody's first car was a Toyota. Prove me wrong!

Name a movie you can watch over and over again.

If you could go anywhere right now, where would you go?

Who remembers their first-grade teacher? Let's celebrate our educators!

These are just some of the malicious FB quizzes you can encounter as you scroll on the social media platform.

Avoiding Facebook Phishing Attacks

Since phishing attacks on Facebook are now rising, consumers really need to be extra careful when interacting on social media sites.

If you want to protect your personal data, here are some of the tips you can follow:

Always check the message's source before responding. If the account or contact is unknown, just ignore it.

Avoid providing your sensitive information on Facebook. Remember, anyone can use FB, even cybercriminals.

If the FB post or message has a lot of inconsistencies, then there's a high chance that it is a phishing attack.

Right now, Facebook is one of the social media giants usually targeted by hackers.

Recently, Forbes reported that the most impersonated online website in 2021 was Facebook.

Of course, the social media giant is still making efforts to prevent online attackers on its platform. Recently, Facebook joined the new U.K. anti-scam program.

On the other hand, Facebook Gaming was recently targeted by fake streamers.

For more news updates about Facebook and other online platforms, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: Facebook Messenger Users Beware: Four-Word Message Scam is Circulating Online

This article is owned by TechTimes

Written by: Griffin Davis

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The law enforcement guidelines that tell police what types of user data are stored, what procedures to use to access them, and how long they are retained have been leaked.

A few types of requests, for emails less than 180 days old, for example, tend to require police search warrants so they can access them.

In general, the basic subscriber information can be disclosed as long as there is a subpoena, and a court order is needed to get more extensive information.

Highlights of Each Social Media Company Policies for Police

For Blizzard, the logs of internet protocol addresses are kept indefinitely. According to the gaming company behind "World of Warcraft," sent mail is not retained, and deleted mail messages are also not retained, according to CNET.

For Facebook, an earlier version of the social media company's manual from 2008 said that the IP log data is generally retained for 90 days. The statement is missing from the newly-released 2010 version, indicating that Facebook can now store data longer.

Also Read: Microsoft Swiftkey Receives New Feature That Copy, Paste Data Between Android and Windows 10

For Microsoft or MSN, Hotmail IP logs are kept for only 60 days. MSN TV's Web site logs were stored for only 13 days.

No logs were saved for conversations through the chat rooms in MSN and MSN instant messenger. The leaked document is from April 2005, which means it may have changed through the years.

For AOL, the IP logs for the AIM and ICQ messaging services are only stored for up to 90 days. The customer logs are only kept for six months. All AOL email, including from portals such as AOL.mx, AOL.ca, and AOL.fr, is stored in its Northern Virginia data center.

The manuals for Microsoft, Blizzard, and AOL were leaked as part of a recent data dump from the infamous hacker Anonymous. The 2010 Facebook manual was posted by PublicIntelligence.net.

The most extensive collection of law enforcement guidelines has been assembled by a retired architect who runs the Cryptome.org document, John Young.

Microsoft's Attempt to Remove its Law Enforcement Manuals

After the law enforcement manuals for Windows were leaked on Cryptome in 2021, Microsoft has attempted to remove it online using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The DMCA complaint was withdrawn a couple of days later, according to VOX.

In July, a House of Representatives panel voted to require Internet providers to store the names, phone numbers, addresses, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and temporarily-assigned IP addresses of customers.

Previous Justice Department proposals envisioned forcing social networking sites to keep records for a couple of years of who uploads which pictures of videos. In 2011, Facebook posted its law enforcement guide in its help center.

After Facebook posted its law enforcement guide, it was revealed that there was no mention of how long the data is retained.

However, Facebook is taking a more privacy-protective stand than some other companies and insisting, as its membership in the Digital Due Process or DDP coalition might suggest, that the search warrants are needed for the stored contents of any account.

In 2017, Facebook updated its policy to ban devs from accessing its data.

In 2020, Microsoft banned face-recognition service to police.

Related Article: Hackers Leak D.C. Police Data Including Arrest History, Polygraph Results, and Even Police Informants

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Sophie Webster

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
India says no to Apple's refurbished iPhone sale request. Because of this, the tech giant manufacturer still can't sell its used smartphones in the world's second-largest smartphone market.

Apple has been requesting the Indian government to allow its refurbished smartphones to be sold in the country. However, India still rejected the request.

This decision was confirmed by an anonymous telecommunications ministry official. But, what is really the reason behind the rejection?

Why Does India say NO To Apple's Refurbished iPhones?

According to CNET's latest report, the Indian government hasn't confirmed why it rejected the request of the iPhone maker.

Also Read: Apple Sideloading, Third-Party App Stores Coming Soon Because of EU Law-But for US?

But, some critics claimed that Apple's competitors might have helped the rejection happen. The company's rivals argued that if Apple is allowed to sell its refurbished smartphones, the used devices will overflow in the country.

Many of them also said that the goal of the giant tech firm's iPhone refurbished sale request is the opposite of the Indian government's Make-in-India project.

For those who don't know this program, Make-in-India is the initiative of the Indian government to push companies to manufacture their products locally.

One of the benefits provided by this project is new job opportunities for the country's residents.

Aside from the used iPhone sale request, Apple also plans to open its first retail stores in the country. But, this initiative is still waiting for the government's approval.

Is It Good To Buy Refurbished iPhones?

When you say refurbished, it means that other consumers already use the device. However, unlike second-hand smartphones sold by other buyers or resellers, refurbished iPhones are used devices repaired and maintained by Apple.

This means that these used devices are made to look and feel like brand new ones, making refurbished iPhones worth the purchase, as reported by MacPaw.

Aside from being in a brand new condition, Apple also includes all the accessories in a more budget-friendly deal. If you want to see further details about refurbished iPhones, click this link.

Previously, the tech firm announced that Apple Pay would no longer support Russia's Mir payment system.

Last week, Apple decided to block iOS 15.4 downgrade activities on iPhones.

For more news updates about Apple and its upcoming activities, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: Why Apple's New iPhone Leasing Service is Consumer-Friendly ... and Eco-Friendly

This article is owned by TechTimes

Written by: Griffin Davis

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Tehachapi, CA (93561)

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Region in southwest China has become an ideal habitat for wild animals over the years amid the region's thriving biodiversity protection endeavors.

Tibet has seen a steady increase in endangered wildlife population, thanks to its continuous efforts over the past decades. (Xinhua/Zhou Dixiao)




The rise in fuel prices has an impact on the cost of necessities and first-need products since it makes their transportation more expensive," union leader Ferreira recalled.

Since Monday, Paraguayan carriers hold a strike to demand a US$0,22 reduction in fuel prices, which have increased twice so far this year.

The rise in fuel prices has an impact on the cost of necessities and first-need products since it makes their transportation more expensive," the National Union of Workers in Moto President Federico Ferreira recalled.

Recently, the State announced that it plans to create a fuel price stabilization fund, which will count on a US$100 million loan approved by the Latin America Development Bank (CAF), and that comes from taxes to non-essential products such as alcoholic drinks and jewelry.

This policy, which will need to be ratified by Congress, will mainly benefit Type III diesel, which accounts for 55 percent of local consumption and supplies of the production sector.

@UNODC_Firearms strengthening sub-regional coop. in investigation & prosecution of #firearms trafficking between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. Judicial & Law Enforcement Intl. Coop. is key to fight firearms trafficking in the region.Action is funded by the EU #EUForeignPolicy pic.twitter.com/Z1uSLWoAHB  Global Firearms Programme (@UNODC_Firearms) March 8, 2022

The State also proposed to reduce to US$0.057 the value of the diesel purchased from the state-owned Petroleum from Paraguay (PETROPAR), which supplies mainly public and cargo carriers. "Any measure proposed by the state to lower the price of fuels must be to the benefit of all citizens and not only of the sectors that take part in demonstrations," Ferreira pointed out. He announced that protesters will remain on strike until their demands are duly addressed and did not rule out that more cargo units will join the demonstrations in the next few hours.
Joseba Arguinano: "My father is not a tough boss, he is rather an encourager so that we do things well"
China has launched an investigation into its first deadly aviation accident since 2010, the crash of the China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 which nosedived from an altitude of 29,100 feet to 9,075 feet in just two minutes and 15 seconds and crashed into a mountain in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Monday with 132 people on board.

Before the crash, Chinese airlines had a safety fight record of over 100 million continuous hours over 4,000 days, one of the world's best over that period, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

When it comes to the investigation, international standards will only govern some aspects as each country takes its own practical management path.

For flight MU5735, China will lead the investigation as the crash occurred in its territory. The U.S. has the right to participate as the Boeing 737-800 plane was designed and manufactured there.

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 probe, adding that he was very encouraged by the invitation to be on the ground in China. The NTSB, however, later said it had not yet determined if investigators would travel to China, citing visa and quarantine requirements.

China's investigation team

For the search and rescue response to the flight crash, China's State Council has set up an investigation team led by the CAAC and the country's Ministry of Emergency Management with participation by multiple other ministries.

The aviation safety office of CAAC, which has an accident investigation department, is leading the technical work.

The State Council guides on-site rescue, aftermath management and investigation of the crash cause by giving direct political oversight.

Such high-level involvement signifies the government is taking the situation seriously, said Zheng Lei, chair of the Aviation Department at Australia's Swinburne University of Technology.

When will China release the results?

Under international standards, a preliminary report into an accident needs to be lodged with the UN aviation agency, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), within 30 days.

The initial reports are more about laying out the information known to date from maintenance records, air traffic control recordings and the black boxes if found, rather than reporting the cause of the crash.

Mao Yanfeng, a CAAC official, told reporters on Friday that China's investigation team will follow international and Chinese rules in submitting the 30-day report to ICAO but did not say whether it would be made public. Actually, there is no requirement to make the preliminary report public. For instance, India did not publicly release a preliminary report into a deadly 2020 crash of an Air India Express plane.

A final report is usually due within a year, according to ICAO guidelines, though sometimes it may take longer than that.

What has been found so far?

Over 7,000 people, 200 vehicles, five helicopters, and other equipment have been deployed in the search and rescue since the MU5735 crash on Monday, although no survivors have been found so far, CAAC's Zhu Tao said Friday.

As of 3 p.m. on Friday, 101 pieces of items belonging to the passengers have been discovered, and 18 fingerprint samples extracted. Local police said they were trying to examine the DNA of the remains to identify the victims.

The black box recovered from the China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 is believed to be the cockpit voice recorder (CVR), an aviation official told a press briefing on Wednesday night. Work to extract data from the first black box is still underway in the capital, Beijing.

One CAAC official said it's too early to say when the voice data can be downloaded, and a flight expert said decoding the data will take an additional 10 to 15 days, and data analysis even longer.

The search for the other black box is ongoing. More orange pieces were found at the core search area that experts later verified are parts of the black box.

Source: CGTN
The Supreme Court is expected to overturn Roe v. Wade, according to a draft of the courts m Read more
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Lana, who has lived in the United Sates for 8 years but declined to give her last name for fear of endangering the safety of her family in Ukraine, holds a photo of her elderly mother who is hunkered down in Kyiv as she participates in a rally with about one hundred people who gathered at Lafayette Square to show support for the people of Ukraine and to oppose the Russian invasion of the Eastern European country in New Orleans, La. Tuesday, March 8, 2022. Several people in attendance had family members in Ukraine or Poland where over a million Ukrainian refugees have fled. Helena Moreno, the New Orleans councilmember at-large, authorized the displaying of the Ukrainian flag in the council chambers in support of the country. (Photo by Max Becherer, NOLA.com, The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
Sanderson Stewart is delighted to announce that Avery Smith has recently joined the firm as a staff engineer working in the commercial group. Smith has a bachelor's degree in general engineering, civil option from Montana Tech, Butte, and has experience in the design and construction of both private and public facilities. Most recently, Smith worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where she worked on the facilitys infrastructure and utilities team. As a member of the commercial group, Smith is working on various site development tasks for our clients including design, cost estimation, drafting, permitting, and bidding. Avery is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers as well as the Society of Women Engineers. Since beginning in a garage in Billings in 1969, Sanderson Stewart has followed the core purpose to plan and design enduring communities, to become an award-winning community design firm with offices in Billings and Bozeman, as well as Fort Collins and Denver, Colorado.
A bungling jewellery thief arrested on Collins Street after a foiled $96,000 heist had also stolen historic memorabilia from the office of some of the states barristers, Owen Dixon Chambers.

Bobby Hudson, 35, went equipped to steal on Friday morning, using an orange-handled mallet to smash a hole in the glass door of high-end retailer Georg Jensen in Melbournes CBD before CCTV captured him crawling in and out of the hole, stealing goods in under a minute.

Police outside the Collins Street store on Friday. Credit:Nine News

But Hudsons burglary came undone when he was arrested minutes later about 600 metres from the crime scene, near the corner of Collins and Exhibition streets, still carrying his stolen loot.

Hudson appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court later that day dressed in a white forensic suit, and the court heard he had also been wanted over the theft of historic items belonging to the Victorian Bar.
In the weeks before an Afghanistan veteran-turned-bikie shot his former friend Darren Wallace dead in broad daylight, subsequently turning the gun on himself, he was spiralling.

It was late in 2015, and the 31-year-old well call Jone*, a member of the Campbelltown chapter of the Rebels, was leaving the outlaw motorcycle gang after just three years; but, whether voluntarily or under the clubs orders, he didnt agree to the terms. He was using drugs and alcohol, and had come to the attention of police on two occasions less than a month prior; one incident involved a gun.

Rebels member Darren Wallace, 32, was shot dead in Picton in 2015. Credit:Facebook

Despite his known association to the Rebels, neither of the two incidents saw Jone put behind bars or made to seek psychological treatment. Mr Wallaces parents believe that if more had been done to stop him, their grandchildren might still have a father.

But police told an inquest last week that, despite his gang associations, Jones own criminal history was very minimal, and there was little they could have done.
Washington: The White House will unveil a new minimum tax targeting billionaires as part of its 2023 budget, proposing a direct tax on the richest 700 Americans for the first time.

President Joe Bidens Billionaire Minimum Income Tax plan would establish a 20 per cent minimum tax rate on all American households worth more than $US100 million ($133 million), according to an administration document obtained by The Washington Post. The majority of new revenue raised by the tax would come from Americas billionaires.

Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, has repeatedly pushed back against proposals to tax the assets of billionaires. Credit:AP

Biden has long favoured higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans, but the White House has until now not introduced a tax plan specifically designed to hit billionaire wealth. The new tax plan comes amid signs that the administrations negotiations with Senator Joe Manchin over the Presidents long-stalled economic proposal may be reviving. But all previous efforts to tax billionaires have failed amid major political headwinds.

Elon Musk, the worlds richest person, has strongly criticised attempts to tax the ultra wealthy, tweeting late last year that Eventually they run out of other peoples money and then they come for you.
Gabriel Jason Dean's Heartland, making its off-Broadway premiere at 59E59 Theaters in a Geva Theatre Center production, is worth seeing in one respect: It shines a light on a dark corner of geopolitical history that is very much worth knowing, especially since it ties to recent events in now Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and to America's complicity in them. But if works of art were measured simply by how educational they were, even the most boring instructional films could be thought to have artistic merit.

Set at various points from 2013 to 15, Dean's play centers around the relationship that develops between Harold (Mark Cuddy), a retired American professor of Comparative Literature and Afghan Studies in Nebraska, and Nazrullah (Owais Ahmed), an Afghan refugee who shows up at his doorstep one day claiming to know his adopted daughter, Geetee, who was recently killed in a Taliban attack at a school in Afghanistan. While Harold and Nazrullah gradually become friends, Heartland also fills in the backstory of how Nazrullah and Geetee (Mari Vial-Golden) met and eventually fell in love at the school. But a dark secret of Harold's past drove a wedge between him and Geetee when she was alive, and threatens to do so with him and Nazrullah when he discovers it for himself. Once that secret is revealed, Heartland's characters come to look more allegorical, with Harold representing the ends-justifying-the-means perspective of the US during the Cold War, Nazrullah the tragic long-lasting consequences of the US's actions, and Geetee the rising consciousness of America's culpability in Afghanistan's current troubled state.

As Dean has written these characters, though, they don't really expand much beyond their functions as allegorical emblems. In this context, even Harold's mental decline  throughout the play, he shows signs of what appears to be aphasia, as he momentarily forgets words  feels more like a contrived attempt to instill tragic grandeur into a character that can't support such weight. As a result, Heartland comes off as an adult after-school special: something that is "good" for us, even if it is less than memorable dramatically.

Owais Ahmed plays Nazrullah, and Mark Cuddy plays Harold in Gabriel Jason Dean's Heartland, directed by Pirronne Yousefzadeh, for Geva Theatre Center at 59E59.

( Carol Rosegg)

The three performers do what they can to bring this glorified history lesson to life. Cuddy and Ahmed slightly overplay their early scenes together, bringing odd-couple sitcom energy that feels too insistent in their desire to entertain. Thankfully, they both eventually begin to modulate their performances as Harold and Nazrullah get to know each other better. And Vial-Golden generates both palpable romantic chemistry with Ahmed (Rocio Mendez deserves plaudits for some pinpoint intimacy coordination in their scenes together) and heated intensity with Cuddy when Geetee discovers her father's secret. Much of the play's impact relies on the conviction the actors bring to their characters.

Director Pirronne Yousefzadeh does her best to accommodate Dean's shuffling between past and present in the relatively cramped quarters of 59E59's Theater B, with Meredith Ries's single, unchanging, pastel-colored set representing both Harold's house and a classroom at the Afghanistan school where Nazrullah and Geetee meet. Though the minimalist approach does fulfill Dean's own desire, according to his script directions, for "space and time [to] crash effortlessly into each other," seeing shifts in time marked by one character exiting while another enters feels less like lyricism than it does a production with space and budgetary constraints. Still, Yousefzadeh does come up with one strikingly poetic touch in her staging: Harold's sinking deeper into his mental illness is reflected in Geetee's metaphorical act of occasionally removing books from the bookshelf lining the back of Ries's set until, by the end, no books are left.

Mark Cuddy, Mari Vial-Golden, and Owais Ahmed appear in the off-Broadway premiere of Gabriel Jason Dean's Heartland.

( Carol Rosegg)

Perhaps the most impactful lesson one is bound to take away from Heartland is its reclamation of the word jihad from its more recent negative association with the atrocities of terrorism. "Taliban make war," Nazrullah reminds Harold at one point. "Jihad is no waris struggle." That's worth remembering, especially now that Afghans face an uncertain future with the Taliban back in charge, in part because of America's messy withdrawal from the country last year. As an attempt to bridge a vast political and emotional divide between the West and the Middle East, Dean's play is certainly laudable, if never quite as emotionally devastating as one feels this material ought to be.
- Start Consideration of Development and Production of Flying Cars, and Market Development in India

TOYOTA, Japan and HAMAMATSU, Japan, March 25, 2022 -- SkyDrive Inc. (hereinafter "SkyDrive") and Suzuki Motor Corporation (hereinafter "Suzuki") jointly announced on March 22 a partnership for the commercialization of flying cars (*).

SkyDrive is a leading manufacturer of flying cars in Japan and is currently engaged in the development of a compact, two-seater electric-powered flying car with plans for full-scale production.

Suzuki is one of Japan's leading automakers with expertise that includes manufacturing and selling compact cars in international markets.

Under the terms of the agreement, SkyDrive and Suzuki will start consideration to collaborate in areas of business and technology that include technology R&D, planning of manufacturing and mass-production systems, development of overseas markets with an initial focus on India, and promotion of efforts to attain carbon neutrality.

SkyDrive aims to begin air taxi service during the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka, Japan, as well as to initiate service in other regions of Japan.

Suzuki, which has the company motto "Develop products of superior value by focusing on the customer," currently offers products in three mobility categories -- automobiles, motorcycles, and outboard motors. The company aims to remain indispensable to people by staying closely attuned to their lives and providing mobility. The partnership with SkyDrive will provide Suzuki with opportunities to explore and potentially add flying cars as a fourth mobility business.

About SkyDrive Inc.

SkyDrive was established in July 2018 with the mission of "leading a once-in-a-century mobility revolution." Since then, it has advanced the development of flying cars and cargo drones while working in partnership with others to promote the shared vision of a future in which people use air mobility as a means of transportation in their daily lives. SkyDrive is the only company in Japan that has successfully conducted manned test flights and is now involved in designing a system for future air mobility as a member of Japan's public-private council for advanced air mobility. The company's cargo drones, which can carry payloads of up to 30kg, are already being used at worksites in Japan, mainly in mountainous areas. SkyDrive is aiming to launch a flying car service in the Osaka Bay area in 2025. SkyDrive has headquarters in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Tomohiro Fukuzawa is CEO of the company.

For more information, please visit: https://en.skydrive2020.com/

About Suzuki Motor Corporation

Suzuki Motor Corporation is one of Japan's leading carmakers and a global motorcycle manufacturer. The company's non-vehicle products include outboard motors for boats and motorized wheelchairs. It builds its lineup on its own and through numerous subsidiaries and joint ventures outside Japan. Suzuki was established in 1920 and has headquarters in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka. Toshihiro Suzuki is President of the company.

Website: https://www.globalsuzuki.com/

Editor's Note:

(*) Flying cars are formally known as eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft. eVTOL is characterized by electrification, a fully autonomous autopilot, and vertical takeoff and landing. As a new advancement in the field of mobility, the development of flying cars is being promoted in many countries around the world. In Japan, the Public-Private Council for Air Mobility Revolution was established in 2018 with meetings held since then. The project is expected to lead to taxi services in urban areas, new means of transportation for remote islands and mountainous areas, and emergency transportation in times of disaster. A roadmap has been formulated by the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism (MLIT) for the start of business in 2023 and full-scale deployment in 2030.

SOURCE SkyDrive Inc., Suzuki Motor Corporation
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Sebastopol, CA (95472)

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Cloudy skies with a few showers after midnight. Low 52F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 30%..

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The cause of the explosion and fire at the ExxonMobil refinery that lit up the night sky over Lockwood around 10 p.m. Saturday remains under investigation.

The fire burned for more than three hours before it was extinguished at about 1:15 a.m. Sunday morning, said the refinerys public affairs specialist Dan Carter.

There were no injuries and all employees and contractors were accounted for, Carter said.

The refinery employs more than 270 people and about 100 contractors on a daily basis, according to its website.

It isn't yet clear how much damage was done, or what the cost of repairs might be. ExxonMobil officials didn't respond to questions about how the fire might affect production. The plant, which began operations in 1954, is capable of refining roughly 60,000 barrels of crude oil a day and produces about 600 million gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel annually.

Along with the refinerys own emergency response team, crews from Lockwood and Billings fire departments also responded, along with emergency personnel from Phillips 66 and CHS refineries, the Yellowstone County Sheriffs Department, and Department of Emergency Services.

The ExxonMobil Billings Refinery spans 720 acres, and its products include gasoline, diesel, asphalt, butane and propane. The refinery is in a sparsely populated area and the fire drew some onlookers, and a few passing motorists stopped to shoot video. No evacuation of the area was ordered.

We are sorry this incident has occurred and apologize for any disruption or inconvenience, Carter said.

Bystanders could see a smoke column rising from the refinery in the late evening hours and witnesses described flames erupting from the compound.

Josh Thometz was watching a movie with his family at his home on Lapin Street when they heard a boom echo outside. They went to the street and one of their neighbors told them the refinery was on fire. Thometz captured footage of the flames as first responders battled the blaze.

A full assessment of any damages and an investigation of the cause will be taking place, Carter said Sunday morning.

Air monitoring in the community showed no adverse readings from the fire, Carter added, and all relevant regulatory agencies have been notified.

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Towanda, PA (18848)

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Periods of rain. High near 55F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch..

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U.S. President Joe Biden arrives at Rzeszow-Jasionka Airport, in Poland, March 25, 2022. (Photo by Piotr Piwowarski/Xinhua)

Biden is visiting Poland, after attending the NATO summit, G7 gathering and the summit of the European Council.

The U.S. president tried to coax a display of unity with European partners, but failed to talk them into concerted actions against Russia.

WARSAW, March 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday met with Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov during his visit to Poland, "for an update on Ukraine's military, diplomatic, and humanitarian situation," according to the White House.

Biden dropped in a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and their Ukranian counterparts, Kuleba and Reznikov.

They discussed "further efforts to help Ukraine defend its territory" and the United States and its allies' ongoing actions towards Russia, the White House said in statement.

In a tweet, Kuleba said that the meeting between Ukrainian ministers and U.S. secretaries allowed him to seek "practical decisions in both political and defense spheres in order to fortify Ukraine's ability to fight back," while Reznikov tweeted that he acquired "cautious optimism."

Biden is visiting Poland, after attending the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit, G7 gathering and the summit of the European Council -- three intensive summits in two days with the Ukraine crisis as major focus.

The U.S. president tried to coax a display of unity with European partners, but failed to talk them into concerted actions against Russia.

The NATO summit concluded Thursday with no agreement to impose additional sanctions against Moscow, especially the country's oil and gas products. Nor did the European Council summit succeed in reaching a consensus on the same issue.
After a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Montana State University Billings Powwow returns on April 1 and 2 in Alterowitz Gym on MSUBs campus.

The theme for the 2022 powwow is resilience celebration. Powwow grand entry begins on Friday, April 1 at 6 p.m. and will continue Saturday, April 2 at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. The powwow host drum is Black Lodge White Swan, from Washington, master of ceremonies is Lawrence Baker from Four Bears Community, North Dakota, and arena director is George Abeyta, from Fort Washakie, Wyoming. Head woman dancer is MSUB student Madisan Chavez, and head man dancer is MSUB student George Reed, both from the Crow Tribe.

The MSUB powwow is a great way to bring many communities together and celebrate the rich and diverse Native American cultures, said Sunny Day Real Bird, director of MSUBs Native American Achievement Center. This event also showcases our quality students, Madisan and George, both of whom are head dancers for the Powwow, taking a full course load, working, and Madisan also being one of our student athletes.

Free Native American cultural community events will take place throughout the week leading up to the powwow. In partnership with the Rocky Mountain Tribal leaders, individuals can prepare for the powwow by making drum tobacco and prayer ties on Wednesday, March 30 from 6-8 p.m. in the student union building. On Thursday, March 31 from 4-5 p.m. at MSUBs Native American Achievement Center, individuals can make their own smudge kits and learn about the sacred practice of smudging. On Saturday, April 2, MSUB and the Native American Development Corporation will host a 2K and 5K fun run. Participants will meet at the roundabout by the Billings International Airport on top of the rims. Registration starts at 8 a.m. and the race begins at 9 a.m.

MSUBs Powwow is free and open to the public. Contest entrance fees are $5 for individuals six years of age and older. For more information about the powwow, visit the powwow webpage or contact Sunny Day Real Bird at sunnyday.realbird@msubillings.edu.

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Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of Nixons White House Wars: The Battles That Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever. To find out more about Patrick Buchanan and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at www.creators.com.
An image taken from video footage run by China's state broadcaster CCTV of a worker holding the second black box which recovered at the China Eastern flight crash site near Wuzhou city in southern China's Guangxi Province on March 23, 2022. (CCTV via Reuters/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

2nd Black Box Recovered in China Eastern Plane Crash

The second black box, the flight data recorder, has been recovered from the wreckage of China Eastern Flight MU5735, which crashed in southern China, killing 132 people.

The black box was recovered five feet deep in the ground and about 130 feet away from the point where the plane crashed, Zhu Tao, director of the Office of Aviation Safety at the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), told a press conference on March 27.

Parts of the recorder were badly damaged, but the exterior of the data storage unit of the device appears to be in good condition, Zhu said, adding it has been sent to Beijing for analysis.

Investigators in Beijing are decoding another black boxthe cockpit voice recorderafter it was found on March 23. Officials said the exterior of the cockpit voice recorder was damaged but have given no indication whether the recording was intact.

Retrieving the data from the two recorders is seen as key to understanding what caused the plane to suddenly go into a near-vertical dive and crash into a mountainside near Wuzhou city in southern Guangxi Province.

Flight MU5735 was cruising at an altitude of 29,000 feet after about an hour into its journey from the city of Kunming to Guangzhou. It lost more than 20,000 feet in a minute and briefly regained altitude for about 10 seconds before resuming its nose-dive into a hillside, FlightRadar24s data show.

None of the 123 passengers and nine crew members survived, Chinese officials announced on March 26. The authorities said no traces of explosive materials were found at the crash site.

Grieving relatives arrive at the site where China Eastern flight MU5375 crashed on March 21, near Wuzhou, in southwestern Chinas Guangxi Province, on March 24, 2022. (Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images)

The sharp drop in altitude by the Boeing 737-800 is baffling aviation experts.

Flight data recorders store crucial details including airspeed, altitude, direction, and engine power. They can also record the position of wing flaps and whether the plane was flying by autopilot. Officials said on March 23 that the two black boxes of the crashed jet were manufactured by Honeywell, without specifying the models names.

CAAC News mistakenly reported the flight data recorder was recovered on March 25. Minutes later the report was removed, with state news outlet Xinhua saying it was untrue.

The Chinese regime responded quickly to control the flow of information after the accident.

The countrys internet regulator has banned over 2,700 accounts and removed more than 279,000 posts deemed to be illegal and spreading rumors on social media platforms, including the Twitter-like Weibo and Quora-like Zhihu, China Cyberspace Administration said on March 26.

Read More Explainer: What is Known About the Crash of China Eastern Airlines Flight MU5735

The investigation will be led by CAAC. It will also include a representative of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and representatives from Boeing and CFM, the General Electric Co.Safran joint venture that made the engines. The NTSB has said that talks were ongoing with China to address COVID-19 quarantine requirements.

Investigators will look at the planes maintenance history, the training and record of the pilots, and weather data. Theyll examine pieces of the wreckage for clues. Even the size of the debris field is important. When wreckage is spread over a very large area, it could indicate the plane was breaking up before hitting the ground.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Alabama Wine Shop Owner Files Lawsuit Against State After Losing Business During COVID Lockdowns

A former business owner in Alabama filed a lawsuit on March 19 against Republican Gov. Kay Ivey and state Health Director Scott Harris, alleging that the COVID-19 lockdowns implemented by the executive branch resulted in a loss of $54,680 and caused the shops closure.

Saranne Riccio, the business owner who opened Uncorked Wine Shop & Tasting Room in Huntsville, Alabama in 2018, is represented by Matt Clark, an attorney with the Alabama Center for Law and Liberty (ACLL).

Our big concern is that two executive branch officialsthe governor and the state health directorgot to make all the rules for about a year without any input from the legislature, Clark told The Epoch Times. Its the legislative branch that has the power to make laws, and the executive branch has the power to carry them out.

Even under an extended emergency, its a violation of the separation of powers, Clark said.

In March 2020, Harris issued an order forbidding all restaurants, bars, breweries, or similar establishments from allowing on-premises consumption of food or drink, the lawsuit states, which Clark argued severely impacted Riccios ability to make money.

The order also forbade a gathering of 25 people or more.

Clark said Riccio made 70 percent of her gross profit from customers entering the shop to taste wine, and that the business was garnering good reviews. Then when COVID-19 hit, Ivey and Harris began issuing restrictions that left Riccios shop classified as nonessential, a death sentence for many businesses across the nation.

Even after Ivey began walking the state back out of the restrictions, Riccios business continued to be subject to limitationssuch as how many people could be allowed in the shop and how socially distant they needed to be from each otheruntil April 2021.

By then it was too late, Clark said.

With all the restrictions gone, she was still left trying to figure out how to make up for all the money she lost, Clark said. She had to close later in 2021, and she just narrowly escaped bankruptcy.

Riccio contacted ACLL, the conservative nonprofit litigation firm that focuses on issues on preserving limited government, protecting free markets, and constitutional rights.

We are suing for restitution for our client and to set a precedent stating that if anything ever happens like this again, a special session needs to be called of the legislature so that the peoples representatives can debate the matter and decide what the rules are going to be, Clark said. The peoples representatives are the ones who represent the small business owner, and hopefullyif something were to ever happen like this againthey can figure out a way to create a win-win where you protect public safety and ensure that small business owners continue to make a living instead of being shut down.

A Herd of Turtles

The lawsuit cites a Yellowhammer News article that cites Ivey dismissing a bill that would have allowed for representatives to have a say in the COVID restrictions. Ivey said, In an emergency, you dont need a herd of turtles gathering to make an emergency decision.

Former state Sen. Phil Williams and chief policy officer for the Alabama Policy Instituteparent company of the ACLLresponded to Iveys comments by saying, For the governor to so cavalierly dismiss the legislative branch of government in that way is a step too far. For a year she has had sole reign in Montgomery to shut down businesses, extend legislation that was not hers to extend, and spend CARES ACT funds on government instead of the private sector.

Williams said Ivey could have called the legislature into a special session, but chose not to do so.

Little to No Effect

The lawsuit cites a study from the John Hopkins University that says the lockdowns had little to no effect on the COVID-19 pandemic and that the lockdowns imposed enormous economic and social cost to businesses.

The study says that lockdowns had devastating effects that contributed to reducing economic activity, raising unemployment, reducing schooling, causing political unrest, contributing to domestic violence, and undermining liberal democracy.

These costs to society must be compared to the benefits of lockdowns, which our meta-analysis has shown are marginal at best, the study states. Such a standard benefit-cost calculation leads to a strong conclusion: lockdowns should be rejected out of hand as a pandemic policy instrument.

It Was a Mistake

In a December 2020 interview with WSFA-TV, Ivey said it was a mistake to mandate that some businesses close, adding that all businesses are essential.

So, since May, I have absolutely had no conversation about closing any of our businesses, because our people deserve to be able to earn a livelihood.

A spokesperson for both the governors office and the state health directors office said the agencies couldnt comment on pending litigation.
Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks to the media during a press conference at Kirribilli House in Sydney on Feb. 24, 2022. (AAP Image/Bianca De Marchi via Reuters)

Australian PM Rejects Diplomacy With Beijing, Concerned About ChinaSolomon Islands Security Pact

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has rejected the possibility of meeting with Chinese Ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian, a move he said would be a sign of weakness.

Speaking to reporters on March 26, Morrison described his decision as an entirely proportional response after Beijing completely blocked any minister-to-minister dialogue.

That would be a demonstration of weakness, and I can assure you as prime minister, thats the last message Id ever send to China, he said. [Until] that block is removed by China, well, I think Australians would see it as very inappropriate for me to engage in that dialogue with an ambassador.

Morrisons comment comes on the back of the Chinese communist regime forming a military pact with the Solomon Islands allowing Chinese security and naval deployments to the nation, which is within 1,700 kilometers (1,050 miles) of Australias northern city of Cairns. On March 25, the Solomon Islands government defended the proposal as a needed move to improve the quality of lives of our people and address soft and hard security threats facing the country.

The security deal has triggered geopolitical anxieties for Australia and its allies, which are wary of communist Chinas expansionist footprint in the region.

There is great concern across the Pacific family because we are in constant contact with our Pacific family, Morrison told reporters on March 26.

However, the prime minister indicated that his government wouldnt step in because these are the decisions of sovereign governments and that despite the archipelagos new pact with Beijing, Australia would continue to be there on the ground to support Solomon Islands security and stability.

It was when the Solomon Islands recently went into a time of crisis, the first place the Solomon Islands called was Australia. And we sent in our defence forces and our police, and theyre still there, and we have committed to them being there till the end of 2023, he said.

In 2019, Morrison announced an AU$2 billion (US$1.5 billion) infrastructure financing fund to the Pacific islands amid concerns that Beijing was growing its influence in the region through cheap concessional loans. In 2018, Australia supplanted Chinese Huawei to build an underwater telecommunication cable network connecting remote Solomon Islands communities to Honiara.

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare severed its longstanding ties with Taiwan and aligned itself with Beijing in 2019, fuelling public outrage. The move had reportedly been a factor that led to unrest in Honiara, Solomon Islands capital, in November 2021, prompting Australia to deploy its peacekeeping force to the Pacific Islands.

An anti-government message adorns a burnt-out building in Honiara, Solomon Islands, on Nov. 27, 2021. (Charley Piringi/AFP via Getty Images)

A U.S. State Department spokesperson said the draft security agreement and the police deal didnt address the underlying issues that contributed to the deadly riots.

We do not believe [Peoples Republic of China] security forces and their methods need to be exported, the spokesperson said. This would only fuel local, regional, and international concerns over Beijings unilateral expansion of its internal security apparatus to the Pacific.

AAP contributed to this report.
A snake in the grass is a deadly encroaching danger that cant always be seen. Recently, President Joe Biden visited Belgium and Poland to signal support to NATO members on Ukraines doorstep. In speaking to U.S. troops in Poland, Biden seemed to let slip the expectation that U.S. forces will, at some point, be fighting against Russia in Ukraine. However, amid these developments and sanctions led by the United States that are slamming Russias economy, the United States has been rolling back efforts, like the China Initiative, aimed at keeping the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) unrestricted warfare against the United States in check. As an aside, the CCP is heavily suspected of preparing to give, if not already providing, military support to Russia in Ukraine.

What do the United States and its Western allies need to understand about the CCP in order to not be totally overwhelmed by it as it seemingly expands its global power?

What can the nation that lies nearest the jaws of the beast and has survived its hybrid warfare assaults for generations teach us about countering this danger?



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President Joe Biden delivers a speech about the Russian war in Ukraine at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland, on March 26, 2022. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

Biden Says War Has Been Strategic Failure for Russia

U.S. President Joe Biden said on March 26 that the war in Ukraine has been a strategic failure for Russia and that Russian President Vladimir Putin can and must end this war.

Biden also said Putin cannot remain in power, a remark that a White House official later clarified wasnt intended as a call for regime change.

Biden was in Poland on the second day of his trip to the countryalso the fourth and final day of his trip to Europe. In a major address delivered from Warsaw, the U.S. president warned Russia against encroaching on NATO territory.

Dont even think about moving on one single inch of NATO territory, Biden said. We have a sacred obligation under Article 5 to defend each and every inch of NATO territory with the full force of our collective power.

According to the United Nations, of the more than 3.7 million people who have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded on Feb. 24, the vast majoritymore than 2.2 million peoplehave entered Poland.

About 750 to 1,000 people were in attendance on March 26 at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, including Polish President Andrzej Duda, members of parliament, local officials, students from local universities, and U.S. Embassy staff. Biden spoke for nearly 30 minutes.

President Joe Biden delivers a speech at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland, on March 26, 2022. (Omar Marques/Getty Images)

Biden told the crowd that U.S. forces are in Europe not to engage in conflict with Russia, but to defend NATO allies.

The Kremlin wants to portray NATO enlargement as an imperial project aimed at destabilizing Russia. Nothing is further from the truth. NATO is a defensive alliance. It has never sought the demise of Russia, he said.

Within days of Russias invasion, western nations moved jointly with sanctions to damage Russias economy, Biden said, noting that as a result of the collective sanctions, the Russian ruble is immediately reduced to rubble. Eastern countries such as Japan and Taiwan have also announced sanctions on Russia.

The [Russian] economy is on track to be cut in half in the coming years. Russias economy was ranked the 11th biggest economy in the world before this [invasion]. It will soon not even rank among the top 20 in the world, he said. This battle will not be won in days or months, either. We need to steel ourselves for the long fight ahead.

Biden said Europe must end its dependence on Russian fossil fuels and assured that the United States will help.

Thats why just yesterday, in Brussels, I announced a plan with the President of the European Commission to get Europe through the immediate energy crisis, he said.

Biden also issued some remarks directed at the Russian people.

You, the Russian people, are not our enemy, he said.

The U.S. president said he refused to believe that the Russian people will tolerate the current situation endured by innocent Ukrainians. He blamed the sanctions on Putins aggression, which has cut the Russian people off from the rest of the world and taken Russia back to the 19th century.

Putin has described Russias military actions in Ukraine as a special military operation to demilitarize and denazify the country.

Biden, near the end of his speech, said Putin cannot remain in power.

A White House official later clarified: The Presidents point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. He was not discussing Putins power in Russia, or regime change.

Read More Kremlin Responds to Biden Suggesting Regime Change in Russia

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denounced Bidens remarks.

Its not up to the president of the U.S. and not up to the Americans to decide who will remain in power in Russia, Peskov said.

Earlier during his trip, Biden had meetings with the G-7, European Council, and NATO allies. On March 25, he met with U.S. troops in the Polish town of Rzeszow and was later briefed on the refugee situation on the ground.

Earlier on March 26, he dropped in on a meeting with Ukraines foreign and defense ministers and made additional, unspecified security pledges on developing defense cooperation, according to Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

Meanwhile, the western Ukrainian city of Lviv was hit with missiles, an attack in which at least five people injured. The city is about 50 miles from the border with Poland. Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyy said a fuel storage facility had been hit and that no residential buildings had been damaged in the strikes that seemingly targeted infrastructure.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Artur Pawlowski speaks at a freedom rally in Edmonton on March 20, 2021, part of a worldwide protest against COVID-19 restrictions. (Courtesy of Artur Pawlowski)

Calgary Preacher Arrested in Alberta Border Blockade Gets Bail

A Calgary pastor has been granted bail after his arrest more than six weeks ago for his involvement with protesters at a border blockade in southern Alberta.

Calgary Street Church minister Artur Pawlowski is charged with breaching an order to keep the peace and with committing mischief by inciting others to block use of public property.

The charges relate to his joining a rally at a roadblock on Highway 4 outside Milk River, Alta., and later giving a speech heard on video telling protesters to continue their fight against government mandates.

A judge denied Pawlowski release on Feb. 9, but Court of Queens Bench Justice Gaylene Kendall granted him bail Friday after a review.

Pawlowski is required to pay $25,000 in bail as well as a $10,000 surety from his wife and an additional $2,000 from his son.
Attorney General William Barr participates in a press conference at the Department of Justice along with DOJ officials on Feb. 10, 2020 in Washington, DC. Barr announced the indictment of four members of China's military on charges of hacking into Equifax Inc. and stealing data from millions of Americans. (Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images)

CCP Engaged in Unprecedented Assault on US Technology, Research: Former CIA Counterintelligence Chief

Economic espionage, trade theft, and technology transfer by the Chinese regime are on the rise in the United States, and while U.S. intelligence agencies have an opportunity to get the upper hand through clandestine activity, the Biden administration is limiting their ability to do carry this out, according to a counterintelligence analyst.

The issue of Chinese espionage was thrown in the spotlight recently when the Justice Department unveiled charges against five individuals over a series of schemes sanctioned by Chinese secret police to surveil, harass and intimidate ethnic Chinese dissidents in the United States. Among those targeted in the plots included a Congressional candidate, an American Olympic figure skater and her father, and a dissident artist.

Michigan State Sen. Jim Runestad recently told The Epoch Times that the Chinese regime is openly recruiting spies in the United States, and our own government seems not to care.

The Epoch Times spoke to James Olson, the former chief of CIA counterintelligence and the author of To Catch a Spy: The Art of Counterintelligence. Like Runestad, he is gravely concerned about Chinese espionage in the United States, saying that the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) operations inside the United States have increased exponentially in the past 10 years. He also believes that U.S. authorities may have taken a step backward in stifling them.

Theres been a frontal assault on U.S. technology, research, and databases during this timeits unprecedented, Olson said.

He considers CCP espionage activity to be a couple of magnitudes greater than what the United States has witnessed from Russia. While Russians continue to spy on the United States, he said, the Chinese have surpassed them with extreme aggression.

Hungry, Eager, and Aggressive

The Chinese regime is constantly on the lookout for people working for or leaving high-tech corporate firms, national laboratories, or various sectors of the government, according to Olson.

Yet this also represents an opportunity for the United States.

Because [the CCP] is so hungry, eager, and aggressive in spying on the U.S., they are ripe to be had by double agent operations, he said.

Olson is a strong advocate of double agent operations and considers such clandestine efforts underutilized across intelligence agencies today.

[Its] a tremendous boon for the U.S. counterintelligence to bring someone into a double agent operation, he said, adding that a lot can be accomplished by flooding the Chinese regime with such operations. Most importantly, he said, this includes identifying their personnel and their method of operations.

The United States needs to dress up some tiny, attractive little morsels for them to come after, Olson said, suggesting that one way to do that is to take action in places where Chinese spies are currently operating. [The Chinese remine] is making very extensive use of social media, particularly LinkedIn.

As a result, he said it is wise to plant people on the online platform. These plants can seek people to be put under the control of a U.S intelligence agency, luring them into conducting a double agent operation for our benefit, he said.

LinkedIn profiles quite often list the careers people have had, the work they are currently involved in, or the kind of work they are seeking. This is very attractive to the Chinese regime, Olson said. Its a candy store [to them].

While some LinkedIn users, for example, are looking for post-retirement opportunities or for new jobs, there are also U.S. business executives or government workers who already travel to China that can be dangled in front of the Chinese regime.

When the Chinese [regime] finds an American who looks vulnerable, Olson said, theyll be very inclined to contact him or her, and thats exactly what you want in a double agent operation,

Chinese intelligence agents, he said, use a well-worn playbook. Theyll say they are very impressed by a resume and express to the person that theyre a good fit for some research or collaboration project in China, then try to lure them to come to China to discuss in more detail.

Once someone is in China, their handlers maintain the pretense that its an innocent offer, Olson explained. But during this time, theyll see how far the person will go, dangling lots of money out in front of them to make it easier to make a decision, he said. Many have fallen into this trap through the years, he added.

Once someone is willing to reveal some of our countrys secrets or technology, [he or she] has gone too far and the Chinese are in the drivers seat.

Its the job of U.S intelligence agencies to create opportunities to beat the Chinese regime at their game, yet there needs to be an uptick in double agent operations to make it happen, he said.

Targeting Ethnic Chinese

Earlier this year, the Justice Department canceled the Trump-era anti-espionage China Initiative amid criticism that authorities were engaging in racial profiling. While an internal probe found that this was not the case, the program was halted to avoid what Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen called a harmful perception of bias.

Former President Donald Trump later called the cancelation a big mistake.

Olson agreed, saying that it was a very, very bad move because the Department of Justice and FBI were making a lot of progress in Chinese operations.

It was shut down under the perception that it was targeting predominantly ethnic Chinese Americans, and this was considered by the administration to be discriminatory, he added.

But such a stance betrays a misunderstanding of how the Chinese regime operates. They go very aggressively after Chinese Americans and play the ethnic card, he said.

This is their target audience, Olson explained. They are actively seeking Chinese Americans in the hopes that they have some kind of residual sympathy for the motherland, that they are linked to family members still on the mainland, or maybe just showing tremendous pride in their Chinese heritage.

Olson said the China Initiative was in place to curtail the Chinese regime from taking advantage of these vulnerable groups in the United States, particularly in high tech companies and on university campuses.

Unfortunately, it has been signaled to the [Chinese regime] that there is an open season on economic espionage and the theft of intellectual property to be had through Chinese Americans and others found willing to participate, he said.
The London Metal Exchange suspended nickel trading because of the Tsingshan (THG) nickel incident, the first time since 1985 that the LME has suspended trading in a metal, in London, on March 8, 2022. The graph shows the one-day rise and fall of nickel prices on the London Stock Exchange. (Ben Stansall/AFP)

Chinas Influence Over Metals Trading Creates Advantage for Its Domestic Enterprises

Commentary

Chinese stainless steel giant Tsingshan Holding Group (THG) has relied for many years on short selling to reduce its future costs for nickel, a key component of stainless steel and a major ingredient in lithium-ion batteries. But rather than nickel prices falling as hoped, the price skyrocketed to more than $100,000 per ton on March 8, one day before THGs 200,000-ton short sell contract was due on March 9.

The price of nickel went up even before Russia invaded Ukraine, reflecting the increasing demand for electric vehicle batteries and stainless steel. The price soared after the war started, as Russia produces 23 percent of the worlds high-quality nickel and has been sanctioned financially. The price rocketed as THG bought large amounts of nickel to reduce those short bets and its exposure to costly margin calls.

Some traders refer to this as the Demon Nickel incident. Within the futures market, the term demon refers to the difficulties associated with attempting to control the price of volatile futures.

The Demon Nickel incident unfolded rapidly on March 8, when the price per ton for nickel on the London Metal Exchange (LME) unexpectedly broke the average $60,000 to $70,000 mark and continued rising to more than $100,000 per ton. That was an unprecedented short squeeze, and THGs staggering loss could be as high as $8 billion.

According to a report in China Securities Journal, THGs failure to deliver the 200,000 tons of nickel short sells is because Russian nickel was kicked out of the LME trading market under the sanctions.

Somehow, on March 9, everything changed. The LME, a 145-year-old trading institution, announced that it was suspending the nickel trading market until March 15the first time since 1985 that the LME has suspended trading in a metal. Then it retroactively canceled nickel trades executed on all venues from midnight until 8:15 a.m. on March 8 when trading stopped. The LME also postponed delivery of all settled nickel contracts due for March 9 to March 23 and set daily limits on nickel price fluctuations before resuming nickel trading.

The LME itself called these actions unprecedented.

To prevent future losses of this magnitude, THG announced on March 15 that it was collaborating with the LME and a syndicate of futures bank creditors and had reached a silent agreement that would help to resolve the major issues over its short positions. The agreement shows that during the silent period, THG doesnt need to add margins and wont be forced to close the deal.

Founded in 1988 and based in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, THG is one of the worlds top producers of stainless steel. It also maintains operations in Indonesia, India, and Zimbabwe. In recent years, THG has had an effect on global prices because of its pioneering use of low-grade nickel pig iron. It currently ranks 14th among Chinas top 500 private enterprises.

Traders, brokers, and clerks shout and gesture on the first day of in-person trading at the London Metal Exchange in London on Sept. 6, 2021. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Although the LME relaxed the floating range of nickel price again on March 18, allowing 15 percent variation, this and other actions narrowed the range of daily price fluctuations and alleviated the pressures on THG. Going forward, its hoped that the LMEs price per ton for nickel will no longer swing wildly from $40,000 per ton to more than $100,000 in just one day, as occurred on March 8.

The LMEs prompt actions made it possible for THG to walk away from deals made unprofitable by uncertain margins and delivery difficulties. This raises an important question: Why did the LME, an international entity, change its market trading rules to save a Chinese company?

One simple answer was provided by Jing Chuan, deputy general manager and chief economist for the Wuchan Zhongda Futures Co.

The LMEs measures should be the most positive among the many incidents, and it also shows that the relevant domestic parties have taken the initiative, which is very effective in quickly resolving the crisis of the incident, Jing said, as reported by China Securities Trader on March 10.

In other words, Jing believes that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) owns the LME and took swift action behind the scenes to facilitate a rapid solution.

In December 2012, the Hong Kong Exchange and Clearing Limited (HKEX) purchased all ordinary shares of LME, the worlds largest base metals exchange, for an astronomical amount of nearly $2 billion. Only two of its directors remain on the board, and the other 10 resigned.

Mike Sun, a North American private investor, told The Epoch Times that the CCP paid a premium price that the British couldnt refuse.

It didnt matter to the Chinese that the LME purchase price was 180 times larger than its historical price-to-earnings ratio. Nor was it an issue that this purchase had exploded HKEXs debt ratio from zero percent to nearly 50 percent.

More important than price to the Chinese regime was the ability to directly influence base metal trading policies and prices on behalf of its domestic enterprises. HKEXs major shareholders include the Hong Kong SAR (HKSAR) government and JPMorgan Chase. But by the end of 2021, the HKSAR government held more than twice as many ordinary shares as JPMorgan Chase. Additionally, HKEXs board of directors is appointed by the Hong Kong government. So if truth be told, the CCP owns the LME and directs its activities, often to the advantage of its domestic industries.

Continuing coverage of the Demon Nickel incident has exposed the CCPs role in metals trading. In a statement provided to Chinas Yicai Global news service on March 8, THGs owner and chairman, Xiang Guangda, said that the relevant departments and leaders of the national [Chinese] government are very supportive of Tsingshan.

The CCPs support of THG is essential, as THGs production of high ice nickel (about 70 percent purity) doesnt meet the 99.8 percent purity standards required by the LME. THG announced on March 10 that it had already deployed sufficient goods for delivery through various channels. THG said it would exchange its impure nickel for high-grade nickel plates, which only the central government can supply that huge an amount in such a short period of time.

The China Securities Journal reported on March 13 that the THG executives plan to go to Beijing soon to communicate with the relevant parties, hoping to reach a solution as soon as possible to overcome the crisis.

The short versus long sides game for price advantage continues to be played by many parties. Perhaps the LME agreement will provide a refreshing step in the right direction for all metal traders.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
An airstrip made by China is seen beside structures and buildings at the man-made island on Mischief Reef at the Spratlys group of islands in the South China Sea are seen on Sunday March 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

CCPs Militarization of South China Sea Islands Marks Significant Change in Balance of Power in Region: Analysts

The militarization of islands in the South China Sea is an indicator of the Chinese regimes desire to dominate the region and send a message to the rest of the world, according to security analysts.

Recently, the Commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Adm. John Aquilino, revealed that the Chinese regime has fully militarized at least three islands in the disputed South China Sea.

The Chinese Communist Party claims the vast majority of these strategic waterways, a region disputed by several other Southeast Asian states. While Beijings territorial claims have been rejected by an international tribunal, it has sought to assert its claims by building and militarizing artificial islands in the area.

This development confirmed by Aquilino marks a significant escalation in the Peoples Republic of Chinas (PRC) strategic goal of extending sovereignty over the South China Sea, according to James Fanell, a former director of intelligence and information operations for the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

He also considered this goal a fundamental element of General Secretary Xi Jinping and the CCPs widely publicized great rejuvenationa plan viewed by officials and analysts as revealing Beijings plan to replace the United States as sole superpower by 2049.

Retired U.S. Navy Cmdr. Kirk Lippold agreed, saying that the world is witnessing the CCPs long-term pursuit of regional, and ultimately, global dominance. To reach its goal, he said, the regime is using a range of instruments of national power, which are diplomatic, economic, informational, and military in nature.

The CCP wants to negotiate their position in the world from a position of strengtheconomic dominance and military dominance, said Lippold.

To do that, the Chinese regime has leveraged the theft of intellectual property from around the world, especially the United States, to help build an economy that Lippold said basically pulled the world in to become dependent on them in both resources and manufacturing.

Developing Power

Although the World Bank and other United Nations body still considers China to be a developing nation, Lippold said, China has manipulated world opinion for the last two decades to get everyone to believe that they are still a developing nation.

In 2019, the China National Space Administration landed a robotic spacecraft on the dark side of the moon for the first time in history. And in 2021, China tested a nuclear-capable hypersonic glide vehicle, circling the globe through low-orbit space.

Given these, Lippold said, its ludicrous to consider China a developing nation when they have the ability to send spacecraft to the moon and test hypersonic missiles. These are things first-world nations do, and you have to have economic power to do that, he said.

Lippold said the Chinese regime is clearly gaining the economic and military might to be able to project power into the Taiwan Strait, over Taiwan, into the South China Sea, and around the rest of the world.

Thwart the Positioning

An estimated 60 percent of maritime trade passes through Asia, about one third by volume passes through the South China Sea, according to estimates by The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. The CCP wants to be able to interdict and control this flow of that traffic, because they know that controlling the economic flow of goods brings them one step closer to becoming a dominant world power, Lippold said.

The Chinese regimes militarized islands are a very dangerous development, and the United Stateswho has essentially been silent on the matterbetter take a long, hard look and understand that this cant result in a pivot to China, he added.

He said Beijings actions must be stopped. If that pushes toward confrontation, then maybe thats whats going to have to happen.

The Chinese regime must not be allowed to get into a position where they use those islands to project power in a manner that threatens our economy, our allies, and our military operations in that part of the world, Lippold said.

Gaining Presence At Sea

Ultimately, Fanell said, the full militarization of the artificial islands with anti-aircraft and anti-ship weapons is designed to make national security policy makers in Washington D.C. reconsider coming to Taiwans defense through the South China Sea.

The CCPs militarization of the South China Sea represents a significant change in the military balance of power in the Indo-Pacific region, Fanell said.

It puts further pressure on the United States to increase its military presence and capabilities in the region and to redouble its efforts at establishing basing and armament stockpiles in like-minded allied nations that do not wish to be under the dictatorial thumb of the CCP.

Lippold believes that if a punching war with the Chinese navy over Taiwan were to occur today, the United States would dominate.

However, he is concerned about the CCPs build-up of naval vessels. According to a March report by the Congressional Research Service, Chinas Peoples Liberation Army-Navy (PLAN) has a battle force of approximately 355 platforms, which surpasses that of the U.S. Navy numerically. By 2025, the PLANs battle force is expected to increase to 420 ships by 2025 and 460 ships by 2030, the report said.

When this amount of hardware is put to sea, Lippold said, its going to begin to be a challenge, if not outright rival, to the United States Navy.

Every time they put a new vessel to sea and conduct various training exercises from this day forward, he said, they are gaining operational experience at sea, and honing the edge of a sword.
Fentanyl is pulsing through the asphalt veins of Montana.

In November of last year, law enforcement clotted a bit of that flow when officers pulled over a Ford Fusion near Buffalo, Wyoming.

Inside the car was a man, a woman, and 9,000 fentanyl pills, according to an affidavit filed in federal court. Along with fentanyl  the synthetic opioid that has contributed to the more than 100,000 overdose deaths in the United States in 2021  police found heroin, meth, cocaine and prescription opioids.

The two people on their way back to Billings from Denver, Eric Charles Swan and Elizabeth Ardelle Grace Ronshaugen, have since pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute controlled substances. Their arrests and the confiscation of fentanyl valued on the streets of Montana at more than $100,000 has not halted traffickers.

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported this week that a New York man allegedly tried to mail 13 grams of fentanyl to his Bozeman home. Nor have overdoses subsided in the state, with the Blackfeet Nation declaring a state of emergency following 17 overdoses and four fatalities attributed to fentanyl.

These are the drugs that are really driving the overdose deaths in the region. Its a high priority right now to focus on the groups that are most responsible for bringing [fentanyl] here, said Keith Weiss, director of the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.

Fentanyl was first produced in the 1960s as a pharmaceutical to treat severe pain. In recent years, labs with the resources to create the same compound illicitly have supplied traffickers who have carried pills and loose fentanyl powder across the United States. Overdose deaths due to fentanyl coming from these labs have multiplied in the past decade, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with the nation reaching 12 times as many overdoses in 2019 than in 2013.

Overdoses and fatalities due to fentanyl and other synthetic opioids have especially increased in the past two years; an epidemic that coincided with the spread of COVID-19. Of the more than 104,000 overdose deaths tracked by the CDCs preliminary data for the year between October 2020 and 2021, synthetic opioids like fentanyl came second only to naturally derived prescription opioids like oxycodone.

Fentanyl emerged over the past several years as the opioid epidemic took shape with prescription pill abuse, Weiss said. "Once those prescriptions stopped, that drove opioid users into the illicit market. Thats since evolved into illicit fentanyl abuse."

The bulk of fentanyl in the U.S. came from labs south of the countrys border. The Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force encompasses 34 counties across Colorado, Montana, Wyoming and Utah. Task force members include law enforcement from the city, county, tribal and federal levels all working in coordination to block the flow of narcotics from the nation's interstate system to local drug markets.

The general trajectory of fentanyl to those drug markets has the raw materials for the compound going from China to super labs in Mexico, Weiss said, massive operations able to produce a consistent product. Theyre also equipped with the presses that create a pill that mimics prescription doses.

You do get some smaller operations north of the border here and there, and these individuals are able to obtain the drug via the dark net. The level of sophistication of these operations varies, and sometimes the doses will be too high, making hot loaded pills with too much fentanyl that causes a severe overdose. The super labs down South, theyre more talented in producing a stabilized product. Its never their intention to kill their customers. They want them to keep coming back, he said.

The investigation into the drug racket that ended in federal indictments for Swan and Ronshaugen started with a traffic stop in Billings. Local police allegedly found Swan in possession of heroin and meth in December 2020, according to a federal criminal complaint. Through November 2021, law enforcement connected Ronshaugen to Swan through a search of the latters phone. When Billings SWAT entered a home believed to be the residence for the two, they found meth, heroin and several firearms, court documents say.

Two people who went unnamed in an affidavit spoke with investigators in November 2021, saying they regularly bought fentanyl pills from Swan. One person bought fentanyl from the 44-year-old every two weeks at $15 a pill. The cost of a pill-sized dose of fentanyl varies, increasing the further north a dealer sells from the Mexican border, but the national average is around $10, Weiss said.

Another source told law enforcement that Swan gets his supply of narcotics through bulk purchases made in Denver.

Investigators pinged Swans cell phone after being granted a search warrant that same month. Cell tower data showed him on a route back to Billings from Denver. Outreach to Wyoming law enforcement stopped his trip in Buffalo.

The Mexico connection

Just over five pounds, or 2,270 milligrams, of fentanyl powder was seized last year in Montana, according to Rocky Mountain HIDTA data, an increase of over 1,200% compared to 2020. As little as two milligrams are considered a potentially lethal dose. The number of pill doses seized went from 393 in 2020 to 34,745 in 2021. Nearly 32,000 of those pills were seized by the Billing Police Department drug unit, according to BPD data.

So far this year, the BPD drug unit has seized 304 pills and 2,016 loose grams.

We are working diligently to intercept it as well as we can. The trend right now is that we are on an upward swing," said Steve Crawford, head of the Division of Criminal Investigation Narcotics Bureau within the Montana Department of Justice. "Were in partnership with public health officials to get the word out about how dangerous this stuff is. Right now the most common form that were seeing are these counterfeit pills that take the form of and even have the imprint of an OxyContin tablet."

Crawford, who accepted the position in August 2020 while serving as the Bozeman chief of police, said nearly all of the batches of fentanyl pills seized in Montana contained a potentially fatal dose. He said DCI has opened trafficking investigations in Sidney, Missoula and Kalispell, suggesting nowhere in Montana is immune.

The bureau saw the most investigations in 2021 since at least 2015. Of those nearly 500 cases, 48 involved fentanyl, up from just two the previous year.

The introduction of fentanyl into the drug trade has both added to the shipments of traffickers who previously carried meth and created more traffickers, Crawford said. One recent development in trafficking has been the establishment of a direct link between the suppliers based out of Mexico and their customers in the United States. Although fentanyl has become a top priority for the states law enforcement, Crawford said, it hasnt replaced meth. Last year, law enforcement in the state seized nearly 311 pounds of methamphetamine ice and powder, the largest amount since at least 2017.

There used to be several middle people before you would get to the source of the supply The other trend thats happened is that the amounts have gotten bigger. Where we used to deal with ounces or up to a pound of meth, were seeing multiple pounds. With the fentanyl pills, we see hundreds or even more than 1,000, he said.

A review of federal and state public health data gives a grim forecast for some Montana residents, many of whom have lived through the meth and opioid epidemics as survivors of addiction or family and friends of those who have overdosed. In 2019, overdoses killed 139 people in Montana, and 157 in 2020, according to CDC data. Provisional CDC data predicts more than 187 in 2021, suggesting a grim trend upward.

One of the trends that we see is that some of the users are carrying and have friends of theirs carry Narcan as a kind of buddy system. And were seeing more and more powerful fentanyl being produced that its taking multiple rounds of Narcan to bring them back from an overdose, Crawford said.

An overdose on fentanyl - reported by the CDC to be 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine - has the same symptoms of any opioid overdose: shallow breathing and blue skin and fingertips as the respiratory system begins to fail. Sgt. Brad Mansur, who instructs BPD on how to apply the life-saving drug Narcan, generically known as Naloxone, said the best tell for an opioid overdose is in the eyes. The pupils shrink to pin points.

An opioid overdose crashes the part of the brain that controls breathing, giving an adult about a four-minute window before the bodys oxygen is depleted. Naloxone, applied nasally, typically has an instantaneous effect, Mansur said.

All of our officers are trained in the use of Naloxone We did that after seeing where the country was moving as far as the opioid epidemic, and to get ahead of the curve, he said.

In September, HITDA in coordination with the Montana DOJ and DPHHS created two new positions specifically to reduce overdoses in the state. William Janisch became the Rocky Mountain HITDA drug intelligence officer for the DCI in September 2021. Since then, hes overseen the launch of an overdose map accessible to local, state, federal and tribal authorities that gives notices in real time of overdoses.

Although there will be gaps in reporting, as its not uncommon for someone to recover from an overdose with Narcan and shirk calling 911, he said itll provide public safety and public health agencies with one of the clearest pictures of where spikes in fentanyl and other illicit drugs are occurring in real time.

Biggest threat to the state

Confirmed fatal overdoses in Montana involving just fentanyl went from the single digits from 2017 through 2020 to 21 last year alone, according to preliminary data from the state medical examiner. Deaths attributed to fentanyl mixed with other drugs are suspected to have caused 27 other deaths in Montana last year.

Emergency medical services are responding to more opioid overdoses than ever before, according to the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services. The number of opioid overdose-related 911 responses in the state was up by 35% in 2021 compared to 2020. Montana EMS personnel have responded to an average of 70 opioid-related calls a month so far this year.

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said fentanyl is the biggest threat to the state in terms of public health and violent crime. Without providing better surveillance and security at the U.S. border with Mexico, he said combating drug trafficking is like treating a gunshot wound with a Band-Aid. Stateside, he said K9 units, which have proven to be some of the most effective tools in intercepting traffickers, have been supplied with two dozen newly trained dogs in recent months. DCI has also recently added two full-time narcotics officers, with funding now in place to add three more officers.

Were absolutely going to keep seeing larger and larger seizures, and unfortunately were going to keep seeing more overdoses. I hope not, but I think were going to If youre in charge of any kids  parents, grandparents, guardians  please talk to your kids about fentanyl Were starting to see it in a lot more places and its becoming a lot more common. Please educate your kids, Knudsen said.

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Crowd Creation: A New Political Tool

Commentary

Put yourself in the mind of a smart, power-hungry politician obsessed with winning, someone with no moral compass. He is calmly reviewing the events of the past two years, looking for useful lessons on how to advance his or her career and causes in the future.

What nuggets of insight would such a person take away?

That you can manipulate people by playing on their fears, something copiously evident since 2020, is nothing new. That has been a staple of political writing for centuries, exemplified by Machiavellis contention that when faced with the choice between being feared and being loved, the wise ruler should always choose fear.

The dread of punishment, he believed, is a constant, while the bond of love will be broken at the drop of a hat if some advantage can be gained by doing so. Fear, then, is the more constant and reliable human motivator, and this has been known since long before Covid.

Its also old news that you can get away with spouting total nonsense if you repeat it often enough and have experts echoing the same thing. Repetition of a message is known in the field of marketing to create receptiveness to it, and even Goebbels famously said that the biggest of lies sounds totally plausible if repeated often enough.

That there are always legions of grovellers in the halls of power and in academia willing to rationalise anything a leader says is not new either. Just as Pharaohs and Roman emperors had high priests proclaiming them to be gods, todays ambitious scribblers and thought leaders are easily bought off by power and money.

So what in the Covid saga offers a new nugget of insight to the smart, history-savvy politician with a lust for power? The major surprise is that lockdowns transformed whole populations into crowds, or what Mattias Desmet has called mass formation psychosis.

The lockdown crowds, in the blink of an eye, internalised all the lies that their governments and science advisors peddled about those very lockdowns. In the grim weeks of lockdowns the world over, leaders approval ratings soared, dissent vaporized, critical minds were shouted down by their own colleagues and families, and the whole genius of society was subordinated to the lockdown project.

That insight is not to be found in the writings of Machiavelli. Indeed it is not part of standard teaching in psychology or sociologydisciplines that in recent decades have stopped seeing or presenting humans as innately herd animals, perhaps under the false hope that wed all somehow grown out of that nonsense. Ha.

Lockdowns created these crowds almost overnight, galvanising populations into single entities with a single truth and morality. The bureaucracies of state sprang into action, drawing up thousands of plans on everything that had to be regulated, directed, and defined, ranging from rules on how to implement social distancing in schools to classifying what was an essential job.

It was like this in 1914 too, when mobilization of the male population into the armies of Russia, Germany, Austro-Hungary, France, the Ottoman Empire, and Britain created the belligerents that slaughtered each other in the Great War. That mobilization galvanized European populations, pushing away previous doubts, forging previously individual minds into a collective that was oriented solely towards a war effort.

Millions started making plans for war, ranging from how to organize the hospitals to setting up food supply lines to distributing propaganda material. Once activated, the great mass of people involved in preparing for war made actual war inevitable.

Almost instantly, with mobilization, it no longer mattered that the whole circus was run by simpleton monarchs and politicians who had no idea what they had gotten themselves into. Once the marching started, the only question was which disaster they were marching towards.

The power-obsessed politician of today will perhaps have taken note of the immense potential of mass mobilization based on a review of history, but to see mass mobilization ignited so quickly and effectively via lockdowns will have raised an eyebrow. Lockdowns meant everyones behaviour changed.

Whether they agreed with lockdowns previously or not, everyone had to adjust their behaviour, thus focusing their minds on the same objects: compliance with new rules, the supposed logic of what was happening and the new morals that rationalized why the new behavior was good. In a way, for a time, lockdowns defined populations.

All those following particular rules became a crowd, distinct from other crowds that followed different rules and hence different morals. Simply noticing all those complying with the same rules and the same truths informed people of the crowd they were part of. Machiavelli did not speak of such a thing (at least not in our reading!).

Observing the effects of Covid lockdowns on populations reveals to the amoral power-pursuer a whole landscape of political possibilities that was previously obscured by the fancies of prior thinking. Given how politically useful it is to mobilise a whole population in the name of some story, the possible uses of lockdowns in the future are nearly infinite.

Consider the possibilities that may run through such a persons head. Lockdowns against climate change! Lockdowns as a dress rehearsal for nuclear war! Lockdowns in solidarity with Ukraine! Lockdowns could be made a compulsory form of Lent, Passover, or Ramadan: a means to affirm a particular set of ideas and a group that identifies with them. Seasonal lockdowns, lockdowns for the disabled, lockdowns to fight cancer, lockdowns for a higher minimum wage. And all made to happen relatively painlessly, through an inventive rationalisationbased on fearfollowed by the stroke of a pen of the right bureaucrat.

Relying on lockdowns as a mobilization device does have disadvantages though. Lockdowns make the population unhealthy, anxious, and (most importantly from the amoral politicians standpoint) unproductive. They do not generate nearly the same fevered enthusiasm as the military mobilizations of 1914.

A clever politician will look for less costly ways of mobilizing a population into a crowd to generate support for a single obsession, at least for as long as it is politically desirable for that to be the obsession du jour. What other mobilization methods might come to mind?

How about a tree-planting week when the entire population, with no exemption for the ill, old, or frail, physically plants trees for the climate? How about compulsory rallies against racism in which the whole population is forced physically to attend anti-racism demonstrations organised by the government? How about clean-up days where again whole populations must go around urban and country streets picking up garbage?

The mind reels. A burn forbidden books day, a get shots in arms day, or a chase the Twitter adversaries day, with hunts informed by government-published lists of sinners in the community.

As with lockdowns, these alternative forms of mass mobilization only work if they are seen to be adhered to by everyone. No exceptions for the rich, the unhealthy, the children, the elderly, or those of different faiths. The initial power to force the entire population into joining in with the obsession is exactly what is needed to make the population into a crowd.

Once formed, as we saw in the case of Covid, the crowd will amplify the use of state power by adopting fanaticism, which in turn will force even the rich and famous into line.

Mobilizing populations via mass rallies and mass communal events would have been unthinkable in the postmodern West before 2020. Such events would have been seen by politicians not as ingenious tools of manipulation towards their own ends but rather as takeover bids by competitors in the power game, with these competitors being alternative ideologies, religious groups, or other community organizations that asked for the devotion from the population that the politicians wanted to keep for themselves. For its part, big business would have sabotaged mobilizations because of the costs involved.

The blind panic following the advent of Covid swept those objections away, and more easily still because lockdowns were new to the population, and so those about to be dispossessed of something were simply not aware of what they stood to lose. Once caught in the obsession, they had every incentive to look away once they became aware of the losses.

Now that the population has gotten used to one form of mobilization and a sizable fraction has found it enjoys the opportunities that mobilization opens up for bullying, new mobilizations for new excuses will be harder to resist.

Part of the crowd will bay for blood and quickly jump on those resisting the rationale of tree-planting week or burn forbidden books day. The little enforcers will chomp at the bit to bully both rich and unhealthy to get with the program.

All that a new era of marches needs now is the emergence of the political will to organise them.

From the Brownstone Institute

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Paul Frijters Follow Paul Frijters, Ph.D., is a professor of wellbeing economics at the London School of Economics: from 2016 through November 2019 at the Center for Economic Performance, thereafter at the Department of Social Policy.

Gigi Foster Follow Gigi Foster, Ph.D., senior scholar of Brownstone Institute, is a professor with the School of Economics at the University of New South Wales, having joined UNSW in 2009 after six years at the University of South Australia.
Several passages in the Bible refer to the suffering that the Hebrews and several prophets had to endure as they attempted to survive in a variety of hostile environments. A number of times, Jesus noted that he must undergo suffering at the hands of men in order to fulfill certain prophecies, and redeem fallen humanity. He certainly was an accurate predictor.

In these biblical writings, the characters did not seek suffering, but understood over time that ailments are part of life. Indeed, we learn that if we attempt to avoid suffering at all costs, it will find us when we least expect it. Obstacles come in many forms due to life events that we cant always control.

For example, we can strive to live a healthy lifestyle, but that doesnt guarantee well never have an accident, fail an exam, get sick, lose a family member, friend, or a job. We can do our best to meet each day with a positive frame of mind and a balanced perspective, but there will always be external events that impact our well-being. Its almost a given that most folks will not be accepted into their primary choice of a college, and our careers rarely turn out the way we expect them to.

The past two years have generated plenty of struggle for people of all ages. The pandemic caused an array of health issues due to lengthy across-the-board lockdowns, instead of targeted protocols for vulnerable groups. Inconsistent health mandates that were highly flawed contributed to the suffering inflicted upon businesses, churches, families, and schools. Constantly shifting goalposts led to confusion and depression because folks couldnt socialize and express themselves normally. Remote learning was substandard, and quality of life indices hit a downward spiral because dysfunctional unscientific policies unleashed suffering.

How do we confront the great challenge of suffering without losing hope? There are many coping strategies to deal with emotional, mental, physical, social, and spiritual maladies. Most of the time, you dont have to endure all five of these at once, but one form of suffering can lead to another if it isnt confronted ASAP. I offer my guidance because I have had to wrestle with all of these five domains at various times, and I hope you can resolve these challenges faster than I have.

First of all, when any type of suffering arrives, greet it and accept it as real. Dont slough it off as an annoyance to be dealt with in the distant future. Next, determine the degree of the anguish to discover whether you need outside assistance, or if you can solve it yourself with some divine guidance.

Third, if your suffering has an emotional source, perhaps you have internalized hurtful relationship events and cant release them. Try to breathe slowly from the abdomen. Close your eyes and inhale/exhale from the nose. This has a calming effect, as you visualize how to forgive others and yourself for painful incidents from the past.

Fourth, mental ailments can be caused by over-thinking, which can generate anxiety, insomnia and weight loss. Once again, close your eyes and learn to breathe slowly till you sense a calm state of peacefulness. Open your eyes and strive to analyze thoughts to a lesser degree, as you move beyond yourself to embrace life in a larger environment.

Fifth, if the pain is physical, examine your habits. Are you getting enough exercise, balanced nutrition, and rest? Conversely, over-doing exercise, indulging in junk food, or sleeping too much can sometimes usher in aches and pains. Healthy habits such as moving around will keep the circulation active and revitalize your energy.

Sixth, social suffering affects many people who are either shy or havent developed social skills beyond their family circle. A proactive method to transcend this dilemma is to gradually move outside your comfort zone. Start to greet people, or strike up a conversation with someone new when you have the opportunity. Moreover, you can volunteer to help others who are afflicted with daily struggles.

Seventh, when faith in ourselves and in God wanes, we can experience a crisis in confidence, which is a type of spiritual malaise. In this scenario, its difficult to determine the reason for the discomfort. In the poem, Dark Night of the Soul, St. John of the Cross articulates this desolation. Authentic prayer from the heart can help to restore your faith and trust as you return to the true path of lifes meaning and purpose.

In all of these situations, you can build character by learning lessons from prior experience. You can overcome panic attacks and other stressful events by not only accepting but expecting unexpected rough patches in life so they dont take you by surprise. You can also look beyond yourself and think about how others suffer deeply from conflicts, poverty, and natural disasters. Imagine the agony that the long-suffering people of Afghanistan and Ukraine are undergoing each day.

You will then understand that there are many degrees of pain, and ours might not be so bad after all. Dear Next Generation, I must also remind myself periodically to heed the same advice that I offer to you.

God bless you.

Christian Milord, California

Educator, mentor, USCG veteran, writer

___________

What advice would you like to give to the younger generations?

We call on all of our readers to share the timeless values that define right and wrong and pass the torch, if you will, through your wisdom and hard-earned experience. We feel that the passing down of this wisdom has diminished over time and that only with a strong moral foundation can future generations thrive.

Send your advice, along with your full name, state, and contact information to NextGeneration@epochtimes.com or mail it to: Next Generation, The Epoch Times, 229 W. 28th St., Floor 7, New York, NY 10001.
A revelatory documentary on dealing with crises.

1hr 2min | Documentary | 2020

I recently had the pleasure of watching Betty Ramirezs COVID-19-focused documentary, COVID-19 vs. Arizona, and I must sayits a real eye-opener.

It could actually serve as a set of guidelines on how to properly respond to something as devastating as COVID-19, which is now in the worlds rearview mirror. Her interviews are very insightful and cover many folks from both the public and private sectors.

Her first interviewee is Billy Harfosh, a talk radio show host in Arizona. He talks about how, at the beginning of the outbreak, COVID-19 quickly became a political issue, rather than being treated as something that could severely affect everyones health.

We see the devastating financial impact from the initial lockdowns, and how they began to take their toll all across the board. Various corporate news outlets were reporting on matters such as how soon the first rollout of stimulus packages could be on their way.

But one news snippet that caught my eye detailed how many banks began raking in huge, unprecedented profits from the payment protection program (PPP) that Congress had passed, which was intended to help small businesses that had been shuttered due to the lockdowns.

Arizona radio talk show host Billy Harfosh in COVID-19 vs. Arizona. (Applied Art Productions)

More than $305 billion in emergency loans had been approved by Congress for more than 1.4 million small businesses nationwide. But oddly, in a matter of weeks, the Small Business Administration announced it had run out of money, having reached its $349 billion lending limit for the PPP program.

Many Arizona state government officials are interviewed during the documentarys hourlong runtime. From law enforcement (police chiefs, sheriffs), to mayors, city council members, and so on. They talk about the different challenges they faced within their local communities when the coronavirus first hit Arizona and how they met those challenges. Of primary concern was how to provide essential services to these communities while ensuring their safety as wellwhich seemed to be an ongoing balancing act.

Meanwhile, health care workers had to deal with issues that revolved around trying to separate accurate data from inaccurate (and sensational) data. A couple of registered nurses mention that health information would be initially announced from the top of organizations, but by the time it sifted down from the leadership to the workers at the bottom of the heap, that information was already obsolete. Therefore, theyd often have to scrap whatever guidelines they had been adhering to and start all over.

And when it came to the private sector, multiple business owners reflected on their experiences, mainly with regard to obtaining the all-important PPP loans that were being dispensed at the time. The consensus was that not much information was given to them about how to obtain these loans.

Doctor Michael Crockett describes his experienced with one of the larger banks in COVID-19 vs. Arizona. (Applied Art Productions)

For example, Doctor Michael Crockett, DDS, who runs a dental practice in Mesa Arizona, applied for a PPP loan to help sustain his failing business. Like many Americans, he went through one of the larger banks in the United States, since hed been with them for 15 years. The bank gave him very little information beyond acknowledging that theyd received his application. To his shock (and outrage), he didnt find out his loan had been disqualified until the day the program ran out of money. Soon, he set his sights on the second round of program funding but this time he wisely opted to go through the loan application process with a smaller, local bank. Not only was the flow of information much better that time around, but his loan was approved within an hour of applying and the funds became immediately available.

Throughout the film, the interviews with the citizens of Arizona are interwoven with various corporate newscasts by the usual suspects (CNN, MSNBC, CBS, etc.), and one thing becomes clear. While many of the Arizonans, instead of hitting the panic button, reacted in a more rational, measured way, the legacy news reports kept reinforcing a singular elementand that element was fear (and still is).

One of the more disturbing scenes in this documentary wasnt seeing a victim of the virus in a hospital bed. It was watching NBC Nightly News show host Lester Holt smirk while he glibly reports that millions of Americans were being ordered to shelter in place, during the onset of the lockdowns.

COVID-19 vs. Arizona. (Applied Art Productions)

We then see various shots of barren streets, from San Francisco to New York City, San Diego to Chicago, and it brings back uncomfortable memories of 2020 that drive home the point of how hard the small business sector took the worst of the lockdowns on the chin.

However, many people seem to forget that while all the usual legacy media outlets were broadcasting to Americans that it was the pandemic that shut everything down, it wasnt; the draconian lockdowns were the real culprit. And this was accomplished by constantly bombarding the public with fear. COVID-19 vs. Arizona asks an important question: Have we learned any lessons from the so-called pandemic and its lockdowns? I can only hope that we have.

COVID-19 vs. Arizona

Director: Betty Ramirez

Starring: Lynette Carrington, Billy Harfosh, Kevin Hartke

Running Time: 1 hour, 2 minutes

MPAA Rating: Not rated

Release Date: August 1, 2020

Rated: 4 stars out of 5

Watch on Epoch Cinemavisit the link here.

Follow EpochTV on social media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EpochTVus

Twitter: https://twitter.com/EpochTVus

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies at a House hearing in Washington on July 31, 2020. (Kevin Dietsch-Pool/Getty Images)

Fauci Has Absolutely Nothing to Hide in Congressional Hearings

White House COVID-19 adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci responded again to proposals from House GOP lawmakers about potential investigations if they retake the lower congressional chamber.

I have absolutely nothing to hide or nothing to be concerned about, of anything that Ive done, Fauci told Fox News on March 25. So I never have beenand not now and will never beafraid of hearings done in good faith in oversight. I mean, obviously, if you looked at some of the hearings, theyve started off out of nowhere to be ad hominem attacks without even asking a reasonable question.

Some Republican lawmakers, including Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), have promised investigations and subpoenas to Faucis agency if the GOP wins the House during the 2022 midterms. At least one Republican senator, Rand Paul (R-Ky.), has promised the same if the Senate is retaken by Republicans.

And if youre watching this, Dr. Fauci, look out, because when the Americans give us control in the House of Representatives, God willing, were going to get some answers on behalf of the American people, Roy told Fox News earlier this month.

Primarily, Republicans have flagged emails that suggest the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the agency Fauci has headed since the Reagan administration, have proved funding to third-party organizations to perform controversial gain-of-function research into bat coronaviruses in Wuhan, China. COVID-19, which is caused by a coronavirus, reportedly emerged in Wuhan in late 2019.

My job is whats important.  So the idea when youre idolized, or youre demonized  thats just a reflection of whats going on in society and really has very little to do with what I am and who I am and what I do. So you may not believe it or appreciate it, but all of that other stuff is irrelevant. Its my job and what I do thats important, Fauci also said during the Fox News interview.

Earlier in March, Fauci appeared to take a dismissive tone against a possible Republican-led investigation into his agency or emails, saying he believes it would be Benghazi  all over again, referring to the Republican House investigations into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton following a terrorist attack in Libya that left several Americans dead.

Fauci, meanwhile, has told media outlets and Senate hearings that neither NIAID nor the NIH funded gain-of-function research in China.

The framework under which we have guidance about the conduct of research that we fund, the funding at the Wuhan Institute, was to be able to determine what is out there in the environment, in bat viruses in China, Fauci told ABC News in October 2021.

That research, he added, was very strictly under what we call a framework of oversight of the type of research. And under those conditions which we have explained very, very clearly, does not constitute research of gain-of-function of concern.

Historically, the party of the president tends to lose seats during the midterm elections. Democrats currently have a very thin majority in the House and a razor-thin 5050 majority in the Senate.
Signage is seen outside of the Food and Drug Administration headquarters in White Oak, Md., on Aug. 29, 2020. (Andrew Kelly/Reuters)

FDA Tells Doctors in 8 States to Stop Using COVID-19 Treatment

U.S. drug regulators have directed health care workers in eight states to stop using a COVID-19 treatment because it may not be effective against an Omicron coronavirus subvariant thats rising in prevalence.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said sotrovimab, a monoclonal antibody used to treat COVID-19, can no longer be used in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

Providers in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands also have been told to stop using stotrovimab.

Regulators believe that the treatment, which was given emergency use authorization in May 2021, is unlikely to be effective against the BA.2 subvariant, the FDA said in a statement.

BA.2 is a subvariant of Omicron, a variant of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, the pathogen that causes COVID-19.

According to genomic surveillance conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, BA.2 was responsible for 12.6 percent of COVID-19 cases in the United States in the week ending on March 5. But the agency projected an increase to 35 percent in the week ending on March 19, and the subvariant was pegged as circulating widely in the northeast.

Based on the estimates, BA.2 is responsible for the majority of the cases in the states where the administration of sotrovimab is now limited.

The FDA had indicated in February that it would limit the treatment.

Several studies have indicated that sotrovimab doesnt perform well against BA.2, including one published in Nature Medicine.

But GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology, the makers of the drug, have said that testing suggested that the treatment retained neutralizing activity against BA.2.

The companies said on March 25 that they were aware of the FDAs move and are preparing to send a data package to the agency and other regulatory authorities that show a higher dose of sotrovimab works against BA.2.

COVID-19 treatments that do appear to be effective against BA.2 include Pfizers pill, paxlovid; the antiviral from Gilead Sciences known as remdesivir; and the recently authorized bebtelovimab, a monoclonal made by Eli Lilly, according to the FDA.

We will continue to monitor BA.2 in all U.S. regions and may revise the authorization further to ensure that patients with COVID-19 have effective treatments available. Health care providers should also monitor the frequency of BA.2 in their region as they choose appropriate treatment options for patients, the agency said.

The FDA previously cut off authorization for REGEN-COV, a monoclonal from Regeneron, and a separate treatment from Eli Lilly because laboratory testing suggested that they didnt hold up well against Omicron.
Film Director Zaza Buadze Breaks Down the War in Ukraine

The Epoch Times sister media NTD spoke with film director Zaza Buadze about the war in Ukraine. Zaza gives an analogy of the war through storytelling.

From NTD News
Former independent gubernatorial candidate Eliot Cutler campaigns with his wife, Melanie Cutler on Aug. 13, 2010, in Topsham, Maine. Maine State Police have executed search warrants at two homes belonging to Cutler. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

Former Maine Politician Arrested for Child Porn

Two-time Maine gubernatorial candidate Eliot Cutler was arrested on March 25 for possessing child pornography and subsequently released on bail.

Two days prior to the arrest, search warrants were executed on two of his homes in Maine. Officers searched a farmhouse in Brooklyn and a townhome in Portlands West End on March 23, according to The Associated Press.

Cutler, 75, was booked into Hancock County Jail with bail set at $50,000. The arrest, which came after a two-month investigation, reportedly came as a shock in his hometown of Bangor, Maine, where Cutler is a well-known political figure.

The investigation began in December 2021, after Maine state police received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that someone in the state had either downloaded or uploaded a piece of child pornography. The investigation eventually resulted in Cutlers arrest.

According to the arrest affidavit, Cutler was found with 10 files of child pornographic material. He has been charged with four counts of possessing sexually explicit content of children under the age of 12, with each count carrying a maximum penalty of five years in jail.

The counts are related to his alleged crimes between December 2021 and March, according to Hancock County District Attorney Matthew Foster. More materials are being reviewed and Foster expects that more charges are on the way. Cutler was eventually released on bail on March 26.

Currently, the charges against Cutler are Class C felony counts, Dan Lampariello, an investigative journalist with WGME, wrote on Twitter on March 26. Im told Cutler will make his first court appearance early next week.

The 75-year-old has run for governor as an independent, using his own personal wealth to fund his two campaigns. In 2010, Cutler finished two points behind winner Paul LePage. In the 2014 race, he finished third with 8 percent of the vote.

Cutler had served previously as an aide to the late Sen. Edmund Muskie (D-Maine). He also acted as a top adviser for former President Jimmy Carter on energy and environmental issues. He then became an environmental attorney and established a law firm in Washington.

After the police searched his two homes, Cutler resigned as director of Maine-based The Learner Foundation on March 23, citing personal reasons. He has been involved with the foundation since its creation in 2007.

Don Carpenter, executive director of the organization, said they were deeply disturbed to learn about the serious accusations brought against Cutler.

In his former role on the Board of Directors, Eliot was involved in high-level strategy and governance and did not directly interface with students who participated in grant-funded programming, Carpenter said in a statement. His relationship with the Lerner Foundation terminated as of Wednesday, March 23, 2022.
Shen Deyong at the opening session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 3, 2018. (NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images)

Former Vice President of Chinas Supreme Court Facing Investigation Over Alleged Serious Violation of Law

The Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) anti-graft watchdog has put another high-ranking party official under investigation for an alleged serious violation of the law, with no specific allegations given. The announcement was issued on March 21 on the Central Disciplinary Committees website.

Shen Deyong, 68, a current member of the Standing Committee of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference, is the first ministerial level cadre to be axed in 2022.

For almost 20 years, Shen worked at the Supreme Peoples Court. He was the courts vice president and a first-class justice for 10 years until he was ousted in 2018.

On the heel of the announcement, the Supreme Peoples Court immediately issued a statement in support of the investigation. The statement says that Shen damaged the image of the Supreme Peoples Court, judicial authority, and public trust. The statement urges other officials to learn the lesson of Shen, manage oneself, ones family and ones subordinates properly.

Potential Trigger for Shen Investigation

The Central Disciplinary Committee released no details about Shens alleged violation of the law. Chinese media Caixin reported on March 22 that Shens former secretaries at the Supreme Peoples Court and some family members have been summoned to aid the investigation.

According to several mainland Chinese media outlets, including Caixin, a shareholding dispute involving a law firm headed by Shens former secretary at the Supreme Court may have triggered the investigation.

In 2015, the New China Life Insurance shareholding dispute case carried a price tag of almost $16 million in attorney fees paid to the law firm of Shens former secretary. In recent months, the case has been targeted for investigation in the anti-corruption campaign within the CCPs political and legal affairs system.

Deep Ties to Shanghai and Jiangxi Political Gangs

In-fighting is common within the CCP. As a result, cadres form gangs based on geographic locations where they have the most connections. Shen is considered part of the Jiangxi Gang. His affiliation comes from his being born in Jiangxi province. His career in the political and legal affairs system started in 1983 in his home province. The Jiangxi Gang is commonly known to be headed by the right-hand man to former CCP leader Jiang Zemin.

Political commentator Wang He said that Shens affiliation to Jiang is obvious. Shen made a notable contribution to Jiangs clan in 2006, when a financial scandal surrounding the misuse of Shanghais social security fund broke out. It implicated then Shanghai Communist Party boss, Chen Liangyu, who belonged to Jiangs clan. In order to control the damage, Shen was abruptly transferred from the Supreme Peoples Court to Shanghai as the head of the Shanghai Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Shens mission was to control the depth of the investigation so that it did not implicate too many of Jiangs people. As soon as the investigation was over, Shen was transferred back to the Supreme Peoples Court and was promoted from second-class justice to first-class justice, and from vice president to standing vice president of the court.

Immediately after Shen was ousted, the Supreme Peoples Court said in a statement it stood to resolutely and thoroughly purge the remaining poisonous influence of Shen Deyong. Wang He said it indicates that Xi Jinping is in the process of obtaining control of the judicial system, which used to be controlled by Jiang.

Shens career arc at the Supreme Peoples Court from 1998 to 2018 paired similarly to that of Meng Jianzhu, another member of the Jiangxi Gang.

Former security czar Meng Jianzhu in September 2011. (Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Getty Images)

A Jiangxi local, Meng had connections to Shens relatives throughout the province. He served as the Jiangxi provincial Party boss in 2001, and was later promoted to the chief of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee (PLAC).

By the time Shen returned to the Supreme Court from Shanghai in April 2008, Meng had received his PLAC chief promotion. The connection between the two became even closer. Shen appeared at numerous high-profile events alongside Meng.

Meng retired in March 2018. Three months later, despite Shens seemingly stable tenure and serving three different supreme court presidents, he was suddenly removed from the Supreme Peoples Court and appointed a side-line position.

Political commentator Zheng Haochang said that in the CCPs agencies, it is usually the deputy head who has the real power, while the head is usually a political figure without real authority. The fact that Shen Deyong was the standing deputy head of the Supreme Court for 10 years shows that he had real strategic authority. The fact that Shen is now ousted also has profound implications.
SYDNEY, AustraliaCommuters will enjoy 12 days of free public transport across Greater Sydney through the Easter holidays.

Trips will be without charge for 12 consecutive days on all modes of public transport, a move Transport Minister David Elliott hopes will revitalise the city centre.

To commuters affected by recent rail disruptions, I want to say a heartfelt thank you for your patience, he said on Sunday.

All journeys will be free from 4am on Thursday, April 14 through to 3.59am on April 26, the day after Anzac Day.

The offer covers all Opal services in Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Central Coast, Hunter and Illawarra, and includes the Metro, train, bus, light rail and ferry networks.

I hope the Fare Free 12 Days of Easter is a way for you to enjoy quality time with family and friends during the school holidays, while at the same time helping to revitalise our city centres and local communities, Elliott said.

The minister urged people to use their Dine and Discover discount vouchers to enjoy Sydney activities including a long lunch on Eat Street in Parramatta and a live NRL match on Easter Monday.

The announcement of free fares came days after Elliott brokered a deal with the Rail, Tram and Bus Union to avert weekly disruptions to the train network.

The free travel days were welcomed by the union, but RTBU NSW Secretary Alex Claassens said the minister should apologise to commuters and workers over the February shutdown.

Giving people free travel over Easter is great, but it falls short of the long term free travel and genuine apology for commuters and workers weve been calling for, Claassens said.

He said rail workers remain concerned over the governments commitment to negotiating their enterprise bargaining agreement.

There have been various disputes about safety guarantees, hygiene and uncertainties over the possible privatisation of the network.

Claassens said the minister had committed to six weeks of intensive bargaining and were hoping he delivers on that promise.

We dont want to be used as part of a publicity stunt  we want to see the NSW Government deliver a genuine apology to commuters and workers, and to deliver an enterprise agreement that enshrines basic safety, hygiene and privatisation provisions.

Last month, the long-running dispute escalated into an 11th hour government decision to shut down the citys trains, leaving thousands of commuters stranded for 24 hours.

The union then began threatening further, weekly industrial action unless Fare Free Fridays were instituted to compensate commuters for the disruption.

Elliott on Friday said he had come to an agreement with the unions and a new project benefiting NSW people would be activated in the coming weeks.

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, he said.
Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas sits with his wife and conservative activist Virginia Thomas while he waits to speak at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, on Oct. 21, 2021. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Ginni Thomas Not Trying to Overturn the Elections: Legal Expert

A legal expert said that Democrats and the media are trying to use recently surfaced text messages of Virginia Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, to attack the justice and that she was not trying to overturn the 2020 election.

Ginni Thomas is not trying to overturn the elections, attorney Joseph McBride told The Epoch Times. She is a private citizen, and as such, she is able to speak her mind on any issue. She is entitled to believe whatever she wants to believe on any issue, be it political, spiritual, or sports.

McBride is the founder of the McBride Law Firm, PLLC. He primarily focuses on federal civil rights cases and currently represents about ten detainees or defendants related to the Jan. 6 Capitol breach.

On March 24, The Washington Post and CBS News reported on text message exchanges between Ginni Thomas and then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows during a roughly 20-day period after the 2020 election. Since then, Democrats and the corporate media have been overwhelmingly criticizing Thomas for trying to overturn the 2020 election or embrac[ing] of conspiracy theories. Some even claimed that Justice Thomas should recuse himself from any Jan. 6 or 2020 election cases, be impeached, or resign from the high court.

Those 29 text messages21 from Ginni Thomas, 8 from Meadowswere part of some information previously submitted by Meadows to the Jan. 6 House Select Committee. Meadows later declined to cooperate with the committee, and the House voted in December to hold Meadows in criminal contempt of Congress.

According to the news outlets, on Nov. 10, Thomas wrote to Meadows: Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!!You are the leader, with him, who is standing for Americas constitutional governance at the precipice. The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History.

In a Nov. 24 text message, Thomas wrote, I cant see Americans swallowing the obvious fraud. Just going with one more thing with no frickin consequences the whole coup and now this we just cave to people wanting Biden to be anointed? Many of us cant continue the GOP charade.

Later Meadows replied, Youre preaching to the choir. Very demoralizing.

Among those messages, Thomas also asked Meadows to help attorney Sidney Powell be the lead and the face of the White House legal team; urged Meadows to buck up White House staffers and straighten their spirits; and listen to some conservative commentators such as Rush Limbaugh and Dan Bongino.

McBride said theres nothing nefarious or ill-willed for Thomas to express herself about what she believes to be true.

If she is asking Mark Meadows in her capacity as a private citizen, that I think the election was stolen and you should look into it. Theres nothing wrong with that whatsoever, said McBride.

The belief that the election was stolen is a valid belief. Its a politically protected belief. Theres nothing inherently wrong with it. And anybody in this country or in this world, for that matter, is permitted to believe it or to disbelieve it without judgment.

Meadowss attorney, George Terwilliger III, confirmed the existence of the 29 messages between his client and Thomas. He told The Washington Post that nothing about the text messages presents any legal issues.

Meadows hasnt responded to a request from The Epoch Times for comment.

On March 25, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) called on Justice Thomas to recuse himself from cases relating to Jan. 6 and any case related to the 2024 election should Donald Trump run again.

On the same day, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told CBS News that Thomas should consider voluntarily appearing before the Jan. 6 select committee for some explanation.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said on her social media that Thomas should be impeached. Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.) called on Thomas to resign.

McBride blasted these comments, saying Thomas has demonstrated his ability to separate personal beliefs or outside influences from his decision-making during his career.

Not under any possible set of circumstances should Thomas be forced to resign or recuse himself from any of these cases, said McBride. There was no justification under the sun for that to happen. People are stirring the flames of controversy in order to facilitate that conversation because they are threatened by Thomass ability to be a learned and well-thought-out justice who can apply lots of facts in a meaningful and objective way. Something that the other activist justices are incapable of doing.

On March 25, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy(R-Calif.) said its up to Thomas to decide whether to recuse himself from any cases related to the Jan. 6 investigation,

If you spent any time studying the Supreme Court Justice, hes one who studies correctly, and I mean, from all the way through. If he sees its not upholding the Constitution, hell rule against it, McCarthy said in a news conference. Thats what his job should be. Its him.

Ginni Thomas has denied any conflict of interest between her work and her husbands work on the Supreme Court.

We have our own separate careers, and our own ideas and opinions too. Clarence doesnt discuss his work with me, and I dont involve him in my work, she told the Washington Free Beacon early this month. She said in the interview that she had attended the Jan. 6 rally but left early disappointed and frustrated that there was violence that happened following a peaceful gathering of Trump supporters on the Ellipse on Jan. 6.

The Supreme Court information office hasnt returned a request for comment.

McBride said Democrats and the media are trying to use Ginnis actions as a pretext to go after Justice Thomas.

What I can say about him is this: the way that he has lived his life, the way that he carries himself in this world, and the way that he has conducted himself on the bench is absolutely impeccable. And when you live an impeccable life the way he has, you make yourself unassailable by the evil powers in this world, said McBride. So to those who think they have the power to cancel Justice Thomas, good luck because youre signing your own defeat.

Thomas, 73, is the longest-serving member of the Supreme Court with a tenure of 30 years. He has been seen as a strong conservative voice on the bench. On March 25, he was discharged from the hospital after a week of treatment of flu-like symptoms.
Ten of my colleagues have requested a special session of the Legislature for the purpose of creating a special select committee to investigate election fraud that some claim is rampant in Montana. If approved, this endeavor will cost taxpayers anywhere from a half-million to a million dollars.

If there existed credible evidence of widespread election fraud in Montana or if actions were not already underway to improve election security, then expending public funds might be warranted. But neither of these conditions has been met. Montana has a sound election system of which its citizens can be proud. Creating an election fraud tribunal would be a waste of taxpayer dollars.

There is an alternative for enhancing election integrity that costs taxpayers nothing. The Montana Association of Counties along with the Montana Association of Clerks and Recorders has organized a workgroup that is seeking commonsense ways to further improve our already well-administered elections. Comprised of county election administrators, representatives for the secretary of state and county commissioners, and legislators from both parties, this workgroup will be considering legislation for the 2023 session. This is the Montana way  citizens with differing perspectives coming together to find solutions.

I have closely scrutinized my countys election process. Several other legislators have done the same. I found stringent confirmation of voter identity, scrupulous ballot security, and vote-counting machines that cannot be connected to the internet and thus cannot be hacked. Anyone who objectively evaluates their countys election process will surely come away impressed with Montanas election system and the local officials who make it work.

Of course, no practical election system can be absolutely immune from fraud. Accordingly, the 2021 Legislature passed several election integrity bills, two of which merit mention here. SB 170  already in effect  requires annual, rather than biennial, maintenance of voter rolls. And per HB 530, Montanas secretary of state is currently conducting a comprehensive review of election security across the state. She can do her job without the help of a costly committee.

Much of the impetus for the special session concerns alleged irregularities in Missoula Countys 2020 election. Important questions remain unanswered. On March 28, the Missoula County Republican Central Committee and local election officials will publicly reexamine this issue and settle the matter one way or the other.

A small cabal of legislators obviously intend to use the special select committee to peddle scientific evidence of nationwide manipulation of the 2020 election. Virtually every Montana county is implicated in a plot that requires vote-counting machines connected to the internet and county officials willing to create fraudulent paper ballots. But Montanas machines arent connected to the internet and several counties dont use machines at all. And do you really believe your countys election officials would collude in such a scheme? Not a single state attorney general in the country joined a federal lawsuit based on this conspiracy theory, which has also been debunked by scholars at the conservative Hoover Institution. Furthermore, our neighbors in Idaho have conducted recounts that conclusively repudiated it. It is past time to let this go.

America faces a crisis of confidence in the legitimacy of its elections. I join my fellow Montanans who are rightfully concerned about significant election fraud that may be occurring elsewhere. But our states system is sound and is being constantly improved. A special select committee promoting baseless conspiracies may further someones political career but would recklessly undermine the publics trust in Montanas elections. This constitutes an attack on the integrity of Montanas election system that I am duty bound to resist. I ask my fellow legislators to do likewise.

David Bedey represents House District 86 (Hamilton).

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David R. Stilwell, former assistant secretary of State for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, at the Shen Yun performance at Blaisdell Concert Hall, on March 26, 2022, in Honolulu. (NTD)

HONOLULUHonolulus theatergoers gained a more well-rounded look at China on March 26.

David R. Stilwell, former assistant secretary of State for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, attended the March 26 matinee of Shen Yun. Shen Yun is a classical Chinese dance and music performance hailing from New York. Steeped in the spiritual and artistic traditions of ancient China, the artists showcase Chinese culture before the era of communism.

Ive had many opportunities to come and see Shen Yun, but theres always something else going on, he recounted. In fact, when I was in D.C., in the assistant secretary job, they came to town, but I think I was traveling. So thanks to some folks here in town who made it easy to come, and Im very glad I did. Its a nice feel to capture the spiritual aspects of Chinese culture.

Mr. Stilwell reflected on the perspectives on Chinese culture not apparent through recent events.

The understanding of Chinathink about the Olympics recentlyis driven by one main message source, and a lot of that information is not comprehensive. It doesnt tell the whole story, he said.

Through story dances that illustrate themes of faith, folk traditions, and the spiritual roots of the Chinese people, Shen Yun shows a contrast between the hopes and longings of ordinary Chinese and the oppressive and deceptive nature of the current communist regime.

The pandemic says it all, doesnt it? It began with a cover-up, right? And then it could have been controlled early on, but for now, two years, weve been suffering with something that didnt have to happen, Mr. Stilwell commented.

So its unfortunate the last few years, we havent been able to do these things. Soon well get rid of these masks. But even with the mask, its really nice getting in large crowds, he said.

Daniel Hoff and Jennifer at the March 26 matinee of Shen Yun at Blaisdell Concert Hall, in Honolulu. (Steve Ispas/The Epoch Times)

Daniel Hoff is principal at XL Mission Critical, which is responsible for the telecommunications infrastructure on the island of Hawaii and other places.

That was world-class and truly a unique beauty in the art world, Hoff said after seeing the performance. I love how it tied in the old with the new. It was a delight to the eyes and to the ears, and was really inspiring.

He especially enjoyed the way the East-meets-West orchestra was able to bridge the two cultures. For Mr. Hoff, the overall feeling Shen Yun gives is one of hope.

I think all of us need to have hope. And we have to have an anchor in our life. And really a world without hope is what I dont want to live in.  Daniel Hoff

I think all of us need to have hope. And we have to have an anchor in our life. And really a world without hope is what I dont want to live in. So I think it was a beautiful thing that no matter what your belief or religion is, or what your faith is, whether you worship inside of a building or outside, we all are human beings.

Shen Yun Performing Arts International Companys curtain call at Honolulus Blaisdell Concert Hall, on March 26, 2022. (NTD)

After two long years of pandemic restrictions, an afternoon at Shen Yun amounted to a grand celebration for Mr. Hoff.

We need celebration. And to come together as a community and enjoy is such a beautiful passion. Its something we missed. This is vital as food, as its a mental and emotional spiritual stimulation. And we need it. Weve been hungry for it. Long overdue, my friend.

Reporting by Steve Ispas and NTD.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yuns inception in 2006.
Pastor Lucas Miles speaking in an interview with Crossroads host Joshua Philipp in March, 2022. (Crossroads/ Screenshot/ via The Epoch Times)

How Wokeism and CRT Became Socialist Religion: Pastor

Wokeism has taken the form of religion that has adopted various beliefs mixed with Marxism and critical race theory (CRT), said pastor Lucas Miles.

Critical race theory, an offshoot of a neo-Marxist branch of thought, was influenced by liberation theology and black liberation theology, he explained.

Marxs works were inspired by Georg Wilhelm Hegel, a German philosopher, who wrote about spirit, the Bible, and religion, Miles told EpochTVs Crossroads program.

Most leftists are probably not aware of the religious impact on wokeism, but there is in it this religious undertone thats been passed down, Miles said. I think we need to call this stuff what it is, it is a religion.

In Marxism, man is the creator. Its his labor. Its his work that is producing; hes making the world in his image. Hes taking the place of God, in that sense. And so this ideology is passed down, Miles said. While Hegel focused a lot on the spirit and God, Marx focused more on the state.

Within wokeism, theres not a lot of talk about God  the state has taken the place, man has taken the place, as God.

Miles said as in religion, there is also evangelism in wokeism: We have to get everybody to believe this.

However, there is a difference between evangelism in the church versus evangelism among critical theorists, he pointed out. The evangelism within the church gives the people the dignity to choose, Miles explained. We believe this is true. We hope you come to accept it and embrace it. If you dont thats your choice.

Wokeism would say: You have to accept this. If you dont, were gonna cancel you.

Liberation Theology

The concept of liberation theology was developed in the 1950s and 1960s in Latin America by priest Gustavo Gutierrez as an attempt to combine Marxism and Catholicism, Miles said, adding that one of the famous liberation theologians is Pope Francis.

It takes the archetypal Marxist conflict between two opposing classes: the bourgeoisie, the oppressor, and the proletariat, the oppressed, and replaces them with rich and poor, Miles explained.

Liberation theology stipulates that theres essentially a special blessing that exists on the poor, and so oftentimes there is not really an attempt to lift them out of their situation, said Miles, author of the book The Christian Left: How Liberal Thought Has Hijacked the Church.

Its just to help them be able to experience the blessing of god in their situation. And oftentimes, the people developing that ministry are elites and flying around in jets.

As Christians, we want to help the poor, but not because theres a special blessing on the poor; no more than theres a special blessing on being rich, Miles said, adding that Christians are helping the poor because they follow the Bibles teachings.

Miles believes that according to the Bible, God is is the one that rights wrongs and it doesnt show favor to man. We cant get into a place to where we start dividing people upon classes, where we start creating some sort of favoritism of God.

Black Liberation Theology

James Cone, a theologian, brought liberation theology to America in the form of black liberation theology which embraces the same Marxist concept of conflict but replaces the rich and poor with whites as oppressors and blacks as oppressed, Miles said. These doctrines also crept into CRT, he noted.

Critical race theory (CRT) is based on the Marxist concept of class struggle, but it applies this idea to race instead of social classes, dividing people into the oppressors and the oppressed based on their skin color.

Cone also defined two sins that a black person could commit: The first was to fail to recognize that theyre oppressed, Miles said. This is why people on the left hate personalities like Candace Owens, Alan West, and Larry Elder, who do not see themselves as oppressed, he explained.

The second sin was to be nice to your oppressors, Miles said, citing a prayer asking God for help to hate white people, written by a university professor.

Chanequa Walker-Barnes, a theology professor at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, wrote a prayer that starts with the words Dear God, Please help me to hate white people, according to Campus Reform.

Miles said he took it as her devoutness to the tenets of black liberation theology, which is the field of her research.

Quest for Historical Jesus

The concept of liberation theology would not have arisen without the quest for the historical Jesus, as it wouldnt have happened without Marx, Miles said.

The pastor has been tracing the origins of the quest for the historical Jesus and found that it was also inspired by Hegel and thinkers like him.

During the Enlightenment period, a group of Christian theologians, in an attempt to reform Christianity, tried to develop scientific, logical, and reasonable justifications to explain the miracles in the Bible, Miles said.

The philosophical and intellectual movement in Europe of the 17th and 18th centuries, known as the Enlightenment, emphasized reason, logic, and the scientific method as its tenets, so the miracles of the Bible did not really line up with the mindset of the day, Miles explained.

For example, those theologians explained the Biblical story of Jesus walking on water saying that Jesus might have been floating on a raft.

The Biblical story of Jesus miraculously feeding 5,000 people from only a few loaves of bread was explained by the theory assuming that Jesus was standing by a cave inside which monks were baking bread all morning, Miles said. Jesus supposedly was just passing bread baked by them, he added.

Miles thinks that Biblical stories should not be twisted like that. Either youre had to deal with the miracles in the Bible as presented, [or if] you cannot believe in them, you can discount them.

Albert Schweitzer, one of the famous theologians of that period, portrayed Jesus as a prophet, a great social reformer, and a kind of apocalyptic voice, but not the savior of the world, Miles continued. So Jesus is downgraded from savior of the world to a social activist.

Thats what were seeing now in woke Christianity, and that influenced a lot of early liberal theologians to get us to where we are today.

To discern what is truth in the current situation people need to have a plumb line, Miles said comparing it to building a house. A plumb line is needed to prevent erecting crooked walls, he explained.

Thats really the heart behind all of this. Is there something that is absolutely true or is all truth relative, is all truth subjective, Miles asked a rhetorical question.

For me my plumb line is scripture, Miles said. I wont try to force that on anybody else. But I think that people have to find that plumb line for their life.

Ella Kietlinska Reporter Follow Ella Kietlinska is a reporter for The Epoch Times focusing on U.S. and world politics.
Visitors stand outside the New Safe Confinement (NSC) structure over the old sarcophagus covering the damaged fourth reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, in Chernobyl, Ukraine June 2, 2019. (Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)

Russia-Ukraine (March 27): German Chancellor Clarifies Bidens Comment About Regime Change in Russia

The latest on the RussiaUkraine crisis, March 27. Click here for updates from March 26.

German Chancellor Clarifies Bidens Comment About Regime Change in Russia

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says that neither NATO nor President Joe Biden aim to bring about regime change in Russia.

Biden said of Russian President Vladimir Putin during a speech on Saturday that this man cannot remain in power. The White House and other U.S. officials rushed to clarify that Biden wasnt actually calling for Putin to be toppled.

Asked during an appearance Sunday on ARD television whether Putins removal is in fact the real aim, Scholz replied: This is not the aim of NATO, and also not that of the American president.

Scholz added: We both agree completely that regime change is not an object and aim of policy that we pursue together.

Asked whether Biden made a dangerous mistake with his comment, Scholz replied: No. He said that he said what he said and Secretary of State Antony Blinken also had clarified that he wasnt talking about regime change.

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Ukraine Ready to Discuss Adopting Neutral Status in Russia Peace Deal: Zelenskyy

Ukraine is prepared to discuss adopting a neutral status as part of a peace deal with Russia but such a pact would have to be guaranteed by third parties and put to a referendum, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in remarks aired on Sunday.

Zelenskyy was speaking to Russian journalists in a 90-minute video call, an interview that Moscow authorities had pre-emptively warned Russian media to refrain from reporting. Zelenskyy spoke in Russian throughout, as he has done in previous speeches when targeting a Russian audience.

Zelenskyy said Russias invasion had caused the destruction of Russian-speaking cities in Ukraine, and said the damage was worse than the Russian wars in Chechnya.

Security guarantees and neutrality, non-nuclear status of our state. We are ready to go for it. This is the most important point, Zelenskyy said.

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UK Distances Itself From Bidens Apparent Call for Regime Change in Russia

The UK government has distanced itself from U.S. President Joe Biden appearing to call for regime change in Russia.

During a speech in Warsaw, Poland, on March 26, Biden suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin should be removed from office.

For Gods sake, this man cannot remain in power, he said.

Asked on March 27 if the UK government agreed with Biden on potential regime change in Russia, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said that it is up to the Russian people.

Read the full article here.

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UK Says Sanctions Could Be Lifted If Russia Withdraws Troops From Ukraine

Western sanctions against Russia can be lifted if Russia withdraws its invading forces from Ukraine and promises not to commit any further aggression, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said.

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Truss said the sanctions can only be lifted with a full ceasefire and withdrawal and commitments that there will be no further aggression.

Snapback sanctions will be quickly re-imposed if Russia commits further aggression in future, she said.

Read the full article here.

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No Leaks of Radioactive Material Detected in Chernobyl and Zaporizhzhia

Ukraines energy minister says no leaks of radioactive material have been detected since Russian tanks fired at nuclear power plants in Chernobyl and Zaporizhzhia but that nightmares about a nuclear disaster keep him awake at night.

In an interview with one of Corriere della Seras correspondents in Kyiv, German Galushchenko was quoted as saying that his countrys nuclear plants are a constant worry.

I havent slept for an entire night with the nightmare of nuclear disaster, said Galushchenko, who is also an official of the state company that manages the nations four nuclear power plants.

Referring to the Chernobyl and Zaporizhzhia facilities, Galushchenko said that luckily both facilities are still in the hands of our technicians, but Russian armored carriers fired against the facilities. In the interview published Sunday, he called those actions criminal and totally irresponsible.

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Zelenskyy Signed a Law Restricting the Reporting on Troop and Military Equipment Movement

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed a law restricting the reporting on troop and military equipment movement unless such information has been announced or approved by the military general staff.

The state news agency Ukrinform reported Sunday that the law calls for potential prison terms of three to eight years for violations.

The law bans unauthorized dissemination of information about the direction, movement of international military assistance to Ukraine, the movement, movement or deployment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine or other military formations of Ukraine, committed in a state of martial law or a state of emergency, Ukrinform said.

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Erdogan Urges Cease-Fire in Call With Putin

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stressed the need for a cease-fire in Ukraine in a telephone call Sunday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Erdogans office said.

Erdogan also called for an improvement to the humanitarian situation in the region, according to the statement.

The two leaders agreed the next meeting between Russian and Ukrainian officials should be held in Istanbul, the statement added, without giving a time frame.

Meanwhile, a member of the Ukrainian delegation thats in talks with Russia said Sunday that the two sides have decided to meet in person beginning on Monday. However, Russias chief negotiator said the in-person talks would begin on Tuesday. Neither said where the talks would be held.

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Ukraine: In-Person Talks With Russia to Resume

A member of the Ukrainian delegation in talks with Russia on ending the month-long war says the two sides have decided to meet in person in Turkey beginning on Monday.

Davyd Arakhamia, the leader in parliament of the faction of President Volodymyr Zelenskyys Servant of the People party, said on Facebook that the in-person talks were agreed upon in a video consultation. He did not give further details.

However, Russias chief negotiator said the in-person talks would begin on Tuesday, rather than Monday.

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Russia Warns Media: Dont Report Interview With Ukrainian President

Russias communications watchdog told Russian media on Sunday to refrain from reporting an interview done with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and said it had started a probe into the outlets which had interviewed the Ukrainian leader.

In a short statement distributed by the watchdog on social media and posted on its website, it said a host of Russian outlets had done an interview with Zelenskyy.

Roskomnadzor warns the Russian media about the necessity of refraining from publishing this interview, it said. It did not give a reason for its warning.

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Russia Restricts Access to Germanys Bild Website

Russia said on Sunday said it had restricted access to the website of Germanys Bild at the request of prosecutors.

Russias communications watchdog said on its website that it was blocking access to the website by people inside Russia after a March 26 request from prosecutors.

It was not immediately clear why prosecutors asked for the restriction. The prosecutor generals office could not be reached for comment outside normal business hours.

The blocking of Bild.de by the Russian censors confirms us in our journalistic work for democracy, freedom and human rights, Bild editor-in-chief Johannes Boie said on its website.

And it encourages us to give Russian citizens even more opportunities to inform themselves with news and facts beyond Russian government propaganda.

A week after Feb. 24 invasion, Russia passed a law imposing a jail term of up to 15 years for spreading intentionally fake news about the military.

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Macron Distances Himself From Bidens Comment About Putin

French President Emmanuel Macron has distanced himself from U.S. President Joe Bidens comment that Vladimir Putin cannot remain in power. He is urging efforts to deescalate tensions.

Macron, who has spoken several times to the Russian president in so-far unsuccessful peace-making efforts, is due to speak again with Putin on Sunday or Monday.

We should be factual and  do everything so that the situation doesnt get out of control, Macron said Sunday on France-3 television, when asked about Bidens remark.

Macron said, I wouldnt use those terms, because I continue to speak to President Putin, because what we want to do collectively is that we want to stop the war Russia launched in Ukraine, without waging war and without an escalation.

He stressed that the United States remains an important ally, saying, We share many common values, but those who live next to Russia are the Europeans.

Macron said he will talk with Putin about a proposed humanitarian corridor for the besieged city of Mariupol, also discussed with Turkey and Greece.

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Zelenskyy: West Needs More Courage in Helping Ukraine Against Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused NATO and the West of lacking the courage to provide more support amid the conflict with Russia, making another plea for fighter planes and more military equipment.

Ive talked to the defenders of Mariupol today. Im in constant contact with them. Their determination, heroism, and firmness are astonishing, Zelenskyy said in a video address on Sunday, referring to the besieged Black Sea city. If only those who have been thinking for 31 days on how to hand over dozens of jets and tanks had 1 percent of their courage.

Read the full article here.

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Ukraine Says Russia Wants to Split Nation, Calls for More Arms

Russia wants to split Ukraine into two, as happened with North and South Korea, Ukraines military intelligence chief said on Sunday.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged the West to give Ukraine tanks, planes, and missiles to help fend off the Russian forces, which the Kyiv government said were increasingly targeting fuel and food depots.

A local leader in the self-proclaimed Luhansk Peoples Republic said on Sunday the region could soon hold a referendum on joining Russia, just as happened in Crimea after Russia seized the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014.

Crimeans voted overwhelmingly to break with Ukraine and join Russiaa vote that much of the world refused to recognize.

In fact, it is an attempt to create North and South Korea in Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, said in a statement, referring to the division of Korea after World War Two.

Ukraines foreign ministry spokesperson also dismissed talk of any referendum in eastern Ukraine.

All fake referendums in the temporarily occupied territories are null and void and will have no legal validity, Oleg Nikolenko told Reuters.

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Blinken Clarifies US Not Trying to Topple Putin

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the White House does not have a strategy of regime change in Russia during a visit to Jerusalem on Sunday.

The senior official was quick to stress President Joe Biden was not calling for an immediate change of government in Moscow when he said in his speech: For Gods sake, this man cannot remain in power.

Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denounced the remark, saying Its not up to the president of the U.S. and not up to the Americans to decide who will remain in power in Russia.

Blinken told media in Jerusalem We do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia or anywhere else for that matter.

He added its up to the people of the country in question. Its up to the Russian people.

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Russia Confirms Strike Hit Lviv Fuel Depot

Russias Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov confirmed in a statement on Sunday that Russian air-launched cruise missiles hit a fuel depot and a defense plant in Lviv, near the border with Poland, on Saturday.

Konashenkov added that another strike included sea-launched missiles, which destroyed an ammunition depot holding air defense missiles in Plesetsk just west of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.

According to Konashenkov, during Saturdays operation, 67 Ukrainian military facilities were targeted by the Russian military.

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Putin Congratulates National Guard on 6th Anniversary

Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Russias National Guard on the sixth anniversary since its creation on Sunday.

Putin specially addressed the service staff of the National Guard units involved in the special military operation in Donbas and Ukraine.

I am well aware of how you act in this situation: highly courageously and professionally, skillfully and fearlessly, you resolve the most complicated tasks set before you competently and precisely while showing personal heroism, Putin said in his video statement.

The National Guard was established by Putin in 2016 as an internal military force that reports directly to the president.

The service, which numbers over 300,000 personnel, is involved with other security forces in fighting terrorism and organized crime, guarding state facilities, controlling weapons turnover, and riot control.

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Man Detained at Site of Lviv Rocket Attacks

The governor of the Lviv region said a man was detained on suspicion of espionage at the site of one of the two rocket attacks that rattled the city on Saturday.

Maksym Kozytskyy said police found the man had recorded a rocket flying toward the target and striking it. Police also found on his telephone photos of checkpoints in the region, which Kozytskyy said had been sent to two Russian telephone numbers.

Rockets hit an oil storage facility and an unspecified industrial facility, wounding at least five people. A thick plume of smoke and towering flames could be seen on Lvivs outskirts hours after the attacks.

Jack Phillips, Alexander Zhang, The Associated Press, and Reuters contributed to this report.
French President Emmanuel Macron (R) speaks with Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) before a meeting at the Chancellery on January 19, 2020 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Emmanuele Contini/Getty Images)

Macron Warns Against Escalation After Bidens Comments on Putin

French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday cautioned against the use of escalating words or actions if a peace agreement or ceasefire is to be achieved in Ukraine.

A day before, President Joe Biden said in a speech that President Vladimir Putin cannot remain in power and had more critical words for the Russian leader. The comment prompted the White House to issue statements that Biden did not mean that the United States is pushing for a regime change in Russia.

I wouldnt use this type of wording because I continue to hold discussions with President Putin, Macron told France 3 TV. We want to stop the war that Russia has launched in Ukraine without escalation  thats the objective.

We want to stop the war that Russia has launched in Ukraine without waging war and without escalation. This is the objective, Macron continued, saying that NATO powers and France have made the choice not to intervene in the conflict militarily.

Frances goals are to obtain a ceasefire or the withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine, he said. Macron also said he is seeking to speak with Putin this week.

A Ukrainian negotiator said Kyiv and Moscow would hold talks this week in Turkey, a NATO member that has good relations with both Russia and Ukraine. A Russian negotiator confirmed in-person talks early this week, without giving further details, according to Reuters.

If we want to do this, we must not be in the escalation, of neither words nor actions, Macron continued.

The French president further stressed that the United States is a staunch ally who has common values.

Black smoke billows after authorities said a missile attack hit an industrial area of Lviv, Ukraine, on March 26, 2022. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

After Bidens remark, the Kremlin said through a spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, that only the Russian people can decide who they want as presidentnot outside forces. Peskov alleged that Biden made the comments due to fatigue, irritability, and sometimes forgetfulness, adding that it leads to aggressive statements, according to state-run media.

In a bid to further clarify Bidens statement, U.S. Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith told Fox News on Sunday that the administration does not have a policy of regime change towards Russia and contended Biden was speaking in the moment, without elaborating. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Israel that the United States doesnt have a doctrine of regime change in Moscow.

After more than a month of conflict, Russia has had difficulty in seizing any major Ukrainian city and signaled on March 25 it was scaling back its ambitions to focus on securing the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.

A local leader in the self-proclaimed Luhansk Peoples Republic said on Sunday the region could soon hold a referendum on joining Russia, just as happened in Crimea after Russia seized the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014.

The conflict has left several Ukrainian cities devastated, caused a humanitarian crisis, and displaced an estimated 10 million people, nearly a quarter of Ukraines population.

Early on Sunday morning, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video that NATO forces should provide Kyiv with tanks and fighter planes while accusing the West of not showing courage.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg attend the 2020 Breakthrough Prize Red Carpet at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., on Nov. 3, 2019. (Ian Tuttle/Getty Images for Breakthrough Prize)

Milwaukee Officials Sued in Zuckerberg-Related Election Bribery Case

Milwaukees acting mayor, former mayor, and city clerk have been accused of being involved in an election bribery scheme for accepting election-assistance money from a Mark Zuckerberg-funded activist group in the 2020 election cycle, according to a legal complaint filed with the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

The 2020 presidential election in Wisconsin was heavily litigated and is being investigated by the state legislature. Wisconsin Republicans claim the election process was corrupt and fraud-ridden and have proposed decertifying the results, even though they admit that doing so would not remove Joe Biden from the presidency.

The legal action comes after 16 states have enacted legislation to ban or regulate the acceptance and use of private funds by public election officials.

We cant undo the wrongs of the 2020 election, said attorney Erick Kaardal, special counsel at the Thomas More Society, a nationwide public interest law firm, which filed the complaint on March 23.

But it is incumbent upon us to ensure that the corruption that infected Wisconsins voting process is rooted out and that the states election integrity is preserved. Wisconsins voters deserve to know the truth, and they need to be assured that the corruption has been eliminated, allowing for fair and honest elections from this point forward.

Facebook founder Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, who are supporters of President Joe Biden and Democratic Party candidates, grabbed headlines during the 2020 election cycle by giving about $400 million to the Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL).

In 2016, then-candidate Donald Trump, a Republican, beat Democrat Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin by 22,748 votes. But in 2020, Joe Biden, a Democrat, beat Trump in the state by 20,608 votes, according to Ballotpedia figures. Critics claim the assistance provided by CTCL to Milwaukee and other heavily Democratic cities in the state may have put Biden over the top.

According to the Thomas More Society, the legal complaint details efforts by the Chicago-based CTCL to usurp the administration of the election, a core traditional governmental function.

Under the guise of COVID-19 prevention and via the illegal dumping of private money into the municipal process, the Center for Tech and Civic Life handed control of the 2020 election in Wisconsin over to private partisan interests, in the form of its partners.

Attorney Erick G. Kaardal. (Courtesy Erick G. Kaardal)

CTCL is run and staffed by Democrats, according to the law firm.

Its president, Cristina Sinclaire, previously worked at the left-wing organizations Catalist and the New Organizing Institute. Catalist was founded by Democrat Harold Ickes and boasts it was vital to former President Barack Obamas victory in 2008. CTCL Executive Director Tiana Epps-Johnson previously worked for the New Organizing Institute and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights.

CTCL took the money from the Zuckerbergs and distributed it in the form of grants to jurisdictions across the United States purportedly to help those governments hire more staff, buy mail-in ballot processing machinery, and pursue other measures they considered necessary to administer the elections during the ongoing pandemic. Critics complained that CTCLs grants favored Democrats because they tended to go to the electoral apparatuses in Democratic strongholds and that the funds were part of an attempt to unfairly influence the outcome of the elections.

The complaint is cited as Engstrand v. Johnson. Complainant Jim Engstrand is a voter residing in Milwaukee. Respondent Cavalier Johnson, a Democrat, is the citys acting mayor. Respondent Tom Barrett, a Democrat, is the citys former mayor. Respondent Jim Owczarski is Milwaukees city clerk, a post he has held since 2012.

The complaint alleges that the citys acceptance of money from CTCL to selectively facilitate in-person and absentee voting and to purchase and place absentee ballot drop boxes in Democratic Party strongholds constitutes bribery and is contrary to Wisconsins election bribery law known as Statute 12.11, and other state and federal laws.

The statute is very aggressive with respect to election bribery of this type, unlike in other states, Kaardal told The Epoch Times.

The statute prohibits the city officials from taking anything of value to induce electors to go to the polls, whereas in other states, the laws often specify that the voter has to be induced to vote for a specific candidate or for one party or something.

Specifically, the complaint states that Barrett and Owczarski made an agreement with CTCL to illegally accept $3.4 million to facilitate in-person and absentee voting in the city.

Its election bribery, Kaardal said. But what makes it more interesting now, is that one of the means for getting people out to the polls, the placement of absentee ballot drop boxes in targeted neighborhoods, has been found to be illegal by at least one court in Wisconsin.

Zuckerbergs money was paying for a municipal election illegality, Kaardal said.

It was requiring it. It was asking the cities to do it. It was paying for the cities to do it, he said, adding no ones really reported on that, which is unfortunate, because it really is newsworthy.

City of Milwaukee and CTCL officials didnt respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.
Missing Hiker Killed by Grizzly Bear in Montana: Officials

A man was killed by a suspected grizzly bear while hiking in a Montana park, officials said over the weekend.

Park County Sheriff Brad Bichler confirmed the death of Craig Clouatre, 40, in a statement on Saturday.

It is with a very heavy heart that I am writing this update. After an extensive search this morning we have located Craig, Bichler wrote on social media. It appears he had an encounter with a grizzly and unfortunately did not survive.

Bichler added: Please keep his family and all those involved in your thoughts and prayers.

According to a GoFundMe page, which has raised $60,000 as of Sunday, Clouatre leaves behind a wife and children.

The page said that on Wednesday, Craig went on a hiking trip with a friend. They separated ways temporarily and Craig never made it back to the spot they were supposed to meet. Today, after search and rescue efforts were put in place, Craig was found. Unfortunately, he had an encounter with a grizzly bear and did not survive.

Sheriffs officials gave no details on where the man was found or why they suspect a grizzly bear was responsible for his death.

They split up at some point later in the morning, Bichler told the Livingston Enterprise. When the other man returned to their vehicle and his friend wasnt there, he called us and we began searching.

Clouatre moved from Massachusetts more than two decades ago to Montana and married his future wife, Jamie, his father told The Associated Press.

He was a joy to have as a son all the way around, David Clouatre said. He was a good man, a good, hardworking family man.

His death marks the first grizzly bear mauling of the year in Montana. In 2021, two people were killed by grizzly bears, including a West Yellowstone guide fishing at the Madison River and a cyclist who was camping in Ovando, according to the Billings Gazette.
Statistics Canada building and signs are pictured in Ottawa on July 3, 2019. (The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick)

New Brunswick Rapidly Growing as Population Tops 800,000 for the First Time: StatsCan

New figures from Statistics Canada show New Brunswick is experiencing a population boom.

The federal agency said Friday the provinces population recently topped 800,000 for the first time, having gained more than 40,000 people in the past five years alone.

Premier Blaine Higgs issued a statement saying the province is experiencing higher immigration levels and positive interprovincial migration.

As a result, the province is experiencing its highest rate of population growth since 1976, having added 15,000 people in the past 12 months.

And the growth in New Brunswick is part of a wider trend.

Last month, Statistics Canada reported that in the past five years, the three Maritime provinces have largely succeeded in reversing a decades-long decline in population, thanks in part to a steady influx of immigrants and Canadians from other provincesparticularly Ontario and Alberta.

For the first time since the 1981-86 census, more people moved to the Maritimes from other parts of Canada (134,841) than moved away (98,086), the agency reported on Feb. 9. And it was the first time since the 1940s that the Maritimes grew at a faster pace than the Prairie provinces.

At the time, Statistics Canada said New Brunswicks population had reached 775,610 people, but that figure was an official census tally based on data compiled as of the second quarter of 2021.

Higgs said the latest estimate points to a healthy provincial economy that has bounced back to exceed pre-pandemic levels.

This is a significant moment for our province, Higgs said in a statement late Friday. Our population growth strategy is exceeding expectations.  People are looking at New Brunswick in a new light.

As for the other Maritime provinces, Prince Edward Island was the fastest-growing province in Canada, according to the census figures released last month. And Nova Scotia grew at its fastest pace since the early 1970s.

The census figures also showed the region has succeeded in attracting a larger number of immigrants from other countries. New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and P.E.I. welcomed a record number of immigrants between 2016 and 2021, the vast majority arriving before the pandemic.
A Chinese Coast Guard ship sails near a Philippine Coast Guard vessel during its patrol at Bajo de Masinloc, 124 nautical miles west of Zambales province northwestern Philippines, on March 2, 2022. (Philippine Coast Guard via AP)

Philippines: Chinese Ships Close Distance Maneuvering a Clear Violation

MANILAThe Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Sunday reported a recent incident of close distance maneuvering by a Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) vessel in the disputed South China Sea that constrained the movement of a Philippine ship sailing nearby.

The March 2 incident took place during the PCGs maritime patrol operations around the Scarborough Shoal, locally known as Bajo de Masinloc, the PCG said in a news release.

It was yet unclear whether the Philippines had lodged a diplomatic protest for the incident. The PCG said it had to wait for the go-signal from the countrys National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea before making the incident public.

The incident involved a CCG vessel with bow number 3305 that conducted close distance maneuvering over an area of approximately 21 yards (19.2 meters) in the direction of Philippine vessel BRP Malabrigo, the PCG said.

This constrained the maneuvering space of BRP Malabrigoa clear violation of the 1972 International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGS), the PCG said.

The PCG had asked the countrys Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to help address the issue through rules-based and peaceful approaches, according to the PCG commandant, Admiral Artemio Abu.

The DFA and the Chinese embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Chinese regime lays claim to most of the waters within a so-called Nine Dash Line in the South China Sea, which is also contested by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam.

Abu said it was the fourth reported incident of close distance maneuvering involving CCG and Philippine vessels in the Scarborough Shoal since May last year.

Despite the risks, Abu said the deployment of Philippine assets and personnel to waters within the countrys exclusive economic zones would continue.
(L to R) The Peoples Convoy co-organizer Mike Landis, co-organizer Brian Brase, the Unity Projects Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Paul Alexander, and emcee Marcus Summers at a rally at Hagerstown Speedway in Hagerstown, Md., on Mar. 26, 2022. (Terri Wu/The Epoch Times)

Playing the Long Game: Peoples Convoy Organizers Pledge to Continue Efforts to End National COVID Emergency

HAGERSTOWN, Md.Organizers of the Peoples Convoy have vowed to continue pressing for an end to the national COVID emergency, saying they were in it to play the long game.

During speeches at a March 26 rally in Hagerstown, Maryland, co-organizers Brian Brase and Mike Landis said that spending a few days away from Hagerstown Speedway, an auto-racing venue and the temporary campground of truckers, helped bring new perspectives to their missions.

Being home solidified my reasoning for being here, Brase said of his short break back home in Ohio over the previous weekend. It reminded me that Im doing this for my children.

I know that as a human being walking this earth, no government, no company, no one may violate my God-given right! Brase added.

The co-organizer said he would be happy if he could help ten Americans to notice the big picture of whats going on. He encouraged the audience to investigate, research, and hold accountable their elected officials and vote for God-fearing men and women during midterms in November.

And Landis, who flew to Orange County, California, to meet with Democratic Congressman Lou Correa (D-Calif.) on March 21, called the meeting a step in the right direction.

We all are the underdogs because the government has way more time and money than we do. Youve got to pick the right time as to when to pick it up and when to just wait it out, said Landis.

Integrity, Dignity, and Community

Dr. Robert Malone also spoke at the rally and emphasized the long game. He described the Convoys current pursuit as one little, tiny battle in a total information warfare, in which those in power are trying to control information relating to COVID-19 for political purposes.

Malone is a virologist and immunologist who has contributed significantly to the technology of mRNA vaccines. He is also the chief medical officer of the Unity Project, a movement seeking to resist COVID-19 vaccine mandates for K12 children.

Dr. Robert Malone, Chief Medical Officer of the Unity Project, at a rally at Hagerstown Speedway in Hagerstown, Md., on Mar. 26, 2022. (Terri Wu/The Epoch Times)

Theres no reason for the declaration of emergency because there is no medical emergency, he told the audience.

The national COVID emergency, which was declared in March 2020 under President Donald Trump, has since been extended twice by President Joe Biden, in February 2021 and this month.

Its long been apparent that the U.S. and other Western governments have intentionally used the guise of an overstated public health crisis to justify the suspension of laws and rights that would be enforced without such a crisis, including the federal common rule, which defines the rights of all citizens to informed consent for medical procedures, he said, adding that COVID was politicized.

Malone offered three words to form the basis of guiding the path back to a healthy country: integrity, dignity, and community. He said truckers and their supporters formed a community that could serve as the core to rebuild communities in the nation.

Reconnecting with God

This movement has made me a true believer in God. You have shown me God from the groups that pray over me, or [co-organizer] Marcus [Summers], or Mike [Landis], or the Convoy, Brase told the audience. Thank you for showing me the way.

The 37-year-old said he had struggled with his relationship with God up until recently.

He had questioned why and wavered between believing and not believing during difficult moments in life. The significant events he mentioned included the death of his grandfather, the difficulty of making ends meet, and his sons suicide six months ago.

What this movement has done, why this movement has been so successful, is because of God, said Brase, adding, I have felt my grandfather and my son here with me through this.

Laura Kasner from Ohio at Hagerstown Speedway in Hagerstown, Md., on Mar. 26, 2022. (Terri Wu/The Epoch Times)

Laura Kasner drove from Ohio in the morning to attend the rally and would head back immediately afterward. It hailed three times over the afternoon of the rally, two before and one during. Thats God, letting us know that hes here, she told The Epoch Times.

To Kasner, the Peoples Convoy means getting the truth out there.

I think a lot of people are still asleep, and they need to wake up. And I pray every day that that happens. But I think the tide is turning. I think people are starting to understand whats at risk, she said.

The 62-year-old added said she wanted to live the remainder of her life free. In addition, she thought of the young people: Do they have any idea whats at stake here? I dont think they do. And its so unfortunate.

Next Steps

The U.S. Senate passed a resolution to end the national COVID emergency on March 3. However, the House version has been with the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee since May 2021.

Congressman Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) filed a petition on March 16 to bypass the committee. It will take an absolute majority of 218 votes for that to happen and to allow the resolution to be voted on the House floor. The petition currently has 43 signatures.

Landis urged the hundreds of people on-site and the audience over livestream to call their representatives in Congress and ask them to support the petition.

He previously told The Epoch Times that the Peoples Convoys extended its contract with Hagerstown Speedway to the end of the week without providing a specific date. Members of the convoy mentioned either March 30 or 31. Regardless, the venue may not be available for much longer, as the race season has begun.

Dr. Paul Alexander, chief scientific officer of the Unity Project, spoke of one possibility of the future direction. He told the audience, Were going to turn this convoy into the most political powerhouse. It already is.

Go back to your states and hold firm. Tell them what you saw. Activate your states, he added.
Heart Issues Detected Months After COVID-19 Vaccination: Study

Heart abnormalities were detected in some adolescents months after COVID-19 vaccination, according to a study.

Researchers at Seattle Childrens Hospital reviewed cases of patients younger than 18 who went to the hospital with chest pain and elevated serum troponin levels, two key markers of heart inflammation, within a week of getting a second dose of Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine.

While 35 patients fit the criteria, 19 were excluded for various reasons, including receiving care in another state after the initial visit. Cardiac imaging of the remaining 16 patients, performed three to eight months after they were first examined, showed 11 had persistent late gadolinium enhancement, a heart abnormality, though at lower levels than months earlier.

The follow-up imaging also revealed abnormal global longitudinal strain, a measure of heart function, in three-quarters of the patients, with little change from the initial examinations, as well as significantly improved measures of blood pumping and no detected regional wall motion issues, another abnormality.

Researchers said that while symptoms were transient and most patients appeared to respond to treatment, the study showed a persistence of abnormal findings, noting that late gadolinium enhancement is known as an indicator of heart injury and is associated with a worse prognosis in patients with typical myocarditis.

The findings rais[e] concerns for potential longer-term effects, they wrote, adding that they plan to repeat imaging at one year after the vaccine to assess whether problems are still present.

The findings were published following peer review in The Journal of Pediatrics. The researchers said no funding was received for the paper.

Pfizer and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) didnt respond by press time to requests for comment.

Dr. Anish Koka, a cardiologist who wasnt involved with the study, said it suggests that 60 to 70 percent of teenagers who get myocarditis from a COVID-19 vaccine may be left with a scar in their heart.

Certainly, children who had chest pain severe enough to merit seeking medical attention need to at least make sure they get a follow up MRI, he told The Epoch Times in a message on Twitter, adding that the findings should have clear implications for the discussion around vaccines, especially for high risk male teenagers  and definitely for vaccine mandates.

The Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, both built on messenger RNA technology, have been linked with several forms of heart inflammation, including myocarditis and pericarditis, according to data from multiple countries.

The conditions have been seen at much higher than expected rates in youths, especially young men, according to data reported to the CDC. The most at-risk group is 16- and 17-year-old males, who have reported rates of 69 per million after second doses of Pfizers two-dose primary series in the United States. The problems are likely underreported.

The heart inflammation often leaves people short of breath, with chest pain and other symptoms. Many patients are admitted to the hospital, and a small number of deaths have been reported.

A survey conducted among some of the youth whose conditions were reported to the CDC at least 90 days after they first experienced symptoms found that about half were still suffering from at least one symptom, such as chest pain.

About 4 in 10 patients were still on exercise restrictions months after experiencing the inflammation, a parallel survey with the patients health care providers found.

Providers also disclosed that cardiac imaging done months after symptoms appeared still showed abnormalities for some patients, with late gadolinium enhancement being the most frequent.
Hazy skies caused by air pollution are reducing visibility and harming our health, here and also in our national parks and wilderness areas. An alarming recent study found regional haze in our iconic national parks is comparable to densely populated cities like Los Angeles and Houston.

The fix is in the hands of the Montana Department of Environmental Quality which is required to take strong action. These should require emission controls for the three power plants currently under review, establish a cost-effective threshold in line with other states, require pollution controls for non-power plant sources (also under review), correct the inflated cost of controls calculations, and assess environmental justice impacts.

Nationally, the Clean Air Acts Regional Haze Rule has resulted in real, measurable, and noticeable improvements in air quality. It requires all states, including Montana, to reduce pollution to help restore clean and clear skies at protected national parks and wilderness areas (of which we have 14).

However, Montanas DEQ has proposed a regional haze plan that falls short on the states obligation to reduce pollution and improve air quality for our parks and surrounding communities. That failure threatens our health, thousands of jobs, and $600 million in yearly economic benefits.

Public comments are welcome and due by March 21 and a hearing has been set for March 18. Interested parties can find additional information on the MT DEQ website, deq.mt.gov/News/publiccomment-folder/news-article154.

Rita Rozier

Livingston

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RCMP Staffing Shortfall Needs Scrutiny From N.S. Mass Shooting Probe: Lawyer

HALIFAXAn active shooter was on the loose in Portapique, N.S, buildings were burning, and it was left to three RCMP officers to advance into the mayhem on April 18, 2020.

Ill be kind of frank with you here. Three guys went into a real serious situation. It doesnt seem to me like a lot of guys, one of the officers, Const. Adam Merchant, told an inquiry lawyer in an interview that was recently made public by the commission looking into the shootings.

He was describing a terrifying night as he and two other officers moved down the main road in Portapique looking for a man who fatally shot 13 people that night, before going on to kill nine more the next day.

As the inquiry into the mass shooting prepares to resume hearings Monday, the officers blunt comments have raised questions about RCMP staffing shortfalls in Nova Scotia and drawn the attention of a lawyer for the victims families.

Its an issue wed like to have fleshed out, Rob Pineo, the lawyer for families of 14 of the 22 victims, said in a recent interview with The Canadian Press.

Merchant told commission lawyer Roger Burrill last August that the expected staff complement of six on his shift was often not available, leaving the minimum of four members on duty to cover an area twothirds the size of Prince Edward Island. Six is good when you have six, but a lot of times you dont have six, he explained. On the night of the shootings, the fourth constable on duty stayed at the entrance to Portapique to contain the area.

On Monday, Merchant and constables Stuart Beselt and Aaron Patton are scheduled to testify at the inquiry as part of a witness panel, and Pineo hopes to have the opportunity to probe further into these comments. The families feel that had more personnel been on the ground that night, the results would have been different, Pineo said.

He also speculates that having two more officers at the scene might have allowed some of them to turn left at a split in the main road and possibly intercept the killer. Instead, the three officers all proceeded straight down Portapique Beach Road, while the killer  unbeknownst to them  had shifted over to Orchard Beach Drive, the road that went left at the main intersection.

Had more personnel been deployed and been able to pursue the perpetrator at that time, who knows how the result of the massacre might have changed? Pineo said.

All of the officers were trained to use carbines and to respond to active shooters, a regular part of RCMP training since the 2014 killings of three Mounties in Moncton, N.B.

Merchant said in his interview there was concern about having more officers enter the scene, as they might shoot at each other. But he added, We were kind of just running everywhere we could see. And I think it would have been beneficial to be able to have more members there.

If they (supervisors) had something that tracked us, they might be able to say, Hey, youre getting too close to soandso, Merchant told Burrill.

His fellow officer Beselt, however, told the inquiry lawyer there was a risk of officers shooting at each other if they separated. When you dont know where he is, you dont want teams tripping over each other, he said in his interview last July.

Pineo hopes crossexamination under oath of the frontline constables and their superiors will be able to explain the various views. It seems to me that different teams could have been deployed with code words or with communications between the different groups saying where they were in different times, he said.

Records sent to the public inquiry indicate the local municipality first raised concerns years ago about staffing shortfalls due to absences, transfers and illness.

In recent years, municipal council has been concerned about increasing numbers of officer positions that were nominally staffed but did not provide an active officer on duty, Colchester CountyMayor Christine Blair said in a Dec. 14, 2021 letter to the inquiry. The municipality has been raising this concern with the RCMP  since 2015.

An internal 2019 review of the RCMP Colchester district found that, on average, the 28 frontline officers in the district were off work a combined 171 hours annually due to sickness and various forms of family leave. The review went on to suggest six more officers were needed to ensure community policing standards were met.

Blair said last month in a statement to The Canadian Press that the matter of hiring more officers has been referred to an external consultant for a review.

She said while the council was receptive to hiring more officers, it wants to create a policing system where more officers are based in small communities around the county, rather than the current  more centralized  system the RCMP uses, where most staff are based in Bible Hill, N.S.

She said the municipality will soon decide on either a modified RCMP policing system or switching over to a municipal police force.

It looks forward to receiving recommendations of the Mass Casualty Commission on police services, Blairs statement said.

By Michael Tutton
Hunter Biden walks to Marine One on the Ellipse outside the White House on May 22, 2021. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

Republicans Plan to Investigate Hunter Biden Laptop Story: Issa

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said he will lead an effort to investigate the 2020 election-related suppression of news coverage about Hunter Bidens laptop and its contents if Republicans win back the majority in the House of Representatives later this year.

Big Tech will resist accountability like it always doesbut we are more determined than ever to make certain that we get the truth of the collusion that we know occurred, Issa said in a statement to news outlets last week. We should carry with us an obligation to see this through.

The lawmaker told The Hill that hes already sent record and document preservation requests to several tech company executives, White House aides, and former intelligence officials in connection with the initial New York Post story about the laptop belonging to President Joe Bidens son.

Just days before the 2020 election, Facebook and Twitter both moved to block the spread of the Posts story, drawing condemnation from the newspapers editors and Republican elected officials. Twitter, for example, barred anyone from posting or sharing the article, alleging that it contained hacked material and locked the Post out of its account for two weeks.

Then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey later conceded that Twitters suppression of the report was a total mistake, although he didnt say who made the decision.

The Posts report, published in October 2020, said that emails obtained from Hunter Bidens laptop showed there was a meeting between Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and Ukrainian business leaders. While The New York Times and other legacy media outlets and some former intelligence officials initially alleged it was disinformation designed to sway the election, earlier this month, the NY Times stated that the laptop and its contents were authentic.

During one of the presidential debates, former President Donald Trump repeatedly brought up the younger Bidens laptop and insinuated that the elder Biden was involved in allegedly shady dealings overseas. Tony Bobulinski, a former business associate of Hunter Biden, then came forward in October 2020 and said Joe Biden was the big guy referenced in purported proposed payout packages and equity shares in a Biden venture with a Chinese energy conglomerate.

Hunter Biden and President Biden have both said that the younger Biden didnt do anything wrong.

Issa told The Hill that he sent preservation requests to former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, current Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and other executives regarding the suppression of the Posts report.

Material investigation is essential for Congress to conduct a comprehensive fact-finding investigation into actions by technology companies, media organizations, and political allies to suppress information and prevent public awareness of matters involving the Biden Family, Issa wrote, according to The Hill.

The White House often declines to comment on developments regarding Hunter Biden, saying that he doesnt work for the federal government.

White House officials didnt respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.
Residents Protest Against COVID-19 Lockdown in Chinas Mega City Shenzhen

The Chinese communist regimes mass COVID-19 lockdowns have sparked public outrage. On March 21, hundreds of residents in a community being locked down in the Nanshan District of Shenzhen for a month protested, demanding their freedom.

One man in the community died during the lockdown. A resident recounted the events to the Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times on March 24.

Lin Nan (pseudonym) a resident in Nanshan district, Shenzhen, said that the group protest that occurred on the 21st was triggered by personnel who insulted a female resident with her child waiting in line to be tested. The residents shouted loudly, demanding the lockdown to be lifted. They smashed the pandemic prevention checkpoints and overturned the iron fences that prevented residents from going out.

Lin said: The conflict started on Monday (March 21). We have been locked in here for a month with little supplies sent in by the authorities. When we were lining up in the community to take the required COVID-19 nucleic acid tests, the testing staff told people to stand closer to each other. The woman with the child asked that should people stay a meter away from each other? The staff snapped, cursing the woman loudly. He said, you all deserve to be locked in, and its better that you are not allowed to come out for a few months or even a year. Just like that, a conflict erupted. Angry residents tore down the fences and the security guards rushed in to stop them.

Lin said that residents stayed there protesting. They demanded that the authorities lift the lockdown. The residents went to the iron gate of the residential complex to protest at 10 a.m. and asked the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) secretary of the Nanshan district to come to meet them to solve the problem. The party secretary finally replied to them in person at 9:30 p.m. that he had a meeting with pandemic control experts and the lockdown would be continued in the neighborhood for 7 more days, despite that there werent any infected cases there. They said theres nothing wrong with the lockdown, Lin said.

The Epoch Times obtained a video showing the scene of the protest.

Lin said that not only did the party secretary fail to respond to the peoples demands to lift the lockdown, he also mobilized the police and threatened to arrest people.

She said: The secretary couldnt answer the questions we asked, so he called a lot of police and SWAT team. They blocked our entire street. Because there are more than 600 residents here, they are afraid of us breaking out of the neighborhood.

The police came in three buses, and there were more on motorcycles. At night, the party secretary said that if we continue to protest, the police would take us away. So we went home, as many people are afraid of being arrested.

Lin added that the prices in the local area are soaring due to the lockdown, and people cant go out to work. Some people couldnt bear it anymore and wanted to jump off the building. Lin said, Just next door to us, there was a man who tried to jump off the building and was stopped by us.

Lin also revealed that a neighbor died during the lockdown, and the rotting corpse alarmed other neighbors, but the officials blocked the news.

The one who died was a 37-year-old man. I dont know how he died. Many people said that he died because of the lockdown. The community office didnt tell us how he died. Some people said that he died of starvation; some people said that he died because of desperation caused by the lockdown. No one knew. Some smelled the stench from his home and reported to the community office. And then those staff in white protective clothes went in and took the body out, she said.

The Epoch Times reached out to those in charge of Lins neighborhood at Daxin Workstation of the Nantou Sub-district Office, Nanshan District, but no one answered the office phone.

Zhao Fenghua and Gu Xiaohua contributed to the report.
Plumes of smoke are seen after what officials said was a missile strike in Lviv, Ukraine, on March 26, 2022. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/Epoch Times)

Russia Confirms Missile Strikes on Lviv in Western Ukraine as Biden Visits Poland

Russias Defense Ministry confirmed on March 27 it struck what it claimed were several military targets in the Ukrainian city of Lviv, saying it used both precision and long-range missiles.

Speaking to state-run media, Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Moscow destroyed a large fuel depot in Lviv. The facility was destroyed via high-precision long-range sea-launched weapons, he added, while saying that a second target in Lviv also was destroyed, according to the Interfax news agency.

The armed forces of the Russian Federation continue offensive actions as part of the special military operation, Konashenkov said in a statement, referring to how Russias government terms the conflict, which started Feb. 24. The ministry also presented a video that purported to show missile strikes in Lviv, Reuters reported.

Lviv regional Governor Maksym Kozytskyy wrote on Telegram on March 27 that the fuel depot was completely destroyed. Lviv is about 40 miles east of the border of Poland, a member of NATO.

President Joe Biden visited Poland on March 26.

March 26. Oil depot in Lviv after Russians missiles bombing.

For 14 hours, firefighters put out the fire.

Photo @SESU_UA pic.twitter.com/HJhEY7PJar    (@AndriySadovyi) March 27, 2022

As a result of the new missile strikes on Lviv, significant damage was caused to infrastructure facilities. Residential buildings were not damaged. The fires continue to be extinguished. The appropriate services are working on the ground, Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi wrote on Twitter on March 26.

Ukrainian officials said via social media that several individuals were arrested for espionage in connection with the missile strikes.

Neither Ukrainian officials nor Russias accounts of the strikes could immediately be independently verified.

The attacks on Lviv came just hours after Biden condemned Russias leadership. White House officials on March 26 and March 27 walked back some of the presidents comments, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying that the United States isnt seeking a regime change in Moscow because of the conflict.

I think the president, the White House, made the point last night that, quite simply, President [Vladimir] Putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else, Blinken told reporters during a visit to Jerusalem. In this case, as in any case, its up to the people of the country in question. Its up to the Russian people.

Firefighters working to extinguish a fire at a fuel storage facility in Lviv, Ukraine, on March 27, 2022. (Reuters/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

Black smoke billows after authorities said a missile attack hit an industrial area of Lviv, Ukraine, on March 26, 2022. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Biden told reporters that Putin cant remain in power.

Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia, for free people refuse to live in a world of hopelessness and darkness. We will have a different future, a brighter future, rooted in democracy and principles, hope and light, of decency and dignity, of freedom and possibilities, Biden said following a NATO meeting.

For Gods sake, this man cannot remain in power, Biden added.

Other White House officials on March 26 said that what Biden meant was referring to Putin using power outside of Russia.
Labor Senator Kimberley Kitching in the Senate chamber at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia on June 15, 2020. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)

Senate Pays Tribute to Kimberley Kitching

Senators from across the political divide will pay tribute to the late Kimberley Kitching in a specially convened sitting on Monday.

The Victorian Labor senator was laid to rest last week following her sudden death aged 52 from a suspected heart attack in Melbourne on March 10.

Labor frontbencher Katy Gallagher said it would be an important day for the parliament.

I have no doubt therell be many, many senators who want to speak and place on the record their respects for Kimberley and her family, Senator Gallagher said.

I understand her family will be joining us in the Senate and Im sure all of us would hope that its a day where her life and her legacy and her campaigns that she was very successful in, can be respected and observed.

Over her six years in the upper house, Senator Kitching became known for her human rights advocacy, highlighting of Chinas rising influence and a bid for Australia to adopt targeted sanctions laws similar to the US Magnitsky Act.

A whos who of politics packed St Patricks Cathedral in Melbourne last week, as her husband Andrew Landeryou described her as having been subjected to the unpleasantness of a cantankerous cabal, not all of them in parliament.

Labor has rejected calls for an independent inquiry to examine bullying allegations, with Anthony Albanese and former leader Bill Shorten saying the late senator would want the party to move on and dedicate itself to a victory at the election due in May.

Albanese said Senator Kitching did not make a formal complaint about any bullying allegations and did not come to him directly with any concerns.

Senator Kitching was up for re-election but there was some doubt about her preselection due to factional manoeuvring.

With her colleague Senator Kim Carr declaring his retirement on Sunday to deal with health issues, Labors Victorian Senate ticket will feature new faces.

Nominations close at 2 p.m. on Monday and if an election is required it will occur on Tuesday afternoon.

Frontrunners for the positions are Victorian government minister Natalie Hutchins and union leader Linda White.

The Kimberley Kitching Human Rights Award will be inaugurated by the ALP national conference in 2023.
HOUSTONOne sight often seen at Shen Yun Performing Arts is that of parents with their children. Shen Yun is a classical Chinese dance company based out of New York that traces 5,000 years of Chinese culture before the era of communism. One of its many feats is to touch upon big subjects, such as faith, current events, and religious persecution, while simultaneously creating an enriching experience for families.

Hector Cruz, a safety manager at an oil and gas company, brought his children, Maximilian and Mathias, to the Shen Yun matinee on March 26. To him, the themes of Shen Yun modeled principles of humanity.

What makes us [a] civilization? They were teaching you, Mr. Cruz said. They were explaining to you what makes a civilization. Respect, values, beliefs, respect to each other.

In the show, Shen Yuns dancers and musicians present stories from ancient Chinaabout faith, love, moral fortitude, and compassion.

Its amazing, you can feel the emotion of people there, that they are not just dancing; they are transmitting the story of their country to you, Mr. Cruz said.

Doctor Troy Martin at the March 26 Shen Yun matinee in Houston. (Sally Sun/The Epoch Times)

Family physician Troy Martin attended the performance with his wife and three teenage daughters who the couple adopted from China.

He called Shen Yun a beautiful expression of compassion.

I think it was a great way for them to learn Chinese history, Chinese dance. Two of them are dancers so its a great way for them to explore their heritage and to learn about the changes that are taking place in China and the beauty of dance, expressing the Falun Dafa principles.

Falun Dafa is an ancient Chinese spiritual practice rooted in universal Buddhist and Taoist principles, which Falun Dafa summarizes as truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.

It is the spiritual faith shared by many of Shen Yuns performers but is banned in China under the communist regime. To date, tens of thousands of practitioners have lost their lives to brutal persecution against the faith.

Americans dont usually see that, and they dont understand what goes on over there [in China], Dr. Martin said. So it was a great experience to show that were truly blessed here in the United States, to be able to say what we want and practice what we want, and we dont have the government chasing us down, and torturing us, and taking our organs.

I truly believe its a great experience for people to learn, appreciate that we have freedoms here that Chinese people dont have, and its a shame that this very show cant be done in China. Its just terrible that they cant have that very same performance in their own country.

Reporting by Sally Sun.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yuns inception in 2006.
Renata Reje-Tebwska at the Shen Yun Performing Arts performance at the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga, Ont., on March 26, 2022. (Teng Dongyu/The Epoch Times)

MISSISSAUGA, CanadaPiano teacher Renata Reje-Tebwska went through the ups and downs of the pandemic and the many requirements that were put in place, and they were all very dispiriting, but seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts helped to bring back joy, she said.

Now we can see something different: joy. There is good energy [in Shen Yun], that is what is important to me, Ms. Reje-Tebwska said following the Shen Yun performance at the Living Arts Centre on March 26.

It is a big contrast from before, when we were in lockdown. Soon it was no lockdown. Masks, maskless. Upside down. Back and forth. It was very depressing, she said.

Seeing Shen Yun made all the difference. I will remember it for a long time, and I hope next yearI will come for sure to see it again, said Ms. Reje-Tebwska.

Shen Yun is a classical Chinese dance and music company founded in New York in 2006 with a mission of reviving the traditional culture of China, a rich heritage with a history of 5,000 years that has been suppressed after decades of communist rule.

The performing arts company features story-based dances that convey the beauty and wonder of China before communism, portraying the ancient civilizations exalted virtues and deeply spiritual roots.

Through the dances, Ms. Reje-Tebwska said she perceived a very clear, very beautiful message: Good always wins.

Specifically, now, where there are a lot of bad things happening, people need this kind of message. It was conveyed through the beautiful dancing, colors of hope, joy, [and] a lot of aspects of traditional Chinese history, she said. We cannot lose faith and trust in God. That was the message.

Shen Yun, Ms. Reje-Tebwska said, gives a lot of hope, a lot of life.

Its wonderful.

Flawless Technique

Daria Pugach, a veteran ballet teacher who has taught dance for 20 years, praised Shen Yuns dancers for the perfection of their performance.

Thats a beautiful performance. I really liked it. Everybodys working together [with] flawless technique, and very beautiful costumes, Ms. Pugach said.

Daria Pugach at the Shen Yun Performing Arts performance at the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga, Ont., on March 26, 2022. (NTD)

Before becoming a ballet teacher, Ms. Pugach was a professional ballet dancer for over 10 years. She said she found classical Chinese dance presented by Shen Yun to be very unique.

I love the choreographyvery beautiful, very different from any other genre of dancing, she said.

Shen Yuns website explains that Classical Chinese dance is a millennia-old art form that is built on traditional aesthetics and has been refined over thousands of years.

Classical Chinese dance has its own training in basic skills, physical expression and postures, leaps, flips, spins, and other difficult tumbling techniques, forming an extensive and independent dance system, says the website.

Ms. Pugach said she noticed many contrasting elements in the dancesstrength along with softness, quick as well as slow movements.

That was beautiful, she said. I would definitely recommend the show to anyone who hasnt watched it, and [I] probably will come back next year as well.

Reporting by Teng Dongyu and NTD.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yuns inception in 2006.
Cindy and Dale Johnson at the Shen Yun Performing Arts performance at Wortham Center Brown Theater, Houston, on March 26, 2022. (Sally Sun/The Epoch Times)

HOUSTONChinas history has been a 5,000-year tale of dynasties coming and going until the Chinese Communist Party took power and eradicated a lot of the culture and history that made up the countrys identity. Shen Yun Performing Arts has made it its mission to revive that precious history and present it to the world.

Dale Johnson, a program manager, and his wife, Cindy, shared their support for Shen Yun in its endeavors to revive the ancient culture.

Keep going. Youre influencing people to help spread what Chinese culture is about, and educate America about the different areas in China, and what its really all about to have that and share that culture, he said.

Shen Yun is based in New York and in line with Chinese culture, what Shen Yun portrays is a China before communism. Shen Yun is unable to perform in China today.

China before communism. China is political, we are a democratic society, we like to vote, we dont understand it, said Mr. Johnson.

Shen Yun dancers are trained in classical Chinese dance, but aside from their regular training, the artists are also skilled at different ethnic dances that honor the many different minorities in China.

I learned something with regards to the different parts of China, and overall. The colors are just amazing. Very nice, said Mr. Johnson. We love the performance. In my mind, its a culture and visual journey about Chinese culture.

Patrick and Yvonne Poo at the Shen Yun Performing Arts performance at Wortham Center Brown Theater, Houston, on March 26, 2022. (Sally Sun/The Epoch Times)

Yvonne Poo, an artist was also in the audience this evening.

She shared that seeing Shen Yun has inspired her in her future artwork.

Absolutely. All the colors and costumes. Im gonna use the inspiration from those colors in my work, said Ms. Poo.

Through every dance, Shen Yun isnt only depicting the beauty of Chinese culture, but also spreading a message of morality and hope.

Its deep. I like the aspect of humanity. If I take something from it, that will be it, she said. Compassion, all those values of humanity. [Theyre] more than moral values to me, human values.

She also shared her admiration for the artists after seeing how their hard work pays off on stage.

I will say that their commitment and the hours of practice is inspiring to see. [Theyre] putting all that effort into representing something to express themselves, she said.

Reporting by Sally Sun and Maria Han.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yuns inception in 2006.
Curtain call at the Shen Yun Performing Arts performance at Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver on March 25, 2022. (Hugh Zhao/The Epoch Times)

VANCOUVER, CanadaFor visual effects artist Remi Munier, Shen Yun Performing Arts was a feast for the eyes.

Very bright, very dynamic, its truly beautiful, said Mr. Munier, who works as a lead character FX artist for a visual effects company, at Shen Yuns performance at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on March 25.

Its really, really colorful, he noted.

Based in New York, Shen Yun features classical Chinese dance and music, with a mission to revive Chinas culture as it was before decades of communist rule all but destroyed it.

Its truly beautiful, said Remi Munier after seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver on March 25, 2022. (Ryan Moffatt/The Epoch Times)

One of the unique aspects of Shen Yun is its use of a patented technology that enables seamless interaction between Shen Yuns dancers on stage with animated backdrops depicting stunning scenes, such as of different eras in Chinese history or beautiful settings in the heavenly realm.

Ive never seen that before, Mr. Munier said. I found that really interesting, that the performers jump out of the stage [into the backdrops] and they become part of the background. Thats really good, really interesting.

Shen Yuns Orchestra

Grant Christopher, a writer, was similarly intrigued by the use of the animated backdrops.

Grant Christopher and Ella Kennedy at Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver on March 25, 2022. (Sherry Dong/The Epoch Times)

Ive never seen that before. It feels very modern, but at the same time very classic as well. Its a really nice combination, he said.

Mr. Christopher said hes happy to see so many people come to the Shen Yun performance and praised Shen Yuns use of a live orchestra. The orchestra is unique in that its the first in the world to permanently combine classical Western and Chinese instruments, creating a masterful fusion and a whole new realm in the world of classical music.

You can just feel more energy and more life from the orchestra, he said.

Lifts Your Spirit

Shen Yun was founded in 2006 by a group of leading Chinese artists who made it their mission to bring the authentic Chinese culture to stages around the world. Its an age-old culture with 5,000 years of history and deeply spiritual roots, yet the performance cant be seen in todays China under the communist regime,

Mabel Tung, chair of the Vancouver Society in Support of the Democratic Movement, said that despite the current oppression in communist China, one feels really positive after seeing Shen Yun.

I think it really lifts your spirit, said Ms. Tung. I think everyone should see [Shen Yun] and feel the positive spirit.

Reporting by Ryan Moffatt, Sherry Dong, and NTD.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yuns inception in 2006.
Tablets of the opioid-based Hydrocodone at a pharmacy in Portsmouth, Ohio, on June 21, 2017. (Bryan Woolston/Reuters)

Texas Physician Convicted of Illegally Prescribing Over 1 Million Opioid Pills

James Pierre, a 52-year-old doctor from Houston, Texas, was convicted on March 25 for illegally prescribing over one million pills of hydrocodone, an opioid pain medication.

Pierre was convicted of one count of conspiracy to unlawfully distribute and dispense controlled substances and seven counts of unlawfully distributing and dispensing controlled substances, the justice department said in a March 25 press release. He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 27 and faces up to 20 years in prison for each count. A federal district court judge will determine the sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Pierre made the unlawful prescriptions between June 2015 and July 2016 to hundreds of individuals posing as patients at the West Parker Medical Clinic, according to evidence and court documents presented during trial.

The physician, along with his assistant, issued prescriptions for hydrocodone and carisoprodol, a combination of controlled substances dubbed the Las Vegas Cocktail. The individuals posing as patients were brought to the clinic by a group of people, known as runners, who paid around $220 to $500 per visit in cash.

West Parker clinic made around $1.75 million from prescriptions through the scheme, of which $300,000 went to Pierre. One co-conspirator pleaded guilty to conspiracy to unlawfully distribute controlled substances. The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) of Houston.

Pierres case is not an isolated one. A pharmacy owner, 32-year-old Clint Carr, was convicted on March 7 for distributing controlled substances and laundering money via his pharmacies in Texas.

Over a period of 18 months, Carr and his co-conspirators are said to have distributed more than 1.5 million units, including over 1.1 million pills of hydrocodone and oxycodone.

Carr was charged with several counts of unlawful activity, facing a maximum total penalty of up to 140 years in prison.

Carrs conviction is a reminder that the Department of Justice will hold accountable those who have helped fuel the countrys opioid epidemic, Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Departments Criminal Division said in a March 8 press release. This includes pharmacy owners who have effectively poisoned our communities.

The state of Texas is taking stringent action against opioids, with Governor Greg Abbott recently proposing harsher prosecution for people who hand out non-prescription fentanyl to individuals.

Some regions in Texas are seeing a big increase in opioid use and deaths. In places like Harris County, fentanyl kills someone every day. Deaths involving fentanyl rose by 341 percent between 2019 and 2021, according to the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences.

China is a major supplier of fentanyl to the United States. After Washington raised the issue, Beijing implemented laws to regulate fentanyl in 2018 and 2019. However, the Chinese suppliers soon changed tactics.

Instead of sending fentanyl directly to the United States, they began shipping it off to Mexican cartels who then deliver it across the border. Of the 104,288 Americans who lost their lives between October 2020 and September 2021 to drug overdose deaths, 78,388 were due to opioids.
I am writing in support of Penny Ronning for Congress. I had the pleasure of meeting Ronning at a meet and greet recently. I was impressed with her straight forward answers and her understanding of the importance of working with all the congressional members. She realizes what's best for the country is blending ideas of the left and the right rather than only pursuing her opinions.
UK Distances Itself From Bidens Apparent Call for Regime Change in Russia

The UK government has distanced itself from U.S. President Joe Biden appearing to call for regime change in Russia.

During a speech in Warsaw, Poland, on March 26, Biden suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin should be removed from office.

For Gods sake, this man cannot remain in power, he said.

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers a speech at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland, on March 26, 2022. (Omar Marques /Getty Images)

But right after his address, a White House official walked back Bidens fiery remarks against Putin.

The Presidents point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbours or the region. He was not discussing Putins power in Russia, or regime change, the official stated.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also insisted we do not have a strategy of regime change.

Asked on March 27 if the UK government agreed with Biden on potential regime change in Russia, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said that it is up to the Russian people.

Zahawi told the BBC that it is for the Russian people to decide how they are governed but suggested they would certainly do well to have someone who is democratic and understands their wishes.

Thats up to the Russian people and it is only the Russian people that can make that decision, I suspect most of them are pretty fed up with Putin and his cronies and the illegal war, he said.

But he refused to criticise Biden publicly.

Asked if Biden was wrong to say what he did, Zahawi told Sky News: No, what Im saying to you is the White House has been very clear on this, the president gave a very powerful speech on this and I think both the United States and the United Kingdom agree that its up to the Russian people to decide who should be governing them.

Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the Defence Committee in Britains House of Commons, walks through Westminster, in London, on Feb. 2, 2022. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)

But Bidens remarks has been criticised by other UK politicians.

Tobias Ellwood, the Conservative MP who chairs the Defence Committee of the House of Commons, said it was unwise for Biden to hint at regime change in his remarks.

Ellwood, a former military office, warned that the Russian president will now see regime change as Bidens wider objective.

Putin will spin this, dig in, and fight harder, he predicted.

PA contributed to this report.
Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson (C) Britain's Foreign Secretary Liz Truss (L) and Britain's military representative to NATO Ben Bathurst (R) leave NATO Headquarters following a summit in Brussels on March 24, 2022. (Henry Nicholls /Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

UK Says Sanctions Could Be Lifted If Russia Withdraws Troops From Ukraine

Western sanctions against Russia can be lifted if Russia withdraws its invading forces from Ukraine and promises not to commit any further aggression, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said.

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Truss said the sanctions can only be lifted with a full ceasefire and withdrawal and commitments that there will be no further aggression.

Snapback sanctions will be quickly re-imposed if Russia commits further aggression in future, she said.

Her remarks fit with those of her U.S. counterpart, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has said the travel bans and asset freezes are not designed to be permanent, and the sanctions could go away in the event of an in effect, irreversible withdrawal of Russian troops.

Smoke rises from a Russian tank destroyed by the Ukrainian forces on the side of a road in Lugansk region on Feb. 26, 2022. (Anatolii Stepanov/AFP via Getty Images)

With Russian troops reportedly struggling on the battlefield, these comments from top Western diplomats could be seen as a possible incentive for President Vladimir Putin to cut his losses and broker a deal with Ukraine.

In her interview, Truss said she does not believe the Russians are serious about negotiations at present, and the West still needs to double down on sanctions on Russia and military aid to Ukraine.

But she said she has set up a specialist negotiations unit to provide support to Ukraine when the Russians are serious about negotiations.

When there does come a time for negotiations, I want the UK to be a key part of making sure we support Ukraine to get a deal that works, she said.

In any future deal, Truss said, there must be a genuine ceasefire, a genuine withdrawal of troops from Ukraine, and real levers on Russia in the future to stop any future aggression.

The foreign secretary emphasised that, despite their differences over the Northern Ireland Protocol in the post-Brexit trade deal, the UK and the European Union are working very, very closely on the Western response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

She applauded the EUs contribution, including its efforts to reduce its dependence on Russian gas, partly by purchasing liquefied natural gas from the United States.

Though Britain has differences with the EU in some areas, Truss said, fundamentally we are all democratic nations, we all believe in freedom and the right of people to select their own governments, and we are very much united in the fight.

PA Media contributed to this report.
President Joe Biden announces new economic actions against Russia in the Roosevelt Room at the White House on March 11, 2022. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

White House to Propose New Minimum Tax on Billionaires

WASHINGTONPresident Joe Biden will announce a new minimum tax targeting billionaires as part of his 2023 fiscal year budget on Monday, according to the White House.

The Biden administration announced the proposal on Saturday in a fact sheet ahead of the budget release, stating that the presidents plan rewards work, not wealth.

President Bidens Billionaire Minimum Income Tax will make Americas tax code fairer and reduce the deficit by about $360 billion in just the next decade, the fact sheet stated.

As part of his 2023 budget, Biden is asking Congress to pass legislation mandating the richest American families to pay a minimum of 20 percent on all of their income, including unrealized investment income.

Biden has long advocated for higher taxes on billionaires, but this is the first time the White House is proposing a plan that directly targets billionaires. So far, Bidens attempts to tax billionaires have failed due to opposition from Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.).

The White House document said that many millionaires and billionaires pay lower tax rates than middle-class employees because of an imbalanced tax code.

In 2021 alone, Americas more than 700 billionaires saw their wealth increase by $1 trillion, yet in a typical year, billionaires like these would pay just 8 percent of their total realized and unrealized income in taxes. A firefighter or teacher can pay double that tax rate.

Only the wealthiest 0.01 percent of American households (those worth more than $100 million) will be subject to the tax. Households earning more than $1 billion will account for over half of the revenue, according to the White House.

If a wealthy family already pays 20 percent on their total income (standard taxable income and unrealized income), they will not be subject to any extra taxes under the plan. If a rich households tax-free unrealized income permits them to pay less than 20 percent on their whole income, they will need a top-up payment to reach the 20 percent requirement.

Its unclear whether the new tax would advance in Congress. Garrett Watson, senior policy analyst at the conservative Tax Foundation, criticized the complexity of the proposal.

It is already clear that this proposal would make the tax code more complicated and may not effectively accomplish the goal of proponents who seek to raise tax rates on those with very high net worth and incomes, he told The Epoch Times.

Rich people would be incentivized to transfer their assets into illiquid forms, Watson said, if illiquid assets such as artwork or closely held companies are treated preferentially relative to liquid assets such as shares and bonds.

However, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a left-leaning think tank, applauded the new tax plan.

It will help us address the soaring inequality we see in this country and make the tax code fairer, more adequate, and more sustainable, Amy Hanauer, ITEP executive director, said in a statement. This plan offers a transformational and long-overdue change.

The plan permits affluent families to stretch initial top-up payments on unrealized income over nine years, and then over five years on future income. Payments spread across numerous years level out year-to-year fluctuation in investment income, according to the proposal. Taxpayers with no liquidity will be able to pay later with interest.

This approach means that the very wealthiest Americans pay taxes as they go, just like everyone else, and eliminates the inefficient sheltering of income for decades or generations, the White House said.

According to the document, Bidens budget plan would reduce the federal deficit by more than $1 trillion (including the $360 billion in new revenue from the Billionaire Minimum Income Tax) over the next decade.

President Biden is a capitalist and believes that anyone should be able to become a millionaire or a billionaire. He also believes that it is wrong for America to have a tax code that results in Americas wealthiest households paying a lower tax rate than working families, the fact sheet said.

The story was updated to include views from tax policy experts.
(L-R) U.S. Ambassador to Colombia Philip Goldberg, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, President Joe Biden, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are seen in a White House meeting March 10, 2022. (Doug Mills/Pool/Getty Images)

White House Not Seeking Regime Change in Russia: Blinken

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that the United States doesnt have any plans for a regime change in Russia, following comments from President Joe Biden that Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot stay in power amid the conflict in Ukraine.

I think the president, the White House, made the point last night that, quite simply, President Putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else, Blinken told reporters while in Israel.

As you know, and as you have heard us say repeatedly, we do not have a strategy of regime change in Russiaor anywhere else, for that matter, Blinken added. In this case, as in any case, its up to the people of the country in question. Its up to the Russian people.

In a speech in Poland, Biden declared that for Gods sake, this man cannot remain in power, referring to Putin. The comment drew speculation that the White House was pushing for a regime change to potentially topple Putins government.

Bidens remark was quickly dismissed by the Kremlin, with top spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling Reuters that its not for Biden to decide while asserting that president of Russia is elected by Russians.

We have a strategy to put unprecedented pressure on Russia, and were carrying that forward, Blinken also told reporters. And we have a strategy to make sure that were providing all of the humanitarian support that we can, and we have a strategy to reinforce NATO.

Other than Blinken, White House officials and Western leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron distanced themselves from Bidens remarks.

Macron on Sunday warned against verbal escalation with Moscow, saying: I would not use those words.

The French president on Friday had said he was seeking to hold more talks with Putin in the coming days regarding the situation in Ukraine as well as an initiative to help people leave the besieged city of Mariupol.

Putin sent his troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 for what he calls a special military operation to demilitarize Ukraine. Ukraine and the West say Russia has launched an unprovoked war of aggression.

The United Nations human rights office said on Sunday that 1,119 civilians had so far been killed and 1,790 wounded since Russia began its attack on Ukraine.

Some 15 girls and 32 boys, as well 52 children whose sex is as yet unknown, were among the dead, the United Nations said in a statement which covered the period between when the war began on Feb. 24 and midnight on March 26.

The true casualty figures are expected to be considerably higher, the world body said, with reports delayed in some regions where intense hostilities are going on, while many reports still require corroboration.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Dr. Ben Carson, former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, in Virginia on Dec. 7, 2021. (York Du/The Epoch Times)

Wrong Direction to Choose a Supreme Court Justice Based on Skin Color: Ben Carson

Its a wrong direction to choose a Supreme Court Justice candidate based on race and gender instead of merit and qualifications, said Ben Carson, the Housing and Urban Developing Secretary under the Trump administration.

So many people fought for such a long time to make sure that we had equality of opportunity. And a lot of blood was shed. A lot of people went to prison. Then we just turn around and sort of throw all that out, and start saying, Were going to make the qualification something over which a person has no controltheir external characteristics, and thats moving in the wrong direction, Carson told NTDs Capitol Report program in a recent interview, referring to President Joe Bidens pledge to send a black woman to the high court.

We really have to stop that and start asking ourselves: what makes a person who they are? Is it their skin? Is it their hair? Or is it their brain?

Biden has chosen Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to fill the seat to be vacated by Justice Stephen Breyer, who announced his retirement in January. From March 21 to 24, the Senate Judiciary Committee conducted a four-day confirmation hearing for Jackson.

We always do better when we do things on the basis of merit and qualifications, Carson said.

It doesnt mean that whoever he picks is not worthy of a position, but it calls [that] into question, and its really unfair to that individual when you do that.

Biden said the high court would look more like America with a black woman Justice.

For too long, our government, our courts havent looked like America, Biden said when he announced Jacksons nomination on Feb. 25. And I believe its time that we have a court that reflects the full talents and greatness of our nation with a nominee of extraordinary qualifications and that we inspire all young people to believe that they can one day serve their country at the highest level.

The Biden administration has been pushing for diversity, inclusion, and equity. The first day Biden took office, he signed an executive order advancing racial equity across the federal government. Days later, Biden signed an executive order pushing for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the federal workforce.

In January, Carson told Fox News that Biden was playing identity politics by promising to pick a black woman for the Supreme Court.

In an op-ed for the Washington Post last year, Carson said he certainly experienced racism, but I took responsibility for my own life and achieved more than what equity advocates would say our current system allows, adding that equity would mandate equality of outcome.

From a black child raised by a single mother in Detroit to a renowned neurosurgeon bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to a member of the White House cabinet, Carson has first-hand experience with racism and has more observations and thoughts on this topic. His new book, Created Equal: The Painful Past, Confusing Present, and Hopeful Future of Race in America, will be published in May.

We need to recognize that it doesnt matter where a person was born, what their circumstances were. In this country, if they get a good education, they write their own ticket, Carson told NTD.

Theres been a lot of talk about the wealth gap, and it is substantial between blacks and whites in this country. But is it because of the color of the skin? Or are there other things that we should be looking at?

We really need to be looking at the real reasons that were having difficulties in these families, rather than blaming everything on racism, said Carson.

Harry Lee Follow Harry Lee is a New York-based reporter for The Epoch Times. Contact Harry at harry.lee@epochtimes.com
Zelenskyy: West Needs More Courage in Helping Ukraine Against Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused NATO and the West of lacking the courage to provide more support amid the conflict with Russia, making another plea for fighter planes and more military equipment.

Ive talked to the defenders of Mariupol today. Im in constant contact with them. Their determination, heroism, and firmness are astonishing, Zelenskyy said in a video address on Sunday, referring to the besieged Black Sea city. If only those who have been thinking for 31 days on how to hand over dozens of jets and tanks had 1 percent of their courage.

Since the start of the Feb. 24 Russian invasion, Western allies and NATO states have given Ukraine numerous anti-tank missiles, anti-air missiles, small arms, and other military equipment, while there have been reports of NATO and the United States sharing intelligence with Kyivs government. No fighter jets, ships, or heavily armored units have been provided.

Earlier this month, the Pentagon described Polands proposal to transfer Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter planes to a U.S. Air Force base in Germany as untenable.

But Zelenskyy and other Ukrainian officials say that in order to push back Russian forces, it needs fighter jets, and not just the other military equipment that was supplied by the West. Meanwhile, Zelenskyy has asked often for NATO to enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine, which Western leaders have said would push NATO into a direct conflict with Russia, a nuclear-armed state.

So, who is in charge of the Euro-Atlantic community? Is it still Moscow, thanks to its scare tactics? Zelenskyy also said Sunday, according to The Associated Press. Our partners must step up their aid to Ukraine.

Black smoke billows after authorities said a missile attack hit an industrial area of Lviv, Ukraine, on March 26, 2022. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Last week, Western leaders met in Brussels for a NATO summit amid the conflict in Ukraine. Zelenskyys chief of staff on March 25 said that Kyiv officials were very disappointed in the outcome of the NATO summit.

We expected more bravery. We expected some bold decisions, the official, Andriy Yermak, said.

It comes as Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Sunday that Russian forces used cruise missiles to hit a fuel depot and another target in Kyiv. Those strikes, which occurred about 40 miles from the Polish border, came as President Joe Biden was wrapping up his visit to Poland and visited troops and Ukrainian refugees.

On Saturday and Sunday, the White House issued a series of statements downplaying Bidens remarks that some claimed were a call for a regime change in Moscow: For Gods sake, this man cannot remain in power.

But Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking in Jerusalem, said Biden doesnt want to see a change in Russias government. Russia also quickly denounced the remark.

We do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia, or anywhere else, for that matter, Blinken said Sunday. In this case, as in any case, its up to the people of the country in question. Its up to the Russian people.
Alyssa Tate, graduate of Cactus Shadows High School, is attending the Chicago Institute of Arts after receiving a Sonoran Arts League scholarship as well as the Bronze Bell award as a memorial to Jeff Cross. With her is Deborah Wales, recently retired Cactus Shadows art teacher.
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NORWALK  When Mary Windt moved back to the city from California and accepted an administrative role at The Marvin living facility, she never envisioned staying there for more than a quarter of a century.

At the time, The Marvin was a fledgling living facility for older adults on Gregory Boulevard, and Windt served as its first director in 1996. Nearly 26 years later, Windt, now 72, is set to retire Thursday.

I was living in California at the time. I closed an agency out in California and decided to move back because my father was sick, and I found this job through a two-line ad in the New York Times, Windt said. I never thought Id be here 26 years later and living in the house I came back to, but its one of the best things Ive ever done.

The Marvin announced Windts intended departure in November and began the process of searching for a new executive director.

In her time at The Marvin and The Marvin Childrens Center, Windt helped more than 200 older adults find affordable housing and provided early education and child care for more than 500 children, she said.

Ive loved what Ive done. I loved making an impact, Windt said. When I started, the building was literally a hole in the ground. I love building a project and Im going to miss that.

Windt said shell miss the interactions with the residents and making a tangible difference in peoples lives as a trained social worker.

In her 26 years working at The Marvin and in affordable housing in Connecticut, Windt has seen awareness about the issue reach a boarder audience, but the problem has persisted.

I think theres certainly more recognition of the need for affordable housing in the state and nationally, especially for seniors, Windt said. Funding needs to continue to increase. When the prior administration was in, there was a strong commitment to funding housing. I think Ned Lamont has been strong in that, but COVID has gotten in the way of a lot of things and theres an aging population that needs affordable housing.

To qualify for affordable housing in Fairfield County, residents are required to have an annual income less than $63,000, but many of those at The Marvin earn less than $30,000, Windt said.

Taking a step back from her work at The Marvin, Windt has several cruises planned and intends to clear out some of her childhood home, where she still resides, before getting back into volunteering and offering help at The Marvin as a consultant.

I considered retiring two years ago, but then COVID hit, and I wanted to make sure we got through COVID. We are in a good financial place and stable place with staff, Windt said. I have no specific plans. Im not moving right away. Im in the house I grew up in. I moved back 26 years ago after being away for 25 years and I have to clean out the house before I even consider doing anything.

Windt spent many years caring first for her ailing father and then living with and caring for her mother. Now, Windt will focus on herself and her dogs.

Diane Kozar and her mother, Ann, were some of the first residents to move into The Marvin in 1997. At the time, Diane Kozar was only 40, and moved in with the understanding that she would be required to leave if her mother died before she was 62, Windt said.

When Ann Kozar died in 2013, her daughter was required to move out, but stayed in touch with Windt and her friends at The Marvin, submitting her application to move back in as soon as she turned 62.

Kozar, now 66, said Windt was integral in her decision to move back to The Marvin in 2020.

When I came back here, it wasnt new for me because I said, Ive been here before and I was so happy to come back, Kozar said.

Kozar said Windt organized a going-away party for her when she moved out following her mothers death.

I was so upset I had to leave, and they threw me a big party and she said, Dont worry, youll be back some day, and here I am back home, Kozar said.

Kozar and a fellow resident performed a rap about Windt and her time at The Marvin during her retirement party last week.

For the family of The Marvin resident Fay Whitfield, 82, the facility was a new place, but felt familiar and comfortable due to Windts warmth.

Whitfield moved into The Marvin in 2018 after suffering a stroke and living in a private assisted living facility for a few years, Windt said.

Whitfields son-in-law, Peter Andino, said the family chose The Marvin after the private facility became too expensive.

I didnt know anything about them (The Marvin), so we went and interviewed and as soon as I met Mary and saw the team, I could tell very quickly she had built a really strong team, Andino said. I didnt know a lot about this place, but in just meeting the team and eventually moving my mother-in-law from Wilton to here, was probably the best decision we made.

abigail.brone@hearstmediact.com
NORWALK  Police Chief Thomas Kulhawik is defending his departments handling of recent misconduct allegations that in some cases led to officers facing criminal charges and having their Connecticut law enforcement certifications revoked.

Kulhawik argued the departments internal investigations into the behavior is proof the force takes allegations of wrongdoing seriously.

The Police Officer Standards and Training Council this month revoked the law enforcement certifications of three former Norwalk cops after records show investigations found they abused their power. Two officers were caught drinking on the job and another was accused of using his badge to pressure women into providing their phone numbers, records show.

The decision came just weeks after another former Norwalk police officer was arrested and charged with forging traffic citations, a crime that baffled internal affairs investigators, according to records.

The incidents have brought negative attention to the police department and raised concerns among residents about the behavior of local police officers while theyre on the job.

But in an interview with Hearst Connecticut Media Group, Kulhawik said the internal probes  and, in some of the cases, criminal charges filed in connection with the wrongdoing  are evidence the department works rigorously to uncover abuse.

The overwhelming majority of officers here do a good job and act professionally, he said. We make sure that we do things properly. When that does not happen, we investigate it and we weed out those people that need to get weeded out. I'm proud of the fact that we hold our people accountable.

The Police Officer Standards and Training Council, a state body that has the power to ban officers from serving in law enforcement, voted March 10 to revoke the certifications for former officers Michael Dimeglio, Sara Laudano and Taranjit Singh, according to agency documents.

The councils decisions, the documents show, were based on internal affairs records provided by Norwalk police that alleged each of the officers committed serious offenses.

DiMeglio and Laudano were accused of being intoxicated together while on duty, an incident that later resulted in criminal charges. Singh, who was not criminally charged, was accused of pressuring several young women he had pulled over into providing their phone numbers.

In February, former Norwalk police officer Edgar Gonzalez was arrested for allegedly creating more than 30 fake traffic citations over the span of four months. Gonzalez, who has not been stripped of his certification, resigned last year while under investigation.

Mayor Harry Rilling, who previously served as police chief, decsribed the departments disciplinary system as effective in a statement provided to Hearst Connecticut Media Group. He said the disgraced officers actions should in no way be considered a reflection on the officers who perform their duties flawlessly.

These incidents were unbecoming of any police officer sworn to uphold the law and protect the citizens of their community, Rilling said. Saying there is a pattern of misconduct among NPD officers is just not true. There are, at any given time, 180 officers on the Norwalk Police Department. The vast majority of the officers are dedicated professionals who subscribe only to the highest standards of conduct.

David OConnor, president of the Norwalk Police Union, did not return a request for comment.

The four officers who resigned last year are not the only Norwalk cops who have faced recent allegations of wrongdoing.

Officer Hector Delgado, a longtime veteran of the department, was arrested in 2019 for driving drunk and crashing on Interstate 95, records show. He was later granted pretrial probation programs and remains on the force.

Last year, Officer Nelson Figueroa was charged by Fairfield police with trespassing and breach of peace after he allegedly refused to leave a persons home during a dispute, according to records. He was briefly placed on administrative leave due to the incident, but later returned to work. His criminal case is still pending in court.

Aside from the officers who resigned, Kulhawik said only a few cops have faced discipline in the past year, including an officer who was issued a single-day suspension for failing to use his body-worn camera.

We don't really face a lot of disciplinary issues, he said.

According to Norwalk records, at least a dozen officers were cited for violating department directives between 2015 and 2020. None of the violations led to terminations.

Kulhawik noted that it is common for officers under investigation for serious misconduct and facing termination to resign before the internal probe has concluded.

Because of personal decisions, and advice from attorneys, people will choose to resign rather than face termination, because termination obviously on the record looks a lot worse than resigning, he said.

Kulhawik said most of the wrongdoing committed by officers was uncovered directly by department officials, which he argued is a sign the force is taking the right steps to expose abuse. He lamented the fact that holding officers accountable can create a perception that there is a larger issue within the department.

It's unfortunate that the more open that we are, the more hits we take, so to speak, he said. Departments that dont give out any information, then run from the media and dont cooperate have no issues.

It would be better, personally, to look the other way. Everyone would think everything is 100 percent great, he added. But we don't do that.

richard.chumney@hearstmediact.com
Elon Musk discusses the war in Ukraine and the importance of nuclear power  and why Benjamin Franklin would be 'the most fun at dinner'

24 hours ago

Mathias Dopfner, the CEO of Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, recently met with Tesla CEO Elon Musk for an interview.

https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-interview-axel-springer-tesla-war-in-ukraine-2022-3?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=yahoo.com



Dopfner: Russia said that they are going to stop the delivery of rocket engines. Is that a threat or an opportunity for SpaceX?

Musk: At SpaceX, we design and manufacture our own rocket engines. So we did not really own any Russian components at all.

Dopfner: Is it dangerous for the United States of America?

Musk: Boeing and Lockheed have strongly relied on the Russian RD-180 Engine. Which I should say, to be fair, is a great engine. They are hoping to move away from that in the future with engines from Blue Origin. There is also the Antares which uses the RD-180, I believe. They will not be able to fly as a result.
Young entrepreneurs from Edwardsvilles three high schools are preparing for their time in the spotlight.

The Edwardsville CEO (Creating Entrepreneurial Opportunities) program, which is comprised of seniors from Edwardsville High School, Metro-East Lutheran and Father McGivney Catholic High School, is hosting its Fish Tank business pitch competition from 7 to 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, April 7, and its Trade Show from noon to 3 p.m. on Sunday, May 1.

Both events will be at the Ink House, 117 N. 2nd St. in Edwardsville.

This is the fourth year of our program, and this fall well be going into our fifth year, said Hannah Allison, who is the Program Director for Edwardsville CEO. Starting in August, CEO students meet with me for the first 90 minutes of their day in a local business. Over the course of the year, they tour dozens of area businesses and interact with over 100 guest speakers.

Over the last four years, we have seen continual growth in community support for our program. Businesses and interested community members continue to reach out to host us for a talk and tour, join class as a guest speaker, be a mentor, investor or connect with the students. Were in such a special and unique area in that we have so many fantastic entrepreneurs, business owners and role models right in our backyard.

This March, students from Edwardsville CEO got to meet with Chad Opel from Front Office Wealth Strategies and also got to visit Neighbors Bakeshop, the nonprofit bakery that Opel, his wife Kathie and their local non-profit, Edwardsville Neighbors, recently opened next to Front Office in the Whispering Heights Development off Route 157.

Chad is a mentor for us, and Kathie is on our board of directors. They have hosted our crew to their businesses and are also program investors, Allison said. They are among the fantastic people in our community who want to be a part of the Edwardsville CEO program and give back to future generations.

Our goal is to help students develop an entrepreneurial mindset because we feel it is going to help set them up for success no matter what they choose to do after high school. We want them to make the most of every opportunity.

The CEO class meets five days a week for 90 minutes a day and is a year-long, two-credit high school course. Students also receive four hours of college credit through Southwestern Illinois College.

The Edwardsville CEO class is divided into two distinct portions.

In the fall semester, the students work together to create their class business endeavor.

For the spring semester, the students are responsible for coming up with an individual business endeavor and launching it by the trade show in May.

We were incredibly proud of the success of students class business, a drive-in movie night, this past fall. Their efforts from organizing finances, marketing and planning to running the event paid off big time. Proceeds from the event generate seed money for each of their individual businesses that they launch in May, Allison said.

Fish Tank and the trade show are the culminating events of the whole year. At these events, we get to watch our students bring together everything they have learned from the whole year, from how to be a great communicator to how to launch a business.

Funding for the nonprofit program comes from financial pledges from local businesses and donations from other individual and group community investors. The fiscal agent for Edwardsville CEO is the Edwardsville Community Foundation.

To be selected for the program, participating high school juniors must apply and submit letters of recommendation, a written request for admission and complete an entrepreneurial profile. This coming fall, the CEO Selection Committee was able to accept 26 students across all three participating high schools.

The class meets in local businesses and changes its locations throughout the year. CEO mentors help students immerse themselves in real-life learning experiences with the opportunity to take risks, manage the results and learn from the outcomes.

The students are matched with a mentor that they meet with once a month, and the mentors serve as their one-on-one guide as they are forming their businesses. The business visits and the speakers start with the first week of the program.

The Fish Tank competition is sponsored by the SIUE School of Business and Small Business Development Center for the Metro East and is the last step for the students before the trade show.

Fish Tank is the programs local business pitch competition. Students have been crafting their individual business ventures all year and are getting ready to launch. All 20 students will give a three-minute pitch followed by a two-minute Q & A session. Winners will be announced at the end and a small breakfast mingle for students and judges will take place.

This years judging panel includes:

 Jason Plummer  Illinois State Senator and Vice President of R.P. Lumber

 Bonni Burns  CEO of BAM Marketing

 Steve Cooper  Senior Vice President of First Mid Bank & Trust

 Timothy S. Schoenecker, Ph.D.  Dean of SIUE School of Business

 Jay Beard  Owner of Recess Brewing/Boulder Holdings, LLC

 Jennifer Hughey  CEO of Goshen Coffee

 Jo Ann Di Maggio May  Director of SBDC SIUE

We have had the pleasure of hosting each of the judges before and look forward to welcoming them back this year, Allison said. They provide the perfect balance of asking questions and offering feedback to our entrepreneurs, without tearing them down. It is a lot of fun to watch.

At the trade show, meanwhile, all students will be showcasing their business ventures at booths at The Ink House. Students will have products, services and interactive booths prepared for the community.

Last year we had a great crowd and a lot of support from people purchasing products made by the students, Allison said. While all investors, program participants and family and friends are invited, we were thrilled to see that many community members stopped in after running errands on Sunday afternoon to check out what was happening.

This year our entrepreneurs have so many cool things in store. We have students making handmade wooden American flags, ultra-healthy dog treats, customizable cornhole boards and a specialty soda subscription box, just to name a few. One of our students, Macy Smith, has a unique business called Hello from Home, which is designed for busy parents who want to give their college students something special when they move away. Shes going to help them bundle personalized care packages to send to them.

An End of Year ceremony will take place at 3 p.m. on May 1. This year, a new scholarship was provided to honor two CEO students who have developed an entrepreneurial mindset, with each scholarship for $2,500. Those winners will be announced during the ceremony.

The name of the new CEO scholarship will be the Loretta Babs Enloe Memorial Edwardsville CEO Scholarship at the Edwardsville Community Foundation, Allison said. Tracy and Rich Wetzel were looking for a way to honor Tracys mother, who passed away (in 2017).

The name of the new CEO scholarship will be the Loretta Babs Enloe Memorial Edwardsville CEO Scholarship at the Edwardsville Community Foundation, Allison said. The Wetzel family (Tracy and Rich Wetzel and Marisa and J.C. Wetzel) were looking for a special way to honor Tracys mother, who passed away (in 2017).

Babs was successful as an entrepreneur and a supporter of business and education in the community. Tracy and Richs son, J.C., and his wife Marisa are two of our guest speakers for Edwardsville CEO. The family has been incredibly supportive of our program. This scholarship is a special way to give back to Edwardsville CEO and honor Lorettas memory. We are incredibly grateful for their generosity and look forward to sharing this opportunity with our students.

For more information about Edwardsville CEO, the Fish Tank or the trade show, or to read more about students individual businesses, go to https://www.edwardsvilleceo.com/ or visit the Edwardsville CEO Facebook page. You can also reach out to Hannah Allison at facilitator@edwardsvilleceo.com.
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No fewer than 7,000 persons have signed a petition initiated by the Nigerian Global Affairs Council which is asking the Federal Government to make laws which will enable a sentence to death by hanging without the option of fine, for anyone found guilty by a court for ritual killings.

According to the group's petition as stated on change.org , it said the menace of ritual killings had made women endangered species, suggesting that an Anti-Ritual Activities Bill be put in place to contain the spate.

The group said; Ritual activities that include the administrator (babalawo or herbalist) of such ritual killings, the accomplice to such ritual killings, and the beneficiary of such ritual killings will be sentenced to immediate death by hanging without with an option for an appeal if their murderous crime of ritual killings is proved beyond every reasonable doubt.

Anyone found to publicly display ritualistic activities whether on and off social media, including within or outside the confines of their abode, will be arrested and tried according to the tenets of this law and that of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; if found and proven guilty beyond every reasonable doubt, they will be sentenced to jail for between 15-50 years without an option of appeal.

This bill will seek to make life, safety and environmental awareness training compulsory for all children of school age, including adults  It means that nursery, primary, secondary, and tertiary institutions must partner with a life, safety and environmental awareness company to offer training and simulation exercises that help reduce and prevent these scenarios of needless deaths as seen in recent times.
Mark Okoye, the immediate past Anambra Commissioner for Budget, Economic Planning and Development Partners has lauded women world over, especially Anambra women, for their tenacity and drive.

Globally, women are celebrated every month of March for their numerous social, economic and cultural contributions to the society. The church on its part sets aside a Sunday to mark this important commemoration. The Anglican faith is marking its own today, while that of the Roman Catholics will come weeks later.

In a press statement personally signed to commemorate this year's mothering Sunday of the Anglican faithful, Okoye said women empowerment should go beyond cliches and become much more deliberate.

According to him, despite the enormous contributions of women to home and nation building, the feeling is that women, with the exception of a few, have not been given the platforms and support needed to unleash their creative best.

As a person who is passionate about women empowerment, but driving empowerment through technology, digital economy and careful interrogation of existing systems, I know that Nigeria can, and should intentionally grow the headroom it currently allows its women.

Okoye says his passion for advancing the cause of women stems from many personal experiences.

If my mother was not given the opportunity to rise in the private sector and become First Bank's first female executive director, I will not be sitting here today. She raised four kids and all the four have gone on to do excellently well in their different careers.

Continuing, Okoye said if his wife did not get the right education and have a good job, he would probably be unable to volunteer to serve in the very many capacities he did as a public servant.

But this is not just my story. It is the story of several Nigerian homes where you see the empowerment level of the woman evidently reflect in the kind of outcomes and opportunities available to her children. If Nigeria is to break the prevailing cycle of poverty and depravity, it must make conscious efforts to empower its women.

At the risk of sounding immodest, I have personally shown the willingness to work with and accommodate women in the spirit of #breakingthebias. But efforts must be made to scale this up.

As I think through this, I ask myself 'can Nigeria revisit some of the bills and clauses that have been recently rejected and see what role we can collectively play to get desired outcomes?'

Are there baby steps one could take or should we identify those rejected clauses and see how we can work with colleagues to drive them further? Can we take it a step further and work with different women empowerment groups, associations, NGOs?

For instance, when I'm having a ward meeting in Ifitedunu, why is it only two women that show up? At best you see a woman that is a deputy chairman and another that is the woman leader. Are there baby steps we can take within the party's constitution to put in amendments that create more opportunities for women?

Nigeria has to deliberately create opportunities to enable more women rise both in the private sector, but especially more in civil service, public service and elective positions.

If affirmative action in elective positions is a bit too harsh to some considering Nigeria's history and its gradual change in mental attitudes, can we push for it in civil service? If there is affirmative action in civil service, for instance you get 60% women in CBN, NNPC recruitments and promotions. What tends to happen is that you are actually making more achievable and more sustainable changes.

Despite existing challenges, the future is bright for Nigeria's women. We just have to deliberately make conscious efforts to make it brighter, and I am happy to volunteer to push this with all the platforms available to me Okoye concluded.
Biden says butcher Putin cannot remain in power

WARSAW: US President Joe Biden yesterday (Mar 26) castigated Vladimir Putin over the month-old war in Ukraine, bluntly calling the Russian leader a butcher who cannot remain in power.

RussianUkraineviolencedeathpolitics

By AFP

Sunday 27 March 2022, 10:02AM

US President Joe Biden delivers a speech about the Russian war in Ukraine at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland yesterday (Mar 26). Photo: Brendan Smialowski / AFP

In an impassioned speech from the Royal Castle in Warsaw, delivered after meeting top Ukrainian ministers in Poland and earlier conferring with NATO and EU allies on the conflict, Biden plainly warned Russia: Dont even think about moving on one single inch of NATO territory.

Although the White House moved quickly to temper Bidens unprecedented comments on Putin - insisting the US leader is not seeking regime change in Russia and was referring to Putins influence over neighbours in the region - the Kremlin made its displeasure clear.

Personal attacks, one official said, were narrowing down the window of opportunity for bilateral relations.

Biden coupled his harsh words for Putin with a pointed attempt to appeal to ordinary Russians, saying they were not our enemy and urging them to blame their president for the heavy sanctions imposed by the West.

He offered reassurance to Ukrainians in the audience and elsewhere, at a time when nearly four million of them have been driven out of their country. We stand with you, he said.

Biden also cast doubt on Russias signal that it may scale down its war aims to concentrate on eastern Ukraine - even as two Russian missile strikes slammed into the west of the country.

The president said he was not sure Moscow has indeed changed its objectives, which, so far, he said had resulted in strategic failure.

Two Russian missiles earlier struck a fuel depot in western Ukraines Lviv, a rare attack on a city just 70 kilometres from the Polish border, which has escaped serious fighting.

At least five people were wounded, regional governor Maksym Kozytsky said, as AFP journalists in the city centre saw plumes of thick black smoke.

Putin sent troops into Ukraine on Feb 24, vowing to destroy the countrys military and topple pro-Western President Volodymyr Zelensky.

But his army has made little progress on capturing key cities, and it has hit hospitals, residential buildings and schools in increasingly deadly attacks on civilians.

Unwavering

Biden, who was winding up a whirlwind visit to Poland after holding a series of urgent summits in Brussels with Western allies, earlier met Ukraines Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov in Warsaw in an emphatic show of support for Kyiv.

Both ministers had made a rare trip out of Ukraine for the face-to-face talks, in a potential sign of growing confidence in their battle against Russian forces.

In a possible shift on a plan to transfer Soviet-era fighter jets from Poland to Kyiv to boost Ukraines firepower in the skies - rejected last month by the Pentagon as too high risk - Kuleba said the United States now did not object.

As far as we can conclude, the ball is now on the Polish side, Kuleba said in written comments to AFP after the meeting.

In a video address, Zelensky reiterated a call for planes while urging allies to supply Ukraine with more weapons.

We need more ammunition. We need it to protect not only Ukraine but other Eastern European countries that Russia threatened to invade, he said.

During the meeting... with our American colleagues in Poland we made it clear again, he said.

What is NATO is doing? Is it being run by Russia? What are they waiting for? Its been 31 days. We are only asking for one percent of what NATO has, nothing more.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, meanwhile, announced an additional U$100 million in aid to help Ukraine police and border guards purchase armoured vehicles, equipment and medical supplies, a statement said.

Hiding losses

On the frontlines, Russias far-bigger military continued to combat determined Ukrainian defenders who are using Western-supplied weapons - from near the capital Kyiv to Kharkiv, the Donbas region and the devastated southern port city of Mariupol.

In an update last night, the Ukrainian General Staff accused Russia of hiding the real number of personnel and hardware losses.

In the eastern Kharkiv region, four soldiers and a civilian were killed yesterday when a Russian bombardment hit a high school in the town of Bervenkove, Ukrainian authorities said.

Russias defence ministry reported a battle for control of two villages near the eastern separatist stronghold of Donetsk and also claimed a missile strike had destroyed an arms and ammunition depot in the Zhytomyr region, west of Kyiv, on Mar 25.

A humanitarian convoy leaving the devastated southern port of Mariupol - including ambulances carrying wounded children - arrived in Zaporizhzhia after being held up at Russian checkpoints for two days, a Ukrainian official said.

The ambulances carrying wounded children are also queueing. The people have been deprived of water and food for two days, she wrote on Telegram, blasting Russian troops for creating obstacles.

Authorities have said they fear some 300 civilians in Mariupol may have died in a Russian air strike on a theatre being used as a bomb shelter last week, with around 170,000 people still trapped in the besieged city.

It is very difficult to independently verify what is happening on the ground.

Used to explosions

In Kharkiv, where local authorities reported 44 artillery strikes and 140 rocket assaults in a single day, residents were resigned to the incessant bombardments.

Anna Kolinichenko, who lives in a three-room flat with her sister and brother-in-law, said they dont even bother to head down to the cellar when the sirens go off.

If a bomb drops, were going to die anyway, she said. We are getting a little used to explosions.

Artillery attacks in the city of Brovary, east of Kyiv, cost three lives, regional officials said in a statement, and a 19th century Orthodox church was destroyed.

Russian forces have taken control of Slavutych, the town where workers at the Chernobyl nuclear plant live, briefly detaining the mayor, regional Ukrainian authorities said.

Residents of the town protested, prompting the invading forces to fire shots in the air and lob stun grenades into the crowd.

Kyivs mayor cancelled a planned 35-hour curfew, as Britains defence ministry said Ukrainian counterattacks were underway near the capital.

Enemy sabotage groups in Kyiv region are still attempting to penetrate the capital, the Ukrainian General Staff said.

Air-raid sirens sounded early today in Kyiv and several other cities, with residents warned to take shelter.

Ukraines defence ministry said its forces had recaptured Trostianets, a town near the Russian border that was one of the first to fall under Moscows control.

Images published by the ministry showed Ukrainian soldiers and civilians among heavily damaged buildings and what appeared to be abandoned Russian military equipment.

In the face of unexpectedly fierce Ukrainian resistance, Russias army has exhibited poor discipline and morale, suffering from faulty equipment and employing tactics sometimes involving brutality toward civilians, Western analysts say.

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Saturday that UK sanctions against Russia could be lifted if Moscow committed to a full ceasefire and withdrew its troops.

Her comments echoed remarks by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the wide-ranging penalties against Russia are not designed to be permanent and could go away if Moscow changes its behaviour.
Dead body found in Phuket mangroves

PHUKET: The body of a man (possibly a fisherman) was found floating in the sea on the margin of mangroves in Koh Kaew yesterday (Mar 26).

deathpolice

By Eakkapop Thongtub

Sunday 27 March 2022, 12:00PM

At around 4.30pm, Lt Col Chittiwa Thanavitwilas of Phuket City Police was notified by patrol officers that local residents found a dead body in the sea not far from Samakkhi Soi 9 on Phukets eastern shore.

Having received the information, police with Kusoldharm rescue workers, Vachira Phuket Hospital staff and a forensic expert rushed to scene where they found a body of a man "stuck" at the edge of a the mangroves.

The body was taken out of the water and examined. The deceased turned out to be an elderly male dressed in white and pink striped polo shirt and blue pants. A medical mask was still under the mans chin. No injuries or other suspicious signs were discovered.

Not far from the body officers found plastic bag with cash and personal papers. The later let to identify the dead as Sahat Bunchan, 59, from Nakhon Sri Thammarat.

The body was taken to Vachira Phuket Hospital for autopsy. Police are now trying to find the mans relatives.
Let's face it. The modern sedentary lifestyle isn't doing us any favors. Even the people we consider "active" may not be that active after all. Combine that with long hours working at a stationary job, and you have a recipe for disaster, with some sources referring to sitting as "the new smoking."

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Prices subject to change.
Govt spokesman tests positive for COVID-19, forced to work from home

BANGKOK: Government spokesman Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana said on Sunday (Mar 27) he had tested positive for COVID-19.

COVID-19homicide

By Bangkok Post

Sunday 27 March 2022, 03:01PM

Government spokesman Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana. Photo: Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana Facebook account / Bangkok Post

Mr Thanakorn said despite the RT-PCR test showing he had contracted the disease. He had only very mild symptoms, reports Bangkok Post.

The spokesman said he had to work from home and did not specify when the test was carried out.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha selected him to replace Anucha Burapachaisri as the government spokesman in August last year. He is known as a staunch defender of the coup leader-turned-premier.

On Mar 26, Thailand registered 25,821 daily Covid-19 cases, 413 fewer than the prior 24 hours, the Public Health Ministry announced.

The daily Covid death toll jumped by 17 to 84 (from the 69 reported on Saturday), all of them Thai nationals between the ages of six and 104.

Of the 25,821 new cases, Bangkok recorded the most - 2,749 - followed by 1,537 in Nakhon Si Thammarat, 1,293 in Chon Buri, 955 in Samut Sakhon and 870 in Samut Prakan.

Just 56 of the new caseload were imported, with the remaining 25,765 transmitted inside the country.
Phuket marks Earth Hour 2022

PHUKET: Yesterday (Mar 26), Phuket residents joined environmentally conscious people around the globe for the Earth Hour by switching off non-essential electric lights to draw attention to climate change.

environment

By The Phuket News

Sunday 27 March 2022, 01:00PM

Phuket marked Earth Hour 2022 on Mar 26, but you can contribute anytime. Photo: Patong Municipality

As announced by Patong Municipality, non-essential lights went off from 8.30pm till 9.30pm in Phukets renowned resort city. The same was done simultaneously in numerous places of the UTC+7 time zone spreading from as far as Norilsk (Russia) in the North to Christmas Island (Australia) in the South and including all of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Then the turn was passed to the next time zone.

Started in 2007 by the World Wide Fund for Nature as a symbolic lights-out event in Sydney, Earth Hour has by now become a catalyst for positive environmental impact with an impressive success record. Literally millions take part in the event every year to draw attention to environmental issues  and officials cannot ignore the numbers of those asking for actions to be taken.

Earth Hour shows climate-sceptic governments that people are concerned about climate change. As a result of Earth Hours efforts, in 2012 Russia passed a law to better protect seas from oil pollution. Earth Hour was instrumental for the creation of Argentinas largest marine protected area and the first-ever Earth Hour forest in Uganda. Following successful Earth Hour campaigns, plastic bags were banned on the Galapagos Islands and 5 mn sq km French Polynesias exclusive economic zone were classified as a managed marine area.

To learn more about how to support Earth Hour efforts on any chosen day of year, please visit www.earthhour.org.


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Devastating news broke yesterday that Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins had passed away, at the far-too-young age of 50.

In an Instagram post, the band wrote,

The Foo Fighters family is devastated by the tragic and untimely loss of our beloved Taylor Hawkins. His musical spirit and infectious laughter will live on with all of us forever. Our hearts go out to his wife, children and family, and we ask that their privacy be treated with the utmost respect in this unimaginably difficult time.

The heartbreaking news came on the same day the band were set to take stage to perform in Bogota at the Festival Estero Picnic, and two days before their headline appearance at Lollapalooza Brasil.

As music the world mourns, footage from Taylor's last-ever concert performance with Foo Fighters at Lollapalooza Chile from just one week ago has been shared by thousands of fans worldwide, showcasing Hawkins' incredible showmanship and musical talent.

During the gig, Dave Grohl invites Hawkins out from behind the drums to to the microphone to sing a song, and he belts out an epic rendition of Queen's "Somebody To Love".

Watch below.
Sitting at a desk in a sultry classroom and trying to pay attention on those hot, humid days in June may be a thing of the past in Williamsville Central Schools.

The district wants to install air conditioning in its six elementary schools as the first phase of a project that would bring cool classrooms to all district schools.

The cost is $62.7 million, and residents will get a chance to vote on the proposed capital project during the May 17 annual school board and budget elections.

"I think we all have experienced the higher temperatures in the fall, in the spring, and as well in the summer," Thomas R. Maturski, assistant superintendent for finance and management services, said at Tuesday's School Board meeting.

He said the average temperature has risen in the last 70 years. Of the 20 warmest months of June in Buffalo, seven of them occurred from 2005 to 2021, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Applied Climate Information System. In contrast, four of the warmest Junes took place from 1960 to 1980.

And the hot weather doesn't just heat up classrooms in June, or in summer school. Seven of the warmest Septembers took place in the last seven years. The temperature hit 90 and 91 on two days in 2017 and 90 one day in 2018.

"A few years ago, prior to Covid, we actually had some very high temperatures in our buildings in September, and at that point in time we actually had some concerns if we should be holding school on those days," Maturski said.

Air conditioning is not novel in Williamsville. The 2000 additions at Casey Middle School, Transit Middle School and Williamsville East High School all have air conditioning.

Although perhaps more common in Southern schools, former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio pledged in 2017 to have air conditioning in all of his city's public schools in five years.

A 2018 study from the National Bureau of Economic Research showed a correlation between temperature and learning. Hotter school days in the years before students retook the PSATs reduced their scores.

The Environmental Protection Agency said that indoor air quality, such as the level of pollutants, humidity and temperature, affect the occupants' health, comfort and ability to perform.

"Our buildings are masonry construction, and they just do not cool down," Maturski said. "If you've got heat in them, they do retain that heat."

The project also will improve air filtration in buildings, something particularly helpful in dealing with the airborne Covid-19.

The project will have no effect on the tax rate, Maturski said, because it will replace other debt that is being retired. The district also will use about $24 million in capital reserve accounts to lower the amount of money to be borrowed.

Also included in the capital project is about $1.4 million in electrical work required at Williamsville East High School, bringing the total to $64.11 million.

If approved by voters, the work could begin in 2024 and be completed in 2026. And since the work must be done during the school year, it could require the use of portable classrooms or possibly having the air conditioning work done after school. If portable classrooms are used, the district would probably take a few classrooms out of service at a time, he said.

The second phase, which would involve installing air conditioning in the rest of the district's schools, probably would be planned for a vote in 2025, Maturski.

He said it made the most sense to start with the elementary schools.

"We know how the younger students are impacted more severely by the heat, and especially weve seen it during the school tear. Weve seen it in summer school," he said. "The past several years we moved summer school from elementary schools to middle school."

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SPRINGFIELD  In a rare move last week, the state Senate rejected a gubernatorial appointee to the Illinois Prisoner Review Board (PRB) that passed through its Executive Appointment Committee with a recommendation.

The Senate vote may be the beginning salvo in the battle of the remaining Prisoner Review Board appointments and other criminal justice reform measures.

On Tuesday PRB member Jeff Mears did not get the required 30 votes in the Senate to keep his board post. The remaining PRB appointees include Ken Tupy, Jared Bohland, LeAnn Miller, Oreal James and Eleanor Kaye Wilson.

Tupy, Bohland and Miller were recommended by the committee. The Senate did not take up those appointees, but their nominations are not set to take effect automatically this week.

The PRB decides whether offenders are released from prison and under what conditions. Gov. J.B. Pritzker has said the task of the PRB is passing judgment on people who have done terrible things, including those convicted of murdering police and children.

Those people include Paula Sims who has admitted she killed her newborn daughters, Heather in 1989 and Loralei in 1986, but contended she suffered from postpartum psychosis.

She didnt use the insanity defense on the advice of her then-attorney.

Sims suffocated her 13-day-old daughter, Loralei, then put her into a Jersey County ravine in 1986. Three years later, her 6-week-old daughter, Heather, was found in a trash bag in a receptacle in a Mississippi River fishing area. Sims had told police she was attacked by a stranger who kidnapped Heather.

Sims avoided the death penalty and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In March 2021, Pritzker commuted Sims sentence to life with the possibility of parole.

Prisoner Review Board minutes from Sims hearing on Oct. 28, 2020, indicate the only opposition was from Madison County States Attorney Tom Haine, the son of former Madison County States Attorney Bill Haine whose office originally prosecuted Sims.

Sims had one surviving child, a son named Randall, who was raised by his father, Robert. Robert and Paula Sims had divorced. In 2006, Robert Sims lodged his opposition to his former wifes release. Nine years later, Robert, 62, and Randall, 27, died in a fiery crash in Mississippi.



In the hearing's minutes, a doctor testified he believed Paula Sims suffered from postpartum psychosis. When asked why only the girls were harmed, the doctor replied that Sims was preparing to harm her son but was interrupted.

While in prison, Sims worked directly with another inmate in developing new legislation addressing postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis that was ultimately signed into law in January 2018. Sims, now 62, was released on Oct. 29, 2021.

Mears voted to parole Sims. So did Tupy, Miller and James. Bohland was the sole dissenting vote.

Mears vote fails

Before last week's vote, Mears passed through the Executive Appointment Committee and received a recommendation. Later that day, the Senate Democrats split, with 22 voting yes and 18 Democrats not voting. Sen. Patrick Joyce, D-Essex, joined the 18 GOP members and voted no.

Mears fell eight votes short of being approved and lost his spot.

Its surprising that anybody would vote him down, that people wouldnt show up to vote, Pritzker said at a Wednesday press event. What Republicans are trying to do is to essentially break down a function of government. They want to do away with it just like during the (former Gov. Bruce) Rauner years. So much was done to break down the functions of government, the agencies of government. This is not right.

Pritzker said it bothers him Democrats didnt vote to approve Mears.

It bothers me that they are listening to the Republican rhetoric," he said. "They are telling false stories. Its Facebook fakery about these folks who are nominated."

Mears did not reaturn a call for comment.

Scrutiny regarding the PRB appointments began last year after Pritzker appointed, then pulled, then reappointed the same candidates. Republicans called the process a scandal.

Currently, there are eight members on the 15-member board.

Mears received his appointment in March 2021. In May 2021, he was driving to Springfield to appear before the Senate committee when he received a call that his appointment had been pulled by Pritzker.

Mears was one of five PRB members who had their appointments withdrawn and resubmitted by Pritzker. James and Wilson were appointed by Pritzker in April 2019, but those appointments were withdrawn in March 2021 and submitted just days later. Last week, their appointments moved out of the Senate committee without a recommendation.

Tupy, Bohland and Miller were recommended by the committee. Tupy and Bohland were approved unanimously. The Senate did not take up those appointees, and they will be automatically approved at the end of Monday if the Senate doesnt vote on their nominations as well.

PRB members Aurthur Mae Perkins and Joseph Ruggiero were also appointed by Pritzker in March 2019, but those appointments were withdrawn in March 2021 and submitted again days later.

Earlier this month, Pritzker pulled the nominations for Perkins and Ruggiero for a second time. The two, both appointed to the board by Rauner, have served on the board for nearly three years without a Senate confirmation. Their names were not resubmitted.

Pritzker also pulled the appointment of PRB member Max Cerda, who was convicted of a double murder when he was 16 years old. Cerda received parole in 1998. He was 35 years old when he was released and began working with ex-offenders in Chicago to help them transition to life outside of prison.

Change the process

The 2018 research study conducted by Parole Illinois found that there should be change to the process.

The way the board members are appointed and approved should be amended to increase the institutional independence, the study stated.

Appointments and removal are up to the governor with the consent of the Senate. This, the study found, creates an institutional structure where board members may be removed as easily as they are appointed. The governor determines that the board is qualified and diverse in backgrounds and experience, the study found, which is inappropriate given how the political tides fluctuate.

This method of appointment and removal creates a board full of members vulnerable to undue political influence, the study stated. Instead of gubernatorial appointments, Illinois should adopt a new process for appointment where a special panel made up of representatives from different branches of government and the criminal justice system makes board recommendations to the governor.

The figures bear out this conclusion. For the eight PRB members who served under both Rauner and Pritzker, the number of votes for parole under Pritzker at least doubled for every member from what they were under Rauner.

State Sen. Jason Plummer, R-Edwardsville, during a recent Senate committee hearing, asked James about a statement he had made in 2019 about not supporting parole for those convicted of murdering a police officer. Plummer has criticized the PRB confirmation process for more than a year.

In January, he introduced Senate Bill 3670 which would require PRB appointees be confirmed within 30 session days or 90 calendar days, whichever occurs first. If an appointee is withdrawn, the bill would bar their reappointment for another two years.

PRB members are entrusted with making incredibly tough decisions that can lead to good outcomes for reformed inmates, or potentially dangerous repercussions when the wrong individuals are released, Plummer said. Our constitution requires proper vetting and confirmation of these appointees, so that we can make sure the right people are making these decisions.

"It is absolutely unconscionable that a governor would play games with the process when the stakes are this high.

On Wednesday, Pritzker said that without approval of the appointees the PRB cant get a quorum. The lack of a quorum would mean that the PRB couldnt function, including ruling on parole violations. That would mean those facing hearings for violations of parole would automatically remain free if theres not a quorum to hear their case.

Its a huge problem, Pritzker said.

The PRB also arbitrates the calculation of good time credit, issues recommendations on pardons and clemency, and reviews cases of those who violate the terms of their parole to decide whether they should be revoked and returned to prison.

Last year, the PRB held 4,595 revocations hearings across the state.


New figures made public Saturday show that Covid-19 cases are stubbornly ticking upward in Erie County.

The county Department of Health reported 106 new Covid-19 cases for Friday, up from 89 the day before but continuing a recent run in which 100 new cases a day is not uncommon.

The county Health Department said Erie had 642 total new cases over the past seven days. That's 43% more than the weekly total from two weeks ago.

Erie County said its positivity rate  the percentage of people tested who test positive for Covid-19  ticked upward to 2.9% Friday, slightly above the states positivity rate of 2.4%. Western New Yorks seven-day aver average recorded Thursday was 1.94%. The figures do not include people who test themselves at home and do not report the results.

Other regions of New York are doing far worse than Erie and New Yorks four other western-most counties. The state Health Department said that on Thursday, Western New Yorks rate of cases among 100,000 people was at 8.47 when averaged over seven days. That was the lowest among the states 10 regions. The highest was in Central New York, 40.44, the state Health Department said.

While Covid-19 cases continue, the numbers are nowhere near the Omicron wave seen a few months ago when positivity rates topped 20% locally and statewide. Hospitalizations in Western New York are now at manageable levels.

We are seeing a little bit of a bump in cases over the last week or so, which is what we expected, said Dr. Thomas Russo, an infectious disease specialist with the University at Buffalos Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

People are venturing out more without masks, and St. Patricks Day brought more people together, he said. The temperatures are keeping people more indoors than out, and that will likely continue through Easter, another day when extended families will again gather inside.

Pandemic Lessons: As the Covid-19 decline slows, who do we still need to protect? This weeks Pandemic Lessons details the steps each of us can take to help the most vulnerable among us and guard against a dramatic rise in infections.

Still, he said he was not overly concerned.

I dont think we are seeing anything like we saw with the previous wave, the Omicron wave, he said. We are in a different place now. We have a much greater immunity wall.

Russo said vaccinations are proving to be good protection against bad outcomes from Covid-19 and its variants, but vaccines are not perfect in protecting against infection. Unvaccinated people, those who are immune-compromised and pregnant women especially need to be careful, he said.

New cases are increasingly being attributed to an Omicron subvariant first detected in Europe, BA.2. While government officials have said they are not likely to reimpose restrictions, President Bidens administration intends to give Americans 50 and over the option of a second booster shot, the New York Times reported on Saturday.

In the middle of this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that all of the Covid-19 cases in the region of the country that includes New York were attributable to the Omicron variant. But by the end of the months, the CDC estimated that the BA.2 subvariant was responsible for more than half of the new cases.

2022 Covid-19 pandemic coverage Take a look at our daily coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic, plus the latest map and statistics for Western New York.

Russo said BA.2 is proving to be more infectious than the most common Omicron lineage, BA.1. But the vaccines hold up just as well against it.

The state Health Department on Saturday said 92% of New York residents age 18 or older have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

"The best way to keep the numbers down is by using the tools we know work," Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement Saturday. If you feel sick, get tested and limit your exposure to others. If you test positive, talk to a doctor right away about treatments.

"The booster dose improves your protection against severe illness and hospitalization, so don't delay in getting one once you are eligible, she said.

The Buffalo News: Good Morning, Buffalo The smart way to start your day. We sift through all the news to give you a concise, informative look at the top headlines and must-read stories every weekday. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.
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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Dyson has set out plans to invest 840million in Singapore as it opened its global headquarters in the city state.

Billionaire Brexit supporter James Dyson sparked a backlash in 2019 when he shunned Britain by announcing plans to shift the company closer to its fastest-growing markets.

Sweeping move: Dyson, best known for its vacuum cleaners, unveiled its new site at a refurbished power station in the low-tax business hub in Singapore

The electronics giant, best known for its vacuum cleaners, unveiled its new site at a refurbished power station in the low-tax business hub.

It also plans to hire 2,000 engineers and digital specialists across the world in 2022.

The investment forms part of a wider 3.8billion group investment plan, which will be split between Singapore and Dyson's two campuses in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, and the Philippines.
Investors may choose to climb aboard Rolls-Royce when markets reopen tomorrow.

The troubled plane engine maker's stock has yo-yoed since the pandemic put the brake on travel.

But the shares have just received a surprise lift after a blog post from financial website Betaville said Rolls was about to be involved in a 'significant corporate transaction' with an unidentified suitor.

Hard work: The last time Rolls was linked to takeover speculation was after its 2020 cash call

The last time Rolls was linked to takeover speculation was after its 2020 cash call and, before that, in 2015 following a string of profit warnings.

Shares in Rolls's defence industry rivals have been boosted by the outbreak of war in Ukraine, potentially strengthening their position to snap up struggling competitors.

However, broker Jefferies is circumspect. It says the UK Government's golden share would deter most bidders.

Arch-rival BAE Systems could be a contender, but a Rolls swoop would be a huge change in strategy, it added.

To complicate matters, newish chairman Anita Frew is hunting for a replacement for long-suffering boss Warren East, who departs at the end of the year.

Could he be dragged into a dramatic final chapter?

Boost for Ted Baker

Ted Baker's share price has resembled a moth-eaten suit of late.

But the emergence this month of a potential bid from US private equity firm Sycamore Partners has sent the stock up 43 per cent.

That's bad news for computer-driven hedge fund Voleon Capital.

It closed its short position after the bid emerged.

Keep an eye on SocialAmp

Here's a long-term bet worth keeping an eye on  digital marketing agency SocialAmp.

The firm was founded by four young British entrepreneurs and counts MTV, Nickelodeon and Boohoo among its clients.

They've even convinced billionaire Boohoo co-founder Mahmud Kamani to invest.

The company expects profits of 5million in the next financial year and there could be a flotation within three years. Promising.

New chief at IQE

This week will bring the first appearance of new IQE chief Americo Lemos.

He joins the UK-listed semiconductor maker from New York rival Global-Foundries at a crucial juncture, as supply chain issues continue to cause headaches.

Analysts at stockbroker Peel Hunt expect limited growth this year, but hope that Lemos can move the manufacturer from 'an order taker to an order hunter'.
Niagara County officials are enthusiastic about Amazon building a $300 million distribution center and bringing 1,000 jobs to the Town of Niagara, but some residents have one nagging worry.

"The traffic is going to be impossible," predicted Dawn Ansel, who lives a short distance east of the proposed warehouse site at Lockport and Packard roads.

Locals say the two-lane Lockport and Packard roads already are two of the most heavily traveled roads in western Niagara County, and their intersection, especially for eastbound traffic, can be a dangerous challenge.

"Since I've been here, there's been at least 100 accidents," said Thomas Scalzo, who has lived across the road from the Amazon site for 34 years.

While Amazon's 216-acre parcel is half cornfield and half wetland, it's not in the middle of nowhere.

Scalzo said his brother and cousin live on Packard Road.

"At 4:00 they can't even get out of their driveways," Scalzo said.

Jonathan Kempf of Tuscarora Road said people trying to make a left turn onto Lockport Road, especially during rush hours, often resort to a backup plan.

"If they see more than four cars lined up, they literally will make a U-turn, go to Saunders Settlement and go the opposite way to get around that traffic," Kempf said.

"Honestly, they need to widen the road for anything to happen," Ansel said.

Lockport Road is one of the main roads between Niagara Falls and Lockport, and every morning and evening, school buses make frequent stops along the road and the numerous residential side roads.

"If you add 200 to 300 trucks a day  plus the idea that when school is in session you'll have school buses stopping  you're going to have backups for quarters of miles," said Kempf.

Town of Niagara Supervisor Lee S. Wallace acknowledged the traffic concern.

"That is, at this point in time, the only concern," Wallace said. "Well take a look at it, and our hopes are that it will be doable and it will be something that can be done in a way that will mitigate a lot of traffic jams.

Region-leading truck traffic

If the 3.08 million-square-foot warehouse is built as planned, the projected around-the-clock stream of 18-wheel tractor-trailers  as many as 24 per hour  might turn out to be the heaviest concentration of trucks in the Buffalo Niagara region.

By comparison, the region's main post office on William Street in Buffalo has 215 truck arrivals and departures each day, U.S. Postal Service spokesman Mark Lawrence said.

The Modern Corp. garbage landfill in Lewiston has 185 trucks coming and going each day, according to spokeswoman Julie Berrigan.

A traffic study for a much smaller Amazon facility, to be built across from a FedEx distribution center in Hamburg, projects that it would add only 106 vehicle trips to the evening rush hour on Route 5, a road that already carries 42,000 vehicles a day.

But the Amazon building in the Town of Niagara would be 17 times bigger than the one planned in Hamburg, and it projects more than 10 times more jobs.

"Packard Road is narrow. It's not going to be able to handle a tractor-trailer every three minutes," Scalzo said.

Amazon chose the site in part because Packard Road has an Interstate 190 exit 1.75 miles south of the planned warehouse location.

I-190 helps make Packard a heavily traveled route already, along with its intersections with Military Road, a major shopping area, and Porter Road, which leads to Niagara Falls International Airport.

The warehouse is projected as a 24-7 operation, with two 10-hour work shifts each day. The peak hours for employee traffic would be between 6:30 and 7:30 a.m., and between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m., traffic engineer Amy Dake told the Niagara County Planning Board Monday.

The morning Amazon peak would come before the current neighborhood traffic peak, Dake said, but her study estimates 443 employee vehicles and 24 tractor-trailers would enter the Amazon site during that peak hour.

During the evening peak hour, the study says, 392 employees' vehicles would enter the Amazon site and 399 other employees' vehicles would leave the site, while 20 tractor-trailers would pull in and out.

"These traffic figures represent an overall increase in traffic in the area," Amazon attorney Kimberly R. Nason acknowledged in a project summary sent to the Town of Niagara.

Improving the roads

Nason, however, said the existing roadway network "can reasonably accommodate the project" by making improvements to the public roads around the site.

The project design calls for four driveways. One would run to Tuscarora Road, east of the building, and would be used only for traffic exiting the Amazon site. They could be employee vehicles or Amazon tractor-trailers, Dake said.

Tuscarora Road "will be improved from the driveway location all the way out to Lockport Road," Dake said.

The other driveways would run onto Lockport or Packard roads.

Dake recommended adding left-turn lanes to the public roads at all three of those driveways, along with a right-turn lane for the driveway at the Lockport-Packard intersection.

Also, traffic signals should be installed at the driveways, Dake said. Those signals would be "fully actuated," she said, meaning that the lights for through traffic would remain green unless vehicles were waiting to exit Amazon.

"That could be all day long," she conceded.

A tough drive

The current intersection of Lockport and Packard roads is unusual.

A westbound driver on Lockport Road now has the option of staying on the main route, which curves south and becomes Packard Road, with no stop sign or traffic signal.

Or, that driver can take a right-turn lane to continue west on Lockport Road.

But eastbound drivers on Lockport Road who want to keep heading east face a challenging left turn at an uncontrolled T-shaped intersection on a curve.

To the east of the Amazon site, Lockport Road also features the main entrance to the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station, the county's largest employer; a heavily traveled intersection with Walmore Road, which leads to Niagara Falls Boulevard; and a bustling industrial park, Vantage International Pointe.

Scalzo said he's regularly awakened at 6 a.m. by trucks using their engine brakes.

Kempf predicted Amazon traffic would worsen air quality, causing more asthma and heart disease, and damage home foundations.

"People live here. This isn't a purely industrial zone," Kempf said.

"It's going to make things noisy. It's going to make things crowded," Ansel said. "We moved here because it's a quiet neighborhood. Adding a big giant warehouse there that's going to employ 1,200 people  the quietness is going to go."

"Quality of life, they don't think about that," Scalzo added. "The only people who want it are the people who live far away."

We have residents that will be inconvenienced, most likely," said Wallace, the town supervisor.

"And we have to weigh the good with the bad when we come to a project of this magnitude that will significantly impact in a positive way, in many cases, residents in our town as a whole, and the county as a whole, and the surrounding communities," Wallace said. "And then the jobs. And we have to weigh that against the impact of traffic."

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Princeton, KY (42445)

Today

Thunderstorms. High 68F. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Cloudy. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 53F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph.
Kingsport, TN (37660)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms in the morning becoming more widespread in the afternoon. A few storms may be severe. High 74F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Overcast with rain showers at times. Low 56F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
Excavators went to work in mid-March on a 25-acre site in the Town of Niagara.

But this time it's environmental protection, not economic development, that brought out the heavy machinery.

Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper, one of the region's leading environmental groups, began a $2.2 million project to cut a new channel for Cayuga Creek  one that the group says will reduce flooding in nearby neighborhoods while protecting native plants and animals.

The parcel "has great ecological value," Waterkeeper Executive Director Jill Jedlicka said. "It gets to the core of our mission."

The wetland property between Porter Road and Niagara Falls Boulevard belongs to the town, which acquired it from the owners of the Cayuga Village mobile home park.

If all goes as planned, in about two months the redirected creek will drain the parcel better and prevent seasonal floods that closed nearby Tuscarora Road as recently as last month, affecting homes in that neighborhood as well as in Cayuga Village.

Were trying to do two things: save some of the natural habitat there and help some of the flooding issues that have been plaguing the town for 50 years, 60 years," Town Supervisor Lee S. Wallace said.

The shallow creek, which runs from the Tuscarora Indian Nation to the Niagara River, has been shifted before, Jedlicka said. In the 1970s, the stream was redirected to allow for the construction of the mobile home park.

"Weve been working on this for almost five years," Wallace said.

This time, the creek is to be shifted to the west and an earthen berm is to be built behind Cayuga Village as a means of flood protection.

"We didn't want to return the creek to its original route because it's so close to the homes," Waterkeeper Project Manager Emily Root said.

She expects that the new route and the reshaping of the wetlands will absorb rainwater and snowmelt better than the current creek bed does.

"The creek will be about as deep as it now," Root said.

That's about 2 feet during normal conditions, although Cayuga Creek can rise to as deep as 6 feet during especially wet weather.

"Reconnecting the creek to the flood plain is the overall goal," Jedlicka said.

"Its basically turning the area back into a naturalized wetland, so the whole area the town purchased will act like a gigantic retention pond," Wallace said. "But its also going to be a naturalized park to protect some limited species that are in there that are native to this area but are not doing well in other spots.

Funding for the project was gathered from a wide variety of sources, including the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the New York Power Authority, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Coors Seltzer Change the Course Partnership, the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation and the Love Canal, 102nd Street and Forest Glen Mobile Home Natural Resources Damage Assessment and Restoration Trustees.

"The biggest part was the funding, which I cant take credit for, because they did most of the legwork on that," Wallace said, referring to Waterkeeper. "But its been a joint effort and theyve been great to work with. Were hoping this will solve many of the problems over there. I dont know if we can solve them all, but were going to hope it will make it better.

Besides flood control, the project, the first of this scale for Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper, will try to eradicate invasive plant species.

Ryan Greer, assistant project manager, said plants such as European buckthorn, phragmites, honeysuckle and purple loosestrife are on the hit list.

The area along the creek's new course will be planted with native grasses and other plants, Greer said.

"We're going to recycle the vegetative material," Jedlicka said.

The contractor, Ecological Restoration Inc., a Pennsylvania company, will not haul dirt away. It will fill in the old channel with onsite earth, before building the berm and working on the planting, Root said.

In the meantime, Dave Hails, the company's owner, said he and his crew will keep their eyes peeled for animals.

For example, wood frogs in the area are laying their eggs about now, and Hails said he will avoid digging up their pools, where possible, or move the frogs to another pond.

When the project is complete, "It will be very similar to Tifft Farm Preserve," Wallace said.

Cayuga Creek has been harmed by some of the Niagara Falls area's legacy of toxic trauma but, Jedlicka said, "This actually is a relatively clean place to preserve."

Nearby, Waterkeeper and the Buffalo Niagara River Land Trust plan to acquire two wooded parcels, totaling 11 acres, off Porter Road to the east of the creek.

Public access to those sites would be part of the plan, as it will be along Cayuga Creek, but Root said, "Right now, preservation is the main priority."

A public meeting for residents of the area is set for 6:30 p.m. April 4 in the Town of Niagara Community Center on Lockport Road, Wallace said. He will be joined by representatives from Waterkeeper and the Army Corps of Engineers.

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Kingsport, TN (37660)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms in the morning becoming more widespread in the afternoon. A few storms may be severe. High 73F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Cloudy with showers. Low around 55F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
TROY  Former two-time mayoral candidate and Troy City Council president Rodney G. Wiltshire was arrested by police Saturday night and charged with choking someone during a domestic disturbance.

Troy Assistant Police Chief Steven Barker confirmed Sunday that Wiltshire, 47, was charged with criminal obstruction of breathing, a misdemeanor, and harassment, a violation.

Police said they responded to a domestic incident at a Brunswick Road residence at 10:30 p.m. Saturday; Wiltshire was brought to the city police station for processing. He was arraigned in Schaghticoke Town Court and released on an appearance ticket for Troy City Court Monday morning.

When reached Sunday afternoon, Wiltshire said: "It's a personal matter." He declined further comment.

Wiltshire has been a well-known Troy politician for at least a decade, first as a member of Troy City Council, and then as a mayoral candidate who challenged now Mayor Patrick Madden in Democratic primaries and general elections in 2015 and 2019.

His mayoral candidancy in 2019 was an unusual one, as the county GOP backed Wiltshire on third-party lines in the general election. A profanity-laced rant was caught on tape that involved Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin, and GOP operatives Rich Crist and Jim Gordon, threatening GOP-Conservative mayoral candidate Tom Reale to drop out of the race and back Wiltshire, the Democratic candidate.

Gordon, who is the county's director of purchasing and McLaughlin's close political ally, also faced political heat after a 911 domestic call involving him was leaked and distributed in a robocall during his unsuccessful 2015 GOP Troy mayoral run. A judge later dismissed charges against three former Rensselaer County law enforcement officials accused of leaking the recording.

The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote.

Wiltshire has since left the city's Democratic committee, and has registered as an independent. He unsuccessfully ran for Rensselaer County Legislature on the Republican line last year.

The Ivy League-trained electrical engineer works for the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historical Preservation, according to his profile on LinkedIn, an online networking platform.

Kenneth C. Crowe II contributed to this report
TROY  Authorities are investigating a shooting that left one man dead at a city bar and another seriously wounded late Saturday.

Troy police were dispatched to The Bradley at 28 Fourth Street around 11:30 p.m. after receiving multiple 911 calls reporting a shooting.

An adult male victim was located at the scene with a gunshot wound to his chest. Troy Fire Department members provided emergency medical treatment at the scene before transporting him to a local area hospital where he died.

Bradley Owner Vic Christopher said the shooting happened outside in a backyard area.

Were cooperating with (Troy police), Christopher said. Our whole staff was there all night long helping them to determine what went down.

A second adult male victim later arrived at a hospital with a gunshot wound to his torso. Police determined he was also at The Bradley when the shooting occurred. He remains hospitalized in serious condition.

The spate of violence occurred on the second-day of a fundraiser for a bar customer who recently died.

Christopher said he believes the shooting was the result of a dispute between associates familiar with each other.

The first night of the fundraiser unfolded without incident, he said.

We had people in town from all over the country, Christopher said. Typically its a regulars bar. Its a different vibe. We never see anyone we dont recognize.

Christopher said he knew the slain man and delivered the news to his two brothers, who are in disbelief.

Troy police have not yet released the name of either of the victims.

Several active leads have been provided and the investigation will be ongoing throughout today, Assistant Chief Police Steven Barker said on Sunday morning.

Anyone with any information is asked to call 518-270-4421 or contact Troy police online at troypd.org.

Where we go from here, we have no idea, Christopher said. This is unprecedented.

The shooting unfolded on a chaotic night in the Collar City.

Police are also investigating a stabbing that occurred inside a home on Second Avenue between 101st and 102nd streets.

The results are in See the winners of each category of the 2022 Best of the Capital Region contest, as determined by popular vote.

Troy police located an adult female victim around 11 p.m. who reported having been stabbed by an adult male who she knew.

The woman was seriously injured and is in stable condition at a local hospital.

No suspects are in custody, but detectives have strong leads and will be actively pursuing the case, police said.

The Troy Fire Department also aided people on a raft in the Hudson River near the Green Island Bridge navigate back to shore after receiving a 911 call.

Troy fire officials determined the raft occupants were not in distress and assisted them with returning to the shore, police said. The individuals are all adults and none required any emergency medical aid.

And at around 3:15 a.m. on Sunday morning, first responders were called to a structure fire at a residence on Sixth Avenue between 103rd and 104th streets in Lansingburgh.

One adult female suffered non life-threatening threatening injuries and was transported to a local area hospital for treatment.

The Troy Fire Department and state Office of Fire Prevention and Control are handling the ongoing investigation to determine the cause, officials said.
The Western New York Land Conservancy has received a large grant to protect forested watersheds and safeguard drinking water in Allegany County and another to supply native plantings to Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park.

The conservation organization is getting $2 million  the largest in its 30-year history  from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to permanently protect forests in the Black Creek-Angelica Creek watershed. That includes partnering with local landowners who want to protect their land.

The main conservation need in this priority watershed is the permanent protection and long-term stewardship of ecologically significant forests," said Marisa Riggi, the Land Conservancy's conservation director.

"Through this grant, we will protect the forests vital to public drinking water sources, ensuring reliable fresh water for the people of Allegany County and those downstream for years to come, she said.

Land Conservancy gets grant for N. Tonawanda, Grand Island projects The grant will be used to restore wildlife habitat, improve walking trails and involve youth and others in environmental education.

The project will also spur the creation of the Western New York Wildway, a long-term project of the Land Conservancy. The grant will help connect and protect forests in the region, linking them with the more than 46,000 acres of state-owned land in the county.

The project's larger goal is to create a connected corridor of protected lands stretching from the forests of northern Pennsylvania to the Great Lakes, through to the Finger Lakes, the Adirondacks and beyond.

"By connecting with already protected state forests in the area, the Western New York Wildway will create links totaling thousands of acres of contiguous forest," Smith said. "That will limit the impacts of forest fragmentation  including the loss of wildlife and the increase in disease-spreading ticks, invasive species, and flooding."

The Wildway will also help New York State increase the number of acres protected for public drinking water sources, she said, and is in tune with President Bidens call to conserve 30% of the nation's land by 2030.

Basil Seggos, the Department of Environmental Conservation's executive director, said the Water Quality Improvement Project grant will support forest connectivity, provide the permanent preservation of a priority Southern Tier watershed and protect public drinking water supplies.

Land Conservancy purchases Allegany Wildlands The 201-acre forest was purchased with the help of three challenge donations totaling $310,000.

The Land Conservancy was also awarded $690,000 by the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation to collect local native plant seeds, grow the plants and provide them to Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park.

The three-year project to grow 50,000 plants from locally collected seeds and grow additional trees, shrubs, and aquatic plants is intended to enrich the wildlife habitat at the park, formerly known as LaSalle Park.

A reimagined park with new landscaping and access to the water's edge is planned. So is a 2.5-acre playground and new pedestrian bridge over the I-190, connecting the park to West Side residents.

The park is being designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates. The firm has designed projects in Brooklyn Bridge Park in Brooklyn, Maggie Daley Park in Chicago and Allegheny Riverfront Park in Pittsburgh.

Native seeds will be collected at Land Conservancy preserves, public parks, and private properties, working with multiple growers, Smith said.

"Plants native to the Western New York region are better suited to our local soil, temperature and rainfall conditions," said Allison DeHonney, one of the growers.

DeHonney, owner of Urban Fruits & Veggies/Buffalo Go Green, plans to grow plants in greenhouses at an urban farm she's developing in the "Bailey Green" neighborhood around Bailey Avenue and Genesee Street.

Land Conservancy completes purchase of 10-acre forest in Grand Island The site is adjacent to a 39-acre town-owned forest, and will be known as the Funk Preserve, named after the landowners who sold the property to the Land Conservancy.

The native plants will help preserve genetic differences essential to preserving long-term biodiversity, she said, and make them more resilient to threats posed by climate change.

Rep. Brian Higgins praised the decision to use native plants at the park.

"Nationally and internationally, there is much interest in finding creative ways to enhance biodiversity," Higgins said in a statement. "Increasing the use of native plants at Ralph Wilson Park positions Buffalo and this park as a leader in this realm."

Higgins said the enhanced habitat will benefit migrating birds, monarch butterflies and other wildlife in the park, which is located within the Niagara River Globally Significant Bird Area.

Mark Sommer covers preservation, development, the waterfront, culture and more. He's also a former arts editor at The News.

The Buffalo News: Good Morning, Buffalo The smart way to start your day. We sift through all the news to give you a concise, informative look at the top headlines and must-read stories every weekday. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.
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In a perfect criminal justice system, every case would get full attention from prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges. Justice would be truly blind, especially to race, and judges would be able to discern, with consistent perfection and no personal bias, who is likely to show up for their court appearances, who is a flight risk, who is a danger to individuals or the community.

A strong support system would be in place to ensure defendants who are not held in jail while their cases proceed behave themselves and make all their court dates.

But thats not the system we have, or are ever likely to have. Our system is overburdened. Those without the means for a private attorney rely on harried public defenders. Prosecutors need to rely on the information they get from police and cant treat every case as the one that could make their career. Judges are human, with all the biases, conscious and subconscious, that come with it. And defendants  supposedly presumed innocent until proven guilty  often languish behind bars before trial if theyre poor, even though people charged with the same crimes, or worse, go free pending trial simply because they have enough money to buy their way out of jail.

Bail reform was an attempt to fix some of that.

But it wasnt perfect.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has offered a package of further reforms to the criminal justice system. Much like bail reform itself, some of the proposals are good. And some need work.

Defenders of bail reform seem to reject it all, casting Ms. Hochuls proposals as a roll-back of hard-won changes. Some see it as an election-year capitulation to hair-on-fire Republican politicians who are exploiting a national rise in crime  one that has nothing to do with New Yorks bail reforms  to try to turn public fears into votes. Politically motivated or not, though, Ms. Hochuls proposals still deserve to be judged on their merit.

A fair review of them shows that they would not  with some notable exceptions  roll back the reforms. Ms. Hochul mainly seeks to refine them and tweak those that were problematic in ways their authors didnt anticipate. Thats not retreat. Its the very nature of our legal and legislative system to adapt to shifting social realities and our evolving understanding of what works, what doesnt, and what doesnt work as well as it should.

The reality is that crime is up  not just in New York, but in states that didnt reform bail laws. So blaming bail reform for rising crime is absurd. And even more: What statistics are available suggest that people released without bail under the new rules are being rearrested at very low rates  around 2 percent in the case of violent felonies.

The reality is also that the state is guilty of a big failure in following through on bail reform. The Legislature put up $800 million for, among other things, more programs and staff to monitor and assist the thousands more defendants who would be released without bail, mainly for non-violent, low-level offenses. To date, only $270 million of that has been spent. Its like building a house with no foundation and wondering why its askew.

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But a rise in crime is a rise in crime, percentages notwithstanding. Public concern is focused, rightly or wrongly, on crimes committed by people who were released from custody without bail, and the governor and lawmakers would be negligent not to try to address this. And that should include far better data than there is now on patterns of arrests before and after bail reform.

As for Ms. Hochuls proposals, perhaps the most controversial ones deal with the issue of dangerousness, something reform purists reject and something reform critics want to give judges broad discretion to determine. Ms. Hochul strikes a balance  some objective measures, including a violent criminal history, violation of an order of protection, use of a firearm and a pattern of failing to return to court. She also includes credible threats to individuals or the community, a vague standard that needs more clarity.

Its important to note that while dangerousness is not something judges can consider in New York when setting bail, the law already allows bail for certain serious crimes, an implicit acknowledgment of the danger a person accused of a violent crime may pose. Ms. Hochul appropriately adds to bail-eligible offenses some violent crimes that the original reforms overlooked. She would also add  again, sensibly  certain gun crimes, hate crimes and crimes on public transportation to the list of offenses for which a police officer can arrest someone, rather than simply issue an appearance ticket.

We disagree, however, on Ms. Hochuls proposal to make repeat appearance tickets  not necessarily convictions  in an 18-month period eligible for arrest, at an officers discretion. That threatens to return New York to a pattern of arresting people who may already be over-policed  particularly people of color  because of the very fact that theyve been over-policed.

As the April 1 state budget approaches and theres talk of wrapping criminal justice issues into any deal, those who want to repeal bail reform arent to be taken seriously. Theyre either cynical political opportunists who think theyve hit on a winning campaign issue in an election year, or theyre lost in their own fearful narrative. And those who think our criminal justice system reached some state of inviolable perfection in 2019 are pandering, too, or living a dreamworld.

Its time to drop the politics and fix what fair-minded people can see is wrong.
This Sunday the Kansas City Star targets KCPD with a series of articles alleging discrimination using unnamed and off-the-record sources along with activist rhetoric, lawsuit dox and a healthy dose of community complaints . . . Kinda like a blog but without any jokes or photos of cleavage and smiling ladies with big butts.



Of all the garbage they're sharing today, this passage stands out to us . . .

In a closed-door meeting with Kansas City police commanders last year, Police Chief Rick Smith said he had taken a knee in solidarity with Black Lives Matter protesters in 2020.



But, Smith said, he didnt mean it.



I may be doing things or saying things and that may not be my personal beliefs, but Im gonna do what I need to do thats best for the department, Smith said, according to one commander who attended the meeting and requested anonymity for fear of retaliation.



Smith told the commanders he took a knee that day to silence his critics and to protect his officers  not because he believed in the message of the protests unfolding on the Country Club Plaza after the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota.

At face value that note isn't going to make anybody happy. The story threatens to enrage social justice advocates because it alleges deception and conservatives might believe that it makes the retiring Chief seem like a man without conviction.

Heck, even TKC was a bit peeved at first reading . . . As far as politics goes, I've only been on my knees at church or in front of a woman and I hope to God that I've always been honest about my intentions in those desperate circumstances.



But here's the thing . . .

THIS POORLY SOURCED STORY IS JOURNALISTIC GARBAGE AND ONLY SILLY PEOPLE WOULD EVER BELIEVE IT!!!



Allow TKC a personal aside since, after all, this is a blog . . .

When we first started publishing online . . . Journalism purists decried our efforts and denounced citizen media and neighborhood reporting. What this blog has always been about is taking what we know and sharing it without all the formalism and pretense of so many other news sources. There's a lot of moving parts for our special bloggy sauce but to get to a place where we're getting hundred of thousands of readers every month and don't even have to bother with an early update every day . . . We had to ignore a great deal of criticism from print media purists.

And now . . .

The Kansas City Star has seemingly rejected their own journalistic principles, ethics and standards.

We can't forget that their coverage of outgoing KCPD Chief Smith has been mostly based on lies and political spin.

Months ago they claimed the Chief was "forced out" only to have the police leader cite his plans for retirement years ago and fulfill his commitment to stay on until after the 2022 budget process -- A battle which he won for his department.

Accordingly . . .

This Sunday edition from a former cowtown institution seems very much like a pity party and yet another low point for Kansas City print journalism.

Even worse . . .

IN TODAY'S SUNDAY EDITION THE KANSAS CITY STAR FEEBLY ATTEMPTS TO INCITE RACIAL HATE WITHIN OUR COMMUNITY AFTER SUFFERING AN EMBARRASSING 12TH & OAK BUDGET FAIL!!!

As always we encourage our readers to "follow the money" and realize . . .

All of this is merely political backlash over a budget battle and a ploy to pick the next chief whilst political maneuvering against the police board and Missouri Republicans.

Again, what surprises us is that it's so feeble, pathetic, obvious and unconvincing.



In fairness, we dare our blog community to more via www.TonysKansasCity.com links . . .

KCPD Chief Rick Smith knelt in honor of George Floyd. Then he said he didn't mean it In a closed-door meeting with Kansas City police commanders last year, Police Chief Rick Smith said he had taken a knee in solidarity with Black Lives Matter protesters in 2020. But, Smith said, he didn't mean it.

Black KCPD officers saw discrimination in beard policy. They fought back - and won Titus Golden watched with frustration in early 2020 as two white officers, each sporting full beards, went about their business as if nothing was wrong. To Golden the sight of the facial hair showed a clear discrepancy in how Black and white officers are treated in the Kansas City Police Department.

'Derogatory and discriminatory comments': Read the lawsuit filed by former KCPD officer Former Kansas City police officer Scott Wells said being Black in the department was like " being a mouse in a snake cage." "You're constantly watching your back 24/7," he told The Star. In Wells' nearly two decades at KCPD, sergeants nitpicked his every move, he said.

He was a detective with the KCPD. And he still got pulled over for driving while Black Herb Robinson has feared for his life twice in his 30-year police career. One was when he was shot in the line of duty. The other came when he was pulled over last year by two fellow Kansas City police officers. It was plainly racial profiling, Robinson says.

While KCPD struggles, this city made its police force more diverse than its residents When Kansas City police leaders talk about the department's diversity problem, they sometimes speak as if it is an unsolvable mystery. But there is one city that has figured it out. Across the country in Atlanta, city leaders have created a police department that is even more diverse than the population it serves.

Mayor Lucas watches and reacts to KCPD traffic stop of Black detective Mayor Quinton Lucas watches a dash camera video presented to him by The Star. The video shows two Kansas City Police Department officers pulling over Herb Robinson, a Black KCPD detective, on March 11, 2021.

A 'mouse in a snake cage': Black KCPD officer suffered racist harassment Scott Wells, who worked as an officer for the Kansas City Police Department from 1998 to 2017, said he experienced racist harassment on the job.

Racism in the KCPD: There's no thin blue line for Black officers, Star investigation finds Herb Robinson, a Black Kansas City detective, was in uniform and driving an unmarked police car when two officers pulled him over. Robinson wasn't speeding. He had not violated any traffic laws. The registration was up to date. He knew as soon as the lights flashed behind him that it was racial profiling.

You decide . . .
Right now we take a peek at more than a few local items along with reports that have been on our mind overnight. And so angel Candice inspires us to consider pop culture, community news and top headlines.



Check TKC news gathering . . .

Returning To The Skies

First JetBlue departure from KCI takes flight Sunday KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The first JetBlue flight to depart from Kansas City International Airport took off Sunday morning for New York JFK International Airport. JetBlue is now serving Kansas City, with non-stop routes to Boston and New York .

JoCo Suburbs Fight Over Biz

NIC Inc., subsidiary of Tyler Technologies, moves its HQ to Overland Park - Kansas City Business Journal The headquarters of technology firm NIC Inc., now a subsidiary of Texas-based Tyler Technologies Inc., will move to Overland Park from Olathe. The digital government service provider, formerly at 25501 W. Valley Parkway, signed a 12-year lease for a turnkey buildout of the 50,000-square-foot office building at 7701 College Blvd.

Talking Vaxx Next Phase

KC parents react to news of potential COVID-19 vaccine for kids under 6 It's the COVID-19 news parents of young children have been waiting to hear. Vaccine-maker Moderna said it will seek emergency use authorization to give the vaccine to children 6 months to 6 years old.

JoCo Developers Share Scheme



Vista Ridge retail project at K-10 and Ridgeview in Lenexa 'ready to build,' developer says Lenexa has advanced commercial plans for a project known as Vista Ridge near K-10 Highway and Ridgeview Road. After some discussion about traffic flow on the site, the Lenexa City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a revised preliminary plan for the project, which includes a retail development on 15 acres at the northeast corner of K-10 and Ridgeview.

Kangaroos Talk Biz Equity

Three Local Women-Owned Businesses to Support this Women's History Month | UMKC Roo News In the spirit of Women's History Month, it is important to promote local women-owned businesses in Kansas City. Here are three businesses to support that may even lead you to find a new favorite coffee shop or restaurant. Cafe Ca Phe - 1717 Washington St. Cafe Ca Phe is a business owned by Jacki ...

Angel Dating Again

Candice Swanepoel and Elite Actor Andres Velencoso Spark Romance Rumors With Cozy Paris Outing - E! Online Model Candice Swanepoel, who shares two kids with ex Hermann Nicoli, was recently spotted taking a stroll with Elite actor Andres Velencoso in Paris. Keep scrolling to check out the PDA pics.

US REGIME CHANGE?!?!

Biden's personal rivalry with Putin more intense than ever after dramatic final day of US President's Europe trip At nearly the same moment President Joe Biden declared him a "butcher," Vladimir Putin's missiles began falling in Lviv, Ukraine.

MAGA Against Fakers

Trump attacks Georgia Gov. Kemp at rally as he wages war on 'RINO sellouts' Ex-President Donald Trump blasted Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp for refusing to overturn the 2020 election results at a Saturday rally supporting Kemp's primary challenger. "Brian Kemp is a turncoat, a coward, and a complete and total disaster," the 45th president told a crowd of supporters in Commerce, Georgia of the fellow Republican, whom he helped get elected in 2018.

Conflict Escalates

Ukraine says Russia wants to split nation, calls for more arms LVIV, Ukraine, March 27 (Reuters) - Russia wants to split Ukraine into two, as happened with North and South Korea, Ukraine's military intelligence chief said on Sunday, vowing "total" guerrilla warfare to prevent a carve-up of the country.

COVID PART DEUX?!?!

Shanghai to lock down in two stages for testing as COVID cases spike SHANGHAI, March 27 (Reuters) - China's financial hub of Shanghai said on Sunday it would lock down the city in two stages to carry out COVID-19 testing over a nine-day period, after it reported a new daily record for asymptomatic infections.

Taste Of Northeast

229: PH Coffee Welcome back to the Northeast Newscast. On this week's episode I'm joined by Eric Rosell, co-owner of PH Coffee at 2200 Lexington Avenue in Pendleton Heights. PH Coffee, which opened in October 2019, has become a hub of activity, art and community. Their new monthly Community Event begins the weekend of April 3.

Cowtown Smart Health Develops

Innovative tech honored at SXSW has potential to save lives in KC, govtech founder says Editor's note: The following story is part of Startland News' coverage of the SXSW conference in Austin. Click here to read more stories from the 2022 trip. AUSTIN - A tech company from Silicon Valley's largest city is unleashing a new era of smart infrastructure technology for the world in motion - and Kansas City entrepreneur Austin Wilson is more than just along for the ride.

Local Milestone Celebrated

Purple Peace Foundation opens new facility after 10 years on Epilepsy Awareness Day BLUE SPRINGS, Mo. - Amanda Brady was diagnosed with epilepsy at 10 months old. "She had started having a few more seizures. We were going through a phase where she was having them a little more frequently," said Holly Brady, Amanda's mother and president/founder of the Purple Peace Foundation.

Katie Shares Weather Deets . . .

Cool temperatures Sunday, the calm before the storm Hide Transcript Show Transcript COMING DOWN IN PARTS OF OUR VIEWING AREA THIS MORNING. YOU CAN SEE WHERE IT'S CLOYUD NOW IN KANSAS CITY 33 DEGREES WITH THE NORTHEAST WIND AT 10 MISLE AN HOUR.

Neil Diamond "Sunday Sun" is the song of the day and this is the OPEN THREAD for right now . . .


For starters . . .

TKC doesn't really think much of this story.

The Ukraine biolab hot mess has become a political hot potato that a few plebs pretend to understand.

Our hot take . . .

This is wartime propaganda that doesn't impact the people of Kansas City at all.

However . . . There is, in fact, a local connection to this tabloid hot mess and so much breathless partisan blabbing about Hunter Biden.

We realize that Prez Biden's son is primarily a disgrace and his horrible life has been picked apart by the right-wing . . . That's all fair game . . .

We'd just like someone to explain why anybody should care . . .



ON THE OTHER HAND . . .

The Hunter Biden connection to Ukraine remains curious that a story that now has global attention yet doesn't merit even a cursory mention by local mainstream media and so many pundits who are paid to pretend to understand politics.

Accordingly, we clip the tidbit from global headlines that mentions a prominent Kansas City company.

Take a peek . . .



"Government spending records show the Department of Defense awarded an $18.4million contract to Metabiota between February 2014 and November 2016, with $307,091 earmarked for 'Ukraine research projects'



"Metabiota has worked in Ukraine for Black & Veatch, a US defense contractor with deep ties to military intelligence agencies, which built secure labs in Ukraine that analyzed killer diseases and bioweapons."

And of course Black & Veatch are headquartered in the Kansas City metro with local offices in on Ward Parkway and in Overland Park.



Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com links . . .

Hunter Biden helped secure millions for biotech research Ukraine The Russian government held a press conference Thursday claiming that Hunter Biden helped finance a US military 'bioweapons' research program in Ukraine However the allegations were branded a brazen propaganda ploy to justify president Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine and sow discord in the US But emails and correspondence obtained

Hunter Biden helped secure funds for US biolab contractor in Ukraine: e-mails Russia's assertion that President Biden's son Hunter was "financing . . . biological laboratories in Ukraine" was based in truth, according to e-mails reviewed by The Post. A trove of e-mails on Hunter Biden's infamous laptop - the existence of which was exclusively reported by The Post in October 2020 - found that he played a role in helping a California defense contractor analyze killer diseases and bioweapons in Ukraine.

Developing . . .
From despair to hope: After COVIDs toll on mental health, more Canadians may soon be able to access care

As a new study reports 37 per cent say their mental health declined during the pandemic, there are signs of political will to move toward universal care.
Todays coronavirus news: Ontario is reporting three more COVID-19 deaths; Academy Awards hoping for return-to-normal show tonight

Meanwhile, the FDA is poised to clear a fourth dose of the mRNA coronavirus vaccine for adults age 50 and older in the U.S.
Ontarios wastewater signal is down markedly from its recent spring peak last month, meaning infections are also declining.
Brevard, NC (28712)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms in the morning becoming more widespread in the afternoon. A few storms may be severe. High 71F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible early. Partly cloudy skies. Low 54F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph.
Terre Haute, IN (47803)

Today

A steady rain in the morning. Showers continuing in the afternoon. Thunder possible. High 62F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Cloudy with occasional light rain...mainly in the evening. Low 51F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
STAMFORD  Girl Scout cookies arrived by the truckload on Saturday at Cummings Park in Stamford on Saturday as cookie season begins in Connecticut.

Nearly 40 teen volunteers from Greenwich High School and Stamford High School signed up to help unload the cases of cookies from the trucks.
A Romanian citizen admitted to his role in an ATM skimming scheme Friday, according to federal prosecutors.

Nicolae Marius Barbu, 50, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud in federal court Friday. He faces a maximum prison sentence of 30 years and is scheduled to be sentenced June 16.

The U.S. Attorneys office said a Connecticut bank experienced about 35 incidents of ATM skimming in Stratford, Monroe, Trumbull, Greenwich, Fairfield and other locations within the state from February to June 2017.

Police determined that there were several people involved in a scheme that placed skimming devices on ATM machines to capture account and PIN numbers. Members of this conspiracy used the information to make substitute ATM cards and obtained money and made purchases using those cards, according to the U.S. Attorneys office.

Barbu joined the conspiracy in April 2017, the U.S. Attorneys office said.

In April 2018, Barbu and another individual stole credit cards from a person at a gym in Rockville, Md. They then used the cards to make more than $9,000 in purchases at Microsoft and Apple stores in Maryland, according to the U.S. Attorneys office.

Barbu was arrested in Michigan in June 2021. He has been detained since his arrest.

Barbu has also agreed to pay almost $140,000 in restitution to the victim bank, as well as $9,500 to the banks that issued the credit cards used in his fraudulent purchases, the U.S. Attorneys office said.
Tullahoma, TN (37388)

Today

Thunderstorms likely in the morning. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms in the afternoon. High 73F. Winds SW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Rain showers in the evening becoming more intermittent overnight. Low 54F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
The Russian forces launched rocket attacks on an oil depot and a defense plant in Lviv on Saturday.

Head of the Lviv Regional Military Administration Maksym Kozytskyi said this at a briefing, Ukrinform reports.

"Today there were two strikes on critical infrastructure. One hit an oil depot in the city of Lviv, in a residential area. The second hit a defense object, the plant, which is also located in a residential area, Kozytskyi said.

According to him, there were two strikes on each of the objects. Fire is being extinguished at both sites. Five people have been injured.

In turn, Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi noted that missile strikes on Lviv were being launched for the second time in a week. Last time, the enemy also targeted infrastructure. The damage is quite serious.

The mayor also noted that with today's attacks, Russia sends greetings to U.S. President Joe Biden, who is in Poland.

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the beginning of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian troops have been shelling and destroying key infrastructure facilities, conducting massive shelling of residential areas of Ukrainian cities and villages using artillery, multiple rocket launchers and ballistic missiles.

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In Donetsk region, one civilian was killed and six more were wounded in Russian shelling on March 26.

Head of the Donetsk Regional Military Administration Pavlo Kyrylenko wrote on Facebook, Ukrinform reports.

Russia is killing civilians! Today, the Russians killed one civilian in Marinka, wounded two. In addition, four people were wounded in Krasnohorivka, he wrote

Kyrylenko noted that today it was possible to clarify the information about two more wounded in Mariupol, although the exact number of victims in Mariupol and Volnovakha is currently unknown.

According to data published by Kyrylenko, 128 civilians were killed and 521 wounded in Donetsk region from February 24 to March 26 (as of 20:00).

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the beginning of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian troops have been shelling and destroying key infrastructure facilities, conducting massive shelling of residential areas of Ukrainian cities and villages using artillery, multiple rocket launchers and ballistic missiles.

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Ukraine is united in its desire to live freely, live independently and for the sake of its own dreams, not other peoples sick fantasies.

The relevant statement was made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in his video address:

Free people of a free country!

Free Slavutych that will not be conquered by the invaders!

Today we were all with you  on your streets, in your protest. And all together we tell the occupiers one thing: go home, while you can still walk.

The Russian invaders entered Slavutych and faced the same reaction there as in the south of our state, as in the east of our country.

Ukraine is united in its desire to live freely, to live independently and for the sake of its own dreams, not other peoples sick fantasies. Every day of our struggle for Ukraine, every manifestation of our resistance in all areas the occupiers have entered so far proves that Ukraine is a state full of life, which has historical roots and moral foundations throughout its territory.

Nothing they do will help the occupiers in the Ukrainian territory they temporarily entered. Disconnection of our television and activation of passionate nonsense speeches by Moscow TV presenters, leaflets with propaganda, distribution of rubles. Rubles, which in Russia will soon be weighed instead of assessing them at face value.

Bribing outcasts whom the occupiers are looking for in all the dumps to portray the allegedly pro-Russian government will not help as well.

The answer to Russian troops will be one  hatred and contempt. And our Armed Forces of Ukraine will inevitably come.

That is why ordinary Ukrainian peasants take captive the pilots of downed Russian planes that fall to our land. That is why our tractor troops  Ukrainian farmers take Russian equipment in the fields and give it to our Armed Forces of Ukraine. In particular, the latest models that Russia has tried to keep secret. And now the occupiers leave them on our land and just run away...

Actually, they do the right thing. Because it is better for them to escape than to die. And there are not and will not be other alternatives.

Everyone in Ukraine has united and has been devoting all their energy to the defense of our state for more than a month already. Together with the Armed Forces, together with all our defenders, together with our National Guard.

I would like to once again congratulate the National Guard of Ukraine on its day with great respect. I am sincerely grateful for everything you do to protect the state, to protect Ukrainians! Thank you for all the steps to victory that will come and that were made possible thanks to you.

Today I presented awards to soldiers of the National Guard who distinguished themselves in battles with the Russian occupiers. I also awarded the rank of brigadier general to five colonels of the National Guard of Ukraine.

In total, during the full-scale war since February 24, 476 soldiers of the National Guard have been awarded state awards already.

I also spoke today with Polish President Andrzej Duda. Twice. About our people who found protection in Poland. And the need to strengthen our common security. Security of our states. Security for all Europeans actually.

What is the price of this security? This is very specific. These are planes for Ukraine. These are tanks for our state. This is anti-missile defense. This is anti-ship weaponry. This is what our partners have. This is what is covered with dust at their storage facilities. After all, this is all for freedom not only in Ukraine - this is for freedom in Europe.

Because it cannot be acceptable for everyone on the continent if the Baltic states, Poland, Slovakia and the whole of Eastern Europe are at risk of a clash with the Russian invaders.

At risk only because they left only one percent of all NATO aircraft and one percent of all NATO tanks somewhere in their hangars. One percent! We did not ask for more. And we do not ask for more. And we have already been waiting for 31 days!

So who runs the Euro-Atlantic community? Is it still Moscow because of intimidation?

Partners need to step up assistance to Ukraine. These are the words: partners need! Because this is the security of Europe. And this is exactly what we agreed on in Kyiv when the three prime ministers of Eastern European countries, as well as Mr. Kaczynski, arrived in our capital. It was in mid-March. Today, immediately after the conversation with the President of Poland, I contacted the defenders of Mariupol. I am in constant contact with them. Their determination, their heroism and resilience are impressive. I am grateful to each of them! I wish at least a percentage of their courage to those who have been thinking for 31 days how to transfer a dozen or two of planes or tanks

And, by the way, we talked today with our military in Mariupol, with our heroes who defend this city, in Russian.

Because there is no language problem in Ukraine and there never was.

But now you, the Russian occupiers, are creating this problem. You are doing everything to make our people stop speaking Russian themselves. Because the Russian language will be associated with you. Only with you. With these explosions and killings. With your crimes. You are deporting our people. You are bullying our teachers, forcing them to repeat everything after your propagandists. You are taking our mayors and Ukrainian activists hostage. You are placing billboards in the occupied territories with appeals (they appeared today) not to be afraid to speak Russian. Just think about what it means. Where Russian has always been a part of everyday life, like Ukrainian, in the east of our state, and where you are turning peaceful cities into ruins today. Russia itself is doing everything to ensure that de-russification takes place on the territory of our state. You are doing it. In one generation. And forever. This is another manifestation of your suicide policy.

Our representatives  the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Defense of Ukraine  met today in Poland with colleagues from the United States. They were joined by US President Joseph Biden. As I was informed, the negotiations concerned, in particular, these vital interests, which I mentioned above. Concerned what we really need while this ping-pong continues  who should give us planes and other protection tools and how. Ukraine cannot shoot down Russian missiles using shotguns, machine guns, which are too much in supplies.

And it is impossible to unblock Mariupol without a sufficient number of tanks, other armored vehicles and, of course, aircraft. All defenders of Ukraine know that. All defenders of Mariupol know that. Thousands of people know that  citizens, civilians who are dying there in the blockade.

The United States knows that. All European politicians know. We told everyone. And this should be known as soon as possible by as many people on earth as possible. So that everyone understands who and why was simply afraid to prevent this tragedy. Afraid to simply make a decision. Vital decision.

Of course, we have already seized a number of Russian tanks, which the military command of this country keeps sending to be burned here.

However, the nations of the world will not understand for sure if the battlefield in Ukraine will be a larger supplier of tanks to protect freedom in Europe than our partners.

Ukraines position must be heard. I want to emphasize: this is not only our position.

This is the position of the vast majority of Europes population, the majority of Europeans.

If someone does not believe me, look at current public opinion polls in the world.

And if you do not want to hear the opinion of the people, then hear the strikes of Russian missiles hitting right next to the Polish border. Are you waiting for the roar of Russian tanks?

I also spoke with Prime Minister of Bulgaria Kiril Petkov. In particular, about the humanitarian catastrophe due to the actions of Russian troops and how to save our people.

I spoke today at the Doha Forum in the capital of Qatar. This is a respectable meeting that is important not only for the Islamic world, but also for many other countries in Latin America and Africa. These are the regions where Russian propaganda still has great influence. But we are working against lies all over the world. Let Russia know that the truth will not remain silent. And let every nation in the world feel the depth of Russias injustice against Ukraine. Against everything that keeps the world within morality and humanity.

The occupiers committed another crime against history. Against historical justice.

Near Kharkiv, Russian troops in their branded inhuman style denazified the Holocaust Memorial in Drobytsky Yar.

During World War II, the Nazis executed about 20,000 people there. 80 years later they are killed a second time. And Russia is doing it.

The menorah in Drobytsky Yar destroyed by Russian projectiles today is another question to the entire Jewish community of the world: how many more crimes against our common memory of the Holocaust will be allowed to be committed by Russia on our Ukrainian land?

Russian troops are deliberately killing civilians, destroying residential neighborhoods, targeting shelters and hospitals, schools and universities. Even churches, even Holocaust memorials!

Russian troops receive just such orders: to destroy everything that makes our nation nation, our people  people, our culture  culture. This is exactly how the Nazis tried to capture Europe 80 years ago. This is exactly how the occupiers act in Ukraine. No one will forgive them. There will be responsibility. Just like 77 years ago. Most likely not in Nuremberg. But the meaning will be similar. You will see.

Everyone will see. Everyone. We guarantee.

Glory to all our heroes!

Glory to Ukraine!
Thats according to an operational update on the Russian invasion of Ukraine as of 06:00 on March 27, delivered by the Ukrainian Armys General Staff.

Throughout the month, the enemy suffered heavy losses. Despite this fact, their military-political leadership pursues its criminal activities in Ukraine, the report reads.

According to available information, in the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, an average of 50 to 100 wounded personnel are admitted to medical institutions in the city of Sevastopol every day, says the General Staff.

The moral and psychological condition of the enemy troops remains low, the report adds.

Along the paths of movement of Russian military convoys across Belarus, there are many facts recorded where servicemen either sell fuel and food or swap them for alcohol, the General Staff notes.

The occupiers continue to terrorize and intimidate the local population in the temporarily occupied territories. There are many cases of looting and abductions.

In Donetsk and Luhansk operational areas, the Allied forces repulsed seven enemy attacks. Ukrainian soldiers destroyed eight tanks, eight armored vehicles, three other vehicles, and a mortar. The enemys manpower losses are being verified.

The Air Force was used to cover troops and facilities. The strike aircraft dealt devastating blows to the designated targets.

As reported earlier, over the past day, the Air Force downed an enemy warplane, 12 UAVs of various types, and two cruise missiles.
Russian invaders have already evacuated about 40,000 Ukrainians from Ukrainian war zones to the occupied areas or directly to Russia.

This was announced by the Minister of Reintegration of the Occupied Territories, Iryna Vereshchuk, Ukrinform reports.

Russia is creating an alternative humanitarian reality and trying to pave its own so-called evacuation routes for Mariupol residents  to Russia. Expectedly, most citizens are unwilling to flee to the aggressors territory. As a result, Russian troops are forcibly taking civilians deep into the occupied territories or to Russia. We are already talking about tens of thousands of Ukrainians forcibly resettled this way," Vereshchuk said on Saturday, March 26, according to the government's press service.

The minister says the aggressors have already resettled approximately 40,000 Ukrainians. In addition, the occupiers are acting in a similar way in the temporarily occupied part of Kyiv region, trying to forcibly deport Ukrainians to Belarus.

At the same time, the Russians are obstructing humanitarian evacuation efforts initiated by Ukraine.

"We are constantly and strongly signaling to the international community and institutions that these Russian 'corridors' are illegal and inconsistent with our efforts. Especially since on the other side  both near Donetsk and Luhansk  forced migrants are sifted through special filtration camps, in violation of the Geneva Convention. But for some reason, the International Committee of the Red Cross even decided to open a representative office in Rostov-on-Don to work with Ukrainians deported to Russia by force. Therefore, we demand that it facilitate the return of our citizens," Vereshchuk stressed.

Earlier it became known that the Russian invaders took orphans out of besieged Mariupol and placed them in one of the hospitals in the occupied Donetsk.

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a new phase of Russias war against Ukraine. The Ukrainian Army, territorial defense units, and the entire nation have risen up against the invaders, inflicting significant losses on the Russian forces.

Martial law was imposed in Ukraine and general mobilization was announced.
In Ukraine, 139 children have already been killed in Russian attacks since the launch of a full-blown invasion.

Thats according to the Prosecutor General's Office, Ukrinform reports.

As of the morning of March 27, a total of 139 children had been killed and more than 205 wounded amid Russias armed aggression.

In Kyiv region, 65 children were affected, 45  in Kharkiv region, 53  in Donetsk region, 38  in Chernihiv region, 29  in Mykolaiv region, 25  in Luhansk region, 19  in Zaporizhia region, 21  in Kherson region, 16  in the city of Kyiv, 15  in Zhytomyr region, and 14  in Sumy region.

On March 25, Russian servicemen fired heavy artillery at the village of Velyka Oleksandrivka, Beryslav district, Kherson region. A 4-year-old child died in the attack.

Read also: Russians plant mines in hospital before retreating from Trostianets

On March 26, two children were injured in enemy shelling of Melitopol, Zaporizhia region.

On March 26, Russian military opened fire on Boyarka, Kyiv region, injuring a child.

Daily bombings and shelling damaged 733 educational facilities, of which 74 were completely destroyed. The worst situation is in Donetsk, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Kyiv, Kherson, and Chernihiv regions, as well as the city of Kyiv.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine are trying to drive the Russian army out of Rubizhne and Popasna, Luhansk region, where the enemy partially managed to gain a foothold.

According to Ukrinform, this is stated in the consolidated report of the regional administrations as of 08:00.

Street fights continue in some areas of Popasna and Rubizhne. In Popasna, the enemy tried to storm using the artillery but suffered losses. The shelling damaged a school in a village near Lysychansk, the infrastructure of an ambulance station and two wholesale warehouses in Severodonetsk. As a result of the aggressor's actions, two people were injured, four were rescued from under the rubble.

In Kyiv region, the night was relatively calm. The communities of Bucha district  Makariv, Bucha, Irpin, Hostomel  remain the hot spots. Shelling and fighting continue in localities along the Zhytomyr highway.

Several air raids were announced in Chernihiv and the region. Defensive battles are going on around Chernihiv. In recent days, the enemy has been shelling the outskirts of the city from long distances. The nature of the destruction is being clarified.

Russian troops fired on Kharkiv from a long distance at night. In the evening, the enemy fired again at the "Source of Neutrons" nuclear installation. The damage has not yet been established. The Armed Forces of Ukraine "clean up" the liberated territories in Kharkiv district. Fighting continues in Izium direction.

In Volyn region, Ukrainian air defense forces shot down three missiles fired from Belarus last night.

In the evening of March 26, the Russian aggressor launched two missile strikes on Lviv, damaging a fuel storage base and an armored plant.

In Rivne region, the enemy fired a missile at the oil depot in the evening. The fire was isolated. Damages are being determined. No casualties were reported.

In the Donetsk region, the situation is largely unchanged in the main areas. At night, the Svitlodarsk territorial community was under fire: grass and reeds were burning in the village of Zaytseve (Zhovanka) during the shelling of the outskirts. Several non-residential premises were damaged. The locals put out the fire on their own. No one was injured.

In Kherson region, intense fighting continues in Novovorontsovka territorial community. The shelling continues on both sides. Besides, fighting is ongoing in some localities near Mykolayiv region. Information on the destruction and casualties is being determined.

Last evening and night were relatively calm in Zhytomyr, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Vinnytsia, Zakarpattia, Khmelnytsky, Ternopil, Cherkasy, Poltava, Chernivtsi, Ivano-Frankivsk, Mykolayiv, Odesa regions.

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Sanctions imposed on Russian individuals and companies could be lifted if Russia withdraws from Ukraine and commits to end aggression.

That's according to British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, Ukrinform reports, citing Reuters.

Britain and other Western nations are using economic 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 demilitarize and "denazify" Ukraine.

"What we know is that Russia signed up to multiple agreements they simply dont comply with. So there needs to be hard levers. Of course, sanctions are a hard lever. Those sanctions should only come off with a full ceasefire and withdrawal, but also commitments that there will be no further aggression. And also, theres the opportunity to have snapback sanctions if there is further aggression in future. That is a real lever that I think can be used," Truss said.

The British government says it has so far imposed sanctions on banks with total assets of 500 billion pounds ($658.65 billion) and oligarchs and family members with a net worth of more than 150 billion pounds.

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the beginning of an all-out invasion of Ukraine. Russian troops have been shelling and destroying critical infrastructure, residential neighborhoods of Ukrainian cities and villages using artillery, multiple rocket launchers and ballistic missiles.
Russian units are being redeployed to Belarus to rotate troops that suffered significant losses, strengthen existing groups, replenish food, fuel and ammunition supplies, and evacuate those wounded and sick.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said this in a statement posted on Facebook, Ukrinform reports.

Some units of the Belarusian Armed Forces remain on the training grounds.

In Polissia, the enemy, covered by artillery and aircraft fire, continues to dig in and is preparing for the rotation of units.

In the Siversky direction, the invaders continue the siege of Slavutych, attempting to take control of Chernihiv. Near the villages of Lukianivka and Rudnytske, the enemy suffered casualties and retreated.

In the Slobozhansky direction, Russian troops are trying to regroup near Sumy. Near Kharkiv, Russian forces focused their efforts on replenishing current losses.

Near Sloviansk, the enemy is improving the engineering equipment of the occupied positions.

Ukrainian defense forces regained control of Trostianets and Husarivka.

In the Donetsk direction, occupation units are trying to capture Popasna, Rubizhne, Sievierodonetsk and Mariupol. They have no success. An attempt to storm Krasnohorivka was unsuccessful. Russian forces suffered losses and left.

In the Tavriya operational district, Russian Guard forces continue to fight the resistance in the temporarily occupied territory.

Ukrainian soldiers continue to effectively resist the Russian invaders, repel enemy attacks and gradually liberate territories temporarily occupied by the enemy.
Russian invaders have launched mass deportation of the population from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, which is in violation of Art. 49 of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.

The Verkhovna Rada Commissioner Liudmyla Denisova addressed the issue in a statement via Telegram, Ukrinform reports.

"The occupiers defense ministry reports that 90,000 citizens of Ukraine, Moldova, and Russia have already been deported from Kherson region. The Russcists name as grounds for relocation appeals of embassies and applications submitted to the military commandant's office of Kherson. Over the past day alone, more than 19,600 civilians, including 3,300 children, were deported from the temporarily non-government-controlled territories of Ukraine in Donetsk and Luhansk regions. This was announced by the head of Russias National Defense Management Center, Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, Denisova reported.

According to the ombudsperson, in total, the Russian military claims the extraction of 439,420 civilians "from dangerous areas of Ukraine", of which 91,673 are children; from Mariupol, 98,081 people were relocated, including 183 people in the past 24 hours, from the arbitrary actions of nationalists.

Denisova stressed that the scale of the forced relocation was comparable only to the deportation carried out by Hitler during World War 2.

"I appeal to the International Committee of the Red Cross to take all possible measures to assist in the return of Ukrainians illegally deported to Russia and to open safe humanitarian corridors from the regions where active hostilities are ongoing. I call on the international community to put even more pressure on the occupying power to liberate the entire territory of Ukraine from the Russcist army, Denisova urged.

On March 27, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Iryna Vereshchuk said about 40,000 Ukrainians, including thousands of children, had been forcibly deported to Russia.
On Saturday, March 26, Russia fired at least 70 missiles on targets across Ukraine, which is a record number since the launch of a full-scale invasion on February 24.

Thats according to The Insider outlet, Ukrinform reports.

"On March 26, Russia fired a record number of missiles on the territory of Ukraine, according to The Insider, based on data from its sources. Fifty-two missiles were fired from Black Sea Fleet warships in Sevastopol and at least 18  from Belarus," the outlet wrote.

According to estimates by The Insider, the total cost of these missiles exceeds $340 million in direct production costs (2020 prices). Taking into account logistical costs, Russia spent up to half a billion dollars just on those fired by warships.

At the same time, Ukraine's air defense also set its own record for the missiles shot down in one day: of at least 70 missiles fired by Russia, only eight engaged their targets.

As reported, the head of the Lviv Regional Military Administration, Maksym Kozytsky said Russian troops launched two missile strikes on an oil depot and defense plant in Lviv. Fires broke out at both sites. Five people were injured.

The Presidents spokesman, Serhiy Nikiforov, is confident that Russia's missiles will be hitting targets closer to NATO borders if Russia isnt stopped on Ukrainian territory.

On February 24, Russia launched a new phase of the war against Ukraine, with the enemy massively shelling and bombing peaceful Ukrainian towns and villages.
In the Chornobyl zone, Russian invaders are increasingly often using old, poor-quality munitions with a high risk of self-detonation.

Thats according to an operational update on the Russian invasion as of 18:00 on March 27.

The Russian enemy continues to break the norms of International Humanitarian Law in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, abducting and intimidating local Ukrainian residents, holding civilians hostage, the statement says.

In the settlements of Ivankiv and Orane, Kyiv region, due to obstructed logistics, Russian occupiers are asking locals for food, without resorting to aggression. No looting incidents were reported.

Read also: Forest fires erupt around Chornobyl nuclear plant

The ongoing militarization of the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone by the Russian occupation forces seriously increases the risk of damage to the insulation structures erected over the NPPs Power Unit 4 after its 1986 explosion. Such damage will inevitably lead to a significant amount of radioactive dust reaching the atmosphere, contaminating not only Ukraine but also other European nations, the statement says.

The Russian occupying forces ignore threats and warnings, continuing to transport and store significant amounts of munitions in the immediate vicinity of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the General Staff notes.

Dozens of tonnes of self-propelled rockets, howitzer artillery shells, and mortar munitions are reported to be transported daily from the rear base located in the Naraulianski district, Gomel region of Belarus.

The transport corridor of the Russian invaders passes through the city of Prypiat a few hundred meters from the isolation facilities of the Chornobyl NPP. Ammunition is then stocked up in the town of Chornobyl, near Prypiat, which is also a short distance from the Chornobyl NPP.

In Chornobyl, the occupiers deployed a temporary command post of their Eastern Military District, as well as a command post of the 38th separate motorized rifle brigade of the Land Forces.

The Russian occupation forces are increasingly using obsolete, poor-quality munitions, intelligence says. The 165th artillery brigade (Belogorsk, Amur region), which is part of the Russian occupational grouping of forces, has received permission to use such old and poor-quality munitions. This increases the risk of their self-detonation even during loading and shipment, the report says, adding that such incidents have been rather regular in the past.
Chairman of the Crimean Tatar People's Mejlis, Refat Chubarov, addressed citizens of Ukraine, residents of the occupied Crimea, regardless of their ethnic origin, in connection with the threat of their conscription into the Russian occupation army.

Thats according to a statement Chubarov posted on Facebook, Ukrinform reports.

"Do your best to avoid being drafted into the Russian occupation army, which will force you to kill your fellow citizens or get you killed by fellow citizens," Chubarov wrote.

According to the Crimean Tatar leader, all those who are threatened with a draft call, will receive assistance from the moment they manage to cross the border into other countries.

He has called on citizens to immediately contact him or other members of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, who are now in mainland Ukraine, via social networks," Chubarov said.

Then, he said, Crimean residents will be offered "worthy options for participation or assistance in the struggle for the liberation of Crimea from Russian invaders."

It should be recalled that male inhabitants of Crimea are being forcibly mobilized on the temporarily occupied peninsula to take part in the war with Ukraine.

In order to avoid fulfilling criminal orders, men of military age attempt to flee the peninsula through mainland Russia, as the road to mainland Ukraine is now closed. According to the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Liudmyla Denisova, forcible mobilization is prohibited by international humanitarian law, Article 51 IV of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.
Ukraine was not planning to bring the certain areas of Donetsk Region and Luhansk Region (CADLR) back by military means, and the documents released by Russias Defense Ministry are fake.

The relevant statement was made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in an interview with the Russian media, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

In particular, Russian journalists asked Zelensky to comment on the documents disclosed by Russias Defense Ministry, which were dated January 22 and signed by Mykola Balan. According to the Russian side, these documents proved that Ukraine had been planning a preventive attack on Donbas.

Well, this is some fake document. Of course, there were no plans. Since 2019, I have been telling President Putin, and all these different channels you have mentioned today I have been telling them we are not planning to bring our territories back by military means. I want to reach an agreement. Moreover, I want to find a format, in which we could have lived for some time. I wanted to maintain some relations between Ukraine and Russia  before the invasion started. I was looking for different options. Believe me, Zelensky told.

A reminder that, on February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin initiated a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, starting a war. Russian troops are shelling and destroying the key infrastructure facilities, launching missile and air strikes on Ukrainian cities and villages, killing civilians.

Photo: Office of the President of Ukraine

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Russian troops gave up the offensive operations in Sumy region, while trying to regroup and redeploy units to other areas.

"In Slobozhansky direction, the enemy gave up offensive operations near the city of Sumy, trying to regroup and redeploy its units to other areas. One of the BTGs from the 1st enemy tank army, involved in hostilities, was fully withdrawn from Ukraine to the territory of the Russian Federation," the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine posted on Facebook.

At the same time, the aggressors continued to launch strikes on Kharkiv's infrastructure facilities. The enemy tried to conduct offensive operations towards the town of Izium.

The General Staff informs that in order to continue the full-scale armed aggression against Ukraine, Russia continues to redeploy additional units from the Pacific Fleet and the Western Military District. At the same time, there is a significant decrease in the intensity of movement from the depths of the Russian Federation.

In Volyn direction, there is a high probability of involvement of the armed forces of the Republic of Belarus in the aggression against Ukraine. Air reconnaissance continues in the areas of Kovel, Varash, Sarny. At the same time, the delivery of missiles for Iskander-M short range ballistic missile system is recorded in the area of Kalinkovichi.

According to the General Staff, the enemy did not conduct active offensive operations in Polissya direction. Russian troops continue to regroup individual units of the Eastern Military District. Units, which suffered significant losses during offensive operations, are usually deployed to Belarus to restore their combat capability. In particular, the withdrawal of up to 2 BTGs from the 106th Airborne Division from the territory of Kyiv region to the territory of Belarus was noticed.

At the same time, the invaders continue to launch missile and air strikes on important military infrastructure and advanced positions in order to inflict casualties and deplete personnel.

In Siversky direction, the invaders did not carry out offensive operations, concentrating their efforts on consolidating and maintaining the previously occupied frontiers.

The main efforts of the enemy in Donetsk direction were focused on taking control of the localities of Popasna, Rubizhne and entering the Novotroitsky district, as well capturing Mariupol. The aggressors attempts are unsuccessful.

The occupiers carried out artillery and mortar shelling of the localities of Toretske, Svitlodarsk, Troitske, and Pisky.

"The main goal of the Russian invaders is still to reach the administrative borders of Donetsk and Luhansk regions," the General Staff stressed.

In Tavriysky direction, Russian Guard units continue to carry out filtration measures in the temporarily occupied territories of Kherson region.

In the South Buh direction, the enemy's position and actions remained unchanged.

It is noted that the Armed Forces of Ukraine continue to inflict significant losses on the enemy. "According to available information, over the past five days, about 600 bodies of servicemen killed in Ukraine have been brought to the military garrisons of the Nizhny Novgorod region. Most of the killed served in the 47th Guards Tank Division of the 1st Guards Tank Army of the Western Military District," the General Staff informed.

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Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (Gas TSO of Ukraine) has proposed that Europe gradually impose an embargo on the use of the Nord Stream 1 natural gas pipeline.

Gas TSO of Ukraine Director-General Serhii Makogon said this in an interview with TSN.ua, Ukrinform reports.

Our suggestion for the de-Putinization of the Nord Stream 1 and de-Putinization of Europe is the gradual implementation of an embargo on pipelines. We understand that Europe cannot reject the use of Russian natural gas immediately. However, the countries are planning to do so gradually, Makogon said.

Read also: Nord Stream 2 operator declares bankruptcy

According to the official, it is possible to initially impose a 50% limit on transit via Nord Stream 1. The supply of natural gas to Germany could be carried on through the gas transmission systems of Ukraine and Poland.

Both Yamal and our gas transmission system (GTS) are capable of transporting an additional 20-30 billion cubic meters of natural gas that will actually increase Russia's dependence on our gas infrastructure. They will understand that if they damage our GTS, they will not be able to export gas to Europe. This is our proposal and we are currently actively discussing it with our European and American colleagues," Makogon commented.

The official has stressed that Europe needs to diversify supplies by shipping gas from Africa and Qatar, as well as switching to alternative energy.

As reported earlier, after Russia unleashed its war in Ukraine, the German government, which had consistently supported the Nord Stream 2 project, ordered the Federal Network Agency to suspend the pipes certification. Nord Stream 2 AG, the pipelines, declared bankruptcy on March 1.

Nord Stream 1 was laid under the Baltic Sea to the German coast. The annual capacity of the pipeline, which has been operating since 2012, stands at up to 55 billion cubic meters of gas.
The next round of talks between Ukraine and the Russian Federation will take place in Turkey on March 28-30.

This was announced by the head of the Servant of the People parliamentary faction, member of the delegation David Arakhamia, Ukrinform reports.

"Today, at the next round of talks held via video conference, it was decided to hold the next live round by the two delegations in Turkey on March 28-30," Arakhamia wrote on Facebook.

Arakhamia clarified that more details are yet to be announced.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, on February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a new phase of the war against Ukraine  a full-scale invasion.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine, Territorial Defense units, and the entire nation of Ukraine have risen up against the invaders, inflicting heavy losses on Russian aggressors.

In addition, negotiations are underway between the Ukrainian and Russian delegations.

Adviser to the Head of the President's Office, Mykhailo Podoliak, states that the positions of the Ukrainian delegation in talks remain unchanged, namely: a ceasefire, withdrawal of troops, and strict security guarantees.
A recent report by Germanys Deutsche Welle about the mother of a Russian invader is not about freedom of speech but about the justification of mass killings Russia is committing in Ukraine.

Thats according to Mykhailo Podoliak, the advisor to the chief of the Ukrainian Presidents Office.

FYI Deutsche Welle: There is no justification to an unprovoked war that causes massive destruction of civilian infrastructure and the massacre of civilians. None. And it's not about freedom of speech. This is about the explicit justification of mass killings, Podoliak tweeted.

As reported earlier, the National Journalists Association appealed to Deutsche Welle, demanding that the report justifying Russias armed aggression against Ukraine be taken down.

The article by Oksana Ivanova tells a story of a Russian woman whose son, a contracted Russian military serviceman, was killed during an assault on the Hostomel airfield near Kyiv. She says she hates Ukrainians, that the Russian war against Ukraine is justified, and that she "no longer has pity even for civilians."

Photo from the Ukrainian Presidents Office
The photographer remains unknown, but the Mystery Lady always had a name  Fumiko Hayashida  and a life far beyond this moment in history
With Eyes on Russia, US Military Prepares for an Arctic Future
Six Mavericks were among the 10 individuals recently recognized as Ten Young Outstanding Omahans (TOYO) by the Omaha Jaycees. Vetted from hundreds of applicants, these young professionals, ages 21 through 40, have shown that they are committed to improving the Omaha community through acts of kindness while excelling in their professional careers.

One of the recipients is Josefina Loza, a UNO alumna and manager of student publications at UNO, overseeing the student-run Gateway newspaper.

I am truly honored to be recognized by the Omaha Jaycees as a Ten Outstanding Young Omahans! recipient, Loza said. I'm elated. I'm soaring the universe right now. I'm so incredibly grateful because this is just the start.

Lozas engagement in the community extends to serving as the vice president of marketing and public relations for the Midlands African Chamber, the communications director for the Global Leadership Africa Summit, and the public relations manager for The Blocs 50 Over 50 NE awards ceremony.

Loza said also hopes to uplift the community by assisting businesses. She established Lozafina, LLC in 2020 to help small businesses bolster their online presence, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, and became a founding member of the Midlands African Chamber Inc, which serves businesses in African and African American communities.

I have nothing but gratitude for all of those close friends, colleagues, family members, and clients who believed in my journey, Loza said.

Congratulations to all our Maverick honorees!

Noelle Obermeyer- (Alumna - Political Science)

Andrea Kathol- (Alumna - Public Administration)

Keegan Korf- (Alumna - Communications, Journalism)

Josh Gillman- (Alumnus - History, International Studies)

Bri Schuler- (Alumna - Nonprofit Management)

Anayeli Martinez Real- (UNO Project Achieve Alumna)
San Salvador, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Mar, 2022 ) :El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Saturday urged lawmakers to declare a state of emergency after authorities arrested dozens of gang members over a recent wave of bloodshed.

Gang violence has soared in El Salvador in recent days, with police reporting that 62 people were killed on Saturday alone.

Hours earlier, police and the military arrested several leaders of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang over the spate of killings.

"We will not back down in this war against gangs, we will not rest until the criminals responsible for these acts are captured and brought to justice," the country's National Civil Police posted on Twitter.

In response to killings, Bukele asked the legislature -- controlled by his ruling party -- to meet to declare a state of emergency, under which certain freedoms are curtailed.

The Salvadoran constitution says that a state of emergency can be put into place "in cases of war, invasion of territory, rebellion, sedition, catastrophe, epidemic or other general calamity, or serious disturbances of public order." "Since yesterday, we have had a new spike in homicides, something that we had worked so hard to reduce," Bukele said in a statement posted on Twitter by Congress president Ernesto Castro.

"While we fight criminals in the streets, we must try to figure out what is happening and who is financing this." Castro said the country "must let the agents and soldiers do their job and must defend them from the accusations of those who protect the gang members." Bukele asked the prosecutor's office "to be effective with all the cases" of gang members that it processes, warning he would keep an eye on "judges who favor criminals." Last November, El Salvador suffered another spike in homicides that claimed the lives of some 45 people in three days.

The Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio-18 gangs, among others, have about 70,000 members in El Salvador, according to authorities, and operate through homicides, extortion and drug trafficking.

The country registered 1,140 murders in 2021 -- an average of 18 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants -- less than the 1,341 registered the previous year and the lowest figure since the end of the civil war in 1992, according to official data.

cmm/dga/ag/oho/cwl
Kyiv, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Mar, 2022 ) :Russian forces took control of a town where staff working at the Chernobyl nuclear site live and briefly detained the mayor, sparking protests, Ukrainian officials said Saturday.

"I have been released. Everything is fine, as far as it is possible under occupation," Yuri Fomichev, mayor of Slavutych, told AFP by phone, after officials in the Ukraine capital Kyiv announced earlier he had been detained.

Earlier, the military administration of the Kyiv region, which covers Slavutych, announced that Russian troops had entered the town and occupied the municipal hospital.

They also said that the mayor had been detained.

Residents took to the streets, carrying a large blue and yellow Ukrainian flag and heading towards the hospital, the administration said. Russian forces fired into the air and threw stun grenades into the crowd, it added.

It also shared on its Telegram account images in which dozens of people gathered around the Ukrainian flag and chanted: "Glory to Ukraine." Later Saturday, Fomichev posted a video on Facebook saying that at least three people had died, without elaborating on what had happened.

"We haven't yet identified all of them," he added, but said that civilians were among the dead.

While they had defended their town, they were up against a larger force, he said.

The Chernobyl plant was taken by the Russian army on February 24 on the same day that Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine.

Some 25,000 people live in the town 160 kilometres (99 miles) north of the capital, built after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said Saturday it was "closely monitoring the situation" after Ukraine's nuclear regulator informed it that the town had been seized by Russian forces.

The UN atomic watchdog said it was concerned about the ability of employees at Chernobyl to rotate and return to their homes to rest.

"There has been no staff rotation at the NPP for nearly a week now," the IAEA said.

The town's capture comes after the first staff rotation at Chernobyl plant last weekend since Russia took control.

About 100 Ukrainian technicians continued to run the daily operations at the radioactive site for nearly four weeks without being rotated.
Iraqi lawmakers failed again on Saturday to elect a new president due to the lack of a quorum in parliament, keeping the country mired in political paralysis

Baghdad, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2022 ) :Iraqi lawmakers failed again on Saturday to elect a new president due to the lack of a quorum in parliament, keeping the country mired in political paralysis.

Parliament had issued a final list of 40 candidates for the post, a largely ceremonial role that by convention is reserved for a member of Iraq's Kurdish minority.

The contest pits Barham Saleh, the incumbent and a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), against Rebar Ahmed of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the PUK's rival.

But the lack of a quorum -- set at two-thirds of the house's 329 members -- held up the vote for the second time since February, deepening war-scarred Iraq's political uncertainty.

Only 202 lawmakers showed up for the latest vote, a parliamentary official told AFP on condition of anonymity, and a new session had to be scheduled for Wednesday.

Following the session, parliament speaker Mohammed al-Halbusi said the "lack of a quorum forces us to continue holding sessions until it is achieved", the state-owned Iraqi news Agency reported.

The postponement exacerbates Iraq's political problems because it is the task of the president to formally name a prime minister, who must be backed by an absolute majority in parliament.

On February 13, Iraq's supreme court ruled out a presidential bid by KDP-backed veteran politician Hoshyar Zebari, after a complaint filed against him over years-old, untried corruption charges.

Iraqi politics were thrown into turmoil following last October's general election, which was marred by record low turnout, post-vote threats and violence, and a months-long delay before the final results were confirmed.

- Sharp divisions - Intense negotiations among political factions have since failed to forge a majority in support of a new prime minister to succeed Mustafa al-Kadhemi.

The largest political bloc, led by firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, had backed Zebari for the presidency and has now thrown its weight behind Ahmed.

A first vote in parliament on February 7 failed to materialise as it was widely boycotted amid the Zebari legal wrangle.

Saturday's failed session underscored the sharp divide in Iraqi politics between Sadr, the general election's big winner, and the powerful Coordination Framework, which had called for a boycott.

The Coordination Framework includes the pro-Iran Fatah Alliance -- the political arm of the Shiite-led former paramilitary group Hashed al-Shaabi.

With the support of Sunni and Kurdish parties, Sadr wants the post of prime minister to go to his cousin Jaafar Sadr, Iraq's ambassador to Britain, once the question of the four-year presidency has been settled.

Ahead of Saturday's debacle, political analyst Ihsan al-Shammari had said that, even if the vote had gone ahead as planned, the presidency would "not be decided in the first round".

The candidate who wins the largest number of votes must secure a two-thirds majority in a second round of voting in parliament to win the presidency.

Mohamed, a civil servant who preferred not to give his full name, blamed the political system for the aborted vote.

"The constitution itself was drafted incorrectly," he said. "As a result, the whole political process is full of mistakes."
News and notes about politics around here:

 Behind the historic Pulteney Square courthouse in the Steuben County Village of Bath, a close-to-epic legal battle continues to draw the attention of New York States political establishment.

Thats where a modern addition houses the courtroom of State Supreme Court Justice Patrick F. McAllister, and where a cadre of top lawyers from around the nation argue over the constitutionality of new redistricting plans for the House of Representatives and State Senate.

Its always fascinating to witness noted attorneys wrangling over fine points of the law or even broader concepts like constitutionality, and thats exactly the scene playing out in Bath.

At the heart of the case lies the Republican argument that a 2014 constitutional amendment charging an Independent Redistricting Commission with drawing nonpartisan lines was violated when the body deadlocked and the Democratic State Legislature ultimately determined the new districts.

But attorneys representing the respondents (Gov. Kathy Hochul and the State Legislature) say the GOP argument is flawed because legislators are protected by a state version of the U.S. Constitutions speech and debate clause.

That provision prohibits legislators (and by extension, they argued, the governor) from accountability outside the Legislature. The Attorney Generals Office argued the privilege is absolute, and that past cases have established the precedent.

But as the Battle of Bath continues, elections commissioners in New York are getting nervous. Designating petitions for the June 28 primary are already in circulation. Campaigns are underway. And candidates like Republican Reps. Claudia Tenney of Oneida County and Chris Jacobs of Erie County are working their new districts far from home.

Now the possibility of a new election date enters the picture. Last week, former Rep. John Faso of Columbia County, the 2006 GOP candidate for governor and Republican spokesman for the case, said moving the primary to Aug. 23 represents the best alternative given a tightening time frame. All kinds of new ramifications could result.

After all the legal arguments conclude, however, it appears another historic courthouse  the New York State Court of Appeals  will ultimately determine the case.

 Speaking of Tenney, Buffalo developer Carl Paladino hosted her and potential local backers on Tuesday at JTs on Elmwood Avenue. Tenney represents Paladinos kind of Republican, and he is all in as she seeks the mostly Southern Tier seat now held by Republican Tom Reed and will include parts of southern Erie County.

I greatly respect her but she is unknown in our part of the state, Paladino said, adding he hopes to plan an event for GOP gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin.

 Back in late February, The Buffalo News reported a Democratic primary was taking shape for Erie County clerk between incumbent Mickey Kearns and Republican-turned-Democrat Missy Hartman, the Eden supervisor. Hartman had previously run on the Conservative line while in her supervisor races, and said she would again seek the often important minor partys support as a Democratic clerk candidate.

But Erie County Conservative Chairman Ralph Lorigo said Hartman never requested the Conservative line, and his party is now circulating petitions for Kearns  who is also the Republican candidate (got all these party switcheroos?).

Bidding farewell to the Conservatives comes as no surprise. Democrats and Conservatives rarely mix these days under the party leadership of County Executive Mark Poloncarz and Chairman Jeremy Zellner.

 Former Assembly Majority Leader Paul Tokasz retires this week after six years with M&T Bank in one of New York States key private sector government relations posts, previously held by Hochul and the late North Councilmember David Rutecki. Tokasz says he retires from his fifth career following stints as a Buffalo teacher, clerk of the Erie County Legislature, deputy county clerk and assemblyman.

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(@FahadShabbir)

UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th March, 2022) A building housing United Nations employees was damaged during the airstrikes carried out by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen's Sanaa, Stephane Dujarric, Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said.

"The Secretary-General strongly condemns the recent escalation of the conflict in Yemen including Friday's aerial attacks on civilian and energy facilities in Saudi Arabia by the Houthis and the subsequent Coalition airstrikes in Sana'a, reportedly killing eight civilians, including five children and two women. These airstrikes also resulted in damage to the UN staff residential compound in Sana'a," Dujarric said in a Saturday statement.

According to the release, Guterres is calling on all parties to the Yemen conflict to deescalate and negotiate a settlement to end the conflict.

"The Secretary-General is deeply concerned about reports of ongoing airstrikes in Hudaydah city and the targeting of Hudaydah's ports, which provide a critical humanitarian lifeline for the Yemeni population. The Secretary-General calls for a swift and transparent investigation into these incidents to ensure accountability," Dujarric said.

On Friday, Yemen's Houthi movement attacked an oil distribution station in Jeddah and civil facilities, including an electric power station, in several other Saudi cities. Later on Friday, the Saudi Arabia-led coalition said it had destroyed two booby-trapped drones launched by the Houthis toward the kingdom.

On Saturday, the Houthis said they were ready to establish a ceasefire for a period of three days and could consider making the ceasefire permanent if Saudi Arabia ends the blockade and airstrikes and withdraws all forces from Yemen.

Yemen has been gripped by an internal conflict between the government forces and the Houthi movement for over six years. Since 2015, the Saudi-led coalition fighting on the government's side has been conducting air, land and sea operations against the rebels. The Houthis often retaliate by firing projectiles and bomber drones on Saudi territory. Earlier this month, the Houthis stepped up their shelling of Saudi territory after the kingdom executed 82 people, including three Yemeni prisoners of war.
WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th March, 2022) The United States is going to allocate an additional $100 million in security aid to Kiev amid Russia's ongoing special military operation in Ukraine, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

"The United States intends to provide an additional $100 million in civilian security assistance to enhance the capacity of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs to provide essential border security, sustain civil law enforcement functions, and safeguard critical governmental infrastructure," Blinken said in a Saturday statement.

On Thursday, the White House said that the US would provide more than $1 billion in humanitarian assistance to Kiev, as well as an additional $320 million to fund democracy and human rights programs in Ukraine and in the neighboring countries. Earlier this month, US President Joe Biden approved over $13.5 billion in humanitarian, economic and defense assistance for Ukraine.

Blinken said on Saturday that the additional $100 million in civilian security assistance "will continue a steady flow of personal protection equipment, field gear, tactical equipment, medical supplies, armored vehicles, and communication equipment for the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service and the National Police of Ukraine."

The West scaled up military assistance to Kiev, as well as anti-Russia sanctions, after Moscow launched a special military operation in Ukraine in the early hours of February 24. The move came after the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR) appealed for help in defending themselves against the Kiev 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.
Valdosta, GA (31601)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms developing during the afternoon. A few storms may be severe. High around 85F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Partly to mostly cloudy skies with scattered thunderstorms before midnight. Low around 65F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
A new phase of the COVID-19 pandemic  one that stresses the health care system less  is upon us and the public and local health officials reflect on those they lost the past two years, how the virus has impacted them and what they hope for moving forward.
News Analysis

Despite the fact that both hype and interest surrounding the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pseudo pandemic has abated as measures, lockdowns, and vaccine mandates have relaxed in North American society, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease continues to both quietly and not-so-quietly spread around the world.

What appears to have caused the lull is the Omicron variant, which was first detected in Botswana among four fully vaccinated diplomats from an unknown country in early November of 2021.

Omicron a type of vaccine?

Despite being not only very significantly more infectious than the Delta variant, but almost totally vaccine-evasive, Omicron nonetheless manifested as less symptomatic, thereby appearing to generate a semblance of natural immunity in its targets.

Omicrons effect in this regard was so significant that individuals such as notorious globalist Bill Gates directly stated that Omicron actually is a type of vaccine during the Munich Security Conference in February.

Gates also said that Omicron creates both B-cell and T-cell immunity, and its done a better job getting out to the world population than we have with vaccines.

SARS Cov 2 causes unprecedented autoimmunity.



In a new publication, @adamhamdy and I discuss superantigens and autoimmunity, curious in vivo cd8 activation and potentiation of other inflammatory signals, and long-term consequences of SAG exposure. https://t.co/7quMKghYut  Anthony J Leonardi, PhD, MS (@fitterhappierAJ) March 23, 2022

Gatess supposition is in dispute among a segment of the scientific community, however, that believes all variants of SARS-CoV-2 have a unique, and dangerous, characteristic wherein infections, regardless of symptomatic severity, fatigue and deplete the human bodys T-cell immune functions.

T-Cells are employed as part of the human bodys adaptive immune system to cause cells that are already infected by a virus to undergo apoptosis (self destruction), while the antibodies generally referred to in the media are immunoglobulins in the blood that seek out and kill invading or proliferating viruses before they enter cells.

Detractors surmise that as a result, consecutive reinfections, regardless of symptomatic severity or any notions of herd immunity, whether natural or otherwise, are actually analogous to rolling the dice on developing severe autoimmune disorders.

Strange characteristics

When Omicron emerged, scientists noted two particularly strange characteristics. One is the spike protein, the tendril-like segment of the viruss exterior that connects to the human bodys ACE2 receptors in order to facilitate entry into host cells, was dramatically mutated compared to Delta and all other variants.

Featuring as many as 45 independent spike mutations, Omicron was able to evade the existing mRNA gene therapy vaccines, which deliver a genetic instruction to human cells to force the synthesis of the spike protein from an early variant of SARS-CoV-2 given directly to Big Pharma by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), because its composition is dramatically different.

Screenshot of Modernas COVID-19 vaccine timeline showing that on Jan. 11, 2020, the genetic sequence for SARS-CoV-2 was obtained directly from the Chinese Communist Party. Two days later, Moderna and the NIH finalized the sequence used for the mRNA-1273 injection that was globally distributed. Less than two months later, injections into the first humans commenced. (Image: Screenshot of Moderna Website)

The second anomaly was that despite Omicrons drastic mutations, it appeared to have no associated lineages to previous versions of the virus, including Delta, almost as if it appeared out of thin air.

A January article on the Berkeley website aptly states, In fact, Omicron is so different from other variants that it seems like its been evolving on its own for many months.

And that leads us to another mystery that scientists are puzzling over: where has Omicron been hiding while all this evolution was occurring?

Unnatural evolution

In a March 25 exclusive, independent investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson quoted a a scientist with knowledge of the matter as stating that when it comes to Omicron, the least likely scenario is that this was a natural human transmission chain that created the lineage and we just failed to detect it.

The scientist posited that Omicron came about from serial passaging in mice that was done in a laboratory somewhere, and add[ed] an accidental or on purpose release on the back end.

Notably, one of the earliest studies to reveal that Omicron reduced the efficacy of the Pfizer COVID injection by a staggering 41 fold was conducted by the Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI), located in South Africa, in December of 2021 with funding by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the NIH.

The AHRI is notable as Botswana shares a border with South Africa.

The theory is neither in the least without merit nor a conspiracy theory.

A December of 2021 study published in the Journal of Genetics and Genomics by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) explained succinctly that established science already understands that viruses belonging to different orders (e.g., poliovirus, Ebola virus, and SARS-CoV-2) were found to exhibit similar molecular spectra of mutations when evolving in the same host species, while members of the same virus species exhibit divergent molecular spectra when evolving in different host species.

Fundamentally, viruses do not have reproductive systems and do not evolve in isolation. Viruses must enter the cells of a host species, whether human or otherwise, wherein a host cell and its varying genetic structure and substances are turned into a veritable barracks that serves as a vector for viral reproduction, evolution, and extended infection.

Notably, the scientists were able to determine that Omicrons specific mutations were lacking hallmark molecules that only emerge from an RNA viruss mutation form when utilizing the human body as a host.

So, if Omicrons evolutions are not characteristic of those found when SARS-CoV-2 utilizes the human body to proliferate, in what species did it evolve?

Because the gain of function research utilized to develop the virus from what was likely originally found in bats to something that has zoonotic (cross-species) transmissibility has significant downsides, COVID has, notably, long since been infecting both wild and zoo-captive animals all around the world.

Thus, the Chinese team found that Omicrons evolutions were not only consistent with the evolutionary history of the virus when developing in mice, but that its spike protein mutations significantly overlap with those found in mouse-adapted SARS-CoV-2 manifestations.

A not-so-minor detail

At first glance, the finding may appear either insignificant or as if it is a smoke screen to distract from the Wuhan Lab Leak theory.

After all, the CAS is directly associated with the CCPs military, the so-called Peoples Liberation Army, and is a major arm of the Partys notorious Military Civil Fusion project that converts many of the countrys prima facie civilian and private entities into effectively state-run enterprises.

Nonetheless, the key point is that it is difficult to experiment with SARS-type coronaviruses on mice because they, unlike humans, do not have the ACE2 receptors the family targets.

Therefore, when scientists want to run gain of function experiments on mice, they have to take the extra step of genetically engineering the rodents to express human ACE2 receptors.

This process produces what is colloquially referred to as humanized mice, and is a technique well established as used in Peter Daszaks EcoHealth Alliance and the NIHs gain of function research with the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Two plus two

Another unnamed scientist that spoke with Atkisson pointed out, Every lab in the world is now working on Covid. Its highly contagious and risky even with the best controls. The odds of an accidental release are pretty high.

He continued, Its very hard to attribute where these things occur, but this is an unprecedented time were living in because there are a lot of lab facilities working on the virus at the same time.

And so at any point, we have safety controls to try to keep the pathogens in the lab. But with so many people working under different conditions, different restrictions, different rules, the potential for lab release of some COVID related work is plausible, he stated.

Its something we need to consider.
Music Time in Africa is VOAs longest running English language program. Since 1965, this award-winning program has featured pan African music that spans all genres and generations. Ethnomusicologist and Host Heather Maxwell keeps you up to date on whats happening in African music with exclusive interviews, cultural information, and of course, great music -- including rare recordings from the Leo Sarkisian Library of African Music.
"In a democracy, the number of voters you have should determine the number of representatives you can elect," James Gilmore, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, told VOA. "But that's not the case in Louisiana and many other U.S. states. The latest redistricting maps are proof of that."

Redistricting is the decennial process in which congressional districts are redrawn to reflect changes in the population as determined by the U.S. census.

"The strength of the system is that it balances the size of districts so that they all have roughly equal populations," explained Robert Collins, professor of urban studies and public policy at Dillard University in New Orleans. "That, in theory, means everyone has equal influence with their vote."

But how those maps are drawn can benefit or disadvantage certain groups and the political parties they support. Manipulating the contours of congressional districts to give a political party an advantage at the ballot box  and, ultimately, greater numbers in the U.S. House of Representatives  is known as gerrymandering, a practice almost as old as America itself.

Louisiana's Republican-led Legislature devised new congressional maps that sparked an outcry from Democrats and voting rights groups. Republicans insist they balanced multiple considerations fairly.

"I took our population, I took our geography of the state, I took our communities of interest, I took the will of the public, the will of the Legislature, and I balanced all of that with the law," said Representative John Stefanski, the lead Republican in the Louisiana House's redistricting efforts.

But opponents insist the resulting maps don't accurately reflect changes in the state's demographics, particularly the growth of its minority population.

"Louisiana is now made up of one-third Black residents, and the Black population has been a principal driver of the state's overall growth," said Liza Weisberg, voting rights staff attorney at Southern Poverty Law Center. "But the new redistricting maps don't meaningfully increase opportunities for Black voters to elect candidates of their choosing. That's a broken system."

The system

How political maps are drawn also has important implications for residents other than representation in Washington. The delineation of state and local government districts can bring consequences.

"African Americans make up more than 50% of the population of Baton Rouge, but the way the maps are drawn, we're still outnumbered by white Republicans on the school board, on City Council and throughout local government," said Gilmore, who is African American. "So it's no wonder those boards and councils keep voting to have the new schools, new hospitals, new housing, new public transportation  I can go on forever  put in the part of town that happens to be white and Republican. Meanwhile, when my mother had a stroke, I had to drive her 26 minutes to the nearest hospital and carry her inside myself. If redistricting was done fairly, we'd have fair representation and we couldn't be treated like this."

Redistricting became a requirement in 1967, with the passage of the Uniform Congressional District Act. The law required states to use the U.S. census, conducted every 10 years, to ensure voting districts consisted of approximately the same number of residents.

"Before the 1960s, you might have had one state senator representing a district of 10,000 residents, while another senator in the same state represented 100,000 residents," said Robert Hogan, professor and chair of the political science department at Louisiana State University.

This ensures every resident's vote can have the same strength. But redistricting has also been used to both consolidate and dilute political power.

That's because it often falls to a state's legislature to draw redistricting maps. Though the legislature can pass that responsibility to a less partisan committee, the majority party typically chooses to do this consequential work itself.

"Historically, the process has been used by the majority party as a way to further consolidate power," Weisberg told VOA.

That power is on full display in Louisiana, where even though nearly 4 out of 10 voters cast their ballots for Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, Democrats hold only one of the state's six seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

"It's a weakness of the redistricting system," Hogan said. "The minority party suffers at the hand of the majority party that draws districts in a way that ultimately reduces the number of seats their opponent can win. Republicans want to keep their five incumbent seats rather than having to give another to Democrats."

Hogan says while the strategy is meant to help the majority party at the expense of the opposition party, it's not just the minority party that feels its effects.

"The redistricting process can also be harmful to racial and ethnic minority populations as well," he said.

Majority-minority districts

In a majority-minority district, Black Americans and other minority groups make up the majority of a district's electorate. Louisiana currently has only one majority-minority district, but when the 2020 census revealed that the African American population in Louisiana had risen to one-third of the state's total population, there was hope that redistricting would add a second.

This, supporters of a second majority-minority district said, would allow Black voters to choose representatives to both the Louisiana State Legislature and the U.S. Congress who more fairly represented their growing numbers in the state.

The idea had the backing of Louisiana's Democratic governor, John Bel Edwards, but not that of key Republican state lawmakers.

Democrats, voting rights advocates and many African Americans were infuriated with what emerged.

"More than two dozen versions of maps that included a second majority-minority district were presented to the Legislature, and Republicans rejected all of them," Nora Ahmed, the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, told VOA.

Republicans have defended the maps they ultimately selected, saying Louisiana's African American population is spread out across rural parts of the state. If they had created a second majority-minority district, they said, it could have weakened the influence Black voters currently have at the ballot box.

During a special redistricting session last month, Republican state Senator Sharon Hewitt called the desire for a second majority-Black district "a great risk," alleging it would reduce the percentage of minority voters in Louisiana's only current majority-minority district from 61% to 53%.

Some dispute Hewitt's assertions.

"At the time of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Black majority congressional districts had to consist of 80% to 90% Black voters," Dillard University's Collins explained. "That's no longer the case. With modern voting patterns, if a district is between 48% to 50% Black, it gives a fair opportunity to elect an African American candidate because getting some crossover votes from white voters is now more possible."

At a standoff

Last month, the Louisiana State Legislature concluded its special redistricting session by passing a set of maps that left opponents unhappy with the projected level of minority representation.

"They could have passed a map that, after decades, finally gave fair representation to African American voters," Gilmore said. "But they didn't, and we'll have to pay the price while those who are represented in government get the benefits."

But the battle isn't over. Earlier this month, Edwards vetoed the map creating the state's six seats in the U.S. House of Representatives on the ground that it did not include a second majority-minority district.

"This map is simply not fair to the people of Louisiana and does not meet the standards set forth in the federal Voting Rights Act," Edwards said in a statement.

Similar maps creating voting districts to determine representatives to the state Legislature were not vetoed, however. Edwards said that even though he felt those maps were not sufficiently representative, he didn't think the Legislature had the time to redraw them during a busy legislative session.

Advocacy groups have already filed lawsuits against the maps, saying they dilute the voting strength of minorities.

Hewitt disagreed.

"Nothing in the [Voting Rights Act] establishes a right to have members of a protected class elected in numbers equal to their proportion in the population," she said during last month's redistricting debate.

While Republicans attempt to get the votes to overturn Edwards' veto, opponents hope the courts will intervene to ensure fairly drawn district maps ahead of midterm elections in November, when all seats in the U.S. House of Representatives will be decided.

Whether drawn by the Legislature or the court system, Gilmore says the consequences for minority voters will be substantial.

"Our ability to vote for officials who represent us hangs in how these maps are drawn. I hope they do the right thing here, because it will affect a whole lot of people."
The Taliban have barred private television stations in Afghanistan from airing Voice of America (VOA) and British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) news programs.

The ban is the latest in a series of restrictions the Islamist group has imposed on Afghan media to stifle freedom of expression since taking control of the country last August.

VOA, which is headquartered in Washington, has swiftly denounced the Taliban for taking its programs off air.

We ask the Taliban to reconsider this troubling and unfortunate decision, Acting VOA Director Yolanda Lpez said in a statement Sunday. The content restrictions that the Taliban are attempting to impose are antithetical to freedom of expression that the people of Afghanistan deserve, said Lpez.

The American broadcaster produces a half-hour news bulletin in Pashto and Dari, the two main languages spoken in Afghanistan, five days a week for its Afghan partners, TOLO news and Shamshad TV.

Lpez added while we are disappointed and saddened by the Talibans orders to our television affiliate partners in the country, our commitment to providing factual information to the people of Afghanistan is one that the Voice of America will continue on television, radio, and the internet on www.pashtovoa.com and www.darivoa.com, as well as on social media.

The head of languages at BBC World Service also called on the Taliban to immediately remove the ban on its news bulletins.

"The BBC's TV news bulletins in Pashto, Persian and Uzbek have been taken off air in Afghanistan, after the Taliban ordered our TV partners to remove international broadcasters from their airwaves," Tarik Kafala confirmed in a statement Sunday.

This is a worrying development at a time of uncertainty and turbulence for the people of Afghanistan, Kafala said.

He noted that more than six million Afghans consume the BBCs independent and impartial journalism on TV every week and it is crucial they are not denied access to it in the future.

A Taliban information ministry spokesman, when asked for his comments on whether they have ordered Afghan channels to remove the international broadcasters from their airways, told VOA he would collect information and get back.

Domestic and international critics say media and freedom of speech have worsened under Taliban rule in Afghanistan.

Afghan journalists have been repeatedly detained and subjected to violence by security forces. The interim Taliban government has issued a set of journalism rules, including media compliance with the group's interpretation of Islamic doctrine on enjoying good and forbidding wrong.

In December, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) released a survey, showing that at least 40% of Afghan media outlets have disappeared and more than 80% of women journalists lost their jobs since the Taliban takeover of the country.

The research found that the environment for journalists in the capital, Kabul, and the rest of the country has become extremely fraught. Critics say conditions for local journalists to work freely have since further deteriorated.

Hundreds of journalists have also left Afghanistan since August for fear of Taliban reprisals or because of problems associated with practicing their profession under the new rulers.

More than 6,400 journalists and media employees have lost their jobs since August 15 when the Taliban seized control of the Afghan capital, Kabul, according to the RSF survey.

The ban on VOA and BBC programs comes as the Taliban are under increased international pressure and condemnation for keeping schools shuttered for teenage Afghan girls.

The Taliban reopened secondary schools after the winter break Wednesday, March 23, which also marks the start of the school year for most Afghan provinces.

But the de facto authorities at the last minute decided against allowing girls above the sixth grade to return to the classroom, citing a lack of arrangements for them, including school uniforms, in accordance with Sharia or Islamic law.

Afghan womens rights activists and girls took to the streets Saturday to demand the Taliban reopen schools to girls. They have pledged to launch a wave of countrywide protests if authorities fail to open girls schools within a week.

The international community has not yet recognized the Taliban as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan, citing continued concerns over human rights, terrorism and a lack of inclusivity in the male-only government in Kabul.
Al-Shabab extremists in Somalia are getting bolder in their attacks and have increased using suicide bombers wearing homemade explosives in what security experts call a "change in tactics."

The Islamist militant group mounted one of its deadliest attacks Wednesday, targeting elections at the regional presidential palace in Beledweyne town around 300 km north of Mogadishu. Forty-eight people were killed, and more than 100 others wounded.

Among the dead was a member of parliament, Amina Mohamed, a vocal critic to the government, who was on the campaign trail when she was targeted and killed by a suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest.

Hours earlier, two Shabab militants breached the heavily fortified compound at Mogadishus airport, where presidential elections are scheduled to take place. Offices for the U.N., Western embassies and the African Union peacekeeping mission are in the same area.

For more than a decade, al-Shabab has been fighting the U.N.-backed Somali government in Mogadishu, and during its violent campaign it has used a range of tactics that include intimidation and use of violence.

But in recent months, al-Shabab increased attacks in which individual suicide bombers deliver explosives and detonate them on selected targets with precision to inflict the greatest possible damage, security experts told VOA Somali service.

In November of last year, Abdiaziz Mohamud Guled, a critic of al-Shabab, was killed in Mogadishu in a suicide attack carried out by a man wearing a vest.

In January 2022, former Somali government spokesman and now lawmaker Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimuu survived a similar attack on his car by a man wearing a suicide bomb. Militants also carried out several other attacks in the same way.

So, this shows a change of a tactics from using vehicles and armed raids to more individual suicide bombers, said former Somalia National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) chief Abdullahi Mohamed Ali. "For them [al-Shabab] deploying suicide bombers, who strike intended targets, is cheaper, effective, and easier strategy, Ali said.

Former NISA deputy director Abdisalan Guled says when one of the groups strategies fails, it always comes up with another.

Before, the militants used mainly gunmen storming on military bases, government offices, hotels, and restaurants, roadside IEDs, drive-by shootings, guerrilla style ambushes, and among others. But now as security at government key installations and military basis beefed up, they use more bombers wearing suicide-vests with huge magnitude and impact, Guled said.

Al-Shabab now stronger

Former deputy NISA chief Ismail Osman believes the group is now in a stronger financial position than before, allowing it to purchase more bomb making materials and weapons.

The group generates millions of dollars of revenue from its taxation of all aspects of Somalia's economy, including the money they get from Zakat, a big revenue stream, an annual religious tax of 2.5% of an individual's wealth. Therefore, they used much of the money to purchase weapons and the materials they need to manufacture more homemade bombs, said Osman.

Guled, agrees that the terror group is possibly now in one of its strongest positions in years, given its increasing willingness to launch bolder, daylight, face-to-face attacks while penetrating security agencies to plan their bombings and assassinations.

Another thing that helped the group to grow stronger and bolder is how they have been able to infiltrate within the countrys security agencies and institutions to operate within, said Guled.

Along with their military dedication, al-Shabab always had cohesive and adaptable strategies and intelligence structures capable of disguising simply as ordinary civil servants, and more into the security agencies ranks, he added.

The experts also said repeated political disputes among the countrys top leaders and more focus on the elections gave the militants a better breeding ground.

The national security has been politicized by rival politicians jockeying for power and that created division and negligence within the security sectors. Also, the focus of the government for more than a year shifted from security to elections and disputes between the top leaders. That indeed gave al-Shabab a space to remobilize and plan their attacks accordingly, said Osman.

Political disputes and lack of effective government security measures in place in Somalia continue to weaken the security apparatus and strengthen the militants, said Ali.

According to Somali security data, al-Shabab commands as many as 10,000 fighters across Somalia and parts of Kenya.

U.S. troops withdrawal

Somalia security efforts and the fight against al-Shabab has been mainly relying on the support of the U.N.-backed African Union Mission in the country, and limited military assistance from the United States and other international partners.

According to Somali military officials, the U.S. military has been very effective in degrading al-Shababs capacity and movement through kinetic airstrikes with the coordination of the Somali National Army. But the U.S. military withdrew from Somalia in 2021, in one of the last actions of President Donald Trump's presidency.

Since then, security concerns have been growing sharply as the country's fragile political system wrestled with the completion of a bitterly contested election process and increased attacks by militants.

Guled says the withdrawal of some vital U.S. military forces and the decrease of airstrikes by U.S. drones gave the militants a freedom to move around the country and plan their attacks accordingly.

Before, due to the U.S military pressure and drone attacks targeting their leaders and possible explosive vehicles, al-Shabaab was largely confined to rural areas and hideouts, but now, with the reduction of the U.S. troops direct engagement with the group, the decrease of the drone attacks, plus a lack of military movement on the government and AMISOM side, al-Shabab has the opportunity and the momentum to show off its military presence and capability and that it was operating without fear, said Guled.

This report originated in VOA Somali service's "THE TORCH program.
Campus Activities

Details

The Astronomy Society would like to invite the Mount Community to a Star Party with NASA. On Saturday, March 26th at 7 in Knott Auditorium, the night will begin with a talk by the deputy project manager for the Hubble Space Telescope mission at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center. Mr. Jim Jeletic will give a talk titled NASAs Incredible Discovery Machine: The Story of the Hubble Space Telescope. The talk will cover the history of the telescope including the five servicing missions and highlights of its scientific discoveries.

The talk will be followed by star gazing with two NASA members on echo field and pizza in the welcome center behind Delaplaine. The Hubble Space Telescope communications team will be available in the welcome center after the talk to answer your questions, help you explore Hubble science with augmented reality, learn about the spacecraft with interactive holograms, and more.

There will be handouts of free bookmarks and Hubble Images so we will need a rough headcount of interest.

Register for the NASA Star Party
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday sought to reassure a wary Israel and its Gulf Arab allies that the Biden administration is committed to their security ahead of the possible renewal of global powers' international nuclear deal with Iran.

Blinken made the comments shortly before joining his counterparts from Israel and four Arab countries at a special gathering where the Iranian nuclear deal was expected to top the agenda. Israel and many of its neighbors are fiercely opposed to the deal, which they believe with embolden and enrich Iran.

"When it comes to the most important element, we see eye-to-eye," Blinken told reporters at a news conference with Israel's foreign minister. "We are both committed, both determined that Iran will never acquire a nuclear weapon."

The Biden administration has been working to renew the 2015 nuclear deal, which placed curbs on Iran's nuclear program in exchange for billions of dollars in sanctions relief. With support from Israel, the Trump administration withdrew from the deal in 2018, causing it to unravel.

Although Iran has since raced ahead with its nuclear program, Israel and Gulf Arab countries are deeply concerned about restoring the original deal. Israel fears it does not include enough safeguards to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Both Israel and its Gulf allies also believe that relief from economic sanctions will allow Iran to step up its military activities across the region, including support for hostile militant groups.

Blinken said the U.S. believes that restoring the nuclear deal "is the best way to put Iran's program back in the box it was in." He added: "Our commitment to the core principle of Iran never acquiring a nuclear weapon is unwavering."

He also vowed to cooperate with Israel to counter Iran's "aggressive behavior" across the region.

It remains unclear if or when the nuclear deal will be renewed, but there are indications it could be soon despite several last-minute snags, one of which involves Iran's demand for the U.S. to lift its designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a "foreign terrorist organization."

Israel is deeply opposed to such a step and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett told Blinken that he hoped "the United States will hear the concerned voices from the region  Israel's and others  on this very important issue."

Israel and its neighbors believe any easing of sanctions and the delisting to the IRGC would embolden Iranian-backed militant groups from Hezbollah in Lebanon to the Houthis in Yemen, who have recent launched several rocket attacks on the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, a senior European official was in Tehran on Sunday to try to unsnag the talks a day after Iran's top diplomat publicly signaled flexibility over the IRGC designation.

If a deal is reached, Israel has repeatedly noted that it is not a party to the agreement and reserves the right to take action, including a potential military strike, against Iran.

"Israel and the United States will continue to work together to prevent a nuclear Iran. At the same time, Israel will do anything we believe is needed to stop the Iranian nuclear program. Anything," Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said. "The Iranians want to destroy Israel. They will not succeed, we will not let them."

Underscoring regional anxieties, Israel's government hastily arranged a meeting of top diplomats from Arab countries that have normalized relations with Israel. The two-day gathering, with Blinkent, is set to begin later Sunday at a kibbutz in the Negev Desert.

In addition to Blinken and Lapid, their counterparts from Bahrain, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt will attend. All four countries are considered moderate Sunni Muslim nations.

The U.S. preoccupation with Russia's invasion of Ukraine and bolstering NATO's presence in Eastern Europe has fueled concerns throughout the Middle East that America's attention may be stretched thin.

It remained unclear whether any decisions would emerge from the diplomatic gathering. But for Israel, hosting such a gathering itself is a significant accomplishment. Egypt is the first Arab country to make peace with Israel, while the other three nations normalized relations with Israel in 2020 in the so-called Abraham Accords brokered by the Trump administration.

Yoel Guzansky, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, a Tel Aviv think tank, said the meeting was historic by bringing together four Arab four ministers to Israel for a public, high-level gathering for the first time. "This is quite remarkable," he said.

He said discussions would likely focus on the aftermath of a nuclear deal, with each country looking for different things, whether it be security guarantees, weapons systems, intelligence or diplomatic support. "Each country has its own wish list, but the common denominator is Iran," he said.

While Iran may be the issue of most immediate concern to Israel and its neighbors, the war in Ukraine looms large.

That conflict has roiled world energy markets, leading the U.S. and Europe to appeal to Arab and other major oil suppliers to step up production. The war may also soon result in major food security challenges, particularly across the Middle East, which imports vast quantities of wheat from Ukraine.

Bennett has presented himself as a mediator between Putin, Ukraine and the West but his discussions with the Russian leader have yet to bear fruit.

Israel has walked a fine line between Russia and Ukraine. Bennett has expressed support for the Ukrainian people but stopped short of condemning Russia's invasion. Lapid has been much more outspoken in his criticism of Russia, giving Bennett some space to continue his mediation efforts.

Blinken was also traveling to Ramallah in the occupied West Bank to meet with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and stress to him the U.S. commitment to help the Palestinian people and encourage a resumption in long-stalled peace talks with Israel.

Ahead of his meetings with the Palestinians, Blinken called on both sides to avoid taking actions that could raise tensions ahead of the sensitive holiday period around Passover, Easter and Ramadan. "It's a message that I'll be underscoring in all of my meetings on this trip," he said.

Last year, violence between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters in Jerusalem spilled over into an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas.

Bennett announced that Israel was raising the number of Gazans allowed to work in Israel to 20,000 people as part of a broader effort to ease tensions.

"While we can't solve everything, we can improve the lives of people on the ground," he said.
When an Assembly of First Nations delegation traveled to the Vatican in 2009 to meet with then-Pope Benedict XVI, the pontiff told them in a private meeting of his "personal anguish" over abuse suffered by Indigenous children in church-run boarding schools they were forced to attend in Canada.

What at the time was called an expression of deep, heartfelt regret is no longer seen as sufficient after last year's discovery in British Columbia of about 200 unmarked and previously undocumented graves of children at what was Canada's largest Indigenous residential school  one of numerous, similar grim sites across the country.

Now Indigenous leaders are expecting nothing less than a public apology from Pope Francis, with government officials up to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lending support to their cause. Set to meet with First Nations, Metis and Inuit survivors at the Vatican next week ahead of a visit to Canada that could come later this year, the pontiff appears likely to offer just such an apology for the church's role in boarding school abuses.

"We're trying to give a voice to the voiceless by going there," said Gary Gagnon, who will represent the Metis people of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry in the delegation. Originally scheduled for December, the visit was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than 150,000 native children were forced to attend state-funded Christian schools from the 19th century until the 1970s in an effort to isolate them from the influence of their homes and culture, Christianize and assimilate them into mainstream society, which previous governments considered superior.

The government has admitted that physical and sexual abuse was rampant, with students beaten for speaking their native languages. That legacy of abuse and isolation has been cited by Indigenous leaders as a root cause of epidemic rates of alcohol and drug addiction on reservations.

Nearly three-quarters of the 130 residential schools were run by Catholic missionary congregations.

Last May the Tk'emlups te Secwepemc Nation announced the discovery of the gravesites near Kamloops, British Columbia, found using ground-penetrating radar. The sites have not yet been excavated, but they renewed a national reckoning as Indigenous groups across the country search for graves at other residential schools.

"What really spurred things forward was Kamloops," said Phil Fontaine, who was national chief of the Assembly of First Nations in 2009 and led the delegation that met with Benedict. "It grabbed the attention of so many people."

Fontaine, 77, said he and his classmates suffered physical and sexual abuse when he was a boy at the Fort Alexander Indian Residential School in Manitoba, where he was forbidden from seeing family except for two hours on Sundays even though they lived nearby.

"Finally Canadians are saying, 'Oh, so it's true. This is what happened at residential schools,'" he added. "And I think it put a lot of pressure on the Catholic Church and the Vatican. Keep in mind the prime minister himself asked Francis to apologize."

Fontaine is calling for the pope's Canada visit, which the Vatican has announced but as yet has no set date, to happen on Indigenous lands.

A National Truth and Reconciliation Commission has records of at least 51 children dying at the Kamloops school between 1915 and 1963.

Nationwide, the commission identified about 3,200 confirmed deaths at residential schools amid poor conditions, some from tuberculosis, but noted that the cause of death was not recorded for almost half of them. Standard practice was not to send the bodies of the students who died back to their communities; the commission said the government wanted to keep costs down.

Calgary Bishop William McGrattan, vice president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the church hopes next week's Vatican encounter will be a historic moment for all Canadians, but "most especially our First Nation and our Metis."

"They will be bringing their own stories and the stories of their communities," McGrattan said. "Pope Francis and the bishops will listen and respond to make sure we are committed to this path of reconciliation."

Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a formal apology over the residential schools in Parliament in 2008, calling them a sad chapter in Canadian history and saying the policy of forced assimilation caused great harm.

As part of a settlement of a lawsuit involving the government, churches and the approximately 90,000 surviving students, Canada paid reparations that amounted to billions of dollars being transferred to Indigenous communities.

The Catholic Church, for its part, has paid over $50 million and now intends to add $30 million more over the next five years.

The United, Presbyterian and Anglican churches already have apologized for their roles.

Canada's residential schools were based on similar facilities in the United States, where Catholic and Protestant denominations operated more than 150 boarding schools between the 19th and 20th centuries, according to researchers, that also were home to rampant abuse.

While the issue has drawn comparatively little attention in the U.S., Fontaine believes a day of reckoning is coming for Canada's neighbor to the south.

The aim of the residential school systems, he argued, was no less than cultural genocide.

"They decided that the best way to do that is to herd children into residential schools, forbid them to speak Indigenous language, forget about their culture," Fontaine said. "In fact, embrace everything that was not them in terms of culture and tradition, in keeping with federal government policy."
A Chinese Australian journalist who has been held in China since August 2020 will be tried next week, the Australian government said Saturday.

Cheng Lei, who was a prominent journalist for China's state-run international network CGTN, was initially detained and later formally arrested on suspicion of supplying state secrets overseas.

The Chinese government has notified Australia that her trial will be held on Thursday, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said in a statement posted online.

We expect basic standards of justice, procedural fairness and humane treatment to be met, in accordance with international norms, the statement said.

The National Press Clubs of the United States and Australia as well as the journalists former CGTN colleagues and friends wrote open letters last year calling for her immediate release.

Cheng Leis yearlong detention is an assault on journalism and on human rights," a U.S. National Press Club statement said.

Australia has raised concern about Cheng's welfare and detention conditions. Payne's statement said that government officials last visited her on March 21. They have asked to be allowed to attend the trial.

Cheng was born in China and graduated from the University of Queensland. Before becoming a journalist, she worked as an accountant and financial analyst in Australia for Cadbury Schweppes and ExxonMobil from 1995 to 2000, according to her CGTN profile.

She moved to China in 2001 and joined state broadcaster CCTV the following year, then she was the China correspondent for CNBC Asia for nine years before returning to CCTV in 2012. She was the anchor of a business program on CGTN, the state broadcaster's international arm.
Iraq is building a concrete wall along part of its border with Syria to stop Islamic State group jihadists from infiltrating, an Iraqi military source said Sunday.

In the "first stage" of construction, a wall around "a dozen kilometers (7 miles) long and 3.5 meters (11 feet) high was built in Nineveh province," in the Sinjar area of northwest Iraq, a senior officer told AFP, requesting anonymity.

Iraq, which shares a more than 600-kilometer-long border with Syria, seeks to "put a stop to the infiltration of Islamic State members" into its territory, the source added, without specifying how long the wall would eventually run.

Iraq in 2018 said it had begun building a fence along the Syrian border for the same reason.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the wall's construction was carried out in an area facing the town of Al-Shaddadi, in the south of Syria's Hasakeh province.

In January in the Kurdish-controlled province, IS fighters attacked a prison to free fellow jihadists, sparking days of clashes that left hundreds dead.

Many prisoners are thought to have escaped, with some crossing to neighboring Turkey or Turkish-held territory in Syria's north, the Observatory said.

IS overran large swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014, declaring a "caliphate" before Baghdad proclaimed victory in late 2017 after a grinding campaign.

But a low-level jihadist insurgency has persisted, flaring up particularly in rural and mountainous areas between Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region and northern outskirts of the capital.
For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.

For the latest developments of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, all times EST:

10:04 p.m.: A monument to famed Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko has been covered with sandbags to protect it from shelling in Kharkiv, in northeast Ukraine, according to a Guardian report. Kharkiv, Ukraines second-largest city, with 1.5 million resident, lies about 40 kilometers from the Russian border and has been heavily shelled by Russian forces in the past month, since the invasion began.

7:06 p.m.: As U.S. President Joe Biden was leaving a church in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., Sunday, a White House pool reporter asked the president if was calling for a regime change in Russia. "No," he replied.

On Saturday, during a speech in Warsaw, Biden had said that Putin cannot remain in power. A comment that officials walked back just minutes later, with a senior administration official telling reporters: The presidents point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. He was not discussing Putins power in Russia, or regime change.

6:34 p.m.: A rocket attack hit an oil base Sunday night in the far northwestern region of Volyn, regional governor Yuriy Pohulyaiko said, according to an Associated Press report. He did not give details on casualties or the specific location. Volyns capital is Lutsk, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of Lviv, the AP reported.

5:51 p.m.: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview with independent Russian news media that Ukraine is prepared to consider declaring neutrality and offering security guarantees to Russia including nuclear-free status, according to The Associated Press. But he also said Russian President Vladimir Putin must meet with him to seek an end to the war.

Security guarantees and neutrality, non-nuclear status of our state -- we are ready to go for it, Zelenskyy told the media, according to the AP report. We must come to an agreement with the president of the Russian Federation, and in order to reach an agreement, he needs to get out of there on his own feet ... and come to meet me."

3:03 p.m.: The Russian and Ukrainian delegations will meet in Istanbul, Turkey, for a new round of negotiations, the Turkish presidency announced in a press release on Sunday evening, the Agence France-Presse reported. Earlier in the day, one of the Ukrainian negotiators, David Arakhamia, announced that a new round of negotiations would take place from Monday to Wednesday in Turkey, without specifying the meeting place, AFP reported.

2:28 p.m.: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stressed the need for a cease-fire in Ukraine in a telephone call Sunday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Erdogans office said, according to an Associated Press report. Erdogan also called for an improvement to the humanitarian situation in the region, according to the statement.

1:25 p.m.: By the second day of the Russian invasion, it was clear to Ukrainian journalist Natalya Lutsenko that life for the countrys media had changed. As explosions rocked the capital, Kyiv, the 32-year-old editor and her co-workers rushed to a bomb shelter in the building where her station, ICTV, is located. Deep underground, in a dimly lit room with bare brick walls, Lutsenko faced the camera and addressed ICTVs viewers. I was trying to pull myself together, she told VOA via phone. In that video I was showing how we work right now and that thats our reality right now: hiding in the bomb shelter to record and to go on air. VOAs Sirwan Kajjo has the story

12:07 p.m.: Ukrainian officials say a new round of peace talks with Russia will be held Monday in Turkey. In a Facebook post, Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia said the talks would take place March 28-30. Russian officials have not commented

11:45 a.m.: The mayor of the besieged strategic Ukrainian city of Mariupol has described a devastated city in which "thousands" have died and around 90 percent of 2,600 residential buildings have been destroyed or damaged in the Russian invasion, RFE/ELs Ukrainian service reported. Mayor Vadym Boychenko said that Russian forces controlled some neighborhoods and were entering "deeper into the city" of almost half a million people before the war but Mariupol remains "under the control of Ukrainian armed forces." "Mariupol needs a complete evacuation," Boychenko told the local UNIAN news agency in an interview published overnight. Boychenko said about 40 percent of Mariupol's affected residential buildings are now uninhabitable.

10:20 a.m.: French President Emmanuel Macron distanced himself from President Joe Bidens comment that Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot stay in power. I wouldn't use this type of wording because I continue to hold discussions with President Putin," Macron told France 3 TV channel. Macron said he hopes to talk to Putin again soon.

9:21 a.m.: More than 10 million Ukrainians, nearly a quarter of the population, have been displaced since Russia invaded the country a bit more than one month ago, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR says. An estimated 3.7 million people have fled to neighboring countries, while more than 6.5 million have been displaced inside Ukraine since the Russian invasion began February 24. U.N. refugee officials say another 13 million are stranded in conflict areas, unable to leave because of the danger. Lisa Schlein has the story.

7:55 a.m. During a visit to Jerusalem, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said stressed Sunday that we do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia - or anywhere else, for that matter." In a speech in Warsaw Saturday, President Joe Biden had said for Gods sake, this man cannot remain in power, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

7:15 a.m.: Pope Francis has stepped up his pleas for negotiations to end the fighting in Ukraine. According to AP, Francis told the public in St. Peters Square on Sunday that this cruel and senseless war continues after more than a month, representing a defeat for all.

5:36 a.m.: Ukrainian interior ministry adviser Vadym Denysenko said Russia is destroying Ukrainian food and fuel storage depots, Al Jazeera reports.

4:20 a.m.: The U.N. says that 90% of Ukrainians could fall into poverty if the conflict with Russia continues, Al Jazeera reports.

2:55 a.m.: Al Jazeera reports that the United Kingdom has seized two jets belonging to Russian billionaire Eugene Shvidler. The Times of London described the aircraft as a $45 million Bombardier Global 6500 and a $13 million Cessna Citation Latitude.

1:54 a.m.: The BBC reports that the company behind a vodka made in Chernobyl's exclusion zone is releasing two more premium drinks and donating the profits to Ukraine's refugees. Russian troops currently have control over the land where the fruit is grown for the drinks.

12:05 a.m.: More than 5,000 people were successfully evacuated through humanitarian corridors in Ukraine on Saturday, CNN reported.

12:01 a.m.: A Russian cyberattack on U.S. infrastructure remains possible, a top U.S. cyber official told CNN. Jen Easterly, director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said Americans should be ready for it, saying, "It's not about panic. It's about preparation."

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. 
Malta's Prime Minister Robert Abela promised "greater humility" Sunday as his Labour Party claimed they were headed for a landslide win in elections to secure a third term in government, despite a legacy of corruption and the lowest turnout in decades.

Official results are not expected until early Monday morning, but Labour Party officials briefed reporters that they were heading for a big win based on preliminary results, while the opposition Nationalist Party conceded defeat.

"The public decided that Malta must continue moving forward," Abela told reporters at the counting center in the town of Naxxar, as supporters nearby chanted his name.

"It is a result which brings a greater responsibility, and which we must translate into greater humility," he added, vowing to work "with a sense of national unity... in the interests of everyone.

Abela had campaigned on his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and Labour's economic record during nine years in power. By contrast, the opposition Nationalist Party has been hamstrung by internal divisions.

But turnout was lower than expected after a lackluster campaign limited by coronavirus restrictions, dogged by worries about the war in Ukraine and perhaps some resignation among voters after opinion polls indicated a Labour landslide.

The Electoral Commission estimated turnout at 85.5%, the lowest in a Maltese general election since 1955  and the first time it has dropped below 90% since 1966.

However Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne told AFP the turnout was "high by European standards."

Labour is still tainted by the high-level corruption exposed by journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was killed by a car bomb near her home in October 2017, in a murder that shocked the world.

Seven men have either been accused or admitted complicity in her murder, but a public inquiry last year said the state under then Prime Minister Joseph Muscat must bear responsibility for having created a "culture of impunity" in which her enemies felt they could silence her.

Muscat had already stepped down in January 2020, after public protests at his perceived attempts to shield allies from the probe into her death. Abela replaced him following a Labour party vote.

The 44-year-old lawyer has since moved to strengthen good governance and press freedom, including by reducing the prime minister's powers over judges and the police.

Caruana Galizia's family says he has not gone far enough, however.

The Nationalist Party had pressed the issue of corruption on the campaign trail, highlighting the gray-listing last year of Malta by an international money-laundering watchdog, the FATF.

Despite few natural resources, Malta built a thriving economy based largely on tourism, financial services and online gaming, but it has long fought allegations it acts as a quasi-tax haven.

It has also been criticized by the EU and anti-corruption campaigners for its "golden passports" scheme, which awards citizenship to wealthy investors.

Under political pressure, Abela suspended the scheme for Russians and Belarusians after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Politics is hugely important in Malta, a Catholic-majority country of around 516,000 people living in 316 square kilometers (122 square miles) off the coast of Sicily.

Labour agents attending the election count had earlier erupted into cheers at news of victory, jumping for joy and banging the Perspex screens through which they had been monitoring the officials checking ballots.

As the day wore on, cars decorated in Labour's red and white flags filled the roads, honking their horns, while outside the party's headquarters supporters gathered dancing and cheering.

Nationalist Party leader Bernard Grech later visited the count center to thank his own supporters, where he vowed to keep working for "those people who are not happy with the current government.

Aside from the economy, the environment was a big issue on what is the smallest and most densely populated country in the European Union.

Huge development projects lined Malta's coastline, green spaces are squeezed, concrete trucks cause gridlock on the streets and the sound of construction fills the air.

There is a green party, the ADPD, but no third party has held even a single seat in Malta's parliament since before independence from Britain in 1964.
Two suspected Arab gunmen killed two people in Israel on Sunday and were then shot dead, an ambulance service said, as the U.S. secretary of state and three Arab foreign ministers visited the country for a summit.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the shooting, in the city of Hadera, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Tel Aviv.

It occurred five days after an Arab citizen of Israel stabbed at least four people to death in the southern city of Beersheba, before he was fatally shot by a passerby.

Surveillance camera footage broadcast on Israeli television stations showed two men opening fire with assault rifles on a main street in Hadera.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said two people were killed by the assailants. Police and the ambulance service said the two gunmen were shot dead.

"Luckily, our officers managed to neutralize the assailants and prevent a bigger terrorist attack," national police spokesman Eli Levy said on Israel's Kan television.

In southern Israel, the foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, three countries that normalized relations with Israel in 2020, convened for a summit with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in attendance.

Israeli security officials have cautioned about an escalation in attacks on Israelis in the run-up to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in April this year -- a volatile period in the past.

Jordan's King Abdullah is due to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank on Monday in what is widely seen in Israel as an attempt to calm tensions ahead of the holiday period, which also includes Easter and Passover.
Myanmar's junta will "annihilate" coup opponents, army chief Min Aung Hlaing said Sunday as the military staged a show of force on the anniversary of its bloodiest crackdown so far on democracy protests.

The Southeast Asian country has been in chaos since a putsch in February 2021, with more than 1,700 people killed in crackdowns on dissent, according to a local monitoring group.

Across the country "People's Defense Force" fighters -- often armed with homemade or rudimentary weapons -- clash regularly with junta troops, with some analysts suggesting the military has struggled to respond effectively to their hit-and-run tactics.

Fighting has also flared with more established ethnic rebel groups along the Thai and Chinese border.

Presiding over the annual parade that showcased tanks, truck-mounted missiles, artillery and troops on horseback, Min Aung Hlaing told some 8,000 assembled security personnel that the army would not let up.

The military will "no longer negotiate... and annihilate until the end" groups fighting to overturn its rule, he said ahead of the Armed Forces Day procession in the army-built capital Naypyidaw.

Jets flew overhead trailing the yellow, red and green of the national flag, while state media showed women lining the streets leading to the parade ground to give flowers and place garlands on the marching soldiers.

In commercial hub Yangon around a dozen anti-junta flashmob protesters set off flares and shouted slogans, according to footage posted on social media.

Others called on social media for residents to switch off their lights at home in a national "power strike" on Sunday evening.

Bloodiest day

Armed Forces Day commemorates the start of local resistance to the Japanese occupation during World War II, and usually features a military parade attended by foreign officers and diplomats.

Last year, as new junta chief Min Aung Hlaing inspected the parade, troops brutalized those protesting the coup that had ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's government.

The violence was the bloodiest day so far in the military's crackdown on democracy rallies and left around 160 protesters dead, according to a local monitoring group, as well as sparking widespread international condemnation.

The junta has become increasingly isolated, with Cambodian strongman Hun Sen the only foreign leader to visit since the putsch.

On Sunday, Min Aung Hlaing accused unnamed "foreign aggressors" of working against the military and called for the armed forces to remain united against "internal and external mischiefs."

Russia's vice defense minister -- a major arms supplier and ally -- had been due to attend this year's parade but was unable to because of his "country's affairs," junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun added.

In February a U.N. expert on Myanmar said Russia -- along with other major ally China -- was continuing to supply the military with weapons, including fighter jets and armored vehicles.

In a joint statement on Armed Forces Day the European Union and the foreign ministers of 20 nations, including Australia, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States, urged all countries to support the people of Myanmar by immediately stopping the sale or transfer of arms, military equipment, materiel, dual-use equipment, and technical assistance to Myanmar, in line with U.N. General Assembly Resolution A/RES/75/287.

The statement also called attention to those killed and displaced by the violence in Myanmar during the past year and reiterated a call on the military to cease its violence and restore Myanmars path to democracy.

The United States and Britain on Friday announced new sanctions against Myanmar's army.

The new measures came days after Washington said it has concluded that the country's military committed genocide against the mostly Muslim Rohingya minority.
A South Dakota-based Native advocacy group has filed a federal civil rights class-action lawsuit against the owner of a hotel in Rapid City for refusing service to Native Americans.

Following a nonfatal shooting at the Grand Gateway Hotel on March 19, Connie Uhre, owner of the hotel's parent company, Restel Corporation, posted on Facebook that she would no longer allow Native Americans into the hotel or its bar.

She added that she would offer "rancher and travelers a very special rate" of $59 a night, and blamed crime in the city on "free-" and "dark money." She refers to a series of MacArthur Foundation grants awarded to help Pennington County  of which Rapid City is the seat  address racial disparities in its judicial system and reduce unnecessary incarcerations.

The lawsuit cites an email attributed to Uhre in which she allegedly wrote, "I really do not want to allow Natives on property  The problem is we do not know the nice ones from the bad natives  so we just have to say no to them."

VOA could not independently verify the source of the email.

VOA obtained a copy of the lawsuit that the Rapid City-based Indigenous rights group NDN Collective (NDNC) filed in South Dakota's U.S. District Court March 23.

The complaint states that several days after Uhre's social media comments, two NDNC staff members entered the hotel and requested a room; a hotel employee refused them, claiming that it was hotel policy not to rent rooms to people with "local" identification.

"And when they heard they were with the NDN Collective, they also told [them] to leave the premises; we weren't allowed there," NDNC president and CEO, Oglala Lakota citizen Nick Tilsen told VOA.

"The premise of the lawsuit is that one, they made threats to deny service to Native American people, and two, that they then denied service," Tilsen said. "We have it on audio and on visuals."

Tilsen says the lawsuit "isn't about money."

"It's about ending racist practices and enforcing the 1964 Civil Rights Act," he said. "If people are going to conduct themselves in a way that's racist, then we're going to hold them accountable and stop them from doing business."

Rapid City civil rights attorney Pete Heidepriem says the claim is actually based on a civil rights statute passed in 1866 to protect the rights of newly freed slaves in conducting business.

"And as alleged in this complaint, it appears to be a tragic reality that there is intentional discrimination going on," he said. "And if those claims end up being borne out by the evidence in the case, I think that'll send an extremely strong message about what our values are as a community and how we want to treat each other moving forward."

VOA was unable to reach Uhre for a statement, but Rapid City NewCenter1 Television provided the text of a letter she sent their newsroom, addressed to "the Lakota Nation."

"First I want to sincerely send an Apology to all the Natives for my post on Kelo Land. I really feel for the family who's Son was critical wounded from the 6 Gun Shots fired in the Room to be exact," the letter reads. "I grew up playing with Indians  so I know there are wonderful families that are very good people."

In the letter, she criticized one South Dakota reservation as a "rat hole," and accused NDNC's Tilsen of "getting rich off the Tribe or Dark Money."

"I am not blaming the Good Natives It is our Leadership and Criminal Justice that has made our city an unsafe placeand we have plenty of Whites that create problems," she added.

U.S. Civil Rights Commission report archives show that Native Americans have long complained about racism and discrimination in South Dakota.

As VOA previously reported, a 2015 study on race disparities in Rapid City policing showed that Native Americans are arrested more often than any other group in the city and that police are more likely to use force against Native Americans than members of any other race.

Rapid City Mayor Steve Allender, Oglala Lakota Sioux Tribe President Kevin Killer and other city and Pennington County officials this week released a joint statement condemning the statements reputedly made by the Uher family.

"Much work has been done to build a level of trust, to forge relationships and partnerships, and to address major issues involving Rapid City and our Native American community," it read. "However, such racist and hateful statements as expressed by a few individuals only reinforces long-standing feelings of distrust and threatens the relationship of the Rapid City community with its Native American residents and visitors."

The statement called on the Uhre family "to publicly address and denounce their statements and begin making amends to the community, especially the Native American people."
Many Nigerian citizens and security experts are raising concerns that the country may be overturn by terrorists after some 200 gunmen Saturday invaded an airport in Kaduna State and killed an official. The attack followed days of violent raids in the state with dozens of people killed.

Saturday's attack was the latest in a spate of violence that has hit the northwestern Nigerian state for days.

Federal airport authorities said the armed terrorists invaded 'runway five' of the airport from a nearby forest and opened fire, killing one official and causing flight delays.

Kaduna State Commissioner of Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, said the military deployed to the airport immediately to repel the attack before it escalated.

Armed gangs have been terrorizing the state for years. In the last few weeks, dozens of people were reported killed in series of attacks on local communities southward of the state where sectarian violence has persisted.

Jakes Tudu, an activist from southern Kaduna, says the recent development is worrying.

"I'm scared because it is actually overwhelming. These guys are actually doing the unimaginable, like things you could not believe or imagine," Tudu said. "Coming out in broad daylight to attack the airport is really crazy and scary."

Saturday's attack also occurred as Nigerian President and top officials of his ruling political party, All Progressive Congress (APC) hosted thousands of people in Abuja to mark the party's conference ahead of next year's polls, sparking criticism.

The critics say the attacks highlighted major failures on election promises made to Nigerians.

"Being a state that has the Nigerian defense academy, we have the police college, name it, Kaduna used to be a fortified ground," Tudu said. "But now today we have these guys moving around in Kaduna kidnapping people."

In 2015, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari vowed to address security concerns and boost the country's economy.

But authorities have been struggling to curb frequent attacks by armed gangs who rose to prominence for the mass kidnappings of students and the killings of local residents since late 2020.

Authorities say the military operations against gangs have been successful and that hundreds have been killed in recent months  the latest being the killing of more than 200 armed gangs, known locally as bandits in central Niger state earlier this month.

But security analyst Senator Iroegbu says while the military appears to be making some progress there's still reason to be worried.

"Government's claim to be winning the war I'm sure it's a way of motivation," Iroegbu said. "Yes there's some progress but evidence like this shows that the war has not been won."

Aids groups say in recent years, that attacks like the one in southern Kaduna have sacked communities and displaced at least 30,000 people from their homes.
SPRING GREEN  The prolific and colorful works of Jennifer Angus have filled some of the most notable gallery spaces in the country.

The Canadian-born artist, who in February became a U.S. citizen, has shown her creations at the Museum of Art & Design in New York, the Museum of Craft & Folk Art in Los Angeles, the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Florida, and the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh, which Angus calls one of the finest art museums in the country.

In 2016, she was selected as one of nine nationally known artists to create an installation in the then-newly renovated Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. Last week, there was an appearance on Science Friday on National Public Radio.

Angus, 61, who lives on Madisons Near East Side and is a professor in the Design Studies department at UW-Madison, is clearly a big deal and can pick her spots.

But for the next 12 weeks, her world-renowned artistic creations using beetles, cicadas, grasshoppers, bees and other insects are filling the Wyoming Valley School Cultural Arts Center located south of Spring Green along Highway 23. This is an area of northern Iowa County known for its rolling farmland, flocks of turkey, herds of deer and Rush Creek, a winding stream filled with brown and brook trout.

Frank Lloyd Wright, who designed the school building, lived and worked just up the road at Taliesin.

For Angus, who has a studio in nearby Plain, it will be her first installation in a school. This one has cinder block walls and unconventional gallery space but plenty of natural light.

Though its relatively local, it presented a significant challenge, Angus said last week as she was putting the final touches on the exhibit.

I live in Wisconsin, Ive lived here for the past 20 years, so its important to me. Yes, its great to have an exhibition in New York, D.C. or L.A., but its important to support your community. And one of things I know is that when you do an exhibition like this in a smaller community they really take ownership in it and have a lot of pride.

The exhibit, A is for Apple, B is for Bug, and C is for Cicada, opened Saturday and will run Thursdays through Sundays before closing on June 12. Admission is $8 and cash is preferred.

Strong arts reputation

The Wyoming Valley School, named after its scenic surroundings, is the only public grammar school designed by Wright. Constructed for $12,000 in 1957, two years before his death, Wright also donated the land for the school to pay homage to his mother, Anna Lloyd-Jones Wright, who had been a kindergarten teacher. The school was used until 1990 and originally constructed to consolidate five, one-room, rural schoolhouses in the area.

Since 2011, the building, with two classrooms and an assembly hall, has been home to the Wyoming Valley School Cultural Arts Center and recently underwent a $200,000 renovation. Angus installation is the first exhibit since the renovation and is serving as a showcase not only for Angus work but is helping to promote the Cultural Arts Center, which was shuttered for most of 2020 but over the past 11 years has provided programming aimed at kindergarten through fourth-grade students and has hosted gallery nights, concerts, weddings and even funerals.

This means everything to us, Dave Zaleski, the centers executive director, said of Angus exhibit. She has a very strong reputation in the arts world and her name, and obviously her work, are going to pull people out here.

Zaleski had met Angus years ago when he worked at the Racine Art Museum and had kept in touch with her via social media. He had asked her about doing an exhibit at the school prior to the renovation and said she became interested in the space since she had recently moved her studio to Plain, 10 miles to the north.

She said the space was very inspiring, Zaleski said. She really responded well as to what the possibilities were.

Antithesis of Wright

A wall in the east classroom is covered with a 16-foot-wide mural with giant grasshoppers and butterflies designed by Angus and printed on homemade paper.

There are insects suspended in glass jars filled with jelly and placed in geometrically shaped shelves on the window sills, which allows the insects to be backlit while the colored jellies are illuminated.

There are masks of insects made in Mexico and a dress covered in bluish and purple beetle wings that take the place of sequins. Another wall holds the alphabet. Each foot-tall letter is made from insects.

In the west classroom, Angus has installed colored light bulbs in overhead fixtures while each of the 15 desks in the room has bell jars attached to the surface with Velcro and that hold insects posed with plants native to Wisconsin like milkweed, wild cucumber and wild lily.

On the wall in the front of the room is part of a poem from Irish poet William Butler Yeats. The line, The world is full of magic things patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper, is laid out with insects.

Theres also a wooden card catalog with five drawers in each of its three rows. Each row, when opened and read from left to right, tells a story using insects that are posed in different positions and situations.

My aesthetic is really the antithesis of Wright, said Angus, as her 9-year-old cockapoo, Pippy, sat at her side. This school kind of lies halfway between Taliesin and House on the Rock and probably my subject is more House on the Rock, sort of over the top, eccentric and theres no such thing as too much. And so I had to kind of temper myself a bit to be respectful of Wright.

The schools assembly hall features patterns of insects that resemble wallpaper while dollhouses and a church built from kits and covered in beeswax have been elevated on 9-foot-tall towers each with a ladder. The idea is to provide the visitor with an insect-like view, but also its a statement on the importance that homes took during the pandemic.

We oftentimes get so scared about insects, but look how big we are compared to them, Angus said. I think about us and COVID where our home has become everything to us. Its our home, its our workspace and its our sacred space.

Garments from wings

Angus grew up in Niagara Falls and Toronto, earned her bachelors degree in fine arts at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and her masters degree at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

On a trip to Southeast Asia in the mid-1980s, she saw garments made from the shimmering wings of insects  and that got her thinking about incorporating them into her art, which at the time was focused on patterns.

The insects she uses and reuses for her art installations come from a Belgian collector who gathers them from around the world. Angus chooses them first on price (some can cost up to $100 apiece), durability and aesthetics. Some are harvested, and some are caught in the wild.

Besides her show in the Wyoming Valley, Angus has an instillation at the Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend and since July has had a major exhibit at the Staten Island Museum in New York, home to one of the worlds largest collections of cicadas and which led to the Science Friday appearance.

In 2019, Angus was named one of two female artists in Dane County to win the first Forward Art Prize, awarded by the Women Artists Forward Fund, and in 2013 she wrote a novel aimed at middle schoolers called In Search of Goliathus Hercules. The book, which Angus has incorporated into the exhibit at the Wyoming Valley School, is about a boy who discovers he has the ability to communicate with insects.

Angus hopes her work, regardless of the medium, leads people to think differently about insects.

Insects, just like a lot of mammals, are threatened because of climate change and also loss of habitat, Angus said. So Id like people to see how amazing the insect world is, how diverse it is and the great beauty of insects. They may not immediately get to those bigger ideas of disappearing species but (I want them) just to simply appreciate how beautiful they are and what we all stand to lose.

State Journal reporter Gayle Worland contributed to this report.

Barry Adams covers regional news for the Wisconsin State Journal. Send him ideas for On Wisconsin at 608-252-6148 or by email at badams@madison.com.

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Afghanistan's Taliban rulers refused to allow dozens of women to board several flights, including some overseas, because they were traveling without a male guardian, two Afghan airline officials said Saturday.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions from the Taliban, said dozens of women who arrived at Kabul's international airport Friday to board domestic and international flights were told they couldn't do so without a male guardian.

Some of the women were dual nationals returning to their homes overseas, including some from Canada, according to one of the officials. Women were denied boarding on flights to Islamabad, Dubai and Turkey on Kam Air and the state-owned Ariana Airline, said the officials.

The order came from the Taliban leadership, said one official.

By Saturday, some women traveling alone were given permission to board an Ariana Airlines flight to western Herat province, the official said. However, by the time the permission was granted they had missed their flight, he said.

The airport's president and police chief, both from the Taliban movement and both Islamic clerics, were meeting Saturday with airline officials.

"They are trying to solve it," the official said.

It was still unclear whether the Taliban would exempt air travel from an order issued months ago requiring women traveling more than 45 miles (72 kilometers) to be accompanied by a male relative.

Taliban officials contacted by The Associated Press did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Since taking power last August, the Taliban leadership have been squabbling among themselves as they struggle to transition from war to governing. It has pit hard-liners  like acting Prime Minister Mullah Hasan Akhund, who is deeply rooted in the old guard  against the more pragmatic among them, like Sirajuddin Haqqani. He took over leadership of the powerful Haqqani network from his father Jalaluddin Haqqani. The elder Haqqani, who died several years ago, is from Akhund's generation, who ruled Afghanistan under the strict and unchallenged leadership of Mullah Mohammad Omar.

Infuriating many Afghans is the knowledge that many of the Taliban of the younger generation, like Sirajuddin Haqqani, are educating their girls in Pakistan, while in Afghanistan women and girls have been targeted by their repressive edicts since taking power.

This latest assault on women's rights in Taliban-run Afghanistan denying women air travel, comes just days after the all-male religiously driven government broke its promise to allow girls to return to school after the sixth grade.

The move enraged the international community, which has been reluctant to recognize the Taliban-run government since the Taliban swept into power in August, fearing they would revert to their harsh rule of the 1990s. The Taliban's refusal to open education to all Afghan children also infuriated large swaths of the Afghan population. On Saturday, dozens of girls demonstrated in the Afghan capital demanding the right to go to school.

After the Taliban's ban on girls education beyond the sixth grade, women's rights activist Mahbouba Seraj went on Afghanistan's TOLO TV to ask: "How do we as a nation trust you with your words anymore? What should we do to please you? Should we all die?"

An Afghan charity called PenPath, which runs dozens of secret schools with thousands of volunteers, is planning to stage countrywide protests to demand the Taliban reverse its order, said Matiullah Wesa, PenPath founder.

On Saturday at the Doha Forum 2022 in Qatar, Roya Mahboob, an Afghan businesswoman who founded an all-girl robotics team in Afghanistan, was given the Forum Award for her work and commitment to girls education.

U.S. special representative for Afghanistan Tom West canceled meetings with the Taliban at the Doha Forum after classes for older girls were halted.

Deputy U.S. State Department spokesperson Jalina Porter said in a statement that "We have canceled some of our engagements, including planned meetings in Doha and around the Doha Forum, and have made clear that we see this decision as a potential turning point in our engagement.

"The 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 international community," she said.

West acknowledged that the Taliban had made promises since their takeover to allow girls and women to go to school. He said that both the U.S. and the international community received "the necessary assurances" that was going to happen.

"I was surprised at the turnaround this past Wednesday and I think you've seen the world react in condemning this move," West said. "It is a breach, first and foremost, of the Afghan people's trust because they made the commitment."

He added: "I believe hope is not lost. I've talked to a lot of Afghans here who also believe that. I'm hopeful that we will see a reversal of this decision in the coming days."

In an interview after receiving the Doha Forum award, Mahboob called on the many global leaders and policy makers attending the forum to press the Taliban to open schools for all Afghan children.

The robotics team fled Afghanistan when the Taliban returned to power but Mahboob said she still hoped a science and technology center she had hoped to build in Afghanistan for girls could still be constructed.

"I hope that the international community, the Muslim communities (have not) forgotten about Afghanistan and (will) not abandon us," she said. "Afghanistan is a poor country. It doesn't have enough resources. And if you take (away) our knowledge, I don't know what's going to happen."
Six Niger soldiers have been killed in an attack in the southwest of the country, near the Burkina Faso border, the defense ministry announced Saturday.

The attack, which took place Thursday, was the second in 10 days, marking a return to violence in the region after weeks of relative calm.

"A Nigerien Armed Forces escort mission was ambushed by a group of armed terrorists in the vicinity of the village of Kolmane," the ministry said in a statement giving the first information of Thursday's attack.

The defense ministry gave the toll as "six soldiers killed, one injured and a vehicle destroyed," with the casualties on the attackers' side "not determined."

The Tillaberi region, where Thursday's attack took place, is a vast area on the borders of Burkina Faso and Mali, which has been the scene of bloody attacks by jihadi movements linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group since 2017.

Last week suspected jihadis attacked a bus and a truck in the southwest, killing 21 people.

Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum, in a new approach, has initiated dialogue with jihadi leaders in an attempt to keep the peace.

But the military response continues, with some 12,000 soldiers fighting in a dozen anti-jihadi operations, nearly half of them along the more than 1,400 kilometers of borders with Mali and Burkina Faso.
The United States intends to provide Ukraine with an additional $100 million in civilian security assistance, the State Department said Saturday.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that the assistance would be to build the capacity of the Ukrainian ministry of internal affairs with a view to aid "border security, sustain civil law enforcement functions, and safeguard critical governmental infrastructure."
U.N. chief Antonio Guterres on Saturday condemned an exchange of attacks between Yemen's Houthi rebels and the Saudi-led coalition, calling for "restraint" on all sides in the seven-year conflict.

"The Secretary-General strongly condemns the recent escalation of the conflict in Yemen," U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement Saturday.

The wave of rebel assaults included an attack at an oil plant that set off a huge fire near Jeddah's Formula One circuit during televised practice sessions on Friday.

In response, the Saudi-led coalition launched air strikes on the capital Sanaa and the port city of Hodeida -- a key entry point for humanitarian aid -- early Saturday. The strikes on Sanaa reportedly killed eight civilians, the U.N. statement said.

The exchange of fire came ahead of the seventh anniversary of a Saudi-led coalition's military intervention to support Yemen's government against the Iran-backed Houthis, after they seized Sanaa in 2014.

Earlier Saturday, Houthi rebels announced a three-day truce with the Saudi-led coalition and dangled the prospect of a "permanent" cease-fire. There was no immediate response from Saudi Arabia.

Dujarric said the U.N. chief reiterated "his calls upon all parties to exercise maximum restraint" and to "urgently reach a negotiated settlement to end the conflict."

The statement also called out the coalition strikes, which destroyed explosive-laden boats in Yemen, for damaging a U.N. staff residential compound in Sanaa.

Thousands of people marched in the Yemeni capital on Saturday to denounce the conflict, which has killed hundreds of thousands directly or indirectly, according to the U.N., and left millions on the brink of famine.
U.S. Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley said on Sunday he was not confident that a nuclear deal between world powers and Iran was imminent, dampening expectations after 11 months of talks in Vienna that have stalled.

The failure of efforts to restore a 2015 accord, which would curb Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for lifting tough sanctions, risks spiking tensions in the Middle East, leading to more harsh Western measures and further increasing world oil prices, analysts say.

"I can't be confident it is imminent... A few months ago we thought we were pretty close as well," Malley said at the Doha Forum international conference.

"In any negotiations, when there's issues that remain open for so long, it tells you something about how hard it is to bridge the gap."

His assessment of the negotiations in Vienna to revive a 2015 nuclear accord came after Kamal Kharrazi, a senior advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said a deal could come soon.

"Yes, it's imminent. It depends on the political will of the United States," Kharrazi told the conference.

Last minute Russian demands

Then-U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned the nuclear pact in 2018, prompting Tehran to start violating nuclear limits set under the deal about a year later, and months of on-and-off talks to revive it paused earlier this month after Russia presented a new obstacle.

Russia later said it had received written guarantees that it would be able to carry out its work as a party to the deal, suggesting Moscow could allow it to be resuscitated.

Kharrazi said for the deal to be revived it was vital for Washington to remove the foreign terrorist organization (FTO) designation against Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an elite unit which reports to Khamenei.

The IRGC, created by the Islamic Republic's late founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini during the 1979 revolution, is more than just a military force.

It is also an industrial empire with enormous political clout. It was listed by Washington as a specially designated global terrorist (SDGT) and sanctioned under the Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) in 2017.

The IRGC's foreign operations arm, the Quds Force, was labeled an SDGT in 2007. The Trump administration put the IRGC organization on the FTO list in April of 2019.

The Quds Force helps Iran spread its influence in the Middle East through proxies.

"IRGC is a national army and a national army being listed as a terrorist group certainly is not acceptable," said Kharrazi.

Iran seeking guarantee

Asked about any potential redesignation, Malley said: "Regardless of what happens to the IRGC issue that you raise, our view of the IRGC is many other sanctions on the IRGC will remain. This is not a deal that intends to resolve that issue."

Tehran has also been pushing for guarantees that any future U.S. president would not withdraw from the deal, which would curb Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for lifting tough sanctions which have hammered Iran's economy.

The extent to which sanctions would be rolled back is another sensitive subject.

The United States' allies in the Gulf and Israel view the nuclear talks with misgivings and see Tehran as a security threat.

Israel and the United States will cooperate in preventing a nuclear-armed Iran despite differences over any nuclear deal, Israel's foreign minister said on Sunday.

"We have disagreements about a nuclear agreement and its consequences, but open and honest dialog is part of the strength of our friendship," Yair Lapid said in Jerusalem during a joint press conference with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Blinken said in a press conference in Jerusalem with his Israeli counterpart that a return to the 2015 deal is the best way to contain Iran's nuclear program.

In Tehran, EU envoy Enrique Mora, who is the coordinator of the talks, met with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani. The two sides discussed pending issues in the nuclear talks.
The World Food Program warns food is getting harder to find in Ukraine as the war grinds on, forcing people to resort to extreme measures.

Ukraine, a country of 44 million people, is running out of food. The World Food Program estimates 45% of the countrys people are worried about finding enough to eat.

WFP calls the countrys food supply chain broken. Spokesman Tomson Phiri says the systems to feed the tens of millions of people trapped inside Ukraine are falling apart.

WFP estimates that 1 out of 5 people in Ukraine today are already using some food-coping strategies. It is getting desperate. Desperate times are calling for desperate measures. They are reducing food portions. They are reducing the number of meals they consume. Adults are sacrificing the meals so the kids can have something to put in their bellies, he said.

UNICEF says 4.3 million children, more than half of the countrys child population, have been displaced since Russia invaded. The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, which documents war casualties, says children account for at least 78 of the more than 1,080 people known to have been killed.

Aid agencies say relentless Russian bombing has destroyed residential areas, civilian infrastructure, more than 70 health care facilities, airports, and bridges.

Phiri says supermarkets are empty and warehouses drained of food stocks. He says families in embattled areas are having greater problems finding food, especially in the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, which has been nearly razed to the ground.

Lack of access to conflict-hit areas and a lack of humanitarian partners on the ground are the biggest obstacles to providing life-saving assistance to families inside of Ukraine," he said. "The encircled city of Mariupol is running out of its last reserves of food and water. No humanitarian aid has been allowed into the city since it was encircled on 24th of February.

Phiri says WFP has deployed enough food supplies to assist 3 million people inside Ukraine for a month. He says the agency is stockpiling food in several areas of the country in anticipation of escalating fighting in some major cities.
The ancient Buddha statues sit in serene meditation in the caves carved into the russet cliffs of rural Afghanistan. Hundreds of meters below lies what is believed to be the world's largest deposit of copper.

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers are pinning their hopes on Beijing to turn that rich vein into revenue to salvage the cash-starved country amid crippling international sanctions.

The fighters standing guard by the rocky hillside may once have considered destroying the terracotta Buddhas. Two decades ago when the Islamic hard-line Taliban were first in power, they sparked world outrage by blowing up gigantic Buddha statues in another part of the country, calling them pagan symbols that must be purged.

But now they are intent on preserving the relics of the Mes Aynak copper mine. Doing so is key to unlocking billions in Chinese investment, said Hakumullah Mubariz, the Taliban head of security at the site, peering into the remnants of a monastery built by first-century Buddhist monks.

"Protecting them is very important to us and the Chinese," he said.

Previously, Mubariz commanded a Taliban combat unit in the surrounding mountains battling with U.S.-backed Afghan forces.

The Taliban's spectacular reversal illustrates the powerful allure of Afghanistan's untapped mining sector. Successive authorities have seen the country's mineral riches, estimated to be worth $1 trillion, as the key to a prosperous future.

Now, multiple countries, including Iran, Russia and Turkey are looking to invest, filling the vacuum left in the wake of the chaotic U.S. withdrawal.

But Beijing is the most assertive. At Mes Aynak, it could become the first major power to take on a large-scale project in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, potentially redrawing Asia's geopolitical map.

Top priority

In 2008, the administration of Hamid Karzai signed a 30-year contract with a Chinese joint venture called MCC to extract high-grade copper from Mes Aynak.

But the project got tied up in logistical and contract problems, and it never got past some initial test shafts before it ground to a halt when Chinese staff left in 2014 because of continued violence.

Mere months after the Taliban seized Kabul in August, consolidating power over the country, the group's newly installed acting Minister for Mining and Petroleum Shahbuddin Dilawar urged his staff to reengage Chinese state-run companies.

Ziad Rashidi, the ministry's director of foreign relations, approached the consortium made up by MCC, China Metallurgical Group Corporation and Jiangxi Copper Ltd. Dilawar has had two virtual meetings with MCC in the last six months, according to company and ministry officials.

A technical committee from MCC is due in Kabul in the coming weeks to address the remaining obstacles. Relocating the artifacts is key.

"Chinese companies see the current situation as ideal for them. There is a lack of international competitors and a lot of support from the government side," Rashidi said.

China's ambassador to Afghanistan has said talks are ongoing, but nothing more.

Acquiring rare minerals is key for Beijing to maintain its standing as a global manufacturing powerhouse. While stopping short of recognizing the Taliban government, China has stood out from the international community by calling for the unfreezing of Afghan assets and has kept its diplomatic mission running in Kabul.

For Afghanistan, the contract at Mes Aynak could bring in $250-300 million per year to state revenues, a 17% increase, as well as $800 million in fees over the contract's length, according to government and company officials. That's a significant sum as the country grapples with widespread poverty, exacerbated by financial shortfalls after the Biden administration froze Afghan assets and international organizations halted donor funds.

Graveyard of empires

At Mes Aynak, a 2,000-year-old Buddhist city sits uncomfortably alongside a potential economic engine.

Discovered in the 1960s by French geologists, the site was believed to have been an important stop along the Silk Road from the early centuries AD.

After the Soviet invasion in the late 1970s, Russians dug tunnels to investigate the copper deposit; the cavernous bore holes are still visible. These were later used as an al-Qaida hideout, and at least one was bombed by the U.S. in 2001.

Looters then pillaged many antiquities from the site. Still, archaeologists who came in 2004 managed a partial excavation, uncovering remnants of a vast complex, including four monasteries, ancient copper workshops and a citadel. It became clear the area had been a major Buddhist settlement, a crossroads for traders coming from the west, and pilgrims from afar, even China.

To the shock of the non-Taliban technocrats in his own ministry, Dilawar is committed to saving the site and told MCC's director in Beijing it was an important part of Afghanistan's history, according to two officials present in one virtual meeting.

While the ministry is optimistic a deal can be reached, MCC officials are cautious and pragmatic.

Open for business

In the ministry's labyrinthine halls, hopeful investors stand in line, documents ready to stake their claim of Afghanistan's untapped mineral riches, including large iron deposits, precious stones and -- potentially -- lithium.

Knocking on Rashidi's office door these days are Russians, Iranians, Turks and of course, the Chinese.

All are "in a great hurry to invest," he said. Chinese interest is "extraordinary," he said.

Ministry revenues have increased exponentially, from 110 million afghanis ($1.2 million) in the year preceding the Taliban takeover, to $6 billion afghanis ($67 million) in the six months since the Taliban assumed power, according to documents seen by the AP.

Ironically, it was the Taliban that hindered work in Mes Aynak for over a decade.

A MCC official recalled how the road leading to the mine was laden with IEDs targeting Afghan forces and NATO allies. An entire Afghan regiment guarded Chinese engineers at the site compound. Mubariz, now the security chief, said he remembered watching them from the mountains where he plotted attacks.
Yemen's Houthi group said Saturday it was suspending missile and drone strikes on Saudi Arabia for three days, in a peace initiative it said could be a lasting commitment if the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen stopped airstrikes and lifted port restrictions.

The group also announced a three-day suspension of ground offensive operations in Yemen, including in the gas-producing region of Marib, said Mahdi al-Mashat, the head of the Houthis' political office, in a speech broadcast on television.

"This is a sincere invitation and practical steps to rebuild trust and take all the sides from the arena of talks to the arena of acts," Mashat said.

The unilateral initiative came as the war between the Iran-aligned group and the Saudi-led coalition entered its eighth year, and violence has worsened over recent months. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, and left millions facing starvation and disease.

The Saudi-led coalition pounded the Houthi-controlled seaports of Hodeida and Salif with airstrikes Saturday, a day after the group launched broad attacks on Saudi Arabia, including on an oil facility in Jeddah, causing a huge fire that sent up a big plume of black smoke.

Crude prices rose more than 1% to more than $120 a barrel on Friday, following the Jeddah attacks.

Cease-fire conditions

Lifting restrictions imposed by the coalition's warships on Yemen's Red Sea ports has been a major Houthi condition for a cease-fire. Saudi Arabia says there is no blockade on the ports and that it is only preventing arms smuggling.

Saturday's initiative would last if the coalition reopened the ports and stopped its airstrikes, Mashat said, adding that the group would extend the suspension of ground operations if Saudi Arabia announced a withdrawal of foreign troops from Yemen and stopped backing local militias.

It is unlikely that the kingdom would agree to such conditions, as Riyadh seeks an inclusive cease-fire simultaneously with reopening the ports and the Sanaa airport.

The Saudi-led coalition offered a unilateral cease-fire last year. The Houthis rejected the offer, saying the humanitarian situation and reopening of the ports needed to be addressed before any peace talks.

Mashat said the group was ready to release all prisoners, including the brother of Yemen's president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The United Nations is also trying to secure a temporary truce for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan that starts in April, and ahead of Riyadh's hosting of Yemeni parties for consultations later this month.

The conflict is widely seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, but the Houthis say they are fighting a corrupt system and foreign aggression.
The co-ordinator of the Movement for Democratic Change Alliance, Marakia Bomani, says the political groups secretariat has recommended the suspension of its leader Douglas Mwonzora following their dismal performance in the just-ended council and parliamentary by-elections.

Bomani, who is the secretary general of the Zimbabwe People First led by Agrippa Mutambara, told VOA Zimbabwe Service that Mwonzora also allegedly grossly violated some provisions of the MDC Alliance agreement signed by the Alliances principals.

He claimed that the MDC-T has also failed to account for millions of dollars belonging to the MDC Alliance, adding that the poor council and parliamentary by-election results forced them to recommend the suspension of Mwonzora.

Bomani said, We feel that during the election period the MDC-T never consulted us. We would ask them about what is going on and they will tell us the president is busy with the campaign and we would wonder what are they talking about, we are an alliance. If anything, all our members should be campaigning together. We should be coordinating our events and activities. So, we basically felt that the MDC-T let us down in this campaign. We feel we could have done better if we had worked as a united alliance.

There was no unity among us. If anything we were divided. So, we honestly felt if we had run an effective and well-organized campaign we would have given Zanu PF and CCC (Citizens Coalition for Change) a run for their money. But obviously when a campaign is being mismanaged and the organizing team is basically sleeping on the job, this is what you get. We are not happy that we got zeros at certain polling stations. Thats unacceptable.

Bomani noted that sometime last year, the groups composite political cooperation agreement was amended to include a budget for the MDC Alliance activities.

The Alliance left almost ZWL$8,8 million in the in MDC-T coffers. That money disappeared. It was never accounted for and sometimes we would have principles asked to travel as far as Bulawayo, Marondera with no funding. There would be left there stranded. So, we are of the view that MDC-T are in violation of these clauses (section 5 and 6). These are the foundations of a functioning Alliance. If you breach those things, we dont think president Mwonzora is competent enough to lead us into 2023. But, however, as the secretariat we have no mandate to fire him. We have left that responsibility with the principals. It is up to them to make a final decision. We feel that in order to allow investigations to be thoroughly carried out we think president Mwonzora should be suspended as the MDC Alliance leader.

Reacting to the recommendations, MDC-T information secretary, Witness Dube, said they have not yet received an official letter from the secretariat on Mwonzora proposed suspension.

I cant talk about that because there are so many things that are circulating on social media, he said.

MDC Alliance failed to get a single seat in the council and parliamentary by-elections. In some places where the party had election agents, it did not get a single vote.
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Members of the Citizens Coalition for Change led by Nelson Chamisa celebrating after a candidate for Kambuzuma constituency romped to victory in the Saturday parliamentary by-election. (VOA)
Press Release

March 27, 2022 De Lima among youth's top senatorial picks in mock polls, thanks them for support Re-electionist Senator Leila M. de Lima is grateful for being included in the preferred picks of students for Senatorial post in the mock polls conducted by several schools and universities in the country. De Lima, who is seeking reelection under the Robredo-Pangilinan ticket, thanked the youth for standing by her and seeing through the lies thrown against her. "I am grateful to the Filipino youth for their support for my reelection bid through their responses in recent school/university-led senatorial surveys. Sa kabila ng mga fake news at walang tigil na kasinungalingan laban sa akin, nananatili silang mulat sa katotohanan at kasamang lumalaban para sa hustisya at mabuting pamamahala," she said. Notably, De Lima has made it to the Magic 12 of most poll surveys conducted in different schools and universities in the country, with students as respondents. De Lima was part of the Top 5 among senatorial bets in the mock elections conducted this year by De La Salle - College of Saint Benilde, Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) - Sta. Mesa, University of the Philippines Diliman and UP Mindanao, Philippine Normal University System, Xavier School (San Juan and Nuvali campuses) and Rizal Technological University. She also made it to the Top 5 in the mock polls conducted by the Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology, West Visayas State University-Main Campus, four campuses of Central Bicol State University of Agriculture, Far Eastern University High School, Ateneo de Iloilo Senior High School, Lyceum of the Philippines University - Manila, and University of Nueva Caceres. Aside from these, De Lima was also among the preferred picks for senator of students from Cebu Normal University, Cagayan State University - Andrews Campus, Divine World Calage of Calapan, National Teachers College, and Mindanao State University (General Santos and Iligan Institute of Technology), among others. The lady Senator from Bicol said she is optimistic that more and more idealistic and energetic young people will enlighten and encourage people to vote for deserving and competent leaders in the upcoming polls. "Our youth can make a difference by influencing more Filipinos to elect candidates who are patriotic, capable, and independent-minded, yung ipaglalaban ang Pilipinas at Pilipino," she said. "Ang panawagan nga po natin sa kabataan: Sa darating na Mayo, sa pinaka-kritikal na eleksyon sa ating bansa, piliin natin ang magbabalik ng hustisya, mabuting pamamahala, katotohanan at demokrasya. "Sa social media man, tahanan, paaralan o kalsada, masigasig ninyong labanan ang fake news. Piliin natin ang tumitindig para sa kabataan at para sa bayan," De Lima added. De Lima, the most prominent political prisoner under the Duterte regime, maintained that her focus should she win her reelection bid is to further advance her foremost advocacies, including social justice, human rights, good governance, and rule of law, while holding the Duterte regime accountable for the thousands of killings, corruption, and other abuses.
Choppy Bitcoin & Ethereum Movements, Mulling Regulators, Scamy Hackers and 20 Crypto Jokes

Lets see what crypto things this crypto week has crypto brought us. Oh, it's crypto.

Crypto market sentiment improved over the previous week, BTC tested USD 43,000 and ETH bullish sentiment remained but analysts warned about the "choppy short-term movements. ADA rallied as Coinbase started offering 3.75% APY for staking cardano, ethereum classic jumped 54% in a week, but these rallies tend to be short-lived, and LRC soared after revealing that Loopring is working with GameStop to develop a new NFT marketplace. BitOoda reiterated a reduced 2022 hashrate projection for Bitcoin despite hashrate growth being stronger than expected. Meanwhile, BitMEX welcomed ETH and launched an APE perpetual futures market, and Japanese crypto exchanges may broaden the selection of offered coins as the JVCE unveiled plans to streamline the listing process. 45% of surveyed US financial advisors expect to use crypto per clients request, Goldman Sachs was close to announcing that it executed a cash-settled bitcoin options trade, Coinbase introduced Coinbase Pay and we looked into how different it is from Binance Pay, Nexo launched a USD 150 investment and acquisition fund focused on Web 3, Robinhood unveiled a new debit card that promises bonuses for crypto investments, and Worldcoin is reportedly set to raise USD 100m at a USD 3bn valuation.

And then, there were hacks. BlockFi, Swan Bitcoin, Pantera, and Circle advised their users on how to stay safe after customer data got hacked in a Hubspot CRM raid, DeFiance Capital founder saw over 70 of his NFTs worth over USD 1.76m stolen, the ApeCoin smart contract got exploited with the well-prepared claimer stealing USD 380,000, and VeVe lost 'a large amount of gems' in an exploit.

Ukraine now accepts donations in 14 cryptoassets, banks on both sides of the Russia-Ukraine war are taking measures to restrict the flow of crypto funds overseas, various experts in Russia are arguing that its time to legalese and tax crypto mining, and the stock market in Moscow opened again on Thursday.

In the reguland, the Singaporean supreme court recognized crypto as property in a theft case, Thailand banned the use of crypto as a means of payment for goods and services, Spains controversial tax and asset declaration form will not apply to crypto after all, South Korean market regulator wants to label Upbit and Bithumb large conglomerates, a UK regulator sent "Enforcement Notices" to over 50 companies that promote digital assets, and the BIS's CBDC project created more questions than answers. As developing economies may be looking to El Salvadors bitcoin moves with keen interest to see if adoption it as legal tender pays dividends, El Salvador could push its bitcoin bond issuance back as far as September, and politicians elsewhere in the Americas are mulling moves that could see BTC brought into their financial systems. Meanwhile, most of the CAD 1.1m worth of crypto donations made to the trucker protests dodged seizure by the authorities, while US prosecutors claimed that the Ethereum Foundation knew about Virgil Griffiths North Korea intentions.

Surprise surprise, a senior Russian MP suggested trading gas and oil for BTC, while Exxon Mobil is apparently mining BTC. Moreover, BlackRock's CEO estimates that the war in Ukraine will accelerate digital currencies. Oh, and a new regulatory challenge emerged for DeFi.



Meanwhile, Ukraine launched its NFT Museum of War.

Also, the staking of Ethereums native ETH tokens is accelerating, while BTC is testing USD 45K, and India confirmed a discriminatory tax rate for crypto investors. Also, an Israeli bank finally enabled BTC and ETH trading, while BTC royalty flocked to Bukele's court to hear some explanations about BTC bonds.

Joke time! Bon appetit.

__________

Hey, CT! All good?

Source: crypto.meems / Instagram

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Bitcoin. Is. Satan.

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Its one small percentage point for the crypto, but one giant leap for the man confidence in that crypto.

Source: xaman / Twitter

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So volatile and unpredictable!

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Alls good. Im not panicking, youre panicking.

Source: solana_playes / Instagram

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Seriously, think logically.

Source: cryptodogmemes / Instagram

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Theyre judging you, alright.

Source: funnydegenerate / Instagram

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Where do you stand on this vital issue?

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Did you call the CEO of Bitcoin and ask?

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Heres a game. Only its real life. Go.

Source: shitcoiner1000 / Instagram

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Its a hard-earned skill ordering at Starbucks exactly to ones preferences.

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Quattuordecuple-check.

Source: coinexmemes / Instagram

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Do you know how much lentils cost? Try looking for worms in the nearby park.

Source: paddi_hansen / Twitter

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Idiot.

Source: defiprime / Twitter

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OK, this is an emergency! Quick, everybody, the voting period on whether we should vote on how to fix this hole starts now and goes until next Saturday.

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No pain, no gain?

Source: coin.bureau / Instagram

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Look, the way I see it, Im still above the surface.

Source: boomtimecrypto / Instagram

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Heres a financial documentary with actual footage.

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This ones also a documentary, but reenacted  the actual footage is too brutal to show.

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And for the Cryptovalentines Day, which is from now on celebrated on March 26, some hope for you  its never too rich for love.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Please, if you have a seat, be seated. (Laughter.) If you dont, come up on stage.

Thank you very much. Its a great honor to be here. Mr. President, they tell me youre over there somewhere. There you are. Thank you, Mr. President.

Be not afraid. They were the first words at the first public address of the first Polish Pope after his election on October of 1978. They were words that would come to define Pope John Paul II. Words that would change the world.

John Paul brought the message here to Warsaw in his first trip back home as Pope in June of 1979. It was a message about the power  the power of faith, the power of resilience, and the power of the people.

In the face of a cruel and brutal system of government, it was a message that helped end the Soviet repression in the Central land and Eastern Europe 30 years ago. It was a message that will overcome the cruelty and brutality of this unjust war.

When Pope John Paul brought that message in 1979, the Soviet Union ruled with an iron fist behind an Iron Curtain.

Then a year later, the Solidarity movement took hold in Poland. And while I know he couldnt be here tonight, were all grateful in America and around the world for Lech Waesa. (Applause.)

It reminds me of that phrase of philosopher Kierkegaard: [F]aith sees best in the dark. And there were dark moments.

Ten years later, the Soviet Union collapsed, and Poland and Central and Eastern Europe would soon be free. Nothing about that battle for freedom was simple or easy. It was a long, painful slog fought over not days and months, but years and decades.

But we emerged anew in the great battle for freedom: a battle between democracy and autocracy, between liberty and repression, between a rules-based order and one governed by brute force.

In this battle, we need to be clear-eyed. This battle will not be won in days or months either. We need to steel ourselves for the long fight ahead.

Mr. President, Mr. Prime Minister, Mr. Mayor, members of the Parliament, distinguished guests, and the people of Poland, and I suspect some people of Ukraine that are here: Were  (applause)  we are gathered here at the Royal Castle in this city that holds a sacred place in the history of not only of Europe, but humankinds unending search for freedom.

For generations, Warsaw has stood where liberty has been challenged and liberty has prevailed.

In fact, it was here in Warsaw when a young refugee, who fled her home country from Czechoslovakia was under Soviet domination, came back to speak and stand in solidarity with dissidents.

Her name was Madeleine Korbel Albright. She became  (applause)  one of the most ardent supporters of democracy in the world. She was a friend with whom I served. Americas first woman Secretary of State. She passed away three days ago.

She fought her whole life for essential democratic principles. And now, in the perennial struggle for democracy and freedom, Ukraine and its people are on the frontlines fighting to save their nation.

And their brave resistance is part of a larger fight for an essential democratic principles that unite all free people: the rule of law; free and fair elections; the freedom to speak, to write, and to assemble; the freedom to worship as one chooses; freedom of the press.

These principles are essential in a free society. (Applause.) But they have always  they have always been under siege. Theyve always been embattled. Every generation has had to defeat democracys mortal foes. Thats the way of the world  for the world is imperfect, as we know. Where the appetites and ambitions of a few forever seek to dominate the lives and liberties of many.

My message to the people of Ukraine is the message I delivered today to Ukraines Foreign Minister and Defense Minister, who I believe are here tonight: We stand with you. Period. (Applause.)

Todays fighting in Kyiv and Mariupol and Kharkiv are the latest battle in a long struggle: Hungary, 1956; Poland, 1956 then again 1981; Czechoslovakia, 1968.

Soviet tanks crushed democratic uprisings, but the resistance continued until finally, in 1989, the Berlin Wall and all of the walls of Soviet domination  they fell. They fell. And the people prevailed. (Applause.)

But the battle for democracy could not conclude and did not conclude with the end of the Cold War.

Over the last 30 years, the forces of autocracy have revived all across the globe. Its hallmarks are familiar ones: contempt for the rule of law, contempt for democratic freedom, contempt for the truth itself.

Today, Russia has strangled democracy  has sought to do so elsewhere, not only in its homeland. Under false claims of ethnic solidarity, it has invalidated [invaded] neighboring nations.

Putin has the gall to say hes de-Nazifying Ukraine. Its a lie. Its just cynical. He knows that. And its also obscene.

President Zelenskyy was democratically elected. Hes Jewish. His fathers family was wiped out in the Nazi Holocaust. And Putin has the audacity, like all autocrats before him, to believe that might will make right.

In my own country, a former president named Abraham Lincoln voiced the opposing spirit to save our Union in the midst of a civil war. He said, Let us have faith that right makes might. Right makes might. (Applause.)

Today, let us now have that faith again. Let us resolve to put the strength of democracies into action to thwart the denigns [sic] of our  the designs of autocracy. Let us remember that the test of this moment is the test of all time.

The Kremlin wants to portray NATO enlargement as an imperial project aimed at destabilizing Russia. Nothing is further from the truth. NATO is a defensive alliance. It has never sought the demise of Russia.

In the lead-up to the current crisis, the United States and NATO worked for months to engage Russia to avert a war. I met with him in person and talked to him many times on the phone.

Time and again, we offered real diplomacy and concrete proposals to strengthen European security, enhance transparency, and build confidence on all sides.

But Putin and Russia met each of the proposals with disinterest in any negotiation, with lies and ultimatums. Russia was bent on violence from the start.

I know not all of you believed me and us when we kept saying, They are going to cross the border. They are going to attack.

Repeatedly, he asserted, We have no interest in war. Guaranteed he would not move.

Repeatedly saying he would not invade Ukraine.

Repeatedly saying Russian troops along the border were there for training  all 180,000 of them.

There is simply no justification or provocation for Russias choice of war. Its an example of one of the oldest of human impulses: using brute force and disinformation to satisfy a craving for absolute power and control.

Its nothing less than a direct challenge to the rule-based international order established since the end of World War Two.

And it threatens to return to decades of war that ravaged Europe before the international rule-based order was put in place. We cannot go back to that. We cannot.

The gravity of the threat is why the response of the West has been so swift and so powerful and so unified, unprecedented, and overwhelming.

Swift and punishing costs are the only things that are going to get Russia to change its course.

Within days of its invasion, the West had moved jointly with sanctions to damage Russias economy.

Russias Central Bank is now blocked from the global financial systems, denying Kremlins access to the war fund it stashed around the globe.

Weve aimed at the heart of Russias economy by stopping the imports of Russian energy to the United States.

To date, the United States has sanctioned 140 Russian oligarchs and their family members, seizing their ill-begotten gains: their yachts, their luxury apartments, their mansions.

Weve sanctioned more than 400 Russian government officials, including key architects of this war.

These officials and oligarchs have reaped enormous benefit from the corruption connected to the Kremlin, and now they have to share in the pain.

The private sector is acting as well. Over 400 private multinational companies have pulled out of doing business in Russia  left Russia completely  from oil companies to McDonalds.

As a result of these unprecedented sanctions, the ruble almost is immediately reduced to rubble. The Russian economy  (applause)  thats true, by the way. It takes about 200 rubles to equal one dollar.

The economy is on track to be cut in half in the coming years. It was ranked  Russias economy was ranked the 11th biggest economy in the world before this evasion [sic]  invasion. It will soon not even rank among the top 20 in the world. (Applause.)

Taken together, these economic sanctions are a new kind of economic statecraft with the power to inflict damage that rivals military might.

These international sanctions are sapping Russian strength, its ability to replenish its military, and its ability  its ability to project power. And it is Putin  it is Vladimir Putin who is to blame, period.

At the same time, alongside these economic sanctions, the Western world has come together to provide for the people of Ukraine with incredible levels of military, economic, and humanitarian assistance.

In the years before the invasion, we, America, had sent over $650 million, before they crossed the border, in weapons to Ukraine, including anti-air and anti-armor equipment.

Since the invasion, America has committed another $1.35 billion in weapons and ammunition.

And thanks to the courage and bravery of the Ukrainian people  (applause)  the equipment weve sent and our colleagues have sent have been used to devastating effect to defend Ukrainian land and airspace. Our Allies and partners have stepped up as well.

But as Ive made clear: American forces are in Europe  not in Europe to engage in conflict with Russian forces. American forces are here to defend NATO Allies.

Yesterday, I met with the troops that are serving alongside our Polish allies to bolster NATOs frontline defenses. The reason we wanted to make clear is their movement on Ukraine: Dont even think about moving on one single inch of NATO territory.

We have a sacred obligation  (applause)  we have a sacred obligation under Article 5 to defend each and every inch of NATO territory with the full force of our collective power.

And earlier today, I visited your National Stadium, where thousands of Ukrainian refugees are now trying to answer the toughest questions a human can ask: My God, whats going to happen to me? Whats going to happen to my family?

I saw tears in many of the mothers eyes as I embraced them; their young children  their young children not sure whether to smile or cry. One little girl said, Mr. President  she spoke a little English  is my brother and my daddy  are they going to be okay? Will I see them again? Without their husbands, their fathers, in many cases, their brothers or sisters who stayed back to fight for their country.

I didnt have to speak the language or understand the language to feel the emotion in their eyes, the way they gripped my hand, and little kids hung on to my leg, praying with a desperate hope that all this is temporary; apprehension that they may be perhaps forever away from their homes, almost with debilitating sadness that this is happening all over again.

But I was also struck by the generosity of the people of Warsaw  for that matter, all the Polish people  for the depths of their compassion, their willingness to reach out  (applause)  opening their hearts.

I was saying to the Mayor theyre preparing to open their hearts and their homes simply to help. I also want to thank my friend, the great American chef, Jose Andres, and his team who helped feeling [sic] those  (applause)  feeding those who are yearning to be free.

But helping these refugees is not something Poland or any other nation should carry alone. All the world democracies have a responsibility to help. All of them. And the people of Ukraine can count on the United States to meet its responsibility.

Ive announced, two days ago, we will welcome 100,000 Ukrainian refugees. We already have 8,000 a week coming to the United States of other nat-  nationalities.

Well provide nearly $300 million of humanitarian assistance, providing tens of thousands of tons of food, water, medicine, and other basic supplies.

In Brussels, I announced the United States is prepared to provide more than $1 billion, in addition, in humanitarian aid.

The World Food Programme told us that despite significant obstacles, at least some relief is getting to major cities in Ukraine, but not Metropol [sic]  no, excuse me, Mar-  not Mariupol, because Russian forces are blocking relief supplies.

But well not cease our efforts to get humanitarian relief wherever it is needed in Ukraine and for the people whove made it out of Ukraine.

Notwithstanding the brutality of Vladimir Putin, let there be no doubt that this war has already been a strategic failure for Russia already. (Applause.) Having lost children myself  I know thats no solace to the people whove lost family.

But he, Putin, thought Ukrainians would roll over and not fight. Not much of a student of history. Instead, Russian forces have met their match with brave and stiff Ukrainian resistance.

Rather than breaking Ukrainian resolve, Russias brutal tactics have strengthened the resolve. (Applause.)

Rather than driving NATO apart, the West is now stronger and more united than it has ever been. (Applause.)

Russia wanted less of a NATO presence on its border, but now he has [we have] a stronger presence, a larger presence, with over a hundred thousand American troops here, along with all the other members of NATO.

In fact  (applause)  Russia has managed to cause something Im sure he never intended: The democracies of the world are revitalized with purpose and unity found in months that wed once taken years to accomplish.

Its not only Russias actions in Ukraine that are reminding us of democracys blessing. Its our own country  his own country, the Kremlin, is jailing protestors. Two hundred thousand people have allegedly already left. Theres a brain drain  leaving Russia. Shutting down independent news. State media is all propaganda, blocking the image of civilian targets, mass graves, starvation tactics of the Russian forces in Ukraine.

Is it any wonder, as I said, that 200,000 Russians have all left their country in one month? A remarkable brain drain in such a short period of time, which brings me to my message to the Russian people:

Ive worked with Russian leaders for decades. I sat across the negotiating table going all the way back to Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin to talk arms control at the height of the Cold War.

Ive always spoken directly and honestly to you, the Russian people.

Let me say this, if youre able to listen: You, the Russian people, are not our enemy.

I refuse to believe that you welcome the killing of innocent children and grandparents or that you accept hospitals, schools, maternity wards that, for Gods sake, are being pummeled with Russian missiles and bombs; or cities being surrounded so that civilians cannot flee; supplies cut off and attempting to starve Ukrainians into submission.

Millions of families are being driven from their homes, including half of all Ukraines children. These are not the actions of a great nation.

Of all people, you, the Russian people, as well as all people across Europe, still have the memory of being in a similar situation in the late thirties and forties  the situation of World War Two  still fresh in the minds of many grandparents in the region.

What  whatever your generation experienced  whether it experienced the Siege of Leningrad or heard about it from your parents and grandparents  train stations overflowing with terrified families fleeing their homes; nights sheltering in basements and cellars; mornings sitting through the rubble in your homes  these are not memories of the past. Not anymore. Because its exactly what the Russian army is doing in Ukraine right now.

March 26, 2022. Just days before  were at the twenty-fir-  you were a 21st century nation with hopes and dreams that people all over the world have for themselves and their family.

Now, Vladimir Putins aggression have cut you, the Russian people, off from the rest of the world, and its taking Russia back to the 19th century.

This is not who you are. This is not the future reserve  you deserve for your families and your children. Im telling you the truth: This war is not worthy of you, the Russian people.

Putin can and must end this war. The American people stand with you and the brave citizens of Ukraine who want peace.

And my message to the rest of Europe: This new battle for freedom has already made a few things crystal clear.

First, Europe must end its dependence on Russian fossil fuels. And we, the United States, will help. (Applause.) Thats why just yesterday, in Brussels, I announced a plan with the President of the European Commission to get Europe through the immediate energy crisis.

Over the long term, as a matter of economic security and national security and for the survivability of the planet, we all need to move as quickly as possible to clean, renewable energy. And well work together to help get that done so that the days of any nation being subject to the whims of a tyrant for its energy needs are over. They must end. They must end.

And second, we have to fight the corruption coming from the Kremlin to give the Russian people a fair chance.

And finally, and most urgently, we maintain absolute unity  we must  among the worlds democracies.

Its not enough to speak with rhetorical flourish, of ennobling words of democracy, of freedom, equality, and liberty. All of us, including here in Poland, must do the hard work of democracy each and every day. My country as well.

Thats why  (applause)  thats why I came to Europe again this week with a clear and determined message for NATO, for the G7, for the European Union, for all freedom-loving nations: We must commit now to be in this fight for the long haul. We must remain unified today and tomorrow and the day after and for the years and decades to come. (Applause.)

It will not be easy. There will be costs. But its a price we have to pay. Because the darkness that drives autocracy is ultimately no match for the flame of liberty that lights the souls of free people everywhere.

Time and again, history shows that its from the darkest moments that the greatest progress follows. And history shows this is the task of our time, the task of this generation.

Lets remember: The hammer blow that brought down the Berlin Wall, the might that lifted the Iron Curtain were not the words of a single leader; it was the people of Europe who, for decades, fought to free themselves.

Their sheer bravery opened the border between Austria and Hungary for the Pan-European Picnic. They joined hands for the Baltic Way. They stood for Solidarity here in Poland. And together, it was an unmistakable and undeniable force of the people that the Soviet Union could not withstand.

And were seeing it once again today with the brave Ukrainian people, showing that their power of many is greater than the will of any one dictator. (Applause.)

So, in this hour, let the words of Pope John Paul burn as brightly today: Never, ever give up hope, never doubt, never tire, never become discouraged. Be not afraid. (Applause.)

A dictator bent on rebuilding an empire will never erase a peoples love for liberty. Brutality will never grind down their will to be free. Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia  for free people refuse to live in a world of hopelessness and darkness.

We will have a different future  a brighter future rooted in democracy and principle, hope and light, of decency and dignity, of freedom and possibilities.

For Gods sake, this man cannot remain in power.

God bless you all. And may God defend our freedom. (Applause.) And may God protect our troops. Thank you for your patience. Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you.
Photo: Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images

In Ti Wests homage to 1970s slasher films, X, Jenna Ortega adds a retro twist to her growing resume as a scream queen. She steps into an ode to artful gore as Lorraine Day, the seemingly naive girlfriend of a young director (Owen Campbell) who invites her to help him shoot a low-budget project  without telling her its a porno. Lorraine, dubbed church mouse by the movies producer (Martin Henderson), becomes beguiled by the group of porn stars turned amateur filmmakers as they shoot on a rural Texas farm. Gradually, the sexually curious Lorraine decides she wants a starring role in the project, but her adult-film career is cut short as the crews elderly hosts turn murderous.

Ortega herself is not scared by much, not even being chased by a very old man who wants to chop off her fingers. The actress, who has starred in horror films like Scream 5 and The Babysitter: Killer Queen, is now used to running for her life on set. Later this year, shes also set to star in the titular role of Tim Burtons Netflix series Wednesday, the horror-comedy she auditioned for while shooting X. On a break from filming the show in Romania, Ortega spoke with Vulture over Zoom about learning how to use 70s film equipment for X, her burgeoning reputation as a scream queen, and the possibility of returning to You.

In X, your character Lorraine starts out quite naive, but is ultimately drawn to being in the X-rated film. How did you grapple with making that transition from church mouse to being more provocative?

Lorraine was like nothing Ive ever done before. At the beginning of the film, shes thrown in with a group of people that have a different background than her, and shes not comfortable. Its easy for her to seem judgmental, rude, or self-righteous in the way that she thinks shes better than them. But thats not entirely the case. As the script goes on, you realize that its not really her being judgmental, but more curious about, or, like you said, naive to the situation. You get to know her, and shes actually a cool, open-minded individual. That was a cool line to play in terms of being able to flip the script midway and change your mind about something completely.

Things change when Lorraine decides she wants to be in the adult film herself. Everyone supports her but her boyfriend, who initially accuses her of being a prude. Its a blatant moment of sexism. Why was that scene so powerful?

RJ dragged Lorraine to this farmhouse to shoot this porn film without her knowledge. Its not even about her differences or values, but more so communication and [RJ] giving her no heads up about what they were heading into. I view that as disrespectful, and I understand her being upset. Shes actually eager to participate and wants to become more involved. To pull that away from her just because youre uncomfortable, as if you didnt put her in the situation yourself? I think its very easy to side with Lorraine and see where shes coming from. Since everybody else is so welcoming of Lorraine, it makes RJ look like an idiot.

How happy were you that you didnt have a murderous old woman cuddle you in bed while you were sleeping?

I was very excited about that. Personally, I dont see that ever being something that I want to participate in. And I commend Mia for handling it so gracefully.

X takes place in 1979. Since the movie recalls 70 slashers, how much of the movie was done with old-school and practical effects? What was it like to work with them?

It was great for me just because I play a boom operator in the production of the adult film. So the equipment that we were using were actual cameras and sound equipment from the 70s. They actually had old boom operators, camera operators, and DPs come and speak with the cast operating the equipment. Owen Campbell and I would go in on certain days to learn how to rewind the tape, how the proper boom stick goes on, how you start and how you end, how you change the battery. As somebody who has a deep respect for antiques, its kind of the best of both worlds.

Was there anyone you drew inspiration from for the character of Lorraine?

No. I grew up Christian. I feel like I know enough of what that mind-set is. It was [also] a period piece, and it was time to experiment and have fun.

Youve gradually become known as something of a scream queen, having now starred in Scream 5, The Babysitter: Killer Queen, and now X. Whats drawn you to the horror genre?

Being a big fan of gore and horror myself, I developed a fascination with it when I was younger. The more horror sets I work on, the more I fall in love with them. People who work on horror sets tend to be fans of the genres themselves. I feel like everybodys excited about what youre making. Theyre dedicated and willing to put in the effort to make everything work, especially since it tends to be very practical and at times dangerous. But I think Im most comfortable when Im doing horror and running and screaming for my life.

What are your favorite horror movies?

I love The Witch, Prom Night, the original Scream, Insidious, and The Birds. Thats what Im going to say for now.

How do you think youve put your own spin on the trope of scream queen?

It feels wrong to even take that title because I think I have a few more projects to go. I need a good cult classic or something. Its been interesting because I havent always been the final girl. Sometimes I die, sometimes I live. Youre just gonna have to wait and see.

Theres a scene in X where you get your fingers chopped off through the basement door by the old man. What was filming that like?

I didnt rehearse it at all. I just wanted to see what happened. I was locked in this little closet with our camera operator, and were shooting this already broken-through door. Take one, I screamed for the first time and I felt pretty confident with it. I didnt change it. We shot it out pretty quickly, in literally less than an hour. Its kind of funny to say, but the more hysterical or chaotic stuff feels almost easier to film because you just fully let loose. Its an authentic reaction to have when someone is trying to kill you, so I wasnt too worried.

Do you envision yourself working in horror again? If so, what ideas would you like to explore?

Its something that Im always going to gravitate toward. As long as my horror projects are different, and theres a different type of killer, I want to keep switching positions. I dont always want to be the same person. I try to avoid that now, and I look forward to hopefully avoiding that later.

Next up, youre set to star in the horror-comedy Wednesday. What was your audition like? Did you audition for Tim Burton directly?

So, we were shooting X, and they told me that Tim Burton wanted to meet with me. Netflix had thrown my name out for the possibility of this character, and I remember I wasnt sure that I wanted to go back to television again. But Tim, obviously, is somebody that I have immense respect for, so to even take a meeting with him might be interesting and nice. I remember that when I spoke with him, I almost wished that I hadnt. I had just been up for over 24 hours and I had a cut on my lip from prosthetics and stunts that I had been doing on the X set. I was so tired and felt like I barely knew my sides. But he was super-sweet and it didnt take very long. I remember calling my mom and telling her, I blew it. He is so unimpressed. Hes never gonna want to work with me. She was like, It was a show. You werent even sure that you wanted it, right? I was like, No, but now I want it [since] I messed it up. But he wanted to see me again, and I really liked what he had to say about the character. Weve formed a nice collaborative relationship. Im pretty lucky  not all directors are like that.

What material did you use to audition?

It was only one or two scenes. There was a scene with Pugsley, and there was a scene with Thing. They were very small, very short. It was just one-liner joke after joke. The actual series isnt like that, but the audition sides were.

Are there plans for you to reprise your role as Ellie on Netflixs You since she is alive, as far as we know?

I actually would love to. Thats one of my favorite sets Ive ever been on. Im still a fan of the show. I almost did a bit more with the third season, but there were scheduling issues.

What do you think Ellie is doing now?

The hell if I know. My hope for her is she would still be making movies and writing scripts. I would hope that she films something that gets successful enough or puts her in a place that she wants to be. But unfortunately, I feel like shes still in Florida.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission on Friday said the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus has been detected in a wild bald eagle that was found dead in Earl Marlborough Township in Chester County.

This marks the first time the virus has been found in birds in Pennsylvania since the virus was first identified in North America in December 2021.

In addition to the bald eagle, the commission said there are diagnostics pending on five wild hooded mergansers recovered from Kahle Lake on the border of Clarion and Venango counties. Four of them were found dead and the fifth was exhibiting neurologic signs and was subsequently euthanized. The department said HPAI is suspected in these cases.

As of March, the commission said the virus outbreak has affected domestic and wild birds in more than 20 states across the eastern and midwestern United States. The commission said it continues to work with the state Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Wildlife Futures Program at the University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Animal Diagnostic Laboratory System to monitor the virus in wild and domestic bird populations.

Though some infected birds may appear healthy, the virus can lead to sickness or death in wild poultry (turkey, grouse), raptors (hawks, eagles), avian scavengers (crows, gulls, ravens) and other species, including ducks and geese. Clinical signs of infection are often non-specific, according to the commission, but they may include neurologic dysfunction, such as circling and difficulty flying. The commission said it has the potential to significantly affect the commercial poultry industry and international trade.Wild waterfowl and shorebirds are considered natural reservoirs for avian influenza viruses, and owners should prevent any contact between their birds and wild birds to prevent the spread of disease.

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ENPA helps to save Ukrainian pets after their owners fled or were killed in the war.

50 dogs and cats left behind in war-torn Ukraine have arrived in Milan after being transported to Italy by the National Animal Protection Agency (ENPA).

The 43 dogs and seven cats - all of which were family pets with a microchip, passport and vaccine log book - were rescued, one by one, by volunteers in Kyiv before being collected by ENPA on the Ukrainian border and driven to Italy.

The animals' arrival in Italy on Thursday came after special permission was granted by health minister Roberto Speranza, reports newspaper La Stampa, with a veterinarian joining ENPA to provide assistance to the pets during the long journey to Milan.

Before the Russian invasion all the animals "had a family, a home", said ENPA president Carla Rocchi, "The war has deprived them of everything, we will give them back the life they deserve."

La Stampa lists some of the animals' names: Monika, Hanna, Muha, Dasha, Luntik, Rudi, Smurf, Nona, Linda, Knopa, Mimi, Chloe, Luna, Rich, Vita, Chita, Lola, Bobo and Eva.

The dogs and cats are currently in quarantine in Milan, as required by Italian law, but ENPA hopes to find them new family homes in Italy as soon as possible.
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E.U. diplomat: Nuclear deal near Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight The European Unions top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said Saturday that Iran and world powers were very close to an agreement on reviving the 2015 deal that would curb Tehrans nuclear program in exchange for lifting tough sanctions. Meanwhile, Irans foreign minister appeared to show flexibility on an issue that has been a leading sticking point in the nuclear talks. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian on Saturday said the lifting of U.S. sanctions on the Revolutionary Guard was among Irans top demands in talks, but added that senior Guard officials had said that the deal should not be held up over the issue.

The United States abandoned the pact in 2018, prompting Tehran to start violating its nuclear limits about a year later. Eleven months of on-and-off talks to revive it were paused in Vienna earlier this month.

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Now we are very close to an agreement and I hope it will be possible, Borrell said in an address to the Doha Forum international conference. He later told reporters that he believed a deal could be reached in a matter of days.

 Reuters

Ambassador Emanuel visits Hiroshima

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel paid tribute Saturday to victims of the atomic bombing here and warned of the human devastation caused by nuclear weapons.

In a somber moment in the rain, the men each laid a wreath at the Hiroshima victims memorial. They visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, near ground zero, and its exhibitions documenting the human toll of the atomic bombing. In 1945, the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, vaporizing the cities and instantaneously killing tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, in each.

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Emanuel was chief of staff to President Barack Obama, who in 2016 became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima. Kishida, then foreign minister and an elected representative from the city, was instrumental in arranging the 2016 visit.

Saturday was the Hiroshima natives first trip back to his hometown since his campaign last autumn to become the countrys prime minister, and he renewed his call for a world free of nuclear weapons.

 Michelle Ye Hee Lee

Volcano triggers evacuations in Philippines: A small volcano in a scenic lake near the Philippine capital blew a white plume of steam and a mile into the sky in a brief but powerful explosion, prompting authorities to raise the alert level and evacuate hundreds of residents from high-risk villages. Magma came into contact with water in the main crater of Taal volcano in Batangas province, setting off the steam-driven blast.

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Iraq parliament fails to select president, again: Iraq's parliament on Saturday failed again to vote for a president after Iran-backed groups boycotted the session. It was a setback to an alliance led by cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, which won the parliamentary election. Sadr had hoped parliament would elect Rebar Ahmed, a veteran Kurdish intelligence official and current interior minister of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region.

Tunisian police take down militant groups: Tunisian police forces have dismantled about 150 militant cells in the past six months, Houssem Eddine Jbebli, a spokesman for the National Guard, said. He added that some of the foreign militants arrested were planning to join Jond Kilafha, a group linked to the Islamic State in Libya.

 From news services

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The Russian missile cruiser Moskva anchored in Sevastopol in 2008. (AP)

The United States provided Ukraine with intelligence that helped Kyiv identify, attack and sink the flagship of Russias Black Sea fleet, the Moskva, in one of the most dramatic battlefield successes of the 71-day old war, according to people familiar with the matter.
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After months of lobbing threats and vowing military reprisals, President Trump will find himself on the same block of midtown Manhattan as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani this week at the annual U.N. General Assembly. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight At times, Trump has flirted with the idea of meeting with Rouhani for a historic tete-a-tete, only to retreat to a position of imposing tougher economic sanctions.

Trumps top advisers privately opposed such a meeting and appeared to win that debate after an attack on Saudi oil facilities Sept. 14 prompted the United States to impose more sanctions on Tehran. But Trump has not ruled anything out.

Nothing is ever off the table completely, but I have no intention of meeting with Iran, and that doesnt mean it doesnt happen, the president told reporters Sunday on the South Lawn of the White House. Im a very flexible person.

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Even if Trump changed his mind and extended an invitation, however, it is far from clear that Rouhani would accept, something critics attribute to the Trump administrations mixed messages.

Trump has tried to appeal to Tehran in various statements, ruling out regime change and entertaining a French plan to extend a line of credit to Iran to return to the 2015 nuclear deal the United States withdrew from last year. But the presidents hawkish advisers have taken a tougher posture: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday that Iran is bloodthirsty and looking for war, and his diplomats did little to help facilitate a meeting in the run-up to the General Assembly, said U.S. officials, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal operations.

On Wednesday, Pompeo is scheduled to speak at an event hosted by Iran hawk and former diplomat Mark Wallace, who has drawn criticism for including a fringe Iranian diaspora group, Mujahideen-e Khalq, or MEK, in his programming surrounding the U.N. gathering.

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Until 2012, the MEK was listed as a foreign terrorist organization by the United States for allegedly killing U.S. personnel in Iran in the 1970s and for its links to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. It is largely reviled inside Iran because of its alliance with Baghdad during the Iran-Iraq war. It is participating in a dissident convention hosted by Wallace a day before Pompeos speech at the Iran summit.

Analysts said Pompeos involvement in Wallaces event risks confusing Trumps declaration last month that were not looking for leadership change.

This is an extremely unwise and dangerous decision, said Dalia Dassa Kaye, director of the center for Middle East public policy at the Rand Corp.

The message this will send is that regime change is still in the mix despite the presidents statements to the contrary, she said. Theres already confusion about U.S. aims on Iran, so this will only raise more questions about what the U.S. has been trying to achieve since its withdrawal from the nuclear agreement.

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An Iran scholar scheduled to speak at the same event as Pompeo has dropped out because of the MEKs involvement in the event Wallace is hosting Tuesday.

Suzanne Maloney of the Brookings Institution said in a statement to The Washington Post that she would never knowingly engage with the Mujahideen-e Khalq, a cultlike terrorist organization that is despised by many Iranians.

Although the summit and the diaspora event will be held on separate days, the overlap in the sponsorship of the two events was too close for my comfort, she said.

Pompeo has previously distanced himself from the group when asked about the attendance of Trump attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani and then-national security adviser John Bolton at MEK events. The group offers generous speaking fees and has cultivated close connections in Washington among Democrats and Republicans, including to former senator Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) and former Vermont governor Howard Dean (D).

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Lets not beat around the bush, Pompeo reportedly said during a meeting with Iranian American leaders in April. Ambassador Bolton spoke at an MEK rally. President Trump and I have not.

A senior State Department official dismissed the concerns about the MEKs participation in Wallaces event, saying, Have you looked at the people attending the U.N.?

When asked about his decision to include the MEK, a spokesman for Wallace said he decided early on that the convention will not discriminate or make value judgments on participation.

His spokesman, Joshua Silberberg, added that Wallaces organization, United Against Nuclear Iran, admires Suzanne Maloney and respects her decision about participating in the Iran summit on Wednesday, which is an unrelated event.

Ali Safavi, an official with the National Council of Resistance of Iran, which speaks for the MEK, said Maloney has no credibility whatsoever to comment on the MEK.

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As diplomats from around the world streamed into New York for the United Nations 74th annual General Assembly, Pompeo and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif continued to trade barbs.

Pompeo, going further than Trump in assigning blame for the attack on Saudi Arabia, said, This was an attack by Iran on the world.

Were looking for a diplomatic resolution to this, unlike the Iranians, he told CBS.

Unlike Pompeo, Trump has not directly blamed the country for the assault, saying last week that as soon as we find out definitively, well let you know.

Trump did, however, approve new sanctions on Irans state bank Friday and signed off on a new deployment of U.S. troops to the Middle East to enhance Saudi Arabias air defenses.

With those moves, Irans foreign minister told reporters that Trump knowingly or unknowingly on Friday closed the door to negotiations.

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I think its all going the wrong direction in addressing this issue, Zarif told CBS on Sunday. I dont think this type of posturing helps.

U.S. officials said the Trump administration would try to build a coalition to denounce Irans activities in the Middle East this week. Rebels in Yemen, known as Houthis, took responsibility for the strike on Saudi oil facilities, but Pompeo and Saudi Arabia have said the militants do not possess the type of drone and cruise missile weaponry used in the attack. Even some Democrats reluctant to embrace Trumps messaging have rejected Irans denial of involvement, including former secretary of state John F. Kerry, who said Iran was responsible one way or the other.

In an acknowledgment of the worsening tensions, Frances top diplomat, who has tried to broker a meeting between Rouhani and Trump, said it was now more important to de-escalate the dangerous situation rather than set up a meeting between the two governments.

What is at stake during this week is whether or not we can carry on with this de-escalation process, Jean-Yves Le Drian said.

Carol Morello contributed to this report.

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DC9, an eaglet born in late March, at the U.S. National Arboretum in D.C. (American Eagle Foundation)

Experts drew blood, took a feather sample and measured the baby eagle this week. Based on its size, they believe its a boy.
Normans collaborator and friend, Carly Sheppard, held the blade, Ricardo Martinez Roa captured the images of Norman, one lying prone, the other of his bloodied back.

The two photographs that comprise Cicatrix (All that was taken, all that remains) were taken of artist S.J Norman during a live performance in New York in January 2019, during which a cut was made for every death that had occurred in the previous decade.

This years winner of the $35,000 Blake Prize has challenged audiences not to step back from the stark images that show incisions made on the skin of the artists back, each recognising an Aboriginal death in custody.

The winner of the 2022 Blake Prize, Cicatrix, created by S.J Norman. Credit:Ricardo Martinez Roa

Sure theyre deep, and sure it hurt. But I find it curious when people fixate on the pain or what they imagine is the shock value of these images, Norman said in a statement to this masthead. I dont find the sight of blood or a few razor cuts confronting. Why is this blood confronting and not, say, the blood that is spilled in the course of a rugby or boxing match?

Why is this blood confronting and not the blood spilled by Aboriginal people who die in the custody of the colonial carceral state and never receive justice? What conditions anaesthetise a populace to the sight of certain kinds of pain and not others? That is really one of the central questions of this work.

In its 67 years, the long-standing Blake Prize has evolved from an art prize reflective of a largely Christian community to that a wider interpretation of spirituality, belief and religion through art.

In his work, Norman has referenced the practice of cicatrisation used in Sorry Business, and for other reasons that remains extant in many Indigenous nations and suppressed by colonisation in his own, he said.
Artist Nina Sanadze originally created Call to Peace in response to the division she saw everywhere in society, but her six-metre-high woman raging against war takes on a new dimension after Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Nina Sanadze in front of her sculpture Call to Peace. Credit:Luis Enrique Ascui

I was devastated with what was happening, but shocked by how the sculpture sort of predicted or accidentally tuned into what happened, she says of the work launched on Sunday in South Melbourne. It shows a woman with her arms outswept, having come from the battlefield, devastated: The mother figure is here to remind us of the horrors of war she has seen and that history that should not be repeated.

The St Kilda-based artist has Jewish Ukrainian/Russian/Georgian ancestry and her family lived for many years in Georgia. They came to Australia as refugees, having fled to Moscow after the Georgian civil war that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, arriving in Melbourne in 1996.

Installed in Clarendon Street, the sculpture is reminiscent of a classical monument, perhaps Nike, the goddess of victory. The public is invited to write wishes for hope and peace, and to hang them on the piece over the next six months.
The NSW Department of Education is chasing almost $1 million in corporate sponsorship for its signature schools literacy campaigns and the arts unit that manages these programs, as well as drama, visual arts and music across public schools.

For the first time, a single major brand is sought to sponsor both the NSW Premiers Reading Challenge and the NSW Premiers Spelling Bee and new sponsorship opportunities have been identified within the departments arts unit that resources teachers.

NSW Premiers Reading Challenge needs a major sponsor. Credit:Lee Besford

The commercial call-out has been slammed by the NSW Teachers Federation as evidence of gross underfunding of the public schools and arts programs.

It has warned that children should not be reduced to becoming walking advertising sandwich boards.
On Friday, hundreds of thousands of school students took to the streets to march for climate justice. I, like them and so many others, am anxious about our planets future.

Im not a Gen Z climate activist, I am just another Millennial woman who has been guilty of berating herself for considering bringing a child into a climate crisis.

But something is shifting.

People are becoming more sceptical of the directive that we should abridge our desires for the size of our families before demanding the transformation of our energy systems. There is an overdue suspicion of population control, laden with eco-fascist ideas about which populations should be controlled. There is an awareness that a significant chunk of historical emissions can be traced to a few fossil fuel companies. Many people even know that one of these firms popularised the term carbon footprint, an effective metric for making people feel individually responsible for the planet dying of heat stroke.

When it comes to family planning, one series of questions is being eclipsed by another.
So what we found in the worst climatic conditions, fire were still three times less likely in really long unburnt forest than in recently prescribed-burnt areas. The researcher said 43 to 56 years after a fire, a forested area was seven times less likely to carry a bushfire than places that had been burnt more recently. This was because forests had self-thinned as competition among regrowth resulted in less ground cover as individual plants competed for resources. Old growth jarrah with less understorey brush and a section of burnt jarrah forest with dense understorey growth. I think theres a very urgent need that we change our approach to fire management here, Associate Professor Zylstra said.

This management is actively making the landscape more flammable, actively increasing the fire risk, there are ways that by managing country for old-growth forests we can greatly reduce the fire risk in these areas. Associate Professor Zylstra has suggested frequent prescribed burns may be more useful close to assets and homes or to help firefighters stop a burning edge. He also said fire management should be more embracing of traditional Aboriginal fire practices and WA should look at introducing a remote area fire response team, like the one in NSW, which could be dropped in quickly to lightning strike areas to put out blazes before they took off. Parks authority rejects research The DBCA is responsible for 26.9 million hectares of conservation lands including national parks, state forests and other reserves and aims to have at least 45 per cent of fuel across the forest landscape.

This means burning about 200,000 hectares in the South West forests annually and trying to make sure areas have been burnt at least every six years. Loading A spokesperson for the agency said it did not support the conclusions made in the paper from associate Professor Zylstra. A long history of fire research in Australia continues to demonstrate that low intensity prescribed burning reduces the size and potential impacts of bushfires, they said. In Western Australia prescribed burning is the primary means of reducing the level of combustible fuel, and therefore the risk of bushfire to our community and the environment.

This position is supported by peer reviewed research and operational evidence undertaken by the DBCA over several decades. DBCA maintains an active fire research program with a statewide focus building on knowledge gained over more than 60 years through long-term studies and monitoring. Bushfire Front chairman Roger Underwood, a former general manager at DBCA in the 1990s when it was known as the Department of Conservation and Land Management, was also critical of the research which he said was not relevant to good bushfire practice and would lead to dangerous outcomes. Despite what the authors say, there is absolutely no evidence of WA forests, especially the karri forest, becoming less of a fire threat with time since the last fire, he said. What actually happens is that fuel  dry twigs, leaves, branches  accumulates on the forest floor, and continues to do so for decades.

We have studied areas of karri forest that have not been burned for nearly 100 years and they are carrying stupendous fuel loads. The fuel is thigh-deep and if it catches alight on a hot windy day, the resulting bushfire will be impossible to control. Loading Mr Underwood, whose organisation advocates for better fire management in WA, said curtailing the fuel reduction burning program in the South West forests would endanger lives and national parks. Forest management plan under review Fire practices will be one of the issues canvassed in the upcoming Forest Management Plan 2024-33 for the South West, a global biodiversity hotspot, which is going through the consultation stage.

More than one million hectares of land was impacted by fire in the 2021-22 season, which still runs to May. Department of Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Darren Klemm said last month climate change was contributing to the increasing intensity of fires in WA. He said a fire in Denmark, in the most southern part of the state, doubled in size in one night during the fire season. That is just not normal, Mr Klemm said. The intensity of the fire points us towards that things are changing.
London: A humbled Prince William says its for Commonwealth countries to decide if he is ever to lead it, as he acknowledged his eight-day tour of the Caribbean has brought about a sharper focus on the future of the monarchy.

The Duke of Cambridge, the second in line to the throne, said on Sunday he understood he may never succeed the Queen and the Prince of Wales as head of the Commonwealth, as he vowed not to be telling people what to do amid growing republican sentiment throughout the former British Empire.

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge in Great Abaco, the Bahamas on Saturday. Credit:Getty

Breaking with royal protocol, the 39-year-old gave a candid assessment of the couples tour of Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas, which was beset by controversy and diplomatic challenges.

He told reporters as he boarded a plane home that he and wife, Catherine, were committed to service.
As a two-term vice-president, a politician for the last 50 years, and a former chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Joe Biden is no stranger to the drumbeat of war.

He confronted Americas fatigue in Vietnam as a new Senator in the 1970s. He had a front-row seat to geopolitical tensions between the US and the Soviet Union in the 1980s. And he voted against the attack on Iraq during the Gulf War of the 1990s before inheriting the challenges of Syria and Afghanistan several decades later.

US President Joe Biden dramatically escalated his rhetoric against Vladimir Putin. Credit:AP

But Russias invasion of Ukraine has made Biden a slightly different kind of wartime president, as he tries to defeat a ruthless dictator without wanting the US to fire a single attacking shot.

For Gods sake, this man cannot remain in power, Biden said of Russian President Vladimir Putin in a strongly worded speech in Poland today, which concluded a three-day trip to Europe to discuss the war on Ukraine.
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Its that time of year again: The weather is warming up, plants are regaining their colors and bears across the state are peeking their eyes open after a long hibernation.

As the animals come out of their winter rest, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection is reminding residents to take precautions to reduce encounters and potential conflicts with bears.

This includes removing food attractants, such as bird seed, pet food and unsecured garbage, from yards.

DEEP said these steps are becoming increasingly important as the states bear population continues to grow. In 2021, there were about 8,600 reported bear sightings in 156 Connecticut towns.

So far this year, there have been more than 400 reported bear sightings, according to DEEPs public sighting map.

Bears have become more comfortable around humans as they associated items they eat such as birdseed, trash and pet food with people. These food-conditioned bears pose a risk to public safety and often cause property damage to houses, cars, pets and livestock, DEEP said.

Black bears should never be fed  either intentionally or unintentionally, said Jenny Dickson, director of DEEPs Wildlife Division. Bears that are attracted to homes by easily accessible foods lose their fear of humans.

It is important to remember to take down bird feeders by mid- to late March and keep garbage secured and indoors until collection day. Bears that are rewarded by easy meals spend more time in neighborhoods and near people, increasing risks to public safety, the likelihood of property damage, and the possibility that the bears may be hit and killed by vehicles, Dickson said.

Residents should also supervise their pets when they are outside, and use electric fencing to protect chickens, other livestock, beehives, crops and berry bushes.

It is up to all of us to help prevent bears from learning bad behavior, Dickson added.

The reminder comes after a New Milford womans pigs defended their pen from a young bear earlier this month.

If you do encounter a bear while in your yard or hiking, DEEP says to make your presence known by yelling or making other loud noises.

Never attempt to get closer to a bear, the agency says.

If a bear doesnt retreat, slowly leave the area. If youre in your yard, go inside your house, garage or other structure.

If the bear persistently approaches, its time to go on the offensive  shout, wave your arms and throw sticks or rocks. If a dog is with you, it is imperative that you keep the dog on a SHORT leash and DO NOT let it roam free  this is for the safety of your dog, yourself and the bear, DEEP says.

For more tips on how to reduce a bear encounter, visit DEEPs online guide to Living with Black Bears.

To report a bear sighting, visit https://Portal.CT.gov/DEEP/Wildlife/Report-a-Wildlife-Sighting or send an email to DEEP.Wildlife@CT.gov. If you report a bear sighting, include information on whether the bear has ear tags, including the tag number or color.

If a bear damages your property, or you have questions about bears, contact DEEPs Wildlife Division at 860-424-3011.

In the rare instance that a bear appears to be aggressive or there is a public safety concern involving a bear, contact DEEPs Environmental Conservation Police at 860-424-3333.
LONDON (AP)  As Caribbean nations debate their relationship with the British crown, Prince William says he will support and respect whatever decision the people make.

FILE - Britain's Prince William smiles during a visit to Microsoft HQ to learn how new AI scanning technology can increase detection of illegal wildlife products being trafficked through international airports, in Reading, England, Nov. 18, 2021. Prince William says he will support and respect whatever decision the people make as Caribbean nations debate their relationship with the British crown. William made the comments after an eight-day tour of Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas that ended March 26, 2022. (Steve Parsons/Pool Photo via AP, File)

LONDON (AP)  As Caribbean nations debate their relationship with the British crown, Prince William says he will support and respect whatever decision the people make.

William, second in line to the throne, made the comments after an eight-day tour of Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas during which he and wife Kate were celebrated but also criticized as being "tone deaf" for perpetuating images of Britains colonial rule. Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness told the royals his country intended to become a republic, removing the British monarch as its head of state.

"I know that this tour has brought into even sharper focus questions about the past and the future," William said in a statement reflecting the end of their tour on Saturday. "In Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas, that future is for the people to decide upon."

The young royals visited the three nations as representatives of Queen Elizabeth II, who celebrates the 70th anniversary of her reign this year. During those seven decades she has been the head of state for the United Kingdom and 14 "realms" that were once colonies of the British Empire and are now independent countries.

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The royal couple was greeted by protesters demanding an apology for the role Britain played in the enslavement of millions of Africans and reparations for the damage caused by slavery. During a speech in Jamaica, William expressed his "profound sorrow" for slavery but stopped short of offering an apology.

William recognized the changing nature of the connections between Britain and its former colonies during a speech Friday night in Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas.

"We support with pride and respect your decisions about your future," William said. "Relationships evolve. Friendship endures."

Whatever the former colonies decide about their continuing relationship with the crown, William said he wanted to continue serving them through the Commonwealth, a voluntary association of 54 countries with historical links to Britain. The queen has been head of the Commonwealth throughout her reign and Prince Charles, Williams father, is her designated successor.

William recognized that he may not follow in their footsteps.

"Who the Commonwealth chooses to lead its family in the future isnt what is on my mind," he said. "What matters to us is the potential the Commonwealth family has to create a better future for the people who form it, and our commitment to serve and support as best we can."
ROME - An air of anticipation filled Indigenous delegates as their long flight from Montreal landed in Rome early Sunday morning ahead of planned meetings with Pope Francis.

Taylor Behn-Tsakoza, a youth representative from Fort Nelson First Nation, looks on as she arrives in Rome, Italy, Sunday, March 27, 2022. Behn-Tsakoza says the conversations shes shared with survivors on the plane to Rome has left her humbled. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Kelly Geraldine Malone

ROME - An air of anticipation filled Indigenous delegates as their long flight from Montreal landed in Rome early Sunday morning ahead of planned meetings with Pope Francis.

"We are here because of our family, our family that has been uprooted, displaced and also relocated," said Chief Gerald Antoine, the Assembly of First Nations delegation lead.

"It's been a long journey. Finally, we are coming here to bring their message here."

The 32 Indigenous delegates may have different expectations heading into their upcoming meetings with the head of the Roman Catholic Church, but it's clear they all feel it is an important moment in history.

Antoine said sitting with friends, family, survivors and youth during the long journey from different parts of Canada to Italy provided support and unity.

"It was really good to see each other again and talk about our own anticipation for the trip," Antoine said.

Metis delegates will be the first to sit down with Pope Francis on Monday morning, followed by Inuit delegates later in the afternoon.

First Nations delegates will meet with the pontiff on Thursday. All three groups of delegates will then gather with the Pope on Friday for a much more public meeting that the Vatican expects to livestream on its website.

"I am excited I think ... to actually be here. It's like it just reassures you it's happening," said Taylor Behn-Tsakoza, a youth representative from British Columbia's Fort Nelson First Nation.

She said it feels momentous to actually be in Rome, especially since the delegation's original dates in December were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Behn-Tsakoza said the conversations she's shared with survivors on the journey have left her humbled.

"It's their strength and their perseverance, the reason why we are here," she said.

About 170 people are taking part in the journey to the Vatican. Beyond the official delegates, there are family members and others to provide support. There are also staff for the Assembly of First Nations, Metis National Council and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami.

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops organized the delegation, and will have a handful of bishops attending.

The delegates split into two buses to make their way from the airport to the hotel where they were set to spend most of Sunday resting and preparing for the week's meetings.

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In one bus, with Antoine as a passenger, the driver pointed out landmarks and historical buildings on the route. When the bus turned onto a road named for Christopher Columbus, the driver called him a "great Italian man."

It spurred a round of boos in the bus along with laughter as the Indigenous delegates acknowledged they were not the right crowd for celebrations of the Italian explorer.

During the week delegates will also get to visit the Vatican's museums, see collections of Indigenous art, and tour Assisi, the birthplace of St Francis, one of Italy's most famous patron saints.

The theme of the delegation is Walking Together Toward Healing and Reconciliation. Each Indigenous group will get a private hour-long meeting with the Pope. They have all expressed different intentions of what they will do with that time.

But they have all shared their expectation that Francis will commit to apologizing for the Catholic Church's role in residential schools. The Vatican, for its part, has said the Pope is open to a visit to Canada.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 27, 2022.
WINNIPEG - Early signs of spring and a pot full of chili greet several young people as they make their way into a boardroom in downtown Winnipeg one recent Tuesday evening.

Jonathan Skrypnyk, back left to right, Rose Fontaine, Cheryl Alexander, Alexandra Guemili, front left to right, Cherice Liebrecht, Feven Denber, Isabelle Young, Zachary Ricketts, and Michelle Kowalchuk pose for a photo in the podcast studio. The Youth Ambassador Advisory Squad works with the office of the Manitoba advocate for children and youths and is seen gathered for an in person meeting in Winnipeg on Tuesday, March 15, 2022. The group helps guide the work the office does when it comes to advocating for better resources and services for youth in the province. THE CANADIAN PRESS/David Lipnowski

WINNIPEG - Early signs of spring and a pot full of chili greet several young people as they make their way into a boardroom in downtown Winnipeg one recent Tuesday evening.

The eight come from various backgrounds. Some are from Manitoba First Nations communities. Some are from the city. Some are in high school. Others are navigating the new freedom that comes with adulthood.

They would not have been likely to meet had past circumstances not brought them together. It's a desire to push and create change for youth that keeps them connected.

Several years ago, the office of Manitoba's children and youth advocate was looking to attract youth to actively participate in its work. In 2018, the Youth Ambassador Advisory Squad was formed. It consists of three staff from the office and roughly a dozen young people. They meet biweekly in person and, during the pandemic, online.

Cleche Kokolo, 21, says the advocate's office walks the talk. "The role of youth in (the squad) is not tokenistic," she says.

"Youth are experts, especially in their own lives. That expertise is just as valuable as an adult with years of education in a specific field," says Kokolo of Winnipeg. "That's key if we're really going to try and change society and envision a world that's better than the world we currently have."

The squad was inspired by what other provincial children's advocates were doing with similar groups,says acting Manitoba advocate Ainsley Krone. The office was told to "just start it" with input from youth on what was meaningful for them.

Krone says the goal was to develop something beyond an advisory group.

"We wanted to empower these young people to become ambassadors for the office throughout the province."

What has developed is a relationship in which squad members help guide the work of the advocate, while the office provides training and cultural activities that interest the group.

Meetings start with people rating their day and sharing something for which they are grateful. It's a simple gesture but is the foundation of what the meetings are meant to offer  a safe and welcoming space.

"When (the squad) comes together, we don't filter things," youth engagement coordinator Jonathan Skrypnyk tells the group.

Rose Fontaine, 22, says she's grateful for the way things are going at her job. The self-described shy young woman is from the Sagkeeng First Nation but lives in Winnipeg. She says the squad gives a chance to open up in a way she hasn't been able to elsewhere.

"I was able ... to share what's going on in my head and that made me want to come back," she recalls about her first meeting. "I like to talk about things other people don't like talking about. This gives me the space to talk about what other people don't understand."

The welcoming and accepting environment has made it easy, as well, for Isabelle Young, 20, from the Bloodvein First Nation, but also living in Winnipeg.

"(The adults) treat us as if we're people. We're not just some immature little youth. Even if we kind of are, they still treat us as if we're young adults. We're just people (here)."

Squad members each have had their own dealings with child welfare, disabilities, mental health and justice.

For Michelle Kowalchuk, including the young people is paramount.

"We're trying to understand from those young people who've had experiences in those services what could be better, what their experience was like and what needs to change," said Kowalchuk, manager for advocacy services and youth engagement.

"Without that lived experience it's a little more hypothetical."

Squad members have shared their ideas with government officials. The group recently met with the Ministry of Education to talk about different Indigenous inclusion strategies. They've also met with and provided feedback to Families Minister Rochelle Squires.

Charice Liebrecht, 23, another member from Winnipeg, says being in the squad allows her to be involved with something bigger than herself.

"I'm so proud I was honest," she said about meeting with Squires. "Nothing changes if we pretend everything's great."

The advocate's office recently sought insight from two male members during an investigation into the lives of boys who died by suicide or homicide. Michael Breland and Trevor Merasty created a music video reflecting on their lives.

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The squad also organized a mural last year called the Re-Right Project. It highlights the 42 rights laid out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Looking ahead, Krone hopes to develop a youth advisory group in the northern office in Thompson.

"Really the sky's the limit on what (the squad) can get up to in the next few years."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 27, 2022.

___

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.
BERLIN (AP)  Before Russia's war in Ukraine, Europes most pressing energy policy goal was reducing carbon emissions that cause climate change.

BERLIN (AP)  Before Russia's war in Ukraine, Europes most pressing energy policy goal was reducing carbon emissions that cause climate change.

Now, officials are fixated on rapidly reducing the continent's reliance on Russian oil and natural gas  and that means friction between security and climate goals, at least in the short term.

To wean itself from Russian energy supplies as quickly as possible, Europe will need to burn more coal and build more pipelines and terminals to import fossil fuels from elsewhere.

This dramatic shift comes amid soaring fuel costs for motorists, homeowners and businesses, and as political leaders reassess the geopolitical risks from being so energy-dependent on Russia.

In 2021, the European Union imported roughly 40% of its gas and 25% of its oil from Russia  an economic relationship that officials had thought would prevent hostilities, but is instead financing them.

While some are calling for an immediate boycott of all Russian oil and gas, the EU plans to reduce Russian gas imports by two-thirds by the end of this year, and to eliminate them altogether before 2030.

This will not be easy, said Paolo Gentiloni, the EU's top economic official. But, he added, it can be done.

In the near-term, ending energy ties with Russia puts the focus on securing alternative sources of fossil fuels. But longer term, the geopolitical and price pressures stoked by Russia's war in Ukraine may actually accelerate Europe's transition away from oil, gas and coal.

Experts say the war has served as a reminder that renewable energy isn't just good for the climate, but also for national security. That could help speed up the development of wind and solar power, as well as provide a boost to conservation and energy-efficiency initiatives.

The EU has pledged to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 55% compared with 1990 levels by 2030, and to get to net zero emissions by 2050. Analysts and officials say those goals, enshrined in EU climate legislation, can still be met.

The rapid pursuit of energy independence from Russia will likely require a slight increase in carbon emissions, said George Zachmann, an energy expert at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels. But "in the long term, the effect will be that we will see more investment in renewables and energy efficiency in Europe, Zachmann said.

Plans that wouldn't have been contemplated just a few months ago are now being actively discussed, such as running coal plants in Germany beyond 2030, which had previously been seen as an end date.

Germanys vice chancellor and energy minister, Robert Habeck, said there should be no taboos.

The Czech government has made the same calculation about extending the life of coal power plants.

We will need it until we find alternative sources," Czech energy security commissioner Vaclav Bartuska, told the news site Seznam Zpravy. Until that time, even the greenest government will not phase out coal.

One of Europe's top priorities is to buy more liquefied natural gas that can come by ship. On Friday, American and European officials announced a plan under which the U.S. and other nations will increase liquefied gas exports to Europe this year, though U.S. officials were unable to say exactly which countries will provide the extra energy this year.

Germany, which lacks import terminals to turn LNG back into gas when it comes off the ship, is pushing ahead with two multibillion-euro projects on its North Sea coast.

The war also has revived Spain's interest in extending a gas pipeline across the Pyrenees to France. The 450 million-euro ($500 million) project had been abandoned in 2019 after France showed little interest and a European feasibility study deemed it unprofitable and unnecessary. If built, it would allow gas imported in Spain and Portugal as LNG to reach other parts of Europe.

In Britain, which is no longer part of the EU, Prime Minister Boris Johnson says it's time to take back control of our energy supplies."

Britain will phase out the small amount of oil it imports from Russia this year. More significantly, Johnson has signaled plans to approve new oil and gas exploration in the North Sea, to the dismay of environmentalists, who say that is incompatible with Britains climate targets.

Some within the governing Conservative Party and the wider political right want the British government to retreat on its commitment to reach net zero by 2050, a pledge made less than six months ago at a global climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland. Conservative Party co-chairman Oliver Dowden said last week that British people want to see a bit of conservative pragmatism, not net zero dogma.

Yet the shock waves from the war cut both ways.

Sharply higher gas and electricity prices, and the desire to be less dependent on Russia, are increasing pressure to expand the development of home-grown renewables and to propel conservation.

The International Energy Agency recently released a 10-point plan for Europe to reduce its dependence on Russian gas by a third within a year. Simply lowering building thermostats by an average of one degree Celsius during the home-heating season would save 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year, or roughly 6% of what Europe imports from Russia.

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At the German rooftop solar panel company Zolar, chief executive Alex Melzer said there has been a surge of inquiries from potential customers since the war began.

With the Ukraine crisis, weve really seen that people are wondering whether Germany is going to stop buying oil and gas from Russia and whats going to happen to our electricity and energy system, he told The Associated Press.

Melzer said customers are less interested in saving the planet than in saving money, despite the upfront investment of 20,000 euros ($22,000). But it amounts to the same thing: a reduction in fossil fuel use and thereby emissions.

Goal achieved, super, he said.

___

Aritz Parra reported from Madrid, and Jill Lawless from London.
OTTAWA - The International Committee of the Red Cross is asking Canada not to mix promises of humanitarian aid in with announcements about military support and sanctions when it comes to Russias invasion of Ukraine.

A damaged building and car after recent shelling, in the center of Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, March 27, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP/Efrem Lukatsky

OTTAWA - The International Committee of the Red Cross is asking Canada not to mix promises of humanitarian aid in with announcements about military support and sanctions when it comes to Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Lumping promises of humanitarian assistance with military support for Ukraine and sanctions against Russia threatens the neutrality that aid groups require to safely operate there and elsewhere, said ICRC director of operations Dominik Stillhart.

When you communicate publicly, dont lump humanitarian action together with the rest of the support for political reasons that you offer to Ukraine, Stillhart said in an interview on Sunday.

The danger is that humanitarian action may be perceived as a tool or as a weapon in supporting one side or the other.

While Stillhart did not identify any specific examples, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday announced $50 million in additional humanitarian aid for Ukraine alongside new sanctions against 160 Russian officials.

Canada has so far committed about $180 million in humanitarian and development assistance to Ukraine since January, with $32 million directed toward the ICRC and Stillhart predicting more to come in the near future.

Stillhart said his organization is grateful for Canadas contribution. At the same time, he said understands the government wants to show support for Ukrainians in their time of need, and that he is not criticizing it for having picked a side in the conflict.

But what is important is that humanitarian action is not lumped into the war effort, he said. There is always a bit of a tendency to say: Our country is helping militarily in Ukraine, delivering weapons and humanitarian aid.

Asked about the ICRC's concerns, International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan's office declined to comment on Sunday.

ICRC president Peter Maurer was in Moscow last week to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for discussions around the protection of civilians in Ukraine. The visit followed a similar stop in Kyiv for meetings with Ukrainian officials.

While the ICRC has since seen questions about Maurers visit to Moscow, including from members of Canadas large Ukrainian diaspora, Stillhart said the ability to talk to both sides is critical to protecting lives.

For them, it's obviously hard to understand because they feel they are being aggressed and neutrality is a difficult concept if you if you are being aggressed, Stillhart said.

And yet it is important, decidedly also for the Ukrainian diaspora here, to understand that by remaining neutral in a conflict, it allows you to operate precisely in the most difficult places.

Stillhart nonetheless acknowledged that Russia in particular has refused to co-operate when it comes to ensuring the delivery of humanitarian aid and evacuation of civilians from Mariupol and other cities besieged by Russian forces in Ukraine.

I would wish to see more co-operation on both sides, but especially also from the Russian side, he said. There is zero trust, but we need to see more co-operation from both sides, and I will say mostly from the Russian side.

Russia has been accused of deliberately targeting civilians, particularly as what was supposed to have been a quick invasion has turned into a slog marked by heavy losses as a result of poor planning and a spirited defence by Ukrainian forces.

Stillhart painted a harrowing picture of ICRC teams trying without success to evacuate civilians on several occasions, only to be turned around and sent running back for cover as a result of shelling and other attacks.

We had shells landing less than 50 metres from the road where we started to accompany a convoy out of Mariupol and it just had to turn around because it was not safe, he said.

The ICRC has since pulled its staff from Mariupol, the besieged city in Ukraines southeast where an estimated 100,000 Ukrainians remain trapped even as Russian artillery and rocket attacks continue pounding it into rubble.

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This team also ran out of food, water ... spent quite some time in shelters with families sheltering with them, he said. And they finally just couldn't stand it anymore and had to find their way out. The testimonies are really frightening.

Trudeau on Sunday visited two Ukrainian churches in Montreal, where he thanked volunteers who have been helping refugees from Ukraine while sending money and other support back to the country.

The prime minister said the government will continue to put pressure and sanctions against Russia, and to send help to Ukraine.

Ukrainians are not just fighting for Ukraine, and for your culture, language and history, but also fighting for all democracies at the same time, he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 27, 2022.

 with a report from Virginie Ann in Montreal.
OTTAWA  Manitobas Liberal and NDP MPs have largely welcomed last weeks deal that could extend the Trudeau minority government to 2025, with some expressing reservations.

OTTAWA  Manitobas Liberal and NDP MPs have largely welcomed last weeks deal that could extend the Trudeau minority government to 2025, with some expressing reservations.

"People are anxious about the instability worldwide, and that includes people in Manitoba," said Liberal MP Jim Carr, who represents Winnipeg South Centre.

The Free Press requested interviews with the four Liberals and three NDP MPs representing Manitoba, for their thoughts on the agreement announced last Tuesday.

The deal will have the New Democrats prop up the Liberals in confidence votes, in exchange for a dental care program and commitments on issues like reconciliation.

Some of the NDP were lukewarm about the deal.

"Winnipeg Centre residents need pharmacare and dental care, and nothing precludes me from fighting for other human-rights needs in my riding, including housing," said Winnipeg Centre MP Leah Gazan.

SEAN KILPATRICK / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES Winnipeg Centre MP Leah Gazan refused to say whether she trusts the Liberals to deliver.

She gave the same response four times, when asked whether the deal is enough for housing or reconciliation, and she refused to say whether she trusts the Liberals to deliver. "Well see how it goes," she said.

Northern Manitoba MP Niki Ashton was not available for an interview Thursday or Friday, but wrote that shell push for more housing and climate action.

"We saw in the pandemic the importance of speaking up and working together to get results," Ashton wrote.

"We have to make sure Parliament and this agreement work for Indigenous peoples, Northerners and all Manitobans."

Elmwood-Transcona MP Daniel Blaikie was more enthusiastic, saying the deal should compel the Liberals to stick with some promises and take on new ones.

DAVID KAWAI / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES Elmwood-Transcona NDP MP Daniel Blaikie said the NDP will still push the Liberals on issues like higher taxes on the wealthy as well as companies that have seen a pandemic boom.

"Ive always said that were coming to Ottawa to fight for the things that we think are good for the country," said Blaikie, who will be a key player in the arrangement as the NDPs finance critic.

"I had a mix of skepticism and hopefulness, and both those things continue to be true."

Blaikie said the NDP will still push the Liberals on issues like higher taxes on the wealthy as well as companies that have seen a pandemic boom.

Still, he argues the world is so turbulent that a promise for more certainty is not just political spin.

He noted that "games of political chicken" have kiboshed popular government initiatives. He didnt allude to examples, but the NDP toppled the Martin government in a 2005 confidence vote, thus killing a Liberal childcare plan.

"In a minority parliament, sometimes the posturing of political parties can paint everyone into a corner, and suddenly you have an outcome that wasnt what anyone wanted."

Blaikie noted that most Canadians did not want last falls snap election, and elected an almost identical Commons to what they had two years prior. He said the policies in the March 22 deal might help stem the anger that is fuelling far-right populism.

"This is an attempt to say: what does a different way forward look like, and how do we get to a place where a majority of parliamentarians are committed to a more cooperative model."

Winnipeg Liberals were triumphant.

"Theres a lot of important work to be done, and well now have the ability to get that work done, without all the uncertainty of a minority government  and well have to be accountable for it," said Carr.

"Well find alignment, but not in every case, and there will be lots of opportunity for the NDP to oppose the government."

Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal, who represents St. Boniface-St. Vital, argued most Winnipeggers voted for parties with similar views on climate, reconciliation and housing.

"The NDP want to bring forward dental care and pharmacare; Id vote for dental care in one minute, if it came up," he said.

Vandal argued that the deal preserves the Liberals 2019 and 2021 election pledges, and that his party is more apt at executing on promises than the NDP.

"Weve got to be realistic; weve got to do it under a sustainable fiscal framework, and thats what were going to do."

Winnipeg North MP Kevin Lamoureux said the agreement will allow more progress in a Parliament that seemed to be headed for the same "dysfunctional" gridlock that the Liberals cited to justify a snap election, although opposition parties instead argue the government has been heavy-handed and opaque.

"It was quickly devolving to a state it was in a year ago, which was not necessarily a good sign," said Lamoureux, who, among MPs, spends some of the most time sitting in the Commons.

"Canadians want to see political parties working together (which) doesnt mean opposition constantly working together to constantly beat up on the government and makes things difficult."

Lamoureux said hed like his party to do more on pharmacare, and hopes the NDP pushes his team toward more action.

Winnipeg South MP Terry Duguid echoed his colleagues.

WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES I dont think Manitobans want an election any time soon, said Liberal MP Terry Duguid.

"I dont think Manitobans want an election any time soon," he said.

"Lord knows that we need stability, coming out of COVID, the war in Ukraine and the climate crisis."

As news of the deal broke last Monday night, Conservative interim leader Candice Bergen called it an NDP-Liberal coalition (despite a coalition requiring New Democrats to actually join cabinet).

"Right now all I can think is: God help us all," tweeted Bergen, the MP for Portage-Lisgar, who feared even larger government deficits.

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ADRIAN WYLD / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES Right now all I can think is: God help us all, tweeted Conservative Party interim Leader Candice Bergen.

The chair of the Tories Manitoba caucus said hes concerned about his partys role as official opposition, since the deal promises the NDP exclusive briefings on upcoming legislation, instead of all parties learning details when bills get tabled.

"I dont think its serving our democracy any good, and I dont think its serving those parties, or Canadians," said Dan Mazier, MP for the Dauphin area.

"Theyre trying to offer people assurance things are going to operate normally in the House of Commons and democracy. Well, this just flies in the face of all of that," he said.

"Its all lip service."

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
Andy Maxwell would still be suffering like thousands of other Manitobans if he hadnt gone out of province  and paid out of his own pocket  for two separate surgeries.

Andy Maxwell would still be suffering like thousands of other Manitobans if he hadnt gone out of province  and paid out of his own pocket  for two separate surgeries.

And hes furious the province wont reimburse him for his full costs, especially since it couldnt provide the surgeries itself.

"I paid into the system for 30, 40 years, whatever it was, and when I need it, it wasnt there for me," said the 72-year-old.

Maxwell travelled to Alberta twice last year for two separate hip replacement surgeries, which cost him $28,000 each.

"I wouldve paid anything just to get mobile again and out of pain," he said.

Maxwell said the province reimbursed him for $2,448.06 for his first procedure  and nothing for his second.

More Manitobans are paying out of pocket for medical care outside of the province as the number of surgeries and tests delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic continues to grow.

Last week, Doctors Manitoba reported the surgical wait list had climbed to almost 55,000 cases, while the number of delayed tests and procedures had surpassed 113,000.

After facing a barrage of criticism, the province announced late last year it had established a surgical and diagnostic task force to address the backlog, but an in-person update hasnt been provided in about two months.

Health Minister Audrey Gordon told the Free Press on March 22 an update would be provided this week.

Max Johnson, who flew to Lithuania in November for a left knee replacement surgery, is also livid about the provincial governments unwillingness to cover his costs.

Before the surgery, he was unable to move from one room to another to make a cup of tea, he said.

When he returned to Canada after his procedure, he requested reimbursement for his $14,431.85 medical bill.

"I actually sent three letters to them, and I finally got, frankly, an insulting form letter back from them that said no," Johnson said. "And I can tell its a form letter because it neither addressed the issues that I raised, nor answered the questions I raised."

Johnson said that infuriated him. He said that while he had the resources to travel to access private health care, many others do not.

"The principle is being enshrined that only those with resources can actually get their medical problems dealt with. And I have a real problem with that," the 65-year-old said, adding that he will appeal the provinces refuse to pay.

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Johnson and Maxwell both stressed how debilitating and painful knee or hip problems can be (Johnson has had both replaced). They both said waiting in that state of disability for years was not a viable option.

Johnson said its not a good economic option for the province either.

"In the year after I had my hip replaced, I paid more in income tax in Manitoba than the cost of the hip, because I could work again," he said. "Nobody talks about that you have a whole bunch of crippled people sitting there, economically inactive, often taking and costing resources while they wait."

Johnson said about 20 people have contacted him about his decision to seek private care abroad. He said at least six of those people have decided not to wait for surgery in Manitoba.

Maxwell and Johnson have been in touch and are considering launching a civil lawsuit against the province.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca
Most of the time I think that some of the things that political scientists and smart journalists are teaching are getting through. And then, sometimes, we get something like this from an unnamed member of the committee of the House of Representatives thats investigating the assault on the U.S. Capitol of Jan. 6, 2021. Speaking about the report the committees preparing, the lawmaker said, Theres one-third of the nation that will read it, one-third that might read it, and one-third that wont even believe it.

So the committee thinks that its potential audience is two-thirds of the nation? A third of the nation wouldnt read a 600-word statement from a newly emerged divinity explaining what the new era of peace and enlightenment was going to be like. Even if it was illustrated with  well, Ill leave that to your imagination. Theres no way  no way  that anything like a third of the nation, let alone two out of three people, is going to read the Jan. 6 report.

This doesnt mean the report is useless. For one thing, quite a few opinion leaders will familiarize themselves with the highlights, and some will actually read it, and what they learn from it will filter out to the public. Still, the public has two important defenses against absorbing new information. One is various degrees of inattentiveness; few people pay close attention to the news, and some hardly notice even major events. The other is partisanship. The committees findings are certain to reflect badly on former President Donald Trump, so partisan Democrats will be eager to accept and remember those findings, while partisan Republicans will resist them.

Even if those who pay the closest attention to politics, including party and media elites, study and learn from the report, its still not clear what effects will follow.

The committee has apparently been studying how the national commission on terrorist attacks put together its excellent 2004 report on the events of Sept. 11, 2001, which did in fact hit the best seller list. Putting aside the question of how many people who bought that report actually read it, the more relevant question is what difference it made  and the answer is that its impact was extremely limited. And that commission was designed to yield policy suggestions that at least in theory were unknown when it started its work.

The more useful parallels for the Jan. 6 committee would be the Senate Watergate committee, which reported its findings in 1974, and the joint congressional Iran-contra committees work 13 years later, and neither of those really had influential reports.

The House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack has pushed its public hearings back again and again, now to sometime in May  that is, some 16 months after the insurrection and Trumps final attempts to subvert the 2020 presidential election. The panel is reportedly still unsure of the the structure or topic of those hearings.

Theres simply no good excuse for this. Both the delay and the obsessive focus on the report instead of full public hearings are mistakes. (The committee took testimony last year from the law-enforcement officials who repelled the attack, but hasnt followed up in public.) Its easy to overstate the potential of hearings, which are subject to some of the same inattentiveness and partisan screens that limit the impact of the report. Even the Senate Watergate hearings were only part of what eventually produced President Richard Nixons resignation. And those were the most successful such hearings in the TV era. Whats more, they took place at a low point in partisanship, and at the peak of the dominance of the broadcast TV networks and their news departments.

But hearings at least have a chance. Live testimony can produce great TV. And while even a successful rollout of a report will be hard to keep in the news for more than a few days, a series of hearings can produce weeks of developments. That includes the possibility that committee members could become characters in a national drama, just as Senator Sam Ervin and others became in 1973.

The structure of the committee  its small, with two Republicans who are strong Trump opponents  gives it advantages in presenting what it wants to present and how. Live hearings cant dominate the media landscape the way they could 50 years ago, but even then the live audience was only a piece of how information was disseminated. Now? A fair number of people still watch the broadcast network news and the broadcast network morning shows. Those who dont may see clips on social media.

Its an uphill battle, but hearings have a chance to make a dent in public awareness and even opinion. If there are going to be high-level prosecutions, which is a choice the Justice Department and not the committee will make, public hearings could set the stage for them. If not, they might convince those who do pay attention that what Trump and his allies did was important and a threat to the nation.

By waiting this long to start those hearings, the committee has already made that uphill battle harder. Still, the sooner the better, even at this point. And while a full report is certainly worth doing, especially given that new information may show up after the hearings end, the last thing anyone should expect is that the report will be drive public opinion.

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics and policy. He taught political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio and DePauw University and wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.

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A Baraboo man was charged with repeated first-degree sexual assault of a child last week in Sauk County Circuit Court.

Austin D. Jordan, 19, faces a maximum of 40 years in prison and 20 years of extended supervision for the felony count of repeated sexual assault of the same child. The offense dictates that Jordan allegedly committed at least three violations of first-degree sexual assault between 2013 and 2019.

During his initial appearance Tuesday, Circuit Court Judge Patricia Barrett set Jordans bond at $5,000 cash with the conditions that he have no contact with two specific children or the mother of the child Jordan is accused of assaulting. Jordan is also prohibited from having any unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 18 and is not allowed to leave the state without permission from the court.

According to the criminal complaint, the child told an interviewer Jordan began the assaults in 2013, when the child was 6 years old. The last assault the child recalled happened in late 2019.

During the interview, the child said Jordan also frequently played pornography while the two were alone and offered bribes, such as money and toys, in exchange for sexually assaulting the child.

Jordan is scheduled to return to court this week on Thursday for a preliminary hearing.

Follow Bridget on Twitter @cookebridget or contact her at 608-745-3513.

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Temperatures are warming up, the ground is beginning to thaw and spring has officially arrived  that means Wisconsins other second season is nearly here: construction season.

The frozen road declaration, which means different weight restrictions for transport, has already ended in certain parts of the state. Soon enough, orange cones will start popping up as construction workers take advantage of the milder weather to complete road projects.

This construction season, after Republicans made substantial investments in the states transportation budget, our local governments are well-positioned to tackle many of their road priorities. One of our key investments was an additional $100 million for the local roads supplemental grant program. This program reimburses municipalities for up to 90% of costs associated with a road project  ensuring that important road safety projects of all sizes are being completed in a timely manner.

Additionally, we increased funds for general transportation aids, which are also paid to local governments to assist in road maintenance, improvements and the construction of county, city, village and town roads. These funds are critical to ensuring that our residents can safely get to school, work and the grocery store.

Local roads are an important part of our infrastructure, but highways make sure our communities stay connected and keep goods moving throughout our state. Our budget provided a record amount for the state highway rehabilitation program. Republicans in the legislature provided substantially more funding than proposed by Gov. Tony Evers, while also reducing bonding in the program so that future generations arent stuck with the bill.

Meanwhile, we built in long-term funding solutions, to help stabilize the transportation fund for years to come. Our budget increased the transfer from the general fund to the transportation fund each year going forward, so that, as cars become more fuel efficient and electric cars become more accessible, our transportation fund has a variety of reliable funding sources.

While former Gov. Jim Doyles raid of Wisconsins transportation fund significantly set us back, Republicans have made meaningful investments in recent budgets to catch us up. With planning for upcoming construction projects already underway, Wisconsin residents can see how our investments will be utilized in their communities through the 511 WI Projects webpage or on their local municipalitys website.

Construction season can be a time of frustration for many Wisconsin residents, as road closures can cause delays, but it is critically important to be aware of road workers. As orange barrels start popping up, I encourage you to pay extra attention to those working, get rid of distractions, and reduce your speed in work zones. In the meantime, lets embrace the warmer weather as an early signal that summer will soon be here.

Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, represents the 29th Assembly District in the Wisconsin Legislation.
BEIJING, March 26 (Xinhua)  Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Vanuatu's counterpart, Tallis Obed Moses, on Saturday exchanged congratulatory messages to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the two countries' diplomatic relations.

In his message, Xi said that since China and Vanuatu established diplomatic ties 40 years ago, bilateral relations have been tested by the changing international situation, political mutual trust between the two countries has been ever deepening, and bilateral exchanges and cooperation in various fields have yielded fruitful results, bringing tangible benefits to people of the two countries.

The two countries have helped each other and fought side by side against the COVID-19 pandemic, which has deepened their friendship, Xi said, adding that China-Vanuatu relations have become an example of mutual respect, solidarity and coordination between developing countries.

Xi stressed that he attaches great importance to the development of China-Vanuatu relations, saying that he is ready to work with Moses to take the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations as a new starting point to deepen and expand bilateral dialogue, exchanges and cooperation in various fields so as to push the China-Vanuatu comprehensive strategic partnership to a new level for the benefits of the two countries and their people.

For his part, Moses said China has been an important partner for development as well as a permanent and reliable friend of Vanuatu in the past 40 years.

Vanuatu firmly adheres to the one-China policy and looks forward to taking the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Vanuatu and China as an opportunity to constantly push forward bilateral relations, he said.

Moses said he would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Communist Party of China (CPC) on its great achievements since its founding more than 100 years ago and wish the 20th CPC National Congress a great success.

Also on Saturday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Vanuatu's Prime Minister Bob Loughman exchanged congratulatory messages.

In his message, Li said the Chinese side attaches great importance to the development of China-Vanuatu ties, and stands ready to work with Vanuatu to take the 40th anniversary of bilateral ties as an opportunity to enhance the synergy of the two countries' development strategies and tap the potential of practical cooperation, so as to push for new and even greater development of China-Vanuatu relations.

In his message, Loughman said Vanuatu highly values the two countries' comprehensive strategic partnership, cherishes their fruitful cooperation, and sincerely appreciates China's continuous support for its national development.

Vanuatu is willing to work with China to expand cooperation within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative and enhance coordination in multilateral areas in order to continuously deepen the two countries' relations.

(Source: Xinhua)
A truck loads containers at Tangshan Port, north China's Hebei Province, April 16, 2021. [Photo by Li Lei/Xinhua]

BEIJING, March 26 (Xinhua)  Economic growth has little meaning unless it can give people a better life. China takes aim at a 5.5-percent growth target for 2022, vowing to create more than 11 million urban jobs and place development and people's livelihoods front and center.

As Chinese President Xi Jinping has said, "To meet people's desire for a happy life is our mission."

The people-centered approach, embodied in Xi's economic thought widely known as "Xiconomics," is charting course for China's high-quality growth and common development of all nations through win-win cooperation.

An embroiderer introduces materials for ethnic clothing to a customer at her garment factory in Kaili, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Jan. 30, 2022. [Xinhua/Yang Wenbin]

Meeting People's Needs

"What we now face is the contradiction between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people's ever-growing needs for a better life," Xi said at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2017.

From meeting people's growing material and cultural needs to delivering a better life to all Chinese people, as Xi has stressed that "Putting people first is our fundamental philosophy of governance."

"The thought, which creatively combines the aspiration of human beings for a better life with the practice of people-oriented development, is of global influence," said Australian economist Guo Shengxiang.

To meet the people's desire for a happy life is a challenge for governments worldwide, particularly at a time when the international community is struggling to reduce the development gap, and prevent environmental degradation.

In this regard, the Chinese president stressed efforts to unswervingly pursue high-quality development and improve the people's well-being.

By drawing a blueprint for China's development, Xi is leading the country along the path for high-quality growth and towards building a modern economic system and promoting common development.

Guided by his economic thought, China's economy is contributing to building an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world that boasts lasting peace, universal security and common prosperity with better products, better services and a bigger market.

Xi's economic philosophy is full of oriental wisdom and is conducive to the development of the world, noted Honson To, chairman of KPMG China and Asia Pacific.

"It is an advanced thought that suits China's national conditions and the development trend of the world," he said.

Aerial photo shows a China-Europe freight train bound for Helsinki, Finland departing from Putian Station of Zhengzhou, central China's Henan Province, Nov. 20, 2020. [Xinhua/Hao Yuan]

Boosting Common Development

From China's growth to the common development of countries worldwide, Xi's economic thought addresses the needs and difficulties of global development through cooperation frameworks such as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Global Development Initiative.

"We need to have the vision to dissect these problems; more importantly, we need to have the courage to take actions to address them," Xi said at the 2017 World Economic Forum.

In carrying out foreign economic and trade cooperation, China has taken into full consideration the needs and development interests of its partners.

"China's train is the most beautiful ... We will have the same train soon in our country," said Khamphet Keomixay, a Lao pupil who participated in a sub-forum on people-to-people exchanges during the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing in 2019.

Keomixay's dream came true when the China-Laos Railway was put into operation in 2021. The railway, which connects Kunming, the capital city of southwestern China's Yunnan Province, and Vientiane, the capital of Laos, ushered in a bright prospect for the development of both countries and the Southeast Asia.

From the China-Laos Railway to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, from the Chinese-Belarusian industrial park to the Port of Piraeus, China and its partners have jointly built infrastructure projects which have brought substantial benefits to local people.

By the end of February 2022, over 140 countries as well as more than 30 international organizations have signed BRI cooperation documents with China.

The BRI cooperation is "not only aimed at promoting economic integration but also solving social problems in the countries taking part in this initiative, particularly issues like raising the level and quality of people's lives," said Alexander Petrov, a professor of St. Petersburg State University.

A staff member transports a cargo containing Sinovac vaccines in Pasay City, the Philippines on Nov. 17, 2021. [Photo by Rouelle Umali/Xinhua]

Pursuing Multilateralism

The problems facing the world are intricate and complex. The way out of them, as is advocated by China, is through upholding multilateralism and building a community with a shared future for mankind.

Xi has, on various occasions, reiterated his call for carrying forward multilateralism and pursuing win-win cooperation.

"We need to practice true multilateralism, stick to dialogue rather than confrontation, inclusiveness rather than exclusion, and integration rather than decoupling," Xi said at the 28th APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in 2021.

Jose Ignacio Martinez Cortes, a researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said "China does not just talk about multilateralism, but has taken real actions."

From supplying more than 2.1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to more than 120 countries and international organizations to proposing the Global Vaccine Cooperation Action Initiative, China has honored true multilateralism in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Natee Taweesrifuengfung, president of the Thailand-based Siam Think Tank, said that in the current international situation, China has held high the banner of multilateralism, actively promoted win-win cooperation, vigorously boosted world economic recovery, and has shouldered its responsibility as a major country.

As an ancient Chinese statesman observed, "Designs for justice prevail, and acts for people's benefit succeed." The aspiration for a happy life is a common pursuit of humanity that nothing can hold back. Under the guidance of Xi's economic thought, China is working hand in hand with the rest of the world to build a community with a shared future for mankind and make the world even more prosperous and beautiful.

(Xinhua correspondents Huang He and Shi Hao in Moscow, Wang Jiawei in Beijing, Zhu Yubo and Wu Hao in Mexico City, Sang Tong in Shanghai, Wang Yaguang in Bangkok, Xie Hao in Dar Es Salaam, Kang Yi in Brussels and Zhang Jianhua in Vientiane also contributed to the story.)

(Source: Xinhua)
Aerial photo taken on Oct. 1, 2021 shows a national forest park in Youyang Tujia and Miao Autonomous County, southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. [Photo by Ran Chuan/Xinhua]

Over the past decade, China has been advancing the green transition of its economy under the guidance of President Xi Jinping's Thought on Ecological Civilization, which derives from the Chinese perception, or reflection, of the relationship between man and nature.

BEIJING, March 26 (Xinhua)  People around the world are expected to turn off lights at 8:30 p.m. local time on Saturday to mark Earth Hour 2022, an environmental movement calling for global solidarity in protecting Mother Nature.

With the theme of "Shape Our Future," this year's event aims to inspire people to take concrete actions for a brighter future of the planet.

Over the past decade, China has been advancing the green transition of its economy under the guidance of President Xi Jinping's Thought on Ecological Civilization, which derives from the Chinese perception, or reflection, of the relationship between man and nature.

On various occasions, Xi has expounded on his philosophy which also stresses promoting international cooperation for an environmentally friendly world.

The following are some highlights in his remarks.

Oct. 30, 2021

While addressing the 16th G20 Leaders' Summit via video link, Xi urged developed countries to lead by example on emission reduction.

Developed countries should fully accommodate the special difficulties and concerns of developing countries, deliver on their commitments of climate financing, and provide technology, capacity-building and other support for developing countries, Xi said.

Aerial photo taken on Oct. 1, 2021 shows the scenery along the Fenhe River in Taiyuan, north China's Shanxi Province. [Xinhua/Cao Yang]

Oct. 12, 2021

In his keynote speech at the leaders' summit of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, known as COP15, Xi stressed the importance of international coordination in promoting ecological civilization.

"We need to strengthen solidarity to overcome difficulties and let people across countries benefit more and in a fairer way from development outcomes and a sound environment, so as to build a homeland of common development of all countries," said Xi.

"If we, humanity, do not fail Nature, Nature will not fail us," he said. "Ecological civilization represents the development trend of human civilization."

Sept. 21, 2021

In his speech at the General Debate of the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Xi reiterated the need to achieve harmonious coexistence between the human race and nature.

"We need to improve global environmental governance, actively respond to climate change and create a community of life for man and nature. We need to accelerate transition to a green and low-carbon economy and achieve green recovery and development," he said.

China will step up support for other developing countries in developing green and low-carbon energy, and will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad, the Chinese president said.

Aerial photo taken on Oct. 1, 2021 shows the scenery along the Fenhe River in Taiyuan, north China's Shanxi Province. [Xinhua/Cao Yang]

April 20, 2021

When addressing the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2021, Xi called for efforts to strengthen cooperation on green infrastructure, green energy and green finance.

Xi also called for improving the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) International Green Development Coalition and the Green Investment Principles for the BRI Development and other multilateral cooperation platforms "to make green a defining feature of Belt and Road cooperation."

Dec. 30, 2020

During a video meeting with European Union leaders, Xi urged China and Europe to "give full play to their high-level dialogue mechanism on environment and climate, and give mutual support to each other in hosting international conferences on biodiversity, climate change and conservation of nature."

Sept. 30, 2020

When delivering a speech at the United Nations Summit on Biodiversity, Xi called on all parties to adhere to ecological civilization and increase the drive for building a beautiful world, saying biodiversity affects the well-being of humanity and provides the very basis for the human race to survive and thrive.

China is willing to share with all parties its experience in biodiversity governance and ecological progress, he added.

(Source: Xinhua)
Located in the Czech Republic's South Bohemian Region, the town of Cesky Krumlov is a charming town where visitors can experience history through the ages. Indeed, because of its well-preserved architecture from the Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque periods, the United Nations has designated the city center as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Czech government, too, has protected the site under law naming it an urban monument reservation as part of that country's Cultural Monuments program. With a town population of 13,557, Cesky Krumlov enjoys centuries and generations of stories to tell, sure to enchant any visitors year-round.

Climate Of Cesky Krumlov

Cesky Krumlov in winter just after it has snowed and covered all the roofs. Editorial credit: FabianIrwin / Shutterstock.com

The best time to visit Cesky Krumlov is usually in the summer months of June to August, where average daily temperatures reach highs of 22 C (71 F). Though it is partly cloudy year-round, tourists can always expect sunshine, even in winter. The coldest month in Cesky Krumlov is January, with lows of -5 C (23 F) and a high of only 0 C (32 F), and light snow is often observed from November to March.The wet season typically ranges from May to September, with a greater than 28% chance of rainfall on any given day; June is the wettest month on the calendar with at least 12 days out of 30 with 1 millimeter of precipitation.

History Of Cesky Krumlov

Main square, Cesky Krumlov town (UNESCO), South Bohemia, Czech Republic.

Cesky Krumlov's name can be traced to Middle High German and be translated as "Bohemian crooked meadow" due to its proximity to the banks of the Vltava River. The area has been constantly inhabited since settlements first began being documented. The first signs of humans on the site of the modern town go back to 70,000 BC. Through the Bronze and Iron Ages, settlements and trading posts continued to populate Cesky Krumlov, including Celtic ones around 400 BC.As the Slavic people began to develop, they too reached the area and have been noted to occupy it from approximately the 6th century AD.

But it was the construction of the famed Cesky Krumlov Castle around the year 1240 that triggered the growth of the modern town. Initially, the first permanent denizens were those who had some connection to the Castle, either as laborers or in an administrative capacity. Built by the Vitkovci noble family, the Castle was an anchor for the town's early presence, but slowly even those without direct connection to the fortress began to populate the town.

Through the centuries, the Castle's possession passed from various noble families, including the famed Rosenbergs who played an important role not only in the town's growth but also of the medieval Czech state. As promoters of crafts and trade, the town flourished as a center of economic activity, which was further boosted upon the discovery of gold in the 15th century.

Panoramic view of Cesky Krumlov. Czech Republic. Editorial credit: Shevchenko Andrey / Shutterstock.com

This discovery led to an influx of miners and their families, particularly German ones, which changed the ethnic makeup of the town. With this though, the Castle remained an important feature of Cesky Krumlov. It was now no longer the only economic and social driver of the town.In 1555 William of Rosenberg had the Castle modified and rebuilt in parts to that of the Renaissance style. Throughout the ensuing centuries, Cesky Krumlov continued its modest growth with the gold industry and the Castle upkeep dominating its municipal life. The town became a part of the newly created Czechoslovakia after World War I in 1918 and was part of the infamous Sudetenland that the Nazis annexed in 1938.

In the uneasy post-war period that saw Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, Czechoslovakia fell behind the notorious Iron Curtain; towns like Cesky Krumlov were neglected of funds and maintenance and fell into states of poverty and disrepair.With the fall of communism in the Revolutions of 1989, these important historical towns and centers have slowly seen a return of tourism and proper restoration; Cesky Krumlov is now amongst the most popular destinations in the Czech Republic and is 172 km (106 miles) south of the capital of Prague.

Attractions In Cesky Krumlov

The main tourist sight in Cesky Krumlov is undoubtedly the Castle, first constructed around 1240. Occupying a space of 7 hectares, it is amongst the largest such castles in Central Europe. The grounds of the Castle consist of some forty different smaller buildings, each with a unique castle court and a central castle park.

Beginning in the late 16th century, the Castle has undergone a series of repairs and updates which reflect the respective periods. Hence, while the original structure dates from Medieval times, numerous parts of the building today indicate Renaissance and Baroque architecture and art.Amidst the many buildings to explore, a visitor favorite is the Castle's Baroque Theatre, built in the 1680s and then renovated in the 1760s. Locals and tourists alike can enjoy a unique performance on the stage performed only three times a year. A different Baroque-era opera is staged, giving audiences a unique historical experience!

Cesky Krumlov Castle.

But beyond the Castle, tourists to Cesky Krumlov can expect to find a variety of festivals and other important cultural activities and sites. The Five Petalled Rose Festival is a perennially favorite festival when the downtown area is transformed into a medieval scene complete with locals in costume and strolling artists, musicians, and artisans. During the day, visitors can watch jousting re-enactments or enjoy traditional Czech folk music and dancing and end their night with a glowing fireworks display.

Inside St. Vitus church in Cesky Krumlov.

The International Music Festival of Cesky Krumlov is an annual summer staple that lasts for July and August. A must-see event for any music lover, the festival features international music and dance in various genres from folk, blues, and even rock.As a whole, the historic town center (including the Castle grounds) has been named a World Heritage Site by the United Nations. Visitors can stop in Svornosti Square and marvel at the Town Hall built in 1597 before embarking on a stroll of the local streets reflecting three centuries of history and architecture, from the Middle Ages to the Baroque era. Along the way, tourists may visit many important church buildings, including the 15th century Church of Saint Vitus. Within the Castle, walls are a series of small museums dedicated to some aspect of Castle work and life, including the Museums of Torture Law and the Wax Figures Museum.

A unique and charming town, Cesky Krumlov can proudly say it is a living museum of Czech and European history. Capturing several centuries' worth of history, architecture, and arts, any visitor to the town will surely be walking into a place of wonder. The town, anchored around its famed Castle, offers its inhabitants and tourists a cross-section of bygone times, all with the charm and beauty of the Czech Republic around it.
We have prefilled the results for the eight uncontested wards where no election took place, as there was only one candidate.



Good morning Wrexham!

We have switched the site over to our live election coverage for todays count. Ballot boxes arrived at Glyndwr University sports hall from just after 10pm last night  video below  and have been securely held overnight.

Today will see the verification process start some point shortly after 9am of ballots made yesterday and postal votes, and then a count will take place for each ward.

There is no firm timetable due to the nature of counts, but we guess this could take all of this morning and into the early afternoon to complete for every ward in Wrexham.

A day time count means there is no wait for boxes to turn up and so we think we could see the first ward result as early as just before 10am.

This page should auto update, and hopefully the video feed will appear as the count process begins.
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Dockers in the Netherlands refused to load freight on Friday onto the Pride of Rotterdam ferry set for Hull, UK, in solidarity with the 800 seafarers sacked by P&O on March 17. The vessel was eventually able to leave the Europoort in Rotterdam.

A video showing a row of cheering dockers blocking the entrance to the ship was tweeted by FNV Dockers' Section National Secretary Niek Stam and was widely circulated. Posted at 6.42 pm March 25, it has been viewed more than 800,000 times.

Dock workers of P&O Ferries Europoort Netherland, in support of 800 sacked UK workers, refuse to load cargo onto the Pride of Rotterdam ferry (Credit: Niek Stam/Twitter)

The action by the Dutch dockers also sparked action in Hull Saturday when dozens of P&O workers supporters walked on the A64 and slowed down traffic entering King George Dock from Hedon Road. The traffic was arriving in Hull in preparation to board the Pride of Rotterdam, subject to delay by the Dutch dockers action.

The international solidarity by dockers at the Port of Rotterdam, the largest seaport in Europe, and the world's largest seaport outside of East Asia, demonstrates the enormous collective strength of the working class that could be mobilized based on a struggle for socialist internationalism.

The solidarity by the Dutch workers was therefore anathema to the British unions and Labour MPs, whose nationalist campaign is opposed to mobilising workers in Britain and across borders in the most global of industries and is instead focused on demanding the Conservative government intervene to Save Britains Ferries and maritime industry. Ten days after the sackings, no industrial action has even been threatened let alone a strike ballot called, by the Rail, Maritime, and Transport (RMT) and Nautilus trade unions whose members were fired on the spot and removed off ships by balaclava wearing, handcuff wearing thugs.

The Trades Union Congress twitter page could not bring itself to retweet the video of the Dutch workers action until 9.30am on Saturday morning, nearly 17 hours later. When it finally did, its tweet was liked over 13,000 times and shared over 2,600 times. Labour MP for Hull Karl Turner cynically retweeted the video with the words, Join a trade union today.

Responses to the TUC were not as blase. One comment read, All credit to the Rotterdam dockers for standing with the @RMTunion against @POferries. But if they can fight, why wont you? Another said, TUC confuses warm words, with solidarity. Another wrote, Theyre doing more than the TUC ... bit embarrassing if you ask me! Get off your knees and do more!! Solidarity to the sacked P&O Workers and international solidarity to comrades in Europe!

The refusal of the unions to lift a finger takes place under conditions in which even the Tory governments inspectors had to detain P&Os European Causeway vessel in Larne, Northern Ireland last week for being unfit to sail. Aboard a ship run by a scab workforce on wages as low as 5.15 an hour, inspectors found failures on crew familiarisation, vessel documentation and crew trainingall issues that could jeopardise the safety of crew and passengers and other vessels.

On Saturday, hundreds of protesters marched and rallied against the sackings in the ports of Dover, Hull and Liverpool.

Protesters in Dover march in protest at the job losses (WSWS Media)

In Dover, protesters marched from the RMT headquarters to the docks, under a heavy police presence. Highlighting the dead end of the unions perspective, two P&O ships were ready to depart from the docks staffed by scabs.

While a speaker from the RMT acknowledged the Rotterdam action, this was to emphasize that P&O CEO Peter Hebblethwaite should step down as he had managed to destroy the reputation of this 185-year-old company in one day. Were Hebblethwaite and his board to stand down, said a GMB union representative, then and only then can we build the fantastic and iconic brand that existed before.

Socialist Equality Party members distributed the statement, The dead end of the Save Britains Ferries campaign: Build rank-and-file committees! calling for the rejection of nationalism and for an international strategy. Reporters spoke to those protesting.

Chloe and Layla (WSWS Media)

Chloe said, I am here supporting my sister who lost her job as a shoreside worker for P&O. The protests should not stop until they get justice. It is disgusting what the company has done. All workers need to stick together.

Layla said, My father-in-law was an engineer on P&O for 35 years, these companies should not be allowed to do this to workers. If P&O can do it and get away with it, other companies will do it and that is why we all have to pull together and let them know we wont put up with it.

Paul (WSWS Media)

Paul, a recently retired seafarer who used to work for P&O said, What the company has done is abhorrent and should not have been allowed to happen. The blame is with the Tories for changing employment legislation. Hot air words dont mean anything, action is what we need.

I used to run a crew of 20 plus, then it went down to 16, then nine, and eventually six crew. We were sailing a ship, six on days and six on nights, 24 hours a day, your workload massively increased and to me that was unsafe. I left last year because my health was starting to deteriorate.

Paul stressed the need for a highly trained workforce. At the moment there are no ratings, no officers. What they have done is employ scab labour on inferior terms and its dangerous. I have dealt with many situations like people overboard and fires on ships. You need a trained team to deal with it. These people will not be trained. It takes at least six months to be inducted on a ship and that is just basics. You never stop learning, its an ongoing process.

Paul worked ferries when the Townsend Thoresen Herald of Free Enterprise sank shortly after leaving the Belgian port of Zeebrugge on March 6, 1987, with the loss of 193 crew and passengers. That was horrific and lessons were not really learned.

The 800 sackings were the latest in a long line of job cuts. Not so long ago [June 2020] 1,200 people lost their jobs and now its another 800 sacked. You cant run a business management top heavy. There are 1,400 people still left in the office. They have gone along with different CEOs coming in with bright ideas, wasting millions. They brought a ship back out of a refit. It cost them 25 million and now its laid up in Dunkirk rusting away. They talk about saving millions. But they have cost the company millions.

Paul said the impact of the job losses in Dover is catastrophic. That is 600 people not spending in the town and in this current climate where everything is going up, you cannot get a decent wage. Then this company has come in to try and pay people less than 5 an hour.

A few years ago, P&O flagged out the fleet to Cyprus and changed all the names. They said it would not affect anyones terms and conditions. It just shows you. The plan was a process over a five-year period to cut the crews.

John, a National Health Service worker, said, Its an attack on the working class and just profiteers wanting to make more money and not caring about the workforce around them.

We should be democratically run by workers, there shouldnt be fat cats keeping all the money. Companies must be shown they cannot treat people in this way.

The working class are suffering even more with this cost-of-living crisis. Everything is going up, but peoples wages are going down. The government is not doing anything to support workers, they just support the shareholders and people in business. We need to change the way this country is run. We need socialism, democratically run by the workers, for the workers.
Weather Alert

...The Flood Warning is extended for the following rivers in Indiana...Illinois... White River at Elliston. Wabash River at Riverton. ...The Flood Warning continues for the following rivers in Indiana... Illinois... White River at Edwardsport. Wabash River at Lafayette down to Hutsonville Legacy Power Plant Site. .Recent rainfall will lead to minor flooding along the Wabash and Lower White 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 REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM FRIDAY EVENING TO FRIDAY, MAY 13... * WHAT...Minor flooding is forecast. * WHERE...Wabash River at Terre Haute. * WHEN...From Friday evening to Friday, May 13. * IMPACTS...At 20.5 feet, Residential property of about 50 river cabins begin to flood. North Lake and Izaak Walton Areas near West Terre Haute begin to flood. Flooding closes more county roads. Lowland agricultural flooding is in progress. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS... - At 7:30 PM CDT Thursday /8:30 PM EDT Thursday/ the stage was 14.1 feet. - Forecast...The river is expected to rise above flood stage tomorrow evening to a crest of 20.5 feet early Monday morning. It will then fall below flood stage Thursday evening. - Flood stage is 16.5 feet. - http://www.weather.gov/safety/flood &&
A union representative says as the pandemic converted many jobs to remote work as a health precaution, city of Corvallis staff found themselves facing a telework inequity between managers and workers.

Based on employee complaints, the union that represents the employees is asking to bargain over a telework policy, and if that doesnt happen its lawyers will get involved.

For its part, the citys top manager said most city jobs dont fit with remote work, and when it was allowed, a few workers abused the arrangement.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees represents around 250 city of Corvallis employees. Union rep Jim Steiner said numerous employees have come to him with concerns about being able to work from home.

It is common practice for the city to prefer that employees use their sick leave or vacation time rather than work from home, Steiner said. During the first year, some staff did work remotely, but then everyone was brought back.

The city would rather people buy down their banks (of personal/vacation time) because its a funded or unfunded liability in their budget, Steiner said. I think they put that in front of what my members would say is their own personal and public safety.

Steiner said if the city wanted it and was willing to invest in adequate equipment, he believes around 15% to 20% of staff would take advantage of telework.

The challenges in local government

Prior to the pandemic, City Manager Mark Shepard said by email, salaried employees  including managers and non-management, although most are supervisors and department directors  could work from home on a limited basis at the discretion of supervisors.

Most jobs in local government are hands-on, service-oriented jobs that dont translate well to remote work, Shepard said.

When the pandemic began and Oregon Health Authority called for working at home as much as possible, the city and the union collaborated on guidelines for hourly paid staff, according to Shepard, who said the agreement coincided with city facilities closing, which left many staff without much to do.

We got creative and developed a number of one-time projects to keep these employees occupied and avoid having to lay off or furlough regular full- and part-time staff during those early, unpredictable days of the pandemic, Shepard said, adding that during the all-hands approach some 25% of staff were working from home.

Hourly paid staff returned to the office full-time as of July 1. Shepard said when the work-from-home guidelines were in place, there were a few instances in which staff members abused the emergency accommodation, resulting in discipline and loss of privileges for those employees.

A memorandum of understanding between the city of Corvallis and AFSCME expired at the end of June. Steiner said the memo isnt needed to allow for telework, in part because there is already a policy allowing department directors to grant such requests. Hes been told managers and supervisors do work from home, which is not uncommon in the other units he represents.

From a public health perspective, everybody should be working from home who can, he said. But, the city does not take that position.

The city has 82 salaried employees and 637 hourly employees, according to Shepard, who added 54% of city positions are covered by a union, and 71% of those eligible are union members. He said its likely that fewer than 15% of city jobs could be worked remotely.

Pressure added in the workplace

Of course, one of the biggest reasons people want to work remotely the past two years is concerns over COVID-19, which has led to nearly 1 million deaths in the U.S.

If a city staff member tests positive for COVID-19 but has no symptoms and wants to work from home, Shepard said salaried employees would have that option, but hourly paid staff would not. He said this is no different than in non-COVID times.

Child care (or the lack thereof) is one of the big reasons people have been working from during the pandemic, according to Steiner. While some employers have prohibited working from home, others have embraced the reality of a pandemic-driven child care crisis.

Some city staffers have left recently, Steiner said because of being quarantined without pay or because they could not work from home. He said the union had filed a demand to bargain as well as a grievance because of the issue. However, both of the employees involved have left, so the grievance was withdrawn.

If an employee was quarantined without pay, it would likely mean they had used all their saved sick and vacation time. Steiner said most agencies wont allow leave without pay unless those banks of time are exhausted.

Shepard confirmed that in the past year, three employees who left city jobs cited the lack of work-from-home accommodations in exit interviews. He said the city is developing an expanded hybrid telecommuting policy and will engage with the union on any needed changes to contract language.

The unions grievance asserted the city suspended an employee who was required to quarantine, but the city did not suspend the employee, according to Shepard. He said the city has been consistent with its practice throughout the pandemic.

If the city refuses to bargain over changes that require quarantines or actions that take away employee compensation, Steiner said the unions legal representation will get involved. He said any time a union employee is prevented from working, the city owes them for that missed time.

He looks at it like a suspension without pay.

Ive had many conversations with the human resources director that I thought it would be a much better policy to let people work from home, Steiner said. If youve ever gone through the application process, the city hires extremely bright, educated, talented folks to work for them. And yet at the same time, they would not allow them to work remotely.

Federal assistance for COVID-19

Employers around the state received federal money to pay for pandemic-related expenses. Some used the money for bonuses or hazard pay for those continuing to work despite the dangers of COVID-19. For the most part, Corvallis didn't do that.

Steiner said hes heard some city employees contracted COVID-19 at work or at work-sponsored events, sort of a double-whammy, he said.

I think there is an inequity, he said. But I would tell you as a union representative theres always been an inequity between those who are doing the work and those who manage.

Shepard said the city chose not to spend the federal funds on premium pay or bonuses for staff but instead to provide a direct benefit to the community.

The city received Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security, or CARES, Act funds, the first round of federal dollars, early in the pandemic, much of which was pushed out to the community to support local businesses and social service providers, according to Shepard. He said some of the funding was used for city materials in response to the pandemic, such as personal protective equipment and laptops to support remote work.

The city also received a second round of funds via the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, of which the City Council has slated around $2 million to pass through to social services. Another $7 million is aimed at city facility needs and $4 million is yet to be designated, though Shepard said it will likely go to facility needs, social services or economic development.

Not all the money went to long-planned city projects, though that is allowed expenditure, he added.

Along with obeying state and federal health guidance, efforts to make working indoors safer for city staff include installing air purifiers in conference rooms and common areas, boosting filtration in HVAC systems, and frequently cleaning shared surfaces in addition to maintaining masking requirements for all staff, even those with private work spaces, according to Shepard.

To help with the pandemic child care crunch, Shepard said the city provided the expanded federal benefits at the start of the pandemic.

That included 10 weeks of pay at 2/3 rate for child/day care closure under the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Act, two weeks of paid leave related to COVID-19 under the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act, and offered flexible scheduling (if the jobs allowed) to help with disruptions related to child care/school closures.

Shepard also noted the Oregon Family Leave Act expanded eligibility to account for school and day care closures. He said while federal and state agencies implemented a number of pandemic-related benefits in the past two years, the city does not get tax benefits from some programs because its a non-tax-paying entity, which means the city directly bore most of the program costs.

Steiner said he approached three employees about speaking on the record with Mid-Valley Media about the issue, but all three declined out of fear of reprisals.

Cody Mann covers Benton County and the cities of Corvallis and Philomath. He can be contacted at 541-812-6113 or Cody.Mann@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter via @News_Mann_.

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Press Release

March 27, 2022 Bong Go commends PRRD for approving release of NDRRMC funds for the Coconut Debris Management Plan Senator Christopher "Bong" Go commended President Rodrigo Duterte for approving the release of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council funds for the Philippine Coconut Authority's proposed Coconut Debris Management Plan in support of the government's Shelter Assistance and Recovery Program for communities hit by Typhoon Odette last December. "Kinokomendahan po natin si Pangulong Duterte sa kanyang pag-apruba sa pondong ito na layuning mapabilis ang pagbibigay ng reusable housing materials para sa mga biktima ni Typhoon Odette," said Go, adding that he and the President fought hard for the measure to push through. "Noong tumama ang bagyo, nakita mismo namin ni Pangulo ang pinsala na dulot nito sa agrikultura lalo na sa coconut farmers. Kaya iniutos kaagad niya na matulungan ng gobyerno ang ating mga magsasaka at ang coconut industry," he added. "Aside from said benefit, it will also allow the government to expedite the disposal of affected coconut trees that pose a hazard to health and environment by converting them into coco lumbers," the senator continued. The funds amounting to PhP331,003,192 will be released to the PCA. The plan is consistent with Presidential Directive No. 2022-011 for the conversion of fallen trees into reusable housing materials for Typhoon Odette survivors. The proposed intervention will facilitate increased mobility and disposal of affected coconut trees that pose a hazard to health and the environment, prevent the occurrence of pest infestation, and generate coco lumbers for the construction of temporary housing facilities for the typhoon victims. The project involves the hiring of 11,573 chainsaw operators who will be paid through a cash-for-work scheme, to be implemented simultaneously in provinces in Regions IV, VI, VII, VIII, X and XIII. Meanwhile, Go has repeatedly underscored the need for a more streamlined and holistic response to disasters and other calamities. He renewed his call for the passage of Senate Bill No. 205, also known as the "Disaster Resilience Act". The bill, which Go filed in 2019, aims to address the bureaucratic challenges that undermine the government's ability to better respond and provide support to individuals affected by disasters. To do so, it establishes the Department of Disaster Resilience, a highly-specialized agency that will prepare against the devastating effects of climate change and ensure a more proactive approach to natural disasters. Go also renewed his call for the mandatory creation of safe and properly equipped evacuation centers in every municipality, city and province across the Philippines. The senator stressed the urgent need to act on disaster resilience measures such as his SBN 1228 or the "Mandatory Evacuation Center Act", which he filed in 2019 to ensure that victims of disasters will have temporary shelters that will guarantee their safety, promote their social well-being, and guard their welfare while they recover and rebuild their lives. "When disaster strikes, the Filipinos, especially 'yung mga underprivileged, suffer. In most instances, this disaster renders their homes unlivable, leaving the victims without roofs. Ibig sabihin nasisira ang mga bahay, marami pong apektado," Go said. SBN 1228 is currently pending in the Senate Committee on National Defense and Security, Peace, Unification and Reconciliation, along with SBN 205.
Equine aficionados were able to make plenty of hay at the Northwest Horse Fair and Expo Saturday, March 26, with training clinics, skills demonstrations and breed showcases turning the air dusty in the main arena at Linn Countys fairgrounds.

The expo ends a two-year hiatus, returning to Linn County Fair and Expo Center in its 21st year to wrangle horse experts and fans from across Oregon.

In one showcase, a crowd of more than 140 watched an Arabian stallion run free. Questions from an emcee were punctuated by loud whinnies and drew cowboy-hatted nods from the audience.

Who has an Arabian waiting for them at home? the emcee said.

She was met by a few enthusiastic whoops.

Outside another arena in another part of the fairgrounds, Megan Wenzl, 8, put her hands on the face of a 13-year-old paso fino gelding and drew in a long breath before telling the deep brown-colored horse hello.

Nico, short for Royaltys Dominico, coughed out a high neigh.

Megan said she had come from Creswell where she keeps her own horse, a mare named Lizzie.

She stood under the arm of her mom, Bonnie, eating kettle corn and had just come from the performances of rider groups based in Beaverton, Oregon, and Eugene who stood on the backs of horses and hung from the sides of saddles in an equestrian vaulting show.

I just love being a daredevil, she said.

Randee Randall, standing at the paso finos shoulder, said she connected with the breed at the same expo in 2006. She was 10 years old, she said, and completely enthralled by the horses famously petite step.

They just stuck in my mind, she said. Those riders  they didnt move a single inch. They just glided on their horses.

Randall raised Nico in Lebanon, where hes just one of a relatively small number of paso finos in Oregon. Although they attract audiences with their fast-stepping gait, theyre not common on the West Coast, she said.

Its a rare breed all over, Randall said.

Her family bought Nico when she was 14 and she still works with the horse more than a decade later. Real work, she said  helping with search and rescue operations in Linn County.

People forget they want to work, she said.

If you go The Northwest Horse Fair and Expo continues 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. today. at the Linn County Fair and Expo Center. Admission is $14 for adults, $12 for those age 65 or older, $7 for ages 6 to 12, and free for those age 5 or younger. Parking is $5 per vehicle. Visit http://equinepromotions.net/northwest-horse-fair for details.

Alex Powers covers business, environment and healthcare for Mid-Valley Media. Contact him at 541-812-6116 or alex.powers@lee.net.

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Marc Thielman, Republican candidate for Oregon governor and former superintendent of Alsea schools, ran the district like a "boys club," treating women unequally and subjecting them to sexual harassment, according to a recently filed lawsuit.

Alsea Elementary School Principal Shannon Rice is seeking more than $3.7 million from the Alsea School District for the alleged hostile work environment, sexual harassment, gender discrimination and whistleblower retaliation she said she experienced while working in the district for nine years.

District officials could not be reached for comment.

The rural school district was recently put into the limelight when the school board voted to make mask wearing optional two months before the statewide mask mandate was lifted. In turn, the districts COVID-19 relief funding froze, and it now faces a $43,000 fine from Oregon Occupational Safety and Health.

In her complaint, filed March 22 in Benton County Circuit Court, Rice describes an unprofessional work environment perpetuated by Thielman, who abruptly resigned Feb. 22 to focus on his campaign for Oregon governor. It was coincidentally the same day he and the district learned of the $43,000 fine.

The lawsuit does not name Thielman as a defendant. Still, it paints him as the primary harasser who condoned male employees behaving similarly.

Reached for comment on Friday, March 25, Thielman said he had not been made aware of the lawsuit. He referred to Rice as a "serial complaint filer" and said that past complaints against her will show that she was the one who created a hostile work environment.

More than innuendo

Rice's complaint alleges that Thielman bragged about the purportedly large size of his genitalia, his accompanying sexual prowess, made sexual jokes, inquired or commented on Plaintiff and other womens sex lives, laced conversations with sexual innuendo, made sexually suggestive comments regarding womens physical appearances, and engaged in other like behaviors on an almost daily basis.

Other men picked up on it, the lawsuit states.

Defendant Thielman set the tone and model of behavior for male employees and students, while simultaneously communicating to female employees and students that acceptance of such behavior was a term and condition of employment and custom, according to the lawsuit.

The complaint also details how Thielman allegedly campaigned for governor during work hours, turned the school district into a boys club and acted as if it was no big deal when a district employee was arrested for having sex with an underage female student.

A series of complaints

Rice wrote a formal complaint against Thielman and emailed it to the school board Feb. 14. The next day her husband, Travis Rice, also an employee of the district, filed a complaint as well and was placed on administrative leave without explanation.

Soon after the Rices filed their complaints, school employee Nathan Roberts filed a complaint against Shannon Rice, which she was led to believe was retaliatory. The school board then investigated Roberts complaint and treated it serious, but not her original complaint, according to the court document.

On March 10, the school board renewed the contract of every employee listed for renewal except for Rice. She received written notice of her nonrenewal March 17. As a result, Rices employment with the district will end June 30.

Plaintiff was watching the meeting as it occurred via zoom and was stunned  as Plaintiff had absolutely no prior notice her contract was going to be nonrenewed, there had been no investigation into any complaints lodged against her, and there was nothing on in the board meeting materials or board discussion indicating she might be nonrenewed, the complaint reads.

Rice had no further comments on the case. Her lawyer characterized her as being the victim of retaliation for voicing a number of concerns throughout her tenure at the district about potential violations of federal, state and local laws.

Besides the economic damages, both current and future, Rice "has been subjected to pain, suffering, anxiety, humiliation, loss of enjoyment of life, and emotional distress," her lawyer wrote in demanding a trial by jury.

Joanna Mann covers education for Mid-Valley Media. She can be contacted at 541-812-6076 or Joanna.Mann@lee.net. Follow her on Twitter via @joanna_mann_.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin stands while waiting for Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko prior to their talks in Moscow, on March 11. [Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

Perry Smith is a retired Air Force major general who lives in Augusta. He can be reached for feedback at genpsmith@aol.com

When I conduct workshops on executive leadership, I emphasize the importance of strategic thinking and planning. In the past one hundred years, there have been three colossal mistakes of strategy.

These failures were made by three national leaders. Hitler, Tojo and Putin. They had three characteristics in common. All three were autocrats. They surrounded themselves with lackeys. Their study and understanding of history and grand strategy were both limited and flawed. At the end of this article, I will identify American leaders who were excellent strategists.

As someone who has studied and taught international relations for more than fifty years, I have been fascinated with the behavior of autocrats. My first interest was in Benito Mussolini. I lived in Italy immediately after World War II. I can remember quite vividly the newspaper picture of Mussolini hanging upside down in a square in Milan - with the headline: FINITO BENITO. He was the perfect example of a psychopath in his rhetoric, persona and actions.

More from Perry Smith: A strategic analysis of the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Next, I studied Adolph Hitler. I lived in Germany in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. I got to know the German people quite well in the Coblenz, Bitburg and Monchengladbach areas of Germany. Hitler was not only a psychopath, but he was also a brilliant public speaker. His keen understanding of the German political culture in the aftermath of World War I allowed him, through the democratic process, to reach very high office. Folks often forget that Hitler did not become the Chancellor of Germany by conducting a coup.

Hitler the autocrat evolved into Hitler the dictator. He created, during the 1930s, a remarkably efficient totalitarian state. Hitlers gravest error was the Invasion of Soviet Russia in June 1941. Operation Barbarossa was flawed in all three levels of warfare: tactical, operational and strategic. Russia had collapsed in World War I so Hitler felt that throwing 200 German divisions in the attack would lead to Soviet surrender before winter closed in.

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Like Hitler, Tojo learned the wrong lessons from history. Japan had great success with the war against China in the 1890s and with the war with Russia in 1905. Short wars were followed by favorable peace treaties which led to more and more territory under the Japanese empire. A short war with America followed by a favorable peace treaty was, to Tojo and some of his cronies, a likely outcome. If Tojo had strong subordinates at his elbow, this huge mistake may have been avoided. Admiral Yamamoto was strong but not strong enough

Putin has made a similar strategic mistake - misreading history. Russia had military success in Chechnya (1999-2009), in Georgia (2008), in Crimea (2014) and in Syria (2015). Attacking Ukraine with the massive use of Russian ground and air power may have seemed to Putin like a no-brainer. Putin probably anticipated a quick victory followed by a peace treaty that would guarantee that Ukraine would become a vassal state - much like Belarus today. Also, like Hitler and Tojo, Putin vastly underestimated the enemy he had created.

Putin now faces some huge problems. The 140 million people of Russia have had a taste, since 1991, of free speech, free enterprise and free assembly. Today, Russians are angry that Putin is destroying the Russian economy and their way of life. Putin has almost no friends and even his nominal ally, China, has become wary of this his behavior and actions.

More from Perry Smith: How books changed my life and how they can change your life too

This past week I spoke to 100 members of the Rotary Club of Augusta. I had been invited months earlier to address Pearl Harbor and what it was like to witness the Dec. 7, 1941 attack as a small child. I presented a strategic analysis of the Japanese attack and compared the calculus of decision making in Tokyo in 1941 with the decision-making in Moscow in 2022.

In answer to a question, I predicted that Ukraine would win the war and Putin would be removed from power. With enormous support from the West, Ukraine would rebuild rather quickly.

Toward the end of the session with the Rotarians, I recommended that they lend support to the Ukrainian people by sending a check to World Vision and to add a zero or two to their normal charitable contribution. I also suggested wearing blue and yellow clothing. I forgot to mention that Saint Paul's Church, Augusta, had contributed $6,000 via the Episcopal Relief and Development Fund.

Perry M Smith

So, who were the best American grand strategists? George Marshall, Colin Powell and Brent Scowcroft. The poor ones were Robert McNamara and Donald Rumsfeld.

Let me end this article on a positive note. With Putin gone, the Chinese more cautious, NATO more unified, and COVID-19 greatly diminished, the future appears bright - thank goodness. Incidentally. our home has, in the front yard, the American flag and the blue and yellow flag of Ukraine.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Putin in Ukraine joins Tojo and Hitler making war time errors
Foo Fighter drummer Taylor Hawkins had 10 different drugs in his system when he died, Colombian investigators say

Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins. Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)

Taylor Hawkins had 10 different drugs in his system when he died, Colombian investigators said.

The Foo Fighter drummer died at age 50 in Bogota, Colombia.

Colombian officials said a cause of death was yet to be determined.

Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins had 10 different drugs in his system when he died, Colombian investigators said.

A urine toxicology report found the presence of substances including opioids, marijuana, and antidepressants.

Officials said that a cause of death was yet to be determined, and it's not clear if drugs were a factor, the BBC reported.

"The National Institute of Forensic Medicine continues to conduct the necessary medical studies to ascertain the cause of death," the Colombian attorney general's office said.

"The attorney general's office will continue to investigate and will duly inform the findings of forensic examinations in due time."

Hawkins, who was 50, died at a hotel in Bogota, Colombia, where he was on tour with the Foo Fighters.

The band was preparing for a show in the city on Friday night as a part of its South American tour.

Officials said an ambulance was dispatched to Hawkins' hotel room after reports of "a patient with chest pains."

A healthcare professional attempted to resuscitate Hawkins, but there was no response and he was declared deceased.

In their statement, the Foo Fighters said the band was "devastated by the tragic and untimely loss of our beloved Taylor Hawkins. His musical spirit and infectious laughter will live on with all of us forever."

Read the original article on Insider
The abandoned zone around the Chernobyl plant is still considered highly risky (AFP via Getty Images)

More than 10,000 hectares of forest are burning in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone a Ukrainian official has warned.

Lyudmila Denisova, commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Human Rights said the fires have led to an increased level of radioactive air pollution with a threat to neighbouring European countries.

She attributed the fires to Russian combat in the region, 31 blazes have been recorded, as she called on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to send firefighters and equipment to help tackle them.

Ms Denisova warned windy and dry weather would worsen the fires.

Control and suppression of fires is impossible due to the capture of the exclusion zone by Russian troops. As a result of combustion, radionuclides are released into the atmosphere, which are transported by wind over long distances. This threatens radiation to Ukraine, Belarus and European countries, Ms Denisova said in a Facebook post on Sunday.

Follow live updates on the war in Ukraine

This picture taken on April 12, 2020 shows a forest fire burning at a 30-kilometer (19-mile) Chernobyl exclusion zone in Ukraine, not far from the nuclear power plant (AFP via Getty Images)

She warned that a failure to intervene could result in irreparable consequences not only for Ukraine but also for the whole world.

Catastrophic consequences can be prevented only by immediate de-occupation of the territory by Russian troops. Therefore, I call on international human rights organizations to take all possible measures to increase pressure on the Russian Federation to end military aggression against Ukraine and de-occupy high-risk areas, Ms Denisova said.

The abandoned zone around the Chernobyl plant is still considered highly risky because of the radiation from the 1986 nuclear disaster.

Possible dangers still linger in the plant area itself as radioactive components from the time of the disaster still exist.

Also, the soil still contains radiation and particles are still present in Chernobyls atmosphere from the time of the accident. This can spread to further regions via smoke when wildfires occur.

This map shows the extent of the Russian invasion of Ukraine (Press Association Images)

Local physicians and health experts had warned that the threat from the radiation in the area around Chernobyl is still very real and visible in children born with weak immune systems and heart arrhythmias.

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Chernobyl was seized by Russian troops four weeks ago and since then there has been a shortage of food and fuel supply. According to reports, the staff of the besieged power plant are being made to work at gunpoint by Russian soldiers.

Over a week ago, the IAEA was told that the Russian military detonated unexploded munitions left at Europes largest nuclear plant raising fears of a radiation leak.

However, IAEA confirmed that while the training facility was damaged on 4 March, IAEA director-general Raphael Mariano Grossi said that all the safety systems of the six reactors at the plant were not affected at all.

The IAEA, which reports to the United Nations, warned that the sites 211 technical personnel and guards were working under enormous stress without the necessary rest.

The town with a population of about 20,000 people was attacked by Russian forces crossing from the Belarus border on the first day of Vladimir Putins invasion of Ukraine. A key access bridge was blown up by troops, cutting the town off.
kate and prince william

getty Kate Middleton and Prince William

After an intense eight-day tour of the Caribbean, Prince William and Kate Middleton are heading home to the U.K.

On Saturday evening, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge boarded their RAF VIP Voyager jet after wrapping their tour in The Bahamas. For her final appearance on the tour, Kate wore a belted yellow floral peplum dress by Alessandra Rich.

Just hours before their flight, William released an unprecedented statement about the controversy that has followed the couple on their tour of Belize, Jamaica and The Bahamas.

For the first time, the royal couple faced significant backlash on an official tour. Although they have received warm welcomes from many locals, they are also encountering mounting tensions in the Caribbean nations where William's grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, remains head of state.

RELATED: Prince William Tells Caribbean Leaders: 'We Support Your Decisions About Your Future'

Earlier in the tour, and following anti-colonial protests in Jamaica and Belize, William, 39, expressed his "sorrow" at the "abhorrent" history of slavery that shames the U.K.  though for some, he didn't go far enough and actually apologize.

kate and prince william

getty Kate Middleton and Prince William

The protests are only the latest evidence of the historic shift underway: Another Caribbean country, Barbados, broke ties with the Queen in November  voting in its first president  and Jamaica will soon follow suit.

William reflected on the future governance of the Caribbean nations in his statement on Saturday, saying, "I know that this tour has brought into even sharper focus questions about the past and the future. In Belize, Jamaica and The Bahamas, that future is for the people to decide upon."

He continued, "Catherine and I are committed to service. For us, that's not telling people what to do. It is about serving and supporting them in whatever way they think best, by using the platform we are lucky to have."

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"It is why tours such as this reaffirm our desire to serve the people of the Commonwealth and to listen to communities around the world. Who the Commonwealth chooses to lead its family in the future isn't what is on my mind. What matters to us is the potential the Commonwealth family has to create a better future for the people who form it, and our commitment to serve and support as best we can," he concluded.

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge attend a reception hosted by the Governor General at Baha Mar Resort on March 25, 2022 in Nassau, Bahamas.

Pool/Samir Hussein/WireImage Kate Middleton and Prince William

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.

Can't get enough of PEOPLE's Royals coverage? Sign up for our free Royals newsletter to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more!

"The future of the British monarchy is more about William and Katespiritually, not in terms of actual succession," historian Sarah Gristwood tells PEOPLE in this week's issue.

"The baton of the crown has to pass to Charles and Camilla, but there is a sense of a baton also being passed from the Queen to William and Kate. Charles and Camilla have a lot of life experience between them, and they're not going to change. The future belongs with the Cambridges," she adds.
An orange sulphur butterfly flies toward a golden poppy at Castner Range.

Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, thank you for visiting El Paso  the proud home of the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo tribe.

It was a great honor to have you visit our area as we, the people of El Paso, fight to save the iconic Castner Range.

We would like to congratulate you on being the first Indigenous leader to serve as a cabinet secretary. As a member of the Pueblo of Laguna, you are an inspiration for current and future generations of Native Americans.

More: The Franklin Mountains changed my mind about El Paso: Judy Ackerman

Our people are being heard, due to the work and dedication of leaders like you. Thank you for your service to our country and our people.

We again ask that you join us in preserving our land by helping to designate Castner Range  a treasure nested in the mountains of El Paso  as a national monument.

The people of the Paso del Norte region have been fighting for decades to protect the 7,081 acres of Castner Range. It truly is a monument our people have shared from generation to generation.

Congresswoman Veronica Escobar has been the champion of this movement in Congress and has helped instrumentally in the fight for its protection.

Castner Range is the crown jewel of West Texas and a source of great pride for El Pasoans, Escobar said in a news release last year. As our nation takes unprecedented action to conserve public lands and water and address climate change, I am proud to re-introduce the Castner Range National Monument Act and very grateful for the grassroots community leadership that has been working tirelessly on this issue.

She continued, Together, we can meet the moment by increasing equitable access to outdoor spaces and ensuring El Paso families can continue to make memories surrounded by the mesmerizing beauty and history of Castner Range.

This iconic land tells the story of our area and the people of West Texas. It contains ancestral ruins of the first peoples in the area, evidence of developing agriculture, old rail systems, mining remains and historical military presence.

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More: Castner Range deserves protection as a national monument: Pastor Moses Borjas

During Spring, our Castner Range lights up the entire eastern part of our city in gold which can be seen from miles away.

Blooms of Mexican Gold Poppies have brought millions of people to our region, and we will celebrate them this year with the hope of permanent protection for their land.

The gold poppies are a source of local pride and have become symbolic of El Paso. Springtime at Castner Range is a sight to behold and one we must protect at all costs.

Castner Range is a place that brings families together. A place that unites our city. A place for the people.

To the Tigua people of Ysleta del Sur, this land is our home  the home of our culture, our traditions, our heritage and our history. Long ago, our lands were illegally taken from us and our very existence was threatened. In effort to rectify these historic wrongs, we ask humbly that this land be protected.

More: Another year of disappointment for poppy lovers; El Paso flower festival skips 2022

Words alone cannot do justice to describe the breathtaking views of Castner Range. As you saw first hand, Castner Range is full of life, despite the seemingly empty desert floor. Archeological evidence in the form of structural remains, pictographs, petroglyphs, and pottery pieces remind us of some of the earliest human inhabitants of the area. Overturn a rock and insects will run.

The power to save Castner Range is in the hands of the president. The 1906 Antiquities Act grants President Biden the power to protect land of cultural or scientific significance by presidential proclamation.

Under President Barack Obama, the nearby Organ Mountains Desert-Peaks was designated as a national monument. We are asking President Joe Biden to do the same for our community.

We hope during your visit to our city, Secretary Haaland, you were inspired by the amazing beauty that is Castner Range and will take our message home with you to President Biden: protect Caster Range.

The people of Ysleta del Sur, the Paso del Norte region and our future generations need your help.

Rafael Gomez Jr. is a tribal councilman of the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, thank you for visiting El Paso
Kate Middleton and Prince William

Atlantis Paradise Island/Donald Knowles/BVS

Prince William and Kate Middleton are wrapping up their Caribbean tour with a stay in a swanky penthouse suite.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrived in The Bahamas on Thursday for their final stop and stayed at The Cove at the Atlantis Bahamas Resort before returning home Saturday night, a representative for the property confirms to PEOPLE.

Atlantis is a massive, multi-part destination located on Paradise Island, about 180 miles off the Florida coast and made up of The Cove, The Royal, The Reef, The Coral and the Harborside Resort hotels.

William and Kate stayed in the Penthouse Suite at The Cove, which is the most refined lodging offering on site and is touted as being "immaculately designed to provide guests with luxury, sensuality, and white-glove Bahamian service."

RELATED: Prince Charles Jokes He and Camilla Are Getting in a Few More Trips 'Before Senility Totally Overtakes Us!'

The Cove

Atlantis Paradise Island View from the Atlantis Bahamas Resort

The multi-room suite includes a living room, formal dining room, three bedroom suites, and a separate lounge and study all with spectacular views of the Caribbean Sea.

One enters the 4,830-square-foot suite via a pair of grand double doors and is greeted by stone floors, ornately papered walls and floor-to-ceiling windows. The luxurious bathrooms are completely clad in marble and feature a freestanding soaking tub set against the wall of glass.

While the royals had a full schedule during their stay, a visitor to The Cove could typically also enjoy access to two beaches, four multi-level adults-only pools, 20 private cabanas, complimentary butler service, a restaurant by chef Jose Andres, and soon, the opportunity to arrive by sea plane.

The Cove

Atlantis Paradise Island

Audrey Oswell, President and Managing Director of Atlantis Paradise Island, welcomed the royals upon their arrival before they attended performances by the Eva Hilton Primary School Choir and a traditional Rake n' Scrape band.

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In a statement shared with PEOPLE, Oswell said Atlantis Paradise Island is "incredibly honored" to host William and Kate as they cap off the week-long journey.

Kate Middleton and Prince William

Atlantis Paradise Island/Donald Knowles/BVS

"All of us at Atlantis Paradise Island are delighted our resort will serve as their home away from home during this very significant milestone," Oswell said.

"We have always admired the focus of The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge," Oswell continued, "as it aligns with our mission at The Atlantis Blue Project Foundation to promote sustainability and protect the environment."

She concluded, "Our team members look forward to extending exceptional and authentic Bahamian hospitality, and demonstrating what makes our resort and The Bahamas so remarkable through our incomparable amenities and culture."

Kate Middleton and Prince William

Atlantis Paradise Island/Donald Knowles/BVS

After arriving in The Bahamas on Thursday, the couple received a ceremonial welcome before attending a meeting with Bahamas' Prime Minister Philip Davis. The Duke and Duchess were presented with a bouquet of flowers at the foot of the Royal Air Force Voyager jet by 8-year-old local Aniah Moss.

On Friday, William and Kate were seen huddled under umbrellas as they arrived at a local school for their first outing of the day. The couple was greeted by a "Guard of Honor" of schoolchildren, the Minister of Education, Glenys Hanna-Martin, and the school's principal, Ricardo Rolle before visiting an assembly area where children from Sybil Strachan and other local schools gathered.

RELATED: Queen Elizabeth Takes a Trip Down Memory Lane in New Photos Taken at Windsor Castle

The couple was entertained by a performance from the school choir and another Rake n' Scrape band. (Rake n' Scrape music originates from the musical traditions of the Turks and Caicos Islands, whose people brought it to The Bahamas between the 1920s and 1940s.)

William and Kate also visited a classroom of students and teachers to discuss their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Kate gave a speech during the outing as well, telling the students, "I hope you didn't get too wet coming here and apologies for bringing the British weather with us!"
TV Rain, a youth-focused Russian TV station often critical of the Kremlin that was shut down by state authorities early in March, is continuing in a YouTube version.

Exiled Russian journalists Ekaterina Kotrikadze and Tikhon Dzyadko are behind the new venture. They spoke to CNN today on host Brian Stelters Reliable Sources show to detail their mission.

More from Deadline

You now face 10 years in prison if you call this war what it is, a warif you interview President Zelenskyy or do anything like that, Kotrikadze told Stelter.

When the independent news outlet shut down, at the end of the nights report, the staff gathered around the news desk. The anchors were overhead saying no war, as everyone walked off together. The broadcast image of the empty studio was replaced by the TV stations logo and a message asking for donations before the telecast cut to old footage from a performance of Tchaikovskys ballet Swan Lake.

The Swan Lake bit was an inspired, highly-evocative gesture, especially for Russians who could recall the coup of August 1991, when, unable to actually report the news, stations simply played footage of the ballet for three days nonstop.

Russian telecommunications regulator Roskomnadzor, banned TV Rain, accusing it of inciting protests and disrupting the public, according to the New York Times.

TV Rain was excised from cable bundles in 2014. The channel had persevered online and on YouTube as an independent voice often critical of the Kremlin.

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Josh Warrington celebrates after regaining the IBF featherweight to become a two-time world champion (Martin Rickett/PA) (PA Wire)

Josh Warringtons father and trainer Sean OHagan expects his son to chase his American dream after regaining the IBF featherweight title.

Warrington became a two-time world champion in thrilling fashion in his home city of Leeds on Saturday night, silencing his doubters with a stunning seventh-round stoppage of tough Spaniard Kiko Martinez.

The Leeds Warrior, who regained the IBF belt he first won by defeating Lee Selby in 2018 and vacated 14 months ago, did not come through unscathed as he was later taken to hospital with a broken jaw.

Confirmed from the hospital @J_Warrington clean break of his jaw prior to stopping Kiko Martinez to win the World title tonight @DAZNBoxing pic.twitter.com/Oc3xI83tzZ  Eddie Hearn (@EddieHearn) March 27, 2022

OHagan told the PA news agency: I think what this does, it gives us options now doesnt it?

Josh has always expressed an interest in going abroad to fight in Las Vegas, or maybe New York.

But there again, weve got (WBA champion) Leigh Wood in the equation havent we? Weve got (WBC champion) Mark Magsayo, the possibilities now are numerous.

Warrington had slipped down the pecking order after his previous two fights in 2021, which ended in a shock first career defeat to Mauricio Lara and then a technical draw in a rematch against the Mexican.

But the 31-year-old answered his critics with a brutal demolition of Martinez at a sold-out and raucous First Direct Arena.

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OHagan suggested Warrington has two career-defining fights left in him and believes he has earned the right to follow his heart when it comes to choosing his next move.

With a fighter like Josh, whos put his heart and soul into his career over the last 12 or 13 years, weve got to acknowledge what he wants, OHagan said.

I know that would be a unification (fight) in the States, so we cant rule out (WBA super-featherweight champion Leo) Santa Cruz.

The referee steps in to end the contest in the seventh round at the First Direct Arena in Leeds (Martin Rickett/PA) (PA Wire)

If I was going to choose one Id say lets go take on Santa Cruz, then well come back home for maybe his last one and unify against Leigh Wood.

There will be some clamour for that, absolutely, but like I say, Josh has done everything thats ever been asked of him.

Warrington made a blistering start against Martinez, who had won the IBF crown when knocking out Sheffields Kid Galahad in November.

The Yorkshireman sent Martinez crashing to the canvas with a right hook flush to his chin in the opening round and also opened up a cut over the Spaniards left eye.

If I was going to choose one I'd say let's go take on Santa Cruz, then we'll come back home for maybe his last one and unify against Leigh Wood

Josh Warrington's trainer/father Sean O'Hagan

Martinez somehow survived as the onslaught continued in the second round and proved a worthy champion by edging back into the fight after Warrington eased off the gas in the following two rounds.

Warrington was caught by some heavy punches in rounds four and five, but responded in the sixth.

After trapping Martinez on the ropes in the seventh, another relentless Warrington barrage prompted the referee to step in and stop the contest.
While President Joe Bidens administration has been seized by the global response to Russia's war on Ukraine, another foreign policy crisis looms ahead over the Iran nuclear deal.

Talks to revive the accord have been on pause for over two weeks now, but the sides remain close to finalizing an agreement. Without one, the administration has warned Iran is just weeks away from having enough fissile material for a nuclear bomb.

But the top U.S. partners in the Middle East are largely opposed to a renewed deal, with Israel rallying concern among its new Arab partners under the banner of the Abraham Accords, the Trump era deals that established diplomatic and economic ties between Israel and several Arab countries.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken walked into that minefield this weekend, arriving in the region for four days of meetings, including a historic summit with Israel and three of the Abraham Accord countries -- the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco -- as well as Egypt.

MORE: 'End game': Iran nuclear talks nearing resolution or nuclear crisis, US warns

In Jerusalem Sunday, he will meet Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and other senior officials, seeking to reaffirm the U.S. commitment to Israel while assuaging Israeli concerns over a renewed nuclear deal. But Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid warned Sunday that Israel "will do anything we believe is needed to stop the Iranian nuclear problem -- anything."

The 2015 deal, signed by Iran, the U.S. and other world powers, placed restrictions on Iran's nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. But former President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. in 2018, reimposing severe U.S. sanctions that were meant to drive Tehran to negotiate a new deal.

During his term, it never happened, and instead, Iran took its own steps out of the deal -- enriching more uranium, to higher levels, and with more advanced centrifuges.

PHOTO: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, walks by U.S. and Israeli flags, at Ben Gurion Airport, near Tel Aviv, Israel, March 26, 2022. (Jacquelyn Martin/Pool via Reuters)

It is now enriching uranium up to 60% purity, a short technical step from 90% weapons-grade, with U.S. officials warning for weeks now that Iran is just weeks away from enough enriched uranium for a bomb. At that point, Iran would still have to complete several complicated, technical steps to build a nuclear warhead, but reaching that nuclear threshold would be deeply alarming.

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During the 2020 campaign, Biden pledged to rejoin the nuclear deal if Iran returned to "strict" compliance, saying he'd then launch follow-on talks on other issues.

But nearly a year after negotiations began in Vienna, Iran's nuclear program continues to expand, while the delegations have not yet reached a deal. Iran's negotiators haven't even agreed to meet the American delegation, led by U.S. special envoy for Iran Rob Malley. Instead, negotiations have been conducted indirectly -- the U.S. and Iran meeting separately with the remaining parties to the deal: France, Germany, the United Kingdom, China and Russia.

While talks initially made progress last spring, they were halted in June ahead of Iran's presidential elections, where Ebrahim Raisi, a more hardline cleric closely tied to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, took power. Months of Iran's delays ended in November, but those resumed talks at first brought deep skepticism about reviving the deal.

MORE: Biden embraces Trump accords, but struggles with his withdrawal from Iran nuclear deal amid growing threat

In recent weeks, however, all the sides have made clear they are close -- prompting a flurry of Israeli activity to rally opposition.

Last Monday, Bennett traveled to Egypt for a historic summit with Egypt's strongman leader Abdel Fattah el Sisi and the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammed bin Zayed, UAE's de facto ruler. It was the first time the three countries' leaders met -- with talks focused on a joint defense strategy against Iran, according to Israel.

The State Department said the U.S. welcomed the meeting, and Blinken will have his own summit on Monday, with Israel, UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, and Morocco -- as well as a key meeting with Sheikh Mohammed in Morocco.

If there's any U.S. concern about the growing anti-Iran coalition, it's not public -- with the Abraham Accords a rare Trump era policy fully embraced by Biden's team.

"When it comes to the most important element, we see eye to eye. We are both committed, both determined that Iran will never acquire a nuclear weapon," Blinken said Sunday alongside Lapid at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

For his part, Bennett is keen to avoid a public spat like the one between former President Barack Obama and his predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu, who addressed a Republican-controlled Congress in 2015 to lobby against the deal, infuriating the White House.

PHOTO: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken waves as he boards a plane, en route to Israel, at the Warsaw Chopin Airport, in Warsaw, Poland, March 26, 2022. (Jacquelyn Martin/Pool via Reuters)

Instead, Bennett and Lapid, who is supposed to succeed Bennett as prime minister in a power-sharing deal, have taken to emphasizing their points of agreement with the Biden team. When Lapid and Blinken met last month in Munich, both men emphasized their "shared goal" -- preventing Iran from ever obtaining a nuclear weapon.

But that's what made Bennett and Lapid's recent vocal opposition to some parts of a potential deal so striking. The two released a statement over a week ago, condemning what could be part of an ultimate deal, de-listing Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from the State Department's foreign terrorist organization list.

"The attempt to delist the IRGC as a terrorist organization is an insult to the victims and would ignore documented reality supported by unequivocal evidence," the two men said. "We believe that the United States will not abandon its closest allies in exchange for empty promises from terrorists."

MORE: Rocket hits Green Zone, US Embassy in Iraq: 'We're still assessing the damage'

During a joint press conference, Lapid affirmed Israel's belief that the IRGC is a terrorist organization, while Blinken declined to say whether he considered it one: "The IRGC is probably the most designated organization in one way or another in the world," he said.

But he argued that an Iran without the nuclear deal would be an even greater threat to the region: "An Iran with a nuclear weapon -- or the capacity to produce one on short notice -- would become even more aggressive and would believe it could act with a false sense of impunity."

Biden administration officials have said those follow-on talks would address issues like Iran's ballistic missile program or its support for proxy forces like Hezbollah, which threatens Israel from Syria and Lebanon, or the Houthis, which threatens Saudi Arabia and UAE from Yemen. Just on Friday, a Houthi attack on Saudi oil giant Aramco's facilities caused two storage tanks to set fire in massive blazes in Jeddah, although there were no casualties. Saudi Arabia retaliated with a strike in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, on Saturday.

But analysts say those talks are increasingly unlikely, with Iran refusing to engage the U.S. even in nuclear negotiations. Either way, critics like Bennett say a revived deal will mean new funds for Iran to project strength across the region and menace its adversaries, none more so than Israel.

PHOTO: A man extinguishes a fire following air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition, targeting the Huthi rebel-held Yemeni capital Sanaa on March 26, 2022. The retaliatory strikes came after the Iran-backed Huthi rebels fired on targets across Saudi Arabia. (Mohammed Huwais/AFP via Getty Images)

"Trying to reach an agreement that prevents Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and addresses their attacks on our key partners is an effort worth pursuing. But we need to consult our partners and realize that Iran has not changed -- and, with the recent attacks in northern Iraq and Saudi Arabia, they do not intend to change. We need an agreement that works for everyone, not just an agreement for the sake of having an agreement," said Mick Mulroy, a former top Pentagon official and now an ABC News national security analyst.

In recent days, however, Blinken and his team have changed their tune slightly, with the current two-week pause in talks seeming to cause some alarm about a deal's likelihood.

"The deal is not just around the corner, and it's not inevitable," Malley said Sunday at the Doha Forum.

Still, Blinken pressed the case with Lapid and others that without a deal, Iran would be more dangerous as it's able to race toward a nuclear weapon with little insight to its program.

Even as the U.S. says it's preparing for that world, Blinken will press Israel and Arab partners for alternatives to keeping a nuclear weapon out of Iranian hands, should diplomacy fail.

"We've long discussed ... alternatives with our partners in the region," State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Tuesday, adding, "For obvious reasons we haven't detailed publicly what that might look like, but it is not for lack of planning on our part."

But at some point, Israel may take those alternatives into their own hands, with the specter of an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities growing, after years of Israeli sabotage.

"Israel and the United States will continue to work together to prevent a nuclear Iran," Lapid said next to Blinken Sunday, but added, "At the same time, Israel will do anything we believe is needed to stop the Iranian nuclear problem - anything."

Blinken meets Israel, Arab partners as looming renewed Iran deal rattles ties originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
After four days of alliance building, emotional interactions with refugees and words about the need to fight for democracy, one sentence at the end of President Joe Biden's speech in Poland threatened to overshadow all of it as he deals with the most significant foreign policy crisis of his presidency.

For Gods sake, Biden said of Russian President Vladimir Putin, this man cannot remain in power.

Biden's aides quickly tried to walk it back, insisting the president was not promoting regime change when he spoke to a packed courtyard in the Royal Castle in Warsaw on Saturday.

"I think the president, the White House, made the point last night that, quite simply, President Putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said hours later in Jerusalem.

"As you know, and as you have heard us say repeatedly, we do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia or anywhere else, for that matter, he said.

Thomas Schwartz, a historian of U.S. foreign relations at Vanderbilt University, said Biden may have said what he believes, but it was not smart policy to say it aloud.

When Biden ad libs, there is trouble, he said. The administration needs to be more disciplined if it wants to get a negotiated settlement.

Analysts warned that Bidens remark could ripple across the NATO alliance as Western leaders try to get Putin to end the war in Ukraine. In a worst-case scenario, the Russian leader could expand the conflict on the grounds that he is protecting his country's interests.

Bidens comment could cause Putins paranoid inner circle to crack down further on dissent in Russia, they said.

Lindsey Graham called for Putin's assassination: Even discussing it brings danger to US, experts say.

President Joe Biden says Russia's Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power" in a speech at the Royal Castle on March 26 in Warsaw, Poland. Biden visited with the Polish president and U.S. troops stationed near the Ukrainian border, bolstering NATO's eastern flank.

In Russia, this comment will be viewed as direct interference in Russias internal affairs and play into Russian propaganda that the United States is a hostile power, said William Pomeranz, acting director of the Wilson Centers Kennan Institute, a think tank dedicated to Russian and Eurasia research.

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Putins advisers probably viewed Bidens statement as the president speaking out loud what they already believed was U.S. policy, said Heather Conley, president of the German Marshall Fund, which promotes cooperation and understanding between North America and Europe.

Bidens earlier statements that Putin is a war criminal and the State Departments formal determination Wednesday that Russian troops have committed war crimes hurt any chances of face-to-face conversations with Putin, Conley said.

Bidens comment that Putin cannot remain in power makes it almost impossible for the two leaders to speak, she said.

After meeting Saturday with refugees from Mariupol, a city in southeastern Ukraine that has been relentlessly shelled, Biden called Putin a butcher.

This month, when Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., suggested Putin should be assassinated, the White House made clear that regime change is not U.S. policy.

That made Biden's comment Saturday all the more striking.

Some analysts said Bidens remark is unlikely to change Putins calculus on the war in Ukraine.

Indeed, it will only confirm that he has no path to retreat, Pomeranz said. The Russian people will ultimately decide the fate of Vladimir Putin, although obviously, it is unlikely to happen as a result of an election. Nevertheless, it appears that Putin is headed to a major military defeat and catastrophic economic collapse, a combination that is usually fatal even for an autocratic ruler.

Republicans back Ukraine in the war: Why is there support for Russia on America's far right?

A crowd attends President Joe Biden's speech about the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the Royal Castle on March 26 in Warsaw, Poland.

Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, said the White Houses attempt to walk back Bidens remark is unlikely to placate Russia.

Putin will see it as confirmation of what hes believed all along, Haass wrote on Twitter. He called the comment a bad lapse in discipline that runs risk of extending the scope and duration of the war.

Our interests are to end the war on terms Ukraine can accept & to discourage Russian escalation, Haass wrote. Todays call for regime change is inconsistent with these ends.

After Bidens speech, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told The Associated Press that its not up to the president of the U.S. and not up to the Americans to decide who will remain in power in Russia.

Only Russians, who vote for their president, can decide that, Peskov said. And of course, it is unbecoming for the president of the U.S. to make such statements.

Tom Nichols, an expert on U.S.-Russian relations at the U.S. Naval War College, called that a whatever" response from Moscow.

Which is about right and about all the whole thing warrants while the goal here is to end a war of Russian aggression, Nichols tweeted.

President Joe Biden visits with members of the 82nd Airborne Division on March 25 in Jasionka, Poland.

Garret Martin, an expert on trans-Atlantic relations at American University, said Putin already believed that the United States is out to get him, but Moscow could use Biden's comments to argue to Russians that Americas real goal is not helping Ukraine but undermining the Russian government.

In the battle for narratives, maybe it helps Putin domestically a little bit, Martin said.

In his speech, Biden appealed to Russians: This war is not worthy of you, the Russian people.

The American people stand with you and the brave citizens of Ukraine who want peace, he said.

'A bad deja vu': Under the crush of Western sanctions, Russians fear a return to dark economic days

Martin said other aspects of Bidens speech and trip will have longer impacts, particularly the solidarity that Biden helped build among allies.

While the Putin 'cannot remain in power' line will get the most attention, don't be distracted by it, David Rothkopf, author of National Insecurity: American Leadership in an Age of Fear, wrote on Twitter. It was the overall thrust of the speech and the degree to which Biden and our allies are backing it up that matters the most in a historical sense.

The United States and its allies have never been more unified in an approach to an international security crisis in the post-Cold War era, said Timothy Naftali, a presidential historian at New York University. Biden deserves some credit for that, he said.

Understandably, the president let his emotions get away from him, Naftali said. It is hard to imagine any modern state would want to be led much longer by anyone who intentionally bombs and starves out civilians.

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden's comment that Putin can't remain in power prompts concern
Editor's note: This page recaps the news from Ukraine on Sunday, March 27. Follow here for the latest updates and news from Monday, March 28, as Russia's invasion continues.

A top Ukrainian official accused Russia of trying to split Ukraine into two countries, drawing a comparison to North and South Korea.

Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, said Sunday that Russia was making "an attempt to create North and South Korea in Ukraine," Reuters reported.

The occupiers will try to pull the occupied territories into a single quasi-state structure and pit it against independent Ukraine, Budanov said in a statement released by the Defense Ministry.

But he said Ukrainian guerrilla warfare would prevent that from happening.

Russia has said its invasion is focused on recognizing the independence of Ukraine's Donbas region, which has been partially controlled by Russia-backed separatists since 2014. The Russian Defense Ministry said last week Moscow had accomplished that goal, and would be moving to secure the "liberation" of Donetsk and Luhansk, two areas within Donbas.

Budanov's comments came a day after President Joe Biden's final remarks during a speech Saturday in Poland, where he said of Putin: "For Gods sake, this man cannot remain in power.

The White House has since clarified that the U.S. is not attempting to have Putin removed from office.

WAS IT A GAFFE OR ESCALATION?: Biden stirs concern with remark that Putin 'cannot remain in power'

LATEST MOVEMENTS: Mapping and tracking Russia's invasion of Ukraine

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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz backed up the U.S. position that it's not seeking to depose Russian President Vladimir Putin. Asked on ARD television whether that's really the objective, Scholz replied: This is not the aim of NATO, and also not that of the American president.

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A rocket attack hit an oil base in the far northwestern region of Volyn on Sunday night, said regional governor Yuriy Pohulyaiko. He did not give details on casualties or the specific location. Volyns capital is Lutsk, about 75 miles north of Lviv.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a law Sunday that bans reporting on troop and equipment movements that havent been announced or approved by the military. Journalists of any nation who violate the law could face three to eight years in prison.

UKRAINE'S JEWS BAFFLED BY 'DE-NAZIFICATION': 'We are that united family:' Russia's war uproots Ukrainian Jews amid false Nazi claims

Refugees walk at the border crossing in Medyka, southeastern Poland, after fleeing the war in Ukraine on March 27, 2022.

Zelenskyy says Russia treats its dead soldiers worse than animals

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is accusing Russia of treating its dead soldiers worse than animals, and said attempts by his country to exchange prisoners of war have been met with a lack of interest by its adversary.

A news release from the president's office cites his new interview with Russian media, in which Zelenskyy said he's willing to conduct the prisoner exchange even while hostilities continue.

"It is not necessary to act according to some generally accepted canons: like, lets wait until the end of the war, or lets capture more ... I do not understand that,'' Zelenskyy said.

The president also said an offer to hand the bodies of Russian soldiers to their relatives elicited a callous response he believes speaks poorly of how President Vladimir Putin's government treats its own people.

"They first refused, then offered us some bags,'' Zelenskyy said. "You know, even when a dog or a cat dies, people don't do so. These are garbage bags. I don't understand what people think, what the parents of these children think."

Russian media outlets have been banned from publishing the interview by the country's communications regulator and Internet censor, known as Roskomnadzor, the Washington Post reported.

Blinken: US not pursuing regime change in Russia

Hours after President Joe Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot remain in power, Secretary of State Antony Blinken made clear the United States does not plan to pursue regime change in Russia.

"I think the president, the White House, made the point last night that, quite simply, President Putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else," Blinken said Sunday during a press conference in Jerusalem.

"As you know, and as you have heard us say repeatedly, we do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia, or anywhere else, for that matter, he said.

As he walked out of church Sunday evening after returning stateside from Poland, Biden was asked if he was calling for regime change in Russia. His one-word answer, according to a pool report: "No.''

In a sweeping and forceful speech concluding a four-day trip to Europe, Biden on Saturday cast the war in Ukraine as part of an ongoing battle for freedom and ended with a blunt call for Putin to be stopped.

"For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power, Biden said during a visit to Warsaw, Poland, in his strongest comments to date about his desire to see Putin gone.

Shortly after the speech, a White House official speaking on the condition of anonymity said Biden was not calling for Putin to be removed from office.

The presidents point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region," the official said. "He was not discussing Putins power in Russia, or regime change."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded, Its not up to the president of the U.S. and not up to the Americans to decide who will remain in power in Russia."

Only Russians, who vote for their president, can decide that, Peskov said.

Macron responds to Biden remark

French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday distanced himself from President Joe Bidens comments calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a butcher and someone who cannot remain in power, adding that he is trying to avoid an escalation from Russia.

In an interview with French TV station France 3, Macron said he would not use that kind of language and noted his task is to achieve "a cease-fire and then the total withdrawal of (Russian) troops by diplomatic means.

"If we want to do that, we can't escalate either in words or actions, Macron said, according to a translation from France 24. Macron and Putin have remained in contact since Russia invaded Ukraine last month.

 Rebecca Morin

NATO ambassador: Biden comments a 'human reaction'

The United States top NATO representative clarified President Joe Bidens comments in which he said Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot remain in power, saying the full administration believes we cannot empower Putin right now to wage war in Ukraine or pursue these acts of aggression.

Julianne Smith, United States ambassador to NATO, said Sunday on CNN's State of the Union that Biden met with Ukrainian refugees ahead of his speech Saturday and his ad-libbed line was a human reaction to the stories that he had heard that day.

 Rebecca Morin

Mariupol 'does not exist anymore'

Mariupol, which has been pummeled by Russian attacks, is now 85% destroyed, Ukraine's deputy prime minister, Olga Stefanishyna, said Sunday: "It simply does not exist anymore.''

"In Mariupol, the situation is extremely complicated, although we managed to take out of there more than 150,000 people, but too many of them still remain there," she said on ABC News' "This Week." "They dont have access to water, to any food supplies, to anything."

She also said Russia has "forcefully displaced" some of Mariupol's people to Russia, echoing a claim made last week by the city council.

Former CIA Director Gen. David Petraeus called the city "a bit of a Ukrainian Alamo." Mariupol is likely to fall to the Russians despite a vigorous defense, he said.

"Its fighting to the last defender and pinning down multiple Russian battalions ... very heroically. But ultimately it looks as if its going to have to collapse. Its going to be taken," he told "This Week."

 Katie Wadington

A Ukrainian serviceman walks outside the regional administration building, heavily damaged after a Russian attack earlier this month in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, March 27, 2022.

Ukrainian envoy: Putin can't lead Russia if convicted of war crimes

Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova indicated Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin should not lead the country if he is convicted of war crimes.

Ukraine submitted all the applications to open investigations against Russia in international courts for war crimes, Markarova said on CNNs "State of the Union."

Every Russian that is responsible for it will have to end up in jail for these war crimes.(Putin) has nothing to do to lead a state if Russia would like to be a democratic or even a civilized state, she said.

I think it will be difficult to run the state from The Hague, Markarova said, referring to the Dutch city where those accused of war crimes are tried.

Speaking on NBC News' "Meet the Press," Markarova called on Western allies to give Ukraine more military support.

"We are not asking for American soldiers, but we need all the support ... all the weapons including the anti-air, including the airplanes, everything, to stop this brutal destruction," she said. "We will not surrender."

 Rebecca Morin and Katie Wadington

GOP senators want fighter jets sent to Ukraine

The Biden administration decided over two weeks ago that a deal to send MiG-29 fighter jets from Poland to Ukraine  with the U.S. then replacing those with F-16s  was not possible, yet the issue remains a talking point.

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, told "Meet the Press" on Sunday that it should be revisited since the U.S. sends other military equipment to Ukraine. "We should also send the MiG 29s, to raise that issue again," Portman said, noting Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave a "green light" to the deal before the administration changed its mind. "And the Ukrainians insist that they need it, they want it, it would be helpful. I think we need to trust them on that."

On "Fox News Sunday," Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott echoed the same sentiment. Julianne Smith, United States Ambassador to NATO, said the administration was working with NATO allies to meet Ukraines defense needs but said the delivery of Polish fighter jets was not possible.

Poland came forward with the idea of offering the Soviet air jets, we looked at that, we had some questions about it and at the end the United State believed that in this case the delivery of those jets was untenable, Smith said.

Smith said there were questions about delivering the jets from Poland to Ukraine and concerns surrounding the Ukrainian pilots who could be flying the jets.

 Ana Faguy and Katie Wadington

Last rail link to Russia from Europe will end

Finland will discontinue train service into Russia on Monday, severing rail links into EU countries.

Since Moscow invaded Ukraine, Finnish train operator VR has operated a route between Helsinki, Finland, and St. Petersburg, Russia, to "provide a safe passage to the Finnish citizens."

During these weeks, the people who have wanted to depart from Russia have had adequate time to leave. Now, due to the sanctions, we will discontinue the service for now, Topi Simola, SVP for Passenger Services at VR Group. said late last week.

 Katie Wadington

Kremlin responds to Biden's condemnation of Putin

A spokesperson for the Kremlin on Saturday said President Joe Biden's statement that Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power" was "extremely negative" for U.S. relations with Russia.

Only Russians, who vote for their president, can decide that, Dmitry Peskov told The Associated Press. And of course, it is unbecoming for the president of the U.S. to make such statements.

The White House walked back Biden's initial statements in Poland, saying the president was not endorsing regime change, but meant that "Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region."

Peskov said that with his statements, Biden was "narrowing the window of opportunity for our bilateral relations under the current administration."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ukraine recap: Officials says Russia will try to split country
President Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Fla., on Saturday, February 26, 2022.





Former President Trump on Saturday repeated his praise of several authoritarian leaders, calling Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "smart."

During a rally in Commerce, Ga., Trump referred to those authoritarian leaders as strong, saying "the smartest one gets to the top."

Trump said China's Xi was smart because he "runs 1.5 billion people with an iron fist," while he called North Korea's Kim "tough." Both Xi and Kim have been widely condemned by the international community for human rights abuses.

Trump also repeated some praise for Putin, while distancing himself from previous remarks that seemed more fully supportive of the Russian leader.

"They asked me if Putin is smart. Yes, Putin was smart," Trump told a crowd of rallygoers.

After acknowledging that Putin had made a "big mistake" in attacking another country and its people, Trump said the Russian leader's massive buildup on the border ahead of the invasion appeared to be a "great negotiation."

"That's a hell of a way to negotiate, put 200,000 troops on the border," Trump said. "That was a big mistake, but it looked like a great negotiation. That didn't work out too well for him."

Trump previously called Putin "very savvy" after the Russian president declared he would recognize two separatist regions in eastern Ukraine as independent days before invading, which drew criticism from both Democrats and Republicans. Trump later attempted to walk those comments back and has condemned the invasion.

During Saturday's rally, Trump also suggested President Biden was weak in comparison to the authoritarian leaders, and said the president "should recuse himself from anything having to do with Ukraine" because of his son's business dealings in the country, which became the subject of GOP attacks during the 2020 presidential campaign.

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A story from the New York Post in October 2020 said "smoking gun" emails revealed a meeting between Joe Biden, Hunter Biden and Ukrainian business executives, insinuating shady dealings. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, then serving as Trump's personal attorney, gave the emails to the outlet, saying that they came from a laptop that Hunter Biden left at a Delaware computer repair shop.

Other outlets, including The New York Times, have since authenticated portions of the laptop contents.

GOP leaders have promised to launch an investigative probe into Hunter Biden, as well other topics including the origins of the COVID-19 virus and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, if the party regains the majority.
This display of photographs, news articles and artifacts was exhibited at a ceremony held at Ohio Veterans' Memorial Park in Clinton just before July 4, 2019, at which the daughter of Ronald Poland of Stark County, was given the medals her father earned with the sacrifice of his life 50 years ago during the Vietnam War.

They aren't the boys they used to be.

In fact, they're senior citizens now, but the dreams and memories remain vivid and timeless.

Washington High School in Massillon will host a Vietnam Veterans Ceremony from 1 to 3 p.m. today to honor those who served in the Vietnam War.

You could say of Vietnam that it was the first American war that also was fought at the dinner table.

Parents who survived the Great Depression, who answered the call when Franklin D. Roosevelt needed them to fight World War II, were stunned that their children not only resisted Vietnam but criticized what they saw as a misguided intervention by the government to stop the spread of communism.

More: World War II veteran reflects on 'wonderful life'

The kids turned out to be right. Vietnam devolved into a quagmire, overshadowing four presidencies and flummoxing Washington's so-called "best and brightest" as hundreds of thousands of young Americans were sent to fight for a country most had not even heard of.

More than 58,000 Americans lost their lives.

Sharon Lane is shown in this portrait on display at the Aultman Hospital in Canton, Ohio in 1999. Lane, a member of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps., was killed June 8, 1969. At 25, she became the only woman killed by hostile fire in the Vietnam War.

Remembering Sharon Lane

During the war, every newspaper, including this one, published battlefield maps, photos by brilliant war photographers, and headshots of the hometown fallen.

Canton is unique in that it is the home of the late Sharon Lane, the only American nurse to be killed by enemy fire. An Army first lieutenant, Lane was killed on June 8, 1969, when a rocket struck the hospital ward where she was serving.

As military strategists in Washington floundered, the price for their dithering was borne by those patrolling the rice paddies and jungles, suffering from foot rot while trying not to step on land mines and punji sticks.

There was no way for Americans who had never been away from home to explain their presence to the villagers they encountered, at least not anything that made much sense. Neither party was to blame. They were caught up in circumstances beyond their control.

We know that while their fathers came home to ticker-tape parades befitting what would come to be known as "The Greatest Generation," no such thing was done for those who served in Vietnam.

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The ordinary men whose only guilt was in doing what their country asked of them, were somehow blamed for it.

'I ain't go no quarrel with them.'

It's been more than 50 years, but Vietnam still haunts us because the mission was never clear, and because it was largely a conflict of class. An inordinate percentage of those sent were poor and working class and minorities who were sent to fight other poor people; people of whom Muhammad Ali famously noted:

"I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong. No Viet Cong ever called me [a racial slur] ... Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?"

It was not lost on anyone, even back then, that some of the people who most championed the war, offered no sacrifices for it. While many of their offspring took advantage of their privilege by leading the antiwar protest movement, others made matters worse by slandering returning soldiers "baby killers."

More: Gary Brown: Finding myself raging against war

What made Vietnam different was the absence of the "glory" our culture attaches to war. Today, we know that not all war casualties are physical. The shameful abuse heaped upon those lucky enough to have survived has been as damaging to the soul as a wound to the body.

According to Veterans Administration statistics, an estimated 22 military veterans die from suicide every day.

We could argue about the rightness or wrongness of Vietnam and whether we learned a lesson, but that's not what's needed now. The people who were sent, and who lived to tell the tale ought to be sal for serving their country.

That's where the honor lies.

Charita M. Goshay is a Canton Repository staff writer and a member of the editorial board. Reach her at 330-580-8313 or charita.goshay@cantonrep.com. On Twitter: @cgoshayREP

This article originally appeared on The Repository: America is still haunted by its treatment of Vietnam veterans
Mar. 27Harris to Habs

Haverhill's Jordan Harris has reached a two-year deal to sign with the Montreal Canadiens, the team announced on its official Twitter page (@CanadiensMTL) on Saturday, now that his senior season at Northeastern University has come to a close.

Harris was selected by the Canadiens in the third round of the 2018 NHL Draft, prior to his stellar career with Northeastern. The defenseman tallied 73 career points (15 goals, 58 assists) in four seasons with the Huskies.

Reports are that Harris could join Montreal as early as this week, providing some much-needed defensive help.

Blackwell to

Toronto

North Andover's Colin Blackwell has been traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs by the expansion Seattle Kraken.

Blackwell scored eight goals and added nine assists in 39 games with the Kraken this winter, missing time due to a bout with COVID-19. Toronto is the fourth different NHL team for Blackwell in four seasons. He previously played for Nashville (2018-20) and the New York Rangers (2020-21). He has scored 23 career NHL goals.

"I'm really excited," Blackwell told Phil Stacey of the Salem News. "To be able to go to a team that's going to be in the playoffs and making a big push down the stretch run and knowing I can contribute to that is great to think about."

Carter to St. A's

Methuen wide receiver/defensive back Braeden Carter will continue his football career at Saint Anselm (Manchester, N.H.), he announced on Twitter last week.

After missing his junior year due to a leg injury, Carter caught 30 passes for 388 yards, scored three touchdowns and had over 40 tackles in the fall, earning MVC All-Star honors for the Rangers that advanced to the Division 1 quarterfinals. He was known as the team's "First Down Machine," and is also a lacrosse captain.

Shaq, Dream attack

When the Patriots traded offensive lineman Shaq Mason to Tampa Bay, they created a very interesting duo.

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Mason's full name is Shaquille Olajuwon Mason, named after NBA Hall of Famers Shaquille O'Neal and Hakeem "The Dream" Olajuwon. Mason is now teammates with Shaq Barrett, whose full name is Shaquil Akeem Barrett, named after O'Neal and Olajuwon, who used the spelling "Akeem" until 1991.

Relive the action

For video highlights from the recent Massachusetts girls basketball tournament  featuring Andover, Central Catholic and North Andover  visit eagletribune.com.

TWITTER: DWillisET
It appears Deiveson Figueiredo wants to forego a fourth fight with Brandon Moreno in favor of a title bout with Kai Kara-France next.

Kara-France (24-9 MMA, 7-2 UFC) earned a split decision upset of Askar Askarovs (13-1-1 MMA, 3-1-1 UFC) on Saturdays UFC on ESPN 33 clash at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. Hes now on a three-fight winning streak and said afterward that he thinks he deserves the next championship fight in the flyweight division.

This is the situation I wanted to be in coming off a three-fight win streak, two finishes in the first round and now beating the No. 2 guy in the world, Kara-France told MMA Junkie at the UFC on ESPN 33 post-fight news conference. Its a conversation me, Mick (Maynard) and Dana (White) have to have.

The UFC is rumored to be targeting a fourth consecutive championship bout between Figueiredo (21-2-1 MMA, 10-2-1 UFC) and Moreno (19-5-2 MMA, 7-2-2 UFC), but after Kara-Frances win, it appears the current titleholder wants something else. Figueiredo took to social media and made it clear he wants Kara-France next (via Twitter):

Congratulations you dirty kiwi @kaikarafrance you just punched your ticket with the God of War. @theassassinbaby you just took the back seat. You are 0- 2 against @Pantojamma if you could beat him Ill give you the next title shot.  Vs lets make it happen @danawhite pic.twitter.com/mysuGl9Wsa  Deiveson (@Daico_Deiveson) March 27, 2022

Congratulations you dirty kiwi @kaikarafrance you just punched your ticket with the God of War. @theassassinbaby you just took the back seat. You are 0- 2 against @Pantojamma if you could beat him Ill give you the next title shot.  Vs lets make it happen @danawhite

It remains to be seen if the champions request alters the UFCs plans. For now, though, Kara-France will revel in the glory of ending Askarovs winning streak in a fight very few were picking him to win.

Everyone was counting me out and calling me the underdog, Kara-France said. Ive had a lot of years in this sport and now youre starting to see that confidence, and now its my time.
Family safety app Life360 recently announced it would stop selling the raw GPS locations of parents and children to third parties  which, until a couple months ago, it was doing behind users backs. If this kind of privacy-invasive trickery sounds like an outlier case, think again.

Imagine theres a company that knows virtually everything about you. It knows your race, religion, and sexual orientation; it can estimate your household income, list your favorite political candidates and organizations, and follow your smartphone as you walk to a marriage counselor or abortion clinic. Youve never heard of this company in your life, yet it can sell this data on the open market, entirely legally, to basically anyone with an email address and a credit card.

These companies are real  and theyre called data brokers. They form a multibillion-dollar industry that goes almost entirely unregulated. But by strengthening a new privacy bill, Delaware has the opportunity to lead the country in regulating this shady, dangerous ecosystem.

I lead a research project at Duke University, where we study the data brokerage ecosystem and its impacts on civil rights, consumer privacy, and national security. When we examined 10 of the largest data brokers in the country, we found them advertising data on hundreds of millions of Americans: their sensitive demographic characteristics, their political preferences and beliefs, and their whereabouts and real-time locations, as well as data on first responders, healthcare workers, students, government employees, and current and former members of the U.S. military. There are hundreds of companies whose entire business model is data brokerage, and thousands more companies  from mobile apps to major internet service providers  sell their own users data as part of this ecosystem, usually without their knowledge and full consent.

The harms are clear. Health insurance companies buy up individuals data to predict healthcare costs, including data on your race, marital status, education level, and even what you purchase online. Law enforcement agencies buy data broker data, circumventing the Fourth Amendment and other controls, to surveil US citizens. Abusive individuals have bought whereabouts and location data from data brokers to hunt down and stalk, harass, intimidate, and even kill other people  predominantly women and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Criminals have bought data broker data before to scam people, including stealing from veterans, and they could easily do the same to target seniors or people with Alzheimers and dementia. Foreign states could even acquire this data to undermine U.S. national security.

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American privacy regulation is already weak. Only a few states have passed comprehensive  albeit flawed  privacy laws, like California, and there is no comprehensive consumer privacy law at the federal level. Data brokers know this, and they exist, in many ways, to circumvent the few privacy laws on the books. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, for instance, narrowly regulates how covered health providers handle your medical information  yet data brokers, not covered by these laws, can  and do  legally sell citizens surgical histories, mental health conditions, and other medical data on the open market.

Delaware is considering a new bill to impose regulations on the data brokerage industry. It would require companies selling or licensing peoples information to register with the state  mirrors of laws in Vermont and California. Unlike the Vermont and California laws, however, which exempt many kinds of companies from classification as a data broker, Delawares bill encompasses a range of businesses selling or licensing individuals data.

Yet in current form, its not enough. Most people have never heard of data brokers, and notification and registry laws place the burden on consumers to go through, one by one, and email data brokers to stop selling their information. Even then, there is no legal guarantee the broker will comply without proper privacy rights. Instead, Delaware should impose strict controls on data brokers buying, licensing, selling, and sharing of data, and it should ban some categories of data sales, like individuals GPS locations, altogether.

Data brokers enable and exacerbate domestic violence, civil rights abuses, consumer exploitation and threats to national security. Other states that have attempted to regulate them  namely, California and Vermont  have done poor jobs. Data brokers also continue lobbying against privacy regulation across the country. Delaware has an opportunity to be a national privacy leader by putting its residents first  and regulating the companies that hoard and sell information on us all.

Justin Sherman

Justin Sherman, @jshermcyber, is a fellow at Duke Universitys Sanford School of Public Policy, where he leads a research project on data brokerage.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Delaware must regulate the shady data broker industry
Josh Warrington (pictured) became a two-time world champion after stopping Kiko Martinez to regain the IBF featherweight title (Martin Rickett/PA) (PA Wire)

Eddie Hearn believes the fear of early retirement spurred new world champion Josh Warrington into the most important win of his career.

Warrington produced a devastating display in his home city of Leeds on Saturday night to regain the IBF featherweight title by stopping Spains Kiko Martinez in the seventh round.

It would have been a long road back for Warrington had he lost again after slipping to a shock first career defeat to Mauricio Lara in February last year, soon after he had vacated the title.

The 31-year-old Leeds Warrior first won the IBF crown by beating Lee Selby on points at Elland Road in 2018 and is now a two-time world champion.

Promoter Hearn, Matchroom Sport chairman, said: Its hard to say it was the biggest night of his career because obviously the Selby win at Elland Road was a big night.

But this was the most important win of his career because they just asked him in there, would you have retired if you had lost? and he was like, I dont know.

When youre going back and offering someone a quarter of the money to have a rebuild fight, do you really want to do that?

(PA Wire)

I think he put a lot of pressure on himself in the build-up to that fight. He trained really well.

It was probably one of the best performances of his career, which is great at this stage of his career because there was a lot of people questioning what he had left.

Warrington had slipped down the pecking order after his previous two fights in 2021, which saw him knocked out by Mexicos Lara before their rematch ended in a technical draw.

At a partisan First Direct Arena on Saturday, the Yorkshireman made a whirlwind start, sending Martinez to the canvas with a right hook to the chin and opening up a cut above the Spaniards left eye in the first round.

Martinez somehow survived the early onslaught and edged back into the fight, but the 36-year-old was bludgeoned to a standstill in the seventh and the referee stepped in to halt the match.

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Warrington did not come through a gruelling contest unscathed and it was later confirmed he had broken his jaw.

Hearn said: Other than that, hes feeling great. Hes emotional, but hes also in a lot of pain. Hes relieved I think.

I knew he was razor sharp because I knew he had trained with the fear of losing

Eddie Hearn

You could see that in the ring. He never showed emotion like that, even when he beat Selby, I dont think.

It was the look of relief, joy, everything. I knew he was razor sharp because I knew he had trained with the fear of losing.

Warrington is now in a position of strength to choose his next move, with unification fights against WBA champion Leigh Wood, WBC champion Mark Magsayo, WBA super-featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz and WBO champion Emanuel Navarrete all possibilities.

(PA Wire)

The Yorkshiremans trainer and father Sean OHagan told the PA news agency: Once again to all the knockers. We keep doing it dont we?

We were written off tonight. A lot of people were doubting what Josh had left after the Lara loss and that we didnt answer our questions and tick the boxes in the rematch.

I think we did, just by accepting that rematch. We didnt swerve him. The possibilities are endless now, well have to sit down and discuss whats next.
Yana Ross and Curtis Sneden, president of the Topeka Chamber of Commerce, talk about a task force that will help settle Ukrainian refugees. Ross, who is originally from Ukraine, will lead the task force. She has lived in the U.S. for 16 years.

Yana Ross remembers the first time she met her friend Irina.

The two young women were sitting on a bench in Ukraine waiting to receive their college admissions test results.

"We waited like four hours together on the bench trying to get results," Ross said. "And we were not in a digital age because Ukraine was kind of 30 years behind because of the Soviet Union."

The women ended up attending the same university near Ross' hometown and had the same major.

Now, Ross is a leading a task force for the Greater Topeka Partnership that will seek to settle Ukrainian refugees in Topeka. Ross hopes her friend Irina and her family will be among those welcomed to the capital city.

More: Topeka leaders stand with Ukraine as Evergy Plaza lit with the country's colors

Friend in Ukraine fled to border for safety

Irina  Ross isn't sharing her last name for safety reasons  lived in Kyiv with her husband and two children. Irina and her husband worked at Samsung, Ross said, and led a good life.

When the bombs began to fall, they fled.

"They had a vehicle, so my friend's husband took them to the border," Ross said, "but because he was under the age of 60, he had to stay."

Irina was able to cross the border into Poland with their two children. Samsung has worked to find them temporary lodging, although Ross said they "live in a (refugee) camp."

More: Topekan close to family in Ukraine: 'They are in much more ... encouraging mood than us'

What the Greater Topeka Partnership is doing and how you can help

Yana Ross, a local insurance agent who immigrated from Ukraine, shows her country's colors Friday overlooking S. Kansas Avenue.

GTP Chamber president Curtis Sneden said those who want to help can send a note to info@supporttopeka.com. This will help the GTP organize a list of those interested in lending a hand.

"If a person wanted to get involved with the efforts that we're describing here today, I would send a note to that email," Sneden said. "That way, we'll know you're out there."

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Sneden says he has received emails from people demonstrating a willingness to help those in need. In September of last year, Kansas welcomed 500 Afghan families fleeing the Taliban takeover of their country. About 68,000 Afghans would be relocated in the U.S.

How Ukrainian refugees will be brought to the United States is mostly in the court of policymakers, but Sneden doesn't see that as a problem.

"It's not always possible to map out every step of your response to certain types of emergent situations," he said. "We're gonna get together and see what's possible."

More: 100,000 Ukrainian refugees could come to the US. This task force will figure out how to get them to Topeka.

What makes Ukraine different from Syria and Central American crises?

On Thursday, President Joe Biden pledged up to $1 billion in humanitarian aid to Ukraine and opened the country's borders to those fleeing the war. Almost 4 million have fled the country and the U.S. could receive up to 100,000 of them.

Sneden explained why the GTP formed the refugee task force for the crisis in Ukraine but not for other refugee crises.

The war in Ukraine has offered a clarifying moment for the world in how it can address future refugee crises, he said. Sneden also highlighted steps taken by Biden and the clear language he used in pledging support for Ukraine.

"What catalyzes our action in this moment is the clarity of President Biden's announcement about clearing the way for these refugees," he said.

More: Hackers in Russian spy agency's military unit targeted Kansas nuclear power plant, FBI alleges

Yana Ross welcomed in Topeka

The USSR experienced a period of economic stagnation in the 1970s. Due to the closed nature of the Soviet economy, few if any modern goods from western nations flowed across the borders.

This is something Ross has no desire to experience again.

"I don't have good memories about it," she said.

Ross has lived in Topeka for 16 years. She is also an ambassador to the GTP and an insurance agent at Farm Bureau.

She said she saw the best side of residents in Kansas. The Topeka she found was willing and able to help her as she adjusted to a new culture and city.

"Everybody was friendly and they made me feel welcome," Ross said. "It's a community. It's not about a place. It's about community coming around others in this case, refugees."

Alex Edwards is the local politics reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached via email at aedwards@gannett.com, or via twitter @AMEdwards21.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Yana Ross to lead task force that seeks to rehome refugees in Topeka
Ewen Ferguson claimed his first victory on the DP World Tour on Sunday (Malcolm Mackenzie/PA) (PA Wire)

Scotlands Ewen Ferguson dedicated his maiden DP World Tour title to his mum after finishing with a flourish to win the Qatar Masters on Mothers Day.

Overnight co-leaders Adrian Meronk and Matthew Jordan had shared the lead between them for most of Sundays final round but, as they struggled in strong winds on the back nine, Ferguson produced a chip-in eagle and a birdie in his last three holes to emerge victorious.

Fergusons closing 70 took him to seven under par for the tournament and earned him a one-shot victory ahead of playing partner Chase Hanna.

Meronk and Marcus Kinhult were another shot further back in a tie for third, with Jordan in the large group on four under after his 76.

Ferguson told the DP World Tour website: Thats for my mum. I know shell be watching at home crying. Happy Mothers Day to all the mums, especially mine.

My mum, dad, sister and brother and all my family gave me everything to try and get to this moment and its an absolute dream come true.

The 25-year-old also paid tribute to his coach after some chipping practice earlier in the day helped him to victory.

He added: I got here earlier today because (coach Jamie Gough) said, Your chippings not good enough.

Worked on it, worked on it and chipped in today and did a decent chip at the last.
Erik Chaput teaches at Western Reserve Academy and at Providence College.

Last month, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker helped to introduce a bill calling for the Congressional Gold Medal to be awarded to African Americans who fought for the Union Army and Navy during the Civil War. In recent years, Congress has recognized the heroism of Black soldiers, awarding the Gold Medal to the Harlem Hellfighters of the First World War, along with honoring the famed Tuskegee Airmen of World War II.

Now there is a move to honor the 200,000 African Americans, including members of Rhode Islands 14th Heavy Artillery Regiment, who served during the Civil War. A worthy and long-deserved recognition is under consideration, but the resolution should perhaps be broadened to include Black civilian leaders, such as Rhode Island abolitionist George T. Downing (1819-1903).

Downing not only helped to recruit Black soldiers for the war effort, he also organized numerous political conventions that reframed the meaning of the war. The heroism of Black soldiers was used as a rallying cry at conventions to urge delegates to push for civil and political rights. These meetings functioned as a form of democratic representation that African Americans were often denied. Downing helped to advance arguments at these conventions that shaped the language and meaning of the transformative Reconstruction amendments.

Downing, a native of New York City, moved to Newport in 1846 to open a restaurant and hotel. He quickly became successful, even managing to rebuild after a devastating fire destroyed his property in 1860. By the start of the Civil War in 1861, Downing was a respected businessman, abolitionist leader, and conductor on the Underground Railroad.

Just days after the firing on Fort Sumter, Downing went to Boston to help form a company of Black soldiers at a meeting at the Twelfth Baptist Church, or the Fugitive Slave Church as it was known. He was joined in his efforts by his brother-in-law, John van Salee DeGrasse, a prominent doctor who would go on to serve as the surgeon to the celebrated 54th Regiment. Dismissing calls for the destruction of the Union, Downing wanted it known that in this crisis he stood for his country.

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In April 1863, Downing told an audience in New York City that by supporting the Union war effort, they were not only deciding to stand by good government, but against slavery, the parent and fosterer of the unjust prejudice we have been the subject of here in the North. The following year, Downing and 140 other Black abolitionists met in Syracuse, N.Y., where they demanded the right of suffrage, equal access to education, equal pay for Black soldiers, and the ability to serve on juries.

In December 1865, in the wake of the Union victory, Downing served as vice president of another convention held at the Twelfth Baptist Church. The topic of conversation was reconstruction. Downing called for equality before the law for all Americans, something that would eventually become part of the 14th Amendment. Downing was selected to serve as an agent to work closely with politicians in Washington.

In February 1866, Downing met with President Andrew Johnson and urged him to use the levers of federal power to reach out like an arm to secure and protect its subjects upon whom it has a claim. Several years later, in 1868, a business venture brought Downing to Washington to manage the restaurant for the House of Representatives. He took advantage of the opportunity and used it as a platform for lobbying members of Congress to work for civil rights legislation.

In January 1869, at the National Convention of the Colored Men of America, Downing demanded that Congress use the guarantee clause in Article IV, section 4 of the Constitution to ensure a republican form of government for every state. Later that same year, Downing chaired a convention to discuss the needs of Black laborers. In the following decade, he devoted his efforts to a major civil rights bill that would eventually be passed in 1875. I am not demanding a pound of human flesh; but I am demanding exact and even-handed justice, wrote Downing.

As a study of Downings career reveals, the battle to defeat the Confederacy was inextricably linked to the battle to end discrimination. For more on Downing and the Civil War era see historian Patrick T. Conleys "The Makers of Modern Rhode Island."

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Opinion/Chaput: In war and peace, RI abolitionist a champion for civil rights
(Reuters) - Ukrainian President Zelenskiy said in a video address that the military situation in the east remained extremely difficult and Russia was preparing for new strikes there.

FIGHTING

* Ukraine recaptured more territory around Kyiv from Russian soldiers who left shattered villages and their own abandoned tanks as they moved away from the capital.

* In the Russian border city of Belgorod, a logistics hub for its war effort, Moscow said Ukrainian helicopters struck a fuel depot, causing a huge fire. Ukraine denied responsibility.

ECONOMY

* Zelenskiy said sanctions imposed by the United States and other countries on Russia are working and need to be increased.

* The United States added 120 Russian and Belarusian entities, mostly companies linked to the military, to the list of those restricted from receiving U.S. supplies and goods.

* Sanctions by the United States and its allies are pushing Russia into recession and starting to turn it back into a closed economy, a senior U.S. Treasury official said.

HUMANITARIAN

* A Red Cross convoy travelling to the besieged Ukrainian port of Mariupol turned around because it had become impossible to proceed with its mission to begin evacuating civilians on Friday, and will try again on Saturday.

ENERGY

* Europe vowed to stay united against Russia's demand that they pay for its gas in roubles, as the threat of an imminent supply halt eased on Friday.

DIPLOMACY

* China offered the European Union assurances that it would seek peace in Ukraine but said this would be on its own terms, deflecting pressure for a tougher stance towards Russia.

(Compiled by Grant McCool)
LONDON (Reuters) - Prince William has said he is committed to service and "not telling people what to do" after a tour of the Caribbean that was marked by protests over the British empire and criticism that the trip reflected a throwback to colonial times.

William released the statement at the end of an eight-day tour with his wife Kate to Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas that included protests and calls for reparations payments by Britain and an apology for slavery.

Some British and international media have also criticised some images from the tour, such as the royals shaking hands with Jamaican children through wire fences and standing on an open-top vehicle to observe a military parade that recreated an image of Queen Elizabeth doing the same thing in the 1950s.

"I know that this tour has brought into even sharper focus questions about the past and the future," William said. "In Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas, that future is for the people to decide upon."

William, second in line to the British throne, had travelled to the Caribbean with Kate to mark Queen Elizabeth's 70 years as monarch. But it came as some countries consider cutting ties with the British monarchy and after Barbados dropped the 95-year-old queen as head of state and became a republic.

Elizabeth remains queen of 15 realms, including Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

William, whose official title is Duke of Cambridge, said he and his wife wanted to serve.

"For us that's not telling people what to do. It is about serving and supporting them in whatever way they think best, by using the platform we are lucky to have."

He added that he was also not thinking about who would lead the Commonwealth of Nations, a group of 54 countries, almost all of which are former colonies of the United Kingdom, which is primarily focused on promoting democracy and development.

The queen is the head of the Commonwealth and while the role is not hereditary, it will pass to William's father and heir to the throne, Prince Charles.

(Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Gareth Jones)
prince william and kate middleton

getty Kate Middleton and Prince William

For the final stop on their eight-day Caribbean tour, Prince William and Kate Middleton made a visit that's close to the Duke of Cambridge's heart.

The royal couple paid a visit to 2021 Earthshot Prize Winner, Coral Vita, on Grand Bahama. The outing marked the first time that William has visited the site of an Earthshot Prize Winner or Finalist.

For her final day of outings, Kate wore a bright pink dress by the British brand RIXO, wedge heel espadrilles and Finlay sunglasses.

The prince launched his Earthshot Prize, an ambitious environmental program aimed at finding new ideas and technologies around the world to tackle the climate crisis, last year. Five winners will be selected each year for their contributions to environmentalism. It was first awarded in 2021 and is planned to run annually until 2030. Each winner receives a grant of 1 million to continue their environmental work.

Coral Vita was the inaugural winner of the "Revive Our Oceans" Earthshot category in recognition of their ground-breaking work to give new life to dying coral reefs.

RELATED: Prince William Tells Caribbean Leaders: 'We Support Your Decisions About Your Future'

prince william and kate middleton

Kate Middleton and Prince William

Their approach, which utilizes an innovative restoration funding model while farming corals on land before planting them into oceans, sees coral grow up to 50 times faster than traditional methods and improves their resilience to the impacts of climate change.

Upon their arrival, William and Kate were met by co-founders, Sam Teicher and Gator Halpern who led a short tour of their facilities, including viewing different tanks where coral is growing inside.

"It's really inspiring to have a world leader of his stature put his energy and passion and focus to a movement that I think resonates so deeply with the younger generation," Halpern previously told PEOPLE.

"Sam and I have known since we were teenagers that we wanted to devote our lives to the environmental movement," he says. "And this award is an incredible way to really elevate the conversation around climate destabilization and use the influence that Prince William and really the rest of the prize council has to show how important issue this is."

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Kate Middleton

Samir Hussein - Pool/WireImage

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They also heard about Coral Vita's ambitious plans to preserve threatened ecosystems globally for the future, which are being supported and scaled with thanks to support from The Earthshot Prize.

The royal couple also spoke from the Coral Vita team about their humanitarian work on behalf of local communities in the wake of Hurricane Dorian and how the company recovered from the record-breaking storm, which ripped most of their coral tanks out of the farm and carried them over 30 miles away across Grand Bahama.

At a reception on Saturday, William addressed the growing calls for change in the Caribbean as he and Kate wrap their week-long tour in the region.

"With Jamaica celebrating 60 years of independence this year, and Belize celebrating 40 years of independence last year, I want to say this: We support with pride and respect your decisions about your future," he said. "Relationships evolve. Friendship endures."
Information - and a photo - sought for Mavis Josephine McKay

Anyone with information about Mavis Josephine McKay and what happened to her early on the morning of Aug. 13, 1957 may contact Patti Gosch, tribal liaison for the Washington State Patrol, at patti.gosch@wsp.wa.gov or 360-280-0567.

Her daughter Mildred Quaempts is seeking a photo of her mother. Anyone with a photo of Mavis is asked to email reporter Tammy Ayer at tayer@yakimaherald.com or call 509-759-7898.
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Representative Rhett Marques and Senate District 31 Candidate, Representative Mike Jones, along with the Alabama Forestry Association (AFA), hosted a Back the Blue event in Enterprise at the Enterprise Farmers Market to honor first responders March 18.

The lunch was held to show appreciation for hardworking first responders and all they do in our local communities.

Marques, Jones, AFA members and volunteers from the Alabama Forestry Commission cooked hamburgers and hotdogs for over 150 first responders.

The rain didnt stop us from coming out to back the blue and serve our first responders as they serve us each and every day, said Representative Marques. It was a fabulous event and I hope they realize how much we appreciate all that they do for us.

Marques is seeking reelection for House District 91 which covers most of Coffee County.

Our first responders put their lives on the line every day to serve and protect all of us, said Representative Jones. I was honored to be able to participate in this event to show them that we appreciate what they do for us and their hard work and dedication does not go unnoticed.

Jones, who currently represents House District 92, is running for the Senate District 31 seat in the upcoming primary election.

The event was a huge success and marked the 20th stop on AFAs Back the Blue tour.
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Air Mauritius commenced its weekly flights from Mumbai to Mauritius on March 27. The airline said it will operate weekly flights on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays with the Airbus A330-900neo.

The flight passengers must note that Air Mauritius is currently operating the international flights under the Air Bubble Arrangements with India, which was finalized in November 2021, said officials.

The officials further said the airline is increasing the frequency of flights between the two countries.

Read also: Bengaluru International Airport awarded Best at the Wings India 2022

Mauritius recently dropped the requirements for all international passengers to carry a negative PCR test. As per the earlier guidelines, fully vaccinated passengers were allowed to present a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours before departure. However, the Ministry of Health and Wellness of Mauritius has dropped this requirement from 12 March 2022.

Since the reopening of borders the inflow of air travellers has increased manifold and with this initiative it will be much easier for travellers to visit the country more frequently, said officials.

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The SpiceJet Gorakhpur-Varanasi flight, an initiative under the UDAN scheme, was inaugurated by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on March 27 via video conferencing.

Union civil aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia participated in the function from Gwalior.

Speaking on the occasion, he said that nine airports are running in Uttar Pradesh and air connectivity has vastly improved in five years. The work of connecting other countries is also going on.

Also read: IndiGo to launch 100 flights connecting THESE domestic cities from today

"At present, nine airports are functioning in the state. Four years ago, just four airports in the state were connected to mere 25 destinations. Now flights for 75 destinations across the country are available from the state," the chief minister said.

He said that the increase in air connectivity would not only boost tourism but also open up new employment opportunities in the state. The 78-seater flight will take around 25 minutes to cover the distance between Gorakhpur and Varanasi.

The Vishwanath temple in Varanasi is being connected to Gorakhnath by air today. It is a matter of great pleasure for me that Gorakhpur to Kanpur, Varanasi to Mumbai, Kanpur to Patna, Kushinagar to Kolkata and six other planes are starting today to connect different destinations of the state and the country, and I would like to thank the civil aviation minister on behalf of the people of the state, Adityanath said.

"We all know that Kashi (Varanasi) is the oldest city in the world and due to the work done at Vishwanath temple under the leadership of the prime minister, people across the country would like to visit it," Adityanath said.

The BJP leader also mentioned about the new airports to be built at Chitrakoot, Sonbhadra and Shravasti as well as the functionalization of the international airport at Kushinagar.

(With inputs from agencies)

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The military intervention of Russia in Ukraine is raising worldwide concerns about the possibility of a nuclear war triggered by Russia. In the middle of this crisis, USA has parked a Boeing 747 E-4B in a small town in the U.K. which has been retrofitted to survive a nuclear attack.

The Boeing E-4B offers direct support to the US President, Secretary of Defence, and Joint Chiefs of Staff as the National Airborne Operations Centre (NAOC) for the National Command Authorities. At least one unit is always on high alert 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The plane can also be used to direct military forces when there is a national emergency or ground command and control centres have been destroyed. Using the plane, war orders can be executed and missions coordinated by officials. In June 1973, the Boeing E-4 took to the skies for the first time and entered service in 1974. To date, four Boeing E-4 aircraft have been constructed.

Read also: Air Mauritius commences weekly direct flights connecting Mumbai to Port Loius

This modified Boeing 474-200 aircraft is capable of refuelling in flight and the main deck is divided into six functional areas: a command work area, conference room, briefing room, an operations team work area, communications area and rest area.

On Wednesday, March 23rd, the Boeing 747 E-4B took off from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland at 07:09 EDT and landed at RAF Mildenhall at 06:09 GMT. The National Airborne Operations Centre took seven hours to reach the base in Suffolk, England.

In response to Russia's war in Ukraine, the aircraft was sent to the UK to support President Joe Biden on a four-day trip to Europe. In recent history, Biden's transatlantic trip has been one of the most significant presidential trips. Brussels and Poland are among the stops on the US' tour that will bolster options against the invasion in Ukraine.

SOURCE

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New Delhi: Leading film exhibition players PVR Ltd and Inox Leisure Ltd on Sunday announced a merger deal to create the largest multiplex chain in the country with a network of more than 1,500 screens.

The respective board of directors of the two companies at their meetings held on Sunday have approved an all-stock amalgamation of Inox with PVR, the two companies said in separate regulatory filings.

The combined entity will be named PVR Inox Ltd with the branding of existing screens to continue as PVR and Inox. New cinemas opened post the merger will be branded as PVR Inox, it added.

As per the agreement, Inox will merge with PVR in a share swap ratio of 3 shares of PVR for every 10 shares of Inox.

"The amalgamation is subject to the approval of the shareholders of PVR and INOX, respectively, stock exchanges, SEBI and such other regulatory approvals as may be required.

"Post the merger, the promoters of INOX will become co-promoters in the merged entity along with the existing promoters of PVR," the filing said.

PVR Promoters will have a 10.62 per cent stake, while Inox promoters will have 16.66 per cent stake in the combined entity, it added.

When the merger comes into effect, the board of the merged company would be reconstituted with total board strength of 10 members and both the promoter families having equal representation on the board with two seats each.

The merger will unlock significant complementarity and growth potential and offers compelling revenue and cost synergies, the statement added.

PVR's Ajay Bijli will be appointed as the Managing Director and Sanjeev Kumar would be appointed as the Executive Director of the merged entity.

While Inox's Pavan Kumar Jain will be appointed as the Non-Executive Chairman of the Board and Siddharth Jain would be appointed as Non-Executive Non-Independent Director in the combined entity.

PVR CMD Ajay Bijli said: The partnership of these two brands will put consumers at the centre of its vision and deliver an unparalleled movie-going experience to them. The film exhibition sector has been one of the worst impacted sectors on account of the pandemic and creating scale to achieve efficiencies is critical for the long term survival of the business and fight the onslaught of digital OTT platforms".

Inox Leisure Director Siddharth Jain said: As we head into the industry's revival amidst headwinds, this decisive partnership would bring in enhanced productivity through scale, a deeper reach in newer markets and numerous cost optimisation opportunities, and continue to delight cinema fans with world-class experiences and landmark innovations".

PVR currently operates 871 screens across 181 properties in 73 cities, while Inox operates 675 screens across 160 properties in 72 cities.

"The combined entity will become the largest film exhibition company in India operating 1,546 screens across 341 properties across 109 cities,? the filings said.

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New Delhi: To improve the ease of living for the common man, the government is working on a proposal to launch a common portal for various schemes run by different ministries and departments.

As part of the Narendra Modi government's vision of minimum government maximum governance, the new portal will initially onboard 15 credit-linked government schemes, sources said.

The offerings will be gradually expanded, depending on compatibility, as some of the Centrally Sponsored Schemes have involvement from multiple agencies, they added.

For example, schemes like Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and Credit Linked Capital Subsidy Scheme (CLCSS) are being administered by different ministries. The proposed portal intends to bring these schemes on a single platform so that they can be accessed by the beneficiaries without much hassle.

Pilot testing is being done and loose ends are being tied up before the actual launch takes place, the sources said, adding State Bank of India (SBI) and other lenders doing the testing.

The sources said it is likely to have open architecture enabling state governments and other institutions to also onboard their schemes on this platform.

To provide comfort to borrowers, the government in 2018 had launched a portal psbloansin59minutes.Com for various kinds of credit products, including MSME, home, auto and personal loans.

The portal facilitates in-principle approval of loans for MSMEs and other borrowers in 59 minutes by various banks compared to the earlier turnaround time of 20-25 days.

After receiving an in-principle approval letter, the loan is expected to be disbursed in 7-8 working days.

The portal processes loan applications without human intervention till the sanction stage. Any MSME borrower does not need to submit any physical document for in-principle approval for a loan.

Instead, the portal depends on advanced algorithms to analyse data points from several sources such as Income Tax returns, GST data, Bank Statements etc.

The platform is integrated with the government's Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) to check borrowers' eligibility.

In the first two months of the launch of the portal, the state-owned banks had given in-principle approval to 1.12 lakh loan applications of micro, small and medium enterprises, totalling Rs 37,412 crore.

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Washington: Sean Penn has vowed to publicly "smelt" his statuettes from the Oscars if the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences does not invite Ukrainian President Zelenskyy to speak during the live telecast of the ceremony.

Variety obtained quotes from Penn`s interview with CNN, in which he argued that the Academy has an obligation to offer President Zelenskyy a platform to speak on Ukraine`s struggles amid the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

"There is nothing greater that the Academy Awards could do than to give [Zelenskyy] an opportunity to talk to all of us," Penn stated.

"It is my understanding that a decision has been made not to do it. That is not me commenting on whether or not President Zelenskyy had wanted to... If the (Academy has) elected not to pursue the leadership in Ukraine, who are taking bullets and bombs for us, along with the Ukrainian children that they are trying to protect, then I think every single one of those people and every bit of that decision will have been the most obscene moment in all of Hollywood history."

The actor-activist also urged those invited to boycott the ceremony if it is confirmed that the awards body decides against reaching out to Zelenskyy regarding a speech during the telecast.

"If it comes back to it, I will smelt mine in public," Penn continued.

"I pray that`s not what`s happened. I pray there have not been arrogant people, who consider themselves representatives of the greater good in my industry, that have (decided against checking) with leadership in Ukraine. So I`m just going to hope that that`s not what`s happened. I hope (every attendee) walks out if it is."

Recently, Amy Schumer, who is co-hosting the Oscars ceremony, stated that she had pitched the event`s organizers on finding "a way to have Zelenskyy satellite in or make a tape" for the ceremony. "I am not afraid to go there, but it`s not me producing the Oscars," Schumer explained.

Meanwhile, Penn was on the ground in Ukraine in February, to film a documentary on Russia`s conflict with the neighbouring country.

The actor has also spoken with President Zelenskyy on several occasions in the past month and is currently positioned in Poland as the country accepts Ukrainian refugees.

Penn has won two Academy Awards for best actor over his career, for 2003`s `Mystic River` and 2008`s `Milk`.
Dwarka: After a fight broke out between some school students, a 19-year boy was shot dead in Delhi`s Dwarka, said Police.

The incident happened on Saturday in front of Akshay Public School in Sector 16 A of Dwarka.

"The person deceased has been identified as Khurshid while the one booked for firing at him was identified as Sahil alias Monu alias Lather. Khurshid was rushed to Tarak Hospital where he was declared brought dead," stated Delhi Police.

So far, three people, including Sahil have been arrested by the police. A country-made pistol along with one empty cartridge has been recovered from his possession.

A First Information Report (FIR) has been lodged against Sahil and he has been booked.

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New Delhi: Shivpal Yadav, who has shared a rocky relationship with his nephew Akhilesh Yadav is upset again for not being invited to the Samajwadi Party legislature party meeting on Saturday and used Mahabharata and Ramayana references to convey his emotions.

Comparing himself to Lord Hanuman in Ramayana, Shivpal Yadav said, "We should remember the role of Hanuman because it was because of him that Lord Ram won the battle in Lanka.

The SP leader further said that it was Hanuman who had saved the life of Lakshman. Even the Gods have faced difficult situations but it is the truth that triumphs in the end.

The leader made the remarks during a function in Etawah on Sunday.

Referring to the Mahabharata, he said that Yudhishthir should not have gambled with Shakuni.

"If he had to play, he should have played with Duryodhan. It was Shakuni who created a situation for Mahabharata."

Adding that he was not invited to the party meeting despite being an SP MLA, Yadav added, "I am a legislator on the Samajwadi Party symbol but was not invited to the meeting.

Asked about his future plans, the leader said he will discuss with his supporters and well-wishers and will decide.

Meanwhile, state SP president Naresh Uttam clarified that the allies of SP would be invited for a meeting on March 28.

Those who have their own parties like Shivpal Singh Yadav, Pallavi Patel, Om Prakash Rajbhar and Mahaan Dal will be invited for a meeting on Monday to discuss the post-poll situation.

Notably, Shivpal Yadav and his brother Mulayam Singh Yadav experienced a strained patch in their relationship in 2018 which led the former to leave SP and form his own party Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party Lohia.

However, both Akhilesh and Shivpal later mended their fences and came together to fight the 2022 Assembly Elections together.

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New Delhi: The annual Amaranth Yatra will commence from June 30 this year with strict adherence to Covid-19 protocols, Office of Lt. Governor of Jammu & Kashmir said on Sunday (March 27).

This year the yatra to the Himalayan cave shrine located at a height of 3,880 metres in south Kashmir will be 43-day long and as per tradition, it will conclude on the day of Raksha Bandhan.

The decision to schedule the annual pilgrimage to the shrine of Amarnath was taken at a meeting of the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board chaired by Lt Governor Manoj Sinha, PTI reported.

Today chaired Board meeting of Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board. The 43-day holy pilgrimage will commence on 30th June with all covid protocols in place & culminate, as per the tradition, on the day of Raksha Bandhan. We had in-depth discussion on various issues also on upcoming Yatra, Sinha tweeted.

The Amarnath yatra was cancelled midway in 2019 before the abrogation of Article 370 in August that year. For the last two years due to the coronavirus pandemic, a symbolic yatra was observed.

Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday logged 15 fresh Covid cases that pushed the caseload to 4,53,652, officials said. With no new fatality, the death toll stood at 4,750.

Notably, fifteen of the 22 districts in J&K did not report any new Covid infections. The Union Territory has 138 active cases currently.

(With agency inputs)

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New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday inaugurated the Integrated Command and Control Centre in Punjabs Chandigarh and said that the new project will make the city even more developed, reported ANI.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurates various development projects in Chandigarh, in the presence of Governor Punjab and Administrator, Chandigarh, Banwarilal Purohit. pic.twitter.com/zNWlTUAt3Y  ANI (@ANI) March 27, 2022

Calling Chandigarh one of the most developed cities in the country, Shah said, Chandigarh is one of the most developed cities in the country. With the inauguration of this Integrated Command and Control Centre in the UT, citizens' services, security, traffic discipline etc. can be monitored from one place.

Chandigarh is one of the most developed cities in the country. With the inauguration of this Integrated Command and Control Centre in the UT, citizens' services, security, traffic discipline etc. can be monitored from one place: Union Home Minister Amit Shah pic.twitter.com/Umeeai7EJL  ANI (@ANI) March 27, 2022

Governor Punjab and Administrator, Chandigarh, Banwarilal Purohit were also present at the occasion.

Apart from this, Shah also laid foundation stones of a hostel block of commerce college, a project for constructing 240 houses for police personnel and a bus depot-cum-workshop.

The Union minister was accompanied by Punjab Governor Banwarlilal Purohit on this occasion.

Under the ICCC project, more than 2,000 CCTV cameras have been installed in the city to keep a check on traffic violations.

The ICCC centre is also integrated with major citizen services including water, electricity, sewage, solid waste management, transport, e-governance, parking and public-bike sharing for an effective monitoring of services and data analysis.

The other projects which the Union Minister inaugurated included a new office building of Chandigarh Housing Board, two government schools and an urban park.

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Container trucks are seen at Cat Lai Terminal in Ho Chi Minh City on December 24, 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Thanh Nguyen

Logistics companies are expanding in Vietnam as they eye profits from growing demand for transportation amid a boom in trade.

U.S. company SEKO Logistics, which opened its Vietnam office Wednesday, has over 300,000 square meters of warehousing space, 350 container tractors and 150 trucks.

The company sees potential for logistics growth in Vietnam where the supply of goods is abundant but transportation at competitive prices is a major challenge, Anthony Barnes, CEO of the companys Asia-Pacific division, said.

This year several other logistics companies have also expanded their business or announced plans to invest further.

DHL Express last week said it would invest in a new gateway project near Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi.

The new facility, expected to be fully operational by early 2023, will have a total utilization space of 4,500 sq.m, or twice as much as the companys previous one.

It will be equipped with warehouse automation, smart building and energy-efficient solutions in line with the companys commitment to bring all global logistics-related emissions to zero by 2050.

Imex Pan Pacific Group, which brought global brands like Burger King and Calvin Klein to Vietnam, has told the HCMC government that it wanted to develop a logistics center in Thu Duc City along with the launch of its airline, IPP Air Cargo.

MSC Vietnam wants to build a transshipment port in HCMC's coastal Can Gio District.

Vietnams growing trade is the reason for these plans.

It jumped by 22.6 percent in 2021 to US$668.5 billion despite the supply chain disruptions caused by Covid-19.

More and more U.S. companies are setting up factories or sourcing offices in Vietnam amid expanding bilateral trade, Linh Le, CEO of Seko Logistics Vietnam, said.

The U.S. was Vietnam's biggest market last year as bilateral trade reached $111 billion following a 23-percent rise from 2020.

"Vietnam is also seen as one of the countries that can be an alternative manufacturing hub to China," he said, adding that the company expects strong growth in foreign investment in Vietnam.

Bernardo Bautista, DHL Express country manager for Vietnam, said the country is showing strong recovery with growing trade, which is why his company recently upgraded the cargo capacity of its Hanoi  Hong Kong and HCMC  U.S. routes.

However, the logistics industry is set to face difficulties like container shortages and rising costs as Vietnamese exporters dependent on foreign shipping firms.

Vo Quan Huy, CEO of agriculture firm Huy Long An, said the cost of shipping a container of bananas from Ecuador to China is the same as from Vietnam to China, $7,000.

The Vietnam Logistics Association has said the country needs to have its own shipping fleet to reduce the dependence on foreign companies.

Some Vietnamese companies are working to address the shortages.

Steelmaker Hoa Phat is building a container manufacturing plant in the southern, while Hai An Transport and Stevedoring has set up a company to purchase and operate ships to and from Southeast Asia and China.

Last year, the Vietnam National Shipping Lines established a cargo route connecting Vietnam with Malaysia and India.
New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday (March 27) claimed there is a conspiracy behind the Birbhum violence and demanded an impartial probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the incident.

Addressing an event, Banerjee said, "We (TMC) were not involved in the Rampurhat incident. A Trinamool worker was murdered by another party worker. But the media only criticized TMC. We took several steps to find out the original cause of the incident."

On Tuesday, eight people were killed in the Rampurhat area of West Bengal's Birbhum after a mob allegedly set houses on fire following the killing of TMC leader Bhadu Sheikh. Sheikh, also a local deputy president of Rampurhat village, was killed on March 21 by bike-borne assailants.

The Calcutta High Court on Friday had ordered an independent CBI investigation in the Birbhum violence and directed the central agency to submit a report by April 7.

The West Bengal CM said today that the CBI should not follow BJP`s direction in the ongoing investigation.

"I still think that there is a conspiracy behind the Rampurhut incident. It`s good that CBI took charge but if they only follow BJP`s direction, we are ready to protest," ANI quoted Banerjee as saying. The TMC chief further said that she never politicised the death of people when she was in the opposition.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has accused the ruling Trinamool Congress of sheltering the accused to cover up the incident, a charge TMC has denied.

Banerjee also hit out at the Central government over rising fuel prices and said "after winning the Uttar Pradesh elections, the (Narendra) Modi government has given a return gift by increasing prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas."

Meanwhile, the CBI has named 21 people, including Trinamool Congress' block president Anarul Hossain, as accused in connection with the Birbhum violence.

(With agency inputs)

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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday (March 27, 2022) addressed his monthly radio programme 'Mann Ki Baat'. This is PM Modi's first radio programme after winning assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa.

India has achieved the target of 400 billion dollar exports. This signifies India's capabilities and potential. It means that the demand for Indian goods is rising in the world, said Narendra Modi.

In the recently concluded Padma awards, you must have seen Baba Sivananda, everybody was surprised by looking at his vigour and fitness. His health is a topic of discussion in the country. He has a passion for Yoga: PM Modi in 'Mann Ki Baat'  ANI (@ANI) March 27, 2022

In his monthly Mann Ki Baat radio broadcast, the prime minister hailed the potential of India and said the basis of its strength is the country's farmers, artisans, weavers, engineers, small entrepreneurs and people from many different professions.

"It is only due to their hard work that the goal of exporting to the tune of USD 400 billion has been achieved and I am happy that this power of the people of India is now reaching new markets in every nook and corner of the world," the prime minister said.

"When each and every Indian is vocal for local, it does not take long for the local to become global. Let's make the local 'global' and augment the prestige of our products further," he added.

Speaking further, the Prime Minister said, "Today our small entrepreneurs are playing a major partnership role in government procurement through Government e-Market place - GeM. A much more transparent system has been developed through technology."

Notably, India on March 23, scripted history of achieving its highest ever goods export target of USD 400 billion nine days ahead of schedule. On average, every hour USD 46 million goods are exported, USD 1 billion goods are exported everyday and USD 33 billion every month. The exports in the financial year 2020-21 were USD 292 billion while the exports in 2021-22 are USD 400 billion with a 37 per cent rise.

"Mann ki Baat" is the Prime Minister`s monthly radio address, which is broadcast on the last Sunday of every month at 11 am. The first episode of Mann Ki Baat was broadcast on October 3, 2014.

(With agency inputs)

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Male: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Sunday (March 27, 2022) called on Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih in Addu City and discussed the special partnership between the two countries.

Jaishankar, who arrived here on Saturday, also conveyed the personal greetings and good wishes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to President Solih.

An honour to be received by President @ibusolih of Maldives. Conveyed the personal greetings and good wishes of PM @narendramodi. Discussed the special partnership between our two countries that has produced so many substantive outcomes during his tenure, he tweeted.

Jaishankar also had a "fruitful meeting" with Maldives Home Minister Imran Abdulla.

"A fruitful meeting with @shimranAb, Home Minister of Maldives. Discussed capacity building and training cooperation in law enforcement. Appreciate his strong support for #IndiaMaldives special partnership" he tweeted.

Jaishankar said he was privileged to join President Solih in the inauguration of the National College of Police and Law Enforcement (NCPLE), which underlines India's strong support for law enforcement.

"The NCPLE will assist the Maldives Police Service to train its officers and enhance its crime-fighting capacities," Jaishankar had said at a joint press appearance with Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid on Saturday.

Ground-breaking of the Addu roads project, similarly emphasizes our development partnership. Also signed an agreement for Addu reclamation and shore protection. Handing over of coastal radar system strengthens the security of Maldives, he said in another tweet.

Opening of the Drug Detoxification and Rehabilitation Centre reflects our P2P connect. The new eco-tourism zone is a statement of our shared environmental commitment. A good day for #IndiaMaldives development cooperation, the minister tweeted.

Jaishankar also laid a wreath at Addu Atoll Memorial.

From the pages of history, a visit to Gan. Paid my homage to the Indian soldiers commemorated at the Addu Atoll Memorial, he tweeted.

On Saturday, Jaishankar said the "time-tested" relationship between India and the Maldives is a "force for stability" in the region and the shared responsibility of the two countries is to nurture and strengthen it.

Jaishankar held wide-ranging discussions with his Maldivian counterpart on the bilateral partnership and the two leaders took stock of ongoing projects and initiatives across a very wide range of sectors.

The two ministers also had a discussion on regional security and maritime safety issues.

India and the Maldives also agreed to mutually recognise the Covid-19 vaccine certificates issued by each other, a move that will facilitate easier travel between the two countries and give a boost to the tourism sector.

The Maldives is one of India's key maritime neighbours in the Indian Ocean region and the bilateral defence and security ties have been on an upward trajectory in the last few years.

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Male: India and the Maldives on Saturday agreed to mutually recognise the COVID-19 vaccine certificates issued by each other, a move that will facilitate easier travel between the two countries and give a boost to the tourism sector.

Speaking at a joint press conference alongside Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid after their talks here, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar congratulated the Maldives for scripting a success story during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Mutual recognition of Covid-19 certificates today will facilitate easier between India and Maldives travel. India has been the top source of tourists for the Maldives. Have also facilitated the smooth supply of essential goods and commodities," he said.

A pleasure to visit Maldives after a year. Despite the pandemic,our relationship has witnessed fast-paced progress this year under guidance of PM @narendramodi &President @ibusolih. Congratulate Maldives for scripting a success story in this adversity.https://t.co/t49Tme6RGm  Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) March 26, 2022

Jaishankar said that despite the coronavirus pandemic, "our relationship has witnessed fast-paced progress this year under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih."

Youve made history, Minister @DrSJaishankar! This is the first time official talks have been held out of the Capital City Male. Fortifying & building on the long-standing ties is one of the top foreign policy priorities of President Solihs administration. pic.twitter.com/yYHcyrKFj2  Abdulla Shahid (@abdulla_shahid) March 26, 2022

India, one of the world's biggest drugmakers, had provided over two lakh doses of Covishield vaccine, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII), to the Maldives last year as part of its grant assistance.
Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir is witnessing the hottest March after seven decades. The mercury broke all records in March with Jammu and Kashmir recording an all-time high of 37.3 degrees Celsius on Sunday (March 27).

As per metrological department records, the previous high of March month was 37.2 degrees Celsius recorded 76 years ago.

At 37.3C, Jammu broke all-time Max. Temp. record of 37.2C recorded earlier on 31.3.1945( 76 yrs.record). Since last 3-4 days, weather remained mainly Fair and clear in J&K due to absence of any low-pressure system or any localized weather system. Dry and hot weather is likely to prevail for next few days as well.

MET predicted no significant weather change expected during the next one week except cloudiness to chances of light rain/snow over extreme higher reaches of North -western and Northern parts of J&K during night of March 20.

Meanwhile, Srinagar, recorded maximum of 25.0C while Qazigund recorded 26.5C, Pahalgam 22.3C, Kokernag 24.6C, Kupwara 26.0C and Gulmarg 15.0C.

Temperatures both in Jammu and Kashmir has been above normal in the month of March. In Jammu, the temperature was 8.4 degrees above normal while in Srinagar it was 2.6 degrees above normal.

Experts say that the temperatures in summers will be hot to very hot but in winters it will be cold to very cold. They said it's because of global warming and weather change across the globe.

The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report released on Monday suggests India is among the places that would experience heat and humidity conditions beyond human tolerance level if emissions are not reduced.

It further said "The world will face unavoidable multiple climate hazards over the next two decades with global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius. Even temporarily exceeding this warming level will result in additional severe impacts, some of which will be irreversible, the report said.

has warned that the increase in global average temperature is going to have significant risks to the agriculture sector in vulnerable regions of the world mostly in India. Adding to that it said If global temperatures continue to rise unabated to more than 1.5 degrees C, then agricultural activity will be significantly affected and threaten to push millions into food scarcity.

Changing weather patterns can result in longer and severe periods of droughts and low precipitation. Extreme climatic conditions like extreme rainfall, heat waves and more can also negatively affect crops and harvests.

Climate change at this hour is considered the biggest challenge and threat across the globe for mankind, several big countries across the globe are continuously working on controlling the rising temperatures of the earth.

ALSO READ: IMD predicts heat wave, rainfall in these states - Check full weather forecast here

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New Delhi: If you are planning to visit Kerala then you can experience a ride on waves at Beypore beach in Kozhikode. The Kerala Tourism Department has installed a 100 meters long floating bridge on which you can have a thrilling experience of beach waves.

One end of the bridge that extends to the sea has a 15 meter wide platform that provides visitors a beautiful view of the sea. Timings to visit the bridge are from 11 am to 6 pm.

The 100 metres long and 3-metre wide floating bridge is made of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) block and has a capacity of carrying 500 people at a time. However, at present only 50 people wearing life jackets are allowed on the bridge.

Kerala | A floating bridge has been set up by the state tourism department at Beypore beach in Kozhikode to walk along with waves pic.twitter.com/6SGRyUEn2J  ANI (@ANI) March 27, 2022

The bridge built with the help of the District Tourists Promotion Council (DTPC) and the Ports Department will be will be inaugurated by the state public works minister and CM Pinarayi Vijayans son-in-law, PA Mohammed Riyas on March 31, according to Manoramaonline.com.

ALSO READ: Asia's largest Tulip garden opens for visitors in J&K's Srinagar- See pics

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New Delhi: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati on Sunday (March 27) slammed the BJP, accusing the saffron party and its ideologue RSS of spreading false propaganda that she will be "made the President" if the BJP is allowed to win the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.

Mayawati asserted that she will never accept such an offer from any party, PTI reported. Earlier today, the former UP Chief Minister chaired a review meeting with the BSP leaders to discuss the party's performance in the recently-concluded UP Assembly polls where it managed to win only one seat.

Lucknow | Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati chairs review meeting with the party leaders on the party's performance in the recently concluded Assembly elections pic.twitter.com/NqhleWbxiQ  ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) March 27, 2022

After reviewing her partys dismal performance in UP, Mayawati in a statement said she is a firm disciple of Kanshi Ram who too had refused such an offer in the past.

"How can I accept such a post when we know that it will be the end of our party. So I want to make it clear to every BSP office bearer that in the interest of our party and movement, I will not accept any offer for the President's post from the BJP or other parties and they should never be misled in future," Mayawati was quoted as saying by PTI.

"In this election, through a well-thought-out strategy and conspiracy, the BJP, through its RSS organisation has spread false propaganda among our people that if a BSP government is not formed in UP, we will make your 'Behenji' the President of the country. That is why you should allow BJP to come to power," Mayawati alleged.

"Let alone becoming the President, I cannot even imagine such a thing in my dream. They (BJP) also know that long ago Kanshi Ram ji had rejected this offer and I am his firm disciple," the four-time former UP CM said.

Urging the leaders not to be disheartened by BSP's poll drubbing, Mayawati vowed to spend every moment of her life strengthening the party across India.

(With agency inputs)

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New Delhi: An ambitious proposal mooted by Union Home Minister Amit Shah to allow CAPF jawans spend at least 100 days with their families is likely to be implemented shortly, with officials saying the contours for a comprehensive policy are being worked out.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has held multiple meetings, the latest being early this month, to thrash out the issues delaying the implementation of the policy. The policy aims to reduce work-related stress and enhance the happiness quotient of the about 10 lakh troops and officials who undertake arduous duties in some of the most challenging environmental conditions and in remote locations.

"All the central armed police forces have been directed to expedite their proposals. The home ministry is expected to take a final decision by the next month as to how the welfare measure can be implemented," a senior CAPF officer told PTI.

Some delay can be attributed to COVID-19 spread from the beginning of 2020. The priorities of the security establishment, like all other organisations, was to tackle the pandemic and make sure the infection is contained, personnel are saved and their work is not compromised, the officer added.

CRPF Director General Kuldiep Singh had told reporters during a recent media interaction that this was a "work in progress".

"The MHA is sensitised at the highest level and they are also working on it. They are sensitised and sensitive on this (subject of at least 100 days with family for jawans)..."

"The home minister (Shah) has also said we have to do it. It is a work in progress. An order has not been issued, but it is in process," Singh said.

He said the force was able to provide 60-65 days leaves to their troops in an year, but if a proposal to enhance the casual leave component from 15 days to 28-30 days can be brought, then 100 days of leave for jawans can be done.

He said "some clarification" was also sought from them by the MHA sometime back.

They (MHA) are also looking at different other organisations... Other government organisations can also demand such a thing. So, a "comprehensive" thinking is being worked upon, he said.

The proposal was mooted by Shah in October, 2019 after he reviewed the working and operational preparedness of the central armed police forces (CAPFs) like the CRPF, BSF, ITBP, CISF and SSB. Three other central forces like the Assam Rifles, NSG and NDRF could also be included in the ambitious project.

The move was aimed to reduce stress and enhance the happiness quotient of these personnel who work in harsh climatic conditions and for long hours, even as these forces battle regular cases of suicides and fratricidal killings.

A software platform is also being developed by each of the CAPFs to conduct a transparent transfer and posting protocol for the personnel deployed for a variety of internal security duties like border guarding, counter-terrorism operations and for maintenance of law and order in various states.

At present, an average CAPF jawan gets a total of 75 days leave quota and this number can either go up or down in case of specific operational requirements, hard area deployment and posting in remote areas.

Officials said in order to implement the 100-day leave plan, the jawans could be posted at units close to their home town or where their family lives so that they can travel and stay with their families when there are no operational exigencies.

It is also part of the thinking that the CAPFs can create new facilities or refurbish their establishments so that the families of the troops can come over and live at the location of their posting for a limited time period to ensure implementation of this plan.

Shah, during his tour to a Border Security Force (BSF) post in Jaisalmer (Rajasthan) in December last year, had said that his ministry was working to improve the housing satisfaction level for CAPF personnel and much progress would be achieved by 2024 even as it was trying to find scientific ways to ensure that each jawan got to spend 100 days with their families every year.

"The proposal once implemented could be a game changer as far as troops' welfare is concerned. It is expected that more days with the family will ease the challenges they face on duty, but also at home.

"A periodic review of the plan is also being planned so that modifications, if required, could be carried out after the implementation," a senior home ministry officer said.

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Danish Azad Ansari, the only Muslim minister in Uttar Pradesh, on Sunday claimed that his community is warming up to the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

The Ballia resident was inducted into the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government as a minister of state on Friday and needs to be elected to the state Assembly or the legislative council in the next six month to continue on the post.

Ansari said the Muslim community is now shedding the "illusion" created by opposition parties like the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress.

"The BJP is getting the love of Muslim society now and the love for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is increasing continuously in the Muslim community, he told PTI.

Faith in the BJP is being awakened in the community," he added.

Ansari, 34, said Modi's vision of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vishwas, Sabka Vikas' is expanding the BJP vote base and Muslims are being drawn more towards the BJP.

He claimed that the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and the 2022 Assembly elections suggest this.

But the BJP fielded no Muslim candidate in the just-ended UP Assembly election. Its ally Apna Dal (S) nominated Haidar Ali Khan from Suar in Rampur, and he was defeated.

The previous Adityanath government too had a single Muslim member --- Mohsin Raza, a minister of state.

Ansari claimed that the opposition thought of Muslims only as a vote bank. But the Muslim community has now understood that the SP, the BSP and the Congress have always cheated them. The Muslim community has realised that only Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will work for their true development, he said.

The minister said Modi has dreamed of making India a global leader and all youth, and the Muslim community, will have to play an important role in making this come true.

He said it is the dream of Modi and Adityanath that every section of society is connected with the mainstream of development, and they will fulfil this.

He said there should be efforts to take government schemes to the grassroots. He said the Adityanath government will take inputs on what it needs to do for the betterment of the Muslim community, particularly the youth.

Education is a fundamental right and synonymous with development and he will make special efforts to take the Muslim community forward in this field, Ansari said.

He will take the initiative to connect urban schools with technical education, the minister said.

Ansari joined the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in 2010 when he was studying at Lucknow University. He has done Masters in Public Administration and Quality Management.

He was nominated to the Urdu Language Committee in the previous Adityanath government in October 2018 and was made the general secretary of the minorities cell of the BJP just before the assembly elections.

The portfolios are yet to be announced for the members of the new Adityanath ministry. The BJP and its allies won 273 seats in the 403-member state assembly.
New Delhi: During his Varanasi tour next week, Nepal Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba will visit the famous Kashi Vishwanath temple and Nepali Temple also known as Shri Samrajeswar Pashupatinath Mahadev Mandir.

The Nepali temple dedicated to Shiv is located on Lalita Ghat and was envisaged by Nepali King Rana Bahadur Shah who was exiled to the city from 1800-1804. It was during his exile that he decided to build a replica of Kathmandu's famous Pashupatinath temple in the city. The construction of the temple was taken forward by his son King of Nepal, Girvan Yuddha Bikram Shah.

The temple belongs to the Nepal government and is one of the most famous temples of the holy city. Gopal PD Adhikari, General Secretary of the committee overseeing Nepali temple administration told WION, "We will welcome with great enthusiasm and he will meet Nepali community. We are eager to welcome".

The temple is also known as Kanthwala Mandir since its made of wood--Kanthwala means wood. It is built in Nepali architecture and is also known as Mini Khajuraho.

Nepal PM will be visiting the Kashi Vishwanath using the newly inaugurated corridor. The corridor was inaugurated by PM Modi in December of 2021. In fact, PM Deuba is the first world leader to visit the corridor. The corridor connects the iconic temple to the ghats along river Ganga. Phase one of the corridor has been constructed at a cost of around Rs 339 crores.

Nepal PM will be on India visit from April 1 to 3 during which he will hold a meeting with PM Modi in Delhi on April 2. This is his first bilateral visit outside of the country since taking over in July 2021. He has been to the Glasgow climate summit, which was a visit for a multilateral event on the sidelines of which he met PM Modi.

Sources said the visit will, "give an opportunity to both sides to review the entire gamut of bilateral relations including development and economic partnership, trade, cooperation in health sector, power, connectivity, people to people links and other issues of mutual interest." Deuba has been to India in his capacity as PM in 2017.

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A vial of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine is seen at a local clinic as the spread of the coronavirus disease continues in Aschaffenburg, Germany, January 15, 2021. Photo by Reuters/Kai Pfaffenbach

The health ministry has sought government approval to receive around 13.7 million Covid-19 vaccine doses for children offered by Australia.

In a report submitted Saturday to Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, the ministry said the Australian Embassy in Hanoi has offered to aid Vietnam with 13.7 million Pfizer and Moderna vaccine doses for children.

The doses will come in two batches of 9.7 million and 4 million doses that can be delivered in April.

Administration of the doses can begin in April itself, the ministry said, adding that it would continue to seek more vaccine doses from multiple sources.

The ministry is yet to explain why it has proposed accepting the Moderna vaccine that has not yet been approved for. In its report, the ministry said "the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the Canadian and Australian health ministries recommend using the Spikevax vaccine (Moderna) to inoculate children aged 6-11".

It said that it has received documents from Zullig Pharma Vietnam, which imports the Moderna vaccine into the country, regarding vaccination recommendations for children aged 6-11.

The Moderna vaccine is undergoing trials on children and has not been approved yet by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Moderna has said that two doses of its vaccine are 44 percent effective against the Omicron variant for children aged between six months and two years old, and 38 effective for children aged 2-5.

Vietnam has received over 227 million vaccine doses and administered over 205 million shots. Over 99 percent of adults and 94 percent of children aged 12-17 have received two vaccine shots.
Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday sacked Mukesh Sahani, a cabinet minister and founding chief of Vikassheel Insaan Party, who was brought into the NDA in the thick of the last assembly elections by the BJP, which is now at odds with him.

According to highly placed sources, Kumar recommended Sahani's expulsion from the cabinet to the Governor in the evening, after a written submission to the effect by the BJP, hours after the minister for fishery and animal husbandry was given the ultimatum to withdraw forthwith a recent notification.

State BJP spokesman Arvind Kumar Singh said in a statement "our Bihar unit chief had asked Sahani, who seems hell-bent upon stabbing those in the back who healed his wounds, to mend his ways. But he did not. He brought in a notification which had greatly angered the 'machhuara' (fishermen) community in whose name he had sought to build his political edifice?".

Sahani, a former Bollywood set designer, had entered the BJP's bad books after he repeatedly attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath while campaigning for assembly elections in the adjoining state where his party contested more than 50 seats but sunk without a trace.

A self-proclaimed leader of the fishermen's community who uses the nickname 'Son of Mallah', Manjhi had twisted the knife by fielding candidates against a number of BJP nominees in elections for 24 legislative council seats.

The BJP struck back, fielding its own candidate for by-poll in Bochahan assembly segment which has fallen vacant upon the death of a VIP MLA, and left Sahani blindsided last week when it wrested all the remaining three assembly members who had won on tickets of the fledgling party.

Formerly with the RJD-led Grand Alliance, Sahani had quit the opposition camp after elections were announced, accusing Tejashwi Yadav of giving him a raw deal. A meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi was followed by his entry into the NDA.

His party won four seats even though Sahani himself lost, but the BJP, which has been working to win over OBCs and shedding its 'pro-upper caste' label, helped him clinch a cabinet berth and facilitated the same by getting him elected to the legislative council.

Recently, Sanjay Jaiswal had also claimed that Sahani had been asked to merge his party with the BJP within six months of the 2020 elections but the VIP chief reneged on the promise as ambition got the better of him.

However, Sahani has denied having struck such a deal and claimed that the terms and conditions of his entry into NDA were known only to Shah.

The current crisis has brought in trouble for the greenhorn politician who had floated his party barely four years ago. Parties opposed to the NDA seem reluctant to accommodate the volatile Sahani.

In July, his legislative council term expires, and with no political formation of significance ready to back him Sahani risks losing his membership of the legislature barely a few months after his expulsion from the government.

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Jashpur: A pastor was arrested along with one more person for allegedly attempting religious conversions in a village in Chhattisgarh's tribal-dominated Jashpur district on Sunday (March 26), police said. Pastor Christopher Tirki and Jyoti Prakash Toppo were arrested from Bhalutola locality under Bagiya village panchayat following a complaint, they said.

As per the complaint, Tirki and Toppo held a 'Changai sabha' (healing meeting) this morning at the latter's house in the village, wherein they allegedly tried to convert local tribals to Christianity, an official here said.

After being informed about it, a team from Kansabel police station reached the spot for investigation, following which a case was registered, he said.

The duo was booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) and 34 (common intention) and section 4 of the Chhattisgarh Freedom of Religion Act, the official said, adding that further investigation was underway.

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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday (March 27, 2022) hailed 126-year-old Padma awardee Baba Sivanand and called his passion for Yoga and dedication for a healthy lifestyle inspirational.

"Seeing the agility of the 126-year-old, everyone must have been surprised just like I was and I saw, before one could bat an eyelid, he started bowing in the Nandi Mudra," the prime minister said during his monthly 'Mann Ki Baat' radio broadcast.

PM Modi added that he has bowed a number of times and has offered 'Pranaam' to Baba Sivanand ji.

"Both, the age of 126 years and the fitness of Baba Sivanand are the subject of discussion in the country today," he said.

"I read many people's comments on social media, that Baba Sivanand is fitter than those one-fourth his age. Indeed, the life of Baba Sivananda is an inspiration for all of us," PM Modi said.

It is notable that Baba Sivanand had received the Padma Shri award on Monday.

Dressed in a white kurta and dhoti, Baba Sivanand was a picture of simplicity and grace as he knelt and bowed down in front of Prime Minister Modi and President Ram Nath Kovind as a mark of respect.

The Prime Minister then too got up from the seat and bowed to the veteran Yoga legend.

The President stepped out and helped Sivananda to rise to his feet, after which he honoured him with the award.

#WATCH Swami Sivananda receives Padma Shri award from President Ram Nath Kovind, for his contribution in the field of Yoga. pic.twitter.com/fMcClzmNye  ANI (@ANI) March 21, 2022

The oldest man to be conferred with the Padma Shri award, Swami Sivananda is a monk from Varanasi. He was born in August 1896 and despite his distinctive age, he stands strong enough to perform Yoga for hours.

(With agency inputs)

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New Delhi: For the first time after claiming comfortable victory in four out of five states in Assembly Election 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the country in his monthly radio programme Mann Ki Baat' on Sunday at 11 am.

Here's the link to PM Modi's 'Mann Ki Baat' show:

Tune in at 11 AM for this months #MannKiBaat. pic.twitter.com/m8K1cWph1v  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 27, 2022

As per reports, Bharatiya Janata Party national president JP Nadda who contributed to the party`s victory in recently concluded assembly elections in four states and other BJP workers will hear todays edition.

They will listen to the show at booth number 59, Yamuna Vihar Mandal, North-East District.

Earlier on Friday, PM Modi on his official Twitter Handle shared a concise booklet that showcased the interesting aspects of last month`s Mann Ki Baat episode including interviews with some of those who were featured in the show.

"Here is a concise booklet that showcases the interesting aspects of last month`s Mann Ki Baat episode including interviews with some of those who were featured.

Notably, PM Modi will address this radio programme for the first time after winning assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa.

"Mann ki Baat" is the Prime Minister`s monthly radio address, which is broadcast on the last Sunday of every month at 11 am. The first episode of Mann Ki Baat was broadcast on October 3, 2014.

In his Radio show, PM Modi talks about issues of national and social importance with the citizens and encourage them to contribute to a better and developed society. The leader also makes mention of several unsung community influencers and change-makers to inspire Indians.

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Amritsar: The Sikh Book Club has rebutted the objections raised by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbhandhak Committee (SGPC) against them and has said that SGPC has no authority to restrict the global printing and distribution of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji.

The propaganda that is being spread by the SGPC is an attempt to monopolize the printing and distribution of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, Sikh Book Club, a US-based organisation, said.

In a press release, the Sikh Book Club said, "Should the SGPC not agree with the version of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji found on SikhBookClub.com, they can choose not to use it."

The Club added that it is propaganda that is being spread by the SGPC to monopolize the printing and distribution of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji.

It is notable that on Thursday (March 24, 2022), SGPC President Harjinder Singh Dhami had appealed to Jathedar of Sri Akal Takht Sahib to take strict action against Thaminder Singh Anand, associated with the Sikh Book Club, who had uploaded the concerned objectionable saroop at sikhbookclub.com.

The SGPC president also claimed that the person has committed an "unacceptable act" by adding extra lagan-matravan (punctuations of Gurmukhi) and bindis (dots) by changing the original verses of Gurbani.

"No one has the right to distort or tamper with the holy Gurbani and nobody can print the holy saroops of Sri Guru Granth Sahib by themselves. The sentiments of Sikhs have been hurt by USA resident and Sri Akal Takht Sahib should take exemplary action," Dhami had said.

Anand, however, said that when handwritten copies of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib were converted to printed copies, numerous grammatical mistakes were made by several institutions including the SGPC and on numerous occasions, the SGPC themselves admitted to these grammatical errors in their printings of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji and provided two reports with their findings."

"The grammatical changes that were made to the version of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib published at SikhBookClub.com, were to address the above-mentioned mistakes and are consistent with the findings of the SGPC and no alterations or modifications of the Gurus bani has taken place," he said.

Dhami, notably, had also said that Thaminder Singh Anand had been earlier booked under Section 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on the complaint of SGPC in 2014, for printing and distributing by post the holy saroops of Sri Guru Granth Sahib from China and that he has once again hurt the Sikh sentiments.

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Srinagar: Thousands of people of various villages of Budgam district were present in the funeral procession of two young brothers in Chadabugh village of Budgam district. Every eye was tearful tears, cries and sobs were heard everywhere in last rights of the slain Special Police Officer (SPO) and his brother who were laid to rest in their native of Budgam district today.

Mens women and Childrens were seen with tearful eyes attending last rites. Emotional scenes were witnessed when the mortal remains of SPO Ishfaq Ahmed, 24, and his brother Umer Jan, 23, reached their native village. Women, girls were seen showering tofees, almonds and flowers on the coffins of two siblings.

Ishfaq, an SPO and his brother Umer suffered critical wounds yesterday when terrorists barged into their house on Saturday (March 26) late evening and fired on them indiscriminately injuring them critically. They were imidaitely rushed to hospital.

However SPO Ishfaq was declared brought dead at the hospital while his brother Umer was admitted in hospital in critcal condition where he breathed his last at 5 am in morning.

Villagers were in deep shock when the heard that a home lost a bread earner and a young energetic student. "Every eye was moist, young men were loved by all the villagers for their jolly nature, a villager said adding "we don't know what was their fault."

Meanwhile to pay honor and respect to martyr Ishfaq Ahmad resident of Chatabugh Budgam, who attained martyrdom yesterday in a terror attack at his residential house, a wreath laying ceremony was held at District Police Lines, Budgam today.

Civil and police officers and other security officials laid floral wreaths on the mortal remains and paid rich tributes to the martyr for his sacrifice in the line of duty.

"We pay our rich tributes to the martyr for his supreme sacrifice made in the line of duty and stand by his family at this crucial juncture," SP budgam said. Meanwhile Top police officers visit Budgam to mourn killing of SPO, his brother home

Senior police officers including IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar, DIG Central Kashmir Sujit Kumar Singh, and SSP Budgam Tahir Saleem Sunday visited the family of slain SPO and his brother at Chadabugh, Budgam. police officers extended their heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family of slain SPO Ishfaq Ahmed and his brother Umer Jan who were killed in the militant attack.

Pertinently, terrorists yesterday evening barged inside the residential house of SPO Ishfaq Ahmad Dar indiscriminately. In this terror incident, Ishfaq Ahmad attained martyrdom while as his brother who was shifted to hospital also succumbed to his injuries early this morning.

Since last one month many police officials , off duty police and other security personals and political workers were targeted by terrorists many got killed.

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New Delhi: Days after taking oath in the Yogi Adityanath 2.0 Cabinet, Baby Rani Maurya came down heavily on Swami Prasad Maurya, who had left the Bharatiya Janata Party to join Samajwadi Party (SP) before the state Assembly elections after alleging that Dalits were being neglected in the state, calling him an opportunist.

She said that she would work for the Dalit upliftment and empowerment of women. Speaking to ANI, Baby Rani said that she herself belongs to the Jatav community, a Dalit segment of Uttar Pradesh, and added that the community is looking up to her with high hopes. Praising the BJP for giving a platform to a person from the Dalit community, she said, "From a mayor, the BJP made me a Governor and then a Cabinet minister. I am also the national vice president of the BJP."

"Swami Prasad Maurya was an opportunist. He had come to find opportunities. He went after doing what he had to do and see for yourselves what is his condition today," the BJP leader, who also served as Uttarakhand Governor said.

Months before the Assembly polls, Swami Prasad Maurya had resigned as Minister for Labour and Employment and joined the SP. However, he lost the election from the Fazilnagar seat to the BJP`s Surendra Kumar Kushwaha by over 45,000 votes.

Noting that the BJP works for the welfare of the poor, Baby Rani Maurya said that the BJP works for the welfare of the poor and the oppressed. "That is why the people have given us a chance again and we are working for them," she added.

"When I was the Governor, I used to have this feeling in my mind that due to COVID-19 many people lost their jobs and family members. People were running continuously to save their lives. I felt that I had to help these people and I prayed for an opportunity to serve the people. After I gave my resignation as the Uttarakhand Governor, I was given chance to serve those who are suffering in Uttar Pradesh," she said.

The BJP leader also said since she became a Mayor of Agra, her focus has been women empowerment and assured that it will continue to remain so. "I do not know which department I will get, but whatever I get, women will remain my focus," Maurya said. She further noted that to make women financially independent, the Central and state government schemes will be strictly implemented on the ground. On the scheme of the Yogi Adityanath government giving free ration to people of the state, she said that it was done because of the COVID-19 and the state reached out to provide assistance to the women.

ALSO READ: Yogi Adityanath govt 2.0: Meet the 5 women ministers of Uttar Pradesh

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New Delhi: Rajya Sabha Secretariat Recruitment 2022 notification has been released on its official website to fill the vacancies for Secretariat Assistant, Translator, Personal Assistant and other posts.

Candidates who are willing to apply for the positions can visit the official website of Rajya Sabha for more details- rajyasabha.nic.in.

Heres all you need to know about Rajya Sabha Secretariat Recruitment 2022

Rajya Sabha Secretariat Recruitment 2022: Vacancies

Legislative/ Committee/ Executive/ Protocol officer - 12

Assistant Legislative/ Committee/ Executive/ Protocol officer - 26

Secretariat Assistant - 27

Assistant Research/ Reference Officer - 3

Translator - 15

Personal Assistant - 15

Office Work Assistant - 12

Rajya Sabha Secretariat Recruitment 2022: Age-Limit

The candidates, who are below the age of 56 as of the last date of the receipt of the application are eligible for the posts.

Rajya Sabha Secretariat Recruitment 2022: Eligibility

Check Annexure I of the official notification here

Rajya Sabha Secretariat Recruitment 2022: How to apply

The interested and eligible candidates need to send their application to 'Director (Personnel), Room Number - 240, 2nd Floor, Rajya Sabha Secretariat, Parliament of India, Parliament House Annexe, New Delhi-110001' within 45 days from the date of publication of the advertisement in the Employment News.

Rajya Sabha Secretariat Recruitment 2022: Last date to apply

The applications can be sent within 45 days of the issue of notification. Thus, the last date to apply for the various positions in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat is May 2.

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Washington: After revealing that Pete Davidson has several tattoos dedicated to her, Kim Kardashian finally gave fans a glimpse of her favourite one. The reality star, 41, took to her Instagram Story and shared a pic of the Saturday Night Live stars latest tattoo tribute to her, which she first spoke about on The Ellen DeGeneres Show earlier this month.

In the monochrome snap, the phrase MY GIRL IS A LAWYER" appears inked on Petes skin. In December, Kim announced that she had passed her First-Year Law Students Examination, also known as "the baby bar" on her fourth attempt.

Before she can officially become the future Kim Kardashian, Esquire, she will first have to pass the General Bar Exam.

Earlier this month, Kim revealed on The Ellen DeGeneres Show that Pete already "has a few tattoos" dedicated to her, and that the one honouring her legal aspirations was her favourite.

"That ones really cute," Kim said. The Keeping Up With The Kardashians alum also clarified the recent speculation that Pete got her name inked on his chest.

"It's actually a branding," she explained. "He wanted to do something that was really different. The first tattoo he got, I was like, `Oh, so cute, thank you! Oh my god!` Second, whatever, I`m like, `Oh, that's so cute.` But that's what tattoo people do, right? They get tattoos of what`s going on in their life."

For the unversed, Kim shares four children -- North (8), Saint (6), Chicago (4), and Psalm (2) with her ex-husband Kanye West. She filed to divorce with West in February 2021 and was declared legally single this month.
New Delhi: The State Bank of India (SBI) will most likely be closed on March 28 and 29 due to a two-day nationwide strike. The country's largest lender has stated that various employee unions have called for a two-day strike, which may have an impact on its banking services.

"We advise that, while the bank has made necessary arrangements to ensure normal functioning in its branches and offices on strike days," SBI said in a regulatory filing, "work in our bank may be impacted to a limited extent by the strike."

The Indian Banks' Association (IBA) informed SBI that the All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI), and All India Bank Officers' Association (AIBOA) had served notice of their intention to go on strike.

The bank stated that it is unable to estimate the potential loss as a result of the strike.

2-day nationwide strike

The two-day nationwide strike has been called to protest the government's plan to privatise public-sector banks, as well as the Banking Laws Amendment Bill 2021.

Last year, bank unions affiliated with the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) called a nationwide strike in protest of the proposed privatisation of public-sector banks (PSBs).

A joint forum of central trade unions has called for a nationwide strike on March 28 and 29, to protest government policies that affect workers, farmers, and the general public.

Meanwhile, in response to trade unions' call for a nationwide bandh on March 28-29, the West Bengal government announced on Saturday that all offices will be open on those dates and that employees must report for duty.

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International visitors receive a warm welcome as they land at the Da Nang International Airport, March 27, 2022. Photo by VnExpress/Nguyen Dong

Da Nang accorded its first international visitors on commercial flights in two years a special welcome with bouquets and a water cannon show.

The Wood family of four from Australia expressed surprised and happiness on receiving such a special welcome.

After a couple minutes of medical procedures, the mother took their twins out of the terminal, while the father wheeled off their luggage. They stopped for a few moments as the boys watched a lion dance show on the street.

"I am glad to be back in Da Nang after two years of Covid-19 suspension," Wood said, adding that the warm welcome had brightened her day.

The family has made bookings at a seaside resort and plan to stay there for several days.

"We will walk around Da Nang and Hoi An, go to the beach and enjoy lots of delicious meals," she said.

Another passenger, Ben, from Spain, was visiting Da Nang for the first time with a friend.

"Everything's easy when you travel to Vietnam now," Ben said, adding that he would stay in Da Nang for three days before going to Hue.

Nguyen Van Hung flew from the Netherlands to Singapore and then to Da Nang. He said he was glad to see the city opening up again.

"While I live abroad, I hope to return to my home country every year to visit my family," he said, adding that he would stay in Vietnam for longer this time.

At a ceremony to commemorate the resumption of international flights Sunday, Tran Phuoc Son, deputy chairman of the Da Nang People's Committee, said the aviation and tourism industries have suffered greatly due to the pandemic and the disruption of international flights.

In 2019, before Covid-19 happened, the Da Nang International Airport received over 98,000 flights, with over 7.1 million international visitors and 8.4 million domestic travelers. The pandemic had cut down the number of flights in the past two years by over 80 percent and reduced revenues by over 70 percent compared to the same period in 2019.

"The resumption of international flights isn't just about their return, but also a milestone for a new age of development to recover all international flight routes to Da Nang," Son said, adding that the city would strive to resolve all issues to facilitate recovery of the tourism and aviation industries.

Phan Kieu Hung, deputy director of the Da Nang International Airport, said the resumption of international flights would boost international tourism, diplomacy, investment and cultural exchange, serving the goal of sustainable economic growth.

Da Nang received two international flights Sunday. Besides the SQ172 flights from Singapore, there was another flight from Thailand's Bangkok. The flight from Singapore would arrive once a day, and the one from Bangkok three times a week, though flight frequencies might be adjusted as demand changes.

Vietnam had suspended international commercial flights since March 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic raged around the world. It fully reopened international tourism starting March 15.

Passengers only need to have valid negative results of PCR Covid-19 tests done within 72 hours, or rapid tests done within 24 hours before getting on the plane.
New Delhi: Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc., announced on Twitter on Saturday that he is seriously considering creating a social media platform because Twitter has failed to "adhere to the free speech principle." Elon Musk stated that failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy because Twitter serves as the de facto public town square.

Musk brought up the question in his tweets, "Is a new platform required?" Failure to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy, given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square. "What steps should be taken?"

This comes after Elon Musk stated earlier this week that "free speech is essential to a functioning democracy," and questioned whether Twitter "rigorously adheres to this principle."

According to Bloomberg, the US Securities and Exchange Commission told a judge last week that Musk's tweets about Tesla will remain a valid subject for government investigation even if a court overturns his 2018 agreement with the SEC.

Musk is attempting to end SEC oversight of his Twitter posts, claiming that the agreement is being used to "trample" on his free speech rights. He is also asking the court to prevent the Securities and Exchange Commission from subpoenaing documents related to the review of his tweets.

The SEC settlement agreement states that the regulator will distribute funds from the company and Musk to investors who lost money buying Tesla shares after Musk stated on Twitter that he was considering going public.

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New Delhi: WhatsApp is developing and simultaneously releasing a new feature to select beta testers that will allow them to send media files up to 2GB in size. This new feature is said to work on both Android and iOS. It is currently being rolled out in Argentina, but other regions will have to wait. We are all aware that social media platforms permit the sharing of media files up to a certain size. Even Gmail, which is owned by Google, does not allow more than 25MB of file attachment/s in a single session.

WhatsApp's new file limit is highly required now as people are using higher megapixel lenses that produce high resolution images and videos that are larger in size. People usually have to cut or edit them in-app or with a third-party app before sending them. Compressing media files reduces their quality, and the end result may differ from what was expected.

WhatsApp allows users to send media files up to 100MB through the app, but with this new update, users can send files up to 2GB without worry.

According to WABetaInfo, a WhatsApp tracker, this new feature is only available to a select group of beta testers in Argentina and may change before the final rollout. Alternatively, WhatsApp could simply maintain the current 100MB limit and abandon the concept of 2GB files.

Even if WhatsApp abandons the concept, it is critical to solving today's problem.

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Embattled Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is facing a tough no-confidence motion in a few days, adressed a mega rally in Islamabad today where he slammed the Opposition. To many people's surprise, Khan stayed mum on his possible resignation as Prime Minister at the rally. Khan called out the "corrupt" opposition leaders and said that whether he "loses his government or his life, he will never forgive them."

He was speaking at one of the "biggest" rallies in his party`s history at the Parade Ground in Islamabad as the Opposition has geared up to oust him from office through the no-confidence motion, the voting for which is scheduled to take place on Monday, Geo News reported.

Taking a jibe at the Opposition, Imran Khan called out their "corruption" and said that those robbers continued saving each other by using the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) for the last 30 years.

Prime Minister @ImranKhanPTI ends his speech with a significant promise with his Nation. #IamImranKhan pic.twitter.com/ci9vh4w0sj  PTI (@PTIofficial) March 27, 2022

Thank you Pakistan , to each one of you who came in Parade Ground, to those who were stuck in the rallies and to those who supported from home. Pakistan stands with Imran Khan! #IamImranKhan pic.twitter.com/bY4MhX4dJk  PTI (@PTIofficial) March 27, 2022

                                        

#IamImranKhan pic.twitter.com/1RdaM5DzrY  PTI (@PTIofficial) March 27, 2022

"These three rats (opposition bigwigs) have been looting the country for three decades and these three have been trying to destabilise my government from day one," he said.

Imran Khan said that it was because of former President, General Pervez Musharraf that "these corrupt politicians got away with their wrongdoings through the NRO".

"Musharraf pushed the country into turmoil by giving NROs to these corrupt leaders just to save his own government," he said. "Whether I lose my government or my life, I am never going to forgive them."
New Delhi: "Covid-19 is here to stay" is what health experts around the world have been saying for a long time. The global coronavirus caseload on Sunday (March 27, 2022) has topped 480 million and the deaths have surged to more than 6.12 million as infection rates continue to jump in various countries.

Claire Bridges, from Florida, United States, is one such person who was recently put on life support after contracting Covid-19.

The 21-year-old aspiring model was born with a serious heart condition and due to complications and life-threatening infection, doctors were forced to amputate both her legs.

Claire caught the virus despite being fully vaccinated and was admitted to the hospital on January 16. She, however, is recovering now and has returned home from the hospital in time for her 21st birthday on Saturday.

"She is very happy to be home around family and friends. We had a cookout for her on Saturday, which was her birthday. We're happy to get her out of the hospital life and in her mom's house and more comfortable surroundings," Claire's father told a media channel.

She is now preparing to receive prosthetic legs, which will be partly funded by a charity group.

It is notable that nearly 1 million US lives have been lost to Covid-19, and there have been almost 5 million hospitalizations. The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases at 79,946,097.

ALSO READ | Covid-19 surge in US, Europe and China triggering fourth wave fears, should India worry?

Meanwhile, the US government data shows that about one-in-three Covid-19 cases in the country are now caused by the BA.2 Omicron sub-variant of the coronavirus. Even though the US Covid-19 infections have receded sharply since January, a resurgence in parts of Asia and Europe have raised concerns that one will follow in the United States given previous patterns during the two years of the pandemic.

(With agency inputs)

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New Delhi: As many as 12 journalists and media professionals have been killed in Ukraine ever since the fateful military attack by Russia began in the country on February 24, said Ukraine`s Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova.

Sharing the plight of the war-torn nation in a social media post, Venediktova added that in addition to the 12 victims who lost their lives during the war, there were 10 other journalists who "have received injuries of varying severity."

Revealing the truth about Putin's aggression is getting increasingly risky and dangerous. To date, 12 journalists died during the war, 10 more are injured. Protecting journalists is a priority for the Office of the Prosecutor General, especially today.  Iryna Venediktova (@VenediktovaIV) March 26, 2022

According to the Prosecutor General, the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations indicates that the Russians have committed crimes against at least 56 members of the media, 15 of the citizens of other countries.

Of the 15, four are from the UK; two each from the Czech Republic, Denmark, the US, United Arab Emirates; and one from Switzerland, IANS reported quoting Venediktova.

In one of the most recent incidents of such assault, a car with camera crews of Ukrainian 1+1 and Turkish TRT World TV channels came under fire while the filming of an evacuation from the bombed and depleted city of Chernihiv on Friday.

In the crew, reporter Andriy Tsaplienko suffered a shrapnel wound.

An investigation into a violation of the laws and customs of war by Russian forces has already been launched.

Law enforcement officers also registered at least seven cases of shelling, destruction, or damage to TV towers, and TV and radio companies.

Venediktova added that the Prosecutor`s office is monitoring the crimes against journalists in cooperation with the Institute of Mass Media.

According to their monitoring, 148 illegal actions have been committed against journalists and media in Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.

On February 24, Russia launched what it calls a military operation on Ukrainian soil. So far, over 6.5 million have been internally and externally displaced as per the United Nations report.

Additionally, at least 816 civilians killed in Ukraine since the conflict began.

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New Delhi: US President Joe Biden on Saturday caused quite a stir with his fiery remarks on Russian Chief Vladimir Putin after Russa launched a military attack on Ukraine.

While addressing a gathering in Poland, Biden referring to Putin said, Dont even think about moving on one single inch of NATO territory. This war has already been a strategic failure for Russia. You, the Russian people are not our enemy. For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power.

The Presidents statement sparked a controversy about the US interference in the internal government of Russia.

White House clarification

Soon after Bidens remarks, the White House issued a clear statement reiterating that the US President or the government does not seek regime change in Russia.

"The President`s point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbours or the region. He was not discussing Putins power in Russia, or regime change, "Biden`s line that Putin "cannot remain in power" was not in his prepared remarks, said a White House official.

Kremlin's response

Meanwhile, the echoes of Bidens Putin cannot remain in power statement reached Moscow which was quick to respond to the US.

Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that this is not to be decided by Biden adding that it should only be a choice of the people of the Russian Federation.

This is not to be decided by Mr Biden," Peskov said. "It should only be a choice of the people of the Russian Federation," reported CNN.

Meanwhile, the statements made at Royal Castle in Warsaw in Poland amid Bidens Europe visit comes as Russia launched its invasion on Ukraine last month after recognizing 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.

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New Delhi: Amid growing escalations between Russia and Ukraine, US President Joe Biden on Saturday met Ukraine`s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov during his visit to Poland and sought "an update on Ukraine`s military, diplomatic and humanitarian situation," said the White House in a statement.

As per the White House, Biden on Saturday dropped in a meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and their Ukrainian counterparts, Kuleba and Reznikov.

The discussion between US and Ukraine included "further efforts to help Ukraine defend its territory.

In a tweet, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister said the meeting between Ukrainian Ministers and US Secretaries allowed him to seek "practical decisions in both political and defence spheres in order to fortify Ukraine`s ability to fight back," while Ukrainian Defence Minister tweeted that he acquired "cautious optimism."

The US Presidents meeting with top Ukrainian officials came as he visited Poland, after attending the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) summit, G7 gathering and the summit of the European Council -- three intensive summits in two days with the Ukraine crisis as a major focus.

The meets are believed to be Bidens way to display unity with European partners but failed to talk them into concerted actions against Russia.

The NATO summit concluded on Thursday with no agreement to impose additional sanctions against Moscow, especially the country`s oil and gas products. Nor did the European Council summit succeed in reaching a consensus on the same issue.

Meanwhile, US President found himself in an uncomfortable rather controversial position after he, in a fiery speech against the Russia-Ukraine war said, this man (Putin) cannot remain in power.

The Presidents statement sparked a controversy about the US interference in the internal government of Russia.

In response, Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that this is not to be decided by Biden adding that it should only be a choice of the people of the Russian Federation.

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LONDON (Reuters) - Russia struck military targets in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv with high-precision cruise missiles, the Russian defence ministry said on Sunday (March 26). Russia hit a fuel depot being used by Ukrainian forces near Lviv with long-range missiles and used cruise missiles to strike a plant in the city being used to repair anti-aircraft systems, radar stations and sights for tanks, the ministry said.

"The armed forces of the Russian Federation continue offensive actions as part of the special military operation," the ministry`s spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement. The ministry showed video of the missile strikes in Lviv.

Officials in Lviv, just 60 km (40 miles) from the border with NATO-member Poland, said people had been wounded in the missile attacks. Russia also used sea-based long-range missiles to destroy an arsenal of S-300 missiles and BUK anti-aircraft missile systems near Kyiv, the ministry said. Russian forces also destroyed a number of drones, it said.

Russia has started destroying Ukrainian fuel and food storage depots, meaning the government will have to disperse the stocks of both in the near future, Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser Vadym Denysenko said on Sunday.

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New Delhi: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is expected to visit India - a visit that comes amid global geopolitical turmoil amid Russian invasion of Ukraine. The visit will be the first such high level visit from Russia to India since 24th February when the invasion started. On the agenda will be many things, including a trading under rupee-ruble mechanism that the Indian finance ministry is looking into amid western sanctions on Moscow.

The invasion has changed the global geopolitical calculus as the West and Russia are locked in horns. New Delhi has been engaged by both sides on the situation even as it has been able to display its strategic autonomy. At the United Nations, India has abstained from votes on Ukraine-Russia resolutions, whether its west backed resolutions or more recently Russia back resolution on Ukraine even as it has been calling for direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv. EAM Jaishankar in the Parliament said, "We have expressed deep concern at the worsening situation and called for immediate cessation of violence and end to all hostilities."

Both Indian and Russian foreign ministers had spoken to each other on 24th February, and since then there has been a Russian outreach to Delhi in many ways, including Russian FM Lavrov meeting envoys of BRICS countries including Indian envoy Pavan Kapoor. Last week, Russian Deputy foreign minister Andrei Rudenko had met Indian envoy to Russia Kapoor to brief on the situation in Ukraine. Important to note, Rudenko has been part of the Russian delegation that held talks with the Ukraine side.

Later this year, PM Modi is expected to travel to Russia for the annual India Russia summit. Russian President Putin travelled to Delhi on 6th December of the annual summit. The second, 2+2 foreign and defense ministers meet will also take place in Russia this year for which Indian external affairs minister and defense ministers will be travelling to the country. The Russian foreign minister's expected travel comes even as India and the US will be holding 2+2 foreign and defense ministers meet in the 2nd week of April.

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Kabul: The Taliban have told airlines in Afghanistan that women cannot board domestic or international flights without a male chaperone, two sources told Reuters on Sunday.

The move comes after the Taliban backtracked on their previous commitment to open high schools to girls, a u-turn that shocked many Afghans and drew condemnation from humanitarian agencies and foreign governments.

The United States on Friday cancelled planned meetings with Taliban officials on key economic issues due to its decision on Wednesday.

The sources, who are not being named for security reasons, said that the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice sent airlines a letter on Saturday informing them of the new restrictions.

They added that unaccompanied women who had already booked tickets would be allowed to travel on Sunday and Monday. Some women with tickets had been turned away at Kabul`s airport on Saturday, they said.

Spokespeople for the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice and the Ministry of Culture and Information did not immediately respond to request for comment.

A Taliban administration spokesman had previously said that women travelling abroad for study should be accompanied by a male relative.

The Taliban say they have changed since their previous rule from 1996 to 2001 in which they barred women from education, work or leaving the house without a male relative. They say they are allowing women their rights in accordance with Islamic law and Afghan culture.

However, the closure of high schools along with some restrictions on women in work and the requirement that women have a chaperone for long-distance travel has drawn criticism from many Afghan women and rights groups.

It was not immediately clear whether the restrictions on air travel would allow any exemptions, for example in emergencies or for women with no living male relatives in the country and whether it applied to foreigners or women with dual citizenship.

The international community has so far not officially recognised the Taliban administration and enforcement of sanctions has crippled the country`s banking sector which combined with slashed development funding has plunged the country into a humanitarian crisis.

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New York: Members of the United Nations Security Council, in a joint statement on the Taliban`s reversal of their promise on girls` education, said that all the girls in Afghanistan should be allowed to go to school.

Notably, on March 21, the Taliban said they would lift a seven-month-old de facto ban on girls` education from Class 6 onwards and reopen schools on the first day of Afghanistan`s new academic year however two days later the regime backtracked on its decision.

In a joint statement delivered by the Permanent Representatives of The United Arab Emirates and Norway, on behalf of Albania, Brazil, France, Gabon, Ireland, Mexico, UK, US, Norway and UAE, the members said the decision is a reversal of the commitments the Taliban themselves have made in recent weeks and months as part of the ongoing engagement with the international community.

This afternoon, the Security Council will hear an important briefing by the UN Secretary-General`s Special Representative for Afghanistan, on the Taliban`s reversal of their earlier promise for girls to be able to return to school beyond the 6th grade, the statement read.

"This week - more than a million Afghan girls were getting ready to finally be able to return to school. Their hopes were dashed at the last minute when they learned that their right to an education will continue to be denied," it added.

The members said that the recent decision by the Taliban is a profoundly disturbing setback.

"Education is a universal right for all children. That includes girls in Afghanistan. Some may ask, why education is a matter for the Security Council? The answer is simple. Afghanistan is at the brink of collapse," it asserted.

All the members noted that "in order for Afghanistan to secure a safe and stable future, it simply cannot miss out on the talent and potential, and deprive half its population of education. Education is a key building block of every society."

They called on the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan to provide a safe learning environment for all children and youth in the country.

"Last week, the UNAMA mandate was extended for one year. And the UN and the international community stand ready to continue supporting the Afghan people - including education for all children. More than one million girls in Afghanistan were left at home in tears this week. We cannot let them down," the joint statement added.

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Press Release

March 27, 2022 Lacson Prepared for Second Half of Campaign Period Minus Party

More at: https://pinglacson.net/article/lacson-prepared-for-second-half-of-campaign-period-minus-party With the quiet, steely courage of a true warrior. This is how independent presidential aspirant Sen. Panfilo "Ping" M. Lacson will continue his electoral bid in the second half of the campaign period, minus a political party. Lacson said he is used to being a "mandirigma" (warrior) throughout his 50 years in public service, both as law enforcer and lawmaker. "Being a 'mandirigma' in all my public service life is useful. I am used to being alone in a lonely crusade against a corrupt system for the past 50 years. Nonetheless I am going all-in and all the way. Once a warrior, always a warrior," he said on his Twitter account Sunday. "I am used to starting a crusade - though it might be a difficult and lonely fight at first, the people would eventually see my point and join my cause. This is shown each time that my name has been put on the ballot, and the people have always renewed my mandate to serve them," he added. During his stint with the Philippine Constabulary and Philippine National Police, Lacson would go after criminal gangs and even those who engage in wrongdoing when transacting business with the PNP. He would reject offers of bribes and hush money, even if it meant incurring the ire of influential people - and even some colleagues who are on the take. As Senator, he earned himself enemies by continuing his "No-Take" Policy and virtually taking up a lonely crusade in calling for the abolition of the pork barrel system due to its temptations for corruption. Throughout all these, Lacson would answer the issues raised against him but would never stoop to personal attacks. Last March 24, Lacson announced his resignation from Partido Reporma after some of its officials decided to endorse another candidate. On March 25, he disclosed that campaign expenses amounting to P800 million was the reason for Reporma's switch to another bet. But Lacson also earned the respect of many in the party, who expressed their continued support for his presidential bid. On Saturday, leaders and members of Partido Reporma in Bohol province tendered their irrevocable resignations from the party to support Lacson's presidential bid. Now banding together as the "Lacson-Sotto Support Group" in Bohol, they pledged their "strong and continued commitment and unequivocal support" to Lacson's candidacy. These include Jagna Mayor Joseph Ranola and former provincial police chief Edgardo Ingking; Joseph Sevilla (1st district coordinator); Eduardo Aranay (2nd district coordinator); and Emmanuel Solomon Duites (3rd district coordinator). They said they chose to support Lacson "because we believe that we need a leader like him who has a clear vision on what he wants to do for our country and people and a clear plan based on science and hard data on how to accomplish it." "As a public servant who is proven to be incorruptible and one who leads by example, we need a leader like SENATOR LACSON who can tame the bureaucracy in embracing Good Governance and restore the full trust of the Filipino people back to the government," they added. Earlier, members of Reporma's Cavite chapter similarly left the party to support Lacson. Meanwhile, senatorial bets Minguita Padilla and Guillermo Eleazar said they continue to support his presidential bid. Reporma founder and chairman emeritus Renato de Villa also expressed support for Lacson.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh visits "Student with start-up initiatives" contest (Photo: VNA)

This should be an important task of the whole political system, but not a single ministry, sector or locality, Chinh told the fourth National Start-up Festival for Students, which opened in the northern province of Vinh Phuc on March 26.

According to him, Vietnam ranked 44th out of 132 countries and economies in the Global Innovation Index 2021. The country kept its first position among the 34 lower-middle income economies in the index.

Currently, more than 1,000 organisations are capable of supporting start-ups, and 100 percent of training institutions have plans to support students in starting a business. The World Bank also assesses Vietnam as one of the few East Asian countries investing in innovation, with a higher number of patents and innovations than previously expected, he stated.

However, Vietnam is a country with a slower starting point in start-up, with the startup ecosystem still far from those of many countries in the world, and some shortcomings and obstacles in mechanisms and policies, noted Chinh.

The Government leader affirmed the interest and investment of the Party, State and he himself to the young generation and students, adding that the Government will create all conditions to have the most favourable innovative and start-up environment.

It is necessary to promote the start-up ecosystem of the educational sector, especially in universities and colleges, he emphasised, encouraging students to have new initiatives and new business models.

The PM also stressed the importance to bring education on start-up into schools, not only at undergraduate and postgraduate levels but all levels of education.

He requested the Ministry of Information and Communications coordinate with the Ministry of Education and Training to promote the programme on digital transformation in education, in association with start-up activities./
Vietnamese Ambassador to Argentina Duong Quoc Thanh (right) presents the Friendship Order to Juan Carlos Valle Raleigh, former Ambassador of Argentina to Vietnam. (Photo: VNA)

Speaking at the handover ceremony held at the embassy's headquarters, Thanh said the noble award showed the Vietnamese State's recognition of the Argentine diplomat's important contributions to building, strengthening and developing the traditional cooperation between the governments and people of the two countries.

During his tenure in Vietnam from 2017 to 2020, Raleigh made many contributions to further enhancing the bilateral relationship, and at the same time opened up new development directions with many high-level visits, especially President Mauricio Macri's official visit to Vietnam in early 2019. He also helped to promote economic and trade relations between the two countries.

Thanh expressed his hope that in any position, Raleigh will continue contributing to the development of the comprehensive cooperation between Vietnam and Argentina.

Raleigh expressed his gratitude to leaders of the Party, State and people of Vietnam, saying this was not only an honour for him but also reflected the fruitful cooperative relationship between the two nations.

He said that his three-year tenure in Vietnam was a memorable and proud time, adding that he always remembers the affection and warmth of the Vietnamese people.

Raleigh contributed the good results he achieved during his term to the valuable and timely support of Vietnamese authorised agencies, showing their enthusiasm and respect for the bilateral relationship./.
Vietnamese Ambassador Le Viet Duyen presents his credentials to the Governor General of Grenada, Cecile La Grenade. (Photo: VNA)

Speaking at the ceremony on March 24, the ambassador expressed his belief that the event will create a foundation for the two sides to enhance their relations in different spheres, especially in trade, investment, culture, tourism and agriculture.

He pledged to make every effort to contribute to advancing the bilateral relationship to a new height.

For her part, Grenade lauded Vietnam for its development guidelines and socio-economic achievements over the past years, and noted her hope for stronger friendship with Vietnam.

The two sides should utilise their potential for cooperation in economy, trade, investment, education, vocational training, agriculture and climate change response, she suggested.

On this occasion, Duyen met with Grenadas Prime Minister Keith Mitchell, who expressed his hope that the two sides will soon conduct promotion activities to foster their bilateral cooperation.

Duyen stressed that Vietnam and Grenada have favourable conditions to enhance their collaboration, and become important partners of each other.

The Vietnamese Embassy will work to implement promising cooperation areas, promote the market and connect businesses of the two countries in the time ahead, he promised.

Earlier, the ambassador had meetings with Minister of Foreign Affairs Oliver Joseph and Permanent Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Roxie-Mc Leish Hutchinson.

Vietnam and Grenada established diplomatic ties on July 15, 1979./.

CPV (Source: VNA)
Kuleba: Menorah in Drobytskyi Yar near Kharkiv damaged by Russian shelling, I expect Israel to condemn this barbarism

The menorah at Drobytskyi Yar near Kharkiv, which commemorates more than 15,000 Jews killed by the Nazis, was damaged by Russian shelling, I expect Israel to strongly condemn this barbarity, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.

"This Menora in Drobytskyi Yar near Kharkiv never threatened anyone. It commemorates the memory of over 15,000 Jews murdered by Nazis. Damaged by Russian shelling today. Why Russia keeps attacking Holocaust Memorials in Ukraine? I expect Israel to strongly condemn this barbarism," Kuleba said on Twitter on Saturday.

In turn, Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Moshe Reuven Azman said that fragments of a Russian missile also hit the Kharkiv synagogue.

"Horror!!! The whole world should know this! Today the Russian army 'denazified' two Jewish objects in Kharkiv region at once  a Russian missile destroyed a monument to tens of thousands of Holocaust victims in Drobytskyi Yar, and fragments of another Russian missile hit the Kharkiv synagogue!" he wrote on Facebook.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has said that partners need to intensify support for Ukraine.

In a video message on Saturday evening, he said that after talking with the President of Poland, he contacted the defenders of Mariupol. "I am in constant contact with them. Their determination, heroism, resistance are amazing. I am grateful to each of them. At least a percentage of their courage to those who have been thinking for 31 days about how to transfer a dozen aircraft or tanks," Zelensky said.

According to him, on March 26, in Poland the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defense of Ukraine met with their U.S. counterparts, who were joined by U.S. President Joe Biden. "Their negotiations concerned the vital interests that I mentioned. They concerned what we really need while this ping-pong continues, who and how should give us aircraft and other elements of protection," the president said.

"Ukraine cannot shoot down Russian missiles from shotguns and machine guns, which are too many in supplies. And it is impossible to deblock Mariupol without a sufficient number of tanks, other armored vehicles and, of course, aircraft," the president said.

According to him, "people should know who was afraid to prevent this tragedy, who was simply afraid to make this vital decision. The peoples of the world will not understand if the battlefield is a more tank supplier than partners."
U.S. President Joseph Biden stressed that Russian President Vladimir Putin's statements about the denazification of Ukraine are cynical and lies.

"Putin has the gall to say he's 'de-Nazifying' Ukraine. It's a lie. It's just cynical. He knows that. And it's also obscene. President Zelensky was democratically elected. He's Jewish. His father's family was wiped out in the Nazi Holocaust. And Putin has the audacity, like all autocrats before him, to believe that might will make right," Biden said.

At the same time, Biden recalled that before the current crisis, NATO and the United States worked for months to cooperate with the Russian Federation in order to prevent war, but Russia responded to them with "lies and ultimatums." According to him, Russia "was bent on violence from the start."

"Repeatedly, he asserted, 'we have no interest in war.' Guaranteed he would not move. Repeatedly saying he would not invade Ukraine. Repeatedly saying Russian troops along the border were there for 'training'  all 180,000 of them. There is simply no justification or provocation for Russia's choice of war," the U.S. president said.
There is a positive dynamics of the operational situation around Kyiv, Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Denys Monastyrsky has said.

"I can only comment on the positive dynamics around Kyiv, and I look forward to victory in this area together with all the residents of the capital, with other cities," Monastyrsky said on the air of the all-Ukrainian telethon, the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs reports on Facebook.

He also stressed that the country is not only holding out, but in many places is going on the counterattack.
On March 26, some 5,208 people evacuated via humanitarian corridors  President's Office Dpty Head Tymoshenko

During the day on March 26, some 5,208 people were evacuated via humanitarian corridors from Kyiv and Luhansk regions, as well as Mariupol, Deputy Head of the President's Office Kyrylo Tymoshenko said.

In particular, 351 people were evacuated from Kyiv region, 526 from Luhansk region.

Some 4,331 residents of Mariupol reached Zaporizhia after the movement of the evacuation convoy was unblocked, which Russian troops detained for two days.

Two seriously wounded children and one infant with pneumonia were taken by ambulances to a hospital in Zaporizhia.

Some 80 tonnes of humanitarian aid have been delivered to Luhansk region.
The aggressor attacked a residential area of the city of Krasnohorivka, Donetsk region, with banned cluster munitions, the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine reports.

"The enemy attacked Krasnohorivka's residential sector with Tornado-S multiple launch rocket systems. Russian troops used prohibited cluster munitions. Ammunition fell in the middle of the streets of the private sector. The police cordoned off the dangerous area. Police and the State Emergency Service bomb techs detect and neutralize combat cumulative elements," according to a report published on the Telegram channel on Sunday.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs warns that "the self-destruction time of the elements can be up to 40 hours, that is, being near them is deadly." And they urge "residents of the city to be as careful as possible and not to approach ammunition."
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Russian occupiers evacuated about 40,000 citizens of Ukraine from the war zones and temporarily occupied territories in the direction of the Russian Federation along quasi-humanitarian corridors not agreed with Ukraine, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine Iryna Vereschuk said.

"We are constantly and powerfully signaling to the international community and institutions that the mentioned Russian 'corridors' are illegal, not coordinated with us. Especially since on the other side, both near Donetsk and Luhansk, forced migrants are allowed to pass through special filtration camps. But for some reason, the International Committee of the Red Cross [ICRC] decided to open its representative office in Rostov-on-Don, specifically to work with Ukrainians deported to the Russian Federation by force. The Cross will be able to collect their lists," Vereschuk said.

At the same time, the official states the impotence of such international institutions as the ICRC, the UN, amid which Ukraine continues to fight and will not stop fighting for each of its citizens and returning them home.

According to her, according to a similar scheme, the invaders operate in the temporarily occupied part of Kyiv region, forcibly taking Ukrainian citizens to the territory of Belarus.

At the same time, the occupiers in every possible way prevent the evacuation of civilians to the territory controlled by the Ukrainian government, Vereschuk said.
On the night of March 27, the occupiers continued shelling Kharkiv, Head of Kharkiv Regional Military Administration Oleh Synehubov has said.

"The occupiers attacked with long-range weapons  about 15 times. During the night, Kharkiv rescuers went to the fires caused by the shelling of the occupiers in the Moskovsky and Slobidsky districts," Synehubov wrote.

He stressed that the Armed Forces of Ukraine continue to hold positions near Kharkiv, and in some areas they launched a counteroffensive, in particular, they expelled the invaders from the village of Husarivka, Balakliya district. As for the Izyum direction, the fighting continues there.

"Fighting continues in the Izium direction. Today, the mobile air defense units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Izium region destroyed a Russian Su-34 fighter jet. This is one of the newest aircraft of the enemy army," Synehubov wrote.
Destruction recorded in almost 50% of communities in Kyiv region  authorities

Over the past day, March 26, more than 30 attacks by Russian troops on residential areas and social infrastructure of Kyiv region were recorded, the regional military administration reports on the Telegram channel.

"During the entire war period, destruction was recorded in 34 out of 69 communities of Kyiv region, which is 49.2%. In total, more than 500 objects," the message says.

Critical destruction was inflicted in Bucha, Irpin, Hostomel, Borodianka, Makariv, Velyka Dymerka communities.

Currently, the most dangerous directions are: Zhytomyr highway; Bucha - Irpin - Hostomel; Nemishaeve; Dmytrivka community; Makariv community; north of Vyshgorod district; territories of some settlements of Baryshivka, Kalyta, Velyka Dymerka communities.
Ukrzaliznytsia calls for speeding up decision to stop transit route between China and Poland via Russia and Belarus

JSC Ukrzaliznytsia calls to continue the railway blockade of Russia and expedite the decision to stop the transit route between China and Poland, which passes through the Russian Federation and Belarus, the company's website reported on Sunday.

In addition, Ukrzaliznytsia in an official letter called the members of the Organization for the Cooperation of Railways to stop transportation with the Russian Federation, as well as to exclude its representatives from participation in international organizations and deprive them of the right to make any decisions.

The company reminded that from March 28, Finland stops railway communication with the Russian Federation and now the aggressor country has no railway communication with any of the EU countries.

Earlier, global rolling stock manufacturers Siemens and Alstom stopped cooperating with the Russian Federation. Stadler also stopped its activities in Russia and Belarus.

"All railways that are members of the CER actively participate in the EU's humanitarian efforts to support Ukrainians who are forced to leave the territory of Ukraine and deliver humanitarian aid to Ukraine. All members and partners of CER undertake to comply with all sanctions applied against the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus," the company said.
The United States will send diesel fuel to Europe for the needs of Ukraine, Lana Zerkal, the adviser to the Energy Minister of Ukraine, said on the air of Radio NV.

"We managed to mobilize everyone... Germany and Poland have the largest reserves of diesel, and they can provide the necessary volumes for us now. In addition, American diesel is coming to us," she said.

Zerkal also drew attention to the fact that during the start of the sowing campaign in Ukraine, several large refineries in Eastern Europe were closed for repairs.
On March 27, 2022, the armed forces of the Russian Federation carried out a prohibited rocket-propelled artillery shelling with the Tornado-S multiple launch rocket system at one of the settlements of Kryvy Rih district of Dnipropetrovsk region, the Office of the Prosecutor General reported, referring to the data of the investigation.

"The missile was equipped with banned cluster munitions," the report says.

During the inspection of the scene of the incident, law enforcement officers and employees of the explosive service found and seized fragments of the rocket.

"Full information about the victims and damaged infrastructure is being specified. There are no military installations on this territory," the report says.

The Dnipropetrovsk Regional Prosecutor's Office provides procedural guidance for criminal proceedings on the fact of violation of the laws and customs of war (Part 1, Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

These actions of the Russian Federation pose a direct threat to the life and health of the civilian population, they contradict the norms of international humanitarian law, namely the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Passenger traffic on the western section of the border on March 26 amounted to over 76,000, which is 10,000 or 15% more than the day before, and the main growth was due to an increase in the number of people who entered Ukraine, the State Border Service reported.

According to its data, over 49,000 people crossed the state border from Ukraine to the EU and Moldova on March 26, compared with 45,000 the day before - this is the highest figure in a week.

The agency clarified that Poland accounted for about 61% of those who left, which is slightly below average.

According to the State Border Service, the flow of people entering Ukraine on March 26 jumped to 27,000 after 21,000 the previous day, the highest figure since the start of the war. Including citizens of Ukraine, more than 22,000 entered.

"The vast majority are men who are ready to defend the country. In total, about 442,000 of our compatriots have returned to Ukraine since the beginning of open armed aggression," the State Border Service said.

It recalled that all checkpoints on the western border (except Dzvinkove) operate around the clock.

The State Border Service also reported that over the past day, the number of registered vehicles with humanitarian cargo has also increased significantly - to more than 900 compared to 600-750 during the outgoing week.

According to the UNHCR, as of 13:00 on March 26, a total of 3.78 million people have left Ukraine since the beginning of the war, of whom Poland accepted 2.24 million, Romania and Moldova  648,250, Hungary  349,110, Slovakia  267,700, Russia  271,250, Belarus  6,340.
Oil depots in Lviv and Rivne regions were completely destroyed after rocket attacks by the Russian military, the heads of regional military administrations said.

"The oil depot in Lviv, which was hit by a rocket the day before, was completely destroyed. The units of the State Emergency Service extinguished the fire throughout the night. They managed to completely extinguish the fire at 07:00 am," Maksym Kozytsky, the head of the Lviv regional military administration, wrote on Telegram on Sunday.

In turn, the head of Rivne regional military administration, Vitaliy Koval, said on the air of the Espresso TV channel that the oil depot in Dubno was completely destroyed.

"Thank God, there were no human casualties, but the base was completely destroyed," Koval said.
Next round of Ukraine-Russia talks will be held in Turkey on March 28-30 - Arakhamia

The next round of negotiations between the Ukrainian and Russian delegations will be held in Turkey on March 28-30, David Arakhamia, a member of the Ukrainian delegation and the head of the Servant of the People faction in the Verkhovna Rada, said.

"Today, at the next round of video talks, it was decided to hold the next live round with the two delegations in Turkey on March 28-30. Details later," he wrote on Facebook on Sunday.
UKRAINE-CHILDREN-PROTECTION

Social Policy Ministry invites 23 countries to sign bilateral memos on protecting rights of children from vulnerable categories

KYIV. March 27 (Interfax-Ukraine)  The Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine invited 23 countries to sign bilateral memorandums on protecting the rights of children from vulnerable categories.

"Today, an official proposal has been sent to 23 countries through diplomatic channels to conclude bilateral memorandums on protection of the rights of displaced children from vulnerable categories and a draft of the corresponding memorandum. The text of the draft memorandum was developed based on the results of bilateral and multilateral meetings of Minister of Social Policy Maryna Lazebna with the heads of relevant ministries and institutions of social protection of the partner countries, as well as based on the results of the study of the proposals of the members of the coordinating headquarters for the protection of the rights of the child under martial law," the ministry's press service said.

In particular, the draft memorandum regulates the issues of protecting the rights and meeting the needs of children from vulnerable categories displaced to other countries, the procedure for maintaining consular records of such children, guaranteeing their return to Ukraine after the situation improves, preventing the adoption of Ukrainian children without the consent of Ukraine and the application of national legislation about adoption.

"The signing of the memorandums will take place in the near future. Thus, we will legally fix the agreements that we have reached with partner countries, and which are already in practice to protect the rights of children from vulnerable categories who have been moved to other countries," the message says.

It is noted that the proposal and the draft memorandum, in accordance with the preliminary agreements, were sent to Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, Estonia, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, France, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Great Britain and Turkey.
The Neutron Source subcritical nuclear facility in Kharkiv, as a result of another shelling by Russian invader troops, received significant damage to the heat-insulating cladding of the building, and partial shedding of cladding materials in the experimental hall of the facility was also recorded, the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine reported.

"Personnel continue to inspect the buildings, structures and equipment of the facility to identify any damage," the inspectorate said in a Facebook post on Sunday.

At the same time, the agency emphasized that the probability of new damage to the nuclear installation remains high due to the constant shelling by the troops of the aggressor country of the area where it is located.

It noted that the personnel are trying to take measures to eliminate the consequences of hostilities and maintain the equipment of the nuclear installation in working condition, as much as possible in the conditions of constant shelling and bombing of the site.

The agency once again stressed that the Neutron Source nuclear facility, like any other nuclear installation, is not designed for operation in combat conditions.

"Continued shelling of the site can lead to severe radiation consequences with contamination of nearby areas," it warns.
More than 46,500 refugees arrive in Zaporizhia in 12 days - city council

More than 6,500 people fleeing the war arrived in Zaporizhia in a day, Anatoliy Kurtev, the secretary of Zaporizhia City Council, said.

"In twelve days, 46,575 people were met in our city. Among them, there are 12,512 children," Kurtev wrote on his Telegram channel on Sunday.

He noted that refugees in Zaporizhia receive the necessary assistance - accommodation, food, essentials, as well as professional medical and psychological assistance.
Russian occupiers continue to militarize the exclusion zone of Chornobyl nuclear power plant, which threatens the environmental security not only of Ukraine, but of the whole of Europe, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reports.

"There is a continued militarization by the Russian occupation forces of the exclusion zone of Chornobyl nuclear power plant. This seriously increases the risk of damage to the insulation structures built over the fourth power unit of the station after the explosion in 1986. Such damage will inevitably lead to a significant amount of radioactive dust entering the atmosphere and infecting not only Ukraine, but also other European countries," the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine informs on Facebook on Sunday.

The report notes that the occupation troops of the Russian Federation ignore threats and warnings and continue to transport and store a significant amount of ammunition in the immediate vicinity of the nuclear power plant.

"Dozens of tonnes of rockets, shells for cannon artillery, mortar ammunition are daily transported by units of the Eastern Military District of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation from the logistics base deployed in Narovlyansky district of Gomel region of the Republic of Belarus," the General Staff notes.

The General Staff also clarified that the transport corridor of the invaders passes through the town of Prypiat, a few hundred meters from the isolation facilities of the nuclear power plant, and ammunition is stored in the neighboring town of Chornobyl, which is located near the nuclear power plant. It was in Chornobyl that the occupiers deployed a temporary command post for the grouping of troops of the Eastern Military District, as well as the command post of the 38th separate motorized rifle brigade.

"According to the available information, the Russian occupation forces are increasingly using old ammunition. Thus, the 165th artillery brigade from Belogorsk, Amur Region, which is part of the group, received permission to use the specified ammunition. This increases the risk of detonation even during loading and transportation. The facts of such self-detonation of ammunition in Russian military depots and arsenals are well known and occur regularly," the General Staff said.
Losses among civilians from February 24, 2022, when Russia started the war against Ukraine, to 24:00 on March 26, 2022 amounted to 2,909 civilians (2,858 in the report a day earlier), including 1,119 dead (1,104), reports the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Sunday.

"UNHCHR believes that the real numbers are much higher, especially in the 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 in the document.

According to the report, 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, 224 men, 168 women, 32 boys and 15 girls died, while the sex of 52 children and 628 adults has not yet been determined.

Among the 1,790 injured, there are 32 girls and 24 boys, as well as 70 children, whose gender has not yet been determined.

Compared to the previous day, according to the UN, three children were killed and two were injured.

OHCHR indicates that in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as of midnight on March 27, there were 301 (295) dead and 694 (681) injured in the government-controlled territory, and 59 (59) dead and 227 (227) injured in territory controlled by the self-proclaimed republics.
Criminal case opened on fact of bombing and shelling of settlements in Donetsk region - prosecutor's office

Over the past day, on March 26, Russian troops attacked a number of settlements in Donetsk region, as a result of which residential buildings and infrastructure facilities were damaged, the Donetsk regional prosecutor's office reports.

"On March 26, 2022, the towns of New York and Zalizne, Toretsk, the village of Maksymilianivka, and the town of Avdiyivka were subject to another enemy attacks with bombardments and shelling from rocket artillery systems. Many residential buildings and utility buildings, the property of a private industrial and commercial enterprise, equipment of an electrical substation were damaged," a report on the Facebook social network indicates.

In addition, on the same day, a 17-year-old girl was delivered to the city clinical hospital in Sloviansk, who received a mine-explosive injury, a broken arm and a lacerated chest wound during shelling of the town of Barvenkovo, Izium district, Kharkiv region.

"Information about other victims is currently being specified," the prosecutor's office noted.

An investigation has been launched into the fact of the shelling in six criminal proceedings under Part 1 of Article 438 (violation of the laws and customs of war) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
The parliamentary committee on human rights is against the opening of a representative office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Rostov-on-Don (Russia) for allegedly "more effective work" in eastern Ukraine.

"The committee categorically opposed the International Committee of the Red Cross' opening an office in Rostov-on-Don. Since this will not only contribute to the legitimization of "humanitarian corridors" on the territory of the Russian Federation, but will also become a kind of support for the forced abduction of Ukrainian citizens and their removal to the territory of the aggressor state," the relevant committee reports on the website of the Verkhovna Rada on Sunday.

The committee noted that according to available information, the Russian occupiers have already forcibly taken several thousand residents of Mariupol to the territory of Russia.

"The captured residents of Mariupol were taken to filtration camps, where the occupiers checked people's phones and documents. After the check, some of the Mariupol residents were redirected to remote cities of Russia, the fate of others (residents) remains unknown," the report says.

The profile committee emphasized that these actions violate Article 49 of the Geneva Convention of August 12, 1949 on the protection of civilians in time of war and are another Russian war crime.

"In such circumstances, the ICRC must protect and help the affected citizens of Ukraine, and not take the side of the aggressor state and in some way contribute to the continuation of this crime. Therefore, we consider the intentions of the International Committee of the Red Cross to open an office ... in Rostov-on-Don unacceptable," the committee said in a statement.

The committee called on the leadership of the ICRC to change its mind and not support the forced removal of Ukrainian citizens to the territory of the occupying state.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that he would like to sign agreements on mirror respect for languages, history and cultural values with all neighboring countries, the same issue is being discussed in negotiations with the Russian Federation.

"The Russian language is being discussed (in negotiations with Russia) in terms of respect for the languages of the peoples of the neighbors. I am interested in such an agreement. I want to sign it with all neighboring countries. I am interested in Russia, Hungary, Poland, Romania ... We have many different historical issues, many national minorities. And this agreement will be sufficient to respect certain languages inside our country and outside it. Therefore, I am sure that the issue of language will go off the agenda. Because it will be resolved by such an agreement," Zelensky said in an interview with Russian journalists published on the website of the Office of the President.

"What does it mean: stop 'playing'. How do the Hungarians 'play' with it, albeit less, and Russia more. Stop 'playing' about some kind of school closure in Ukraine. Do you want a Russian school? Do you want to study in Russian? Please. But with the condition: you open with us, we open with you. You publish something here, so we are there. The attitude you want to the Russian language is your language, the state language of the Russian Federation. Everything should be fair. Respect us and our state language is Ukrainian. That's all. There is no need to say that this is a "non-language" or that it is the language of illiterate people," he added.

At the same time, the head of state expressed confidence that the Ukrainian people would accept this if they wanted to.

"Because all this will be voted on by people's deputies one way or another," the president said.

Referring directly to the subject of the Russian language, on the introduction of which as the second state language in Ukraine, Russia insists on an ultimatum, Zelensky noted that "every subsequent day of the war, in principle, calls into question the understanding among the Ukrainian population of what this Russian language is."

"That is, people themselves will not want this: to read, watch movies, speak Russian when it is "passed to us through blood"," the head of state said.
Ihor Zhdanov, Information Defence

Informational Defence of Ukraine provides a daily review of the military-political situation in Ukraine, morning of March 27th, based on an analysis of open sources.

1. The russian occupiers have not achieved success in any of the operational areas and have sustained heavy losses as a result of counterattacks by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in the Donetsk direction, the enemies focused their efforts on maintaining the occupied position and preparing for offensive attacks.

The enemy continued to attempt to storm Mariupol, launched air strikes and carried out artillery shelling of civilian and military infrastructure. They tried to advance in order to occupy the central part of the city.

The main efforts of the enemy continue to focus on the capture of the settlements of Popasna, Rubizhne, and preparations for the attack on Severodonetsk.

In the Kharkiv region, the Ukrainian army liberated several settlements in the direction of Mala Rohan.

The total combat losses of the enemy from 24.02 to 27.03 are approximately these:

Only in the Donetsk and Luhansk directions, Ukrainian soldiers destroyed 8 tanks, 8 units of armoured and 3 enemy vehicles, one mortar. During the day on March 26th, defenders of Mariupol from the regiment of Azov unit destroyed 3 tanks and 1 BMD of the occupiers.

2. Information summaries and assessments of foreign and Ukrainian intelligence.

According to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, the russian armed forces often face the problem of the impossibility of restoring equipment after "deconservation" from warehouses. Optical devices and electronics containing precious metals were completely stolen from the combat vehicles.

In particular, according to intelligence, the 4th Panzer Division of the russian federation found that out of 10 "canned" tanks, only one is in more or less working condition. The rest are completely dismantled, some of them do not even have engines. At present, the plans to transfer equipment removed from the storage place to the front have been effectively thwarted.

According to the CIA, the commander of the 13th Panzer Regiment of the 4th Panzer Division of the russian federation committed suicide (he shot himself) because of this situation.

According to UK intelligence, russia will continue air and artillery bombardment of cities to limit its losses and demoralise defence forces. This is stated in the latest intelligence review of the UK Ministry of Defence.

According to intelligence, russia is likely to continue to use "its powerful firepower in urban areas" as it seeks to limit its already significant losses at the cost of further civilian casualties.

russian troops are concentrating their efforts trying to surround Ukrainian forces in the Donbas area. This is stated in the intelligence review of the UK Ministry of Defence.

russian forces appear to be concentrating their efforts to try to surround Ukrainian forces directly in front of the separatist areas in the east, advancing from Kharkiv in the north and Mariupol in the south, the statement said.

As for the north of Ukraine, the battlefield there remains largely static, and local Ukrainian counterattacks are thwarting russia's attempts to reorganise its forces.

3. The russian occupiers continue to violate international humanitarian law.

russian aggressors continue to kill Ukrainian children. According to the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine in Telegram , as of the morning of March 26th, on the 31st day of a full-scale armed aggression of russia, 136 children have already died.

199 children were injured. The most affected children were in the Kyiv region - 64, the Kharkiv region - 44, the Donetsk region - 50, the Chernihiv region - 38, the Mykolaiiv region - 28, the Luhansk region - 25, the Zaporizhzhia region - 17, the Kherson region - 20, Kyiv City - 16, the Zhytomyr region  15, and the Sumy region - 14.

Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova has said that since the beginning of russia's war against Ukraine, 12 journalists have died due to the invaders attacks. 10 journalists have been wounded and 6 have taken away in an unknown direction.

According to the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations, the occupiers committed crimes against at least 56 members of the media, 15 of whom were citizens of other countries.

The victims of the russian invaders were 4 UK citizens, 2 Czech citizens, 2 Danish citizens, 2 UAE citizens, 1 Swiss citizen, and 2 US citizens, one of whom died, also one Irish citizen and one russian citizen.

russian invaders continue to attack civilians daily. On March 25th because of hostile actions 41 people in the Mykolaiiv area were wounded.

The russians damaged 11 houses in the Luhansk region, a school in a village near Lysychansk, and an ambulance station in Severodonetsk was in fire.

During Friday, gas supplies were restored to more than 6,000 Ukrainian consumers, but 330,000 Ukrainians remain without access.

Peaceful resistance of Ukrainian citizens continues. Thousands of residents of the Chonobyl satellite  Slavutych organized a peaceful rally against the russian occupiers on the morning of March 26th. They were holding yellow and blue flags, singing the anthem of Ukraine and shouting "putin is a scumbag", russian ship go to f*ck, Glory to the nation! Death to the enemies!, Slavutych is Ukraine.

Unarmed people went straight to enemy armoured carriers and armed combatants, who started firing into the air. Unarmed people were shouting "Go home!", We do not wait you here!

One resident of Slavutych was wounded during a rally against the russian aggressors, there are also wounded in the territorial defence units, the mayor of the city, who was previously captured by the invaders, was released by the occupiers.

The abduction of civilians and their hostages continue. In Mariupol, the russian occupiers forcibly removed doctors and patients from the city hospital No1 in the unknown direction.

It is reported that there were about 700 people on the territory of the hospital, but it is unknown exactly how many Mariupol residents were deported.

In general, according to Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko, the occupiers deported 20,000-30,000 people from the city to the occupied territories or to russia.

4. Under attacks by the russian occupiers, the evacuation through humanitarian corridors continues.

According to Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, 10 evacuation corridors were confirmed on March 26th: in the Donetsk, Kyiv, and Luhansk regions. All 10 corridors functioned successfully.

331 people traveled from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia by their own transport. Those evacuees who were detained by the occupiers in Berdiansk also arrived in Zaporizhzhia.

5,208 people were evacuated to places of safety on March 26th.

5. International support and assistance to Ukraine.

Political support for Ukraine. US President Joe Biden said in Warsaw that russian president putin cannot remain in power: A dictator who is trying to build an empire will never be able to destroy people's love of freedom. Brutal force will never erase their will to freedom.

Ukraine will never be a victory for russia. Free people refuse to live in a hopeless and dark world. There will be a better, brighter future ahead, built on rules and according to democracy principles, a future full of hope and light, dignity and decency, freedom and opportunity. For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power.

In his speech, Joe Biden called on world democracies to unite to fight dictators and the violence of authoritarian regimes. He assured that the United States and the Western world are on the side of Ukraine.

The American president addressed the citizens in Warsaw during the russian occupiers launching missile strikes on Lviv.

The United States and Ukraine are launching a 2 + 2 security dialogue at the level of foreign and defence officials.

This was announced by Ukrainian ministers after the meeting with US colleagues.

Military aid to Ukraine continues. The first large consignment of anti-tank weapons arrived in Ukraine, which the German government confirmed to purchase. The German edition Bild reports about the completion of the delivery .

This is a light RPG Matador for close combat, which, according to the German manufacturer, is able to pierce the armour of any tank that is in service with russia - depending on the place of impact. 2650 units arrived in Ukraine. Total procurement is 5,100 units; the remaining 2,450 are currently being manufactured and will arrive in Ukraine in small batches by the end of May.

The purchase price reportedly amounted to 25 million euros.

Financial Aid. According to CNN, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Ukraine would receive "additional assistance worth $ 100 million."

It will be designed to increase the capacity of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine to ensure the necessary border security, support civilian law enforcement functions and protect critical state infrastructure in the face of a deliberate, unprovoked and unjustified attacks by president putin.

6. Provocations and fakes of russian aggressors.

The Centre for Combating Disinformation at the National Security and Defence Council urges German-language media not to disseminate russian propaganda and lies about the Ukrainian Azov unit, which is currently defending Mariupol.

It is for this purpose, the associations of Ukrainians who are fighting for their state and freedom with the Nazis-racist propagandists have switched to the European information space and especially to Germany.

The Azov Battalion was created in 2014 from volunteers who were fighting in the Donbas. Today, the Azov is a separate detachment of the National Guard of Ukraine.

The National Security and Defence Council notes that comparing Ukrainians to Nazis is an outdated method of the kremlin to manipulate historical memory and make fake analogies.

On March 26th, 2022, at the exit from Kharkiv (towards Chuhuiiv), a monument in the form of a Menorah at the entrance to The Drobytskyi Yar memorial complex was damaged as a result of artillery shelling of the russian Armed Forces.

According to the Kharkiv State Archives, between 16,000 and 20,000 Holocaust victims were killed there.

In Kharkov, the nuclear subcritical installation Neutron Source came under russian fire again. It is not possible to estimate the extent of the damage due to the fighting that does not stop in the area of the nuclear installation

According to Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, the occupiers have planned a demonstration - they are going to forcibly deport ethnic Armenians, Azerbaijanis, and Meskhetian Turks from Kherson to the temporarily occupied Crimea.

7. Political and socio-economic situation in russia, the impact of international sanctions on it.

New sanctions are being imposed on russia. The United States is threatening sanctions on individuals and legal entities that help russia avoid Western sanctions. The Financial Times has stated this with reference to Jake Sullivan, the US National Security Adviser.

He said Washington was ready to expand its network of economic and financial sanctions around the world to include secondary sanctions.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba called on consumers from all over the world to boycott Auchan, Alcampo, Leroy Merlin and Decathlon for refusing to leave the russian market.

As a result of sanctions against russia, leading international campaigns are leaving the russian market. Since the beginning of the russian invasion of Ukraine, more than 450 international companies have announced their withdrawal from russia. The leading countries in this indicator are Germany and the United Kingdom.

Forbes has given information regarding the percentage of foreign capital in 250 top russian business companies (in USD  see the picture).

The smallest share of companies that have left putin's russia is from France and China. This is evidenced by data from Yale University and Forbes analysis .

Many corporate giants decided to limit their activities in russia only after harsh public condemnation . For example, McDonald's, Coca-Cola and Starbucks.

At the same time, a number of global companies continue to do business and pay taxes in russia . This means, in fact, they are financing the military actions launched by russia in Ukraine.

The stagnation of the russian stock market continues. The Central Bank has decided that russian shares, russian corporate regional and municipal bonds, as well as foreign shares will be admitted to the next trading on the Moscow Stock Exchange.

Previously, only the 33 most valid paper securities were available for auction. As in previous days, bidding has been banned, including a ban on short selling, which prevents traders from making money by falling the value of securities.

Sanctions continue to negatively affect the russian economy. The US President Joe Biden has said that after the imposition of Western sanctions, russia's economy will be halved in the coming years.

The largest banking group in the Netherlands, ING Bank, has decided to abandon any new business contacts with any russian or Belarusian companies around the world.
A total of 1,745,408 preparatory school students have been examined since November in Egypts initiative for the early detection and treatment of hepatitis C, according to the Ministry of Health and Population on Thursday.
A 500-million-euro ($530 million) Lithuanian-Polish natural gas transmission pipeline was inaugurated Thursday, completing another stage of regional independence from Russian energy sources.
Belarus' leader defended Russia's invasion of Ukraine and said he was doing ``everything'' to stop the war in a sit-down interview with The Associated Press on Thursday.
The minister made the remarks during a meeting held to discuss the new NGO law. The meeting was attended by 130 international bodies and NGOs

Egypts Social Solidarity Minister Nevine El-Qabbaj said on Monday that the ministry's vision for the Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) goes beyond granting them licenses and involves dealing with them as partners in the implementation of national projects.

Egypt is looking to have an "effective and transparent" channel of communication with civil society via the new NGO law to achieve the desired sustainable development, said Minister El-Qabbaj.

The minister's remarks were made during a meeting named Dialogue with International Partners ... New Horizons for Civil Society in Egypt, which was held on Monday to discuss the NGO law.

The event was attended by close to 130 international bodies and NGOS, according to a statement by the social solidarity ministry.

El-Qabbaj underscored that the articles of the NGO law represent a "leap" for civil society organisations.

The new law is also a reflection of the ministrys keenness to build a strong and sustainable partnership with [NGOs] under the principles of transparency and respecting human rights, she added.

The minister praised the prompt response of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to the requests by civil society to amend the law, which was first approved in 2016.

In November 2018, during the second World Youth Forum in Sharm El-Sheikh, President El-Sisi voiced his support for amending the NGO law.

The House of Representatives approved a host of amendments to the law in July 2019. The Egyptian government ratified the articles of the amended NGO law in November 2020.

During Monday's meeting, the social solidarity minister vowed to provide all means of support for civil society and contribute to strengthening their organisational and financial capabilities.

She added that the recently ratified bylaws allow the NGOs to tap into the country's digital transformation plan by registering the associations and fundraising online.

The minister added that according to the new law, the associations cannot be dissolved without a court ruling.

The law also includes a number of penalties against entities and organisations that do not comply with the rules and instructions and those involved in crimes.

During the event, El-Qabbaj referred to mechanisms by which NGOs can be frozen or suspended as well as means for reconciliation.

Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat, who attended the meeting, said that civil society has played a strong role in the ministrys international partnerships with multilateral and bilateral development partners over the past year to support the country's efforts in combating the coronavirus pandemic.

Al-Mashat affirmed the international cooperation ministry's keenness to strengthen economic cooperation ties with international partners through the principles of economic diplomacy.

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The foreign ministers of Iran and Syria, two allies of Russia, will discuss the war in Ukraine and other developments during a meeting in Damascus on Wednesday, Syria's foreign minister said.

Faisal Mekdad spoke to reporters at Damascus airport shortly after his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, arrived for talks with top Syrian officials.

Iran is a strong ally of President Bashar Assad and has sent thousands of Iran-backed fighters from around the region to bolster Syrian government forces against opponents in the 11-year Syrian conflict. Russia has also supported Assad militarily, turning the tide of the war in his favor. The Syria war has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half the country's pre-war population of 23 million.

``We will discuss the huge developments today after Russia's military operation in Ukraine,'' Mekdad said. ``We will discuss what is behind that and we will discuss our mutual stances toward these developments.''

During his visit, Amir-Abdollahian is also likely to discuss the latest developments in Iran's negotiations to restore Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers, Assad's visit to the United Arab Emirates last week, which marked his first to an Arab country since the Syria war broke out, and meetings of the constitutional committee in Geneva between the Syrian government and opposition.

Amir-Abdollahian said in Farsi that strategic relations between Iran and Syria are at their best. He later made a rare comment in Arabic, saying: ``We are in the same trench, and we support Syria's leadership, government and people.''

Like Iran, Russia a strong ally of Syria and joined the war in 2015, which helped Assad's forces regain control of much of the country. Russia has hundreds of troops deployed in Syria and an air base on the Mediterranean coast.

Nuclear negotiations nearly reached completion earlier this month before Moscow demanded that its trade with Iran be exempted from Western sanctions over Ukraine, throwing the process into disarray. Negotiators have yet to reconvene in the Austrian capital, and its unclear exactly what hurdles lie ahead.

Amir-Abdollahian's visit also comes two weeks after two members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard were killed in an Israeli strike near the capital Damascus.

Days later Iran claimed responsibility for a missile barrage that struck near a sprawling U.S. consulate complex in northern Iraq, saying it was retaliation for repeated Israeli strikes in Syria. The Revolutionary Guard said it fired off 12 cruise missiles at what it described as a ``strategic center'' of the Israeli spy agency Mossad, a claim denied by Iraqi officials.

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Speaker of the Senate Abdel-Wahab Abdel-Razeq said "what next is that the House of Representatives shall be notified of the Senate's final approval of the amendment, as stipulated by Article 249 of the constitution."

"Let me indicate that the Senate discussed this amendment upon a request from the House and now it is up to the Senate's secretariat-general to notify the House of the Senate's approval," said Abdel-Razeq.

Mohamed Magdi Farid, deputy chairman of the Senate's Human Rights Committee, indicated that Article Two of the NGOs Law 149/2019 was amended by the government in January to give a one-year extension for NGOs to legalise their status in the country.

"As a result, the amended Article Two of the law was referred to the House and the Senate to open a discussion and take a vote on it," said Farid, adding that the amended Article Two shall now state that "all civil society organisations, institutions, unions, foreign NGOs, and regional organisations and entities which exercise civil work in line with the definition stated by the NGOs Law 149/2019 and which have not yet adjusted their conditions in line with article two of this law shall be allowed to adjust their conditions within six months from the date of this law going into effect, and that this period shall be extended for another six months only upon a decision from the minister in charge of NGOs and civil work and after getting the cabinet's approval."

Farid explained that this means that Article Two of the law shall be amended to open the extension of the legal adjustment period allowed for NGOs for another year, starting 12 January 2022 and concluding 12 January 2023.

In 2021, the cabinet issued regulations granting NGOs in Egypt a year to comply with the Law 149/2019. However, the cabinet, upon a request by Egypt's National Council for Human Rights (NCHR), decided on 11 January to extend the one-year grace period for another year.

Farid said "the additional year will give NGOs enough time to adjust their legal conditions as required by the law and that the extension is also meant to give sufficient time to adjust the conditions of the NGOs."

He added "implementation of the law on the ground showed that many NGOs were unable to hold their extraordinary general assembly due to the anti-coronavirus protective measures, to familiarise themselves with the electronic system legalising and regulating their status, and to accommodate all the organisational procedures that must be met."

"Article 7 of the law's executive bylaws stipulate these NGOs hold their general assemblies and because they were not able to hold these assemblies they were about to face the threat of dissolution, and as a result article two was amended to give more time for NGOs to adjust their conditions," said Farid.

A report by the Senate's Human Rights Committee said "the Committee welcomes the one-year extension for NGOs to play their role in society in line with the new law."

It pointed out that "the amendment also reflects President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi's call during the World Youth Forum last January to declare 2022 as the Year of Civil Society."

The report concluded that the NCHR said the extension was necessary to affirm the authorities' positive interaction with the council's calls and the state's greater openness to enhance the role of NGOs and their contribution to community service."

The NCHR said in a statement in January that the cabinets decision gives the opportunity to over 20,000 NGOs and civil society organisations to legalise their status, adding that only 31,000 NGOs out of 54,000 were able to settle their legal status before the initial deadline of 12 January.

Some governorates only saw 35 percent of their operating NGOs able to legalise their status, it added.

Senator Tarek Abdel-Aziz revealed that the Nile Delta governorate of Daqahliya includes 300 NGOs, only 40 percent of which were able to adjust their legal conditions to go in line with the law. "I hope the new amendment will help eliminate all obstacles standing in the way of the remaining 60 percent NGOs in this governorate to be legalised," said Abdel-Aziz.

Once approved by the Senate, the amendment will be referred to the House of Representatives to be discussed and endorsed.

The amendment must also be ratified by President El-Sisi in order to go into law.

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Egypts Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry attended on Sunday along with foreign ministers of UAE, Bahrain and Morocco an official banquet hosted by Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid in Tel Aviv, ahead of a meeting in Israels Negev, the Egyptian foreign ministry announced.

According to Lapid on his official Twitter account, the Arab ministers were informed of the suicide attack that took place in Hadera city Sunday night where two Israelis were killed and 10 others were injured by two Arab-Israeli gunmen disguised as security guards.

Lapid stated that the ministers condemned the attack and offered their condolences to the families of the victims as well as wishing a speedy recovery to the injured.

Shoukry arrived in Tel Aviv earlier in the day to take part in a meeting with the foreign ministers of the US, the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Israel.

Following his arrival in Israel, Shoukry has so far met with his Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid, according to the Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Ahmed Hafez

The visit comes at the invitation of the Israeli foreign minister to join a meeting in Israels Negev with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and their counterparts from Bahrain, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates.

On his Twitter account, Lapid called the Negev summit, which extends to Monday, a historic diplomatic summit. He displayed the flags of Egypt, the first Arab country to recongise Israel in 1977, as well as of Morocco, UAE and Bahrain, three of the four countries that signed Abraham Accords with Israel in 2020.

Lapids announcement gave no details about the agenda. However, US officials said quelling Israel's worries about a looming nuclear deal with Iran and discussing the potential global wheat shortage caused by the Ukraine war will top the agenda.

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Egyptian citizen Yahia Hassan Yahia Hamed  a man that was reportedly in his thirties  was killed earlier in March amid the Russian shelling of the encircled city of Mariupol, becoming the first Egyptian citizen to die in Ukraine due to the ongoing Russian invasion of the country.

Hamed, who was taking refuge in a shelter in the battered Ukrainian city along with his wife and mother-in-law, died immediately when a bomb landed next to him while he was buying food for his family on 15 March, a diplomatic source told media, adding that his death was confirmed more than a week later on Saturday 26 March.

Hamed hailed from the northern Egyptian city of Mit Ghamr.

Head of the Egyptian community in Ukraine Ali Farouk told Ahram Online via mobile phone that the community found out about the death of Hamed when his family reached out to the Egyptian embassy and the community in an attempt to find him after failing to reach him following the Russian invasion in late February.

According to Farouk, Hamed was not a resident of Ukraine, but he used to own a shop in Sharm El-Sheikh and was married to a Ukrainian woman  a native of Mariupol  and had a child with her.

We did not know him because he was not a resident of Ukraine, he came to visit his wife and child in Mariupol in early February but then the war broke out and he got stuck here, Farouk said, adding that telecommunications to and from Mariupol were down ever since it has been under heavy Russian attack.

After a long search, members of the Egyptian community in Ukraine who chose to remain in the country managed to reach Hameds wife, and earlier on Saturday, she informed them that her Egyptian husband died during the shelling of the city a week prior.

She added that he was buried in Mariupol.

According to Matilda Bogner  the head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine  on Friday, since Russian armed forces launched their offensive on 24 February, at least 1,035 civilians have been killed and at least 1,650 injured in Ukraine.

Bogner added that the death and inured tolls are much higher in locations that have intense fighting like Mariupol.

A week ago, Ukrainian authorities in Mariupol estimated that at least 2,300 civilians died in the previous three weeks. Human Rights Watch estimates that there are more than 200,000 civilians still trapped in the besieged city.

Egypt has been pushing forward with efforts to bring its nationals home from Ukraine. Prior to the Russian invasion, around 6,000 Egyptians lived in Ukraine, including 3,000 students studying at the countrys universities, especially in the field of medicine.

Over the past three weeks, scores of Egyptian expats have already crossed the borders into Romania, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia.

On Thursday, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi stressed in a phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy the need to prioritise dialogue and diplomatic solutions to settle the Russian-Ukrainian crisis.

Earlier in 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 Russian-Ukrainian crisis through peaceful means, warning of the impact of the crisis on the fragile global economy.

El-Sisi also voiced in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin Egypts readiness to support any 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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Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, the President-Designate of COP27, discussed on Sunday with his Japanese counterpart Yoshimasa Hayashi cooperation between the two countries in preparation for the climate change conference, with the aim of ensuring its success in reaching results to bolster action on climate issues.

Egypt, which will host the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh in November, has been in talks with a host of international partners to ensure the success ofthe event.

During a video conference call, Shoukry and Hayashi also discussed bilateral relations between the two countries, as well as the latest regional and international developments, foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Hafez said on Sunday.

They also discussed cooperation in the fields of culture, investment and trade.

Both FMs also addressed various cooperation mechanisms that could benefit Arab and African countries.

The Japanese foreign minister expressed his country's continued support for the activities of the Cairo International Centre for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding (CCCPA).

The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs founded the CCCPA in 1994 "as an independent, non-partisan center of excellence in training, capacity building and research in the fields of conflict prevention and resolution, crisis management, peacekeeping, peacebuilding, transnational threats, and preventing radicalization and extremism leading to terrorism."

For his part, Shoukry seconded praise for the centre's role in promoting peace and security in the African continent.

The two sides, according to the statement, agreed to enhance coordination within the framework of the Tokyo International Conference on African Developments (TICAD) eighth summit to be held later this year in Tunisia, noting that the summit will focus on supporting African economies in light of the various challenges they face.

Cairo has vowed to speak for Africa's aspirations at the COP27 conference, which will discuss ways to support efforts to reduce carbon emissions and provide funding for developing countries to deal with the repercussions of climate change.

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Egypt has fully vaccinated about 33 million people against coronavirus, representing 52 percent of the targeted groups, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research and Acting Minister of Health Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar said on Saturday.

In remarks to Al-Hekaya program on MBC Masr, Abdel-Ghaffar affirmed a decline in hospital admissions due to coronavirus in isolation and university hospitals. He said the number of coronavirus cases has declined since mid-February.

This helped the ministry to get many hospitals, which were temporarily allocated for isolating coronavirus patients, back to service, Abdel-Ghaffar said.

In a phone interview with Al-Hayah TV channel, Health Ministry Spokesman Hossam Abdel-Ghaffar noted the coronavirus vaccination rates are going well, calling on all citizens to get the full doses.

Over 1.8 million citizens had been vaccinated through a door-knocking campaign in seven governorates, the spokesman said.

Over the past week (19-25 March), the country recorded a daily average of 625 new cases and eight deaths, the ministry said in a weekly report on Saturday.

The total number of recoveries since the outbreak in February 2020 increased to 430,506 after a daily average of 766 people were discharged from hospitals nationwide over the past seven days.

Over 43 million citizens have received their first dose and over 1.9 million citizens have received their booster shots, according to the ministry's figures.

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Egypt lifted on Sunday a ban on Ramadan charity banquets, ending a two-year suspension on the popular tradition due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ramadan charity banquets are organised publicly in the streets by the well-to-do to provide free Iftar meals for millions of poor people during the holy month, which starts in Egypt this year on 2 April.

According to Cabinet Spokesperson Nader Saad, the High Committee to Manage Pandemics and Endemics, headed by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, also lifted a number of restrictions on mosques during Ramadan.



Mosques will now be allowed to open their annex event halls and conduct the afternoon prayer sermons (Al-Asr) and mass Ramadan night prayers (Taraweeh) sermon during the holy month.

Ramadan late-night prayers (Tahajjud) and seclusion in mosques for a period of time in Ramadan (Itikaf) will still be prohibited.

The new decisions issued by the committee stipulate that shops, restaurants and cafes are allowed to remain open till 2am, according to Saad.

The committee also allowed weddings and celebrations at indoor halls in hotels starting April as long as they follow precautionary measures against coronavirus.

During the meeting of the committee, Acting Health Minister Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar emphasised that COVID-19 related fatalities have declined in the country over the past five weeks.

The number of isolation hospitals also declined from 17 to seven, due to the decline in the number of cases admitted for treatment, he added.

He also revealed that Egypt has administrated 76.5 million doses of coronavirus vaccines, adding that 32 million people have been fully vaccinated nationwide.

The Ministry of Health has also administrated about 2 million booster coronavirus doses.

Abdel-Ghaffar also stated there are enough vaccine doses to vaccinate nearly 40 million citizens.

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Egyptian students returning from Ukraine will have to undergo examinations on Monday to enrol in Egyptian universities, a statement by the Egyptian Ministry of Emigration and Expatriate Affairs said on Sunday.

A total of 1,270 students who were forced to flee the war-ridden country have already submitted their papers to the emigration ministry in order to apply for enrolment into Egyptian universities, according to the statement.

The initiative, taking place under the directives of Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, aims to help support Egyptian students returning from Ukraine to carry on their studies back in Egypt by making it easier to transfer into Egyptian universities, the ministry said.

The Cabinet, on its part, has closely examined the situation and has taken steps to streamline the transfer process, the ministry said, adding that they will carefully take into account their extraordinary circumstances.

According to a report received by Minister of Emigration and Expatriate Affairs Nabila Makram on the latest updates on Egyptian students returning from Ukraine, the applicants are majoring in medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, and engineering.

Those who have successfully submitted their papers to the ministry from 14/3 to 24/3 will take exams, which will be held at the following faculties starting Monday, to help determine their academic level and the majors in which they will continue their studies, an announcement issued by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research said.

Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University (29/3)

Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University (30/3)

Faculty of Dentistry, Ain Shams University (28/3)

Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University (28/3)

In a another bid to provide support, the Egyptian Embassy in Kyiv asked those who are experiencing any problems obtaining a transcript or withdrawing their academic files from Ukrainian universities to send all of their details on the following hyperlink.

Makram announced on Tuesday that there will also be a unified form for students in Russia as well and is communicating with them to check on their conditions in light of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, according to another statement by the emigration ministry.

Recently, students in Russia expressed the challenges they face, especially in terms of remittances and withdrawing money via credit cards, in addition to facing difficulties in paying school fees or renewing their passport, the statement added.

In response to students demands, Makram explained that students must fill the form accurately and promptly. The form includes all the details of students academic year, the city in which they reside, and whether they have proof of enrollment from their academic institution or not.

The form for Egyptian students in Russia is available here.

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President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi met with government officials on Sunday, directing them to ensure the availability of basic commodities and petroleum products ahead of Ramadan.

According to a statement by the Egyptian presidency, the president convened a meeting with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait, Minister of Trade and Industry Nevin Gamea, in addition to Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El-Molla to follow up on the executive steps taken to provide basic commodities in the local market.

The meeting reviewed the evidence showing these measures have had a positive impact in stabilising the average price of basic and strategic commodities in the local market in light of the global economic crisis, the statement said.

As part of the periodic and continuous monitoring of the availability of basic commodities, the president directed the government to increase strategic reserves during the coming period, especially with the approach of the holy month of Ramadan.

El-Sisi also directed the government to strengthen their efforts to control markets and tighten control over outlets, with the aim of meeting the populations need for affordable commodities ahead of the holy month, the statement added.

Egypt formed a crisis committee to confront the impacts of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis similar to the one that was formed when the coronavirus pandemic hit the country in 2020, with the aim of ensuring that food commodities are available in the local market throughout Ramadan.

Petroleum Products

In a separate statement, the spokesman of the Egyptian presidency said that El-Sisi held another meeting with El-Molla on the same day to follow up the developments in the petroleum sector nationwide, especially in the field of exploration and production of oil and natural gas.

The president urged continuing development to achieve the optimum economic benefits from Egypts oil and natural gas resources, as well as the completion of various industrial projects in the petroleum sector. This would reduce imports and provide high-quality petroleum products, as well as maximise the added value of crude oil and meet the needs of the local market, the statement added.

In this context, El-Molla presented the latest developments in exploration and production activities in the Mediterranean and the eastern and western deserts, as well as developments in regional cooperation in the country's efforts to transform into a regional energy hub.

The petroleum minister also reviewed the developments of a number of projects that aim to secure the energy needs of the local market, reduce the import gap and contribute to the states efforts to increase economic growth rates and achieve comprehensive development, according to the spokesman.

The Russian-Ukrainian war  which has caused global prices of oil and gas to rise  has led European countries to other energy resources in order to decrease dependency on Russian gas.

After achieving self-sufficiency in natural gas in 2018, Egypt has planned to use its position on Europes doorstep to become a major supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the continent, which is transitioning away from other fossil fuels. This is based on Egypts huge gas discoveries and production, which is expected to rise to 7.5 million tonnes by the end of the 2021/2022 fiscal year.

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The Saudi-led coalition launched air strikes Sunday on Yemen hours after Huthi rebels announced a three-day truce, with the UN chief condemning a surge in violence as the war enters its eighth year.

The raids targeted Sanaa, the rebel-held capital, according to Saudi Arabia's Al Ekhbariya TV, which tweeted "the start of air strikes on Huthi camps and strongholds in Sanaa" around midnight.

The attacks began shortly after the Iran-backed Huthis announced a three-day truce and offered peace talks on condition that the Saudis stop their air strikes and blockade of Yemen and remove "foreign forces".

Just a day earlier, the rebels had fired drones and missiles at 16 targets in Saudi Arabia, turning an oil plant near Jeddah's Formula One track into a raging inferno as aghast drivers looked on.

The flurry of attacks and diplomacy came as Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, on Saturday marked seven years since the Saudi-led intervention against the Huthis, who seized Sanaa in 2014.

The conflict has killed hundreds of thousands of people directly or indirectly and displaced millions, creating what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday condemned the sudden rise in hostilities.

He urged the warring parties to "immediately de-escalate" and reach a "negotiated settlement" with the help of Hans Grundberg, the UN's special envoy to Yemen.

The coalition's intervention has stopped the Huthis' advances in the south and east of the country but has been unable to push them out of the north, including Sanaa.

"Militarily, the war is now at stalemate," Elisabeth Kendall, a researcher at Oxford University, told AFP this week.

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Even those who differed with him ideologically expressed their admiration and respect for the late Egyptian economist and thinker Samir Amin

The recent passing away of the late Egyptian, Arab, African and international thinker, the political economist and activist Samir Amin was a source of sorrow for many people around the world.

This was particularly the case among those who were aware of the very important role Amin played throughout his life in raising awareness in the global South regarding the bitter realities of its relationship with the North and the negative repercussions this relationship has had for the countries and peoples of the South.

Amin was one of the most famous Egyptian figures in the rest of the world. Even those who differed with him intellectually expressed their admiration and respect for his loyalty to the objectives and ideals that he consistently lived and fought for.

Amin always sided with the deprived, the exploited and the marginalised on the global scale, in other words with the have nots. He devoted his intellectual production and political stands to these same constituencies.

I became acquainted with Samir Amin early on through his writings, but there were also three occasions on which I met him in person and witnessed his outstanding contributions in the context of national and international conferences.

The first occasion was when he was invited as a keynote speaker at the first annual conference of the Egyptian Society for Political Economy, Statistics and Legislation held after the assassination of late Egyptian president Anwar Al-Sadat.

At that time, Egypt was in the midst of a rich and diverse national dialogue regarding its future and in particular its economy. Amins participation at the conference was his first appearance in Egypt after years in which he had criticised both the regimes of former president Gamal Abdel-Nasser and Al-Sadat, sometimes for different reasons.

His lecture was particularly important as it reflected the combination of someone who had a deep knowledge of the development of Egypt over the preceding decades, of course from his own leftist/Marxist ideological standpoint, and who had made important contributions to the theory of international relations and the international economy.

Amin was one of the founders, along with German-American thinker Andre Gunder Frank and others, of the famous dependency school of development in its various versions.

Amin was particularly articulate in presenting his theory of unequal development between the global core (the North) and periphery (the South), as well as in his recommendation for the countries and peoples of the South to delink from the world capitalist order.

He was outspoken in his argument that the development of the developed countries (the North) had only been possible through the underdevelopment of the developing countries (the South), due to the continuous and systematic exploitation of the wealth and resources of the latter at the hands of the former.

This phenomenon did not come to an end with the political independence of the former colonies of the South, he argued, as the dependency created under European colonialism had been a structural one that had been pursued even after political independence.

The second occasion on which I met Amin came three years later and took place when he was an invited speaker at a conference held in 1985 by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry and the Cairo-based Afro-Asian Peoples Solidarity Organisation on the 30th anniversary of the Bandung Summit that had seen the founding of the Non-Aligned Movement.

Amin genuinely believed in the important role the Afro-Asian bloc could play in world affairs, but he said that this would only be possible if it acted as a united front based on the adoption of independent stands derived solely from the interests of the peoples of Africa and Asia and not dictated by external powers from the First World.

Later, after the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the disintegration of the Soviet bloc, Amin underlined the continued relevance of the Non-Aligned Movement and its conceptual approach, seeing non-alignment as combatting versions of globalisation that were inequitable and unfavourable to the South.

He wanted to see a new Non-Aligned Movement given the task of replacing the current version of globalisation with a new one characterised by equity and justice.

The third and last occasion on which I met Amin was at a conference organised by the Afro-Asian Peoples Solidarity Organisation in Cairo in March 1997 under the title of the Clash of Civilisations or the Dialogue of Cultures? It was a great privilege for me to be a speaker at this conference, in which Amin was the keynote speaker.

He developed a sophisticated counter-argument to the clash of civilisations thesis put forward by the late American political scientist Samuel Huntington that saw inevitable clashes between the worlds civilisations.

Amin undermined the main assumptions on which Huntington had based his views, considering the so-called clash of civilisations to be simply ideological cover to justify creating new enemies for the West (the First World) after the collapse of the former Soviet Union in order to maintain the unity of the Western capitalist camp and to divert attention away from real contradictions which Amin thought were always socio-economic ones.

Amin also saw in the idea of the clash of civilisations a new reflection of the ethnocentrism of the Western North, even as he himself always took the side of the non-Western South.

The above are examples of the great intellectual contributions made by Samir Amin to humanity at large, as well as to his country Egypt, the Arab nation and the African continent over a long and committed life consecrated to the causes he always believed in and that he fought for until the end of his life.

* The writer is a commentator.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 13 September 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Samir Amin  Egyptian internationalist

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The Russian military appears to be trying to encircle Ukrainian forces fighting in the separatist regions in the eastern part of the country, Britain's Ministry of Defense says.

Russian forces are advancing southward from the area around Kharkiv and north from Mariupol, the ministry said in an intelligence briefing released Sunday morning.

Battlefields in northern Ukraine remain ``largely static,'' with Ukrainian counterattacks hampering Russian efforts to reorganize their forces, the ministry said.

In an earlier briefing released overnight, the ministry said Russia continued to strike targets across Ukraine, including many in densely populated areas, the ministry said.

Russia is relying on ``stand-off'' missiles launched from within its own territory to reduce aircraft exposure to Ukrainian anti-aircraft fire, the ministry said. But it said limited stocks of these weapons will force Russia to ``revert to less sophisticated missiles or accepting more risk to their aircraft.''

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The head of Ukraine's Lugansk separatist region said Sunday it may hold a referendum on becoming part of Russia, after Moscow sent troops into its pro-Western neighbour.

"I think that in the near future a referendum will be held on the territory of the republic, during which the people will... express their opinion on joining the Russian Federation," Russian news agencies quoted Leonid Pasechnik as saying.

"For some reason, I am sure this will be the case," he said.

Russia launched its military action in Ukraine in late February, saying it was acting in defence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk republics in the country's east.

President Vladimir Putin had days earlier recognised the two regions as independent.

The industrial, mainly Russian-speaking regions broke from Kyiv's control in 2014 in fighting that over the next few years claimed more than 14,000 lives.

Russia that year annexed Crimea from Ukraine after a pro-Moscow leader was ousted in a popular uprising and a referendum was held in the southern region on becoming part of Russia.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused the West of cowardice as his country fights to stave off Russia's invading troops, making an exasperated plea for fighter jets and tanks to sustain a defense as the war ground into a battle of attrition.

Speaking after US President Joe Biden said in a lacerating speech that Russian President Vladimir Putin could not stay in power, words the White House immediately sought to downplay, Zelenskyy lashed out Sunday at the West's ``ping-pong about who and how should hand over jets'' and other weapons while Russian missile attacks kill and trap civilians.

``I've talked to the defenders of Mariupol today. I'm in constant contact with them. Their determination, heroism and firmness are astonishing,'' Zelenskyy said in a video address, referring to the besieged southern city that has suffered some of the war's greatest deprivations and horrors. ``If only those who have been thinking for 31 days on how to hand over dozens of jets and tanks had 1% of their courage.''

Ukraine's ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova, said on NBC's ``Meet the Press'' that her country had heard Biden ``loud and clear.''

``Now, it's all up to all of us to stop Putin while it's still local in Ukraine because this war is not only about Ukraine,`` she said, but ``an attack on democracy.''

Russia's invasion of Ukraine, now in its 32nd day, has stalled in many areas. Its aim to quickly encircle the capital, Kyiv, and force its surrender has faltered against staunch Ukrainian resistance _ bolstered by weapons from the US and other Western allies.

Britain's Defense Ministry said Russia's troops are trying to encircle Ukrainian forces directly facing the two separatist-held areas in the country's east. That would cut the bulk of Ukraine's military off from the rest of the country.

Moscow claims its focus is on wresting from Ukraine the entire eastern Donbas region, which has been partially controlled by Russia-backed separatists since 2014.

A high-ranking Russian military official said Friday that troops were being redirected to the east from other parts of the country.

The leader of one separatist-controlled area of Donbas said Sunday that he wants to hold a vote on joining Russia, words that may indicate a shift in Russia's position.

Leonid Pasechnik, the head of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic, said it plans to hold a referendum on becoming part of Russia ``in the nearest time.''

Russia has supported the separatist rebels in Luhansk and neighboring Donetsk since an insurgency erupted there shortly after Moscow annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.

In talks with Ukraine, Moscow has demanded Kyiv acknowledge the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, accused Russia of seeking to split Ukraine in two, like North and South Korea.

``The occupiers will try to pull the occupied territories into a single quasi-state structure and pit it against independent Ukraine,'' Budanov said in a statement released by the Defense Ministry. He predicted that guerrilla warfare by Ukrainians would derail such plans.

Ukraine says that to defeat Russia, the West must provide fighter jets and not just missiles and other military equipment.

A proposal to transfer Polish planes to Ukraine via the United States was scrapped amid NATO concerns about being drawn into direct fighting.

In his pointed remarks, Zelenskyy accused Western governments of being ``afraid to prevent this tragedy. Afraid to simply make a decision.''

``So, who is in charge of the Euro-Atlantic community? Is it still Moscow, thanks to its scare tactics?'' he asked. ``Our partners must step up their aid to Ukraine.''

His plea was echoed Sunday by a priest in the western city of Lviv, which was struck by rockets a day earlier. The aerial assault illustrated that Moscow, despite assertions that it intends to shift the war eastward, is willing to strike anywhere in Ukraine.

``When diplomacy doesn't work, we need military support,'' said the Rev. Yuri Vaskiv, who reported fewer parishioners in the pews of his Greek Catholic church, likely because of fear.

Referring to Putin, he said: ``This evil is from him, and we must stop it.''

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov confirmed Russia used air-launched cruise missiles to hit a fuel depot and a defense plant in Lyiv, about 45 miles (75 kilometers) from the Polish border. He said another strike with sea-launched missiles destroyed a depot in Plesetske just west of Kyiv, where Ukraine stored air defense missiles.

A chemical smell lingered in Lyiv on Sunday as firefighters trained hoses on flames and black smoke poured from oil storage tanks hit in the attack.

A security guard, Yaroslav Prokopiv, said he saw three rockets destroy two oil tanks but no one was hurt.

Russia's back-to-back airstrikes shook the city that has become a haven for an estimated 200,000 people who have fled bombarded towns and cities.

Lviv, which has largely been spared bombardment, also has been a waystation for most of the 3.8 million refugees who have left Ukraine since Russia invaded on Feb. 24.

In a dim, crowded bomb shelter under an apartment block near the first blast site, Olana Ukrainets, a 34-year-old information technology professional, said she couldn't believe she had to hide again after fleeing from the northeastern city of Kharkiv, one of the most bombarded cities.

``We were on one side of the street and saw it on the other side,'' she said. ``We saw fire. I said to my friend, `What's this?' Then we heard the sound of an explosion and glass breaking.''

In his video address, Zelenskyy angrily warned Moscow that it was sowing a deep hatred for Russia among Ukrainians.

``You are doing everything so that our people themselves leave the Russian language, because the Russian language will now be associated only with you, with your explosions and murders, your crimes,'' Zelenskyy said.

Along with the millions of people who have fled Ukraine, the invasion has driven more than 10 million people from their homes, almost one-quarter of Ukraine's population. Thousands of civilians are believed to have been killed.

While Russia's advance on Kyiv remains stalled, fighting has raged in the suburbs, and blasts from missiles fired into the city have rattled the St. Sophia Cathedral, a 1,000-year-old UNESCO world heritage site that is the heart of Ukrainian spiritual and national identity.

Vadim Kyrylenko, an engineer and conservator who is the most senior manager remaining at the church, said a strike nearby ``would be a point of no return for our landmark because it is very fragile and vulnerable.''

Pointing at the cathedral's golden domes, Kyrylenko said the cross atop the central one toppled a month before the outbreak of World War II.

``The cross on the left fell a month before this war,'' he said.

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When Russia launched its war, Hungary opened its borders for the tens of thousands of refugees escaping Ukraine. Other refugees have been left with no help in a field in Serbia.

After studying in Hungary for three years, Hasib Qarizada sought asylum there after his native Afghanistan unraveled in chaos last August. But rather than receiving refuge, Hungarian authorities whisked Qarizada over the border six months ago into neighboring Serbia, kicking him out into a country he didn't even know.

``Police just came over and handcuffed me,'' Qarizada told The Associated Press in Belgrade, the Serbian capital. ``They told me `Don't try to run away, don't try to fight with us, don't do anything stupid.'''

Left all alone in a field in Serbia with no one in sight for miles, the 25-year-old Qarizada had no idea where he was, where to go or what to do.

``I was a student, and they just gave my life a totally different twist,'' he said. ``They didn't give me a chance to grab my clothes, my (phone) charger or my laptop or anything important that I would need to travel.''

He told the AP he ``had no idea where Serbia was, what language they speak, what kind of culture they have.''

Hungarian police haven't immediately responded to AP's request for a comment on Qarizada's expulsion in September.

While Hungary is notorious for how its treats migrants fleeing wars and poverty, Qarizada's case points to a particularly sinister practice of sending people into a third country they hadn't come from.

Rights activists in the region registered the first such case back in 2017, when a 16-year-old Kurd from Iraq was deported into Serbia from Hungary though he had initially entered Hungary from Romania and managed to reach Austria before he was sent back.

More recently, a woman from Cameroon who entered Hungary from Romania was sent to Serbia last December. Another African woman who flew in from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, a year ago also ended up in a field in Serbia.

``This is something that unfortunately has become normal, regular and something which cannot be considered as unusual,'' Serbian rights lawyer Nikola Kovacevic said.

Qarizada's expulsion illustrates the stark differences in the treatment of people from Ukraine and those from non-European war zones under right-wing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Similarly, Croatia _ another EU country that has been accused off using violence against migrants _ has said Ukrainians can come and stay.

Activists have applauded the shift while also warning of discrimination against refugees and migrants from the Middle East and Africa, who for years have faced perils and pushbacks at the borders of Hungary, Croatia and other European nations.

``For those of us following these issues, it is hard to miss the stark contrast of the last few weeks with Europe's harsh response to people fleeing other wars and crises,'' said Judith Sunderland of Human Rights Watch. ``A staggering number of people from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East die every year attempting to reach Europe.''

Zsolt Szekeres from the Hungarian Helsinki Committee noted that ``the (Hungarian) government is trying their best to explain now why Ukrainians are good asylum-seekers and others are bad migrants.``

With Hungary's April 3 election approaching, government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs dismissed as ``fake news'' media reports that authorities were discriminating even among the refugees arriving from Ukraine.

Border pushbacks, which are illegal under international law, means that people are sent from one country to another without consideration of their individual circumstances.

When, like Qarizada, they are expelled to a country they hadn't come from, ``the severity of the violation is higher,'' said Kovacevic, the Serbian lawyer.

Qarizada's deportation was even more drastic as he hadn't arrived in Hungary along any illegal migration route. A self-financed student who shared an apartment and had an established life in Budapest, Qarizada sought asylum because the turmoil in Afghanistan meant his family could no longer pay his university fees and therefore he couldn't renew his residence permit.

In rejecting his asylum application, activists say, Hungarian authorities disregarded the fact that Qarizada's homeland of Afghanistan couldn't be considered safe as the Taliban returned to power.

Qarizada told the AP that his family had connections with Afghanistan's pre-Taliban government and were in danger of retribution. ``They hardly go outside,'' he said.

Helsinki Committee lawyers have taken Qarizada's case both to the courts in Hungary and the European Court of Human Rights, arguing that his unlawful expulsion runs against the European Convention of Human Rights, Szekeres said.

A Hungarian court has ruled in favor of Qarizada, but the lawyers are now waging another legal battle to force Hungarian authorities to implement the decision and allow him to come back, he added.

``He applied for asylum, he was staying here, and he was in need of protection, and he was pushed out in a summary manner,'' Szekeres insisted. ``He was never given the possibility or option to explain his situation.''

For Qarizada, the days after the expulsion were the worst of his life.

Abandoned in Serbia, he walked for hours, finally reaching a gas station where a woman let him charge his phone and directed him toward the nearest asylum center. The facility was full so he slept outside for four nights.

``I felt very horrible ... because I was a normal student. I was studying, I was going to classes. I had my own friends. I had my own life,'' he said. ``I wasn't doing anything bad.''

Karox Pishtewan, the Kurdish minor deported into Serbia in 2017 and who was granted asylum there, also told the AP that Hungarian police ``just opened the gate and told us to go.''

``It was July and everything was green,'' he recalled. ``I was quite shocked. We hadn't slept for three days and they just kicked us out there. I had no idea where I was and what was happening.''

Szekeres said the acceptance of refugees from Ukraine shows that solidarity with people in need has remained strong among ordinary Hungarian people despite the government's years-long anti-immigration agenda.

``There is no difference between Ukrainian parents fleeing with their children and Afghan parents fleeing with their children,'' he said. ``This is a good reminder for everyone that asylum-seekers, no matter where they come from, need protection.''

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The International Committee of the Red Cross has denied accusations that it helped organise or carry out forced evacuations of Ukrainians to Russia.

"The ICRC does not ever help organize or carry out forced evacuations. This applies everywhere we work. We would not support any operation that would go against people's will and our principles," the Geneva-based humanitarian organisation said in a statement published late Saturday.

The ICRC statement, headlined "Addressing misinformation about ICRC's activities", did not specify what had given rise to the strong denial, saying only "over the past days, false information about the ICRC has been circulated that we must address".

However, the statement appears to be a response to accusations by Roman Rukomeda, a Ukrainian political analyst who spoke to the Euractiv online media on Saturday.

In those comments, Rukomeda said "there is evidence of strange behaviour by the International Committee of the Red Cross and its head, who announced the decision to open an office in Russian Rostov to assist Russian terrorists in the illegal deportation of Ukrainian citizens".

The ICRC warned that such "false information" could have a major impact on people affected by the conflict in Ukraine.

"This misinformation is also putting at risk Red Cross staff and volunteers on the ground and could jeopardize our access to people in need of urgent aid," the statement added.

The ICRC did say that it had been involved in two evacuation operations for Ukrainian people, on March 15 and March 18 when they "facilitated the voluntary safe passage of civilians" out of the northeastern city of Sumy.

"On both occasions people willingly took buses leading them to another Ukrainian city, Lubny," further from the Russian border, the ICRC said.

The Russian army has been accused of forcing thousands of Ukrainian civilians fleeing in particular the city of Mariupol, which has been under siege and relentless shelling for several weeks, to evacuate to Russia.

On Friday, Matilda Bogner, the UN rights office's representative in Ukraine, said "we are looking at these accusations very carefully" but had not yet been able to verify them.

"Clearly, civilians have left Mariupol... and other places in the areas controlled by pro-Russian armed groups and a number of them are continuing their journey to Russia, but we have not been able to verify whether these are forced movements or not," she told reporters.

ICRC president Peter Maurer has recently travelled to Russia and Ukraine, seeking to facilitate the work of his organisation during the conflict.

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By Miya Tanaka, KYODO NEWS - Mar 27, 2022 - 10:02 | All, World

U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday slammed Russian President Vladimir Putin following the invasion of Ukraine, while rallying countries to support Kyiv in what he believes to be part of a larger fight between democracies and autocracies.

"We must commit now to be in this fight for the long haul. We must remain unified today and tomorrow and the day after, and for the years and decades to come," Biden said in a speech in Warsaw that wrapped up his four days in Europe to affirm with leaders of the West their unity in responding to Russia's aggression.

"Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia -- for free people refuse to live in a world of hopelessness and darkness," Biden said. Referring to Putin, he added, "For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power."

A White House official immediately denied that Biden's remarks were meant to be a call for regime change, which could further add to tension between Washington and Moscow.

"The president's point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region," the official said.

Biden's trip to Belgium and Poland came exactly one month after Russia began its military campaign against its neighboring country where cities have been reduced to rubble, the civilian death toll continues to rise and the humanitarian crisis has forced millions to flee.

In his nearly 30-minute speech at the Warsaw Royal Castle in Poland, Biden called the war a "strategic failure" for Moscow, which is facing stiff resistance from the people in Ukraine and a more united West that is beefing up defense against Russian threat and is unleashing massive sanctions to cripple the Russian economy.

"In fact, Russia has managed to cause something I'm sure he never intended," Biden said. "The democracies of the world are revitalized with purpose and unity found in months that we'd once taken years to accomplish."

From the beginning of his administration, Biden has been rallying democracies around the world to counter autocracies such as China and Russia. Support for Ukraine has also come from some key U.S. allies in the Asia-Pacific, such as Japan that believes any tolerance of a change in the status quo could embolden Beijing, which has been increasing its assertiveness in the region.

Biden said Saturday that the fight to defend freedom could be costly, but that it is "a price we have to pay" because "the darkness that drives autocracy is ultimately no match for the flame of liberty that lights the souls of free people everywhere."

Russia began its military attack against Ukraine on Feb. 24 after asserting that its security was under threat from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's eastward expansion and the possibility of Ukraine joining the security alliance.

Putin has also insisted that he is carrying out a "special military operation" to "demilitarize and denazify" Ukraine, even though Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a Jew whose relatives were victim of the Nazi Holocaust. The United States and its allies have labeled Putin's war as unjustified and unprovoked.

The Biden administration has maintained it will not send American troops in Ukraine, warning that being drawn into a direct conflict with nuclear-armed Russia would result in "World War III."

But the United States, along with other NATO member countries, has provided security assistance to Kyiv so that it can help defend itself. Ukraine has also received humanitarian assistance from the United States and other countries.

Iruna Manachin, a 38-year-old mother of three children who fled from Ukraine to adjacent Poland, said she had no idea when she can return home, but that her hope is that the war is "stopped."

Poland is a NATO member seen at the forefront of defense efforts to repel any further Russian invasion beyond Ukraine. It has already accepted over 2 million of the some 3.8 million who have fled Ukraine, according to data by a U.N. refugee agency.

The Biden administration, meanwhile, has reiterated the U.S. commitment to NATO's collective defense agreement, which means that a Russian attack of any NATO member country could trigger a direct U.S. involvement.

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KYODO NEWS - Mar 27, 2022 - 18:59 | All, Japan

Russia's invasion of Ukraine threatens to shake the very foundation of international order and could potentially lead the world to "the greatest crisis" since World War II, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Sunday.

Japan would not rule out any options to fundamentally strengthen its defense capabilities, as the government aims to revise the National Security Strategy, a long-term guideline, by the end of the year, and two other key documents on its defense buildup, Kishida said in a speech at a graduation ceremony of the National Defense Academy.

Japan is resolved to support Ukraine, as its actions, along with other countries, will determine the future state of the international community, as Russia's attacks on the Eastern European country drag on, he said.

Russia's unilateral attack on Ukraine could embolden China to attack Taiwan, which Beijing views as a renegade province awaiting reunification by force if necessary, diplomatic and defense experts say.

"A unilateral change of the status quo by force must never be allowed in the Indo-Pacific, especially in East Asia," the premier said at the ceremony in Yokosuka, southwest of Tokyo.

"The security environment surrounding our country is becoming markedly more serious," given increasingly bold attempts by China in recent years to unilaterally change the status quo in the East and South China seas, as well as successive ballistic missile launches by North Korea, Kishida said.

He stressed the importance of strengthening cooperation between the Self-Defense Forces and the Japan Coast Guard, as China asserts sovereignty over the Senkaku Islands, a group of uninhabited islets administrated by Japan in the East China Sea frequently sending ships nearby to project its power.

At Sunday's ceremony, Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said that "anyone can see that the area around Japan and the world are entering turbulent times."

As part of COVID-19 measures, the ceremony was scaled down with diplomas only conferred to representatives at the venue.

Excluding foreign students, the academy saw 479 students graduating this year, of which 64 were female.

Also graduating were 22 foreign students from Cambodia, Mongolia, the Philippines, Thailand, East Timor, Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar.

A total of 72 students withdrew, an increase of 44 from last year.

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A crane truck lifts a container at the Hong Leng Huor Dry Port on the western suburb of Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Jan. 13, 2022. (Photo by Phearum/Xinhua)

To Cambodia, RCEP constitutes a modern legal platform that inspires the country to opt for more liberalized free trade agreements, using RCEP as a liberalization model or threshold, said Cambodian Commerce Minister Pan Sorasak.

PHNOM PENH, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) free trade deal is a driver for regional economic recovery during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, Cambodian Commerce Minister Pan Sorasak said on Monday.

Signed on Nov. 15, 2020 and entered into force on Jan. 1, 2022, RCEP is a mega trade agreement among 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its five major trade partners, namely China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the workshop on "RCEP: Implications, Challenges, and Future Growth of East Asia and ASEAN" held in a hybrid format, Sorasak said it is expected that RCEP will play an important role in regional integration and economic recovery during and after the pandemic.

"Indeed, RCEP is, for ASEAN and East Asia in particular, not just an agreement," he said. "It is a driver for regional economic recoveries during and post COVID-19 and also a rescuable instrument amid the rise of global uncertainties."

Staff members unload cargos from a plane at the Phnom Penh International Airport in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Dec. 31, 2021. (Photo by Van Pov/Xinhua)

Sorasak said RCEP gives impetus for not only economic and trade strengthening, but also a room for political harmony among actors involved.

"To Cambodia, the agreement constitutes a modern legal platform that inspires the country to opt for more liberalized free trade agreements, using RCEP as a liberalization model or threshold," he said.

"This agreement is also a high-time intervention for Cambodia's quest in its Least Developed Country graduation by likely 2028 and the country's planned endeavor to achieve the higher-middle income and high-income statuses by 2030 and 2050, respectively," he added.

Garment workers make clothes at a factory in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Dec. 17, 2021. (Xinhua/Wu Changwei)

Being the grand, largest trade bloc globally, RCEP has a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of 26.2 trillion U.S. dollars, representing around 30 percent of global GDP, 28 percent of global trade, and 32.5 percent of global investment, the minister said.

He added that for Cambodia, the kingdom is poised to gain an increase by 7.3 percent in export, 23.4 percent in investment, and 2 percent in its GDP, from implementing this agreement following its effect since Jan. 1, 2022.

"These are not to mention other positive externalities, including the opportunities to address the pandemic recovery and post-pandemic structural transformation through employment effects, inducement in investment, reducing the poverty, and promoting more social inclusive benefit from this agreement in aggregate term," Sorasak said.

The workshop was jointly organized by the Ministry of Commerce's Trade Training and Research Institute and the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia. 
BISHKEK, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Kyrgyzstan has extradited to Uzbekistan a leader of one cell of the Hizb ut-Tahrir religious extremist organization, the press service of the State Committee for National Security of Kyrgyzstan reported Saturday.

The report said that the detainee is the regional head of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Uzbekistan, who actively carried out underground activities in southern Kyrgyzstan and the border regions of Uzbekistan.

The detainee had been on the official wanted list in Uzbekistan for more than 10 years and tried to hide in Kyrgyzstan, according to the report. 
Combo photo shows the Saladin Citadel (rear) before (top) and during the Earth Hour in Cairo, Egypt, on March 26, 2022. Egypt marked the annual global on Saturday evening by turning off the lights of a number of landmarks across the country for 60 minutes, including Saladin Citadel in the capital Cairo. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa)

Combo photo shows the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs building (C) before (top) and during the Earth Hour in Cairo, Egypt, on March 26, 2022. Egypt marked the annual global Earth Hour on Saturday evening by turning off the lights of a number of landmarks across the country for 60 minutes, including Saladin Citadel in the capital Cairo. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa)

Environmental advocates hold a program at Rizal Park during the annual Earth Hour in Manila, the Philippines on March 26, 2022. (Xinhua/Rouelle Umali)

Environmental advocates and bicycle enthusiasts are seen at Rizal Park during the annual Earth Hour in Manila, the Philippines on March 26, 2022. (Xinhua/Rouelle Umali)

The Romanian Athenaeum concert hall is seen without lights on the facade during the Earth Hour in Bucharest, Romania, on March 26, 2022. (Photo by Cristian Cristel/Xinhua)

The Romanian Parliament building is seen without lights on the facade during the Earth Hour in Bucharest, Romania, on March 26, 2022. (Photo by Cristian Cristel/Xinhua)

Combo photo shows the Schonbrunn Palace before (top) and during the Earth Hour in Vienna, Austria, March 26, 2022. (Photo by Georges Schneider/Xinhua)

The Brussels Town Hall with lights off is seen during the Earth Hour event at the Grand Place in Brussels, Belgium, on March 26, 2022. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

The Brussels Town Hall with lights off is seen during the Earth Hour event at the Grand Place in Brussels, Belgium, on March 26, 2022. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

Combo photo shows the building of European Central Bank headquarters before (L) and after lights are dimmed during the Earth Hour event in Frankfurt, Germany, March 26, 2022. (Photo by Armando Babani/Xinhua)

Combo photo shows the finance and banking district before (top) and after lights are dimmed during the Earth Hour event in Frankfurt, Germany, March 26, 2022. (Photo by Armando Babani/Xinhua)

Combo photo shows buildings before (top) and during the Earth Hour in Singapore, March 26, 2022. (Photo by Then Chih Wey/Xinhua)

Combo photo shows the Tokyo Tower before (top) and during the Earth Hour in Tokyo, Japan, March 26, 2022. (Xinhua/Zhang Xiaoyu)

Combo photo shows the Tokyo Station before (top) and during the Earth Hour in Tokyo, Japan, March 26, 2022. (Photo by Sun Jialin/Xinhua)

Combo photo shows the Petronas Twin Towers and its nearby buildings before (top) and during Earth Hour in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on March 26, 2022. (Photo by Chong Voon Chung/Xinhua)

Combo photo shows the Petronas Twin Towers and its nearby buildings before (top) and during Earth Hour in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on March 26, 2022. (Photo by Chong Voon Chung/Xinhua)

Combo photo shows the Petronas Twin Towers and its nearby buildings before (top) and during Earth Hour in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on March 26, 2022. (Photo by Chong Voon Chung/Xinhua)

Combo photo shows the Petronas Twin Towers and its nearby buildings before (top) and during Earth Hour in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on March 26, 2022. (Photo by Chong Voon Chung/Xinhua)
* Experts said China's conspicuous success in alleviating poverty could be of valuable guidance for Africa in its fight against poverty and pursuit of sustainable development.

* "Give people fish, and you feed them for a day. Teach them how to fish, and you feed them for a lifetime." This is an old Chinese saying which best captures the essence of China's assistance to African countries.

* China's initiative to build a community with a shared future for mankind has the potential to significantly reduce poverty in Africa and elsewhere across the developing world

NAIROBI, March 27 (Xinhua) -- In spite of abundant resources, a large population and a vast market, Africa is still the world's least developed continent, beset by continuous poverty and hunger.

Sharing a similar underdeveloped past with Africa, China achieved its ambitious goal of eliminating extreme poverty in 2020, improving the living standards of hundreds of millions of people through decades of development.

Experts said China's conspicuous success in alleviating poverty could be of valuable guidance for Africa in its fight against poverty and pursuit of sustainable development.

Chinese experts work in a paddy field in the demonstration area of Nariou village in Burkina Faso, July 13, 2021. (Xinhua)

CHINESE MODEL OF ENDING POVERTY

In sub-Saharan Africa, most people live on less than 1.9 U.S. dollars a day, the World Bank's extreme-poverty benchmark.

According to the United Nations (UN), because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy of sub-Saharan Africa is expected to see serious deterioration, with an additional 26 million people living below the international poverty line.

Cavince Adhere, a Kenyan international relations expert, said that China's success in alleviating rural poverty through leveraging technology-led farming methods is an inspiration to Kenya and other developing countries.

"Contrary to many countries where development is often associated with investments in cities and other urban centers, China prioritized rural areas in its poverty reduction efforts where agriculture played a major role," Adhere said in a recent commentary.

He said that China has become the first developing country to achieve the first of the UN's 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs), adding that modern farming has hastened the realization of that feat.

"China's efforts offer good insights for Kenya's socio-economic transformation," he said.

Paul Zilungisele Tembe, a researcher at the University of South Africa's Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute, said China's experience is a model to the world about what is possible when there is decisive leadership, uninterrupted legal and policy continuity, bottom-up people's empowerment, solid intergovernmental relations and private sector partnerships, and leveraging contextual circumstances including geography, politics, technology.

All these factors have coalesced and translated into "poverty eradication with Chinese characteristics," said the expert, adding that "it is not inconceivable for South Africa to replicate the Chinese model of ending poverty in all its forms."

A Chinese expert helps locals in mechanized harvesting of rice in the demonstration area of Nariou village in Burkina Faso, Oct. 8, 2021. (Xinhua)

HELP FROM CHINA

"Give people fish, and you feed them for a day. Teach them how to fish, and you feed them for a lifetime." This is an old Chinese saying which best captures the essence of China's assistance to African countries.

In Burkina Faso, national rice production met only 30 percent of the population's consumption needs in 2018.

"Based on the actual needs of the Burkina Faso people, our mission is to develop rice cultivation, increase rice production, while expanding the cultivation area and promoting new technologies," said Hu Yuzhou, head of a Chinese agricultural technical assistance team in the country.

Chinese experts not only provide seeds, fertilizers and agricultural machinery, but also participate in the whole farming process.

According to Gaoussou Sanou, national coordinator of the Burkina Faso-China agricultural cooperation program, thanks to China's help, the rice output in the demonstration area of Nariou village in 2021 reached 5-6 tons per hectare, which is two to three times that of the previous year, and the quality of rice has also been significantly improved.

In Guinea-Bissau, over the past three years, experts of the 11th Chinese agri-technical team to the country, based in 13 rice production areas in the three provinces of Bafata, Gabu and Oio, have carried out "technology plus material" aid to this west-African country and achieved remarkable results.

In Madagascar, the average yield of hybrid rice produced with Chinese technologies is two to three times more than that of local ones.

Photo shows a China-aid milling plant in Lusaka, Zambia, on March 9, 2022. (Photo by Martin Mbangweta/Xinhua)

In Zambia, China-funded milling plants reduced the price of mealie meal used in making Zambia's staple food Nshima.

In Tanzania, the government has used funds from China to develop the Juncao technology for livestock fodder and mushroom production.

"The Juncao technology will increase mushroom production and consumption which will contribute to food security in the country," Tanzanian Minister for Livestock and Fisheries Mashimba Ndaki has said.

Melaku Mulualem, a senior international relations and diplomacy researcher at Ethiopia's Institute of Strategic Affairs, emphasized the need for African countries to make full use of China's technology transfer and capacity building support to Africa as a springboard to replicate its success in poverty alleviation.

Mulualem said Africa and the rest of the least developed countries should also learn from China about how to tap its human resource potential.

"Especially for least developed countries, high population can be a curse; but for China, it is an opportunity, because they are using the brain and hands of the people to innovate and produce new things," said Mulualem.

During the 8th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation held in late November 2021, China announced nine programs to strengthen China-Africa cooperation in such fields as poverty reduction, agricultural development and digital innovation.

Photo shows products made by a China-aid milling plant in Lusaka, Zambia, on March 9, 2022. (Photo by Martin Mbangweta/Xinhua)

A SHARED FUTURE

Commending China's poverty alleviation endeavors, the African Union (AU) Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture Josefa Sacko said Africa should replicate China's success in reducing poverty, with particular emphasis on rural development.

"I had the opportunity to go to China and I saw the way they transform the rural areas into urban areas," said the commissioner.

"The Chinese practice in poverty reduction shows that high and sustained inclusive development is critical to reducing poverty," said the AU Commissioner for Trade and Industry Albert Muchanga, adding that he believes that poverty reduction in Africa also requires the same strong political commitment and will as China has demonstrated.

According to Muchanga, one of the key elements that African countries can learn from China's extraordinary experience in ending extreme poverty is the establishment of township industries where poverty was most pronounced.

Chinese experts help locals in mechanized harvesting of rice in the demonstration area of Nariou village in Burkina Faso, Oct. 8, 2021. (Xinhua)

Muchanga highlighted the AU's keen intent to partner with China in realizing the targeted average annual growth of over 7 percent set by the AU's Agenda 2063, noting that it is also necessary to learn from China's sustainable eco-friendly development endeavors.

"Sustainable development simply means development without compromising the environment. When China comes to the second position in global economy, it is not by compromising the environment. So, the experience of China is helpful for Africa to alleviate poverty and drought," Muchanga stressed.

China's initiative to build a community with a shared future for mankind has the potential to significantly reduce poverty in Africa and elsewhere across the developing world, Mulualem said.

"Shared future means to think about the people of the world at large," said Mulualem, adding that "Africa can also benefit from this shared future vision." (Video reporters: Liu Chang, Xie Hao, Nurdin Pallangyo, Wang Ping, Addis Zenebe, Zhang Gaiping, Patrick Onen, Lu Jicheng, and Wang Zizheng; Video editors: Liu Yuting, Cao Ying, and Zhao Xiaoqing.)
Embargoed till 3 p.m. Wednesday, March 23, 2022

In the wake of alarming developments in India, senior journalists and media persons from all over India, have issued this Collective Appeal to all Constitutional Institutions in India. We request you to give it the widest possible coverage on media and social media platforms.

The Names of all Signatories are listed below

In the Face of Orchestrated Hatred, Silence Is Not an Option

An Appeal to Indias Constitutional Institutions

As journalists and media persons from all over India, we make this Appeal to all Indian institutions to step in and uphold their constitutional mandate in the wake of open calls from various quarters for attacks on Indias religious minorities, especially Muslims.

The concerted amplification of hatred has been growing over the past years and months, as has the attendant advocacy of violence. Sometimes, the occasion is an election, at other times it is a political gathering, a so-called dharam sansad, or a controversy over clothing. or even the screening of a movie.

These calls for violence  which have been widely reported in the media  have been met with a cold and calculated silence from the countrys top leaders. Months before, we saw systematic hate being propagated against Muslims under the pretext of Covid-19, including calls by legislators for their socio-economic boycott. Disturbingly, the term corona jihad was fabricated and amplified by sections of the media establishment.

Calls for violence or the socio-economic boycott of a community clearly do not enjoy the constitutional protection of free speech. And yet, the political executive  both at the level of the Union and in several States  appears unwilling to discharge its constitutional obligation to act. The police either take no cognisance of those inciting anti-minority violence or register cases under disproportionately mild sections, which strengthens the perception that such offenders are above the law.

Against this backdrop, the President of India, the Chief Justices and other Judges of the Supreme Court of India and the various High Courts, the Election Commission of India, and other constitutionally provisioned and statutory bodies are constitutionally obliged to ensure that these calls for violence do not translate into something unimaginably worse. Since sections of the media have also allowed themselves to become conduits for hate speech, the Press Council of India, the News Broadcasters & Digital Association, unions and associations of working journalists, and all media-related bodies need to respond urgently to the crisis at hand.

Since December 2021, well-synchronised calls for the annihilation of Muslims have been made, beginning with a religious meet in Haridwar that month. Muslim women and girls have been systematically targeted in 2021 and 2022 through social media platforms, including the pernicious Bulli Bai App. The ugly controversy over the hijab in Karnataka has resulted in Muslim women in different parts of India being harassed and humiliated.

During the election campaign of February and March 2022, we saw the repeated appeal to divisive hatred and the stigmatising of Muslims and other minorities, with star campaigners from the ruling party unashamedly breaking the law to seek votes in the name of religion. The Election Commission of India, which is statutorily bound to ensure that such practices do not corrode the integrity of elections, has not shown the required autonomy and independence from the political executive to act.

Most recently, the screening of The Kashmir Files  a film that cynically exploits the suffering and tragedy of the Kashmiri Pandits by using their plight as a pretext for the promotion of hatred against Muslims  has seen orchestrated attempts inside and outside movie halls to incite anti-Muslim sentiment. Attempts have been made from the highest levels of government to stifle fully justified criticism of the film and of the violent reaction it is generating by claiming there is a conspiracy afoot to discredit it.

When all these events are taken together, it is clear that a dangerous hysteria is being built up countrywide to push the idea that "Hinduism is in danger" and to portray Muslim Indians as a threat to Hindu Indians and to India itself. Only prompt and effective action by our constitutional, statutory, and democratic institutions can challenge, contain, and stop this disturbing trend.

India today stands at a dangerous place, with the founding values of our secular, democratic, and republican Constitution coming under flagrant assault from prejudiced ideas, acts of prejudice, discrimination, and violent incidents, all planned and orchestrated as part of an anti-constitutional political project. That we have seen elected officials and others who have sworn an oath under the Constitution amplifying some of these multiple and connected instances of orchestrated hate through acts of commission and omission, with sections of the media assisting this project, makes the situation even more urgent.

That is why it is both urgent and crucial that Indias constitutional institutions, and especially the President, the higher judiciary, and the Election Commission, discharge their mandate under our Constitution and that the media perform their responsibility to the people of India by asserting their independence and speaking truth to power.

N. Ram, former Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu & Director, The Hindu Publishing Group

Mrinal Pande, Senior Journalist and Writer

R. Rajagopal, Editor, The Telegraph

Vinod Jose, Executive Editor, Caravan

R Vijayasankar, Editor, Frontline

Q. W. Naqvi, Chairman & MD, Satya Hindi

Ashutosh, Editorial Director, Satya Hindi

Siddharth Vardarajan, Founder Editor, The Wire

Siddharth Bhatia, Founder Editor, The Wire

MK Venu, Founder Editor, The Wire

Aziz Tankarvi, Publisher, Gujarat Today

Ravindra Ambekar, Director, MaxMaharashtra

R.K. Radhakrishnan, Senior Journalist

Deepal Trivedi, Founder Editor: Vibes of India, Gujarat

Hasan Kamal, Senior Journalist & Columnist, Inquilab

Teesta Setalvad, Co-Editor, Sabrangindia

Javed Anand, Co-Editor, Sabrangindia

Pradip Phanjoubam, Editor, Imphal Review of Arts and Politics

Anuradha Bhasin, Executive Editor, Kashmir Times

Kalpana Sharma, Independent Journalist

Aunindyo Chakravarty, Independent journalist

Saba Naqvi, Independent Journalist

Dhanya Rajendran, Editor in Chief, The News Minute

Shabir Ahmed, Senior News Editor, The News Minute

Anirban Roy, Editor, Northeast Now, Guwahati

Dhiren A. Sadokpam, Editor-in-Chief,The Frontier, Manipur

Tongam Rina, Journalist, Arunachal Pradesh

Monalisa Changkija, Editor, Nagaland Page
A bridge crane operates at Guoyuan Port in Chongqing, southwest China, Feb. 19, 2022. (Xinhua/Tang Yi)

CHONGQING, March 27 (Xinhua) -- A freight train left Guoyuan Port in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality on Saturday for Vietnam's capital Hanoi, marking the launch of a new freight train route between China and Vietnam.

The route, a part of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, is expected to further facilitate trade between western China and Southeast Asia.

All the products loaded in the train -- 43 containers of engines, tires, printing paper and others -- were produced in Chongqing, with a total worth of more than 3.9 million U.S. dollars.

Previously, most of the goods from Chongqing and neighboring Sichuan Province to Vietnam were transported by water via Shanghai and other ports, which takes more than 20 days.

The new route shortens the transport time from Chongqing to Vietnam to 4 to 5 days. It is not only time- and labor-saving, but also safer and more efficient.

The New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor is a trade and logistics passage jointly built by Singapore and provincial-level regions of western China. Chongqing Municipality is the center of operation for the corridor. 
A woman (1st L) casts her ballot at a polling station in Harare, Zimbabwe, on March 26, 2022. Zimbabwe held a crucial one-day parliamentary and local government by-election on Saturday which was characterized by a low voter turnout in many constituencies. (Photo by Shaun Jusa/Xinhua)

HARARE, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe held a crucial one-day parliamentary and local government by-election on Saturday which was characterized by a low voter turnout in many constituencies.

The by-elections, which had been set aside due to the COVID-19 pandemic, were to choose parliamentary and local government representatives in 28 parliamentary constituencies and 122 local government jurisdictions across the country.

Most constituents fell vacant when opposition lawmakers were recalled in a battle over the control of the country's largest opposition party, the MDC-T.

Polling in the by-elections, in which 16 political parties were contesting, opened at 7 am and were closed by 7 pm.

In the capital Harare, where 16 parliamentary seats were up for grabs, the voter turnout was low.

"People, especially the youths, are not coming to vote," an official from the national elections authority, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), told state news agency NewZiana.

No incidents of violence were reported by mid-day, with ZEC only reporting minor infringements of the electoral act by voters who were taking pictures of their cast votes.

Zimbabwe Republic Police spokesperson Paul Nyathi said no report of violence had been made to law enforcement agencies by mid-day.

"So we have not received reports of violence, intimidation or threats so far," said Nyathi.

The polls are seen as a rehearsal for next year's harmonized elections.

The major contestants, the ruling ZANU-PF party led by President Emmerson Mnangagwa will face off against the newly formed main opposition, the Citizens' Coalition for Change (CCC) led by Nelson Chamisa.

ZANU-PF already controls parliament with a two-thirds majority after winning 145 seats from the available 210 seats in the August 2018 elections. 

People queue up to vote at a polling station in Harare, Zimbabwe, on March 26, 2022. Zimbabwe held a crucial one-day parliamentary and local government by-election on Saturday which was characterized by a low voter turnout in many constituencies. (Photo by Shaun Jusa/Xinhua)

A staff member works at a polling station in Harare, Zimbabwe, on March 26, 2022. Zimbabwe held a crucial one-day parliamentary and local government by-election on Saturday which was characterized by a low voter turnout in many constituencies. (Photo by Shaun Jusa/Xinhua)

A staff member checks body temperature of a voter at a polling station in Harare, Zimbabwe, on March 26, 2022. Zimbabwe held a crucial one-day parliamentary and local government by-election on Saturday which was characterized by a low voter turnout in many constituencies. (Photo by Shaun Jusa/Xinhua)

A man casts his ballot at a polling station in Harare, Zimbabwe, on March 26, 2022. Zimbabwe held a crucial one-day parliamentary and local government by-election on Saturday which was characterized by a low voter turnout in many constituencies. (Photo by Shaun Jusa/Xinhua)
HANOI, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam recorded 91,916 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, according to its Ministry of Health.

The new infections, logged in 61 localities nationwide, were all domestically transmitted.

Vietnamese capital Hanoi remained the epidemic hotspot with 10,252 new cases on Sunday, followed by the northern Bac Giang province with 3,997 cases and the northern Yen Bai province with 3,977 cases.

The newly reported infections brought the total tally to 9,011,473, with 42,306 deaths. Nationwide, 5,351,978 COVID-19 patients, or 59 percent of the infections, have so far recovered.

More than 205 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in the Southeast Asian country, including 187.9 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 Sunday, it has registered over 9 million locally transmitted COVID-19 cases since the start of the current wave in April 2021, said the health ministry. 
BEIJING, March 27 (Xinhua) -- The relations between Russia and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the past 30 years have experienced a downward spiral from honeymoon to spat, from detente to bickering, and from new cold war to quasi-hot war, an expert has told Xinhua recently.

The dramatic change in their relations is not just the epitome of the drastic shifts in Russia's identity orientation and foreign policy, but of expanding American clout over former Warsaw Pact countries in the post-Cold War era, said Kang Jie, an associate research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies.

Thirty years ago, a newly independent Russia tried to seek NATO membership, but was met by the George H.W. Bush administration's promise of not one inch eastward of NATO expansion.

Despite no direct engagement, Russia is now in an all but hot war with NATO amid its military conflict with Ukraine, Kang said.

FANTASIES (1991-1993)

Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, then Russian leader Boris Yeltsin once told the United States and NATO that cooperation with the only Western military alliance was an integral part of Russian security, and called NATO membership a "long-term political aim" of Russia.

Russia followed a liberal internationalism after its independence. Then Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev wrote in NATO Review, the alliance's official magazine, that "we see NATO nations as our natural friends and in future as allies."

Then U.S. President George H.W. Bush made repeated statements that Russia would be granted entry into NATO as long as it undertook reforms.

CRACKS (1994-1998)

That NATO started eastward enlargement dented Russia's fantasies about the West, Kang noted. From late 1993, the Clinton administration began to push NATO eastward in order to compete with the Republicans, curry favor with the domestic military-industrial complex, and win over Polish and Czech American voters.

The NATO foreign ministers' meeting announced an expansion roadmap without prior consultations with Russia, a move that infuriated Yeltsin.

In 1995, an expert panel appointed by Yeltsin proposed two options for NATO expansion: either NATO should give Russia membership, or NATO should be placed under the authority of an expanded United Nations-led Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), in which Russia would have the right of veto.

In recent years, the Russian side has repeatedly mentioned that NATO has reneged on its "no eastward expansion commitment." In February 1990, when then U.S. Secretary of State James Baker visited the Soviet Union to negotiate the reunification of Germany, he proposed to then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that the United States and NATO would guarantee that NATO jurisdiction and military presence would not move an inch to the east after the reunification of Germany.

In Russia's view, "no eastward expansion" certainly includes the Eastern European countries east of then East Germany, so it was equivalent to the U.S. commitment of NATO not expanding eastward. But in the United States' view, this commitment was only aimed at the reunification of Germany, and the issue of eastward enlargement was not on the agenda of all parties at that time, so the commitment does not apply to Eastern Europe.

CRISIS AND HONEYMOON (1999-2005)

The Balkans is the first wrestling arena between Russia and NATO, said the expert. In March 1999, despite repeated warnings from Russia, NATO flagrantly launched full-scale air strikes against Yugoslavia. In April that year, despite Russia's opposition, NATO issued a new strategic concept with emphasis on "out-of-area operations," marking the expansion of NATO's military operations from collective defense to external power projection, he noted.

In response, Russia immediately froze all relations with NATO and launched the biggest military exercise, Zapad-99, since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In October 1999, Russia released a new version of its military doctrine in advance, stressing for the first time that external military invasion was the main threat.

In fact, the Kosovo crisis did not change Russia's pragmatic attitude in cooperating with NATO. In August 1999, then Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that Russia should and will integrate itself into the civilized world, noting that his country would cooperate with NATO.

The 9/11 attacks in 2001 became an opportunity to warm up the relations between the two sides, said the expert, noting that Putin was the first among major power leaders to call in support of then U.S. President George W. Bush, and after that, the United States and Russia set up a joint working group on counterterrorism.

In December 2004, a NATO-Russia action plan on terrorism was approved by the two sides, and Russia took part in NATO's counter-terrorism Operation Active Endeavour in the Mediterranean.

Meanwhile, then Secretary General of NATO George Robertson and leaders of some NATO member states supported Russia's accession to NATO.

This period is seen as a short honeymoon period between Russia and NATO, said Kang.

Also during this period, he said, three cracks in Russia's relations with the United States and NATO began to emerge.

One is the anti-missile system and strategic stability. In 2002, the United States unilaterally withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty signed by the United States and the Soviet Union.

The second remains the eastward expansion of NATO. Following admitting Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic in 1999, NATO started its second round of eastward expansion. In the year of 2004, the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined NATO.

The third crack between Russia and NATO is the so-called "color revolution" in the "post-Soviet space." From 2003 to 2005, the "color revolutions" took place in countries such as Ukraine and Georgia.

CRACK ENLARGEMENT (2006-2013)

After 2006, the deployment of anti-missile system, the eastward expansion of NATO, and the "color revolution," these three cracks not only failed to repair, but continued to expand.

In 2006, the United States formally proposed to deploy anti-missile bases in Eastern Europe, and in January 2007, the United States started negotiations on anti-missile deployment with Poland and the Czech Republic.

One month later, in an address to the Munich Security Conference, Putin fiercely criticized the actions of NATO's eastward expansion and the U.S. deployment of anti-missile systems in Eastern Europe. The speech was seen as a watershed in Russia's relations with the United States and NATO.

After taking office in 2009, then U.S. President Barack Obama proposed to "reset" U.S.-Russia relations, indicating a turn in Russia's relations with the United States and NATO. Since then, Russia and NATO began to working towards improving relations. However, not much progress was made.

At the end of 2009, then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev proposed to set up a new European security architecture to replace organizations including NATO and the OSCE, and end the Cold War once and for all.

Though Russia and NATO resumed military cooperation in the year 2010, the negotiations on the new security architecture between Russia, the United States and the European Union failed to make progress. Meanwhile, the United States and the West continued to instigate "color revolutions" in the Middle East as well as in Russia's close neighbors.

RAPID DETERIORATION (2014-2022)

The Ukrainian crisis that broke out in 2014 became the biggest turning point in relations between Russia and NATO, said the expert, noting that the two sides broke off security cooperation and turned to substantive military confrontation.

NATO began to provide military assistance to Ukraine after the crisis, including sending military advisers and instructors. At the Warsaw Summit in 2016, NATO nations decided to have multinational battalions stationed in the three Baltic states and Poland.

Meanwhile, the dispute between the United States and Russia over the implementation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty has also intensified, as the two sides accused each other of violating the historic arms control deal.

In 2019, the United States officially announced its withdrawal from the INF Treaty.

With Russia and NATO facing full-scale confrontation and the United States encouraging Ukraine to join NATO, Russia proposed three security dialogues with the United States, NATO and the OSCE at the end of last year, all of which were fruitless, Kang said.

On Feb. 24, the Russian army launched a special military operation in Ukraine, which, said Kang, marked the beginning of the largest armed conflict in the region since World War II.

In general, Kang said, the Russian elites hoped to integrate the country into the Western security community more than once, while the United States and NATO chose to turn Moscow down.

Driven by ideology and pushed by the military-industrial complex, Washington turned a blind eye to the repeated opposition from the domestic strategic community and from Russia. It pushed NATO eastward again and again, and instigated "color revolutions" around Russia repeatedly, forcing Russia into the corner, Kang said. 
ABUJA, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Troops in Nigeria's northwestern state of Kaduna have cordoned off the road leading to Kaduna International Airport after repelling an armed attack within the vicinity, the state government has said.

The troops stationed within the airport responded swiftly to the attack mounted by gunmen, Samuel Aruwan, commissioner for internal security and home affairs in Kaduna, told reporters late Saturday.

A military source told Xinhua earlier that more than 200 gunmen were involved in the attack, which killed one security personnel of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, who raised the alarm on sighting the attackers.

"Security forces are conducting operations in the airport general area," Aruwan said.

Armed attacks have been a primary security threat in Nigeria's northern and central regions, leading to deaths and kidnappings. 
JERUSALEM, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Israel and Germany have signed an agreement over cooperation in the energy sector, said a joint statement issued by the two countries on Sunday.

It was signed by Karine Elharrar, Israel's Energy Minister and Oliver Krischer, parliamentary state secretary at Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action.

The signature took place after a meeting they held at the sidelines of the International Energy Agency's annual ministerial meeting in Paris.

The partnership addresses common interests in advancing technologies to provide reliable, sustainable and affordable energy with emphasis on expanding renewable energy and the use of new energy technologies, said the statement.

The agreement defines important areas for future cooperation, including renewable energies, cybersecurity for energy infrastructure, technological innovation, and collaboration in natural gas and in hydrogen application. 
ATHENS, March 27 (Xinhua) -- The National Theatre of Greece (NTG) invited Athenians and foreign visitors to celebrate World Theatre Day on Sunday, sending a pro-peace message by staging performances out in the streets of the Greek capital.

Actors and actresses first performed on Syntagma square in front of the Greek parliament, before entering Rex theatre, home of a few of NTG's stages, for a scheduled performance.

A few blocks further, NTG's impressive 19th century neoclassical Ziller Building was illuminated for the day and dozens of people were invited to enjoy "Troilus and Cressida" by William Shakespeare with free admission.

The event, under the theme "With a Look at the World," was supported by the City of Athens.

Sofia Vienopoulou, head of the Young Peoples' Stage of the NTG, told Xinhua that via this event, the theatre is trying to pay attention to what is happening in the world today.

"It is very important that artists are now I think participating in a public discourse," she said, while mentioning the recent Russia-Ukraine crisis and calling for peace.

Following the testing period of the pandemic which isolated people, as she explained, artists are making a strong comeback inviting audiences to find strength in art. 
For beginners, it can seem like a good idea (and an exciting prospect) to buy a company that tells a good story to investors, even if it completely lacks a track record of revenue and profit. And in their study titled Who Falls Prey to the Wolf of Wall Street?' Leuz et. al. found that it is 'quite common' for investors to lose money by buying into 'pump and dump' schemes.

In the age of tech-stock blue-sky investing, my choice may seem old fashioned; I still prefer profitable companies like Louisiana-Pacific (NYSE:LPX). While profit is not necessarily a social good, it's easy to admire a business that can consistently produce it. In comparison, loss making companies act like a sponge for capital - but unlike such a sponge they do not always produce something when squeezed.

Check out our latest analysis for Louisiana-Pacific

Louisiana-Pacific's Improving Profits

In a capitalist society capital chases profits, and that means share prices tend rise with earnings per share (EPS). So like a ray of sunshine through a gap in the clouds, improving EPS is considered a good sign. It is therefore awe-striking that Louisiana-Pacific's EPS went from US$4.50 to US$16.01 in just one year. Even though that growth rate is unlikely to be repeated, that looks like a breakout improvement. But the key is discerning whether something profound has changed, or if this is a just a one-off boost.

Careful consideration of revenue growth and earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) margins can help inform a view on the sustainability of the recent profit growth. Louisiana-Pacific shareholders can take confidence from the fact that EBIT margins are up from 24% to 40%, and revenue is growing. That's great to see, on both counts.

In the chart below, you can see how the company has grown earnings, and revenue, over time. For finer detail, click on the image.

In investing, as in life, the future matters more than the past. So why not check out this free interactive visualization of Louisiana-Pacific's forecast profits?

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Are Louisiana-Pacific Insiders Aligned With All Shareholders?

Like that fresh smell in the air when the rains are coming, insider buying fills me with optimistic anticipation. Because oftentimes, the purchase of stock is a sign that the buyer views it as undervalued. However, small purchases are not always indicative of conviction, and insiders don't always get it right.

Although we did see some insider selling (worth -US$5.7k) this was overshadowed by a mountain of buying, totalling US$1.2m in just one year. This makes me even more interested in Louisiana-Pacific because it suggests that those who understand the company best, are optimistic. It is also worth noting that it was Executive VP & CFO Alan J. Haughie who made the biggest single purchase, worth US$698k, paying US$56.23 per share.

On top of the insider buying, it's good to see that Louisiana-Pacific insiders have a valuable investment in the business. Given insiders own a small fortune of shares, currently valued at US$79m, they have plenty of motivation to push the business to succeed. This should keep them focused on creating long term value for shareholders.

Is Louisiana-Pacific Worth Keeping An Eye On?

Louisiana-Pacific's earnings per share have taken off like a rocket aimed right at the moon. Just as heartening; insiders both own and are buying more stock. This quick rundown suggests that the business may be of good quality, and also at an inflection point, so maybe Louisiana-Pacific deserves timely attention. Don't forget that there may still be risks. For instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for Louisiana-Pacific that you should be aware of.

There are plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. So if you like the sound of Louisiana-Pacific, you'll probably love this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

Please note the insider transactions discussed in this article refer to reportable transactions in the relevant jurisdiction.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
Sensing the worst, two weeks before Russia began invading his homeland, tech entrepreneur Volodymir "Vlad" Panchenko wanted to charter a plane for a month to get as many of his employees and their families out of Kyiv, Ukraine, as quickly as possible.

But the co-founder of video game and metaverse marketplace DMarket said his board was giving him heavy pushback because his plan to shuttle workers to the Balkan country of Montenegro would lead to a 20% budget increase. But in a rare show of defiance, Panchenko trusted his gut and told them he was executing his contingency plan anyway  regardless of the cost.

They said I was overreacting, said Panchenko, who started making plans in January. I told them that I felt a war was coming and we should leave. And if there isnt, well spend time in a warm place and still get our work done.

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Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. DMarket and many other tech companies rely on colleagues who live and work in Ukraine, a fast-growing tech hotbed. While known companies such as Google and Microsoft have workers based in Ukraine, many far lesser-known, early- and mid-stage startups globally count on the embattled countrys talent-rich pool of engineers and developers and could be in jeopardy due to the conflict.

For DMarket, Panchenko's plan worked. A majority of his employees, their spouses, their kids, their parents, even pets  about 140 in total  are spending the next three months living in apartments in Montenegro as Panchenko works to figure out where his company may relocate as the month-long war intensifies.

Ill take that 20% budget hike instead of being in grave danger and possibly losing 100% of my company, Panchenko said, choking up. We are going to try to be one step ahead of this situation.

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Meanwhile, fellow tech entrepreneur and DMarket advisor Alexander Kokhanovskyy has traded in his 50- to 60-hour workweek typically programming or coding in a gaming chair for a rifle and a camo uniform. He's patrolling with law enforcement officers in Kyiv trying to help keep his hometown and its surrounding areas as safe as possible.

"This is my full-time job at the moment," Kokhanovskyy said after a late Friday shift, still in uniform. "Unfortunately, the first thing I need to do is to defend my country. This is the job we need to do."

Ukraine, Eastern Europe is rich in tech skills

In the long run, the world needs Ukraine's tech workers.

There is an abundance of talent in Ukraine, said Andrew Vasylyk, vice president of StartupSoft, a company he co-founded with his brother to help startups build developer teams remotely with Ukrainian-based tech workers.

Board member of the popular Ukraine-based app Readdle, Denys Zhadanov, estimates the number of tech professionals in Eastern Europe ranges between 100,000 and 200,000.

Zank Bennett relies on a team in Kyiv to help with his San Diego-based boutique data science consultancy company, whose clients include Nordstrom and medical device company Abbott Laboratories. Bennett said he began talking with his Ukrainian team about four months ago about the surge of Russian troops on Ukraines eastern border.

Now Bennett is scrambling to help them with any needs, including money, as the Kiyv office shut down on Feb. 3. He said many of them continue to work in remote places including Central Europe, Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands as things are still rather fluid.

Bennett said his clients are offering to help his employees as well, asking him if they need anything ranging from cash to shelter abroad. This is so unchartered territory for us. Theres no playbook for this, Bennett said.

CYBER ELVES:Ukraine's volunteer online army: Meet the cyber elves fighting Russian trolls on Facebook

FACT CHECK:Biden's 'new world order' reference tied to Ukraine, not conspiracy theory

Demand for Ukrainian developers has been strong for about a decade, StartupSoft's Vasylyk said. He believes its because of their rigorous education that includes taking STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) courses at an early age.

Many Ukrainians have access to very good math and physics education. That creates a basis for an analytical mindset, which is a good foundation to become an engineer, Readdles Zhadanov said. Overall, we live in a very interconnected world. Some parts of the world tend to create great entrepreneurs, and Ukraine happens to have the foundation to produce great engineers.

Surprising Ukrainian influence in daily life

Additionally, some skillful Ukrainian tech workers' salaries are also about a third less than their U.S. counterparts, critical for young startups, said Roman Shaposhnik, co-founder & chief technology officer of Silicon Valley edge computing startup ZEDEDA. But Panchenko currently believes its a sellers market and Ukrainian tech workers are asking for their market share when it comes to salary, and then some.

Unbeknownst to the masses, Lamine Zarrad, the founder & CEO of Austin, Texas-based fintech startup Stellar, believes that Ukrainians have more of an influence on our everyday lives than we probably think.

Ukrainian developers often create the backend software that ranges from how we bank online to productivity apps for iPhones and Macs, to streaming our favorite shows, movies, music and video games, experts say.

Its the hidden tech you cant see but hits on many facets of our activities, said Shaposhnik of ZEDEDA, who is a board member for the Apache Software Foundation, a nonprofit of open-source developers currently helping many Ukrainian (and even Russian startups) relocate to other countries including Cyprus, where he's currently located.

Its among the friendliest and quickest locations to do this type of rebooting to give small startups a second lease on life, Shaposhnik said about the startups' relocation strategy. They will still have their companies and they still are safe.

Employees of Ukraine-based startup DMarket and their families show support for their homeland as it is being attacked by Russian military forces. DMarket

Nearly 4 million Ukrainians have fled since the Russian invasion started, according to the United Nations. Much like their fellow citizens, Ukrainian tech workers have been working through bouts of danger since various Russian separatist movements had been pulling Ukraine apart for years.

Russia steps in amid chaos

Ukraine's troubles began in late 2013 when former President Viktor Yanukovych suspended an agreement that would have brought the country closer to the European Union. The chaos created an opportunity for neighboring Russia, which annexed part of the country.

Two eastern regions of Ukraine had dissolved into civil war, with numerous conflicts prior to Russias current invasion. Tech companies such as RevJet were among those that relocated most of their Ukrainian workers to such places as Canada, neighboring countries including Poland, or other parts of Europe.

Perhaps the most well-known Ukraine tech company is Grammarly, creator of an artificial intelligence-based tool that helps its millions of users write better. The company, founded in Kyiv in 2009, and currently valued at $13 billion, has kept mum on its contingency plans due to safety. But in a recent blog on LinkedIn, CEO Brad Hoover said Ukraine holds a special place in his heart.

While we hope for the best, we have also prepared for the worst, Hoover said. That includes having contingency plans for various scenarios, along with financial and logistical assistance to better support our team members and their families in getting to safety. It also includes business continuity plans to ensure Grammarlys services will not be disrupted.

Another Ukrainian tech company, AJAX Systems, has created an air raid siren app to alert citizens of incoming air raids sometimes faster than street sirens about possible bombings. The app has been downloaded on 4 million smartphones, the company told NBC News. AJAX systems have since moved its employees based in bomb-riddled Kharkiv, where more than 500 people reportedly have been killed, to offices in Lviv near the Poland border.

From a global perspective, Ukraine has been seen as an underdog, said Vasylyk, the StartupSoft executive. The conflict is posing major logistical challenges, but we see they are ready to adapt to the changing external factors and their new realities.

'Its really hard to plan for this war'

Sitting in front of a laptop screen in Berlin, Aleksandr Volodarsky shakes his head in disbelief several times. The head of Lemon.io, a Kyiv-based IT mid-stage startup that connects European web developers to American startups he founded in 2015, wishes he wouldve planned better.

Now as airstrikes, sirens and gunfire hit Ukraine, Volodarsky and his company are responding, albeit late in his view, to help his staff be safe as many insist they want to keep working through the war even if they have to do it from shelters and bunkers.

Looking back, we were very naive, and if I could go back four weeks ago, I would relocate somewhere in Europe, Volodarsky said. We were kind of preparing, but we really didnt know s---, didnt know what war would actually look like. Its really hard to plan for this war.

Volodarsky has shared his thoughts and vulnerability publicly on Twitter, telling his followers that he gave his employees their salaries two months in advance, in cash, in case the banking system crashes. The company has given substantially to the Povernys Zhyvym (Come Back Alive) fund and Volodarsky said it also will give any profits from February and onwards to the Ukrainian army and volunteers.

There is very little you can do as a CEO when your country  is on the edge of a full-scale war.



But at such times everyone has to play their role at best. We have 40 employees and 100s of Ukrainian developers in our network.



Right now it is my job to make their lives easier.  Aleksandr Volodarsky  (@volodarik) February 14, 2022

Hes helping to relocate any of his workers to want to go. Some have moved to parts of western Ukraine and others have stayed in and around Kyiv. He had to pause a marketing meeting on Monday as sirens were blasting, forcing some employees to seek shelter.

Filling in for a frontline front-line fighter

Volodarsky is filling in part-time for his chief marketing officer, Eugene Latta, who is on the front lines fighting with the Ukrainian Army in his hometown of Odessa. Its nothing new for Latta, who reportedly already took part in a war in the east of Ukraine in 2014 and was wounded.

Volodarsky said hes continuing to pay Latta his full salary as well.

Its important to keep working. At first, it was like screw the goals, we just need to be able to keep the company going, Volodarsky said. The economy has to keep performing, to pay taxes and support our Army.

But still, he continues feeling remorseful and regret. Its hard to feel comfort, even though no staffers have been harmed so far. While his immediate family relocated to Israel, Volodarsky worries about his elderly mother-in-law and great aunt who wanted to stay in Ukraine.

He keeps saying we could do much more, to help others in his homeland. And he seems determined to do it.

It's just crazy to think that a month and a half ago you couldnt have imagined that in this century, in 2022, theres a full-scale war in Europe, Volodarsky said. It shows that its impossible to think youre always safe. Two years ago we were crying about staying at home and not going to restaurants because of COVID. What a difference time makes.

Shocked and stressed, but fighting on all fronts

The simple yet magnified post on Readdle executive Denys Zhadanov's social media accounts sums up how hes dealing with life these days: "War-balance."

Meanwhile, employees at Kyiv-based Readdle, among the early successful sellers in Apples app store, had regular town-hall meetings to prepare for the worst, Zhadanov said. The company has nearly 200 million downloads for products like Spark email, PDF Expert, Calendars, Documents and Scanner Pro, and was a runner-up for Apples App of the Year.

We communicated information and guidance while preparing the logistics for the possible need to move team members and their families internally within Ukraine and to support team members who wished to move to work in other locations, Zhadanov said. As a result, we were able to respond quickly.

And defiantly, Zhadanov believes. He said the Ukrainian tech community is united, incredibly loyal and will remain committed to defending its future, instead of retreating from the opposition.

Our international tech business is very resilient, even in the face of war, Zhadnov said. Users worldwide still need our apps and the demand is strong.

Tech has no borders, said Shaposhnik, who cites cybersecurity company Acronis decision to suspend its operations in Russia. Its one of many companies that has taken similar stances due to the escalating conflict.

With everything being super-connected, I believe Russia is soon going to have problems with its supply chain, said Shaposhnik, who added that because of Ukraines ban on men between the ages of 18 to 60 leaving the country, many programmers are doing double duty as soldiers.

A lot of them wouldnt leave anyway, even if they had the chance, Shaposhnik said. They are basically willing to give their lives for their country.

Similar to many of the Ukrainian-based tech companies, DMarket's Panchenko said his company is helping to supply the Ukrainian Army with everything from vests, helmets, thermal vision goggles to see in the dark, and medical supplies.

Yes, there is a price Im paying for, but I think, unfortunately, the situation could get even worse, Panchenko said. We have to stop the aggression.

This is some of the military equipment tech entrepreneur Alexander Kokhanovskyy uses when he goes on daily patrol with law enforcement officers in his hometown of Kyiv, Ukraine to combat the Russian invasion. Alexander Kokhanovskyy, DMarket

Panchenko knows firsthand as DMarkets head of payments Oleksiy Gnatenko is fighting on the frontlines with the army in uniform and armed.

Gnatenko was scheduled to talk with USA TODAY about his experience, but DMarket human resources head Svetlana Iashchenko, whose husband is volunteering with the army said that Gnatenko's situation for today has dramatically changed, because of the war.

Iashchenko chose not to go to Montenegro and stay in Kyiv with her husband, Alex, a software engineer at another startup, who spends his evenings going out on patrol with armed men trying to protect the area. They will celebrate their 16th wedding anniversary in June.

Hoping to make it, said Iashchenko, wiping tears during a late-night video call on Wednesday. She said that working helps her not to lose her mind, even as she hears the sirens and blasts outside that can sometimes shake her building.

Staying busy to stay sane amid attacks

Iashchenko isnt sitting pat, though. She does a nightly shift watching a bank of security cameras nearby and goes out on an overnight patrol with an armed group to help make sure nothing suspicious is going on.

She said she gets about two hours of sleep a night between work, her shifts and constant worry.

We dont have time to feel sorry for ourselves, Iashchenko said. We just feel angry and were trying to do whatever we can to protect our country.

Kokhanovskyy shares a similar sentiment to combat "a Cold War mentality." After the first series of bombings a month ago, he left Kyiv to take his family to safety near Hungary. He then returned to Lviv in western Ukraine with a group for some training and returned back to Kyiv a few weeks ago. He now spends most of his days helping patrol his hometown with little to no sleep, a life he sometimes describes as "hell."

Employees of Ukrainian startup DMarket and other Ukrainian entrepreneurs recently met virtually with the staff of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office about what American politicians can do to help Ukraine fend off the Russian invasion. DMarket

"We are fighting for our freedom. We are a free country, a free nation," Kokhanovskyy said. "Thats all were asking for. We don't want to go back to a Cold War mentality."

Panchenko said that includes reaching out to allies to help. As DMarket also has an office in Southern California, Panchenko, Kokhanovskyy and other Ukrainian entrepreneurs recently had video calls with the staff of Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Reps. Adam Schiff and Ted Lieu, asking the California Democrats for U.S. assistance.

They reiterated some of the same messages Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has suggested including more military aid. Panchenko said shortly after his companys meeting with the U.S. politicians, President Joe Biden pledged an additional $800 million in military aid to help fend off Russias assault.

MORE GLOBAL HELP: 'Is this too much to ask?' An impassioned Zelenskyy demands more from Biden

Panchenko doesnt know if that was a coincidence.

Im not sure were going to succeed in our efforts without help from the West, Panchenko said. The amount of help from the U.S. has been immense, but we need more.

In addition to asking for help and donating money, Panchenko has to decide which part of Europe, either Bulgaria, Poland, or maybe even Spain, to relocate his company in June from a logistics and taxation standpoint.

But Ukraine will always be considered his companys main home base.

Thats where our hearts are, he said. "If the war ended today, we'd come back home."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ukraine is a hotbed of tech talent. disrupted by Russia war
Azerbaijani Defense Ministry has expressed regret regarding the one-sided statement of the Russian Defense Ministry dated March 26, 2022, which does not reflect the reality, the ministry has reported.

The ministry's statement underlined that on March 25, during the telephone conversation between Azerbaijan Defense Minister Colonel General Zakir Hasanov and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, the situation in the territory of Azerbaijan, where the Russian peacekeeping forces are temporarily stationed, was discussed, and the Azerbaijani side stated that the positions and deployment locations are being clarified on spot.

However, in the morning of March 26, members of illegal Armenian armed detachments attempted to sabotage the Azerbaijan Army Units. As a result of immediate measures, members of illegal Armenian armed detachments were forced to retreat.

"The Defense Ministry states that Azerbaijan is committed to the Joint Statement of November 10, 2020 and has not violated any of the provisions," the statement reads.

"We regretably inform that the withdrawal of the remnants of the Armenian army and illegal Armenian armed detachments from the territory of Azerbaijan in accordance with article 4 of this Statement has not yet been completed. Therefore, it is Armenia, not Azerbaijan, that violates the provisions of the Statement," the ministry added.

Azerbaijani Defense Ministry also stated that the statement of the Russian Defense Ministry contradicts the essence of bilateral relations and the Declaration on Allied Interaction signed between the two countries on February 22, 2022.

"There is no administrative and territorial unit called "Nagorno-Karabakh" in the territory of Azerbaijan. The name of the village mentioned in the statement is not Furukh, but Farrukh," the statement noted.

"Regarding this, Azerbaijani Defense Ministry requests the Russian Defense Ministry to completely withdraw the remnants of the Armenian army and illegal Armenian armed detachments from the territory of Azerbaijan recognized by the international community in accordance with the provisions of the Joint Statement, asks not to use the term "Nagorno-Karabakh" and correctly indicate the names of the territories of Azerbaijan," the ministry stressed.
VANCOUVER, BC, March 26, 2022 /CNW/ - The Yumy Candy Company Inc., (CSE: TYUM) ("Yumy" or the "Company") will be rolling out its low-sugar Better-For-You confectionery products into Western Canada's Largest retailers. Established in 1982, this chain has been one of the fastest growing chains in Canada, currently the retailer has over 160 stores and over 21,000 employees located throughout Western Canada. Along with large box chains and supermarkets their banner also includes higher end boutique stores strategically located in dense urban centers.

Yumy Bear Goods Inc. Logo (CNW Group/Yumy Bear Goods Inc.)

"We are incredibly pleased to announce this partnership. Being born in British Columbia it is a dream come true to be on the on the shelves of Western Canadas largest Grocery Chain. Being on shelf with every established confectionary company truly shows our success in creating an amazing product with incredible brand recognition. When starting The Yumy Candy Company getting shelf space in this group of stores was a goal we focused heavily on and are proud to see come to fruition," states chief executive officer and founder, Erica Williams.

This retailer is the largest retail group in Western Canada and one of the five largest retailers in Canada consistently ranking among BC's Most Loved Brands while being one of the countries largest employers. "With a long track record of success and quality our company aspires to have the same growth and staying power. With this partnership I see our sales and growth increasing exponentially. Our customers expect the consistency quality and value, when they purchase our products and partnering with this retailer, we expect to deliver this to millions of consumers," states Erica Williams.

The Yumy Candy is an affordable health-conscious low-sugar plant-based confectionery company based in Vancouver, British Columbia and it has developed a portfolio of healthier gelatine-free candies made from non-GMO ingredients with proprietary recipes. All of its products are free of gelatin, soy, gluten, nuts, dairy, eggs, sugar alcohols, artificial sweeteners and genetically modified organisms.

Story continues

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Except for the statements of historical fact, this news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of the applicable securities legislation. The information in this news release about future plans and objectives of the Company, are forward-looking information. This forward-looking information is based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of the Company at the time it was made, and involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such factors include, among others: general business, economic and social uncertainties; local and global market and economic uncertainties arising in respect of the COVID-19 pandemic; litigation, availability of key product ingredients, legislative, environmental and other judicial, regulatory, political and competitive developments; the ability to effectively expand manufacturing and production capacity; the ability to obtain retail partners to distribute Company products, the success of market initiatives and the ability to grow brand awareness; the ability to attract, maintain and expand relationships with key strategic vendors; our ability to predict consumer taste preferences; delay or failure to receive regulatory approvals; the sufficiency of our cash to meet liquidity needs; those additional risks set out in the Company's public documents filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com; and other matters discussed in this news release. Accordingly, the forward-looking statements discussed in this release may not occur and could differ materially as a result of these known and unknown risk factors and uncertainties affecting the Company. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on these statements, which only apply as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. Except where required by law, the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward- looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

SOURCE Yumy Bear Goods Inc.

Cision

View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/March2022/26/c1085.html
An Orange County man who is accused of molesting a child has been apprehended, police said.

Eddie Monroe Crawford, 41, was arrested Saturday afternoon with the assistance of the U.S. Marshal Fugitive Task Force and others, Orange Sheriff's Lt. Becky Jones said. He is being held without bond in the Central Virginia Regional Jail.

The Orange Sheriff's Office broadcast a lookout last week for Crawford, who is charged in Orange with rape, forcible sodomy and other offenses.

Jones said more charges are pending in Orange, as well as in Greene County. Crawford once lived in Greene.

Jones said no further information will be released at this time about the case.

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Maggie McCabe can point to the exact moment she knew she had to leave her job as a Stafford County high school English and creative writing teacher.

The first moment that I mentally checked out when I was with a studentthats what broke me, said McCabe. Students feel safe with us and want to talk, especially my creative writing students. But I couldnt focus. And the students deserve more than that.

McCabe, who was in her fifth year as a public school teacher, quit her job Feb. 5 and now works for a local nonprofit. She is one of the many teachers both locally and nationwide who are thinking about or already have walked away from a profession many of them dreamed of going into since they were students themselves.

McCabe said she always knew she wasnt going to make a lot of money as a teacher and that it was going to be a time-consuming and stressful jobbut its the only job she can recall ever wanting to do.

I pictured myself making a difference and being a constant for many students who dont have that in their lives, McCabe said. I thought I could be a resource for low-income students, because that was my background.

McCabe started her teaching career in Caroline County and then moved to Stafford. She found that the demographics were different between the two divisions, but the pressures on teachers were the same.

I realized its not the county, its the system, McCabe said. It seems like there is just a national acceptance that teachers are treated as less than. Its just assumed that they will work beyond their contract hours and have a lot of stressors that they should just accept.

McCabes contracted work week was 40 hours, but she was spending an additional two or three unpaid hours every weeknight and half of every Sunday grading or prepping for lessons. Her husband is also a teacher, and there was little time left for them to take care of their house or spend time together as a couple.

In spring 2020, when schools abruptly shut down, McCabe felt hopeful that society would finally see the effort and dedication teachers put into their jobs.

It felt like teachers were finally being seen for what we did, and acknowledged. But it was so incredibly short-lived, she said.

As the country slogged into the second year of the pandemic, McCabe noticed a change in the way people were talking about teachers.

I think people needed someone to be angry at, she said. Teachers became Public Enemy No. 1. People resented that teachers were working at home. They thought they were babysitting their own children while teachers were not really working. I had to delete so many friends [on social media] because I couldnt get up and do my job the next day because of how we were being talked to.

McCabe felt undone by the lack of respect for a job she had always been proud of and had gone into debt to achieve.

At school, she couldnt keep performing the role of professional, competent teacher. At home, she was no longer practicing any self-care.

It became scary, she said. I was in this vegetative state. At school, kids would ask me, Whats wrong? 

In February, she became the third teacher or paraeducator in the English department at her school to quit mid-year.

Im giving myself time to heal, McCabe said.

A worsening trend Multiple recent studies have found that teachers are leaving or thinking about leaving their jobsand often the professionat a higher rate than they were before the pandemic, worsening a trend that has existed in the U.S. for decades.

According to a 2017 report on teacher turnover conducted by the Learning Policy Institute, an education research and policy think tank, teacher attritionthe percentage of teachers leaving the professionincreased from 5.1% in 1992 to 8.4% in 2005.

The 3% increase in attrition rates is not trivial: It amounts to about 90,000 additional teachers needing to be hired across the U.S. each year, the report states, noting that attrition is higher in the U.S. than in other countries.

In addition to the 8% of teachers who leave the profession, another 8% of teachers move to different schools each year, making the total annual turnover rate 16%, the LPI report states.

The total turnover rate hovered around 16% for years. But a handful of recent studies suggest that turnover might be higher now than pre-pandemic.

According to a survey of educators conducted early last year by the RAND Corporation, 23% of all teachersand half of all Black teacherssaid they were likely to leave their current teaching jobs by the end of the 202021 school year.

The RAND survey also found that teachers report experiencing job-related stress and symptoms of depression at higher rates than the general adult population. Seventy-eight percent of teachers said they experience frequent job-related stress, compared to 40% of the general populationand 40% of teachers experienced symptoms of depression, compared to 10% of the general population.

An EdWeek Research Center survey of about 700 teachers and 300 school leaders conducted in March 2021 found that 54% of teachers said they are either somewhat or very likely to leave teaching in the next two years, compared to 34% who said they would have answered that way before the pandemic.

According to the EdWeek survey, 84% of teachers said their jobs are more stressful now than they were pre-pandemic.

The National Education Association conducted a similar survey of its members in January, and found that 55% of them are planning to leave education sooner than they anticipated because of the pandemic, regardless of their age or years of experience.

In Stafford County, 141 school division employees67 licensed teachers and 74 service staffresigned their positions midway through last school year, up from 80 total employees who left during the 201920 school year.

So far this year, 135 employees35 licensed staff and 100 service staffhave left.

In Spotsylvania County, 167 school division staff have resigned so far this year, up from 137 last school year and 93 during the 201920 school year.

When Spotsylvania teachers responded to intent to return forms in December, 13% indicated that they are undecided about returning for the 202223 school yearcompared to 5% who answered that way last year.

When educators leave, divisions must spend money to replace them, by paying human resources staff to process the exit, and spending more money on recruiting, hiring and training new employees.

The 2017 LPI report estimated that it costs $11,000 to replace a teacher in a suburban district such as Spotsylvaniamaking the estimated cost to the division of replacing the 167 educators who resigned this year $1.8 million.

Problems of pay

According to the Education Week survey, raising salaries is the No. 1 action school districts can take to retain their teachers. Respondents to the NEA survey also said increasing salaries would be the most effective way to address teacher burnout.

I knew from the start [that I wasnt going to make a lot of money], but I thought the reward would balance that out, McCabe said. And it does, to some extent, but the reward does not pay my bills. If I could pay the bills through the gratitude of my students, that would be something.

A 2017 report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development looked at the education data from its 35 member countries and found that in the U.S., teachers are paid on average less than 60% of the salaries of similarly educated professionals.

Heather Drane, a middle school social studies and English teacher in Spotsylvania, said she feels the societal expectation is that teachers should accept lower salaries because its about the kids.

Frankly, I think theres a certain level of misogyny involved, Drane said. This is a female-led profession, traditionally, and its very undervalued because of that. People are more willing to use these levers of guiltWell, its about the children and Dont you care about the kids?to manipulate and control a group of people who have given their life to civil service.

Drane is considering taking a job with a different school division next year because she said Spotsylvania County has normalized not giving its teachers cost-of-living increases.

As a result, a 30-year teacher in Spotsylvania makes $40,000 less than a 30-year teacher in Prince William County, Drane said. The less money that a teacher makes, the less he or she is able to pay into Virginias retirement system for state employees.

The promise of a pension at the end of a career is what can make a teachers comparatively low salary, relative to other professions that require similar education, palatable, Drane said.

Its part of the whole compensation package for a teacher, which people dont understand, she said. I get paid for 10 months of work. Over the summer, I get paid for work Ive already done.

Its a commitment that was made to me when I was hired, that someday my hard work would benefit me by providing me with a retirement income I could rely on, Drane continued. The fewer step increases, the longer it will take for me to be able to retire. Thats going against the heart and soul of the way teachers are compensated in our country. Its really an evil thing to do.

But mid-career teachers like Drane are also up against school divisions that often cap the years of experience they will accept of new hires.

If I dont leave, I could be up against a point where Im trapped here, Drane said.

Spotsylvania and Stafford have requested funding to begin fixing problems of teacher salary scale compression in their budgets for the next fiscal year, but Drane said that wont help people who have put in decades of service.

Lack of support

The Rand survey also found that teachers are more likely to leave when they dont feel supported by school leadership and the community.

Angela King, a middle school special education teacher in Spotsylvania, said thats the main reason why she will not return to her position next year.

I absolutely love what I do, King said. But its the lack of support from higher up. What sent me over was when [the Spotsylvania School Board] fired [former superintendent] Dr. Baker. I thought, if they can fire him, Im nobody, and honestly, I was afraid.

King said she feels the School Board has become distracted by what we call a loud minority of community members who have been vocal at meetings this year in opposition to mask mandates, critical race theory and sexually explicit books in school libraries.

Instead, shed like to see school division leadership support teachers by showing up in school buildings to see what teachers actually do and funding a budget that gives teachers what they truly need.

Id like to see them put us as a priority, not the parents who are threatening them, King said. Give us the $1,000 bonus you promised us. Adjust our pay scale so it matches what other divisions are doing.

Drane also said she sees public outcry over divisive topics in school curriculum as a distraction.

It seems to just be a political issue that people are using to try to push a wedge between parents and the school systems, she said, adding that neither she nor anyone she knows has ever been contacted by a parent with a concern about the topic of a lesson.

Nobodys coming to our schools with those complaints, Drane said. All this stuff started happening running up to the gubernatorial race. To me, its the most blatant politics you can possibly imagine.

King always saw herself as a public servant teaching the next generation, but said politics has made that responsibility intolerable.

Im coming home from work in tears half the time, she said. Its not worth it.

Were the ones $65,000 in debt to do this

McCabe said there are concrete steps, in addition to improving pay, that school divisions can take to retain their teachers. One is creating a culture that prioritizes teachers mental health and physical wellbeing.

I had been telling my students to prioritize their mental health and I felt like a phony, because I wasnt doing it for myself, McCabe said.

In a special report on retaining teachers during the pandemic published last spring, Education Week made several suggestions for how school leadership can support mental health, such as normalizing talking about mental health or needing to take time off to recharge; training employees to act as mental health ambassadors; setting up help lines within the division; and reducing barriers to getting insurance-covered counseling or therapy services.

Drane said teachers need to be treated as professionals and given less busy work and more free time during the day to collaborate with colleagues.

We are bombarded with professional development,  she said. They feel like, if theyre not budgeting every single minute of our day full of stuff, that somehow were getting paid for not doing work.

McCabe said she thinks society doesnt understand or respect the degrees or credentials required to become a licensed teacher.

I dont go into a hospital, take out a scalpel and start operating, she said. Were the ones who are $65,000 in debt to do this, and have to take continuing education to prove that we can still do the job we were hired for.

Drane said teachers need to advocate for themselves more clearly. She said she tries to jump on opportunities to educate her students and the public on how teachers are compensated, how hard teachers work and how much they care about their students.

Im in there with 60 English students and 50 history students every day and I need to be prepared for them. There isnt anybody else there picking up the slack, she said. Teachers are some of the people most committed to their jobs that Ive ever met.

McCabe said that dedication is helping former teachers get jobs in other professions.

Employers are gobbling us up, she said.

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President James Madisons home in Orange County is embroiled in controversy over what authority it allows descendants of the enslaved people who built and powered his familys plantation.

On Friday, The Montpelier Foundation board rescinded its earlier commitment and stripped 50-50 power sharing from the Montpelier Descendants Committee representing African Americans who trace their roots to the plantation.

Five descendants of enslaved people serve on the board, three chosen by the committee and two by the foundation. The bylaws change bars the committee from naming future members. That gives the foundation more control over the boards composition.

Critics of the boards decision have mounted a petition drive, which garnered 3,000 signatures in less than 24 hours.

Many of the historic sites staff protested the boards move, saying the foundation failed to make any headway implementing its promise of equality with the descendants group more than nine months after making that pledge.

Matt Reeves, the foundations director of archaeology and landscape restoration, is among those professionals. He has been on Montpeliers staff for 22 years.

Its a supreme irony that The Montpelier Foundation board, which professes to promote a pro-Madison philosophy, is completely missing Madisons political philosophy of critical thinking and seeing how two opposing factions can balance each other and create a stronger, more diverse wholesuch as could be attained at Montpelier, Reeves said Saturday.

The impasse has halted work on important projects, already funded, that need collaboration with the descendants, the staff said in a statement.

Foundation leaders have prevented staff from interacting and collaborating with the Montpelier Descendants Committee, and threatened staff members with termination for doing so, they said.

Elizabeth Chew, Montpeliers vice president and chief curator, said that after more than 20 years of partnership with descendants, staff have been threatened with firing since 2020. Thats when foundation Chairman Gene Hickok and Montpelier President Roy F. Young II assumed leadership posts.

Montpelier leadership has lied to staff about progress toward sharing governance with MDC, Chew said.

Our fight is about so much more than a historic plantation in rural Virginia, said Iris Ford, an MDC board member who is an associate professor emerita of anthropology at St. Marys College of Maryland. Over 200 years after the ratification of the Constitution, African Americans are still fighting for the protection and liberties that it claims to guarantee. What we are doing at Montpelier is fighting for the very soul of our nation.

Hickok told The Washington Post the board isnt reneging on fully representing descendants, a concept called structural parity. Rather, the board wants to pick descendant members from a bigger pool than the committee, he said.

This is an effort to reset the process, Hickok told the newspaper. It certainly doesnt have the board backing away from parity. We are very committed to parity. The challenge has been organizationally getting there.

The conflict has outraged Montpelier curators, historians and archaeologists. They say the descendants committee is their crucial partner in interpreting the complicated past of the Father of the Constitution, his family and the 300-some enslaved people who toiled there over 140 years.

Dr. Bettye Kearse, one of the descendents on The Montpelier Foundations board, said the committee is committed to the rich and important history told at Montpelier, to the beauty and power of the Montpelier estate and grounds, and to the longevity and strength of The Montpelier Foundation.

MDC members have spent decades of their lives researching Montpeliers history and archaeology and developing innovative and award-winning historical interpretation projects, said Kearse, a pediatrician who wrote The Other Madisons: The Lost History of a Presidents Black Family. Montpelier is not the board, but the board must be receptive to substantive change for Montpelier to survive and thrive.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which owns the Madison plantations 2,400 acres, warned Hickok on Thursday that the boards change to its bylaws would undermine decades of important work that led to the formation of the Committee in the first place, and in turn would set back Montpeliers efforts to continue the necessary work of uplifting descendants voices, and repairing the relationship between the broader African American community and Montpelier, the former site of generations of enslavement.

Before the vote, a majority of the foundations roughly 40 full-time employees wrote a resolution urging the board not to OK the change.

On Thursday evening, National Trust Chief Executive Paul Edmondson wrote Hickok and urged him in the strongest possible terms not to press ahead with changing the bylaws.

Edmondson was blunt, noting that Montepelier descendants chose the committee as their formal voice. The foundations commitment to give them equal seats on the board acknowledged the right of the descendant community to define itself, rather than to be defined by the foundation, he wrote Hickok. The newly proposed revisions to the bylaws would do the opposite.

The trust provided grant money and other support to The Montpelier Foundation and the Montpelier Descendants Committee to encourage their reaching an agreement on power sharing, recognizing it is a deeply challenging process, Edmondson wrote.

Several Montpelier staffers and board members told the Post they believe the foundations leaders are unwilling to share control over how the site depicts Madison and his legacy.Other presidential homes in Virginianotably Monticello, Mount Vernon and James Monroes Highlandshave wrestled in recent years with the issue of slavery and how they depict their owners entanglement with it.

The MDCs attorney, Greg Werkheiser of Cultural Heritage Partners in Richmond, said of Montpelier that the whole point of including descendant voices is to broaden the perspective of leadership, not to reinforce a historically narrow approach to telling history.

In February, the committee proposed a compromise allowing the foundation to reject MDC board nominees for ethical and legal reasons, but not because Black descendants didnt fit the profile of the current board, he said.

Werkheiser said Saturday that, working with the committee, he submitted to the foundation board a list of 40 hugely impressive prospects that any board in America would be lucky to have, and they refused to look at it.

The public tends to think of the battle for civil rights as taking place through speeches, marches, and courtrooms, he said. But the modern struggle for fairness also occurs in quiet board rooms of places like Montpelier, and only comes to light when people like the descendants and staff say, Enough is enough.

Montpeliers earlier work to more closely collaborate with enslaved peoples descendants garnered wide publicity and respect from other historic sites and professionals.

In 2018, a conference at Montpelier on teaching about slavery produced The Rubric. The document, titled Engaging Descendant Communities, set standards for guiding institutions toward more completely representing Black people.

But the committees relationship with foundation leaders began to break down after the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, when leaders couldnt agree on a joint statement about his death with the MDC, staff said. The foundation issued a statement lamenting Floyds death, but the descendants committee felt it should more strongly condemn systemic racial inequities, and submitted stronger language.

Late Saturday, Montpelier CEO Young said, in reaction to the Posts story, that some staff members have expressed concern that last weeks staff statement mischaracterizes them and their work.

He said one staff member said, I am concerned about a number of aspects of this statement, the way its been presented, and that it does not speak for many employees of Montpelier. The statement seems to ignore the efforts of the Interpretive staff working to present to Visitors the tragedies of individual and generations of enslaved people at Montpelier, as well as the amazing impact that James Madison has on democratic principles.

Orange County resident James French, the elected chair of the descendants committee, said Saturday, There might be boards somewhere where an equal partnership consists of choosing others leaders for them, shamelessly trying to pit community members against one another in an attempt to divide and conquer, and preventing members with different views than yours from speakingsince difficult conversations are, after all, inconvenient.

But what is certain is that such a board would be unqualified to engage honestly with Madisonian concepts, the U.S. Constitution or the completeness of the history of slavery, added French, who is a member of The Montpelier Foundations board. Montpelier deserves better.
Members of the public are invited to review results of the recent Community Health Assessment and suggest future priorities.

A session is planned from noon to 2 p.m. April 5 in the theater room of the Central Rappahannock Regional Library at 1201 Caroline St., Fredericksburg. It is the first meeting to work on the 2022 Community Health Improvement Plan which will build upon information from the recent assessment.

The event is hosted by the Rappahannock Area Health District and Mary Washington Healthcare, which jointly sponsored the assessment for the first time this year. The meeting is open to the public as well as representatives from groups that participated in the assessment. Lunch will be provided and those planning to attend are asked to register at forms.gle/WAwDMEz52fapW7Ag7.

The assessment included survey results from almost 2,000 residents and feedback from more than 70 community organizations in the Fredericksburg area. Almost 99 percent of the responses came from the local health district, which includes Fredericksburg and the counties of Caroline, King George, Spotsylvania and Stafford.

More than half the participants rated mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, stress and suicide, as the most important health issue facing the region. Second on the list was COVID-19 followed by alcohol, drug and opiate abuse.

Those who completed a survey also were asked to name the top three ways to improve the quality of life in the area. More mental health services ranked No. 2, after more affordable housing and before good jobs and a healthy economy.

At the April 5 meeting, those attending can participate in the interactive process of selecting the top 3 issues we will take action on as a community, according to the RAHD. Local health officials decided to hold the meeting in person because Fredericksburg and surrounding counties are experiencing low levels of COVID-19, according to state data.

More details of the 2022 Community Health Assessment can be found in the report, available at vdh.virginia.gov/rappahannock. Comments on the report are accepted through April 3.

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March 29 is National Vietnam Veterans Day. For most Nam vets, its not a day of celebration, but rather a day of humble reflection trying to forget the unforgettable.

Its most painful for the gold star families of 58,220 heroes who lost their lives during an incredibly unpopular and controversial conflict that escalated as the result of a claimed second attack by North Vietnamese forces on an American ship during the Gulf of Token incident in 1964.

This report was later proven false, but it spurred Americas involvement leading to approximately 3 million military and civilian personnel serving in Vietnam from 196475. Over 150,000 servicemen and women were wounded.

The Gulf of Token incident was but one of the controversial events of the times.

Utilizing Proclamation 4483, President Jimmy Carter in 1977 pardoned approximately 100,000 Americans who fled to Canada evading the draft and violated the Military Selective Service Act. For many struggling Vietnam veterans, Carters action is still difficult to accept.

The stigma of being a draft-dodger has always bothered many Vietnam veterans. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were both accused of being draft dodgers. President Donald Trump received five draft deferments, as did a number of other political officials in their youth, thus escaping service in Vietnam.

And the mendacious statements from Presidents Johnson and Nixon about Vietnam demonstrated blatant arrogance by both Democrats and Republicans as Americans died in battle.

Senior military leaders lacking the moral courage to out the political and tactical misrepresentations that took parents away from children and led to their sons and daughters having their names permanently etched on the black marble structure that is the Vietnam Memorial in Washington remain most culpable to this Nam vet.

Heroes like Corky Ram, a Marine and one of our executive officers with 2n Bn, 5th Marines tripped a booby trap Jan. 10, 1971, and was killed, leaving a wife and six children.

It probably should have been me walking point with Ram then, and I may have been the one who died on that mountaintop, but he waved me off the mission at the last moment. It haunts me to this day.

A few years ago, I finally found the courage to visit some of his children and share with them their fathers extraordinary service and my involvement with him.

It was a painful experience that helped quell feelings of survivor guilt as daughter Linda and I embraced in tears and keeled in prayer by Rams graveside in Toms River, Ocean County, N.J. She was a teenager when Ram left for Vietnam in 1970, with the burning love for the father she once knew.

With son Michael, who I visited the next day, I shared all I could about his father. I related Rams dry sense of humor that brought us all smiles during heated combat engagements. The look in his eye holding onto every word as I spoke about the lessons his father had taught me about being a man was intense, and I was sure he would of wanted the father he never knew to share his values. He gave me a tearful big hug upon leaving that I shall never forget and helped me more than I hope I helped him.

National Vietnam Veterans Day, with Putins actions in the Ukraine, no doubt brings back memories combatants would prefer to forget.

Vietnam veterans must force ourselves to remember in spite of great pain. We have an obligation to truly heal and aid younger veterans who suffer from their Middle Eastern involvements and those in the future.

We must continue to learn a hard lesson and involve ourselves politically with officials who ultimately decide when we send troops to battle. We should support veteran candidates and those who truly understand the fog of war and the tragedies that can follow with misleading information for political gain.

We must focus on peace through strength, education and compassion. Above all, we must never Vietnam again.

Daniel P. Cortez is a Stafford resident, presidential appointee, political writer and broadcaster who serves as the volunteer co-chairman of the Latinos for Youngkin coalition.

Editor's Note: On Tuesday, a pinning ceremony for all Vietnam veterans will take place at the Virginia War Memorial. All Vietnam vets are invited. For more information and to register, visit vawarmemorial.org.
A part of the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan tasked with enforcing adherence to strict Islamic fundamentalism has ordered all amusement parks in the capital to be segregated by gender.

The limit on such mixing at fun parks will deepen concerns for girls' and women's rights as it follows a last-minute reversal last week that prevented Afghan girls from returning to reopened schools.

The hard-line Taliban's Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice on March 27 ordered that all Kabul venues with rides and games should be opened to women and girls from Sundays through Tuesdays and to boys and men on Wednesdays through Saturdays.

There is no exception for families on the ministry's timetable.

UN and other international observers have repeatedly warned of abuses under the seven-month-old regime of girls and women, including draconian limits on their movement, freedom to work or travel, or ability to carry out even the simplest daily aspects of public life.

"The Taliban regime is now officially a gender apartheid authoritarian police state," Tamim Asey, executive chairman of the Institute of War and Peace Studies and the Council on Foreign Relations of Afghanistan, tweeted after the parks ban was announced, adding, "The regime while a de facto reality...merits no recognition and legitimacy."

On March 23, Taliban officials extended a nationwide ban on girls' education beyond sixth grade that was imposed after the militants took over most of the country as U.S.-led international troops withdrew and the UN-backed government in Kabul fled.

Young Afghans expressed despair and frustration after many of the more than 1 million girls prepared to return to school were turned away, in many cases when they approached school gates.

The sudden announcement to keep girls out of class sparked protests by teachers, students, and women's rights activists in the capital despite brutal Taliban crackdowns on previous demonstrations.

They chanted, "Open the schools!" and demanded that women be allowed to work.

International organizations and world governments called on the Taliban to reconsider its decision immediately.

The United States' special envoy for Afghanistan, Thomas West, said ensuring access to education was among U.S. demands of the Taliban.

U.S. officials abruptly canceled scheduled meetings with Taliban representatives in Doha after the school reversal on girls' attendance.

With reporting by dpa, RFE/RL's Radio Azadi, and Bakhtar
By Trend

Dissatisfaction has increased among members of illegal Armenian armed groups in Azerbaijani territories, where Russian peacekeepers are temporarily stationed, Trend reports.

Local volunteers, who have been staying at the military posts for days due to a lack of staff, are protesting because they have not seen their families for a long time.

According to sources in Khankandi, in order to prevent this discontent and to fill for those currently sick, the separatist regime forces teenagers and the elderly to wear uniforms and take the posts.

Those who do not want to obey this instruction are persecuted and insulted.

According to the source, the number of sick has increased among the illegal armed groups due to the deplorable conditions at the checkpoints in the direction of Askeran and in the shelters of these groups.
Sean Deines and his wife, Rebekah, were road-tripping after he lost his job as a bartender when the pandemic hit. But while visiting his grandfather in a remote part of Wyoming, Sean started to feel very ill.

Rebekah insisted he go to an urgent care center in Laramie.

Your white blood count is through the roof. You need to get to an ER right now, Deines, 32, recalls a staffer saying. The North Carolina couple initially drove to a hospital in Casper but were quickly airlifted to a UCHealth hospital near Denver, where he was admitted on Nov. 28, 2020.

There, specialists confirmed his diagnosis: acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a fast-growing blood cancer.

Literally within 12 hours, I needed to figure out what to do with the next step of my life, said Deines.

So, after he was started on intravenous treatments, including steroids and antibiotics, in Colorado to stabilize him, the couple decided it was prudent to return to North Carolina, where they could get help from his mother and mother-in-law. They selected Duke University Medical Center in Durham, which was in his insurance network.

His family called Angel MedFlight, part of Aviation West Charters of Scottsdale, Ariz., which told Rebekah Deines that it would accept whatever the couples insurer would pay and that they would not be held responsible for any remaining balance.

Sean Deines was flown to North Carolina on Dec. 1, 2020, and taken by ground ambulance to Duke, where he spent the next 28 days as an inpatient.

By his discharge, he felt better and things were looking up.

Then the bills came.

 The patient: Sean Deines, 32, who purchased coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplace with Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina.

 Medical service: A 1,468-mile air ambulance flight from Colorado to North Carolina, along with ground transportation between the hospitals and airports.

 Service provider: Aviation West Charters, doing business as Angel MedFlight, a medical transport company.

Total bill: $489,000, most of which was for the flight from Denver, with approximately $70,000 for the ground ambulance service to and from the Denver and Raleigh-Durham airports.

What gives?

Insurers generally get to decide what care is medically necessary and therefore covered. And that is often in the eye of the beholder. In this case, the debate revolved first around whether Deines was stable enough to safely take a three-plus-hour commercial flight to North Carolina during a pandemic or required the intensive care the air ambulance provided.

Second, there was the question of whether Deines should have stayed in Denver for his 28-day treatment to get him into remission. Insurers tend not to consider patient stress or family convenience in their decisions.

Also, both air and ground ambulance services have been center stage in the national fight over huge surprise bills, since the for-profit companies that run them frequently do not participate in insurance networks.

Angel MedFlight, which was not in Deines insurance network, sought prior authorization from Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina. The request was dated Nov. 30, but the insurer said the fax arrived in the predawn hours the same day as the flight, Dec. 1, 2020.

On that day, Angel MedFlight flew Deines to North Carolina in an airplane, along with a nurse to oversee his IV medications and oxygen levels.

Angel MedFlight spokesperson Kimberly Halloran did not answer a specific written question from Kaiser Health News about why the flight went ahead without prior approval; often medical interventions are postponed until it has been obtained. But in an emailed statement, she said the company satisfied each step in the health insurance process and transported Sean to his long-term health care providers in good faith.

According to the review of the case done months later by an independent evaluator, Blue Cross on Dec. 3 denied coverage for the air ambulance services because medical records did not support that it was an emergency and Deines was already in an appropriate medical facility.

At the end of December, an appeal was filed against that decision on behalf of Deines by Angel MedFlight.

Then, in March 2021, Blue Cross sent Deines a check for $72,000 to cover part of the $489,000 bill, which he forwarded to the air ambulance company. The explanation of benefits showed the majority of the charges were ruled not medically necessary.

Angel MedFlight, through a revenue management firm it hires called MedHealth Partners, continued to appeal to Blue Cross to overturn the denial of the flight portion of the bill.

Then, three months after Blue Cross sent the check that Deines then sent on to Angel MedFlight, the insurer demanded Deines pay back the $72,000.

The initial thought was I cant believe this is happening, said Deines.

Medical necessity criteria are set by insurers, with North Carolina Blue Cross covering air ambulances in exceptional circumstances, such as when needed treatment isnt available locally.

When Deines, who was still unemployed and undergoing treatment, couldnt pay, the debt was sent to collections.

In late June, Deines representatives at Angel MedFlight took the next step allowed under the Affordable Care Act, appealing the insurers internal determination that the flight wasnt medically necessary to an independent third party through the state.

On July 29, the evaluator ruled in favor of Blue Cross.

Normally, such a flight would be appropriate because the patient was medically unfit to travel via commercial airflight, the review noted. But, it went on to say, there was actually no need to travel, as the University of Colorado Hospital  a member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network  could have managed Deines treatment.

His health plan clearly stipulates their indications for medical flight coverage and, unfortunately, this case does not meet that criteria, the review concluded.

Resolution

The bill disappeared only after the press got involved. Shortly after a Kaiser Health News reporter contacted the communications representatives for both the insurer and Angel MedFlight, Deines heard from both of them.

The $72,000 payment was made in error, said Blue Cross spokesperson Jami Sowers.

We apologize for putting the member in the middle of this complicated situation, she said in an email that also noted the air ambulance company billed more than $70,000 just for ground transportation to and from the airport  more than 30 times the average cost of medical ground transport.

Such a situation would typically be flagged by internal systems but for some reason was not, Sowers said.

I have never heard of a ground transport that costs that much. Thats shocking, said Erin Fuse Brown, director of the Center for Law, Health & Society at Georgia State University College of Law, who studies patient billing and air ambulance costs.

Still, theres good news for Deines: Both the insurer and the air ambulance company told Kaiser Health News he will not be held responsible for any of the charges. (None of the charges stemmed from his first air ambulance flight from Casper to Denver, which was covered by the insurer.)

Once North Carolina Blue engages in our formal inquiries about its refund request, the status of the funds will be resolved, the ambulance spokesperson wrote in her email. One thing is certain, Sean will not have to pay for North Carolinas wavering coverage decision.

In an email, Sowers said Blue Cross had ceased all recoupment efforts related to Seans case.

The takeaway

If the flight had happened this year, the couple might have received more price information before they took the flight.

A law called the No Surprises Act took effect Jan. 1. Its main thrust is to protect insured patients from balance bills for the difference between what their insurance pays and what an out-of-network provider charges in emergencies.

It also covers nonemergency situations in which an insured patient is treated in an in-network facility by an out-of-network provider. In those cases, the patient would pay only what they would owe had the service been fully in-network.

Another part of the law, called a good faith estimate, might have provided Deines with more transparency into the costs.

That portion says medical providers, including air ambulances, must give upfront cost estimates in nonemergency situations to patients. Had the law been in effect, Deines might have learned before the flight that it could be billed at $489,000.

Insured patients in similar situations today should always check first with their insurer, if they are able, to see if an air transport would be covered, experts said.

Even if the law had been in effect, it likely would not have helped with the big hang-up in Deines case: The disagreement over medical necessity. Insurers still have leeway to define it.

For his part, Deines said hes glad he took the flight to be closer to home and family, despite the later financial shock.

I would not change it, because it provided support for myself and my wife, who needed to take care of me; she was keeping my sanity, he said.

Bill of the Month is a crowdsourced investigation by KHN and NPR that dissects and explains medical bills. Do you have an interesting medical bill you want to share with us? Tell us about it!
Seniors Sean Adams, left, and Peter Garlisi prepare the Aeronautics Laboratory Mach 6 Ludwieg Tube to test BOLT II geometry at the U.S. Air Force Academy. In 2021 as COVID-19 limited access to wind tunnels, NASA reached out to the academy for support with a series of wind tunnel tests in support of the BOLT II mission. (U.S. Air Force photo)
By Azernews

By Vafa Ismayilova

The liberation of Azerbaijan's Farrukh village from illegal Armenian armed groups is another manifestation of President Ilham Aliyev's statement that we know better when and what to do. It should be noted that Farrukh village located in Karabakh's Khojaly region is currently under the glorious Azerbaijani army's control.

Following the 44-day war with Armenia in 2020, the Azerbaijani military has achieved another victory in Farrukh. To recap, this village enters the administrative area of Pirlar village in Khojaly region located 16 km of Asgaran and 32 km of Khankandi.

The Azerbaijani soldier is writing a new chapter in the history of the country's victories. The name of this new victory is Farrukh. Azerbaijan once sacrificed more than thousands of martyrs for this land. The victorious Azerbaijani army cleared Farrukh, without suffering any casualties or bloodshed. This victory is a logical continuation of the country's national unity, the strength and power of the Azerbaijani army, and President Ilham Aliyevs foresight.

As a result of this foresight, the alliance agreement signed with the Russian Federation this February was a factor that aimed to give Azerbaijan a boost in its fight against separatism. However, the position of Russian peacekeepers, the latest Russian Defence Ministry statement accusing Azerbaijan of violating the trilateral peace deal proved to be incompetent in view of a trilateral statement signed by Baku, Moscow and Yerevan on November 10, 2020, and the Azerbaijani-Russian alliance pact signed on February 22, 2022.

It is noteworthy that the failure to implement the provisions of the trilateral ceasefire deal and the indifference of Russian peacekeepers, who were temporarily deployed on Azerbaijani territories under the November 10 agreement, stipulated the processes that have occurred over the past few days in the region. In 2020, Azerbaijan, which alone implemented four UN resolutions on the unconditional withdrawal of Armenian troops from its occupied territories, has been given no choice but to fulfill the provisions of the November declaration on its own.

The full picture of what is going on can be seen by looking at how the points of the November agreement are being fulfilled.

Point 1:

Complete cessation of all military operations and fires. With the exception of minor issues, this section has been completed in detail.

Come to a halt at occupied positions. This point was completely fulfilled.

Point 2:

Azerbaijan reclaims Aghdam region. The item has been fulfilled completely. The region's occupied territory was returned to the Soviet administrative borders.

Point 3:

A peacekeeping contingent is deployed along the line of contact and the Lachin corridor. That is, Russian peacekeepers should have taken a stand against Azerbaijan as a whole. This did not occur. Why? Consider the following point.

Point 4:

The Russian Federation's peacekeeping contingent is deployed concurrently with the withdrawal of Armenian armed forces. That is, peacekeepers, arrive at the contact line in the position of Armenian armed forces, and these Armenian forces are withdrawn. This is the most important point, which was not fulfilled, along with point 3. The Armenian armed forces have not yet been withdrawn and the Russian Defence Ministry has actually taken the position of recognizing the illegal armed groups on the Azerbaijani territory.

Point 5:

To control the ceasefire, a peacekeeping center is established. The goal has been achieved, and the center in Aghdam region is now open. However, it is unclear what this center is doing at the moment.

Point 6:

Return of Kalbajar and Lachin regions. So, Kalbajar region was returned to Soviet administrative borders. The Lachin corridor is still under the Russian peacekeepers' control and Azerbaijan guarantees safe travel along it. This has been and is done. However, it is done so that Armenians can carry weapons and ammunition and throw grenades at Azerbaijani posts near Shusha.

Point 7:

Relocation of refugees to Karabakh and neighboring regions. It has not been fulfilled. All of this must be done under the supervision of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Point 8:

Exchange of prisoners of war, hostages, detainees, and dead bodies. Both sides exchanged all prisoners of war and hostages, and the bodies of the deceased are being returned. Although the point has been met, Armenia believes that Azerbaijan is obligated to return that military personnel taken prisoner after the signing of the statement. The Russian Foreign Ministry has stated on numerous occasions that this military personnel does not fall under paragraph 8 of the trilateral statement.

Point 9:

Unblocking regional economic and transport communication. Despite Azerbaijan's practical steps, Armenia has made almost no efforts. So far, the tripartite working group formed for this purpose has made no progress.

It should be noted that the Russian peacekeepers' current mandate is uncertain. Dozens of videos and media reports can prove that the Russian peacekeepers are not adhering to the provisions of the November 10 deal. On the contrary, Azerbaijan has seen Russian peacekeepers feed and inspire Armenian illegal armed formations for more than a year.

The behavior of Russian peacekeepers, as well as the fact that the Russian media continues to portray terrorists in Karabakh as "republic" and the official media, replicates terrorist Araik Arutyunyan's "orders" contradict the alliance statement signed between Baku and Moscow on February 22. The provisions of the alliance pact, including the fight against separatism, are also flagrantly violated.

During the year and a half following the 44-day war, the Azerbaijani state showed restraint and patience in its approach, always took the initiative of peace. The opening of regional communications, the demarcation and delimitation of the Azerbaijani-Armenian borders, calls for ending hostile relations and refraining from revanchist actions topped Bakus agenda at bilateral and multilateral levels. Unfortunately, Armenia, which occupied the countrys territories for 30 years and razed to the ground Azerbaijans cultural heritage, cemeteries, historical monuments, villages, and cities, continues in the same vein, trying to mislead the international community.

Artificially inflating Azerbaijans determined ongoing efforts to clarify the location of positions and deployment points in the region, hysteric Armenia is engaged in disinformation.

As earlier Baku stated Yerevan deliberately uses as an instrument for political manipulation the technical problems that have arisen over the past few days on the gas pipelines of the region due to weather conditions.

"Armenia kept Azerbaijans Nakhchivan with a population of more than 400,000 people in a gas blockade for many years, for 30 years used the Sarsang Reservoir as a tool for environmental terror against the population of Azerbaijan, for a long time denied the existence of maps of minefields, continues to hide information about the fate of about 4,000 Azerbaijanis who went missing in the early 1990s. Now Armenia is making similar unfounded accusations against Azerbaijan, which is political hypocrisy," the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said.

Baku sees the full implementation of the provisions of the signed joint statements, including the complete withdrawal of the remnants of the Armenian illegal formations from the region and the normalization of relations based on the principles of international law as the only way to ensure regional peace and security.

On March 26, the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry described the Russian Defence Ministrys one-sided statement as the one not reflecting the reality.

Baku stressed that Moscows statement "contradicts the essence of bilateral relations between Russia and Azerbaijan, as well as the Declaration on Allied Interaction, signed between the two countries on February 22, 2022".

The current course of events suggests that Azerbaijan will fully restore sovereignty on its territory and that no separatist regime or illegal armed group will be able to remain in the country. Azerbaijanis will return home soon.

As part of his visit to liberated Fuzuli region in October 2021, President ?lham Aliyev stated about attempts to threaten Azerbaijan before, during, and after the 2020 war.

But all these efforts were in vain. Because no one can take our will. We will not compromise our dignity, our pride, our independence. Let everyone know... No one can speak to Azerbaijan in the language of dictate, in the language of threats, he said.

Stressing that some international circles have recently attempted to "hit" Azerbaijan with the weapon of "ethnic cleansing", some local experts dismissed as nonsense the thesis that the Azerbaijani government is taking systematic steps to expel Armenians from Karabakh.

Meanwhile, it is questioned why Azerbaijan has to give any guarantees to Armenians in Karabakh. It is believed that these discussions, can only begin if the rights of 200,000 Azerbaijanis expelled from Goycha, Zangazur, and Yerevan are restored, and they are safely returned to their ancestral lands.

In other words, if Yerevan brings the rights of the Armenians of Karabakh to the forefront, why does not Baku do the same for Azerbaijanis deported from their historical lands? In brief, guarantees must be reciprocated.
By Vafa Ismayilova

Baku has dismissed as inaccurate the Russian Defence Ministry statement on the withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Farrukh village in Karabakh's Khojaly region.

In a statement published on March 27, the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry said: "The Azerbaijani Defence Ministry regretfully informs that some points of the statement of the Russian Defence Ministry dated March 27, 2022, do not reflect the reality. There have been no changes in the positions of the Azerbaijan army in Farrukh village and on the surrounding high grounds, which are part of the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan.

The information about the retreat of the Azerbaijan army units from these positions does not reflect reality. The Azerbaijan army completely controls the operational situation."

The ministry also rejected the Russian ministry's claims alleging the Azerbaijani truce violation and the case of injury among the Azerbaijani servicemen. It once again recalled the Russian Defence Ministry that there is no administrative-territorial unit called "Nagorno-Karabakh" on the Azerbaijani territory.

"The use of the expression 'Nagorno-Karabakh' in the statements of the Russian Defence Ministry dated March 26 and 27 is disrespectful to the territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan, which is recognized and accepted by the international community, including the Russian Federation," the statement added.

The ministry recalled the Russian Defence Ministry that the first paragraph of the Declaration on Allied Interaction signed by the two countries' presidents on February 22, 2022, states that Russia and Azerbaijan establish their relations based on mutual respect for territorial integrity and inviolability of state borders, as well as non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, peaceful settlement of disputes and non-use of force or threat of force.

Furthermore, Russia and Azerbaijan join forces in the fight against and neutralization of international terrorism, extremism, and separatism, as stated in Article 18 of the Declaration, the ministry added.

"The statement of the Russian Defence Ministry also demonstrates disrespect towards the declaration signed by the President of the Russian Federation, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Armed Forces Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. The [Azerbaijani] Defence Ministry reiterates that there is no village called 'Furukh' in Khojaly region of Azerbaijan. The name of the mentioned village is 'FARRUKH'. We hope that in the following statements the name of the village will be indicated correctly," the ministry added.

It should be noted Farrukh enters the administrative area of Pirlar village in Khojaly region located 16 km of Asgaran settlement and 32 km of Khankandi.

The Azerbaijani armed forces regained full control over the village, clearing it from illegal Armenian armed groups, who had to leave Azerbaijan's internationally-recognized territories in Karabakh under the ceasefire deal signed by Baku, Moscow and Yerevan on November 10, 2020.
Jon Caldara is president of the Independence Institute in Denver and hosts The Devils Advocate with Jon Caldara on Colorado Public Television Channel 12.
Gov. Jared Polis fares better in pre-election polling than his fellow Democrats in Colorado and across the country. His colleagues are underwa
Week 11 brought lots of the folks from back home to the Capitol.

I had three RECs, Farm Bureau from three counties, a high school student job shadowing, and 80+ junior high students from Eagle Grove. Also, my pastor journeyed to Des Moines from Britt to help open the Senate in prayer.

Thats well over 120 people from my district that came to participate in state government.

National Ag Week is March 21-27. The Senate recognized this by passing a resolution honoring the 84,900 farms in Iowa. We rank first in the nation in production of corn, hogs, and eggs as well as in soybeans some of those years. We are fourth in number of cattle and calves fed, not to mention poultry, dairy and ag machinery.

The agriculture industry is a large part of Iowas economy and I want to recognize all the hard work invested in food, feed, fiber, and pharmaceuticals in the state.

An interesting bill we passed this week was Joint Resolution 2005. This deals with the line of succession for the offices of governor and lieutenant governor. In the event a sitting governor is unable to finish the term this resolution would designate that the lt. governor becomes the governor.

The new governor would then select a new lt. governor to serve the remainder of the term. This should help keep the governors office running effectively if a vacancy arises and it clarifies the language currently in the Iowa Constitution.

The constitutional amendment must pass in the House and the Senate in two consecutive Iowa General Assemblies and then go to the people of Iowa for a vote. The same language must be passed in 2023 or 2024 before it is put before the people for a vote.

I floor managed a bill that dealt with unemployment benefits. The House had attempted to pass a bill dealing with a different aspect of unemployment benefits as part of a much broader bill.

When that bill failed to pass, it was decided to preserve the unemployment part by amending it to the simple bill that I was floor managing. If we had not done that, this issue would have been dead until the next year.

The result was that we had to wait for amendments to be written, analyzed by both parties and then debated. We started the bill at 10:30 a.m., paused until 4 p.m., then finally passed it at 6:45 p.m.

Getting a bill from an idea to a law is often not a simple process.

I will be having forums April 2 at Algona City Hall, and April 8 at the Garner Library at 8 a.m. and Britt Library at 9:45 a.m.

Dennis Guth is in his second term in the Iowa State Senate, representing Hancock County District 4. He can be reached at dennis.guth@legis.iowa.gov or (641) 430-0424.

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March 23 marked the one-year anniversary of the murders of correctional officer Robert McFarland and nurse Lorena Schulte at the Anamosa State Penitentiary. We mourn their loss and continue to fight for better working conditions for the Iowans who do these jobs every day.

Iowa prisons are overcrowded, understaffed and dangerous. Violence in Iowa prisons has been on the rise for years, and is now a regular occurrence.

According to a system-wide security and safety review of the Iowa Department of Corrections, inadequate staffing levels and recruitment and retention problems are straining Iowas prison systemand those struggles persist, despite the Legislature approving a long-overdue increase to the corrections budget in 2021.

We can honor the sacrifices of Robert McFarland and Lorena Schulte by passing a pair of bipartisan proposals to:

 Define prison health care staff as public safety employees.

 Restore collective bargaining rights that give employees a stronger voice in their workplace.

 Provide health insurance for the surviving spouse and children when a worker is killed in the line of duty.

 Strengthen penalties for assault against public safety personnel.

 Increase funding for contraband and surveillance screening at correctional facilities.

HF2404 and HF2405 would better protect workers, prevent future tragedies and send the message that we value and respect our fellow citizens who take on some of the toughest jobs.

UNEMPLOYMENT CHANGES SLASH WORKERS EARNED BENEFITS

Late Wednesday, the Iowa House and Senate approved HF 2355, which met with bipartisan opposition for its cruel and drastic changes to Iowas Unemployment Insurance Program.

The bill takes money out of the pockets of Iowans who earned unemployment benefits and who lost their job due to no fault of their own. Provisions include:

 Cutting the number of weeks Iowans can collect unemployment to 16. Most states offer 26 weeks of unemployment benefits.

 Cutting the number of weeks a worker can collect unemployment when their employer goes out of business.

 Lowering the pay unemployed workers must accept for suitable work.

The Senate made the House bill even worse by mandating a one-week waiting period before out-of-work Iowans can collect unemployment. An individual would receive that compensation as the last payment when their benefits are exhausted. Only 25% of claimants exhaust their benefits, so 75% would never get that week of compensation theyre owed.

Because the Senate amended the bill, it has returned to the House for further consideration.

State Senator Amanda Ragan works for the people of Senate District 30, which includes Cerro Gordo, Mitchell and Worth counties, as well as Rock Grove and Rockford townships in Floyd County. Contact her at 641-424-0874 or amanda.ragan@legis.iowa.gov

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Governor Reynolds leads in a way that supports individual freedoms. She allows us to make the decisions that are best for ourselves and our families, rather than letting the government make those decisions for us.

That being said, I could not be more supportive of Governor Reynolds decision to run for re-election.

Shes not afraid to stand up for whats right. Governor Reynolds opened our schools and fought against mask mandates. She got people back to work. And shes a strong leader who is not phased by the opposition or challenges that come along with doing the right thing.

Governor Reynolds has proven to be the strong decision-maker and leader that Iowa needs. She has my full support.

Doug Campbell

Mason City

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It's time to cap insulin prices; it's a matter of life or death for Iowans

Two bills with overwhelming bipartisan support passed the Iowa House in 2021. HF262 and HF263 together would allow pharmacists to refill lifesaving medicines in an emergency and cap insulin costs at $100.

As a ranking member of the Senate Human Resources Committee, I asked the Chair of the committee, Senator Jeff Edler, to bring these lifesaving bills up for a vote this session, but he refused.

One in ten adult Iowans have been diagnosed with diabetes. Chances are you know someone who has diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes is an auto-immune disease which causes the pancreas to not produce insulin. For the 1.6 million adults and nearly 250,000 children with Type 1 diabetes in the U.S., not having a constant supply of insulin is a matter of life or death.

In my own life, Ive heard from my neighbors whose son Matt was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 11. Matts mother Deb and her husband lived in constant fear of insulin vials breaking, or damage to the insulin pump tubing which could waste several vials of insulin quickly.

Insurance companies wont pay for extra insulin to have on hand for peace-of-mind and wont replace insulin that is stolen, lost or damaged. This was the case when Matt went off to college and inadvertently left his bag in the car and his three-month insulin supply froze.

Insulin now costs anywhere from $175 to $300 per vial, or around $1,000 per month on average. Replacing a $3,000 three-month supply is impossible for many working families.

According to JDRF, up to 25% of people with diabetes skip or ration their insulin because they cannot afford it. Bri Moss, a Type 1 diabetic from Dubuque, shared her fear and heartbreak of losing a friend who rationed their insulin and died as a result.

Bob Greenwood, owner of Greenwood Pharmacy in Waterloo, shared his insights with me about what is behind the rising cost of this drug that has been around for 100 years. He told me insulin only cost $8 a vial when he graduated pharmacy school in 1977, but prices really started to escalate after the enactment of the Medicare Modernization Act (MMA) of 2003.

The MMA provided the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit. When insulin manufacturers had to compete for formulary placement and rebate Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) in the Part D program, it further added to the price of insulin.

Greenwood said Insulin prices continued to skyrocket when mergers between big companies such as CVS (acquiring Caremark and Aetna), and Cigna buying Express Scripts, reduced competition even further and required additional manufacturer rebates for formulary placement.

Currently, three pharmaceutical manufacturers hold 95% of the insulin market share.

A study published in BMJ Global Health showed that pharma companies could manufacture and price a full years supply of insulin at $72 to $133 per patient, versus the $12,000 currently paid per patient on average, and still make a profit.

Its time to take action on this type of price gouging thats costing Iowans their lives.

Since Iowa Republicans at the state legislature refuse to act to protect Iowans, Congress must. In Congress, I will support legislation to cap the cost of insulin and allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices so that no American needs to choose between their insulin and their mortgage.

Senator Liz Mathis was elected to the Iowa State Senate in 2011, representing parts of Linn County. Mathis was a journalist for 27 years, held a teaching position at Wartburg College and worked at Four Oaks, a childrens mental and behavioral health agency. Mathis is running for Congress in the 2nd Congressional District.

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By Trend

The European Union official coordinating nuclear negotiations between Iran and world powers said on Friday he will meet with Irans chief nuclear negotiator in Tehran on Saturday, Trend reports citing Al Arabiya.

The EUs Enrique Mora, who coordinates talks between Iran and world powers in Vienna aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, said he will meet with Irans deputy foreign minister and chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri-Kani in Tehran to try to close the remaining gaps in the talks.

We must conclude this negotiation. Much is at stake, Mora wrote on Twitter.
Sanjeetgujrall wrote:

Can someone explain why it is not option D...



If we negate it...Actors who live a relatively trouble-free personal life posssess inspiring material for movies, songs and books.



This will break the conclusion -- because now actions with no person trouble can contribute to popular culture as well ....as they have content also

contribute more

than

The conclusion here is that actors with more personal troublesto pop cultureactors with less personal troubles. This is acknowledging that although actors with less personal troubles don't contribute as much to popular culture (as measured by how often their stories are referenced in movies, songs, books), they still contribute. Because of this, if we take (D) and negate it:[original] Actors who live a relatively trouble-free personal life do not posssess inspiring material for movies, songs and books.[negated] Actors who live in a relatively trouble-free personal life DO possess inspiring material for movies, songs and books. -- it i'snt weakening the conclusion but merely rephrasing a fact that's already implied.
Certain types of toys have never been associated with injury

majority of children injured

under three years

parents do not pay attention to manufacturers labels

most serious hazard

Consumer advocate: The toy-labeling law should require manufacturers to provide explicit safety labels on toys to indicate what hazards the toys pose. The only labels currently required by law are labels indicating the age range for which a toy is intended. For instance, a three and up label is required on toys that pose a choking hazard for children under three years of age. Although the current toy-labeling law has indeed reduced the incidence of injuries to children from toys, parents could prevent such injuries almost entirely if toy labels provided explicit safety information.Which one of the following, if true, most strengthens the consumer advocates argument?One has to note that clearly it is stated that existing toy-labeling law is about age as its base. What is REQUIRED that that the law should have explicit safety labels i.e. it is not practiced right now. Hence there must be some faults in the existing labeling.(A)to children. - WRONG. Irrelevant. Does nothing.(B) Most parents believe that the current labels are recommendations regarding level of cognitive skill. - CORRECT. It's the perception of parents that is causing the injuries.(C) Theby toys areof age. - WRONG. It is the 2nd best contender. It suggests that under 3 years of age children require safety labels on their toys. But it does not state what is the actual reason for those injuries.(D) Manywhen they select toys for their children. - WRONG. May be a trap. But it actually weakens since even after those safety labels injuries might continue to happen.(E) Choking is thepresented to children by toys. - WRONG. Irrelevant.Answer B._________________
Bunuel wrote:

The mayor's advisers are attempting to alter the widespread public belief that the mayor's restructuring of the city's taxation system is to blame for the poor business climate in the city. They say that the poor business climate is part of a national phenomenon and that the mayor is only blamed because of a coincidence in time: the business climate happened to get worse shortly following the tax restructuring.



Which of the following, if true, would cast the most serious doubt on the adviser's claim about the reason that the tax restructuring is blamed for the poor business climate?





A There was a noticeable deterioration of the city's public transportation system immediately following the tax restructuring but the public drew no connection between the two events.



B. When the mayor was elected, by a sizeable majority, he had clearly enunciated his intention to restructure the city's taxation system.



C. Most economists agree that the effects of the tax restructuring on the city's business environment would not be immediately obvious, but would take at least a year to make themselves felt.



D. Despite the nationwide poor business environment, similar tax restructuring is being planned in cities of similar size throughout the country.



E. While the public generally objects to anything perceived to be likely to increase their taxes, they are just as quick to object to any reduction in the services supported by tax revenues.

Official Explanation

(A) casts doubt on this explanation by demonstrating a parallel situation in which the public "drew no connection" between the tax restructuring and a coincident negative city-wide phenomenon, deteriorating transportation.

The mayor's advisers claim that the tax restructuring is blamed for the poor business climate because of a temporal association in the minds of the public.(B) focuses on the mayor rather than the public; whether or not the mayor established his intentions before he took office does not address why the public blames him for the economic downturn.(C) would actually strengthen the advisers' argument by citing authoritative opinion that no immediate connection could be seen between the tax restructuring and the economic situation of the city.(D) and (E) fall outside the scope of the advisers' claim: (D) by addressing "cities of similar size" instead of the city in question, and (E) by describing public reaction to reductions in services, not a poor economic climate._________________
For the Pittsylvania-Danville Health District, a continued drop in daily COVID-19 cases is ushering in a new attitude for the local health department: optimism with only a small dash of caution mixed in.

The caution is there because the novel coronavirus certainly knows how to throw curveballs just when health experts think they may have a handle on the situation.

In Danville, the daily infection rate has dropped to about one. And while Pittsylvania County is still adding about six new cases per day, data from the Virginia Department of Health shows the figures are comparable to the summer of 2021, the lowest point in the pandemic now in a third year.

There were seven new fatalities recorded in the last week, bringing the death toll to 469 for Danville and Pittsylvania County. However, those deaths likely occurred weeks ago and only recently made it to the official record books.

A subvariant of omicron  the altered version of the coronavirus responsible for the record infections in January  is leading to a rise in virus infections in other countries. Even if that does cause an uptick in cases locally, a full-blown surge isnt projected.

While BA.2 is in the U.S. and in Virginia, it remains relatively low here, Brookie Crawford, a spokesperson for the Virginia Department of Health, told the Register & Bee on Friday. Hopefully, it will not contribute to any significant surge.

Across Virginia, many health districts are seeing rapid drops in infections and hospitalizations. The exceptions are in Central Virginia, Roanoke city and West Piedmont districts, the University of Virginias Biocomplexity Institute reported Friday. Those locations are seeing a slow growth from low case levels.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates the BA.2 subvariant accounts for about 30% of new COVID-19 cases in the state. By mid-April, its expected to become dominant, UVa reports.

Most European nations have crested the BA.2 surge, UVa researchers wrote in Fridays abbreviated report. However, the subvariant is causing a major surge of hospitalizations in England and Ireland.

The state health department is using early warning systems to monitor possible upticks, including wastewater surveillance. Locally, sampling is happening in Danville.

This week, we have observed a decreasing trend in viral load (amount of virus in a sample) at that site, Linda M. Scarborough, a health department spokesperson, wrote in an email to the Register & Bee.

This is part of more than 400 testing sites across the nation feeding data into the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By monitoring wastewater, health leaders hope to catch signs of an increase in COVID-19 before it becomes problematic.

Virus levels in wastewater usually increase four to six days before clinical cases increase, so surveillance results can help communities act quickly to prevent the spread of COVID-19, CDC officials wrote in a Friday update.

Vaccinations

Vaccination continues to be a cornerstone in preventing another uptick, Crawford explained, also noting theres likely to be more seasonality to this virus by fall.

Just as cases have fallen, so has the demand for vaccines. In fact, across Virginia and the United States, daily administrations of the shots of protection are at the lowest levels in the pandemic.

Locally, only about half of the population is fully vaccinated and about 1-in-4 have received a booster dose.

The district is now using a mobile van to reach residents who havent been vaccinated.

Thats in addition to handing out thousands of test kits, long hailed by experts as a key part in controlling the pandemic.

Yet vaccine hesitancy is difficult to overcome, especially in rural areas.

We continue to partner with community leaders and organizations across both health districts to reach the unvaccinated population and offer vaccination clinics, Crawford explained, referencing the Southside Health District to the regions east also. Additionally, Governor Youngkin released a public service announcement with the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) encouraging Virginians to get vaccinated.

Anyone wanting a free COVID-19 vaccine should visit vaccinate.virginia.gov.

Masks and more

Danville and Pittsylvania County are in the low community level for COVID-19 based on the CDCs new formula for calculating the virus threat. Instead of relying on how the virus is transmitting in a community, data from hospitals now determines the local rankings.

In the low level, the federal agency no longer recommends masking in public indoor places. The local health district is a tad more measured when asked if residents should feel safe returning to a pre-pandemic life.

Masks are no longer required, but they are still suggested, Crawford said. It is important to evaluate each situation individually and use the 3 Ws  wash your hands, watch your distance, wear your mask  appropriately for the situation.

She also stresses people stay home when sick and follow quarantine and isolation guidelines.

Other health focuses

For the last two years, the local health departments daily routine has centered around COVID-19. However, once the virus moved to the endemic designation  essentially living with it  workers will be able to get back to the core health programs, Crawford explained.

In addition, they hope to launch some initiatives put on hold to better help the regions health.

We do hope to build upon what we have learned about our communities and the relationships we have built/deepened to springboard these efforts to greater community engagements, she said.

Crawford also noted with low cases, its a perfect opportunity for residents to follow-up on preventive health screenings that may have fallen by the wayside because of the pandemic.

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A wave of new electric vehicle charging stations across the country is coming as interest in alternatives to gasoline-powered vehicles is on the rise and could heighten further due to a global spike in gasoline prices.

Though most of the plans were in the works before already high gas prices surged because of the war in Ukraine, the timing may work in favor of electric vehicle makers and other proponents of ditching fossil fuels.

From coast to coast, cities big and small are adding charging stations for electric vehicles. Strong demand is forecast for the vehicles, despite their higher prices and limited availability, meaning even more communities will feel pressure to add charging stations or risk having motorists pass them by in favor of plug-in-friendly places.

The publicly funded investments come as gasoline prices in most of the country are above $4 a gallon and significantly more in some spots.

Last week, New Jersey officials awarded $1 million in grants to install electric vehicle charging stations in 24 tourist areas around the state. The idea was to help spur tourism by reassuring visitors who own electric vehicles that they can come to a vacation spot in New Jersey and not run out of power to get back home.

Don't worry about it, said Joseph Fiordaliso, president of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. We have the equipment here so that you don't have to have range anxiety.

Spots getting money for new charging stations include Asbury Park, Atlantic City, Ocean City and several state parks and forests.

The money comes from the state budget. On Tuesday, NJ Transit, the state's public transportation agency, will unveil electric charging stations at a bus depot in Camden, outside Philadelphia.

There are now about 625 vehicle charging stations in New Jersey.

On the federal side, the city of Hoboken, just outside New York City, is getting up to six new charging stations in a deal also announced Monday. U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez said the money from a federal spending bill will help ease our transition to electric vehicles, reduce emissions, and create a cleaner environment for our children.

Governments across the country are doing likewise. Bellingham, Washington will add 90 charging stations over the next two years. Portland, Maine, recently entered into a 10-year agreement with a company that will install, operate and maintain more than 40 electric vehicle charging stations on publicly owned property.

Charleston, West Virginia, just added two charging stations at a public parking garage. Charlotte, North Carolina, Cleveland and Saginaw, Michigan, are among cities adding charging stations.

It's happening in other countries, too. Glasgow, Scotland, is adding 164 new stations this year.

Almost half a million electric vehicles were sold in the U.S. last year, according to Kelly Blue Book.
GREENSBORO  The City Council agreed 7-1 to give the International Civil Rights Center & Museum $2 million to buy an adjacent building for an expansion  with some stipulations last week.

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 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.
The Rockingham County Board of Elections will hold a special meeting on Monday, March 28 at 3:30 p.m. at the Board of Elections Office at 240 Cherokee Camp Road in Wentworth. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss ways to get elections information out to the voters.
On her morning commute to work, Dr. Laura Ucik, a rural family physician in the northern piedmont of North Carolina, thinks about the frustrating memories of patients that could have avoided serious illness and injury had they qualified for Medicaid years ago.

One such patient with severe stomach pain couldnt afford an ultrasound to identify whether or not they had gallstones.

Another arrived with a swollen leg, a common but urgent symptom of a blood clot. Unable to pay for imaging and blood thinning medication, they left without a diagnosis.

I have a patient who had rectal bleeding for over a year, and they were eventually diagnosed with rectal cancer, said Ucik. Recently, they found out the cancer had begun to metastasize to other parts of the body. It all could have been avoided if they had had insurance to cover a colonoscopy.

While thousands of North Carolinians struggle to keep their health in check, healthcare providers across the state are being pushed to their limits as people with no coverage flood their offices.

North Carolina is one of only 12 states that still havent expanded their Medicaid coverage. With almost 2.7 million North Carolina residents already enrolled in Medicaid, up to 626,000 are now in what is called the Medicaid coverage gap.

The gap refers to people whose income is too high to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to afford other insurance. In addition, all childless non-disabled adults are ineligible regardless of how low their income is.

Medicaid was created to provide health insurance to low-income families and individuals in 1965. However, 12.9 percent of North Carolinas population remained uninsured in 2018.

In Rockingham County alone, Medicaid expansion would mean health insurance coverage for roughly 4,500 residents, as well as $19 million in savings from uncompensated care for hospitals, according to the North Carolina Rural Institute.

Closing the coverage gap would also create an estimated 300 jobs, boost tax revenue by $1 million and increase business activity by $126 million, according to research compiled by the North Carolina Justice Center.

Gap means long waits or no care

For health care providers, the gap has meant struggles to provide care for patients who wait too long or dont have the ability to afford testing and treatment. It means long hours trying to find care.

Dr. Joel L. Gallagher is an allergist-immunologist with offices in Reidsville and Greensboro. About two-thirds of his patients are either uninsured or covered by federally funded insurance like Medicaid or Medicare.

Scrambling to find the cheapest option adds a lot more time to providing healthcare, which isnt ideal when youre treating asthma, said Gallagher. Many of my patients need medication everyday just to breathe.

When Gallaghers office is unable to find an affordable solution, they often send patients home with drug samples. For some, these samples are the only way to get medication since they cant afford a prescription. However, these samples only last a few weeks.

As a result, some patients ration their medications at home. When an asthmatic isnt properly dosed for their condition, it can lead to asthma attacks, which are more serious and can be traumatizing to patients.

Although Gallagher can occasionally drop the charges of a breathing test or other procedure, he has to be careful that his office isnt writing off too much.

We still have to worry about paying our staffs salaries at the end of the day, he said.

Majority of state legislators oppose expansion

Still others have taken up a personal campaign to persuade North Carolina politicians to approve expansion. The political atmosphere has held talk of expanding for years, but so far, the majority of legislators in the state remain in opposition. However, support for expansion is shifting, and although the change is slow, more local representatives are beginning to show their support.

At the forefront of this movement in North Carolina is Casey Cooper, the CEO of the Cherokee Indian Hospital in Cherokee, N.C. There, Cooper and his staff serve all members of the tribe, as well as select other groups, including spouses of tribe members and all children under the age of 19.

Although his activism isnt in his job description, Cooper recounts a personal story about how the lack of health insurance impacted a childhood friend.

Cooper and Albert Hartline went to high school together in Jackson County. Hartline suffered from depression and substance use disorders, the combination of which eventually led to his unemployment and lack of health insurance.

Several years later, Hartline was diagnosed with cancer. He knew he didnt have the resources to pay for his treatment, and his mental health and addiction spiraled out of control. According to Cooper, life became unbearable for Hartline because he knew he couldnt afford treatment for his potentially terminal illness.

In December of 2020, Hartline committed suicide shortly after killing his neighbor. Hartline got caught in a battle that could have been avoided had he been able to get insurance, said Cooper. In his office at the hospital, a plaque memorializing Hartline sits on the windowsill.

In the following years, Cooper began setting up meetings to talk with conservative county commissioners across the state about Medicaid expansion. He persuaded Swain, Jackson, Macon, Clay and Graham County commissioners to change their stance on Medicaid coverage, he says. But Cherokee, Transylvania and Haywood County commissioners did not sign a resolution after meeting with him.

Stereotypes hurt poor in need of medical care

People think that folks without insurance are choosing not to work, which is a horrible misunderstanding, said Cooper. The majority of uninsured people are working, and they are working poor.

In addition to the stereotype that uninsured people are unmotivated to improve their situation, Medicaid expansion carries another generalization regarding what, and who, it was related to in the past.

For a lot of republican officials, Medicaid expansion is tied to Obamacare, which theyre against, and maybe thats that, said Madeline Guth, a policy analyst in the Kaiser Family Foundations Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured. State politics can vary, but theres a lot of long-standing opposition in North Carolina.

Since the U.S. Supreme Courts decision to make participation in Medicaid expansion optional for states in 2012, the number of people who would qualify has increased. In many of North Carolinas 78 rural counties, healthcare clinics and doctors offices are few and far between, making it difficult for people to get the care they need before their condition takes a turn for the worst.

As part of their efforts to provide universal care, the Cherokee Indian Hospital administers treatment regardless of the patients ability to pay. While this relieves the financial stressor from members of the tribe, the hospital is spending millions of dollars every year that could be used elsewhere.

Coverage could prevent cost of advanced illness

Many rural North Carolinians use emergency rooms as healthcare because they arent insured, said Rebecca Cerese, a policy advocate for the North Carolina Justice Centers Health Advocacy Project. However, hospitals will only treat patients until they are stable enough to go back home, then the cycle starts over.

In some cases, adding a financial burden can mean the difference between someone living and dying because of their condition; a situation Ucik knows all too well.

On a daily basis, she sees upwards of 10 patients living with medical issues that could be treated if they had insurance. However, most cant afford the cost out of pocket and are unable to receive proper treatment day after day.

It is unbelievable the things we are doing as healthcare workers to try and provide for our patients without the proper resources, said Ucik. Every day I am bending over backwards to solve problems that can only be diagnosed and treated with tests, medications and referrals to specialists.

After another long day of finding temporary solutions to long-term problems, Ucik reflects on how her job would be so much easier if her patients had the ability to get help before their situation turned desperate.

The money we arent spending now when people come in without insurance doesnt even compare with the money we spend later on once their conditions have worsened, said Ucik. This isnt healthcare; people will continue to suffer until the legislation changes.

UNC Media Hub is a collection of students from the various concentrations in the Hussman School of Journalism and Media working together to create integrated and free multimedia packages covering stories from around North Carolina.
By Trend

Turkey resumed marine traffic in the Bosporus on March 26 after it was suspended for nearly four hours following the discovery of a stray naval mine, Trend reports citing Hurriyet Daily News.

A team of divers has "deactivated" an old naval mine floating in the Bosporus, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar has said.

Russias main intelligence agency on March 21 said several hundred mines had drifted into the Black Sea after breaking off from cables near Ukrainian ports. After the start of the Russian special military operation, Ukrainian naval forces had deployed barriers of mines around the ports of Odessa, Ochakov, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny, the FSB security service said. The cables were cut due to storms, and some of them were floating freely in the western Black Sea, pushed along by wind and the currents, it added.

Ukraine, however, dismissed the claim, saying that it was disinformation aimed at closing off parts of the sea.
GREENSBORO  The Guilford County Board of Education is looking for some help finding the districts next superintendent.

The board voted at its retreat on Saturday to advertise for a search firm to help find a replacement for Superintendent Sharon Contreras, who will be leaving this summer for another job. Specifically, the board will be putting out a request for search firms to send in their qualifications for consideration.

Saturdays vote followed an open discussion by board members at their retreat on Saturday. The friendly tone of the conversation was notable, given prior tensions between school board member Anita Sharpe and the boards chairwoman and vice chairwoman around the process for deciding on next steps.

Chairwoman Deena Hayes-Greene called on Vice Chairwoman Winston McGregor, who provided a quick overview of what shed learned from talking to some national groups about what other school districts are experiencing now with looking for superintendents. Hayes-Greene then opened up discussion for what the board should do next.

Board member Linda Welborn made a motion to put out a request for qualifications for a search firm and McGregor seconded it. Board members then talked about what that could mean, with Contreras and board attorney Jill Wilson also sharing their thoughts and observations, including from their own experiences with superintendent searches.

McGregor said school boards arent required to bring in a search firm to help them find candidates. Wilson, however, recommended the practice, suggesting a search firm could help keep the school board organized and on task with its search, and help preserve confidentiality for any sitting superintendents who might be interested but concerned about being discovered talking to another school district.

Multiple people in the discussion pointed out that hiring a firm to conduct a national search does not preclude school board members from making their own suggestions about candidates to be solicited and vetted. Basically, the search firm works for the board, and the board gets to decide what services it does or does not want from the firm and how it wants the firm to proceed.

Board members voted 5-3 to put out a request for qualifications for search firms. Board member Deborah Napper voted yes along with Welborn, Sharpe, Hayes-Greene and McGregor.

Board members Khem Irby, Bettye Jenkins and T. Dianne Bellamy-Small voted no, with board member Pat Tillman absent. Irby said she was convinced the next superintendent needed to be someone who is already familiar with North Carolina, the school district and the school board, and Jenkins said she wanted to move more quickly to get the next superintendent in place.

Contreras announced in January that she would be leaving to take a position leading The Innovation Project, a nonprofit group of North Carolina school superintendents that tries to develop innovative strategies for public education.

Wanda Edwards, the districts head of communications, said Contreras expects to be employed with the district through August, but the board still has some details to work out about the superintendents leave days, so its not clear yet when her specific last day would be.

Contact Jessie Pounds at 336-373-7002 and follow @JessiePounds on Twitter.

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To his great credit, thats what the former governor of Ohio, Republican John Kasich, did recently when he testified before a North Carolina legislative committee.

The subject of Kasichs presentation was Medicaid, the American health insurance program for people of low income. This week marks the 12th anniversary of the enactment of the Affordable Care Act  a federal law that gave states the ability to expand eligibility for Medicaid to cover a broad swath of people with incomes too high to qualify under previous income thresholds and too low to afford insurance on the open market.

At the time the law was enacted, it seemed to most observers a foregone conclusion that the benefits would be sufficient and obvious enough to convince all states  even deeply red ones  to opt for expansion. The financial incentives were enormous; the law provided that the federal government pays the vast majority of the cost. The economic benefits to a state that would result from an annual influx of billions of federal dollars  in the creation of jobs and added stability for rural health care systems, among other things  were undeniable.

Now add to this the fact that most uninsured households stuck in whats come to be called the coverage gap, had (and have) no realistic option for finding affordable private health insurance and must invariably rely on charity care, and the case for expansion was boosted still further.

Today in the non-expansion state of North Carolina, for example, the adults in a family of three with an annual income of between $9,122 and $21,720 are out of luck when it comes to Medicaid eligibility. Amazingly, at even $200 per week, they make too much to qualify and too little to receive a marketplace subsidy  even though its absurd to think that such a household could afford hundreds of dollars per month for private coverage.

Tragically and amazingly, however, several states  all led in whole or in an essential part by Republican politicians  resisted expansion. And though the number of holdouts has slowly dwindled over the years to a stubborn collection of 12  a majority of the old Confederacy (including North Carolina) plus Wyoming, South Dakota and Wisconsin  the resistance remains deeply and almost weirdly passionate.

Especially among Trump loyalists  a huge percentage of whom hail from struggling, job- and hospital-shedding rural regions with huge numbers of uninsured residents  a statement of support for expansion can quickly transform a GOP lawmaker into a magnet for a primary challenge.

All of which brings us back to John Kasich, a dyed-in-the-wool conservative Republican who embraced Medicaid expansion for his Trump-leaning home state of Ohio when he served as its governor.

Kasich clearly understands the numbers. As The Washington Post reported during his 2016 presidential run, He is a man obsessed with budgets who wasnt about to turn down an expected infusion of $13 billion for his state when Medicaid expansion became an option.

But there was another aspect to Kasichs actions too: his personal religious faith and concern for the less fortunate. As he told a resistant Ohio lawmaker at the time:

Now, when you die and get to the meeting with Saint Peter, hes probably not going to ask you much about what you did about keeping government small. But he is going to ask you what you did for the poor. You better have a good answer.

Kasich repeated that simple and eloquent argument in his North Carolina presentation last week when he asked the members of the Joint legislative Committee on Access to Healthcare and Medicaid Expansion to imagine not having health insurance and dealing with a cancer diagnosis.

Can you imagine that? he asked. By expanding Medicaid, he noted, we have, the chance to reach out and literally hand people a lifeline.

He continued: What I would say to the fine members of the legislature in North Carolina, to the people in North Carolina, theres a lot of people that need a lot of help. We have to open our hearts to those people.

Kasich is right, of course. Studies indicate that the simple human decency he and other Ohio leaders embraced and extended to their struggling fellow citizens several years ago has prevented thousands of premature deaths in the Buckeye State. There is little doubt that a similar life-saving outcome will ensue here if and when opponents to expansion finally relent from their stubborn and purposeless resistance.

Lets hope North Carolina lawmakers were paying close attention to Kasichs powerful and commonsense presentation and are, as he put it, ready, at long last, to open their hearts.
The Women's Council in NE, Syria which held under the slogan "Syrian women under the Turkish occupation, suffering, steadfastness and Resistance", which came out with a set of recommendations to solve the Syrian crisis, most notably the necessity of liberating the occupied regions, forming human rights committees and opening fact-finding research centers to document Turkish crimes and violations in that areas .

On the sidelines of the conference, the social activist from Idlib, Safaa Taha, thanked the Womens Council in North and East Syria for highlighting the suffering of Syrian women in general, and women in the occupied areas in particular, and said: Syrian women are the most affected by the wars especially in the areas controlled by the mercenaries of the Turkish occupation.

Safaa drew attention to the Turkish violations committed against women by saying "Women in the occupied areas suffer from restrictions imposed by extremist factions on all levels, from extremism and control over their living and social lifestyle, to imposing coexistence with ideology of factions".

She added: " Although suffering of women in the occupied areas, they continue to resist, however this resistance is weak as a result of the repressive factions' control over women's organizations in general.

As for the situation of women in Idlib, Safaa Taha explained: "Women are not even able to express their opinion, because they are directly subject to arrest and imprisonment."

The head of the Women's Body in AANES, Jihan Khadro said "We confirmed once again through this conference, that presence of the Turkish occupation state on the Syrian lands is an illegitimate occupation which seeks to annex other regions to its territory.

Khadro explained that "the Turkish occupation targets the Democratic Nation's project in the person of women, and tries to break her will because it realizes that women are the main pillar of Democratic Nation project.

ANHA
It's been a rough year for Montana home heating costs, with monthly natural gas prices 30% to 84% higher than the five-year average. Analysts say prices arent likely to reset anytime soon.

Customers of Montana utilities were put on notice last November that natural gas prices would spike somewhere between 47% and 62%, those numbers were based on estimates offered by utilities to the Montana Public Service Commission. One month after that warning, December natural gas prices had more than doubled for Montana Dakota Utility customers compared to the same month a year earlier. Decembers price was a seven-year high for customers of MDU, which is the primary natural gas provider for Billings and Eastern Montana. By March, customers were still paying 49% more than they were a year earlier, according to data submitted to the PSC.

NorthWestern Energys rates were consistently 40% to 46% higher from October through February. Although rates were lining up better with prices from a year earlier as April approached, one thing to note is that rates in April 2021 were more than double rates for the same month in 2020.

The main reason for the continued higher prices is twofold, said Mark Hanson, MDU spokesman. Demand and production has held steady across the country, more demand than supply, and the 2021-22 heating season was colder than last heating season in the U.S.

United States gas producers churned out about 100 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, Hanson said, an amount similar to the previous year. Meanwhile, U.S. consumption was about 110.5 billion cubic feet per day-- about 14% higher than the previous year.

The increase in heating prices has been challenging for low-income families in Billings, said Stacy Brown, executive director of Family Service, which works to prevent hunger, homelessness and poverty in the greater Billings area.

I think weve seen requests for assistance increase, not just because the cost of utilities is going up, but because the cost of everything else is going up at the same time, Brown said. A family that could previously afford groceries, might now be seeking supplemental groceries so they have money available to spend on heating their homes, or gas for their car.

Statewide, the requests for low-income energy assistance aid through the state have been trending down for several years. There were 40,000 people living in homes receiving energy assistance in the winter of 2018-2019, according to the Department of Public Health and Human Services. So far this winter that number is down to 27,840, though the application period isnt over.

NorthWestern Energy rates for March were in line with rates a year earlier, but prices heading into April are increasing 10.92%, according to monthly rate adjustments filed with the PSC. Still, the April rate is lower than it was in April 2020, said NorthWesterns Jo Dee Black.

The April 2022 gas supply rate is 5.8% lower than the April 2021 gas supply rate. A NorthWestern Energy residential natural gas customer who uses 100 therms of natural gas a month will have a bill in April this year that is $3.74 lower than their bill in April a year ago, Black said. A customer using that much gas in April will pay $4.58 more than they did in March.

That spring 2021 spike in natural gas prices serves as the beginning of whats been a year-long undoing of bargain basement rates dating back to 2016. The price increase starts with the Texas freeze in February 2021. Temperatures dropped to 2 below-zero. Texas power plants not insulated for extreme cold shut down and 246 people died for lack of heat or electricity.

But something else happened in the freeze, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration: Texas natural gas wells froze up, which is no small matter because Texas accounts for 26% of U.S. natural gas production. Its the water and other impurities in the raw gas that freeze in wellheads and gas lines. The crimp in U.S. production happened right as Americans were turning up their thermostats.

The next big issue was storage. Natural gas providers spend the warmer half of the year, when heating demand is lower, putting gas into storage, although power plants burning gas to electrify air conditioners can work against the availability of gas for storage. In the colder months, the stored gas is tapped to keep up with customer demand.

But storage heading into the fall of 2021 was lower than the previous year, in part because natural gas demand coming out of the first 12 months of the pandemic was increasing faster than production. That trend is continuing into 2022, explained EIAs Chris Higginbotham.

According to the Natural Gas Weekly Update we released yesterday, U.S. natural gas storage is 21% lower than the year-ago level and 17% lower than the five-year (20172021) average for this week. Increased demand with lower-than-average storage puts upward pressure on prices, Higginbotham said.

Theres another factor driving demand, which is exports of U.S. liquefied natural gas. By July 2021, the United States was exporting record levels of liquefied natural gas, about 9.8 billion cubic feet per day, an increase of 42% from the previous year, which was also a record year for LNG exports, according to EIA. Much of the increase was related to increased demand from Asia and Europe because of storage drawdowns during cold winter weather and because of the economic revival related to the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions.

And LNG demand is high again in 2022, with European demand driven by sanctions on Russian gas being the wildcard. EIA expects LNG exports to be 16% higher this year, which would be the third record year in a row.

But the sky isnt the limit for U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas, said David R. Braziel, analyst for RBN Energy, which publishes the Daily Energy Post. Infrastructure limits will act like a cap on growth.

I really believe that the impact of whats going in Russia and Ukraine can have on us is really capped by the amount of export capacity that we have, Braziel said. U.S. exporters are already trying to take advantage of that arbitrage as much as they possibly can to help satisfy the global supply shortfall.

There are not only limits to export facilities in the United States, but in Europe they need more capacity to convert LNG back to a deliverable state. And they need pipelines from ports to deliver the gas.

There is enough natural gas in shale basins to produce gas priced more cheaply than what many people pay, Braziel said, but the infrastructure to get to end-markets might be too constrained.

The poster-child for this recently has been Mountain Valley Pipeline which would allow more cheap Appalachia gas to serve markets along the Atlantic coast and further south, but it's recently been put on ice due to continued opposition and challenges, Braziel said. Lack of adequate gas supplies can lead to some unattractive alternatives like, for example, burning fuel oil in New England as an alternative to natural gas. As U.S. and international gas demand increases, insufficient access to supply could be a big stumbling block.

EIA expects natural gas production will catch up with consumer demand over time, but the short term outlook favors higher prices.

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It may not have felt like it, but there are some folks who will swear that March 21, 2022 was a very historic day for Montana.

The State Land Board took action that day to support efforts to restore Stonewall Hall in Virginia City, a crumbling structure that advocates of the plan say is the most important building in Montanas history.

The board voted 5-0 Monday to accept the donation of the building at 300 Wallace St. that served as the territorial Capitol building from 1865-1875.

The backyard of the building is believed to be an area where lawmakers may have settled disputes with their fists.

Justin Gatewood, Virginia Citys mayor, told the land board members their approval would make it a monumental day for the history books.

It is not hyperbole to say the transfer of Stonewall Hall from private hands into public hands and the subsequent restoration would mark the most important and significant preservation project in Virginia Citys -- and arguably Montanas -- history, he said.

Elijah Allen, executive director of the Montana Heritage Commission, said the building was being donated to the state by the Neal C. LaFever Trust and contingent upon the heritage commission having full ownership.

He said the commission intends to make the building an interpretive center and convention center for social gatherings, weddings and family reunions.

According to a 1989 Montana Historical and Architectural Survey Form, the hall was built in 1864 and is two stories. It is made of rubble stone and has a brick facade that faces Wallace Street. The original front of the building was stone and had three semi-circular headed arches with key stones over three pairs of French doors on the first floor.

"It is unfortunate that the original stone front was removed," the survey states.

"The rest of the building, however, retains its historic character," the survey states. "This structure served as the first Territorial Capital. It is a significant part of the National Landmark."

It notes that Gem Saloon, operated by Hynson and Harper, was on the site in 1862. Excavation for a new stone building started in 1864. The building also served as the Stonewall House Saloon, the Virginia City Lyceum, where young men could read magazines and "enjoy the use of a small library" for $5 a month. It also served as a dry goods, grocery and liquor store. When Virginia City became the Territorial Capital in 1865, the second floor of the hall was chosen as a meeting place for the Legislature and the "Council and the House met here at various times."

It also served as a clothing store as well, first known as Greenhodd, Bohm and Co.

However, time has not been kind.

"The building needs renovation," the report states, citing cracks in walls, water damage and an "unevenness" on the second floor.

Allen said studies have found that Virginia City, which he said was the No. 1 state-owned tourist destination, has nearly 1 million tourists a year and has a $75 million economic footprint. It also helps support 1,200 jobs.

He also said the proposal would not be of any cost to Montana taxpayers. However, there are fundraising efforts underway and the commission has raised nearly $500,000. He said $350,000 was needed to stabilize the building and $900,000 was needed to make it operational for the public.

The fundraising efforts are being done through the Montana Heritage Commission and its nonprofit, the Montana History Foundation. The commission voted March 4 to acquire Stonewall.

Gov. Greg Gianforte thanked the parties involved for their efforts.

This donation is incredibly generous, he said, adding the building is not in the best shape now.

Its about one stiff breeze from being a pile of bricks, Gianforte said. So we need to get after it and hopefully get this money raised and get it fixed up this summer, or as soon as possible.

Its incredible that the Montana Legislature met there for 10 years, Gianforte said, adding he was moved by the photograph of the Legislature meeting in that hall.

There were some wily characters back then, Gianforte said. The only difference is theres less facial hair today.

Alison LaFever, a representative of the trust that owned the building, reiterated her familys intent to donate the building and support the restoration project. She said they acquired the building in 2010 and it was in an advanced state of disrepair then.

They tried to do shoring and stabilization but it became clear we were in over our heads.

LaFever said they began looking for other solutions to restore the building, but found as private owners there was limited grant funding available.

They wanted to find a solution to benefit the community and save the building. They approached the heritage commission in 2017.

I am very happy to be standing here today finally getting to a solution that most importantly is the best thing for the building, LaFever said.

Allen said Gianforte became aware of the building several months ago and threw his support behind it with the salvo that no tax dollars be used. He said Gianforte was confident funds could be raised elsewhere.

It was mostly him calling people to donate, Allen said, adding there was $660,000 in private donations raised in the past month.

The Gianforte Family Foundation, a charitable nonprofit started by the governor and his family in 2004, did commit to $100,000, Allen said.

Renovation costs are estimated to be $1 million and Allen said they hope to have the money raised by June.

Allen said there was some support for the governors comments about the territorial Legislature having wily characters.

He said they did an archaeological dig behind the building, and a couple things struck them as odd: They found pairs of cleated shoes and peoples teeth.

Allen said they thought that was weird and took the teeth to a dentist, who told them the teeth had been knocked out.

Allen said apparently the lawmakers would settle political battles by strapping on cleated shoes and stepping behind the building for a bare-knuckled fight.

Chere Jiusto of Preserve Montana -- a nonprofit which works to save Montanas historic places, traditional landscapes, and cultural heritage -- told the land board this proposal is sound and they could be assured there is a good path to success.

This is a legacy project, this vote today will ensure that one of the most significant buildings in Montana history can be saved for the people of tomorrow she said, adding that people would cheer them on.

Gatewood, the Virginia City mayor, told the board -- which consists of the governor, the attorney general, the state auditor, the secretary of state and superintendent of public instruction -- that the parties involved realize that this opportunity to save Stonewall Hall will not come around again.

He said the progress made so far has been remarkable.

Lets keep Montanas oldest courthouse standing, Gatewood said.

To donate to save Stonewall Hall and other historic Montana buildings, go to https://www.savemontanashistory.com/.

Assistant editor Phil Drake can be reached at 406-231-9021.

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PERRY, Eileen, age 97 of Townsend, passed away on March 9, 2022. The Rosary will be prayed at 11:30 a.m. today, March 26th with a funeral Mass
There is no silver bullet solution when it comes to adapting communities to wildfire in Montana and across the West, experts told state lawmakers, as trends suggest a future conducive to more extreme fire conditions.

The Environmental Quality Council, a legislative interim committee that covers natural resource policy, held a wildfire panel last week to hear about trends, mitigation and potential policy implications. The meeting comes as much of Montana faces widespread drought and pushes by state and federal officials to increase the pace and scale of forest management.

Philip Higuera, professor of fire ecology at the University of Montana, described the current recipe putting many communities in the West at risk.

More than three-quarters of wildfire starts today are human caused. At the same time, more and more houses are going up in forested areas and grasslands.

So were living among flammable vegetation and were starting fires in that vegetation, Higuera told the council.

Wildfire cannot be framed as the problem alone, he continued, noting that fire on the landscape has shaped ecosystems for millions of years. Also much of the West remains wild where fires may burn and not turn into human disasters. But climate trends suggest more conditions for extreme wildfire behavior  dry, hot, windy and low relative humidity.

What this does is it loads the dice in a way for opportunities for extensive burning. It doesnt mean that were going to have fires but the opportunity for fire will exist more days per year and more days per decade, Higuera said, pointing to recent major fire years like 2017 and 2012.  In addition, the scale of fire across the West and in Montana is so large that we cant expect to reverse this trend.

With tens of thousands of acres burning annually on average, Higuera emphasized the importance of prioritizing mitigation measures where human safety is a primary concern.

The reason we need to prioritize is because the extent at which fires impact our landscape far outpaces our ability to do something across all of those areas so we really need to focus in at whats going to help communities, he said.

With its large population, California has seen significant issues trying to mitigate wildfire, said John Radke with the University of California at Berkeley.

Its getting more and more difficult dealing with fire on the urban edge, he told the council.

After some prescribed fires escaped containment, officials put a moratorium on the tool. Efforts to enact building codes aimed at saving homes from fires have ultimately not proved effective, Radke said.

When it comes to mitigation, Mark Finney, a U.S. Forest Service researcher forester with the Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory, told the council that logging or thinning alone has not been shown to prevent large fires burning under extreme conditions. He detailed several fires in which logged areas burned alongside unlogged areas. The key mitigation found to be successful at mitigating fire was previous fire, he said.

If we stop (at logging or thinning), if we do not follow with prescribed burning, we dont have a fuel treatment, he said. All of the evidence  over the past 80 years, all of the research has shown fire is the essential fuel treatment.

Finney contends that it is societys intolerance to fire, rather than encouraging helpful fires, that has led to a situation where fuel loads build and large fires become the most destructive. Rather than smaller fires burning more frequently, when a fire escapes initial attack and burns under the most extreme conditions is when it becomes the most destructive. He also noted that prescribed fires release fewer emissions than large wildfires.

Finneys research suggests that 30-50% of a landscape would need to be treated in order to effectively mitigate wildfire.

In order to get to that level its going to take decades of activities, both intentional management but also using opportunities from unplanned ignitions to achieve that, he said. There are important policy implications in trying to achieve that level of landscape management, but if such a thing could be done, wed expect we may have a lot more fire on our landscapes but the fires themselves would not have the damaging impact to watersheds or our communities.

Tom Kuglin is the deputy editor for the Lee Newspapers State Bureau. His coverage focuses on outdoors, recreation and natural resources.

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By Trend

The United States fully supports Ukraine in this situation, said US President Joe Biden, speaking on Saturday as part of his visit to Warsaw with a speech on the situation around Ukraine, Trend reports citing TASS.

He stressed that he declared the full support of the United States of Ukraine in a conversation with its Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defense Dmitry Kuleba and Oleksiy Reznikov.

"My message to the people of Ukraine - this is the message that I conveyed today to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Defense of Ukraine, who, it seems to me, are here today - we stand with you," said the American leader.

"And now, in the many years of struggle for democracy and freedom, Ukraine and its people are at the forefront, fighting to save their country. Their courageous resistance is part of a larger struggle for the most important democratic principles that unite all free people. Rule of law, fair and free elections, freedom to speak, write and assemble, freedom to worship as one wishes, freedom of the press - these principles are essential in a free society. But they've always, always been under threat," the president said.
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.

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Have you filled up your car or truck recently? With gas reaching nearly $4 per gallon, 50% more than last year, paying for a full tank is getting downright painful. Across the board, Montanans are getting hit hard by skyrocketing energy costs. Russias invasion of Ukraine has only made matters worse for the global energy market.

In a rare display of bipartisan unity, Montanas entire federal delegation to Congress, along with Gov. Greg Gianforte, each recently called on President Biden to act quickly to expand domestic energy production.

Unleashing all types of American energy production to help reduce costs and preserve our countrys independence seems like a no-brainer. But prioritizing energy production at home will require a change from politicians and groups who historically have been dedicated to growing the size and scope of the government.

Since being elected, Biden has opened the floodgates on new regulations, repealing Trump-era orders for federal agencies to limit the growth of red tape. The results are what you would expect. Federal rule notices indicate new regulations added by the Biden Administration have stuck American businesses with an additional 133 million hours of bureaucratic paperwork to deal with annually and imposed $190 billion in new regulatory costs on our economy.

This sizable growth of federal government bureaucracy comes at direct cost to the American economy, especially our ability to produce energy. For example, new guidance issued last month by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) will require environmental justice be taken into account when permitting new natural gas projects, a move certain to delay such proposals. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin said the new regulations would surely create additional road blocks that further delay building out the energy infrastructure.

Politicians have also wielded the federal governments immense power to block domestic energy production directly. Probably the most stark example of this was Bidens decision to terminate the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office, a project that would have shipped nearly 800,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta through Montana to the Texas Gulf Coast and created hundreds of Montana jobs along the way.

Weve heard some environmental activists contend that fossil fuel companies have ample opportunity to produce more energy, they simply arent taking action. But these claims ring hollow as those same activists consistently weaponize the judiciary to block energy production. This month we heard environmentalist groups cheer as a federal judge axed hundreds of oil and gas leases, many in Montana, because of their lawsuit asserting the Bureau of Land Management didnt do enough to prioritize sage grouse habitat.

Some recent columnists have also suggested we should be prioritizing green energy production rather than fossil fuels. Even in this area, government constantly gets in the way. Despite innovations in nuclear and geothermal energy which provide an opportunity to scale up clean, green baseload power generation, the onerous federal permitting process remains the biggest obstacle for bringing these energy projects to the market. Even wind and solar projects have proven they arent immune to the years-long slog of environmental red tape or the threat of opposition from litigious environmental groups.

Montanans know better than other states about the abundant resources our land has to offer. We are nicknamed the Treasure State after all. Failure to fully use the treasure of our energy resources costs us dearly. Unleashing American energy production will require a renewed commitment to downsizing the federal government.

Kendall Cotton is president and CEO of the Frontier Institute, a think tank dedicated to breaking down government barriers so all Montanans can thrive.

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DECATUR  Troy D. Slaw, accused of terrorizing his Decatur girlfriend while keeping her prisoner and beating her bloody in a three-day ordeal, insists he is innocent and the victim lied about him being her assailant.

Prosecutors and Decatur police, however, arent buying his story. They point out they have the 36-year-old womans original version of events naming him as the perpetrator on officers' body cam video.

Slaw, who is being held in the Macon County Jail in lieu of making bail set at $100,000, wrote to the Herald & Review saying the case against him is a lie.

He also enclosed a notarized copy of a handwritten new statement by his girlfriend identifying another man as her attacker. I have been to Decatur Police Station numerous times to admit that I lied on the initial police report, she wrote.

I have told the States Attorney. I knew that it was wrong to lie on the police report and I dont think its right for an innocent man to go to jail for something he did not do.

Chief Public Defender Michelle Sanders brought up the victims revised statement at a preliminary hearing Wednesday in Macon County Circuit Court. Cross-examining Sgt. Jaime Hagemeyer, Sanders asked: Are you aware that (the victim) has subsequently recanted her (original) statement? Hagemeyer said she was not aware of that.

Or that she had been to the police department saying she lied in this initial report? The officer said that, again, she was unaware of the victims latest version of events.

Judge Rodney Forbes ruled there was probable cause to try Slaw, who is charged with two counts of aggravated domestic battery and a charge of aggravated kidnapping while armed with a weapon. He also faces two further counts of aggravated unlawful restraint.

The judge had earlier listened to testimony from Hagemeyer, who said the victim described being held prisoner by Slaw and subjected to a ferocious series of attacks after he suspected she was seeing other men.

The woman said she was punched in the face up to 50 times, her hair was ripped out in bloody chunks, she was beaten with a metal pipe, strangled, and kicked and stomped on with steel-toed boots in assaults that went on for days. Police said she had needed hospital treatment afterward.

Under questioning from Macon County State's Attorney Scott Rueter, Hagemeyer said police noted bloody injuries, scarring and contusions over the victim's body that supported her version of events after she had escaped Jan. 3 from the house where she was being held.

And she also had a bite mark on her tongue where Troy had forcefully closed her teeth down on her tongue while she was trying to scream? asked Rueter.

Yes, replied the officer.

Rueter pointed out, and the judge noted, that Slaw has a previous conviction for inflicting domestic battery causing bodily harm. He was sentenced to 24 months probation in January 2014. He was later resentenced to an additional 24 months of probation in June 2016 for violating his earlier probation conditions.

Forbes scheduled a pretrial hearing on the current charges for May 3.

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

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New Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

A few clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 63F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

A few clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 63F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph.
A recent study indicates the sounds of nature may improve mental health and help us relax and recover in these stressful times.

I can report from personal experience the sounds of two dogs barking at chirping invisible robot birds do not.

A March 23, 2022, news release the University of Exeter in the UK said this: The sounds of nature could help us recover from mental fatigue, but this power may be under threat as ecosystems deteriorate and people disconnect from the natural world 

Led by a team from the University of Exeter, the study analyzed data from over 7,500 people collected as part of the BBCs multi-award-winning series, Forest 404, an eco-thriller podcast that depicted a dystopian world devoid of nature.

Those taking part in the study listened to a variety of nature sounds, some with animals and some without.

Participants reported therapeutic effects from listening to landscape elements such as breaking waves or falling rain, according to the news release. Hearing wildlife in these environments, and birdsong in particular, enhanced their potential to provide recovery from stress and mental fatigue even further.

Around this time, I was an unwitting participant in a similar experiment.

Our household received a bird clock for Christmas, a similar yet higher-tech version of the old cuckoo clock.

At the top of every hour during daylight, a different set of chirping bird sounds off, cheerfully reminding you that time is slipping into the void, and you will never get back those 59 minutes between the wood thrush and common yellowthroat you spent arguing with a stranger on Facebook.

Before putting ours on the wall, I checked Amazon reviews to see how others liked their bird clocks.

Many did, such as this satisfied customer: I bought this clock for my dad for a Fathers Day gift. He is an avid bird watcher and also happens to love clocks. He put it on the wall next to his cuckoo clock and it fits right in. The sounds are very close to what you would hear from the actual birds. He loves feeling like he has even more birds around than what he gets outside his kitchen window.

Heres who did not have the same reaction. Two dogs who live in a house that got a bird clock for Christmas.

When it chimed the first time  I believe it might have been a red-winged blackbird  the dogs exploded into a cacophony of angry barking and frantic tail-chasing, as if the mail carrier had arrived at the same time the phone rang and a teen evangelical team knocked on the door with a handful of tracts.

It took them 15 minutes to settle down, which was just 44 minutes away from the robotic song of the yellow warbler, which ignited yet another canine outburst.

The birds are in the house! They are going to peck our eyes out and steal out snacks! The birds are in the house!

Did this provide me with recovery from stress and mental fatigue, as the University of Exeter nature-sound study found?

Uh, no. Here, nature was in conflict. The dogs hated the birds. The birds would not shut the hell up. I could not figure out how to open the battery cover to persuade them to do so.

Thankfully, nature adapts. The dogs eventually learned the invisible chirping robot birds were not going to peck their eyes out and steal their snacks.

Nowadays, the clock sounds off with little to no reaction from the dogs. No barking. No frantic tail-chasing. We all enjoy the soothing sounds of nature, relaxing and recovering in these stressful times  at least until the mail carrier arrives at the same time the phone rings and a teen evangelical team knocks on the door with a handful of tracts.

Scott Hollifield is editor of The McDowell News in Marion, North Carolina, and a humor columnist. Contact him at rhollifield@mcdowellnews.com.
At an age when many young people are focused on video games and social media sites, Cayden Ebright is a veteran entrepreneur and an office older in a beekeepers association, taking on responsibilities usually reserved for someone much older.

The 16-year-old junior at Hickory Ridge High School can discuss the intricacies of a beehive and the economics of retail sales with the aplomb of an adult.

Cayden and his mentor, Stan Frick, a retired Vietnam veteran, were subjects of this column two years ago when they removed a bee swarm clinging to a bush in front of the Cothren home in Harrisburg. Stan is president of the Cabarrus County Beekeepers Association and was instrumental in nurturing Cayden when the youngster appeared at Stans workshop looking for work.

Stan says Cayden has been an eager learner over the last few years, as the two have spent hours together. Cayden listens and absorbs it all without note taking, he says.

Caydens 13-year-old brother, Jacob, has shown interest in beekeeping and has been a member of the Cabarrus County Beekeepers Association, as well as the state association, since last year.

Jacob has worked bees with me and his brother on several occasions, says Stan. Jacob has one colony of his own and will assume responsibility for his brothers three colonies later this year.

The younger Ebright brother will also assume responsibility for the honey business, with the product being sold at Harrisburg Hardware. When the pandemic hit last year, making it difficult to find glass jars for the honey, Cayden had to improvise by procuring plastic squeeze bottles for the honey supplied by his three colonies and those maintained by Stan. The new bottles offered convenience and more product in individual bottles. Sales increased immediately. The greater demand allowed for a price increase, according to Cayden.

So now hes ready to hand the business off to his little brother. No worries there, says Stan, who calls the brothers extremely bright. The difference is that Cayden is more reserved than Jacob, according to Stan.

Jacob is all over the place, says Stan. Hand always up and asking questions or responding to questions.

After a recent class offered by the Cabarrus Beekeepers Association, Jacob related to Stan his frustration with the fact that the teacher only called on him once when his hand was up for every question asked by the instructor. This happened even though his classmates were in their thirties or older, according to Stan.

As Stan tells it: On the way home, Jacob said to me, I hate it when I know the answer and the instructor looks around me to find someone else to answer the question. My teachers at school do the same thing and it makes me angry.

The younger Ebright just completed his seventh week of a nine-week course on basic beekeeping. Those initial nine weeks will comprise the first of two parts, requiring Jacob to pass a 100-question end-of-course test. Next will be a field test working with a colony of bees. That will be administered by a master beekeeper and lead to Jacob becoming a North Carolina Certified Beekeeper, a process Cayden completed a couple of years ago.

Meanwhile, Cayden is focused on taking the next step into adulthood, looking to pursue a full-time job and head to college, where he hopes to study electrical engineering. His interest in the subject is evident by a book in his bookbag. For Christmas last year, his parents bought him a copy of The Inventions, Researches and Writings of Nikola Tesla. As a pioneer in the field of electrical engineering, Tesla was a contemporary, and adversary, of Thomas Edison.

I wouldnt say I look up to him, says Cayden, but he inspires me to be like him.

The brothers have the full support of their parents, Scott and Amanda Ebright of Harrisburg, in addition to the mentorship of Stan, a.k.a. Stan the Bee Man.

It is clear that as Cayden transitions into adulthood while handing his business to Jacob, the eighth grade youngster will be more than capable of meeting the challenge, possessing the mindset needed to navigate adult responsibilities.

This week Jacob was stung three times without so much as a yelp, says Stan. He is totally focused.

Note: Due to budget constraints, this will be my last column for the Independent-Tribune. A sincere thank you is extended to those who offered support these last five years. Hearing from you was always a highlight. To those who disagreed, well, you were often wrong but always appreciated, even those who responded with personal attacks simply because I offered a conservative view and you had nothing reasonable to add to the discussion.

Larry Cothren has worked as a writer and editor for more than three decades. He teaches at Hickory Ridge High School and can be reached at lgcothren@aol.com.
By Trend

The international community must continue to put pressure on Russia, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavushoglu said at the international conference "Doha Forum" in the capital of Qatar, Trend reports citing Turkish media.

"As an international community, we must continue to put pressure on Russia. This attack on Ukraine's sovereignty is unacceptable," Cavushoglu said.

The Turkish Foreign Minister also stated the need to find a safe way out of this situation.

"If we succeed and find a solution, then there will be a ceasefire, but before that, humanitarian needs must be met, humanitarian corridors must open. Our job is to help both parties resolve this issue safely," the minister noted.
Forget politics and world power issues for a moment. Think of the thousands of innocent Ukrainian children thrown into a life of trauma and a war they have no place in. Then think of the life of an abandoned child, living in an orphanage their entire childhood. Lonely, hopeless, desolate, unloved.

Long before Russia invaded Ukraine, the orphan crisis plagued the region, mostly due to social problems like poverty, crime, drug use and alcohol abuse. Over 100,000 orphans live in Ukraine and, due to their history of oppression and harsh conditions, they have an average life expectancy of only 30 years. Many of these Ukrainian young people have connections to our local friends and families throughout Cabarrus and surrounding counties, so I will be featuring their stories in a series of personal profiles that will put names and faces to the fatherless Ukrainians trying to escape the war. Prepare to be inspired.

Meet the Drapers

Imagine helping the orphaned children of Ukraine evacuate their public homes to find safety, and the logistics of communication without interpreters that are dodging Russian soldiers in an active war zone over 5,000 miles away. The Draper family is doing just that. Their involvement in Ukraine began over six years ago when the Concord family of six hosted a teenage boy and opened their home to him for the holiday season. That changed everything in their family.

Through the Open Hearts and Homes organization that my friend Michelle Ziner volunteers for as the NC/SC coordinator, the Drapers and many other local families have hosted and/or adopted hundreds of Ukrainian children. The Drapers boy was Sasha, who was too old for adoption at 16, but his visit opened doors and started a life mission that the family never saw coming. After visiting Sasha in Ukraine in 2016 and several times over the next few years, Dar and Andrew Draper learned about the reality of life as a Ukrainian orphan and were disturbed by what happened to the children when they aged out of an orphanage. These young adults with no practical life skills are released beyond the gates of the orphanage with few belongings and very little money. Criminals and sex trafficking pimps and dealers await the easy targets, full of false promises. They are set up for failure with no hope for a job (once an orphan, always an orphan is the countrys mentality), no family to support them, and no resources for health care or provisions to live, much less to thrive. Over half of the girls end up in prostitution and 70% or more of the males are eventually incarcerated. Suicide rates among them are staggering. Their options fall short of anything but despair.

The Draper family, including their four biological children, Bailey, Graham, Grayson and Anna Hope, felt a spiritual calling to love on the Ukrainians and have expanded their family to dozens of children and an entire network of Eastern European supporters. They are following Gods greatest commandment to love their neighbors as themselves and devoting their lives to doing just that. Dar and Andrew quit their jobs and started a nonprofit named GLOW (https://glowmission.org) which stands for Go Love Others Well. They lived in Ukraine for weeks and months at a time but had to leave before the war started. Over the years, the family has connected with over 50 teenage orphans and expanded their efforts to educate and pour care into these young adults. They offer each of them the unconditional love of a family that they have never known and share resources to help them live their best lives.

As you read this, Dar and Andrew have just arrived in Romania to rent a home for refugees and find their graduates. Despite the freedom of a democratic society, trust is a foreign concept in a country where communism has ruled for centuries. Ukraine has come so far, but still has lasting scars of oppression inside their free society. The life of an orphan is exponentially even more destitute. Trust, like love itself, is nonexistent for most of these children. Survival is all they know, and so they are good at it, and are possibly some of the toughest kids you will ever meet underneath the shadow of the title of an orphan.

The Drapers are connected to many graduates seeking asylum right now. We hope to follow along with them and share good news in the weeks ahead.

The Drapers have seen hope spring eternal in the lost lives of these graduates over the years. Where they witness great success, they have also lived through stories of great hardship. But their mission to provide personal, emotional and spiritual support and familial love to the orphans has never been stronger, or more necessary. The network of connections they made have allowed them to step into even bigger plans. The filming industry is budding in Ukraine, and they had internships forming prior to the breakout of the war. Currently, their focus is simple. Daily provisions, safe evacuation efforts, and daily prayers giving all the glory to God for the miracles they are watching unfold.

Tracy Himes, In Honor of People Everywhere (In H.O.P.E.), is an author, speaker and storyteller and operates WarandPennies.com and TracyHimes.com.
CHICAGO - A man was critically wounded early Saturday morning when he tried to walk away from a fight that he was involved in at the 95th Street Red Line station, Chicago police said.

Shortly before 2 a.m. Saturday, two men got into a verbal argument that became physical, but when the victim began to walk away going down some stairs, the other man retrieved a gun and shot him three times, police said.

The victim suffered gunshot wounds to the lower abdomen, back and left leg, and was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center where he was listed in critical condition. The gunman was taken into custody and a weapon was recovered, police said.

Detectives were investigating.

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ROSEMONT - After dropping off her husband at OHare International Airport, Jennifer Dwyer and her 14-year-old son Aidan decided to go shopping in Rosemont's fashion outlet mall to wait out the afternoon traffic back home to Naperville on Friday night.

They were about to leave the Columbia store around 7 p.m., and then we heard gunshots, Dwyer said.

Like pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, like at least five or six. Sounded pretty close.

Dwyer froze, until one manager rushed over and started yelling, ordering them to go to a back storage room, where they stayed for more than an hour.

What she heard was a masked gunman as he opened fire targeting 20-year-old Skokie resident Joel Valdes, police said. In the process, the assailant also hit at least one other person: a 15-year-old girl.

Valdes was found on the ground on the first floor south hallway, a short distance from the food court at the Fashion Outlets of Chicago mall shortly after officers swarmed the scene and the shooter and others fled in a 2008 Honda. Valdes was pronounced dead about an hour later.

The girl, who was shot in the right wrist and grazed in the leg, was found in a washroom near Valdes. Her condition had stabilized at a hospital.

As of Saturday evening, police had not announced charges for a person of interest who was pulled over in a 2008 Honda and arrested about 9:30 p.m. Friday on the inbound Eisenhower Expressway on Chicagos West Side.

Imagining the worst, Dwyer looked around for a safer room that would lock after learning the storage room didnt lock. She found a nearby bathroom and made a mental note to pull her son in there if a shooter managed to get into the store, she said.

While they were in the room packed with about 10 others, Dwyer continued to prepare.

I started looking around to see if, OK, if somebody does come through those doors, what can I throw? Dwyer said.

Luis Elijio, his infant daughter and other relatives were browsing inside the Diplomatic store on the lower level of the mall when a woman outside the store suddenly opened the doors of Diplomatic and screamed: Theyre shooting! Elijio said.

And right after that I heard what sounded like an automatic weapon, Elijio said. His first thought was his 5-month-old daughter  he wanted to make sure she was safe, he said.

They all ran to the back of the store with the rest of the shoppers at Diplomatic while an employee quickly locked the front doors as people ran out of the mall. Another manager escorted Diplomatic shoppers out of the mall through a back door.

Later, as the two families reflected on their ordeal while safe in a nearby hotel lobby, Dwyer and Elijio were both grateful.

Elijio remembered the chilling sight of parents separating from their children as they ran out of the mall, and police escorting children looking for their parents. He was thankful his family was able to stay together during their escape.

Im just nervous, Elijio said. Its something I think youll never forget ... you hear about it all the time but never so close to home.

As for Dwyer, she recalled being in the storage room for about one hour, until a SWAT team went in and told them to walk out with their hands to their sides.

Its scary. Some of the people in the room we were with were pretty upset.

Rosemont police urged anyone with further details to contact their tip line, 224-585-2865. The public can also reach out via our anonymous tip center by texting TIP RPSD along with your tip to the number 888-777.

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CHICAGO - Sorority sisters, community members and the mother of 47-year-old Aaliyah Newell, who was beaten to death earlier this week, gathered Friday night at a candlelight vigil to remember her.

Around 50 people attended the vigil, held about 6 p.m. Friday outside the scene of the attack, in the 7200 block of South Vincennes Avenue in the citys Park Manor neighborhood.

Also Friday evening, Chicago police issued a community alert pleading for help in finding the person responsible for Newells death.

Detectives are seeking information from anyone who may have seen suspicious behavior or have security cameras in the general vicinity, the alert read.

According to a Chicago police report, Newell had last been heard from about 11 p.m. Sunday but friends, including her best friend, became worried when she didnt answer her phone. They called 911 about 6:45 p.m. Wednesday when they went to her home, found the door was unlocked and saw Newell, her ankles bound by a cord, on the floor, the report said.

Her television and computer were missing, and her car was found on the next block, which was unusual, according to her friends, according to the report.

An autopsy found Newell died of multiple injuries from an assault and her death was ruled a homicide, according to the Cook County medical examiners office.

Anybody with information is urged to contact Area 1 detectives, 312-747-8380.

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Editors note: The Chicago Tribune and Injustice Watch teamed up to report on the challenges facing Illinois aging undocumented population. This is the second installment in a four-part series focused on access to health care and housing. Read Part 1 here.

CHICAGO  For more than a decade, Ananias Ocampo pushed a heavy ice cream cart through the streets of the Pilsen neighborhood as he waited for knee replacement surgery. When it got too cold for ice cream, the 78-year-old would go door-to-door selling homemade cheese even though he depended on a walker. It was a blessing to be able to work, he said in Spanish.

Even as his pace got slower and he developed Parkinsons disease, he had no option other than to keep working to sustain himself. Like most undocumented immigrants who are ineligible for the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs, Ocampo did not have health insurance. And though he received care at a public hospital, he had to keep waiting for the surgery. Pero nunca perdi la esperanza, he smiled. I never lost hope.

In December 2020, Ocampo got a lifeline when Illinois lawmakers passed a new Medicaid-like program that covers low-income residents age 65 and older, regardless of their immigration status. But it was bittersweet. Unlike standard Medicaid coverage for U.S. citizens, the new health care program does not include funding for long-term care facilities like rehabilitation centers, nursing homes and other home and community-based services.

That means that Ocampo  who lives alone and has no family in Chicago who could take care of him after the intensive surgery  would not qualify to stay at a rehab facility as he recovered.

The street vendor decided to go forward with the surgery when Hilda Burgos, 54, a health care advocate, pledged to care for him after the surgery. She rallied community members to donate essentials, and raised funds to ensure that Ocampo had enough money to pay rent.

Unfortunately, there are many more undocumented elders that live alone, or whose families cannot afford or dont have the ability to care for them as they age, Burgos said. That means that even if they now have better access to health care, many more of their needs to better their quality of life are not addressed.

Ocampos case illustrates the promises and pitfalls in Illinois Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults program. As it stands, the program makes critical health services available to a vulnerable population who often leave chronic illnesses unattended due to a lack of insurance, according to health experts. And in May, the program also will be available for unauthorized immigrants age 55 and older.

But the carve-outs for extended care and at-home health care still leave a critical gap in coverage, health experts say, and force the economic and emotional responsibility of caregiving onto undocumented seniors families and communities.

That formula could be a problem for Illinois as the number of seniors living in the U.S. without authorization is set to grow exponentially over the next decade. A recent report by Rush University Medical Center and demographer Rob Paral estimates that the undocumented senior population in the state will hit 55,000 by 2030, up from nearly 4,000 in 2017.

Erendira Rendon, an organizer with Healthy Illinois, said the state and federal governments need to find ways to provide comprehensive health care for this population before it hits crisis levels. Thats because uninsured undocumented immigrants often leave chronic illnesses unattended, leading to overuse of emergency care, which strains safety-net hospitals and ends up costing the state more with higher health care charges overall.

More than 9,000 seniors enrolled in the health care program in its first year  three times as many as advocates had estimated would benefit from the program when they lobbied for the bill in Springfield in spring 2020. The numbers (of enrollees) show the need of this population often living under the shadow. It also shows the potential crisis that this can cause if this issue is not addressed by our leaders in the state, but also federally, Rendon said.

Something to be thankful for

Both Ocampo and Burgos said they are grateful for the health care coverage they had prayed for, despite the programs limitations.

Its a blessing for many of us, said Burgos, who is undocumented and has fibromyalgia, a chronic condition that causes pain all over the body, sleep problems, fatigue, and often emotional and mental distress. When she turns 55 in May, she hopes to become one of the first beneficiaries of the health care programs expansion, which will give her better and faster access to specialists and acute procedures, she said.

The Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults program grew out of a yearslong campaign by Chicago activists and health care leaders to fill the gaps in health coverage for unauthorized immigrants. Advocates put more pressure on lawmakers to create a program covering noncitizen seniors after the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The virus had disproportionately affected low-income Black and Latinx communities, especially older adults who couldnt afford to stop working throughout the health crisis.

Illinois was the first state to fully fund this type of health coverage for undocumented seniors. Shortly after, California approved a program to cover adults 50 and older, and Oregons governor signed a plan to offer health care coverage to low-income adults over age 19 regardless of immigration status. New York state is on the verge of passing a plan similar to Oregons.

By the end of its first year in December 2021, the Illinois health care program had enrolled more than 6,500 unauthorized seniors and about 2,500 legal permanent residents who obtained their green card within the last five years, which makes them ineligible for standard Medicaid.

State data shows the program covers a diverse group of immigrant seniors across Illinois. Enrollees speak more than 40 languages and live in 51 of the states 102 counties. But most elders covered under the program are Latinx and live in Cook County. To qualify, they must live in a household with an income below the poverty line (just under $27,000 a year for a household of four).

Doctors, health advocates and the senior enrollees themselves say Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults has been nothing short of life-changing.

Dr. Kimberly Dixon, head of geriatric medicine at Stroger Hospital and Ocampos primary care physician, said she recently informed one of her patients  an 80-year-old undocumented woman  that she qualified for coverage under the program. She burst into tears, Dixon said. She didnt need a knee replacement service. She needed something much more mundane and simple. She needed pull ups because she has urinary incontinence.

Stories like that of Dixons patient abound among the programs beneficiaries. But lack of funding in the program for long-term care and community-based health services leaves many behind.

What it means is that (the program) doesnt provide people with any options if they are not safe at home, said Padraic Stanley, program coordinator for health promotion programs at Rush University Medical Center. Stanley co-authored the Rush report that estimated the exponential increase of undocumented seniors in Illinois over the next decade.

So if people are incapacitated to the point where they cant function on their own to do their activities of daily living like cooking, cleaning, eating, bathing, then essentially theres no option for them and the family has to basically work around the clock to provide that for the member, Stanley said. And if theyre not able to, then that person will inevitably end up in the hospital or severely sick or injured.

In a written statement, a spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services said the department would favor members in this population receiving additional home and community-based services. But the issue comes down to money.

The program cost more than $100 million in its first year, according to state data. Unlike Medicaid, state spending for the program is not reimbursed by the federal government.

The department has projected how much it would cost to provide long-term and home health care services  but it refused to share the data requested by Injustice Watch and the Chicago Tribune in a Freedom of Information Act filing.

State lawmakers and policy advocates said they havent seen the numbers the department used to justify the carve-outs. They told us that its too expensive, said state Rep. Delia Ramirez, chief co-sponsor of the legislation that created the Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults program

But advocates say the cost is well worth it. Research shows that providing primary care for unlawfully present seniors reduces the number of emergency hospital visits, which inevitably get paid by the state or charitable reserves at hospitals and health systems.

If we dont spend $100 million on (health care for) seniors who are undocumented, its not like the state saved $100 million. If we cut the program tomorrow, those costs are still there. Its just cost shifting. Its someone else absorbing those costs, said Andrea Kovach, a senior attorney at the Shriver Center on Poverty Law.

(Undocumented) seniors are still getting sick. Theyre still having accidents, she said.

Last year, state lawmakers successfully expanded the program to cover undocumented immigrants age 55 to 64. And last month, Ramirez introduced a bill that would extend Medicaid coverage for noncitizen immigrants ages 19 and older who meet the programs income requirements. The proposal, dubbed Healthy Illinois for All, would cover nearly 150,000 low-income immigrants who are not eligible for the state Medicaid program, according to the Shriver Center on Poverty Law. (The state already provides health care for low-income children under age 18 regardless of immigration status.)

Ramirez, who is running for Congress this year, said she and her colleagues behind the program are working to get the Department of Healthcare and Family Services to fill in the programs gaps for seniors. Weve made it clear to HFS that we expect (the carved-out services) to be included as we roll out this next program, she said.

Picking up where the state leaves off

As state lawmakers work to fill gaps in the program for undocumented seniors, community groups, family members and volunteers try to provide the moral, physical and financial support that institutions and government agencies dont provide. But looming over them is a demographic bubble that they say will stretch them thin and leave too many seniors behind.

We need to prepare for this, said Enrique Jimenez, program director at the Latino Alzheimers and Memory Disorders Alliance (LAMDA) in Chicago. We need to prepare better programming, better outreach efforts and resources for this population because theyre not going anywhere.

The alliance serves more than 100 seniors with memory disorders and more than 300 caregivers from Chicago and nearby suburbs. Many of the patients and caregivers are undocumented, Jimenez said. The alliance offers leisure programming for the seniors, like karaoke and Zumba classes, and trains caregivers on how to manage the illnesses.

It can really disrupt the whole family and their quality of life. Its like a domino effect after the illness is detected, said the groups co-founder, Constantina Mizis. Sometimes those caring for the loved one must leave their job to care for them, which then causes economic hardship and thus more stress and trauma. Its a family disease.

Jimenez and Mizis applaud the creation of the Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults program. But as the population they serve grows every year, Jimenez is concerned about the alliances ability to keep up. We are already in need of more resources to serve better and provide more resources to the elders and their families. I worry that as the population grows, we just wont have enough funding, he said.

And even though there are several organizations and nonprofits like LAMDA that offer resources to these growing populations, many undocumented immigrants are afraid to seek help because they fear deportation, or due to language and technology barriers.

Instead, many immigrants without proper documentation, such as Burgos and Ocampo, seek and create community with one another, helping to care for each other, find work, pay off debt, and generally look out for each other.

If I didnt stay, who would?

It didnt take long for Burgos to notice that Ocampo could barely walk when she met him three years ago as he pushed his ice cream cart around Pilsen. She began accompanying him to all of his doctors appointments, eventually helping to land him the long-awaited knee surgery at UI Health. But it was bittersweet news, she said.

The surgeons told Burgos and Ocampo that he would need around-the-clock monitoring after the surgery  but the hospitals social workers told them his insurance didnt cover the aftercare he needed at the hospital, or any other facilities.

I didnt know how, but I decided that I was going to care for him and prayed that God gave me the strength to do it, just like I would care for my son or my father, Burgos said.

When Ocampo awoke from the surgery in October, she was next to him. I felt blessed to have someone like (Burgos), to have a whole community that cares so much for me, he said.

Burgos insisted to his doctors that Ocampo wasnt ready to go home. I practically begged them, I explained to them that his home was not equipped to even live there, let alone recover from the surgery, she said. The hospital relented and kept Ocampo for two more weeks.

Once the two weeks were up, Burgos took Ocampo to his apartment, even though he was still in delicate health. Initially, she didnt plan to spend the night, but she couldnt find it in her heart to leave him. She fed him. She bathed him. She cleaned his apartment. And even when Ocampo tested positive for COVID-19 just a few days after coming back from the hospital, she didnt leave.

If I didnt stay, who would? Burgos said.

Since then, Burgos has helped Ocampos secure new housing by advocating for a new city policy that makes it easier for self-employed workers in Chicago to qualify for affordable housing.

But Burgos said that caring for the beloved ice cream vendor by herself took a toll on her already fragile health. After she cared for Ocampo for nearly five weeks, her doctors advised her to rest.

Ocampo has almost fully recovered from the knee replacement surgery to his right joint, and his surgeon told him that he will be ready for a second surgery as soon as May. But Burgos doesnt think she can take care of him again.

Unless he gets approved for a rehab facility that would guarantee that a professional can take care of him while he recovers, Burgos said she doesnt see how Ocampo will be able to get the next surgery.

If no one can take care of me or I cant stay in the hospital until Im able to walk on my own (after surgery), then I just think I wont get it anymore, Ocampo said while walking down 18th street on a warmer day in March. The pain isnt so bad anymore.

Below are several nonprofit organizations and institutions that can connect undocumented elders to resources to access health care:

For more information about the Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults program, and to apply, visit the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services website. Adults 55 and older can apply starting in May. If you have questions about how enrollment in this program would affect current or future requests to change your immigration status, email Protecting Immigrant Families at pifillinois@povertylaw.org , or call the Immigrant Family Resource Program at 855-437-7669.

Alivio Medical Center is a bilingual, bicultural organization committed to providing access to quality cost effective health care to the immigrant community. 773-254-1400

Latino Alzheimers and Memory Disorders Alliance is a nonprofit organization providing resources for Latinx caregivers of family members with Alzheimers and memory disorders by providing skill building, training and compassionate support programs. 224-715-4673

The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights has a fact sheet with health care resources for immigrants and refugees, including information about Medicaid, Medicare, Marketplace and Federally Qualified Health Centers. Their website also offers an interactive map of health clinics that are available regardless of immigration status and are low cost or free. For more information or to request a copy of the fact sheet in another language, contact Luvia Quinones at lquinones@icirr.org

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Tuesday is National Vietnam Veterans Day. It is a day for honoring the service and sacrifice that members of the military made during the Vietnam Era.

When they came home, there weren't parades and celebrations. Some returning vets said they were vilified and insulted by their fellow Americans.

Slowly, that began to turn around and groups decided that the Vietnam veterans deserved a proper "Welcome Home."

March 29 was chosen as the date to observe Welcome Home Day because that is the date the last troops left Vietnam and the date that the last prisoners of war returned to the United States in 1973.

There will be commemorations throughout the country including an online event sponsored by the Vietnam Veterans of America at 1 p.m. Tuesday on www.facebook.com/vietnamveteransmemorialfund.

According to the Paralyzed Veterans of America, President Barack Obama issued a 50th anniversary presidential proclamation in commemoration of the Vietnam War in 2012.

President Donald Trump set the date of the holiday as March 29 in 2017. It became the National Vietnam War Veterans Day.

Facts from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs:

The dates for the war are Aug. 4, 1964, to January 27, 1973.

August 1964 was when the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was passed. The resolution gave the president the power to take all necessary measures to prevent further (Communist) aggression."

American advisers had been in Vietnam beginning in 1957 when the Vietcong began fighting the government of South Vietnam.

In November 1963 the South Vietnamese government was overthrown and President Ngo Dinh Diem was assassinated. A new government was formed.

The United States began sending troops to Vietnam in August 1964.

Total who served in all Armed Forces: 8,744,000

Deployed to Southeast Asia: 3,403,000

Battle deaths: 47,424

Other deaths (In Theatre): 10,785

Wounded: 153,303

Medals of Honor: 238, including one for Spec. Lawrence Joel, the only native of Winston-Salem to be awarded the Medal of Honor.

The following is from Vietnamwar50th.com, the website of the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War: We make no distinction between veterans who served in-country, in-theater, or who were stationed elsewhere during the Vietnam War period. All were called to serve and none could self-determine where they would serve.

Its almost 50 years later, but Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans!

Here is a list of agencies and groups that provide services for veterans:

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (www.va.gov): This government agency provides and administers health care, and benefits for all U.S. military veterans. It also maintains national military cemeteries.

Vietnam Veterans of America (www.vva.org): This organization provides members assistance with filing claims with the VA, financial advice, job placement and legislative advocacy.

Paralyzed Veterans of America (www.pva): This organization helps veterans who have spinal cord injuries or diseases.

American Legion (www.legion.org): This organization provides member veterans with such services as claims assistance, education services, health care, and calculating veterans benefits.

Veterans of Foreign Wars (www.vfw.org): This organization provides member veterans with services including insurance, financial, and prescription.

If SAM hears of other groups we'll pass it along.

Email: AskSAM@wsjournal.com Write: Ask SAM, 418 N. Marshall St., Winston-Salem, NC 27101

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One of my favorite bumper stickers reads: Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket?

It is nonsensical to offer, as some elected officials and talking heads attempt, that America should strive to return to a mythical era, when people lived in the rapture of liberty and equality, unprovoked by the inevitability of change and paradox.

No such era existed, unless one is willing to concede rampant inequality and that the initial beneficiaries of Americas largesse were limited to a small minority.

With aforementioned reality in mind, the most vociferous voices in Americas constitutional debate are those who think the personal shortcomings of the framers of the Constitution warrants a complete overhaul of our public morality versus those who cling feverishly to the original intention of the powdered-wig gentry class, who were unable to appreciate the advancements created by running water.

Both are nonstarters. The former bases its premise on the inconsistency of the practices, while the latter overlooks them. It is possible that America is now on a trajectory in which it can neither overhaul the current system nor overlook the oncoming train.

A number of scholars, notably Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute, cite that by 2040, 70% of the population will live in 20 states. Assuming thats true, it would mean that 30% of the population would elect 70% of the senators. This may very well leave America in a situation that will reward states for a reduction in population.

There is nothing Congress can do to thwart the current path short of a constitutional amendment, which would seem highly unlikely, since any of the 30 states experiencing population decline would then opt to lessen their political advantage.

This would result in the inverse of James Madisons concerns in Federalist 10 by further entrenching a tyranny of the minority. Madison saw strict majority rule as an inherent weakness of democracy. The pendulum has swung and now the minority voice is much larger than what Madison originally conceived.

The power of minority rights has been well established in the Senate. Many of the upper chambers arcane rules, like the filibuster, require a supermajority to conduct the peoples business.

The Republican Party has only won the popular vote for the presidency once since 1988. But in the six presidential races this century, the tally between Democrats vs. Republicans stands at a 3-3 stalemate. Its rather paradoxical that the only elected official who represents all of the people is not elected by people.

The creation of the Electoral College in August 1787 by the committee of Postpone Parts was an attempt to reach a compromise as to how a president would be elected.

One of the motivating factors for this muddled system was the forgone conclusion that George Washington was going to be the first president. It lulled them into the erroneous belief that time was on their side. The sands in the hourglass are dwindling and there is no plausible solution on the horizon.

The lions share, per the Constitution, on how elections are conducted rests with the states. Aside from discrimination based on race and gender, there is little the federal government can do about that short of a constitutional amendment.

State legislatures could appoint themselves as electors. Moreover, they could conceivably pass a law that says they alone will decide who will be president and receive the electoral votes from that state.

If states decided not to have elections for president, they could do it, especially given the leanings of the current Supreme Court. Voting for president every four years is technically a privilege afforded to the people by the states.

The gravitational pull of perceived immediate self-interests lessens the desire to do what may be in the long-term interests of the nation. Arrogantly, we have conveniently commingled our self-interests as synonymous with whats best for the nation. No one seems interested in the long view, nor the Constitutions preamble that mentions our posterity.

We are currently constrained by the Constitution. But we can ill-afford to shrug our shoulders, resting on what we believe is the framers constitutional intent, especially when Los Angeles County, a name unfamiliar to the founders, currently possess nearly three times more people than the entire population of the United States when the Constitution was ratified.

Meanwhile, theres still room in the handbasket.

The Rev. Byron Williams (byron@publicmorality.org), a writer and the host of The Public Morality on WSNC 90.5, lives in Winston-Salem.
This concert is an action for peace.

 Herman Makarenko, conductor, Kyiv Symphony Orchestra

On March 9, two weeks after Russia launched its brutal invasion of Ukraine, the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra assembled on Maidan Square in the center of the capital and gave a concert.

The square was likely not a random selection. No doubt, it was carefully chosen for the images and memories it evoked for many Ukrainians. In 2013 and 2014, thousands of people set up a tent city on the square, protesting then-President Viktor Yanukovics decision to suspend talks with the European Union and revive ties with Russia. More than 100 protesters were killed in clashes with police. Yanukovich was ousted and forced to leave the country.

Sirens could be heard in the distance warning people to take shelter as the orchestra played what is formally known as the State Anthem of Ukraine but is also known by its first line: Ukraines glory has not yet died, nor her freedom. Somber-faced passersby stopped and listened. Some waved the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag that has become known around the world in the last month.

Some sang:

Our enemies will die, as the dew does in the sunshine,

and we, too, will live happily in our land.

Is there a more defiant line in any national anthem than the last line of the Ukrainian anthem? Well not spare either our souls or bodies to get freedom.

The Kyiv Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (KSOC) also played Beethovens exhilarating Ode to Joy, on which, not coincidentally, the anthem of the European Union is based.

Vladimir Putin should have been listening.

The KSOC was founded in 1993, a year after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Under Communist rule the performance of sacred classical masterpieces, such as Handels Messiah, Brahms Requiem and Mendelssohns Elijah, had been prohibited. When the Iron Curtain lifted, this magnificent collection of music became available to Ukrainian musicians. They described it as an explosion of light.

The KSOC specializes in sacred classical music.

The roots of classical music run deep in Ukraine. Vladimir Horowitz was born either in Kyiv or Berdichev. Kyiv is the site of the International Competition for Young Pianists in Memory of Vladimir Horowitz.

Sergei Prokofiev was born in Sontsivka in Eastern Ukraine. It is a measure of the pride that Ukraine has in its native son that the international airport in Donetsk is named after him. (Think about that for a minute: they named an international airport not after a powerful politician but after a beloved classical composer.)

After the concert in Maiden Square, conductor Herman Makarenko spoke to reporters. You saw 20 musicians. Our orchestra is bigger  65 to 70 musicians. But now in Kyiv are only 20 musicians.

Recently, I watched a video of an earlier Kyiv Symphony Chorus concert. (You can find the video at https://youtu.be/98Qt6FJ-kz4?t=1706.) I watched as the camera scanned the chorus, sobered by the thought that a month ago the young men, dressed in black and sporting bright red bow ties, had put their wives and children, mothers and grandmothers on trains or buses bound for safety and stayed behind to become warriors. When the Kyiv Symphony Chorus once again sings in a war-free Ukraine  may that day come soon  there may be gaps in the tenor and bass sections.

Well not spare either our souls or bodies to get freedom.

This concert is an action for peace, conductor Herman Makarenko told reporters when the performance in Maidan Square ended. He echoed President Volodymyr Zelenskyys call to all governments of the world: Stop the war in Ukraine.

Then Makarenko made a plea  not to presidents or prime ministers or to governments or parliaments but to fellow musicians around the world. I ask musicians who would like to play concerts for peace, please! Welcome!

What shall they play? What shall they sing?

The country that gave the world Sergei Prokofiev and Vladimir Horowitz is offering its music to the nations.

The KSOC website currently carries this announcement: Due to the need of resisting not only the military but also the information war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, an initiative group ... created the Ukrainian Scores project to present a digital library of Ukrainian composers scores to the world.

Ukrainian music will be heard all over the world as the voice of freedom, democracy and truth.

(For access to the digital library of Ukrainian composers, see https://ukrainianlive.org/ukrainian-scores.)

Richard Groves (rgroves@wsjournal.com) is a writer who lives in Winston-Salem.
By Trend

US troops are in Europe to protect Washington's NATO allies, not to engage in hostilities with the Russian Armed Forces, said US President Joe Biden, speaking on Saturday as part of his visit to Warsaw with a speech on the situation around Ukraine, Trend reports citing TASS.

"I made it clear that American forces <...> are not in Europe to participate in the conflict with the Russian Federation. American forces are here to protect NATO allies," he said.

Biden at the same time recalled the US commitment to NATO's collective defense principle. "Don't even think about advancing even a centimeter of NATO territory! Within the framework of the fifth article [of the Washington Collective Defense Treaty], we have a sacred duty to defend every centimeter of NATO territory with all the might of our collective strength," the US President said.
The revelation at the end of the week that Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and his wife, Yolanda, chose to have an abortion 30 years ago, before they were married, will probably be discussed for some time to come  especially since Robinson, a likely gubernatorial contender, has already proved to be a lightning rod for controversial topics  like abortion, which he opposes stringently.

But theres much to learn beyond the heat of the moment and we hope we can all find a little light.

Robinson discussed the event in a video Thursday after a Facebook post in which he referenced the abortion surfaced. Before we were married and before we had kids. We had an abortion, Robinson said in the video. It was the hardest decision we have ever made and sadly, we made the wrong one.

Its because of this experience and our spiritual journey that we are so adamantly pro-life, he added. We know what its like to be in that situation. We know the pain that an abortion causes.  No one is perfect, but no one is too far gone to be saved.

Many praised Robinson for his forthright approach. A public confession many years before emerging into public life, U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop of Charlotte wrote in a tweet Thursday. Unblinking acknowledgement now. How refreshing.

We agree. Many politicians today would have hemmed and hawed, denied, spun, prevaricated, excused  but Robinson spoke plainly and openly. Thats commendable.

Others condemned the seeming hypocrisy of trying to eliminate a choice for others that was freely available to him and his wife.

Everyone needs access to abortion, even Mark Robinson, Democratic Party spokesperson Rachel Stein said in a news release Wednesday.

We dont know if the word hypocrisy fits. We all do things that we later regret.

But it does seem as if Robinsons experience, and that of his wife Yolanda, might lead him to hesitate before criticizing others who feel the need to make the same decision.

Robinson would also be wise to acknowledge that not every woman who has an abortion feels the sense of regret that he does. According to a study published in the academic journal Social Science & Medicine in 2020, 95% of nearly 700 women surveyed over the course of a five-year period indicated that their abortion was the right decision. The emotion most experienced by the surveys participants was relief.

We dont know why the Robinsons made this decision  nor do we need to; its none of our business. And the same should be true for any woman seeking an abortion. Any woman facing this difficult decision should be met with empathy and understanding rather than the heartless, criminalizing approach thats been adopted by many Republican legislators today.

Thirty years ago, its not likely that Yolanda Robinson had to wade through lines of protesters yelling that she was a baby killer, or fight restrictions and requirements that she sit through a presentation of government-mandated medical misinformation, then go home and think about it for a week before continuing, as required in many states today. She certainly didnt have to face the possibility of receiving the death penalty for having the procedure, as a Republican legislator, Texas Rep. Bryan Slaton, proposed in a bill a year ago.

Bills moving in red states today seem to be vying to be the most extreme. Several exclude exceptions for rape or incest. A bill being considered in Tennessee would allow a rapists family members, friends, spouse or neighbors to sue people who help or provide the victim with an abortion. A bill being considered in Missouri would imprison doctors who perform abortions for ectopic pregnancies  pregnancies that are unviable under any circumstances, but threaten the life of the mother if the fetus isnt removed. These bills victimize women by codifying state-sponsored horror shows.

But none of that moves abortion opponents, who keep moving further to the right, criminalizing the choice that Robinson and his wife were free to make for themselves.

Robinson now stands in a unique position, with the ability, if he so chooses, to lower the temperature rather than raise it  to express some empathy for the hard choices some women have to make rather than demonizing them and attacking them with harsh language and harsher restrictions.

We doubt Robinson will become an ardent pro-choice advocate. But he should certainly have enough humility, enough understanding, to question whether he, or anyone else, should be making these decisions for women. So should we all.
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: I'm 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."

Reach Rich Heldenfels at P.O. Box 417, Mogadore, OH 44260, or brenfels@gmail.com.

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Alyssa Slama, brought up in the Missouri Ozarks, attended the University of Missouri and was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology with an emphasis on Childhood Development.

Slama attended the University of Nebraska College of Law, participating in Phi Alpha Delta Legal Fraternity as the Justice and graduating with Distinction in 2021. Alyssa clerked for Keating OGara, then joined the firm as an associate attorney upon graduation.

Slamas practice focuses on family law, including divorce and legal separation, paternity actions, and custody and child support disputes.

Outside the office, Slama and her husband, Remington, enjoy time with family and with their two miniature schnauzers, Alfred and Walter.
Union Bank & Trust (UBT) is pleased to announce that it has recently promoted Michaela Rasmussen to business relationship representative in Treasury Management and hired Janet McCall as vice president  treasury management officer.

Rasmussen joined Union Bank in 2016 and has served as a Relationship Assistant in Commercial Loans. With a focus on supporting in-branch banking teams, Rasmussen will help provide the best customer service possible to UBTs business and nonprofit customers, educating and equipping them with banking tools to maximize their time and cash flow.

A graduate of Evangel University, Rasmussen completed the Nebraska School of Banking Relationship and Business Development School in 2021. She serves the community as co-director of T.R.A.C.life mentor program and as an engagement committee member for the Asian Community and Cultural Center. She also volunteers with Junior Achievement and Nebraska Community Blood Bank.

McCall brings more than 20 years of treasury and cash management experience to her position, in which she will work collaboratively on solutions with the banks commercial and nonprofit customers on how their operational processes should best intersect with, and be complemented by, their UBT banking products and services.

McCall attended the University of Nebraska  Lincoln where she earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. She earned her Master of International Business from the Thunderbird School of Global Management. McCall is a Certified Treasury Professional, Accredited ACH Professional, and a member of the Association of Financial Professionals.

Union Bank & Trust is a privately owned Nebraska bank that offers complete banking, lending, investment, and trust services, in addition to serving as program manager for Nebraskas NEST College Savings Plan. The bank has 38 full-service and loan production offices in Nebraska and Kansas. It is the third-largest privately owned bank in Nebraska, with bank assets of $6.5 billion and trust assets of $46.8 billion as of December 31, 2021.
Marcia Selinger had already spent a year trying to make sense of the unthinkable when she walked out of a courtroom and into an elevator at Lincoln's Hall of Justice on March 18, gripping a framed photo of her son.

Simon Blair was riding a friend's motorcycle north in the outside lane of 27th Street at 9:26 p.m. March 3, 2021, nearing Tierra Drive. An SUV that had been heading south on 27th made a left turn in front of the 19-year-old.

Selinger was at home in Omaha when she got the call she had always feared. In a state of shock, she drove with her teenage daughter to Bryan West Campus, where a crowd of Simon's friends were gathered in the parking lot by 10:30 p.m., she said.

Less than four hours later, Selinger watched her son take his last breath. She spent the next 12 months in varying stages of grief, carrying with her the weight of burying her first-born child.

But as she stepped in the elevator at the Hall of Justice, that grief had boiled into rage. A Lancaster County judge had just sentenced Kylie Hill, 19, to 24 months of probation after her no-contest plea to motor vehicle homicide. Both Hill and Selinger left the courtroom in tears.

"I'm so angry," Blair's mother said before the elevator doors closed.

"I didn't expect that. I thought something would happen. I thought something ...," she said, emphasizing the last word of the sentence, cut short by tears that began to fill her eyes.

She took four deep breaths and tried not to cry as the elevator descended one floor, where Selinger, Simon's father, David Blair, and David's girlfriend, Micaela Moriarty, followed a victim advocate into Lincoln Police Department headquarters, where they again tried to make sense of the unthinkable.

"OK, so, just so I understand, she just got probation?" Selinger asked the advocate.

"She has to take a couple classes. They said jail time, but they can revoke that, which they probably will, right?" she asked, before the advocate summarized the sentence that Judge Timothy Phillips had just issued.

In addition to probation, Phillips ordered Hill to pay a $250 fine, complete a victim empathy class, a driver's safety course and serve 30 days in the county jail, though that stint may be waived based on Hill's compliance with her other sentencing conditions.

"These are hard cases," Phillips said in front of a crowded courtroom. "It's a crime where there was no intent."

The hearing lasted 11 minutes, and Selinger spent much of the time wiping away tears and trying to keep her composure as Ryan Decker, who prosecuted the case, cast Hill as unaccountable and unapologetic.

Decker pointed to the teen's own statements in the case's pre-sentencing investigation, in which she told the court she felt like she did "everything right" and that she hoped to bring awareness to motorcyclists and the "important and proper training on riding a motorcycle," according to the prosecutor.

"That stands out to me, because that's not what the evidence in this case is," he said. "And it doesn't sound like an apology to me." Hill's attorney, Jon Braaten, acknowledged the pain the crash has caused to the families of both parties, pain he said wouldn't disappear with any ruling by Phillips. He said both families would remember March 3, 2021, every day for the rest of their lives, and he asked Phillips to sentence Hill to probation.

Before his ruling, Phillips warned that there would be no winners in Courtroom 25 that day.

But Simon Blair's family had not expected to feel as if it had lost.

"I really thought this would end up being fair," Selinger said through tears in the advocate's office, as the family vented its frustration over the judge's calculus on the cost of Simon's life, until his father had had enough.

"I need some air," David Blair said.

The past year has weighed on the family. In the 382 days between Simon Blair's death and Hill's sentencing, Selinger had viewed much of her life through a lens fogged by the grief she carried.

Selinger remembered feeling numb as she walked to the hospital parking lot the morning her son died to tell his friends he was gone.

She asked them not to post about his death on social media, she recalled, and then she made a phone call, delivering the news of her son's death to her own mother.

Then she walked back into the hospital, where she touched her son's hair, kissed his forehead and said goodbye.

"And then we drove home," she said. "And that's just unbelievable. To just leave your boy in a bed in the hospital. It's just  yeah. It's crazy."

The pain of that day was not temporary, Selinger said. It still comes and goes, often bringing waves of debilitating grief after everyday experiences serve as unknowing triggers.

Sometimes she sees a pickup truck that reminds her of Simon. Or she drives past a spot they used to visit. One day, about a week after her son died, it was the words of her teenage daughter.

"She said to me, 'Now I'm an only child and I'll never be an aunt,'" Selinger recalled. "I hadn't thought of it that way yet."

Lately, though, the triggers have come in the form of headlines: news of another teenager killed riding a motorcycle in Nebraska.

Simon was one of 20 motorcyclists killed on the state's roadways last year, according to preliminary data from the Nebraska Department of Transportation. Two were under the age of 21.

As motorcycle fatalities have steadily increased over the past two decades in Nebraska  from three in 2000 to 14 in 2010 to a 30-year high of 32 in 2020  the number of teenagers killed in motorcycle crashes has largely remained stagnant, never accounting for more than four in a single year.

From 2017 through 2020, no one under the age of 21 died in a motorcycle collision in Lincoln. But in the 12 months since Simon Blair died, three more motorcyclists under the age of 21 have died in Lincoln crashes, including two in 2022.

"Too many kids are dying," Selinger said.

Adding to her own family's strife were the facts of Simon's case.

In a search warrant, police said there was a strong odor of marijuana coming from the Pontiac that Hill was driving that night, and a red-glass water pipe was found in the cargo area of the SUV  a fact that Decker, the prosecutor, recounted at Hill's sentencing.

But officers hadn't tested Hill at the scene of the crash, an oversight that Selinger said a sergeant later apologized for, and one that may have prevented Hill from being charged with a felony, instead of a Class 1 misdemeanor.

In a statement, an LPD spokesman said responding officers didn't observe signs of impairment or smell an odor right away, which would have led to testing. And the water pipe police found was out of the reach of the driver.

"Unfortunately, I dont have an answer as to why the odor of marijuana wasnt detected earlier," Capt. Todd Kocian said in the statement, adding that the officer's actions "were within the operational procedures allowed by law."

At the department's headquarters March 18, as family members gathered their things, David Blair fumed as he weighed the cost of that oversight.

He had largely been a bystander as his ex-wife and his girlfriend took turns expressing outrage at the judge's ruling, but as the group stepped out of the advocate's office and into a hallway, he spoke.

"She killed our son and she got a slap on the wrist," he said in a subdued tone. "I think the whole system failed us."

In his ruling, Phillips said Hill's impact statement to the court had been one filled with remorse. She had been a model student, he said. She had no history of negligence, no criminal history.

"She, much like the victim in this case, was a person that helps others," he said. "And again, there are no winners in these cases."

Selinger didn't want Hill to spend a year in jail, she said  the maximum penalty for the misdemeanor crime.

But she hoped for an apology. David Blair hoped for closure. They did not get either.

"This makes everything worse, in a way," David said.

"It really does," Selinger said, wiping away tears again.

"I mean, where's the justice?" David said, as tears welled in his own eyes for the first time that morning. "We had a life taken away from us."

"I get that there was no intent, but she ...," Selinger said, trailing off again. "No. This is not fair."

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

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A three-day search for a missing Fairbury woman came to an end Sunday after about 150 participants searched more than 1,000 acres but did not find Linda Dillard's remains.

The 55-year-old woman was last seen June 16 near Table Rock State Wildlife Management Area, where volunteers and law enforcement officers embarked on a large-scale search for her Thursday in an effort spearheaded by the Nebraska State Patrol.

While the search did not turn up Dillard's remains, progress was still made, according to an agency news release.

What our investigators learned this week directs the case into the next phase, State Patrol Lt. Eric Jones said in the news release, adding that investigators are now confident Dillard's remains are not in the area where she disappeared.

Jones said the patrol still believes Dillard, who was reported missing four days after she was last seen, may have been the victim of a crime. Search warrants filed in Lancaster and Pawnee counties indicate she may have been kidnapped or murdered.

No one has been arrested in connection with Dillard's disappearance. Jones on Thursday declined to say whether investigators were pursuing any suspects.

"It's still an active investigation," State Patrol spokesman Cody Thomas told the Journal Star on Thursday. "So, things that may come up this week for sure will be added to that investigation."

The search party combed more than 1,000 acres of land, 24 miles of roadside ditches and 1 miles of river. The patrol initially planned to search 600 to 700 acres.

The search team was made up of 44 law enforcement officers, 65 volunteers and eight dogs trained for human remains detection.

Nebraska Crime Stoppers is accepting anonymous tips in relation to Dillard's disappearance.

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Andrew Wegley Breaking news reporter A Kansas City, Missouri, native, Andrew Wegley joined the Journal Star as breaking news reporter after graduating from Northwest Missouri State University in May 2021. Follow Andrew Wegley Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today
If Nebraska wants to reduce chronic prison overcrowding, well-behaved prisoners should have a chance at earlier parole as a 2011 law intended, says an expert who helped the Legislature craft policies to reduce overcrowding.

This provision  is beneficial if youre intending to reduce the (prison) population, said Len Engel, director of policy and campaigns for the Crime and Justice Institute.

The provision in question is a piece of Nebraska good time law passed in 2011  after a year behind bars, prisoners could earn three days off their sentence for each month of good behavior. Thats in addition to the day-for-day credit prisoners already earn that effectively cuts sentences in half.

The bill sponsor, then-Sen. Brenda Council, and Bob Houston, director of corrections at the time, agree that the intent of the bill was to let prisoners earn time toward their parole eligibility date. But the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services argues that state law as written doesnt allow for that.

The current interpretation of the law, correct or not, quietly contributes to the states ongoing struggle with overcrowded prisons, keeping the thousands of parole-eligible prisoners sentenced since 2011 from earning up to 36 days per year toward their parole eligibility date.

The result: They end up having their time before the parole board delayed by days, weeks or months, potentially keeping them in prison longer than the laws authors intended.

How prison leaders calculate good time and parole eligibility is being challenged by Nebraska prisoner Robert Heist II. The case awaits a decision from the Nebraska Supreme Court.

It comes as the state continues to grapple with one of the most crowded prison systems in the country, reaching 152% of the systems design capacity in December.

Solving the overcrowding crisis has been a focus of the current legislative session. But state leaders are split in their approaches. Some favor sentencing reform and want to build a path that would get current prisoners out and into community supervision quicker; others want to build a new prison.

Nebraskas incarceration rate increased 17% since 2011, according to the report issued by the Crime and Justice Institute and a state working group in January. Thats in marked contrast to the national incarceration rate, which has steadily decreased in the same period.

The report included 21 policy options aimed at reducing crime and recidivism. Of the 21 proposals, members of the state working group agreed on 17 and disagreed on four. The current legislative bill, sponsored by Sen. Steve Lathrop, includes all 21.

Gov. Pete Ricketts has said he supports pieces of Lathrops bill, largely to do with reducing recidivism. He agrees the state should establish more transitional housing options, improve access to mental health support and reduce the number of jam outs  when prisoners are released with no supervision in the community.

But the policy options he opposes revolve around sentencing and parole: establishing geriatric parole for elderly prisoners, changing drug possession penalties and discouraging mandatory minimums and consecutive sentences.

In a news conference Monday, Ricketts called Lathrops proposed changes soft-on-crime bills that would undermine public safety.

He has urged the Legislature to fund a new prison to replace the aging State Penitentiary in Lincoln in part because it would provide space for the programming needed to prepare inmates for life after time served and reduce recidivism rates, Alex Reuss, Ricketts spokesman, said in an email.

Even with a new building, the prison system is projected to stay over capacity. Laura Ebke, a former state senator who chaired the Judiciary Committee, said when the state opened the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution in 2001, it was supposed to solve overcrowding for years. Instead, it filled quickly.

Im not sure that Nebraskans want to just keep building prisons, said Ebke, a senior fellow at the Platte Institute, a think tank advocating for reducing taxes and government spending. (The Platte Institute is a supporter of the Flatwater Free Press open government efforts).

Nebraskas prisons are at least slightly more overcrowded because of the current interpretation of the 2011 good time law, which has potentially affected thousands of prisoners who could have had at least a little time shaved off their sentences. But the most egregious cases are prisoners who end up being released before even becoming parole-eligible.

When prison leaders credit three days toward a prisoners final release date but never move their parole eligibility date, those dates sometimes flip, creating a group of guaranteed jam outs.

Thats insane, said Joe Nigro, the Lancaster County public defender.

Parole is generally regarded as a better way to reacclimate prisoners to society. Parolees have required check-ins with their parole officer and must line up a job and a place to live. Working toward a parole-eligibility date also is an incentive for good behavior, the very thing the additional good time days were meant to encourage.

Having those dates flipped is not what anybody with any common sense would support, Nigro said.

Aaron Hanson, legislative liaison for the Omaha Police Officers Association, called the states current good time laws clunky at best, and arguably sloppy and haphazard.

We need to focus more on achieving better long-term outcomes and less on simply finding new ways to release offenders earlier, said Hanson, who is running for Douglas County sheriff. We want the ultimate goal to be a better outcome, not simply ending supervision or a sentence as early as we can to save money.

What comes next for the disputed good time days will depend on the courts opinion, several experts said.

Should the court rule that the department is interpreting the law correctly, the Legislature should step in to ensure the written law reflects that laws intent, Engel said.

Sentences in Nebraska are largely defined by the time served on the minimum, he said. I think thats where its got to be applied to the parole date. That makes the most sense.

Lathrop agreed, but said its too late in the current legislative session to propose a new bill. Its also the senators final session. Lathrop announced in February that he wouldnt seek reelection.

That would be on the list of things to do I would hand to somebody on my way out, because Im done, Lathrop said. The next-best chance to fix that language would be to drop a bill in the next session, and I wont be around for that.

The Flatwater Free Press is Nebraskas first independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on investigations and feature stories that matter.

The Flatwater Free Press is Nebraskas first independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on investigations and feature stories that matter.

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SaRena Freet, the owner of a small downtown Lincoln bar, thought shed finally found a way to make needed improvements for a sidewalk cafe  with a little-known city fund intended to help businesses and promote economic development.

She learned about the so-called Fast Forward Fund as she watched a recent City Council meeting, where council members debated and ultimately awarded Duncan Aviation $3.35 million to help with a $36.6 million project to build a new hangar.

Former Mayor Chris Beutler created the fund in 2009 when he set aside $6 million from a surplus in special assessments to promote economic development, but the fund has rarely been used and many of the current council members were unaware of its existence until Duncan applied for the money.

Now, though, the words out.

Council members said theyve received several inquiries from businesses interested in applying for money from the fund, most of them smaller businesses. Jon Carlson, the mayors aide, said most of the businesses that have inquired don't meet the requirements.

That might change.

Several council members have said they're interested in looking at how to broaden the criteria of the fund, and find a way to replenish it.

The fund had $5.2 million in it, and will have about $1.8 million left after the money goes to Duncan.

Councilwoman Jane Raybould has asked the city attorneys office to look at the resolution that created the fund to see if theres some way to carve out some money for affordable housing projects or grant funding for landlords to rehab property.

Councilwoman Sandra Washington said shed be interested in seeing whether the requirements could be modified to help smaller businesses, and shes among the council members interested in seeing whether theres a way to replenish any funds awarded.

The fund was originally created to make money available for economic development projects that benefited the community and that could help the business complete the project.

It was later modified to prioritize infrastructure projects and required that new employees added as part of the project would meet certain wage requirements  120% of the county median wage, or about $70,000, and that the business gets at least 50% of its revenue from outside the county.

It doesn't stipulate how many jobs the project should create, though that appears to be part of the goal. Duncan says its project will create 60-70 new jobs.

The last time the fund was used was in 2018, when the city gave Hudl $600,000 to create a skywalk bridge for employees; and $207,297 to the Airpark Industrial Park for road construction and water and wastewater utilities. Duncan got $150,000 in 2011 to relocate a water main and in 2016, Zoetis got $60,800 to install a right turn-lane.

Todd Wiltgen, public policy specialist with the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber envisioned projects such as the ones approved for Hudl and Duncan when the Fast Forward Fund was created.

The wage and revenue requirements were added because of the limited dollars available, he said.

"We know this fund will be needed to help grow Lincoln businesses that face public infrastructure issues," Wiltgen said. "We look forward to working with the council to develop a strategy to replenish the fund."

He said the chamber also recognizes a desire to expand the fund to support more local business, and is interested in exploring how a similar resource might be created for small businesses.

Freet, who owns the Hot Mess, 408 S. 11th St., doesnt need anywhere near as much as previous Fast Forward awardees  $11,000 would do it.

She called council members and spoke to city officials, who told her that her project didnt meet the employment thresholds required; she said she got the impression that it was created for larger projects.

Thats frustrating to Freet, who was active in pushing for the ordinance change the council approved in August that allows bars as well as restaurants to have outdoor sidewalk cafes.

Shes applied to have a sidewalk cafe but the sidewalk in front of her bar  which slopes because it was once a driveway and is in poor condition  needs to be re-poured so it meets American With Disabilities Act requirements.

She said the location of the bar means shes not eligible for downtown redevelopment funds, nor can she access South of Downtown redevelopment funds.

Every direction we have looked, the answer has been no, she said.

Thats why being told she wasnt eligible for the Fast Forward Fund was particularly frustrating.

Essentially, this money has been sitting there, and they can give $3.35 million to Duncan, she said. Theres no reason we should not be eligible to receive some of that money. It is for infrastructure.

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

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Rep. Jeff Fortenberry's nine-term tenure representing Nebraska's 1st District will end Thursday. The congressman from Lincoln announced his resignation Saturday, telling constituents "I can no longer serve you effectively."

The expected but still shocking decision came two days after Fortenberry, 61, was convicted by a federal jury in California of concealing illegal campaign contributions and two counts of lying to federal agents.

It was the first trial of a sitting congressman since Rep. Jim Traficant, D-Ohio, was convicted of bribery and other felony charges in 2002.

Nebraska Lt. Gov. Mike Foley, who has stood by Fortenberry since his indictment in October, said Saturday he was "deeply saddened" by the chain of events.

"I know him and his family, and I know the kind of man that he is," Foley told the Journal Star. "He's an incredibly honorable public servant who has worked so hard and sacrificed so much.

"To see his career come crashing to a stop is deeply troubling," Foley added.

Foley, who has known Fortenberry for more than 20 years, said the Republican congressman called him shortly before he announced his resignation.

"He's absorbing it; his family's absorbing it," Foley said. "Life goes on, and I just thank him profusely for all that he has done for us and told him I thought he was an incredibly honorable man, and this is just a great tragedy."

The resignation of the former Lincoln city councilman, who eight times won reelection to Congress, gaining anywhere from 58% to 71% of the vote, appeared to bring a sudden end to a lifelong political career.

The investigation that led to the federal charges ramped up when the FBI discovered that a Nigerian billionaire, Gilbert Chagoury, had been funneling cash into the campaigns of four Republican politicians, including Fortenberry.

It is illegal for U.S. elected officials to accept foreign money.

In Fortenberry's case, federal prosecutors said Chagoury gave a bag of $30,000 cash to Toufic Baaklini, who passed it to Los Angeles Dr. Eli Ayoub, who gave it to his relatives so they could write checks to Fortenberry at an LA fundraiser in 2016.

He could have gotten rid of the money by disgorging it  the formal term for when a politician donates suspected dirty money to charity  but balked because he didnt want the embarrassment surrounding a scandal of foreign cash in his reelection campaign, the prosecution said.

And when confronted about the donation, the jury found that Fortenberry lied during interviews with the FBI. Handed a photo of Ayoub, Fortenberry told agents during an interview at his home in Lincoln in March 2020 that he couldn't place the doctor.

Agents had recorded a phone call between Ayoub and Fortenberry in June 2018.

Fortenberry's indictment drew a serious Republican primary challenge from state Sen. Mike Flood, a former speaker of the Nebraska Legislature who quickly won the endorsements of Gov. Pete Ricketts and former Gov. Dave Heineman.

Flood is likely to face state Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks, a Democrat from Lincoln, in the general election in November. But because of the timing of Fortenberry's resignation, that same head-to-head matchup could come sooner than anyone expected.

Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen said state statutes call for a special election to occur within 90 days of a congressional office being vacated.

Ricketts will decide when that special election will occur, but it would be sometime before the end of June, Evnen said.

The executive committees of both the state GOP and Democratic parties will put forward names to appear on the special election ballot, with the winner taking office immediately and serving the balance of Fortenberry's term.

Meanwhile, Nebraska voters in the 1st Congressional District will forward two candidates  there are five Republicans and two Democrats on the May primary ballot  to the November general election.

Fortenberry's name will appear on the May 10 ballot even though he's announced his resignation, Evnen said. The ballots were certified several weeks ago.

Evnen said he believes Fortenberry plans to suspend his campaign, even in "the highly unlikely event he were to win the primary."

"We'll make sure voters are fully informed about what's going on, and we'll be undertaking that in cooperation with the county clerks and county election commissioners in the 1st Congressional District," Evnen said.

Fortenberry announced his resignation in an email Saturday afternoon titled "My Last Fort Report," referencing the title of his weekly column.

"Due to the difficulties of my current circumstances, I can no longer serve you effectively," Fortenberry wrote. "I will resign from Congress shortly."

An attached letter from Fortenberry to his colleagues in Congress began with the words of "Do It Anyway," a poem written on the wall of Mother Teresa's orphanage in Calcutta.

Leaders in Congress, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, called for Fortenberry's resignation Friday. Back home in Lincoln, Ricketts, too, called for Fortenberry to give up his seat, even as he pursues an expected appeal.

Fortenberry will face up to five years in prison on each count when he's sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. on June 28.

In a statement issued Saturday, Flood thanked Fortenberry for his service and urged Republicans to come together to hold onto the seat. A Democrat has represented Nebraska's 1st District for only one term (Clair Callan, 1965-67) in the last 83 years.

Meanwhile, Pansing Brooks said Fortenberry's resignation "opens the door for a new approach to serving" the district.

"I am ready and able to meet that challenge and lead with integrity," she said in a statement.

As a congressman, Fortenberry has been a reliably conservative vote. He was a member of the powerful Appropriations Committee and served as the ranking Republican on the agriculture subcommittee before stepping down from his committee assignments after being indicted.

He has been an advocate for Yazidis, a persecuted religious minority from Iraq that boasts a large population in Lincoln. He also sponsored a new federal law that promotes research and new treatments for people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS and Lou Gehrigs disease. In 2020, he introduced Matts Act, named for a teenager from Nebraska with Type 1 diabetes, that aims to cut the costs of insulin for patients.

Along with the rest of the Nebraska congressional delegation, Fortenberry helped secure $50 million to make extensive repairs on the deteriorating runway at Offutt Air Force Base in Bellevue, which is part of the 1st District.

But prior to his indictment, national interest surrounding Fortenberry stemmed from a 2018 incident when he asked Lincoln Police to investigate a defaced campaign sign altered to give him oversized googly eyes, referring to the incident as "political violence."

His office later took aim at a University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor who liked a photo of the stunt on Facebook. The professor, in turn, filed an ethics complaint against Fortenberry's chief of staff.

Before being elected to Congress, where he replaced retiring Rep. Doug Bereuter, Fortenberry worked as a publishing industry executive in Lincoln, where he also served on the City Council from 1997-2001. A devout Catholic and Louisiana native, Fortenberry and his wife, Celeste, have five daughters.

"When I first ran for Congress, I said that I would focus on our national security, economic security and family security," he wrote in his last Fort Report. "It is my sincerest hope that I have made a contribution to the betterment of America, and the well-being of our great state of Nebraska."

In his letter to congressional colleagues, Fortenberry wrote that it was a pleasure to call many of them friends. But a stanza of the poem he included seemed to sum up his political fortunes.

"What you spend years building,

"someone could destroy overnight.

"Build anyway."

Todd Cooper of the Omaha World-Herald and Grant Schulte and Brian Melley of the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7120 or cdunker@journalstar.com. On Twitter @ChrisDunkerLJS

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Chris Dunker Higher education/statehouse reporter Chris Dunker covers higher education, state government and the intersection of both. Follow Chris Dunker 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

Todd Henrichs City editor After 13 years covering sports for the Journal Star, Todd Henrichs shifted to the news desk in 2011. Follow Todd Henrichs 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
Iowa Western Community College students are restoring a Vietnam-era helicopter that will serve as a key piece of a new memorial in Papillion.

The UH-1 Huey, owned by the Nebraska Vietnam Veterans Memorial Foundation, will be placed on permanent display at the planned Nebraska Vietnam Veterans Memorial Park. The park is just south of SumTur Amphitheater and about 3 miles from Omaha National Cemetery.

The park will feature a granite wall engraved with the names of the 396 Nebraskans who died in the Vietnam War, as well as the chopper and 11 granite obelisks, said Tom Brown, president of the foundation.

Vietnam veteran George Abbott, secretary-treasurer of the foundation, said he was excited about the chopper being restored for use in the park.

It is a key piece of this memorial to the 396 Nebraskans who died in this conflict, he said.

Part of the memorial was always going to be a helicopter, Brown said. We were just going to keep looking until we found one.

Brown was transported on Hueys while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Vietnam War. His unit provided support to ground troops by replenishing food, bandages, ammunition and other supplies. Hueys also served as gunships during the war.

Abbott, one of at least 10 veterans who have helped with the restoration project, remembered seeing Hueys from his vantage point as a gunnery officer on a destroyer off the coast of Vietnam.

We witnessed these Huey workhorses carrying troops and supplies in and out of strategic battle zones and provided gunfire support to these troops, he said.

As it turned out, the helicopter for the memorial had to travel a long way before it could be prepared for its final resting place in Papillion.

I had put a request in our veterans magazine (The VVA Veteran) that we were looking for one, Brown said. One of the gentlemen in Vermont happened to read it. They were good enough they donated the chopper to us.

The offer from Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 116 in Bennington, Vermont, came with the stipulation that the Nebraska group take responsibility for having the helicopter transported. Chapter 116 held the helicopter for almost two years while the Nebraska organization raised funds for the move. About $5,000 later, the chopper was loaded onto a flatbed truck and transported from Bennington, Vermont, to Bennington, Nebraska.

It was after the bird had landed that Iowa Western became involved.

I was approached by J.R. Richardson from Bellevue University, said Dylan Driscoll, chair of Iowa Westerns Aviation Maintenance Technology program. They were looking for a place to house the chopper while they worked on it.

Were really excited about being part of this and having the veterans come in and talk to the students  thats been really big, too, he said.

Bellevue University, which has a strong Veterans Affairs program, has facilitated the project by lining up people to fill different roles, Driscoll said.

It has a lot of Vietnam history behind it, which makes it that much more interesting, he said.

The Huey arrived at Iowa Western on May 15 on a flatbed trailer. Two forklifts were used to unload it. The technical work didnt start until last fall, but a few students hung around as the spring semester wrapped up and helped clean it out.

It had been sitting in a field in Vermont, and it was rough, he said. It was dirty and in a bunch of pieces.

Inside, the floor was covered with sand and dirt. Aviation student Jacob Jones said he even cleaned birds nests out of it.

Driscoll said about a dozen students have helped with the restoration process, which still is underway.

A lot of what weve done is remove components we dont need to get rid of the weight, said Josh Wadhams, another student. Part of our job is going to be beautification.

The surface of the chopper had spots with rust and corrosion that had to be removed. The group is trying to find a shade of paint to cover the bare spots that will match the weathered look of the original so it looks authentic, he said.

Wadhams served in the U.S. Air Force from 2001-07, then worked for the Air Force as a private contractor for 11 years.

Aidan Brown, another student, has been grinding off rust and corrosion and removing wires.

Most of the engine is out, the transmissions out, most of the hydraulics are out, he said. Theres some cabling left.

One of the challenges of the project is finding parts for the 53-year-old aircraft.

It was missing a ton of parts that we needed  even for static display, Driscoll said.

Still needed are rotor blades, linkages and counterweights, as well as a few smaller parts. Another puzzle is how to restore the tail boom, which was sawed off instead of being removed by unscrewing the four bolts that held it in place.

Its been kind of a long process and an educational process for all those involved, Brown said.

When the Huey is in place, New Century Art Guild of Elk Horn, Iowa, will add several granite figurines to the display, Driscoll said.

There are a lot of Hueys around the U.S., but Ive never seen one with statuary like that  so, to me, thats going to set it apart a little bit, he said.

Construction of the structures in the park is expected to begin in early April, with opening scheduled for March 29, 2023.

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By Trend

India and China discussed the border situation as well as Beijings leaning towards Pakistan during three-hour talks between visiting Chinese Minister Wang Yi and EAM S Jaishankar here today, Trend reports citing The Tribune.

Earlier in the day, Wang met NSA Ajit Doval after arriving from Kabul last night for a visit the Chinese side did not want to announce. On being invited to China, Doval told Wang he would do so after immediate issues were resolved.

Jaishankar said progress had been made in resolving issues as regards various friction areas along the LAC and that talks today focused on taking forward the momentum in case of remaining areas. Jaishankar told Wang India found his observations on Kashmir at the OIC ministerial in Islamabad objectionable. It was a subject discussed at some length. There was a larger context. We hope China will follow an independent foreign policy with respect to India and not allow its policy to be influenced by others, he said.

Our effort is to sort out the issue in entirety and look at de-escalation. The challenge has been to implement the agreements on the ground. It is a work-in-progress, obviously at a slower pace than desirable. My discussions were aimed at expediting that process, he said.

Peace and tranquility in border areas is the basis to move forward on bilateral ties and the answer in that sense cannot become normal till there is an abnormal presence of troops in large numbers, he added. Jaishankar also took up strongly the predicament of Indian students studying in China who havent been allowed to return, citing Covid restrictions. We hope China will take a non-discriminatory approach since it involves future of many young people, he said, adding that Wang said he would speak to the authorities concerned in that regard.

On Ukraine, he said, A common element was that both agreed on the importance of immediate ceasefire and return to diplomacy and dialogue.

The issue of terror also came up and the minister spoke about concerns with respect to Pakistan.

In a statement, Wang said China and India should put the differences on the boundary issue in an appropriate position in bilateral relations and maintained China does not pursue the so-called unipolar Asia (approach) and respects Indias traditional role in the region.

The whole world will pay attention when China and India work hand in hand, he said.
March 21-25

This list is not comprehensive. Municipalities are listed as they appear on the criminal complaint. Suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. To see mugshots of the accused, visit journaltimes.com/gallery. Additional information about the complaints can be found at: journaltimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts.

Tito Orlando Black, 1400 block of Goold Street, Racine, sex offender registry violation.

Kenneth L. Blackmon III, 1100 block of 18th Street, Racine, fraud against financial institution (less than $500).

David H. Bonnes, 8800 block of Durand Avenue, Sturtevant, attempt battery to a law enforcement officer, resisting an officer, disorderly conduct, misdemeanor bail jumping.

Antionah B. Butler, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, obstructing an officer.

Shauntele S. Calloway, 1800 block of Racine Street, Racine, substantial battery (domestic abuse assessments, use of a dangerous weapon), disorderly conduct (domestic abuse assessments, use of a dangerous weapon), felony bail jumping (domestic abuse assessments), misdemeanor battery (domestic abuse assessments).

Stephan M. Campbell, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, felony bail jumping.

Dale K. Capps, 200 block of Lewis Street, Burlington, possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia.

Stephan D. Carter, 1300 block of Summit Avenue, Racine, misdemeanor battery (domestic abuse assessments), criminal damage to property (domestic abuse assessments), disorderly conduct (domestic abuse assessments).

Kevin B. Chike, Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, operating a motor vehicle while under the influence (3rd offense, general alcohol concentration), possession of drug paraphernalia, felony bail jumping.

Kevin Cisneros, Round Lake, Illinois, fraud on taxicab, misdemeanor bail jumping.

James C. Conner, Beloit, Wisconsin, operating a motor vehicle while under the influence (2nd offense), operate motor vehicle while revoked, possession of cocaine, possession of THC, possession of drug paraphernalia, misdemeanor bail jumping.

Mario B. Davis, Woodridge Illinois, attempting to flee or elude an officer, disorderly conduct, obstructing an officer.

Eduardo (aka Cachetes) A. Flores, 1400 block of Geneva Street, Racine, deliver of schedule I or II narcotics, maintaining a drug trafficking place, manufacture/deliver schedule IV drugs, manufacture/deliver cocaine (between 1-5 grams), manufacture/deliver cocaine (less than or equal to 1 gram).

William Henry Harbaugh II, 2700 block of Anthony Lane, Racine, 1st degree child sexual assault (sexual contact with a child under age 13).

Lazaro R. Hernandez, 1200 block of North Sunnyslope Drive, Mount Pleasant, substantial battery (domestic abuse assessments, felony domestic abuse repeater), disorderly conduct (domestic abuse assessments, felony domestic abuse repeater).

Camisha M. Davis Hodges, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, felony personal ID theft (financial gain), forgery, uttering a forgery, fraud against financial institution (between $500-$10,000), felony theft of movable property (between $5,000-$10,000).

Reymundo F. Izaguirre, 2600 block of Anthony Lane, Racine, disorderly conduct, misdemeanor theft.

Corey E. Jones, 2200 block of Layard Avenue, Racine, possession of narcotic drugs, possession of drug paraphernalia.

Megan M. Jones, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, possession of a controlled substance, possession of THC, possession of drug paraphernalia.

Lamont B. Kent, 4100 block of Marquette Drive, Racine, possession of THC, misdemeanor bail jumping, misdemeanor battery, disorderly conduct (domestic abuse assessments).

Terrion N. Kirk, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, carrying a concealed weapon, obstructing an officer.

Ricardo Maldonado, 2300 block of Meachem Street, Racine, false imprisonment (domestic abuse assessments, felony domestic abuse repeater, use of a dangerous weapon), misdemeanor battery (domestic abuse assessments, felony domestic abuse repeater, use of a dangerous weapon), criminal damage to property (domestic abuse assessments, felony domestic abuse repeater, use of a dangerous weapon), threats to injure or accuse of a crime (domestic abuse assessments, felony domestic abuse repeater, use of a dangerous weapon), negligent handling of a weapon (domestic abuse assessments, felony domestic abuse repeater), disorderly conduct (domestic abuse assessments, felony domestic abuse repeater, use of a dangerous weapon), obstructing an officer, resisting an officer.

Dekharre Marshaun Marshall, 4200 block of Marquette Drive, Racine, felony bail jumping, resisting an officer, disorderly conduct, possession of a controlled substance.

Amadeus D. McClain, 900 block of Superior Street, Racine, possession with intent to deliver other schedule I controlled substance (between 10-50 grams), possession of a firearm by a felon (firearm mandatory minimum enhancer), possession with intent to deliver/distribute/manufacture THC (less than or equal to 200 grams), felony bail jumping.

Thomas A. Mikulance, 400 block of Three Mile Road, Racine, disorderly conduct (domestic abuse assessments), misdemeanor bail jumping.

Vaughn A. Mikulance, 28400 block of Coyote Circle, Burlington, felony bail jumping.

Joseph F. Mueller, 1800 block of Shoop Street, Racine, disorderly conduct, misdemeanor bail jumping.

Ruben J. Murray, 5800 block of Joanna Drive, Racine, felony bail jumping.

Blaine E. Nash, 8700 block of Buckingham Drive, Sturtevant, felony retail theft (intentionally take between $500-$5,000), misdemeanor bail jumping.

Christopher R. Nelson, Beloit, Wisconsin, obstructing an officer.

Jacob J. Parkhill, 2400 block of Illinois Street, Racine, disorderly conduct, misdemeanor bail jumping.

Rahe T. Reed, 800 block of Ninth Street, Racine, operating a motor vehicle while under the influence (3rd offense, general alcohol concentration enhancer), operate motor vehicle while revoked, felony bail jumping.

Clayton V. Rhymer, 200 block of North Dodge Street, Burlington, criminal damage to property (domestic abuse assessments), misdemeanor intimidation of a victim (domestic abuse assessments), disorderly conduct (domestic abuse assessments).

Marcakaven D. Riley, 800 block of College Avenue, Racine, operating a motor vehicle while under the influence (5th or 6th offense, with a minor child in the vehicle, general alcohol concentration), obstructing an officer, tampering with an ignition interlock device, disorderly conduct.

Efrain De Jesus Rivera, 200 block of Luedtke Avenue, Racine, criminal damage to property, misdemeanor theft, felony bail jumping.

Giovanni L. Rivera, 2000 block of Slauson Avenue, Racine, attempting to flee or elude an officer, possession of THC.

Juan F. Salinas Sr., 4800 block of St. Regis Drive, Racine, disorderly conduct (domestic abuse assessments, felony domestic abuse repeater), misdemeanor theft, attempting to flee or elude an officer, obstructing an officer.

Elexices L. Sawyer, Waukegan, Illinois, felony personal ID theft (avoidance), obstructing an officer, misdemeanor bail jumping.

Steven Joseph Schafer, 400 block of Ivy Glen Court, Waterford, misdemeanor battery (domestic abuse assessments), disorderly conduct (domestic abuse assessments).

Cody A. Sobbe, Franksville, Wisconsin, disorderly conduct.

Roger W. Stanley, Bristol, Wisconsin, felony bail jumping, misdemeanor bail jumping, possession of drug paraphernalia.

Leondus D. Strong, 1300 block of Bluff Avenue, Racine, operating a motor vehicle while under the influence (2nd offense), obstructing an officer.

Nicholas G. Tarver, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, possession with intent to deliver other schedule I controlled substances (between 10-50 grams).

Trebien M. Taylor, 1400 block of Oakes Road, Mount Pleasant, disorderly conduct.

Zyairra L. Williams, 2000 block of Marquette Street, Racine, misdemeanor retail theft (intentionally take less than or equal to $500), misdemeanor bail jumping.

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RACINE  A Racine man has been accused of blowing through six stop signs during a police chase and having marijuana on him.

Giovanni L. Rivera, 21, of the 2000 block of Slauson Avenue, was charged with a felony count of attempting to flee or elude an officer and a misdemeanor count of possession of marijuana.

According to a criminal complaint:

At 1:52 a.m. on Friday, an officer with the Mount Pleasant Police Department was traveling near the intersection of Racine and 22nd streets when he saw a vehicle driving at a high rate of speed.

The officer activated his emergency lights and sirens as the vehicle fled northbound on Mead Street. The car then turned off all its lights and continued to accelerate at a high rate of speed. It failed to stop for six different stop signs. The pursuit was terminated after four-fifths of a mile.

An officer checked the area and noticed a man walking on the sidewalk around one block north of 17th Street.

He then saw the vehicle from the pursuit and noticed the man appeared to be walking away from it.

A search of the vehicle yielded a license for Rivera, and the man who was seen walking was identified as Rivera and arrested. Inside the vehicle was a baggie of marijuana weighing 3.9 grams.

Rivera was given a $2,000 signature bond and a $500 cash bond in Racine County Circuit Court on Friday. A preliminary hearing is set for March 31 at the Racine County Law Enforcement Center, 717 Wisconsin Ave., online court records show.

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KENOSHA  The Kenosha Unified School Board could review its contracts with sworn police officers who work as school resource officers as early as next month as advocacy groups have called for an end to law enforcements presence on campuses.

Ive requested it be put on the April agenda for the regular board meeting for discussion and action, School Board President Yolanda Santos Adams said Thursday night. Adams said she would be meeting with interim Superintendent Bethany Ormseth prior to the that meeting to discuss the matter further.

Neither Adams nor administration, however, would comment on the scope of the review.

The request for review comes as several Kenosha, Milwaukee and Chicago anti-violence and anti-racism groups have urged the district to remove sworn officers from schools altogether in the wake of a March 4 incident at Lincoln Middle School where an off-duty Kenosha Police officer was captured on surveillance video kneeling on the neck of a 12-year-old girl to subdue her amid a fight with another girl in the school lunchroom.

Shawn Guetschow, 37, a four-year veteran of the police department, has since tendered his resignation, citing the attention it has caused in the community, along with the mental and emotional strain on his family. The officer also cited a lack of communication and support he has received from the district for why he quit. Guetschow is currently assigned to desk duty with Kenosha Police as its internal investigation of the incident is ongoing, according to Lt. Joseph Nosalik, the departments spokesperson.

Resource officers vs. off-duty police

Currently, Kenosha Unified has two contracts for school resource officers with police agencies in Kenosha and Pleasant Prairie. Both are three-year contracts, which were approved by the School Board on Aug. 26. The contracts cover the 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years.

For the 2021-22 school year, the district has budgeted $357,000 with Kenosha police, which provides four on-duty police officers at the high school level. The districts agreement with the village is $71,000, which covers one officer for Pleasant Prairie, Prairie Lane and Whittier elementary schools, according to the contract. School resource officers are not employees of the district, but of their respective municipalities.

The contracts are structured so that we reimburse the actual costs for each officer so they will increase by any actual salary/benefit increases related to those officers in years 2022-23 and 2023-24, said Tarik Hamdan, the districts chief financial officer.

The districts high schools and middle schools are allocated a combined total of $208,000 in their discretionary budgets for off-duty police supervision.The School Boards budget also has $2,000 to pay for security, said Hamdan. This year, the board has exceeded its budget, having spent $4,200.

Not including school resource officers, there are 56 people with variable hour/timesheet assignments who are off-duty police officers eligible to work at the schools. Hamdan said their assignment hours vary and they work on an as-needed basis. They are district employees.

Public weighs in

At its March 22 meeting, which was held virtually, the School Board heard from speakers on both sides of issue of police in schools.

Parent Bob Tierney, who supports the resource officers presence in the schools, said he was not willing to risk his childs life based on promises that police could respond within two to three minutes to situations needing immediate intervention.

Do we not want officers who choose to work with young people, who walk the halls in school grounds throughout the day, who serve as role models and build trust so they can stem disputes before they escalate? he said. Student and teacher safety should be a top priority for KUSD. Parents should not have to worry about violence when they drop their children off at school.

Tierney said teachers should not have to be de-escalation specialists on top of their many roles.

Teachers are not police. Keep officers in schools, he said.

Omar Flores, co-founder of the Milwaukee Alliance against Racist and Political Repression, who attended Lance Middle School when he was younger, said students of color cannot learn in an environment when they feel theyre under attack.

If it was your kids neck that was attacked by a full-grown adult, that was paid to be there, Im sure that a lot of people wouldnt feel too kindly and feel like theres two sides to this, he said. If your child was in danger from a full-grown adult, your 12-year-old child, this would not even be a conversation.

UC-Berkley study

Femi Akinmoladun, a representative of the Wisconsin Poor Peoples campaign, cited the Marshall Projects data from a University of California-Berkley analysis that noted black girls ages 15-19 were four times as likely as their white peers to be hurt in incidents where police used force to subdue them. The Marshall Project is a non-partisan, nonprofit journalism organization that focuses on criminal justice.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 21,000 people under the age of 18 were treated in emergency rooms throughout the U.S. for non-fatal injuries at the hands of police and security guards from 2015 through 2019. More than 7,000 were black youth, who account for 13% of children in the U.S., he said.

Black girls have also become the fastest-growing population experiencing suspension and expulsion from school and are target of authorities, he said, further citing the research of author Andrea J. Ritchie.

This we know. Police in schools do not make schools safer, he said. Caring and trained adults do.

Unacceptable, Kenosha

Alvin Owens, founder of the Spring Break College tours that have enabled hundreds of Kenosha-area youth to further their education and careers, said some in the community dont care about the future of students of color.

There was more talk about masks than about the officer that kneeled on a 12-year-olds neck, of a female student, who also happens to be black, he said. Kenosha, Wisconsin wouldve have flipped upside down had this happened to a white child, male or female. Instead we saw comments in our media, locally, and abroad. The same old, comments placing blame on black youth and the community she comes from. Unacceptable, Kenosha.

Dominique Pritchett, a black licensed therapist in Kenosha, said that since the incident at Lincoln her phone has been ringing off the hook.

Our black and brown girls do not feel seen, supported or safe to go to school, she said.

She said the lunchroom incident at Lincoln Middle School has served to compound the multiple traumas, including those caused by racism, theyve already have experienced since birth.

And, so, when we think about the officer who knelt on that individuals neck, no it is not a direct correlation to George Floyd, she said. But, my God. It is quite similar. And thank God she is here to tell her story.

Laura Bielefeldt, Burlington Coalition for Dismantling Racism president, said de-escalation training should already be a part of teachers training. She urged the School Board to terminate the districts contract with police.

You had plenty of time to hear us, Kenosha, and all the other districts throughout the state and the nation. Parents are watching. Communities are watching. Police officers do not belong in schools, she said.

Not all agree

Not so, said Billy Weathersby, security staff member at Tremper High School. Weathersby said he was devastated and that the community was going backward by focusing on race.

Lets focus on all working together. This has got to stop, he said.

Weathersby said that removing police in schools would be the worst mistake ever, adding he would quit his job if the contract was terminated.

I can tell you that if SROs get pulled, I will no longer be working in the district, he said. It cant be done.

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Psst! Hey, Mister, want to buy a pig in a poke?

Well, if you live in the Muskego-Norway School District, youll get your chance on April 5 when you go to the polls.

Voters in the district, which includes a portion of northwest Racine County, are being asked to approve $46 million in new borrowing to expand and upgrade facilities at Lakeview Elementary School and Muskego High School.

Were certain that those improvements would be very, very nice.

The $27.8 million referendum question calls for an addition for a new gymnasium at Lakeview, conversion of an old gym into a cafeteria and building an addition for new science, technology, engineering and math programs at Muskego High. The second referendum asks for $18.6 million for other construction at the high school, including additions for medical and health sciences.

What were not so certain about is just what the upgrades will mean to the wallets of district taxpayers  those fine folks who are being asked to foot the bill for the construction.

Under the two referendum proposals, the borrowing would be paid off using property tax increases over the next 15 or 20 years.

But school officials told The Journal Times they cannot provide estimates on how much property taxes would go up.

Seriously?

School Board President Chris Buckmaster said there are other variables that make it impossible to calculate how much property taxes would increase if the referendums pass.

We dont have the ability to forecast, Buckmaster said.

School board member Kevin Zimmerman said school officials also could not tell voters how the referendums would affect property tax collections  the districts tax levy.

While theyre a bit fuzzy on tax facts, school officials maintain the property tax rate could remain unchanged.

That may be true, but if the value of a home goes up, which is likely, the school district would see their tax collections rise as well. Another fuzzy area is what is going on with paying off old school district debts. Are some debts sunsetting? How much will that affect tax collections?

This is not rocket science. Much of this can be done with straight line calculations laying out the financial options for a few scenarios.

We would even be satisfied with an educated guess or two.

The idea of going to taxpayers and asking for $41 million in school funding without laying out the likely costs they will bear is not something were fond of. A little transparency needs to be injected into this debate  before the vote on April 5.

We dont have the ability to forecast, either, but we dont need a crystal ball to know that some voters will turn away from this unless they get more facts.

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

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

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

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

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

Vote

View Results
By Trend

The share of Chinese passenger car brands in the domestic market increased in the first two months of the year, data from an industry association showed, Trend reports citing Xinhua.

Over 1.63 million Chinese brand passenger cars were sold in the country during the period, surging 20.3 percent year on year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

The market share of these brands accounted for 44.6 percent in the country in the January-February period, up 2.2 percentage points year on year.

In February alone, the sales of Chinese brand passenger cars soared 27.9 percent year on year to about 634,000 units, with a market share basically unchanged from the same period last year.
LEXINGTON  Macs Creek Winery & Brewery plans to expand their outdoor venue space and add three cottages along Spring Creek.

Max and Barry McFarland, representing McFarland Family Farms, LLC, and Irish Lads, LLC, respectively, appeared during the Lexington city council meeting on Tuesday, March 22.

McFarland Family Farms requested $220,000.00 from the city to expand Macs Creeks outdoor venue space.

Max McFarland said when the COVID-19 pandemic struck the area in March 2020, Macs Creek had to shut their doors for four months. He said they worked hard to retain their full time employees but had to let their part time staff go during the period, they have since rehired them as restrictions have eased.

Max noted a recent study that said the restaurant, winery and tasting room industry is down one million jobs and over 9,000 of these types of businesses shut down permanently during the pandemic.

He said as restrictions began to ease up for outdoor spaces, Macs Creek utilized their outdoor patio space as much as they could while indoor regulations were still restrictive. Even after the indoor regulations loosened, Max said they kept some in place for the safety of their patrons and staff.

The plan is to tear out the existing wooden deck at Macs Creek and put in a new concrete deck with expanded dimensions. A roof will also be added to cover the space and a plastic drop down cover will be used to make the enclosure resistant against the weather.

Max said their current wooden patio space can accommodate around 40 people, this new concrete space should be able to hold around 150 people. He also noted it would expand the use of their outdoor space by three or four months each year.

Macs Creek also plans to upgrade their kitchen equipment so they can offer more catering, as their catering space will grow by several times. Max noted their indoor space is limited to around 60 people.

Barry McFarland also appeared representing Irish Lads requesting $110,000.00 to assist with adding three cottages along Spring Creek on the winery grounds.

Barry said the cottages would be a luxury camp model and would be able to accommodate a queen sized bed, a sitting area and a bathroom. They would overlook both Spring Creek and the winery.

Barry offered the description, Creek sized cottages at Macs Creek. These cottages would be open for people to spend the night on the winery grounds.

Max said construction should start this spring and be completed sometime by June.

Also presented to the council was a loan amendment with McFarland Family Farms under the Lexington Economic Development Program.

City Manager Joe Pepplitsch said as McFarland Family Farms adds the new loan, this amendment will help keep payments and debt service level.

The city council approved the new loan agreements with McFarland Family Farms and Irish Lads and the loan amendment with the former.

The council also considered the proposed Fat Dogs Travel Center redevelopment plan.

Mike Bacon, who practices in tax increment financing (TIF) and represents the developer, Wilkinson Development, gave a brief overview of the project.

High volume diesel pumps will be added to serve the, significant semi-truck market. As part of the plan, the current building will be remodeled and expanded to provide a new restaurant and travel center.

A new canopy, underground piping and new pumps will be installed. Space will be created to the west of the pumps to allow for around 10 semi parking spots.

The expanding of the store will add 6,480 square feet to the location, making the total coverage after development 13,820 square feet. Five full-time jobs plan to be added after expansion.

Development of the project is anticipated to start in May or June 2022.

Wilkinson Development has requested tax increment financing (TIF) assistance in the amount of $700,000, which would go to covering demolition, concrete and pipe and architecture costs. The total cost of the project will be around $5,348,500.00.

Bacon noted a question mentioned during the Monday meeting of the Community Development Agency about logistics of semi-trailers accessing the property.

Wilkinson Development owns the former Sonic location, just to the south of the lot where the diesel pumps would be added. Access from this location could help alleviate turning traffic off of the parkway.

Clarine Erickoff, Chief of Operations with Wilkinson Development, said Wilkinson is involved in a lawsuit with the location since 2019 and will be heard before the Nebraska Supreme Court soon. Erickoff said they have the property deed in hand; they just cant do anything with the property yet.

Council member John Salem asked if a tenant for the restaurant space had been found yet, Erickoff said until they had the redevelopment plan approved by the city they had not started negotiations yet.

The council approved the redevelopment plan resolution.

Another item was a loan agreement with the Greater Lexington Corporation under the Lexington Economic Development Plan.

According to the loan agreement, the amount is for $250,000.00. Pepplitsch said this relates to work on the Concord housing, north of Sandoz Elementary. There had been a plan to add 24 units and so far 16 have been constructed.

Pepplitsch said the plan is to finish the last two duplexes by the end of 2022 and the loan will help facilitate this. The council approved the agreement.

The council approved an ordinance to reappoint Pepplitsch as the City Manager and set his salary at $135,500.00 per year.

The council also viewed a resolution approving a preliminary engineering services supplemental agreement relating to the Lexington East Viaduct project.

Pepplitsch said this agreement reflects the Nebraska Department of Transportation acquiring right-of-way in the area where the project will take place and they were in need of more consulting services. The agreement was also, absolutely necessary, to ensure federal funds could be used for the project. The council approved.

The next item was a resolution approving a conservation easement for the Central Platte Natural Resources District. Pepplitsch said CPNRD is moving the easement outside of the limits of the City of Lexington and they need approval of the council, which they granted.

The council also approved project closeout documents and certificates of substantial completion for both Paulsen, Inc. and Van Kirk Bros. Contracting for their work on the East Addition phase one improvement project.

During the public comment period, Dawson County Sheriffs candidate, Cozad Police Chief Mark Montgomery and Dawson County Treasurers candidate, Motor Vehicle Supervisor Kaitlyn Woltemath, introduced themselves to the council and asked for their support on Election Day.
LOS ANGELES  In the end, ignorance is still not a defense. And ignorance still doesnt equal innocence.

Nebraska Congressman Jeff Fortenberry found that out the hard way over the past two weeks in a federal courtroom that, from its rising bank of windows, offers spectacular views of everything from Los Angeles City Hall to the San Gabriel Mountains.

Fortenberry, 61, hit depths never before seen in Nebraska when he became the highest-ranking Nebraska elected official to be convicted of a felony. Three of them.

Ultimately, Fortenberry took far too long to do what other politicians readily did: disgorge dirty money from a campaign, a process in which a politician rids the suspect money from his war chest and donates it to charity.

Fortenberry had a gut feeling that something wasnt right after the February 2016 fundraiser in suburban LA, when he saw that the vast majority of the money came from the same last name: Ayoub. As it turns out, Eli Ayoub, a Creighton University School of Medicine graduate and LA physician, had been funneling a Nigerian billionaires cash to the campaigns of a handful of politicians, including Fortenberry.

Fortenberry asked a friend of Ayoubs if anything was wrong with the fundraiser. The friend lied and said no. But Fortenberry had other warnings  his own campaign consultant had cautioned him about the risk. And Ayoub himself called Fortenberry, with the FBI recording the call, and told him three times that the $30,000 cash probably came from the Nigerian billionaire.

Even after that call, Fortenberry took a year to purge the dirty money.

In all, he ignored it for more than 40 months. Whether that was intentional or, as his defense said, the byproduct of his absent-mindedness, it was the worst thing he could have done.

In sentencing in June, his freedom is on the line. He faces five years in prison on each of the three counts. And his political career may be entering hospice care.

A look ahead, and back, at the spectacle of U.S. v. Jeffrey Fortenberry:

Sentencing

The critical question: Will Fortenberry get prison time?

For another case of deception by an elected official, look to the south and the east of the glass cube that is the U.S. District Courthouse for Californias central district. Rising on the horizon is Los Angeles City Hall, a tower that was built in the 1920s  in the same decade and with a similar design as Nebraskas State Capitol.

That tower produced the last corruption case handled by the lead prosecutor in Fortenberrys case: that of Los Angeles City Council member Mitchell Englander, 51.

In that case, Englander accepted money from a businessman wanting to increase his prospects in LA  about the same amount of money as Fortenberrys campaign received.

The councilmans spoils included access to escorts, trips to Palm Springs and Las Vegas, $1,000 in casino gambling chips and at least $15,000 in cash. He then tried to cover up the grift by back-dating reimbursement checks and asking the businessman to lie.

Englanders attorney noted that the councilman had resigned, reimbursed the money and pleaded guilty to the charge instead of taking it to trial.

In January 2021, a federal judge, from the same courthouse that housed Fortenberrys trial, sentenced Englander to 14 months in prison, saying his conduct undermined the public trust.

No two cases are the same, of course. In Fortenberrys case, the money went to his campaign, not to him personally  and it didnt go for gambling or sexual favors.

Then again, the council member resigned and pleaded to one charge. By contrast, Fortenberry didnt resign, took the case to trial and was convicted of three counts.

Fortenberry finds out his fate June 28. Both prosecutors and his attorneys will submit memos, giving their version of where the federal sentencing guidelines fall in this case.

Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. can order supervised release.

The jury

The voicemail on a reporters phone arrived about as soon as the verdict did. A Nebraska caller grunted something about Fortenberry getting set up and how he should have been tried in Nebraska instead of California, where the left-wing goons could convict him.

The jurors included everyone from a maintenance worker to a college student to white-collar workers to an actress no one had heard of. Five of the 12 jurors were white; the rest were U.S. citizens of either Asian or Native descent.

No left- or right-wing goons were detected by reporters during jury selection.

In fact, Judge Blumenfeld  an appointee of then-President Donald Trump  predicted it: the general public doesnt view everything through the lens of politics, the way political loudmouths do. None of the people who made the jury indicated strong opinions of either party.

Fortenberrys membership in the Republican Party wasnt identified at all until the defense presented its case and called a Democratic congresswoman to talk about Fortenberrys willingness to cross the aisle.

One prospective juror even asked if the judge would define political terms for her because she doesnt understand them, just as she didnt understand legal jargon.

Another prospective juror didnt make the jury. He indicated his bias wasnt against Democrats or Republicans.

Just politicians, said the middle-aged white man, originally from Ohio. They spend their whole careers not telling the truth.

He turned to Fortenberry, sitting to the right of him. No offense, he said.

To testify or not

Its an age-old question in court: If a defendant is innocent, why doesnt he testify?

But in this case, not many observers in Courtroom 6C believed Fortenberry would take the stand. For a simple reason: He talks too much, said his attorney, John Littrell.

More precisely: He already had talked too much.

Fortenberry agreed to not one but two interviews with the FBI. Any defense attorney  any episode of Law & Order  will tell you not to talk to police unless youre a victim or unless you have an attorney present.

Instead of calling a lawyer, Fortenberry called the police. Lincolns then-police chief sent two officers to Fortenberrys home to screen the men who said they were federal agents.

Fortenberry insisted the officers stay for the interview. He would have been better off insisting on an attorney and sending all law enforcement home  Lincoln police and the FBI.

Instead, Fortenberry sat down and said he couldnt place Ayoub, the man who held the LA fundraiser for him. The jury convicted him of lying in that interview.

He then agreed to a second interview  this time with his attorney present. His attorney at the time, Trey Gowdy, said he offered to have Fortenberry sit down with prosecutors because he was told that Fortenberry was trending toward a witness, not a target of the investigation.

During the interview, Fortenberry told prosecutors that he cut off the phone call with Ayoub when told that the $30,000 cash probably came from Chagoury. That also was a lie.

Bottom line: Faced with conflicting statements in the two interviews, Fortenberry couldnt take the stand without prosecutors asking him which one of his statements was the truth and which was the lie.

That doesnt present well to a jury.

The defense

Anyone who has watched criminal cases has no doubt heard some variation of what Fortenberry attorney John Littrell told jurors in closing arguments:

Im not asking you to like Congressman Fortenberry, Littrell said. His flaws were brought to light in this case. He talks too much. He doesnt listen enough.

Perhaps Littrell, who has declined to comment outside court, was worried that Fortenberry had come across as stiff or smug to jurors.

But several longtime legal observers, including a writer covering the case for a legal trade publication, thought the approach strange.

The reason: It wasnt clear that anyone disliked Fortenberry. He appeared pleasant. And, as Littrell noted, every witness vouched for his sterling integrity and character.

Omitted from closings: The defense didnt mention Rep. Anna Eshoos comment that she would have expected the FBI to be transparent and disclose to her that she had received an illegal donation, so that she could take proper steps to correct it. (Prosecutors countered that the FBI did put Fortenberry on notice of an illegal donation, via the phone call from Ayoub.)

The dynamics of the defense team drew the attention of observers, not the least of whom was Judge Blumenfeld. Less than a month before trial, Denver defense attorney Glen Summers, known as a trial specialist, was brought into the case.

He joined Littrell, a longtime Los Angeles federal public defender who had handled the case since its inception. Another three or four attorneys rounded out Fortenberrys defense team.

A stickler, Judge Blumenfeld saved his sternest admonishment for Littrell.

He became incensed that Littrell had tried to suggest to jurors that Fortenberry had testified in the case, through the words on the recordings and through witnesses who had vouched for his integrity. Littrell also started to delve into what prosecutors would have done had Fortenberry taken the stand.

Prosecutors objected. Blumenfeld was livid. Outside the jurys presence, he asked Littrell what he was trying to accomplish and suggested that he was undermining the judges strong instruction that the jurors were not in any way allowed to consider the fact that Fortenberry had not testified.

Summers, meanwhile, suggested that Blumenfelds denial of a line of questioning amounted to reversible error. That phrase is the nuclear bomb of attorney arguments  and Blumenfeld didnt take kindly to it.

At another point, Blumenfeld called Summers argument whiny and disrespectful. At another point, Summers apologized for getting into a subject the judge had declared off limits.

Im sorry, Summers told the judge. I just feel so passionate about this case.

The almost blunder

Fortenberry and his staff made a decision that nearly haunted him at his trial.

Two days before trial, they sent a note to the House of Representatives clerk, saying they would be voting by proxy due to the ongoing public health emergency, i.e. COVID-19. The note made no mention of the fact that Fortenberry was on trial in Los Angeles.

The notes language is routine, and Fortenberrys staff said many Congress members use that standard language, even when there are other reasons for their absence. They also said they got permission from House Speaker Nancy Pelosis office. Her office disputed that.

Prosecutors pounced on that. At one point, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jamari Buxton called on the judge to allow him to introduce Fortenberrys memo as a counter to any defense testimony that Fortenberry is steadfastly honest.

Blumenfeld considered it but ultimately decided it would require too much work to bring jurors up to speed.

Animal kingdom

Team Fortenberry pulled out all the stops to garner sympathy for the nine-term congressman. On March 17, one of Fortenberrys daughters wheeled a stroller into the courtroom. Inside: Fortenberrys first granddaughter, dressed in an adorable green-and-white clover onesie.

Several observers braced themselves for Blumenfeld to kick the baby out of the courtroom. Most judges do not allow infants in court.

Blumenfeld paid the baby no mind.

In openings, Summers introduced the jury to the baby, who didnt make a peep. She also didnt make an appearance the rest of trial.

Nor did Fortenberrys chickens. Thats correct: The defense had wanted to include photos of Fortenberry and his one-time backyard chickens, as well as Fortenberry and his dog.

Prosecutors objected. The defense removed those photos from its opening slide show.

Other animals did make appearances:

Elephants. Celeste Fortenberry testified she traveled with her husband to Africa as part of the congressional conservation caucus, focused on preventing elephant poaching.

Horses. Summers noted that as part of the LA fundraising weekend, the Lebanese Catholic community bestowed an honor that would allow Fortenberry to ride a horse into any Catholic church.

Opossums. They killed the backyard chickens, Celeste Fortenberry testified.

Raccoons. Fortenberry so loathed making fundraising calls, Celeste testified, that he went into autopilot. He would distract himself by cooking breakfast or walking the dog or doing projects. One of those projects: fixing chimney damage caused by raccoons.

The appeal

In a post-verdict gaggle, Fortenberry was asked what his appeal would be based on. The case, he said.

He didnt get much more specific other than to say: We always thought it was going to be hard to get a fair process out here. The appeal starts immediately.

In reality, any appeal would have to start after sentencing. The defense no doubt will bring up Blumenfelds refusal to let them call an expert who would have testified that Fortenberrys memory was fallible. Translated: He wasnt lying; he was simply not remembering.

Another, more obscure issue to watch: Prosecutors were required to establish venue, that elements of Fortenberrys crime took place in central California. Fortenberrys defense argued that the investigative interviews, where he was accused of lying, took place in Nebraska and Washington.

Los Angeles

Much was made about the case being in Los Angeles, where, as one observer said, it feels like the beach, smells like the weed.

The scene was surreal. And Fortenberrys defense had decried it, saying the true jury of his peers was in Nebraska. But the original crime occurred in Los Angeles, at that fundraiser.

And the case wasnt tried on the streets of LA. It was tried the way all federal cases are. Inside a courthouse with white marble walls and white tile floors not all that different from Omahas federal courthouse. Inside a courtroom with a tough judge, dueling attorneys and a jury.

All of the arguments about other factors were noise, designed to distract from the issues at hand, lead prosecutor Mack Jenkins said. The jury was clearly paying attention. You saw them taking a lot of notes. They took their opportunity to deliberate. They worked very hard and ultimately, they saw it as a simple story  of a politician who lost his way.
Rep. Jeff Fortenberry will resign from Congress effective Thursday, he said in a letter to constituents and his colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives on Saturday.

The decision comes two days after Fortenberry, 61, was convicted by a federal jury of concealing conduit campaign contributions and two counts of lying to federal agents.

It was the first trial of a sitting congressman since Rep. Jim Traficant, D-Ohio, was convicted of bribery and other felony charges in 2002.

Fortenberry will face up to five years in prison on each count when he is sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. on June 28.

The resignation of the 17-year representative of Nebraska's 1st Congressional District, a former Lincoln City Councilman who eight times won re-election to Congress gaining anywhere from 58% to 71% of the vote, appeared to bring a sudden end to a lifelong political career.

Fortenberry's indictment in October drew a serious Republican primary challenge from state Sen. Mike Flood, a former speaker of the Nebraska Legislature who has since won the endorsements of Ricketts and former Gov. Dave Heineman.

The winner of the GOP primary is likely to face state Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks, a Democrat from Lincoln, but Nebraska's 1st Congressional District is heavily Republican and hasn't been competitive in decades.

Fortenberry said his team would appeal the case.

Fortenberry announced his resignation in an email Saturday afternoon titled "My Last Fort Report," referencing the title of his weekly column.

"Due to the difficulties of my current circumstances, I can no longer serve you effectively," Fortenberry wrote. "I will resign from Congress shortly."

An attached letter from Fortenberry to his colleagues in Congress, which he began with a poem written on the wall of Mother Teresa's children's home in Calcutta, indicates he will resign on March 31.

Following the jury's verdict, which came after about two hours of deliberation, he came under fire from other Republicans, including Gov. Pete Ricketts and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, who on Friday called on him to resign.

Under Nebraska law, a special election will occur within 90 days to fill Fortenberry's seat, even as the May 10 primary will narrow the field for the general election in November.

According to state statute, the political parties polling at least 5% in the previous election may select a candidate for the Congressional special election.

That would mean the state GOP and Democratic parties would forward one nominee for the special election, as Fortenberry (59.5%) and Democrat Kate Bolz (37.7%) were the only ones to reach the 5% threshold in the 2020 race.

Other candidates who gather enough signatures may also appear on the ballot without their party affiliation listed.

The special election would fill the seat through January 2023, when the winner of this year's general election would assume office.

It appears Fortenberry's name will still appear on the Republican ballot for the May 10 primary.

Nebraska law requires the Secretary of State to transmit the candidates, offices and issues that will appear on the ballot to all county election officials at least 50 days before any statewide primary. The names that will appear on the primary ballot were certified last week.

In a statement on Saturday afternoon, Pansing Brooks said Fortenberry's resignation "opens the door for a new approach to serving" the congressional district.

"I am ready and able to meet that challenge and lead with integrity," she said.

In his letter to colleagues, Fortenberry wrote that it was a pleasure to call many of them friends.

But a stanza of the poem he included, "Do It Anyway," seemed to sum up his political fortunes.

"What you spend years building,

"someone could destroy overnight.

"Build anyway."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7120 or cdunker@journalstar.com. On Twitter @ChrisDunkerLJS
Nick Uhre, co-owner of the Grand Gateway Hotel, sent a lengthy email to Gov. Kristi Noem on Wednesday asking, in part, for her help to remove Rapid City Mayor Steve Allender from office.

Uhre's request follows the revelation of racist comments posted by his mother, Connie Uhre, where she said the Grand Gateway Hotel would ban all Native Americans from the property because she can't tell "who is a bad Native or a good Native."

Ian Fury, Noem's chief of communications, said her office normally does not respond to media requests about these types of emails but condemned the racist remarks.

The Governors office generally does not comment to the media on correspondence received from private citizens. The Governor is opposed to all racial discrimination  there is no room for racial discrimination in South Dakota," Fury said. "Due to ongoing litigation on this subject, she will not be commenting further at this time.

The ongoing litigation references a federal civil rights class-action lawsuit filed Wednesday against the Retsel Corporation, parent company of the Grand Gateway Hotel, for denying services to Native Americans.

In Uhre's email to Noem, he claims "Allender is biased and is unfit to serve as mayor."

"Steve Allender has been looking for a way to smear me or my family because of our outspokenness regarding the agenda of the left," Uhre wrote.

He claims Allender took advantage of Connie Uhre's racist comments and posted them on Twitter for the mayor's own gain. He excuses Connie Uhre's comments by saying she "has 'moments.'"

"How he has publicly portrayed this establishment is wrong. The mayor posting my moms Facebook post on his twitter account is beyond the pale," Uhre wrote.

He claims the community outrage over the racist comments have put him and his business at risk.

"I have no more employees in the bar. Soon, I will have no employees in my hotel due to them fearing for their safety," Uhre wrote.

In the email, Uhre claims the issue and the publicity are not based upon the racist comments, but because of his opposition to the MacArthur Foundation Grant, which the Pennington County Sheriff's Office received in 2015 and aims to reduce jail population and racial disparities in the criminal justice system.

"Governor Noem, you know my stance on the MacArthur Foundation and the Safety and Justice Challenge grant which is Critical Race Theory for our Criminal Justice System. I guess Im over the target as the saying goes. Because Im getting it," Uhre wrote. "This social media smear is very planned."

He goes on to say, "Steve Allender is using his own position to manipulate the situation. Period!"

Uhre pleas with Noem to remove Allender from office and cites South Dakota Codified Law that allows the governor to remove "constitutional state officers" for "crimes, misconduct, or malfeasance in office."

However, a mayor is not a state officer. The governor has no power to remove a municipal elected official.

Allender spoke with the Journal on Thursday and said Uhre is "unhinged."

"It's completely illogical and desperate. I am at a loss to understand how he and members of his family say idiotic things, which creates a storm of criticism for him," Allender said. "Then he can turn and blame it on me. I will own my mistakes, but I won't own his.

"This mess has been made messier because of he and his family's inability to navigate through it in a responsible way."

In Uhre's email, he states he spoke with three Rapid City Council members, and the council members informed him that "the Mayor has a personal vendetta for me."

Allender said the allegation is false.

"I've heard from two of the council members that he mentioned who said they have not said anything to Nick about me having a vendetta," the mayor said.

Allender said the entire Rapid City community is suffering because of the racist comments and actions.

"It's all of us. It's everyone. It's not just Nick Uhre," Allender said. "He's got his own beliefs, and he and his family decided to make them public... And now he's suffering the consequence.

"The court of public opinion will not tolerate he and his family's insincere apologies. The other rhetoric he's spewing out through this event, everything he says, will come back to bite him  and I wish I knew what to tell him. I wish there was someone that could give him the proper advice, but it's just getting worse every day," Allender said.

Contact Nathan Thompson at nathan.thompson@rapidcityjournal.com.
Look for Five Guys Burgers and Fries, Caribou Coffee and MattressFirm to occupy a three-unit building thats about to be built next to the planned Chick-fil-A restaurant at the former Fauver Hill School site on the east side of Hwy. 16, south of Interstate 90, in Onalaska.

Construction of the multi-tenant building, and the Chick-fil-A, are expected to begin this spring. A Chick-fil-A spokesperson said in February that its Onalaska restaurant will open this fall, but declined to be more specific as to when.

Venture Pass Partners LLC, the suburban Minneapolis-based developer for the Onalaska development, has updated its webpage for the project to show Five Guys, Caribou Coffee and MattressFirm as tenants for the three-unit building.

Onalaska-based DBS Group recently said its been selected by Venture Pass Partners to build the three-unit building. It said construction is scheduled to begin in late April for substantial completion in late September.

The MOB Stop restaurant in Holmen closed effective Thursday, but may reopen under new ownership.

Its not going away, Ed OBrien told me after the restaurant announced its closing on its Facebook page last week. The restaurant bills itself as the regions oldest Chicago-type stand, offering the best in hot dogs, Polish sausage, Italian sausage and beef.

The Ed and Karin OBrien family own the Old Town Center retail/restaurant/office development at 208 S. Holmen Drive in Holmen, and various OBrien family members operate some of the businesses in it, including The MOB Stop.

Family obligations were getting tough, OBrien said of the restaurants closure. And its been tough finding enough employees.

Since the restaurant announced its closing, OBrien said Thursday, Weve had multiple people contact us about (taking over the business) and opening it back up again.

The MOB Stop opened in April 2019 in Old Town Center as a year-round restaurant, after operating six years from a mobile food trailer. For more information, visit https://themobstopholmen.com or Facebook.

A year after it opened in Eagle Bluff Plaza on the North Side of La Crosse, Kristi Nystrom will have a soft opening of her 6-11 Crystals, LLC store from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. today in its new, larger location at 115 Fifth Ave. S. Its in the Scenic Center building in downtown La Crosse.

We are definitely still a rock and healing crystals shop as well as a metaphysical shop, Nystrom said, with merchandise that includes such things as cards, books, candles, oils, herbs, stickers, journals, tapestries, salt lamps and jewelry. We have also more than doubled our local artists and art, and a significant part of the shop is dedicated to them.

Nystrom said her shop also has a small stage for such things as live music, open mic, poetry readings and lectures. We have a dedicated classroom space for not only crystal classes, but metaphysical classes of all kinds, she said. It also can be rented by the public for group meetings and other events. The shop also will offer energy healing services, Nystrom said.

Her business outgrew its previous space in Eagle Bluff Plaza, along Hwy. 16 in La Crosse, where it had opened in February 2021. Nystrom started her crystal and rock shop before that In the Gallery 6 Salon in Onalaska.

Downtown fits our vibe and our current customers are really excited, she said of the shops new downtown location. Plus, Fifth Avenue is rapidly getting filled up with interesting businesses, and we cant wait to be a part of that.

Regular hours will be 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. We will have a grand opening April 1, 2 and 3 with special guests, sales and other fun surprises, Nystrom said.

For more information, call 608-519-1619 or visit https://611crystals.shopsettings.com or Facebook.

And speaking of crystals, Naomi Griffith opened Crystal Eclipse on March 17 at 138 N. Water St. in downtown Sparta, Wis.

She describes Crystal Eclipse as a wellness shop. Griffith is a licensed massage therapist  she has been a professional massage therapist for more than 25 years  and offers massages by appointment in her new location from 8 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Online is one of the options for booking massages.

The new retail shop part of her business sells such things as crystals, many varieties of sage, topical analgesics, acupressure mats and massage tools, from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

Griffiths shop also sells jewelry, books, tapestries, dreamcatchers and suncatchers. Some of the merchandise is made by area artists and Im always looking for more local artists whose works she may carry, Griffith said.

Ive always wanted to have a crystals store, Griffith said of her decision to open the shop. Ive loved crystals since I was a kid.

Griffith, who moved to Sparta from Stevens Point, Wis., about nine years ago, said she plans to have a grand opening celebration, probably in late spring or early summer.

For more information, call 608-487-9697 or visit www.naomigriffith.com or Facebook.

Town n Country Title, a Holmen-based title company, opened its 10th office on March 7 in Suite H at 1115 N. Superior Ave. in Tomah.

A grand opening celebration will be from 4 to 7 p.m. April 7, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 5:30 p.m. All are welcome to join for a night of networking, snacks, refreshments and fun, title company owner Nancy McHugh said.

Hours at the new Tomah office are 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Its telephone number is 608-315-8148.

Weve had many requests to open a branch in central Wisconsin, and we are proud to say we are finally doing so, McHugh said. Were confident we will be able to meet the needs of the community and be a positive addition to the city of Tomah.

McHugh said Town n Country was founded in 2007 and is an independently owned and operated title company that serves both Wisconsin and Minnesota. With 10 locations and almost 50 employees, it provides title insurance and closing/settlement services to realtors, lenders, homeowners and more.

The companys recently redesigned website has an updated logo that combines a house, tree and three-story building, which represents the customers and companies that it serves in town and in the country.

For more information, visit www.townncountrytitle.com, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

Steve Cahalan can be reached at stevecahalan.reporter@gmail.com.

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During a Jan. 24 traffic stop on Interstate 90, police recovered 11.2 pounds of methamphetamine, the most ever seized during a single drug bust in La Crosse County.

The record didnt last long. On Feb. 19, police recovered 15 pounds of methamphetamine after arresting a suspect in the parking lot of a La Crosse hotel.

The two record-breaking drug busts didnt surprise La Crosse County Sheriff Jeff Wolf.

It didnt catch anyone off guard, Wolf said. It was just a matter of time.

The two massive drug busts confirm the changing nature of methamphetamine distribution and addiction. Once produced under extremely hazardous conditions in local makeshift labs, its now a more industrialized process.

When we first saw methamphetamine, it was a lot of homemade products that people could make in meth labs, Wolf said. Because we did a good job on the labs and shut them down, it just pushed the issue to a different source ... primarily Mexico, but there are others.

Methamphetamine is commonly sold in crystal or powder form. It can be injected, smoked, snorted or taken orally. Unlike heroin, which is a depressant, methamphetamine is a powerful stimulant that triggers heightened emotions, including anxiety, paranoia and aggression. The behaviors pose unique challenges to law enforcement, emergency responders, hospital emergency room personnel and family members.

La Crosse Police Department Lt. Linnea Miller said most of the methamphetamine that winds up in La Crosse comes from large labs in Mexico that can produce up to 100 pounds of the drug in eight hours. The industrialized version delivers a more intense and dependable level of intoxication.

Police normally encounter a person who does not have the ability to stand still or stop moving, Miller said. Most of the time their speech or thought pattern is erratic, making it difficult to understand them. Users are usually extremely paranoid.

La Crosse County Sheriffs Office drug investigator Rob Walensky said its not unusual to trace methamphetamine to child neglect or weapons use.

One of the biggest things is just the irrational behavior, Walensky. You see people, in some cases, who havent slept in three days.

Wolf said personnel in the La Crosse County Jail must deal with inmates undergoing methamphetamine withdrawal.

Its tough when they go through the withdrawal, Wolf said. We have to monitor them and make sure theyre safe. All of these things have an impact on the jail.

Health impacts

Methamphetamine also takes a toll on the user.

Dr. Chris Eberlein, emergency medical physician at Gundersen Health System, said the drug triggers a sharp rise in blood pressure, which has a negative long-term cardiovascular impact. Users also suffer loss of teeth, insomnia and scabs caused by persistent scratching.

Eberlein said the cardiovascular effects are difficult to reverse, even if the user manages to stop.

It does so much damage to the circulatory system, he said.

Eberlein said researchers are less certain about long-term brain damage.

The jury is still out about the brains ability to recover and remodel, he said.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, there were 822 methamphetamine overdose deaths in Wisconsin from 2014-2020, compared to 6,005 opioid deaths. However, Eberlein said the methamphetamine numbers dont count premature deaths due to long-term use, such as a stroke or heart attack.

Miller said methamphetamine sells in La Crosse for about $600 an ounce, which puts the street value of the recent busts in La Crosse at nearly $300,000. She said most addicts finance their addiction through theft.

This most commonly starts by using all their own money before taking advantage of family members, Miller said. Eventually property crimes, including retail thefts, are done to support the drug of choice. Some dealers will trade meth for expensive items. I have even found lists of items drug dealers wanted their buyers to steal for them.

Wolf said its more difficult for law enforcement to trace drug deals since fewer of them of involve cash.

The mobility of the entire drug world has changed, Wolf said. Its a combination of social media, the internet and cell phones  they all have multiple cell phones.

Walensky added, You dont have meet up to hand somebody a couple of hundred dollars anymore.

There is no medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of methamphetamine use disorder. Eberlein said behavioral therapy is the only treatment available.

Ive heard from users that its the most difficult drug to treat, Eberlein said. We have more tools in our toolbox for opioid addiction.

Wolf described drug addiction in La Crosse County as a major public health issue and said its one that the public needs to take seriously.

Drugs is a public health crisis in the county, he said. We deal with this every day. There needs to be a community focus on what the true problem is, and thats drugs and substance abuse issues.

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All 30 seats on the La Crosse County Board are up for reelection on Tuesday, April 5. The Tribune asked candidates a series of questions about their platforms.

The Q&As will be published daily in order of responses, not in numerical order of districts.

Responses for candidates running for District 29 are below.

Tom Jacobs (i)

Age: 69

Education: 3+ years at UW-La Crosse and Winona State

Occupation: Retired after 36 years with the La Crosse Police Department, retiring in 2011, holding the rank of Assistant Chief

Political experience: I have served on the Town Board in the town of Greenfield since approximately 2007, and currently serve as chairman. I was appointed to the La Crosse County Board in 2019 to fill the vacancy in District 27. I was elected to that position in the 2020 election. I have served on the Health and Human Services Board since my appointment and served on the Health Ethics Committee while it existed. I also serve on the Criminal Justice Management Council and the Solid Waste Policy Board. The Comprehensive Plan Review Committee I serve on is nearing completing its mission.

Why do you want to serve on the La Crosse County Board and what is something youd want to accomplish if elected?

I applied for the vacancy in 2019 because I believe that representing the residents of the district is truly important. I have been able to serve as a conduit for concerns expressed to me. Because of the dual roles of both the Town Board and County Board, I have had the opportunity to directly address some of these concerns and on others, route them to the people who can address the issues. Additionally, having worked for the city, I was able to develop good working relationships with individuals and Departments in the County.

My wife, Maxine, and I have been foster and adoptive parents in and for La Crosse County since the mid 1970s, and again, have developed strong relationships within Human Services, as well as strong advocacy for youth in our community.

I would like to work toward further collaboration and cooperation both locally and regionally. There currently exists a growing sense of collaboration and the importance of that in the future of our region.

La Crosse County has received nearly $22 million in funding from the American Rescue Plan Act. The current board has already divided the funds into categories, but what do you think is the most important project this unprecedented funding should be spent on?

I believe that providing a safety net for the homeless people in our community while also providing opportunities to enable people to move forward with their lives is critical. I also believe that improving the safety of our infrastructure is equally important to people in our county. These are both long-term commitments for the county, and both are critical for the safety of our residents and future development within the county.

What ideas do you have on improving the collaboration and regionalization between the county and municipalities?

I think that relationships between the county and municipalities in the county have been steadily improving. The county has worked diligently on collaborating with the townships on planning for the future and serves as a partner in critical issues. County staff and administration as well as elected officials participate in Wisconsin Towns Association local meetings and events, providing information and support to towns within the county.

Ken Schlimgen

Age: 59

Education: Masters degree in Business Administration (MBA), Bachelor of Science degrees in Education and Agriculture (Animal Sciences)

Occupation: Manager of Market Operations, Trading & Wholesale Power for Dairyland Power Cooperative

Political experience: 13 years on the West Salem School Board

Why do you want to serve on the La Crosse County Board and what is something youd want to accomplish if elected?

I believe that La Crosse County is much more than the city of La Crosse. I am running to serve as a voice for the rural areas, especially the Towns of Barre and Greenfield that I would be representing. For years, the rural areas have been under-represented and under-funded. My goal would be to assure that funds are spent wisely in the county as a whole and that rural areas would share in the benefit of the services offered by the county. In particular, the rural area needs to be assured that they have adequate assistance from supported law enforcement and that the rural roads are maintained in a safe manner.

La Crosse County has received nearly $22 million in funding from the American Rescue Plan Act. The current board has already divided the funds into categories, but what do you think is the most important project this unprecedented funding should be spent on?

I think that the most important project was not allocated any funding, that of repair of our rural highway system. I think that many of the allocations that are currently slated will in fact be a detriment to the county because it is being treated as continuous and not one time funding. Setting programs to be funded over a multi-year period shows a lack of forethought on behalf of the committee allocating these funds. One time funds should be used for one time projects. In addition, we should never forget, that government funding is our funding. The government does not create money, they simply take it from us.

What ideas do you have on improving the collaboration and regionalization between the county and municipalities?

We need to continually assess if there are ways to make the local governments more efficient. We also need to assess how this affects those touched by these services. Many rural areas have viable functioning ambulance and fire districts. In the case of ambulance services though, we have handcuffed some of these local departments and are not allowing them the ability to transport patients as they wait for a regional service to arrive. I would look to reverse this in the future and block this from happening in rural fire districts. Our volunteers who provide these vital services should be applauded for the work they do and not be told they are not good enough.

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YOKOSUKA, Japan -- Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Hannah Proulx, from Tomah, Wisconsin, speaks during a Womens History Month celebration on the aft mess decks of the U.S. Navys only forward-deployed aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76).

This years event on March 18 highlighted accomplishments of women throughout history and in todays world, and centered around the theme of Women providing healing, promoting hope.

Ronald Reagan, the flagship of Carrier Strike Group 5, provides a combat-ready force that protects and defends the United States, and supports alliances, partnerships and collective maritime interests in the Indo-Pacific region.

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By Trend

Referring to the negotiations between Iran and P4+1 in Vienna, Qatari Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani called reaching an agreement with Iran important, Trend reports citing Mehr.

He emphasized the need for an agreement on comprehensive security in the region.

Speaking at Doha Summit, he reiterated that reaching a nuclear deal with Iran is important and that agreements on comprehensive security in the region should be reached.

Region has been in crisis for several years, but as much as the situation in Ukraine was taken into consideration, the crisis in the region was not taken into account, he added.

He stressed that problems of the region should be dealt with the same as crisis in Ukraine.
The first Bacon Fest takes over Loggers Field in La Crosse on Saturday, and tickets are sold out.

The River Valley Media Group has partnered with Festival Foods, Farmland Bacon and Copeland Park & Events Center to bring Bacon Fest to La Crosse on May 7.

A highlight of the event will be the official Bacon Eating Contest, sponsored by Festival Foods and Farmland Bacon. Fifteen contestants will compete to see who can consume the most bacon in five minutes. The winner will receive a trophy, and bragging rights as the first-ever Bacon Fest Bacon Eating Champion.

VIP and general admission tickets are sold out.

General admission gates open at 1 p.m., and ticket holders receive one free sample from all food vendor booths.

Food vendors will gather at Loggers Field, offering samples of their best bacon dish or overall bacon in this family friendly event, with trophies awarded to vendors in each category. There will be a Fans Favorite division, as voted on by all attendees as well as a Judges Choice in each category as voted upon by a panel of local judges.

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The more than 1,800 clerks tasked with running Wisconsins elections are between a rock and a hard place, and all of them are at risk of violating the law when it comes to someone delivering an absentee ballot on behalf of another.

For years, it has been an accepted practice that it is legal to deliver absentee ballots on behalf of another person. In essence, it has been allowed that one person can drop off someone elses ballot (or many other peoples ballots) as part of absentee voting.

Some have said this allows the practice of derisively referred to as ballot harvesting, which is when one person collects ballots for several other people and delivers them en masse. That practice is banned in some states, specifically allowed in others; in Wisconsin, it is neither explicitly outlawed nor explicitly allowed.

That ambiguity in the law has led to the current conundrum.

Previously, the Wisconsin Elections Commission offered guidance to the states clerks that stated this practice was allowed.

The conservative law firm Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty sued, charging that this practice was illegal.

On Jan. 20, a Waukesha County judge issued an injunction in favor of WILL, ordering WEC to withdraw its guidance. WEC complied. That injunction came packaged with a declaration, in which the court asserted that ballot harvesting, delivering ballots on behalf of another or whatever you want to call it, is illegal in Wisconsin.

However, the injunction has no direct impact on what individual clerks do. Court injunctions can only be binding to those named in the case, and WILL only sued WEC. Clerks are not bound by it.

Ultimately, each clerk will need to decide what to do, taking into consideration both state and federal law, the different ways the absentee ballot statute can be interpreted, and the risks of choosing one option over another, states a letter from attorneys from the League of Wisconsin Municipalities, a nonprofit nonpartisan association of cities and villages.

Unfortunately, any decision brings with it the potential for dispute and litigation. The nature and level of risk will vary by municipality, the letter concludes.

In a phone interview Friday, Doug Poland, a liberal attorney fighting WILLs lawsuit and opposed to the Waukesha judges decision, said: For a clerk to look at this, the clerk could be saying Im seeing these two different parties arguing the statute in two different ways.

A judge cannot issue an injunction against anybody who is not named in the lawsuit, Poland said. As such, the injunction doesnt actually prohibit clerks from doing anything.

The lawsuit the Waukesha judge ruled on has been appealed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. While the state high court is expected to rule on the case, it declined to act quickly; early voting is already underway for the April 5 election.

Even within Racine County, municipalities are employing different policies regarding ballot delivery.

Inconsistent application of the law

If you live in Caledonia or Mount Pleasant, for example, and you go to your village hall to deliver your spouses absentee ballot, the clerk (or a deputy of that clerk) has been instructed to not accept your spouses ballot.

The elector must personally drop off their ballot, Caledonia Clerk Joslyn Hoeffert said in an email.

An official Caledonia village notice states: ALL absentee ballots must either be returned by USPS mail or handed in to the Clerks office in person by the elector themselves during scheduled business hours. All ballots must be received before the polls close on the day of the election to be counted. Please plan accordingly, submit your request for an absentee ballot early and return your absentee ballot as soon as possible.

In the City of Racine, you can still deliver a ballot on behalf of another, but under certain circumstances.

A ballot can be returned by someone who is not the voter, City Clerk Tara Coolidge said in an email, before clarifying in a later email: A(n) agent or an authorized representative may deliver a ballot on behalf of the voter. If you arrive in person to deliver a ballot that is not yours you will be asked if you are an agent or authorized representative. If your response is Yes, the ballot will be accepted. If your response is No, the ballot will not be accepted.

An argument has been made that by not allowing voters to have their ballot delivered by someone else, then those with disabilities may be faced with an illegal hurdle. Under federal voting laws, any voter who requires assistance to vote by reason of blindness, disability, or inability to read or write may be given assistance by a person of the voters choice, other than the voters employer or an agent of that employer or officer or agent of the voters union.

The City of Racines policy of asking those delivering ballots if they are an authorized representative aims to fulfill both the intention of the Waukesha judges order and federal law.

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Sohar International, a leading bank in Oman, has partnered with Hambro Perks, a global investment firm, aiming to seek new venture capital investment opportunities in the region through the creation of co-investment platforms and joint funds.



The agreement will provide new investment opportunities for Sohar Internationals customers and uncover business opportunities in the local market for international investors.



The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed recently at Sohar Internationals head office at Waterfront in Shatti Al Qurum. Signing the agreement on behalf of Sohar International was Chief Executive Officer, Ahmed Al Musalmi, with Hambro Perks Limited represented by Ali Qaiser, Managing Director of Hambro Perks.



The agreements white-label venture capital (VC) fund structures will provide Sohar International clients with direct exposure to the VC asset class. The agreement will also enable partnership opportunities in the Sultanate for Hambro Perks portfolio of companies.



Ahmed Musalmi said: The joint initiative with Hambro Perks is a testament to the Banks focus on being digitally driven. This strategic partnership is aligned to the embedding of innovation in our business operations, and in doing so, demonstrates that it is important for us to play a pivotal role in bringing in new protentional foreign investments to the country by partnering with experienced VC investors.



We are excited that this partnership will enable early-stage Omani technology companies to access global markets and products. This strategic step will deliver on our purpose and allow our clients to win and achieve their goals through benefiting from next-generation fintech and exploring new business incubation.



Backed by sovereign funds, well-established institutions, family offices and influential individuals from across the world, Hambro Perks is a multi-stage investor, investing across several specialised strategies. Hambro Perks has a unique platform for partnering with founders and entrepreneurs to support growth businesses at all stages of the investment cycle.



Dominic Perks, CEO and co-founder of Hambro Perks, said: We are looking forward to developing this close working relationship between Sohar International, Hambro Perks and our portfolio of technology companies globally. This is a great opportunity to support the Omani technology ecosystem by working together.



Oman has unique opportunities to offer and this partnership will help us deliver value and access to new growth markets for our portfolio companies as we continue to help them scale. We are excited about the possibilities locally and believe Sohar is the ideal partner to explore these with.  TradeArabia News Service
As the United States pushes to use more low-carbon energy, there has been a recent improvement in relations between the hydropower industry and some environmental groups.

The recent compromises are found in President Joe Bidens infrastructure law, which puts $2.5 billion toward projects including dam removals as well as improvements to existing structures for hydropower and energy storage.

Ted Illston of American Rivers, a group that has pushed for dam removals on environmental grounds, recently told the Associated Press that the group recognizes that (hydropower) is probably going to play some role in the transition. Its certainly better than coal.

Hydropower in the United States

Hydropower uses flowing water to move turbines connected to generators. It is the oldest and second-largest sort of renewable energy in the U.S. after wind power. In 2020, it accounted for roughly 7 percent of the electricity generated in the country.

The industry has not received as much federal money as wind and solar, but sees room for growth. Of the 90,000 dams in the country, about 2,500 produce power. Non-powered dams could produce enough power for 9 to 12 million homes, said an estimate by the Electric Power Supply Association based on federal data from 2012.

In southwestern Pennsylvania, Rye Development, a Boston-based hydropower company, is adding turbines to eight dams to generate electricity. The company says the improved structures will limit damage to the rivers water quality and fish.

Rye is among the companies that sees an opportunity to expand hydropower production at existing dams while working to minimize environmental harms.

Part of the difficulty is that most dams in the U.S. were built more than fifty years ago.

The risk of dam collapses has led to increased dam removals or demolitions in recent years, with more than 40 percent of the countrys dam removals in the past century happening in the last ten years.

Last month, federal officials moved a step closer to approving what would be the largest dam demolition in U.S. history. Removal of the four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River near the Oregon-California border would help save the rivers salmon and other fish species that cannot reach breeding areas because of the structures.

Ongoing debates

Despite some recent improvements in relations between the hydropower industry and environmental groups, there are still disagreements. On Maines Kennebec River, environmental groups and state environmental agencies are pushing for the removal of four hydropower dams that block endangered Atlantic salmon from reaching key areas. The dams make about 5 percent of the states renewable energy.

Shannon Ames of the Low Impact Hydropower Institute said,

Its very easy for individual river systems to get lost in the message of climate change and the need for renewable energy.

With drought affecting hydropower production in Americas West, the industry has a more direct path to growth in eastern states.

In Pennsylvania, Rye met with the Low Impact Hydropower Institute early in its process and is among a small number of companies seeking certification from the group.

To get certified, companies must show their structures meet protections for endangered species. The group says its environmental requirements are often stricter than state or federal rules.

Im John Russell.

Suman Naishadham reported on this story for the Associated Press. John Russell adapted it for VOA Learning English.

Quiz - Hydropower Industry Sees Room for Growth in US Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

____________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

infrastructure  n. the basic equipment and structures (such as roads and bridges) that are needed for a country, region, or organization to function properly

transition  n. a change from one state or condition to another

turbine  n. an engine that has a part with blades that are caused to spin by pressure from water, steam, or air

species  n. biology : a group of animals or plants that are similar and can produce young animals or plants : a group of related animals or plants that is smaller than a genus

drought  n. a long period of time during which there is very little or no rain

certification  n. official approval to do something professionally or legally
About 40 children have already started private classes in Berlin, just weeks after fleeing the war. Two teachers, who also fled to Germany, welcomed the children into their new classroom.

Millions of Ukrainian refugees have crossed into neighboring countries, like Poland, as the war in Ukraine continues. Many have made their way to other European countries like Germany.

The refugees are trying to rebuild their lives. Some have already started the necessary routines like going to school.

Mariia Kerashchenko is a mother of two children and a Ukrainian refugee in Germany. She just sent her seven-year-old son, Myroslav, to his first day of school with about 40 other children.

With tears in her eyes, 30-year-old Kerashchenko told a reporter, "It gets me emotional when I see all the help and solidarity here."

"Every day, I hope that we can go back to Ukraine, but it is too dangerous for now, so in the meantime it is wonderful that my son can go to school in Germany," she added.

The lessons will help prepare the children to enter the normal school system in Berlin. Burcak Sevilgen and Faina Karlitski organized the volunteer initiative for the refugees. In two weeks, the two raised money, organized the cost-free classrooms, and advertised the program on a messaging service.

The children were nervous as they entered the building with their schoolbooks and pencils. But they can look forward to three hours of lessons a day. They will follow their curriculum from Ukraine and also take German language classes. The children are able to take part in after-school activities like painting and other arts and crafts.

Two Ukrainians, Natalia Khalil and Tatjana Gubskaya, will teach the students. Natalia, from western Ukraine, is age 33. She is teaching the third and fourth graders. Tatjana is age 56. She is teaching second graders like she did back home. She will also teach first graders. Gubskaya fled Ukraine with her daughter and a seven-year-old grandson. He is in her classroom.

"The kids are grateful to have some kind of routine again and meet other children from Ukraine  they and their mothers have all been very stressed lately," said Gubskaya.

The teachers will be paid in donations, about $550 a month, until they are officially permitted to work.

Burcak Sevilgen is a teacher in Berlin and her friend Karlitski is an administrative advisor. Together, they wanted to help get at least a few of the refugee children back to school quickly. They spent all of their free time organizing the classes. They raised money and organized classes with help from a Berlin childrens support program called Arche.

"We both have always had an eye for social issues and wanted to help here as well," Sevilgen said.

The program received an offer for rooms at no cost in a Berlin immigrant neighborhood. The Ukrainian refugee mothers in Berlin connected with the program on a messaging service called, Telegram.

Since men ages 18 to 60 in Ukraine are not permitted to leave, the majority of Ukrainian refugees are women, mothers and their children. Three million Ukrainians fled abroad and another six million are without homes inside of Ukraines borders.

Every day about 10,000 refugees arrive to Berlin in trains. Germany has registered almost 250,000 Ukrainian refugees already. But the real number of refugees is unknown because thousands more have arrived by car. They are usually not registered if they come by car.

Ukrainians do not need a visa to enter the country. Many of the refugees are staying in shelters or with relatives who immigrated in earlier years. Some Ukrainians are even staying at an old airport.

The government is organizing a task force to help refugee children to attend schools in 16 German states. Many schools, including private ones, have taken in a few Ukrainian students. Berlin officials are creating a special welcome class for the children and will include German language classes.

A similar program to this was used to help immigrant children attend school in 2015 and 2016 when 1 million people fled conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Im Faith Pirlo.

Kirsten Grieshaber reported this story for the Associated Press. Faith Pirlo adapted it for VOA Learning English.

__________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

solidarity  n. unity for a common cause

initiative  n. a new approach or plan for something

curriculum  n. lessons and subjects in a course of study

grateful  adj. thankful or gracious

task force  n. a special group that works to complete a set objective

What do you think about Ukrainian children attending school in Germany? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.
In northeastern Brazil, the capital of Alagoas state used to be filled with the sounds of busy city life: cars and buses going to places of business, people enjoying daily life, and children playing.

But now, the capital Maceio is quiet.

Most residents have been evacuated. They have left because their now empty houses are falling apart and face destruction.

Beneath their floors, the ground is filled with empty spaces from four decades of rock salt mining in urban neighborhoods. That caused the soil above to settle and the structures atop the soil to start coming apart.

Since 2020, tens of thousands of residents accepted payments to leave the area from petrochemical company Braskem.

But some residents remain in Maceio. Some told the Associated Press they imagine the ground under their feet to look like Swiss cheese, meaning full of holes.

Still, Paulo Sergio Doe said he will never leave his home in the Pinheiro neighborhood. It is where he grew up.

The company cannot (cant) impose what it wants overnight to do away with the lives and histories of so many families, the 51-year-old resident said in an interview outside his home.

Braskem is one of the biggest petrochemical companies in the Americas. It is owned mostly by Brazilian state-run oil company Petrobras and construction giant Novonor.

The company is not forcibly evicting anyone. But those remaining in Maceio said it feels that way. Braskem reached an agreement with prosecutors and public defenders to compensate families. This money was to help them relocate and start their lives over elsewhere. By the companys count, 97.4 percent of affected homes  more than 14,000  are now empty.

The 55,000 evacuees left behind not just neighbors and friends, but also jobs. Last year the Federal University of Alagoas published a study. It found that 4,500 mostly small- and medium-sized businesses were closed. These businesses employed an estimated 30,000 people.

Among those businesses were local food markets and a ballet school that had operated for 38 years, said to Adriana Capretz. She is part of the universitys work group that keeps details on the neighborhoods.

The emptiness of the city is clear from above. The residents who left sold everything they could for extra money. This included the roofing material of their homes. Without the roof tiles, from above you can see clearly inside the once-lived-in houses.

The amount of money Braskem offered to compensate 77-year-old retired teacher Natalicia Goncalves is not enough. She said she was too old to start over somewhere else. So, she watched as everyone in Pinheiro left her.

Now she lives inside a homemade shelter behind boards and plants. These are aimed at preventing would-be thieves. Braskem security guards patrol the city on motorcycles at night. This briefly breaks the citys strange silence.

Theyve already done everything to force me to go, but I have my rights, she said from behind her homes protected outside barrier. She said she is especially afraid at night when no one is around and there is not much light. I protect myself with my plants, she said, but Im alone, with God.

As of yet, no house has been swallowed by the earth, nor has anyone been killed by a collapse. However, Capretz, a professor in the universitys architecture and urbanism school, said that does not mean this is not a tragedy.

She explained that many people have become sick with depression. Some residents have killed themselves. Many have ... lost their social lives, family ties, friends and neighbors, Capretz said as she walked through the Bebedouro neighborhood. None of that is being considered by Braskem.

Sitting at a table beneath the light of the streets only working lamppost, 64-year-old Quiteria Maria da Silva and her grandson wait for the rest of their family to play a game of dominos.

Even as da Silva said she would move were Braskem to pay her requested amount, she is left with a big question: I always lived in my house and now, if I have to leave here, where will I go?

The companys press office said in a lengthy response to AP questions that it provides free mental health services to any resident in the compensation and relocation program. It said the program was created based on law and legal rulings in similar cases. The company added that compensation offers are always presented to individuals alongside their lawyer or a public defender.

But these offers can be made more complex by intense feelings. The price of a house is not the same as the value of a home.

Im Jonathan Evans. And Im Anna Matteo.

Eraldo Peres and David Biller reported this story for the Associated Press. Anna Matteo adapted it for VOA Learning English.

__________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

evacuate - v. to leave or cause to leave a place of danger

resident - n. living in a place for some length of time

impose - v. to establish or apply by authority

evict - v. to recover (property) from a person by legal process

compensate - v. to give money to make up for something

relocate - v. establish in a new place

thief - n. one that steals especially stealthily or secretly

patrol - v. the action of going around an area to make sure that it is safe
Highway 34 was closed for about three hours on Monday morning, March 28 after a log truck crash 7 miles west of Alsea.
Leading real estate developer Bloom Holding, today (March 27) announced that Cordoba, the first phase of its AED9 billion ($2.4 billion) Bloom Living - a new, fully-inclusive, integrated community in Abu Dhabi - has sold out within just four hours of its release onto the market.

Located in Zayed City and close to the Abu Dhabi International Airport, Bloom Living features more than 4,000 homes, including a selection of villas, townhouses, and apartments to suit the unique needs of residents of all generations.

It is being built in various phases with the first phase Cordoba set for completion in Q4 2024, said the statement from the Abu Dhabi developer..

Impressed with the overwhelming response to the project, the company has also announced that it will be releasing the second phase of the iconic gated community by the year-end.

Built over a 2.2 million sq m area, Bloom Livings architecture seamlessly fuses traditional Spanish design with contemporary finishings.

The Phase One, which has been named after an Andalusian city, is in line with the communitys Mediterranean rustic vibe.

Units ranged from two-and three-bedroom townhouses with sizes ranging from 150 sq m to 170 sq m. It also features several three- to six-bedroom detached villas in the range of 250 to 515 sq m.

Prices start from AED1.5 million, with attractive payment plans offered, reflecting Blooms commitment to providing value for money whilst also adhering to the highest quality standards, said the Abu Dhabi developer.

The focal point of the community will be a large lake which will represent a community meeting point, around which residents can walk, run, and cycle, making it an ideal home for those seeking a peaceful life, it stated.

Furthermore, the lake will act as an important point of connectivity, with pathways linking to all amenities and neighbourhoods. The use of water, in addition to the communitys beautiful flora, aims to create calm and serene surroundings that reinforce Bloom Livings commitment to promoting health and wellbeing.

According to Bloom, the residents will also benefit from an extensive selection of recreational activities and facilities suitable for all energy levels - from yoga, linear and agro parks to swimming pools and gyms.

There will also be several regular events and festivities which will aim to bring the entire community together. Pets are very welcome, with dedicated dog parks to ensure that every member of the family is catered for, it stated.

Bloom Holding CEO Carlos Wakim said: "This latest sell-out, once again highlights the trust that the people of the UAE place in the Bloom name; it also reflects Blooms dedication to providing communities that directly address the evolving needs of residents and the real estate landscape."

"The success of Cordoba reflects our commitment to developing high quality communities that have everything residents need to pursue a life most meaningful to them  from best-in-class Mediterranean inspired homes designed to international best standards to a wide range of amenities and facilities for the whole family," remarked Wakim.

Quality is at the heart of our value proposition, and it is why so many people continue to invest in the Bloom brand, he added.-TradeArabia News Service
For years, Wisconsin could be described as a flyover state when it came to venture capital funds that historically clustered on Americas coasts. Why invest elsewhere if you could find all the talent and technology you needed in young companies a few blocks away?

It appears some of those investors have put Wisconsin on their flight plans  at least for a fly-by.

Ninety different venture capital funds from outside Wisconsin took part in 42 separate early-stage deals in Wisconsin in 2021, easily a record for that class of investor interest outside the states borders. The previous high, according to research by the Wisconsin Technology Council, was 55 such investors in 31 deals in 2020.

Of the 90 investors who invested in Wisconsin companies in 2021, the breakdown showed 26 based in California  by the far nations leading venture capital state  12 in New York, 11 from outside the United States, eight from Illinois and four from Massachusetts. Investors from 18 other states took part in one to three deals each.

A natural question to ask: Why did so many non-Wisconsin investors show up in what was essentially one-third of the states 119 total deals?

The short answer is co-investing, meaning many venture funds will invest with other venture funds if they find a worthy company and the size of the overall raise is too big for any one fund to afford or risk. That happens within the Wisconsin angel and venture community, and more frequently elsewhere within the nations 2,000 or so venture funds.

Co-investment deals dont take place, however, unless there are reasons for the deal to come to the attention of other investors. That is part of whats happening in Wisconsin.

Some warm introductions are taking place, thanks to nationally known institutions that invest in the venture capital asset class. The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and the State of Wisconsin Investment Board are good examples. Both have been a part of venture capital deals for years, although in different conditions. However, both organizations have extensive contacts in the venture capital world, especially on the West and East coasts.

The costs of funding young companies in some locations, such as Californias Silicon Valley, have risen for local and regional reasons  not to mention company valuations that have become frothier. A dollar invested in a young company in Wisconsin, for example, can go further than a dollar invested in parts of California or the East Coast. Thats in part because of generally lower costs of doing business, but also because company valuations in Wisconsin are often viewed by investors as realistic.

There was a time when investors from outside Wisconsin may have had confidence in technology solutions produced here, but less comfort in potential company leadership. Investors often want to invest in the team, meaning company executives who have successfully built, grown and sold companies in the past. As the Wisconsin early-stage economy has matured, more such managers have emerged or been attracted to the state.

There are more Wisconsin companies than ever that need to raise seven- or eight-digit rounds of investment dollars. That often means looking outside Wisconsin for the much bigger rounds.

Very often, by the time a deal reaches the Series B round, there is no one here big enough to touch it and certainly not fund it all, said Dan Einhorn of Capital Midwest, a fund based in the Milwaukee area.

Capital Midwest is one of Wisconsins largest and best-performing funds, so when he says there arent Wisconsin funds large enough to bring most companies through the B round (defined most often as the third investment round) that includes his own. Capital Midwest most often invests in companies in increments of $500,000 to $2 million or so, he said. Once it gets much larger, Capital Midwest is more likely to introduce the company to other funds than to lead the deal.

Such introductions are easier to make today, he said, because of the higher quality of (Wisconsin) deals and better investors who took part in the early rounds.

Wisconsin recorded $852 million in 119 deals in 2021, which was a record by $368 million over 2020  which was also a record. That kind of progress, if it is to repeated within an uncertain 2022 economy, must involve more connections and syndication with investors outside Wisconsin.

Tom Still is the president of the Wisconsin Technology Council. Email: tstill@wisconsintechnologycouncil.com.
Rounding out this years Top Workplaces in the large-company category are several familiar names in a variety of sectors, with distinctive characteristics that make them stand-out places to work.

6. AGRACE

Agrace is a nonprofit, community-supported health care organization providing care and support to people who are aging, seriously ill, dying or dealing with grief. Founded in 1978, today it employs 781 people and is Wisconsins largest hospice provider.

The organization believes that a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion is vital in any top-performing workplace. Agrace works to foster a culture of inclusion that celebrates everyones uniqueness, something that leads to staff developing meaningful and empathetic connections.

Agrace has established a staff committee representing clinical and non-clinical personnel to think differently about workflows, accessibility, marketing and other issues to help push inclusion forward.

7. FIRST WEBER REALTORS

With 412 Madison staff members and agents, First Weber provides comprehensive real estate services to its agents and clients. Founded in 1971, First Weber provides technology trainers, a full-time staff attorney and a graphics designer to help agents achieve success.

It also supports its agents with full-time support, answering questions and connecting them with the resources need to do their work. The company also involved in communities through the First Weber Foundation, which has donated more than $3 million to charitable causes since 2006.

8. SUMMIT CREDIT UNION

Summit Credit Union promotes a culture aimed at helping members achieve financial wellness through its products and expert guidance. That helps give employees a sense of meaning in their work.

When people take control of their finances, it can help so many aspects of their life. When you learn more about how to manage money, youve learned a lifelong skill. It impacts almost every aspect of your life. And its empowering, said Kim Sponem, president and CEO of the Cottage Grove-based credit union.

9. WPS HEALTH SOLUTIONS

The Madison-based, not-for-profit health insurer has 1,060 local employees who provided health benefits services to more than 18.1 million customers and beneficiaries in 2021, paying out more than $70 billion in claims.

In addition to its comprehensive benefits package, WPS Health Solutions offers employees remote and hybrid work options, employee wellness reimbursement, professional development opportunities, scholarship programs and local business discounts.
Leading contractors from Turkey along with the key stakeholders from the UAE real estate and construction sector will convene in Dubai this week for the UAE-Turkiye Real Estate Development Construction Roundtable.

Hosted by the UAE-Turkish Business Council in association with the Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkiye (DEIK), the event will be held on March 30 in a bid to widen the trade corridor and strengthen economic ties between the two countries.

The UAE is Turkeys first trade partner and it ranks second in direct investments among the GCC countries, with bilateral trade between the two countries in 2020 recorded at $8 billion.

Hussain Sajwani, Chairman of the UAE side of the Turkey-UAE Business Council, said: "The visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier this year, accelerated efforts by Turkey and UAE to continue building upon strategic and economic ties."

"Our nations have traditionally enjoyed shared values and brotherhood, set deep in our heritage and cultures. I am confident that we will continue to hail this mutually respectful symbiosis through dialogue as well support each other, our businesses and our nations," stated Sajwani.

DEIK/Turkiye-UAE Business Council, under the umbrella of DEIK, was established by signing MoUs with the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the UAE Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry acting as Counterpart Organisations in 2000.

"Our mutual interests and economic cooperation opportunities have been the dynamo of relations between us," remarked Nail Olpak, the President of DEIK.

"The Business Council aims to improve Turkeys commercial and investment relations with UAE and partnerships in the countries to contribute in improving and developing political, economic, commercial, and cultural interaction between the two countries," he added.

Turkish contractors have undertaken close to 150 projects worth $13 billion in the UAE as of January 2022, with Turkish companies investing in and being a part of the UAE market for over 10 years. Turkish investments in the UAE amount to $720 million, according to official figures.

The Roundtable is expected to host 25 delegates from Turkey as well as 25 representatives from the UAE construction and development sectors.
Four-time Badger State Spelling Bee champion Maya Jadhav will go on to represent Wisconsin at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in May.

Jadhav, an eighth-grader from Vishva Home School in Fitchburg, won the competition Saturday against 54 other spellers in grades 4-8 from across the state at the first in-person statewide spelling bee since March 2020. The bee went roughly 25 rounds before Jadhav was declared the champion.

I feel great. I worked hard and Im really happy, she said. Im really excited. This year is just to have fun. Its my last year, so Im just going to study and try to have fun (at the Scripps National Spelling Bee).

Jadhav said she studies the spelling of words online using a variety of different programs, and practices language rules and root words, while repeating the words she learns. She plans to travel with her family to the Washington, D.C., area twice in the coming months, for the Scripps National Spelling Bee and for the 2022 Raytheon Technologies Mathcounts Competition.

Im amazed at what Maya has done, and its never an easy thing. She really works hard, said Nitin Jadhav, Mayas parent. This is her last year, eighth grade, so she has this last chance to go to D.C. Shes looking forward to it, and Im happy for her. ... Its like she takes us on adventures every year.

Jadhav won the 2019, 2020, 2021 and now the 2022 Badger State bees, but was unable to travel to the national competition in 2020 or 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020 national bee was canceled, and the 2021 competition took place virtually. Jadhav came in 12th place in the 2021 national bee.

Aiden Wijeyakulasuriya, of Madison, and Jadhav were the last two students left standing on the stage after about 15 rounds as they grappled with a volley of words such as ocotillo, persiflage and etagere. The two students exchanged words for roughly another 10 rounds. Jadhav won the day with the word obrotund in the 25th round.

Other words thrown into the fray during the 3-hour competition included Disneyfication, turken, Oceanian, superlative, interrogative, phenotype, shoji, and umami.

Saturdays event, sponsored by the Wisconsin State Journal, brought students back to Madison Area Technical Colleges Mitby Theatre, where about a dozen of the students on stage wore masks, which they were instructed to pull down while spelling.

Contestants at the statewide spelling bee have competed in school- and regional-level bees, the latter of which are organized by the states 12 Cooperative Educational Services Agencies, plus the Madison All-City Spelling Bee, which is also sponsored by the State Journal.

Madisons top three spellers, Wijeyakulasuriya, Vincent Bautista and Shabd Gulati, who won first, second and third place, respectively, in Februarys All-City Spelling Bee, were among the 55 students who competed on Saturday.

Brad Williams, winner of the state bee in 1969 and current radio producer from the La Crosse area who has been the state-level pronouncer for more than 40 years, rattled off the words for spellers to tackle. Rounds five and 10 were vocabulary rounds, where the spellers were given a word and asked to determine which of two definitions was correct.

Saturdays judges included Meredith McGlone, communications manager for the Center for Teaching, Learning and Mentoring at UW-Madison; Jimbo Jacobs, social media manager and co-owner of The Book Deal, an independent used bookstore in Madison; and Joel Patenaude, a producer with Wisconsin Public Radio. Kirsten Adshead coordinated the spelling bee.

The Badger State Spelling Bee was first held in 1949. The National Spelling Bee was started in 1925 by the Louisville Courier-Journal.

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The census conducted in the U.S. every 10 years is meant to count everyone. But it doesnt actually count everyone.

After every census, the U.S. Census Bureau reports how well it did at counting every person in the country. In 2020, as in past years, the census didnt get a completely accurate count, according to the bureaus own reporting. The official census number reported more non-Hispanic whites and people of Asian backgrounds in the U.S. than there actually were. And it reported too few Blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans who live on reservations.

The Conversation U.S. asked Aggie Yellow Horse, a sociologist and demographer at Arizona State University, to explain why, and how, the census misses people, and how its possible to assess who wasnt counted.

1. Who gets missed in the census?

The people most commonly missed are those with low income, people who rent or dont have homes at all, people who live in rural areas and people who dont speak or read English well. Often, these are people of color  Black Americans; Indigenous peoples; or people of Hispanic, Asian or Pacific Islander backgrounds.

Because of their living situations, these people can be hard for census takers to track down in the first place. And they may be more reluctant to participate because of concerns about confidentiality, fear of repercussions and distrust of government.

Nevertheless, the U.S. Census Bureau tries to count everyone, aiming targeted public relations campaigns at specific communities to encourage members to participate. In addition, Census Bureau employees knock on doors in person across the country, trying to follow up with those who did not respond to mailings, announcements and events.

However, the pandemic made that process more difficult for the 2020 census, both by making people uncomfortable with in-person visits and by shortening the timeline for collecting the data.

2. Who got missed?

The official estimates show that the 2020 census was really very accurate, capturing 99.8% of the nations residents overall. But the census missed counting 3.3% of Black Americans, 5.6% of American Indians or Alaskan Natives who live on reservations and 5% of people of Hispanic or Latino origin. This could mean missing about 1.4 million Black Americans; 49,000 American Indians or Alaskan Natives who live on reservations; and 3.3 million people of Hispanic or Latino origin.

This performance is much worse than in the previous two censuses, when smaller proportions of those populations were missed.

The 2020 census also counted 1.64% more non-Hispanic whites than there actually are in the country. For example, college students could have been counted twice  at their college residence and at their parents home.

3. How can they count the people who were missed?

It can be puzzling to understand how the Census Bureau can know how many people it missed. Efforts for measuring census accuracy started in 1940. Census officials use two methods.

First, the Census Bureau uses demographic analysis to create an estimate of the population. That means the bureau calculates how many people might be added to the population counts, through birth registrations and immigration records, and how many people might be removed from them, through death record or emigration reports. Comparing that estimate with the actual count can reveal an overall scale of how many people the census missed.

As a second measure, the Census Bureau runs what it calls a post-enumeration survey, taken after the initial census data is collected. The survey is conducted independent of the census and randomly sent to a small group of households from census blocks in each state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The results of that survey are compared with the census results for those households and can reveal how many people were missed, or if some people were counted twice or counted in the wrong place.

4. Can the Census Bureau fix its data?

The Census Bureau has determined that its 2020 data is not accurate and has measured the amount of that inaccuracy. But in 1999, the Supreme Court ruled that the bureau cannot adjust the numbers it sent to Congress and the states for the purpose of allocating seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and, therefore, Electoral College votes. Thats because federal law bars the use of statistical sampling in apportionment decisions and requires those changes to be made only on the basis of how many people were actually counted. That means political representation in Congress may not accurately reflect the constituencies the representatives serve.

However, that adjustment happens only if tribal, state or local officials ask for it. The Census Bureaus Count Question Resolution program can correct 2020 census data until June 2023. After the 2010 census, the program received requests from 1,180 governments, of out about 39,000 nationwide. As a result, about 2,700 people were newly added to the census count, and about 48,000 household addresses were corrected.

This approach can lessen the harm done to communities where the census count missed people. But it doesnt prevent the Census Bureau from missing them  or others  in the next census.

[Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend. Sign up for our weekly newsletter.]

Aggie Yellow Horse 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.
This State Journal editorial ran on March 22, 1972:

For most young Wisconsin citizens between 18 and 21 years, today is a special one.

With the signature of the governor last night and the publication of the act in this issue of the State Journal, the age of majority law now gives the rights and responsibilities of adulthood to 18-year-olds.

We have previously argued that granting these privileges will be justified by history.

And we reject the concept that a few reckless and childish people, presumably in this age bracket on lower State Street in Madison, are representative of the character and quality of our states young people. Let those violators of the law be dealt with as any citizen who has broken the laws of the city and state.

We regret that Gov. Patrick Lucey did not pursue corrective legislation that would have improved the hastily written age of majority bill. ...

Other states have properly granted adulthood to young people, consistent with the lowered age for voting, without dropping the legal drinking age for liquor.

Our major concern is highway safety, an area which has all but been ignored by the governor and the Legislature. The governor did not use his well-known clout with the powers of the Democratic-controlled Assembly, for instance, to win a stricter implied consent bill to keep drunks off the road.

Apparently, the liquor and beer interests of the state have reasserted their influence in our state Capitol, and we would like to see voters of all ages join hands to defeat the menace of alcohol on our roads. Booze, incidentally, takes an inordinate number of young lives.
I believe in affirmative action, but its not meant for Clarence.

Thats what Eminem taught us in his iconic semiautobiographical movie 8 Mile in 2002, when a poor white guy from Detroit, just a few miles from where I grew up, schooled a rich Black guy from the suburbs in a rap showdown.

But I know something about you,

You went to Cranbrook  thats a private school.

Whats the matter, dawg? You embarrassed?

This guys a gangster?

His real names Clarence.

Surrounded by Black city kids who roared in approval as he won the rap battle, Eminem created a seminal cultural moment in showing that this spectacular new art form was not the exclusive province of African-Americans. Economic class mattered more than skin color.

By sheer chance, I have personal connections with the two states that gave rise to the most consequential legal challenges to affirmative action in higher education since colleges and universities began using race as a factor in admissions more than a half century ago.

I was a new student at UC-Berkeley in 1977 when the U.S. Supreme Court took up the case of Allan Bakke, a white college graduate who claimed hed been denied admission to the UC-Riverside medical school because it reserved 16 percent of its slots for minority students. Bakke said he was more qualified than some of the applicants who were accepted.

In the grand tradition of student activism at Cal  what its loyalists call the states flagship public university  there was a lot political foment on campus. There were protests of UC investment in South Africas apartheid regime, protests that eventually compelled the university to withdraw its funds. There were marches demanding a nuclear freeze and the closing of the UC lab in Livermore, 40 miles southeast of Berkeley, which had helped develop the first atom bombs. There were demonstrations against the Shah of Iran, whose U.S.-backed government would fall two years later in the revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini.

Bakkes case got less attention than those headline-grabbing issues, yet there were angry protests on campus in June 1978 when the Supreme Court ordered Bakke admitted to the medical school and struck down strict racial quotas of the sort it had used.

That ruling, which still allowed schools to consider race as one among multiple factors, didnt satisfy opponents of affirmative action. A quarter century later the high court reviewed the case of Barbara Grutter, a white student who claimed that the University of Michigan Law School had rejected her over less qualified minority applicants. By then, I was long gone from Berkeley, working as a political journalist in Washington. The Supreme Court again upheld affirmative action, but this time by the narrowest of margins, 5-4. And importantly, its justification shifted from that used in the Bakke decision.

In 1978, justices said affirmative action was necessary to redress historical wrongs suffered by Black Americans, starting with slavery. In 2003, the split court defended it on very different and, in the views of some legal experts, weaker grounds: Justice Sandra Day OConnor, the first female justice following her nomination by Republican president Ronald Reagan, wrote for the bare majority that the university had a compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body.

Shifting the basis of affirmative action from indisputable historical wrongs to a disputable (however laudable) policy of promoting diversity put the Supreme Court on a slippery slope that it now must navigate as it weighs two new challenges  to the admissions practices at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

With the Supreme Court having become more conservative, due to Senate Republicans blocking of a Barack Obama nominee and their promotion of three Donald Trump nominees, justices may further weaken affirmative action in college admissions  or outlaw it altogether.

Sadly, the high courts earlier rulings in the California and Michigan cases had a boomerang effect: Taking advantage of the referendum process, voters banned the use of affirmative action by institutions of higher learning in those states. State law also prohibits college affirmative action in Florida, Washington, Oklahoma and Nebraska.

In a more recent irony, the SAT cheating scandal that the FBI busted in 2019, in which wealthy white parents paid imposters to take the exam in place of their children, has helped historically underrepresented students and decreased the need for affirmative action. Thanks to the scandal, many colleges and universities have made the SAT optional, with some even refusing to look at test scores. This change follows years of research from education scholars demonstrating that such standardize tests are biased.

In a final irony, Trumps White House tenure and his frequent use of racist dog whistles showed that five years after the first Black president left office, we are far from living in the post-racial America some heralded with Obamas election. Whether telling the Proud Boys to stand back and stand by or declaring that there were many fine people among the white nationalists who marched in my new hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia, Trump reminded us that racism is alive and well in the United States.

In the end, high school graduates access to the nations most prestigious universities depends on the quality of education they receive before college. Property taxes fund public schools. Study after study has shown that property values are still tied to skin color  theyve shown that Realtors list the same home in the same neighborhood at a lower price if its owned by Blacks than by whites.

These cruel realities reveal that race and education are still inextricably linked. As long as that is true, color blind college admissions remains unfair and affirmative action remains necessary.

Rosen received the top award for column writing in 2021 from the Society of Professional Journalists. He was a Pentagon correspondent and political reporter for McClatchy Newspapers. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.
Q: I was driving on a road with a crosswalk when a bicyclist came racing across it causing me to almost hit him. The bicyclist proceeded to tell me that I had to yield to him and a few other choice words. I wanted to tell him he was in the wrong but was not certain so I went on my way. Do I have to yield to bicyclists riding in a crosswalk? -Ryan

A: No but if you dont you might have a new hood ornament you were not planning on having.

The law with crosswalks only mentions pedestrians and does not mention bicyclists other than signs can be put up that does not allow bicyclists to use the crosswalk. I believe that you were in the right and would not have to yield to a bicyclist as they too must follow most of the rules of the road that vehicles do.

Idaho Code 49-702 reads: When traffic-control signals are not in place or not in operation the driver of a vehicle shall yield the right-of-way, slowing down or stopping, if need be, to yield to a pedestrian crossing the highway within a crosswalk.

No pedestrian shall suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and walk or run into the path of a vehicle which is so close as to constitute an immediate hazard.

Whenever any vehicle is stopped at a marked crosswalk or at an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection to permit a pedestrian to cross the highway, the driver of any other vehicle approaching from the rear shall not overtake and pass the stopped vehicle.

If the bicyclists had been walking his bike across the crosswalk then you could have been in the wrong but only if the pedestrian-biker had waited to cross and not suddenly darted out into the crosswalk.

Officer down

Please put these officers, killed in the line of duty, and their families in your prayers. They fought the good fight, now may they rest in peace. God bless these heroes.

Correctional Police Officer Caleb D. Ogilvie, Covington Division of Police, Virginia

Deputy Sheriff Dominique Calata, Pierce County Sheriff, Washington

Police Officer Lane Burns, Bonne Terre Police, Missouri

Sergeant Barbara Majors Fenley, Eastland County Sheriff, Texas

Have a question for Policeman Dan? Email your question(s) to askpolicemandan@gmail.com or look for Ask Policemandan on Facebook and click the like button. Dan Bristol is a retired police officer and former chief of police

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Oregon abortion providers and advocates are preparing for an increase in demand for abortions following the passage of an abortion ban in Idaho.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed the law Wednesday. It bans abortions after the detection of fetal cardiac activity, usually around six weeks, which is often before women know theyre pregnant. The law mirrors one passed in Texas that went into effect last September. Since then, Texas women have streamed into nearby states seeking care, and theyve even come to Oregon, abortions rights groups said.

In Oregon, we have already seen patients from Texas, said Kenji Nozaki, chief of affiliate operations for Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette. So when the Idaho six-week ban goes into effect, we definitely expect an influx of patients.

And not just from Idaho. Women in eastern Oregon have typically gone to Boise for abortions, providers say. Now theyll likely go to the closest Oregon facility  in Bend. The clinic is run by Columbia Willamette, which has seven health centers in the northern part of Oregon and southwestern Washington. In recent weeks, the facility has stepped up hiring and training.

We want to have the ability to be there for our out-of-state neighbors, while continuing to meet the needs of our patients in central Oregon, Joanna Dennis-Cook, Bend Health Center manager, said in a statement. We are training staff to really be prepared, so we can build our capacity for this moment.

State lawmakers have also stepped up. At the end of the past session, they approved $15 million to establish the Oregon Reproductive Health Equity Fund to help women who need abortions.

Abortion rights advocates welcomed the allocation.

This is a first-of-its-kind investment, An Do, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon, an advocacy organization, told the Capital Chronicle. I think its a really good start.

Oregon House Speaker Dan Rayfield, D-Corvallis, who shepherded the bill through the House, said hes committed to ensuring reproductive health services are affordable for anyone who needs them.

This $15 million will deliver on Oregons commitment to reproductive freedom by sending practical, meaningful support for people in our state  no matter what happens in Boise, Washington, D.C., or anywhere else, Rayfield said in a statement.

Abortion providers in Oregon  and across the country  expect that a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court this summer will overturn the constitutional right to an abortion established by Roe v. Wade in 1973. If that happens, conservative states across the country are likely to follow Texas and Idaho in banning abortions.

Those of us who work in this movement have been getting ready for this moment for a long time, said Beth Vial, a board member of the Northwest Abortion Access Fund, a Eugene-based group that helps women with abortion-related expenses.

Weve seen those with anti-abortion views rising to power. Theyve been trying to bring down Roe v. Wade for a long time.

Providers say more bans will put more pressure on states like Oregon, where official support for abortion is strong.

Let me be clear: Abortion is health care, and Oregon will continue to be a safe, legal place for people seeking abortions and reproductive care, Gov. Kate Brown said last week in a tweet in response to the Idaho ban. Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum fired off her own tweet: We are prepared to fight to protect Oregons unrestricted access to reproductive health care; Oregons borders are open to all who are in need of abortion care  no questions asked!

Long history of support

In 1969, Oregon became one of the early states to legalize abortion. In 2017, it passed the Reproductive Health Equity Act, which expanded no-cost coverage for sexual reproductive health care, including abortion care, to commercial health insurance plans. The recently approved $15 million is the first time the act has been funded.

Do said the 2017 law was monumental in mandating no-cost reproductive care, including for abortions, regardless of immigration status.

We were able to get undocumented Oregonians coverage for health care as well, Do said. This sort of ethos of a deep commitment to bodily autonomy into health care access is a foundational part of what our state is, and Im really proud of that.

For years, Oregon was the only state without any restrictions on abortion. But in 2019 Vermont joined the club, said Christel Allen, executive director of Pro-Choice Oregon, another advocacy group.

Weve never liked being the one title holder, Allen said. We wish more would be joining the party.

The positions in various states toward abortion appear to be deepening. On Wednesday, when Little signed Idahos abortion ban, the Legislature in Colorado passed its own Reproductive Health Equity Act, which enshrines abortion rights in state statute.

Though support for abortion rights run deep in Oregon, the number of procedures  and clinics offering care  have dropped over the years. Oregon Health Authority data show about 14,000 abortions were performed in the state in 1995. That dropped to nearly 8,700 in 2019 and fell further during the pandemic to nearly 6,600 last year. Researchers say the decline may be due, in part, to a drop in pregnancies and increased access to contraceptives in 2011 under the Affordable Care Act.

Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette, which provides a full range of reproductive health care, is the biggest abortion provider, with clinics in Vancouver, Washington, Salem and Bend and four in the Portland area. Oregon Health & Science University and the Portland Lilith Clinic, which opened last spring, both offer abortions in Portland. Kaiser Permanente, with health centers in Clackamas and Hillsboro, is another metro area provider. In southern Oregon, Planned Parenthood of Southwestern Oregon has five clinics from Eugene to Ashland.

The number of procedures performed in southern Oregon, in particular, dropped during the pandemic, but they remained fairly flat in Bend between 2019 and 2021 at about 400 a year. If women stream into Oregon from Idaho seeking abortions, that facility will have to dramatically expand services. Clinics there have performed about 100 abortions a month, Nozaki said.

The ban comes at a time when all health care providers are struggling to hire staff. Nozaki said Columbia Willamette is in an all hands on deck mode, filling current vacancies and adding extra personnel to give clinics a cushion. The organization is also looking for other opportunities to expand.

Rep. Tawna Sanchez, D-Portland, and co-chair of the Legislatures budget-writing Joint Ways and Means Committee, said the $15 million aims to ensure that Oregon women have no financial barriers to abortions.

We wanted to make sure that those facilities on the eastern side of the state  dont get overwhelmed and that they have the resources that they need, Sanchez said.

Telehealth can help

Besides surgical abortions, Planned Parenthood offers medication abortions, which involve taking two pills that have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. At Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette, patients currently have to take the pills in a clinic. But the organization plans soon to relaunch its telehealth program  it has been paused for months for a system upgrade. That could save women in eastern Oregon, for example, from driving to Bend. But women in Idaho  or any other state  will not be able to access the at-home service unless they travel to Oregon or another state where abortion is legal.

We can only mail medication abortion pills to patients in Oregon and Washington, where our providers are licensed, said Kristi Scdoris, communications director for Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette.

Geography is not the only barrier to abortions. So is money. Though care is free in Oregon, women face other expenses like travel, hotel stays, child care and loss of pay. The recently approved $15 million will help women facing financial barriers. The money is being administered by Seeding Justice, a philanthropic organization in Portland that funds social causes. The groups spokeswoman, Samantha Bakall, said the organization was not fielding media requests.

The group indicated in a statement that it will work with providers to see what their needs are.

We will be co-creating a process that supports community-embedded organizations on the frontlines of reproductive health to administer a robust investment and grantmaking process, Seeding Justice said in a statement.

Vial, of the Northwest Abortion Access Fund, expects her organization to get a chunk of the money. We are still negotiating, Vial said. Its looking to be somewhere around a million.

The fund helps women who obtain abortions in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska with everything from lodging to lost wages to paying for care for a dependent  no questions asked.

We want people to be able to go through this process with dignity and not feel like it has to be earned, Vial said.

The number of people seeking help increased last year. In 2020, the fund approved 925 grants, giving out an average of nearly $390. Last year, it approved 1,055 grants for an average of nearly $690.

The uptick marked an increase of people streaming into the area, Vial said. Last year, the fund helped nearly 690 women from Idaho, and after the Texas law was approved in September, 14 women there sought help.

The organization is small and relies on volunteers. It has one full-time and two-part time employees but 80 volunteers. Vial said the money from Oregon will help it, too, scale up.

With this new incoming funding will be able to fund more procedures and potentially bring on more staff, Vial said.

It remains to be seen whether Oregon providers can meet the expected demand, however.

Were in this crisis moment when it comes to abortion access and theres no way to get around that, said Do of Planned Parenthood.

This story was originally published in the Oregon Capital Chronicle, which is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c3 public charity.

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Last fall, Idaho was one of a handful of states that went into emergency crisis standards of care to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. The federal government-backed designation allowed hard-hit states to limit the number of patients in its overwhelmed hospitals and, in some extreme cases, ration care based on how sick people were.

Idaho operated under crisis standards for weeks, with the northern Panhandle region staying there for more than 100 days. Several states have formally instituted crisis standards during the pandemic, including Alaska, Colorado and Hawaii, while many others have informally limited the number of patients they take or have taken other measures to deal with surges.

A new analysis of state data from the Documenting COVID-19 project and the Idaho Capital Sun shows the impact of those crisis standards: As they filled up, Idaho hospitals were forced to transfer patients at least 6,300 times, making unusual moves as they scrambled to find open beds.

During this period, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee criticized Idahos leadership for clogging up his states hospitals. Data from Idahos and Washingtons health departments back up this criticism, showing high numbers of Idaho patients treated in Washington throughout 2021.

Major findings from the data include the following:

More than 1 in 3 transfers went to hospitals in neighboring states, with the highest numbers going to eastern Washington;

About 16% of cases transferred during the crisis period were COVID-19 patients, compared with fewer than 10% in earlier months of 2021;

Idaho hospitals sent out nearly 1,500 patients each month between May and October 2021, compared with 1,200 patients a month in the prior six-month period;

A significant share of cases transferred to other states went to childrens hospitals, in part due to an unexpected wave of RSV, a respiratory virus that typically impacts children in the winter months;

In an unprecedented move, Idaho relied on Veterans Administration hospitals as civilian hospitals filled up;

When compared with data from the Washington state health department, the Idaho data likely undercount transfer numbers, as Idahos figures rely on data from local emergency response agencies which may be inconsistent or incomplete.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the cracks in hospitals abilities to respond to a prolonged crisis, as well as the challenges that come with a decentralized system for transferring patients from one place to another  especially across state lines.

Idaho was particularly vulnerable to these challenges, as it has a low vaccination rate and is among the most limited capacity for intensive care in the U.S. Health care workers described the hunt for an open bed as a Tetris-like maze of hospital transfers.

In fact, Idaho hospitals were already transferring high numbers of patients in the months leading up to Septembers crisis standards declaration, possibly due to the pandemics impact on staffing and bed space.

Even before the pandemic, wed take patients from Montana, from Oregon, from Alaska, said Dr. Dave Chen, chief medical officer at MultiCare Deaconess Hospital in Spokane  one Washington hospital that took in a high number of Idaho patients during the delta surge.

But during the pandemic, this process has become escalated due to stresses in staffing and bed needs, Chen said.

The way Idahos hospitals scrambled to find open beds suggests a lack of preparedness, not only for disease outbreaks but also for natural disasters that may overwhelm hospitals.

In the future, better coordination between hospitals and health care networks could improve crisis response in Idaho and other parts of the country, experts say. Some other states approaches to transferring patients during the COVID-19 pandemic may offer possible solutions.

Idaho patient transfers strained hospitals in neighboring states

In a widely reported MSNBC appearance last September, Inslee, the Washington governor, described how residents of his state couldnt get needed heart and cancer surgeries because we are having to take too many people of unvaccinated nature and unmasked, many of whom come from Idaho.

He called the Idaho transfers maddening.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little responded to the criticism, saying in a tweet that Inslee blames Idaho, yet Spokane County and the surrounding area on his side of the border continue to be hot spots for virus activity with the lowest vaccination rates in Washington, despite Governor Inslee issuing vaccine and mask mandates.

Indeed, data from both states health departments show how hospitals in Idaho often send their patients to large facilities in Washington  taking up resources that would normally be utilized by those states own rural hospitals.

Between August and November, 2,109 patients from Idaho were admitted to Washington hospitals, according to data from the Washington State Department of Health.

Even before the pandemic, Idaho often sent patients across the border, mainly to Washington and Utah, and took in patients from other states when necessary. Out-of-state care is the only option for some specialized services Idaho lacks, such as organ transplants, or has limited capacity, such as burn care.

The Washington data suggests that Idaho may be undercounting its transfers. Idahos data is collected by emergency medical service providers, which do not have comprehensive health records systems, while Washingtons data is collected directly from hospital emergency departments, in a process thats required by state law.

Additionally, to preserve patient privacy, the Idaho system only publicly releases data with suppressed values any time the number of patient transfers from one facility to another in a given month is fewer than 10. This suppression system makes it difficult to accurately estimate total transfers.

For example, in October 2021, data from Idahos system suggest that anywhere between 76 and 308 patient transfers went from Idaho to Washington. Data from Washington put the actual number at 608.

The discrepancy between these two sources is very understandable considering how muddy this (data collection) has been, said Wayne Denny of Idahos Bureau of Emergency Medical Services.

An additional cause for the discrepancy may be that the Washington data count all Idaho residents who are admitted to Washington hospitals, including those who may go directly to an emergency room across state lines. Still, by looking at both Idaho and Washingtons data, its clear how hospital transfers between states are used to help reduce the strain on Idahos facilities.

In the same August to November period, at least 200 patients were transferred to Utah, per Idaho state data. Smaller numbers were transferred to Oregon and Montana, and a few patients were sent as far as California and Nevada.

MultiCare Deaconess Hospital in Spokane  just across the Idaho border from Coeur dAlenes Kootenai Health  took on more Idaho patients than almost any other Washington facility: 44 patients between August and November 2021, according to hospital statistics. The hospital also consulted with Idaho health care workers on 17 patients who werent able to be transferred, said Chen, chief medical officer at MultiCare Deaconess.

With more than 400 beds and specialized services such as neonatal intensive care, MultiCare Deaconess serves as a major hub for medical care in Eastern Washington. The facility often accepts patients from nearby critical access hospitals, similar in size and capacity to those in northern Idaho.

MultiCare Deaconess was still able to treat anyone who came directly to its emergency department during Idahos surge, Chen said. But taking on Idaho patients impacted the outlying facilities outside of Spokane.

I hate to use the word, but all the facilities outside of (this city), in the Northwest, are competing for the same beds and resources, he said.

Gov. Inslees office said it was unsurprised by the Idaho-to-Washington transfer data because the pandemic knows no boundaries, wrote Mike Faulk, deputy communications director for the governor, in a statement. The decisions of one person  or one state  can have profound ripple effects on entire communities.

Washingtons medical transport service providers have also faced similar capacity issues to those in Idaho. After a drop in trips during 2020 lockdowns, some Washington transport providers went out of business at the same time the state faced severe labor shortages and increased need for medical transport in 2021, the Washington State Health Care Authority said in a statement.

During the fall 2021 delta surge, children in Idaho and surrounding states also faced a wave of RSV  a respiratory virus that causes more than 200,000 hospitalizations in the U.S. in an average year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It further strained a very limited number of pediatric facilities and added to patient transfer numbers.

Idaho only has one childrens hospital: St. Lukes Childrens Hospital in Boise, with 13 beds for pediatric intensive care patients. Fewer than 10 children were transferred to this hospital between August and November 2021, according to state data, while about 220 patients from Idaho went to Primary Childrens Hospital in Salt Lake City, according to the hospital.

This number of patients from Idaho is not unique to a COVID-19 surge, said Dr. Jeffrey Schunk, associate chief medical officer at Primary Childrens Hospital  which itself is the only childrens hospital in Utah. The hospital considers Idaho part of its regular coverage area, along with sections of Montana, Wyoming and Nevada.

As record numbers of adults in Idaho got sick with COVID-19, childrens hospitals throughout the U.S. faced an unprecedented, never-seen-before RSV surge, Schunk said. Facilities typically plan for an influx of this virus in the winter, but it arrived in the summer in 2021  placing an additional burden on the ambulance crews, as well as on families who faced limited visitation hours after traveling to visit their children in the hospital.

While children are significantly less likely to face severe COVID-19 cases than adults, the highly consolidated nature of the Northwest regions pediatric health care system may lead to a heavy burden in future health crises that impact younger patients.

In some of the other states, they have a choice of childrens hospitals, sometimes in a very small geographical area, Schunk said. But if St. Lukes Childrens Hospital in Boise needed to transfer a pediatric patient, its best option might be Primary Childrens Hospital, more than 300 miles away.

Crisis standards were not designed for months-long surges

Kootenai Health, the largest major hospital in northern Idaho, is the best hope for seriously ill or injured patients who live in the surrounding rural counties. But in the three months leading up to the crisis declaration, the hospital got so full, it had to refuse 392 patient transfer requests.

Then, when Idaho went into crisis standards, Kootenai Health was one of the hospitals that sent the most patients to other facilities: more than 140 patients between August and November, according to state data.

Smaller, rural hospitals were in an even worse position. As delta patients filled beds, facilities were less equipped to treat patients who came in with non-COVID conditions, such as car accidents or heart attacks.

Generally speaking, those (small, rural) providers are not used to holding on to critically ill or injured patients for any period of time, said John Hick, professor of emergency medicine at the University of Minnesota and author of a report on crisis standards during COVID-19. They just dont have the nursing or physician resources.

This lack of resources led to Idahos Panhandle region spending more than 100 days in crisis standards of care. Hospitals use these standards when they dont have enough resources to meet the demand, Hick said. In other words, these standards are used when a hospital cant treat everybody who needs treatment to the point that patients are at risk as they await care.

These standards were first developed for natural disasters, like wildfires or hurricanes, that impacted a specific county or region for a short period of time. Early standards also included disease outbreaks, such as a particularly bad flu season, but did not envision hospitals remaining in crisis mode for weeks or months at a time.

Pandemics are a very different kind of disaster, Hick said. Theres no cavalry coming.

Crisis standards dont just refer to a shortage of beds. Facilities may also go into crisis for other reasons. For example, a facility may not have enough ventilators available for patients who need respiratory support, enough dialysis machines for patients who have kidney failure, enough blood for transfusions, or enough nurses to check on patients and carry out treatments.

Most hospitals across the country have gone into some kind of crisis standards during the pandemic, according to polling by Hick and other researchers. Even if state officials have not made official declarations  as states have different policies for going into these standards, if they exist at all  all facilities have dealt with shortages at one point, particularly of staff.

In Idaho, overwhelmed hospitals left nurses and doctors traumatized. Some told the Sun they worked on critically ill patients  called triage  in hospital waiting rooms. A doctor in a rural critical access hospital described to the Sun how he waited hours to transfer a patient from his local ER to an ICU bed in Boise only to have the patient die shortly after making the trip.

Theres a chance that your bed is going to be made available by somebody else dying, Dr. Patrick Paddy Kinney told his critically ill COVID-19 patient in St. Lukes McCalls small emergency room. The patient was transferred to Boise but declined rapidly and died soon after, making room for someone else, Kinney said.

Dr. Robert Scoggins, Kootenai Healths critical care medical director, said the pandemics toll on his staff would have long-lasting effects.

We are already seeing some people leave the profession, Scoggins said, citing workers frustration at witnessing unnecessary death.

Doubling up in ambulances, scrambling to find beds

The delta surge in Idaho persisted for months: Hospitals approached crisis levels in August, and some didnt emerge from that red zone until December.

Idaho averages about 3,000 staffed beds statewide. Most are not equipped to take COVID-19 patients. St. Lukes Magic Valley hospital, for example, has about 20 ICU beds. But it serves a multi-county region with several small hospitals. Those hospitals rely on being able to transfer patients to St. Lukes Magic Valley for critical care.

The Magic Valley hospital was one of the facilities sending out the highest number of patients during the crisis period, according to data from the Idaho health department  at least 240 patients between August and November 2021.

Patients from this hospital were transferred as far as the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City (a roughly one-hour flight) and University of Washington facilities in Seattle (about two hours by air).

During winter, flying is sometimes the only option to move a patient. During the worst peaks of the pandemic, health care workers told the Sun they feared what could happen if weather conditions grounded the air ambulances, too.

St. Lukes Wood River  a small, critical access hospital in the ski-resort town of Ketchum, which often transfers patients to or from the Magic Valley hospital  has no ICU at all and only 25 total inpatient beds.

St. Lukes Magic Valley and Wood River are more than two hours from Boise, the states largest metro area and hub for hospital care.

Medical transport became a huge part of the health systems operations, said Dr. Charles Burtis, an emergency physician at St. Lukes Magic Valley in Twin Falls, the regional medical center for south-central Idaho, who also co-leads the medical transport network for the region.

We may have the patient in Magic Valley for a day or two, and then were doubling them up, Burtis said in a September interview. Were actually putting two non-COVID patients together in an ambulance to send them up there (to the small Ketchum hospital) to get a bed.

That helped keep ICU beds open in the larger Magic Valley hospital; the Ketchum hospital had no ICU beds, but it had space for stable patients. Those transfers may have helped patients, but they also took out of commission the ambulance crews  paramedics and emergency medical technicians  whose primary job is responding to 911 calls in the Magic Valley.

Going to Boise is a four-hour commitment, Burtis said. As a result, when one ambulance crew makes the journey, other crews have to take more emergency calls. The crisis has pushed Magic Valley to increase its staffing.

Burtis said his staff became sort of the lifeblood of the hospital system at the most frenzied time in the surge.

The hospital systems management scrambled to find new ways to solve a cascade of problems caused by COVID-19.

But without a structured network, hospitals had to hunt for beds on the fly.

A critical care nurse from east Idaho, who worked during the surge in a hospital and for an air ambulance company, told the Sun that air ambulances had to fly past hospitals in southern Idaho and northern Utah to find open beds.

Those hospitals normally admitted patients from east Idaho, but they were too full. So the patients would have to go farther into Utah, or up to Montana.

One of my (coworkers) has been told on at least two occasions when weve dropped a patient off that youve taken the last bed in our entire facility, he said.

The Boise VA Medical Center and the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane offered to start taking civilian patients, to help ease the strain on hospitals. The VA usually only takes patients who served in the military.

But as hospitals struggled, the VA authorized its medical centers to do what they called fourth mission, to be a resource for our nation to help in an emergency, said Josh Callihan, the Boise VA Medical Centers spokesperson.

The transfer data from Idaho Department of Health and Welfare show the Boise VA hospital took patients from small community hospitals in remote communities across the state: St. Maries, Malad, Cascade, Rupert, Salmon and Weiser.

We were taking patients from way outside of the geographic area we normally serve  as far away as Montana, Spokane, Callihan said.

Washington set up a statewide transfer center, while Idaho scrambled with AlertSense

When a critical access hospital in Washington needs to transfer a patient beyond its local region, health care workers at the facility can call a statewide center that will quickly redirect them to a place with available resources to care for that patient.

This center, called the Washington Medical Coordination Center, was set up early in the pandemic. When physicians at the University of Washingtons Harborview Medical Center watched the nursing home outbreak in Kirkland overwhelm local hospitals, they saw the need for better coordination, said Dr. Steve Mitchell, the medical director of Harborviews emergency department.

We just knew that we were going to have to think completely differently for this upcoming pandemic, Mitchell said. Since the statewide center was started, it has facilitated more than 3,500 patient transfers, with the vast majority occurring between summer 2021 and early 2022. Washington has avoided going into crisis standards of care throughout the last two years.

The center is funded by the Washington state health department, with about $1.3 million allocated for operations between 2021 and 2023. As a result, it can only address transfer requests from Washington hospitals, Mitchell said: We refer patients from out of state back to hospitals within their state.

A similar statewide transfer center in Colorado, run by the Colorado Hospital Association, was also restricted to patients from state hospitals. The center became active twice during the pandemic, in the delta and omicron waves, then was powered down this month.

Harborview Medical Center itself accepted more than 30 patients transferred from Idaho during the delta surge, according to state data. But those transfer requests had to go through the medical center directly rather than Washingtons statewide coordination system.

Meanwhile, Idaho hospitals had no centralized way for finding beds for patients they couldnt treat. Early in the pandemic, the best option was transfer centers housed in individual health systems, and staffed by people such as registered nurses, who monitor traffic and patient loads to figure out where and when patients can or cant be admitted.

But more than half of Idahos hospitals are small and remote. Many arent attached to larger health systems with transfer centers.

Idaho did attempt to make transferring patients easier, through an app, but it had a limited impact.

The week Idaho moved into statewide crisis standards, the state launched a new program for hospitals to use to make it easier to transfer patients.

In theory, the AlertSense Patient Transfer Coordination Tool would allow hospital transfer centers and discharge planners to communicate right away with each other.

The program is designed to eliminate the need to call each hospital to determine if a transfer can be accommodated, the Idaho Hospital Association said in a newsletter. Through the system, a description of the patient and their needs or condition is sent out.

That dispatch could go out via text, email or through the AlertSense app itself. The sender could direct the message to specific hospitals, or all of them. The hospitals would then respond to indicate if they had a bed open.

Idaho hospitals made 68 patient transfer requests through the app from mid-September through January, including 35 in the month of October, according to data provided by the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.

But thats a small fraction of the total patients transferred out of Idaho hospitals in October: More than 1,600, according to state data.

To help, some Veterans Affairs hospitals called smaller hospitals directly to alert them to open beds.

We would be on these statewide COVID conference calls, (and administrators of small hospitals) were pulling their hair out, trying to figure out where they could transfer patients, said Callihan of the Boise VA hospital.

Better coordination is needed for future crises

COVID-19 has no concept of state lines. Wildfires, snowstorms, hurricanes and other natural disasters similarly tear through communities with no regard for which hospitals can talk to each other and work together to help the public during a crisis.

As a result, hospitals in different regions, states, and health care networks  as well as the state and federal systems that oversee them  must improve their coordination before future crises hit, experts say.

For instance, instead of a statewide transfer center thats siloed in Washington, a regional center with visibility into several Northwest states would help, said Hick, the University of Minnesota expert. Some hospital systems with facilities in multiple states already coordinate this way, but a federal agency such as the Department of Health and Human Services could organize such centers on a larger level.

At the same time, better coordination of data across facilities and states could help hospitals with patients in need of a transfer quickly see where beds are available. Currently, different hospital networks have different electronic systems for medical records, and the systems are not always able to communicate with each other.

This lack of communication is an enormous data challenge that becomes more complicated outside the realm of COVID-19 data, said Matthew Wynia, director of the University of Colorados Center for Bioethics and Humanities and a leading expert on crisis standards.

Hospitals are businesses, some for-profit, and they are not that interested in sharing resources with a competitor, Wynia said. The pandemic inspired more collaboration among facilities, which he hopes can continue when COVID-19 is no longer a pressing crisis.

New Jersey is one state with a system for data sharing and communication: Even the public can see when a hospital is so full, ambulances have to take patients elsewhere. The state shows that information on the New Jersey Emergency Department Status dashboard, operated by the company Juvare.

In addition, hospitals could better integrate their planning with ambulance teams and other medical transport companies who travel long hours to bring patients across rural terrain. Angie Coulter, executive director of the Community Transportation Association of the Northwest, recommended standardizing credentials for transport service providers in different states and fostering more open communication between hospitals, providers and state policymakers.

When hospitals are crowded, care suffers. One report from the National Institutes of Health, published in September 2021, found that among 150,000 COVID-19 patients between March and August 2020, nearly one in four deaths may have been directly tied to hospital strain during a surge.

The Sept. 11 attacks revealed the need for better communication between law enforcement and other first-responder agencies, Callihan at the Boise VA said. Those attacks prompted efforts to make it easier for those agencies to work together in an emergency, and we all saw this happen, big time, he said.

This pandemic has kind of taught us a similar thing.

The Documenting COVID-19 project, supported by Columbia Universitys Brown Institute for Media Innovation and MuckRock, collects and shares government documents related to the COVID-19 pandemic and works on investigative journalism projects with partner newsrooms.
In a 1996 Harvard Law Review article, Ketanji Brown Jackson, then a law school student, noted the climate of fear, hatred, and revenge in which policies dealing with sex offenders are formulated. Before Jacksons Supreme Court confirmation hearing began this week, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) objected to that observation, then proceeded to demonstrate its accuracy.

Hawleys misrepresentation of Jacksons record in this area was typical of the criticism leveled at Supreme Court nominees, which often involves inflammatory, acontextual citations of a candidates statements and decisions. But it also illustrated the difficulty of having a rational conversation about the legal treatment of sex offenders, a broad and diverse category that extends far beyond the child predators on whom Hawley focused.

The senator claimed Jackson, as a federal judge, had shown an alarming pattern of sentencing leniency for sex criminals who are preying on children. But the cases he cited actually involved defendants convicted of possessing or sharing child pornography rather than defendants convicted of sexually abusing children.

Hawley averred that Jackson favored letting child porn offenders off the hook for their appalling crimes. Here, too, he obscured an important distinction: between people who produce child pornography, which necessarily entails abuse of children, and people who look at the resulting images.

Hawley also equated sentencing offenders of the latter type to, say, five years in prison rather than 15 with letting (them) off the hook. And he ignored longstanding, widespread, bipartisan criticism of the penalties that federal sentencing guidelines recommend for nonproduction child pornography offenses, which many judges, prosecutors and jurors view as excessive.

Federal law draws an outmoded distinction between receiving child pornography, which triggers a five-year mandatory minimum sentence, and possessing such material, which in the internet context is essentially the same crime. In possession cases, judges have more discretion, although the guidelines recommend penalties based on congressionally prescribed enhancements that cover nearly all defendants.

In a 2010 survey, the U.S. Sentencing Commission found that a large majority of federal judges thought both kinds of sentences were too long. In fiscal year 2019, the USSC reported, 59% of nonproduction offenders received sentences below the guideline range, indicating that courts increasingly believed the sentencing scheme for such offenders was overly severe.

As evidence that Jackson was especially lenient, Hawley presented cases in which she had sentenced defendants caught with child pornography to terms below the guideline range. But as Douglas Berman, a sentencing expert at Moritz College of Law, pointed out, Judge Jacksons record of imposing below-guideline CP sentences is quite mainstream.

Andrew C. McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor who writes for National Review, described Hawleys characterization of Jacksons sentencing record and her criticism of the current sentencing scheme as a smear that was meritless to the point of demagoguery. But such demagoguery is par for the course when it comes to policies aimed at sex offenders.

In addition to criticizing Jacksons quite mainstream views on child pornography penalties, Hawley cited her Harvard Law Review article, which argued that courts should deem sex offender laws punitive rather than preventive when they operate to deprive sex criminals of a legal right in a manner that primarily has retributive or general-deterrent effects. That distinction is important because punitive laws are subject to additional constitutional constraints, including due process requirements and the bans on double jeopardy, ex post facto laws and cruel and unusual punishment.

In 2016, for example, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled that Michigans Sex Offender Registration Act was primarily punitive, meaning its requirements could not be imposed retroactively. The supreme courts of several states, including Alaska, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, have reached similar conclusions regarding sex offender registries.

According to Hawley, however, Jacksons discussion of this subject exemplified a record that endangers our children. This is precisely the sort of emotionalism that Jackson rightly described as an obstacle to clear thinking on an issue that tends to generate more heat than light.

Jacob Sullum is a senior editor at Reason magazine. Syndicated by Creators.com.

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PITTSBURGH  Evelyn Wade was standing in a line with her friends, Sandra Owen and Janet Mundy. The queue not only filled the long hallway of the Allegheny Elks Club lobby but went out the door and down the steps. It then stretched around the city block of Cedar Avenue. Wade is a regular at the neighborhood fraternal clubs weekly Lenten Friday fish fry. Owen and Mundy are not.

Evelyn said the fish sandwiches are amazing, but she also said the atmosphere was great, too, Owen said. Even though I am not even at a table yet, I can see what she means. You get a real sense of belonging and community just standing here meeting people.

For the next three hours, the social hall of the city neighborhoods Elks filled up with hundreds of people grabbing whatever chair they could find on long, cafeteria-style tables sitting side by side, most of the time with people they had never met. They discussed the neighborhood, found out they knew someone who knew someone who knew them, as well as the tastiness of the freshly made battered cod, homemade stick-to-your-ribs macaroni and cheese, coleslaw and french fries they devoured.

Friday fish fries are an American tradition rooted in the Catholic practice of abstaining from meat on Fridays during Lent, a practice brought here during the great European migration of the early 20th century, with many of those immigrants settling in Rust Belt Appalachia and the Midwest.

First seen as an inexpensive way for the devout to gather and enjoy meals in church halls with people from their parish, it soon became a way for those same parishes to raise money for the funding of schools and churches because of the relatively low cost to make a dinner out of fish.

They are almost all exclusively run by a team of dedicated volunteers young and old who usually start their preparations for the meals on Tuesdays. They start by purchasing the breading, macaroni, cheese, eggs, fresh cabbage and milk for the sides. Most parishes and organizations buy the fish fresh at the market on Friday mornings.

The Lenten fish fry has since expanded across the nation, migrating in the same patterns as the children and grandchildren of the families who originated them. Each region showcases its cultural flair with dishes at the events  in the Midwest, it is cod and walleye, in the South, it is catfish, and on the Atlantic coastline, it is lobster and crab.

The side dishes are almost as important: macaroni and cheese, pierogies, french fries, coleslaw and hush puppies are the most popular.

The Elks fish fry isnt an isolated event; hundreds of church basements, cafeterias, volunteer fire departments and other fraternal social halls across this city alone are filled with people who often leave having made new friends, or at least having reconnected with old ones.

It is impossible to drive four blocks in this city and not find a corner filled with signs encouraging you to support its fish fry or bragging a bit about it being the best one.

The event is so popular across the region, the local news organizations compete to provide the best lists, maps and apps so locals can either find the one closest to them or mix it up for the next seven weeks. Its not just here  the same is true in places as varied as Michigan, California, Wisconsin, South Carolina, Alabama, Colorado, Mississippi, Florida and Kentucky.

In fact, the only two places in the country I had a hard time finding a fish fry were in New York City and Washington, D.C. A call to the Catholic Archdiocese of New York revealed the practice wasnt something it was aware of, and a Reddit post backed that up. As far as D.C. goes, no one at the archdiocese even answered the phones, but all of my devout Catholic friends in the city said that fish fries at churches or community centers werent a thing there.

In much of America, Catholic parishes are not alone in doing the fish fry. Nor is it exclusively Catholics who attend them.

At the Elks last Friday, there were Baptists, Methodists, Jews, Evangelical Protestants and agnostics. It wasnt just different religious affiliations, either. Every race and age was represented, from the high school junior to the great-grandmother who bonded with her after discovering the teenager competitively swam with one of her grandsons.

Phil Bujakowski, a longtime member of the community and the Elks, pointed to the room packed with people, all enjoying a great meal and each other while a banjo quartet kept the mood upbeat. This is where the magic happens, he said.

He and his wife Nicole, his best friend Dr. Paul Carson, his wife and his two young children all held court at the corner seats of the ballroom stage, which was converted to accommodate extra seating. We gather here, and we become part of something bigger than self, he said. It is about having a community gathering place; our tribal rituals have their place here. We bond, we help, we fund, we build, we argue, we make peace, and, in general, support each other and our neighborhood.

The best part, Bujakowski said, is that none of us realize, really realizes that is what we are doing. We are just too busy building friendships and strengthening the community.

Youngstown State University geography Professor Emeritus Tom Maraffa, an expert on the rooted and the rootless in our culture and the impact of their differences, said he is surprised by the lack of these types of community-driven events in D.C. and New York. But, he added, it helps explain why their residents often dont have a cultural understanding of the people in the middle of the country.

Maraffa said traditions like this one survive in regions outside places like New York and D.C. because there is a more stable population of long-term residents that share aspirations and connective tissue. Adult children are more likely not to move away and therefore continue these traditions, he said. Large metro areas have more population churning and lack the critical mass of the permanent or rooted residents to maintain these traditions.

Places such as D.C. and New York also have a higher proportion of two-earner households and less time to devote to activities outside work. Their concept of volunteerism is oriented more to social causes, he said. They often do their volunteerism online through things like GoFundMe. Less-rooted people, he said, tend to acquire empathies for ideology and abstractions, in contrast to the rooted, whose affinity is for community and neighborhoods.

Frank Randza was busy running the operations in the Elks kitchen, dipping the fresh cod in the flour and breading before placing it in the fryer. He said that when the Elks shut down during COVID-19, the profound sense of loss was hard to explain. Not just for the people attending the fish fry but also for us who volunteer to make events like this happen for the community, you lose your purpose. That is a value very important for all of us.

Carson agreed. It was a real sense of loss and disconnect from each other and the neighborhood, he said. It is hard to describe how meaningful this is unless you have experienced it and then lost it ... thats when you know.

Dean Welsh, who moved here from Chicago with his wife Claire and newborn daughter June two years ago, puts it this way: The best way to describe the sense of community you get here is calling it a home away from home. I cant think of a better way you feel when you walk in here and are part of this thing that is bigger than just you and just embraces you.

Bujakowski comes back after a quick check outside the Elks to see the status of the line. It is almost eight oclock and the line is still out the door and around the block, he says. That tells you everything about what people are hungry for, and it is not just the food.

Salena Zito is a CNN political analyst, and a staff reporter and columnist for the Washington Examiner. She reaches the Everyman and Everywoman through shoe-leather journalism, traveling from Main Street to the beltway and all places in between.

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DMCC, the worlds flagship Free Zone and Dubai government's authority on commodities trade and enterprise, and also the master developer of the Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT) District, has announced that it will install solar car shades across the majority of JLT Districts cluster car parking areas.

Once the 6.3MW project is complete, JLT will be home to one of the UAEs largest district solar car shade installations.

It will result in a significant reduction in power consumption tariffs for the district, generating savings each year for property owners, in turn making JLT more affordable for residents and tenants alike.

DMCC said the project is being funded from the cost savings achieved by the energy generation and hence there will be no additional cost to the JLT community.

This 20-year agreement was signed as part of the Dubai Clean Energy and Net Zero Carbon Strategy 2050, which will provide 100% of Dubais total power capacity from clean energy sources.

It also forms part of DMCCs extensive sustainability strategy, which will see a reduction in the business districts impact on the environment, with a particular emphasis on water and energy usage. Work is set to commence in March 2022, with additional DMCC assets and other energy reduction initiatives set to join the scheme in the coming period.

Unveiling the installation plan, Chief Operating Officer Feryal Ahmadi said: "As seen at COP26, sustainability and decreasing carbon emissions are among the most critical issues that people and businesses face today."

"Sustainability is integrated into every level of DMCC, which is why we are proud to be driving Dubais decarbonisation efforts. Through initiatives such as this, we are able to deliver an enormously positive impact to the 100,000 people that live, work and enjoy the JLT district," she stated.

The installation of solar panels across JLT follows on from another solar car shade initiative at One JLT, which will achieve further significant cost savings.

In addition, a range of additional energy saving initiatives have been implemented over the past 12 months and have reduced consumption from the national energy grid by over 30%, noted Ahmadi.

Sustainability and other ESG issues are a core focus for DMCC. In August 2017, DMCC became the first free zone in the GCC to commit to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), encouraging responsible business practice throughout the entire value chain.

As part of its commitment to the UNGC, DMCC publishes an annual sustainability report that highlights the business districts progress on sustainability targets, she added.-TradeArabia News Service
Every company with a credit card, store card, website  or even a clerk who asks for your email and phone number at the checkout counter  is looking to peddle data about your buying habits. In many states, you have to hand over your fingerprints to renew your drivers license. Public and private spaces alike are constantly scanned by ever-more-observant surveillance cameras.

When were asked for our Social Security number, many of us simply shrug our shoulders rather than raising hell. And if we happen to be poor, a footloose kid hanging on a street corner or a motorist guilty of driving while black, for example, were liable to be locked up and lost in a vast criminal justice system that considers itself not responsible for any rights, especially privacy rights.

Invasion of our privacy has become a way of life, so that when you stand up and demand to be left alone, youre likely to be pegged as a quaint holdover from days gone by, a whiner or, more likely, someone with something to hide  maybe even a terrorist! Were living in a culture in which individual rights have been sold and subjugated, all for database marketing and to keep the lid on the unruly masses.

This is an issue that has fallen off the political radar. Last I looked, the only people in Washington overly concerned with privacy were the corporate check writers and their pet politicians, eager to cover the tracks of their own financial quid pro quos.

In the brave new culture built around the marketplace, both corporate and government sectors have deemed private and personal information to be just another commodity.

In 1999, Congress passed the financial modernization bill, which was written with the help of banking industry lobbyists and allowed banks to collect and sell what they know about you without so much as a courtesy call to ask your permission. The only protection is that if a bank wants to share information from a credit report or loan application, it first must send you a notice with the chance to say no, a so-called opt-out provision.

But why is the burden on us to opt out of an agreement that lets someone else sell something that rightfully belongs to us? Before such an agreement can even be considered, they should be required to get our permission in advance  to ask us to opt in, and to take it as no if they dont hear from us. Last year, Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., introduced the Information Transparency and Personal Data Control Act, which would do just that. It would create a much-needed national consumer privacy standard. But such bills have been introduced before, and they have all been killed by members of Congress who have taken millions from interests that profit from the sale of your private information. The current bill has only 21 co-sponsors, all of whom are Democrats, and seems likely to die in committee.

While the finance guys are padding their fortunes by telling each other what we buy, where we buy it and on whose credit, theres another booming trade going on in the identity market.

Driven by dreams of a citizen databank available to government at every level, public officials are falling over each other trying to keep tabs on us. For example, the International Association of Chiefs of Police wants DNA samples from anyone who is arrested for any reason (as opposed to tried and convicted), and others want to take DNA samples from all newborns.

Filing our DNA in a government databank is about the ultimate in unreasonable search and seizure. DNA tracking is not just an assault on the principles embodied in our Constitution; it has very real, and frightening implications: Employers could deny you a job because your genes include a tendency toward certain diseases or health defects, and insurers might use DNA-derived information to impose limits on your health care coverage.

Not to be outdone, governments are not just compiling these databases to keep tabs on us unruly ones; theyre selling the data alongside the corporate vendors. One estimate is that federal, state and local governments are making tens of millions a year selling public records to junk mailers and other businesses.

Ah, for the simpler days of 1984, when George Orwell imagined that all this high-tech snooping and file gathering would be used to spot and snuff out societys troublemakers and dissenters before they threatened the system.

Populist author, public speaker and radio commentator Jim Hightower writes The Hightower Lowdown, a monthly newsletter chronicling the ongoing fights by Americas ordinary people against rule by plutocratic elites. Sign up at HightowerLowdown.org.

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The use of the 1% rise in tax which was authorized by Henry County voters in 2020 and enforced by an Official Advisory Opinion issued in December by Attorney General Mark Herring was made official by the Henry County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

During the 3 p.m. regular meeting held at the Henry County Administration Building, Board Vice Chair Joe Bryant made a motion regarding the school board budget to allocate 100% of the 1% sales tax revenue to future construction, renovations and improvements of school facilities and replace $2.6 million in the budget previously appropriated for school debt from the general fund reserve funds. He also set a public hearing for 6 p.m. April 26, as is required when changing the budget by more than 1%, he said. The motion passed unanimously.

During the 2020 session, the General Assembly granted the counties of Henry, Charlotte, Gloucester, Halifax, Northampton and Patrick authority to levy an additional sales and use tax of up to 1% if approved by voters.

The General Assembly stipulated that the money collected from the additional tax shall be used solely for capital projects for new construction or major renovation of schools in the qualifying locality, according to State Code section 58.1-605.1.

Henry County adopted the ordinance on November 24, 2020, after voters approved the measure with 55% of the votes.

At the April 13, 2021, Henry County Board of Supervisors meeting, when County Administrator Tim Hall presented his proposed Fiscal Year 2021-22 budget, Hall said that an estimated $5.2 million in additional revenue would be generated by that 1% sales tax, and recommended that half of it ($2.6 million) go directly to pay down existing school construction debt.

Herrings Dec. 21 Official Advisory Opinion states that money generated from new tax should only be used for new construction and renovation needs.

The Official Advisory Opinion was initiated by a request from Gloucester County, and the Henry County School Board joined in on that request. It was part of the school boards legislative agenda: to have the General Assembly clarify the requirements of the use of the tax money.

In his Opinion, Herring said the new sales and use tax enacted by the General Assembly permits localities to use the money to fund capital projects for the construction or improvement of schools and the revenues from this tax shall be sued solely for capital projects for new construction or major renovation of schools.

Herring wrote, the plain language is clear that the statute applies to capital projects for new construction or major renovation of schools.

Other subsections ... support the fact that this statute applies to new school capital projects, Herring stated in his opinion.

Herring wrote that the referendum further supports the fact that the sales tax revenues would be used prospectively for new construction or major renovation ... and not for debt mitigation.

Also during the 3 p.m. session:

Andrew Barker, a farmer from Axton, spoke under matters of the public. He came to talk about new revenue opportunities for the county through solar energy.

The board issued a proclamation recognizing National Library Week, April 3-9, and National Library Workers Day, April 5. Library professionals and staff play a critical role in providing daily help to meet the needs of our community, offering proven, exceptional service, said Horsepasture District Supervisor Debra Buchanan.

The board skipped over the report on delinquent tax collection efforts, as listed on the agenda, because the presenter was not present.

The board approved an additional appropriation of $300,000 received from the Virginia Department of Healths Virginia School Screening Testing for Assurance Program to be used for school-related expenses surrounding testing and communication about public health surrounding the coronavirus.

The board approved an additional appropriation of $1,036,250 from the Virginia Business Ready Sites Program for site work on Lot #2 of Commonwealth Crossing Business Centre. The funds will be used to clear timber from the site and prepare grading design plans.

The board approved an additional appropriation of $357,741 received from the Virginia Tobacco Commission for site work on Lot #5 of Commonwealth Crossing Business Centre. The funds will be used for grading and development.

Hall reported a request from Henry County Public Safety Director Matt Tatum to award a contract to EMS Management and Consultants Inc. of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for emergency medical services (EMS) billing services. The price was estimated at $42,000 annually, and the board approved unanimously.

Hall spoke on an additional appropriation to replace the roof on the Henry County recreation center. Due to escalating material cost, previous funds were not enough and the staff is requesting an additional appropriation from their contingency funds of $50,000 and carry over funds of $364,993 to continue the project. They also ask for $567,000 for a contract with John T Morgan Roofing in Roanoke to replace the roof. The board approved the additional funds of $414,993 from the contingency and carry over funds and the additional $567,000 for the contract.

Hall spoke on the consideration of an ordinance creating a tourism zone in Henry County to help with the recruitment of tourism-related businesses. This zone would allow businesses to use state and local tax incentives, which are in place to stimulate business attraction, growth and increase employment opportunities within the county, he said. The businesses would be required to make new capital investments of at least $500,000 and create five new full-time jobs to be able to use the tax incentives. The board unanimously approved a motion to hold a public hearing about it at the 6 p.m. April 26 meeting.

Under comments from the board, Buchanan announced a Horsepasture district community meeting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 12 at the Horsepasture Ruritan Building.

Hall proposed a budget calendar alteration to move the calendar out two weeks to make it more facts-based as opposed to guess-based and the motion to approve the calendar change was approved unanimously.

Jim Adams proposed that the board give a day off to employees of Henry County and the Public Service Authority on April 15, Good Friday. The motion was passed unanimously.

Hall announced a list of dates to remember:

March 29, Open information session from American Electric Power from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at the old Bassett train depot

The Virginia Association of County Supervisors Forum meeting that was scheduled for April 29 was cancelled

April 23, Spring Day for the Household Hazardous Waste Day from 9 a.m. to noon at Henry County Service Center

May 12, employee recognition banquet at 6 p.m. at New College Institute

June 11, Public Safety Day event at Jack Dalton Park, time TBA

The board then met for their closed session to discuss appointees to the Henry-Martinsville Department of Social Services, pending legal matters, acquisition and disposal of real estate and unannounced industries.

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Voters in Henry and Patrick counties have approved a ballot referendum to raise local sales tax by 1%, with the proceeds going to the county school districts for capital needs.

Unofficial results from both localities Tuesday night showed a similar split for and against. In Henry County, 54.44% voted yes, and 45.56% voted no, with all 25 precincts reporting. Patrick County approved the measure 55.34% to 44.66%, with all 14 precincts reporting.

Meanwhile, local voters also overwhelmingly supported the two state constitutional amendments on the ballot. One changes how legislative districts in Virginia are drawn, while the other exempts certain disabled veterans from owing state or local tax on their vehicles.

Sales tax

Henry County officials requested the authority to increase sales tax in their legislative agenda for the 2020 General Assembly session. Until this year, only Halifax County had been granted that authority.

Del. Danny Marshall, who represents Danville and parts of Henry and Pittsylvania counties, sponsored the bill authorizing the counties of Henry, Northampton (on the Eastern Shore), Patrick, and Pittsylvania, and the City of Danville to impose an additional local sales and use tax of up to 1%, with all proceeds going to fund construction or renovation of local schools.

However, only two local governing bodies  Henry and Patrick counties  placed the measure on the ballot this fall. Pittsylvania County and the city of Danville could have done the same, but officials there said they plan to postpone the referendum until 2021.

After being approved by voters at a referendum, the sales tax increase must be initiated by a resolution of each local governing body.

Henry County officials have said raising sales tax is preferable to other forms of taxation, such as real estate, because it is a user tax and spreads some of the burden to visitors to the area when they make purchases here.

Henry County Administrator Tim Hall has estimated the measure will result in an additional $4 million to $5 million for Henry County Public Schools. Funds can only be used for school renovations or construction.

Patrick County officials did not have an estimate of how much additional revenue the sales tax increase would provide.

Redistricting reform

Constitutional Amendment 1 shifts redistricting duties starting in 2021 away from the Virginia General Assembly to a new bipartisan commission of lawmakers and citizens. The measure is meant to end gerrymandering, or the manipulation of district lines to favor one party.

With all 25 precincts reporting in Henry County, unofficial results Tuesday night showed Amendment 1 passed 63.48% to 36.52%. In Patrick County, 62.32% voted yes and 37.68% voted no, with all 14 precincts reporting.

In the city of Danville, unofficial results Tuesday night showed 68.69% of voters supported the amendment, with 31.31% voting against, with all 17 precincts reporting. In Pittsylvania County, with 29 of 30 precincts reporting as of 9:20 p.m., the vote was approved 70.74% to 29.26%.

The city of Martinsville had not reported results by press time Tuesday.

Every 10 years, following the U.S. Census, the Virginia legislature is responsible for drawing the boundaries of the states 11 U.S. Congressional districts, 40 state Senate districts and 100 House of Delegates districts. The governor has veto power over the updated map.

The current districts were last redrawn after the 2010 Census, when Republicans dominated the state government.

Under the new amendment, districts will be drawn by a commission made up of eight state legislators and eight citizens. Party leadership will appoint an equal number of Democratic and Republican legislators from each chamber of the Virginia General Assembly. Citizens will be recommended by legislative leaders and selected by retired circuit court judges.

If voters had not approved the amendment Nov. 3, it would have been up to the Democrat-controlled General Assembly to draw the maps and submit them for Gov. Ralph Northams signature in 2021.

The redistricting amendment caused an unusual set of divisions that defied normal party lines. The amendment was endorsed by groups including the League of Women Voters, the ACLU of Virginia, Common Cause, the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, the Princeton Gerrymandering Project and the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School.

The amendments most prominent opponents included the Democratic Party of Virginia, the Virginia conference of the NAACP and progressive advocacy groups like Progress Virginia and New Virginia Majority.

In opposing the amendment, the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus maintained that it should include a requirement that the map-drawing commission include people of color. Democratic opponents also argued that the process still gave too much power to state legislators and the right-leaning state Supreme Court.

Under state law, though, a proposal to amend the Constitution must pass the General Assembly for two consecutive years before going to the voters. After Democrats won control of the legislature in last years elections, a majority of Democrats reversed their support for the referendum. It only narrowly passed the House of Delegates.

Some Democratic leaders in Virginia are now leading a campaign to defeat the referendum.

Every 10 years, following the U.S. Census, the Virginia legislature is responsible for drawing the boundaries of the states 11 U.S. Congressional districts, 40 state Senate districts and 100 House of Delegates districts. The governor has veto power over the updated map.

The current districts were last redrawn after the 2010 Census, when Republicans dominated the state government.

Under the new amendment, districts will be drawn by a commission made up of eight state legislators and eight citizens. Party leadership will appoint an equal number of Democratic and Republican legislators from each chamber of the Virginia General Assembly. Citizens will be recommended by legislative leaders and selected by retired circuit court judges.

After the maps are submitted, the General Assembly will vote on the plan but does not have the authority to make changes. If the vote fails, the commission would try again. If the vote fails again, it would go to the state Supreme Court to draw the maps.

If voters had not approved the amendment Nov. 3, it would have been up to the Democrat-controlled General Assembly to draw the maps and submit them for Gov. Ralph Northams signature in 2021.

The redistricting amendment caused an unusual set of divisions that defied normal party lines. The amendment was endorsed by groups including the League of Women Voters, the ACLU of Virginia, Common Cause, the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, the Princeton Gerrymandering Project and the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School.

The amendments opponents included the Democratic Party of Virginia, the Virginia conference of the NAACP and progressive advocacy groups like Progress Virginia and New Virginia Majority.

Opponents argued that the amendment did not require the commission to include people of color and said the process still gave too much power to state legislators and the right-leaning state Supreme Court.

Veterans' vehicles

Constitutional Amendment 2 exempts vehicles from state and local taxation cars that are owned and chiefly used by 100% service-disabled veterans of the U.S. armed forces or the National Guard.

In Danville, the amendment passed 86% to 13.91% with all precincts reporting. In Pittsylvania County, with 29 of 30 precincts reporting as of 9:20 p.m., the vote was approved 88% to 11.84%.

In Henry County, with all 25 precincts reporting, Amendment 2 passed 87.26% to 12.74%. In Patrick County, it passed 87% to 12.98%.

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I will now have to leave off calling her 'Madeleine None-Too-Bright,' at least for a time. De mortuis nil nisi bonum, et cetera. This Revolver piece covers the essentials.

Unfortunately, Madeleine Albrights long career represents all the failures and mistakes that, in just thirty years, have taken America from its superpower apex to the brink of imperial collapse. Be it in Eastern Europe or the Middle East or East Asia, a United States that followed the exact opposite of Albrights foreign policy vision would almost certainly be a richer, happier, and less divided nation than the fading colossus America has become in 2022. Albright embraced Americas disastrous pattern of global interventionism As Christopher Caldwell wrote of Albright back in 2003, For her, every conflict is a replay of the Munich conference of 1938, with a camp of the farsighted on one hand and a bunch of appeasers on the other. The best way to be farsighted, it turns out, was to be aggressive in using U.S. force abroad. Albright enjoyed referring to America as the indispensable nation, reflecting an assumption that every dispute and every crisis the world over needed, and would benefit from, U.S. meddling and oversight. According to her own 2003 memoir, during her days as Secretary of State Albright feuded with then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Colin Powell, arguing in favor of more frequent and aggressive use of American military power abroad: Whats the point of you saving this superb military for, Colin, if we cant use it? For more than two decades, Albrights toxic enthusiasm for military force has been the closest thing there is to conventional wisdom in Washington. It is not only the attitude that gave us the Iraq War and 20 years in Afghanistan, but also missile strikes in Syria, undeclared drone war in Yemen, and useless regime change in Libya.

But what really angered me about Albright was her talk of 'fascism' in connection with Donald J. Trump. She was a European who didn't know what fascism is:
King Mohammed VI of Morocco has vehemently condemned the repeated attacks on Saudi oil storage facilities as subversive and terrorist acts against vital and civilian facilities in Saudi Arabia.

This came in a message of solidarity king Mohammed VI addressed to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, following the despicable and repeated attacks against vital and civilian facilities in Saudi Arabia.

In this message, the King affirms that he has followed, with strong condemnation, the news of the despicable and repeated attacks which target vital and civilian facilities in Saudi Arabia.

The Sovereign, who strongly condemns these cowardly subversive and terrorist acts, reiterates the full solidarity of the Kingdom of Morocco with this brotherly country, stressing that he stands permanently by its side to face these abject attempts which do not only constitute an attack to the security of its territories and its citizens, but also a threat to energy security and supply in the world.

Saudi authorities blamed the Iranian-backed Houthis for the drone and rocket attacks targeting oil giant Aramcos petroleum products distribution station in Jeddah.

The Saudi energy ministry said Saudi Arabia strongly condemned the sabotage attacks, reiterating that it would not bear responsibility for any global oil supply disruptions resulting from such attacks.

The ministry slammed Iran for continuing to arm the Houthis with ballistic missiles and advanced drones, stressing that the attacks would lead to impacting the Kingdoms production capacity and its ability to fulfil its obligations to global markets.

Gulf and Arab countries, the Arab League, the OIC as well as Washington and several other capitals from around the world have all condemned this weeks multiple Houthi terrorist attacks on Saudi Arabia, including the latest one that struck an Aramco facility in Jeddah, which is clearly civilian infrastructure.

The attacks threaten the security of oil supplies, which have been under pressure globally because of the fallout of the Russia-Ukraine war.
HOT SPRINGS  Jon Sepps first career was to test parachutes for the U.S. military, with over 800 free falls, 200 low-altitude BASE jumps and numerous severe leg injuries under his belt. Hes used to danger and adrenaline. Still, the sight of a 2,200-pound bison chasing him down last August scared the living crap out of him.

He broke through the metal gate, Sepp recalled. And I just looked and saw him coming after me.

Sepp, a bison rancher with a herd near Camas Prairie just south of the town of Hot Springs in western Montana, was being filmed by a German television documentary crew when the accident happened. The animal pummeled him into the ground, then came back and gored him through the arm and trampled him. He suffered a severe concussion, but was able to escape with the help of a ranch hand.

It was really, really bad, Sepp recalled. For a moment I thought I was going to die.

That incident, and another time he got trampled in a trailer, didnt stop him from loving and respecting the animals.

Sepp and his partner Brittany Masters, owners of Roam Free Ranch, manage a herd of 200 bison that will grow to about 300 after calving season, which starts at the end of April.

Theyve found a unique way to make a living with the tens of thousands of pounds of grass-fed meat they harvest every year.

They created a ready-to-eat, pre-cooked Roam Free bison chili product thats available exclusively at Costco stores in several states in the western U.S., including the Missoula and Kalispell stores. The products have flown off the shelves. The stores may be out soon, but theyre planning another resupply later this year.

Roam Free Ranch also has a line of jerky products and sell cuts of meat locally. It has a growing staff and Sepp and Masters hope to expand to more stores over the next few years.

We found a chef that created a really amazing recipe for us, explained Masters, who left a career in marketing at the Boeing aerospace company to move to Montana. Even when I try to recreate it at home, I cant make it like he does.

Masters said it took a huge logistical undertaking to get a product on the shelves of Costco. They had to find a place that was big enough to process a large volume of animals, get the recipe right, find a commercial factory to create the product and convince Costco to put it on their shelves.

There is no soup plant in Montana, so if anyone wants to start one let us know, Masters said.

Masters said they also had to prove they were already distributing the jerky to other stores before Costco would accept the chili.

Theyve seen other companies go in and crash and they dont want to be responsible for that, she explained.

Both Sepp and Masters said its been exciting to see people trying their creation.

Weve run into people at Costco buying it, Master said.

We want to interview them, not to be creepy, but just to understand what made them pick that up, Sepp added. We did so well at first and we were so excited with the product. I want to know why. Is it the packaging? Is it because its bison? Is it a mixture? So we just want to get peoples feedback.

Sepp said they realized there are very few pre-cooked bison products on the market, and he knows busy people are looking for something that can be heated up quickly. Masters said Costco has sold ground bison for years but there hasnt been a lot of innovation.

We knew that there was a bison consumer that shops there, Master said.

She said Costco originally contracted with them for just 5,000 units, but she decided shed have another 5,000 made just in case. Sure enough, the 5,000 sold out way before the three months that Costco had estimated, so the company frantically called them and asked how much more they had.

The couple practice regenerative farming methods, which means they confine their herd to small areas so that they intensively graze the grasses down to the ground before theyre moved.

That, combined with the fact that the bison are constantly fertilizing the ground, triggers an emergency response in the grasses and causes them to spread out and keeps the land healthy. But the practice also requires lots of fencing, so most of their summer is spent building scores of miles of fence.

They recently lost a lease on land they had been improving for years, and Sepp laments the fact that Montana is one of the last places where ranching can still be even marginally profitable. Development pressure in places like Colorado means that prime land goes to builders and wealthy homeowners and there will be fewer and fewer small ranchers.

We have friends in the bison industry who have lost their leases in the last year, Master said. Its not an uncommon thing.

Despite his run-in with the angry bull, Sepp is still enamored with bison, as he has been since childhood.

"One year, when I was like 4 or something, my mom and dad stopped the car and we got out in Montana somewhere and saw some bison," he recalled. "I always said I was gonna raise them when I got older."

To this day, he still gazes in wonder at the huge beasts from the safety of his truck. Staring into the eyes of a younger bull, with Camas Prairie far down below, Sepp still has the feeling he had those many years ago.

"It never gets old," he said.

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It may not have felt like it, but there are some folks who will swear that March 21, 2022 was a very historic day for Montana.

The State Land Board took action that day to support efforts to restore Stonewall Hall in Virginia City, a crumbling structure that advocates of the plan say is the most important building in Montanas history.

The board voted 5-0 Monday to accept the donation of the building at 300 Wallace St. that served as the territorial Capitol building from 1865-1875.

The backyard of the building is believed to be an area where lawmakers may have settled disputes with their fists.

Justin Gatewood, Virginia Citys mayor, told the land board members their approval would make it a monumental day for the history books.

It is not hyperbole to say the transfer of Stonewall Hall from private hands into public hands and the subsequent restoration would mark the most important and significant preservation project in Virginia Citys -- and arguably Montanas -- history, he said.

Elijah Allen, executive director of the Montana Heritage Commission, said the building was being donated to the state by the Neal C. LaFever Trust and contingent upon the heritage commission having full ownership.

He said the commission intends to make the building an interpretive center and convention center for social gatherings, weddings and family reunions.

According to a 1989 Montana Historical and Architectural Survey Form, the hall was built in 1864 and is two stories. It is made of rubble stone and has a brick facade that faces Wallace Street. The original front of the building was stone and had three semi-circular headed arches with key stones over three pairs of French doors on the first floor.

"It is unfortunate that the original stone front was removed," the survey states.

"The rest of the building, however, retains its historic character," the survey states. "This structure served as the first Territorial Capital. It is a significant part of the National Landmark."

It notes that Gem Saloon, operated by Hynson and Harper, was on the site in 1862. Excavation for a new stone building started in 1864. The building also served as the Stonewall House Saloon, the Virginia City Lyceum, where young men could read magazines and "enjoy the use of a small library" for $5 a month. It also served as a dry goods, grocery and liquor store. When Virginia City became the Territorial Capital in 1865, the second floor of the hall was chosen as a meeting place for the Legislature and the "Council and the House met here at various times."

It also served as a clothing store as well, first known as Greenhodd, Bohm and Co.

However, time has not been kind.

"The building needs renovation," the report states, citing cracks in walls, water damage and an "unevenness" on the second floor.

Allen said studies have found that Virginia City, which he said was the No. 1 state-owned tourist destination, has nearly 1 million tourists a year and has a $75 million economic footprint. It also helps support 1,200 jobs.

He also said the proposal would not be of any cost to Montana taxpayers. However, there are fundraising efforts underway and the commission has raised nearly $500,000. He said $350,000 was needed to stabilize the building and $900,000 was needed to make it operational for the public.

The fundraising efforts are being done through the Montana Heritage Commission and its nonprofit, the Montana History Foundation. The commission voted March 4 to acquire Stonewall.

Gov. Greg Gianforte thanked the parties involved for their efforts.

This donation is incredibly generous, he said, adding the building is not in the best shape now.

Its about one stiff breeze from being a pile of bricks, Gianforte said. So we need to get after it and hopefully get this money raised and get it fixed up this summer, or as soon as possible.

Its incredible that the Montana Legislature met there for 10 years, Gianforte said, adding he was moved by the photograph of the Legislature meeting in that hall.

There were some wily characters back then, Gianforte said. The only difference is theres less facial hair today.

Alison LaFever, a representative of the trust that owned the building, reiterated her familys intent to donate the building and support the restoration project. She said they acquired the building in 2010 and it was in an advanced state of disrepair then.

They tried to do shoring and stabilization but it became clear we were in over our heads.

LaFever said they began looking for other solutions to restore the building, but found as private owners there was limited grant funding available.

They wanted to find a solution to benefit the community and save the building. They approached the heritage commission in 2017.

I am very happy to be standing here today finally getting to a solution that most importantly is the best thing for the building, LaFever said.

Allen said Gianforte became aware of the building several months ago and threw his support behind it with the salvo that no tax dollars be used. He said Gianforte was confident funds could be raised elsewhere.

It was mostly him calling people to donate, Allen said, adding there was $660,000 in private donations raised in the past month.

The Gianforte Family Foundation, a charitable nonprofit started by the governor and his family in 2004, did commit to $100,000, Allen said.

Renovation costs are estimated to be $1 million and Allen said they hope to have the money raised by June.

Allen said there was some support for the governors comments about the territorial Legislature having wily characters.

He said they did an archaeological dig behind the building, and a couple things struck them as odd: They found pairs of cleated shoes and peoples teeth.

Allen said they thought that was weird and took the teeth to a dentist, who told them the teeth had been knocked out.

Allen said apparently the lawmakers would settle political battles by strapping on cleated shoes and stepping behind the building for a bare-knuckled fight.

Chere Jiusto of Preserve Montana -- a nonprofit which works to save Montanas historic places, traditional landscapes, and cultural heritage -- told the land board this proposal is sound and they could be assured there is a good path to success.

This is a legacy project, this vote today will ensure that one of the most significant buildings in Montana history can be saved for the people of tomorrow she said, adding that people would cheer them on.

Gatewood, the Virginia City mayor, told the board -- which consists of the governor, the attorney general, the state auditor, the secretary of state and superintendent of public instruction -- that the parties involved realize that this opportunity to save Stonewall Hall will not come around again.

He said the progress made so far has been remarkable.

Lets keep Montanas oldest courthouse standing, Gatewood said.

To donate to save Stonewall Hall and other historic Montana buildings, go to https://www.savemontanashistory.com/.

Assistant editor Phil Drake can be reached at 406-231-9021.

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I grew up in Billings and lived in Montana much of my life. My dad, Bill Sampsel, was a Billings geologist for 51 years. My family knew oil and natural gas (i.e. methane). It was our livelihood. While being an oil man, Dad was also a conservationist. My first lesson was when he stopped the car on the highway so I could go pick up the orange peel I had blithely tossed out the window. I explained it would disintegrate. He wasnt impressed.

Repeatedly, Dad told us that in the end we would not be looking for oil or methane, we would be looking for clean water and air. During his career, Dads work transitioned from oil to methane. Today, we face a transition from methane to wind and solar to meet the demands of the 21st century.

Despite the strategic need for this transition, politicians are pressured by industry to expand oil and methane exploration. The push is to open the gates, the earth and its creatures be damned. And they will, indeed, be damned given what scientists ranging from NASA to our local universities tell us about the grave consequences of increased climate pollution for upcoming generations.

However, we have a choice. We can meet the crisis of our day by making energy and conservation equal priorities. If our state treated this crisis with the urgency it demands, we would be prioritizing homegrown energy innovation through wind and solar while also striving to make energy more efficient. Unfortunately, a barrier stands in our way.

In Laurel, Northwestern Energy provides our electricity. This corporation continues to make clear they are not interested in what we, the public, want, despite enjoying their monopoly utility status. They are prioritizing profits over the public good.

Montanans are fed up overpaying for expensive, polluting, retrograde energy sources. I am appalled by NorthWesterns reckless decision to build a methane plant  in a flood plain on the shores of the Yellowstone River bordering Laurel. This is the first of eight methane plants NorthWestern wants to build in Montana. Despite efforts to evade public input, Montanans are not silent. We dont want this methane plant.

As citizens demand more affordable, reliable, cleaner energy resources, NorthWestern is spending huge sums on a slick, misleading marketing campaign, Net Zero by 2050. It promises carbon neutrality in three decades. While NorthWestern acknowledges it must reduce its carbon pollution and provide affordable energy, it is doubling down on climate-degrading resources, a repeated pattern. The Montana Supreme Court has repeatedly admonished NorthWestern for the unlawful thwarting of solar projects, as well as its false claims regarding solar costs. How can carbon neutrality by 2050 possibly be reached by blocking renewables while building eight new carbon-polluting plants?

Each proposed methane plant will cost close to $300 million to build. Methane is already up 50% from last year. Given international conflicts, it will likely go up even more. Why would NorthWestern willingly tie Montanas future to pollution and fluctuating global markets? Because the corporation is guaranteed, by law, an 11% return on building, operations, and maintenance costs for its power plants. These expenses keep stockholders happy, but do not serve consumers. The better choice is homegrown energies from Montana using wind, solar, and storage. Such local resources cannot be manipulated by Wall Street or political maneuvering.

Given the devastating climate-fueled Montana wildfire disasters which are growing more frequent and more intense; given the homes, farms, ranches, crops, and grasslands destroyed annually; given the damaged livelihoods of victims; how can another carbon-based fuel be the answer? If not stopped, generations of Montanans will be paying for the construction costs, inflated electric bills, and disaster relief.

Tell NorthWestern Energy, city and county commissioners, and planning boards: no more methane. Challenge them to create new partnerships that are conservation-friendly, local, and effective. This is the only way to provide true security and prosperity for Montana.

Priscilla Bell is a Laurel resident and member of Northern Plains Resource Council, a grassroots conservation and family agriculture group.

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Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty

Every day in the United States more than 110 Americans are killed with a gun. These are mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, husbands and wivestaken too soon from their families and friends. Thanks to the actions of Republican state legislators in Indianaand the states GOP Gov. Eric Holcombthese daily tragedies will likely rise.

Last week, Indiana became the latest state to make it legal for ordinary citizens to carry a concealed weapon on their person, with no permit and no training. This follows the lead of two other states that passed such laws this yearAlabama and Ohioand six states that enacted similar legislation last year. Legislatures in Georgia, Nebraska, South Carolina, and Wisconsin are also considering such legislation.

States have long allowed gun owners to carry a concealed weapon, but all but Vermont required them to go through a permit process, which often entailed a background check and a mandatory safety class. In many states, police could reject permit applications.

Putin Losing Might Be Even Scarier Than Him Winning

These new laws, however, remove all restrictions. No background check, no training, no shooting exercises. Indeed, in permitless concealed carry states residents can buy a weapon and carry it hidden on their bodyeven if they have no idea how to use that weapon properly.

All this is happening at a time when firearm homicides in 2020 surpassed 45,000the highest number yet recorded.

While its still too early to assess the full effect of recently passed permitless concealed laws, theres enough available data to suggest that they will lead to more needless deaths. For example, we already know that states with weaker gun laws have higher rates of gun violence, and those with strong gun laws have lower rates.

Not surprisingly, studies have shown that states with may issue concealed carry lawswhich, in certain states, gives the police discretion as to who can carry concealed weaponshave fewer incidents of gun violence than those that have less restrictive shall issue laws. One such study, conducted by the Boston University School of Public Health in 2017, found states with shall issue laws have homicide rates more than 10 percent higher than those with more restrictive laws.

Story continues

Wisconsin, which is currently debating a permitless concealed carry law, weakened its permit process in 2011. As should have been expected, gun homicides in the state from 2012 to 2019 rose by 33 percent over the previous seven-year period before the policy change. If pro-gun state legislators get their way, those numbers will likely only increase further.

According to gun rights advocates, these new laws are necessary because the current permit process is simply too onerous. But that is precisely the point. It boggles the mind that anyone would want people running around with guns they have no training or experience in using. But of course, in America, the way we treat guns and gun ownership is anything but normal.

In signing the new legislation, Holcomb said he trusts citizens of the Hoosier state to lawfully and responsibly carry a handgun in the state. Holcombs trust in his fellow citizens is badly misplaced, because if he were correct, the U.S. would not have, by far, the most gun-related homicides of any developed country in the world.

But try to imagine any public official taking the same attitude toward the issuing of drivers licenses. Would anyone consider it a good idea to let any adult legally get behind the wheel of a two-ton automobile with no training, no permitting, and no proof that they actually know how to properly drive?

And just how onerous are the old gun permitting rules, anyway?

A concealed carry permit in Ohio used to require paying a fee of at least $67, a background check, and eight hours of trainingmainly focused on safety. For comparisons sake, obtaining a license to cut hair in Ohio requires the completion of at 1,500 hours enrolled in a cosmetology school program. Unless the person cutting your hair is the modern reincarnation of Sweeney Todd, chances are pretty good that you need not worry about dying in the barbers chair.

The argument commonly made by gun rights advocatesthat only a gun provides sufficient protection from violent bad guysis undone by the well-known fact that possessing a gun significantly increases the likelihood that the gun owner, or someone close to them, will die from gun violence.

A more pertinent and less-discussed argument is that all of us would be safer if there were fewer untrained shooters toting concealed weapons.

Progressive Allies Need to Call Out Everyday Antisemitism

Take, for example, what happened last month after a man was held up at an ATM in Houston. He took out a gun and fired at a car that he believed was driven by the assailant. Instead, there was a family of five inside the minivan and, rather than avenging an armed robbery, he took the life of a 9-year old girl.

These kinds of tragic incidents happen all too often in Americaand rarely garner more than a few days attention.

A generation of Americans have been told that they have no responsibility to retreat and every right to mete out the ultimate punishment to those who threaten themeven if the person is fleeing. As a result, 38 states have so called stand your ground laws.

With permitless concealed carry, these tragedies will only multiply. Its no doubt a good part of the reason why overwhelming numbers of Americans (as much as 88 percent) oppose these new less-restrictive laws. Its also the reason that police organizations are almost unanimously opposed to these new laws.

The chief of Indianas state police spoke out against permitless concealed carry. So, too, did the Indiana State Fraternal Order of Police, the state Association of Chiefs of Police, and the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council. Prominent police chiefs in Ohio also decried the legislation (but, as in Indiana, to no avail).

With more people on the street potentially carrying a gun, police will almost certainly become even more skittish about the potential of getting shot by a gun-toting citizen. That will undoubtedly lead to more shootings by cops already trained to believe that every citizen they encounter could be carrying a weapon.

But ultimately, the power of the National Rifle Association and the pro-gun lobby is simply too strong, even for a party that likes to portray itself as pro-police. In 2019, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine introduced a series of gun control measures after a mass shooting in Dayton took the lives of nine people and wounded 27 (it was the second mass shooting of that day in Americathe other being the massacre of 22 people in a Wal-Mart in El Paso, Texas).

But that was thenand now DeWine is running for reelection this year in a crowded GOP primary field.

Lets face it: there are few better ways to damage ones support among Republican primary voters than by proposing sensible regulations on gun safety and ownership.

For Holcomb, Dewine, and every other Republican governor who has signed a permitless concealed carry lawthe politics of that decision are crystal clear. So too, tragically, is the consequence of such political cynicismnamely more dead Americans at the hands of an untrained gun owner.

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Aster DM Healthcare, one of the largest integrated healthcare providers in GCC & India, will invest Rs 500 crores ($65.5 million) in hospitals, pharmacies and laboratories in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

This will help provide quality healthcare at affordable cost to the people of Tamil Nadu and generate employment for more than 3,500 people.

For this, Aster has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with The Government of Tamil Nadu. The MoU was presented by Dr Azad Moopen, Founder Chairman and Managing Director, Aster DM Healthcare, who met MK Stalin, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, last Saturday during his visit to Dubai.

Expanding services

Stalin has encouraged the initiative and ensured support to the healthcare group. This will further expand the services of Aster to all the South Indian states.

In India, Aster has a predominant presence in the southern and western states with its current investment in India at approximately Rs 3,000 crores.

The group recently announced collaboration with Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to launch an Artificial Intelligence (AI) lab.-- TradeArabia News Service
Burke County commissioners have been talking about renovating the former Burke-Catawba District Confinement Facility for a regional long-term drug treatment facility since at least January 2020.

Last week, the Burke County Board of Commissioners voted 3-2 to approve a contract with Hemphill Randel Associates for $256,000 for architectural design services for the facility.

During that meeting, Commissioners Wayne Abele and Maynard Taylor, who voted against the measure, argued against renovating the facility, saying they were blindsided by the proposal of reusing the building for a long-term drug treatment facility, that the facility should not be used for drug rehabilitation and made the accusation there were secret meetings about the item.

But the proposal has been talked about in county commissioners meetings numerous times in the last two years.

The money to renovate the facility is coming from state coffers and money from a lawsuit settlement will be available for treatment.

Funding

The county was one of the cities and counties throughout the U.S. who sued opioid distributors Cardinal, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen and opioid manufacturers Johnson & Johnson and Purdue Pharma. The county joined the lawsuit in February 2018. The lawsuit was settled for $26 billion in July 2021, and Burke County is expected to receive approximately $13 million over an 18-year period.

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein said in late February that the defendants will start releasing funds to a national administrator on April 2 and money will start flowing to state and local governments in the second quarter of this year.

Burke officials have said that money will be used for treatment of addicted residents.

County officials are planning for that treatment to take place at the former jail on Government Drive. The states two-year budget allocated $3.25 million to Burke County to renovate the facility.

Burke County Manager Bryan Steen told The News Herald that the money for renovation is expected to come to the county before July, which will be the start of the 2022-23 fiscal year. He said hes told Hemphill Randel Associates not to start anything thats billable until the county gets the money from the state for renovations.

With the current increase of cost of building materials, its unknown at this point whether $3.25 million will cover the entire cost of renovation. Steen said the cost of renovation was estimated at $3.25 million. He said the cost of a project is never known until it goes out for bids.

Drugs in Burke, state

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracks dispensing rates of opioids down to the county level. In 2015, Burke County was dispensing 154.9 opioid prescriptions per 100 people. In 2017, that level dropped but there were still more prescriptions written than people, with 124.8 prescriptions per 100 people. By 2018, the dispensing number had fallen to 101.2 prescriptions per 100 people.

And as of 2020, that number had fallen to 61.3 opioid prescriptions per 100 people in Burke County, according to CDC figures.

Even though the rate of opioid prescriptions has fallen in Burke County, it remains one of the counties in North Carolina with a high rate of prescriptions written per 100 people. Nearby Catawba and Cleveland counties still have more opioid prescriptions written than people, according to CDC figures.

North Carolina saw a statistically significant decrease in prescription opioid overdose deaths from 2018 to 2019, falling 14.9%, according to the CDC. The state saw 489 opioid overdose deaths in 2018 and that number fell to 420 deaths in 2019.

But the state still had one of the highest rates of drug overdose deaths in the country in 2019, according to CDC data.

And its not just prescription opioids that are killing Burke County and North Carolina residents. Synthetic opioids killed an even higher number of people in the state, with 1,272 deaths reported in 2018 and 1,363 deaths in 2019.

In fact, the CDC says that synthetic opioids killed more people in the U.S. than any other type of opioid.

In addition, the CDC shows that heroin killed 619 people in the state in 2018 and 586 people in 2019.

The CDC says fentanyl is approximately 50 times as potent as heroin. Fentanyl and fentanyl analogs are being mixed into counterfeit opioid pills, heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine, the agency says.

Drug addiction impact in Burke

At this point, who will actually run the drug rehabilitation facility is unclear. But Steen said hes pretty certain it wont be the county.

And it wont be Partners Behavioral Health Management. Partners is the Local Management Entity for Burke County. Partners was brought in early in the discussion about possibly running the facility, but Steen said the LME has since told the county its not interested in operating the facility. He said who would manage it is yet to be determined but there is still plenty of time to work out that detail.

But two agencies in Burke have become part of the conversation.

So substance use is a real issue here in Burke County, said Danny Scalise, director of the Burke County Health Department. Its been in our last two community health assessments. We know the statistics. Burke Countys a top county for drug poisoning in the state.

Scalise said now that Burke County is coming out the COVID-19 pandemic, substance abuse is going to be a big focus for the health department.

He said Steen talked to him and Korey Fisher-Wellman, director of the Burke County Department of Social Services, about the potential for the two departments to be involved in the facility.

We both understand this is a problem for the people we serve, and for all people in Burke County, Scalise said about he and Fisher-Wellman.

As of March 1, Burke County Department of Social Services had 252 children from ages zero to 18 in its child protective services, Fisher-Wellman said.

Substance abuse in the home isnt the reason all of those children are in foster care, but Fisher-Wellman said all cases involve substance misuse at some level.

It certainly plays a role in whether or not were able to reunify children, he said. So sometimes you might get involved for another reason, but then, as you continue to work with the families, substance use becomes an issue for sure.

Solving addiction

How long the treatment period will be for someone hasnt been determined, but Steen said the intentions have been for it to be however long it takes for the treatment to be effective.

One thing I want to make sure is were not just gonna say whatever we do, its gonna be just the bare minimum, Scalise said. Korey and I both talked about this, our goal is to treat people that come here that need our help with dignity, and make sure that they get the treatment that (is) the best that we can provide.

Steen said while an architect has been hired for the project, it is still very early in the process but they have been brainstorming the possibilities for the facility. Any actual decisions would go before the county commissioners at the appropriate time, he said.

As of now, theres no data on how many beds the facility would have or how many people would seek treatment there.

Steen said it likely will be after the first of the year before the architectural work will be done and then the county could have an idea of what number of beds would be in the facility. He said the county also will need to work with its service providers to talk about the quality of service and the treatments that would be provided, and then have that brought to the commissioners for them to make a final decision.

We know theres a problem here, Scalise said. Korey and I have talked a lot about what we need to do from our standpoint, from a public health standpoint, to help with this problem, because we see it as a public health issue.

Fisher-Wellman said, I think from DSS perspective, we sit and watch the kind of the, you know, children coming into foster care is sometimes its a symptom of the problem. And I think for me, I think we just get to kind of sit around and watch the problems. I think thats how Danny and I kind of got involved. Like I think we know theres a problem and want to do whatever we can do to make sure that were helping the citizens of this county.

A regional facility wouldnt just be about treatment. The idea is to also include some type of job training for those going through treatment so they can be employed when they are ready to leave treatment, county officials have said.

Currently, its unclear how many people from Burke County would seek treatment at the regional facility. Scalise said they cant forecast that right now.

We have a problem here, Scalise said. And we need to dig into it and we need to solve it. We need to help solve it.
Since tonight the Academy Awards are on TV, I decided to devote another column to moviedom to keep in the spirit.

As a movie buff, especially movies made during the Golden Age of Hollywood  30s, 40s and 50swhen searching for a film for comfort rather than newness, I concentrate not only on the actors in the movie, but the movie directors as well. So, today, when I search for a good movie via streaming, I key in the directors name because what theyve produced has long become at the top of my list of comfort flicks, and Ill enjoy it no matter how many times Ive seen it.

The length of this column wont allow me to list all the dynamic directors, so Im limited to my top three, and Billy Wilder is at the top. Wilder was a monumental director who defied the status quo of genre films and experimented with various ideas, often more risque than his contemporaries. An accomplished screenwriter, he was known for his loose style of writing that reflected the personalities and opinions of Americans in the 40s and 50s. Wilder won Best Director twice, once for The Lost Weekend with Ray Milland and again for The Apartment with Jack Lemmon. Both also won Best Picture and Best Screenplay.

Other incredible films directed by Wilder include Double Indemnity with Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck (a true film noir), Sunset Boulevard with Gloria Swanson (Im ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille), and the delightful Sabrina with lovely Audrey Hepburn, Bogie, and the very handsome heartthrob of the day, William Holden.

Elia Kazan, my No. 2, was another big Hollywood director from the golden era and one who used realism and empathic storytelling techniques to draw audiences in and wow them with some serious drama. Kazan won Best Director twice for Gentlemans Agreement and On the Waterfront, two films that tackled serious issues and captured the audiences minds and eyes. Some argue that he created the modern structure for message films that seek to educate and entertain.

His other wonderful films that didnt win the Oscar but made a lasting impression in Hollywood include Streetcar Named Desire with Brando, East of Eden with James Dean, and one of my personal favorites, Baby Doll, with Karl Malden, Carroll Baker, and the superbly talented Eli Wallach.

A name synonymous with filmmaking, Frank Capra is still a director many modern creators look up to and aspire to learn from and takes spot No. 3 for me. Capra preferred a relaxed directing style that let actors lead the films plot along. He rarely used fancy gimmicks and tricks to tell the story, instead focusing on the script and the emotional motivations behind its characters. He also had a penchant for American films that uplifted the spirit of good-natured folks saving the day.

Capra was a hero to many budding filmmakers for these reasons. He won Best Director an impressive three times, winning for It Happened One Night, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, and You Cant Take It with You, but his most beloved film that didnt win an Oscar has got to be Its a Wonderful Life.

The most Best Director Academy Award wins goes to John Ford, a giant among giants. Known as the Godfather of the Western, Ford was an American icon for his filmmaking techniques, which included sprawling epic shots and stories of trodden-upon individuals rising to the occasion.

Ford is the only director to have won the Oscar four times, prevailing for The Informer, The Grapes of Wrath, How Green Was My Valley and The Quiet Man.

William Wyler follows Ford with three wins: Mrs. Miniver, The Best Years of Our Lives and Ben-Hur.

Directors who earned the distinction of having won two Oscars (beginning with talkies) are Joseph L. Mankiewicz, George Stevens, Fred Zinnemann, David Lean, Robert Wise, Milos Forman, Oliver Stone, Clint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg, Ang Lee and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for Birdman and The Revenant.

And in honor of Womens History Month, two women have won the Oscar for Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow back in 2009 for The Hurt Locker and Chloe Zhao in 2021 for Nomadland.

Another titan, but always a lady that Id like to end this Hollywood column with is Edith Head. Head was an American costume designer who won a record eight Academy Awards for Best Costume Design between 1949 and 1973, making her the most awarded woman in the Academys History. Oscars were awarded to her for The Sting, The Facts of Life, Sabrina, Roman Holiday, A Place in the Sun, The Heiress, Samson and Delilah and All About Eve.

Considered to be one of the greatest and most influential costume designers in film history, her work included 28 nominations.

The consummate designer, when asked about her success, Head was quoted as saying, You can have anything you want in life if you dress for it.

Peg DeMarco is a Morganton resident who writes a weekly features column for The News Herald. Contact her at pegdemarco@earthlink.net.

Peg DeMarco is a Morganton resident who writes a weekly features column for The News Herald. Contact her at pegdemarco@earthlink.net.
At the start of 2019, Bill and Melinda Gates released a list of facts that had surprised them the previous year. Number four on their list: Data can be sexist.

There are huge gaps in the global data about women and girls, they explained.

My interest was piqued  not only as a demographer, but as a woman and mother of girls.

I research women in global Christianity and am frequently asked what percentage of the religion is female. The short answer is 52%. But the long answer is more complicated  women make up a much more substantial part of Christianity than that number makes it seem.

The goal of my research is to put the spotlight on Christian womens contributions to church and society and fill in gaps in our data. Headlines about religion may be focused on the words and actions of Western male leaders, but the reality of the worldwide church is quite different. More and more Christians live outside Europe and North America, especially in Africa  and women are central to that story.

Measuring faith

What researchers dont have is comprehensive data on womens activities in churches, their influence, their leadership or their service. Nor are there comprehensive analyses of Christians attitudes around the world about womens and mens roles in churches.

Women, according to an old saying in the Black church, are the backbone of the church, notes religion and gender scholar Ann Braude. The double meaning of this saying is that while the churches would collapse without women, their place is in the background, behind male leaders.

But theres not much actual data, and without good data, its harder to make good decisions.

At the center of the story

My current research is illustrating that women are the majority of the church nearly everywhere in the world, and that its future is poised to be shaped by African women, in particular.

Christianity continues its demographic shift to the global south. In 1900, 18% of the worlds Christians lived in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Oceania, according to my research. Today that figure is 67%, and by 2050, it is projected to be 77%. Africa is home to 27% of the worlds Christians, the largest share in the world, and by 2050, that figure will likely be 39%. For comparison, the United States and Canada were home to just 11% of all Christians in the world in 2020 and will likely drop to 8% by 2050. Furthermore, the median age of Christians in sub-Saharan Africa is just 19.

[Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend. Sign up for our weekly newsletter.]

One of the most common refrains about the church in Africa is that it is majority female. The church in Africa has a feminine face and owes much of its tremendous growth to the agency of women, writes Kenyan theologian Philomena Mwaura.

Or as a Nigerian Anglican bishop recently told me, If anyone tells you a church in Nigeria is majority male, hes lying.

Its clear that women have been a crucial part of Christianitys seismic shift south. For example, consider Catholic sisters, who outnumber priests and religious brothers in Africa  and on every continent, in fact. Mothers Union, an Anglican nonprofit that aims to support marriages and families, has 30 branches in Africa, including at least 60,000 members in Nigeria alone. In Congo, women have advocated for peacebuilding, including through groups like the National Federation of Protestant Women. Next door, in the Republic of the Congo, Catholic sisters were at the forefront of providing shelter, education and aid in postwar recovery efforts.

Yet here, too, more precise data about African womens contributions and religious identities is lacking. And beyond quantitative data, African womens narratives have often been ignored, to the detriment of public understanding. As African theologians Mercy Amba Oduyoye and Rachel Angogo Kanyoro have stated, African women theologians have come to realize that as long as men and foreign researchers remain the authorities on culture, rituals, and religion, African women will continue to be spoken of as if they were dead.

Far from dead, African women live at the center of the story  and will continue to do so as healers, evangelists, mothers and the heartbeat of their churches.

___

The ATS is a funding partner of The Conversation U.S.

Gina Zurlo receives funding from the Louisville Institute.

___

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More details emerged about a public dispute over the program that gives free bull elk tags to Montana landowners in return for public hunting access during the Environmental Quality Councils Tuesday meeting in Helena.

Hank Worsech, director of Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, told the council the program is now referred to by some opponents as bulls for billionaires.

Thats because last fall, critics accused Worsech of authorizing the tags for rich landowners who may have supported Gov. Greg Gianfortes election.

Nothing was directed by the governor, Worsech said. Nothing could be further from the truth. What this is, is we have an obligation to work with landowners.

On the Environmental Quality Council, Republican landowners, usually critical of FWP, voiced support of the changes to the so-called 454 agreements  named after the first bill that crafted the idea, House Bill 454  while Democrats questioned the tactics behind the modifications and authorization of the agreements.

Changes

Recognizing the problems the Public Elk Hunting Access Agreement program had last fall, FWP is moving quickly to make changes, enlisting the Private Land/Public Wildlife Council to help. By mid-May, FWP plans to have new guidelines, with set dates to apply for the program and for the commission to consider the applications. The changes were ordered after last years approach to awarding more agreements, some after the rifle hunting season already started, drew criticism from elk hunters and conservation groups.

Billings hunter Cole Hoefle told the EQC why he thinks critics were so angry, contending that the Fish and Wildlife Commission and FWP-appointed citizen groups have been unfairly weighted with members representing outfitters, landowners and agricultural interests.

And so it kind of comes as no surprise then that the legislation that is brought forward so often seems to miss so much of the public, because it clearly represents the minority special interests that are in these groups, he said.

If the demographics of such groups arent changed, Hoefle said the rancor between landowners, outfitters, sportsmen and women will persist.

FWP

During the EQC meeting, Worsech took responsibility for how things went wrong with the 454 program last year.

As I indicated, I got caught with my pants down this last time, he said. We werent prepared for it.

He also criticized FWP and wildlife biologists. Last year when Worsech toured the state attending public and staff meetings, the 454 agreements were one of the topics that came up, he said.

To my surprise, I found out that a lot of people didnt know anything about it, and a lot of the biologists didnt want to do it, Worsech said. They didnt think this was right to have the ability for someone to get a bull tag in exchange for this.

Worsech referred to a 454 agreement in 2018 in southern Phillips County as an example of how the department could have handled a contract better.

We did a contract under the old law, and it was a one-to-four, and we had four bull hunters, plus he allowed a bunch of other bull hunters that were UPS drivers and mailman and different things like that on his property, plus I did a negotiation for 55 additional cow hunters, the region actually bounced it down to 45, Worsech said. So it was in the books as 45 after I negotiated 55.

We publicized this all over. We havent done it for other ones the way we publicized this, put them in the paper, put them on the radio, and he got inundated with calls constantly, and got so upset that he sold his property the following year, Worsech added. So we had an opportunity to have more hunters on there and we threw that opportunity away.

The landowner, Albert Will Carlson, sold his Blue Ridge Ranch in the Larb Hills in 2019 to what is now American Prairie, the conservation group formerly known as American Prairie Reserve. FWP arranged the 454 agreement with the Minnesota landowner despite the fact that in 2010 he and three family members were fined $50,000 and lost hunting privileges following a variety of illegal hunting charges.

Creation

Until last years legislative session, the 454 agreements werent a problem, partly because so few landowners took part.

The program was conceived by the Private Land/Public Wildlife Council after the group was created in 1995 by then-Gov. Marc Racicot in an attempt to smooth relations between landowners, outfitters, guides, sportsmen and women. The 454 agreements were designed by PLPW as a way to provide incentives to landowners for allowing public access.

Since its first year in 2002, the 454 program saw little interest, except by the Swanz Ranch outside Lewistown. In exchange for a free either-sex elk or cow elk permit awarded to one of the family members, FWP would issue four additional permits to public hunters for use on the landowners property.

At its high point three landowners participated. With last years legislative changes, the Fish and Wildlife Commission authorized 13 of the 454 agreements.

Legislature

One change to the program came at the request of PLPW. Rep. Denley Loge, R-St. Regis, introduced House Bill 119 that would require the Fish and Wildlife Commission to approve the landowner agreements.

That was the only change that we brought forward, said Ed Beall, chairman of the Private Land/Public Wildlife Council, in testimony to the EQC.

In shepherding the bill, Loge told the Senate Fish and Game Committee it was important for the decision to be made by the Fish and Wildlife Commission and not FWP.

The commission wanted it back because in some areas there may be some department folks that may not get along with the rancher quite as well, he said. Or they were not acting as consistent throughout the state as they would be if the power was with the commission.

The Montana Farm Bureau Federation, Montana Wildlife Federation and Montana Stockgrowers Association spoke in support of the measure as a great program for landowners and hunters. Gianforte signed the bill about a year ago.

Round 2

Other changes to the program came in separate legislation. Without PLPWs knowledge, alterations to the 454 agreements were added to the fourth of five rewrites of Rep. Seth Berglees HB 637, which became a catch-all bill for a number of revisions to FWP laws. Thats when legislators changed the ratio from three public hunters for every one tag awarded to a landowner, down from four public hunters for every landowner tag.

Its interesting that so little that changed in a ratio would become such an issue, Beall said. And I dont think the ratio is really the great issue. How it happened might be the greater issue.

HB 637 is also where the statute was changed to allow landowners to pick one of the public hunters.

The rest of the changes happened in the Legislature as mentioned, not to our knowledge, Beall said. So thats how it got to where it is, right now, towards a problem in so many peoples mind.

The changes came in the same session that Republicans failed to pass HB 505, which would have given landowners elk licenses and bonus points to help draw tags to incentivize elk harvest.

The bill offered some out-of-the-box ideas to push areas with over-objective elk numbers to objective and keep them there, the Montana State News Bureaus Tom Kuglin reported during the session. Those included offering landowners with at least a section of land in areas within objectives to sponsor up to 10 nonresident elk licenses. The bill also offered both residents and nonresidents the choice to hunt a cow elk on private land in areas over objective in exchange for five extra bonus points to be used in a future special permit drawing.

Hunters and conservation groups decried HB 505 as monetizing public wildlife for landowners. Meanwhile, some Republican lawmakers saw the bill as a way to work with landowners saying that past FWP policies attempted to force public access onto private lands.

Quotas

FWP also allowed the bull tags to be issued in addition to already established bull elk hunting quotas, which angered some hunters since bull tags can be difficult to acquire.

EQC member Sen. Pat Flowers, D-Belgrade, questioned Worsech about whether FWP biologists were involved in the decision process, since they set quotas for hunting districts.

When you have an area thats 800 percent over [elk population] objective  what is the biologist going to say about the management of that at that point? Worsech responded. You got that high number on there, I asked them can they sustain it? They can sustain it. They can sustain the harvest, and we actually need more harvest.

The problem the 454 program was designed to address is getting more public hunters access to elk on private land where the animals congregate. Proponents, like Helena attorney Mark Taylor who negotiated seven 454 agreements, say the changes worked. More than 300 elk were killed on the properties he worked with.

Likewise, outfitter Paul Ellis, a member of the PLPW, praised the program as it now exists, noting that even with the change in the ratio more public hunters were invited on properties. Both warned that changes to the program could prompt landowners to withdraw.

To have such a successful program come under attack and try to sabotage it is, I think, a huge mistake, Ellis said.

Meanwhile

As the EQC heard testimony about the 454 program, the 12 newly appointed members of the Elk Management Citizen Advisory Group were holding their first meeting online. Worsech addressed the group, saying he had no preconceived notions about what the group should produce and FWP would not provide any guidance.

However, if the group wants to bring in outside interests, such as the Property and Environment Research Center in Bozeman, he would arrange it, Worsech said.

PERCs policy director, Hanna Downey, addressed the EQC on the same day, advocating for rewards to private landowners for providing wildlife habitat.

Without private land, elk dont have a future, she said.

Landowner Joe Schmechel told EQC that he and his brother alternate each year and draw a bull elk tag through FWPs landowner preference program 90% of the time they apply.

In my experience, the stories youre told about landowners not able to hunt elk on their own property dont really hold that much water, he said. Were already treated preferentially compared to the general public to the degree that, honestly, I oftentimes feel guilty about the opportunities we have versus the general public.

Schmechel alleged that where he hunts, 454 permits have been awarded to landowners hoarding elk and blocking access to public land.

If were rewarding elk hoarding with guaranteed bull tags, were essentially creating the exact opposite results for what this program is intended, he added.

Beall, chairman of the PLPW, also pointed out another factor his group is seeing that needs to be addressed.

The big identification is the rapidly changing landscape of landowners compared to the historic traditional landscape of landowners, he said. And none of us here really have a grasp on that. All of the people on the current council really have recognized that as a huge issue. So the sooner we can fix this and get on to bigger issues would be good.

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Our democracy  is it alive, do we still live in a democratic republic, or is our democracy dead, no longer a governance of, by and for the people? How is the American Experiment faring? As it turns out, not so well.

On Nov. 22, 2021, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IIDEA), based in Stockholm, Sweden, released its 2021 Report on The Global State of Democracy. The Report concludes that Democracys survival is endangered by a perfect storm of threats, both from within and from a rising tide of authoritarianism. The world is becoming more authoritarian as nondemocratic regimes become even more brazen in their repression. And many democratic governments suffer from backsliding by... restricting free speech and weakening the rule of law.

Over the past year, 60 countries became less free, while only 25 improved. 38% of the global population live in countries that are not free (the highest since 1997); 20% live in free countries; and 42% live in partly free countries. Sadly, the United States falls within this last category

In her recent book, "How Civil Wars Start and How to Stop Them" Professor Barbara F. Walter, describes anocracy  a middle zone occupied by governances that are neither democracy nor autocracy.

Researchers rely on what is called a Polity Score, compiled by the Polity Project at the Center for Systematic Peace, to capture how democratic or autocratic a country is in any given year. Based on a 21 point scale ranging from -10 (most autocratic) to +10 (most democratic), full democracies receive scores between +6 and +10; autocracies receive scores between -6 and -10. Anocracies, are in the middle, receiving scores of between -5 and +5.

In 2020 the United States lost it long-held +10 Polity Score (as the worlds oldest democracy) and dropped to a +5anocracy.

Backsliding democracies risk armed civil uprising from the moment a country becomes less democratic as a result of fewer executive restraints, weaker rule of law, and diminished voting rights. When such a democracys Polity Score reaches between +1 and -1 citizens face the real prospect of autocracy.

Here is what happen to America.

Factionalism, defined as an acute form of political polarization, where political parties become based on ethnic, religious, or racial identity rather than on ideology. Parties become cults focusing on one person.

Ethnic Entrepreneurs facilitate factions with discriminatory appeals and policies in the name of a particular group.

Predatory Political Parties arise out of the factionalism and become the tools of ethnic entrepreneurs. These parties tighten their political power by attacking free and fair elections, freedom of speech, and freedom of association, often using slash and burn tactics, pursuing power with a win-at-all-cost agenda.

Downgrading takes place when group feels left out of the political process, when the group once held power, but sees it slipping away. The group feels a sense of resentment, rage, injustice and a loss of status in a place that is theirs. These people might be referred to as sons of the soil. Sons of the soil may be downgraded by migration; differences in birth rates or simple demographics

Economic Inequity (not the same thing as Income Inequality) refers to more structural changes in society  modernization, for example, which involves the process by which rural, traditional societies are transformed into urban secular societies.

Loss of hope happens when downgraded groups see a future with nothing but more pain and violence as their only path forward.

Unregulated internet and social media which act as channels for disinformation, misinformation, conspiracy theories and bully-pulpits for charlatans, trolls, demagogues, anti-democratic agents, foreign governments and others.

To stop the backslide we need to focus on those values that sustain democracy including the rule of law; the equal and impartial application of legal procedure; and accountability the extent to which citizens are able to participate in selecting their government as well as their freedom of expression, association, free media, free and fair elections and effective government.

To stop our slide from anocracy into autocracy is a tall order. But the inescapable fact is that if We the People are not committed to saving our American democracy, then it will die from within.

No one is going to bail us out.

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

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LOS ANGELES  It took place three years before the fateful Jeff Fortenberry fundraiser that has the nine-term Nebraska congressman facing a federal trial.

But it was singed on Alexandra Kendricks brain.

The political fundraising consultant  who counts Fortenberry among her many elected clients  testified Monday that she will never forget taking a phone call in 2013.

From the other end of the phone, the host of a fundraising party for then-Rep. Jack Kingston relayed some horrifying news to Kendrick: All the money they raised at a fundraiser was dirty, siphoned to the campaign through a foreigner. Different nationalities had been at the fundraiser. The FBI was involved.

And she remembers precisely where she was when she got that phone call: at an Atlanta T.J. Maxx, the discount department store. In the purse section.

That call felt like an hour  it was probably five minutes, Kendrick said. Its just a worst-case scenario. Its like a betrayal.

It stuck with her. So much so that in early 2016, she hesitated over several factors connected with a fundraiser that was being thrown for Fortenberry in suburban Los Angeles.

There were some red flags, Kendrick said. I had many concerns. For one, we werent given an RSVP list before the event. ... Thats not normal. I was apprehensive.

She said she shared that story as a sort of storm warning to Fortenberry. But she doesnt remember his reaction. She just remembers her apprehension.

Whether Fortenberry shared, or should have shared, that apprehension is the focus of a trial in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom. A jury will decide whether Fortenberry is guilty of three felonies: that he tried to conceal illegal foreign donations and that he lied during two interviews with FBI agents investigating such contributions to his campaign. The trial is expected to wrap up Wednesday or Thursday.

Monday afternoon, Dr. Eli Ayoub took the stand and admitted to funneling Nigerian billionaire Gilbert Chagourys cash to Fortenberrys campaign. He gave a rich detail: the cash from Chagoury came in a brown paper bag.

A go-between handed the money to Ayoub, who set the bag of cash in the back seat of his car. After arriving for lunch following a funeral, Ayoub handed his keys to a valet and went inside the restaurant.

Then he remembered: the brown bag of $30,000 cash was still sitting on the seat.

So you left $30,000 cash in the back seat of your car? Prosecutor Mack Jenkins asked.

Yes, I remembered I forgot it in the car during lunch, and I was very nervous about it, Ayoub testified.

Kendrick, a key witness for the government, was nervous about something else. Her client, Fortenberry, finally felt like he had gotten recognition for a cause he had been championing for years: the protection of Christians and other religious minorities who are subjected to religious persecution in the Middle East.

Kendrick said Fortenberry, a Republican representing Nebraskas 1st District, felt his mission in Congress was acting on behalf of those folks. Among those religious minorities are the Yazidis, who were persecuted, abused and sometimes killed by IS members. About 3,000 Yazidis have resettled in Lincoln  and Fortenberry says Lincoln has the largest population of Yazidis outside of Iraq.

Fortenberry often said that it is a constituency that has no natural elected official.

After introducing congressional resolutions of support for such religious minorities, Fortenberry was about to get financial recognition.

He was excited because he finally had a group of people who were willing to financially support him to thank him for the work that he had done, Kendrick said.

Whether Fortenberry should have sensed that he was getting dirty money was a subject for several of the trials witnesses.

Kendrick said the lead-up to the Feb. 20, 2016, L.A. fundraiser blared all sorts of sirens to her. Biggest thing: She couldnt get the fundraisers host, Ayoub, to tell her who was attending. She knew the attendees included a number of nationalities. The event for Kingston, a former Georgia congressman, involved several Palestinians, Kendrick said.

Fortenberrys attorney, John Littrell, noted that many of the Fortenberry events attendees were U.S citizens of Lebanese descent. Littrell asked Kendrick if her real concern amounted to racial profiling. Was she simply concerned because the fundraiser involved Lebanese people?

It was more than that, Kendrick said. Any time you cant get a list of names and know where the money is coming from  its concerning for a multitude of reasons.

Frustrated, she eventually sent a brief to Fortenberry outlining the upcoming fundraiser with this asterisk: *We have been unable to get an rsvp list from the hosts.

Kendrick referred in court Monday to that asterisk as one-part call for help, one-part cover my bottom.

She said her concerns were threefold: whether anyone would attend the fundraiser; whether any money would be raised after all the work to get to LA; and, most importantly, whether the fundraiser would comply with Federal Election Commission laws, especially against foreign money.

At the time, the limit on individual donations was $2,700 per individual or $5,400 from couples.

In turn, Kendrick set up a table at the back entrance of the home. Required campaign forms were there, she said, because she didnt want a repeat of the Kingston episode.

She collected names and forms and money. Lots of it: $36,000.

It was in the top tier of fundraisers, Kendrick said.

Kendrick and Fortenberry were thrilled  until Fortenberry noticed something. At least a half-dozen of the donations came from either Ayoub or his relatives. Ayoub and his wife wrote a check for $10,000.

In the wake of that discovery, Fortenberry asked Toufic Baaklini, who described himself Monday as the in-between who passed along Chagourys money, if there was anything wrong with the fundraiser.

Baaklini said he assured them there was not.

Later Monday, Ayoub, 77, took the stand. He described his long-ago connection to Nebraska. The ear-nose-and-throat specialist received his training at Creighton University, spending nine formative years of his career in Omaha.

Some 30 years later, the Los Angeles physician got involved with In Defense of Christians  the group supporting religious minorities in the Middle East.

Eventually, Ayoub doled out more of Chagourys money to other politicians campaigns: $50,000 to former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, $30,000 to California Rep. Darrell Issa, and $20,000 to former Nebraska Rep. Lee Terry.

Those elected officials disgorged the money  the official term for purging dirty donations from a campaign, usually by turning them over to charity. Fortenberry took more than two years to do the same.

Ayoub said he initially didnt disclose anything about Fortenberry or the 2016 fundraiser to FBI agents. In fact, it wasnt until he received a March 2018 text message from Fortenberry that he informed the FBI that he had funneled Chagourys money to a fourth politician: Fortenberry.

Jenkins asked Ayoub, now cooperating with prosecutors, if he knew what he was doing was wrong.

At that time, I believed it was illegal, but I was too blinded by the events in the Middle East, by the persecution of the Christians in the Middle East, Ayoub told jurors. I failed myself, I failed my friends and I failed my values. What I did was against my values.

Littrell did what the defense team has done with all prosecution witnesses. He tried to: 1) establish that Fortenberry was never expressly told about Chagourys money; and 2) get each witness to vouch for Fortenberrys character.

Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. blanched at those efforts. Typically, witnesses are not permitted to testify to the general character of a defendant. In other words, judges wont allow hes a good guy testimony, just as they wont allow hes a bad guy testimony.

Littrell: Fortenberry is an honest person?

Kendrick: Yes.

Littrell: He is a law-abiding person?

Kendrick: Yes.

Littrell: He is a devout Catholic. You are a devout Catholic?

Kendrick: Trying to be.

Littrell: He helped you on your faith journey?

Finally, prosecutors objected. The judge sustained the objection, ordering jurors to disregard commentary on Fortenberrys reputation.

That is essentially (character) testimony by the defense, Blumenfeld said sternly. You should move on.

Testimony Tuesday is expected to turn to prosecutors allegations that Fortenberry lied in two interviews with the FBI over the investigation into the fundraiser.

Fortenberry denies he lied. It is not yet clear whether he will take the stand.

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LOS ANGELES  Rep. Jeff Fortenberry spoke with Dr. Eli Ayoub twice in 2018, asking him both times if he would hold another fundraiser on Fortenberry's behalf.

Maybe something similar to the one Ayoub held in February 2016 in L.A. Maybe something smaller, more intimate.

But when FBI agents showed up at Fortenberrys home nine months later, Fortenberry said he had a hard time placing Ayoub.

I dont know if I know him, Fortenberry said.

I think his name is Ayoub, Elias, FBI agent Todd Carter responded.

Im not placing him, Fortenberry said. I may have (met him). I cant say I have.

Fortenberry thought some more.

If its Ayoub, he may have given me a political contribution, he said.

Ayoub did much more. Ayoub testified Monday that he took a brown paper bag of $30,000 cash from an associate of Nigerian billionaire Gilbert Chagoury and distributed it to friends and relatives. He had them write checks to Fortenberrys campaign at a fundraiser the doctor held on behalf of the Nebraska congressman.

Day 4 of Fortenberrys federal trial Tuesday delved into whether the congressman lied to FBI agents investigating the funneling of foreign money into U.S. politicians campaigns. Chagoury, a controversial figure who has been connected to corruption in Nigeria, had used Ayoub to steer money to several Republicans, including Fortenberry.

It is illegal for U.S. politicians to accept foreign money. Fortenberry, a nine-term congressman representing Nebraskas 1st District, is charged with one count of concealing the source of illegal contributions to his campaign and two counts of lying. If convicted, the 61-year-old would face up to five years in prison on each charge, though supervised release also would be a possibility.

Fortenberrys defense team says the congressman had no knowledge, direct or otherwise, that he had received foreign money. And Tuesday, they cast the lying charges as a reach.

The real liars are the agents who interviewed Fortenberry, attorney Ryan Fraser suggested.

Fraser and attorney Glen Summers accused the FBI agent and an IRS agent, James OLeary, of ambushing the Fortenberrys at their Lincoln home in the March 2019 interview.

Fortenberry had just returned that week from a trip to Nairobi, where he was being briefed on elephant poaching. At the time of his return, eastern Nebraska was experiencing massive flooding and Fortenberry had toured some of the affected areas that Saturday.

He wasnt home when agents first showed up at 1 p.m. When the agents returned that evening, two Lincoln police officers were waiting for them.

Fortenberry explained that he had called then-Lincoln Police Chief Jeff Bliemeister because two people claiming to be federal agents had knocked on his door.

We have gotten death threats against us, Fortenberry told the agents who eventually stepped into the living room, according to an agents video played Tuesday.

Sit down, Fortenberry told the agents. Were gonna have a little conversation before we have a conversation.

Because of the nature of your inquiry ... the surprising lack of professionalism you have shown ... this has resulted in us calling the local police chief and wasting their time.

As the three sat down, Carter began to give the standard admonition that Fortenberry needed to be candid with agents.

I want to remind you that lying to the FBI is illegal, Carter said.

You lied to me, Fortenberry shot back. You said you were from Omaha.

In Omaha, yes, Carter said. Not from Omaha, correct.

The L.A.-based agents later testified that they sometimes lie to gain access to people, to get them to talk. Hence their representation to Celeste Fortenberry that day that they needed to talk to her husband about a national security matter. And also their false statement that they already had spoken to Fortenberrys office about what they were going to talk about.

Its common for us to use ruses, OLeary testified.

After expressing his displeasure, Fortenberry settled into a chair in his living room. The agents apologized for the confusion they created and asked Fortenberry if the Lincoln police officers could leave.

I want them present, he insisted.

Unbeknownst to Fortenberry, something else was present: Carter had a camera planted somewhere on him or his belongings, perhaps in a briefcase or satchel. The video was grainy and tilted.

But the audio was clear  and prosecutors say it was damning.

Carter got to the point. They were investigating In Defense of Christians, a group that Fortenberry supported.

Toufic Baaklini, a Chagoury go-between, had founded the group in 2014 and Fortenberry had spoken at In Defense of Christians banquets as it fought for one of his principal causes: protecting religious minorities in the Middle East.

In return  and Fortenberry says unbeknownst to him  Chagoury had funneled $30,000 in cash to Fortenberrys campaign. He did so through a Los Angeles fundraiser put on by Ayoub and, indirectly, by Baaklini.

During that interview, Carter concealed something else. That FBI agents had recorded a June 2018 phone call Fortenberry had made in which he asked Ayoub if he would hold a second fundraiser. During that phone call, Ayoub had told Fortenberry three times that the fundraiser was funded with $30,000 cash that probably came from Chagoury.

Carter showed Fortenberry a photo of Ayoub. Asked a few times, Fortenberry said he couldnt place him. The defense pointed out that agents had been using a 10-year-old photo of Ayoub that showed him with dyed-black hair and black eyebrows. Ayoub, 77, now has silver hair and silver eyebrows.

But prosecutors said Carter made it clear he was talking about Ayoub  a man Fortenberry had just spoken by phone with. A man who had just told Fortenberry that Baaklini had injected money, probably Chagourys money, to Fortenberrys campaign.

And Fortenberry was evasive, they say.

Carter asked: Are you aware if Baaklini ever provided any money to anyone to conduct conduit contributions?

Fortenberry: No, Im not aware.

Carter: Are you aware of any foreign nationals giving direction or orders for the purpose of conducting illegal campaign contributions?

Fortenberry: You know, no.

As agents pressed Fortenberry, the congressman leaned forward in his chair. He put his elbows on his knees.

Well, at this point youre starting to accuse me of something, he said. I dont know what youre digging for but Im trying to help.

Fortenberry paused.

I think youre leading somewhere here and youre not making me comfortable. Ive been trying to help you with whatever you need. ... Its not clear to me what youre doing now so we have to call a timeout.

Fortenberrys attorney, Fraser, said his client was clearly thrown off by the dated photo of Ayoub. Eventually, Fraser noted, Fortenberry recognized who the agents were referring to and described a couple of conversations with Ayoub. One was a trip to Nebraska so Ayoub, a graduate of Creighton University Medical School, could visit relatives. The other was another possible fundraiser in Los Angeles.

I had done a previous, um, fundraiser with (Ayoub) out there, Fortenberry said. I thought it would be nice to do it again. But that didnt happen.

The defense has suggested that Fortenberry wasnt hiding anything and clearly had no idea his campaign had received foreign money  evidenced by the fact that he was openly disclosing his desire for a second fundraiser. Prosecutors counter that Fortenberry didnt come clean about Ayoub until 32 minutes into the FBI interview.

Any explanation that Fortenberry didnt realize the agents were talking about Ayoub was undercut three months later by Fortenberry himself.

Fortenberry asked for a second interview. In July 2019, he and his then-attorney, former Rep. Trey Gowdy, sat down with prosecutor Mack Jenkins in Washington. Prosecutors have indicated that they thought Fortenberry would come clean at that interview.

But prosecutors now argue that Fortenberry dug himself a deeper hole, contradicting some of his responses to the agents questions in the Lincoln interview.

At the second interview, Fortenberry acknowledged what he wouldn't in the Lincoln interview. That Ayoub told him on the June 2018 phone call that the amounts, as I recall, the amounts wouldnt be as large because Gilbert (Chagoury) wouldnt be involved.

Jenkins: And that was (Ayoub's) response to you asking about another fundraiser?

Fortenberry: Yeah. ... That was discomforting to me, so I ended the conversation.

In reality, prosecutors say, Fortenberry did not end the conversation. Instead, he went on to ask for a second fundraiser.

As for the first fundraiser, Fortenberry insisted in the D.C. interview with Jenkins that everything about this event was standard and engaging and people being generous.

A bit later, Jenkins asked: And youre aware that foreign nationals cant contribute to campaigns?

Why wouldnt I know that? Fortenberry scoffed. Im a member of the United States Congress.

Jenkins: Youd be surprised.

Fortenberry: Its my obligation to know that. Im a lawmaker in charge of a political campaign.

Jenkins asked how he acted on the information that Chagoury probably provided $30,000 in cash.

I didnt have any more events, Fortenberry said. That was how I acted on it.

But, Jenkins noted, Fortenberry continued to talk about another event during the June 2018 phone call with Ayoub, even after Ayoub told him it may have been Chagoury's cash.

And prosecutors say Fortenberry failed to act as other politicians had when told they had received Chagourys money, which is disgorge the money by donating it to charity.

After the June 2018 phone call, it took Fortenberry more than a year  and two interviews with federal agents  before he got rid of the money.

In the D.C. interview, Jenkins asked Fortenberry if it was weird that Ayoub had told him that his campaign had received $30,000 in cash and that the money probably came from Chagoury.

That would have been horrifying," Fortenberry said. "Not weird. Horrifying.

And, Fortenberry said, he would have disowned that money immediately.

Prosecutors are expected to wrap up their case Wednesday morning. The defense has told the judge it will put on about a day of testimony.

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The Statistics Centre Abu Dhabi (Scad) has signed a deal with G42 Cloud, the leading AI and cloud computing firm, to utilise its advanced digital and AI solutions for improving Scad's statistical portfolio. The agreement was signed by Ahmed Mahmoud Fikri, Director General of Scad and Talal Al Kaissi, CEO of Abu Dhabi-based G42 Cloud.

The signing ceremony was attended by Badria Abdallah, Executive Director of Foresight and Communication Sector, Ahmed AlShaiba Al Sheryani, Executive Director of the Data Sector, and Yousuf Fahd, Acting Executive Director of Strategy and Planning Sector from Scad, and Hisham Sari, Executive Business Development Principal from G42 Cloud.

The partnership will see Scad leveraging G42 Clouds hosting services and deployment of cloud-based software and systems, advanced platforms for big data processing and analysis, as well as technical consultancy support.

The centre is going to develop high-quality descriptive, analytical and predictive statistical models across all its operations, utilising advanced AI applications and data sources.

The new collaboration aligns with G42 Clouds goals to support digital innovation in government services by offering Scad a holistic set of AI solutions with highly advanced analytics capabilities to support its digital transformation efforts.

Fikri said: At Scad, we are keen to adopt advanced technologies and AI solutions to process various types of data accurately and objectively. We aim to provide reliable and high-quality statistics, analysis and research that support Abu Dhabis comprehensive and sustainable development process, as was the case for the Insights and Foresights platform, which contributes to improving the user experience in the government and private sectors, while supporting Scads continuous efforts to provide added value services and enhance the solutions we offer our public and private sector partners.

This partnership will enhance Scads vital role in developing fast, reliable and effective digital solutions for processing big data, and finding new statistical methods and applications, which in turn contribute to foresighting and identifying needs and challenges. It formulates policies at all possible levels through effective integration of AI and data, he added.

Al Kaissi said: This partnership provides a remarkable opportunity to support the development and digitisation of Scads data processing and analysis processes. Many government entities, organisations and companies rely on G42 Cloud services to meet a variety of use cases. We are very honoured to contribute to Scads journey of digital transformation and support the development of its operations by utilising our intelligent, innovative and impactful solutions as part of our efforts to leverage AI technology across sectors to improve results.

Scad had recently launched its advanced Insights and Foresights Platform (IFP) to provide statistical data, analytical models and advanced simulations using latest AI technologies in the field of data analysis.

IFP will enable decision makers within Abu Dhabi Government to study social and economic impacts of various policies as it can predict the ones with highest efficiency in resource management and integration across the government.-- TradeArabia News Service
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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Google servers used by several Internet service providers in South Africa are facing overwhelming network traffic, causing major problems when streaming video from YouTube.

Afrihost and Webafrica fibre broadband subscribers reported the issue on the MyBroadband forums.

According to the reports, there have been intermittent problems while watching YouTube videos for at least the past two weeks.

Despite YouTube automatically switching videos to the lowest quality, they constantly get stuck buffering.

The problem occurs regardless of line speed.

An Afrihost customer on a 500 Mbps connection told MyBroadband that they could not watch YouTube several nights this week. Other services work as expected.

MyBroadband tested the issue on an Afrihost connection this week and confirmed the reports.

Our speed tests, downloads, and other performance measurements worked as expected, while YouTube was unwatchable.

Afrihost, Axxess, and Webafrica all use the same upstream provider called Echo. However, based on feedback from ISPs and Googles Remote Operations Centre, the issue is not at Echo.

In a note to ISPs, Google confirmed that there is congestion on its network.

It explained that its network devices in Johannesburg, South Africa and Mombasa, Kenya are being pushed beyond their capacity.

MyBroadband asked Google for comment on the problems with YouTube streaming in South Africa, but the company did not answer our questions by the time of publication.

Webafrica provided feedback on the issue.

On the 25th of February, together with our aggregation partner (EchoSP), we detected a reduction in Google peering traffic and received a few minor complaints from customers around intermittent reduced YouTube streaming quality, Webafrica infrastructure manager Mark Frater told MyBroadband.

On engaging with Google engineers, they confirmed that indeed they were suffering capacity constraints in their Johannesburg cluster.

Engineers at Webafrica and Afrihost have found that switching from IPv4 to IPv6 to connect to their networks partially fixes the problem.

It is unclear why this works.

Frater said they had asked Google why IPv6 traffic appears less impacted.

We assume it has something to do with their redirection algorithms, he said.

Given that our network is for the most part fully dual-stack and we hence serve a great deal of this traffic via IPv6, Webafrica customers are much less impacted than other ISPs who serve the same traffic over IPv4, said Frater.

Nonetheless, we continue to engage with Google and hope to have the matter fully resolved by them soon.
Two Sonoma County residents were arrested Thursday morning in American Canyon after an attempt to run down a woman with a car, police reported.

Officers were called to a disturbance at 9:30 a.m. in the 7000 block of Main Street, where witnesses reported that 44-year-old Larry Gene Etherton of Rohnert Park had tried to run over a woman with his car, according to police Sgt. Chet Schneider. The officers' encounter with Etherton turned physical, and he was restrained in handcuffs, Schneider said in an email, adding that one officer suffered scrapes as Etherton was being detained.

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A search of Ethertons vehicle revealed suspected methamphetamine and a pipe for ingesting the drug, Schneider said.

Etherton was booked into the Napa County jail on felony allegations of assault and resisting arrest, as well as misdemeanor counts of domestic violence, intimidating a witness, and possessing drugs and drug paraphernalia.

During Ethertons arrest, another Rohnert Park resident, 30-year-old Maya Driggers, tried to delay officers and was arrested on suspicion of obstructing police, a misdemeanor, according to Schneider. She was booked into the Napa jail and released shortly before 1 p.m. Thursday, according to booking records.
A Napa County Superior Court judge has ruled that Napa County must set aside its approval of Mountain Peak winery at Soda Canyon and do an environmental impact report before reconsidering the matter.

Judge Cynthia Smith issued a March 21 order saying a fair argument can be made that the project might harm surface water and biological resources. That potential triggers the need for more in-depth study.

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It was unclear Friday whether Napa County will appeal the ruling.

County counsel is currently reviewing the courts decision, county spokesperson Leah Greenbaum said in an email. Next steps will be determined in the coming weeks.

Attorney Anthony Arger spoke on behalf of the Soda Canyon Group that filed the lawsuit. He said the group is pleased that the judge found at least one ground on which to return the matter to the county for an environmental impact report.

Whatever happens next, a long-running winery saga will likely continue.

Napa County approved Mountain Peak winery in 2017 and the Soda Canyon Group sued the county. The issue became emblematic of a larger debate over how the county should view proposals for remote wineries.

Mountain Peak winery would be located in the mountains northeast of the city of Napa. It would produce up to 100,000 gallons of wine annually, have up to 14,300 tasting room visitors annually and have up to 275 total visitors annually at three marketing events.

The Soda Canyon Group said the site 6 miles up dead-end Soda Canyon Road is the wrong place for a winery of this scale.

Under the California Environmental Quality Act, the county for projects such as new wineries must do an initial study to determine if the project might hurt the environment. If the answer is yes, it must do an environmental impact report.

However, if potential impacts are less than significant, the county can issue a negative declaration and forgo requiring a more costly environmental impact report.

Napa County required a number of studies for the project, including ones on groundwater, traffic and stormwater treatment. It used this information to issue a 26-page negative declaration saying that possible environmental impacts are less than significant.

The Soda Canyon Group  made up largely but not exclusively of Soda Canyon Road residents and property owners  disagreed.

Among other things, the Soda Canyon Group said substantial evidence exists that the winery project could hurt water quality, aquatic habitat and species in streams and Rector Creek. It convinced Napa County Superior Court.

The project includes excavation to create caves, with the spoils being deposited on the property. There is evidence that sediments during rain could wash into streams and Rector Creek, where it would endanger the breeding habitat of aquatic life, Smith wrote.

She didnt say that the project will cause environmental harm, only that the Soda Canyon Group had made a fair argument that the potential exists. That triggers the need for the more-involved environmental impact report.

The fair argument standard has been called a low threshold test for the requirement of an agency to prepare an EIR, Smith wrote.

In addition, she cited a court opinion saying there is a preference for resolving doubts in favor of environmental review.

Smith sided with the county on several issues. She wrote that no substantial evidence exists that groundwater pumping, noise and traffic should trigger an environmental impact report, reversing her stance from her January tentative opinion.

Smith wrote she included this information in her March 21 final opinion to provide a complete record. Her ruling on the biological issue was enough to trip the environmental impact report requirement.

Mountain Peak Winery is proposed by Steven Rea, Eric Yuan and Hua Yuan. The Napa Valley Register received no response to an invitation for comments left with a project consultant.

On Jan. 20, attorney Brien McMahon on behalf of Mountain Peak winery addressed Smith during a hearing on the lawsuit.

Our position is the county rigorously imposed appropriate conditions, he said.

Napa County typically issues negative declarations for new wineries. One of the few times it has required an environmental impact report was a few years ago for the controversial Yountville Hill winery, a proposal that never came to fruition.

Arger said the Mountain Peak case could have ramifications for other proposed wineries in remote or environmentally-sensitive areas of Napa County when obvious environmental and public safety concerns arise.

You can reach Barry Eberling at 256-2253 or beberling@napanews.com.

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Dear Portland:

Dont take it personally but I dont want to get to know you any better.

Its not you. Its 100% me.

Youve had our youngest daughter up there at her Portland University for the past four years. Now its time to give her back. To her momma. Or at least the state of California.

We already have plenty of experience with Huffman daughters living out of state. For seven long years, one Huffman had a Colorado address. Finally, to her mothers eternal gratitude, she moved back to California.

Middle Daughter remains in the North Bay, yet she and her laundry come home at least once a week.

That leaves the youngest Huffman out of pocket.

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There is good reason to hope that she could be coming back to California. Shes about to graduate from college with a STEM-type degree. There are plenty of STEM-type businesses looking to hire new STEM grads.

Pause for Mom Humble Brag: The kid knows how to sequence DNA. As in human genetic material. Shes done papers on it. Printed out charts of it. She also knows how to identify bacteria found in the DIRT outside her dorm room. Hows that for STEMazing? Plus, shes adorable. Yes, I am totally saying that because I am her mother.

Shes sending out resumes for both Oregon and California STEM jobs. Im afraid some random and completely undeserving Portland company is going to snap her up before she can even set foot back in California, let alone Napa. And then well never get her back.

We went up to see Portland College Girl this past weekend. Ive actually only been there one other time, the day we dropped her off at her dorm. (The same day I barfed on the street on the way to taking her to her new dorm room and then cried for a solid eight hours on the way home. Mom grief is no joke.)

As much as I didnt want to like Portland, I actually do.

College Girl currently lives in a perfect college-kid house near her school. Five bedrooms, one for each kid. Communal kitchen. She shares a bathroom with only one other roommate. All roommates are also STEM students, so there is a lot of Serious Studying going on. Not many wild parties that I know of. And if there are, I dont need details.

Her room is full of plants and fun pillows and soft blankets and a Multnomah Falls poster and Anthropologie-ish decor. Its the perfect little study nest.

Portland has cute neighborhoods galore. Excellent coffee, of course. Manageable traffic. A nearby airport. Theres rain. Quirky people. Not one but TWO Paxton Gate stores with an extensive collection of taxidermy and owl pellets.

But Im saving the best for last.

Portland has its own vintage typewriter shop.

Really Portland? A TYPEWRITER STORE? You already had original locked down and then you had to go and add a store full of vintage typewriters and accessories? Thanks a LOT.

Called Type Space, the shop sells working typewriters from every era and in every color.

Naturally, I insisted we visit. Naturally, it was fantastic. Naturally, I bought an aqua-color typewriter from the 60s. And a typewriter T-shirt. And a vintage typewriter pin.

Im still hoping our girl finds her way back to California. But if she does choose a job in Portland, I just hope its near the typewriter store.

Surrendering to Motherhood appears every other Monday. Follow Jennifer on Twitter: @NVRHuffman.

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Resistance Movement rally ends: Citizens remain on France Square

Erdogan and Macron discuss Turkey-France relations and Ukraine

CNBC: Elon Musk to become interim CEO of Twitter

Saghatelyan: Tomorrow from 12:00 we will completely paralyze Yerevan from four directions

Finland ready to cut off gas supplies from Russia

Resistance Movement marchers return to France Square

NEWS.am digest: Large scale protests continue in Yerevan, people forcibly arrested

Greece accuses Turkey of stoking tensions in Aegean Sea

Resistance Movement rally starts in central Yerevan

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
Resistance Movement rally ends: Citizens remain on France Square

Erdogan and Macron discuss Turkey-France relations and Ukraine

CNBC: Elon Musk to become interim CEO of Twitter

Saghatelyan: Tomorrow from 12:00 we will completely paralyze Yerevan from four directions

Finland ready to cut off gas supplies from Russia

Resistance Movement marchers return to France Square

NEWS.am digest: Large scale protests continue in Yerevan, people forcibly arrested

Greece accuses Turkey of stoking tensions in Aegean Sea

Resistance Movement rally starts in central Yerevan

US Embassy in Havana resumes issuing visas to Cubans

Scientists find link between belief in paranormal and cognitive function

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

New discovery by neurobiologists: What areas of brain affect vocal apparatus?

Rosa Linn has her second rehearsal on Eurovision stage (VIDEO)

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

Three proven, affordable foods that help reduce cancer risk

Armenia official: Peace agreement with Azerbaijan also means solution to Karabakh issue

Liverpool unveil new kits (photo, video)

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

American rapper gets 16 years in prison for killing homeless man

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

Real Madrid players watch motivational video before match against Manchester City

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

Kim Cattrall reveals why she refused to return to Sex and the City sequel

Mourinho speaks out about Mkhitaryan

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

What illnesses threaten those who had COVID-19?

EU to ban Russians from buying European real estate

Amber Heard's nurse speaks about her drug addiction and envy of Johnny Depp

Mourinho: Brendans success doesnt surprise me

US defense industry facing problems due to supply of weapons to Ukraine

Guardiola on defeat against Real Madrid

When can headache be sign of serious illness?

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

Guardiola repeats Mourinho's anti-record

Civil disobedience actions resume in Yerevan

Champions League: Real reach the final

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

Madrid: Rafael Nadal's successful start

Disobedience march reaches France Square, rally starts

Diego Maradona's shirt sold for 8.5 million euros

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

Ter Stegen to miss next German team matches

EU interested in expanding energy cooperation with Azerbaijan

Germany: Gradual EU ban on Russian oil imports could lead to 'supply disruptions'

Nutritionists name healthiest vegetables for heart

Opposition demonstration reaches government residences

Aliyev insists so-called Zangezur corridor 'is already a reality'

Youth World Cup: Gor Sahakyan becomes bronze medalist

Justin Bieber about 'emotional breakdown' after marrying

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

Can Guardiola stop Benzema? (cartoon)

US comedian attacked on stage in Los Angeles

Armenia deputy police chief says law enforcement has right detain MPs

Large-scale opposition rally starts in central Yerevan

Kim Kardashian hints she dreams of marrying fourth time
Aircraft Accessories and Components Company (AACC), a subsidiary of SAMI, has signed a Preferred Supplier Agreement with Derco, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin, enabling AACC to enhance its existing capabilities in serving the C-130 Hercules fleet of the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF).

The agreement was signed at the World Defense Show in Riyadh this month.

AACCs partnership with Derco will create a high velocity C-130 supply chain solution for component repair and maintenance, which includes capability development to transition mutually agreed-upon spares and repair capabilities to AACC, a statement said.

The partnership aims to further AACCs vision to emerge as a leading SAMI centre for mechanical component MRO and a military and commercial aviation service provider. Furthermore, the agreement will serve to not only optimise AACCs manpower and resources and increase its productivity but will also allow Saudi technicians to gain valuable experience across a range of emerging military technologies.

Furthermore, the agreement will allow SAMI to advance its long-term strategic objectives by helping the Kingdom build a sustainable, self-sufficient military industries sector through facilitating the transfer of technology (ToT), transfer of knowledge (ToK), and transfer of production (ToP) in collaboration with industry leaders, it said.

This partnership also represents another major milestone for SAMI and Lockheed Martin, who only a year ago inked a strategic joint venture agreement to facilitate cooperation between the two companies in enhancing Saudi Arabias domestic defense and security capabilities and supporting the industrialization and economic development objectives of Saudi Vision 2030.

Eng Mazen Johar, Chief Executive Officer of AACC, said: This exciting new agreement will serve to further our ties with Lockheed Martin while helping fulfill the Kingdoms growing need for localized military equipment suppliers and service providers. We look forward to commencing our partnership with Derco, one which we believe will prove extremely conducive to our long-term technology transfer, job creation, and local content development goals and the furtherance of our Vision 2030 objectives.

The Royal Saudi Air Force is one of the worlds largest and most recognized C-130 Hercules operators in the world, supporting critical national and regional missions. Dercos role as a preferred supplier for this trusted fleet of C-130s ensures RSAF crews will continue to support any mission at any time. Lockheed Martins relationship with the Kingdom represents almost 60 years of partnership rooted in the C-130 Hercules. It is an honor to expand our relationship and service to the Kingdom with this new and important partnership, said Brigadier General (Ret.) Joseph Rank, Chief Executive of Lockheed Martin Saudi Arabia and Africa.

Derco is a Lockheed Martin authorised repair facility for C-130 components, and the exclusive original source for C-130H Certified Parts designed by Lockheed Martin.  TradeArabia News Service
The US and Israel are committed to ensure Iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday, AFP reported.

Blinken made the comments in Jerusalem alongside his Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid, who told reporters Israel had "disagreements" with Washington about a possible deal to revive the 2015 nuclear accord with Tehran.

Blinken said US President Joe Biden's administration believes that "the return to full implementation" of the deal was "the best way to put Iran's program back in the box that it was in but has escaped from since the United States withdrew from the agreement," under former president Donald Trump in 2018.

Israel's government firmly opposed the terms of the 2015 deal and has said that re-activating the original deal is insufficient to curb the Iranian threat.

But, Blinken said, "when it comes to the most important element, [Israel and the US] see eye to eye. We are both committed, both determined, that Iran will never acquire a nuclear weapon."

Lapid said that amid its differences with Washington, Israel remains in "open and honest dialogue" with its closest ally on the Iran nuclear issue.

"Israel will do anything we believe is needed to stop the Iranian nuclear program. Anything. From our point of view, the Iranian threat is not theoretical. The Iranians want to destroy Israel. They will not succeed. We will not let them," Lapid said.
Ukrainian nationals involved in academic research will benefit from a 3 million package of support to continue their vital work in the UK, the latters government announced Sunday.

Accordingly, the new Researchers at Risk Fellowship Programme will support Ukrainian researchers fleeing the conflict, as well as those already in the UK who are unable to return home.

The Fellowships will provide a salary, research and living costs for up to two years for these researchers, and will be available across all disciplines for postdoctoral researchers or those with equivalent experience, aiming to support Ukraine in preserving its research ecosystem.

As the UK continues to further isolate Putins Russia in light of his illegal invasion of Ukraine, the Government has also announced it is halting funding to all research programmes found to have links to Russian state and institutional collaborators, and will stop all ongoing projects where they provide a direct benefit to the Russian regime. The UK will also not fund any new collaborative projects with Russia through its research and innovation organisations.

These measures are targeted towards the Russian state, as well as individuals and organisations with strong links to the Kremlin. A small number of other existing collaborations remain under review in order to further assess, and ensure no future payments to institutions or individuals have any way of benefitting the Russian regime.

This action is directed towards Putins regime, not at individual Russian researchers and students, whom in many cases may oppose the actions of the Kremlin.

Our universities are already opening their doors to Ukrainian students and we are exploring ways to enable universities in the UK to partner with Ukrainian Universities in order to teach Ukrainian students remotely who are close to graduating, supporting them to complete their studies when they need it most, the UK Government added.
There is an agreement between the Azerbaijani side and the Russian peacekeepers that the ceasefire will not be violated in the direction of Karaglukh hill. Metakse Hakobyan, an MP from the opposition "Justice" Faction of the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) National Assembly, told this to Armenian News-NEWS.am on Sunday.

"The Artsakh authorities sent a direct letter to the Russian President, and yesterday we received the first signalsin the form of a response from the [Russian]

Ministry of Defense. Until the solution is decided at a higher level, there is an agreement that the ceasefire regime will not be violated. During that time a political solution will be given, and we will have the opportunity to find out whether they [i.e., the Azerbaijani army units] will stay there or go back [to their initial positions]. We assume from yesterday's announcement that we will have a positive result," Hakobyan said.

According to the Artsakh lawmaker, a respective dialogue will take place, and the parties to that dialogue are Azerbaijan and Russia, which proves that Armenia has come out of being a party to that trilateral agreement.

"It turns out that these two sides shall agree with each other, and it can be assumed that the Russian side is dealing also with the issue of [restoring natural] gas supply [to Artsakh]. And if the gas supply is restored, the Azerbaijani side must convince its people that it is not Russian gas, but Azerbaijani," she said.

The Azerbaijani side on Thursday occupied the village of Parukh in Artsakh, attacked the Armenian military positions with combat drones, as a result of which three Armenian servicemen were killed and 14 others were wounded.
Macron calls for restraint after Biden's Putin remark

Emmanuel Macron cautioned against inflammatory language on the situation in Ukraine. Photo: AP

French President Emmanuel Macron called for restraint in both words and actions in dealing with the Ukraine conflict, after US President Joe Biden described Russian President Vladimir Putin as a "butcher" and said he should not remain in power.



"I wouldn't use this type of wording because I continue to hold discussions with President Putin," Macron said on France 3 TV channel.



Biden, speaking in Warsaw, had said that Putin "cannot remain in power". A White House official later said Biden's remarks did not represent a shift in Washington's policy and were meant to prepare the world's democracies for an extended conflict, not back regime change in Russia.



"We want to stop the war that Russia has launched in Ukraine without escalation  that's the objective," Macron said on France 3 TV, noting the objective was to obtain a ceasefire and the withdrawal of troops through diplomatic means.



"If this is what we want to do, we should not escalate things  neither with words nor actions," he said.



The French president on Friday had said he was seeking to hold more talks with President Putin in the coming days regarding the situation in Ukraine as well as an initiative to help people leave the besieged city of Mariupol.



President Putin sent his troops into Ukraine on what he calls a "special military operation" to demilitarise and "denazify" Ukraine. Ukraine and the West say Putin launched an unprovoked war of aggression.



Far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen said she backed Macron's approach.



"Obviously, those are words that add oil to the fire," she said, when asked about Biden's comment.



"The fact that the president of the Republic is not entering into this escalation is a good thing," she said, speaking on France 3 in a pre-recorded interview that was broadcast on Sunday. (Reuters)
Police, gunman killed in Israel as Blinken visits

Police, gunman killed in Israel as Blinken visits

Two Israeli police were killed in what authorities described as a "terrorist" attack Sunday in the northern city of Hadera before officers shot the assailants dead, police and medics said.



The deadly attack comes as four Arab foreign ministers and the US secretary of state are gathering in southern Israel in an unprecedented regional meeting.



Police said that "two terrorists arrived at Herbert Samuel Street in Hadera, and began shooting at police there," resulting in two deaths.



"A special police force that was at the site engaged and after a short gunfight, neutralised" the attackers, police said in a statement.



Dudu Boani, the police deputy commander for the region, told reporters that the two victims of the attack were police officers.



He said the assailants were shot dead.



The Magen David Adom emergency medical responders said that "two Israelis" were killed in the attack, with four other people taken to hospital and two more treated at the site.



Less than a week ago, a convicted Islamic State group sympathiser killed four Israelis in a stabbing and car-ramming spree in the southern city of Beersheba.



As Sunday's attack took place, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid was hosting his counterparts from three Arab states that recently normalised ties with Israel, alongside Egypt's top diplomat and the US secretary of state, at a resort in southern Israel, in a gathering that Israel called "historic". (AFP)
N Korea's Kim vows 'formidable' strike capacity

In an image distributed by the North Korean government, Kim Jong Un applauds an ICBM test launch. Photo: Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP

North Korea will continue to develop "formidable striking capabilities" that cannot be bartered or sold for anything, leader Kim Jong Un said, according to state media on Monday, as he visited workers involved with the country's biggest missile test.



Kim was meeting with officials, scientists, technicians and workers who contributed to a missile launch on Thursday, which North Korea said was its largest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), state news agency KCNA reported.



"Only when one is equipped with the formidable striking capabilities, overwhelming military power that cannot be stopped by anyone, one can prevent a war, guarantee the security of the country and contain and put under control all threats and blackmails by the imperialists," Kim said, according to the report.



While personally overseeing the test on Thursday, Kim said the new ICBM was to help deter any military moves by the United States, which remains technically at war with the North after the 1950-1953 Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a peace agreement.



Washington has sought to pressure Pyongyang into surrendering or reducing its arsenal of nuclear weapons and ICBMs, which may be able to strike targets in the United States.



But Kim said his self-defence force "can not be bartered nor be bought with anything" and will be held firm without the slightest vacillation despite harsh trials and difficulties.



North Korea will continue to build a "more perfect and stronger strategic force," Kim said, referring to the country's nuclear force. (Reuters)
India can hold talks with Pakistan only when guns fall silent and bullets stop flying, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Sunday. Talking to the media on the sidelines of an event here, he slammed Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti who on Saturday reiterated her call to the BJP-led Central government for holding dialogue with the people of Jammu and Kashmir, and Pakistan. Jitendra Singh sought to know if the BJP should talk to the people of its own country or to the people of a foreign land. Mehbooba Mufti, a former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, has said peace would be elusive as long as Kashmir issue remains unresolved. "If the Kashmir issue is not resolved, there will be no peace in the region and therefore it is necessary to hold talks with people of Jammu and Kashmir, and Pakistan," she had said on Saturday. Reacting to her remark, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said the PDP chief could pass such comments as the BJP had given people like her strength by forming government with her party in the erstwhile state. Taking a dig at Mufti, Raut had also said she was a friend of the BJP at some point of time and they formed a coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir. The PDP has been "pro-Pakistan and sympathised with terrorists", and even as Mehbooba Mufti had supported the Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, the BJP had formed an alliance with her to form the government in Jammu and Kashmir, Raut said. --IANS ams/pgh/vd ( 274 Words) 2022-03-27-20:20:06 (IANS)
On Friday, Berry took to Twitter and shared a photograph of herself holding the coveted film award that she had won during the 74th Academy Awards for her performance in 'Monster's Ball'.

"20 years ago, this week, I walked through that door. I will never get over this moment! Thank you @TheAcademy, @Lionsgate, @leedanielsent and Marc Forster," the actor captioned her post.

During the 2002 Academy Awards, Berry was up against Nicole Kidman for 'Moulin Rouge', Judi Dench for 'Iris', Sissy Spacek for 'In the Bedroom' and Renee Zellweger for Bridget Jones's Diary in the Best Actress category.

In 'Monter's Ball', Berry starred had starred as Leticia Musgrove, a woman who has an affair with her convicted husband's executioner.

The film also features Billy Bob Thornton, Heath Ledger, Peter Boyle, Sean Combs, and Mos Def, among others.

As per People magazine, to date, Berry remains the only woman of colour to win Best Actress in the history of the awards show. (ANI)
On Sunday, Kher took to Instagram and gave his best wishes to the newlyweds and their families.

"Today my make-up artist of 27Years #MangeshDesai's daughter #Maithilee got married to #Satyendra. Mangesh has given his love and artistry to so many of characters I have played on-screen including #TheKashmirFiles. May God always shower His blessings on the couple! Love and blessings," he wrote.

Alongside the heartfelt note, he shared a video from the wedding. In the clip, he can be seen posing with the groom and bride for the pictures.

Kher concluded the post by using "My staff My strength" hashtag.

Meanwhile, on the work front, Kher has been receiving accolades for his powerful performance in 'The Kashmir Files', which revolves around the genocide of Kashmiri Hindus from the Valley in the 1990s. (ANI)
Researchers have found that neurons in the spinal cord process pain signals differently in women compared to men. The finding, published in the journal BRAIN, could lead to better and more personalized treatments for chronic pain, which are desperately needed, especially in light of the opioid epidemic. Although it has long been known that women and men experience pain differently, most pain research uses male rodents. The new study is unique because it used female and male spinal cord tissue from both rats and humans (generously donated by deceased individuals and their families). By examining the spinal cord tissue in the laboratory, the researchers were able to show that a neuronal growth factor called BDNF plays a major role in amplifying spinal cord pain signalling in male humans and male rats, but not in female humans or female rats. When female rats had their ovaries removed, the difference disappeared, pointing to a hormonal connection. "Developing new pain drugs requires a detailed understanding of how pain is processed at the biological level. This new discovery lays the foundation for the development of new treatments to help those suffering from chronic pain," said Dr Annemarie Dedek, lead author of the study and now a MITACS- and Eli Lilly-funded industrial research fellow at Carleton University and The Ottawa Hospital. (ANI)
Momen made the remark while talking to journalists at the Foreign Service Academy in the capital on Saturday.

In reply to a question, Momen said that while Pakistan has not apologised yet, the younger generation of the country can seek it now.

He also mentioned that Bangladesh has already recognised the genocide of March 25, 1971 in the national Parliament.

Momen said, "Also, we have appealed to the United Nations to recognise the day as the day of genocide. December 9 has been recognised globally as the day of genocide."

--IANS sumi/arm

( 143 Words)

2022-03-26-20:18:04 (IANS)
According to the reports, a buffalo died three days after the bite of a rabid dog in Chandpur village of Dabra district.

The people who consumed food made from buffalo milk reached the hospital to get an injection of anti-rabies.

"There was panic and a huge crowd gathered outside hospitals; around 40 took the anti-rabies vaccine. We educated them that the virus isn't transferred through buffalo milk," said Dr Manish Sharma, Gwalior Chief Medical Officer. (ANI)
The district court in Indore on Saturday convicted veteran Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh and six others in an 11-year-old case, and sentenced them to one-year imprisonment. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on each of them. However, later on Saturday evening, all the convicted persons were released on bail after furnishing an amount of Rs 25,000 each. After getting bail, Singh said that he has been falsely framed in the case, and he will challenge the decision in the high court. Three other accused in the case were acquitted in the absence of appropriate evidence against them. The case dates back to 2011, when Singh along with then Congress MP Premchand Guddu had gone to Ujjain to attend a programme organised by the party. While Singh was on his way to Ujjain, some members of the BJP's youth wing had shown black flags to him, which did not go down well with the Congress workers, leading to clash between both sides. In the incident, a BJP youth wing leader, Amay Apte, had received severe injuries while some others also got injured. The youth wing of the BJP had lodged a complaint against Congress leaders, including Singh, accusing them of attempt to murder. Apart from Singh and Guddu, the other accused in the case were -- Mahesh Parmar (ex-MLA), Dilip Choudhari, Jay Singh Darbar, Aslam Lala, Nanant Narayan Meena, Mukesh Bhati and Hemand Chouhan. Out of the nine accused in the case, three -- Parmar, Bhati and Chouhan -- have been acquitted, while six others were sentenced to one-year imprisonment. Congress spokesperson K.K. Mishra said, "We welcome the court's decision. The Congress knows that Digvijaya Singh and other party leaders were framed in the matter by the BJP. As Congress workers, we stand with Singh and others who were convicted in the false case. We will challenge te order in the high court." --IANS pd/arm ( 333 Words) 2022-03-26-22:08:04 (IANS)
The Delhi Police has arrested two persons who allegedly duped 51 home buyers to the tune of Rs 11 crore, an official said on Saturday. The accused, identified as Akshay Jain and Prateek Jain, were taken into police custody on Friday. Furnishing details about the case, DCP (Economic Offences Wing) M.I. Haider said the complainants or victims reported that Directors of Manju J Homes Ltd. induced them to book flats in its proposed housing project namely 'Red Apple Homez' situated in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. In 2012, at the time of booking of flats, it was assured to the victims that possession of the promised flats shall be handed over within 3 years. However, till date, the construction at the site has not been completed and the builder company stopped paying EMIs to the banks. So far, 51 complainants, involving an amount of Rs 11 crores have approached the EOW, the official said. He said that several of these complainants have alleged that though the loan was sanctioned on their applications but without their knowledge, loan amount was disbursed to the builder by forging their signatures on several documents. After preliminary enquiry, a case under sections 406, 409, 420, 467, 471 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code was registered and investigation taken up. During investigation, it was found that the land of the residential project was registered in the name of the accused builder company. "A notice under section 102 CrPC to the concerned District Collector, Sub-Registrar, SDM, Tehsildar, GDA, etc., was sent with the request that the land of the project was used to cheat the investors and no further transfer or creation of third party right on the same be allowed. "The reply received from the Ghaziabad Development Authority has revealed that the permission for the project was accorded in December, 2015 and after that permissions from Fire Department, Environment Deptt. and Municipal Corporation were to be received," the official said. However, examination of the complainants/victims has revealed that the builder company prior to sanction of the project had started collecting funds from the investors since 2012. Further it was found that the builder company had raised the structures of the buildings and the construction was stopped in 2015. At present the project site was sealed by the Ghaziabad Development Authority for violation of the condition of license. "The investigation also revealed that accused Prateek Jain and Akshay Jain in connivance with other co-accused persons namely Vijayanta Jain and Rajkumar Jain had started a company and launched a project namely Red Apple Homez to dupe the public," the official said. As per the police, both the accused started evading the investigation after joining the probe at initial stages. "Both the accused were arrested on March 25 and they were taken on 1 day Police Custody Remand," the DCP said, adding that the investigation is currently underway. --IANS uj/pgh ( 494 Words) 2022-03-26-23:02:03 (IANS)
The quantum of punishment will be announced against him on March 28.

The court noted that the prosecution was able to bring home the guilt of the accused, and convicted Kamirujjaman, a resident of West Bengal, for the offences punishable under sections 489B, 489C,120 B read with section 489 B of IPC.

Initially, a case in this respect was lodged with Bettiah town police station of Bihar in 2019.

The Bihar Police had seized fake notes with a face value of Rs four lakh from one Julkar Shaikh.

Later on, the investigation was transferred to the NIA.

After investigation, four chargesheets were filed against 6 persons in 2019 and 2020.

Earlier, three accused, Shahnawaj Shaikh, Mannalal Chaudhary and Selim Sk were convicted and awarded eight years imprisonment on February 25 in this case.

The accused, convicted on Friday, had collected FICN from co accused Selim Sk and sent it to Bettiah through accused Shahnawaj Shaikh. He was one of the main conspirator of FICN trafficking in this case.

--IANS atk/pgh

( 207 Words)

2022-03-26-23:12:04 (IANS)
The incident took place on February 25 at the Khor village in Pataudi.

The accused have been identified as Ajay alias Jaildar of Jhajjar district -- a suspected henchman of Lawrence Bishnoi, Kala Jathedi and Goldy Brar gang -- and Karambeer alias Karmu of Badli in Jhajjar district.

The police have made three arrests in the incident till now.

Earlier, the police had nabbed Akshay Kumar on February 27, a resident of Khor village in Pataudi, who had provided the information about the deceased brothers to the criminals.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime), Preet Pal Sangwan said, "Ajay hatched the plan to eliminate the duo brothers on March 25. While Karambeer had helped them to avoid police arrest and had also provided a Mahindra Scorpio which was used by the criminals during the incident."

The criminals disclosed before the police that they wanted liquor domination in the area and they killed Paramjeet Thakran (43), a former Councillor, and his brother Surjeet Thakran (50) with the help of other criminals.

Sangwan asserted that they are yet to develop Ajay's links with any gang.

"Ajay was serving life imprisonment in a dual murder case which he had committed in Jhajjar. He was granted bail by the high court in March 2020," he added.

In connection with the incident, a case of murder had been registered against Ajay, Rohit, Sandeep Goriawas, Dinesh alias Gangaram and Dharmender sarpanch based on a complaint filed by the victims' third brother Ajit Singh at Pataudi police station.

--IANS int/khz/

( 289 Words)

2022-03-26-23:22:03 (IANS)
Three persons, including a woman, were booked here on Saturday for outraging religious sentiments of a man during an incident of road rage, the police said. According to the police, the incident took place at around 3.15 p.m. when a 33-year-old man was going from Vasant Kunj towards Saket on his scooter. When he reached near the red light of Saket Metro Station, one car hit the scooter of the complainant which was driven by a man and had two more occupants, including one woman. "The complainant asked them to stop and on this, heated arguments took place between them which turned into a scuffle, during which the turban of the complainant fell down," Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Benita Mary Jaikar said. All the three accused, including the woman, then fled the spot leaving behind their car. "The complainant was sent to Safdarjung Hospital where he was medically examined and thereafter, his statement was recorded," the official said. Accordingly, the police registered a case under Sections 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), 295 A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. Meanwhile, the car which was involved in the incident has been impounded. It was found to be registered in the name of Shakti Sejwal, a resident of Lado Sarai. "The owner revealed that the car was being driven by his son and daughter, aged 24 and 28 years, respectively," the official said, adding that the third man is yet to be identified. Of the three, one man, identified as Shobit, has been arrested while efforts are on to nab the others. --IANS uj/pgh ( 321 Words) 2022-03-26-23:28:02 (IANS)
The court added that the policeman knowingly misused parole granted to him in a fake encounter case.

Special Judge A T Wankhede made this observation while denying bail to Shinde on Tuesday, the detailed order of which was made available today.

Shinde was serving life imprisonment in the fake encounter case of Ramnarayan Gupta alias Lakhan Bhaiya and was out on parole when the Antilia bomb scare incident took place in February last year.

A car carrying unassembled explosive materials was found abandoned at Carmichael Road in South Mumbai on February 25 2021, near the house of Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani. The owner of the vehicle was found dead in a creek in the Thane district on Friday. Now, ATS Maharashtra is investigating the case. (ANI)
The Punjab police had faced flaks following the security breach in Prime Minister's Ferozepur visit in January this year.

PM Modi's visit to Jalandhar on February 14 for an election rally during the Assembly polls was his first programme in Punjab after the Ferozepur security breach on January 5.

A total of 14 police personnel have been presented with the award as per an order by Punjab DGP VK Bhawra issued on March 26.

The officers, who have been awarded the DGP's Commendation Disc, include Hoshiarpur SSP Dhruman Harshadray Nimbale, Kapurthala SSP Dayama Harish Omprakash, Commandant 7th Battalion Rajpal Singh Sandhu, Commandant 27th Batallion Opinderjit Singh Ghuman, SSP Jalandhar Rural Satinder Singh, AIG Gurmeet Singh, and Commandant 80th Batallion Jagmohan Singh.

Besides, AIG Harkamalpreet Singh Khakh, DCP Jalandhar Jaskitranjit Singh Teja, AIG Rajeshwar Singh Sidhu, Manjeet Singh Dhesi, ADCP Jalandhar Suhail Qasim Mir, DSP Rakesh Yadav and Inspector Vivek Chandar have also been awarded the 'DGP's Commendation Disc'.

In January this year, the Prime Minister was scheduled to visit Ferozepur to lay the foundation stone of multiple development projects worth more than Rs 42,750 crore.

The Prime Minister's convoy during his visit to National Martyrs Memorial in Punjab via road reached a flyover where the road was blocked by protestors. The Prime Minister was stuck on the flyover for 15-20 minutes. This was a major lapse in the security of the Prime Minister. (ANI)
The dinner was arranged at Raj Bhavan where President Kovind has been staying.

The CM also introduced the President to his newly formed cabinet colleagues who were also present at the occasion.

President Ram Nath Kovind is on a two-day visit to Uttarakhand starting March 26, where he will also address the concluding ceremony of the silver jubilee celebrations of Divya Prem Seva Mission in Haridwar on Monday. (ANI)
The Sikh man's turban fell to the ground during the scuffle which broke out with three persons, who were travelling in a car when their vehicle hit his two-wheeler at the traffic light, police said.

Following this, all the three ran away from the spot leaving behind their car. The Sikh man was then sent to Safdarjung Hospital where he was medically examined.

Based on the complaint of the man, a case has been registered under sections 279, 323, 341, 295 A and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered.

The car, involved in the incident, has been impounded and was found to be registered in the name of Shakti Sejwal, a resident of Lado Sarai.

The police impounded the car involved in the incident and the owner revealed that it was being driven by his son and daughter aged 24 years and 28 years respectively along with another man (yet to be identified). (ANI)
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday inaugurated SpiceJet's Gorakhpur-Varanasi flight via video conferencing and said that at present, there are nine functional airports in the state, connecting 75 destinations across the country. "At present, nine airports are functioning in the state. Four years ago, just four airports in the state were connected to mere 25 destinations. Now flights for 75 destinations across the country are available from the state," Adityanath said. He thanked Union Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia for the improved air connectivity and said, "It is the first time that connectivity between two important cities-- the land of Baba Gorakhnath with the land of Baba Vishwanath-- has been created via air route." The Chief Minister also said that better connectivity does not only save time but also helps one connect with better employment opportunities and the development of the area. "The improved air connectivity in Uttar Pradesh over the last five years is a testament to PM Modi's commitment where he said that even the ones who wear Hawaii slippers will now travel in airplanes," he said. Yesterday, Adityanath directed the officials to prepare an action plan for the next 100 days, six months and a year to fulfill the promises made by the BJP during polls and to help the state achieve USD 1 trillion economy. A decision to provide government jobs in the state was also taken during the first cabinet meeting. Adityanath, in the meeting, said that a recruitment drive will be run in government departments and directed the public sector officials to prepare a list of vacancies. The chief minister also instructed the government department officials to work with honesty in the recruitment drive. The state government has also extended the free ration scheme for the next three months which will benefit the 15 crore people of the state. Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said that for the scheme the government will spend Rs 3,270 crore. Earlier on Friday, Adityanath took oath as the Chief Minister of the state. A total of 52 ministers took oath as ministers, including two deputy Chief Ministers. The monk-turned politician took the reins of the most populous state for a second time in a row after completing his full five-year term - a feat repeated after 37 years. Before being sworn as UP chief minister in 2017, he was Gorakhpur MP for five consecutive terms from 1998 to 2017. Born on June 5, 1972, in a village in Uttarakhand, he was named Ajay Singh Bisht by his parents. He left home to join the movement for the construction of Ram Temple and became a disciple of Mahant Avaidyanath of Gorakhnath Temple in Gorakhpur. He started his political journey in 1998 becoming the youngest MP from Gorakhpur. (ANI)
Stating that Mahatma Phule and Babasaheb Ambedkar have left a huge impact on Indian society, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday urged people to visit the places associated with them. Addressing the 87th episode of the monthly radio broadcast 'Mann Ki Baat', PM Modi also urged people to visit Biplobi Bharat Gallery at Victoria Memorial in Kolkata, stating that it is a very unique gallery to pay tribute to the brave revolutionaries of India. "The Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav in the country is now becoming a new example of public participation. A few days ago, on March 23, many celebrations were held in different corners of the country on Martyrs' Day. The country remembered the heroes and heroines of her Independence. On the same day, I also got the opportunity to dedicate to the nation the Biplobi Bharat Gallery at Victoria Memorial, Kolkata. This is a very unique gallery to pay tribute to the brave revolutionaries of India. If you get an opportunity, you must certainly visit it," he said. He further recalled the Mahatma Phule and Babasaheb Ambedkar as their birth anniversary are approaching and said that they fought persistently against discrimination and inequality. "Friends, in the month of April we will also celebrate the birth anniversary of two great personalities. Both of them have left a deep impact on Indian society. These great personalities are Mahatma Phule and Babasaheb Ambedkar. We will celebrate Mahatma Phule's birth anniversary on April 11 and Babasaheb's birth anniversary on April 14," he said. PM Modi said that Mahatma Phule opened schools for girls in that era and raised the voice against female infanticide. "He also launched large campaigns to address the issue of the water crisis," he added. PM Modi said that he had the privilege of visiting all the places associated with Babasaheb Ambedkar. "It is a matter of good fortune for all of us that we have also got an opportunity to work for Panch Teerth associated with Babasaheb. Be it his birthplace in Mhow, Chaityabhoomi in Mumbai, his home in London, the Deeksha Bhoomi in Nagpur, or Babasaheb's Maha-Parinirvana Sthal in Delhi, I have had the privilege of visiting all the places, all sacred sites. I would urge the listeners of 'Mann Ki Baat' to visit the places associated with Mahatma Phule, Savitribai Phule and Babasaheb Ambedkar. You will get to learn a lot there," he said. PM Modi also remembered the contribution of Savitribai Phule in the formation of many social institutions. He said that as a teacher and a social reformer, Savitribai Phule worked for awareness in society. "The mention of Savitribai Phule is equally important in this reference to Mahatma Phule. Savitribai Phule played a significant role in the formation of many social institutions. As a teacher and a social reformer, she also made society aware and encouraged it. Together they founded the Satyashodhak Samaj...they made efforts for the empowerment of the people. We can clearly see the influence of Mahatma Phule in the work of Babasaheb Ambedkar. He also used to say that the development of any society can be assessed by looking at the status of women in that society," the Prime Minister said. He further said that in order to increase the enrollment of daughters in schools, the Kanya Shiksha Pravesh Utsav has also been started a few days ago with the focus on bringing back to school those girls who missed their studies. (ANI)
The ICCC has been integrated with major citizen services such as water, electricity, sewage, etc.

The inauguration ceremony was also attended by Punjab Governor and Chandigarh Administrator Banwarilal Purohit.

Speaking on the occasion, Shah said, "I am confident that Chandigarh, in the days to come, shall become one of the most advanced cities of India and the world."

He said that the ICCC is a step that will not only make Chandigarh safe but will also improve delivery of citizen-centric services.

The Home Minister also inaugurated the new office building of Chandigarh Housing Board in Sector 17 here. (ANI)
Citing the financial crisis in Sri Lanka, Kerala Finance Minister K N Balagopal on Sunday said that the Central government should correct its policies and added that states should be given Goods and Services Tax (GST) compensation and additional grants. "Central government should look into the financial crisis of Sri Lanka which is happening due to international policies. The Indian government is also following the same and should correct its policies. States should be given GST compensation and additional grants," Balagopal told ANI. "The price hike is a basic issue which we would be going to face in a big way. The cost of administration and cost of living will be increasing in every sphere, which will get very difficult for the state," said Balagopal. Sri Lanka's economy has been in a free-fall since the COVID-19 pandemic due to the crash of the tourism sector. The country's foreign reserves have dried up and the country is facing a severe shortage of fuel and other essential commodities. Sri Lanka's currency has devalued by almost SLR 90 against the US dollar since March 8, as the country's central bank attempts to stabilise the economy. India provided more than USD 500 million in foreign currency swaps to strengthen Sri Lanka's foreign reserves, taking the total up to USD 900 million. India also extended the repayment time frame for the USD 500 million debt of Sri Lanka under the Asian Clearance Arbitration. (ANI)
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said that Chandigarh is one of the most developed cities in the country and exuded confidence that it will become one of the most advanced cities of India and the world in future. "In the municipal corporation, BJP has been given a chance to serve once again. Chandigarh is the most developed city in the category of planned cities in the history of the modern world. I congratulate the Chandigarh Administration that they have made an order to keep pace with the change in Chandigarh," said Shah while addressing the gathering at Urban Park, Sector 17. The Home Ministers said that many cities like Chandigarh were settled, but they kept on changing with time and kept on deteriorating, but Chandigarh is still maintaining its form. Shah said, "When I was young, we were told in schools in Gujarat to visit Chandigarh. Now looking at this city, it seems as if the architects of France have designed it." "I am confident that Chandigarh, in the days to come, shall become one of the most advanced cities of India and the world," he added. He said that the Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC) is a step that will not only make Chandigarh safe but will also improve the delivery of citizen-centric services and will bring about a radical change in the civil and administrative system. "With the inauguration of this Integrated Command and Control Centre in the UT, citizens' services, security, traffic discipline etc. can be monitored from one place," said the Union Home Minister. Shah said that all these projects have been made keeping in mind the environment with modern facilities and civic amenities. "Along with this, the mixed culture of the city has also been taken care of," he added. He said that the Integrated Command and Control Center at Chandigarh is going to bring about a paradigm shift in the entire field of civil administration in the coming days. "This will monitor the civic amenities and make arrangements for its upgradation," he said. Union Minister also praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said, " When Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat, he worked to transform the cities through modern facilities and technology, people who visit Gujarat have seen these cities changing. When Modi became the Prime Minister of the country, he started the Smart City concept. How to develop the cities, how to use the land of the adjoining areas through planning, all this is being done now under this smart city." The Home Minister said that apart from this, AMRUT Yojana, Green City Cleanliness Campaign, all these are the gift of Prime Minister. "Due to these plans, today the development in urban areas are visible in all the cities," he added. Shah inaugurated the Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC) in Chandigarh under which, around 2,000 CCTV cameras have been installed. It is integrated with major citizen services such as water, electricity, sewage, etc. for effective monitoring of services. The inauguration ceremony was also attended by Punjab Governor and Chandigarh Administrator Banwarilal Purohit. The Home Minister also inaugurated the new office building of Chandigarh Housing Board in Sector 17 here. (ANI)
Bihar Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) president Sanjay Jaiswal accused Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Minister Mukesh Sahani of cheating the fishermen and the department and said action will be taken against him. The development came days after all the three MLAs of Mukesh Sahani's Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) joined the BJP. "I am in shock today. Over 30 members of the ministry have complained about the Bihar minister's negligence in the matter. The minister has asked to dissolve the standing committee and an officer would be in charge of the new committee. This is shocking," said Jaiswal. He later informed that the committee members had been writing letters to Sahni repeatedly but there was no response in clarifying which strata is to be included in the traditional fishermen society. The state BJP chief alleged Sahani kept on deceiving everyone throughout his life and now he has cheated his own society too. "This would be investigated definitely." VIP is part of the BJP-Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) government in Bihar. However, Sanjay Jaiswal Mukesh Sahani is no more with the NDA in Bihar. Sahani has 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)
In a case where the Indian Air Force officials were not allowing jawans who had cleared the UPSC civil services examinations and state level civil services exams, to quit service and join as a class I officer, the Armed Forces Tribunal has asked the IAF to let them leave and join the civil service within two weeks. The Principal Bench of the Armed Forces Tribunal headed by Justice Rajendra Menon also asked the Indian Air Force to change their rules and conditions for granting permission to air warriors for applying for grade A services exams outside the force. The case was filed by Corporal Ayush Maurya and Sergeant Kuldeep Vibhuti through their counsel Ankur Chhibber as Maurya has cleared UPSC exams for 2021 while Vibhuti has cleared Bihar government's state-level exams. In the plea, Chhibber said his client had stated that he tried to apply online for permission but could not do so as only those personnel are allowed who have the 'A' category in the skill grade. However, he went ahead with his exams and cleared them and was supposed to join the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in December last year. However, after he filed an offline application, the No Objection Certificate was not granted by the IAF saying that the corporal had not sought prior permission for the civilian job. In arguments, Chhibber told the court that Delhi High Court has already struck down the requirement for having a Skill grade A for allowing personnel to apply for jobs in the civilian sector finding it unreasonable. The military court said, "in view of the arguments, we find adequate merit in both pleas and the same is therefore allowed and we, therefore, allow the respondents to issue necessary NOC to both applicants within two weeks of this order. (B) Respondents to also issue necessary discharge order to both applicants to facilitate the applicants join the civil job. The Indian Air Force should also review Air Force Order and issue necessary amendments to facilitate applicants applying for prior permission without Skill Grade "A"; and also modify the online application process to facilitate seeking of prior permission. (ANI)
Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Sunday attacked Bharatiya Janata Party for providing Peoples Democratic Party chief (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti, who is a known terrorist sympathiser and has pro-Pakistan views, the power to form a government with her party in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. Reacting to PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti's comment where she advocated for dialogue with Pakistan and the people of Jammu and Kashmir to bring peace in the region, Sena leader said, "She has been making such statements because BJP has given her strength by earlier forming a government with her." "PDP has always been pro-Pakistan and sympathiser with terrorists. By forming a government with her BJP has given them strength, BJP is responsible for her comments," said Raut. PDP and BJP had formed a post-poll alliance in 2015 to form the government in Jammu and Kashmir. The alliance broke in June 2018. "Mehbooba Mufti has been a good friend of the BJP. Despite her supporting Afzal Guru and Burhan Wani, BJP formed the government with her in Jammu and Kashmir. BJP is responsible for whatever Mufti is saying today. Our party will continue opposing it," said Raut. Mufti on Saturday while addressing the party workers in Ramban had said that the peace in the region will only come when the Kashmir issue is resolved. "Kashmir has been awaiting a solution for the last 70 years...there will be no peace in the region until the Kashmir issue is resolved, and for that, dialogue with Pakistan and the people of Jammu and Kashmir is imperative," said former chief minister Mufti. The Rajya Sabha member Raut further said Shiv Sena's view on Kashmir is clear that they oppose the ideology of PDP. (ANI)
Goa Traffic Police has issued fresh guidelines ahead of the swearing-in ceremony of Goa Chief Minister-designate Pramod Sawant on Monday. The traffic movement is restricted from NIO Circle, Dona Paula to GMC Bambolim from 10.00 am to 11.00 am and from 12 noon to 12.30 pm due to visit of VVIPs. Goa Police, in a press note, informed today that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be visiting Goa on March 28 to attend the swearing in ceremony function at Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium, Taleigao. In view of the same, traffic arrangements have been made. The buses coming for the function shall take the road via GMC junction to take the Goa University road to come upto the parking lot in the open space adjacent to the Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium for parking of buses. To avoid inconvenience on the route of VVIP, the buses coming for the swearing in function from South Goa shall take route via Borim Banastari Merces Junction Ponda GMC Junction for parking in the parking lot adjacent to Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium, the official release said. During the visit of the VVIPs at Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium, for security reasons, the movement of vehicular traffic will be restricted on the route from NIO Circle, Dona Paula to GMC Bambolim from 10.00 am to 11.00 am and from noon to 12.30 pm, the police informed. The State Police added that the motorists are requested not to park their vehicles on the route of VVIP, plan their journey well in advance and to take alternate route for their onward journey and to co-operate with Traffic Police to ensure smooth flow of traffic during the visit of the Prime Minister. (ANI)
Hailing the decision of the Centre to extend Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) for six months till September and ramp up the COVID-19 vaccination drive, Union Minister Amit Shah said that providing free food grains and vaccines to crores of countrymen without any corruption through technology shows the determination and power of the government. Today, Shah inaugurated the new office of the Housing Board and Integrated Command and Control Center (ICCC) in Chandigarh. Along with this, Shah laid the foundation stones of various development projects in Urban Park, Sector 17. Speaking at the event today, Shah said, "The government has decided to extend the PMGKAY scheme, which gives 5 kilograms of free food grains per month to 80 crore people, for the next 6 months." "Giving free food grains and vaccines to crores of countrymen without any corruption through technology shows the determination and power of PM Modi Ji. While being the Chief Minister of Gujarat, he had worked to bring the modern techniques of urban development to the grassroots. And after becoming the Prime Minister, he wished to develop modern cities with his vision. He started the work culture of having a uniform urban development across the country with the concept of Smart City," he said. The Union Home Minister exuded confidence that the Integrated Command and Control Centre in Chandigarh will prove to be a milestone in the coming times in making Chandigarh the most disciplined and modern city in the country. "All the children up to class 12th should also visit this centre so that discipline and culture are inculcated in them," he said. Mentioning that Chandigarh is one of the most developed cities in the category of modern and planned cities, the Home Minister said that when the city is settled, the needs change with time and those who do not change with the times, cannot keep themselves relevant. "I congratulate the Chandigarh Administration for continuing to keep pace with the times. The Modi government is working diligently for the parallel development of the Union Territories. We are committed to realising the vision of Smart City by providing world-class facilities to the residents of Chandigarh," he said. (ANI)
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said that Chandigarh is one of the most developed cities in the country and exuded confidence that it will become one of the most advanced cities of India and the world in future. Union Home and Cooperation Minister Shri Amit Shah inaugurated the new office of the Housing Board and Integrated Command and Control Center (ICCC) in Chandigarh. Alongwith this, Shah inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of various development projects in Urban Park, Sector 17 of Chandigarh. "While being the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi did the work of realizing many of the ideas of urban development on the ground. He also worked to bring a state-of-the-art Town Planning Act on the grassroots. After becoming the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi put forth the concept of Smart City in the whole country," Shah said while addressing an event here. The Home Minister highlighted that BJP-led Centre put forth the idea of how to develop modern cities, plan urban land with foresight, upgrade facilities, reconcile them and put the idea of their unified command in front of the country. "After this, he came up with the idea of AMRUT Yojana and Green City and Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasized on cleanliness by adding many schemes together. Due to this initiative of PM Modi, new work culture of urban development has been created in the whole country, irrespective of the government of any party, and today the same development is visible in cities across the country," he said. Shah recalled, "When they were young, the children of Gujarat were told that Chandigarh is a planned and a city worth seeing, and after seeing Chandigarh, it is truly felt that its design has been made with very fine thought. When a city is formed and developed, its needs also change with time and those who do not change with time, cannot keep themselves relevant.""Today, I want to heartily congratulate the Chandigarh administration that it has made an effort to change with time, and, this is not limited only to the civic amenities, but security, environment protection and new mixed culture of Chandigarh has been preserved in this. Chandigarh is going to become the most disciplined and modern city of the country in the coming times," he said. Shah highlighted that development works worth Rs 165 crore have been inaugurated and foundation stone has been laid, including in fields of education, water supply in six villages, construction of bus depots in industrial area and construction of hostels for boys and girls. "The biggest task is to create an integrated command and control center, this integrated command center is going to bring about a drastic change in all areas of civil administration in Chandigarh in the coming days. There will be monitoring of many civil facilities from a single command center and there will also be a system to upgrade them," he said. "This command center will create a new environment of traffic discipline including sending challans home for breaking rules, security of Chandigarh and sending a police team in a moment when any missing object is noticed. All school children up to class 12th should be made to visit this command center so that culture can be inculcated in our future citizens," he added. (ANI)
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Sunday announced that the state government will ensure that the Medical (MBBS) courses will get conducted in the Hindi language to benefit students. On the second day of the Madhya Pradesh government's 'Chintan Shivir' in the hill station of Pachmarhi, Chouhan said, "We will start imparting education for Medical courses in Hindi. It will benefit students from the poorer and middle classes background." Among various other announcements, the CM also announced the relaunch of his government's flagship schemes Mukhyamantri Kanya Vivah Yojana and Ladli Lakshmi Yojana. 'Mukhyamantri Kanya Vivah Yojana' will be started in a new manner from April 21 along with 'Ladli Lakshmi Yojana' that will begin from May 2 onward," said Chouhan. Under the revamped Kanya Vivah Yojana, the amount allocated to each bride has been increased from 51,000 to 55,000. The everyday household items will also be gifted to the Bride under the scheme. After the deliberation with his Cabinet Minister, CM Chouhan announced that the state government will facilitate the Pilgrimage visit to Senior Citizens and the scheme will also be launched again. "'Mukhyamantri Tirth Darshan Yojana' will be started again from April 18. We'll look into the arrangement of 'Tirth Yatra' (Pilgrimage) for destinations far away for the elderly through flights," said MP CM. Further, he announced that the State government has taken the decision that 50 per cent weightage in police recruitment will be to the physical strength of the candidate along with a written exam. The Madhya Pradesh Council of Ministers is holding a two-day long brainstorming session under the leadership of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in the hill station Pachmarhi. (ANI)
Vietnam participates in Francophone Film Week in Chile

The Vietnamese Embassy, in coordination with the embassies of French-speaking countries in Chile, has organised the Francophone Film Week 2022 on the occasion of International Francophonie Day.



The event, which will last until March 31, is part of the cultural activities of the Francophone Week, with 10 films from countries in the Francophone community being screened.



It is expected to reflect the diversity in terms of culture of the Francophone community. Vietnam's movie Yellow flowers on green grass" by director Victor Vu with Spanish subtitles will be shown at the film week.

A scene in the movie Yellow flowers on green grass" by director Victor Vu. (Photo: VNA)





Vietnamese Ambassador to Chile Pham Truong Giang attended the opening ceremony of the event and gave an interview to local media about the embassy's active role in events aimed at promoting the Francophone and multiculturalism of the Francophone community.



On this occasion, the ambassador informed about the working visit to Vietnam of Secretary-General of the International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF) Louise Mushikiwabo.



The Francophone Week in Chile is an annual event held for countries in the Francophone community to popularise their traditional cultures, images and cuisine to local and international friends, and at the same time, to show their friendship relationship among member countries.
Acting on a tip-off, a joint team of police and the Indian Army had launched an operation and apprehended the suspected minor cadres of NSCN-IM aged below 15 years in the general area of Tinsukia railway station.

During preliminary interrogation, they confessed their involvement with NSCN-IM and they led security forces to a house located at Phangsum village under Namtok Circle in Arunachal Pradesh's Changlang district from where the security forces recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition.

Debojit Deuri, Superintendent of Police (SP) of Tinsukia district said that security forces had recovered two HK Rifles, three magazines, 283 rounds of ammunition, two pouches, two IEDs, one hand grenade, three-wire cables, three mobile phones, two wallets, Voter ID, Aadhaar cards, two ATM cards.

"The apprehended minors are not active cadres of NSCN-IM, but they have the connection with the outfit, " Debojit Deuri said. (ANI)
The Patiala House Court of Delhi has acquitted Trilochan Singh, accused of being a member of the alleged terror organisation Babbar Khalsa International in a case related to the 2005 Satyam Cinema and Liberty Cinema bomb blasts stating that the prosecution has failed miserably to prove its case and hence the accused deserves the benefit of the doubt. The Court while passing the judgement in the case said accused Trilochan Singh is acquitted of the charges framed against him for the commission of an offence punishable under section 18 (Punishment for conspiracy), 20 (Punishment for being a member of terrorist gang or organisation) of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA) and under section 25 of Arms Act. The Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana in a judgement passed on March 24, 2022, said, "it is settled proposition of law that in a criminal trial, the prosecution is required to prove its case beyond a shadow of reasonable doubt and in the case at hand, the prosecution has miserably failed to prove its case and accused deserves the benefit of the doubt." ASJ Dharmender Rana further said, "I am of the considered opinion that shadow of doubt appears upon the prosecution version and the evidence available on record is not of a sterling quality to hold accused Trilochan Singh liable for the commission of an offence." Failure on the part of IO to make sincere efforts for joining independent public witnesses in the proceedings, when they are available, creates reasonable doubt in the prosecution in view of the following case laws, the court noted. Special Cell of Delhi Police had arrested Singh in 2007, from his home in Panchkula Haryana, as a part of its investigation into the case with the allegation that the accused was trying to revive militancy in Punjab. Police had claimed that Trilochan was in touch with Babbar Khalsa International outfit member Baljeet Singh, who planned to kill a Sikh religious leader, Baba Pyara Singh Panihari Wala, and some others and to revive militancy in Punjab. According to the prosecution, out of the total nine accused, eight had pleaded guilty. Trilochan decided to contest his case filed under sections 121A (conspiracy to commit offences or to overawe, by means of criminal force or the show of criminal force, the Central Government or any State Government), 120B (punishment of criminal conspiracy), as well as sections of the UAPA Act and the Arms Act, the police said. (ANI)
The Ministry of Power on Sunday issued an advisory to all the state government and electricity authorities to prepare themselves to ensure maintenance and reliability of the electricity grid during the strike called by the National Convention of Workers from March 28 to March 30. According to an official statement, the Ministry issued an advisory that all the power utilities shall take necessary measures to ensure round the clock normal functioning of the electricity Grid and availability of all plants, transmission lines and substations. The Ministry has asked all regional/state control room executives to be on the vigil and high alert during the two-day strike. "All concerned may be advised to ensure close supervision of their regional network/control area and shall report to the concerned SLDC/ RLDC and NLDC in the event of any contingency... Power supply to essential services such as hospitals, defence, railways etc. should be ensured," read the official statement. Power Ministry said that additional manpower may be deployed at all critical sub-stations/power stations 24X7 to handle any emergency conditions. "All defence mechanism such as df/dt, Under Frequency Relay based Load shedding (UFLS), SPS etc. shall be in service. A 24x7 Control Room may be made functional for information dissemination and for handling any kind of contingency," read the order. A joint forum of central trade unions has given a call for a nationwide strike on March 28 and 29, to protest against government policies affecting workers, farmers, and people. (ANI)
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday slammed his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal over his remarks on 'The Kashmir Files' and asked him not to be "anti-Hindu" stating the latter has no right to humiliate the society. Kejriwal, in his speech in the Delhi Assembly, had accused the BJP leaders of "promoting" the movie and asked the makers of the movie to upload the film on YouTube which attracted backlash against the Chief Minister on social media. With the BJP attacking Kejriwal for making several movies in the past tax-free in the national capital but not the Vivek Agnihotri film. Speaking to the reporters here, Sarma said, "You make it tax-free or not, you do not have the right to humiliate and insult us. You may do whatever you want, but do not be 'anti-Hindu' so openly. If our Hindu samaj (society) is in this condition, it is because we are more anti-Hindu within the Hindu family. Otherwise, Hindu civilisation once used to show the path to the world." Questioning the Delhi Chief Minister's interest in making the Anupam Kher starrer film free for everyone on YouTube, Sarma said that Kejriwal has made several movies tax-free in the national capital. "Arvind Kejriwal has made several movies tax-free in Delhi. I want to ask him why did he not ask to upload all those movies on YouTube? Why do you have interest only in The Kashmir Files being uploaded on YouTube?" he said. Earlier on Friday, the Assam Chief Minister had accused Kejriwal of using the Delhi assembly "to rub salt in the wound of Hindus". "If you don't want to make #KashmirFiles tax-free, don't. But stop this constant mocking of Kashmiri Pandits. Their sufferings are a result of such condescending attitude & appeasement politics of secularists. It doesn't behove a CM to use the Assembly to rub salt in the wound of Hindus," Sarma said. The Kashmir Files has been declared tax-free in several states including UP, Bihar, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. The Vivek-Agnihotri directed 'Kashmir Files' that was released in theatres on March 11 stars Anupam Kher, Mithun Chakraborty, Pallavi Joshi, Darshan Kumaar and others. It revolves around the killings of Kashmiri Pandits in the 1990s. (ANI)
Union Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi on Sunday said the Central government has taken significant steps to make North East a 'driver of India's economic activities'. "The government under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken significant steps to make North Eastern India a driver of India's economic activities. Budget allocation to the North-East region has doubled in last seven years," Joshi said. During his second day of visit to Assam, the Union Minister on Sunday visited Assam's Darrang district and announced CSR projects worth Rs 2 crore in Darrang to be implemented by Coal India Ltd. The Minister said that aspirational districts should compete with each other in terms of development activities. "Darrang is one of India's aspirational districts under the Aspirational district's Programme launched under the visionary leadership of PM Modi. These CSR projects of Coal India Limited will help in providing better education and healthcare to the people of Darrang," Joshi said. Under the CSR projects announced by the Union Minister, CIL will help construct additional classrooms in 19 government schools of Darrang and take up 5 projects for the improvement of healthcare infrastructure at different government health centres in this aspirational district. Coal India has either taken up or completed 7 CSR projects worth around Rs 23 crore for inclusive development of Assam in the last five financial years starting from 2016-17. Out of these 7 projects, 4 projects namely financial assistance for setting up of Solid Waste Management plant in Kamakhya, Promotional and preventive healthcare through increased awareness in rural population, Promotion of preventive healthcare through NILA and Provision of water Ambulance in Majuli have been completed. Memorandum of understanding (MoU) for financial assistance for setting up 40 bed ICU facility at Government Medical Hospital, Silchar has been signed and the remaining two projects namely Financial assistance for Rehabilitation and livelihood development at Majuli and Financial assistance for skill training of 50 students conducted through CIPET Guwahati are going on. Coal India's total project outlay of CSR projects in the North-East region has been over Rs 25 crore in the last five years. Coal India's CSR expenditure remained at Rs 554 crore in 2020-21 against the budgeted amount of Rs 434 crore. Coal India accounts for over 80 per cent of India's coal production. He also reviewed the development activities being carried out by the Darrang district administration and assured all-out support of the Central Government for such activities. (ANI)
This is the first decision taken by him after becoming the Chief Minister of the state for the second time.

In the official statement issued by the Chief Minister's office, it informed, "The food grain scheme has been extended again till June 30. All sectors will have to work together to make the state a 1 trillion dollar economy."

"The District Magistrate should take special interest to benefit the street vendors under the Prime Minister's Svanidhi Yojana. District Magistrates who have done commendable work under Cleanliness Survey-2022 will be honoured," the statement read.

Notably, the Union Cabinet on Saturday extended the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PM-GKAY) scheme for another six months till September 2022 - with each beneficiary eligible to get an additional 5 kilogram free ration per month in addition to the normal quota of foodgrains under the NFSA.

The Phase-V of PM-GKAY was to end in March. The scheme has been under implementation since April 2020 as the largest food security programme in the world. The cabinet meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (ANI)
The fifth meeting of the India-Sri Lanka Joint Working Group on Fisheries virtually discussed the ways to enhance the productivity of fisheries in Palk Bay. The Joint Working Group discussed all relevant issues in detail including the concerns relating to fishermen and fishing boats which have been on the agenda of bilateral discussions between India and Sri Lanka for many years. The Indian delegation in the joint meeting was led by Jatindra Nath Swain, Secretary, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying. The other members of the Indian delegation included senior representatives from the Ministry of Fisheries, Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of Tamil Nadu, Government of Puducherry, Indian Navy and Indian Coast Guard. R.M.I. Rathnayake, Secretary, Ministry of Fisheries, Government of Sri Lanka, led Sri Lankan delegation. Jatindra Nath Swain observed in the meeting that the Indian side is always committed to work constructively with the Sri Lankan side towards resolution of issues related to fishermen and their livelihoods in a humanitarian manner. He also took up the issue of early release of Indian fishermen and boats currently in Sri Lankan custody. The Indian side expressed its readiness to work together with Sri Lanka for joint research to enhance the productivity of Palk Bay fisheries. Both sides also discussed the cooperation between Navy & Coast Guard of both the countries in patrolling, existing hotline between the Coast Guards and related operational matters including cooperation in tracking poaching, prevention of environmental damage due to bottom trawling, addressing grievances of fishermen on either side, besides issues relating to investigation on recent deaths of fishermen and status of apprehended fishermen and fishing boats. Indian delegation highlighted the initiatives taken by the Central and State Governments to diversify livelihood options and reduce fishing pressure in the Palk Bay. It also informed that infrastructure has been created to facilitate deep-sea fishing and promotion of alternative livelihood through seaweed cultivation, mariculture and several aquaculture activities. --IANS avr/skp/ ( 338 Words) 2022-03-27-19:34:17 (IANS)
AIADMK Joint Coordinator and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Palaniswami on Sunday said that there was no scope for former interim General Secretary V.K. Sasikala being taken back into the party. He made the comment at an interaction with media persons at Salem. AIADMK Coordinator and former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, interacting with media after deposing before the Arumughaswami Commission probing the circumstances leading to the death of party supremo J. Jayalalithaa, had said that he had high respects for Sasikala, and also fondly referred to her as 'Chinnamma'. His statement had sparked rumours in the AIADMK that some political developments were taking place behind the curtains for a possible reentry of Sasikala. However, Palansiwami has, for the time being, put an end to this with his unequivocal statement. He also recalled that the resolutions adopted against her entry into the party by the district units of the AIADMK and the top leadership were announced by him and Panneerselvam. However, sources in the Panneerselvam camp told IANS that Sasikala's entry cannot be blocked by Palaniswami. "The party rout in its stronghold of south Tamil Nadu is due to the ire of the Thevar community to which both OPS and Sasikala belong and that community is pulling the strings for her reentry," a source said. The source also said that Palaniswami is also not in a strong wicket in his hometown Edappadi in Salem where also the party had faced a major rout in the urban local body polls. --IANS aal/vd ( 262 Words) 2022-03-27-21:44:08 (IANS)
Members of the United Nations Security Council, in a joint statement on the Taliban's reversal of their promise on girls' education, said that all the girls in Afghanistan should be allowed to go to school. Notably, on March 21, the Taliban said they would lift a seven-month-old de facto ban on girls' education from Class 6 onwards and reopen schools on the first day of Afghanistan's new academic year however two days later the regime backtracked on its decision. In a joint statement delivered by the Permanent Representatives of The United Arab Emirates and Norway, on behalf of Albania, Brazil, France, Gabon, Ireland, Mexico, UK, US, Norway and UAE, the members said the decision is a reversal of the commitments the Taliban themselves have made in recent weeks and months as part of the ongoing engagement with the international community. This afternoon, the Security Council will hear an important briefing by the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Afghanistan, on the Taliban's reversal of their earlier promise for girls to be able to return to school beyond the 6th grade, the statement read. "This week - more than a million Afghan girls were getting ready to finally be able to return to school. Their hopes were dashed at the last minute when they learned that their right to an education will continue to be denied," it added. The members said that the recent decision by the Taliban is a profoundly disturbing setback. "Education is a universal right for all children. That includes girls in Afghanistan. Some may ask, why education is a matter for the Security Council? The answer is simple. Afghanistan is at the brink of collapse," it asserted. All the members noted that "in order for Afghanistan to secure a safe and stable future, it simply cannot miss out on the talent and potential, and deprive half its population of education. Education is a key building block of every society." They called on the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan to provide a safe learning environment for all children and youth in the country. "Last week, the UNAMA mandate was extended for one year. And the UN and the international community stand ready to continue supporting the Afghan people - including education for all children. More than one million girls in Afghanistan were left at home in tears this week. We cannot let them down," the joint statement added. (ANI)
US President Joe Biden spoke with the Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya aboard Air Force One on Saturday (Local Time) and underscored continued support for the Belarusian people in defending and advancing human rights. "President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., spoke with democratic opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya of Belarus from Air Force One. He thanked her for attending his speech in Warsaw tonight. The President underscored the continued support of the United States for the Belarusian people in defending and advancing human rights, including freedom of expression, and free and fair elections," a White House Press Release read. (ANI)
While rejecting US President Joe Biden's statement that Russian President Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power", Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that this is not to be decided by Biden adding that it should only be a choice of the people of the Russian Federation. "This is not to be decided by Mr Biden," Peskov said. "It should only be a choice of the people of the Russian Federation," reported CNN. Moreover, after Biden, while speaking at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland, declared that Putin "cannot remain in power", the White House clarifies that 'it was not a call for regime change.' Notably, Biden towards the conclusion of his speech said, "For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power." A White House official while clarifying the remarks made by Biden said, "The President's point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbours or the region. He was not discussing Putin's power in Russia, or regime change," Biden's line that Putin "cannot remain in power" was not in his prepared remarks, the official said. Moreover, as Russia tries to gain a stronghold in Ukraine, Biden in his address, said Russia has "strangled democracy" adding that its President Vladimir Putin is lying in a bid to justify the war. Biden slammed Putin for condemning the NATO alliance. He chided Russia's actions saying, "It's nothing less than a direct challenge to the rules-based international order established since the end of World War II, and it threatens to return to decades of war that ravaged Europe before the international rule-based order was put in place. We cannot go back to that. We cannot."Furthermore, Biden talked of the sanctions and other economic steps that are taken in order to pressurize Russia and target the Russian economy. Russia launched its invasion last month after recognizing 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. (ANI)
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is delaying the retirement age of its government employees as the draconian one-child policy bears its long-term effects in the form of an ageing population accompanied by an increased state expenditure on social security pensions, a report said on Friday. From 1st March, the Communist Party of China (CCP) started implementing the delayed retirement policy in order to solve the problem of insufficient age-old social security pension funds, Inside Over reported. The measure came as a result of last year's "14th Five-Year Plan for National Aging Development and Elderly Care Service System" issued by the State Council of the Communist Party of China on December 30. "The only reason for it is that there is no money now," said Feng Chongyi, a professor at the University of Technology Sydney and an expert on China in an interview with the Epoch Times, adding that, "the local governments are in short supply and this hole cannot be filled." The policy was in work for a long time since 2013 but it was delayed because of strong resentment among the labour force, according to the Chinese digital platform Tencent.com. Feng also pointed out that the CCP's cruel family planning has destroyed the natural population law, which not only caused the imbalance of the male and female population in China but also greatly affected the supply of labour force and turned China into an ageing society, the report said. An added problem for the CCP is that the new measure is set to leave tens of millions of graduates every year, with nowhere to go, as the old can't retire, and the young have nowhere to go. "The delayed retirement policy reflects that social welfare expenditures related to retirement and old age have become a heavy burden on the central government's financial expenditure, so it delays retirement to minimize this, its pay pressure," said Wu Jialong, a Taiwanese economist. He added that delaying retirement is the last resort for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to deal with financial pressures, also warning that civil unrest will ensue in the future because of financial pressures. (ANI)
Dozens of female students in Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul took to the streets demanding the Taliban regime to withdraw its decision to ban girls from attending school above the sixth grade. Chanting the slogans of "education is our absolute right," the protestors called for the reopening of schools for girls in grades 7-12 across Afghanistan, Tolo News reported. "We gathered today to voice this shared pain and to not allow a generation to be deprived of education," Monisa, a female rights activist who participated in the protest was quoted as saying. "I was going to study in grade 11, but unfortunately, when the Taliban came to power, our schools were closed. As the boys have the right to education, we girls also have the right," said Fatima, another student. The Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Ireland also staged protests in reaction to the closing of secondary and high schools for girls in Afghanistan. "When a woman is educated, she will help a family, a society and a country be improved," said a woman protestor in Ireland quoted Tolo News. The Taliban regime on Wednesday issued a decree banning female students above grade six from participating in their classes. The girls were further told to stay home until the Islamic Emirate announces its next decision. The decision by the Islamic Emirate has drawn severe backlash across the world with the Foreign Ministers of Canada, France, Italy, Norway, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and the High Representative of the European Union issuing a joint statement on Friday to condemn the Taliban's decision to deny so many Afghan girls the opportunity to finally go back to school. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) also condemned the decision calling the action "deplorable". The vast majority of girls' secondary schools were closed. Universities recently reopened, with new gender segregation rules. But many women are unable to return, in part because the career they studied for is now off-limits as the Taliban banned women from most of the jobs. 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. Allowing girls into schools and other educational institutes has been one of the main demands of the international community.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)
Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid has welcomed India's "Neighbourhood First Policy" under which both countries have gained immense socio-economic benefits including the assistance provided by New Delhi throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Shahid, who is also a President of the United Nations General Assembly thanked India for standing in solidarity with the Maldives, and for being its friend and partner throughout the years. "The Maldives welcomes India's "Neighborhood First Policy" under which we have gained immense socio-economic benefits. And we remain committed to our "India First Policy". Our relationship is one that has stood the test of time, and one that will continue to flourish," Maldives Foreign Minister said in a Tweet. "I thank India for the assistance it has provided throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. We remain grateful that we can always rely on #India during times of need. Both our countries have experienced the hardships and tragedies of the pandemic, but we are emerging stronger together," he said further on Saturday. "I thank the Government and the people of India, for standing in solidarity with us, and for being our friend and partner throughout the years. May the close bonds between our two countries continue to grow deeper and stronger," Shahid added. On Saturday, India's External Affair Minister S Jaishankar went to the Maldives on a two-day visit from March 26 to March 27 after he got an invite from his Maldivian counterpart. Welcoming Jaishankar, Maldives Foreign Minister said that this is the first time official talks have been held out of the Capital City Male. "You've made history, Minister @DrSJaishankar! This is the first time official talks have been held out of the Capital City Male'. Fortifying & building on the long-standing - ties is one of the top foreign policy priorities of President Solih's administration," Abdulla Shahid tweeted. Neighbourhood First Policy of India is a core component of India's foreign policy, focusing on peaceful relations and collaborative synergetic co-development with its South Asian neighbours. (ANI)
Amid his ongoing Nepal visit, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met former Prime Ministers KP Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal in Kathmandu in separate meetings on Sunday. The meetings are notable given the volatile political situation in Nepal which recently saw the contentious Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) grant being ratified by the parliament, even as China raised public concerns. The Chinese FM also met President Bidya Devi Bhandari today and exchanged views on further strengthening Nepal-China bilateral relations, the Nepali Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed in a tweet. The meetings come on the last day of the Chinese FM's three-day visit to Nepal which began on Friday. The Chinese FM had met with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba earlier on Saturday, where the two leaders witnessed the virtual completion ceremony of the Pokhara Regional International Airport which China handed over to Nepal. On Saturday, a total of nine agreements were signed between Nepal and China after the delegation-level talks between Nepali Foreign Minister Narayan Khadka and his counterpart Wang Yi on Saturday in wide-ranging areas including economic and technical cooperation, protocols on bilateral trade and people exchanges, and on the ongoing Chinese projects in Nepal. However, none of the agreements related to the BRI. The visit of Chinese FM Wang Yi to Nepal comes at a time when relations between the two countries are experiencing a downturn, due to growing suspicion about the Chinese investments in the country. Wang's Nepal visit will also culminate the slew of trips that the Chinese Foreign Minister has made to the South Asian countries since he arrived in Pakistan on March 21 to attend the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) summit as a "special guest". Wang held talks with Taliban representatives in Afghanistan on Thursday, followed by his arrival in New Delhi the same evening, where he held talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Friday before departing for Kathmandu on a three-day visit that concludes today. (ANI)
Asserting that the defence cooperation is another key pillar of the India-Maldives partnership, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday said that the ties between both the nations are full of promises and possibilities for their youth and future generations. Jaishankar was attending the inauguration ceremony of the National College for Policing & Law Enforcement (NCPLE) at Addu city in the Maldives today. He congratulated the Maldives Government and its people on the successful completion of NCPLE. "This venerable institution has left its imprint in many ways of making modern India. I emphasise that its contribution in the realm of foreign policy has been particularly strong. A score of foreign service officers have passed through its gates over the decade and currently, both the External Affairs Minister (Jaishankar) and Foreign Secretary (Harsh Shringla) have had the privilege of studying here," he said during the speech. On Saturday, India's External Affair Minister S Jaishankar went to the Maldives on a two-day visit from March 26 to March 27 after he got an invite from his Maldivian counterpart. External Affairs Minister also said that India-Maldives partnership envelopes cooperation in almost every facet of the bilateral relationship. "The focus of the engagement is the well-being of our people," he added. Speaking about the foriegn policy, Jaishankar said: "Your (Maldives) policy of 'India First' and our policy of 'Neighbourhood First' are not just phrases but the very fulcrum of India-Maldives relationship." Meanwhile, Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid said that New Delhi is Mali's most trusted partner. "Ours is a relationship of mutual respect based on trust and confidence." Shahid, who is also a President of the United Nations General Assembly, in a Tweet also thanked India for standing in solidarity with the Maldives, and for being its friend and partner throughout the years. (ANI)
External Affair Minister S Jaishankar on Sunday paid homage to the Indian soldiers commemorated at the Addu Atoll Memorial in the Maldives. "From the pages of history, a visit to Gan," Jaishankar said in a Tweet. EAM Jaishankar went to the Maldives on Saturday. He is on a two-day visit from March 26 to March 27 after he got an invite from his Maldivian counterpart. India-Maldives' time-tested relationship is today poised for a quantum jump and New Delhi is strongly committed to further progress of this relationship, said External Affairs Minister as he held a joint press conference with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Maldives, Abdulla Shahid. "Our time-tested relationship is today poised for a quantum jump. We are touching the lives of our people like we have done never before. We are partners in development, we are promoting peace and security, and our relationship, in many ways, serves as a model for the region," Jaishankar said. The two countries also signed an agreement on the mutual recognition of COVID-19 certificates where Jaishankar said, "it is a step forward in the same direction and will certainly contribute to easier travel between us." While Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid has welcomed India's "Neighbourhood First Policy" under which both countries have gained immense socio-economic benefits including the assistance provided by New Delhi throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Shahid, who is also a President of the United Nations General Assembly thanked India for standing in solidarity with the Maldives, and for being its friend and partner throughout the years. (ANI)
Amid the ongoing visit of External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar to the Maldives, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy (SVPNPA) and the Maldives Police Force on Sunday to support the up-gradation of police infrastructure across the archipelago. The MoU was signed on the sidelines of the inauguration ceremony of Maldives' National College for Policing and Law Enforcement (NCPLE) where the EAM spoke. "MoU signed today between @svpnpahyd and Maldives Police Force will grow NCPLE's capacities and help it become a regional centre of excellence. Will also support the up-gradation of police infrastructure across #Maldives through an additional initiative," EAM Jaishankar informed in a tweet. "One of India's largest grant-funded projects in the Maldives, the NCPLE will be the hub for a modern Police force in the years to come. The NCPLE will serve to strengthen the traditions of exchanges and training between the Police forces of Maldives and India," Jaishankar added. Jaishankar congratulated the Maldives Government and its people on the successful completion of NCPLE during his remarks at the ceremony. "This venerable institution has left its imprint in many ways of making modern India. I emphasise that its contribution in the realm of foreign policy has been particularly strong. A score of foreign service officers have passed through its gates over the decade and currently, both the External Affairs Minister (Jaishankar) and Foreign Secretary (Harsh Shringla) have had the privilege of studying here," he said during the speech. India's External Affair Minister S Jaishankar is on a two-day visit to the Maldives on March 26-27 after he got an invite from his Maldivian counterpart. Meanwhile, EAM Jaishankar called on the President of Maldives, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih on Sunday. "...discussed the special partnership between our two countries that has produced so many substantive outcomes during his tenure," he said. The EAM also met the Home Minister of the Maldives Imran Abdulla. "A fruitful meeting with @shimranAb, Home Minister of Maldives. Discussed capacity building and training cooperation in law enforcement. Appreciate his strong support for #IndiaMaldives special partnership," Jaishankar tweeted. (ANI)
New York [US], March 27 (ANI/Xinhua): UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday condemned attacks that targeted civilian facilities in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. "The secretary-general is deeply concerned about reports of ongoing airstrikes in Hodeidah city and the targeting of Hodeidah's ports, which provide a critical humanitarian lifeline for the Yemeni population," the UN chief's spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, said in a statement. Over 23 million Yemenis face hunger, disease, and other life-threatening risks as the country's basic services and economy are collapsing, the UN Office for Humanitarian Coordination (OCHA) had said. Houthi forces in Yemen, also known as Ansar Allah, attacked Saudi Arabian civil and energy facilities on Friday, including an oil facility in Jeddah, sparking a massive fire that sent a column of black smoke into the sky. The Saudi-backed coalition of nine countries assisting the Yemeni official government in fighting the Houthis, responded by airstriking three Houthi seaports -- Hodeidah, Salif and Sana'a -- killing eight civilians, including five children and two women, on Saturday. "These airstrikes also resulted in damage to the UN staff residential compound in Sana'a," Dujarric added. The UN chief is calling for "a swift and transparent investigation into these incidents to ensure accountability," the statement continued. As the conflict enters its eighth year, the UN chief reiterated his calls on all parties to "exercise maximum restraint, immediately deescalate, cease hostilities and abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law, including the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution." He also urged the parties to "engage constructively, and without preconditions, with his special envoy to reduce violence and urgently reach a negotiated settlement to end the conflict in Yemen." Meanwhile, news media reported that Ansar Allah said it would suspend for three days missile and drone strikes on Saudi Arabia, saying the unilateral peace initiative could be a lasting commitment if the Saudi-led coalition stopped airstrikes and lifted port restrictions. The Saudi-backed coalition has been fighting the Houthis for seven years in support of the internationally recognized Yemeni government. The coalition has carried out thousands of airstrikes, killing tens of thousands of people, according to the UN. (ANI/Xinhua)
Earlier in the morning today, Wang Yi reached the President's Office to pay a courtesy call to President Bhandari and later he went to Hotel Marriot in Kathmandu to hold talks with former Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and KP Sharma Oli.

The meeting between the Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister and President Bhandari was held at 10 am.

On Saturday, officials from both countries signed nine sets of agreements on enhancing mutual cooperation following bilateral talks between Foreign Minister Narayan Khadka and his Chinese counterpart Wang.

The meetings come on the last day of the Chinese FM's three-day visit to Nepal which began on Friday. The Chinese FM had met with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba earlier on Saturday, where the two leaders witnessed the virtual completion ceremony of the Pokhara Regional International Airport which China handed over to Nepal.

Wang's Nepal visit will also culminate the slew of trips that the Chinese Foreign Minister has made to the South Asian countries since he arrived in Pakistan on March 21 to attend the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) summit as a "special guest".

Wang held talks with Taliban representatives in Afghanistan on Thursday, followed by his arrival in New Delhi the same evening, where he held talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Friday before departing for Kathmandu on a three-day visit that concludes today. (ANI)
Less than an hour before Imran Khan's power show in Islamabad, the Pakistan Prime Minister has lost Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) chief Shahzain Bugti -- an ally who announced his separation from the government, saying that he will vote in favour of the no-confidence motion against the country's PM. Shahzain Bugti, who was serving as the Imran Khan's Special Assistant on Reconciliation and Harmony in Balochistan resigned from his post after a meeting with Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, The Express Tribune newspaper reported. Bugti announced that he would support the opposition in the wake of the no-confidence motion submitted against Imran Khan. Imran Khan's party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf set to face a no-trust motion in the National Assembly. The session is called on March 28. The no-confidence motion against the Imran Khan-led government was submitted by the Opposition on March 8 after the PPP's long march in Islamabad. The Opposition is confident that its motion would be carried as many PTI lawmakers have come out in the open against PM Imran Khan. As the crucial no-confidence motion inches closer and uncertainty continues to shroud political alliances, at least 50 ministers belonging to the ruling party have gone 'missing', Tribune reported citing sources. The Pakistani National Assembly has a total strength of 342 members, with the majority mark being 172. The PTI led coalition was formed with the support of 179 members, with Imran Khan's PTI having 155 members, and four major allies Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) and Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) having seven, five, five and three members respectively. Imran Khan's situation is precarious given that three of the four allies, that is, MQM-P, PML-Q and BAP have stated their support to the Opposition's no-confidence motion and said that they will vote accordingly. In a last-ditch attempt, Imran Khan recently dispatched a team of senior PTI leaders to meet the allies and assured them that their reservations would be addressed. (ANI)
The fifth meeting of the India-Sri Lanka Joint Working Group on Fisheries was held on March 25 through virtual mode, the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying said on Sunday. The Indian delegation was led by Jatindra Nath Swain, Secretary, Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying. The other members of the Indian delegation included senior representatives from the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of Tamil Nadu, Government of Puducherry, Indian Navy and Indian Coast Guard. The Sri Lankan delegation was led by R.M.I. Rathnayake, Secretary, Ministry of Fisheries, Government of Sri Lanka. The other members of the Sri Lankan delegation comprised of senior officials from the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry, Ministry of Fisheries, Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, Navy, Coast Guard, Sri Lanka Police, Department of the Attorney General and National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency. The Joint Working Group discussed all relevant issues in detail including the concerns relating to fishermen and fishing boats which have been on the agenda of bilateral discussions between India and Sri Lanka for many years. Jatindra Nath Swain observed that the Indian side is always committed to work constructively with the Sri Lankan side towards the resolution of issues related to fishermen and their livelihoods in a humanitarian manner. He also took up the issue of the early release of Indian fishermen and boats currently in Sri Lankan custody. The Indian side expressed its readiness to work together with Sri Lanka for joint research to enhance the productivity of the Palk Bay fisheries. Both sides also discussed cooperation between Navy and Coast Guard of both countries in patrolling, existing hotline between the Coast Guards and related operational matters including cooperation in tracking poaching, prevention of environmental damage due to bottom trawling, addressing grievances of fishermen on either side, besides issues relating to investigation on recent deaths of fishermen and status of apprehended fishermen and fishing boats. The Indian side highlighted the initiatives taken by the Central and State Governments to diversify livelihood options and reduce fishing pressure in Palk Bay. It also informed that infrastructure has been created to facilitate deep-sea fishing and promotion of alternative livelihood through seaweed cultivation, mariculture and several aquaculture activities. The Sri Lankan side proposed a faster transition to sustainable fishing in the Palk Bay fisheries and also suggested that India can help them develop the aquaculture sector and the associated infrastructure in Northern Sri Lanka. The meeting concluded on a positive note, with commitment towards continued cooperation and dialogue to solve the fishermen related issues and to hold the next meeting of the Joint Working Group as per schedule. It may be recalled that the First Meeting of the Joint Working Group (JWG) was held on December 31, 2016, in New Delhi. The Second Meeting of the JWG was held in Colombo on April 7, 2017. The Third Meeting was held in New Delhi on October 13, 2017, while the Fourth JWG met in virtual mode on December 30, 2020. (ANI)
Washington [US], March 27 (ANI/Sputnik): Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk said on Sunday that he is "giving serious thought" to creating a new social media platform consisting of an open-source algorithm. "Am giving serious thought to this," Musk tweeted in response to another user's question whether he considers building a new social media platform, which would consist of an open-source algorithm and on which free speech would be given top priority. On Friday, Musk posted a poll to his Twitter account, asking other users to vote whether they believe the platform adheres to the free speech principle. Over 2 million users participated in the poll, with 70,4% responding negatively. (ANI/Sputnik)
Earlier in the day, Bukele urged lawmakers to impose a state of emergency in the country to combat a wave of violent deaths.

"Approved with 67 votes in favor! Almost 80% of the 84 lawmakers who constitute the Legislative Assembly [the parliament] . Lawmakers from 5 different political parties, including fierce opposition figures. All in the constitutional framework, in accordance with Article 29," the president wrote on Twitter.

The decree allows the authorities to prohibit public gatherings and meetings and expand the administrative detention procedure for as much as 30 days to collect the necessary evidence, identify and dismantle criminal gangs.

On Saturday, the National Civil Police of El Salvador registered 62 civilian deaths at hands of armed gangs operating in the country. (ANI/Sputnik)
Shri Samrajeswar Pashupatinath Temple in the holy city of Varanasi which stood as a symbol of India-Nepal unity is attracting scores of tourists and pilgrims after the development of Kashi Vishwanath Temple. Varanasi is one of the oldest living cities in the world and is amongst the most important pilgrimages for Hindus. The massive corridor around the famous Kashi Vishwanath Temple, which opened last December, has given a boost to tourism in the holy city. Since the inauguration of the first phase of the Kashi Vishwanath project, devotees have begun to come in large numbers and one no longer has to crane one's neck to see the famous temples. The project has benefitted several religious spots including the famous Shri Samrajeswar Pashupatinath Mahadev Mandir. It is also known as the Nepali Mandir and Mini Khajuraho. Dedicated to Lord Shiva, this temple has great religious importance. Constructed in the 19th century A.D by the King of Nepal, the temple is a replica of the Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu. Worship is being done on the daily basis and devotees visiting the temple feel joyous. The people from the Himalayan nation Nepal visit the temple regularly and they have great devotion for Kashi and its people. "Those who come to Varanasi to pray in the Kashi Vishwanath Temple, they will definitely pay a visit to Nepali temple. A long queue could be seen after 3 pm every day," says Arvind Mishra, one of the devotees. Shiva Gautam, a devotee from Nepal says, "The temple resembles the same as Pashupatinath temple of Kathmandu all those who come from Nepal surely visit the temple." Nepali temple is a bond between two countries with similar cultures and religions. A major attraction among art enthusiasts, the temple stands with pride today. The Kashi Vishwanath Temple corridor has made Varanasi a delightful place of interest for pilgrims across India and Nepal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier had noted that the temple area was only 3000 square feet which have now enlarged to about 5 lakh square feet. Now 50000 - 75000 devotees can visit the temple and temple premises. The corridor which combines history with the future is helping in bringing both the neighbouring countries closer which share a unique relationship characterised by deep-rooted people-to-people contacts of kinship and culture. Notably, Nepalese Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba will visit Varanasi during his official visit to India from April 1 to 3. As per the itinerary, Deuba will meet Prime Minister Modi on April 2. This will be his first visit to India after becoming Prime Minister of the Himalayan nation in July 2021. He has visited India in each of his four earlier stints as PM. His last visit to India was in 2017. This visit is a part of the tradition of periodic high-level exchanges between the two countries. It would give an opportunity to both sides to review the entire gamut of bilateral relations including development and economic partnership, trade, cooperation in the health sector, power, connectivity, people to people links and other issues of mutual interest. (ANI)
Pakistan Supreme Court observed that the bigoted behaviour towards minorities has given the wrong impression of Pakistan, labelled the people of Pakistan as intolerant, dogmatic and rigid as it overturned a Lahore High Court order, which had endorsed the charges of blasphemy against members of the Ahmadiyya community. They were charged on the allegation that they had designed their place of worship and displayed Islamic symbols on Ahmadi place of worship's inner walls, The Express Tribune reported. "To deprive a non-Muslim (minority) of our country of holding his religious beliefs, to obstruct him from professing and practising his religion within the four walls of his place of worship is against the grain of our democratic Constitution and repugnant to the spirit and character of our Islamic Republic," read the nine-page judgment, authored by Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah was quoted as saying by The Express Tribune. Justice Shah was heading a division bench, hearing a petition against the offence of blasphemy on Ahmadi individuals. It further alleged that the electricity bill of the Ahmadi place of worship was mentioned as 'mosque'. In 1984, under the rule of former President General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, the Pakistani government made it a criminal offence, punishable by three years imprisonment and a fine, for the Ahmadis to call their place of worship a 'Mosque' and make the call for prayers (Azan). On the basis of the above amendment, these allegations were filed and the petitioners were put on trial. The Lahore High Court also included the blasphemy charges against the petitioners along with other cases. The Pakistan top court noted that even though Article 260(3) of the constitution declared Ahmadis as Non-Muslim, they are still the party of citizens and their basic rights cannot be taken away, according to The Express Tribune. "There is no allegation in the crime report that attracts the said offence. The courts below have held that the mere reading of the Kalima or the Holy Quran by a non-Muslim/Ahmadi attracts Section 295-C. This, in our view, is not only far-fetched but also fails to meet the fundamental constituents of the crime, that is the men's rea and actus reus. Only that which resides in the mind of a non-Muslim while reading the Holy Quran is not sufficient to constitute the offence," the nine-page judgment reads.(ANI)
Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Sunday said that India is emerging as a preferred destination for investments as the Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) has been consistently growing over the past seven years. In an exclusive interview with ANI, Goyal said, "You will appreciate that FDIs in the past 7 years has been consistently growing, year after year it has broken all the records. It shows that India is emerging as a preferred destination for investments." The minister said that India has record investments even during the COVID-19 period. On being asked about the visit of a high-level delegation from UAE to Jammu and Kashmir for business opportunities, he said that Kashmir has become an "attraction for investors" both in India and internationally after the abrogation of Article 370. "After the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019, the way Kashmir has become an attraction for investors both in India and internationally was evident when a high-level delegation from UAE has come to Jammu and Kashmir for investments," Goyal stated. Jammu and Kashmir administration hosted a Gulf Investment Summit in Srinagar to strengthen ties and boost investment opportunities in the region. Delegates from over thirty-six countries attended the event. "In fact, one of the MoUs was signed during my earlier visit also when I was there with LG Manoj Sinha in Kashmir. It seems that a whole host of investors had the benefit of visiting Jammu and Kashmir, experiencing the beauty, glory and offerings of the union territory," the Union Minister stated. He also asserted that "very rapid and enormous" progress will be there in Jammu and Kashmir in the years to come, given the huge thrust of the Government of India to promote investments in the union territory. "I have no doubt in my mind that given the huge thrust of GoI to promote investments in J-K, the excellent package that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given to promote industrial development here, the enthusiasm that I can see both in India and internationally, particularly in UAE....very rapid and enormous progress in J-K will be there in the years to come," Goyal added. The 36-member delegation included Indian businessmen based in the UAE and a representative of the Rulers Office in Abu Dhabi. During the Gulf Investment Summit in Srinagar, investment proposals of Rs 27,000 crores have been cleared by the Jammu and Kashmir administration. (ANI)
London [UK], March 27 (ANI/Sputnik): Providing Ukraine with British tanks "wouldn't work," UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said in an interview with The Mail on Sunday newspaper, adding that the focus should be on repairing Russian and Soviet equipment, which demands less training for Ukrainian military. "One of the biggest challenges is that the more you go up in sophistication of weapons systems, the more training you require to use them, which is why the real focus of effort has to be helping the Ukrainians either refurbish or locate Russian or Soviet equipment that is already in their inventory. Just providing British tanks wouldn't really work," Wallace said . Britain's Starstreak man-portable air defense systems are ready to be deployed in Ukraine, and Ukrainian troops have already been trained to use them, Wallace added. According to the defense minister, the United Kingdom is "doing more than pretty much anyone else" to help 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 forces. In response to Russia's operation, Western countries have rolled out a comprehensive sanctions campaign against Moscow. (ANI/Sputnik)
Pakistan opposition party, Pakistan People's Party (PPP) claimed that "a conspiracy is being hatched to cause bloodshed on the streets of Islamabad" to sabotage the no-confidence resolution against Prime Minister Imran Khan. Addressing a joint news conference on Saturday, PPP senators Palwasha Khan and Rubina Khalid said, "A conspiracy is being hatched to cause bloodshed on the streets of Islamabad while domestic and foreign elements will be involved in this riot," according to the Pakistani newspaper Bussines recorder. "If there is a riot on the streets at the behest of the government to thwart the no-confidence resolution, then questions will be raised who will pay for the march to bring one million people in Islamabad? Those who have not been able to answer the foreign funding case to date will pay to bring one million people to Islamabad? Behind 'you' (Pakistani PM) is the funding of India and Israel," they (Palwasha Khan and Rubina Khalid) questioned were quoted as Business Recorder. Senator Khan said that suicide attack threats are coming from the federal ministers. While Khalid said that the Pakistani interior minister said that he will lead the rally from Rawalpindi. She further claimed that the banners are being displayed at the government's expense. "I want to talk about 'Absolutely Not'. Has the US asked for bases? When handing over Kashmir to Modi, bowing before the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and handing over the State Bank to the IMF, why you did not say 'Absolutely not' at that time?" Khalid was saying as quoted by Business Recorder. "You (Imran Khan) prayed for Modi's victory, you like India's foreign policy, Kashmir and Palestine issues were not even mentioned in the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) statement," she added. "You mentioned 'Cherry Blossom' in your speech. It is used for shoes and now this Cherry Blossom will be applied on your face then you will know," Khalid said. She further claimed that the Pakistani PM is using the 'religion card'. Meanwhile today, the Pakistani PM launched a scathing attack against the opposition parties and said that "three rats" are looting the country for the last 30 years, while addressing the rally in Islamabad's Parade Ground. The no-confidence motion was submitted by the Opposition parties on March 8. The Opposition has been confident that its motion would be carried as many PTI lawmakers have come out in the open against PM Imran Khan. The Pakistani National Assembly has a total strength of 342 members, with the majority mark being 172. The PTI led coalition was formed with the support of 179 members, with Imran Khan's PTI having 155 members, and four major allies Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) and Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) having seven, five, five and three members respectively. (ANI)
The Indian authorities signed a Member of Understanding with various companies to facilitate the economic and management support of TEJAS (Training for Emirates Jobs And Skills), a Skill India International project to train overseas Indians. The MoU was signed between India's National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and Gulf counties based EFS, Dulsco, Artificial Intelligence Organization, FutureMilez, Lulu International Exchange, EDI and Prime Health Group in the presence of Union Minister for Information and Technology Anurag Thakur at the Dubai Expo 2020. "India's youth not only contributes towards nation-building but also the largest skilled manpower in the world... TEJAS is launched to provide high-quality skills as per global standards. Even during the pandemic, the workforce has been skilled, certified and employed," said Anurag Thakur at the event. The Minister of Education and Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan speaking at the event through video conferencing expressed confidence India becoming the Skill Capital of the world. "India will soon become the Skill Capital of the world. India's skilled workforce is scripting India's growth story and also contributing to the world economy," said Pradhan. The Consulate General of India to Dubai Aman Puri said that TEJAS will act as a pathway between India and UAE. "TEJAS will create pathways between India-UAE and enable the Indian workforce to be equipped with the skills required for the market in the UAE," said Puri. The project is aimed at skilling, certification and overseas employment of Indians. TEJAS is aimed at creating pathways to enable the Indian workforce to get equipped for skill and market requirements in UAE, according to a press statement from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The six-month-long Dubai Expo that commenced in October last year witnessed the participation of as many as 192 countries. Fifteen states and nine central ministries from India are participating in this expo, which will be ending on March 31, 2022. (ANI)
LVIV, Ukraine  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused the West of lacking courage as his country fights to stave off Russias invading troops, making an exasperated plea for fighter jets and tanks to sustain a defense in a conflict that has ground into a war of attrition.

Speaking after U.S. President Joe Biden said in a lacerating speech that Russian President Vladimir Putin could not stay in power  words the White House immediately sought to downplay  Zelenskyy lashed out at the Wests ping-pong about who and how should hand over jets and other weapons while Russian missile attacks kill and trap civilians.

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A Ukrainian serviceman stands in a heavily damaged building in Stoyanka, Ukraine, Sunday, March 27, 2022. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused the West of lacking courage as his country fights to stave off Russia's invading troops, making an exasperated plea for fighter jets and tanks to sustain a defense in a conflict that has ground into a war of attrition. (VADIM GHIRDA/AP)

Ive talked to the defenders of Mariupol today. Im in constant contact with them. Their determination, heroism and firmness are astonishing, Zelenskyy said in a video address early Sunday, referring to the besieged southern city that has suffered some of the wars greatest deprivations and horrors. If only those who have been thinking for 31 days on how to hand over dozens of jets and tanks had 1% of their courage.

Russias invasion of Ukraine, now in its 32nd day, has stalled in many areas, its aim to quickly encircle the capital, Kyiv, and force its surrender faltering in the face of staunch Ukrainian resistance  bolstered by weapons from the U.S. and other Western allies.

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Britains Defense Ministry said Russias troops looked to be trying to encircle Ukrainian forces directly facing the two separatist-held areas in the countrys east. That would cut the bulk of Ukraines military off from the rest of the country.

Moscow claims its focus is on wresting from Ukraine the entirety of the eastern Donbas region, which has been partially controlled by Russia-backed separatists since 2014. A high-ranking Russian military official said Friday that troops were being redirected to the east from other parts of the country.

The leader of one of the separatist-controlled areas of Donbas said Sunday that he wants to hold a vote on joining Russia, words that could indicate a shift in Russias position. Leonid Pasechnik, the head of the self-proclaimed Luhansk Peoples Republic, said it plans to hold a referendum on becoming part of Russia in the nearest time.

Russia has supported the separatist rebels in Luhansk and neighboring Donetsk since an insurgency erupted there in 2014, shortly after Moscow annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. In talks with Ukraine so far, Moscow has urged Kyiv to acknowledge the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, accused Russia of seeking to split Ukraine in two, like North and South Korea.

The occupiers will try to pull the occupied territories into a single quasi-state structure and pit it against independent Ukraine, Budanov said in a statement released by the Defense Ministry, He predicted that guerrilla warfare by Ukrainians would derail such plans.

Ukraine says that to defeat Russia, it needs fighter jets and not just the missiles and other military equipment supplied by the West. A proposal to transfer Polish planes to Ukraine via the United States was scrapped amid NATO concerns about getting drawn into a military conflict with Russia.

In his pointed remarks, Zelenskyy accused Western governments of being afraid to prevent this tragedy. Afraid to simply make a decision.

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So, who is in charge of the Euro-Atlantic community? Is it still Moscow, thanks to its scare tactics? he said. Our partners must step up their aid to Ukraine.

His plea was echoed by a priest in the western city of Lviv, which was struck by rockets on Saturday. The aerial assault illustrated that Moscow, despite recent assertions that it intends to shift the war eastward, is willing to strike anywhere in Ukraine.

When diplomacy doesnt work, we need military support, said the Rev. Yuri Vaskiv, who on Sunday reported fewer parishioners than usual in the pews of his Greek Catholic church, likely because of their fear.

Referring to Putin, he said: This evil is from him, and we must stop it.

A damaged building and car after recent shelling, in the center of Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, March 27, 2022. (Efrem Lukatsky/AP)

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov confirmed that Russian forces used air-launched cruise missiles to hit a fuel depot and a defense plant in Lyiv. He said another strike with sea-launched missiles destroyed a depot with air defense missiles in Plesetske just west of Ukraines capital, Kyiv.

The strikes came as Biden wrapped up a visit to Poland, where he met Ukraines foreign and defense ministers, visited U.S. troops and saw refugees from the war. Before leaving, he delivered a forceful and highly personal condemnation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying: For Gods sake, this man cannot remain in power.

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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denounced the remark, saying Its not up to the president of the U.S. and not up to the Americans to decide who will remain in power in Russia.

U.S. officials quickly stressed that Biden was not calling for an immediate change in government in Moscow.

We do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia, or anywhere else, for that matter, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a visit to Israel. In this case, as in any case, its up to the people of the country in question. Its up to the Russian people.

French President Emmanuel Macron distanced himself from Bidens comment, saying it was vital to avoid escalation.

We should be factual and ... do everything so that the situation doesnt get out of control, Macron told France-3 television.

Macron, who has spoken to Putin several times in so-far-unsuccessful peacemaking efforts, is scheduled to talk again with the Russian leader on Sunday or Monday.

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A chemical smell lingered in the air on Sunday as firefighters in Lviv, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) from the Polish border, trained hoses on flames and black smoke pouring from oil storage tanks hit in the Russian attack.

A security guard at the site, Yaroslav Prokopiv, said he saw three rockets strike and destroy two oil tanks but no one was hurt.

Russias back-to-back airstrikes shook the city that has become a haven for an estimated 200,000 people who have fled bombarded towns and cities. Lviv, which has largely been spared bombardment, also has been a way-station for most of the 3.8 million refugees who have left Ukraine since Russia invaded on Feb. 24.

In the dim, crowded bomb shelter under an apartment block a short way from the first blast site, Olana Ukrainets, a 34-year-old IT professional, said she couldnt believe she had to hide again after fleeing from the northeastern city of Kharkiv, one of the most bombarded cities of the war.

We were on one side of the street and saw it on the other side, she said. We saw fire. I said to my friend, Whats this? Then we heard the sound of an explosion and glass breaking..

In his video address, Zelenskyy angrily warned Moscow that it was sowing a deep hatred for Russia among the Ukrainian people.

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You are doing everything so that our people themselves leave the Russian language, because the Russian language will now be associated only with you, with your explosions and murders, your crimes, Zelenskyy said.

Along with the millions of people who have fled Ukraine, the invasion has driven more than 10 million people from their homes, almost one-quarter of Ukraines population. Thousands of civilians are believed to have been killed.

While Russias advance on Kyiv remans stalled, fighting has raged in the suburbs, and blasts from missiles fired into the city have rattled the St. Sophia Cathedral, a 1,000-year-old UNESCO world heritage site that is the heart of Ukrainian spiritual and national identity.

Vadim Kyrylenko, an engineer and conservator who is the most senior manager remaining on site, said a strike nearby would be a point of no return for our landmark because it is very fragile and vulnerable.

Pointing at the cathedrals golden domes, Kyrylenko said the cross atop the central one toppled a month before the outbreak of World War II.

The cross on the left fell a month before this war, he added.
Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said that Pakistan should be ashamed for not seeking an apology for the genocide they committed in 1971. Replying to the reporter at Foreign Service Academy on Saturday, Momen said, "It's unfortunate. We always say that Pakistanis should be ashamed. Pakistani military at that time committed heinous crimes and genocide. Even reports from the Pakistan government also said they resorted to excessive torture and violated human rights," according to Bangladeshi newspaper Prothom Alo. "Even reports from Pakistan government also said they resorted to excessive torture and violated human rights," he added. Momen further said that the Pakistan government should punish those people who were responsible for the genocide and seek an apology from Bangladesh. "I believe, the younger generation of Pakistan would come forward to seek an apology. Such wrongdoings can recur if Pakistan cannot understand (the importance of seeking apology)," Momen was saying as quoted by Prothom Alo. Meanwhile, on Thursday, Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh Minorities (HRCBM) has urged the US and the international community to recognize the 1971 genocide of Bangladeshis by Pakistan and take immediate action against it. In a virtual press conference, the HRCBM called for immediate steps to bring to trial the 195 current and former members of the Pakistan Army, who were recorded as being responsible for the genocide. On March 25, 1971, Pakistan Army launched 'Operation Searchlight', wherein a planned military operation was carried out by the Pakistani Army and its military deliberately harmed hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshi citizens. Rights group says the horrors of 1971 are considered one of the worst mass atrocities in history. The damage they inflicted can be described in the following numbers. As many as three million people were believed to have been killed, up to 200,000 women were violated and over 10 million people were forced to cross the border to India to seek shelter. (ANI)
It was signed by Karine Elharrar, Israel's Energy Minister and Oliver Krischer, parliamentary state secretary at Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Xinhua news agency reported.

The signature took place after a meeting they held at the sidelines of the International Energy Agency's annual ministerial meeting in Paris.

The partnership addresses common interests in advancing technologies to provide reliable, sustainable and affordable energy with emphasis on expanding renewable energy and the use of new energy technologies, said the statement.

The agreement defines important areas for future cooperation, including renewable energies, cybersecurity for energy infrastructure, technological innovation, and collaboration in natural gas and in hydrogen application.

--IANS int/pgh

( 144 Words)

2022-03-27-22:44:56 (IANS)
One person was injured after a truck crashed into a ravine in Miami Township Sunday morning.

>> AAA responds to more drivers running out of gas, ties to rising gas prices

Crews were called to respond to the crash in the area of Springboro Pike and Steeple Chase Drive around 8:30 a.m., according to initial reports.

Police on scene confirmed the driver of the truck drove off of the road and into the ravine on Springboro Pike.

According to police, the driver was transported to an area hospital in non-life threatening condition.

The cause of the crash is still under investigation at this time.
10 Oscar-winning films that havent aged well (Universal/Moviestore/Shutterstock)

As society evolves, moments in films that were once beloved can start to sour in historys proverbial rear-view mirror. When Sandy (Olivia Newton John) revamps her entire look and personality to please her boyfriend Danny (John Travolta) at the end of Grease (1978), for example. Or when the cartoon crows in Disneys animated classic Dumbo are literally called The Jim Crows.

Even plenty of Academy Award-winning movies have not aged particularly well. As the 94th Academy Awards approach this Sunday (27 March), here are 10 Oscar-winning films that are problematic in 2021.

Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali in 'Green Book' (Universal/Moviestore/Shutterstock)

Green Book (2018)

When Green Book, which won Best Picture at the 91st Academy Awards, arrived in cinemas a few years back, it quickly became a divisive topic of conversation. The picture, starring Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen, enjoyed early success with audiences and sailed through awards season, but critics lambasted it as being shortsighted in its depiction of race relations.

About an unlikely friendship between a Black world-class pianist (Ali) touring the Deep South in 1962 and his bodyguard, Italian-American bouncer Tony Lip (Mortensen), Green Book was criticised for historical inaccuracies and depicting Alis character, Dr Don Shirley, as being a Magical Negro archetype whose main purpose in the film is to change a white man (Mortensen) for the better. American buddy comedies have generally mandated equal screen time to both characters  except when one of those characters is black, and exists almost entirely to help transform his white companion on a quest toward salvation, wrote IndieWire.

Jared Leto as Rayon in Dallas Buyers Club (Voltage Pictures/Kobal/Shutterstock)

Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

This biographical drama chronicles the story of Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey), an Aids patient diagnosed in the mid 1980s who distributes unapproved pharmaceutical drugs to HIV/Aids patients. One of those patients is trans woman Rayon, played by Jared Leto, who won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal. Now, critics wondered why a cisgendered actor (Leto) was offered the role instead of a trans actor. Additionally, the character, some felt, was written as less of a three-dimensional being than a vehicle for Rons character to get over his homophobia and transphobia. Rayon isnt a person, shes a function, wrote Paris Lees in The Independent at the time.

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Woody Allen and Diane Keaton in Annie Hall (Rollins-Joffe/United Artists/Kobal/Shutterstock)

Annie Hall (1977)

As a film, Annie Hall has historically been lauded as one of the most beloved romantic comedies of the 20th century, winning four Oscars at the 50th Academy Awards and nominated for five in total. But its been a bad few years for its prolific director Woody Allen, due to the recently reexamined allegations of sexual assault from his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow (Allen has continuously denied all allegations), and made worse by HBOs Allen v Farrow docuseries, which offers a closer look into the decades-old allegations and the subsequent media firestorm.

The allegations have trickled down into a number of Allen films, Oscar-winning or not: in particular, the Oscar-nominated Manhattan (1979) depicts the director, then in his 40s, in a relationship with a 17-year-old high school student (Mariel Hemingway). In 1995s Mighty Aphrodite, for which supporting actor Mira Sorvino won the Oscar, 60-year-old Allen briefly romances Sorvinos much younger (though legal) and dim-witted character. Its a pattern that repeats itself over and over  and even in Annie Hall  an older but nebbishy and unassuming guy happens to fall into bed with a beautiful, young, usually rather innocent, woman. Such a repetition starts to feel uncomfortable  particularly given the allegations brought by Dylan Farrow.

Additionally, a number of top-tier Hollywood actors and directors have denounced Allen in recent years, with Kate Winslet, Colin Firth, Timothee Chalamet, Rachel Brosnahan, Rebecca Hall, and Greta Gerwig among the names to have publicly denounced him. Not to mention the fact that Annie Hall has a throwaway line about child molesters, one of many that show up in the directors work over the years. Taken together, its difficult to regard Annie Hall in quite the same way.

Kevin Spacey and Mena Suvari in American Beauty (Lorey Sebastian/Dreamworks/Kobal/Shutterstock)

American Beauty (1999)

To begin with, the presence of disgraced actor Kevin Spacey (who won an Oscar for his role as midlife crisis-having protagonist Lester Burnham) definitely puts a damper on re-watching American Beauty, which won five Oscars in 2000, including Best Picture, Best Director (Sam Mendes), Best Screenplay (Alan Ball), and Best Actor (Spacey).

Spaceys name is now synonymous with the #MeToo movement, which swept through Hollywood in 2017. In October of that year, actor Anthony Rapp accused Spacey of making a sexual advance toward him in 1986, when Rapp was only 14. Following Rapps allegations, more men came forward with allegations that the House of Cards actor had made unwanted advances and had sexually harassed them as well. At the time, Spacey released a statement saying he did not recall the encounter with Rapp, but that if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior.

Whats more, the film has aged badly in its depiction of Lesters inappropriate crush on his daughters (Thora Birch) teenage best friend, played by Mena Suvari. The film, of course, doesnt act like the crush is right or OK. But its many scenes where Lester fantasises about Suvari, who is nude and covered in rose petals, caused critics at the time to liken her to a Lolita figure. Roger Ebert wrote at the time: Is it wrong for a man in his 40s to lust after a teenage girl? Any honest man understands what a complicated question this is. Wrong morally, certainly, and legally. But as every woman knows, men are born with wiring that goes directly from their eyes to their genitals, bypassing the higher centers of thought. They can disapprove of their thoughts, but they cannot stop themselves from having them.

Suffice it to say, Eberts sorry, but men cant help it screed hasnt aged well either.

Jodie Foster in The Silence of the Lambs (Orion/Kobal/Shutterstock)

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Another film accused of misrepresenting the transgender and/or genderqueer experience, horror standout The Silence of the Lambs, which won an Oscar for Best Picture, is criticised these days for its portrayal of villain Buffalo Bill (played by Ted Levine). Buffalo Bill is a serial killer who wears his female victims skins, keeps their clothes, and dresses up like them. Though lead protagonist Clarice (Jody Foster) and her cannibal consultant Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) trade dialogue around how a) Bill isnt transgender, and b) theres no link between transgender identity and violence (even movie director Jonathan Demme has said that Bill is not meant to be trans), the intention is often lost on audiences. As Vox TV writer Emily VanDerWerff tweeted, Knowing the intent of a work doesnt mean s***, because the intent is less important than the impact. And when people saw SotL, they didnt hear Buffalo Bill isnt trans. They saw a weirdo serial killer dancing around in womens clothes.

Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman in Driving Miss Daisy (Warner Bros/The Zanuck Company/Kobal/Shutterstock)

Driving Miss Daisy (1989)

When Driving Miss Motherf***ng Daisy won Best Picture, that hurt, director Spike Lee told New York Magazine in 2008. [But] no ones talking about Driving Miss Daisy now.

The 1989 movie starring Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman, based on Alfred Uhrys Pulitzer Prize-winning play, is often (and rightly) criticised for its overly simplistic portrait of US race relations in the mid-20th century. The story of a retired schoolteacher (Tandy) living in Atlanta, who employs a Black chauffeur (Freeman), Driving Miss Daisy won Best Picture in 1989. Despite its Academy acclaim, numerous people, even Freeman, have attacked the movie as being two-dimensional, its Black characters stereotypes. In 2000, Freeman, who earned an Oscar nod for the role, referred to the movie as a mistake that led to him being typecast as noble, wise, dignified.

Octavia Spencer, Viola Davis, and Emma Stone in The Help (Dreamworks Pictures/Kobal/Shutterstock)

The Help (2011)

Another movie with noble intentions but an overly simplistic view on race relations, 2011 period drama The Help, based on the novel of the same name, is deservedly criticised for leaning on white characters to tell Black stories. Emma Stone stars as Eugenia, an aspiring journalist in Jackson, Mississippi, who wants to write a book from the point of view of the communitys Black maids, exposing the racism they regularly deal with as they work for white families.

In the years since its release, Viola Davis, who plays maid Aibileen Clark, has expressed regret over starring in The Help, saying she feels like she betrayed myself and my people and that the film was created in the filter and the cesspool of systemic racism.

Additionally, actor Bryce Dallas Howard, who also stars, has acknowledged that The Help is told through the perspective of a white character and was created by predominantly white storytellers.

Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump (Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock)

Forrest Gump (1994)

Critics raise their eyebrows about a lot of things in Robert Zemeckis Oscar-winning comedy-drama, about a learning-disabled young man (Tom Hanks) who just happens to witness some of the most defining historical moments of the 20th century. The list typically includes Forrest Gumps depiction of people with learning disabilities, protestors, and Vietnam War veterans. The most offending detail, though, is the films treatment of Forrests best friend Jenny (Robin Wright), who is abused as a child by her father, and goes on to live a life of pure victimhood, performing at nude bars, dating abusive jerks, and eventually contracting Aids and dying young. As British GQ writer Matt Glasby put it, Jenny is a classic mother-madonna-whore figure who ultimately brings Forrest redemption by shagging him, siring him a son who's clever (and Haley Joel Osment) and then, conveniently for fans of films that end, dying.

Thandiwe Newton and Matt Dillon in Crash (Lorey Sebastian/Lions Gate/Kobal/Shutterstock)

Crash (2004)

Paul Haggis' crime drama cleaned up at the 78th Academy Awards, garnering six nominations, and winning three for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Film Editing. Crash has, however, been critiqued as being overly simplistic about how it portrays race relations and racial stereotypes. In 2009, when listing the Worst Movies of the Decade, Atlantic writer Ta-Nehisi Coates said, I don't think there's a single human being in Crash. Instead you have arguments and propaganda violently bumping into each other, impressed with their own quirkiness. ('Hey look, I'm a black carjacker who resents being stereotyped.') But more than a bad film, Crash, which won an Oscar (!), is the apotheosis of a kind of unthinking, incurious, nihilistic, multiculturalism.

Vivien Leigh and Hattie McDaniel in Gone With the Wind (Selznick/Mgm/Kobal/Shutterstock)

Gone With the Wind (1939)

Few films have been reassessed the way Gone With the Wind has. Winning 10 Academy Awards out of 13 nominations, with Hattie McDaniel becoming the first Black woman to win an Oscar, the historical epic might have been seen as being progressive for its time, but it has decidedly not aged well. (Many will recall when HBO Max launched last year, it briefly pulled the film off the platform, citing the need for an explanation and a denouncement of the movies depictions of race relations. And, for what its worth, the film was heavily protested as being racist when it first came out in the 1930s.) Indeed, even filmmaker John Ridley wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times lobbying for the film to be removed from HBO Max entirely. It is a film that glorifies the antebellum south, wrote Ridley, who won an Oscar for the 12 Years a Slave screenplay. It is a film that, when it is not ignoring the horrors of slavery, pauses only to perpetuate some of the most painful stereotypes of people of color.

ScreenRants Kayleigh Donaldson also weighed in on the films historical misses, writing, The KKK are shown as heroic... Mammy, played by Hattie McDaniel, was seen as the exemplification of the Mammy archetype, a stereotype of a homely Black woman who dotes on her white boss/owner. Slavery as a whole is skimmed over by the movie, with the Civil War seen as a battle over traditional values rather than the right to literally own Black people, and the slaves shown on-screen mostly fit into the happy slave stereotype of Black men and women who were delighted by their lot in life, seen as too irresponsible to work and live free of ownership.
PARIS (Reuters) - Some 30,000 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in France, with half of them travelling through the country to other places such as Spain, French housing minister Emmanuelle Wargon said Sunday.

Wargon told Franceinfo radio the government was preparing to welcome 100,000 people fleeing the war in Ukraine.

France has been granting temporary European Union stay permits to Ukrainian refugees, which allows them to have access to schools and to work in the country.

Before the war, the Ukrainian community in France numbered 40,000.

(Reporting by Elizabeth Pineau and Mimosa Spencer; Editing by Edmund Blair)




Parents of children under five have faced months of waiting for a coronavirus vaccine, with the occasional moments of hope getting snatched away.

But there are some signs of progress on a COVID-19 vaccine for the youngest children, the only age group where the vaccine is not currently available.

Here are five things to know:

Pfizer expects results in April

Pfizer's vaccine for children under five has been on a roller coaster. It appeared in February that the vaccine could be moving towards authorization, with a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel meeting scheduled. But that was delayed in a surprise move as the company said it would wait for data on a third dose, which is expected to have higher effectiveness.

Those third dose data could come soon, helping clear the way for potential authorization. Pfizer has previously said the data would come in "early April."

CEO Albert Bourla seemed to confirm that timeline this month, when he detailed the company's decision to wait for data from a third dose.

"We decided to, after a lot of back and forth, to wait for the third dose so that we can have a very clear picture, because it is equally important also to make sure that the data are believable by the public," he said on CNBC. "So we waited to see what the full picture will tell and those [data] are coming, it is weeks away."

Moderna is in the hunt too

While much of the attention was previously on Pfizer, Moderna made news this week when it said it would soon be applying, in the "coming weeks" for authorization for its two-dose vaccine for children under six.

In a positive sign, the company reported that the vaccine was able to produce an immune response similar to what is seen in adults.

However, the effectiveness of the vaccine in preventing any infection was fairly low, at about 44 percent for children six month to two years, and 37 percent for children two to five.

Still, experts and the company defended the results, saying those numbers are only for preventing any infection at all, including mild illness, and the numbers for the most important goal, preventing severe disease, are likely much better. That has been the case under omicron for adult vaccines, which have shown to be much more effective at preventing severe disease than in preventing any infection at all.

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"The efficacy against infection was 44 percent," Anthony Fauci, the White House chief medical advisor, said of the Moderna results for children this week. "Now, that may seem like a low number, but in the era of Omicron, this is actually quite comparable to the efficacy against infection in what we're seeing now with other vaccines."

The two companies are taking different strategies

Once Pfizer's data comes in April, the FDA will be able to compare the two-dose Moderna vaccine against the three-dose Pfizer vaccine.

Each dose of Moderna's is bigger, though, which could aid the effectiveness of its two doses. The Moderna vaccine for children is 25 micrograms, a quarter the size of the adult dose, while the Pfizer vaccine for children is three micrograms, just one-tenth the dose for adults.

William Moss, a vaccine expert at Johns Hopkins University, said the companies were trying to strike the right balance on the size of the dose, enough to be effective but not so big that it causes more side effects.

"They're trying to find this balance between what's sufficient amount of vaccine dosage to protect the children, weighing these transient side effects like fever or soreness," Moss said.

"The Pfizer- BioNTech vaccine may have gone a little bit too low on their dosage, and so in order to improve the vaccine efficacy, they're going with a three-dose," he added.

The vaccines are showing good results on safety

There have not been red flags on safety on the children's vaccines.

Moderna reported this week that its trials showed a "favorable safety profile" that was generally similar as for the adult vaccines.

A small percentage reported fevers after vaccination, and a very small percentage, 0.2 percent, reported fevers over 104 degrees.

There were no deaths or cases of myocarditis, which is inflammation of the heart.

"The safety profile was quite good - nothing more or less than you would naturally see with so many other vaccinations," Fauci said this week of the Moderna results.

There is enough supply, but there's also hesitancy

Amid a funding battle in Congress, there is concern that the government will not have enough money to buy fourth doses for all American adults if those are required. But there is enough supply for doses for young children, once the vaccine is authorized.

"We do have that supply secured for kids under the age of six, so that is good news," White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said this week.

"And we'll have those vaccinations available at tens of thousands of locations across the country that parents know and trust," he said.

Vaccination rates have been lagging among the group of children where the vaccine is already available, though, with only about a quarter of children 5-11 fully vaccinated.

So while some parents are anxiously awaiting the vaccine for young kids, others will be in no hurry.

"That's our least vaccinated age group," Moss said of children 5-11. "I anticipate that coverage will even be lower among children younger than 5 years of age when vaccines become available."
STORY: Dozens of female students and teachers marched in front of the education ministry in Afghanistan's capital Kabul on Saturday.

The women held signs that read 'education is our right' against the Taliban's decision to shut girl's secondary schools, just hours after reopening them earlier in the week.

One student in the crowd, Fatema expressed her sadness at the U-turn decision.

Unfortunately because of the Taliban all our schools were closed, we girls are allowed to study same as boys, Islam has given us this right, but the Taliban has taken this right from us."

The Taliban's decision backtracked on their previous commitment to open high schools to girls.

And after that decision the United States abruptly canceled meetings with the Taliban in Doha that were set to address key economic issues on Friday.

Sources told Reuters that the talks were to include discussing hundreds of millions of dollars of funding currently held in a World Bank Trust Fund that is earmarked for Afghanistan's education sector.

At the Doha forum, activist and Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai had this message for the Taliban:

"I would just say one thing to the Taliban (Speaks in Arabic) Seeking education is a duty of every Muslim."

"I believe in peace talks, I believe in dialogue, but I also feel that at the same time, they should not be recognised if they do not recognise the human rights of women and girls.

The U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan said on Saturday he was hopeful that there will be a reversal of the Taliban's decision in coming days.
KABUL (Reuters) - The Taliban have told airlines in Afghanistan that women cannot board domestic or international flights without a male chaperone, two sources told Reuters on Sunday.

The move comes after the Taliban backtracked on their previous commitment to open high schools to girls, a u-turn that shocked many Afghans and drew condemnation from humanitarian agencies and foreign governments.

The United States on Friday cancelled planned meetings with Taliban officials on key economic issues due to its decision on Wednesday.

The sources, who are not being named for security reasons, said that the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice sent airlines a letter on Saturday informing of them of the new restrictions.

They added that unaccompanied women who had already booked tickets would be allowed to travel on Sunday and Monday. Some women with tickets had been turned away at Kabul's airport on Saturday, they said.

Spokespeople for the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice and the Ministry of Culture and Information did not immediately respond to request for comment.

A Taliban administration spokesman had previously said that women travelling abroad for study should be accompanied by a male relative.

The Taliban say they have changed since their previous rule from 1996 to 2001 in which they barred women from education, work or leaving the house without a male relative. They say they are allowing women their rights in accordance with Islamic law and Afghan culture.

However, the closure of high schools along with some restrictions on women in work and the requirement that women have a chaperone for long-distance travel has drawn criticism from many Afghan women and rights groups.

It was not immediately clear whether the restrictions on air travel would allow any exemptions, for example in emergencies or for women with no living male relatives in the country and whether it applied to foreigners or women with dual citizenship.

The international community has so far not officially recognised the Taliban administration and enforcement of sanctions has crippled the country's banking sector which combined with slashed development funding has plunged the country into a humanitarian crisis.

(Reporting by Kabul Newsroom and Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
A Chicago police officer talks with Cynthia Newell mother of Aaliyah Newell as friends and family gather in the 7200 block of South Vincennes Ave. to remember the 47-year-old on March 25, 2022. Aaliyah Newell, 47, who was found unresponsive on Wednesday night. Police said she suffered blunt force trauma to her head. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)

When they were in elementary school, Khatara Brown and Aaliyah Newell would walk home together after school, ready to stand up for each other when they were bullied.

That loyalty and love for her family and friends is something Brown will miss after her lifelong friend and University of Illinois alum was found dead earlier this week in the 7200 block of South Vincennes Avenue on the South Side.

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She didnt really play about her friends, Brown said of Newell, who was an HR manager and adjuct professor. When she loved you she loved you.

Newell, 47, was found fatally beaten inside her home Wednesday evening, her ankles bound by a cord, according Chicago police. A candlelight vigil was held for her on Friday night.

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Newell had last been heard from about 11 p.m. Sunday, March 20, but friends, including one of her best friends, became worried when she didnt answer her phone, according to a police report. They called 911 about 6:45 p.m. on Wednesday and when they went to her home, found the door was unlocked and saw Newell on the floor, the report said.

Aaliyah Newell in an undated photo. (Khatara Brown)

Her best friend and sorority sister who found her, also called Brown, who arrived at the home at the Vincennes Avenue address to find red police tape around the residence.

When Brown learned her friend died, she was angry, confused, heartbroken and in disbelief.

Shocked. I couldnt stop shaking my head. Im just like, I cant. Its like, this is not happening, Brown said, recalling that moment. It brings me back to just that deflated, numb feeling of like, wanting to close your eyes and waking up knowing that its just not that.

Brown and Newell met when they were 4 years old, growing up in the same neighborhood right around the corner from one another in the West Pullman neighborhood.

Brown remembers Newell always had the latest and trendiest clothes and things. Her mother was a young mother, but worked hard to raise Newell and her sister Amber Newell and to give them the best life, Brown said.

Newells mom was a nurse and eventually got through medical school and became a physician, Brown said. Newells parents now live in Georgia.

She showed her that it really wasnt anything she couldnt do, Brown said of Newells mom. Aaliyah really looked up to her mom. She really adored her mother.

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When they were girls, Brown and Newell would hop on the L, their Walkman headsets in hand with Browns older sister and visit the Garrett Popcorn shop. They would also take the bus or walk to Old Fashioned Donuts in Roseland. Those are memories Brown will hold dearly.

In more recent years, the two would go out together to dance and listen to house music, which they both loved.

I will forever miss our trips where we would travel either to see her mom and dad or go to the Bears games. We did a few trips going to the Bears games out of town, Brown said. And just her smile and her energy. She was the life of the party. She loved to dance. She loved house music.

Newell would also invite Brown to her sorority fundraisers and gatherings. She was a very active member in her Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, Brown said. On Friday, friends and family members, including many of her sorority sisters, mourned Newells loss and honored her memory during the candlelight vigil.

An autopsy found Newell died of multiple injuries from an assault and her death was ruled a homicide, according to the Cook County medical examiners office.

Police have not announced any arrests in the case.

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Tribune reporter Rosemary Sobol contributed.

scasanova@tribpub.com
WARSAW, Poland  President Joe Biden delivered a forceful and highly personal condemnation of Russias Vladimir Putin on Saturday, summoning a call for liberal democracy and a durable resolve among Western nations in the face of a brutal autocrat.

As he capped a four-day trip to Europe, a blend of emotive scenes with refugees and standing among other world leaders in grand settings, Biden said of Putin: For Gods sake, this man cannot remain in power.

Pentagon reconsidering troop levels in Europe amid Russias invasion of Ukraine

It was a dramatic escalation in rhetoric  Biden had earlier called Putin a butcher  that the White House found itself quickly walking back. Before Biden could even board Air Force One to begin the flight back to Washington, aides were clarifying that he wasnt calling for an immediate change in government in Moscow.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov quickly denounced Biden, saying its not up to the president of the U.S. and not up to the Americans to decide who will remain in power in Russia.

While Bidens blunt language grabbed headlines, in other pieces of his roughly 30-minute speech before Warsaws iconic Royal Castle he urged Western allies to brace for what will be a turbulent road ahead in a new battle for freedom.

He also pointedly warned Putin against invading even an inch of territory of a NATO nation.

The address was a heavy bookend to a European visit in which Biden met with NATO and other Western leaders, visited the front lines of the growing refugee crisis and even held a young Ukrainian girl in his arms as he sought to spotlight some of the vast tentacles of the conflict that will likely define his presidency.

We must remain unified today and tomorrow and the day after, and for the years and decades to come. It will not be easy, Biden said as Russia continued to pound several Ukrainian cities. There will be costs, but the price we have to pay, because the darkness that drives autocracy is ultimately no match for the flame of liberty that lights the souls of free people everywhere.

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Biden also made the case that multilateral institutions like NATO are more important than ever if the West and its allies are going to successfully push back against autocrats like Putin.

Army veteran and his wife rescued from Ukraine

During his campaign for president, Biden talked often about the battle for primacy between democracies and autocracies. In those moments, his words seemed like an abstraction. Now, they have an urgent resonance.

Europe finds itself ensconced in a crisis that has virtually all of Europe revisiting defense spending, energy policy and more, and so does the U.S.

Charles Kupchan, who served as senior director for European affairs on the White House National Security Council during the Obama administration, called the invasion a game-changer that left Atlantic democracies with no choice but to bolster their posture against Russia.

But the path ahead for Biden  and the West  will only grow more complicated, Kupchan said.

The challenges Bidens presidency faces have just grown in magnitude, said Kupchan, now a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He now needs to lead the Wests efforts to protect the West from the pressing external threat posed by Russia. And he needs to continue strengthening the West from within by countering the illiberal populism that still poses internal threats to democratic societies on both sides of the Atlantic.

In one of the most poignant moments of his trip, Biden on Saturday bent down and picked up a young girl, a Ukrainian refugee in a pink winter coat, and spoke of how she reminded him of his own granddaughters.

President Joe Biden meets with Ukrainian refugees and humanitarian aid workers during a visit to PGE Narodowy Stadium, Saturday, March 26, 2022, in Warsaw. (Evan Vucci/AP)

I dont speak Ukrainian, but tell her I want to take her home, Biden asked a translator to tell the smiling child.

Hours later, Biden was in front of a crowd of a 1,000  including recent Ukrainian refugees  at the Royal Castle, a Warsaw landmark that dates back more than 400 years and was badly damaged in World War II. He made clear that the West would need to steel itself for what will be a long and difficult battle.

We must commit now, to be this fight for the long haul, Biden said.

The Biden administration, which has been selective about putting too great of importance on any single policy speech, sought to elevate what White House officials billed as a major address. Biden spoke with grand palace behind him to an invited audience  one bigger than just about any hes spoken to during his presidency.

He singled out Lech Walesa, the Polish labor leader who led the push for freedom in his country and was eventually elected its president, and connected the moment to the former Soviet Unions history of brutal oppression, including the post-World War II military operations to stamp out pro-democracy movements in Hungary, Poland and what was then Czechoslovakia. And he urged Europe to heed the words of Pope John Paul II, the first pontiff from Poland: Be not afraid.

Bidens trip has reaffirmed the importance of European alliances, which atrophied under former President Donald Trump. Hes worked with his counterparts to marshal an array of punishing sanctions on Russia, and placed the continent on a course that could eliminate its dependence on Russian energy over the next several years.

The collective response to the invasion of Ukraine has little parallel in recent history, which has been more characterized by widening divisions than close coordination. But the Russian invasion of Ukraine has changed that dynamic, with European nations stepping up defense spending and imposing crushing sanctions against Moscow, and some taking initial steps to reorient their energy needs away from Russia.

Im confident that Vladimir Putin was counting on dividing NATO, Biden said during a meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda on Friday. But he hasnt been able to do it. Weve all stayed together.

Maintaining such unity will likely prove difficult as the war grinds on, and the refugee situation could become one source of strain. Much like NATO is committed to the collective defense of each member, Biden said, other nations should share the burden of caring for Ukrainian refugees. To that end, the U.S. administration announced it would admit up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees into the United States this year.

It should be all of NATOs responsibility, he told Duda, whose country has accepted roughly 2.2 million of the 3.7 million who have fled Ukraine. Its not clear how many of those displaced Ukrainians who have come through Poland have now moved on to other nations.

Theres also no clear path to ending the conflict. Although Russian officials have suggested they will focus their invasion on the Donbas, a region in East Ukraine, Biden wasnt so sure if there was a real shift underway.

Asked on Saturday if the Russians have changed their strategy, he told reporters that I am not sure they have.

Despite the hazards ahead, Biden insisted there is more reason to be hopeful that the West and Ukraine can eventually succeed.

A dictator bent on rebuilding an empire will never erase a peoples love for liberty, Biden said. Brutality will never grind down their will to be free. Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia, for free people refuse to live in a world of hopelessness and darkness.




Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters Sunday that the U.S. has no plans for regime change in Russia a day after President Biden declared that Russian President Vladimir Putin can't remain in power.

"I think the president, the White House, made the point last night that, quite simply, President Putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else," Blinken said during a visit to Jerusalem.

"As you know, and as you have heard us say repeatedly, we do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia - or anywhere else, for that matter," Blinken added.

"In this case, as in any case, it's up to the people of the country in question. It's up to the Russian people."

Blinken also said the administration's strategy to support Ukraine while rallying partners and allies is having a "meaningful impact on Ukraine's ability to defend itself from this onslaught of planes and tanks and other weapons."

"We have a strategy to put unprecedented pressure on Russia, and we're carrying that forward," he said. "And we have a strategy to make sure that we're providing all of the humanitarian support that we can, and we have a strategy to reinforce NATO."

His statements come after Biden said Saturday that Putin can't remain in power.

"Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia, for free people refuse to live in a world of hopelessness and darkness. We will have a different future, a brighter future, rooted in democracy and principles, hope and light, of decency and dignity, of freedom, and possibilities," Biden said after NATO allies met last week for an emergency meeting on Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power," Biden added.

However, the White House tried to walk back on those statements later the same day, with a White House official saying that comment was referring to Putin exercising power outside of Russia.

- Updated at 8:35 a.m.
A 56-year-old man faces a threat of terrorism charge after his boss found a detailed hit list for a workplace shooting on his desk, Utah sheriffs officials say.

Juab County sheriffs deputies responded to a feed plant at 10:52 a.m. Thursday, March 24, after a manager found the list, a probable cause affidavit posted by The Daily Beast said.

Found on the desk of an employee who had called in sick that day, the plan included a list of firearms and how much ammunition to bring, the affidavit said.

It detailed how many coworkers he intended to kill at each location as he moved through the plant for a total of 14 deaths, according to the affidavit.

Notes at the bottom included reminders to take out landline phones, build a cell phone jammer and snipe at responding police from a roof, the affidavit said.

The manager told deputies the employee, who lives in Nephi, had not been in trouble, but coworkers said he had been acting strangely and asked to work alone, according to the affidavit. The supervisor also said that hes maintenance worker and has access to everything.

Sheriffs officials and Nephi police arrested the employee as he drove away from his home, deputies wrote.

The employee told investigators he wrote the stupid note because he had been thinking about it and what would happen if they had a mass shooting because he had just got done reading an article about a mass shooting, the affidavit reported.

He said he used his military experience to draft the plan, but conceded it was not really effective as a plan to counter a hypothetical attack, deputies wrote. He said he did not plan to carry it out.

The worker confirmed that he owned the firearms mentioned in the note, but said his daughter had confiscated them because his family was worried about him, the affidavit said.

Deputies placed him under arrest because they believed he had the knowledge and means to carry out the attack, the affidavit said.

Nephi is a community of 6,000 people, 40 miles south of Provo.

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Family sees dad killed when he flees attack during car purchase, California cops say

Apartment worker uses master key in attack on sleeping tenant, Washington police say

Sharpened pencils used to stab customer in head at Oregon coffee shop, police say




Rep. Mo Brooks's (R-Ala.) sudden turn against former President Trump this week was an unexpected gift for the House Jan. 6 Select Committee that may help bolster its investigation and the case it has started to lay out against Trump.

The Alabama Republican's admission that the former president had urged him to overturn the 2020 election, including in the months after President Biden took office, could add to the committee's effort to show that Trump engaged in criminal conduct while trying to remain in power.

On Wednesday, Trump rescinded his endorsement of Brooks, who is running for an open Senate seat in this year's Republican primary.

In response, the congressman made the extraordinary claim that the former president had been pressuring him to "rescind" the 2020 election even after the White House had changed hands.

"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," Brooks said in a statement on Wednesday. "As a lawyer, I've 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."

In later comments to various news outlets, Brooks said that Trump made such requests as recently as September of last year.

The Alabama lawmaker made the claim Wednesday after a sudden rift between himself and Trump over a disagreement on whether to urge voters to move on from the 2020 campaign.

His statement marked the first time one of Trump's allies had accused the former president of urging illegal actions in order to restore his presidency.

The revelation adds a new dimension to the fallout from the Capitol riot, that Trump continued his efforts to overturn the election long after he had left office.

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Experts say that any effort to undo the election at that point could not be considered lawful.

"There is no way to overturn the election today. And a special election - I mean, it's not in the statutes. It's not in the Constitution. I don't know where that would come from," said Neil Eggleston, who served as White House counsel under former President Obama and as an investigator on the House select committee probing the Iran-Contra scandal.

"As I think Mr. Brooks said he told the president, the matter was over on Jan. 6, when Congress certified the election," Eggleston said. "In my view, it was over in December when all the states reported their electors and what happened on January 6 was a formality. But at the very latest it ended on Jan. 6."

It's unclear whether the select committee will pursue Brooks's claims in its investigation. A spokesman for the panel did not respond when asked for comment.

But Brooks's admission adds to the select committee's findings and could provide momentum for its probe.

"It adds urgency to the work of the Jan. 6 committee," said Jessica Levinson, a law professor at Loyola Marymount University. She added that it fits a trend in the information that has come out about Trump's efforts to remain in office.

"There's a well-documented pressure campaign by the former president when it comes to federal officials, state officials, local officials to try and subvert the outcome of the 2020 election. But the evidence just keeps coming."

On Jan. 6 and in the weeks leading up to it, Brooks supported Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. As Congress was certifying the election results hours after the riot had ended, Brooks tried to raise objections to derail the process.

And in the hours before the insurrection, Brooks spoke to Trump supporters at the "Stop the Steal" rally, wearing body armor and exhorting the crowd to fight to undermine efforts to certify Biden's win.

"Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass," he said in his remarks.

The Brooks news comes as the select committee ramps up its investigation, fighting various legal challenges to its subpoenas.

The panel responded earlier this month to a lawsuit from Trump legal adviser John Eastman who challenged his subpoena, saying that it had developed a "good faith basis" to believe that Trump engaged in criminal conduct in his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The allegation, which has little bearing on whether the former president will ultimately face criminal charges, was leveled against Eastman's argument that his subpoenaed communications were protected under attorney-client privilege. However, the committee said such privilege would be forfeited if the lawyer aided Trump in illegal conduct.

Eastman has denied the allegation, arguing that he was providing legal advice based on his own interpretation of the Constitution in urging then-Vice President Pence to halt the certification.

If Trump is ever forced to mount a legal defense in either a civil or criminal case, he is likely to make similar claims: that his efforts to overturn the election were supported by advice he had received that such actions were lawful.

But Brooks's claim could undermine that, because it shows that Trump had continued his campaign after leaving office and long after he could lay any claim to holding on to the White House.

While it could also prove useful for the select committee's efforts to enforce its subpoenas in court, Levinson said that the latest news just reinforces a massive record supporting the basis of the panel's investigation and its authority to pursue it.

"How many different chapters of the story that say almost the same thing are we going to have before we close the book?" Levinson said.

- Updated at 7:58 a.m.
Mar. 27Nontraditional candidates seem to be a solution that is working for local businesses looking to expand their workforce.

"It's no surprise the biggest issue for businesses right now is lack of workforce," said Laura Gardner, Job Service Kalispell Supervisor, at a Kalispell Chamber of Commerce luncheon on March 15.

To solve that issue, Gardner and many of her industry partners are turning to "untapped" workers. Older workers, workers with disabilities, veterans and workers who have been involved in the justice system all offer labor opportunities for businesses willing to get creative with their recruitment.

Retirees are the largest population of potential workers who aren't involved in the labor force, according to Gardner. She cited statistics from the Montana Department of Labor and Industry indicating 60% of those not in the labor force list retirement as their primary reason for non-participation.

Gardner believes enticing those workers back into the labor market would help address recruitment challenges.

"What would it be to get them back into work and contribute to their community again?" Gardner asked at the March 15 luncheon.

Jenn Prunty, founder of My Glacier Village, hopes to start a community conversation to answer that question. My Glacier Village, a nonprofit that helps seniors age in place at their homes, is hosting a seminar on reentering the workforce from 1 to 3 p.m. on April 6 at the Gateway Center Mall.

Prunty pointed out retirement used to last approximately seven to 10 years, but now people are living for decades after they retire.

"That's a lot of down time," Prunty said.

Plus, she added, a career doesn't always fund a retirement of that length, so she wants to encourage seniors to think about "redefining your retirement."

The goal of the seminar is to give My Glacier Village members and others in their demographic an opportunity to think about "reimagining what that time will look like."

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Prunty noted that many retirees are "pretty happily retired," but others miss the challenge, the social component and the collaboration that come with a job. For those who are interested in recapturing some of the benefits of working, Prunty wants to make sure there is an awareness of the ways the workplace has changed. She wants retirees to consider opportunities for remote and flexible work.

"If retirees understand how different the workplace is," Prunty said, they might rejoin the workforce in greater numbers.

But she said it might take some work on the part of businesses to make workplaces more comfortable for older workers.

She suggested offering shorter shifts and flexible hours to cater to older workers.

"If companies could be a little more accommodating, I think we could get more people back into the workforce," Prunty said.

A SIMILAR approach could incorporate more workers with disabilities into the labor market, says Sandy Cothran, Associate Director of Vocational Services at Flathead Industries.

"Be willing to try anything," Cothran urged employers. "Sometimes you might be surprised."

She said workplaces could be more accommodating to workers with disabilities if supervisors considered the strengths of different disabled populations. Cothran pointed out some people with disabilities have a knack for job tasks that other workers might have more difficulty completing. Leveraging each worker's capabilities could help operations run more efficiently, Cothran said.

Cothran also urged employers to give workers with disabilities an opportunity to learn. Even if the process takes longer than usual at the outset, Cothran said this tactic might be "better in the long run" for businesses that have the patience to provide a learning opportunity.

Similarly, Cothran recommended taking the time to explain expectations clearly, and she advised employers to create a structured task list for some workers with disabilities. She said it helps to have "good communications with all parties involved."

Finally, Cothran encouraged employers to take multiple chances on workers with disabilities. Dedicated workplaces should be able to find roles that fit different workers, even if it takes a few tries. "Be willing to try again," Cothran suggested.

AT MANUFACTURER Northern Plastics, Chadwick Fairbanks has taken that advice to heart in his search for employees. Fairbanks and his team have diligently worked with nontraditional workers to slot them into Northern Plastics' operation, with a particular focus on the population of workers that has been involved with the criminal justice system.

"We want to be a part of the rehabilitation of these folks," said Fairbanks. "We're not afraid. We need manual labor. We need production."

Northern Plastics has been expanding in recent years, with plans to double its footprint at a new facility in Glacier Rail Park. The boom in business for the plastic injection molding company has brought with it an attendant need for a larger staff.

That need led Fairbanks to create a Jail to Jobs program at Northern Plastics. He collaborated with the Montana Department of Corrections to establish a pipeline of people being released from the Flathead County jail.

Fairbanks said he has the mentality that a person who is released from a detention center has completed his or her requirements to reintegrate into society and the workplace. "If you've been released from prison, you're done," he said. "It's over."

Those individuals have stipulations that require them to secure a job and housing, so Fairbanks said, "as far as we're concerned, they'll make good employees."

"It's worked fairly well," Fairbanks reported. "...Some of them have really turned their lives around."

Fairbanks and the team at Northern Plastics have worked hard to make the Jail to Jobs program successful. When one participant in the program didn't have a license, for example, Fairbanks personally drove him to work until he was able to get a license. Northern Plastics also secures apartments and provides a housing stipend to employees who don't have housing lined up.

"We're very much an employer dedicated to walking alongside these guys," Fairbanks stressed. "It's been a labor of love."

ANOTHER GROWING company, Shield Arms is looking to underutilized candidates to staff the expanding business. The firearms manufacturer told the Inter Lake it plans to add 30 new positions when it moves into a new $5 million facility by the end of the year.

"Hiring people can sometimes be a challenge," said co-owner Seth Berglee. "We're growing a lot."

The business leader and Army veteran is relying upon fellow military veterans to meet that demand for more workers.

Berglee pointed out Montana has one of the nation's highest populations of veterans, so it's advantageous to be a veteran-friendly workplace.

Shield Arms has achieved that status through several efforts. Berglee believes the company ethos, the nature of the work and the existing presence of veterans on staff all invite more veterans to work at the Bigfork company.

"Our culture is conducive to that in a lot of ways," Berglee said of recruiting veterans.

He said he and many members of the Shield Arms team understand the unique situations many veterans find themselves in when they return from duty.

"It's pretty hard to feel like you're valuable or the things you've done are transferring," Berglee observed. But at Shield Arms, he said, "It's welcoming. People fit in."

Reporter Bret Anne Serbin may be reached at 406-758-4459 or bserbin@dailyinterlake.com.
By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Canadian indigenous peoples meet Pope Francis this week to ask him to apologise for the Catholic Church's role in residential schools where children were abused and their culture denied.

More than 30 indigenous elders, residential schools survivors and young people will meet him several times at the Vatican between Monday and Friday in what Canada's Catholic Church has called a process of healing and reconciliation.

"We expect that these private encounters will allow the Holy Father to meaningfully address both the ongoing trauma and legacy of suffering faced by Indigenous Peoples to this day," Canada's bishops said in a statement.

The meetings would also focus on "the role of the Catholic Church in the residential school system, which contributed to the suppression of indigenous languages, culture and spirituality," it said.

The recurring schools scandal broke out again last year with the discovery of the remains of 215 children at the former Indian Residential School in Kamloops in the Western Canadian province of British Columbia.

The discovery at the school, which closed in 1978, reopened old wounds and brought new demands for accountability. Hundreds more unmarked burial sites have been found since.

"This is something that is an important step," said Gerald Antoine, chief of the Dene people and regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations, said of the meetings.

He told a news conference in Canada that the delegates would ask the pope "to visit our family and to apologise. I think this is an issue which is long overdue."

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has asked Francis to make an apology during a visit to Canada.

Last October, Francis accepted an invitation from the Canadian bishops. Vatican sources say he likely will go this summer.

The stated aim of the schools was to assimilate indigenous children. They operated between 1831 and 1996 and were run by several Christian denominations on behalf of the government, most by the Catholic Church.

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About 150,000 children were taken from their homes. Many were subjected to abuse, rape and malnutrition in what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015 called "cultural genocide."

Delegates from the Inuit and Metis people and from the Assembly of First Nations will have three separate private meetings with the pope before he addresses all on Friday.

Francis was elected pope nearly two decades after the last of the schools closed. He already has apologised generically for the Church's role in colonialism in the Americas.

(Reporting by Philip Pullella. Editing by Jane Merriman)
UPDATE: Bennett has been taken into custody, according to the sheriffs office.

ORIGINAL STORY:

Cherokee County deputies are searching for a sex offender wanted on child molestation charges.

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John Allen Bennett, 37, is thought to be traveling from Cherokee County to the Valdosta, Georgia or North Florida area.

TRENDING STORIES:

He was last seen driving a green 1995 Ford Ranger with tag number RNW1445. Hes described as 5 foot 8 inches tall and 185 pounds with brown hair and hazel eyes.

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Anyone who has any information on Bennetts whereabouts is asked to call the Cherokee County Sheriffs Office at 770-928-0239.
Coda was something of an underdog when it first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2021 (Apple TV+)

People love to argue about the Oscars, even when theyre not sure exactly what theyre arguing about. And awards season this year hasnt exactly handed them a tidy narrative to work from  the biopics, like The Eyes of Tammy Faye and Spencer, are a little too self-aware to play as strictly conventional. The A-list-packed satire Dont Look Up, and the lushly traditional musical West Side Story, fell by the wayside early on in the race.

Kenneth Branaghs Belfast is the most obvious Oscar bait of the pack, but its lost significant ground to The Power of the Dog, Jane Campions meticulously directed western. The latter is the current favourite to win, but the industrys stubborn attitude towards its distributor Netflix (see: Green Book winning over Alfonso Cuarons Roma in 2019) continues to weaken its position.

Its full-blooded chaos out there, which youd think would add some much-needed excitement to the process. Instead, were still watching the internet grasp wildly for the heroes and villains of this story. And somehow, Sian Heders CODA has ended up the target of peoples ire, after its crucial wins at the Producers Guild and Screen Actors Guild confirmed it as a real contender for this weekends Academy Awards.

CODA, an honest and sincere drama about a hearing child in a deaf family, was something of an underdog when it first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2021. The film received rapturous reviews and a healthy dollop of publicity, and walked away from Sundance with a record-breaking $25m acquisition deal with Apple TV+.

The Power of the Dog may still be in the lead at Sundays ceremony, with 12 Oscar nominations and a Bafta for Best Film in its back pocket, but CODA could conceivably pull off a Best Picture win despite only featuring in two other categories on the night. Stranger things have happened. And, if it does prevail, that can only be a good thing.

The backlash to CODAs Best Picture buzz seems largely out of touch with the true, material impact of the Oscars. Ultimately, these awards dont decide which individual films we remember in a decades, or two decades, time. The Power of the Dog and Ryusuke Hamaguchis Drive My Car will continue to be talked about in the ways they were talked about before. But they do dictate the kinds of names, ideas, and faces Hollywood is willing to put its money behind.

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It mattered when Parasite won, because it helped shake a little of the fear of subtitled films out of English-speaking audiences. It mattered that Chloe Zhao won for Nomadland, because it offered genuine hope that the barriers for women directors, and especially women of colour, were starting to break. And, if CODA wins, itll matter because of the opportunities it will create for other majority deaf casts.

Those who dismiss it do so largely because they see it as a shallow crowd-pleaser, but the label only fits if youre faithfully tied to the assumption that any expression of sentimentality should be equated automatically with naivete. Theres nothing slight or simplistic about CODA.

The family at its centre  Frank (Troy Kotsur) and Jackie (Marlee Matlin) plus their kids Leo (Daniel Durant) and Ruby (Emilia Jones)  remain a stubborn, bubbling mess of conflicted desires and personal duties. Ruby wants to be a musician but, as the hearing child of deaf parents, positioned as their de facto interpreter, she worries that striking out on her own would sever one of their few concrete connections to hearing culture. Meanwhile, her fathers work in the fishing industry has come under threat of corporate interference, with 60 per cent of his catch now handed over to middlemen.

Theres nothing cutesy about the difficult choices these characters are forced to make between what they want and who theyve dedicated themselves to. And Heders unfussy approach to the film allows her cast to craft a family dynamic that feels firmly grounded in experience, as they tease and argue, each gesture insulated by love. CODA allows its hearing audience only one moment of concession, as the sound cuts out midway through one of Rubys performances. Her parents, reading the micro-gestures and choked-back sobs of the other audience members, finally realise how gifted their daughter is.

If the Oscars want to reward something of that straightforward, emotional purity, what could possibly be the harm in that?
Judge Mary Shaw is the incumbent in a contested race for Jefferson Circuit Court.

Judge Mary Shaw, who signed off on the no-knock warrant that led to the killing of Breonna Taylor by police gunfire, has received an endorsement for reelection this year from a Louisville-based citizens group of lawyers and community members.

As reported by the Louisville Courier Journal, Shaw is among four candidates backed Thursday by Citizens For Better Judges, a steering committee of 30 lawyers, as well as a review board of citizen members, whose stated goal is to maintain and improve the quality of the judiciary by promoting the election of only the most highly qualified judicial candidates.

Between the police and the public is a judge, in this case Louisville Circuit Judge Mary Shaw, who signed off on a no-knock warrant that failed to satisfy the requirements of law. https://t.co/XnnLJHk3CT  Scott Greenfield (@ScottGreenfield) June 4, 2020

According to an earlier report from the outlet, Shaw faced strong criticism for green-lighting five different raids on the night that Taylor was shot in her home, although detective Joshua Jaynes was found to have falsified an affidavit in order to obtain those warrants, and was later fired.

According to the Associated Press, demonstrators convened in downtown Louisville on the two-year anniversary of Taylors death on March 13 to commemorate her life and continue ongoing advocacy for justice and sweeping systemic changes within American law enforcement.

During the protest, Democratic state Rep. Keturah Herron called for voters to remove Shaw from the position, urging: We have an opportunity to get justice in a different type of way by going to the ballot box this election season.

The ethics of no-knock warrants remain a point of controversy amid national discussions about criminal justice reform, with many critics pointing out a pattern of no-knock raids resulting in police violence against Black people.

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Amir Locke, a 22-year-old Black man, was shot in February by Minneapolis SWAT team officers while they similarly executed a search warrant permitting entry into a residence without first knocking.

2020: Breonna Taylor was murdered by police during a no-knock warrant.



2022: Amir Locke was murdered by police during a no-knock warrant.



In the two years in between? The Senate didnt even bring the bill to ban no-knock warrants to a vote.



The whole system is guilty.  Cori Bush (@CoriBush) February 4, 2022

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represented the families of both Locke and Taylor, told theGrio that a study conducted two years prior to Taylors death found that 82% of all the no-knock warrants executed with police kicking in doors were against Black people.

No-knock raids at the hands of law enforcement continue to take the lives of innocent Black people, Crump wrote in a joint statement with attorney Jeff Storms following Lockes death, per NBC-affiliated KARE 11. We ask that just as people raised their voices for Breonna Taylor, they do the same for Amir Locke. Enough is enough.

theGrios April Ryan contributed to this report.

TheGrio is now on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, and Android TV. Also, please download theGrio mobile apps today!

The post Community group endorses Louisville judge who signed Breonna Taylor no-knock warrant appeared first on TheGrio.
Offended when his roommates kicked him out because he was late on rent, a 33-year-old man set three fires at his South Shore building, including one that erupted when he lit a baby stroller ablaze, prosecutors said.

Cook County Judge Barbara Dawkins denied bail for Lawrence Bostic, charged with residential arson, aggravated arson and failure to register within 10 days as an arsonist, prosecutors said at a hearing audio streamed on YouTube Saturday afternoon.

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Bostic, who lived in the building in the 6800 block of South Clyde Avenue, had two roommates who repeatedly asked him to leave because he failed to pay his portion of rent, prosecutors said.

During the most recent blaze, March 5, Bostic was caught on video surveillance standing over a fire with lighter fluid in his hand. That fire destroyed at least 12 units, left several residents displaced and caused about $1 million in damage, prosecutors said.

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During another one of the blazes, which never injured anyone, one of his roommates opened his door to see the apartment was on fire and was able to extinguish it before it spread, prosecutors said.

In a third, Bostics roommate heard glass breaking and peered out to a back porch, where he saw Bostic dousing a stroller with lighter fluid, prosecutors said.

Before denying bail, Judge Dawkins said he was a danger to his roommates, other residents of his building and others living on his block.

The embers of the fire could have spread, she said. All because he was told he wasnt welcomed in a place.

Judge Dawkins then addressed the failure to register as a convicted arsonist charge, something put in place to inform the public of a possible threat. Details of that conviction were not immediately available.

A public defender representing Bostic said he has two daughters and volunteers at a food pantry at a South Shore church.

Bostic, of the 6000 block of South Harper Avenue, was due back in court on April 1, court records show.
The Daily Beast

Getty ImagesAmber Heard sobbed uncontrollably on the stand Thursday as she recounted a wild fight with her then-husband Johnny Depp in Australia in which he allegedly penetrated her vagina repeatedly with a liquor bottle, leaving her retching and bloodied.The March 2015 trip for the filming of Pirates of the Caribbean 5 was tumultuous from the start, Heard said during her second day of testimony in the trial over Johnny Depps $50 million defamation lawsuit. One day, after he had been drinking,
A hospital room. sudok1/iStock

Here are three of the week's top pieces of financial insight, gathered from around the web:

Credit reports drop medical debt

The biggest credit bureaus announced changes to how medical debt is reflected on credit reports, said AnnaMaria Andriotis in The Wall Street Journal. Starting this summer, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion agreed to hold off on adding unpaid medical debts to credit reports "for a full year after being sent to collections," and will remove any debt that has already been paid, which "can stick around on a consumer's credit report for up to seven years." The moves came after pressure from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which estimates that roughly one in five borrowers have some medical debts sitting on their credit reports  and potentially weighing down their credit score. But its research indicates "that medical debt is less predictive of a person's ability to repay than other kinds of loans."

Netflix to charge for account sharing

It may be time to stop mooching off your friends' Netflix accounts, said Alexandra Canal in Yahoo Finance. After years of "turning a blind eye" to the popular practice of password sharing, the streaming giant said last week it will begin charging an additional $2 to $3 "for subscribers who share accounts with people outside of their household." The new pricing model will be tested in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru first before eventually rolling out in the United States. Facing "obvious headwinds in recent quarters as subscriber growth slows," Netflix expects the password-sharing crackdown to boost its subscriber count and revenue. Netflix also recently raised its prices, with a standard plan now costing $15.50 per month, up from $14.

China eases up on corporations

U.S. listed Chinese stocks had their biggest two-day advance since 1998 last week, after Beijing officials pledged to ease a regulatory crackdown, said Abhishek Vishnoi and Jeanny Yu in Bloomberg. "Investors are expecting authorities to follow up their words with concrete action after news that China will not expand a trial on property taxes" amid a housing market slump. A softer line from Chinese authorities suggests "the government may be nearing an end of punitive measures imposed on the internet sector," which have weighed heavily on stocks like Alibaba and Tencent. China also "voiced optimism about reaching a resolution" with U.S. regulators over providing access to audits of Chinese companies, so they can continue to be listed on U.S. stock exchanges.

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Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, has indicated that Britain could lift its sweeping sanctions if Russia withdraws from Ukraine - Eddie Mulholland for The Telegraph

Britain could lift sanctions crippling Russia if Vladimir Putin withdraws from Ukraine and commits to "no further aggression", Liz Truss has said.

In an interview with The Telegraph, the Foreign Secretary set out a blueprint for the so-called "off ramp" that the Russian president could be offered to halt his assault on Ukraine.

Ms Truss - who revealed that she has established a "negotiations unit" in the Foreign Office to aid future peace talks - said sanctions on Russian banks, firms and oligarchs could be lifted in the event of "a full ceasefire and withdrawal".

Putin would also have to agree to refrain from future military aggression, with the threat of "snapback sanctions" which could instantly be slapped back onto Russia.

Ms Truss' intervention is the first official confirmation that Britain could lift its sweeping sanctions as part of a peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine.

It marks a shift from earlier remarks in which the Foreign Secretary said she could not see a situation in which Roman Abramovich, the most prominent of the sanctioned oligarchs, would be allowed to come to the UK again.

Her latest comments chime with remarks by Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, who said that US sanctions against Russia were not designed to be permanent and could go away if Moscow changes its behaviour.

The interview comes after the Kremlin gave its first indication that it plans to scale back its invasion - as an army chief said Moscow's "main goal" was now the "liberation" of the Donbas region, on the eastern border with Russia.

On Saturday, the Ministry of Defence said Russian forces were increasingly reliant on indiscriminate air and artillery bombardments, as they were proving reluctant to engage in large scale urban infantry operations.

Ms Truss also:

Revealed plans to advertise Britain's Homes for Ukraine scheme via text messages to refugees crossing into Poland

Warned that "there would be a response" if Putin uses chemical weapons in Ukraine

Said that "supply-side reforms", such as tax cuts and deregulation, were "the way to get the cost of living down in the long-term"

Insisted that Putin's invasion of Ukraine had highlighted Britain's affinity with the EU - amid growing signs that plans to trigger Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol have been put on ice.

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Ms Truss said Western leaders had previously been "naive" in their approach to Putin and had engaged in "wishful thinking."

She added: What we know is that Russia signed up to multiple agreements they simply dont comply with. So there needs to be hard levers. Of course, sanctions are a hard lever.

Those sanctions should only come off with a full ceasefire and withdrawal, but also commitments that there will be no further aggression. And also, theres the opportunity to have snapback sanctions if there is further aggression in future. That is a real lever that I think can be used.

Since the start of the war, negotiating teams from Russia and Ukraine have met several times in Belarus.

Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, has conceded that Ukraine will never join Nato, a key Russian demand, as the starting point of a peace deal.

But he has promised a referendum on any "potentially historic changes" and has insisted that Ukraine would not agree to give up any of its territory for the sake of peace.

The Kremlin is demanding that any peace deal should include Ukraine recognising the independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which have been occupied by pro-Russian separatists since 2014.

It is understood that Ms Truss backs Mr Zelensky's demands.

A source close to Ms Truss added: Russia has shown it simply does not abide by international rules and treaties, so any agreement needs to come with an incentive not to break it.

"The threat of sanctions snapping back is a mechanism that Liz is keen on.

"Sanctions have had a crippling effect so far on the Russian economy, so the prospect of them snapping back would be a significant deterrence to future aggression or rule-breaking.

Under the Homes for Ukraine scheme, individuals can sponsor named Ukrainians to come to the UK, by offering them accommodation for at least six months.

Ukrainian refugees cross the border with Poland. Free Sim cards advertising the UK's Homes for Ukraine scheme are set to be handed to those entering Poland - Hannah McKay/Reuters

Ms Truss revealed that the Government is in talks with Polish officials to use free Sim cards being handed to refugees entering Poland, to advertise the UK scheme.

Under the plans, Ukrainian refugees who use the Sim cards being offered by Polish operators would receive text messages advertising the scheme.

Ms Truss said it would mean that Ukrainians have immediate access, as they go over the border, to the scheme we're offering in the UK".

Asked about Putin's potential use of chemical weapons, Ms Truss said: That would represent an escalation of this appalling conflict. Weve already seen abhorrent acts committed against civilians in Ukraine, but the use of chemical weapons would represent an escalation and there would be a response.

Ms Truss said tax cuts were "very, very important.

She added: Ultimately, the way to get the cost of living down in the long-term is supply side reform, and its doing what we need to do to generate economic growth.

And whether its on making childcare more affordable, which Ive long been a champion of, whether its making housing more affordable, that is ultimately what will bring down the cost of living.
A German photo of HMS Campbeltown lodged in the gate of the dry dock at St. Nazaire, March 28, 1942. German Federal Archive

By spring 1942, the British had blunted the Nazi advance but still faced a desperate situation.

British leaders feared the German navy, especially the battleship Tirpitz, wreaking havoc on Allied convoys.

To keep Tirpitz out of the Atlantic, the British mounted high-risk raid on the only facility that could repair it.

Shortly after 1:00 a.m. on March 28, 1942, a destroyer flying the German flag and 18 smaller boats entered the Loire River estuary and headed for the German-occupied port of St. Nazaire on France's Atlantic coast.

The ships were not aggressive and responded correctly to German signals, but the Germans were suspicious.

Although the destroyer appeared to be of German design, the smaller boats looked different, and they all sailed in the middle of the estuary, the shallowest part, rather than in the deeper channel closer to the coast that vessels normally used.

The ships were in fact British. They carried teams of elite commandos with a critical mission: destroy St. Nazaire's massive dry dock to prevent the Germans from using it to repair the battleship Tirpitz.

As the British ships approached, their cover was blown, and German guns on both sides of the estuary opened fire. Shedding their disguise, the British sailed the destroyer at full speed toward the dry dock.

The target

A British reconnaissance photo of St. Nazaire, with the dry dock top-center, taken before the raid in 1942. Royal Air Force

By spring 1942, the British had survived the Battle of Britain and opened a second front in North Africa but still faced a desperate situation.

The Battle of the Atlantic was raging, and German U-boats were wreaking havoc on Allied convoys. After Japan declared war on them in December 1941, Britain and the US had to divert warships to the Pacific.

The Royal Navy had sunk the Kriegsmarine's crown jewel, the battleship Bismarck, in May 1941, but its sister ship, Tirpitz, was now active.

Tirpitz's deployment to Norway in January 1942 had unnerved the British, who worried it might attempt to enter the Atlantic, as Bismarck tried to do.

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To prevent that, the British decided to destroy the only place where Tirpitz could have major repairs done: the dry dock at St. Nazaire. Built in the 1930s for the massive French ocean liner SS Normandie, it was nearly 1,000 feet long, 164 feet wide, and more than 50 feet deep.

St. Nazaire had become an important base for the Kriegsmarine's U-boat fleet, and reaching the dry dock, which was about 6 miles from the mouth of the estuary, would not be easy.

A motor launch of the type that took part in the raid on St. Nazaire. Royal Navy/Lt. F.A. Davies

In addition to about 80 anti-aircraft guns and a 5,000-troop garrison, the dry dock was defended by anti-submarine and torpedo nets, coastal artillery, mines, and patrol vessels.

An air raid or a bombardment by warships were simply too risky and weren't guaranteed to destroy the dry dock. The British instead devised a commando raid using the destroyer HMS Campbeltown and 18 motor launches.

Campbeltown  a US Navy destroyer given to the British in the Destroyers for Bases Agreement of 1940  had two of its funnels removed and the other two cut at an angle in order to look like a German Mowe-class torpedo boat. It was also loaded with 4 tons of explosives on a time-delay fuse.

Campbeltown would ram the center of the dry dock's gate. The commandos aboard the destroyer and the motor launches would then disembark and destroy the dry dock's machinery and other harbor facilities before evacuating on the launches. The explosives on Campbeltown would then detonate, destroying the gate and flooding the dry dock.

It was an extremely risky plan that many high-ranking British military officials thought was impossible.

Vice Adm. Lord Louis Mountbatten  chief of Combined Operations Headquarters, which had been set up to harass the Germans with raids  insisted it would work, arguing the presumed impossibility in fact made it possible.

"The Germans will never think we'll attempt it," Mountbatten said.

The raid

The HMS Campbeltown on the lip of the Normandie dock after crashing into it, March 28, 1942. German Federal Archive

In all, 265 commandos and 346 Royal Navy personnel were assembled for the mission. Before they departed England, Mountbatten offered them a chance to opt out of the mission without any consequences. None did.

After being escorted to France by other Royal Navy destroyers, the force made its way into the Loire estuary, where they used a captured German codebook to deceive the port's defenders.

But 2,000 yards from the dry dock's gate, Germans on both sides of the estuary opened fire, killing scores of British commandos and sailors and sinking several motor launches.

Despite the heavy fire, Campbeltown broke through the gate at 1:34 a.m., with about 32 feet of the 314-foot warship protruding into the dock.

The surviving commandos swarmed the port and destroyed the dry dock's pumps and operating mechanisms. They then regrouped to evacuate, but the motor launches had either been destroyed or had already left.

A Nazi propaganda photo of a heavily wounded British soldier captured at St. Nazaire in March 1942. Berliner Verlag/Archiv/picture alliance via Getty Images

Stranded, the remaining commandos attempted to fight their way out in small groups and escape to neutral Spain. Most were soon captured, though five eventually did make it to Spanish territory.

Several hours later, as German soldiers were inspecting Campbeltown and the damage to the dry dock, the destroyer exploded. The detonation was hours late, but it destroyed the gate, killing scores of Germans and two captured commandos.

The operation came with a steep price. Sixty-four commandos and 105 sailors were killed, while more than 200 other raiders were captured. About 400 Germans were killed.

Despite the losses, the mission was successful. The dry dock was so damaged that it wouldn't be repaired until after the war, and Tirpitz stayed in Norway until British aircraft sunk it on November 12, 1944.

Months after attacking St. Nazaire, Mountbatten led another raid on France. The August 1942 attempt to attack and briefly hold the port of Dieppe was repulsed with disastrous losses, but it yielded lessons applied directly to the Normandy landings two years later.

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Elon Musk says he is a free speech absolutist. Jae C. Hong/AP

Elon Musk referred to himself as a 'free speech absolutist' and criticized Twitter for censorship.

Musk has threatened to sue bloggers for critical coverage and fired employees for disagreeing with him.

"Seems @elonmusk is a free speech absolutist unless it involves safety concerns IMO," a former employee tweeted.

Elon Musk on Saturday criticized Twitter for "failing to adhere to free speech principles," which he said "fundamentally undermines democracy."

The Tesla CEO, who has previously referred to himself as a "free speech absolutist," has a track record of silencing critics with threats of lawsuits and firing employees who disagree with him.

"Seems @elonmusk is a free speech absolutist unless it involves safety concerns IMO," tweeted John Bernal, a former Tesla employee who was fired after he posted YouTube reviews of Tesla's autopilot functions on his channel, AI Addict.

Bernal's video reviews contained only end-user features and included footage of the car's autopilot disengaging, which caused Bernal to take control to avoid dangerous situations, including a possible crash.

"I was fired from Tesla in February with my YouTube being cited as the reason why. Even though my uploads are from my personal vehicle off company time or property with software I paid for," Bernal said in a video update posted earlier this month.

Bernal did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Bernal's firing is not the only example of Musk taking action against public criticism. In one instance, Fast Company reported that Musk found the identity of a would-be anonymous blogger who posted a negative stock analysis of Tesla and contacted their employer, threatening to sue, according to the blogger.

The poster deactivated his social media accounts and stopped posting about Tesla altogether.

"I do not know what Mr. Musk's precise complaints are about me. I do not believe he has any valid legal claim, and I would have no trepidation in defending myself vigorously were he to bring any claim," Montana Skeptic wrote in their farewell post. "My response to his threats was simply to protect my employer and preserve my employment."

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In another incident, a journalist who had been critical of the Tesla Model X launch event was called by Musk personally and had their order for a Model X canceled.

Former employees have reported being fired for disagreeing with the CEO, for reporting racist harassment, or for simply being in his way.

Musk has denied allegations of rage-firing employees and says his criticism of Twitter is based on a fundamental belief in freedom of speech. He argued in a tweet that since Twitter is "a de facto public town square," the company's posting policy "undermines democracy."

Twitter operates with terms of service that users are required to adhere to in order to access the platform. First Amendment protections only apply in circumstances where the government, not a private business, imposes punishment for protected speech.

In another tweet, Musk asked "is a new platform needed?" which, to some, signaled a possibility that the Tesla CEO would create a new social media platform.

Musk did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment for this article.

Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey responded to Musk's tweets, saying "the choice of which algorithm to use (or not) should be open to everyone."

Read the original article on Business Insider
LaKeith Stanfield, Donald Glover, and Brian Tyree Henry in "Atlanta" season two, episode nine. Guy D'Alema/FX

Donald Glover said that Ryan Gosling almost made a guest appearance on the FX series "Atlanta."

Glover said Gosling would have joined the cast if not for a scheduling conflict.

The cast of "Atlanta" said they faced racial profiling while filming in London for season three.

Ryan Gosling almost made a guest appearance on Donald Glover's popular FX series, "Atlanta."

While attending the season three premiere on Thursday, the "This Is America" artist told People's Lanae Brody and Dan Heching that Gosling, 41, was a "big fan" of the series.

"He said he was a big fan, but he had something else, and it just didn't work out," Glover, 38, said. "I was so bummed because the part was so great for him!"

Glover added that he and Gosling even "talked on the phone" and "were going to do it," but a scheduling conflict got in the way.

Representatives for Glover and Gosling did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

In February, Glover and the cast of "Atlanta" said they were racially profiled on their first night of filming season three in London. The cast completed filming the current season and season four earlier this year, according to People. Season four of the hit FX show marks the end of the series.

While speaking alongside co-writers Stefani Robinson and Stephen Glover  Donald's brother  Glover recalled the cast being approached by a group of intoxicated people outside of a closed bar near their home in London.

Glover said the group of people insinuated that all Black people carry "hammers," which is slang for guns.

"It was so insulting, but not insulting at the same time because it took us five minutes to fully understand," Robinson said. "He got to a point of like if the insinuation was lost on us, he got specific and he was like, 'You guys are Black, you've gone to jail and you do things like that.' Like he kept doubling down on it."

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"Atlanta," which also stars LaKeith Stanfield, Zazie Beetz, and Brian Tyree Henry, returned after a four-year hiatus on Thursday.

Read the original article on Insider
Russia wants to split Ukraine into two, just like North and South Korea, senior military intelligence officials in Kyiv said on Sunday, and vowed total guerrilla warfare to prevent any carve-up of the country.

The warnings came just as the leader of a separatist region in eastern Ukraine says he wants to hold a referendum on joining Russia.

Leonid Pasechnik, head of the self-proclaimed Luhansk Peoples Republic, said it could hold a vote in the nearest time, asking voters whether they agree in making the region part of Russia.

Russia has supported the separatist rebels in Luhansk and the neighbouring Donetsk regions since an insurgency erupted there in 2014, shortly after Moscows annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.

And just before the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, Moscow recognised their independence.

Crimeans voted overwhelmingly to break with Ukraine and join Russia, a vote that much of the world refused to recognise.

In response, Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, said Moscow was trying to divide Ukraine in half.

In fact, it is an attempt to create North and South Korea in Ukraine, said Budanov. He predicted Ukraines army would push back Russian forces.

In addition, the season of a total Ukrainian guerrilla safari will soon begin. Then there will be one relevant scenario left for the Russians: how to survive, he said.

Ukraines foreign ministry spokesperson also dismissed talk of any referendum in eastern Ukraine.

All fake referendums in the temporarily occupied territories are null and void and will have no legal validity, Oleg Nikolenko told Reuters.

On Friday, Russian military leaders said they would focus their war efforts on wresting Ukraines eastern Donbas region from Ukrainian control, in an apparent shift of tactics.

In ongoing talks with Ukraine, Moscow has also urged it to acknowledge Russias sovereignty over Crimea and the independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Pasechniks statement could herald a shift in the Russian position.

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Meanwhile, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has accused the west of lacking courage and made a plea for fighter jets and tanks to sustain a defence in a conflict that has ground into a war of attrition.

Nadiya Kyrylenko, from Luhansk, takes refuge at a school gym in Uzhgorod, Ukraine (Reuters)

Mr Zelensky lashed out at the wests ping-pong about who and how should hand over jets and other defensive weapons to us while Russian missile attacks kill and trap civilians.

Ive talked to the defenders of Mariupol today. Im in constant contact with them. Their determination, heroism and firmness are astonishing, Mr Zelensky said in a video address early on Sunday, referring to the besieged southern city that has suffered some of the wars greatest deprivations and horrors.

If only those who have been thinking for 31 days on how to hand over dozens of jets and tanks had one per cent of their courage.

Russias invasion of Ukraine has stalled in many areas, faltering in the face of Ukrainian resistance bolstered by weapons from the UK, US and other western allies.

Western military aid has so far not included fighter jets. A proposal to transfer Polish planes to Ukraine via the US was scrapped amid Nato concerns about getting drawn into conflict with Russia.

So who is in charge of the Euro-Atlantic community? Is it still Moscow, thanks to its scare tactics? Mr Zelensky asked. Our partners must step up their aid to Ukraine.

The UK Ministry of Defence said on Sunday that the battlefield across northern Ukraine remains largely static as local counterattacks hamper Russian attempts to reorganise their forces.

The MoD said Russian troops looked to be trying to encircle Ukrainian forces directly facing the separatist regions in the countrys east.

On Sunday, Russian defence ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said that it used air-launched cruise missiles to hit a fuel depot and a defence plant in Lviv.

He said another strike with sea-launched missiles destroyed a depot with air defence missiles in Plesetske, just west of Ukraines capital Kyiv.

The strikes came as Mr Biden wrapped up a visit to Poland, where he met Ukraines foreign and defence ministers, visited US troops and saw refugees from the war.

Before leaving, he delivered a forceful condemnation of Russian president Vladimir Putin, saying: For Gods sake, this man cannot remain in power.

The White House clarified that he was not calling for an immediate change in government in Moscow.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Sunday that Washington had no strategy of regime change and that Biden had simply meant Putin could not be empowered to wage war against Ukraine or anywhere else.

A destroyed car near a damaged apartment building in Kharkiv (AFP/Getty)

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russias future was not for Biden to decide.

This speech  and the passages which concern Russia  is astounding, to use polite words, he added. He doesnt understand that the world is not limited to the United States and most of Europe.

French president Emmanuel Macron tried to distance himself from Bidens comments. I wouldnt use this type of wording because I continue to hold discussions with president Putin, he told the France 3 TV channel.

Frances foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian warned on Sunday that the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol is becoming a second Aleppo and that Russias siege warfare against cities should induce collective guilt.

Civilian populations are slaughtered, annihilated, the suffering is horrible, said a visibly angry Le Drian.
Mar. 27The political notion that ramping up in-state oil production would lead to cheaper gasoline resurfaced Monday at a news conference outside a refinery off Rosedale Highway.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, told reporters fuel prices would be lower if Gov. Gavin Newsom loosened restrictions he has placed on the state's oil producers.

"Just the removal of 1,000 permits (awaiting state approval), I think you'll see a drop," he said.

But do lower gas prices really belong on the list of local oil production benefits, such as additional high-paying jobs and more tax revenues to pay for public services?

Economists say no, for two main reasons: Oil trades on a global market, and in-state production will remain a proverbial drop in the bucket almost no matter how much money and effort are invested in it.

"If you could increase (California oil production) by half a million barrels a day, what do you think that would do to the price? Almost nothing," said Stanford University economist Frank Wolak, senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. Maybe the added supply would lower prices a penny per gallon of gas, he estimated.

Contributing to the state's oil supply nevertheless makes sense on other levels, Wolak said, and fuel prices might start to come down more noticeably if the Biden administration were to roll back changes it has made to national oil policy.

The faculty director of the Energy Institute at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, economist Severin Borenstein, agreed there are employment and other benefits from in-state oil production, but "the idea that opening up ... oil drilling would give us relief at the pump is just, you know, completely unfounded."

Even if California production jumped by two-thirds to reach 568,000 barrels per day  the level it peaked at the last time barrel prices topped $100, in 2014, when there were six times more drilling rigs active in the state than there were last month  he said it would have little effect on the market. It would amount to a little more than half of 1 percent of global consumption.

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California cannot easily make up the difference by bringing in oil from other states like Texas and North Dakota, because no oil pipelines cross the Rockies. Most of the difference is made up by bringing in foreign and Alaskan oil through seaports. As recently as 2019, California had to import about three barrels of foreign oil for every two barrels of domestically produced crude it used.

Kern County lawmakers have previously claimed cheaper gas will come from boosting in-state oil production. The suggestion returned to local politics right after the Biden administration cut off imports of Russian oil on March 8. Oil prices were spiking and unleaded gas in California was selling at record highs.

In a news release March 10, state Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, said Newsom could impact gas prices by immediately approving applications for 1,000 oil field permits pending review.

"With California gas prices soaring above $5.00 and no end in sight, this action would provide relief for motorists at the pumps," she stated.

Locally elected politicians were already calling on the governor  suing him, in the case of the Kern County Board of Supervisors  to ease up on anti-oil policies he has put in place since taking office. The industry was complaining as well about a slowdown of approved projects in Kern since a legal challenge halted the county's permitting system in October and review responsibilities fell to state regulators.

McCarthy said at Monday's news conference he could not predict how much gasoline prices would fall if California pumped more oil because a big factor in the price of oil is future expectations.

An industry representative who attended the event but did not speak at the podium, Rock Zierman, noted refiners pay different prices for oil based in part on transportation costs. The CEO of the California Independent Petroleum Association trade group added that prices would likely drop if the United States, including but not limited to California, got more active in oil production.

Another industry supporter, Taft Mayor Dave Noerr, noted before the news conference there's not a direct correlation between oil and gasoline prices, referring to other factors as the "Sacramento surcharge."

Grove said state government could simply cut fuel taxes and take off as much as $1 per gallon. Instead, Newsom on Thursday proposed rebating residents $400 per vehicle, capped at two, and freezing the gas tax for one year rather than let it rise with inflation July 1 as scheduled.

The California Energy Commission declined to weigh in on the matter. But it delivered an email response from the state Department of Conservation, parent agency of the state's primary oil regulatory division, emphasizing that oil is a global commodity.

"The pace of permit approvals in California does not drive gasoline prices at the pump," the department stated. It added that there's no guarantee oil produced in California would be refined and sold as gasoline in California.

Records show California does export refined petroleum, though not as much as it did, and that the state has sold oil internationally as well.

According to the energy commission, U.S. International Trade Commission data shows the state exported 621,000 barrels of crude oil to China in May 2020, probably related to the idling of a Bay Area refinery. There are no reports of any crude exported from the state since then.

More common are exports of California diesel: The commission reported 700,000 barrels of diesel refined in California were shipped overseas in December 2020, down from about 2.8 million in February 2019.

The governor's communications director, Erin Mellon, responded to a question about the potential impact of increased production on gas prices by noting California oil producers have not availed themselves of 46 percent of the 632 oil drilling permits issued by the state in 2021 and so far in 2022.

Even if oil companies had all the permits they needed, increasing production is not a sure thing, Cal State Bakersfield economist Nyakundi Michieka explained.

Producers might hold back on drilling  generally a steep investment anyway  because of heightened uncertainty regarding the duration of the Russia-Ukraine war and potential supply increases by OPEC or other U.S. oil-producing states, Michieka said by email.

Questions also remain about how much oil China, a major buyer, will need as the country enters another pandemic lockdown, he added.

What's more, it can take six months to a year to increase oil production, Michieka said, and that's assuming the necessary labor is available and ready to go.

UC Berkeley's Borenstein dismissed the oil industry's argument that transportation costs play a large role in the prices refiners pass along, especially in times of relatively expensive oil.

He affirmed increasing in-state oil production would create local jobs and raise money for public services through property taxes. But he said a balance exists between value and environmental damage.

"California has generally tilted more toward weighing the environmental damage heavily," he said.

Stanford's Wolak asserted producing more oil domestically makes more sense than Biden's approach of asking other countries to pump greater volumes for export. He also noted climate change is driven by oil consumption, not production.

"It's not that we're not going to consume the oil," he said. "It's just going to come from someplace else."
ElSalvador





El Salvador's Congress permitted President Nayib Bukele to declare a state of emergency on Sunday after the country saw a significant uptick in gang-related killings since Friday.

Bukele's request, which was announced on Saturday and approved Sunday, came after 14 people were killed Friday and 62 others were killed Saturday, The Associated Press reported.

Saturday marked the most violent 24-hour period of time that the country has seen since 1992, BBC reported.

The recent deaths, which are thought to be connected to street gangs, also neared the 79 homicides the country saw during the entire month of February, the AP reported.

Under the new declaration, constitutional guarantees of freedom of assembly can be suspended and policies surrounding arrests can be loosened for 30 days. The decree, however, can be extended if needed, according to the wire service.

The National Police said they captured five leaders of the Mara Salvatrucha or MS-13, the group police said ordered the recent killings, the AP added.

Meanwhile, the conservative Arena party released a statement in an apparent nod to a 2020 U.S. Treasury Department report.

"We must remind the people of El Salvador that what is happening now is due to the negligence of those who protected criminals," Arena's statement said, reportedly referencing allegations that Bukele's government negotiated a secret truce with the gangs including privileges like prostitutes and cell phones for imprisoned gang leaders, according to the AP.

"Cell phones and prostitutes in the prisons? Money to the gangs? When did that happen? Didn't they even check the date? How can they put out a such an obvious lie without anyone questioning them?" the president said of the claims which he denied at the time of the report.

Bukele, who was elected in 2019, ran on campaign promises to combat organized crime, BBC reported.

"While we fight criminals in the streets, we must try to figure out what is happening and who is financing this," he said Saturday, adding that the country "must let the agents and soldiers do their job and must defend them from the accusations of those who protect the gang members."
(Reuters) - Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk is giving "serious thought" to building a new social media platform, the billionaire said in a tweet on Saturday.

Musk was responding to a Twitter user's question on whether he would consider building a social media platform consisting of an open source algorithm and one that would prioritize free speech, and where propaganda was minimal.

Musk, a prolific user of Twitter himself, has been critical of the social media platform and its policies of late. He has said the company is undermining democracy by failing to adhere to free speech principles.

His tweet comes a day after he put out a Twitter poll asking users if they believed Twitter adheres to the principle of free speech, to which over 70% voted "no".

"The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully," he said on Friday.

If Musk decides to go ahead with creating a new platform, he would be joining a growing portfolio of technology companies that are positioning themselves as champions of free speech and which hope to draw users who feel their views are suppressed on platforms such as Twitter, Meta Platform's Facebook and Alphabet-owned Google's YouTube.

None of the companies, including Donald Trump's Truth Social, Twitter competitors Gettr and Parler and video site Rumble, have come close to matching the reach and popularity of the mainstream platforms so far.

(Reporting by Jahnavi Nidumolu and Bhargav Acharya in Bengaluru; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
Former Illinois Speaker Michael Madigan departs from his lawyers' office, March 9, 2022, after making his first virtual court appearance for his indictment. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)

SPRINGFIELD  Nearly four years ago, legislation that aimed to help low-income electricity customers was making its way to the floor of an Illinois House chamber tightly controlled by its longtime speaker, Michael Madigan.

The bills main advocate: Madigans daughter, then-Attorney General Lisa Madigan. One of its primary opponents: Commonwealth Edison, the states largest electric utility.

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By the time the Illinois General Assemblys spring session was over, ComEd won  because, according to federal prosecutors, Michael Madigan paved the way.

[ Longtime Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan indicted on federal racketeering charges. Heres what to know. ]

In what may be one of the most intriguing chapters of the federal indictment filed earlier this month against ex-Speaker Madigan, prosecutors alleged he greenlighted efforts to kill his own daughters legislation as he pressed ComEd to give jobs to two political allies, including a coveted position on the utilitys board of directors.

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The account  sprinkled throughout the 106-page, 22-count bribery and racketeering indictment  not only alleges Michael Madigan corruptly solicited and muscled his political pals into positions at the state-regulated utility as part of a decadelong effort to enhance his power. It also details the often-upside-down world of Springfield politics, where even a member of the speakers family ended up on the losing side of the political ledger due to a near-secret arrangement.

Madigan has denied wrongdoing and contends prosecutors are attempting to criminalize legal political actions, such as job recommendations. He and co-defendant Michael McClain  a longtime Michael Madigan confidant, former Democratic lawmaker from Quincy and ComEd lobbyist  have pleaded not guilty. Madigans attorneys declined to comment for this story.

Speaker Mike Madigan confers with legislators on his bench behind the speaker's podium in the House chambers in the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield in 2010. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)

ComEd has admitted it arranged jobs, subcontracts, and payments to the speakers associates to influence and reward him for helping the utility with its legislative agenda. The giant utility has agreed to pay a $200 million fine, and federal authorities agreed to defer prosecution of a bribery count that will be dropped if the company fully cooperates.

The story behind the killing of House Bill 5626  revealed through details in the indictment as well as numerous interviews with lawmakers and other key players who witnessed it firsthand  shows not only the political calculus Madigan employed in Springfield but also the power of private-sector patronage that evolved in an era when placing political pals into government jobs has been restricted by anti-patronage court rulings.

At the time the pro-consumer legislation was wending its way through the legislature in 2018, lawmakers and lobbyists viewed it as Lisa Madigans last hurrah, a chance for the four-term attorney general to burnish her legacy in her final year in office. She declined to comment through a spokeswoman for this story, and she has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

[ Read Michael Madigans indictment on federal racketeering charges ]

But the alleged behind-the-scenes maneuvers by her father to kill the bill show how his political machinations would even circumvent family lines.

It was a pretty cold, transactional kind of politics, longtime Illinois political analyst Kent Redfield said in describing Madigans alleged moves.

ComEd clout

Before Lisa Madigan had proposed the legislation in 2018, ComEd had scored a series of major legislative victories.

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Years earlier, the utility had coupled its massive smart-grid project with a controversial plan tying electricity rates to how much the company spent on upgrades, which critics say generated a windfall. In 2013, lawmakers backed a trio of accounting techniques that boosted the companys bottom line despite opposition from the Illinois Commerce Commission. And in 2016, ComEd and its parent company, Exelon, won the right to charge consumers more to save downstate nuclear plants and the thousands of jobs that went with them.

During that time, ComEd and Exelon were among the highest corporate givers over five straight election cycles, starting in 2010 through the 2018 state campaign season, pouring millions into state political campaign funds, according to an analysis of campaign contributions by Redfield.

Lisa Madigans goal in the spring of 2018 was twofold: She wanted to rein in alternative energy suppliers that falsely promised lower bills, and she wanted to give more financial breaks to low-income electricity users.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan at a public hearing on the Affordable Clean Energy proposal at Ralph Metcalfe Federal Building in Chicago in 2018. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)

On the first issue, the attorney generals office in April 2018 filed a lawsuit stating that one alternative energy supplier had charged customers at least $2.4 million more over six years than those customers would have paid had they stuck with ComEd.

We have to make sure that, in particular, low-income residents, who are often the targets of these companies, are not lured into these fraudulent scams, Lisa Madigan told reporters. Im hoping that through my lawsuit today, and with a new law in Illinois, we can put these bad companies out of business for good.

Three days later, the House Public Utilities Committee sent a version of Lisa Madigans proposal to the full House on a 20-0 bipartisan vote.

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But that early version of the bill, sponsored by Democratic Rep. Greg Harris of Chicago, only contained a portion of what the attorney general hoped to accomplish, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.

[ Ex-House Speaker Michael Madigan, long the states most powerful pol, indicted on federal racketeering charges ]

Her other goal  which was not in the legislation moving forward at that time  was to make it easier for more low-income customers to qualify for more flexibility in paying their bills and to do away with deposits and reconnection fees when they needed their power turned back on, sources said.

As negotiations moved forward on two tracks  one dealing with the alternative suppliers and the other with expanding eligibility for low-income customers  ComEd focused its opposition on the second issue. The utility worried expanding eligibility for low-income customers would jack up prices for other customers. Utility officials also argued ComEd already offered an array of low-income assistance.

Madigan vs. Madigan

As Attorney General Madigan negotiated with ComEd, prosecutors alleged, her father was trying to get the utility to OK two deals for his political allies: Have Juan Ochoa, former chief of the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, named to the utilitys board of directors, and get a $5,000-a-month contract for former Chicago Ald. Michael Zalewski, 23rd.

Neither Ochoa nor Zalewski is named in the indictment, but the Tribune has identified them through sources and descriptions provided in the federal document. Neither has been charged and neither currently has any ComEd contracts or holds any positions. Attorneys for both Zalewski and Ochoa said their clients declined to comment.

Juan Ochoa, former CEO of the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, in 2012. (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune)

While the attorney general was touting her lawsuit and legislative efforts in April 2018, the speaker was communicating through his friend McClain, who was still consulting for ComEd, and giving him permission to work to kill the bill on behalf of the utility company, according to the indictment.

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Around the same time, Speaker Madigan allegedly called Ochoa to let him know that he could expect to be appointed to ComEds board. In addition, McClain was telling another ComEd lobbyist, John Hooker, that he was going to inform ComEds then-CEO, Anne Pramaggiore, that the speaker wanted Zalewski added to a small group of Madigan political associates paid by the power supplier, the indictment said.

That small group, authorities say, was being paid indirectly through the firm of Jay D. Doherty and Associates, which consulted and lobbied for ComEd. Pramaggiore, Hooker and Doherty were all charged with bribery conspiracy in November 2020. They have pleaded not guilty and asked for a bench trial.

Flurry of calls

All the alleged job-pushing and legislation-killing unfolded as the General Assembly headed into the closing weeks of its spring session, always the legislatures busiest and most hectic time of year.

On May 2, according to the indictment, Speaker Madigan spoke to McClain, who told the speaker Pramaggiore was getting pushback on appointing Ochoa to the ComEd board. She had proposed finding Ochoa another job that would pay the same salary.

But that consolation prize did not win over Madigan.

Yeah, Mike, Madigan said to McClain, according to the indictment, I would suggest that we continue to support Ochoa.

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Two weeks later, on May 16, according to the indictment, a flurry of communications occurred among Madigan, McClain and ComEd officials.

Ald. Michael Zalewski talks to the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board in 2011. (William DeShazer / Chicago Tribune)

McClain called Pramaggiore and discussed how to stop Lisa Madigans legislation. The same day, Speaker Madigan called McClain and told him to discuss the Zalewski position with Pramaggiore and go forward with Ochoas appointment to the ComEd board.

In a call with McClain, Pramaggiore allegedly said she told Fidel Marquez, the senior ComEd vice president overseeing lobbyists, to hire Zalewski. McClain also told Pramaggiore that Madigan wanted to keep pushing for Ochoas appointment to the board, and she agreed to do so, prosecutors alleged.

McClain also called Marquez with another point: Zalewski should be paid $5,000 a month, the indictment alleged. McClain explained to Marquez  who later pleaded guilty to a bribery charge and agreed to cooperate with authorities  that certain people were paid indirectly through Dohertys consulting firm by referencing their usefulness to Madigans political operation, according to the indictment.

[ Michael Madigan asked Ald. Solis to get son insurance business from Pilsen non-profit ]

McClain spoke again to Speaker Madigan, who often wanted to deliver good news personally.

You can call (Zalewski) and say that theyre going to get in touch with him, McClain allegedly told Madigan.

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Madigan promptly contacted Zalewski, according to the indictment.

Just two days later, on May 18, McClain emailed Pramaggiore, Hooker and other ComEd employees to say, a friend of ours  which federal authorities say was a code phrase used for the speaker  had authorized McClain to go ahead and kill it, meaning Lisa Madigans legislation, according to the indictment.

The AGs defeat

Despite the behind-the-scenes maneuvers and Speaker Madigan allegedly authorizing the bills kill shot, he allowed a separate bill to move forward that the attorney generals office sought to amend with her full set of proposals and position the plan for passage.

With help from allies in organized labor bolstering ComEds opposition, the fuller version stalled.

Even today, ComEd said it opposed the plan because it would have hurt customers. The utility estimated it would have cost customers $20 million upfront to cover expenses, such as customer system modifications and training, as well as an additional $146 million annually, ComEds Shannon Breymaier said.

It would have put significant restrictions on ComEds ability to collect utility service charges from customers who could afford to pay their bills and required costly changes to ComEds billing and collection systems, Breymaier said in an email. Those costs ultimately would have been paid by our customers, not ComEd.

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Karen Lusson, who in 2018 was assistant chief of the attorney generals Public Utilities Bureau, called ComEds position old rhetoric that doesnt address the utilitys obligation to serve all of its customers regardless of income level.

Allowing customers to have longer-term payment arrangements and other protections that were in that bill would likely have decreased bad debt, not increased costs, said Lusson, now a staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center.

In 2018, with one week to go in the spring session, Harris, the bills main sponsor, introduced on May 24 a slimmed-down version that stripped out the provisions ComEd opposed and focused only on cracking down on alternative energy suppliers.

Harris shepherded the bill through the Executive Committee on a 7-4 Democratic party-line vote. Republicans voiced concerns about protecting consumer choice and preventing the Democratic attorney generals office from infringing on the authority of the Illinois Commerce Commission  then under the purview of GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner. Harris declined to comment for this story, citing the federal investigation.

As lawmakers got closer to the May 31 adjournment deadline, ComEds position shifted from opposing the bill to being neutral about it. But the utilitys earlier opposition muddied lawmakers understanding, according to interviews with the Tribune.

One opponent familiar with the negotiations thought the attorney general had enough votes to pass the bill but still gauged chances of passage at only 50-50. By the time the full House voted, the bill fell four votes short with eight Democrats voting against the legislation.

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Among those eight, two were on Madigans leadership team, including now-former state Rep. Luis Arroyo of Chicago, who has pleaded guilty in a separate bribery-related sweepstakes gambling case.

All eight Democrats were among the 107 rank-and-file House lawmakers and legislative candidates  64 Democrats and 43 Republicans  who received campaign contributions from ComEd, Exelon or both, according to Redfield, the political analyst.

Rep. Bob Rita, a Democrat from south suburban Blue Island, received $22,000 from the companies, more than any other rank-and-file lawmaker, according to the analysis from Redfield, a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois Institute of Government and Public Affairs. Rita said through a spokesman he has no specific recollection of the alternative energy supply legislation or how or why he voted on it as he did.

Rep. Larry Walsh, a Democrat from Elwood, received $18,500 in campaign contributions, one of the next highest donations to rank-and-file lawmakers. Earlier this month, Walsh said he likely voted no because he was concerned about unfairly going after every alternative energy retailer when the goal was to crack down on only the problematic ones.

Speaker Madigan never, ever came to me and told me how to vote, Walsh said.

The following year, with former Democratic Sen. Kwame Raoul of Chicago serving as attorney general, lawmakers passed legislation that brought more oversight to the alternative energy suppliers.

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Last year, Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzkers energy overhaul included some of the low-income assistance previously supported by former Attorney General Madigan, such as prohibiting utilities from collecting security deposits or charging late fees.

But the full effort to expand repayment plans, which ComEd opposed, was not included.

Chicago Tribunes Jason Meisner contributed. Petrella and Long reported from Chicago.

jgorner@chicagotribune.com

dpetrella@chicagotribune.com

rlong@chicagotribune.com

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Elon Musk may be the world's richest man in theory, but he's under no illusion that he actually holds the title.

Who does?

Russian President Vladimir Putin, the SpaceX and Tesla CEO says.

"I do think that Putin is significantly richer than me," Musk told Mathias Dopfner, the CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, in a recent interview, the website reported Saturday.

Late last year Musk passed Amazon's Jeff Bezos in the race for the title of richest man in the world. Musk was worth $270 billion as of Saturday, according to Forbes.

How much is Putin worth?

No one really knows.

The Kremlin claims that Putin earns an annual salary of $140,000. His publicly disclosed assets include an 800-square foot apartment, a trailer, and three cars.

But according to some experts, he may be the wealthiest man in the world.

Putin is rumored to be the owner of a 190,000 square-foot mansion sitting atop a cliff that overlooks the Black Sea. This coastal property is reputed as the largest private residence in the country and serves as his private palace, endearingly called Putins Country Cottage."

Its estimated worth: $1.4 billion.

The Kremlin denies Putins ownership of the palace, saying it belongs to a wealthy businessman. But Russian analysts call it a blatant lie, saying that no businessman can have properties guarded by the FSB (Russias federal security service) with a no-fly zone over it.

He also owns 19 other houses and 700 cars, in addition to 58 aircraft and helicopters, including a $716 million plane called "The Flying Kremlin" that has a toilet made of gold. Additionally, he owns a $100-million-dollar megayacht designed by a nuclear submarine maker from the Russian navy.

On top of all this, the famous Panama Papers revealed a network of secret offshore deals and loans worth $2 billion pointing to Putin in 2016.

But Putin denies such allegations, only admitting to a different form of riches. "I am the wealthiest man, not just in Europe but in the whole world: I collect emotions. I am wealthy in that the people of Russia have twice entrusted me with the leadership of a great nation such as Russia. I believe that is my greatest wealth," he reportedly said.

Wealthiest man in the world or not, "We cannot let Putin take over Ukraine," Musk told Dopfner. "This is crazy."

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP)  The former bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany has acknowledged covering up allegations of sexual abuse against children by priests in part to avoid scandal and protect the reputation of the diocese.

Howard J. Hubbard made the admission during a deposition taken last year as part of a response to dozens of claims filed under New Yorks Child Victims Act. A judge ordered the deposition released on Friday.

Hundreds of people have sued the Albany diocese over sexual abuse they say they endured as children, sometimes decades ago.

During the four-day deposition, Hubbard named several priests who had been accused of sexual abuse who were referred to treatment and later returned to ministry, without notification to the public. One, David Bentley, admitted to Hubbard that he had engaged in the behavior alleged.

Hubbard testified he didn't report the allegations to law enforcement because he didn't feel he was required by law to do so, and instead kept the allegations against Bentley, and others, secret out of concern for scandal and the respect of the priesthood. The diocese eventually removed Bentley from ministry.

The transcript will be read with horror by the public, Cynthia LaFave, an attorney representing some of the plaintiffs, said in an emailed statement Friday. The public will see the culpability of the Diocese in perpetuating a culture of sex abuse by priests that was allowed to continue for decades.

Hubbard ran the diocese in New Yorks Capital District from 1977 to 2014 and has himself been accused of sexual abuse, which he has denied. He also testified that the diocese kept records documenting sexual abuse allegations in secret files in a locked room that only he and other top church officials could access.

In an emailed statement, a diocese spokesperson didn't address Hubbard's testimony directly but said the diocese's priority is the protection and assistance of victim/survivors and the discovery of the truth, and that it has and continues to resolve pending claims of victims/survivors in mediations with the assistance of the court.

In arguing for the release of the deposition transcript, attorneys for some of the alleged victims had argued that the risk of pre-trial prejudice was no longer valid after Hubbard published an opinion piece in the Albany Times-Union last year in which he defended the dioceses handling of abuse complaints.
Grace Lyon of Fairless fights Brianna Fitzgerald (left) and Emma Koons of Tuslaw for a rebound.

WEST LIBERTY, W.Va.  West Liberty University women's basketball coach Kyle Cooper has announced the signing of Grace Lyon, a record-setting 6-1 front liner from Fairless High School.

A four-year starter with the Falcons and a standout on her Team Huddle AAU team, the versatile Lyon was the leading scorer in Stark County (17.7 ppg.) and the second-leading rebounder (11.3 rpg.) as she helped lead Fairless to an Ohio Division III sectional title.

Lyon was at her best in the sectional final, scoring 26 of her team's 41 points in a 41-39 overtime victory against a higher-seeded Smithville High School squad.

"We cannot wait to get Grace on campus," Cooper said. "We believe that once she learns our system and makes the transition to the college game she has the potential to impact the game on a high, high level. Grace is a true post with really good size and athleticism who runs the floor extremely well. She can guard multiple positions and rebounds the ball hard. Grace also brings a versatile skill set around the rim with the ability to play with her back to the basket or facing up and has some of the best hands we have seen. she checks off an awful lot of boxes."

Equally comfortable working the paint with her back to the basket or stepping outside to drain a 3-pointer, the two-time Team MVP set a school record with 762 career rebounds and ranks among the Top 10 all-time at Fairless with 1,062 career points.

The Ohio Division III District IV Player of the Year, Lyon has been a force for the Falcons since the first time she stepped on the court. Now a three-time All-PAC-7 and All-District selection, she was a first-team All-Stark County pick and earned honorable mention on the All-Ohio Division III team. She played in the Summit/Stark County All-Star Game earlier this week and has been invited to play in the prestigious Ohio Division III/IV North-South Game.

Lyon adds to an impressive recruiting haul for the Hilltoppers, who landed two other Buckeye State standouts in the fall during the November early-signing period.

The West Liberty women return four of five starters - all double-figure scorers - along with several key reserves from this seasons 21-9 team that came on strong down the stretch to notch a third-place finish in the Mountain East Conference.

This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Fairless Falcons' standout Grace Lyon heading to West Liberty
Insider found boxes stacked up at a Dollar Tree store in Bushwick, Brooklyn, this during a visit this year. Insider/Brittany Chang

In February, FDA inspectors found a rodent infestation at one of Family Dollar's warehouses.

Because of this, Family Dollar  and its sister chain Dollar Tree  have come under scrutiny.

Workers at these chains say that pest issues have been going on for years.

It's been six months since Jayson started his job as a cashier at a Family Dollar store in Maine and he's already preparing to quit.

He's tired of working in a store that's understaffed, unclean, and unsafe because it's so stacked up with boxes of inventory, he tells Insider.

Jayson  who did not wish to share his full name through fear of retribution but whose identity is known to Insider  is one of 12 former and current Family Dollar and Dollar Tree workers who shared similar experiences in recent conversations. The Family Dollar chain is owned by Dollar Tree.

These workers described the conditions in the chains' stores as "unhygienic and disgusting," where rodents roam in backrooms that are piled high with boxes, and around stores that are rarely cleaned.

Their comments, which come in the wake of an FDA investigation that unearthed a rodent infestation at one of Family Dollar's distribution centers in Arkansas and led to it temporarily closing 404 stores, suggest that the rodent issues are far more widespread than at just one warehouse.

In a statement to Insider, Kayleigh Campbell, a spokesperson for both Dollar Tree and Family Dollar said that the company is "committed to providing safe and quality products" for customers and "complying with all applicable federal, state and local occupational health and safety laws."

'To call it chaotic is an understatement'

While Jayson hasn't seen a live rodent in the shopping area of his store, he has disposed of dead rats caught in traps in the stock room and come across rodent faeces.

"My location is constantly dirty, floors not maintained, dirt and dust everywhere, and completely infested with spiders," he said.

Story continues

"There is so much stuff in the back room that you can't move it all to clean, even if we had the time or were asked to," he added.

Jayson said that the company knowingly understaffs its stores to keep costs down, which means there aren't enough workers to empty these backrooms. But even if there were, the company's chaotic inventory system means that his store is still completely overstocked all the time, he said.

"They don't have enough room in the distribution centers so they'll just send us all of their junk so that it can sit in our backroom instead of theirs," he said.

A spokesperson for Family Dollar did not respond to Insider's request for comment on how its restocking process works.

Scott Mushkin, CEO of consultancy firm R5 Capital, witnessed these inventory pile-ups first-hand during store visits to more than 60 Dollar Tree stores between the fall of 2021 and February of this year.

In a recent conversation with Insider, he said that in his 20-plus year career as a consultant to the retail industry, he's never seen anything like what he encountered in these backrooms.

"To call it chaotic is really an understatement, their inventory system is completely out of control from our perspective," he told Insider. "Rodents are a symptom of the disease, not the disease," he said, clarifying that the mountains of boxes in these backrooms were providing cover for rodents.

It paints a similar picture to what Insider found during store visits to two of Dollar Tree's Brooklyn locations in 2022 and 2018 where boxes were stacked up in the middle of the store or left to be unloaded on abandoned crates.

Mushkin told Insider that these inventory pile-ups could be caused by supply chain challenges and stock arriving at the wrong time or staffing issues because of the labor crunch. However, conversations with former Dollar Tree and Family Dollar store workers who worked at these chains as far back as 2005 indicated that both piled-up stockrooms and rodent infestations have been an issue at some locations for years.

Richard Kirschke, who worked for a third-party logistics company delivering stock to Family Dollar stores across the US between October 2020 and January 2021, described their backrooms as a "nightmare" where you could clearly smell rodent activity.

"It's some of the worst retail real estate," he told Insider. "They [Family Dollar] just didn't care about anything related to stores, the upkeep, and maintenance."

Some communities are now threatening to boycott these discount chains and saying that they're putting shoppers at risk. Dollar store chains are growing at a rapid rate in the US and are often criticized for driving out competitors in local communities by undercutting competitors on price, which means that in some areas, they are the only places to shop.

One former Family Dollar store worker who quit her job at a store in Freeport, New York in February and who wished to remain anonymous but whose identity is known to Insider, said that this is the most distressing part of the mismanagement of these stores.

"I live and shop in this community," she said. "Only after I began working at this location did I become aware of the conditions.

"When you think of the filth that my family members and neighbors  not to mention myself  have possibly consumed ... it makes me sick to my stomach," she said.

Read the original article on Business Insider
A Texas father was killed and his son wounded after robbery suspects reportedly ambushed them at a car wash in Houston, according to police.

The two were at the business on the citys west side around 10 p.m. Friday, March 25 when the shooting happened, Houston police said.

Two armed men in masks approached them and robbed them, police told KTRK.

At one point, a suspect pistol-whipped the son, who then tried to run away, according to the outlet. A suspect shot him in the leg as he ran and his accomplice turned and shot his father, killing him.

The age of the son and the name of the man who died were not provided by police.

The suspects fled on foot, KHOU reported.

First responders arrived and the father was pronounced dead at the scene, while his son was taken to a hospital, the station reported.

Investigators spoke with a witness and are trying to find surveillance video, according to the outlet. So far, little is known about the robbers.

Anyone with information can call Houston Crime Stoppers at 713-222-8477.

Man gunned down after he refused to hand over his keys to carjackers, Texas cops say

Vacationing nurses help save life of DJ shot inside Texas hookah lounge, cops say

Mom killed visiting sons grave on his first birthday in heaven, Texas family says

18-year-old suspected of killing man at McDonalds is shot days later by Texas police
Renton firefighters responding to a fire rescued a cat and a lizard on Sunday morning, according to the Renton Fire Department.

Around 4:07 a.m., Renton firefighters responded to a report of a car fire that spread to a our-unit condo in the 3200 block of Southeast 12th Street in Renton.

When they arrived, they found heavy fire on the front and roof of the building, which extended to the attic.

One cat and one lizard were rescued in the blaze.

The fire remains under investigation.
Taylor Hawkins performs with the Foo Fighters in 2021. (Medios y Media / Getty Images)

Taylor Hawkins, the drummer for multiplatinum rock band Foo Fighters, had an assortment of drugs in his system when he died Friday, Colombian authorities said.

An initial forensic medical examination and urine toxicology report of the musician's body revealed 10 substances in his system, including THC (marijuana), tricyclic antidepressants, benzodiazepines and opioids, according to a statement from the Colombian attorney general's office Saturday via Twitter.

Emergency services responded to a call of a patient with chest pains at the Four Seasons Hotel Casa Medina Bogota on Friday. Hawkins was found dead in the hotel room, the authorities said. A spokesman for Foo Fighters was not immediately available for comment.

"The National Institute of Forensic Medicine continues to conduct the necessary medical studies to ascertain the cause of death," the attorney general's office statement added. "The Attorney General's Office will continue to investigate and will duly inform the findings of forensic examinations in due time."

Hawkins was in Bogota to perform with the Foo Fighters, two nights before the bands headlining set at Lollapalooza Brazil on Sunday. He was 50.

The band announced Hawkins' death on its Instagram account. The Foo Fighters family is devastated by the tragic and untimely loss of our beloved Taylor Hawkins, the announcement read. His musical spirit and infectious laughter will live on with all of us forever. Our hearts go out to his wife, children and family, and we ask that their privacy be treated with the utmost respect in this unimaginably difficult time.

Hawkins has a history of drug use. A heroin overdose in 2001 left him in a coma.

"I was partying in London one night, and I mistakenly did something and it changed everything," Hawkins told Kerrang! magazine in 2019. "I believed the bulls myth of live hard and fast, die young. Im not here to preach about not doing drugs, because I loved doing drugs, but I just got out of control for a while and it almost got me. I was heading down a road that was going to lead to even worse paths. Im glad it got knocked on the head at that point. I go mountain biking now.

Times staff writer Melissa Gomez contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
A former Ku Klux Klan leader who qualified for office is no longer eligible to run, according to reports.

Chester Doles said his affidavit to run for a commissioner of a north Georgia county was approved in early March. CBS 46 reports that the Georgia Republican Party flagged his application because of his criminal record.

Chester Doles is a political candidate who once lead a Ku Klux Klan faction. (Photo: Screenshot/Facebook Watch/Meet The Press)

Doles said he is looking for a civil rights attorney to fight the decision.

If this has to be interpreted for them by the courts, then so be it, Doles said. Theyve caused me major damages. I have thousands of dollars in campaign signs billboards that have been pledged for [and] radio commercials.

Doles, a felon, was sentenced to four years in prison for federal weapons charges in 2003 and convicted for beating a Black man in 1993. He campaigned for a seat on the Lumpkin County Board of Commissioners in this years election.

Georgia law allows people who have been convicted of a felony to run for office if at least 10 years have passed since they completed their sentence and their rights have been restored. They must also pay all fines and fees and avoid committing any more felonies.

Doles told reporters that he had gotten his rights restored last year. Georgians must submit an application to the State Board of Pardons and Paroles for rights restoration. Doles has a copy of his stamped and signed application, dated March 8.

On the same day, Doles said in a tweet he was fully qualified as a candidate, and all filing fees have been filed and paid.

KKK former leader Chester Doles, xfederal prisoner, who beat a a Black man in Maryland was qualified to run for GEORGIA public office. People go to jail for lying like this. Will Chester be jailed for saying he was qualified to run? pic.twitter.com/sEgv5tXRI8  Van (@vaneitaadams) March 17, 2022

However, CBS 46 reports that the Georgia Republican Party found that Doles did not get his rights restored in time to qualify for the race.

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It is unclear if Doles filed an application or completed the process for rights restoration. His name is not among the list of Lumpkin County candidates on Georgias secretary of states website.

The candidacy affidavit requires applicants to swear that they are not knowingly making any false statements or be subject to criminal penalties.

Doles was once the Grand Klaliff of the Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. He was also a member of the Nazi political organization, National Alliance and Hammerskins, a racist skinhead gang. However, Doles said he has changed paths and renounced racism.

In an earlier interview with CBS 46, he compared himself to Black civil rights leaders Hosea Williams and the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis.

If you look at Hosea Williams, he was on the City Council. He was arrested 168 times. Congressman John Lewis, he was arrested 68 times, so thats not a reason to disqualify someone, Doles said. Dont matter if youre out there for the civil rights movement, then Im a white civil rights activist then.

Doles ran his campaign on American patriotism and anti-wokeness.
Migrants attempting to cross the Texas border (Associated Press)

Two US Army soldiers stationed at Fort Hood base in Texas have been sentenced to federal prison for their roles in an illegal human smuggling operation.

Isaiah Gore, 21, and Denerio Williams, 22, were among a group of soldiers who picked up undocumented immigrants and drove them elsewhere in the state while wearing their uniforms, according to a release from the US Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Texas.

Gore acted as a recruiter, paying soldiers $2,000 per trip, and Williams went along on one trip, US Attorney Jennifer B. Lowery said.

The pair pleaded guilty in December to conspiring to transport undocumented immigrants within the state and were sentenced to 30 and 24 months respectively on Friday.

District Judge Marina Garcia Marmolejo said that the harsh sentence was justified because Gore and Williams were not the average citizen.

She added that those involved in the scheme deliberately transported the immigrants while wearing uniforms knowing that it would help them evade arrest.

Both men remain out on bond and will surrender to a US Bureau of Prisons facility in the near future. Gore has been discharged from the army.

They will have to serve three years of supervised release after their sentences.

The smuggling operation was uncovered after two other active-duty soldiers were caught with two undocumented migrants in the trunk of their vehicle at a border checkpoint in Texas on June 13, officials said.

Those men, Emmanuel Oppongagyare and Ralph Gregory Saint-Joie, pleaded guilty in August and are awaiting sentencing, prosecutors said.
PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron called for restraint in both words and actions in dealing with the Ukraine conflict, after U.S. President Joe Biden described Russian President Vladimir Putin as a "butcher" and said he should not remain in power.

"I wouldn't use this type of wording because I continue to hold discussions with President Putin," Macron said on France 3 TV channel.

Biden, speaking in Warsaw, had said that Putin "cannot remain in power". A White House official later said Biden's remarks did not represent a shift in Washington's policy and were meant to prepare the world's democracies for an extended conflict, not back regime change in Russia.

"We want to stop the war that Russia has launched in Ukraine without escalation -- that's the objective," Macron said on France 3 TV, noting the objective was to obtain a cease fire and the withdrawal of troops through diplomatic means.

"If this is what we want to do, we should not escalate things -- neither with words nor actions," he said.

The French president on Friday had said he was seeking to hold more talks with President Putin in the coming days regarding the situation in Ukraine as well as an initiative to help people leave the besieged city of Mariupol.

President Putin sent his troops into Ukraine on what he calls a "special military operation" to demilitarise and "denazify" Ukraine. Ukraine and the West say Putin launched an unprovoked war of aggression.

Far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen said she backed Macron's approach.

"Obviously, those are words that add oil to the fire," she said, when asked about Biden's comment.

"The fact that the president of the Republic is not entering into this escalation is a good thing," she said, speaking on France 3 in a pre-recorded interview that was broadcast on Sunday.

(Reporting by Elizabeth Pineau and Mimosa Spencer. Editing by Jane Merriman)
High school senior Lilian Rosales plans to go to work in the real estate industry. She is currently an intern at the residential tower 73 East Lake in downtown Chicago. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)

Lilian Rosales, 17, a senior at Muchin College Prep, grew up around real estate  her father and cousin work in the industry  but she didnt think shed consider a career in the field until she started her Urban Alliance internship. Instead, her family thought shed pursue a career in medicine.

Urban Alliance, a nonprofit internship program for high school youth, provides job skills training and mentoring. Its latest program, Property Management Pathway, allows high school seniors to choose either leasing or maintenance and earn professional credentials and certifications in those areas. Participants are paid for their work and receive class credit. After completing certification training, students participate in six- to eight-month internships, work 12 hours per week during the school year and 32 hours per week after graduation. Rosales internship is with Chicago-based apartment management firm RMK Management Corp., and shes learning the ins and outs of being a leasing consultant at 73 East Lake.

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Leasing just excited me, the Chicago Lawn resident said. Theres a lot that goes into it ... its not only about contract reports, and understanding marketing reports, financials, its building relationships. With leasing, you create a great sense of community and a warm feeling of family. People come in looking for a home and we have a community that feels like home. Thats really great.

Rosales is one of a number of students in Chicago taking advantage of programs that local real estate organizations are offering to reach the next generation of real estate professionals while also diversifying the industry. Collete English Dixon, executive director of Roosevelt Universitys Marshall Bennett Institute of Real Estate, has been in the real estate industry for the last 40 years and says while more people from Black and brown communities are present in the field, the numbers havent moved dramatically.

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Finally, the industry has come to the conclusion that lack of diversity is a problem, Dixon said. And if we really want to make a change, we cant wait for these young people to show up at college. We need to get them before they start making decisions about what their futures are going to be. We want to take the opportunity to potentially spark an interest in this industry, its impact and how people can be involved in it. This is not a rocket science industry. You can get in it in a lot of different ways.

Collete English Dixon, executive director of Roosevelt University's Marshall Bennett Institute of Real Estate, talks to students from Urban Prep about the real estate industry on Feb. 10, 2022. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)

Dixon visits high schools to talk to students about real estate careers. The Marshall Bennett Institute, which offers both undergraduate and graduate programs in real estate, has hosted the Real Estate Exchange (REEX) Summer Program, a two-week residential program for current high school juniors that exposes them to commercial real estate. Pangea Real Estate, a real estate investment and management company with 13,000-plus apartments and townhouses in Chicago, Indianapolis and Baltimore, hosts paid internships for high school juniors and seniors through its Foundations program. For six weeks during the summer, interns rotate between Pangeas downtown headquarters, contract center and neighborhood offices picking up knowledge from various departments while also working on their life skills like interviewing, resumes and LinkedIn profiles. Pangea also partners with Chicago Hope Academy, on the Near West Side, to share information about real estate as a career and mentoring.

Juniors and seniors in high school, those are the formative years that we are sourcing these applicants from, areas underserved or under-resourced, said Pangeas chief financial officer Patrick Borchard. In a lot of cases, its that aha moment of just opening their eyes to different professional careers that there might be. The ultimate goal for us is to get these kids exposure to the working world, the professional life and get them on their way in whichever path they choose for sort of establishing that for themselves.

He said over the years of providing internship opportunities to high schoolers, feedback from youth has centered more on entrepreneurship and technology and finding success for oneself. Weve been really focused on enriching the communities we are also investing in operating a business  this is just one part of that.

Abiodun Durojaye, Urban Alliances executive director, said early exposure to real estate industry skills and terminology helps students know what they want and dont want in a career. Urban Alliance mentors ask youth about their post-high-school plan, and if they want to work in real estate, Urban Alliance begins the conversations with contacts to make that happen. Partnering companies get the first opportunity to hire interns at the conclusion of the program.

We have 17 students learning, asking questions: If I want to work here, what do I need?  Durojaye said. College aint for everybody, we get that, but if they can get experience in real estate, get a certification and start working making $50,000 to $60,000 at 17-, 18-years-old? Thats life changing for a young person.

Jalen Gentry, foreground, and other students from Urban Prep listen to a presentation in the Wabash Building of Roosevelt University in Chicago about the real estate industry on Feb. 10, 2022. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)

Jonathan Hill is an Urban Alliance alumnus from the Washington, D.C., area working at Chicago-based software development firm Relativity as a community engagement lead. Hes served as a mentor and his organization sponsors Urban Alliance interns.

When you think about the industries that Urban Alliance is exposing young people to in terms of careers, these are conversations that oftentimes are not happening in friend groups, in family households and communities, Hill said. This organization is being that steppingstone, that voice, that advocates for them to expose them early to something that they dont know  that kind of curation of development is one in a million. We need more of it.

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Diana Pittro, RMK Management Corp.s executive vice president, agrees more is the way to go. She said her company has three interns, including Rosales.

I really think getting them in high school is the way to go, because from everything I read, theres more and more young people deciding not to go to college for many reasons, she said. And (real estate is) another opportunity they can look at as they start to wear their adult pants. My daughter is in the industry. And this is the way it happens, it comes by mentoring and hand-holding.

Durojaye challenges employers to think about authenticity moving forward. Seeing more people in real estate inquire and talk about the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion can make or break a students first-time experience into that world of work, she said.

Access and exposure matters, she said. We need to start breaking those barriers and making it comfortable for every student to be able to walk into these organizations as all of who they (are) and learn how to be the best version of who they are. If Im not accepted in a certain space, Im not going to go there.

Dixon said shes happy to be a contact for people who want to pull back the curtain on the great opportunities and potential of this industry. While the pandemic has slowed the pace of in-person summer programs, she hopes that too will change, getting more numbers to engage with Roosevelts summer immersion program and other classroom conversations.

Im trying to supplement the engagement with high school students through things like virtual speaker series participation, where someone from another company will come in and talk about what they do, Dixon said. I have a whole cohort of folks who are available to do that. Were going to keep trying to find ways to bring young people in the room and not only make a difference in their community, but they can also achieve a lot financially and personally, by being involved in this. We want to make sure that we have a pipeline of diverse talent to take advantage of that.

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Rosales enthusiasm for what she found in real estate so far is evident.

When I did come into the office, I was expecting a man because in the real estate industry most of the higher ranks, you will see a man, Rosales said. But this office, I absolutely love because this office is run by a woman, which definitely shows that we can do it. No matter who you are, or where you come from this industry is open.

drockett@chicagotribune.com

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Following are my opening remarks at Thursdays town hall meeting on domestic terrorism sponsored by the local NAACP chapter and the ACLU in downtown Modesto. Asked to moderate a panel composed of FBI Special Agent Christopher McKinney, Stanislaus County Sheriff Jeff Dirkse and Modesto Police Chief Brandon Gillespie, I prepared this opening to help frame the discussion.

A few years ago, while living in nearby Keyes, a young man viewed online beheadings at the hands of terrorists overseas and researched here how to join ISIS there. He was arrested in North Africa in 2016 and imprisoned for two years before being returned to the United States where he faced more terrorism charges.

In 2018, a Modesto tow truck driver was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for plotting a Christmas terrorist attack on behalf of ISIS at San Franciscos popular Pier 39. Our FBI panelist tonight was involved with that investigation and stopped the attack before it could happen.

In June 2020, a group of self-styled militia members dressed in camouflage fatigues armed themselves with assault rifles and other firearms to keep in check a rumored Black Lives Matter event in Oakdale that never happened.

In September 2020, someone painted the n-word on a fence across the alley from a Black familys home in Turlock, and set on fire the familys wood fence.

The Proud Boys, who have been associated with racism, misogyny, intolerance and violence, played a role in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the nations capitol in Washington, D.C. A few months later, at a June meeting of the Modesto City Council, Proud Boys members were captured by Modesto Bee photographer Andy Alfaro as they flashed hand signs associated with white supremacy. Proud Boys boasted that they would continue harassing elected officials at public meetings, and said they intend to run for office at all levels of government.

In a podcast, local Proud Boys said Chief Gillespie here was wrong to fire an officer after the officer shot and killed an unarmed man at a Modesto church. They said Sheriff Dirkse here is a traitor and a leftist activist in disguise  because he hopes to improve his departments community relations with all races.

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The Proud Boys also said Modesto City Council members all violated their oaths of office when they voted unanimously to proceed with an effort aimed at improving policing.

These local Proud Boys members said that 100% of law enforcement training these days is about respecting cultural diversity and not protecting the public. And they think its funny to mock Blacks and Eastern Europeans with voice impersonations.

A few years ago, a white supremacist in Oakdale (Nathan Damigo) who had served a prison term for a violent hate crime formed a group that gained national notoriety for helping stage the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017.

This man blamed high rates of poverty among Blacks on genetics. He mocked feminism for promoting body positivity, in which women basically dont take care of their health. They expect people just to accept them when theyre fat and sloppy and nasty.

The alt-right movement, he said, is a rejection of multicultural, multiracial doctrine. He talked about race-based differences in intelligence, saying, The idea that discrimination is always morally wrong is completely absurd. Anyone saying this is saying, Hey, dont use your brain; be an idiot. 

In November, a jury ordered him and 16 other extremists and groups to pay a combined $26 million in restitution to plaintiffs from the Charlottesville riot.

Also in November, a teen was charged with a hate crime for stabbing a homeless man while citing his ethnicity and telling the man to leave a Turlock park.

And again this past November, the Ceres City Council appointed a man (John Osgood) to fill a vacancy on the council. While reviewing podcasts he had produced, I found a 20-minute stretch of air time when he repeatedly spewed the n-word. The Ceres council rescinded his appointment at its next meeting.

These are but a few reminders that our Modesto and Stanislaus region have not escaped the stain of hate and domestic terror.

If you think it cant happen here, youre wrong. It already has.

For these reasons, tonights discussion is timely, it is appropriate, and it is necessary.

Modesto town hall reflections

Some thoughts after Thursdays event:

The hosts accomplished something valuable  bringing people together to talk about something divisive. Thats no small feat. Heres hoping they continue efforts to help us grow and improve.

The presenters knew they were going into a den of lions, so to speak, and they didnt flinch. McKinney, the FBI agent, even asked for hard questions that might put him on his heels. Thats the right approach.

I was disappointed at some of their comments, though. For example, suggesting that getting to know your neighbor is an effective way to confront white supremacy. This, from white men who carry guns and badges and have no fear anywhere in the county; do they really think a person of color can approach a guy with a gun rack and confederate flag on his pickup and glibly offer a beer? Its a nice thought in theory, but smacks of misunderstanding the reality that many of our people face.

From the other side, I was disappointed that some in the audience were far more interested in airing grievances than in asking questions of the panel. Maybe I was naive; it was billed as a town hall meeting, after all, which by definition has the audience playing an integral role.

Lastly, the forum should have been livestreamed and recorded for viewing later. Failing to do either prevents those who could not attend from learning, which is an important step toward healing.
John M Lund Photography Inc/Getty Images

Hawaii removed its indoor mask mandate and travel requirements due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The state will no longer require tourists to self-quarantine and provide vaccination or testing proof.

Some 78% of the Hawaiian population is fully vaccinated, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Hawaii has removed its indoor mask mandate and travel requirements due to the coronavirus pandemic. It is the final US state to relax its rules.

The state also suspended its Safe Travels program, which required tourists to self-quarantine and provide vaccination or testing proof, per the New York Times.

"The news has been met with joyful anticipation by our guests and colleagues," Charles Head, the general manager of the Fairmont Orchid hotel on the Kohala Coast, told the Times.

Nearly 78% of Hawaii's population of 1.4 million is fully vaccinated, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Hawaii implemented strict restrictions compared to some US states, previously requiring unvaccinated tourists to either quarantine or test negative 72-hours before flying to the state, Insider's Brittany Chang reported.

"We are ready to burn the masks and we are very excited," Tony Reed, the manager of Duke's Waikiki, told The Times.

Reed added: "It's hard to police the guests because we're selling an experience, right? So, having to hold somebody back and say, 'no, you can't do that,' it breaks a lot of our hearts and it's actually a thorn in our side that just would not go away."

Other residents who spoke with The Times were less enthusiastic about the changes. Resident Melissa Millwood told the paper that perhaps if the restrictions remained in place, "the government to take it seriously to diversify the economy."

"If we were forced to live without tourism for a little bit longer, I think the government would have been forced to invest in agriculture and other things and diversify our economy so we wouldn't be subject to things like this. We would be more resilient," Millwood said.

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Tina Alcain, a high school teacher, told the outlet that she would continue to wear her mask indoors to protect her grandmother.

"It's become second nature," Alcain said. "I think I will just continue to do it until it becomes just like the everyday flu."

Read the original article on Business Insider
A homeowner in Pittsburghs Greenfield neighborhood is asking for help, and even sent us the Ring camera video, in hopes of identifying a porch pirate who stole from her.

It was wild, and unfortunately we were both at work and had missed the notification, Jessica Goelz said. We couldnt even talk to him through the ring.

In the video, he says knock knock, then puts a package under his arm, then in his jacket. He does it again, knock knock, knocks on the door, and says hello, anybody home?, before picking up the package, dropping it, and then puts it in his jacket before walking away.

It was really bizarre, Goelz said. The poor dog was trying his best to bark and scare him away. That man was very strange, it was a very strange situation all the way around.

Goelz has lived in Greenfield for three years, and says this is the first time something like this has happened. She told 11 News the man got away with a bottle of face wash, and a gift she bought her fiance for his birthday.

I was really surprised because weve been here about three years on this street, and weve never had a problem, Goelz said. Then I felt very angry about the whole situation.

Goelz said her fiance called the non-emergency number for Pittsburgh Police. They also wanted to show the video, to put other neighbors in Greenfield on alert.

I really hope more people see the video, and maybe theyll recognize him to alert the authorities so that it doesnt happen to anyone else, Goelz said.

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Ruby Celada and Armando Ayala with the six children they adopted on Wednesday, March 24, 2022.

A group of children in Sioux Falls officially found their "forever family" after a Minnesota couple adopted five siblings and one cousin.

Ruby Celada 36, and her husband, Armando Ayala, 46, both of Leota, Minnesota, finalized their adoption of the four boys and two girls Wednesday afternoon at the Minnehaha County Courthouse.

"We're just happy that we're able to do it and they're able to be in the same home, Celada said. "They're not separated or anything."

Celada and Ayala adopted:

Alanna Celada, a 12-year-old girl

Jerry Celada, an 8-year-old boy

Arturo Celada an 8-year-old boy

Aiden Celada an 8-year-old boy

Avery Celada a 7-year-old boy

Aniya Celada a 6-year-old girl

Jerry Celada is a cousin who grew up with the siblings, but since all of them were raised together the couple adopted him, too.

Aiden Celada was an unknown sibling to the family. He met up with the group at the Children's Inn in Sioux Falls.

"They were all in the system," Ruby Celada said. "But one of them [Aiden] didn't know they were brothers and sisters or anything."

More: Local business announces Egg Drop scavenger hunt in Sioux Falls.

The couple walked into the Minnehaha Courthouse to finalize the adoption of their family Wednesday afternoon. They wore matching outfits with each child's name on their shirt and the date of adoption.

In a video shared with the Argus Leader by the family, Avery Celada is seen hugging his new dad and saying, "I'll take good care of you," during the adoption hearing.

She always knew they'd be hers

Ruby Celada was an aunt to the children before. They were her brother's children before CPS took them because of "neglect," she said.

"They came a long, long way, they've been through so much," Ruby Celada said. "Kids want to be with their parents, but sometimes they cannot be, because of the choices the parents made."

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The group of kids have two parents in prison, one in jail and others around Sioux Falls, according to Ruby Celada. She followed the kids ever since they were taken by CPS and said she always knew they'd be hers eventually.

More: Sioux Falls boxer Donarie Nunez pushes past arrests, family struggles as she pursues her Olympic dreams

Ruby Celada and Armando Ayala along with their chidren and Erica Kirkman (to the left) and Heidi Roesder (to the right).

All six children were diagnosed with ADHD and Avery Celada has autism. Ruby Celada said she worked closely with case workers like Erica Kirkman, Heidi Roesder and Brodrick Stolsmark during the adoption process. And they even joined the family for the adoption ceremony.

Although CPS took the children away from their parents, their work allowed the kids to get to their new home. That's something Ruby Celada and Ayala are thankful for.

I just wanna thank them so much for what theyve done for our family, for our kids. Theyre there to help not take kids away, Ruby Celada said.

After finalizing the adoption, the family went to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate, while also marking the birthdays of Avery and Aniya, which happened Monday and Tuesday.

Got a story idea from your community? Email reporter Alfonzo Galvan at agalvan@argusleader.com or follow him on Twitter @GalvanReports.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: This Minnesota couple just adopted six children in Sioux Falls
STORY: Kharrazi said one sticking point, after 11 months of negotiations in Vienna that have stalled, was Washington's designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a foreign terrorist organization.

Analysts say failure to restore the pact, risks regional war or harsher Western sanctions on Iran - which could put further pressure on world oil prices that are already high due to the Ukraine conflict.
JERUSALEM (AP)  A pair of Arab gunmen killed two people and wounded four others Sunday in a shooting spree in central Israel before they were killed by police, according to police and medical officials.

It was the second deadly nationalist attack carried out by Arab assailants in an Israeli city in less than a week. On Tuesday, a lone attacker inspired by the Islamic State group killed four people in a stabbing rampage in southern Israel before he was killed by passersby.

Israeli security officials said the gunmen were supporters of the Islamic State extremist group who were Arab citizens from northern Israel. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was continuing.

The attack comes just ahead of the volatile period of Ramadan and also threatened to cast a shadow over a gathering of foreign ministers in the Negev desert, where the Iranian nuclear deal was expected to top the agenda. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett rushed to the scene.

Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Yair Lapid briefed his counterparts from the U.S. and four Arab countries, who condemned the attack. Lapid issued a statement calling it heinous and an attempt by violent extremists to terrorize and to damage the fabric of life here.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. But Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza, praised the attack as a heroic operation.

Security camera footage circulating on Israeli media showed two bearded men appearing to open fire in the city of Hadera before they are shot. An Israeli official said two members of the Israeli Border Police counterterrorism unit were in a restaurant near the attack, ran out and killed the assailants.

The Israeli rescue service MADA confirmed the deaths of one man and one woman, and said four people were wounded, two seriously. It released videos showing large numbers of police cars and ambulances in the area.

Following last weeks attack, Israeli officials voiced concerns about a possible rise in violence ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when religious tensions are often heightened. Last year, clashes between Israeli police and Muslim protesters during Ramadan boiled over into an 11-day war between Israel and Gazas Hamas rulers.
Josh Warrington knocks down Kiko Martinez (Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing)

Josh Warrington became a two-time world champion after stopping Spains Kiko Martinez in round seven in Leeds to regain the IBF featherweight title.

Warrington, 31, reclaimed the same IBF crown he lost 14 months ago in thrilling fashion, blitzing a tough and durable defending champion to the delight of a partisan, sell-out crowd at the First Direct Arena.

Martinez, who somehow survived a first-round knockdown and was badly cut above his left eye, came under a barrage of heavy punches in the seventh and the referee stopped the contest two minutes and 12 seconds into the round.

Warrington proved his critics wrong with a whirlwind display in front of his raucous army of fans, catapulting back to the top of his weight division and putting a wretched 2021 behind him in style.

The Leeds Warrior launched a ferocious assault on Martinez from the opening bell.

A vicious right hook landed flush on Martinezs chin and sent him to the canvas. He rose to his feet after a count of eight before a cut opened up above his left eye, close to his nose.

The defending champion came under serious pressure in the second round as the Leeds crowd roared Warrington on to what they hoped would be an early victory.

But Martinez proved he is as tough as a walnut. He weathered the storm and looked to get back in the fight as Warrington eased off the pedal.

Warrington had his opponent on the ropes again in the fourth round and a series of pumping rights in the fifth cranked the arena back up to full volume.

Martinez was slow to come out for the sixth as his cut eye was tended to and ended the round nodding in appreciation after being caught by another ramrod right at the end of it.

Warrington sensed it was his time and hurled himself at the Spaniard at the start of the seventh, trapping him on the ropes and pummelling him to a standstill before the referee stepped in to end the fight.

The Yorkshireman bounced back from his first career defeat and a technical draw in his previous two fights, both against fast-emerging Mexican Mauricio Lara.

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Warrington had dropped down his weight divisions pecking order, but after seeing off Martinez for a second time - he beat him on points at the same venue in 2017 - he has recaptured the IBF belt and now has even bigger prizes in his sights.

An all-British showdown against Nottinghams Leigh Wood at Elland Road or the City Ground has been mooted, as have States-side unification fights against WBC champion Mark Magsayo or WBO belt-holder Emanuel Navarrete.

Earlier on the undercard, Ebanie Bridges won the IBF bantamweight title at the second attempt after beating Argentinas Maria Cecilia Roman on points.

Bridges, The Blonde Bomber, won a thrilling contest with all three judges scoring in her favour - 100-91, 97-93, 97-93 - after she refused to take a backward step.

Doncasters Maxi Hughes retained his IBO lightweight title with a unanimous points win against Rochdales Ryan Walsh.
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Kim Kardashian sent kisses to the camera in her latest post to Instagram.

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The social media star stood before some greenery and a pool, making a kissy face towards the camera on Saturday while sporting a silver puffer jacket with a metallic finish. Kardashian draped the coat over a sporty silver top with a reflective iridescent sheen. The cutout top had the active silhouette of wetsuit, giving the entire look a futuristic surfer girl vibe for the California native.

On the bottom, Kardashian opted for a pair of silvery-grey leggings that enhanced the body-conscious aesthetic. The look also played into the stars signature style of monochromatic looks. The model, mogul and aspiring lawyer tends to play with textures while sporting a monochrome look to create a multi-layered ensemble with interesting pieces. The look is playful and futuristic, proving that silver is a solid color to incorporate into any outfit.

While her shoes werent visible in the Instagram post, its likely that Kardashian paired the look with a pair of matching silver footwear. The stars preference for thigh-high boots might point to a pair in silver to go with the sporty, futuristic-surfer vibe.

Around the Kardashians neck is a custom-made necklace that reads Kim  a detail that takes the look to a whole new level. Made by jewelry designer Eric Mavani, the necklace is made with white diamonds and pink colored gemstones that sparkled in the California sunshine.

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Beyond her outfit, Kims makeup was smokey and neutral as usual while her hair was parted down the middle and straightened. All the silver accents bring the look home. Kim gives a master class on monochrome, teaching us that a great way to pull off a look like that is to mix and match shades of a color to play with depth and perspective.

See how Kim Kardashian styles some PVC Pumps.

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On March 20, Ambassador Qin Gang took an interview with XIAOTIAN of Talk With World Leaders and elaborated Chinas position on Ukraine and China-US relations. The Transcript is as follows:

XIAOTIAN: Hello, Ambassador Qin. Thank you very much for joining me in Talk With World Leaders here in Washington.

AMB. QIN: Hello Xiaotian, thank you for having me.

XIAOTIAN: We see that the leaders of China and the United States had a video call on March 18, four months away from their virtual meeting. Four months is short, but long enough for the world to go through many changes. So first of all, can you please give us a brief overview of the background, content and significance of this video call?

AMB. QIN: Four months has passed since last Novembers virtual meeting between the two leaders. There has been significant changes in world peace, stability and development. The Ukraine crisis is still ongoing and China-US relations is also having new developments. Therefore, the video call between the two leaders is timely and important. They had an in-depth exchange of views on China-US relations and the Ukraine crisis. President Biden reiterated that the United States does not seek a new Cold War with China; it does not aim to change Chinas system; the revitalization of its alliances is not targeted at China; the US would not change its one-China policy, and it has no intention to seek a conflict with China. Meanwhile, President Xi Jinping reiterated Chinas principled position on developing China-US relations. He pointed out in particular that China-US relationship has encountered a growing number of challenges, and a main reason is that some people on the US side have not followed through on the important common understanding reached by the two Presidents. So whether China-US relations can return to the track of healthy and stable development depends on whether the US can honor its commitments.

XIAOTIAN: So there are still uncertainties as to whether the US can fulfill its commitments and carry out the consensus. But why the uncertainties? What might be the problem?

AMB. QIN: The problem is that with Chinas rapid development in recent years and the changing domestic situations of both countries, some people in the US have seriously misperceived and misjudged Chinas intention of development. They claim that China exercises autocracy, that China poses a threat to the world, and that China wants to challenge or even displace the United States. These serious misperceptions and misjudgments have led Americas China policy astray.

XIAOTIAN: Has China doubted the sincerity of the US leader when he made these commitments?

AMB. QIN: We hope that the sincerity of the US leader will be translated into real actions. Just as the an old Chinese saying goes, we must not only listen to what is said, but also look at what is done.

XIAOTIAN: We see that the two leaders had an-depth communication on the Ukraine crisis. Obviously, China and the US adopt very different positions on the Ukraine issue. Can you please enlighten us about this? Is it possible for the two countries to join hands to resolve the crisis?

AMB. QIN: China and the US have been maintaining close communication since the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis. The two countries have reached common understanding on realizing ceasefire and peace and providing humanitarian aid. But we have different views on how to promote peace talks and ensuring lasting security in Europe. We have made it clear to the US that China rejects all kinds of smears and accusations. There are many challenges in the current China-US relationship. We do not want to see it become the collateral damage of the Ukraine crisis. We hope that China and the US will strengthen communication and cooperation and work together with the international community to promote peace talks, and create conditions for an early and peaceful settlement of the crisis through political means. The two leaders agreed in the video call that the two teams should strengthen communication to follow through on the common understanding of the two countries. This is what we are going to focus on. On the afternoon of the very day of the video call, I met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, and we had a long and in-depth discussion on China-US relations and the Ukraine crisis.

XIAOTIAN: How was the atmosphere or mood of the meeting?

AMB. QIN: It was serious, pragmatic and in-depth. Next, we will strengthen communication with the US in this regard.

XIAOTIAN: We noticed that you published an article titled Where we stand on Ukraine on The Washington Post on March 15.

AMB. QIN: Yes.

XIAOTIAN: The article drew lots of response, generating lively discussion on one hand and quieting down speculative and suspicious voices on the other. I noticed that in this article you wrote On Ukraine, Chinas position is objective and impartial. As we know, apart from objective and impartial which are often used to describe ones position on certain issues, there is also the word neutral which you didnt employ. How is this to be understood? Might we say that Chinas position on the conflict between Ukraine and Russia is objective and impartial but not neutral?

AMB. QIN: You noticed the subtle differences between neutral and impartial. In the article, I gave a comprehensive and systematic account of Chinas principled position on the Ukraine issue. The main idea is that China is a peace-loving country and that we stand for peace and oppose war. We do not want to see the situation in Ukraine come to this. In international relations, we always advocate mutual respect and equality, and believe that disputes between countries should be resolved through peaceful means. We must abide by international law and respect the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, the most important of which is to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, including Ukraine. At the same time, we believe that the situation in Ukraine has not come to what it is today overnight. As a Chinese proverb goes, it takes more than one cold day for a river to freeze three feet deep. There is complex history behind the Ukraine issue, and people should look back to 30 years ago when the Soviet Union disintegrated, which exerted a huge impact on European geopolitical and security landscape.

Russia feels duped by NATO on its eastward expansion. It feels threatened and cornered. The United States and NATO have been in talks with Russia for years, but war still broke out. Why? Shouldnt people contemplate on this? Why should China take any responsibility? We must be objective and impartial when we look at the problem, taking into account both history and reality. China adopts an objective, impartial and responsible position on Ukraine. We do this because China is a major country.

XIAOTIAN: We see that the United States continuously claims that if China helps Russia circumvent sanctions or provides assistance for Russia, then China will face serious consequences. How would you respond to this?

AMB. QIN: As you said, all parties concerned now hope that China can play a bigger role in promoting peace talks, but the United States keeps on threatening China.

XIAOTIAN: So there are indeed threats?

AMB. QIN: Yes. But threats and pressurizing will not work. China maintains normal economic, trade and energy cooperation and close people-to-people exchanges with Russia.

XIAOTIAN: Will this be counted as aid to Russia, I mean, given the war?

AMB. QIN: We hope and maintain that our normal cooperation with Russia will not be affected. China firmly rejects any threat of unilateral sanction or long-arm jurisdiction from the US side, and will respond with resolute measures to defend our legitimate rights and interests.

XIAOTIAN: Suppose the US does impose sanctions on China, what impact will they have on China? Is China ready to respond?

AMB. QIN: Of course, we are following the next move of the United States closely. We do not want sanctions to happen, but if they do, as I said earlier, we will firmly respond to defend our legitimate rights and interests. At the same time, we also hope that the United States will stop creating conflicts and confrontations with China in order to promote peace talks. China has long-standing, trusted relations with Russia. As the largest neighbor to each other, we share broad common interests. We have very close economic, trade and cultural exchanges. Chinas trusted relations with Russia is not a liability, but an asset, an opportunity in the international efforts to resolve the crisis in a peaceful way. Now, all parties concerned are in serious confrontation with Russia except China. Only China has the ear of Russia.

XIAOTIAN: Will Russia listen to what China says?

AMB. QIN: Russia is a sovereign state and as such, it makes its decisions and conclusions based on its national interests. Having said this, China can help in the international efforts for peace talks, given its trusted relations with Russia.

XIAOTIAN: But is there any chance of China expecting too much?

AMB. QIN: How much we should expect depends on how we use our wisdom. But if people ask that China copy the US or Western way in dealing with this issue, then China would lose its unique leverage and channel on this issue, which would be counterproductive and unhelpful to peace talks.

XIAOTIAN: China and Russia are comprehensive strategic partners of coordination, and the two countries issued a joint statement in February, stating that friendship between the two States has no limits, there are no forbidden areas of cooperation. So in the Ukraine crisis, to what extent is China willing to honor this statement?

AMB. QIN: In the joint statement, the two countries defined key areas of future cooperation and laid out shared views and positions on international affairs. The essence is that we must promote democracy in international relations, uphold the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, oppose the resurrection of Cold-War mentality, and oppose bloc confrontation. These expressions carry profound significance and are in line with the basic norms governing international relations. So there is no limit to how far China-Russia cooperation can go. Having said this, we should also be clear that China-Russia cooperation has no limits, but it does have a bottom line, that is the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, the international law and basic norms governing international relations. These are the guideline for China to deal with relations with any country.

XIAOTIAN: We saw some media say, Ukraine today, Taiwan tomorrow. How do you look at this?

AMB. QIN: Recently, some people in other countries, especially in the United States, are linking Taiwan to Ukraine and playing up the Taiwan question. What I want to point out is that they are totally different. The Taiwan question is Chinas internal affairs. Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinas territory, while the Ukraine crisis is a problem and conflict between two sovereign states, Ukraine and Russia. So they are different in nature. There are no comparison to be drawn between them. On Taiwan, Chinas position is very clear, and we are committed to achieving reunification of the country.

AMB. QIN: We will show our deepest sincerity and do all we can to realize peaceful reunification, but we do not renounce other options, because only in this way can we curb Taiwan Independence separatist forces. We have strong will, determination and ability to do it. I should add that on the Ukraine issue, some people in the United States have been saying that Ukraines national sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected. However, on the Taiwan question, an issue concerning Chinas core interests, these people are simply tight-lipped about respecting Chinas sovereignty and territorial integrity. This is typical double standards.

XIAOTIAN: Before we finish, lets talk about the relationship between China and the United States. Some people say that the Ukraine crisis has actually created strategic development space for China, to a certain extent. As Chinas Ambassador to the United States, do you agree?

AMB. QIN: The conflict between Russia and Ukraine does no good to us, since our most urgent task is to achieve the second centenary goal, and we need to focus on economic and social development to meet peoples needs for a better life. So China needs a peaceful and stable external environment.

AMB. QIN: The Ukraine crisis has made oil prices and commodity prices surge worldwide. Energy and food crises are unfolding. International transport and industrial and supply chains are further disrupted. The Ukraine crisis has made things worse for the global economy, and China, as a member of the global village, has also been seriously impacted. We hope to see ceasefire and restoration of peace as soon as possible, so that China can continue its development in a favorable environment.

XIAOTIAN: You have been Chinas Ambassador to the United States for more than half a year. In general, how would you look at the current China-US relations? How can the two countries get back on the track of healthy and stable development?

AMB. QIN: The China-US relationship has come to a new crossroads. As I said, with changes in both the international landscape and domestic circumstances of both countries, China and the US have entered a new round of mutual exploration, understanding and adaptation. And this will last for quite some time. We hope China and the United States will realize mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation. We are working for this, and we hope the US shares our aspiration and will work with us towards this end. Now, it is imperative for our two countries to implement the common understanding of our Presidents, especially President Bidens commitments from the video call. In this way there will be fewer roller-coaster fluctuations and more stability in China-US relations.

AMB. QIN: When I have leisure time, I would come here, take a walk by the lakeside. When I see the World War II monument, the Korean War Veterans Memorial and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, I couldnt help thinking that war and peace have been a persistent issue for the US through its history. For over 240 years, the United States has not been in war for only about 20 years, according to former President Jimmy Carter.

XIAOTIAN: It didnt send troops to Ukraine?

AMB. QIN: No. But it has provided weaponry, so the United States is a direct party concerned in the Ukraine crisis, right? As the greatest power on earth, one of the most important countries in the world, Americas approach to the war, its position and action will exert a profound influence on world peace and the future of mankind.




At least 19,000 people were under mandatory evacuations Saturday as a fast-moving wildfire burned in the Boulder, Colorado, area, authorities said.

No injuries were reported and it wasn't immediately clear if any structures were threatened, but the blaze near the National Center for Atmospheric Research's Mesa Laboratory & Visitor Center had doubled in size in a few hours Saturday afternoon.

The Boulder Office of Emergency Management tweeted that those ordered to leave included people connected to about 8,000 homes near the blaze. Large animals were being accepted at Boulder County Fairgrounds, authorities said.

Boulder Fire Rescue spokeswoman Marya Washburn said the day's warm weather and strong winds were giving way to more favorable conditions on the front lines.

"The wind is now dying down, and were expecting the weather to work more in our favor," she said Saturday evening.

On Sunday, the fire was at an estimated 200 acres with about 21 percent contained, according to Mike Smith, incident commander with Boulder County. Authorities had no reports of injuries or missing people by Sunday morning.

Firefighters were aided by low wind speeds that allowed for air support and relatively humid weather overnight, Smith said.

"We will continue to reinforce the line to make sure that the fire doesn't move towards the city or down towards Eldorado Canyon," Smith said. "We're gonna continue to try and corral this fire up into the rocks into the snow, which is really one of our big holding features right now and one of the reasons that we're having really, again, good success."

Authorities investigating the blaze's origins said it began south of the Mesa Laboratory, where there's a watershed, canyon and trails that cross from east to west, toward the Rocky Mountains.

"The fire started this afternoon down in the Bear Creek drainage," Brian Oliver, chief of the Boulder Fire Rescue Wildland Division, said at an evening press conference.

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Emergency management officials said Boulder County Sheriff's Office investigators were looking for potential witnesses who may have been on or near the trails south of the Mesa Laboratory around 2 p.m.

Evacuations for the area were still in place on Sunday, Washburn said. Some areas were out of the evacuation zone but routes to get there were still considered unsafe. Firefighters were working on clearing those routes Sunday, Washburn said.

Air tankers were seen on video from NBC affiliate KUSA of Denver dropping retardant on the blaze.

Washburn said protecting homes and buildings was the top priority for now. "Were doing everything we can to keep structures safe," she said.

Boulder police said earlier that people who signed up for cellphone emergency alerts and who were within a quarter mile of the Mesa Laboratory received wireless alerts ordering them to leave the area as the wildfire started moving rapidly.

Saturday's blaze is not far from the area burned by the most destructive wildfire in state history, the Marshall Fire, which started Dec. 30 and burned into 2022.

It consumed nearly 10 square miles, destroyed 991 homes and damaged 127 other structures. The cause remains undetermined, although a Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks ranger wrote a report that includes the possibility it had two ignition points.
Since pledging to give away most of her wealth in 2019, MacKenzie Scott has donated an estimated $12 billion to 1,257 nonprofit organizations.

The writer and philanthropist announced Wednesday she has handed over $3.9 billion to hundreds of organizations in the last nine months alone, funding areas such as climate and education, as well as Ukraine relief efforts.

Scott's philanthropy is unique not only because she's giving away large sums of money in a small amount of time but also because of the type of organizations she's choosing, said Tyrone McKinley Freeman, associate professor of philanthropic studies at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.

"She really is distinguishing herself as a giver because she's giving away this these large amounts of money to organizations that do not typically have access to these types of donors or these types of gifts," Freeman said, noting her donations come with no strings attached.

The latest round of donations included $436 million for the home-building nonprofit Habitat for Humanity, the largest publicly disclosed donation from Scott and her husband, Dan Jewett, so far.

Also Wednesday, Planned Parenthood announced it received a $275 million gift from Scott, the largest gift from a single donor in the organization's history.

"Our teams focus over these last nine months has included some new areas, but as always our aim has been to support the needs of underrepresented people from groups of all kinds," Scott said in a blog post published on Medium. "The cause of equity has no sides."

Smaller sums making big change

Though Scott's bigger donations receive the most attention, smaller groups consider the amounts they have received from her large by their standard.

Scott's $5 million donation to Migrant Clinicians Network surpasses its annual budget, said Deliana Garcia, director of international projects and emerging issues at organization.

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Migrant Clinicians Network is a health nonprofit that services migrants, immigrants and asylum seekers.

"This money is going to let us help migrants, immigrants and refugees who come to this country, most of who are workers in low wage, high risk labor groups," Garcia said. "Another portion of it is going to be directed to let us help health care providers who have committed their lives to caring for folks like migrant farmworkers."

For the Wounded Warrior Project, a nonprofit aiding veterans and service members who sustained injury or illness on or after 9/11, Scott's $15 million donation marks its largest individual gift.

"We're just very grateful and humbled to be part of a group of organizations that are focused on really removing obstacles," Jennifer Silva, chief program officer at Wounded Warrior Project, said. "We particularly focus on removing obstacles for wounded veterans who have served our country and providing access to life saving support and programs."

The money will help fund mental and brain health programs.

The landmark $25 million donation education nonprofit City Year received from Scott will help it expand its reach in schools across the country, said Tasha Booker, senior vice president for external engagement.

"We could not do this work without the generosity of donors like MacKenzie Scott and others," Booker said. "This is a transformative gift that will have a long term impact for years to come, particularly as we look to answer President Biden's calls for more mentors and tutors in our public school system."

Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, last year donated $2.7 billion to 286 charities.

In July 2020, Scott announced in her blog she had given about $1.7 billion to 116 groups, including historically Black colleges and universities. In December that year, she handed an additional $4.2 billion to 384 diverse organizations.

Even after her multibillion dollar donations, Forbes magazine estimates Scott's net worth at $48.8 billion.

In her blog posts, Scott shared the total in donations and lists the recipients, but did not disclose the individual amounts.

Among the latest recipients, Scott said about 60% of the organizations are led by women and 75% are led by "people with lived experience in the regions they support and the issues they seek to address."

"Communities with a habit of removing obstacles for different subsets of people tend to get better for everyone," Scott wrote.

Here are some of Mackenzie Scott's largest donations so far:

Habitat for Humanity  $436 million

With this donation, Habitat is well-positioned to meaningfully advocate for the systemic and societal changes needed to improve equitable access to affordable housing, Jonathan Reckford, CEO of Habitat for Humanity International, said in a statement.

Boys & Girls Clubs of America  $281 million

"Thanks to this generous gift, Boys & Girls Clubs can continue to reach even more youth, as we guide millions of kids and teens on their journeys to great futures, Jim Clark, president and CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of America, said in a statement.

Planned Parenthood  $275 million

We are incredibly grateful for Ms. Scotts extraordinary philanthropic investment in Planned Parenthood, as a critical part of the public health infrastructure," said Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, in a statement.

Communities in Schools  $133.5 million

"This unrestricted gift allows us to combat the inequities in public education and reimagine the way schools operate and show up for all students," said Rey Saldana, president and CEO of Communities In Schools, in a statement.

National 4-H Council  $50 million

National 4-H Council is grateful to MacKenzie Scott and her husband, Dan Jewett, for their belief in Cooperative Extensions 4-H program and its life-changing outcomes for youth, said Jennifer Sirangelo, president and CEO of National 4-H Council, in a statement. Their generosity will sustain 4-Hs commitment to ensuring all young peopleregardless of their background or beliefsare empowered with the skills to lead for a lifetime.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: MacKenzie Scott has donated $12 billion to charities
STORY: The activist and Nobel Laureate told the international forum in Qatar that she had been optimistic the Taliban would allow girls to return to education, but the group backtracked on their previous commitment to open high schools to girls on Wednesday. Yousafzai, said girls in Afghanistan had been waiting outside their schools, but the gates were closed, and they were crying.

The U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan said on Saturday he is hopeful that there will be a reversal of the Taliban's U-turn on girls' education in the coming days.

"I am hopeful that we will see a reversal of this decision in the coming days" Thomas West, U.S. special representative for Afghanistan, told the Doha Forum.
By Christopher Scicluna

VALLETTA (Reuters) -Malta's ruling Labour party claimed victory on Sunday in national elections, while Prime Minister Robert Abela promised humility and a greener Malta as he celebrated his party's third successive win.

Official results have yet to be declared, but the Labour Party said it expected its victory to be even bigger than the 55% majorities it won in 2013 and 2017. The opposition centre-right Nationalist Party conceded defeat.

This will be the first electoral mandate for Abela, who became Labour leader and prime minister in January 2020.

Addressing thousands of flag-waving supporters from a balcony at Labour headquarters just outside Valletta, Abela repeatedly insisted that his hallmark would be humility.

"Humility will characterise this government, I will insist on humility from those chosen to work within it, and I will lead by example," Abela, son of former Maltese President George Abela, said.

He said his government would seek national unity, insisting that everyone had a contribution to give to the country.

With his wife and 10-year-old daughter beside him, he said he wanted to achieve better living standards, better opportunities for all, and a more environment-friendly Malta.

Environmental issues were seen as one of the outgoing government's weakest points as Malta, Europe's most densely populated island, had a building boom that encroached on open spaces.

The building spree was a result of a strong economy which attracted thousands workers to the island.

Abela was credited with keeping the economy going through the COVID-19 crisis, maintaining public support through generous assistance to businesses and consumer vouchers to all residents.

He kept unemployment at a record low, froze energy costs despite soaring prices abroad, and raised pensions repeatedly. His Labour government has never raised taxes and says it will not do so.

Over the past year Abela also ushered in a raft of rule-of-law reforms to counter claims of government corruption and greylisting of Malta by the FATF, the global watchdog on money laundering.

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Abela was largely unaffected by repeated allegations of corruption made against his party by Bernard Grech's Nationalist Party. Grech, like Abela, is a lawyer.

Abela's predecessor Joseph Muscat resigned after the arrest of businessman Yorgen Fenech, who was accused of complicity in the murder of anti-corruption blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2017.

Fenech had been a close friend of Muscat's chief of staff, Keith Schembri. Both Muscat and Schembri denied having had prior knowledge of the murder.

(Reporting by Cristopher SciclunaEditing by Gareth Jones and Jane Merriman)
Marjorie Taylor Greene en el primer discurso del Estado de la Union de Joe Biden (Getty Images)

Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene on Saturday made a series of bizarre accusations regarding Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and husband Chasten while speaking at former president Donald Trumps most recent political rally in Commerce, Georgia.

Ms Greene, who at times has made statements questioning whether the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks were an inside job and expressed support for the QAnon conspiracy theory holding that a secret cabal of cannibalistic paedophiles runs the US government. The Georgia representative appeared to claim that Mr Buttigieg and his husband have been attempting to enter womens restrooms via bicycle or electric car.

You know what? Pete Buttigieg can take his electric vehicles and his bicycles and he and his husband can stay out of our girls bathrooms, she said.

Its unclear what Ms Greene meant, as neither the transportation secretary or his husband, a best-selling author and former drama instructor, have expressed any desire to use womens restrooms, and neither would need the aid of a bicycle or electric vehicle to do so because both are capable of walking unaided.

Her bizarre claims drew mockery from a number of high-profile Twitter users, including actress Kathy Griffin, who wrote: You guys, I cannot get secretary Pete Buttigieg and his husband Chasten out of my bathroom.

You guys, I cannot get secretary Pete Buttigieg and his husband @Chasten out of my bathroom!!!

To be fair I do have a fabulous master bath and we were having brunch in there. https://t.co/vkNFSc7WqK  Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) March 27, 2022

She added that to be fair she has a fabulous master bath and said she and the Buttigiegs were having brunch with her at the time.

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Former The View co-host Meghan McCain also weighed in, writing: Just keep in mind Trump supporters and GOP leadership have more of a problem with Liz Cheney than this freak.

Just keep in mind Trump supporters and GOP leadership have more of a problem with @Liz_Cheney than this freak. https://t.co/LBarl9bpiK  Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) March 26, 2022

Another prominent Republican, conservative attorney George Conway, attempted to strike a note of comity amid the widespread mockery of her comments, writing that we can all agree that gay men should not drive Teslas into girls bathrooms.
Mark Wright said he and Michelle Keegan are staying put in the UK for now. (Getty)

Mark Wright recently turned down a presenting gig on a major dating show in the USA so that he could stay in the UK with wife Michelle Keegan.

The 35-year-old former TOWIE star spent several years out in the States pursuing presenting work, appearing as an entertainment correspondent on syndicated show EXTRA from 2017 until 2020.

Read more: Mark Wright denies claims he's blacklisted by ITV

He told The Sun that he thinks he made the right call leaving Los Angeles and setting up home with Our Girl actor Keegan in Essex.

"We love LA but we are not moving back there, not yet anyway," said Wright.

Watch: Mark Wright given all-clear after tumour removed

I was actually meant to host a really big dating show out there a few months ago but I couldnt do it because I had to be in a bubble for three months and I wouldnt have been able to leave so I had to say no.

"When I was out there I saw [the show] on TV and it looked really good, so I was devastated, but I dont regret leaving LA."

Read more: Mark Wright says he and Keegan make it work despite time apart

Wright said he would now "never be able to live away again", but did say he was open to spending some time in the States for a work opportunity if the right thing arose.

He added: "One good thing about working in America is they dont make you stay in one lane, you can do different stuff, whereas here in England sometimes they like to pigeonhole you.

Mark Wright previously spent several years presenting as an entertainment correspondent in America. (PA Images via Getty Images)

"If you are someone that has come from a reality background like I have, you wouldnt even dare to try and get a role in a big drama here.

"Not that Im trying to do a drama  Ill leave the acting to the pros like my wife  but I dont want to be pigeonholed. I like to be versatile."

Read more: Michelle Keegan says family have stopped asking about having kids

Wright began dating Keegan in 2012, after previously being in a relationship with TOWIE co-star Lauren Goodger, and the couple tied the knot in May 2015.

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He made a return to his professional football career in 2020 when he signed a short-term deal with League Two team Crawley Town, playing just twice before being released in the summer of 2021.

Watch: Mark Wright and Michelle Keegan to launch fashion brand together
Taal Volcano spews white steam and ash as seen from Balete, Batangas province, south of Manila, Philippines on Saturday March 26, 2022. Reynante Olitan De Villa/AP

A volcano in The Philippines has erupted with plumes, forcing residents to evacuate, per Reuters.

The alert level for Taal volcano was raised from level two to level three, a seismology agency said.

Taal's recent activity could trigger a volcanic tsunami, the agency said.

Thousands of people were evacuated in The Philippines on Saturday after a volcano erupted with plumes of steam and ash that went nearly two miles in the sky, Reuters reported.

The threat level for Taal volcano, located in a lake south of the capital Manila, was raised from level two to level three on a scale of zero to five on Saturday morning after it spewed plumes that reached up to 9,800 feet, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) said in a statement.

A total of 1,100 people, including fisherman in the lake, were evacuated by authorities, PHIVOLCS told Reuters.

PHIVOLCS said in the statement that it strongly advised the residents in five surrounding areas to evacuate "due to the possible hazards of pyroclastic density currents and volcanic tsunami should stronger eruptions subsequently occur."

The agency said in the statement that civil aviation authorities must tell pilots to avoid flying over the volcano because ash and fragments could be a danger to aircraft.

Wet ash from the plume, which smelt of sulfur, had fallen on the island of Taal volcano and on nearby shorelines, PHIVOLCS said in the statement.

PHIVOLCS didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment for more information about the evacuation.

It isn't the first time that Taal, one of the world's smallest volcanoes at 1,020 feet high, has created cause for concern.

In January 2020, Taal started spewing lava and releasing lots of ash and smoke into the air, forcing 16,700 people to evacuate and creating the potential for a volcanic tsunami.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Residents look through merchandise at the fundraising rummage sale at Central Christian Church in Mesa on March 26, 2022.

Two Mesa high school students organized a community yard sale Saturday that raised more than $3,000 to help Ukraine refugees.

Sarah Connell, 18, and Sabrina Stewart, 18, two seniors at Mountain View High School, organized the fundraiser that took place at the Central Christian Church parking lot located at 933 N. Lindsay Road in Mesa, from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m.

The event hosted more than 100 shoppers and gathered around 60 volunteers that included neighbors, high school friends and members of Central Christian Church and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Stewart said.

Connell and Stewart said they feel grateful for the support they received from their churches and their community in setting up the event, donating and coming to buy items.

"It's been amazing. Everyone came and it was all hands on deck," Stewart said. "Everyone was really excited to work together."

"It's been really cool connecting with both of our churches and seeing how supportive both of them are," Connell added. "They're just extraordinary people who have decided to help set all this up and spend their Saturday at 6:30 in the morning setting up a garage sale."

Both teenagers said they first learned about Russia's invasion into Ukraine at a government class they take together in high school and they were motivated to take action.

"It's so easy to look around the world and feel like you're so small and you can't do anything," Stewart said. "It would be so scary to be in that situation and have to leave everything... so we really wanted to do something to help make a difference."

They said the event exceeded their expectations.

"We didn't expect this to be something big, and it's turned into something really wonderful," Connell said. "It was really funny because the first day we collected stuff we were wondering if we were gonna have enough donations  and then before we knew we were filling up an entire room."

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According to Courtnee Day, youth pastor at Central Christian, shoppers showed up as early as 7:15 a.m. to support the yard sale and many were willing to pay more for the items they bought.

Day also said she believes churches and religious leaders play an important role in doing what they can in supporting humanitarian causes like the current crisis in Ukraine, which is why she said she feels happy about Connell and Stewart's initiative and about the partnership between the two churches.

According to Day, the funds collected will go to Samaritan's Purse, an organization that has partnered with churches to provide food, water, personal care items and emergency medical care to displaced Ukrainians in Poland, Romania and Moldova.

Van Hansen, a member of the Mountain View Stake Presidency, said he also felt "impressed" by the teenagers' responsiveness to the current challenges faced by Ukrainian refugees and that he felt glad to see the community unifying efforts to turn the idea into a reality.

"We have to continue to preach and teach to respect individuals," Hansen said. "I encourage people around our neighborhood and in the world to find the ability to contribute, not just in monitoring this, but with their time, their talents, and their skills. I think we really need it to help people."

Luidmyla Zoccoli and her 15-year-old daughter Anastasiia Skub, who moved to Arizona from Ukraine in September of 2020, helped out with donations they gathered from acquaintances and showed up to shop on Saturday.

Zoccoli said many of her friends and family members including her parents, whom she speaks with every day, are currently in Ukraine. She said she has felt sad and anxious for them and that the situation still feels like a nightmare to her  something that can't be real.

"My heart is always sick. Now I'm sick every day," she said. "I hope this will be finished in a few days ... because my country is important for me."

Zoccoli and Skub said they feel very grateful for the support from the community.

"It's so good because I didn't think we'd have a lot of people, but it's really a lot," Skub said. "I really appreciate all these people."

Reach breaking news reporter Laura Daniella Sepulveda at lsepulveda@lavozarizona.com or on Twitter @lauradNews.

Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Mesa high schoolers raise $3,000 for Ukraine refugees
 Flash

Nepali Foreign Minister Narayan Khadka (R) meets with visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Kathmandu, Nepal, on March 26, 2022. (Photo by Hari Maharjan/Xinhua)

Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Nepali Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba agreed on Saturday at their meeting that both sides will make good use of the Nepal-China Joint Consultation Mechanism to complete existing key cooperation projects and explore new areas of cooperation.

Noting that China-Nepal cooperation enjoys vast potential, both sides agreed that deepening practical cooperation not only meets the needs of both countries, but will also inject strong impetus to regional development and prosperity.

Deuba congratulated China on the success of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, and thanked China for providing strong support for Nepal's economic and social development over the years.

Deuba stressed that Nepal will continue to firmly adhere to the one-China policy and will never allow any forces to use the Nepali territory to engage in any anti-China activities.

Wang said China appreciated that and is ready to continue standing firmly with Nepal on issues involving each other's core interests and major concerns.

China will work with Nepal to safeguard the principle of non-interference in internal affairs and the basic norms governing international relations, resist unilateralism and oppose power politics, and contribute to regional peace and stability, Wang said.

Wang said China and Nepal have always supported, trusted and helped each other. The traditional friendship between the two countries has been enhanced through their joint fight against the earthquake and COVID-19, and their win-win cooperation has witnessed continuous and effective progress.

China-Nepal relations have become an example of equal treatment and win-win cooperation between countries large and small, and a demonstration of China's practice of the good-neighborly diplomacy, Wang said.

China will continue to firmly support Nepal in safeguarding national sovereignty and dignity, exploring a development path suited to its national conditions and pursuing independent domestic and foreign policies, Wang said.

Guided by the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, China stands ready to expand all-round cooperation with Nepal and push forward their strategic partnership of cooperation featuring ever-lasting friendship for development and prosperity, he said.

The two sides also exchanged views on strengthening multilateral cooperation. Deuba said the Nepali side believes that fairness and justice should be upheld in international affairs, and the United Nations Charter and international law should be abided by.

After the meeting, both sides attended the completion ceremony of Pokhara International Airport via video link.
(Reuters) - Myanmar's junta chief on Sunday said the military would not negotiate with "terrorist" opposition forces, vowing to annihilate them during a speech on Armed Forces Day, as opponents of last year's coup vowed they would fight on.

The military, known as the Tatmadaw, celebrated with a parade of troops and weapons in the capital, Naypyitaw, for the second year since overthrowing the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1, 2021.

Anti-coup protesters came out on streets in Myanmar on Sunday morning carrying signs saying "uproot the fascist military."

Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing in his speech rejected any talks with "terrorist" opposition. A five-point peace plan by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations calls for talks on all sides, but so far has seen little progress.

"I would like to say Tatmadaw will no longer take into account negotiation with the terrorist group and their supporters for killing innocent people ... and will annihilate them into an end," he said.

The junta accuses opposition militants of killing civilians and security forces in its resistance campaign, while activists say the military has killed hundreds in crackdowns since the coup.

The shadow government of the ousted administration, the National Unity Government (NUG), said on Sunday that Myanmar people will rip out the military and its fascism root and stem.

"Together with the souls of our lost heroes, we will fight to the bitter end," NUG spokesman Dr. Sasa said in a statement.

Myanmar has been plagued by violence since the military seized power, upending a decade of tentative democratic and economic reforms.

More than 1,700 people have been killed and almost 13,000 arrested, according to rights group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).

Military authorities have said the AAPP figures are exaggerated.

The United Nations last week said the army was committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.

(Reporting by Reuters Staff. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska in 2012. Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska resigned after he was found guilty of three felonies in a campaign contributions case.

Prosecutors said Fortenberry lied to the FBI about an illegal contribution to his campaign from a Nigerian billionaire.

The congressman said that he plans to appeal the verdict immediately.

Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska announced he will resign from Congress after being found guilty of lying to the FBI about an illegal contribution to his campaign in 2016 from a Nigerian billionaire.

"Due to the difficulties of my current circumstances, I can no longer effectively serve," the Republican said in a letter to supporters on Saturday. He said he would resign effective March 31.

Fortenberry's resignation letter started with a poem called "Do It Anyway," associated with Catholic Mother Teresa, who was made a saint in 2016.

"What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight. Build anyway," says one line of the poem, per ABC.

A federal jury in Los Angeles found the Republican guilty on Thursday of one count of scheming to falsify and conceal material facts and two counts of making false statements to federal investigators.

Fortenberry, 61, who has served in Congress since 2005, was accused of lying to investigators about being aware of receiving $30,000 in campaign contributions from Gilbert Chagoury, a Nigerian businessman of Lebanese descent.

Being a foreign national, Chagoury is prevented by law from donating to US elections.

During the trial, both prosecution and defense focused on a 2018 phone call between Fortenberry and Dr. Elias Ayoub, who was the co-host of the 2016 fundraiser where the congressman received the donation, AP reported.

Ayoub, who was cooperating with the FBI, secretly recorded the 10-minute call and told Fortenberry that he had distributed $30,000 to third-party "straw donors" to donate to Fortenberry's campaign.

During the call, Ayoub told Fortenberry that the money had probably come from foreign billionaire Chagoury.

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In 2019, Gilbert Chagoury admitted to funneling approximately $180,000 in illegal campaign contributions to four different federal political candidates in the US and paid a $1.8 million fine.

The three men involved in the alleged scheme to funnel the money to Fortenberry were all of Lebanese descent and had links to In Defense of Christians, a nonprofit Fortenberry supported that aims to fight religious persecution in the Middle East, AP said.

Each count carries a potential five-year prison sentence

Fortenberry's attorneys argued that he wasn't aware of the contribution from Chagoury, and that FBI agents had set him up by directing Ayoub to tell him about it, AP reported.

Agents interviewed Fortenberry a year after the initial phone call and indicted him after he failed to recall the details from the earlier conversation, his attorneys said.

Speaking outside the courthouse, the congressman said the process had been unfair and that he plans to appeal immediately, according to AP.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mack Jenkins said that there was plenty of evidence against Fortenberry, which was evidenced by the jury's swift verdict after deliberating for about two hours.

"The lies in this case threatened the integrity of the American electoral system and were designed to prevent investigators from learning the true source of campaign funds," United States Attorney Tracy L. Wilkison said in a statement.

The congressman is scheduled to be sentenced on June 28, and each count carries a potential five-year prison sentence, AP said.

Fortenberry's attorney did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Midwest weather in March is brutal. One day it can be a beautiful 60 degrees with plenty of sunshine, only to tease actual nice spring weather and the harsh climates return to remind us that the days of t-shirts and shorts are still not close for us to enjoy.

That terrible Midwest weather reared its ugly head again this weekend, as the cold and rain has put an early end to Notre Dames home series against Virginia Tech. Saturday and Sundays contests have been canceled, meaning that the Irish will have to wait until Tuesday to break their four-game losing streak.

  Due to inclement weather, the remaining two games of the weekend series with Virginia Tech (3/26-3/27) have been canceled. The Irish will be back in action on Tuesday (3/29) at home against Northern Illinois.  https://t.co/FurX9mtcEL#GoIrish pic.twitter.com/TJAMJMXUTc  Notre Dame Baseball (@NDBaseball) March 26, 2022

Unfortunately the Irish did not break that losing streak Friday afternoon, all of which have come at the hands of ACC foes. The Link Jarretts team will hope the weather cooperates on Tuesday, as they play host to Northern Illinois.

Related

Losing streak continues, Notre Dame Baseball drops series opener

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Mike on Twitter: @MikeFChen
Spring brings the stocking of about 80,000 hatchery-grown rainbow trout to 71 accessible and public waterways across Ohio.

Catching a trout might not be on every Ohio anglers bucket list, though trout are there for the taking when place and time are right.

For a few weeks longer, as one example, theres still prime time to hook spawning steelhead in numerous streams emptying into Lake Erie. Better yet for many young folks, flurries of trout action soon will break out in places much closer to the capital city.

Spring brings the stocking of about 80,000 hatchery-grown rainbow trout to 71 accessible and public waterways across the state. Included are stocking sites in Franklin, Delaware and Fairfield counties.

Infusions by the Ohio Division of Wildlife of the 10- to 13-inch fish, which in general are more than ready to take a bait upon release, occur from mid-March through early May. The first scheduled stocking in the Columbus vicinity takes place at Blue Limestone Park in Delaware on April 1.

The traditional Good Friday stocking at Antrim Lake in Columbus is scheduled April 15, which this year coincides with the start of Passover. On the same day, rainbows are scheduled for release at Heritage Park Pond in Groveport.

Cenci Lake Park in Lancaster, meanwhile, is set to get a trout infusion on April 14. Later in the month, Delaware County rainbow releases are scheduled for Sunbury Upground Reservoir No. 1 on April 29 and for Ashley Upground Reservoir on April 30.

Rainbow trout

An organized fishing event is slated to coincide with the Ashley release.

The trout stockings often serve youngsters first, though in many instances anglers of all ages are welcome to have an immediate go at the fish. Anglers age 16 and older are required to hold a fishing license.

The daily trout limit on inland waters is five. The spring trout stockings are intended for almost immediate catching. Rainbows and similar species are cold-water fish that typically dont survive the heat of summer.

Visits to Ohio fish hatcheries are welcome

Some of Ohios best fishing happens only because the wildlife division operates six hatcheries where some 40 million fish are produced for annual stockings at ponds, reservoirs, lakes and other impoundments.

Story continues

Three such hatcheries, two nearby and one farther but of special interest, will be host on upcoming Saturdays for open houses that allow visitors to tour the facilities to learn how fish are raised from eggs to release size.

Open houses are scheduled 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the following state hatcheries:

 April 2, Hebron, 10517 Canal Road. Fish produced at the 230-acre facility in southern Licking County include saugeye, walleye, channel catfish, blue catfish and bluegill.

 April 9, Castalia, 7018 Homegardner Road. All of Ohios steelhead trout are raised at this 90-acre site along an upper section of Cold Creek in Erie County.

 May 7, London, 2470 Roberts Mill Road. The 80-acre facility in Madison County produces muskellunge, rainbow trout and brown trout.

Staff will be available during each open house to give tours and answer questions about fish production and fisheries management.

Parting shots

A turkey hunting class is scheduled April 2, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the Delaware Wildlife Area Shooting Range. Registration and details are available on the calendar page of the wildlife division web site, wildohio.gov.  The number of active bald eagle nests in Ohio increased to an estimated 806 this spring, a bump of about 14% from last springs total of 707.  Highly pathogenic avian flu has been identified in the deaths of two bald eagles and a herring gull in northwest Ohio. The flu has been devastating some Midwest poultry farms.

outdoors@dispatch.com

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Trout are abundant in Ohio streams, stocked waterways
MANILA, Philippines (AP)  Chinese coast guard ships maneuvered dangerously close to Philippine coast guard ships at least four times near a disputed shoal over the past year, in moves that increased the risk of collision and violated international safety regulations, the Philippine government said Sunday.

It was not immediately clear if the Philippines has formally protested the aggressive actions by the Chinese ships, but Manilas coast guard said the incidents would not deter it from deploying patrol vessels at Scarborough Shoal and in other areas within the countrys internationally recognized exclusive economic zone.

China seized Scarborough Shoal, a rich fishing area about 200 kilometers (120 miles) off the northwestern coast of the Philippines and 600 kilometers (370 miles) southeast of China, after a tense naval standoff in 2012. Chinese coast guards ships then surrounded the shoal and restricted Filipino fishermen's access.

The U.S. has accused China of bullying smaller South China Sea claimants like the Philippines and has deployed Navy ships and aircraft to promote freedom of navigation and overflight in the region. China, which claims the South China Sea virtually in totality, has warned Washington to stay away and accused it of meddling in what it says is a purely Asian dispute.

The incidents were reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila and an inter-agency body on the South China Sea to address this issue through rules-based and peaceful approaches, Philippine coast guard chief Adm. Artemio Abu said in a statement.

Earlier this month, a Chinese coast guard ship maneuvered just 21 yards (63 feet) from a Philippine patrol vessel and restricted its maneuvering space in the vicinity of Scarborough Shoal, the Philippine coast guard said, adding that the Chinese action was a clear violation of a 1972 international safety regulation that aims to prevent sea collisions.

In June last year, two Chinese coast guard ships on two successive days moved dangerously close to two Philippine coast guard ships, which were participating in a maritime exercise off Scarborough Shoal. A month before, a Chinese coast guard ship moved close to a Philippine Bureau of Fisheries vessel manned by coast guard personnel also near the shoal, according to the coast guard.

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There was no immediate comment from the Chinese Embassy in Manila.

China's seizure of Scarborough Shoal prompted the Philippines to bring the disputes to international arbitration. In 2016, a U.N.-backed tribunal invalidated most of Chinas claims and said it has violated the rights of Filipinos to fish at the shoal.

China dismissed the ruling as a sham and continues to defy it but allowed Filipino fishermen to return to the shoal under Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who nurtured closer ties with Beijing after taking office in 2016. Despite cozier relations, however, sporadic territorial spats have persisted.

Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei also lay claims to the busy waterway through which an estimated $5 trillion in global trade passes each year.

We are fully aware of dangerous situations at sea, but these will not stop our deployment of assets and personnel to serve Filipino fishermen, Abu said. As long as they feel safe seeing us during their fishing operations, we know that we are doing our job well.
MANILA (Reuters) - A small but restive volcano near the Philippine capital Manila ejected two more plumes on Sunday, indicating continued eruption and prompting authorities to urge residents to stay out of harm's way.

Located in a scenic lake in Batangas province south of Manila, the 311-metre (1,020-foot) Taal volcano spewed an 800-metre-tall plume followed by one of 400 metres. This followed a phreatomagmatic eruption - the result of super-hot magma interacting with water - from its main crater on Saturday.

The seismology and volcanology agency recorded 14 volcanic earthquakes around Taal in the 24 hours after the first eruption.

"Activity at the main crater was dominated by upwelling of hot volcanic fluids in its lake," it said in a bulletin, warning of a possible volcanic tsunami should stronger eruptions subsequently occur.

The alert for Taal volcano remained at level 3 on the five-level scale, meaning "there is a magmatic intrusion at the main crater that may further drive succeeding eruptions".

President Rodrigo Duterte's office said it was closely monitoring the situation. As of Sunday, nearly 3,000 people had been evacuated to temporary shelters, it said.

In January 2020, Taal spewed a column of ash and steam as high as 15 km, forcing more than 100,000 people to evacuate while dozens of flights were cancelled and heavy ash fell as far away as Manila.

A Taal eruption in 1911 killed more than 1,300 people.

(Reporting by Enrico Dela Cruz in Manila; Editing by William Mallard)
Local dairy products make foray into 56 countries and territories globally

Vietnams milk export turnover has consistently seen annual growth in recent years, reaching roughly US$300 million, with the milk export market expanded to nearly 56 countries and territories globally, according to the Vietnam Dairy Association (VDA).









Vietnam's milk export market has been expanded to nearly 56 countries and territories globally, according to the Vietnam Dairy Association (Photo: haiquanonline.com.vn)



Over the past five years, especially in the 2020 to 2021 period, the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the business activities of several sectors and fields, including the dairy industry. However, thanks to the joint efforts in overcoming these difficulties, the dairy industry has still been able to record an impressive growth rate in terms of output, products, and revenue.



According to the VDA, before the initial global COVID-19 outbreak, dairy enterprises faced numerous obstacles, such as logistics problems and product distribution, with many factories, farms, and distribution stores forced to suspend their operations due to the ranging pandemic.



Recognizing these challenges in order to avoid supply chain disruptions, dairy businesses have made every effort to both maintain their traditional distribution systems and promote modern distribution systems by intensifying business activities through e-commerce platforms.



Most notably, dairy businesses have expanded their export markets by actively conducting research and increasing investment in a bid to market many products which can meet consumers' need.



Upon entering the period of post-pandemic economic recovery despite enduring many difficulties, the VDA forecasts that the development prospect of the Vietnamese dairy industry remains very large.



Accordingly, the demand for milk and dairy products, including immune-boosting nutritional foods are prioritised for selection, while high-value dairy products are also expected to increase sharply moving forward.



Furthermore the National Strategy on Nutrition for the period 2021 to 2030 with a vision towards 2045 is said to be the driving force for the entire dairy industry as it strives to make every effort to promote milk consumption at a higher level.



As an organisation representing the dairy business community with 118 members, after being in operation for over six years, the VDA has made an active contribution to promoting the development of the Vietnamese dairy industry. This has served to bring the voice and aspirations of member enterprises to all levels and sectors, whilst also demonstrating the role of cohesion and co-operation as a bridge between local businesses.



Assoc. Dr. Tran Quang Trung, chairman of Vietnam Dairy Association, emphasized that thanks to efforts made to overcome the "COVID-19 storm", along with the support of the policies implemented by the State, dairy enterprises were still able to achieve an average annual revenue of 5% over the past five years. Indeed, the output of liquid milk and powdered milk both enjoyed impressive growth, whilst the dairy industry is one of the livestock industries with the best growth, he stressed.



Committed to accompanying businesses, the VDA affirmed that it will further enhance its role as an organisation representing the dairy business community. In line with this, it will serve as a bridge to step up co-operation between members in order to improve the overall competitiveness of enterprises in the process of economic integration and development, Dr. Trung added.
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U.S. Congressman Jeff Fortenberry announced on Saturday that he will resign from office, two days after being convicted of three felonies.

Fortenberry, a Nebraska Republican who has served in Congress since 2005, said that his last day as a federal legislator will be March 31, according to a letter he sent to his House colleagues.

"Due to the difficulties of my current circumstances, I can no longer effectively serve," he wrote.

Fortenberry, 61, was found guilty on Thursday of one count of scheming to falsify and conceal material facts and two counts of making false statements to federal investigators.

The conviction arose from a federal investigation into "illegal contributions made by a foreign national" to Fortenberry's 2016 re-election campaign.

A sentencing hearing was scheduled for June 28. Each of the three felony charges carries a statutory maximum penalty of five years in federal prison.

A special election will be held no later than 90 days after Fortenberry's seat becomes vacant, according to rules.

The U.S. federal law prohibits contributions made directly or indirectly by or from foreign nationals in connection with any federal, state, or local election.
Four teens crashed a car full of open bottles and cans of alcohol into a telephone pole in Lynnwood, according to the Lynnwood Police Department.

On March 16, officers responded to a report of the crash at the corner of 68th Avenue West and 196th Street Southwest.

The serious collision occurred when the speeding car crashed into a telephone pole.

All four teens attempted to leave the scene, but all four were injured.

The driver, who was seriously injured, was transported to Harborview Medical Center.

Officers found open bottles and cans of alcohol all over the inside of the car.

The driver was cited for having no license, no insurance and the open containers in the car.

He is also facing DUI charges, pending the results of a blood draw.
Bobby Mackey's Music World is a popular music club in Wilder, Kentucky.

Wilder police say three people were shot outside of Bobby Mackey's Music World shortly after midnight Sunday morning.

Police say there was a fight outside of the nightclub that preceded the shooting, but they have not identified the suspects at this time.

The victims were shot in the parking lot and were transported to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center according to police.

The victims and suspects have not been identified at this time. The condition of the victims has not been released.

Enquirer media partner Fox 19 contributed to this report.

The Enquirer will update this story when more information becomes available.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Three shot in parking lot of Bobby Mackey's nightclub
For almost three decades, Doreen and Dale Robie have lived with the anguish of that day in 1993 when they learned their adored little boy had been lured into the woods, strangled, and beaten with rocks. If that wasn't horrific enough, his killer was a red-headed, freckle-faced child.

"48 Hours" has been covering the case since Eric Smith, 13, was charged with killing 4-year-old Derrick Robie. Smith was tried as an adult and convicted of second-degree murder.

Smith's sentence was nine years to life. But it would also be a life sentence for the Robies once Smith became eligible for parole in 2002. "They could decide that well, now he's done his time and we're going to let him go," Doreen Robie told "48 Hours" contributor Jim Axelrod.

The news the Robies had been dreading came after Eric Smith's 11th appearance before the board  when he was finally granted parole. Smith told WENY-TV in 2009 he had big plans for his future. "I want to get married and raise a family," Smith said. "Pursue the American dream."

John Tunney, who prosecuted Smith's case, says it's too early to know if that will happen.

"At the end of the day, it's still a little bit of a gamble," Axelrod noted.

"Oh, no, no. It's a huge gamble," Tunney replied. "This parole decision is a high-risk enterprise, to be sure."

AN UNTHINKABLE CRIME

After being locked up for 28 years, Eric Smith  who murdered a child as a teen is free. He's out on parole in Queens, New York. Smith insists he's a changed man deserving of freedom; that he has a plan for a fresh start, even a fiancee. But others worry that Eric Smith is still a flat-out threat.

Dale and Doreen Robie feared this day would come. Our story begins with them.

Dan Rather covered the case for" 48 Hours" when it first broke.

FROM 48 HOURS"' "WHY DID ERIC KILL" - 1994

In the summer of 1993, Derrick Robie and his family lived just down the street from this park in the small town of Savona, New York.

Story continues

Dale Robie coached T-ball. It was his son Derrick's favorite game.

Doreen Robie: He'd go, "This one's for you, Mommy." Good job, Deej!

Derrick Robie / Credit: Robie family

Derrick was all boy, all the time.

Doreen Robie: You know, he was going to get me a home run and  he usually did.

Dale Robie: He loved it.

Derrick also attended a recreation program at the park and Doreen Robie always watched as her son made the short trip. But one August morning Derrick's baby brother was crying, and Doreen Robie had her hands full.

Doreen Robie: Dalton was very fussy that morning and Derrick says, "It's OK, Mom. I'll  I'll go by myself. You know, it's no problem. The kids are probably going down the street."

Derrick was nearly 5 and knew the route very well. So, Doreen Robie allowed him to walk by himself. She packed his lunch and off he went.

Doreen Robie: He gave me a kiss and I said, "I love you," and he says, "I love you, Mom."

Dan Rather: So, he has a block  only a block to go?

Doreen Robie: Mm-hmm (affirms).

Dan Rather: No streets to cross.

Doreen Robie: No. It was a dead-end street. The first time I've ever let him go anywhere alone.

A short time later, as storm clouds moved in, Doreen felt something close to panic.

Doreen Robie: I had an awful feeling.

It began to pour.

Doreen Robie: I swear that that was the moment that he died.

Dan Rather: You believe that?

Doreen Robie: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I  I  I think that he was letting me know.

Dale Robie: Derrick was very close to us. If there was any way he could tell us he was leaving, he would have tried.

Doreen raced to the park to pick up Derrick. She was told that he had never arrived.

Derrick Robie crime scene / Credit: Steuben County District Attorney's Office

Nearly five hours later, searchers found Derrick's body in a small patch of woods, just a few yards from the park and a few hundred yards from his own front door. Derrick had been choked and beaten to death with rocks. Neighbors placed a cross at the scene.

Doreen Robie: I've lost my boy. We've lost him. He's gone.

Dale Robie: The biggest thing I remember was  (to Doreen, too upset to continue)  go  go ahead.

Doreen Robie (to Dale): That when you told your dad that you wouldn't be able to do the things that he did with you?

The streets of Savona were empty as worried parents kept their children inside. The immediate assumption was that Derrick Robie's killer was a stranger from out of town. That's what Eric Smith's grandfather believed.

Red Wilson: When this terrible thing was done, everybody, including myself, thought it was an adult and how could anybody do such a terrible, terrible thing.

Eric Smith grew up just across town and liked to spend time with his grandparents, Red and Edie Wilson.

Red Wilson: He would always come in and give us hugs and kisses.

Red Wilson: He loved being a comic, liked clowning around.

Edie Wilson: He definitely wanted to be paid attention to.

Red Wilson: Yeah.

But Eric's bright red hair and freckles made him a target at school for years. And as a teenager, he was seen pedaling around town for hours on end  alone.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Why did he do it?

CAPTAIN WALTER DELAP: I don't know why he did it.  I asked him why he did it. His words, almost verbatim, were, "I don't know. I just saw this kid, this blond kid, and I wanted to hurt him."

A SUSPECT IN PLAIN SIGHT

On August 2, 1993, the body of Derrick Robie was found in a small patch of woods midway between the park where he was headed and his home.

John Tunney (2004): It's hard to comprehend somebody doing what Eric Smith did.

John Tunney: He chose to end Derrick Robie's life. And he chose to do it in a way that was much more than just killing.

Prosecutor John Tunney vividly remembers the crime scene and the brutality of the murder.

John Tunney: He could have simply killed Derrick, but he chose not to simply kill Derrick.

Investigator Charles Wood (at the crime scene in 2004): Directly behind us is the scene where the homicide occurred.

Charles Wood was lead investigator. The evidence showed that Derrick was lured from the sidewalk and strangled. The killer's identity was then still unknown.

Investigator Charles Wood: Well, then he discovered and dug up one very large rock and one smaller rock and he battered Derrick with those rocks. He went into Derrick's lunch bag, and he smashed a banana and took Derrick's Kool-Aid, and he actually poured that Kool-Aid into the wounds that had been made by the large rocks. And he sodomized Derrick with a small stick that he had found.

The banana, left, and an empty drink container from Derrick Robie's lunch bag were found at the crime scene. / Credit: Evidence

Lastly, the killer arranged Derrick's body.

Charles Wood: The left sneaker had been removed and was lying near Derrick's right hand. And his right sneaker had been removed and was lying near Derrick's left hand.

Charles Wood: It almost looked like the body had been posed in that position.

John Tunney: Eric continued to deal with Derrick's body because he wanted to, because he chose to and, most frighteningly, because he enjoyed it.

The word "enjoy," so disturbing in this context, would come up again and again in the course of the investigation. The very first time was four days after the murder when Eric Smith walked into the police command center to see if he could be of help in solving the crime.

John Hibsch: Totally enjoyed it. Totally enjoyed it. Didn't want it to end.

John Hibsch and other investigators repeatedly talked with Eric Smith and had no idea the killer was sitting right in front of them.

John Hibsch: I mean, he's looking right at me, he's  you know, he's kind of hunched over a little bit and he's very, very upbeat, very happy. He likes the fact that he's being talked to.

At first, Eric denied seeing Derrick Robie, but then he abruptly changed his story.

John Hibsch: He says, "Right across the street from the open field. And that's where I saw Derrick." And when he said that, he about knocked me off the chair.

Eric Smith told investigators what Derrick Robie was wearing and described the lunch bag he was carrying as

John Hibsch: He's putting him right on top of the crime scene. You just got to walk across on open field and  and you're at the scene of where the murder was. So, we asked him then what was he wearing, and he went on. He said he had a white T-shirt on, and he had this lunch bag in his hand. "OK, tell me about the lunch bag." And he said, "It was kind of cool, really."

The investigators pushed Eric to pinpoint where he last saw Derrick.

John Hibsch: And  and that's when he got  he started to get emotional. His  his voice started cracking. His put his head down, and he brings his fists up. And his fists were vibrating a little bit. And he goes, "You think I killed him, don't you?" I saw from the other two investigators they were just like, "Wow."

Eric asked to take a break, and his father brought him a glass of Kool-Aid.

John Hibsch: Just as we got back into it again about where he'd seen Derrick again, he  he grabs the red Kool-Aid and just throws it on the ground.

John Hibsch: Now we all knew that Derrick, the boy that was killed, had red Kool-Aid spilled all over him. You know, I'm thinking that, you know, this kid's seen something that's very, very traumatic and he - and there's a block in there, and  and I can't get around it.

Investigators asked Eric Smith to get on his bike and show them where he was when he saw Derrick Robie.

The next day, investigators ask Eric to get on his bike and show them where he was when he saw Derrick Robie. Investigator Wood was there. In the police videotape, Eric looks calm as can be.

Investigator Charles Wood: During the re-enactment, I would have to say he enjoyed it. He was having a good time.

But it quickly became obvious that Eric could not have seen all that he described from the distance he claimed to be.

Red Wilson: There was a discrepancy in Eric's story.

Red Wilson, Eric's grandfather, says the family knew Eric was hiding something.

Red Wilson: In  in no way did we feel that he had done it.

Red Wilson: We felt that he knew something. Maybe somebody had threatened him, that's why he wouldn't tell.

Five days after he was killed, Derrick Robie was buried in his baseball uniform. Just two days later, his killer confessed.

Red Wilson: I was there. I was there when my grandson confessed. It was  it was terrible.

Family members sat Eric down and begged him to tell what he knew. The truth was more terrible than they ever imagined.

Dan Rather: And he just said what?

Red Wilson: "I'm sorry, Mom. I'm sorry. I killed that little boy." It's still hard to believe.

Eric Smith presses his hand to his mother's against the window of a police car after his confession and arrest.

Red Wilson: The question is, you know, to me, why? How? How could he take the life of a little boy?

A year after Eric's confession, the question remains. What could possibly compel this child to kill another?

John Tunney: Does he know what he's done? Does he know it's wrong?

A stricken community is looking to a courtroom for an answer.

KEVIN BRADLEY | Defense attorney: The evidence you're gonna hear in this case is going to be horrible.

Will the trial of Eric Smith put an end to the mystery that began on August 2, 1993, the last day of Derrick Robie's short life?

WHY DID ERIC KILL?Steuben County Courthouse | August 1994

The trial of the people vs. Eric Smith is finally under way.

Prosecuting attorney John Tunney:

At trial, prosecuting attorney John Tunney motions to show 4-year-old Derrick Robie's height. Eric Smith and his defense attorney Kevin Bradley are at right. / Credit: CBS News

JOHN TUNNEY: (in court) He was about that tall [motioning to show Derrick Robie's height]. He weighed 40 pounds.

JOHN TUNNEY: He lived four years and 10 months. And that person killed him. Eric Smith choked and battered the young life out of Derrick Robie.

In New York State, murder is the one crime for which a 13-year-old can be tried in adult court.

Dan Rather: You're a father of five.

John Tunney: That's correct.

Dan Rather: You must have thought about that  must think about it in the context of trying a 13-year-old son of another family.

John Tunney: Yes. But you know where I first thought of it is when I looked at 4-year-old Derrick Robie, the face of every one of my five children was superimposed on that child's body.

At the heart of this trial, the haunting question: Why did Eric kill?

JOHN TUNNEY: (In court) The fact is that Eric chose to do something horrible.

Defense Attorney Kevin Bradley says there was no choice.

Eric Smith's attorney Kevin Bradley holds a large rock Smith used to kill Derrick Robie. / Credit: CBS News

KEVIN BRADLEY: (in court) Eric Smith suffers from a very serious mental disease. To pick this up, throw this down on a little boy's head, does that suggest calm, deliberate action? A plan?

KEVIN BRADLEY: You're going to hear testimony by people that say Eric just seemed like a normal child and then the rage explodes.

John Tunney: It does not diminish the fact that he understood what he was doing.

Tunney says it's murder, plain and simple.

John Tunney: Eric analyzed the situation and chose to do it.

To help him with the case, Tunney will be calling on Derrick's parents, Dale and Doreen Robie.

John Tunney: She has to personalize the tragedy, the loss, the terror, to bring Derrick Robie the person into that courtroom.

JOHN TUNNEY: Describe Derrick.

DOREEN ROBIE: He was my cute little firecracker.

But bringing Derrick Robie into the courtroom is not going to be easy.

DOREEN ROBIE: He was my little T-ball player. He wa  very good athlete.

JOHN TUNNEY: How did he get along and interact with people?

KEVIN BRADLEY: Objection, Your Honor.

JOHN TUNNEY: Derrick participated in the  in the recreation program.

KEVIN BRADLEY: Objection to the form.

JOHN TUNNEY: What was he participating in?

KEVIN BRADLEY: I'm going to object again at this point.

The judge agrees and Doreen is not permitted to say much at all about Derrick.

Doreen Robie (1994): I wish I would have gotten a chance to talk about Derrick a little more And it really wasn't fair that I didn't get to tell them what kind of kid he was.

It's time for the defense to present its case. Bradley begins by calling on two people who know more about Eric than anyone else: his mother, Tammy Smith, and his stepfather, Ted Smith.

The jury heard that as a toddler Eric threw temper tantrums and banged his head on the floor. He had speech problems, was held back in school and relentlessly bullied.

TAMMY SMITH: He would say things like, "I'm stupid. I'm nobody. I'm," you know, "I'm never going to be anybody," that kind of stuff.

TED SMITH: I remember him coming up to me in the kitchen. He was really upset, and he was crunching his fist and shaking and told me that  he said, "Dad, I need help."  "I feel like I want to hurt somebody." And he said, "Yes, I do. I want to hurt something."

TAMMY SMITH: At one point, he turned and told me that he  he did it I asked him why  he just kept saying, "I don't know. I don't know." And he cried.

Defense psychiatrist Dr. Stephen Herman diagnosed Eric with intermittent explosive disorder, uncontrollable rage.

DR. STEPHEN HERMAN: People who have this disorder describe feeling as if they're about to explode.  After the episodic rage, the child may appear to be quote "normal."

An expert for the prosecution disagreed with Dr. Herman's diagnosis.

DR. KATHLKEEN QUINN: It's a rare disorder, rarely seen at the age that Eric is.

And specialists from both sides subjected Eric to extensive medical testing. They examined brain function, hormone levels, and found nothing to explain his violent behavior.

Because of the sexual nature of his crime, the question of whether Eric was abused was repeatedly raised at trial, but repeatedly denied.

JOHN TUNNEY: Did he indicate to you generally and consistently that he had not been either physically or sexually abused?

Dr. STEPHEN HERMAN: Yes, he has always indicated that.

However, there was testimony that Eric's older sister, Stacy Hevner, was sexually abused by their stepfather.

Stacy Hevner: He molested me  I'd want to know if he was molested. There had to have been something bothering him.

Still, there was absolutely no evidence that Ted Smith or anyone else sexually abused Eric.

John Tunney: Are there issues? Are there problems? Sure. But it does not regularly produce killers.

John Tunney: Did he know what he was doing? Did he know when he was strangling Derrick, that he was strangling a child  And if he knew that what he was doing was wrong, that he shouldn't have been doing it, then he can have every psychological, psychiatric problem in the world and he's still responsible for what he did.

Dan Rather: Under the law.

John Tunney: Under the law.

But what does the jury believe?

Eric Smith listens as the jury reads his verdict on August 16, 1994. / Credit: CBS News

JUDGE DONALD G. PURPLE: So, you find the defendant guilty of murder in the second degree?

VOICE #4: Yes.

JUDGE DONALD G. PURPLE: Is that unanimous?

VOICE #4: Yes.

Eric's parents, Ted and Tammy Smith, were devastated, convinced their child was sick.

JUDGE DONALD G. PURPLE: Take the young man in custody.

He would be sentenced to the maximum: nine years to life in prison. The murdered boy's parents, Dale and Doreen Robie, cried with relief not knowing that they were being sentenced, too.

EVERY TWO YEARS 

Jim Axelrod: The Robies, they're serving a life sentence.

Joni Johnston: Uh-huh (affirms).  every time that inmate is up for parole  They relive it. So, it's just a nightmare for them.

Dale Robie: it really felt like it, you know, at a certain point, why do we have to? Wasn't the crime enough?

Jim Axelrod: When Eric Smith was sentenced  was there a sense  "Now we can get on with our lives?"

Dale Robie: You hear the "nine years to life." And I think back then everybody was focusing on the life side of it.

Dale and and Doreen Robie were relieved that the boy who murdered their beloved son was locked away.

Dale Robie: We were still trying to get over our loss  Then I think we almost got settled in  for a year or two, then it hit us.

Derrick Robie / Credit: Robie family

What hit them was the harsh reality that Derrick's killer would one day be eligible for release. Eric Smith's first parole hearing was in 2002.

Doreen Robie: They could decide that well, now he's done his time and we're going to let him go.  It scares the hell out of me.

The Robies weren't allowed inside the closed-door hearings, so they wrote letters and made home videos to remind the board about their devastating loss.

Doreen Robie: It upsets me, the fact that we have to beg to keep this killer behind bars.

Smith's parole was denied. But two years later, he was back before the board.

Eric Smith read his statement to

In 2004, Smith was 24 years old. This is a statement he read for our "48 Hours" cameras:

ERIC SMITH (reading): "Hi, my name is Eric Smith. You first met me 11 years ago.  I know my actions have caused a terrible loss in the Robie family, and for that I am truly sorry."

Joni Johnston: I think that Eric Smith was incredibly troubled, and I think he was a dangerous young man.

Joni Johnston is a clinical forensic psychologist. For more than 20 years, she's been evaluating inmates who are up for parole.

Joni Johnston: When we're looking at a very inexact science, if you will, trying to predict whether somebody is  is dangerous  it's like balancing a scale.  are we willing to take a risk?

Johnston has never met Eric Smith, but "48 Hours" asked her to look at his case.

Joni Johnston: I don't see Eric Smith at all as a kid who snapped. I see him as a kid who escalated.  from hurting animals starting at around age 11 and who eventually progressed to hurting a child.

She also read transcripts of his parole hearings.

Joni Johnston: 2004 was really the most frightening  this is somebody who goes into a tremendous amount of detail in terms of what he did.

Back then, John Tunney shared some of what Smith told the parole board.

John Tunney (2004, reading parole hearing transcript): Question: "You convinced him to go to this field. What did you do next?"  Answer: "Put my hands around him and strangled him."

All these years later, Eric Smith's words are still chilling.

John Tunney (reading): "When you were doing that, was that something that gave you a good feeling? "Answer: "At the moment, it did, yes."

Joni Johnston: Probably the most significant and frightening thing is this is a kid where the narrative seems to have been this kind of rage, or this person's inability to control his anger.  And yet  the emotion he expresses is pleasure or enjoyment.

John Tunney [reading]: Question: "Why do you think that was?" Answer: "Because  instead of me being hurt, I was hurting somebody else. Growing up, I was always picked on, disrespected, made fun of."

John Tunney: Eric was tired of being the victim in his mind  And he wanted to see what it felt like to be the victimizer.

Jim Axelrod [reading]: There's a question. "Mr. Smith  If you had not admitted to someone that you had done this, do you think it would've been a fair statement to say that you probably would have done it again?" Answer: "Yes."

That confirmed Tunney's belief that Smith at 13 was a budding serial killer

John Tunney: I was afraid then, and frankly, (sigh) as I sit here now, I think that Eric Smith may very well have done it again  'cause it was such a positive experience for him.

Jim Axelrod: It made him feel good.

John Tunney: He got a lot out of it. And  had he not been identified  he wouldn't have paid a price.

The parole board's decision in 2004 was no surprise. But, for the Robies, there was always another hearing looming.

Jim Axelrod: It must have felt like a weight hanging right over your head.

Doreen Robie: Yes.  there's all these  really happy times that are supposed to happen throughout your life.  but there's always that.

Dale Robie: We always got a letter about three or four months prior to that  Ours always fell around Christmas.

Doreen Robie: You know, here putting the Christmas tree up, and we're reading this letter that, here we go again.  it just made me angry.

Eric Smith during his interview with WENY-TV in December 2009. / Credit: WENY-TV

This is Eric Smith in 2009, just months before his fifth parole hearing:

ERIC SMITH: It's understandable that they would never want me to be out in society.

ERIC SMITH: My anger wasn't directed at Derrick at all. It was directed at all the other guys who used to pick on me. And when I was torturing and killing Derrick  That was what I saw in my head.

Smith, almost 30, was interviewed by WENY-TV as he prepared to face the board.

ERIC SMITH: The only thing that I can say to 'em is I'm not the same person.  there's not a day that goes by in some way, shape, or form that I'm, like, forced to remember what I did  I'm automatically thinking I killed Derrick and the pain that I caused Dale and Doreen Robie.

John Tunney [watching interview with Axelrod]: The problem is  how sincere is it?  versus how contrived or calculated it is?  I certainly can't tell as I sit here.

Jim Axelrod: You can't?

John Tunney: No.  for us to have any real hope, he has to be accurate when he says, you know, "I'm different," you know, "I'm self-aware and I have every reason in the world to behave."

Jim Axelrod: It's not a question does he believe it. Is it true?

John Tunney: Is it accurate. Exactly.

ERIC SMITH: I did kill Derrick. And for that, you know, I am sorry.  And there's nothing I can do to bring him back. I mean, if I could switch places with him and take the grave for him to live, I'd do it in a second.

Joni Johnston: Remorse is important for sure.

Joni Johnston also wants to know if it's the truth but cautions that expressions of remorse at a parole hearing can be difficult to judge.

Joni Johnston: is it genuine remorse? Lemme tell ya. There is no psychological test. (laughs) There is no face. There is no behavioral indicator of remorse.  We don't really know if this remorse is real.

The parole board in 2010 turned him down again, but as the years passed, Johnston says Smith seemed to be changing.

Joni Johnston: You're starting to see some compassion  from him for other people. So, I'm seeing a little bit of hope for him now.

Jim Axelrod: Is Eric Smith growing or is he simply refining his message?

Joni Johnston: I think both.  certainly parole boards have to always separate that out, which is why they're not just relying on what this inmate is saying in the parole hearing. You know, thank the lord  They're gonna be  looking at all this person's history. What has this person done or  or not done in the two years since he's been here?  they're looking at the parole interview as one piece of that puzzle.

But for the Robies, decades of endless parole hearings have taken a toll.

Doreen Robie: It's not fair that we have to keep doing this.

Jim Axelrod: Did you ever lose the energy to keep going with this?  I  I can't anymore?

Doreen Robie: Yeah, that, I mean  he would say, "But we're doin' it for him in his memory." And I'm, like, "You're right"  And I know that some people probably think, "Geez, you should just get over this and  and move on." But any parent that has ever lost a child knows that you don't ever get over it.

On October 5, 2021, 41-year-old Eric Smith, went before the parole board for the 11th time.

Joni Johnston: You have somebody  who's completed a ton of programs  He's got some more educational goals.  His risk is low, according to  risk assessment that are being done.

Smith even told them that he was engaged. He says his fiancee was studying to be a lawyer and wrote him asking about the juvenile justice system. Over time, he says, they ended up falling in love.

Joni Johnston: Eric Smith at 13 is not the same person that he is  that he is at 31  Or at 41. He has changed. We all change.  And you kinda go, "What else can he do?  to prove that he is no longer a danger to society.  now we're at the point where it becomes, is this about punishment or about rehabilitation?

LOCAL NEWS REPORT: Breaking news. The Savona man who killed a four-year-old boy in 1993, has been granted parole.

Dale Robie was at work when he heard the news he'd been dreading for so many years and called Doreen.

Dale Robie: We found each other on the porch and gave each other a hug.

John Tunney: I have some sympathy for the people who are called upon to make that decision.  And that's why I  have such hope  that they're right.

Jim Axelrod: At the end of the day, it's still a little bit of a gamble.

John Tunney: Oh, no, no. It's a huge gamble.  This parole decision is a high-risk enterprise, to be sure.

A NEW CHAPTER BEGINS

Weeks after Eric Smith was granted parole, dozens gathered in Savona to peacefully protest his release.

PROTESTER: "We are here as a community to stand together for justice for Derrick Robie  and for Dale and Doreen Robie "

Dale Robie: They wanted to remember Derrick because all the attention was now on Eric being released. So, they didn't want people to forget, you know.

Doreen Robie: It was very touching.

Doreen and Dale Robie / Credit: CBS News

Many in Savona feared Smith wanted to move back to live with his mother.

Doreen Robie: I wasn't so much worried about us as I was everybody else.

Dale Robie: I just knew where a lot of people in town in the village stood.

Doreen Robie: You know, we don't want him here. Better not send him here.

And the parole board agreed. Smith's release was delayed for months until approved housing was found for him in Queens, New York, over 200 miles away from Savona.

WROC NEWS REPORT: "This is breaking news from News 8  Eric Smith, who has been behind bars for nearly 3 decades  is no longer in prison."

And then on February 1, 2022, after being locked up for 28 years, Eric Smith quietly slipped out of Woodbourne Correctional Facility  out of view of cameras  a free man.

Doreen Robie: I understand why after so many years they decided to give him a chance. And that's fine, you know for him and his family.

It would begin a new chapter for the Robies who had fought for so long to keep Smith in prison.

Doreen Robie: You know he's been released. But in a way so have we.  No more parole.  I can get on with our lives.  Now the true healing can begin.

Doreen says part of the healing process has been letting go of her anger.

Doreen Robie: I would rather laugh than cry any day of the week  If you let it, it's going to eat you alive.

Jim Axelrod: The anger.

Doreen Robie: Yes.

The Robies say they choose not to think about Eric Smith, but instead focus on friends and family  especially their son Dalton, now 30.

Doreen Robie: You have to find joy in life. You have to enjoy each other, because life is too short and just live.

Dale Robie: August 2nd, the day we lost him, we always try and go to do something fun. White ice cream with sprinkles. That's what Derrick called vanilla, so we try to 

Doreen Robie: Wherever we are, we have to go find ice cream.

Dale Robie: (cries) Even though it's sad. It's happy.

As for Eric Smith, since his release, "48 Hours" has been unable to contact him. But in 2009 he told WENY-TV, he had big plans for his future.

ERIC SMITH [2009]: I want to get married and raise a family. You know hold down a job. Pursue the American dream.

He also said he wanted to counsel kids who have been bullied  just like he had been.

Jim Axelrod: The question is will Eric Smith be a success story or somebody were pointing to and saying, "the system blew it with that one"?

John Tunney: That's exactly right.  I keep going back to my hope.  Time will tell.

Back in the summer of 1993, to honor Derrick Robie, volunteers  including Eric Smith's great grandfather  bulldozed the scene of the crime and put in a new ball field in memory of the little T- ball player.

Today, up on the hill watching over the field is a statue of Derrick. It was sculpted by Doreen's uncle and funded by people from all over the country.

A statue of the unofficial mayor of Savona overlooks a ball field named in honor of Derrick Robie. / Credit: CBS News

Dale Robie [reading plaque on the statue]: "Dedicated to be a gentle reminder of what childhood is meant to be. Derrick J. Robie."

Doreen Robie: I love that he's the only person in town that has a statue. A lot of people called him the "mayor of Savona" because he was pretty well known.

Jim Axelrod: At four years and 10 months old?

Doreen Robie: Yes.  He just, he was so much fun. He was just a great kid.

Eric Smith will remain on parole for the rest of his life.

Produced by Judy Tygard, Lisa Freed and Chris Young Ritzen. Mead Stone is the producer-editor. Tamara Weitzman is the development producer. Kat Teurfs and Michael Loftus are the associate producers. Mike Baluzy, Greg Kaplan, Doreen Schechter and Gregory F. McLaughlin are the editors. Peter Schweitzer is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.

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Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) questions Dr. Anthony Fauci, White House Chief Medical Advisor and Director of the NIAID, during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing to examine the federal response to COVID-19 and new emerging variants





A push to limit trade with Russia, which has broad bipartisan support, is facing a slog in the Senate.

A standoff with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) over sanctions language included in the House-passed bill to end normal trade relations with Russia dashed hopes of quickly passing it while President Biden was in Europe and could drag out the legislation for weeks as the Senate faces other looming priorities and an April break.

It's a significant stumbling block for a bill that passed the House in a 424-8 vote - sparking rare unity between Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) - only to get snagged despite Senate leaders working out a deal to move it quickly.

Paul is demanding his language linked to human rights-related sanctions get added into the bill. And unlike other recent Russia-related standoffs with the libertarian-leaning GOP senator, he is drawing a red line that he won't let the bills move quickly unless it is added.

"We've just told them they need to put the definition in there of what a human rights abuse is," Paul said. "But we won't let them pass it unless they put it in there so they're either going to put it in there or they're going to be here for a week doing it."

It's hardly the first time Paul has loomed as a buzzsaw for legislation.

He warned he would block quick passage of a nonbinding resolution offering support for Ukraine and condemning Russia's invasion unless supporters included language specifying it didn't qualify as an authorization of force for Ukraine. The language was added into the resolution, which cleared the Senate by unanimous consent, as well as a separate resolution throwing Senate support behind a war crimes investigation.

And Paul typically gets amendment votes during big government funding debates, in exchange for signing off on speeding up an agreement.

Senate Republicans appeared to think they might be able to win Paul over with a similar tactic on the Russia legislation. Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the No. 2 GOP senator, initially said Paul had an objection to the trade bill that might be difficult to get him to drop but that "you might be able to solve [them] with an amendment vote or two."

Story continues

The House has passed two Russia-related bills that are now working their way through the Senate.

The first is the bill to end permanent normal trade relations, known as PNTR. In addition to raising tariffs on goods from Russia and Belarus, it also sets up strict guidelines for when the president can restore normal trade relations, reauthorizes and expands the Global Magnitsky Sanctions and requires the Biden administration to push for Russia's removal from the World Trade Organization.

The House also passed legislation earlier this month to ban the import of Russian oil, codifying actions taken by the administration.

Though the bills passed the House separately - roughly a week apart - they are effectively linked together in the Senate.

Sen. Mike Crapo (Idaho), the top Republican on the Finance Committee, initially blocked a quick vote on the House trade bill unless it included the oil ban. In the end, he and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) cut a deal so they would move back-to-back.

But that's effectively trapped both bills unless Paul backs down or Senate leaders agree to let the oil ban legislation, which is expected to be changed and sent back to the House for a second vote, move separately.

Paul is taking issue with the way the Magnitsky sanctions are reauthorized as part of the bill that limits trade with Russia.

The original Magnitsky bill targeted "gross" violations of human rights. The language in the Russia trade bill would expand that to target "serious" human rights violations, codifying language used in a Trump-era executive order.

But Paul wants language put into the bill that would reinsert "gross" violation of human rights and define that as dealing with torture, cruel and inhumane treatment and indefinite detention, though Paul said he was open to including other actions in the definition.

Paul argued that language as written in the House-passed could be used to sanction individuals who deny access to abortions, a concern echoed by a group of House Republicans.

"It has to be in the body of it. I'm not voting on it. It has to be in the body" of the bill, Paul said about the change.

Senate leadership tried to offer him a vote on his proposal if he would, in exchange, agree to speed up both the trade bill and the energy ban. Schumer said that Paul "appears to be the lone senator demanding this" and that he thought all other 99 senators would approve the deal to let the trade and energy package move quickly.

"The question before Sen. Paul is ... is he going to tank PNTR because his interpretation is not forced into his bill? Can Sen. Paul take yes for an answer?" Schumer asked.

Paul, however, rejected that offer.

Paul's demand has infuriated senators who worked on the sanctions language.

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) argued that Paul was trying to relitigate a fight that he had already had, and lost, in the Foreign Relations Committee. Cardin also argued that Paul's amendment would undercut sanction efforts.

"The substance of it is that it would not allow us to do what we need to do in regards to Mr. Putin and Russia," Cardin added.

Senate leadership has started the process of putting both bills on the calendar, which will make them available for a vote. But the Senate is also facing a time crunch that absent a deal with Paul could delay the Russia bills for weeks.

The Senate is wrapping up work on a China competitiveness bill on Monday, in a drawn-out procedural step that is aimed at letting the House and Senate formally go to conference to work out their different bills. The Senate is expected to vote to formally go to conference next week and is working on getting votes for both Republicans and Democrats that want to give formal directions to the negotiators.

There are also nominations waiting to be formally scheduled for votes, and Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's Supreme Court nomination that Democrats want to bring up on the floor the week of April 4.

That nomination is expected to take days of floor time because Supreme Court nominees are still subjected to 30 hours of debate, as well as the procedural hurdles most nominations face. And the Senate is scheduled to leave town for two weeks starting on April 8.

Schumer could move to force votes on both bills, but that would eat up weeks of floor time to process both the bill limiting trade with Russia and the bill to codify the oil ban absent an agreement with all 100 senators, including Paul, to speed things up.

Asked if Schumer would file cloture, a move that lets him formally force votes, a spokesman pointed back to Republicans questioning if they were "trying to shake Paul loose? Or are they OK letting him hold up PNTR?"

Crapo, asked how they moved the Russia deal, indicated that they could give Paul a vote.

"One work out is we have a vote on it," Crapo said. "The senators have a choice: they can just filibuster, which means it will take a week or 10 days, or they can agree to have a vote on their issue."

But when told by a reporter that Paul wouldn't accept that, the GOP senator acknowledged that was "problematic."
PROVIDENCE  Irene Shewchuk, 72, pressed a bouquet of sunflowers to her chest and wore Ukraines blue and yellow flag like a shawl Saturday while hoping somehow that the resilient citizens of the besieged nation 4,500 miles away would learn that she stood with them.

Ukrainians on the front lines of Russias month-long invasion, she fears, are only getting snippets of news from the outside; they may not know how the world is united against Vladimir Putins unjust and indiscriminate war.

And so Shewchuk, whose grandparents came from Ukraine, joined seven other members of St. Michael Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Woonsocket and drove to the State House Saturday where 150 others with equal outrage called for the wars end.

More: Troubled RI veteran finds both fatherhood and unending war in Ukraine

More: Coventry woman, born in Ukraine, hopes refugee mother can join her

Irene Shewchuk, a member of St. Michael Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Woonsocket, attends Saturday's rally at the State House with fellow parishioners to show support for Ukraine.

You dont realize when you are here in the United States that there are people there who are getting bombed  who cant leave their apartments for fear of getting shot  and dont know that the world is with them, said Shewchuk. We are trying to do whatever we can to support them."

Rally crosses the political divide

One of the organizers of the rally, Michael Fine, the former director of the state Health Department, said the event was sponsored by a collaboration of Rhode Island religious groups, labor and politicians of all stripes.

What's amazing is everybody jumped in together, regardless of political party or bias, said Fine. This is all of us thinking together about freedom and democracy and how you support the people of Ukraine.

The event was also a chance for people to raise money for the displaced children of Ukraine by donating to the Rhode Islanders for Ukraine Fund through UNICEF (www.tinyurl.com/yskb4pdd).

'The world does care': RI native flees Ukraine with help of strangers from several countries

'Back there again': She fled Nazis in 1939 near Ukraine and sees a replay in Putin's war

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Community, government and religious leaders speak on the State House steps at Saturday's rally in support of Ukraine.

More than 3.7 million Ukrainians, most of them women and children, have fled to neighboring countries since the war began, the sixth-largest refugee outflow over the last 60-plus years, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of United Nations data.

Those refugees represent about 9% of Ukraines pre-invasion population of about 41.1 million people.

Speaking to the crowd, Fine said, I am outraged by this attack on the freedom and democracy of a sovereign nation. And Im here because I know that all the health care in the world, all the great work of the nurses and doctors on this planet, is put to shame when a tyrant goes on a rampage, and human bodies and human lives are sacrificed needlessly, selfishly. Just because.

Escape from Ukraine: RI woman goes to Europe to get her mother out of threatened country

More: URI grad studying in Slovakia sees influx of refugees from Ukraine, offers help

Prayers for peace, and help for refugees

Church leaders led the crowd in prayers, including Bishop Nicholas Knisely of the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island.

We pray for the people of Ukraine, he said. We pray for peace. ... Above all, we pray for all your precious children.

Teddi Jallow, co-founder of Providence's Refugee Dream Center and a former refugee herself from the African country of Gambia, reminded rally attendees that darkness is always followed by light.

That light can shine as acts of kindness, she said, urging all to reach out and help those traumatized by the Ukrainian invasion.

Supporters of Ukraine rally in front of the Rhode Island State House on Saturday as part of an interfaith effort to pray for peace and raise money for humanitarian relief.

Gov. Dan McKee reiterated his message conveyed last month in a letter to President Joe Biden, that Rhode Island is ready to host Ukrainian refugees.

And he said Biden was absolutely correct when earlier Saturday the president, speaking in Poland, described Putin as a tyrant and said For Gods sake, this man cannot remain in power.

Said McKee: An evil man does not deserve to be in power in any country in the world.

'Just cant send in ground troops': Local veterans oppose sending U.S. troops to Ukraine

Ukrainian brothers buoyed by show of support

Oleg Fedorchuk, 49, formerly of Ukraine, waved the largest Ukrainian flag in the crowd.

Beside him was his 40-year-old brother Yevgen, who wore the American flag over his shoulders.

Brothers Oleg Fedorchuk, hoisting the Ukranian flag, and his brother Yevgen, draped in the American flag, attend the rally at the State House to support their native country.

Oleg came to the United States in "1997, August 13th," his brother in 2006.

Both work in the construction trades and have relatives back in Kiev, some who have taken up arms against the Russians, while some women have had to run.

Oleg said he served in the Ukrainian army when he was younger.

We were like neighbors with Russia then," he said. "We never thought this guy [Putin] would do this to us.

He wanted to thank people like Irene Shewchuk, and all the rally attendees, for coming out to support his mother country.

Its very important, he said. When other Ukrainians see it, they appreciate it.

God bless America, he said. And God bless Ukraine.

Email Tom Mooney at: tmooney@providencejournal.com

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Rhode Islanders offer prayers, donations for Ukraine and refugees
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) addresses reporters after the weekly policy luncheon on Tuesday, September 14, 2021.





Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) on Sunday said he believed Justice Clarence Thomas would "always do the right thing" in response to reports of text messages that Ginni Thomas, Clarence Thomas's wife, sent to former President Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows in support of overturning the 2020 presidential election.

"Fox News Sunday" host John Roberts asked Scott for his thoughts on the controversy, noting that there have been calls for the justice to recuse himself from future cases involving the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

"Well first off, I admire and respect Clarence Thomas. I think he's been a great Supreme Court justice," Scott said. "And Clarence Thomas, in my opinion, will always do the right thing. So I've not seen ... I've watched Clarence Thomas for years that I've never- always seen him do the right thing."

Roberts noted that Supreme Court justices are not bound by the same code of ethics that other federal judges are and asked Scott if he would support legislation to change that. Last year, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) introduced legislation to impose a code of ethics onto the Supreme Court.

"I haven't seen the legislation, but you know - I tell you what my experience with the Supreme Court is they're trying their best to interpret the laws, do the best they can. I don't agree with everything they do. None of us would, but I think they're trying to do the best they can," said Scott.

Fellow Republican congressional lawmakers have defended Clarence Thomas in the wake of the controversy. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) both voiced their support for Thomas last week.

In a statement, McConnell said, "Justice Thomas is a great American and an outstanding Justice. I have total confidence in his brilliance and impartiality in every aspect of the work of the Court."

McCarthy said at a press conference that he does not believe that Thomas should recuse himself from cases having to do with the Jan. 6 attack.
Here's a roundup of recent incidents and announcements from Ventura County agencies:

Woman arrested after allegedly stabbing roommate

VENTURA  Authorities in Ventura arrested a woman who allegedly admitted to stabbing her roommate on Friday.

The incident took place shortly before 2:30 p.m. in the 8700 block of Boise Street, the Ventura Police Department reported. The block is in a residential area on the south side of Highway 126, west of Petit Avenue and Chumash Park.

Officer found the victim with three minor stab wounds to her neck. She was taken to a local hospital for treatment.

The 49-year-old suspect reportedly admitted to officers at the scene that she had stabbed the victim, authorities said.

The incident took place in a group home setting, said Cmdr. Rick Murray. The age of the woman who was stabbed was not available Saturday.

The suspect was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. She remained in Todd Road Jail as of Saturday afternoon in lieu of $510,000 bail, jail records showed. The Star generally does not name suspects until they have been charged by the Ventura County District Attorney's Office.

Detectives are continuing to investigate. Anyone with information is asked to call Sgt. Bill Dolan at 805-339-4444.

Felon on parole had assault weapon, police say

OXNARD  Police in Oxnard arrested three people after a traffic stop Thursday, including a man on state parole for firearms possession who was reportedly carrying an assault weapon, authorities said.

Oxnard police seized a handgun modified to fire in full auto along with two loaded high-capacity magazines from a felon on parole who has multiple firearms convictions, officials said.

Officers with the Oxnard Police Department's gang unit pulled over a car at around 8 p.m. Thursday in the 400 block of West Kamala Street, near the crossing with E Street. Three passengers were reportedly documented members of an Oxnard criminal street gang, according to police, including two, age 22 and 25, with arrest warrants.

A third man, also 25, was on California Department of Corrections parole for firearms possession. He also had six prior felony gun convictions, officials said. All three men were Oxnard residents.

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A search of the car turned up a .40-caliber Glock handgun that had been modified to fire in full auto as well as two loaded, high-capacity 29-round magazines, according to police.

More local news: Rain is on the way to Ventura County, with showers starting Sunday

The parolee was arrested on suspicion of possessing a dangerous assault weapon and other firearms violations. The other two passengers were arrested on their warrants.

Anyone with information about criminal activity in Oxnard is encouraged to contact police at 805-385-7600 or online at oxnardpd.org, where you can click on the "report suspicious activity" link.

Crash on Highway 101 involved motorcycle

THOUSAND OAKS  A major-injury crash on northbound Highway 101 in Thousand Oaks Saturday afternoon blocked some lanes in both directions, according to California Highway Patrol reports.

The accident was reported shortly after 3:30 p.m. on the northbound freeway just south of Lynn Road.

Initial reports indicate at least one motorcycle rider was down in the road and three vehicles may have been involved.

The two left lanes on the northbound side and the left lane on the southbound side were blocked for a time as Ventura County Fire Department and ambulance personnel, as well as CHP officers and other responders, worked the scene. All lanes had reopened by about 4:40 p.m.

As of 7:30 p.m., the CHP listed the accident as causing major injuries. No other details were immediately available.

Mother and son from Chile plead guilty to conspiracy, ID theft

VENTURA COUNTY  A mother and son whom authorities believe are members of a so-called South American Theft Group have pleaded guilty to felony charges stemming from a purse theft in Camarillo.

Theresa Valdenegro, 46, and her son Samir Valdenegro, 21, both of Chile, pleaded guilty in Ventura County Superior Court on Friday to a felony count of conspiracy to commit identity theft and four felony counts of identity theft.

On Jan. 8, the two stole a purse from a woman's shopping cart at a Camarillo store, then used her credit cards at Best Buy stores in Oxnard and Camarillo, according to Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko's office.

Detectives from the Ventura County Sheriff's Office tracked the two to a Los Angeles hotel where they were arrested in February. A search of the hotel room turned up gift cards, purses and other stolen property along with false IDs from multiple countries, authorities said.

Sheriff's officials previously said their investigation linked the mother-son duo to a string of similar crimes they are suspected of carrying out in New Jersey, Maryland, Texas and Southern California.

The two will be sentenced at 9 a.m. on May 4 in courtroom 23. As of Saturday, they remained in county jail facilities with bail set at $100,000 each, jail records showed.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Roundup: Ventura woman reportedly stabbed roommate, more news
An Irish national flag flies in front of the Government Buildings in Dublin, Ireland





Most Irish residents in a new poll said they want to boost the country's military with nearly half wanting to join NATO as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The survey, by the Irish Business Post and Red C, indicates 48 percent of those surveyed said Ireland should join NATO as a way to boost its own security with 39 percent opposed, a record high for such a poll, according to Politico.

Half of Irish voters said they would support a referendum for troops to serve in a European army.

The poll found that 59 percent of those surveyed said they would agree with the country boosting their military spending, as 28 percent oppose the initial decision.

When asked whether the country should drop its policy on neutrality, 57 percent disagreed.

Thirty-nine of those surveyed also said that Ireland should send weaponry to Ukraine, the poll said.

The poll comes as Russia enters its second month of its invasion of Ukraine.
Liz Truss suggested how Russian sanctions could end (PA Wire)

Sanctions against Russian oligarchs, banks and businesses could be lifted if Vladimir Putin ends his invasion of Ukraine and commits to no further aggression, Liz Truss has said.

The foreign secretary said in an interview published on Sunday that the threat of snapback sanctions would be retained if the Russian president did attack again.

Ms Truss told The Sunday Telegraph that a negotiations unit had been established in the Foreign Office to aid possible peace talks.

With the Kremlins troops struggling, her comments will be seen as a possible incentive for Mr Putin to cut his losses and broker a deal with Ukraine.

Moscow has given indications after a month of war that it might scale back its ambitions to fight for control of the Donbas region in the east of Ukraine.

But Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky warned he would not give up territory in peace talks as he noted that his troops have delivered powerful blows to invading forces.

Boris Johnson said that western allies are looking to steadily ratchet up the sanctions that have sought to punish Mr Putin and those who prop up his regime.

Ms Truss said: Those sanctions should only come off with a full ceasefire and withdrawal, but also commitments that there will be no further aggression.

And also, theres the opportunity to have snapback sanctions if there is further aggression in future. That is a real lever that I think can be used.

Her remarks fit with those of her US counterpart Antony Blinken, who has said the travel bans and asset freezes are not designed to be permanent.

The secretary of state said the sanctions could go away in the event of an in effect, irreversible withdrawal of Russian troops.

Fellow cabinet minister Nadhim Zahawi backed foreign secretary Liz Trusss position that sanctions cannot be lifted from Russia until there is a full withdrawal of troops from Ukraine.

He told Skys Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme: It has to be ... Absolutely right, I think the Russian illegal invasion has to end and the Russian army has to leave the Ukraine, and its up to the Ukrainian people, they must be very much the ones who decide what that peace looks like.

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Asked if Moscow was changing strategy to focus on the Donbas region, Mr Zahawi said that the Russian military is having real problems on the ground as the Ukrainians have fought like lions.

Mr Zahawi also said regime change in Russia would be up to the Russian people, following the furore over US president Joe Bidens apparent call for Putins removal.

The White House has scrambled to row back on the US presidents remarks, insisting that Biden was not calling for regime change when he said Putin cannot remain in power.

Asked if the UK government agreed with Joe Biden that Vladimir Putin cannot remain in power, Mr Zahwi said: I think thats up to the Russian people.

Pressed again if Mr Biden was wrong to say what he did, Mr Zahawi said: No, what Im saying to you is the White House has been very clear on this  I think both the United States and the United Kingdom agree that its up to the Russian people to decide who should be governing them.

Meanwhile, former head of the civil service Lord Sedwill said that Britains defence spending should be increased, and the overseas aid budget should return to its pre-cut level.

The peer, cabinet secretary and national security adviser under Boris Johnson, made the call on Sunday as allies reconsider spending levels in response to the Russian threat.

Lord Sedwill suggested national security spending should raise to 4 per cent of GDP to include defence spending increasing up to 2.75 per cent from 2 per cent where it stands now.

He also called for aid spending to be brought back to 0.7 per cent of gross national income after the PM slashed it to 0.5 per cent during the Covid pandemic.
The Russian oligarch Petr Aven, whose wealth is estimated by Bloomberg to be $5.6 billion. Reuters

A sanctioned Russian oligarch told the FT his investment firm was afraid to meet with him.

Petr Aven stepped down from LetterOne in early March after he was sanctioned by the UK and the EU.

The company reportedly then barred him from talking to its staff and locked him out of the office.

A Russian oligarch sanctioned by the UK and the European Union said the investment firm he cofounded was scared to meet with him after he stepped down.

"They are afraid even to meet me personally. We are afraid of authorities very much," Petr Aven said in an interview with the Financial Times published Friday.

Aven, 67, resigned in early March from the $22 billion London investment firm LetterOne  which he cofounded with Mikhail Fridman, another sanctioned Russian oligarch  after Russia invaded Ukraine.

LetterOne's chair, Mervyn Davies, who has since taken over the company, previously told the Financial Times that colleagues weren't allowed to talk to Aven and Fridman. Their stakes in the company were frozen. The firm also locked them both out of its offices and blocked them from accessing any documents, Davies told the Financial Times.

"Legally, we cannot touch the business," Aven told the publication.

LetterOne didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.

He also told the Financial Times that lawyers and other advisors were "afraid" and doing "much more" than legally required because of the fear of sanctions.

"British lawyers do not want to work with Russians," he said in the interview.

Aven, who has an estimated net worth of $5.6 billion, per Bloomberg, was sanctioned by the European Union on February 28 and by the UK on March 15. The EU described him as "one of Vladimir Putin's closest oligarchs."

The billionaire reportedly resigned from the board of the Russian banking company Alfa-Bank days after the EU sanctioned him.

"That's very strange, just to be sanctioned because you meet the president. We try to be absolutely out of politics. With Putin, I was presenting Alfa Group, not myself at all," Aven told the FT.

In the interview, Aven said he was struggling to pay bills and wasn't sure whether he'd be able to have a cleaner or driver.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, speaks to ABC News on March 27, 2022. ABC News

Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar demanded Justice Clarence Thomas recuse himself from future election cases.

Text messages from Thomas's wife revealed she pushed conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

Texts between Thomas and former Trump White House chief of staff were shared with the House Jan 6. committee.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar called for Associate Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from elections cases. It follows the release of damning text messages from Ginni Thomas, the Supreme Court justice's wife.

Ginni Thomas exchanged dozens of texts with former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, urging him to overturn the 2020 election. She also pushed outlandish conspiracy theories that members of the "Biden crime family," along with "ballot fraud co-conspirators," were sent to Guantanamo Bay to face military trials for sedition.

A total of 29 text messages were exchanged between Thomas and Meadows from November 2020 to January 2021, CNN first reported on Thursday. The messages were obtained from Meadows by the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot.

"Do not concede. It takes time for the army who is gathering for his back," Thomas wrote to Meadows, according to The Washington Post.

In another message sent on November 10, 2020, days after the major news networks declared then-Democratic nominee Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 election, Thomas wrote to Meadows: "Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!!"

"You are the leader, with him, who is standing for America's constitutional governance at the precipice. The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History," the text continued, per The Post.

"This is unbelievable. You have the wife of a sitting Supreme Court justice advocating for an insurrection, advocating for overturning a legal election to the sitting president's chief of staff, and she also knows this election, these cases, are going to come before her husband. This is a textbook case for removing him, recusing him from these decisions," Klobuchar said on ABC News "This Week."

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Earlier this month, Thomas said she "played no role with those who were planning and leading the Jan. 6 events."

Though Thomas is actively involved in politics and her husband sits on the nation's highest court, she told the Free Beacon that the couple has "our own separate careers, and our own ideas and opinions too."

"Clarence doesn't discuss his work with me, and I don't involve him in my work," she said.

The Minnesota Democrat added: "All I hear is silence from the Supreme Court right now, and that better change in the coming week because every other federal judge in the country, except Supreme Court justices, would have guidance from ethics rules that says you got to recuse himself."

Klobuchar issued a calling from stricter ethics rules for the Supreme Court, which currently is beholden to no such code of conduct because Congress has not created ethics rules for it. However, the Court could create rules for itself.

"The entire integrity of the court is on the line here, and they had better speak out on this because you cannot have a justice hearing cases related to this election," Klobuchar said. "So not only should he recuse himself, but this Supreme Court badly needs ethics rules."

Klobuchar did not say what would happen if Thomas refuses to recuse himself from future election cases. The associate justice has recused himself once before, from a 1996 case involving sex discrimination at the Virginia Military Institute, where Thomas' son was a student at the time.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Russian tanker ships turned off their tracking systems 33 times last week, Bloomberg reported.

The US Treasury has flagged the maritime action as a "deceptive" way to evade sanctions.

Nine superyachts owned by Russian oligarchs also went dark last week.

Russian tanker ships switched off their tracking systems at least 33 times last week, according to location data provided to Bloomberg by Windward, a maritime risk consultancy. That's double the normal weekly rate, the firm said.

This tactic known as "going dark," or "dark activity" has been flagged by the US Treasury as one of several "deceptive practices used to evade sanctions" in the maritime industry.

The data from Windward also shows that ship-to-ship meetings are taking place that could be long enough to transfer cargo to vessels without sanctions, though the frequency of those meetings is still at a normal level.

Windward also said last week that 22 unique vessels had entered Russian waters for the first time in the weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine.

Video: How viral moments are shaping the war in Ukraine

The news follows reports that nine superyachts owned by Russian oligarchs and tycoons  several of whom were sanctioned  similarly turned off their tracking signals last week.

All vessels of 300 gross metric tons or more that sail on international voyages must install tracking technology, commonly referred to as an automatic identification system, according to the International Maritime Organization's website.

Certain classes of vessels traveling on international voyages are required by international convention to broadcast their AIS location signal at all times.

In a sanctions advisory last May, the US Treasury warned that "vessels engaged in illicit activities may also intentionally disable their AIS transponders or manipulate the data transmitted in order to mask their movement."

Several countries, including the US and the UK, have barred both Russian oil and Russian vessels from ports following the country's invasion of Ukraine. The sanctions against Russian oligarchs have led to a flurry of highly scrutinized ship movement as superyachts and their owners attempt to escape seizure.

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Turning off location data  on commercial or passenger ships  could make it harder for companies to avoid doing business with sanctioned entities or individuals.

"Everyone in yachting is pretty scared. The penalties of directly or indirectly dealing with Russians are just astronomical," Sam Tucker of the market intelligence firm VesselsValue previously told Insider.

Read the original article on Business Insider
 Read the full article on Motorious

Its time to push back against this dangerous, irresponsible culture.

Pretty much everyone can agree that the explosion in crime throughout 2020 is more than tiresome. From climbing car theft rates to senseless violence, it seems like everyones on edge these days. To make matters worse, theres an increasing trend of street takeovers by criminals who want to do burnouts, drift, etc. while injuring innocent bystanders.

Watch the latest Motorious Podcast here.

We absolutely love cars and love having fun behind the wheel. At the same time we drive on public roads with our children and other loved ones. Both of these facts make it so we have to take a stand against the growing trend of street takeovers in different cities across the United States. Its a problem thats been around for a long time, but weve had enough.

Check out this video of a street takeover in Atlanta. Warning: language.

Real enthusiasts dont participate in street takeovers and were tired of the way media outlets, politicians, and others portray it as a problem attached to the hobby. True car enthusiasts have a healthy understanding and respect for the potentially destructive nature of their vehicle. We take precautions, which is why every track will inspect a vehicle for proper safety equipment before giving the OK to race.

One hotbed for this street takeover trend has been Atlanta. The scene in the metropolitan area has become notorious, with attendants creating a carnival-like atmosphere complete with fireworks and music.

Motorious Editor, Elizabeth Puckett, lives close to some of the areas with frequent pop-up 'takeovers', and offers that, "These people are not car people, I am a car person, I am in car clubs, we get rowdy, we might push it, some members might even engage in more reckless acts, but these are not car people," adding, "These people want attention, I doubt they even know how where the spark plugs are on their cars, but they probably know the best place in town to get fireworks!"

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"The sad thing is, nobody (in a position of leadership) even cared until it kept some board member in Buckhead losing a night of sleep over the noise," noting that the current orders to the the police are to "Be present, but don't engage."

Police have blamed empty streets from shutdowns as well as social media for the uptick. We blame stupidity and a sense of entitlement.

Disagree that these people organizing and participating in street takeovers are selfish and entitled? This YouTube video out of Los Angeles (perhaps the worst city for takeovers) gives you a good glimpse of their mentality. Warning: there's language in this video and general stupidity.

We also covered how a group took over the street in front of the Space Needle in Seattle last month. Since it happened during roving riots in the city, police took over an hour to respond. When they did arrive, officers had to wade through a sea of parked cars in the road, giving the drivers doing smokey donuts plenty of time to escape.

Houston is another city which seems to have more than its share of street takeover problems. While it wasnt a complete takeover situation, police responded to motorcyclists performing tricks on a highway and even attacking one car. The riders taunted police and refused to pull over, which in a recent Facebook post the Houston Police Officers Union blamed on criminals not fearing prosecution or repercussions for their actions.

Not all communities are taking this sitting down. A recent report highlights how police in Phoenix are cracking down on street takeovers. Authorities say its not just that the street takeovers involve dangerous driving, they also are a magnet for narcotics use, impaired driving, and violence. We hope other cities find ways to combat the trend, because these criminals are becoming more brazen and in turn more dangerous.

Real car enthusiasts give back to the community where they live. Weve covered countless car clubs and just groups of friends raising money for charity, doing a parade for a childs birthday party, and other things to help make where they live a better, kinder place. Loving cars doesnt mean you have to act like a self-consumed moron.

Yes, we love big burnouts, crazy drifting, and the sound of a V8 revving wildly. But theres a time and a place for all that. Public roads where kids are riding with their parents, innocent people are going to and from work, newly licensed drivers who are just trying to keep their nose clean are going to their first job, etc. arent even close to the right place for this lawless behavior. If that offends you, we dont apologize one bit. Its time to grow up and stop being selfish, because these kinds of activities put you and everyone else at risk.

To get an even clearer picture of just how dangerous these street takeovers can be, watch these videos (warning: language and violence):

Sign up for the Motorious Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
A 16-year-old boy suspected of a drive-by shooting on Interstate 5, stealing ammunition from a store and leading police on a high-speed chase through Eatonville has been criminally charged.

He pleaded not guilty Friday to attempting to elude a pursuing police vehicle and was ordered held at a juvenile detention facility.

Investigations into the shooting and burglary are still ongoing.

No charges have been filed against the other boys, ages 11, 12 and 14, who were with him at the time of the pursuit.

Troopers say the boys cut off a Toyota 4Runner Sunday (March 20) and someone in the passenger seat of their van fired at least five shots at the other car as they drove on the ramp from northbound I-5 to eastbound 38th Street.

No one was hit.

Employees at a Tacoma business told authorities four people in a similar van stole ammunition from their store shortly before the shooting, according to the Washington State Patrol.

Troopers shared surveillance footage of the van with local law enforcement agencies and an Eatonville officer spotted it Thursday morning in the parking lot of Eatonville High School.

Somebody called 911 to report the van because the people inside were wearing ski masks and the van kept changing parking spaces for no apparent reason, according to charging papers.

The 16-year-old allegedly drove recklessly, speeding and passing vehicles in oncoming traffic as he led police on a chase into Roy.

Police lost sight of the van but a sheriffs deputy spotted it about a half hour later on Mountain Highway as it was forced to make a U-turn due to a road closure from an unrelated collision.

After the teenager almost struck the deputys patrol car head-on, the deputy used stop sticks to slow the van and flatten its two front tires.

Despite having two flat, smoking and disintegrating tires the van continued west bound in excess of 80 MPH while passing vehicles in oncoming lanes, prosecutors wrote in charging papers.

The van crashed after running a stop sign at 70 mph and failing to make a turn. It plowed through a barbed wire fence and hit several cottonwood trees before stopping in the mud.

All four boys inside were taken into custody.

thenewstribune.com
Former President Donald Trump and the Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson. Getty Images

Donald Trump called Ketanji Brown Jackson "disrespectful" to senators at her confirmation hearings.

Trump said GOP lawmakers had asked Jackson questions "really nicely" at the hearings.

Other observers described Jackson's grilling by Republicans as "hyperpartisan" and "poisonous."

Former President Donald Trump criticized Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the way she responded to Republican senators' questions during her Supreme Court confirmation hearings in the past week, The Independent reported.

Speaking at a rally in Commerce, Georgia, on Saturday, Trump said President Joe Biden's first Supreme Court nominee responded to GOP lawmakers with "disdain" and "hatred" during four tense days of questioning.

"Judge Jackson was unbelievably disrespectful to Republican Senators that in many cases were really nicely asking questions," Trump said. "She had total disdain and even hatred for them."

If confirmed, Jackson would make history as the first Black woman on the Supreme Court.

Republican senators aggressively interrogated Jackson, leading some observers to describe the hearings as "hyperpartisan," "poisonous," and "offensive."

On Wednesday, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin intervened in a back-and-forth between Sen. Lindsey Graham and Jackson after the South Carolina Republican kept interrupting the judge as she answered questions, Insider reported.

Durbin also intervened during Sen. Ted Cruz's grilling of Jackson, banging the gavel and repeatedly asking Cruz to follow the rules, after the Texas Republican pressed her on her sentencing of child-pornography offenders and on critical race theory.

Sen. Josh Hawley also accused Jackson of "going soft" on child-pornography offenders. Fact-checkers have deemed these allegations of leniency as misleading and say the criticism echoes conspiracy theories from QAnon.

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During Trump's rally, he described Jackson as "very proud" to have previously ruled against him.

"I understand the fact that she's very proud of the fact that she never once voted to support President Trump on anything, she always voted against me, and she brags about it," he said. "'I always voted against Trump.' How about that? Is that nice?"

In November 2019, Jackson rejected claims that the former White House counsel Donald McGahn could assert absolutely immunity from a subpoena to testify before the House of Representatives about Trump. The primary takeaway "from the past 250 years of recorded American history is that Presidents are not kings," Jackson wrote.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected vote on Jackson's nomination on April 4.

Read the original article on Business Insider
(Getty Images)

Former president Donald Trump railed against Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, specifically criticising how she responded to Republican senators questions earlier this week during her Supreme Court confirmation hearing.

Mr Trump spoke at a rally in Commerce, Georgia, where he railed against Republican incumbent Gov Brian Kemp, but took time to criticise Ms Jackson, a judge who has frequently ruled against him before her nomination to the Supreme Court.

Judge Jackson was unbelievably disrespectful to Republican Senators that in many cases were really nicely asking questions, he said. She had total disdain and even hatred for them.

Republicans senators  including Sen Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas, who also led the charge to object to the 2020 presidential election results  repeatedly asked Ms Jackson about her sentencing for people convicted of possessing child sex abuse images, which they believed was too lenient.

In addition, Mr Cruz asked her about critical race theory and whether it factored into he rulings as well as whether she knew it was being taught at Georgetown Day School, where she is on the board.

Mr Trump also said Ms Jackson was proud of the fact that she ruled against him.

And I understand the fact that shes very proud of the fact that she never once voted to support President Trump on anything, she always voted against me and she brags about it, he said with the audience booing when he said she said I always voted against Trump. How about that? Is that nice?

In 2019, Ms Jackson, then a judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, rejected claims that former White House Counsel Don McGahn could not assert absolute immunity from a subpoena to testify before the House Judiciary Committee, writing that Presidents are not kings.

During her confirmation, she was asked about the ruling.

The framers decided, after experiencing monarchy, tyranny, and the like that they were going to create a government that would split the powers of a monarch in several different ways, she said. One was federalism. It was vertical, they would split the powers between the federal government and states. Another was to prevent the federal government from itself becoming too powerful from having all of the authorities from having legislative, executive and judicial authority concentrated in one place.

In that same position, she also ruled against the Trump administrations attempt to expand fast-track deportations.

The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote whether to confirm Ms Jackson on April 4.




Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan pressed for a ceasefire and better humanitarian conditions during a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday.

Erdogan's office said he "noted the importance of a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, the implementation of peace and the improvement of humanitarian conditions in the region," Reuters reported.

Erdogan's office also said that the next round of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia would take place in the Turkish city of Istanbul. Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia said earlier on Sunday that the next round of talks would begin on Monday.

On Friday, Erdogan told reporters that he planned on asking Putin to make an "honorable exit" out of Ukraine during their call, which comes amid mounting concern that the Russian leaders could turn to chemical or biological weapons as the invasion stalls.

"We have to look for a way to smooth this business by saying 'make an honorable exit to this,'" he said according to CNN. "On the other hand, we [Turkey] certainly consider the use of weapons of mass destruction as a crime against humanity."

Last week, Erdogan told reporters that Ukraine and Russia were in agreement when it came to technical issues, but remained divided regarding territorial disputes such as Crimea. He said the negotiators had been able to reach an agreement on four out of the six main issues brought up during the peace talks.

Turkey, a member of NATO, has so far held off on issuing sanctions against Russia, with Erdogan saying such actions were impossible for his country due to its reliance on Russian energy.
From left: Roman Abramovich, Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Alexei Mordashov. Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images, Maxim Shemetov/AP, Pier Marco Tacca/Getty Images

Turkish minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Russian oligarchs are welcome in the country, per CNBC.

It comes amid Russian billionaires being sanctioned by Western countries during the war.

Superyachts should remain outside the territorial waters of sanctioning countries, Turkey said.

Sanctioned Russian oligarchs are welcome in Turkey as tourists and investors, according to the country's foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu.

CNBC reported the story first.

The politician said in an interview with CNBC at the Doha Forum: "We implement UN-approved sanctions, so if any Russian citizens want to visit Turkey, of course, they can visit Turkey. Now Russians are coming to visit Turkey, that's no problem."

"If you mean that these oligarchs can do any business in Turkey, then of course if it is legal and it is not against international law, I will consider," he added, when pushed on whether sanctioned oligarchs can do business in the country.

He said: "If it is against international law, then that's another story."

The Turkish foreign minister's office did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment made outside of normal working hours.

Several Russian billionaires have had some of their assets seized amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Roman Abramovich's two multimillion-dollar superyachts were reportedly spotted in Turkey's coastal waters. Italy seized a superyacht belonging to one of Russia's richest men, Alexei Mordashov, last week.

Per CNBC's report, Turkey said that allowing Russian oligarchs into the country is legitimate  so long as the yachts remain outside the territorial waters of sanctioning countries, which extend 12 nautical miles from the coastline.

Cavusoglu also told reporters that he traveled to Russia and Ukraine for talks with his respective counterparts.

Meanwhile, Turkey, alongside France and Greece, intends to take part in a mission to evacuate Mariupol's remaining inhabitants. The countries are all NATO members.

Read the original article on Business Insider
By Phil Stewart, Brendan O'Brien and Humeyra Pamuk

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden clarified on Sunday that the United States does not have a policy of regime change in Russia, after his declaration that Russian President Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power."

Biden's comments in Poland on Saturday also included calling Putin a "butcher" and appeared to be a sharp escalation of the U.S. approach to Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

Top American diplomats on Sunday had played down his declaration, and Biden, asked by a reporter as he departed a church service in Washington if he was calling for regime change in Russia, gave a one-word reply: "No."

Julianne Smith, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, earlier sought to contextualize Biden's remarks, saying they followed a day of speaking with Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw. Russia's month-old invasion has driven a quarter of Ukraine's population of 44 million from their homes.

"In the moment, I think that was a principled human reaction to the stories that he had heard that day," Smith told CNN's "State of the Union" program before adding: "The U.S. does not have a policy of regime change in Russia. Full stop."

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a news conference in Jerusalem that Biden was making the point that Putin couldn't be empowered to wage war. But Blinken said any decision on Russia's future leadership would be "up to the Russian people."

Republicans flatly said Biden's remarks amounted to an unfortunate blunder.

Senator James Risch, the top Republican on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called Biden's remarks a "horrendous gaffe" and said he wished the president would have stayed on script.

"Most people who don't deal in the lane of foreign relations don't realize those nine words that he uttered would cause the kind of eruption that they did," he told CNN.

Story continues

"It's going to cause a huge problem," he said, referring to Biden's statement in Warsaw: "For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power."

Senator Rob Portman, who is also on the committee, lamented the public misstep in wartime.

"It plays into the hands of the Russian propagandists and plays into the hands of Vladimir Putin. So it was a mistake," Portman told NBC's "Meet the Press" program.

UKRAINIAN RESISTANCE

The United States has sought to strike a balance during the conflict in Ukraine to avoid a direct military confrontation with Russia, speeding weapons deliveries to Kyiv to help its military fight but ruling out sending troops into the country or imposing a no-fly zone.

That support has bolstered fiercer-than-expected Ukrainian resistance, and Russia has failed to seize any major Ukrainian city after more than four weeks of fighting.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged the West to give Ukraine tanks, planes and missiles to help fend off Russian forces.

The conflict has killed thousands of people, sent nearly 3.8 million abroad and driven more than half of Ukraine's children from their homes, according to the United Nations.

Moscow says the goals for what Putin calls a "special military operation" include demilitarizing and "denazifying" its neighbor. Ukraine and its Western allies call this a pretext for an unprovoked invasion.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart, Brendan O'Brien, Trevor Hunnicutt, Costas Pitas and Michael Martina; additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk in JERUSALEM, editing by Diane Craft, Paul Simao and Cynthia Osterman)
Russian President Vladimir Putin during a recent pro-war rally in Moscow. (Sergei Guneyev / Associated Press)

As fighting raged across Ukraine and one of the country's top military leaders warned that Russian forces may seek to split the nation in two, U.S. officials scrambled Sunday to clarify President Biden's off-the-cuff condemnation of Russian President Vladimir Putin a day earlier, saying regime change in Moscow is not on Washingtons agenda.

Bidens dramatic declaration Saturday  For Gods sake, this man cannot remain in power, a reference to Putin  has prompted a frantic effort to walk back what appeared to be a White House endorsement of pushing the Russian leader out of office.

We do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia, or anywhere else, for that matter, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken told reporters in Jerusalem on Sunday.

Later, asked by a journalist in Washington whether he was calling for the removal of Putin, Biden replied "no."

Bidens remarks at the end of a rousing, pro-Ukraine speech in Warsaw, where he also described Putin as a butcher, prompted an outpouring of criticism at a moment when some fear the Russian invasion could escalate into a larger, even more catastrophic conflict. Now in its second month, the war has turned into a grinding ordeal as Russian forces continue to besiege the north and south of Ukraine while counteroffensives have pushed Russian soldiers back from advancing on the capital, Kyiv.

The fighting has displaced more than 10 million people, almost one-quarter of Ukraines population, and has pushed more than 3.7 million refugees out of the country, according to the United Nations. A recent report from the Kyiv School of Economics estimates $63 billion in damage to the nation's schools, homes and other infrastructure since Putin launched his invasion in late February.

Bidens comments made a difficult situation more difficult and a dangerous situation more dangerous, Richard Haass, a veteran U.S. diplomat and chairman of the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations, wrote on Twitter. French President Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, warned against verbal "escalation" with Moscow.

Story continues

The concern is that Biden's remarks played into Putin's worldview that the West  with its NATO expansion and economic sanctions  wants to destroy Russia.

But in a sign of the politically delicate position he finds himself in, Biden on Sunday also faced criticism from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who knocked him and other Western leaders for lacking the courage to commit fighter jets and tanks to Ukraine out of fear that it could lead to a wider war.

Ukraine, Zelensky said in a video address, has asked the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and its allies for weaponry to help repel Russian forces but Western leaders have repeatedly equivocated.

Ukraine cannot shoot down Russian missiles using shotguns, machine guns," Zelensky said in a speech early Sunday in which he also alluded to the besieged southeastern city of Mariupol, where images of shell-battered apartment towers, hospitals and shopping centers have come to epitomize the destruction wrought by the war.

Ive talked to the defenders of Mariupol today. Im in constant contact with them. Their determination, heroism and firmness are astonishing, Zelensky said. If only those who have been thinking for 31 days on how to hand over dozens of jets and tanks had 1% of their courage. In an interview with the Economist published Sunday, he said many world leaders "are afraid of Russia."

In his video address, Zelensky said that the war  which Putin has said was launched in part to protect Ukrainians with blood ties to Russia  was having the opposite effect: stigmatizing a language that has long existed alongside Ukrainian as a native tongue for many Ukrainians, especially in the east and south.

Russia itself is doing everything to ensure that de-Russification takes place on the territory of our state, Zelensky said.

In recent days, Russia has said that it is focused now on consolidating gains in the contested Donbas region, home to two pro-Moscow breakaway republics.

Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, said that Russia's goal may be to split Ukraine in two, like North and South Korea.

The occupiers will try to pull the occupied territories into a single quasi-state structure and pit it against independent Ukraine, Budanov said, although he predicted that guerrilla warfare by Ukrainians would derail such plans.

Leonid Pasechnik, the leader of the self-proclaimed Luhansk Peoples Republic in the Donbas, said Sunday that he may hold a referendum on his territory becoming part of Russia.

I think that in the near future a referendum will be held on the territory of the republic, during which the people will ... express their opinion on joining the Russian Federation, Pasechnik said, according to Russian-state media organization Tass and other outlets.

Britains Defense Ministry said Russian forces appear to be attempting to encircle Ukrainian forces arrayed against pro-Russia separatist fighters in that region. Zelensky told the Economist that Russia has blocked the flow of Ukrainian supplies to wide swaths of the country's southeast, where invading forces have kidnapped and in some cases killed the mayors of multiple cities.

Still, fighting and shelling have continued in other parts of the country.

Russian troops Sunday continued battling for control of several key urban centers, including Kharkiv in the northeast and Mariupol in the south. In the village of Oskil, outside Kharkiv, shelling killed seven people, including two children, according to local officials.

Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said on the messaging app Telegram that although Russian forces have entered his city, Mariupol remains "under the control of Ukrainian armed forces."

"There is a Ukrainian flag flying over the city," he said.

Ukrainian forces have put up stiff resistance in other urban areas, including in Kyiv. Ukrainian military officials said Sunday that some Russian troops had been withdrawn to regroup in Belarus, a Moscow-friendly country 60 miles north of Kyiv.

The western city of Lviv, a hub for the war-displaced multitudes that has otherwise been largely spared from the war, was hit Saturday afternoon by a pair of Russian airstrikes. Many residents speculated that the volley of missiles, which hit a fuel depot and a military installation, was intended as a message to Biden, who was in nearby Poland when the attacks occurred.

With these strikes the aggressor wants to say, 'Hello,' to President Biden, Andriy Sadovyi, Lviv's mayor, said late Saturday.

No one was killed in the two strikes in Lviv, authorities said, despite the proximity of residential districts to the targets. Both volleys appeared to hit their objectives with precision.

Lviv appeared calm Sunday as people attended church services, stopped at busy cafes and restaurants, and strolled in the streets of the cobblestoned historic center. But the attacks were another reminder that the war was not just isolated to the embattled environs of Kyiv, about 300 miles to the east, and to beleaguered cities in the faraway south, east and north.

Of course it makes one nervous  this conflict is not a video game any more, said Borys Babelashvili, 59, a shop owner who was walking his dog in the esplanade facing the citys 19th century opera house. Its natural to be worried. But one has to go on with ones life.

Nearby, two displaced families from the war-battered city of Kharkiv, Ukraines second-most populous after Kyiv, said they heard about the strikes after arriving here by train late Saturday. That Lviv was now in the crosshairs of Russian cruise missiles wasnt a welcome development. They had already experienced too many air and artillery attacks in Kharkiv.

I hope the war is not following us here, said Natasha Barsukova, 17, who was traveling with two siblings and her mother. No, we dont feel safe in Lviv either. We are moving on.

The two families  two women and four children  were planning to leave the next day for Duesseldorf, Germany.

Still remaining in Kharkiv are the childrens fathers who, as military-aged men, are barred from leaving the country. Such separations are the norm in Ukraine now, as men bid goodbye to departing friends and family members who daily escape besieged areas on foot, and in cars, buses and trains for the relative safety in the country's west and beyond.

McDonnell reported from Lviv and Linthicum from Mexico City. Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson in Washington contributed to this report.

For the record:

11:26 p.m. March 27, 2022: An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken as Anthony.



This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
By Humeyra Pamuk

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -The United States has no strategy of regime change for Russia, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on Sunday after President Joe Biden a day earlier said Russian President Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power".

"I think the President, the White House made the point last night that, quite simply, President Putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else," Blinken said at a press conference during a visit to Jerusalem.

"As you know, and as youve heard us say repeatedly, we do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia or anywhere else, for that matter. In this case, as in any case, its up to the people of the country in question. Its up to the Russian people," Blinken said.

In a major speech during his trip to Poland, U.S. President Joe Biden said that Russia's leader Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power", remarks a White House official said later were meant to prepare the world's democracies for extended conflict over Ukraine, not back regime change in Russia.

Those comments by Biden, including a statement earlier in the day calling Putin a "butcher," were a sharp escalation of the U.S. approach to Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

In an address delivered at Warsaw's Royal Castle. Biden evoked Poland's four decades behind the Iron Curtain in an effort to build a case that the world's democracies must urgently confront an autocratic Russia as a threat to global security and freedom.

A White House official said Biden's remark that Putin cannot remain in power did not represent a shift in the position of Washington, which has avoided direct military involvement in Ukraine and has specifically said it does not back regime change.

"But what we do have is a strategy to strongly support Ukraine," Blinken said. "We have a strategy to put unprecedented pressure on Russia, and were carrying that forward. And we have a strategy to make sure that were providing all of the humanitarian support that we can, and we have a strategy to reinforce NATO," he added.

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Dan Williams, Editing by William Maclean)
Emmanuel Macron has warned against verbal 'escalation with Moscow, after Joe Biden called Vladimir Putin a "butcher" who "cannot remain in power".

The French President told the France 3 broadcaster: I think we must do everything to avoid the situation getting out of hand. I wouldn't use these kinds of words because I'm still in talks with President Putin. If we want to do that, we cant escalate either in words or actions".

Mr Macron added that he saw his task as achieving first a ceasefire and then the total withdrawal of [Russian] troops by diplomatic means".

It comes after Mr Biden labelled Putin a "butcher" and later appeared to call for the Russian President's removal from office.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Mr Biden's comment that Putin "cannot remain in power" did not mean Washington wanted regime change in Russia.

Follow the latest updates below.

03:03 PM

French minister warns of 'collective guilt' if help not given to Mariupol

The French foreign minister warned on Sunday that there would be "collective guilt" if help was not given to civilians in Mariupol, the besieged port city that has been left decimated by Russian forces.

Mariupol is a striking example of a military siege, and military sieges are horrible wars because civil populations are massacred, annihilated. The suffering is terrible, Jean-Yves Le Drian told the Doha Forum international conference.

This is why there needs to be at least one moment when the civilian population can breathe."

03:01 PM

Pictured: Kharkiv regional headquarters destroyed

Ukrainian servicemen walk inside the destroyed regional headquarters of Kharkiv on March 27, 2022. - Aris Messinis/AFP

A Ukrainian serviceman walks between rubble of the destroyed regional headquarters of kharkiv on March 27, 2022. - Aris Messinis/AFP

Emergency service members walk outside the destroyed regional headquarters of Kharkiv on March 27, 2022. - Aris Messinis/AFP

02:47 PM

Biden speech on Putin was 'pitch perfect', says US Nato ambassador

Story continues

Ambassador Julianne Smith, the US's envoy to Nato, said on Sunday that Joe Biden's comments about Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine were "pitch perfect" considering recent events.

She was asked on CNN whether the US President's comments about his Russian President - including that he is a "butcher" who "cannot remain in power" - were a "mistake".

She said: In the moment, I think that was a principled human reaction to the stories that he had heard that day.

"But no, as youve heard from secretary Blinken and others, the US does not have a policy of regime change in Russia. Full stop.

"This week has been remarkable. Its been historic. I thought the speech was completely pitch-perfect.

"And I think this will set us on a good course for continuing to support the allies, support Ukrainians, and apply pressure on Russia to get them to stop this war.

"We are not pursuing a policy of regime change, but I think the full administration, the President included, believes that we cannot empower Putin right now to wage war in Ukraine or pursue these acts of aggression."

02:32 PM

Invasion will backfire and cause de-Russification of Ukraine, warns Zelensky

02:18 PM

UN: 1,119 civilians killed so far in Ukraine

The UN human rights office said on Sunday that 1,119 civilians had been killed so far during the war in Ukraine, while 1,790 have been wounded.

Some 15 girls and 32 boys were among the dead, in addition to 52 children whose gender is currently unknown.

The true casualty tolls are expected to be significantly higher, the group said, as reports have been delayed in certain areas because of particularly intense bombardment, such as in Mariupol.

The majority of civilian casualties were caused by explosive weapons, including shelling from heavy artillery, multiple-launch rocket systems and missile and air strikes, the UN added.

01:56 PM

Zelensky urges West to display courage shown by Mariupol defenders

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has criticised Western nations for their hesitation in supplying Ukraine with defensive weapons, labelling discussions over who should supply them as "ping-pong" talks.

In his latest address to the nation, he also urged the West to display even "one per cent" of the courage shown by people fighting to defend the besieged port city of Mariupol.

He said: "I've talked to the defenders of Mariupol today. I'm in constant contact with them. Their determination, heroism and firmness are astonishing. If only those who have been thinking for 31 days on how to hand over dozens of jets and tanks had 1 per cent of their courage."

This handout picture released by the Ukrainian presidential press-service in Kyiv on March 25, 2022 shows President Volodymyr Zelensky speaking online at a meeting of the European Council. - AFP

01:50 PM

Russian aim to split Ukraine in two is unviable, warns military chief

Ukraine's military intelligence chief has warned that Russia is trying to impose a "Korean scenario" to the country where it would be split into two - namely, to pro-Russian and anti-Russian sections.

Kyrylo Budanov said Vladimir Putin's priorities are now the east and the south of Ukraine, after his offensive in Kyiv largely stalled.

Russian soldiers are seen on a tank in Volnovakha district in the pro-Russian separatists-controlled Donetsk, in Ukraine on March 26, 2022. - Anadolu Agency/Anadolu

01:07 PM

Poll: Half of Ukrainians ready to take up arms

Almost half of Ukrainians aged between 18 and 55 are ready to take up arms for their country against Russia, according to a poll conducted by European academics.

Around 70 per cent of men and 30 per cent of women said they were willing to take up arms, according to the survey carried out by the Peace Research Institute of Oslo and Info Sapiens.

The survey included more than 1,000 respondents, with an equal gender split.

When presented with the statement, "If the war continues, I will help the resistance by joining direct military combat in open battles against the Russian or pro-Russian forces", 49 per cent responded yes.

Around 47 per cent said they would be willing to "help the resistance by joining direct military combat in fortified defence positions of the Ukrainian forces".

Meanwhile, 80 per cent of respondents said they were prepared to "help the resistance by providing non-military support to the Ukrainian forces (e.g., deliver food, information, or ammunition)".

12:43 PM

Israeli peace effort in Ukraine is 'closely coordinated' with US, says Blinken

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday that Israels efforts to mediate an end to the war in Ukraine are closely coordinated with Washington.

Blinken is currently in Jerusalem meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

Good to be in Israel and meet with Foreign Minister @yairlapid today to discuss important global issues such as President Putins brutal attack on Ukraine and its people and challenges posed by Iran. The U.S. commitment to Israel is ironclad. pic.twitter.com/XGRVMVQ7Ks  Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) March 27, 2022

12:31 PM

Ukraine says proposed Russian referendum would have no legal basis

Ukraine said on Sunday that Russia holding a referendum in occupied Ukrainian territory would have no legal basis and would spark opposition from the global community.

The Russian-controlled Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine could hold a referendum soon on joining Russia, its local leader was quoted as saying.

"All fake referendums in the temporarily occupied territories are null and void and will have no legal validity," Ukraine's foreign ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko said in a statement to Reuters.

"Instead, Russia will fac an even stronger response from the international community, further deepening its global isolation."

12:09 PM

Separatist region may hold referendum on joining Russia

The head of Ukraine's Lugansk separatist region said on Sunday that it may hold a referendum on becoming part of Russia.

"I think that in the near future a referendum will be held on the territory of the republic, during which the people will... express their opinion on joining the Russian Federation," Russian news agencies quoted Leonid Pasechnik as saying.

"I am sure this will be the case," he said.

12:08 PM

Pictured: Worshippers flock to church following weekend of shelling

People pray during Mass at the Holy Eucharist Church, a day after Russian rockets hit an oil facility and factory in an industrial area, in Lviv, western Ukraine, Sunday, March 27, 2022. - Nariman El-Mofty/AP

A woman kneels during Mass at the Holy Eucharist Church, a day after Russian rockets hit an oil facility and factory in an industrial area, in Lviv, western Ukraine, Sunday, March 27, 2022. - Nariman El-Mofty/AP

People pray during Mass at the Holy Eucharist Church, a day after Russian rockets hit an oil facility and factory in an industrial area, in Lviv, western Ukraine, Sunday, March 27, 2022. - Nariman El-Mofty/AP

11:58 AM

The Russian people will decide Putin's 'fate', says Education Secretary

The future of Vladimir Putins presidency is up to the Russian people, the Education Secretary has said, after US officials insisted that the White House was not pushing for a regime change in Russia.

Nadhim Zahawi said on Sky News on Sunday: "The Russian people, I think, are pretty fed up with what is happening in Ukraine, this illegal invasion, the destruction of their own livelihoods, their economy is collapsing around them and I think the Russian people will decide the fate of Putin and his cronies."

11:52 AM

Pope Francis pleads for end of 'cruel and senseless war' in Ukraine

Pope Francis has pleaded for the end of the "cruel and senseless war" in Ukraine that has displaced millions of children, torn apart families and destroyed cities.

The Pontiff addressed the crowds in St. Peter's Square on Sunday to say that "the powerful decide and the poor die" in war, although he did not name Russia as the aggressor.

Referring to estimates that almost half of Ukrainian children have been displaced by the war, His Holiness said that "war doesn't just devastate the present but also the future of society".

Pope Francis celebrates Sunday Angelus Prayer from the window of his office overlooking St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, 27 March 2022. - Fabio Frustaci/Shutterstock

11:25 AM

Ukrainian MP says Kyiv residents have resorted to drinking sewage water

Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko said people are starving and being forced to drink sewage water in Kyiv as the humanitarian situation across the country worsens.

Speaking to Times Radio, Ms Vasylenko said people in Kyiv are being "made to stay in basements and metro stations" to shelter from Russian shelling.

She added that: "People are actually starving without food, and drinking sewage water.

"In Mariupol, thousands of people are getting forcefully deported across the border to Russia apparently to safety but then they are sent off in an unknown direction and nobody hears from them again.

"So the atrocities, they're just the same all over the place."

11:03 AM

Ukrainian ambassador to Germany shuns Russian-dominated concert

The Ukrainian ambassador to Germany has declined an invitation to a solidarity concert organised by the German president which was to feature performances only from Russian musicians.

Ambassador Andriy Melnyk tweeted early on Sunday that he would not attend the concert, as it featured only Russian soloists, no Ukrainians".

He added: In the midst of Russias war against Ukrainian civilians [this is] an affront. Sorry I'm staying away!

According to the Office of the Federal President, musicians from Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Germany, among others, will play pieces by Ukrainian, Russian and Polish composers together.

However, the schedule shows that only Russian soloists are set to perform, alongside multiple performances by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra itself.

In a statement, the office said the concert was organised to condemn the attack on Ukraine and send a signal of solidarity and the shared belief in the value of freedom and self determination".

10:28 AM

Ukrainian MP says world should 'not be silent' about sexual violence against women during the Russian invasion

Ukrainian MP Maria Mezentseva said the country will "not be silent" about the "horror" of sexual violence being committed against women during the Russian invasion.

Mezentseva told Sky's Sophie Ridge on Sunday programme that one shocking case involved a woman being "raped several times in front of her underage child" after her civilian husband was shot dead in their home near Kyiv.

While that case has been publicly spoken about, she said there are "many more victims" who will require support in the future.

She added that details of sexual violence must be recorded as they happen because "justice has to prevail".

10:19 AM

Sanctions could be lifted if Russia withdraws from Ukraine, says Liz Truss

Britain could lift sanctions crippling Russia if Vladimir Putin withdraws from Ukraine and commits to "no further aggression", Liz Truss has said.

In an interview with The Telegraph, the Foreign Secretary set out a blueprint for the so-called "off ramp" that the Russian president could be offered to halt his assault on Ukraine.

Ms Truss - who revealed that she has established a "negotiations unit" in the Foreign Office to aid future peace talks - said sanctions on Russian banks, firms and oligarchs could be lifted in the event of "a full ceasefire and withdrawal".

Putin would also have to agree to refrain from future military aggression, with the threat of "snapback sanctions" which could instantly be slapped back onto Russia.

Ms Truss' intervention is the first official confirmation that Britain could lift its sweeping sanctions as part of a peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine.

It marks a shift from earlier remarks in which the Foreign Secretary said she could not see a situation in which Roman Abramovich, the most prominent of the sanctioned oligarchs, would be allowed to come to the UK again.

Read the full interview here

10:10 AM

Five key developments you may have missed

The governor of the Lviv region said a man was detained on suspicion of espionage at the site of one of the two rocket attacks that rattled the city on Saturday. Russia has started destroying Ukrainian fuel and food storage depots, meaning the Government will have to disperse the stocks of both in the near future, Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser Vadym Denysenko said on Sunday. Britain's Ministry of Defence (MoD) said Russia continues to besiege a number of major Ukrainian cities including Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol. Britain has seized two jet aircraft belonging to Russian billionaire Eugene Shvidler as Western governments seeking to end the war in Ukraine put pressure on Russian president Vladimir Putin by targeting the luxury lifestyles of his closest supporters. Finland's president says his country would likely be targeted by Russian cyber warfare and could face border violations if it decides to apply for membership of Nato.

You can read more here

09:51 AM

Zelensky warns Putin that war is sowing deep anti-Russian hatred

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky angrily warned Moscow that it is sowing a deep hatred for Russia among his people, as constant artillery barrages and aerial bombings are reducing cities to rubble, killing civilians and driving others into shelters, leaving them to scrounge for food and water to survive.

"You are doing everything so that our people themselves leave the Russian language, because the Russian language will now be associated only with you, with your explosions and murders, your crimes," Mr Zelensky said in an impassioned video address late on Saturday.

09:43 AM

Russia wants to split Ukraine in two, says intelligence chief

Russia is trying to split Ukraine in two to create a Moscow-controlled region after failing to take over the entire country, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence said on Sunday.

"In fact, it is an attempt to create North and South Korea in Ukraine," Kyrylo Budanov said in a statement, adding that Ukraine would soon launch guerrilla warfare in Russian-occupied territory.

09:21 AM

30,000 Ukrainian refugees reach France

Some 30,000 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in France, with half of them travelling through the country to get to other nations such as Spain, French housing minister Emmanuelle Wargon said on Sunday.

Wargon told the Franceinfo radio station that the government was preparing to welcome 100,000 people fleeing the war in Ukraine.

France has been granting temporary EU residency permits to Ukrainian refugees, which allows them to have access to schooling and to work in the country.

A woman places pillows on beds in a public gymnasium being prepared for Ukrainian refugees in Bordeaux, southwestern France, on March 25, 2022. - Philippe Lopez/AFP

09:18 AM

US has no strategy of regime change in Russia, says Blinken

The US has no strategy of regime change in Russia, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday.

The comments come after President Joe Biden said during a speech in Poland on Saturday evening that Russian President Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power".

"I think the president, the White House, made the point last night that, quite simply, President Putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else," Blinken said during a visit to Jerusalem.

"As you know, and as you have heard us say repeatedly, we do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia - or anywhere else, for that matter."

09:00 AM

Eastern Europe was 'suspicious' of Russian threat before Ukraine invasion

Dame Margaret Beckett has suggested that people in eastern European countries "who had experience of being under Russian rule" in the Soviet Union were "suspicious" of Russia even before the invasion of Ukraine.

The Labour MP, who announced her retirement yesterday after a long career that saw her become Britain's first female Foreign Secretary under Tony Blair, said on Sky News on Sunday: "People hoped that Russia more and more might come into the mainstream... But I'm very mindful that any time this past 10, 20 years, if you talk to people in eastern Europe or rather perhaps if you listened to people in eastern Europe who had experience of being under Russian rule, they never had this sanguine approach.

"They were always worried, suspicious, looking over their shoulder. There will be people in the Baltic states who would not be remotely surprised by what is going on in Ukraine".

Dame Margaret added that conversations about Nato countries increasing military aid for Ukraine are difficult because of the risk of escalating the conflict.

"I think its a very difficult balance to strike," she said. "Its horrendous the situation in Ukraine and we have to do everything we can to help, but to be drawn into a pan-European war, I dont think anyone would thank us."

08:47 AM

Residents of Odesa brace for attack

Odesa is mining its beaches and rushing to defend its historic cultural heritage from potential Russian attacks that are feared could make the port city the next Mariupol.

Valerii Novak, a local businessman, said: "The only thing we're really afraid of is that the other side has no principles whatsoever."

He added that he never used to consider himself a patriot, but following the Russian invasion, something "just clicked" in him - he has since refused to leave Odesa and is undertaking training in how to use a gun.

Hanna Shelest, a security analyst based in the city, asked: "Is our city the next one or not?"

She said that Russia would need Odesa to surrender, rather than fight, to avoid the "blow to sentiment" that would be caused by any destruction of historic cultural buildings, such as its famed opera house and Potemkin Steps, which are beloved by Ukrainian and Russian people alike.

Local residents carry bags filled with sand as they build a barricade for a check-point in Odesa on March 25, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. - Oleksandr Gimanov/AFP

08:19 AM

Animal shelter takes in 1,500 pets as owners flee war in Ukraine

The 'Home for Rescued Animals' in the Ukrainian city of Lviv has taken in an estimated 1,500 animals since the war with Russia began, as owners have fled the country in their millions.

24-year-old shelter manager Orest Zalypskyy said the home was once a "haven" reserved for exotic animals that has now branched out to take in pets that have been left en masse due to people fleeing Ukraine for the safety of neighbouring countries.

"Migrants who come from Kharkiv, Kyiv, Mykolaiv and go abroad via Lviv leave animals en masse," he said.

"There's been no system. We just have many volunteers who head out and fetch them."

A large number of the animals are set for adoption in Germany, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, while around 200 pets have been adopted by the locals of Lviv.

A family visit the 'Home for Rescued Animals' shelter to walk with dogs in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on March 26, 2022. - Aleksey Filippov/AFP

Dogs are seen in an aviary at the 'Home for Rescued Animals' in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on March 26, 2022. - Aleksey Filippov/AFP

08:01 AM

Ukraine confirms two humanitarian corridors, including from Mariupol

Ukraine and Russia have agreed two 'humanitarian corridors' to evacuate civilians from frontline areas on Sunday, including from the besieged port city of Mariupol, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.

People will be allowed to leave by private car from the city, which has come under constant bombardment since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February.

07:54 AM

Russia hits Lviv with cruise missiles, says Kremlin defence ministry

Russia has hit the western Ukrainian city of Lviv with high-precision cruise missiles, the Russian defence ministry said on Sunday.

Kremlin forces hit a fuel depot being used by Ukrainian troops near Lviv with long-range missiles and used cruise missiles to strike a plant in the city that was being used to repair anti-aircraft systems, radar stations and sights for tanks, the ministry added.

"The armed forces of the Russian Federation continue offensive actions as part of the special military operation," spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.

Officials in Lviv, which is just 40 miles from the border with Poland, said people had been wounded in the missile attacks.

07:50 AM

Pictured: War rages on across Ukraine

An injured woman evacuated from Irpin lies on a stretcher in an ambulance on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, March 26, 2022. - Vadim Ghirda/AP

A part of a rocket sits wedged on the ground following a Russian bombing earlier this week, at a cemetery in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, Saturday, March 26, 2022. - Petros Giannakouris/AP

This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian State Emergency Service on March 27, 2022 shows the firefighters putting out a fire after Russian missiles strikes to infrastructure including a fuel storage facility on the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on March 26, 2022. - AFP / Ukrainian State Emergency Service/AFP / Ukrainian State Emergency Service

07:45 AM

Why Putin will be happy with Biden's latest gaffe

It is hard to know exactly what Joe Biden was thinking when he gave his address in Poland on Saturday.

The US president spent 27 minutes delivering what was arguably the most powerful - and consequential - speech of his presidency.

President Joe Biden delivers a speech about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, at the Royal Castle, Saturday, March 26, 2022, in Warsaw. - Evan Vucci/AP

In front of the Royal Castle, one of Warsaw's notable landmarks damaged during the Second World War, he invoked the horrors of Europes not-so-distant past and vowed the continent would not return to its darkest days despite war raging in Ukraine.

But for his parting thought he decided to ad-lib. For Gods sake, this man cannot remain in power, he said, speaking of the architect of Ukraine's misery - Russian president Vladimir Putin. His message was met with applause from the Poles and Ukrainians in the audience, but back at home in Washington mouths dropped.

Within minutes, the White House put out a corrective - no, the US wasnt seeking regime change in Moscow. Mr Biden had somehow been mistaken.

Read US Correspondent Josie Ensor's full report here

07:30 AM

'So many children have died, so many women'

Western intelligence officials say Russian forces now rely on indiscriminate bombardments rather than risking large-scale ground operations, a tactic that could limit Russian military casualties but would harm more civilians.

90-year-old Olha Moliboha escaped from the northern city of Chernihiv just before Russia destroyed a bridge linking it to Kyiv, preventing further evacuations or humanitarian supplies.

"They attacked and bombed us. They destroyed everything in our city," Ms Moliboha, now in Poland, said tearfully from a wheelchair, with her dog on her knees.

"So many children have died, so many women.

"All our houses are destroyed, they are not there anymore. There is nowhere to live."

07:29 AM

France plans Mariupol evacuation

French forces could be dispatched to Ukraine as Emmanuel Macron plans an evacuation mission to save up to 100,000 Ukrainians from the besieged port city of Mariupol.

The French president is expected to talk to Vladimir Putin to convince the Kremlin to allow the evacuation to take place.

The news came as the mayor of Mariupol said that Russian troops had abducted at least 15,000 people and forcibly moved them to Kremlin-controlled territory.

Read the full story here.

07:29 AM

Today's top stories
The day after President Joe Biden's fiery remarks, which some said were tantamount to calling for regime change in Russia, several U.S. officials took to the Sunday morning news shows to walk back those controversial remarks. Biden had said Russian President Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power" during a fiery speech from Poland. But Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated Sunday that the U.S. was not pursuing "a strategy of regime change" in Moscow.

The fallout from the comments, which prompted a swift response from the Kremlin, overshadowed Biden's efforts to frame Russia's war in Ukraine as the battle of a generation and to rally the world's support behind the embattled democracy.

While NATO countries have backed Kyiv and sought to punish Moscow with sanctions, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy again urged NATO to send more planes, tanks and weapons to support his country's dogged resistance.

Having struggled to make progress in the first month of the war, Moscow's forces appeared to be focusing on an effort to secure control of eastern Ukraine while battling Ukrainian counterattacks.

See full coverage here.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks to the leaders of the European Council during their summit in Brussels from Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, March 24, 2022. Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine wants to live freely, not according to "other people's sick fantasies."

Zelenskyy did not directly name President Vladimir Putin in his address on the Russian invasion.

The Ukrainian president vowed that his troops would continue to respond to the Russian assault with "hatred and contempt."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday said his country wants to live freely, not according to "other people's sick fantasies."

"Ukraine is united in its desire to live freely, to live independently, and for the sake of its own dreams, not other people's sick fantasies," Zelenskyy said in his Sunday address.

The jab did not directly name Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has continued his brutal assault on Ukraine. President Joe Biden urged on Saturday that Putin "cannot remain in power," though the White House and the US Secretary of State later walked the comment back, saying Biden was not calling for a regime change.

Zelenskyy on Sunday warned that Ukrainian troops would continue to resist the invasion. Ukrainian military intelligence found that Russia plans to split Ukraine into two parts, like a "North and South Korea in Ukraine."

"The answer to Russian troops will be one  hatred and contempt," Zelenskyy said. "Everyone in Ukraine has united and has been devoting all their energy to the defense of our state for more than a month already."

He went on to detail a litany of abuses and crimes Russia has inflicted during its invasion.

"But now you, the Russian occupiers, are creating this problem," Zelenskyy said. "With these explosions and killings. With your crimes. You are deporting our people. You are bullying our teachers, forcing them to repeat everything after your propagandists. You are taking our mayors and Ukrainian activists hostage."

Zelenskyy also urged Western allies to supply more weapons for the fight, asking if the West was scared of Russia in "ping-pong" discussions about providing assistance to Ukraine.

Story continues

He also admonished Russian propaganda, saying the "occupiers committed another crime against history" and "historical justice." Russia has claimed it is the victim of "cancel culture," telling its citizens that the invasion is merely a "special military operation" that is going "according to plan." Russia has also cracked down on journalists reporting on the war there, forcing many Western media outlets to leave the country or suspend their broadcasts.

"But we are working against lies all over the world. Let Russia know that the truth will not remain silent. And let every nation in the world feel the depth of Russia's injustice against Ukraine. Against everything that keeps the world within morality and humanity," Zelenskyy said on Sunday.

"The occupiers committed another crime against history. Against historical justice," he added.

Read the original article on Business Insider
STORY: Ukrainian Ambassador to Ankara Vasly Bodnar said up to 2,000 children could be brought to Turkey in the coming weeks.

"I hope that children can forget the events they witnessed there and on the way here and find peace," he told reporters, according to his official translator.

More than 10 million Ukrainians have fled the war, about half of them children, according to UNICEF, with the largest refugee inflows into Poland, Romania, Moldova and Hungary.
As Ukrainian forces fight on the front lines to halt Russia's military advance, another battle is taking place in Chinese cyberspace.

Ukrainians who can speak Mandarin are taking to Chinese social media platforms in an effort to provide information about the Russian invasion and win public support in China.

They are translating the latest developments in the war into Chinese, including information on casualties and analysis, and posting it on their accounts on popular social media networks like WeChat and Weibo.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

Roman Khivrenko, 32, said the information available in China - on social media platforms and in state media - was heavily influenced by Russia.

"We want to break down the wall of propaganda and show Chinese people what's going on in fact," said Khivrenko, who studied international relations at Renmin University of China in Beijing.

Roman Khivrenko has been posting updates on the situation in Ukraine to his Chinese social media accounts. Photo: WeChat alt=Roman Khivrenko has been posting updates on the situation in Ukraine to his Chinese social media accounts. Photo: WeChat>

China has refused to condemn Russia's actions in Ukraine, or to call it an invasion - a line closely followed by Chinese state media outlets.

Beijing has also touted humanitarian aid and called for a diplomatic solution to the crisis, but has resisted pressure to use its leverage with close ally Moscow to push for an end to the war. And there is growing suspicion in the West that Beijing could help Moscow to get around sanctions and provide Russia with military equipment.

Ukrainian internet celebrity "Masha" is among those to join the information war on Chinese social media.

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She has been posting videos on the situation in her hometown, Kostiantynivka, in the eastern region of Donetsk, where she joined her parents after leaving Kyiv.

"In my hometown, people need to hide in underground shelters when the air-raid sirens go off," Masha says in fluent Chinese in one video posted to Weibo, TikTok and Xigua Video.

"Not enough bread, all the banks have run out of cash ... but people can't buy food without cash. It looks like the place is quietly dying," she says.

Masha's "war life" videos have racked up more than 1 million views. Photo: YouTube alt=Masha's "war life" videos have racked up more than 1 million views. Photo: YouTube>

Masha studied Chinese language and literature at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and spent nine months studying in China. Her "war life" videos have racked up more than 1 million views, and she now has over 600,000 followers.

Author, musician and artist Ivan Semasiuk, 42, is meanwhile contributing articles and documentaries - posted on social media platforms around the world in Chinese and other languages - in an effort to explain the histories of Ukraine and Russia.

According to analysts, Russia's attack has strengthened Ukraine's national identity, and prompted people to defend their country in different ways.

"The Russian invasion has had this overwhelming effect of consolidating the national identity of Ukrainians, it has stirred patriotism among the younger generations," said Eagle Yin, a research fellow at the China Foundation for International and Strategic Studies in Beijing.

That view was echoed by Hong Kong-based defence analyst Liang Guoliang, who said Russian President Vladimir Putin had underestimated the Ukrainian resistance, driven by national identity.

For Ukrainians like Khivrenko, part of that resistance is the fight against propaganda. He said they did not expect anything from Chinese people, but he hoped Beijing would "not support Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine".

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright  2022 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2022. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
A trio of New York nurses on vacation in Texas helped save the life of a man wounded during a late night shooting, Houston police told news outlets.

Around 3:30 a.m. on March 27, someone opened fire inside a packed hookah lounge on the citys west side, KTRK reported.

So many people ran for the exits at once that security wasnt able to see the shooter, the outlet reported. At least one person was hit, the DJ.

While first responders were heading to the scene, three New York nurses had already jumped into action, providing life-saving aid to the DJ, police told KHOU.

He was shot in the stomach, according to the TV station. Police said they arent sure if he was the intended target.

Its also unclear what led to the shooting, KPRC reported. Bouncers were trying to control a large crowd gathered outside the lounge at the time.

The DJ, whose name was not released, was taken to a hospital for treatment and he is expected to survive, the outlet reported.

Husband stabs wife to death in front of 13-year-old daughter, Texas cops say

Gunfire erupts at 16th birthday party, killing 1 teen and wounding 3, Texas cops say

Man gunned down after he refused to hand over his keys to carjackers, Texas cops say

18-year-old suspected of killing man at McDonalds is shot days later by Texas police
Yahoo Sports analyst and former UNC Tar Heel KJ Smith takes you through 2 Villanovas 50-44 win over 5 Houston in the Elite 8 to book a ticket to the programs 7th Final Four.

Video Transcript

KJ SMITH: What's up, everybody? It's KJ Smith, sports analyst for Yahoo Sports. And the Villanova Wildcats beat the Houston Cougars 55 to 44, and again, where the Wildcats never trailed. The Wildcats are back to The Final Four for the third time in seven years led by Jermaine Samuels, 16 points.

The real story here is Villanova's defense. The Wildcats seem to have the 3-point line and a choke hold because Houston Cougars shot just 5%. Yes, one for 20 from the line. The Cougars were led by Taze Morris, 15 points, but it just wasn't enough to defeat the Wildcats.

It's also important to note that coming into this game, the Houston Cougars were 6 and 0 in Elite Eight games. But this loss now makes their record 6 and 1. As a player, I've seen it firsthand competing against Jay Wright. He's an extreme motivator and coaches his teams like a drill Sergeant.

And it translates to the floor because you see it in his players like Collin Gillespie, Justin Moore, and Jermaine Samuels. Villanova will be the first team to punch their ticket to the Final Four and will play Kansas or Miami. Once again, I'm KJ Smith, and you're locked in with Yahoo Sports.
Sara Ringle

WOOSTER - When Sara Ringle, on behalf of a moms group she started, dropped off a bereavement basket to Wooster Community Hospital in 2007, she thought it was a one-time thing. It was the groups October project.

But six weeks later, the hospital called her asking if she could deliver another basket. This time, she brought two. From that single act of kindness nearly 15 years ago has emerged Forget-Me-Not Baskets, a nonprofit organization looking to help ease the grief of bereaving parents who experience loss during pregnancy, at birth or soon after.

Because of the work Ringle and her team do to help families suffering loss, Forget-Me-Not Baskets is this years Wooster Area Chamber of Commerce's WorthyWorks Award recipient.

While we wish no family has to experience loss, we are extremely fortunate to have Forget-Me-Not Baskets offering heartfelt support in times of grief. The Chamber is grateful for the comfort and support Forget-Me-Not Baskets provides to citizens and we are delighted to recognize them as the 2022 WorthyWorks Award recipient, said Samira Zimmerly, president of the Wooster Chamber.

Forget-Me-Not Baskets program started to give back to the community

People are surprised to learn that Ringle never suffered a loss. The genesis for the Forget-Me-Not Baskets program was just a way for the moms group to give back to the community.

And Ringle is surprised her nonprofit was recognized. We were just speechless, she said. Were just doing our little part in the world, not doing anything for recognition. But, to be acknowledged and recognized by the Chamber and the community was huge and a blessing. For a long time, nobody knew what Forget-Me-Not Baskets were. It was hard to get sponsorships early on.

Thats no longer the case. Today, the nonprofit organization has donated more than 6,300 baskets to hospitals, emergency rooms, obstetrics offices, surgery centers, Amish birthing centers and other facilities. Most of the baskets are donated throughout Northeast Ohio, but the groups reach has expanded to Kentucky, Tennessee, New Hampshire and California. Others have donated remembrance items through the nonprofits online bereavement store.

Story continues

Forget-Me-Not Baskets offers a variety of bags of items for mothers, fathers

The nonprofit offers a bag of items for those who suffer an early loss/miscarriage, a basket for mothers who suffer a late loss, and a bag for fathers. Everything selected has been chosen to provide comfort, peace and remembrance.

Whenever the bags and baskets are donated, they are always donated in bulk to hospitals and other facilities. Because of medical privacy laws, Ringle said they have no idea who receives the baskets. Eventually, they started including a card if families wanted to stay connected.

Thinking about how it all started, Ringle said the moms group stumbled upon an unmet need. I cannot give myself a lot of credit," Rinble said. "It was an act of kindness that turned into a ministry.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Forget-Me-Not Baskets recognized by Wooster Chamber
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks from Kyiv, Ukraine





Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday called on NATO allies to provide planes and tanks to Kyiv as it defends itself from Russia's invasion, while also asking if members of the military alliance are afraid of Moscow.

Zelensky, in remarks after President Biden met with senior Ukrainian officials in Poland the day before, denounced the West for its "ping-pong about who and how should hand over jets and other defensive weapons to us," The Associated Press reported.

"I've talked to the defenders of Mariupol today. I'm in constant contact with them. Their determination, heroism and firmness are astonishing," Zelensky said in a video address, according to the AP, mentioning the seized Ukrainian city.

"If only those who have been thinking for 31 days on how to hand over dozens of jets and tanks had 1 percent of their courage," he added.

Western allies have provided Ukraine with anti-tank missiles, anti-aircraft missiles, small arms and protective equipment, Reuters noted, but the military aid has not included fighter jets, which Kyiv has requested on a number of occasions. Earlier this month, the Pentagon said Poland's proposal to transfer MiG-29 fighter jets to a U.S. air base in Germany so they could be sent to Ukraine was not "tenable."

Zelensky, during his video remarks on Sunday, also asked who is responsible for the Euro-Atlantic community, before questioning if the West is afraid of Russia.

"So, who is in charge of the Euro-Atlantic community? Is it still Moscow, thanks to its scare tactics?" Zelensky said, according to the AP. "Our partners must step up their aid to Ukraine."

Russia's invasion of Ukraine entered its second month last week. The offensive began in late February after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a military operation in Ukraine.

The invasion, however, has stalled in a number of areas because of staunch opposition from Ukrainian forces.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy makes a speech on evaluation the 22nd day of the Russia-Ukraine war during virtually addressing in Kyiv, Ukraine on March 17, 2022. Photo by Ukrainian Presidency / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

President Zelenskyy asked if the West was scared of Russia amid "ping-pong" talks about weapon supply.

Zelenskyy urged West to have one percent of the courage that Ukraine forces defending Mariupol have.

He called on the US and the EU to provide fighter planes and tanks to Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked Western nations on Saturday if they were scared of Russia following "ping-pong" talks about providing weapons to Ukraine.

US President Joe Biden traveled to Poland last week to talk about international support for Ukraine with world leaders amid the war. On Saturday, Biden met with Ukraine officials to discuss assistance through weapon supply, according to Zelenskyy.

"So who runs the Euro-Atlantic community? Is it still Moscow because of intimidation?" Zelenskyy said in a late-night speech.

He said he was grateful for the Ukrainian forces defending the besieged city Mariupol and urged Western partners who have been thinking about supplying Ukraine with planes and tanks to have at least "a percentage of their courage."

Zelenskyy said in the speech that "ping-pong" discussions on which country should supply Ukraine fighter jets and other weapons were still ongoing.

"Ukraine cannot shoot down Russian missiles using shotguns, machine guns," Zelenskyy said, adding that the country has plentiful supplies.

The US and the EU know that it's "impossible" to release Mariupol, in southern Ukraine, without a sufficient number of tanks and aircraft, Zelenskyy said.

"It is impossible to unblock Mariupol without a sufficient number of tanks, other armored vehicles, and, of course, aircraft. All defenders of Ukraine know that. All defenders of Mariupol know that. Thousands of people know that - citizens, civilians who are dying there in the blockade.

"This should be known as soon as possible by as many people on earth as possible so that everyone understands who and why was simply afraid to prevent this tragedy. Afraid to simply make a decision," Zelenskyy said.

Story continues

His speech came after several rockets hit the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Saturday  just 45 miles away from Poland  during Biden's visit in Warsaw.

"For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power," Biden said of Putin at the end of his speech from the Royal Castle in Warsaw.

The White House has since walked back the comments, saying that Biden's remarks were not calling for regime change in Russia.

Read the original article on Business Insider
WESTLAKE  Officials at Booker T. Washington National Monument are asking the public for help in unraveling one of its biggest mysteries.

Hidden away in a section of the park just off its Jack O Lantern Trail rests a cemetery that predates much of the known history of the former plantation where Booker T. Washington was born a slave and later freed. The cemetery has few markings to provide context to who was buried there or when they were buried.

Its definitely one of the biggest mysteries at the park, said Tim Sims, senior park ranger.

Archaeologist with New South Associates recently began taking a deeper look into the cemetery, commonly referred to as the Sparks Cemetery named after a person who once lived nearby. Their recently completed work provided a bit more understanding about the cemetery, but there are still few clues about who may be buried there.

This is the most focused project to figure out who is interred at the Sparks Cemetery, Sims said.

There is little information to go on for researchers. The cemetery is thought to have graves dating between the early to late 1800s.

Only one headstone has a marking that can be read. The headstone, barely legible, was thought to be marked with SID in one area and here in another among other writing.

Sims said the archaeologists believe the SID is actually something closer to S and D which could point to early owner of the property Jesse Dillon Sr., who purchased the property in 1786 based on records. The D could stand for Dillon.

The Dillon family sold the property to Thomas Burroughs in 1833. The family later established the Burroughs estate in 1850. Enslaved Blacks on the property included Booker T. Washington, his mother and his siblings.

Sims said another likely scenario is that the cemetery could be where enslaved people at the Burroughs estate were buried. The Burroughs family cemetery is in another section of the park.

There is documentation that at least one enslaved person died at the estate. The records dont provide details of where the person was buried, Sims said.

There is also a possibility that the cemetery could be where both enslaved and some early settlers such as the Dillon family were buried. He said separating cemeteries based on race was not something that was done until around the time of the Civil War.

Before that time, it wasnt uncommon for whites and Blacks to be buried in the same cemetery, Sims said.

Due to the research from archaeologists, the number of known graves at the cemetery has also expanded. Devices using electric resistivity and ground-penetrating radar were used to take a closer look at the site without disturbing the graves.

Park staff originally believed there were only 12 to 13 graves at the cemetery based on markings above ground. Based on the recent research, they believe the number of graves is likely closer to 41.

Sims said the graves extend outside of the current fencing at the cemetery. Plans are already underway to expand the fencing to include the newly discovered graves, he said.

While some new details have come to light, there is still a mystery of who resides in the graves. In an effort to finally answer those questions, New South Associates and park staff are reaching out to the public for help.

Sims said there could be some family history about the cemetery passed down from relatives who are buried there. There could also be documents of the cemetery stored away in old Bibles passed down from generation to generation.

Some of the Black families who have lived near the cemetery include the Brown, Holland, Divers, Burroughs, Ferguson, Taylor, Green, Harris, English, Edwards, Starkey, Swain, Saunders, Childress and Dudley families. Sims said the names of the families were found looking through property deeds, slave records and federal census records.

After the Dillons and Burroughs, a man named Sparks, which the cemetery is named after, lived in the area. The property was eventually sold to John D. and Martha Robertson in 1893. Sidney Phillips purchased the property in 1945 and it was turned into the Booker T. Washington Birthplace Memorial. It became a national monument in 1956.

People with information on those possibly buried in the Sparks Cemetery are asked to contact Velma Fann, historian, at New South Associates at 770-498-4155, x126 or vfann@newsouthassoc.com.
Japan is planning to ban exports of luxury cars to Russia as early as next week as part of its expanded sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, government officials said Friday.

Japan has been stepping up pressure against Russia with the United States and European countries as the war in Ukraine drags on despite a global outcry.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said at a Group of Seven industrialized nations' meeting on Thursday that more Russian individuals and entities will be added to its sanctions list and that exports of luxury goods will be banned.

The planned export ban is also expected to cover jewelry and artworks, but details of the measure will be decided by considering steps taken by the United States and members of the European Union, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Japan's fresh export ban is aimed at adding pressure on oligarchs who have been supporting Russian President Vladimir Putin financially.

Cars make up a large portion of Russia-bound shipments from Japan, which totaled 627.8 billion yen ($5.2 billion) in 2020, according to government data.
The Japanese entertainment industry may finally be having its #MeToo moment as a director and actor face sexual assault allegations from seven actresses, including claims they worked together in targeting young women.

The film Honeymoon (Mitsugetsu) had been due to hit screens today. But the sight of the director Hideo Sakaki, 51, promoting a film that deals with sexual abuse was apparently too much to take for women in the industry who allege they have been coerced into sex by him.

Four women came forward and spoke of their ordeals to Shukan Bunshun, a weekly magazine known for breaking a steady stream of celebrity and political stories. The magazine ran an article March 9 detailing the allegations dating back as far as 2011, and the release of Honeymoon was put on hold.

The women have yet to be named and it is unclear whether any legal action will be taken. Sakaki admitted to having sex with three of the women, claiming it was consensual, and denied having any kind of relationship with the fourth.

Since then, three more have made similar allegations against actor Houka Kinoshita, 58, a close friend of Sakakis who has appeared in seven of his films and acted with him in others. Some of the women allege the two collaborated in sexual coercion, introducing young women looking for a break in the industry to each other. Some said they were abused by both of the men.

One of the women says Kinoshita assaulted her at an acting workshop and then forced her into sex afterward. ...continue reading
Every homeowner knows that immediate neighbors have a profound impact on ones quality of life. General Grenville Dodge  builder of the 1869 Historic National Landmark home, now a museum  understood this well. Thats what motivated Dodge to give the lot just south of the Dodge House to the Beresheim family to build their new and modern 1899 home.

Today, the Beresheim House serves as an orientation center for the Dodge House Museum experience. It also showcases an amazing a gift shop, historic displays and provides space for administrative offices.

All guests begin their tour of the Historic General Dodge House at the Beresheim House. (The Dodge House campus is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Reservations are not required with the exception of large groups.)

While many stately homes in Council Bluffs have been torn down in the name of progress, the Beresheim House stands alongside the Dodge House like an old friend. More than neighbors, the Beresheims were friends to the Dodges. Both John Beresheim and his son, August, held multiple roles at the Council Bluffs Savings Bank (founded by the Dodge Family), including the role of bank president.

John Beresheim was born a world away in 1830 near the town of Pfalz, Germany. He immigrated to the United States in 1853 at the young age of 23. He sensed opportunity out west and settled in Council Bluffs in 1856. Beresheim provided for his family by engaging in general merchandising in partnership with a fellow German immigrant. In 1870, he was employed by the Pacific National Bank and later that year, when Pacific National was liquidated, Beresheim worked under Nathan Dodge. (Dodges younger brother whose descendants manage NP Dodge Real Estate today.) When Nathan Dodge retired, John Beresheim, and later, his son, August, served as bank president.

Both John and his son, August, were remembered as competent in management, honest and direct.

The Beresheims were close to the Dodge family in life, work and death. The graves of the Beresheim family rest adjacent to the Dodge Family crypt in Walnut Cemetery.
Rep. Jeff Fortenberry will resign from Congress effective Thursday, he said in a letter to constituents and his colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives on Saturday.

The decision comes two days after Fortenberry, 61, was convicted by a federal jury of concealing conduit campaign contributions and two counts of lying to federal agents.

It was the first trial of a sitting congressman since Rep. Jim Traficant, D-Ohio, was convicted of bribery and other felony charges in 2002.

Fortenberry will face up to five years in prison on each count when he is sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. on June 28.

The resignation of the 17-year representative of Nebraska's 1st Congressional District, a former Lincoln City Councilman who eight times won re-election to Congress gaining anywhere from 58% to 71% of the vote, appeared to bring a sudden end to a lifelong political career.

Fortenberry's indictment in October drew a serious Republican primary challenge from state Sen. Mike Flood, a former speaker of the Nebraska Legislature who has since won the endorsements of Ricketts and former Gov. Dave Heineman.

The winner of the GOP primary is likely to face state Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks, a Democrat from Lincoln, but Nebraska's 1st Congressional District is heavily Republican and hasn't been competitive in decades.

Fortenberry said his team would appeal the case.

Fortenberry announced his resignation in an email Saturday afternoon titled "My Last Fort Report," referencing the title of his weekly column.

"Due to the difficulties of my current circumstances, I can no longer serve you effectively," Fortenberry wrote. "I will resign from Congress shortly."

An attached letter from Fortenberry to his colleagues in Congress, which he began with a poem written on the wall of Mother Teresa's children's home in Calcutta, indicates he will resign March 31.

After the jury's verdict, which came after about two hours of deliberation, Fortenberry came under fire from other Republicans, including Gov. Pete Ricketts and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, who on Friday called on him to resign.

Under Nebraska law, a special election will occur within 90 days to fill Fortenberry's seat, even as the May 10 primary will narrow the field for the general election in November.

According to state statute, the political parties polling at least 5% in the previous election may select a candidate for the Congressional special election.

That would mean the state GOP and Democratic parties would forward one nominee for the special election, as Fortenberry (59.5%) and Democrat Kate Bolz (37.7%) were the only ones to reach the 5% threshold in the 2020 race.

Other candidates who gather enough signatures may also appear on the ballot without their party affiliation listed.

The special election would fill the seat through January 2023, when the winner of this year's general election would assume office.

It appears Fortenberry's name will still appear on the Republican ballot for the May 10 primary.

Nebraska law requires the Secretary of State to transmit the candidates, offices and issues that will appear on the ballot to all county election officials at least 50 days before any statewide primary. The names that will appear on the primary ballot were certified last week.

In a statement on Saturday afternoon, Pansing Brooks said Fortenberry's resignation "opens the door for a new approach to serving" the congressional district.

"I am ready and able to meet that challenge and lead with integrity," she said.

In his letter to colleagues, Fortenberry wrote that it was a pleasure to call many of them friends.

But a stanza of the poem he included, "Do It Anyway," seemed to sum up his political fortunes.

"What you spend years building,

"someone could destroy overnight.

"Build anyway."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This is a developing story. Stay with JournalStar.com for updates.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7120 or cdunker@journalstar.com. On Twitter @ChrisDunkerLJS
The Board of Directors of the World Bank approved Saturday a $180 million loan to Morocco to finance investment projects in resilient and sustainable agriculture in the Kingdom.

The loan, allocated to the Resilient and Sustainable Water Management in Agriculture (RESWAG) project, aims to strengthen the governance of water resources in the agricultural sector, improve the quality of irrigation services and expand farmers access to technical advice in this area, said the WB in a press release.

Climate change and population growth are putting increased pressure on water and land resources in Morocco, said the press release, adding that the Kingdom is experiencing water shortages due to the lack of rainfall.

Agriculture is at the heart of Moroccos economic and social ambitions and this project financing will support this vital sector, in alignment with the countrys Green Generation strategy, the National Water Plan, and the New Development Model, WB Country Director for the Maghreb and Malta, Jesko Hentschel, was quoted as saying in the press release.

Besides water management, and providing climate-smart irrigation and drainage services, the WB program will connect over 23,500 farmers with advisory services geared towards optimizing investments, enhancing climate resilience, and improving water productivity, in order to refine and readjust policies with a view to taking climate issues into account, as explained by Remi Trier, senior specialist in water resources management and co-leader of the project.

It is to be recalled that World Bank Group President David Malpass visited Casablanca and Rabat for a two-day visit on March 22.
Moroccos Casablanca Finance City topped the continental ranking in the financial centres index, holding the 54th spot globally out of 119, according to a recent report released this March by Long Finance & Financial Centre Futures.

Casablanca continues to be the leading African financial centre, while Cape Town and Johannesburg continue to improve their ranking to challenge for the leading African position, said the report.

In the Middle East and Africa region, Dubai and Abu Dhabi take first and second places, both improving in the ranking slightly, as they did in GFCI 30, followed by Casablanca in 3rd position.

Overall, the majority of centres in the region fell in the rankings.

New York retained its first place in this new financial index, while London, in the second place, fell back in the ratings to give New York a clear lead, said the report.

Hong Kong ranked 3rd, Shanghai 4th, and Los Angeles 5th while Shenzhen returned to the top ten in the index, replacing Paris, which fell to 11th place.

Meanwhile, Singapore and San Francisco moved out of the top five places in GFCI 31.

The ratings of most of the leading centres were relatively stable, only changing by a few points, the report said.

The report introduced surveys, including a questionnaire, to give a view as to where respondents would like to work if they needed to live and work in a different city.

Casablanca ranked in the 19th position, with New York leading the ranking as the most chosen destination to work and live in, ahead of London 2nd.

The GFCI provides ratings for financial centres using a factor assessment model. The process involves taking two sets of ratings  one from survey respondents and one generated by a statistical model  and combining them into a single ranking, explained the report.

GFCI 31 is published by the Z/Yen Partners in collaboration with the China Development Institute. For the last 16 years the GFCI has published two reports a year, every March and September, charting the progress of the worlds leading financial centres.

GFCI 31 provides evaluations of future competitiveness and rankings for 119 financial centres around the world. The GFCI serves as a valuable reference for policy and investment decision-makers.

The GFCI is compiled using 150 instrumental factors. These quantitative measures are provided by third parties including the World Bank, the Economist Intelligence Unit, the OECD and the United Nations.

The instrumental factors are combined with financial centre assessments provided by respondents to the GFCI online questionnaire. GFCI 31 uses 74,982 assessments from 11,934 respondents.
The goats won most of the rounds at the Lincoln County Ag Societys fundraiser event on Saturday at the fairgrounds.

Participants lined up to try their hand at roping goats and everyone appeared to have a great time. The North Platte Jaycees also hosted casino night with gaming tables and card games, all for the purpose of raising money for the new Linco Ag and Education Center that was announced last fall.

Brent Roggow, president of the Ag Society board, said it was one of the first events to raise funds for the project.

Weve been planning this event for a couple of months, Roggow said. We came up with the idea of the goat roping for something a little different.

He said the board discussed what type of event to do, and rather than a formal gala or dinner, they stayed true to their roots.

We said, you know what, were an ag group, Roggow said. Lets have it out in the beef barn and well cater in some food.

The goat roping competitors looked like they were having fun and the crowd enjoyed the event as well.

Were just trying to get people interested in the building, Roggow said. We are pursuing and want to get it done. We just need the community support to get the ball rolling.

Roggow said donations can be broken up into monthly or yearly amounts.

Twenty (dollars) or $25 a month, it adds up, Roggow said.

The Ag Society website is currently not functioning, but folks who want to donate toward the building can call the office at 308-534-8191 until the website is repaired.
Writer Beer & Society

There is nothing that cannot be discussed and worked out over a beer. Join me as I explore local beer, breweries and how they can civilize us.
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Established in 2012, the Provost Award for Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research mentoring recognizes faculty who demonstrate a strong commitment to undergraduate research and outstanding services to students, and whose efforts support Auburn students interested in careers in research and creative work.

Dr. Kathryn M. Floyd, associate professor of art history in the College of Liberal Arts, has served on Auburns faculty for 11 years. She is recognized for her research focused on the history of art in 20th century Germanyparticularly the history and historiography of art exhibitions and their mediation in catalogues, installation photographs and filmand her mentorship to undergraduate researchers. Floyd holds a bachelors degree in art history and anthropology from Vanderbilt University, a masters of art history from the University of Georgia and a doctorate in art history from the University of Iowa. Before coming to Auburn in 2008, Floyd worked at the International Dada Archive at the University of Iowa Libraries and served as a visiting assistant professor of art history at Skidmore College. Her teaching at Auburn University has been recognized with an SGA Outstanding Faculty Member Award (2011) and a College of Liberal Arts Teaching Excellence Award (2017). Floyd believes in the importance of gaining real-world experience in learning and teaches her students the need for flexible thinking, the ability to adapt and recover, and the courage to fail productively when circumstances don't go as planned.
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Protection of the American public against infectious diseases and developing vaccines to counteract biological threats and cure the spread of contagious pathogens is not only a medical concern, but also one of national security significance. Biodefense is such a priority in the United States that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has multiple agencies involved in this mission.

At the top of the list is the construction, opening and staffing of the nations forthcoming National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) and training of the scientists and veterinary medical officers who will operate it.

Perhaps nowhere is that training presence stronger than at the Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine, where two of its graduate student researchers and their faculty mentors are participating in the NBAF Scientist Training Program (NSTP), sponsored by the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), and the related Veterinary Medical Officer (VMO) training program, sponsored by the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS). Both programs are designed to build the NBAF workforce.

Two graduate trainees and their Auburn faculty mentors are working with subject matter experts affiliated with APHIS, through the foreign animal disease and diagnostic laboratory, the ARS, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance (CEIRS).

Virginia Aida, a third-year veterinary student, was awarded an NSTP fellowship in 2018. The Huntsville native came to Auburn after earning a bachelor's degree in biology with a minor in chemistry and a Master of Science in neuroscience from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She has since been as an NSTP fellow in a dual D.V.M./Ph.D. degree program. Aida is mentored in research by Dr. Constantinos Kyriakis, an assistant professor in the Department of Pathobiology, whose Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance (CEIRS) NIH-funded research focuses on investigating immune responses and novel vaccine platforms against influenza A viruses in swine.

Dr. Shari Kennedy, a veterinary resident in large animal internal medicine who completed her DVM degree at Kansas State University, was supported by the ARS for her research by Dr. Thomas Passler, an associate professor in the Department of Clinical Sciences, whose research focuses on the infectious pathogen Bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV). Kennedy is pursuing the Ph.D. degree as she completes her residency.

Both Aida and Kennedy use the porcine model in their research.

We use pigs in our research because they are a natural host of influenza and they have a very similar pathogenesis and immune response to infection with humans, said Aidas faculty mentor, Dr. Kyriakis.

As part of one of the CEIRS research projects, Kyriakis collaborates in a novel vaccine development study underway at the University of Georgia.

We study the efficacy of a new generation vaccine that could offer protection against several strains of influenza, Kyriakis said. Unlike measles virus, which remains fairly stable and once we are vaccinated as kids we are protected for life, influenza viruses have multiple strains, which change significantly over time. This is why we need to frequently replace our vaccine strains and get the flu shot every single year. Vaccines that provide long-lasting and broad protection must be developed against ever-changing influenza virus. Here at Auburn, Virginia is testing these vaccines.

Under the umbrella of the Animal Health Research Program at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Kennedy was already involved in research that the USDA was interested in before she was awarded support through the USDA-ARS VMO program.

BVD is a significant medical infection among livestock. It is highly contagious among various livestock species and is transmitted a number of ways. The USDA is interested in the development of vaccines that can control this pathogen.

What we have learned is that some pigs infected either at birth or later with BVD are able to reproduce an immunity or cure, Dr. Passler said. We think this is due to a mutation of the virus that develops in the pigs immune system. Shari is doing research to shed light on how this occurs.

Aida and Kennedy are the first Auburn participants to be awarded USDA NSTP and ARS support as part of the NBAF workforce development effort. The opportunity was cultivated in part through the work of Dr. Frank Skip Bartol, associate dean of research and graduate studies in the College of Veterinary Medicine.

The NSTP fellowship program was established to build the workforce of doctoral-level scientists required to support the NBAF mission, and the ARS-VMO program evolved to ensure that state-of-the-art clinical expertise would be available to support this mission said Bartol Having two of our students supported by these programs speaks very highly of the quality and caliber of our students, our faculty and our research programs here at the College of Veterinary Medicine.

Upon completion of her five-year NSTP fellowship, Aida will begin her career as a scientist through a seven-year career appointment with the USDA APHIS in its foreign animal disease diagnostic laboratory at the new NBAF in Manhattan, Kansas.

While Kennedys participation through the USDA-ARS program does not contain the same service commitment, she says she also hopes to return to her home state and continue her career as a clinician-scientist at the NBAF facility there.

The mission of APHIS is to mitigate the influx and spread of foreign and serious plant and animal diseases into the United States. Its foreign animal disease diagnostic laboratory studies these diseases in highly bio-secure conditions. One of the primary goals is to test and validate vaccines to combat and treat those diseases in addition to serving as a national diagnostic laboratory.

The new NBAF is under construction on the Kansas State University campus in Manhattan, Kansas. The $1.25 billion facility includes a biosafety level-4 laboratory and will replace the aging Plum Island Animal Disease Center in New York. The NBAF is expected to be operational by 2022-2023.
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Professions are constantly evolving, technologies are rapidly changing, and our environment is continually shifting. To meet the demands of students seeking to have careers in the fields of forestry and wildlife conservation and management, Auburn Universitys School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences has hired three faculty members, each bringing a unique set of skills and expertise to mentor and train students.

Dunnings Research on Protected Resource Areas Suggests Local Authority is Best

After years of study and field work focused on the management of protected natural resource areas, Dr. Kelly Dunning says that giving natural resource management and decision-making authority to the local community may be the best practice.

Dunning, who joined the faculty last fall as an assistant professor, comes to Auburn with more than 10 years of field and academic experience. Dunning, who holds advanced degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Oxford University, is regarded as an expert in natural resource management and policy.

I am interested in how fishermen, hunters and other sportsmen enact environmental policy change, Dunning said. I also am interested in how sportsmen engage in collective behavior to conserve public lands; how communities adapt to ecological changes both human and man-made; and how ecosystem services, or the benefits to human well-being created by nature, are impacted by environmental change.

Before coming to Auburn, Dunning directed the Coastal Training Program at the University of Texas at Austins Marine Science Institute and the Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve. Her field work involves primarily aquatic MPAs (Marine Protected Areas), and she has spent time working in Africas Congo region rain forests, as well as studying the coral reef management programs in Malaysia and Indonesia.

In Malaysia, the highest levels of the government regulate national park resourcesjust as in the U.S.but in Indonesia, power has been given to the local community to make major management decisions, Dunning said.

Dunning teaches conservation planning in the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences.

Spaceborne Remote Sensing Improves Forest Management Data-Gathering Capabilities

Using satellite technology to study the forest may sound a bit like science fiction, but Dr. Lana Narine is doing just that and says adding the capabilities of spaceborne technology in this effort greatly enhances forest management capabilities.

Narine joined the faculty as an assistant professor in the fall. She comes to Auburn from Texas A&M University, where she earned her Ph.D. degree in ecosystem science and management. Before returning to work on her doctorate, Narine worked for a time in the private sector as a geographic information systems (GIS) analyst in Houston.

Narines dissertation, Spaceborne Lidar for Estimating Forest Biophysical Parameters, involved the development of approaches for utilizing data from the Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) for estimating forest attributes. Light detection and ranging (lidar) systems provide data about the three-dimensional structure of forests, which can be analyzed to estimate forest parameters that are indicative of forest health and functioning, Narine said. Data from lidar sensors on aerial and spaceborne platforms offer an incredible opportunity to assess forest resources over large extents, including areas traditionally inaccessible or difficult to access via ground inventories.

Narine became interested in geospatial technology as a graduate student at the University of Missouri, Columbia, where she earned bachelors and master's degrees in forestry and a graduate GIS certificate. She later went on to Texas A&M, where she conducted research focused on remote sensing of vegetation structure.

At Auburn, she is teaching GIS applications in natural resources and applications in environmental informatics.

Genomics Research is Helping Environmentalists Learn About Effects of Climate Change

Climate change is a topic at the forefront among environmentalist and conservation groups, and Dr. Janna Willoughby conducts research that is showing how changes in the genetic makeup of species can lead to a better understanding of wildlife population adaptability to environmental change.

Willoughby has extensively studied steelhead salmon, a fish native to the Pacific Northwest. Steelhead are born in fresh water, migrate to live in saltwater oceans and then return to their natal freshwater origin to spawn. This is a cycle that is repeated annually.

About 100 years ago, steelhead salmon were successfully introduced to the Great Lakes region of the United States.

They are native to the Pacific coast, but they have been introduced across the U.S. into wholly freshwater systems, Willoughby said. They undergo that same annual spawning migration, with the Great Lakes serving as a sort of surrogate ocean. Although this is not the steelheads natural habitat, they have effectively adapted to that environment.

A native of Columbus, Ohio, Willoughby earned her doctorate in genetics from Purdue University and a masters in conservation biology from Central Michigan University. She teaches a course in conservation history and law, and plans to introduce a new course in conservation genetics.
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Hospitals today are recognized as healthcare institutions that provide patient treatment with specialized medical and nursing staff and medical equipment; some have teaching functions; some are specialty centers. However, in medieval times, they served a very different purpose and function, according to Dr. Carla Keyvanian, a professor in Auburn Universitys College of Architecture, Design and Construction.

In her book, Hospitals and Urbanism in Rome, 1200-1500, Keyvanian argues that those early hospitals played a key role in establishing the power and prestige of the administrative ruler and that their establishment, opulence and locations were strategically conceived for manifesting those purposes.

Keyvanian earned her Doctor of Philosophy degree in architectural history from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She also studied in Venice, Italy, and became interested in the urban development of early Rome while seeking her dissertation topic.

Studying architectural history does not make us as architects to be better designers, Keyvanian says, but it helps us to understand what has been achieved in the past; how problems were solved; and that form did not emerge out of purely esthetic reasons, but from structural needs, materials availability and often political considerations.

Keyvanian became interested in medieval hospitals in Rome because of their prominence as architectural symbols around which Rome and other urban centers developed throughout the Mediterranean region. Moreover, her book argues that those hospitals were constructed as expressions of sovereignty by those in administrative and political positions of power, particularly the clergy and kings.

Monumental urban hospitals appeared in western Europe during the 12th century Renaissancea period marked by a booming economy, a demographic increase that almost doubled the population and administrative change, Keyvanian notes. These late medieval hospitals were not like our modern hospitals but served as religious centers and social, charitable institutions offering temporary shelter, medical treatment to the destitute and to travelers, safe housing, banking and financial services.

The rulers of the time were expected to be benevolent, Keyvanian said. As a high-profile means for portraying those qualities and characteristics, the rulers constructed large, monumental structures as hospitals that were charitable institutions for the poor and destitute. But although they played a charitable role, they were not designed to be long-term refuge institutions. These hospitals represented for the ruler his piety and celestial reward.

They were political institutionshalls of stateand they were built by the most prominent architects and in the post prominent locations of the city, because they had display value, Keyvanian said. They stood for how charitable and compassionate the ruler was. My research helped me to understand how charitable aspects played such a crucial role in legitimizing a ruling officials authority.

When Christianity began to replace the Roman pagan faith, one of its most powerful tools of persuasion was its appeal to the poor, sick and lame, who were promised the miraculous healing powers of Christ.

The medieval kings of France and England as well as the pope were believed to have divine, magical properties to heal the sick. They were considered to be appointed by the divinity and were upheld as being semi gods.

Disease and sickness was the greatest source of fear among the population, and so the more prominently the ruler presented his capacity to heal, the more powerful his influence over his kingdom. The construction of a massive hospital was a clear demonstration of the rulers capacity to heal and a symbol of his charitywhich legitimized their divinely ordained position of leadership.

History notes that a very large segment of the population was poor, Keyvanian adds. Hospitals play a role managing that segment of the population.

Take someone off the streets who is sick from hunger and give them three days of food and bed rest, and their recovery would seem miraculous, Keyvanian said. In return for their benevolence, the ruler campaigned for support of his hospital and charity through donations from the faithful. Thus, the church-supported hospital prospered.

The hospital of medieval times also served an important purpose in caring for the sick and wounded during the Crusades, Keyvanian writes. As the prestige and power of the ruling sovereign grew, these hospitals flourished and their importance to the urbanization of the region also grew. Many still serve an important function in modern Rome, and their opulent architecture serves as a reminder of their former purpose and function, as well as a record of how cultural expansion in the region spread ideas and influence.

Keyvanian studied a variety of sources as she conducted the research for her book.

There arent many writings available from the earliest part of this period, she said.

But Keyvanian had access to numerous illustrations and paintings, architectural documents and relics, the architecture itself and rituals observed from the time.

By studying this history and the establishment of these hospitals, I was able to debunk some myths associated with the purpose and reasons for their construction, Keyvanian said.

One, they were not established totally as an emergence of more compassionate attitudes toward the poor. They were not built out of Christian charity, but as a means for manifesting the sovereignty of the administration.

Another, they were not built to respond to social needs, but placed in highly visible locations that supported the rulers interest and intent for developing a specific area.

By studying the rise and development, as well as the decline, of the hospitals of the time between 1200-1500, Keyvanian says one can learn much about the urban development of Rome, Europe and the Mediterranean area over this seminal 300-year span. She has begun work on a second book.

The next book will focus on a single hospital and its architect and will show how to use architectural form as historical evidence to make the connections that put together the story of a culture, its interactions and its development.
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Auburn University gave me this once in a lifetime opportunity to conduct research for my doctoral degree on the International Space Station (ISS), explained Lori Scott, a graduate student in the Department of Physics.

Scotts experiment for her dissertation titled Looking at thermal energy in complex plasmas happened more than 200 miles above Earth and completely out of this world.

The project took place aboard the ISS on the Plasma Krystall-4 (PK-4).

Using the PK-4, the complex plasma was observed under microgravity to test how the thermal properties of dust particles in a plasma environment interact and evolve. The images aboard the ISS were recorded so the data could be reviewed and analyzed.

The goal of this project is to research polarity switching, a stopping technique used in PK-4, to see how the kinetic energy of flowing dusty plasmas is converted into other forms of energy once the particles are stopped.

Leading up to this day, months of planning were required to refine the proposal and test detailed computer scripts ensuring the appropriate data would be collected. Scott traveled multiple times to a center in Munich, Germany, to collaborate with other researchers.

In July 2019, Scott traveled to a location in France to interact with Russian cosmonauts on the ISS.

A cosmonaut began the actual experiment on the ISS and then Scott with Dr. Edward Thomas, Jr., associate dean for academic affairs and research from Auburn University, and Dr. Jeremiah Williams, associate professor from Wittenberg University, were in control.

We had to quickly decide how to adjust the cameras recording the data since the dust clouds separated into multiples in microgravity, she said.

The experiment here on Earth would have shown the dust clouds as a two-dimensional layer on the ground. However, in microgravity, the dust clouds expand to a three-dimensional system where researchers can record and analyze detailed interactions among the particles.

Gravity masks the hidden forces and microgravity gives us an opportunity to see the plasma as a larger system, Scott added.

Once the experiment was complete, Scott traveled back to Munich, Germany, in November 2019 to collect the actual data recorded on the ISS.

We will be comparing two sets of data. The ISS data will be compared to a ground module with the exact same settings, she mentioned.

After the research is analyzed, Scott is hoping to conduct another experiment on the ISS before defending her dissertation.

Scott and this dedicated team work in collaboration with other scientists, the German Center for Air and Space, European Space Agency, and ROSCOSMOS, the Russian Space Agency. Dr. Uwe Konopka, associate professor of physics, is the principal investigator of the joint NASA-National Science Foundation (NSF) grant that funds the project with Drs. Thomas and Williams as co-PIs. Additional support for Scott is provided through the NSF and Alabama EPSCoR project, "Connecting the Plasma Universe to Alabama (CPU2AL)."

My favorite memory from this day was when I was able to wear a headset in the control room in France, Scott said. I will forever be part of the experiment and part of the research.

For Scott, research will definitely be part of her career.

I really do like to teach, but I love to conduct research, Scott said.

She began graduate school at Auburn and found an immediate connection in the Department of Physics.

The smaller classes gave me more one-on-one time with my professors and helped me find a great fit with my graduate advisor, Dr. Thomas, Scott explained. Once I began conducting research, I realized that research can take you anywhere and as a graduate student I had an incredible opportunity that I could have never imagined.
General Hospital

Days of Our Lives

The Young and the Restless

Look whos back in Genoa City!  Heres a sneak peek at #YR next week. pic.twitter.com/7qoaDsN4uA  Young and Restless (@YandR_CBS) March 25, 2022

The Bold and the Beautiful

This Week in Soaps history...

March 27th-31st, 2006

This week on the US Daytime Soaps...Babe and JR married each other, and Krystal and Adam renewed their wedding vows.Janet told JR that Dixie was alive.The results were disastrous when Babe returned to Fusion with Amanda as her assistant.Tad proposed to Di, who happily accepted. Ryan and Julia decided to dig into Greg's patient history when they discovered that he had lied about Julia being unable to have children. Greg suffered another episode after Erica gave him tea that she had tainted with an untraceable poison.Dixie paid Greg a visit and demanded answers, but he threatened to expose her if she pursued her line of questioning. Zach pleaded with Dixie to trust him with her secret about Greg, arguing that he needed to know the truth because Greg was treating Kendall. Ryan decided that he wanted to raise his son regardless of whether Kendall wished to have a role in their child's life.Joe shocked Tad with the revelation that Jeff Martin was headed back to Pine Valley.All of Carly's lies were finally revealed. She fought to hold on to her marriage, but in the end, Jack went to live on the farm.Holden agreed to support Lily in her decision about Jade. Jade was going to tell Luke's secret, when he collapsed. He was rushed to the hospital and diagnosed with a kidney infection. Lily decided to let Jade stay.Will hated living at home with his father, but he put his feelings aside. He decided to say because his wife was happy. Maddie started tutoring Will, and Casey started tutoring Gwen. Maddie became jealous.To prove his love, Paul married Emily.Jennifer received a letter and a photo of Dusty holding a newspaper. The photo was proven authentic. Paul recanted his confession.For a school project, Maddie put the families and citizens of Oakdale into situation comedies. The parodies included nearly the entire cast. The shows were titled: 'The Snyder Hillbillies', 'I Dream of Carly', The Munsonsters', 'I Love Katie', and 'Happy Oakdale Days.'Felicia's symptoms worsened as she was taken off of life support, but responded when her son, Dominick, was placed close by her.Taylor warned Nick to be careful of Brooke and her ways.Jackie listened as Eric proceeded to tell her that he missed her and was going to ask Stephanie for a divorce. Stephanie told Eric that she needed him, and that she couldn't carry alone anymore the secret that she has been keeping. Stephanie took Eric to the clinic, and brought an astonished Eric into the room, to see his beloved daughter, Felicia. Eric was furious with Stephanie for what she had done to save Felicia, knowing that she would not have wanted that, but then became enamored of her for selflessly being willing to give up her own life to save her daughter.Bridget moved in with Dante and Dominick. Bridget tried to convince Ridge of her mother's feelings for Nick and his for her. Taylor once again had too much to drink and ended up giving Nick something to remember her by. Ridge, finally realized that he might have the answer to why Brooke was leaning toward Nick, instead of him.A perfect "match donor" was found for Felicia, so that Stephanie did not have to sacrifice herself in order to save her daughter.Carrie made what she thought was her only choice for the future and picked Lucas as her man, however, Carrie still had feelings for Austin, Sami for Lucas, and Lucas for Sami, all of whom were unaware of Sami blackmail plot against Lexie who had to convince Carrie that she could never be with Austin.Marlena's wedding plans moved forward as she had images of her life with John, who was determined to kill Alex to save her.Mimi and Shawn married as the truth about Claire's parentage still haunting Mimi's happiness with Shawn. Belle interrupted Shawn and Mimi's honeymoon when she learned John's life was in danger because of his plot to kill Alex.Chelsea manipulated Hope to keep her away from Bo, meanwhile Jennifer tried to convince Bo to fight for Hope or else Zach's death would be in vain.Manny tries to get Lorenzo and Sonny to go to war. He arranges for Diego to be shot at a carnival but Jesse is the one to ends up being critically wounded in the shooting. Before he goes into surgery, the doctors confirm that not only is Jesse an organ donor but that he's a match for Noah who is near death. Despite the conflict of interest, Patrick operates on Jesse but the damage to Jesse's brain is too extensive and he's pronounced dead on the operating table.When Lucky learns of his partner's death and how it could benefit Patrick's father, he becomes certain that Patrick intentionally let his patient die.Jason does not react well to discovering that Sonny and Emily are having a relationship. He is convinced that Sonny will hurt Emily. Emily turns down an offer from Monica to sit in during a rare surgical procedure to be with Sonny while Sonny buys his sons a remote-control helicopter to occupy them so he can slip away to spend some time with Emily. Morgan accidentally sends the helicopter flying around the living room leaving it in shambles. When Jason sees the damage, he's convinced that Sonny destroyed the room. Fearing for Emily's safety, Jason convinces Max to tell him where Sonny is. He rushes off to the hotel just as an assassin kicks open Sonny's door and begins shooting. Jason shoots the man dead and later, Sonny and Jason are arrested.Lorenzo tells Skye about switching charts during the viral epidemic in order to save her life.Nik manages to sneak some time with his son.Harley rescued Gus as most of Springfield rejoiced at his miraculous return from the dead. Harley and Gus both enjoyed a long-awaited romantic reunion. Meanwhile, Dinah literally went berserk after she learned the truth about Harley and Mallet's affair as Mallet tried to convince her that he was coming clean with her because he really loved her and wanted to be with only her.Frank pursued Olivia with more vigor as Buzz tried to hide his feelings for Olivia from Frank.Tammy considered re-connecting with Jonathan, but another scary encounter sent her running.Jonathan and Lizzie joined forces to win back Tammy and Coop respectively.Harley called a board meeting to resign from Spaulding hoping that the board would appoint Dinah as the permanent CEO. Alan, Beth, Alexandria and Alan-Michael were confident AM's plan would finally pay off and were sure he would be appointment CEO. Meanwhile, Marina uncovered the ugly truth that Alan-Michael had been fooling and playing everyone to achieve his goal, to become CEO of Spaulding.Billy played dirty and used old divorce papers to turn Reva against Josh.Thanks to Roxy, Natalie met up with an Atlantic City informant during Cristian's fight, but when the informant became all hands, John roughed him up and distracted Cristian who suffered an injury to his hand. John learned a teenager may have been involved with the death of his father.After talking to Rex, Marcie agreed to compromise with Michael and wait for a little bit before having kids.Kevin accused Kelly of wanting to have a Buchanan baby via Duke, and despite warnings from Paige, Kevin begged Spencer to help reverse his condition. Duke kissed Kelly, but furious, she pushed him away.Tess deducted that Clint and Viki had seen the tape of her molestation and scared for her existence; Tess ran to Dorian to hide. Dorian snitched on Tess to Clint. Tess tracked down her molester and tried to suffocate him before Nash stopped her, and she in turn stopped him from killing the ailing man.Viki and Niki argued over who was to blame for Jessica's abuse.Nora opened her eyes while a hopeful Matthew sat by her bedside.Starr was tormented by some local teens before another teenage boy helped her out.David told Dorian that he was at fault for hurting her and that he would no longer attempt to win her back, but that he missed their friendship.Todd asked David to meet him, but hit David over the head and knocked him out when David showed up.Paloma found evidence in the Book Cafe's basement that the Cranes appropriated artwork that rightfully belongs to the church and convinced a reluctant Simone to gallivant with her all over Europe a la' "The Da Vinci Code" to find the art and put Alistair away for a long time if he ever wakes up from his coma.Meanwhile, Whitney had more visions of "God?" at the convent chapel telling her to go to Europe and stop his enemies from revealing his secrets.Theresa has turned into a bitter nasty witch now that Ethan refused to fall for her ultimate plan to bring him close to her bosom-sending the FBI to ask him to work at Crane for the good of his country. Theresa then almost convinced Fancy to give up on Noah before he breaks her heart, but the FBI beat her to this one by convincing Noah that the only way he can save Fancy from the mysterious "Dragon Lady" terrorist is to pretend that he and Maya are lovers so that Fancy runs away from him.Miguel on the other hand is recklessly reconsidering which cousin should be the object of his affection-Charity for whom he only has memories of pain; or Kay, the engaged-to-Fox, mother of his child, and reminder of all his childhood good times.Martin showed up at la casa familia looking for Pilar, but found her archrival, Katherine serving a 1950's style romantic dinner complete with candles and tablecloth. Pilar walked in on Martin's confrontation with Katherine (oh how much like passion, anger can look!) and misread his feelings before she squared off with the shrewish Kate. She was summoning him to Sheridan's cottage to see what she had brought home with her.The Lopez-Fitzgeralds gathered at the cottage and were instructed to tiptoe into the darkened bedroom for an Extreme Makeover: Luis Edition. When Sheridan turned on the lights and revealed their undead son, everybody was shocked, but not as shocked as when Luis revealed that he'd Shanghaied Sheridan into marrying him in Hawaii.Just wait until they all find out who she really married!Lily and Daniel arrived back in Genoa City and announced their marriage.Colleen used a ploy to get Kevin out of the loft and herself into it, hoping to spend the evening alone with J.T.. Victoria learned that Colleen still had feelings for J.T., but asked her not to reveal them to her Dad, since he recently changed his feelings about liking J.T..Brad told Victoria that his 6 month wait for his divorce to become final was waived, and they could go ahead and plan their wedding.Nikki announced at the "Launch Party" that the first NVP wellness spa would be right there at the G.C.A.C.Nicholas and Phyllis began to realize that Sharon might suspect them of some sort of dalliance.Gloria set herself up as a victim, to be able to cause problems for Jack and Ashley. Jack noticed a strange "rash" on Gloria's forehead and was forced to take her to the hospital when she complained that is burned and that she was in a lot of pain. Jack refused to believe that Gloria's "rash" was caused by Ashley's new product, but had second thoughts, when Abby was brought into the hospital with the same symptoms. Jack started to do damage control on the new product, but then learned that a client's wife was put into the hospital suffering from the same symptoms. Gloria admitted to Kevin that she was responsible for the problems at Jabot.Father, Victor and daughter, Victoria, butted heads about her upcoming wedding to Brad.Sharon planned an "extra-special" evening for Nicholas.Mac and Kevin finally kiss, but then, lo and behold, she told Kevin that before she was ready for another relationship, she needed time for her heart to heal.Phyllis connected "all the dots" and realized that Sharon knew the whole truth about her and Nicholas, but when she tried to reach him, she only reached an unanswered cell phone. Sharon confronted Nicholas in the same hotel room that he and Phyllis were together in, by telling him incident by incident the times that they were together. Source 3 and
It is creating use of what would be otherwise wasted.

The program has successfully used flared natural gas as a source of power to mine bitcoin.

The fourth-largest oil company in the world is now considering taking its gas-to-bitcoin pilot to four countries... The largest U.S. oil producer Exxon Mobil is considering expanding its North Dakota bitcoin mining pilot program to further reduce the volume of natural gas it routinely burns off or flares into the atmosphere, Bloomberg reported Thursday.

People familiar with the matter told the news outlet that the oil giant has an agreement with Crusoe Energy Systems to redirect gas that would otherwise be wasted from an oil well pad to mobile bitcoin mines. The report said the pilot project launched in January 2021 in North Dakotas Bakken and expanded in July; now, it consumes up to 18 million cubic feet of gas per month that Exxon couldnt otherwise monetize.

Exxon is now considering similar pilot projects in Alaska, the Qua Iboe Terminal in Nigeria, Argentinas Vaca Muerta shale field, Guyana and Germany, one of the people told Bloomberg.

We continuously evaluate emerging technologies aimed at reducing flaring volumes across our operations, spokeswoman Sarah Nordin told Bloomberg. She declined to comment on rumors and speculations regarding the pilot project.

Bitcoin mining enables oil producers to sell gas they accidentally find while drilling for oil, not only bringing more profits to those companies but also contributing to the environment as such energy source is commonly wasted due to a lack of nearby pipelines.

Related: Lithium Price Surge Jeopardizes Energy Transition Efforts



Denver-based Crusoe helps those companies capture otherwise wasted surplus gas from their energy production, convert it into electricity, and use it to power data centers and bitcoin mining operations. The firm estimates that bitcoin mining allows carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions by over 60% compared to routine flaring.

President of environmental shareholder-activist group As You Sow, Danielle Fugere, told Bloomberg that these pilots are a positive step for Exxon to find a use for its excess gas. It is creating use of what would be otherwise wasted, she said.

Oil and gas giant ConocoPhillips last month spun up similar operations also in Bakken, North Dakota, to sell excess natural gas to a bitcoin mining farm operated by a third party.

Bakken houses one of the largest deposits of oil and natural gas in the U.S., a phenomenon that led to the Bakken oil boom that made the state of North Dakota the second leading oil-producing state in the country, behind only Texas, according to the Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center.

By Zerohedge.com

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Russias invasion of the former Soviet Republic Ukraine, Europes second-largest country, triggered a watershed moment for President Joe Biden and his administration. It is forcing Washington to recognize the expansionist aims of President Vladimir Putins Russia and reappraise U.S. foreign policy, particularly in Latin America. Russias autocratic president has made no secret of his desire to rebuild the countrys global superpower status, exert control over former Soviet republics and dominate global energy markets. A key element of that strategy focuses on strengthening ties with other authoritarian regimes opposed to the U.S., notably China and Iran. The Kremlin has demonstrated a willingness to use military force where diplomacy fails to achieve Russias foreign policy goals. An important plank in Moscows foreign policy is providing crucial support to a deeply embattled Venezuela led by authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro. In March 2022, after Putins invasion of Ukraine, Biden, in an unexpected move, sent an official mission to Caracas with the goal of opening a dialogue with Maduro, the first such meeting after the U.S. severed diplomatic ties in early-2019. This formed part of what appeared to be an attempt to find alternate sources of crude oil sparking a backlash that forced the Whitehouse to deny it was seeking to ease sanctions in exchange for oil imports. Related: U.S. Oil Rig Count Rises But Production Lags Behind

The heavy burden created by strict U.S. sanctions against Venezuela, which have nearly bankrupted Caracas, saw former President Hugo Chavez and his successor President Nicolas Maduro seek support from countries opposed to Washington. It was Moscow, China, and Iran which emerged as key supporters of Venezuela with all three backing Maduros nearly bankrupt autocratic regime and the OPEC members severely corroded oil industry. Through loans, joint energy investments with national oil company Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., or PDVSA, and the provision of the military as well as civil aid the Kremlin-backed has propped up a broken Venezuelan state effectively preventing it from collapsing. This has allowed Moscow, in what can be described as a masterful to take control of Venezuelas once-mighty petroleum industry, enhancing the considerable leverage the Kremlin gained over crude oil prices through the OPEC Plus agreement, where Russia is a key participant. This forms part of Putins strategy to boost Russias global geopolitical influence by expanding influence in Latin America to challenge Washingtons authority in a region where U.S. hegemony has long been recognized. It does this in part by giving Moscow leverage over Venezuelas vast petroleum reserves, which at 304 billion barrels are the worlds largest. The close alliance with Venezuela also gives the Kremlin a notable counterweight to North Atlantic Treaty Organizations rising ascendancy in Eastern Europe, a region long considered by Moscow to be part of Russias sphere of influence.

The additional 2019 sanctions imposed by then-President Donald Trump, aimed at toppling Maduro, despite accelerating Venezuelas economic collapse and magnifying the humanitarian crisis failed to achieve that goal. Those restrictions, which prevent Caracas from accessing global capital as well as energy markets, forced Maduro to seek support elsewhere, which he readily found with Putins autocratic government. By 2015, when Obama declared a national emergency regarding Venezuela, Moscow had lent PDVSA roughly $6.5 billion through then state-controlled energy company Rosneft. It was subsidiaries of Rosneft which were actively investing in a series of joint ventures with PDVSA. Then after Washington imposed sanctions on Rosneft for its involvement with PDVSA the Kremlin sold its stake in the company while acquiring Rosnefts Venezuelan assets. That leaves the Kremlin, through wholly-owned company Roszarubezhneft, with a 40% stake in five joint ventures with PDVSA that pump around 120,000 barrels of crude oil per day, nearly 16% of Venezuelas total production. That has given Moscow access to a crucial alternate supply of crude oil reducing dependence on the Middle East.

Related: Could Putin Be Overthrown From Within?



These events highlight why the Whitehouse must pay closer attention to Latin America, particularly Venezuela, and focus on reducing the influence of authoritarian regimes in the region, particularly Russia and Iran. The surprise March 2022 U.S. mission to Caracas which had the goal of opening a dialogue with international pariah President Maduro was a positive step. This is because harsh U.S. sanctions, notably those implemented by Trump, despite accelerating Venezuelas economic collapse failed to initiate regime change. In fact, those significant restrictions, including denying Caracas access to global energy and capital markets which crushed Venezuelas economic backbone its oil industry, only strengthened Maduros power. The sanctions also created an opportunity for Russia, China, and Iran to fortify their relationship with Caracas while gaining greater leverage in Latin America. There is a long history of U.S. economic sanctions failing to achieve foreign policy goals with some academics labeling them as a policy tool where the effectiveness deteriorates over time.

When easing the restrictions the Biden administration must avoid, however, appearing to act solely in U.S. interests by doing so to gain access to Venezuelas crude oil. Washingtons recognized interim Venezuelan president, Juan Guaido, is effectively a spent force. During the December 2020 parliamentary election, Maduro took control of the National Assembly unseating Guaido and removing him from his role as speaker. In a further blow to Venezuelas opposition, they were pummeled by Maduros ruling United Socialist Party in late-2021 regional ballots. That was the first-time opponents to Maduros regime had participated in elections for three years. Those events underscore the strength of Maduros position and the waning influence of what is an increasingly fractured domestic opposition.

Strict U.S. sanctions must be eased if Venezuelas economic backbone, its petroleum industry, is to be rebuilt. Even considerable support from Teheran, including providing a reliable supply of condensate has done little to sustain a sizeable increase in crude oil production. For December 2021, PDVSA pumped an average of 871,000 barrels per day, based on data provided to OPEC, which was nearly double a year earlier despite sanctions, although was well below pre-2015 output of 2.3 million barrels daily. January 2022 production dropped by 1.9% month over month to an average of 755,000 barrels, indicating that PDVSA is operating at capacity. That means Caracas is incapable of bolstering petroleum output any further without significant investment in Venezuelas energy infrastructure, which some analysts believe will require investment of between $110 billion and $200 billion over nearly a decade to return to over 2 million barrels per day. This highlights that Venezuela is incapable of providing a large supply of crude oil to the U.S. to make up for the shortfall triggered by Bidens ban on Russian petroleum imports.

Venezuelas deep humanitarian and environmental crises, sparked by a failing economy and heavily corroded petroleum industry combined with the failure of sanctions to unseat Maduro, indicate that Washington must initiate a major policy shift. That has become more pressing because of the conflict in Ukraine and Russias considerable influence in Venezuela. However, any move by Washington to ease sanctions in response to spiraling crude oil prices will trigger a major backlash. Despite Whitehouse officials denying this is the case, any such a move at this tie will be viewed cynically by many in Latin America where the U.S. has a long history of interfering in regional politics to secure policy objectives and access to resources. The easing of sanctions at this time will, at a critical moment, undermine the legitimacy of Venezuelas opposition to Maduro. The OPEC members opposition, which was once popular with Venezuelans, for a variety of reasons, is becoming increasingly irrelevant in their eyes. Not only has the ruling socialist party successfully marginalized Guaido, but it now controls all facets of the Venezuelan state including the National Assembly and regional governments. The fact that Venezuelas economy has returned to growth after such a savage crash will bolster Maduros reputation in the eyes of Venezuelas long-suffering population.

By Matthew Smith for Oilprice.com

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A three-day search in southeast Nebraska for a missing woman ended Saturday without success.

About 135 people from Nebraska law enforcement agencies and other groups scoured 1,100 acres of land in southeast Nebraska starting Thursday for the remains of Linda Dillard. The search for the missing 55-year-old Tecumseh woman took place at the Table Rock State Wildlife Management Area about 40 miles east of Beatrice. Some neighboring private land was also searched.

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.

Nebraska State Patrol Lt. Eric Jones said that although the search effort did not locate Dillards remains, significant ground was covered that will assist in the investigation.

What our investigators learned this week directs the case into the next phase, Jones said. We are now confident that Linda is not in this large area. Our investigators continue to believe Linda may have been the victim of a crime.

The search included 24 miles of roadside ditches, 1 miles of the Big Nemaha River, two farms and a lake. The searchers included 44 law enforcement officers, 65 volunteers, 15 mounted patrol teams and eight canine teams trained for human remains detection.

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.

Anyone with information about Dillards disappearance is urged to come forward, Jones said. Nebraska Crime Stoppers is offering a reward for information and tips can be made anonymously through the Crime Stoppers website, the P3 Tips mobile app or by calling 800-422-1494.

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State Sen. Carol Blood has chosen Al Davis, a former senator and a rancher from western Nebraska, as her running mate in the race for Nebraska governor.

Blood, a Democrat, announced the selection Sunday, saying she was thrilled to stand with Davis, who represented the 43rd District in the Sandhills for one term.

Its time for New Blood and effective change and we are the team that are going to make this happen, Blood said in a statement. There are exciting things on the horizon when we bring the collaborative voices of all to the table.

When he served in the Legislature, Davis was a registered Republican. However, secretary of state records show hes now a registered Democrat. Its not the first time hes changed that affiliation  he switched to Democrat from Republican in the 1990s.

Davis lost his seat to Tom Brewer in 2016.

He was among three incumbent Republican senators that year who placed second in their primaries. All had faced negative mailers, robocalls and advertisements over issues on which they had clashed with Gov. Pete Ricketts.

The three had voted to override Ricketts vetoes on a state gas tax hike and a measure providing drivers licenses to young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children. Ricketts encouraged Brewer to run.

Davis has been actively engaged in legislative issues since leaving the body, most recently as a lobbyist for the Nebraska chapter of the Sierra Club. Like Blood, he has been outspoken about the AltEn environmental disaster.

Along with his time in the Legislature, Davis has served on the Hyannis and Redmill school boards and was treasurer of the Independent Cattlemen of Nebraska.

He was one of three Nebraska Republicans who launched a pro-Biden effort ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

There were breadcrumbs that hinted at Bloods choice. Last year, she requested that Attorney General Doug Peterson weigh in on the constitutionality of a state law that requires gubernatorial primary winners to pick a running mate of the same political party.

Among her questions, she asked the AG to consider what would happen if a candidate for governor chooses a running mate with no party affiliation or a different party affiliation, according to the AGs opinion.

Peterson issued the opinion Sept. 1, finding in part that the party affiliation rule doesnt put an improper limit on a candidates selection of a running mate.

Later that month, Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb pointed out Davis party affiliation change on Twitter when he testified in front of the redistricting committee.

Sen. Al Davis, who is now a Dem!!!, gave strong points for fair maps! she wrote.

Blood faces an uphill battle in her run for governor. Nebraska has not selected a Democrat for the office since the 1990s.

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Charles W. Herbster is a jet-setting businessman and Republican mega-donor with deep pockets. Hes also a cattle rancher and born-again Christian who draws on farming metaphors with ease.

Hes fashioning a public image around those identities in his campaign for governor of Nebraska. But the most defining feature of his candidacy has been loyalty, similarities and ties to Donald Trump.

The former president endorsed Herbster last year, a potential game-changer in a state where Trump got 75% of votes in heavily GOP western Nebraska in 2020 and 58% statewide.

But, unlike his top primary competitors, Herbster has never held public office. His history and lack of policy expertise hold potential pitfalls.

Hes come first in recent polling, followed by Jim Pillen, a Columbus hog producer and University of Nebraska regent, and State Sen. Brett Lindstrom of Omaha.

This isnt Herbsters first go at the office: He launched a run in 2014 but quickly pulled out when his wife became ill. He then made headlines for donating historically significant sums to another candidate, Beau McCoy. As of January, Herbster had almost entirely self-funded his current campaign, to the tune of $4.7 million.

Will Herbsters front-runner status last?

Small-town roots, big-time businessman

Herbster, 67, was born in Falls City, a town of about 4,000 tucked into Nebraska's southeastern corner. He went to Falls City High School, where he was involved in myriad organizations and spoke at his graduation ceremony, then the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for a couple of stints in the 70s. He did not attain a degree.

It seems he hasnt slowed down since.

The man heads several businesses across five states. He got a job with Conklin Company Inc. in the 1970s and rose through the ranks. He and his late wife, Judy, who also worked at Conklin, ultimately bought it in the early '90s.

Conklin manufactures over 130 products, including roofing and agriculture products. Distribution is based in Minnesota, and they moved administrative offices to Kansas City, Missouri, in the 2000s.

Basing the company out of state has sparked criticism from those opposed to his run for governor, including Gov. Pete Ricketts, who has endorsed Pillen and said he doesn't believe Herbster is qualified to be governor.

I was just going to do whats economically the best for our people, Herbster said of moving the offices to Missouri.

Herbster also heads Carico Farms and Herbster Angus Farms in Falls City, a bull semen operation in Virginia and Kansas City-based Judy's Dream, which distributes nutritional shakes and supplements. He's active nationally in the evangelical community and said he's sponsored the National Day of Prayer for over two decades.

The land on which Carico and Herbster Angus Farms sit has been in Herbster's family since the 1800s, he said. Herbster Angus Farms was incorporated in 2015, and Carico Farms was incorporated in 1981  Secretary of State's Office records show that document was signed by Herbster and his grandmother.

His grandmother, whom he named as one of his top influences, owned the farm, and he said his parents worked at the local hospital and bank.

Now, Herbster owns homes in Falls City, farmland in Colorado, a condo in downtown Omaha and a home in Kansas City, which he said hes stayed in just a few times since Judy's death in 2017.

Given his scattered portfolio, Herbster has faced criticism for weak Nebraska ties. At a recent campaign event, he addressed those criticisms by citing his time spent living in Grand Island, then Lincoln.

But, in an interview, Herbster said hes spent most of his time since 1992 on an airplane.

We live in hotels, and we live on an airplane," he said. "Because, without children, it's very easy for us to just stay out there and continue to work with our people. That's how we built the business.

He said he still spends summers on the farm in Falls City. According to the Richardson County Clerks Office, Herbster has been registered to vote there since 2004. He was registered in Lancaster County before that.

Asked if he'd step away from his businesses if he wins the race, Herbster didn't offer a clear answer: "If I become the governor of the state of Nebraska, my number one focus will be on making Nebraska great again," he said.

Touting Trump ties

Trump endorsed Herbster despite Ricketts attempt to dissuade him from doing so, according to Politicos reporting. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is among his other backers.

At campaign events, Herbster often sounds like Trump, pumping up his credentials as a political outsider and successful businessman, name-dropping, and focusing on national wedge issues like securing the countrys southern border.

"I'm very concerned about the direction of America," he told The World-Herald. "And as America goes, so goes every state."

Herbster often opens public appearances by extending greetings from the former president. Multiple people affiliated with his campaign, including Kellyanne Conway, have worked for Trump. The Herbster campaign cut ties with longtime Trump aide Corey Lewandowski last year, after a woman accused him of sexual harassment.

Herbster donated $1.3 million, in all, to Trumps 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns. He was there when Trump announced his candidacy in 2015 and later led the Agriculture and Rural Advisory Committee for his campaign and administration.

Charles W. Herbster Age: 67 Party: Republican Occupation: Cattle rancher and farmer; CEO and owner of Conklin Company Inc., Carico Farms Inc., Herbster Angus Farms Inc., North American Breeders Inc., Agri-Solutions Inc., and Judy's Dream Inc. Home: Falls City Elected offices held: None Education: Falls City High School, attended University of Nebraska-Lincoln (no degree) Family: Widowed Faith: Christian (non-denominational) Website: charleswherbsterfornebraska.com Top priority: Nebraska needs a new tax code. We must work with small-business owners, farmers and ranchers to find solutions that work for everyone. Second, we must expand Nebraska's markets and grow trade opportunities both domestically and internationally. Finally, we must carry on President Donald J. Trump's America-First policies to keep Nebraska safe and prosperous. The Biden administration's excessive regulations and policies are working against hard-working Nebraskans, not for them.

When he announced his campaign, he put his loyalty to Trump above his run for office: Everybody said: 'Youre going to run for governor? You have to take the Trump (license) plates off,'" he said. And this is how loyal I am to the 45th president of the United States, I said: If its the difference between being disloyal to President Trump or becoming governor of Nebraska, I will not be disloyal to the 45th president.'

Herbster was at a meeting Jan. 5, 2021, in Trump's private residence in his Washington, D.C., hotel, where they discussed how to pressure more members of Congress to object to the Electoral College results affirming Joe Biden's victory. And he was there the next day at Trump's rally before the violent attack on the nation's Capitol. He now downplays his participation and says he never heard that anybody was going to the Capitol to do anything.

And, despite previous statements and records showing he bought into baseless claims that the election was stolen, he now accepts that Biden is president.

Talking to reporters after a recent debate, though, he again expressed doubts about the integrity of the 2020 election. And he asserted without evidence that China released the COVID-19 pandemic to oust Trump from office and divide the country.

On state policy, a dearth of specifics

Herbster is an energetic speaker and can capture a crowds attention. But when it comes to Nebraska-specific policy, he rarely offers detail.

At a recent campaign event, he handed the mic to a staffer when it came time to talk about his campaigns idea for caring for veterans in the state. He has pledged that therell be zero critical race theory in Nebraska  but admitted he doesnt know how hed accomplish that.

He says he'd crack down on illegal immigration and drugs and "close the border in Nebraska." When asked what he meant by that, Herbster suggested he'd meet incoming groups of undocumented immigrants "wherever they park."

In an interview, Herbster spoke enthusiastically about requiring identification to vote and another specific proposal: branding and marketing the state. He pictures a state silhouette stamped on every box and wrapper that leaves the state, in red alongside words akin to Made in Nebraska.

Everywhere I go in the state, and Ive been traveling constantly, everybodys going to talk to you about property tax, he said. Weve been talking about that in Nebraska for 15 years. Everybody knows that, and we will address it, I will address it. But to me, its bigger than that. Its a vision of how do we brand and market our state.

On Nebraska's tax code, his campaign website said that hed advocate for shifting to a consumption tax-based system. But, in conversation, he didnt commit to one approach.

He has said the tax code is outdated and that any solution needs to be revenue neutral, meaning the state wont end up collecting more taxes. He named a few proposals for reforming the tax code from which he could draw, including a consumption tax-based proposal and a statewide initiative from Nebraska business and higher education leaders called Blueprint Nebraska.

Herbster said that one of the ways he manages to run several businesses is through hiring good people and delegating, and that hed do the same as governor.

If he wins the primary on May 10, he said hes going to immediately start assembling teams of people to work on branding, marketing, taxes, workforce and mental health issues facing veterans and law enforcement officers.

I can assure you that every single person, even if they did not vote for me  I'm not concerned about what their political affiliation is: Republican, Democrat, independent or none of the three  every person will have a seat at the table, he said.

Herbsters former running mate, former State Sen. Theresa Thibodeau, called the campaign chaotic and disorganized. She has since launched her own campaign for the Republican nomination.

He just wasn't getting a good grasp on Nebraska policy and not going into that, she said. And I would say that, as I'm on the campaign trail, I continue to see exactly the same thing: That there's really no depth to, you know, learning Nebraska issues.

Divisive among locals

On a recent visit to his southeastern Nebraska hometown, The World-Herald found there was about an equal chance of running into Herbster supporters and detractors.

Joe Kuttler, a fellow farmer north of town, said hed recommend him for the job, above all the rest. Herbster got a good start, he said, but took care of what he inherited.

Heidi Billingsly, who worked as Judy Herbsters assistant for a few years before her death, called Herbster a great person who takes care of his employees and loves the state of Nebraska. If people have a negative perception of him, she said, its probably because they dont know him.

A couple of people in town mentioned issues they have with Herbster, but didnt want to speak for this story.

But Kim Griffiths of Verdon, just north of Falls City, offered a story about Herbster from decades ago, when he hired her familys hay-baling business. When they arrived, they found the hay wasnt ready but Herbster insisted they bale it anyway, she said.

So they did, but they never got paid. When the hay predictably rotted, she said Herbster called angry, demanding they help him remove the hay from his barn. They did it to avoid drama, she said, and swallowed the loss.

The way she sees it, he uses other people to get ahead with no regard for what happens to them.

Herbster will never have our familys vote. ... Hes going for a glory ride on Donald Trumps coattails, she said.

Herbster's campaign did not offer a response to Griffiths' recounting.

Late taxes and a lead foot

Herbster has blemishes in his record, including a history of paying property taxes late and accumulating traffic violations.

In 2014, The World-Herald reported that he had almost always been late on his taxes in Richardson County in the previous two decades and sometimes waited a year or more to make a payment. A KMTV investigation last year found that Herbster and his businesses had paid late nearly 600 times. Herbster told KMTV that it was a choice, meant to offset cash flow issues.

But hes faced criticism for his reasoning. Specifically, Ricketts and others point to 2014, when Herbster was late but also donated $2 million to McCoy, the then-gubernatorial candidate.

Herbster also acknowledged back in 2014 that he has a long list of driving offenses and that his license was temporarily suspended in 2002. At the time, he had been fined 21 times in Missouri and Nebraska in the previous 14 years.

Last year, he told the Falls City Journal that he likely had 34 speeding tickets in 35 years and called that one-ticket-a-year rate not bad.

Violations visible in public records include speeding tickets, charges for making unnecessary noise and other offenses. The most recent thats publicly available in Missouri was in 2018, when Herbster pleaded guilty to an amended charge of failure to register and paid a fine.

Herbster acknowledged that the property taxes and traffic violations might be red flags for voters. But he ultimately paid all his taxes, he said, and paid interest and penalties  which he framed as a positive result for Richardson County.

The only person I really hurt by being almost bankrupt is me, he said. And, if you are not running for political office, it would mean nothing to anybody, because politicians have been coming to me for 20 years wanting money. They were concerned very little about my taxes or my speeding tickets.

How powerful is the Trump endorsement?

Whats yet to be seen is if Herbsters self-branding as the Trump-endorsed candidate will pay off. Asked what he thought of Ricketts' request to Trump, Herbster laughed and said, Its a free country.

I wouldve ran for governor irregardless of who or who wasnt gonna endorse me, he said.

While he loves having endorsements, he said, that doesnt win a race.

Races are won on candidates who have the vision, have a message and who work harder than anybody else, he said.

At least one longtime political observer, though, sees Herbster's candidacy as a referendum on that concept.

Traditionally, youd rather have an endorsement than not, but it wasnt a deciding factor for most voters, Lincoln-based political consultant and lobbyist Perre Neilan said. Herbster flips that notion on its head and says the Trump endorsement is the ONLY thing that matters.

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The Omaha Daily Bee, on April 23, 1909, reported on the front page Muslim massacres of Christian Armenians in the Adana province of Turkey, also known then as the Ottoman Empire.

The article in the local paper ran opposite an article on the price of wheat. These massacres, more than a riot but less than a full genocide, are mostly unknown in the U.S. today. They are recalled in a detailed new book by University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor Bedross Der Matossian, titled The Horrors of Adana: Revolution and Violence in the Early Twentieth Century and was just published by Stanford University Press.

For Der Matossian, the fall of the Sultan in 1908 and the coming to power in Istanbul of the Young Turk government opened society for more freedom. But this freedom allowed deep tensions to surface. Instead of social media and fake news, there were rumors of an Armenian uprising. The old guard Muslims, fearing for their status, and in the wake of a failed counter coup against the Young Turks, exploded in fury against the local Armenians in the region of Adana who were doing well locally in the cotton trade. Perhaps 20,000 Armenians were killed as compared to about 2,000 Muslims.

Events were widely reported, but the outside powers with gun boats off the coast in the Mediterranean did not intervene. They feared rivalries among themselves, getting stuck in a broader involvement and maybe even a restoration of the repressive Sultanate. Better to leave the Young Turks in charge of things. They and others did provide humanitarian assistance after the fact.

History for the sake of history is important. One can learn that the Adana massacres were preceded by other Turkish violence against the Armenians especially in 1895-96. Adana was followed by a real Armenian genocide at the hands of the Turks (and Kurds) centered on 1915 during World War I. Historians debate the connections among the three episodes. Der Matossian does not see tight linkage; some others do. I am not a historian, although I read a lot of it, and I primarily want to know if Adana offers lessons for today.

Lesson No. 1: Freedom without consensus and compromise is dangerous. Especially dangerous is an old guard that fears further loss of status and privilege, especially in the context of conspiracy theories or more simply ill-founded rumors. Violence is likely when some other is seen as pernicious, even treasonous. In 1909 in Adana, the Muslim notables and Imams belonging to the ancien regime saw the Armenians, exercising their new freedoms to organize and advocate, as meriting a violent comeuppance. The result was widespread death and destruction.

In the U.S. today, White supremacist militias are a reality. The Department of Homeland Security has said they constitute the most important terrorist threat facing the U.S. They tried to take over the Jan. 6, 2021, events leading to mob violence at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. They see particularly the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, if not all that party, as dangerous to the American Republic, not at all a legitimate and loyal opposition party, and hence to be opposed with force. To put it mildly, this situation is dangerous.

Public opinion polls show a deeply divided country, with the moderate center having withered away. The Republican Party has moved very far right. Some of its leaders said nice things about neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia, during disturbances in 2017. Some propagate the myth about a stolen election, undermining a core democratic value. The Democratic Party has become slightly more left. Some of its leaders talk of defunding the police.

This deepening divide requires urgent attention. American stability, even genuine democracy, is very much at risk. Mitt Romney has had the courage to speak out about the fragility of democracy. We need more like him to address deep fissures in the U.S. with a declining consensus. All independent indices show declining democracy, aka political freedom, in America.

Lesson No. 2: Even widely reported atrocities, such as mass murder, do not necessarily result in humanitarian intervention to protect civilians. The Adana massacres of 1909, although forgotten in the American heartland as elsewhere, were widely covered at the time by newspapers in Turkey, the Arab world, Europe and North America  including Omaha. But ruling elites in outside nations processed the news according to their national interests as defined at the time. The U.S. government back then did not see any reason to get involved, although the American Red Cross provided some humanitarian assistance.

Today, terrible atrocities in places like Myanmar (formerly Burma), Ethiopia, South Sudan, Yemen and elsewhere do not lead to decisive action to stop the killing of civilians and other mass atrocities. Even before Ukraine took all air out of the global humanitarian response system in 2022, powerful outside states avoided deep involvement in most nasty violent conflicts. They were wary of quagmires and forever wars and more big expenditures.

Race and religion also played a role, witness European willingness to accept millions of Ukrainian refugees whereas these same European states  especially Hungary and Poland  had been much less welcoming to Syrian refugees. Syrian refugees too had been victimized by merciless Russian bombing and even use of chemical weapons.

The global humanitarian response system is much better organized than in 1909, both through the United Nations, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, and others like Doctors Without Borders. We read of the commendable actions of the UN High Commissioner of Refugees and UNESCO for example.

As I write, the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross is in Ukraine trying to limit the violence. Arranging humanitarian corridors has its value: better to have refugee flows than mass murder. But state calculations of national interest still dominate, often to the detriment of civilian victims. That has not much changed since 1909. Even a real Armenian genocide later did not provoke outside intervention, although by 1915, World War I complicated matters enormously.

Professor Der Matossian, an Armenian born in Jerusalem, came to UNL in 2010. He knows the Middle East well. He has written a carefully researched account of Adana in 1909, relying on numerous sources in multiple languages. Historians will find it useful for many reasons.

The rest of us benefit from thinking about what the events of 1909 might tell us about our world of today. As often said, history does not exactly repeat itself. But sometimes it seems to come close.

David P. Forsythe is UNL professor emeritus of political science, specializing in international human rights and humanitarian affairs.
Everyone stood up from their seats and took hold of their toasting glass in their right hand.

The noise from the chairs being pushed back echoed off the tall ceilings of the famous dining hall of Keble College at Oxford University in England.

With a loud clink of the glass, we stood still and straight, staring ahead as if we were soldiers in line ready to be inspected. With a solid and sturdy voice, the words to Ukraine thundered out across the hall. We raised our glasses again and repeated to Ukraine. We kept standing in silence as we then listened to the Ukrainian national anthem.

Once the anthem was completed, and we sat back down, I glanced at my fellow dinner companions  military generals hailing from 30 NATO member countries.

I was struck by how different this moment on March 17 was from all previous times I had gathered with members of NATO, or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, for my academic work for the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Attending and briefing NATO conferences is nothing new due to my research. I am a political scientist with a background in military and government service.

NATO funded my past research on multi-actor deterrence, which is preventing hostile actions by multiple actors. Through NATO, I was able to include UNO students, even taking them to a conference in Madrid in 2019, where they presented and participated in groundbreaking work defense research.

Last fall, before the threat of a war and massive migration was so dire for Europe, NATO asked me to research and provide recommendations to their leadership on the importance of multi-domain operations. Multi-domain operations go beyond the traditional military domains of air, land and sea to include threat arenas that are political, social, diplomatic, economic and cyber, plus outer space. Essentially, this was a new area for them and they wanted an academic perspective.

After I completed the work in January, they asked me to attend and present in March at the Multi-actor Domain Conference. I said yes, eager to share recently completed research conducted for the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology and Education Center, or NCITE, which is a Department of Homeland Security-funded research consortium at UNO.

Homeland Security, in some ways, is not unlike NATO. The federal agency is a stitched-together grouping of organizations that might share the same mission of national security but have different areas of focus, cultures and priorities. My NCITE research has been how to improve training and education for the large intelligence community inside DHS. I was eager to share this with NATO.

Then Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.

The conference wasnt canceled  I got on a plane to England. The agenda was more urgent and attendance reflected that. Instead of the normal staff officers from NATO member countries who usually attend, generals had come. They wore dress uniforms representing countries from ours to eastern European nations like Latvia, Romania and Hungary.

Having served in the U.S. Army from 2001 to 2005, I have experience with the urgency and threat environments. Having worked for STRATCOM in a civilian role as a deterrence analyst, I am not a stranger to the world of war planning. But the Russian incursion into Ukraine, the mass of refugees pouring out of Ukraine, and the potential for worse to come made this moment resound.

I also saw a profound sense of reality and urgency that a NATO country could be next on Russias list of objectives for regional domination. I listened to the challenges that faced member countries bordering Ukraine and Russia. To them, Russia is knocking on their door either through propaganda or direct threats.

After the three-day conference, I was back on a plane across the Atlantic to the safety of my Papillion home and UNO office. I was eager to see my third-grade son.

This can all seem very distant. Nebraska is far away geographically from the violence and strife in Ukraine. And the distance separating the U.S. from our European allies  plus the relative peace the alliance has experienced since World War II  have made NATO, to some Americans, seem obsolete.

But as I write this, the situation gets worse and our need for alliances is imperative.

It can be hard, watching from afar, to know what to do.

In my past life as a military and civilian operator, we were given orders on how to assist in conflicts. Now with NATO on the front lines, I admit to feeling somewhat helpless.

I do hope my research helps to inform our NATO forces in the fight that could shortly face them. And the recent experience reminds me of something we all can do: Stand together and say, To Ukraine.

Michelle Black, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and workforce and education director for UNOs National Counterterrorism, Innovation, Technology, and Education (NCITE) center. This article reflects the views of the author and is not necessarily representative of the views of UNO.

Michelle Black, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and workforce and education director for UNOs National Counterterrorism, Innovation, Technology, and Education (NCITE) center. This article reflects the views of the author and is not necessarily representative of the views of UNO.
Prince William has expressed his "profound sorrow" over slavery.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attended an official dinner and reception hosted by the Governor General of Jamaica at Kings House in Kingston, Jamaica, on Wednesday (03.23.22), where the 39-year-old royal denounced the "abhorrent" slave trade.

Speaking on the couple's fifth day of their Caribbean tour, he said: "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.

"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 also insisted his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, has a "deep affection" for Jamaica.

He said: "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.

"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."

William's words come after Jamaica's Prime Minister Andrew Holness confirmed to the duke and duchess that the country is seeking to become "independent".

The British royals' arrival on the Caribbean island on Tuesday (03.22.22) was marked by protests seeking slave reparations from the monarchy amid calls for the country to drop the queen as head of state.

The Prime Minister told the couple: "We're very, very happy to have you and we hope you've received a warm welcome of the people.

"Jamaica is a very free and liberal country and the people are very expressive - and I'm certain that you would have seen the spectrum of expressions yesterday.

"There are issues here, which as you know, are unresolved, but your presence gives us an opportunity for those issues to be placed in context, to be out front and centre and to be addressed as best we can.

"But Jamaica is, as you would see, is a country that is proud of its history and very proud of what we have achieved.

"And we're moving on and we intend to ... fulfil our true ambitions and destiny to become an independent, developed and prosperous country."

Originally published on celebretainment.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange.
Bloomington-Normal

Galleries, museums

Some cultural institutions are open or making plans to reopen under current COVID restrictions. Check with each facility for indoor, online or outdoor programing. Open facilities have face covering, distancing and other guidelines in effect; see websites or call for details.

Angel Ambrose Fine Art Studio; 101 W. Monroe St. Suite 201, Bloomington; Open First Fridays 5-8 p.m. and by appointment; 309-825-4655; angelambrose.com.

David Davis Mansion; 1000 Monroe Drive, Bloomington; open for tours, 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Wed.-Sat.; groups of 10 or less; $10 per person; $100 minimum; daviddavismansion.org; 309-828-1084.

Eaton Studio Gallery; 411 N. Center St., Bloomington; 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays; 5-8 p.m. First Fridays, or by appointment or ring bell; eatonstudiogallery.com; 309-828-1575.

Illinois Art Station; 101 E. Vernon Ave., Normal; Gallery open Saturdays 10 a.m.-2 p.m.; illinoisartstation.org; 309-386-1019.

Inside Out: Accessible Art Gallery & Cooperative; 200 W. Monroe St., Bloomington; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesday-Friday; Saturday 8 a.m.-2 p.m.; by appointment Sunday-Tuesday; and 10 a.m.-8 p.m. First Friday; insideoutartcoop.org; 309-838-2160.

Jan Brandt Gallery; Normandy Village, 1100 Beach St., Building 8, Normal; by appointment; janbrandtgallery.com; 309-287-4700.

Joann Goetzinger Studio and Gallery; 313 N. Main St. Suite A, Bloomington; open first Fridays 5-8 p.m., Saturdays 9 a.m.-4 p.m., also by appointment; masks and social distancing required; 309-826-1193.

Main Gallery; 404 N. Main St., Bloomington; 12-5 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays; 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Saturdays; By chance or appointment at 309-590-6779.

McLean County Arts Center; 601 N. East St., Bloomington; open; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Tuesday, 12-4 p.m. Saturday; masks and social distancing required; mcac.org; 309-829-0011.

McLean County Museum of History; 200 N. Main St., Bloomington; 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesday; 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday; closed Sundays, until further notice; reservations at education@mchistory.org or 309-827-0428; mchistory.org; 309-827-0428.

Merwin and Wakeley Galleries; Illinois Wesleyan University; Bloomington; open; 12-4 p.m., Monday through Friday; 7-9 p.m., Tuesday evening; 1-4 p.m., Saturday through Sunday; iwu.edu/art/galleries; 309-556-3391.

Prairie Aviation Museum; 2929 E. Empire St., Bloomington; opens April 2; hours 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays; prairieaviationmuseum.org; 309-663-7632.

University Galleries of Illinois State University, Normal; open; 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 9:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday, noon-4 p.m. Saturday, Sunday; 309-438-5487; galleries.illinoisstate.edu/about/visit/.

Central Illinois

Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum; 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily, 212 N. Sixth St., Springfield; advance reservation required; adults $15, seniors $12, under 5 free; presidentlincoln.illinois.gov; 217-558-8844.

Art Center at Greater Livingston County Arts Council; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday; noon-4 p.m. Sunday; 209 W. Madison St., Pontiac; pcartcenter.com; 815-419-2472.

Contemporary Art Center of Peoria; Riverfront Arts Center, 305 S.W. Water St., Peoria; 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; peoriacac.org; 309-674-6822.

Dickson Mounds Museum; 10956 N. Dickson Mounds Road, Lewistown; open, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; free; illinoisstatemuseum.org; 309-547-3721.

Illinois State Museum; 502 S. Spring St., Springfield; open, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; Monday-Friday, free; illinoisstatemuseum.org; 217-782-7386.

Lincoln Heritage Museum; Lincoln Center at Lincoln College, 300 Keokuk St., Lincoln; 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 1-4 p.m. Saturday, closed Sundays, Mondays and on Lincoln College breaks; $4-7; museum.lincolncollege.edu; 217-735-7399.

Peoria Art Guild; 203 Harrison St., Peoria; open; 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Tuesday-Friday or by appointment; peoriaartguild.org; 309-637-2787.

Peoria Riverfront Museum; downtown riverfront Peoria; open 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday and Friday; 9 a.m.-6:30 p.m., Tuesday-Thursday; 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday; and closed Sunday; adults $11, seniors, students $10, ages 3-17 $9; peoriariverfrontmuseum.org; 309-686-7000.

Simpkins Military History Museum; 605 E. Cole St., Heyworth; Open Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 1-5 p.m.; Free admission (donations accepted); Private tours - call first; 309-319-3413; Open House, 1-5 p.m., March 19, marking 63 years of collecting military items.

Time Gallery; 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday-Friday; 9 a.m.-12 p.m., Saturday; Closed Sunday; Clock Tower Place Building, 201 Clock Tower Drive, East Peoria; 309-467-2331.

U of I Krannert Art Museum; 500 E. Peabody Drive, Champaign; open; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; Thursdays until 8 p.m. when classes are in session; closed Sunday and Monday; kam.illinois.edu; 217-333-1861.

Exhibits

"Community: African American Experience During Migration"; through Spring 2022; Owens Gallery; "American Verses: Terry Adkins, Mark Bradford & Kerry James Marshall"; through Spring 2022; Owens Gallery Annex; "Cinderella, Snow White & Pinocchio"; Classic Disney Art from the Collection of Steve Spain; Oberhelman Gallery; through May 8; "OP Art: Illusions from the Permanent Collection"; Experience Gallery, through May 8; "Moon"; Experience Gallery, through May 8; "Uncovered: The Ken Burns Collection"; Galleries 1 & 2; through June 5; Peoria Riverfront Museum.

"Sacred/Supernatural: Religion, Myth and Magic in European Prints, 1450-1900"; through May 15; "To Know The Fire: Pueblo Women Potters and The Shaping of History"; through Sept. 3; "Reckless Law, Shameless Order: An Intimate Experience of Incarceration"; through April 2; U of I Krannert Art Museum.

"Work, People, Art"; Lower level gallery; through April 1, 2022; Dickson Mounds Museum.

"Kevin Standberg"; Armstrong Gallery; through April 1; "Susan Holifield"; Dolan Gallery; through April 1; "95th Annual Amateur Art Exhibition"; Brandt Gallery; through April 8; McLean County Arts Center.

"The Space Between Us"; John Heintzman; March 2022; Peoria Art Guild.

"CAC Member Artists Biennial Exhibition"; through April 16; "Ann B. Coddington"; through April 9; Contemporary Art Center of Peoria.

"I love An Artist"; Rick & Melanie Picl; photography and mixed media art exhibit; through March 31; Time Gallery.

"Thickets...that which surrounds our struggles"; Drawings and inks by Herb Eaton; through April 20; Eaton Studio Gallery.

"MFA Thesis Exhibitions"; through April 4; University Galleries.

"2022 Honoring the Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans"; through Nov. 12; Simpkins Military History Museum.

"Edgewise"; second floor gallery; through Sept. 3; Illinois State Museum.

"Abandoned"; Tony Crowley; through April 9; Lincoln Arts Institute.

"35th Annual Student Exhibition"; March 28-April 20; Merwin and Wakeley Galleries.
BLOOMINGTON  Bloomington will soon begin redrawing the boundary lines of its nine wards to reflect population changes based on new 2020 Census data.

Illinois state law requires each of the wards to be as balanced and equal as possible, with no more than a 10% difference in population between districts, Communications Manager Katherine Murphy said Friday.

That means, based on the 2020 Census data, each ward should have as close as possible to 8,742 people. Two wards show more than a 10% imbalance: Ward 7, with 7,711 people (-11.79%), and Ward 8, with 10,973 people (+25.52%), according to documents prepared by city staff.

The Bloomington City Council on Monday will need to approve a resolution allowing city staff to draft at least two and no more than three different new ward map options for redistricting.

City staff will make precinct and population information available to the public through the city's website, and residents may also propose a new ward map based on that data. Resident-proposed maps must be submitted in writing to the city clerk before June 1.

A time will be scheduled for the council to discuss the proposed maps during the committee of the whole meeting on June 20, and a vote to adopt the new maps will be taken on July 11, according to the resolution.

In other business, the council will consider approving a $13,870,320 contract with P.J. Hoerr Inc. for the O'Neil Park and Pool project. The council will also need to approve a budget adjustment, as the project was originally budgeted at $11.7 million.

Bloomington received three bids for the project, with P.J. Hoerr coming in at the lowest. The other two bids were Williams Brothers Construction of Peoria, $14,730,200; and Leander Construction of Canton, $15,178,925.

If approved, the project would replace the park's 45-year-old aluminum pool, which was demolished in fall 2020. Current designs include a zero-depth entry pool with a slide, lazy river, lap pool, splash pad, bathhouse and concessions stand, as well as a new parking lot and skate park.

Bloomington will also consider executing an intergovernmental agreement with the Bloomington Public Library and an associated $20 million bond for the library's planned $22.8 million expansion.

The library raised its property tax rate to help fund the project, which brought the city's combined tax rate to .3040%. The rate increase was expected to allow the library to make an annual $850,000 debt service payment over the next 20 years to pay off the bonds issued by the city.

Construction on the expansion is expected to begin in April.

The Bloomington City Council will meet at 6 p.m. Monday on the fourth floor of the McLean County Government Center, 115 E. Washington St. Meetings are also livestreamed through the city's YouTube page.

Contact Sierra Henry at 309-820-3234. Follow her on Twitter: @pg_sierrahenry.

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DECATUR  The bald eagle was struggling for breath when it arrived at the Illinois Raptor Center in Decatur. Seizures shook the birds iconic snow-white head. Its dark wings rose and stiffened at awkward angles.

Aw, man, program director Jacques Nuzzo said to himself. This is lead.

He rushed to the eagles aid and stayed late into the night, dispensing difficult-to-obtain medication, as well as fluid for hydration and kind words for comfort. But the seizures continued, racking the birds body every five or 10 minutes.

By noon the next day, the patient was dead.

Such suffering is largely preventable, experts say, with studies showing a strong link between widespread lead poisoning in eagles and the use of lead ammunition by deer hunters. The ammunition fragments and disperses in a deers body, and eagles ingest it when they feast on gut piles, the internal organs that hunters remove and leave behind.

Other forms of ammunition are available  including copper and tungsten options  but information hasnt been readily available to hunters, and uptake has been slow.

It gets more frustrating every time I see one (of these cases). Its really awful, said Nuzzo, who treated the lead-poisoned eagle March 8, just two days after another eagle with lead poisoning died on its way to the same raptor center.

This is a problem that has been going on for over 80 years, and its a little mind-blowing that nothing has really, majorly, been done about it, Nuzzo said.

The Illinois Raptor Center, a 25-acre wildlife rehabilitation and education facility, has admitted 38 bald eagles since 2018, Nuzzo said. Of those, 19 had unhealthy lead levels and eight died from lead poisoning.

The lead poisoning issue got additional attention in February when the journal Science published a study of more than 1,200 eagles in 38 states that were tested for lead from 2010 to 2018. Almost half the eagles in the study had chronic lead poisoning.

The study found that cases of recent lead poisoning rise in winter, when eagles are most likely to be feeding on contaminated deer carcasses and gut piles.

Other studies show similar correlations and older research  conducted with portable X-ray devices up to 20 years ago  found that hunters discarded carcasses often contained lead fragments, according to study co-author Vincent Slabe, a wildlife research biologist at the nonprofit Conservation Science Global in Bozeman, Montana.

In addition, wildlife rehabilitation centers with X-ray machines have been able to show that when eagles have high lead levels, they often also have lead fragments in their digestive systems.

When you start piecing all of that together, there are very strong correlations suggesting that this is the pathway whereby eagles are lead-poisoned, Slabe said.

The U.S. banned the use of lead ammunition in waterfowl hunting in 1991, due in part to concerns that the birds were experiencing lead poisoning, and California banned all lead hunting ammunition in 2019. A lead hunting ammunition ban was introduced in the Illinois Senate in 2019 but didnt gain traction.

The Congressional Sportsmens Foundation, which has opposed lead ammunition bans, could not be reached for comment.

Some eagle advocates lean toward a ban, with Nuzzo saying that at this point its probably the best bet.

But Slabe disagreed, saying that bans can easily backfire, putting hunters  who tend to be pro-conservation and sympathetic to eagles  on the defensive.

Im pro-hunter. Im pro-conservation. Im also pro-eagle, Slabe said.

He said information about the effect of lead on eagles hasnt been widely available, and he cited an Arizona study that found that after a comprehensive public relations and education program, more than 80% of hunters took steps to protect California condors from lead poisoning. The hunters either switched to non-lead ammunition or put their gut piles in trash bags and removed them from wildlife areas.

Slabe said that when a deer is shot, lead bullets fragment and disperse in the animals body, leaving dozens  or even hundreds  of pieces of toxic metal, some of them only a little larger than the head of a pin.

If an eagle eats the contaminated meat, lead can cause problems with breathing, circulation, reproduction or respiration. Some eagles with lead poisoning lose their ability to fly. Eagles can also suffer brain damage or get food stuck in the crop  a storage area in the esophagus  and starve to death.

The lead poisoning problem is serious enough to suppress population growth for the estimated 340,000 eagles living in the United States, Slabes study found.

The bald eagle population, which currently increases by 10% a year, would increase by about 14% without lead poisoning, the study found. Similarly, the golden eagle population would grow at a rate of about 1% a year, up from zero growth today.

A hunter and fisherman, Nuzzo had already eliminated lead from most of his outdoor equipment when he treated the lead-poisoned eagle earlier this month, but that experience has inspired him to go further.

Now, he said, hes working on removing the last remnants of the toxic metal from his fishing gear.

It has to start with us, Nuzzo said. It would be a lot easier if you made the choice, rather than the government telling you what to do.

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CHICAGO - Lilian Rosales, 17, a senior at Muchin College Prep, grew up around real estate  her father and cousin work in the industry  but she didnt think shed consider a career in the field until she started her Urban Alliance internship. Instead, her family thought shed pursue a career in medicine.

Urban Alliance, a nonprofit internship program for high school youth, provides job skills training and mentoring. Its latest program, Property Management Pathway, allows high school seniors to choose either leasing or maintenance and earn professional credentials and certifications in those areas. Participants are paid for their work and receive class credit. After completing certification training, students participate in six- to eight-month internships, work 12 hours per week during the school year and 32 hours per week after graduation. Rosales internship is with Chicago-based apartment management firm RMK Management Corp., and shes learning the ins and outs of being a leasing consultant at 73 East Lake.

Leasing just excited me, the Chicago Lawn resident said. Theres a lot that goes into it ... its not only about contract reports, and understanding marketing reports, financials, its building relationships. With leasing, you create a great sense of community and a warm feeling of family. People come in looking for a home and we have a community that feels like home. Thats really great.

Rosales is one of a number of students in Chicago taking advantage of programs that local real estate organizations are offering to reach the next generation of real estate professionals while also diversifying the industry. Collete English Dixon, executive director of Roosevelt Universitys Marshall Bennett Institute of Real Estate, has been in the real estate industry for the last 40 years and says while more people from Black and brown communities are present in the field, the numbers havent moved dramatically.

Finally, the industry has come to the conclusion that lack of diversity is a problem, Dixon said. And if we really want to make a change, we cant wait for these young people to show up at college. We need to get them before they start making decisions about what their futures are going to be. We want to take the opportunity to potentially spark an interest in this industry, its impact and how people can be involved in it. This is not a rocket science industry. You can get in it in a lot of different ways.

Dixon visits high schools to talk to students about real estate careers. The Marshall Bennett Institute, which offers both undergraduate and graduate programs in real estate, has hosted the Real Estate Exchange (REEX) Summer Program, a two-week residential program for current high school juniors that exposes them to commercial real estate. Pangea Real Estate, a real estate investment and management company with 13,000-plus apartments and townhouses in Chicago, Indianapolis and Baltimore, hosts paid internships for high school juniors and seniors through its Foundations program. For six weeks during the summer, interns rotate between Pangeas downtown headquarters, contract center and neighborhood offices picking up knowledge from various departments while also working on their life skills like interviewing, resumes and LinkedIn profiles. Pangea also partners with Chicago Hope Academy, on the Near West Side, to share information about real estate as a career and mentoring.

Juniors and seniors in high school, those are the formative years that we are sourcing these applicants from, areas underserved or under-resourced, said Pangeas chief financial officer Patrick Borchard. In a lot of cases, its that aha moment of just opening their eyes to different professional careers that there might be. The ultimate goal for us is to get these kids exposure to the working world, the professional life and get them on their way in whichever path they choose for sort of establishing that for themselves.

He said over the years of providing internship opportunities to high schoolers, feedback from youth has centered more on entrepreneurship and technology and finding success for oneself. Weve been really focused on enriching the communities we are also investing in operating a business  this is just one part of that.

Abiodun Durojaye, Urban Alliances executive director, said early exposure to real estate industry skills and terminology helps students know what they want and dont want in a career. Urban Alliance mentors ask youth about their post-high-school plan, and if they want to work in real estate, Urban Alliance begins the conversations with contacts to make that happen. Partnering companies get the first opportunity to hire interns at the conclusion of the program.

We have 17 students learning, asking questions: If I want to work here, what do I need?  Durojaye said. College aint for everybody, we get that, but if they can get experience in real estate, get a certification and start working making $50,000 to $60,000 at 17-, 18-years-old? Thats life changing for a young person.

Jonathan Hill is an Urban Alliance alumnus from the Washington, D.C., area working at Chicago-based software development firm Relativity as a community engagement lead. Hes served as a mentor and his organization sponsors Urban Alliance interns.

When you think about the industries that Urban Alliance is exposing young people to in terms of careers, these are conversations that oftentimes are not happening in friend groups, in family households and communities, Hill said. This organization is being that steppingstone, that voice, that advocates for them to expose them early to something that they dont know  that kind of curation of development is one in a million. We need more of it.

Diana Pittro, RMK Management Corp.s executive vice president, agrees more is the way to go. She said her company has three interns, including Rosales.

I really think getting them in high school is the way to go, because from everything I read, theres more and more young people deciding not to go to college for many reasons, she said. And (real estate is) another opportunity they can look at as they start to wear their adult pants. My daughter is in the industry. And this is the way it happens, it comes by mentoring and hand-holding.

Durojaye challenges employers to think about authenticity moving forward. Seeing more people in real estate inquire and talk about the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion can make or break a students first-time experience into that world of work, she said.

Access and exposure matters, she said. We need to start breaking those barriers and making it comfortable for every student to be able to walk into these organizations as all of who they (are) and learn how to be the best version of who they are. If Im not accepted in a certain space, Im not going to go there.

Dixon said shes happy to be a contact for people who want to pull back the curtain on the great opportunities and potential of this industry. While the pandemic has slowed the pace of in-person summer programs, she hopes that too will change, getting more numbers to engage with Roosevelts summer immersion program and other classroom conversations.

Im trying to supplement the engagement with high school students through things like virtual speaker series participation, where someone from another company will come in and talk about what they do, Dixon said. I have a whole cohort of folks who are available to do that. Were going to keep trying to find ways to bring young people in the room and not only make a difference in their community, but they can also achieve a lot financially and personally, by being involved in this. We want to make sure that we have a pipeline of diverse talent to take advantage of that.

Rosales enthusiasm for what she found in real estate so far is evident.

When I did come into the office, I was expecting a man because in the real estate industry most of the higher ranks, you will see a man, Rosales said. But this office, I absolutely love because this office is run by a woman, which definitely shows that we can do it. No matter who you are, or where you come from this industry is open.

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SPRINGFIELD  Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Friday signed a measure to allocate $2.7 billion in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to pay down more than half of the states outstanding $4.5 billion Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund debt.

The measure, an amendment to Senate Bill 2803, also included over $1.4 billion in general revenue fund spending to pay down other state debts. Both houses passed it with only Democratic support this week.

Democrats repeatedly called out Republicans for voting against the debt retirement package.

Republicans, meanwhile, said that not allocating greater funding to the trust fund deficit will force some combination of tax increases on employers or benefit cuts to those on unemployment as a solution to paying down the remaining $1.8 billion in trust fund debt.

The trust fund is the pool of money paid into by businesses that funds unemployment claims. The debt accrued as the state borrowed from the federal government at the height of the pandemic to keep the trust fund solvent amid an unprecedented crush of claims.

When states accrue trust fund debt, the ways to pay it down have historically included raising insurance premium rates paid by employers, decreasing unemployment benefits, or seeing a new influx of cash, such as federal, state or private funds.

Discussions continue with business and labor interests on addressing the remaining $1.8 billion.

An employer group including the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, the Illinois Manufacturers Association, Illinois Chamber of Commerce, Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Businesses of Illinois, and the Associated General Contractors of Illinois, issued a statement calling the measure a positive step.

Were hopeful that negotiations will continue to resolve the remaining balance of this unprecedented deficit, the business group said.

Private bonding, benefit cuts and premium increases are all being considered.

As of Wednesday, the state had already accrued $41 million of interest on the debt and it continued to accrue at a rate of 1.59%. That interest was due to be paid by Sept. 30, according to the U.S. Treasury.

By November, without action, that interest was expected to grow to $80 million. Interest cant be paid through ARPA, so it would require a General Revenue Fund allotment.

The measure also allocated $898 million in general revenue funds to pay off old group health insurance bills, an added $300 million to pension payments beyond statutory levels and $230 million to pay off the unfunded liabilities of the College Illinois savings program  all cornerstones of Pritzkers debt retirement initiatives put forth in his budget proposal. Those allotments will come from the states General Revenue Funds from the anticipated Fiscal Year 2022 surplus.

The pension spending would create $1 billion in savings to the states pension system over its life, while the group health insurance payments would save over $100 million in interest and the College Illinois payment would create a $75 million savings, according to estimates from House Democrats.

* * *

CAMPAIGN FUNDS FOR LEGAL FEES: The Illinois Supreme Court ruled Thursday that 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 2019 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 to 2019 representing the citys 25th Ward and for a time chaired the councils powerful Zoning Committee. He did not run for reelection in 2019 and was succeeded in office by current Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez.

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 the public first learned of a sweeping criminal complaint that had been filed against Burke for allegedly using his position to corruptly solicit business for his private law firms from companies involved in redevelopment projects in his 14th Ward.

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.

In the courts 17-page ruling released Thursday, the remaining four justices partially rejected the committees argument that 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 that 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.

* * *

FOID CONSTITUTIONALITY: The Illinois Supreme Court is being asked for a second time to decide whether a state law requiring gun owners to have a firearm permit is unconstitutional  a question the court previously declined to answer.

The case involves a White County resident, Vivian Claudine Brown, who was charged in March 2017 with possession of a firearm without a Firearm Owners Identification, or FOID card.

A circuit judge in White County threw out the charge, saying the Illinois law requiring potential gun owners to fill out a form, provide a picture ID, undergo a background check and pay a $10 fee to obtain a FOID card was unconstitutional, at least as it applied to Brown. The judge said it imposed a burden on Browns Second Amendment right to keep a firearm in her own home for self-defense.

The circuit court went on to say, even though Browns attorneys never raised the issue, that it is impossible to comply with the act in ones own home. Thats because it would mean anybody who had knowledge of a firearm in the home and exclusive control over the area where it was kept could be construed as possessing the gun and therefore would have to have their FOID card on their person 24 hours a day.

The state appealed that decision directly to the state Supreme Court, but in April 2020, the high court declined to answer the question of the laws constitutionality. Instead, it said the White County court had rushed to rule on the laws constitutionality when it could have decided the case on other grounds, namely that the General Assembly never intended the FOID Card Act to apply in the home.

The Supreme Court then sent the case back to White County with instructions to enter a modified order that did not touch on the constitutionality question.

The White County court did that, but then in an unusual move, Browns attorneys asked the court to reconsider, arguing that the modified order forced Brown to take a position she didnt want to take and one that would ultimately be overturned on appeal, thus delaying any final resolution of the case, possibly for years.

The circuit court agreed and reinstated the charges against her. Browns attorneys then filed a new motion to dismiss on constitutional grounds. The judge then upheld that motion, finding that any fee associated with exercising the core fundamental Constitutional right of armed self-defense within the confines of ones home violates the Second Amendment.

The state then appealed that decision back to the Illinois Supreme Court. The court took the case under advisement and hosted oral arguments this week but did not indicate how long it might take to issue a decision.

* * *

PRISONER REVIEW BOARD: The Senate Executive Appointments Committee moved six appointees to the Illinois Prisoner Review Board through committee on Tuesday, but the only appointee of Gov. Pritzker that came for a vote before the full Senate was rejected.

The 15-member Prisoner Review Board decides on the release and conditions of release for offenders from the Illinois Department of Corrections. The governor appoints the board, the Executive Appointments Committee votes on whether to recommend those appointments, and the full Senate determines whether the members will be approved.

On Tuesday morning, PRB member Jeff Mears was recommended by the Senate Executive Appointments Committee, but by late Tuesday afternoon he failed to reach the 30-vote threshold for approval by the full Senate.

In addition to 18 Republicans who voted no, 18 Democrats did not vote. Sen. Patrick Joyce, D-Essex, joined the GOP and voted no.

Mears is a former Illinois Department of Corrections employee from southern Illinois. He has voted on more than 40 cases for the PRB while awaiting Senate action.

Pritzker spokesperson Jordan Abudayyeh in an email blamed Republicans for the denial Tuesday and touted Mears resume.

Republicans have set out on a mission to dismantle a constitutional function of government, just like the previous governor, she said in a statement. We remain committed to ensuring that highly qualified nominees fill these roles, especially because we must fulfill our constitutional obligations for justice and cannot jeopardize key public safety functions of the board like revoking parole for those who violate the terms of their release.

The statement was referring to parole revocation hearings held by the PRB at locations around the state about 15 to 20 times per month. Three board members must be present at each hearing to render a decision on whether to terminate an offenders parole, otherwise the offender would be released and deemed not in violation of parole.

Pritzker, in a letter last week, urged the Senate to act on appointments to address the potential of not having enough board members for the revocation hearings.

PRB members Ken Tupy, Jared Bohland and LeAnn Miller were also recommended by the committee, with Tupy and Bohland receiving unanimous support.

The Senate did not take up those appointees but has until the end of session on Monday to vote on them before they are automatically approved due to a provision in the Illinois Constitution that sets a 60-session-day timer for action.

Two other PRB appointees, Oreal James and Eleanor Kaye Wilson, were passed along for Senate consideration without recommendation from the committee. These appointments, too, must go before the Senate by end of session Monday for a vote or they will be automatically approved.

Last week, Pritzker withdrew his appointment of PRB member Max Cerda. Cerda was convicted of a double murder when he was 16 years old. He was released from prison when he was 35 and began working with offenders transitioning into life outside of prison.

* * *

VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER TAX CREDIT: 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.

* * *

INSURANCE DISPUTE: An ongoing contract dispute between a major health insurance company and a large health care provider in Springfield is drawing the attention of both state lawmakers and the state Department of Insurance.

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 copayments.

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 ever 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 percent increase in its rates, which the insurance company says are already above average for the region and the state.

A spokesperson 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.

Meanwhile, both BCBS and Springfield Clinic were scheduled to appear Tuesday afternoon 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 over 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.

* * *

WATER RIGHTS: The Illinois Supreme Court is being asked to decide the extent to which property owners can block anyone else, including neighboring property owners, from accessing a river that runs through their property.

Its a question of law that Illinois courts have not fully addressed before and one over which different states have vastly different policies.

The case involves two property owners who own land along the Mazon River, in Grundy County, a portion of which has been declared a National Historic Landmark because it has significant and unique fossil deposits dating back some 300 million years.

The Mazon River is designated as non-navigable under Illinois law, meaning it is not wide or deep enough to carry commercial traffic such as barges.

Adam Holm and his family own two noncontiguous parcels of land along the river, one of which is accessible by road and one of which is not.

Holm, who operates a fossil-hunting business, used a kayak to traverse down the river from one parcel of land to the other to gather fossils, passing through land owned by Peter Kodat, who also operates a fossil hunting business.

In September 2016, Kodat called the Grundy County Sheriffs Office to report two people kayaking in front of his property. Sheriffs officers responded and informed Holm that he was trespassing by kayaking on the river, even if he remained in the kayak and never went on land.

Holm then sued, asking the court to declare that as a riparian landowner, he had a right to access the full length of the river, even if that meant traversing across Kodats property.

Although there were allegations that Holm had, in fact, been taking fossils from Kodats property, that was never adjudicated in court.

At issue, according to Holms attorney Zachary Pollack, is whether a civil law principle should apply, allowing a riparian landowner to use the entire surface of a non-navigable river or whether courts should apply a common law principle that says riparian landowners have a right to exclude others from accessing the portion of a river that crosses their property.

Pollack noted that some states, like New Mexico, have laws that effectively make rivers and streams public property, thus prohibiting landowners from barring public access to those waters.

In Illinois, he said, courts have never directly addressed the question of the civil law principle that applies to accessing rivers, lakes and streams. Most decisions have dealt with access to lakes.

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DECATUR  Having served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War from 1963 to 1966, Michael Mills said all who served during that time were truly exceptional.

Stationed at the Cu Chi base camp between the Cambodian border and Saigon, which is now known as Ho Chi Minh City, Mills said he went back to Vietnam in 2020 to visit the place he once stood almost 60 years ago.

"We were one of a kind," said Mills, with his son Chris, who also served in the Army from 1987 to 2005. "We were spit on when we came home and everything, and when we get together, we all know we don't have to explain anything to anybody."

Veterans and their families gathered at the Decatur Civic Center Saturday for a Vietnam Veterans Recognition Day with special guest speaker, Iraq War veteran and retired Staff Sgt. Shilo Harris.

The event was hosted by the Veterans Recognition of Central Illinois, and committeeman Gary Fyke said he first saw Harris back in 2019 at a seminar in Dallas, where he spoke with him about coming up to Central Illinois for a weekend.

Three years later, Fyke was picking up Harris from the Central Illinois Regional Airport in Bloomington, with a warm crowd of supporters and veterans welcoming him.

"We were just blessed that he had this open, because this is a date he usually has booked," said Fyke, who served in the Marine Corps. during Vietnam from 1970 to 1971. "It turned out to be really great for us."

Harris, who is from San Antonio, Texas, is the author of the book "Steel Will," about his experience during the Iraq War. He's also a motivational speaker who talks with fellow veterans and soldiers across the country.

Harris suffered severe burns to over 35% of his body after his armored vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device on Feb. 19, 2007. Three of his fellow servicemembers were killed, and Harris was in a coma for 48 days.

"Despite my injuries, I had limitations before in my life," Harris said. "God does not do bad things, but God could change the narrative. God can change the conclusion of that episode and turn it into a blessing for you as long as you remain faithful, and that's something I've tried to do each and every day, is put one foot in front of the other and say, 'I know there's a blessing behind this, I just need to find it.'"

While spending nearly three years recovering and undergoing intensive physical therapy at the burn unit of Brooklyn Medical Center in San Antonio, Harris said his first experience speaking in public almost happened by accident.

At the beginning of his journey, Harris was walking around the hospital looking for the doctor's office when he walked into a room filled with caregivers, trauma nurses and chaplains getting ready for an orientation. One of them asked if he was their guest speaker.

Harris initially said no, but jokingly said he could, and told the group his story, leaving the crowd amazed, and himself with a different sense of purpose.

"With every presentation, I try to always speak from the heart, because it's like I said, I've got so many things to be thankful for," Harris said. "Yes, I got injured. Yes, I have injuries and yes, I have disabilities, but I think we all have limitations in our life. It's how we deal with them on the back end that makes us different and separates us from those other people."

"Everybody has that ability to pull themselves through and get out there and just do it," he said.

Greg Collins, superintendent of the Veterans Assistance Commission of Macon County, who also served in the Marine Corps. during the Iraq War from 2001 to 2005, said he works with veterans who have conditions from Agent Orange exposure and other combat-related injuries, with a goal of helping them receive the treatment they deserve.

Collins said although he served during a different time than most of the veterans he works with, he feels that each one is like a brother to him.

"They didn't get treated right coming home, so that's why it's important for us to pay them back now," Collins said. "I know a lot of these guys on a personal basis and it's not just personal, I treat them all like brothers."

Vietnam veteran Roger Farris, who served in Dong Ha from 1969 to 1970, said he comes to the Vietnam Veterans Recognition Day every year to reconnect with old friends, and this year he was especially interested in hearing Harris speak.

"We're all brothers, we all did what we thought was right, and we didn't do it for a pat on the back," Farris said. "We did it for our country, and that's why we're here now."

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There's been an increase in petroleum products from the start of this year to March. While Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) review their prices upwards, drivers; public and private express worry about the incessant increment.



Commuters, on the other hand, bear the rippling effect of the increase in fuel prices as commercial vehicle drivers pass on the cost to them [passengers] by increasing transport fares.



Currently, some pumps are selling diesel at GH10.80pesewas and petrol at GH9.70pesewas.



Transport unions have bemoaned the latest price of fuel and have called on government to look into this growing menace.



Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, on Thursday, March 24 announced a 1.6% reduction in petrol and a 1.4% in diesel.



The 15 pesewas nominal margin, Ken Ofori-Atta said, formed part of government's far-reaching measures to stabilize fuel prices at various pumps.



These reductions in margins are expected to reduce prices of petrol by 1.6% and diesel by 1.4%. We anticipate that the measures taken to strengthen the currency will help further stabilize the prices at the pump, he said.



Per GhanaWeb's calculations, petrol and diesel which currently sell at an average GH 9.70 and GH 10.80 per litre respectively would be selling at GH9.55 pesewas and GH10.65pesewas effective Friday, April 1, 2022.



This reduction, the finance minister said was to mitigate the impact of rising petroleum products at the pump for the next 3 months.



Meanwhile, Ken Ofori-Atta said the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) was in discussion with the oil marketing companies (OMCs) to reduce their margins within the spirit of burden-sharing.



Former Deputy Energy Minister, John Jinapor, has described the 15 pesewas reduction in fuel prices by the government as shambolic.



According to Mr Jinapor, the reduction will not help in any way to alleviate the current hardship of Ghanaians because the price of fuel has already increased five times in 2022.



If you reduce petroleum prices by 15 pesewas, what is the net effect? The net effect is that youre reducing the prices by 1.4%. Already, this year, petroleum prices at the pump have increased by about 66%, he said.



The former deputy minister, who is also the Member of Parliament for Yapei-Kusawgu, attributed the increase in fuel prices to the depreciation of the Ghana Cedi.

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.

Featured Video
The Odumase District Police Command of the Ghana Police Service in the Eastern Region on Friday arrested 17 suspected criminals at different ghettos in various suburbs of the District.



The swoop was undertaken at Odumase and Atua by the security agency during the day as part of efforts to clamp down on illegal activities in the area.



This comes amid a growing sense of insecurity as residents complain of petty criminal activities in the area.



In all, seventeen suspects including three females were arrested Friday and detained in police custody. Substances suspected to be Indian hemp were found in their possession in the course of the raid.



Explaining the reasons behind the swoop, Odumase District Police Commander, Supt Doris Akua Grant told GhanaWeb that the operation was aimed at cracking down on and ridding the communities of substance abuse and the proliferation of ghettoes.



We realized how the youth in the community are taking to drugs especially the smoking of weed and then petty stealing in the community and also we had information about the upsurge in ghettos in the communities, said the Commander.



She furthered that similar operations would be carried out periodically until the overall objective of the police service is achieved. Supt. Grant said, Were not going to stop, well do the swoops regularly so that all these things will stop in the communities.



The operation did not go without stiff resistance from the youth as some of them resisted arrest and pelted stones at the police.



Nevertheless, the police commander said such incidents would not stop the police from going about their duties.



She said statements would be taken from the suspects after which they would be screened.



Supt Doris Akua Grant however described the general security situation in the district as calm.







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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Thieves have reportedly broken into a local branch of the Apostolic Church and have made away with some musical instruments belonging to the church.



According to Daily Guide, the thieves broke into the auditorium of Asenma Akuapem Apostolic Church and stole an amplifier, mixer and a keyboard.



The operation occurred on the dawn of Tuesday, March 22, 2022  the report says this is the second time the church has been burgled in the last three years.



However, the leadership of the church have since lodged a complaint with the police over the matter.







Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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A 36-year-old pastor will spend the next eight years in prison away from his pregnant wife after he was found guilty of defiling a 15-year-old junior high school student of the Nuaso Presby Junior School 1.



Nii Kwartei on Wednesday, 23rd March, 2022 lured the victim into a guest house at Manaam, a suburb of Odumase-Krobo where he defiled her.



Prosecuting, C/Inspr. Peter Azigi on Friday, 25th March, 2022 told an Odumase-Krobo Circuit presided over by Mr. Frank Gbeddy that the complainant in the case, a 36-year-old petty trader, lived with her children at Nuaso, a suburb of Odumase-Krobo.



He added that the convict also lived in the same vicinity as the complainant and her children where he operated a Ministry. He furthered that the convict took advantage of the victims association with his ministry to propose love to her.



According to the prosecution, the victim visited Nii Kwartei in his home at about 11 am last Wednesday where he asked her to accompany him to the market. He said on their way, he managed to convince her to go with him to the guest house where he forcefully had sexual intercourse with her.



He subsequently gave her Ghc20 and asked her to go home. Upon reaching home, the complainant demanded to know where her daughter was coming from, forcing the victim to narrate her ordeal to the complainant.



A complaint was immediately lodged with the Odumase-Krobo Police where police medical report forms were issued to the complainant to send the victim to hospital for medical examination and endorsement.



Nii Kwartei was subsequently arrested where he in his caution statement and before an independent witness, admitted to committing the crime and was subsequently convicted.

Source: Ghanaweb.com









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A woman by the name, Moda, who lives in Kumasi has sadly recounted how his ex-lover, Yaw Boafo, a sub-chief at the Offinso Palace together with his friend, Akwasi Kyei ganged up and raped her.



According to her, she dated one of the suspects, Yaw Boafo for a year.



Narrating her ordeal on Oyerepa Afufuo, she disclosed that they slept with her countless time.



"Yaw Boafo called and told me he has some issues to discuss with me. I met him and his friend at Atinga junction in Kumasi," she stated.



Moda explained that Yaw Boafo asked her to accompany him to the friend's house for a bag.



Yaw Boafo, 50 years, asked me to accompany him to his friend, Kyei's house to carry a bag. When we got there, he told me we are not here for a bag but I'm coming to have sex with you," she told Aunty Naa, host of the show.



According to Moda, her effort to prevent Yaw Boafo couldn't succeed because his friend, Akwasi Kyei, a plywood seller, joined him. She claimed they forcefully had sex with her.



I was struggling with Yaw Boafo, but his friend Akwasi Kyei came in and started losing his belt, they eventually slept with me simultaneously," Moda sadly explained.



Watch video below:





Source: Source: ghanaguardian.com









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US President, Joe Biden has labeled the Russian President Vladimir Putin a "butcher".

His remarks came while he visited refugees from war torn Ukraine in Warsaw, Poland on Saturday, March 26.



This comes a week after he called Putin a 'war criminal'.



During the visit, Biden was asked by reporters what were his thoughts after seeing the Ukrainian refugees at Poland while he has to deal with Putin every day.



Biden responded: "He's a butcher." After initially looking to downplay a personal rivalry between himself and Putin.



During the brief question-and-answer session, Biden recounted how he had been to places like this in his life but said he is always surprised by "the depth and strength of the human spirit."



"It's incredible, it's incredible. See all those little children. Just want to hug, just want to say thanks. I mean, it's, just makes you so damn proud," he said.



He added, "Each one of those children said something to the effect, 'Say a prayer for my dad or my grandfather or my brother who's back there fighting. And I remember what it's like when you have someone in a war zone. Every morning you get up and you wonder. You just wonder. And you pray you don't get that phone call."



Last week, Biden also referred to him as a "murderous dictator, a pure thug who is waging an immoral war against the people of Ukraine."



The US State Department on Wednesday formally declared that members of the Russian armed forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine. The decision to issue a formal accusation marked a significant step by the US government after weeks of declining to officially say that the attacks committed against civilians in Ukraine were war crimes.



More than 3.5 million refugees have now fled Ukraine, according to data from the United Nations refugee agency released on Tuesday. A vast majority of those refugees have fled to Ukraine's western neighbors across Europe.









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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From left to right, Laura Tyson, Tod Smith and Rebecca Caldwell, residents of Eldorado Springs, watch as the NCAR fire burns in the foothills south of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Saturday, March 26, 2022, in Boulder, Colo. The NCAR fire prompted evacuations in south Boulder and pre-evacuation warning for Eldorado Springs. Credit: Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via AP

Authorities issued an evacuation order for 19,400 people Saturday near a fast-moving Colorado wildfire in rolling hills south of the college town of Boulder, not far from the site of a destructive 2021 blaze that leveled more than 1,000 homes.

The wildfire was fueled by wind earlier in the day and had grown to 122 acres (49 hectares) with no containment, Boulder Fire-Rescue spokesperson Marya Washburn said. The Boulder Office of Emergency Management said an overnight shelter was opened after evacuation orders covered 8,000 homes and 7,000 structures. No structures had been damaged.

Winds and temperatures have died down, Washburn said. Officials expect to be dealing with the fire for several days due to heavy fuels, said Boulder Fire-Rescue Wildland Division Chief Brian Oliver.

The fire is in an area where a blaze destroyed 1,000 homes last year in unincorporated Boulder County and suburban Superior and Louisville. Superior town officials told residents in an email that there were no immediate concerns for the community.

The 2021 blaze burned Alicia Miller's home, where she could see smoke from Saturday's fire rising in the background. She posted a photo on Twitter and referenced climate change, which has made the U.S. West warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more destructive, according to scientists.

A helicopter flies above the smoke from the NCAR fire as it burns in the foothills south of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Saturday, March 26, 2022, in Boulder, Colo. Credit: Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via AP

Boulder County Sheriff deputies keep the road closed at Highway 93 and Eldorado Spring Drive as the NCAR fire burns in the foothills south of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Saturday, March 26, 2022, in Boulder, Colo. Credit: Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via AP

People watch as the NCAR fire burns in the foothills south of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Saturday, March 26, 2022, in Boulder, Colo. Credit: Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via AP

A helicopter flies above the smoke from the NCAR fire as it burns in the foothills south of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Saturday, March 26, 2022, in Boulder, Colo. The NCAR fire prompted evacuations in south Boulder and pre-evacuation warning for Eldorado Springs. Credit: Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via AP

The NCAR fire burns in the foothills south of the National Center for Atmospheric Research Saturday, March 26, 2022 in Boulder, Colo. About 19,000 Colorado residents were ordered to evacuate Saturday due to a fast-moving wildfire near the site of a destructive 2021 blaze. The wildfire had grown to 123 acres (50 hectares) by late afternoon with no containment, according to the Boulder Office of Emergency Management. Evacuation orders covered 8,000 homes. Springs in southwestern Boulder County. Credit: Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via AP

The NCAR fire burns in the foothills south of the National Center for Atmospheric Research Saturday, March 26, 2022 in Boulder, Colo. About 19,000 Colorado residents were ordered to evacuate Saturday due to a fast-moving wildfire near the site of a destructive 2021 blaze. The wildfire had grown to 123 acres (50 hectares) by late afternoon with no containment, according to the Boulder Office of Emergency Management. Evacuation orders covered 8,000 homes. Springs in southwestern Boulder County. Credit: Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via AP

This photo provided by realtor Alicia Miller shows the ruins of Miller's former house, which burned to the ground on Dec. 30, 2021, in the devastating Marshall Fire that roared through Louisville, Colo., as smoke from the NCAR Fire burns, Saturday, March 26, 2022, in the background. About 1,200 Colorado residents have been ordered to evacuate due to a fast-moving wildfire near the site of a destructive 2021 blaze, Boulder police said. Credit: Alicia Miller via AP

A single engine air tanker drops water on the NCAR fire as it burns in the foothills south of the National Center for Atmospheric Research Saturday, March 26, 2022 in Boulder, Colo. About 19,000 Colorado residents were ordered to evacuate Saturday due to a fast-moving wildfire near the site of a destructive 2021 blaze. The wildfire had grown to 123 acres (50 hectares) by late afternoon with no containment, according to the Boulder Office of Emergency Management. Evacuation orders covered 8,000 homes. Springs in southwestern Boulder County. Credit: Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via AP

Smoke billows from a wildfire Saturday, March 26, 2022 in Marshall, Colo. a few miles south of Boulder, Colo. About 1,200 Colorado residents have been ordered to evacuate due to a fast-moving wildfire near the site of a destructive 2021 blaze, Boulder police said Saturday. Credit: AP Photo/Dave Zelio

Smoke billows from a wildfire Saturday, March 26, 2022 in Marshall, Colo. a few miles south of Boulder, Colo. About 1,200 Colorado residents have been ordered to evacuate due to a fast-moving wildfire near the site of a destructive 2021 blaze, Boulder police said Saturday. Credit: AP Photo/Dave Zelio

Smoke billows from a wildfire Saturday, March 26, 2022 in Marshall, Colo. a few miles south of Boulder, Colo. About 1,200 Colorado residents have been ordered to evacuate due to a fast-moving wildfire near the site of a destructive 2021 blaze, Boulder police said Saturday. Credit: AP Photo/Dave Zelio

Miller said her neighbors helped her escape along with her husband, Craig, their three adult sons and two dogs, Ginger and Chloe. She said the hardest losses from the blaze were things they didn't look at much, like baby shoes, family pictures and letters from her grandmother.

"I feel exhausted by all of this, and I just feel like enough as far as these fires and disasters," she said. She pointed to a recent Texas wildfire that left a deputy dead and homes destroyed. " ... So I'm standing there and it's just kind of a repeat."

Saturday's fire started around 2 p.m. and burned protected wildland near the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder police said. Authorities have called it the NCAR fire and its cause is not yet known, said Washburn.

Explore further Heavy snows to hit Colorado after wildfires destroyed hundreds of homes

 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
This photo provided by the CNES shows a Russian Soyuz rocket lifting off from the Kourou space base, French Guiana, early Wednesday Dec.18, 2019. The war in Ukraine is causing a swift and broad decaying of scientific ties between Russia and the West. Credit: JM Guillon/ESA-CNES-Arianespace via AP, File

Without Russian help, climate scientists worry how they'll keep up their important work of documenting warming in the Arctic.

Europe's space agency is wrestling with how its planned Mars rover might survive freezing nights on the Red Planet without its Russian heating unit.

And what of the world's quest for carbon-free energy if 35 nations cooperating on an experimental fusion-power reactor in France can't ship vital components from Russia?

In scientific fields with profound implications for mankind's future and knowledge, Russian President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine is causing a swift and broad decaying of relationships and projects that bound together Moscow and the West. Post-Cold War bridge-building through science is unraveling as Western nations seek to punish and isolate the Kremlin by drying up support for scientific programs involving Russia.

The costs of this decoupling, scientists say, could be high on both sides. Tackling climate change and other problems will be tougher without collaboration and time will be lost. Russian and Western scientists have become dependent on each other's expertise as they have worked together on conundrums from unlocking the power of atoms to firing probes into space. Picking apart the dense web of relationships will be complicated.

The ITER Tokamak machine is pictured in Saint-Paul-Lez-Durance, France, Sept. 9, 2021. The war in Ukraine is causing a swift and broad decaying of scientific ties between Russia and the West. However, work continues on the 35-nation ITER fusion-energy project in southern France, with Russia still among seven founders sharing costs and results from the experiment. Credit: AP Photo/Daniel Cole, File

The European Space Agency's planned Mars rover with Russia is an example. Arrays of Russian sensors to sniff, scour and study the planet's environment may have to be unbolted and replaced and a non-Russian launcher rocket found if the suspension of their collaboration becomes a lasting rupture. In that case, the launch, already scrubbed for this year, couldn't happen before 2026.

"We need to untangle all this cooperation which we had, and this is a very complex process, a painful one I can also tell you," the ESA director, Josef Aschbacher, said in an Associated Press interview. "Dependency on each other, of course, creates also stability and, to a certain extent, trust. And this is something that we will lose, and we have lost now, through the invasion of Russia in Ukraine."

International indignation and sanctions on Russia are making formal collaborations difficult or impossible. Scientists who became friends are staying in touch informally but plugs are being pulled on their projects big and small. The European Union is freezing Russian entities out of its main 95 billion euro ($105 billion) fund for research, suspending payments and saying they'll get no new contracts. In Germany, Britain and elsewhere, funding and support is also being withdrawn for projects involving Russia.

In the United States, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology severed ties with a research university it helped establish in Moscow. The oldest and largest university in Estonia won't accept new students from Russia and ally Belarus. The president of the Estonian Academy of Sciences, Tarmo Soomere, says the breaking of scientific connections is necessary but also will hurt.

"We are in danger of losing much of the momentum that drives our world towards better solutions, (a) better future," he told the AP. "Globally, we are in danger of losing the core point of sciencewhich is obtaining new and essential information and communicating it to others."

A part of the cryostat component of the ITER machine is pictured in Saint-Paul-Lez-Durance, France, Sept. 9, 2021. The war in Ukraine is causing a swift and broad decaying of scientific ties between Russia and the West. However, work continues on the 35-nation ITER fusion-energy project in southern France, with Russia still among seven founders sharing costs and results from the experiment. Credit: AP Photo/Daniel Cole, File

Russian scientists are bracing for painful isolation. An online petition by Russian scientists and scientific workers opposed to the war says it now has more than 8,000 signatories. They warn that by invading Ukraine, Russia has turned itself into a pariah state, which "means that we can't normally do our work as scientists, because conducting research is impossible without full-fledged cooperation with foreign colleagues."

The growing estrangement is being pushed by Russian authorities, too. An order from the Science Ministry suggested that scientists no longer need bother getting research published in scientific journals, saying they'll no longer be used as benchmarks for the quality for their work.

Lev Zelenyi, a leading physicist at the Space Research Institute in Moscow who was involved in the now-suspended collaboration on the ExoMars rover, described the situation as "tragic" and said by email to the AP that he and other Russian scientists must now "learn how to live and work in this new non-enabling environment."

On some major collaborations, the future isn't clear. Work continues on the 35-nation ITER fusion-energy project in southern France, with Russia still among seven founders sharing costs and results from the experiment.

ITER spokesman Laban Coblentz said the project remains "a deliberate attempt by countries with different ideologies to physically build something together." Among the essential components being supplied by Russia is a massive superconducting magnet awaiting testing in St. Petersburg before shipmentdue in several years.

This illustration made available by the European Space Agency shows the European-Russian ExoMars rover. The war in Ukraine is causing a swift and broad decaying of scientific ties between Russia and the West. Europe's space agency is wrestling with how its planned Mars rover might survive freezing nights on the Red Planet without its Russian heating unit. Credit: European Space Agency via AP, File

Researchers hunting for elusive dark matter hope they'll not lose the more than 1,000 Russian scientists contributing to experiments at the European nuclear research organization CERN. Joachim Mnich, the director for research and computing, said punishment should be reserved for the Russian government, not Russian colleagues. CERN has already suspended Russia's observer status at the organization, but "we are not sending anyone home," Mnich told the AP.

In other fields as well, scientists say Russian expertise will be missed. Adrian Muxworthy, a professor at London's Imperial College, says that in his research of the Earth's magnetic field, Russian-made instruments "can do types of measurements that other commercial instruments made in the West can't do." Muxworthy is no longer expecting delivery from Russia of 250 million-year-old Siberian rocks that he had planned to study.

In Germany, atmospheric scientist Markus Rex said the year-long international mission he led into the Arctic in 2019-2020 would have been impossible without powerful Russian ships that bust through the ice to keep their research vessel supplied with food, fuel and other essentials. The Ukraine invasion is stopping this "very close collaboration," as well as future joint efforts to study the impact of climate change, he told the AP.

"It will hurt science. We are going to lose things," Rex said. "Just lay out a map and look at the Arctic. It is extremely difficult to do meaningful research in the Arctic if you ignore that big thing there that is Russia."

"It really is a nightmare because the Arctic is changing rapidly," he added. "It won't wait for us to solve all of our political conflicts or ambitions to just conquer other countries."

Explore further Atom-smashing CERN lab ratchets up measures against Russia

 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Observations being taken at rain gauges in Seathwaite in the Lake District in 1895. Credit: Met Office

Record-breaking Victorian weather has been revealed after millions of archived rainfall records dating back nearly 200 years were rescued by thousands of volunteers during the first COVID-19 lockdown.

The Rainfall Rescue project was launched by the University of Reading in March 2020 and offered members of the public a way of distracting themselves from the pandemic by digitally transcribing 130 years' worth of handwritten rainfall observations from across the UK and Ireland.

Some 16,000 volunteers responded to the challenge, digitising 5.2 million observations in just 16 days. Ahead of the two-year anniversary of the project launch, on Saturday 26 March, these records have now been made publicly available in the official Met Office national record, extending it back 26 years to 1836.

The volunteers' efforts have revealed some new records for extreme dry and wet months across the UK, as well as providing more context around recent changes in rainfall due to human-caused climate change.

Professor Ed Hawkins, a climate scientist at the University of Reading and Rainfall Rescue project lead, said: "I am still blown away by the response this project got from the public. Transcribing the records required around 100 million keystrokes, yet what I thought would take several months was completed in a matter of days.

"Thanks to the hard work of the volunteers, we now have detailed accounts of the amount of rain that fell, back to 1836, as seen through the eyes of other dedicated volunteers from several generations ago. To put that in context, 1836 was the year Charles Darwin returned to the UK on the Beagle with Vice-Admiral Robert Fitzroy, and a year before Queen Victoria took to the throne.

"As well as being a fascinating glimpse into the past, the new data allows a longer and more detailed picture of variations in monthly rainfall, which will aid new scientific research two centuries on. It increases our understanding of weather extremes and flood risk across the UK and Ireland, and helps us better understand the long-term trends towards the dramatic changes we're seeing today."

Dr. Mark McCarthy, head of the Met Office's National Climate Information Centre, said: "The UK rainfall record is notoriously variable, with extremes of weather presenting us with drought and flood. The more we can shine a light into the earlier chapters and extremes within the rainfall record, the better we are able to understand the risks presented to us by climate change and future extreme weather events."

Paper record showing handwritten rainfall observations signed by Lady Bayning of Honingham Hall between 1880 and 1889. Credit: Met Office

Notable details uncovered by Rainfall Rescue volunteers include:

The driest year on record is now 1855 (786.5mm), thanks to the new data.

For many regions and England as a whole, the driest May on record was May 2020 (for England 9.6mm), when some volunteers were still helping confirm the Rainfall Rescue transcriptions. In doing so they shifted those records back to May 1844 (for England 8.3mm).

November/December 1852 were confirmed as exceptionally wet monthsDecember 1852 now being the third wettest month on record in Cumbria (364.9mm) and November 1852 being the wettest month on record for large parts of southern England. Floods are known to have occurred in a number of locations at this time, and are known as the Duke of Wellington Floods as they started around the time of his state funeral in London.

Observations were made by people from a range of backgroundssuch as "Lady Bayning," who recorded rainfall in Norfolk between 1835-1887, even taking her rainfall gauge to London for the social season.

A vast number of locations with rain gauges across the country were included, including one next door to Beatrix Potter's Hilltop Farm in the Lake District, where she wrote many of her most famous books.

Pre-digital age

Paper records studied by Rainfall Rescue volunteers contained observations between 1677 and 1960, based on rain gauges located in almost every town and village across England and Wales.

Rainfall has been monitored systematically for the whole UK since the 1860s when George Symons established the British Rainfall Organisation to coordinate voluntary rainfall measuring activities, which later became a branch of the Met Office. However, the majority of the observations made in the pre-digital age, before 1960, have not previously been transcribed from the original paper records.

Each of the 65,000 pieces of paper held in the Met Office National Meteorological Archive showed monthly rainfall totals across a 10-year period and had been scanned during 2019. Many of the recordings were written in ornate handwriting, requiring human eyes to transcribe it.

The Met Office's official UK rainfall series previously went back to 1862. Thanks to the Rainfall Rescue project, there is now around six times the previous amount of observational data for the years before 1960. The number of rain gauges contributing data to the national record for the year 1862 has increased from 19 to more than 700.

These earlier, detailed records could also help increase knowledge of the impact of how weather is affected by climate change not caused by humans.

Line graph showing how the number of rain gauges contributing data to the Met Office's national rain series has dramatically increased pre-1960 thanks to the Rainfall Rescue volunteers. Credit: Ed Hawkins / University of Reading

Redefining archives

After all the data had been transcribed, eight dedicated volunteers helped arrange the data into chronological sequences for each location. These eight volunteers are named as co-authors in a paper published today (Friday 25 March) in Geoscience Data Journal.

Some 3.3 million of the newly-transcribed observations have been processed by the Met Office and added to the publicly available national rainfall statistics on its website.

Catherine Ross, Met Office archivist, said: "This project has broken the definition of an archive. In its lifecycle a document moves from being a record, in everyday use, to an archive where it is kept as part of a memoryin our case the National Memory of the Weather.

"However, this project's 66,000 formerly inanimate sheets of numbers have been given a new life by placing data that can be interrogated and compared into the hands of scientists at the Met Office and around the world."

The volunteers who took part in the project expressed their admiration and thanks to the observers who creating the original detailed rainfall records, and to the British Rainfall Organisation for coordinating their work.

Jacqui Huntley, one of the eight Rainfall Rescue volunteers based near Stranraer in Scotland who worked across the whole project, said: "I got involved because I'm British and therefore a fanatic about the weather, especially rain. And it rains a lot where I live in Scotland. The data are obviously valuable to scientists, but I have also loved learning about the rainfall observers who were so dedicated in measuring the weather day after day. It has been fun, and a true team effort, from start to finish."

Explore further How a deluge of lockdown volunteers rescued UK's hidden weather history

More information: Ed Hawkins et al, Millions of historical monthly rainfall observations taken in the UK and Ireland rescued by citizen scientists, Geoscience Data Journal (2022). Ed Hawkins et al, Millions of historical monthly rainfall observations taken in the UK and Ireland rescued by citizen scientists,(2022). DOI: 10.1002/gdj3.157 A map showing the locations of all the rainfall gauges that contributed data to the Rainfall Rescue project can be found at public.flourish.studio/visualisation/5534063 The Rainfall Rescue project was carried out on Zooniverse.
The COVID-19 pandemic was not the main factor in the decision by Hadley-Luzerne Superintendent of Schools Beecher Baker to retire at the end of the school year, but he said it did not help matters.

Baker said it has been a struggle during the last two years. He did not like that the students were not in the building as much.

It hurt not seeing the kids faces. There was no joy in canceling school for a week here or there, he said.

Still, Baker believes it is simply time to hand the reins to someone else. His wife has also retired and they want to spend some time together.

Baker is not alone. Also retiring at the end of the school year are Greenwich Superintendent Mark Fish and Glens Falls Superintendent Paul Jenkins.

Other districts looking to fill vacant superintendent positions are in Lake George, Fort Edward and Salem.

In Lake George, Lynne Rutnik left at the start of the school to take a job as deputy superintendent of the Schenectady City School District. Fort Edward is replacing Dan Ward, who moved over to become superintendent of Hudson Falls Central School District last July. In Salem, the Board of Education reached a mutual agreement to part ways with David Glover.

Baker said this is more turnover than he has seen in a long time.

I think its going to be difficult to replace some of these veterans, he said.

The New York State Council of School Superintendents has noticed an increase in the number of superintendents retiring. This year, there are 65 people set to retire compared with 45 from a couple of years ago before the pandemic, according to Greg Berck, assistant director of governmental relations and assistant counsel for the organization.

Some of it may be coincidental based on age, he said. Some of it may be attributable to COVID and other opportunities presenting themselves.

The average length of tenure for superintendent has remained about the same at around five years, according to Berck. He noted a new trend of superintendents leaving to pursue other opportunities in the private sector.

Berck said the pandemic has put a lot of stress on what already was a 24-7 job.

Board meetings have become more hostile, he said. Im sure the mask controversy contributed to some of this. Its a rewarding but very challenging job.

Greenwich Superintendent Mark Fish said that although the pandemic has been challenging, it also was not really the factor in his deciding to retire after eight years leading the district  and 18 years as a middle school principal in South Glens Falls before that.

My wife is a retired teacher and its time for us to move onto the next chapter, he said.

Fish said, hopefully, with COVID-19 cases declining, school officials can shift focus.

It will be great to get back into instructional practices and all the fun things you want to do to engage kids in the business of learning, which is something weve kind of had to step back on and really focus on safety and wellness, he said.

COVID all consuming

The job has been even more all-consuming during the pandemic, especially with ever-changing guidance from the state, according to James Dexter, district superintendent for the Washington-Saratoga-Warren-Hamilton-Essex BOCES.

It was constant, every day. We have special meetings on weekends when things would come out on Friday night, he said.

Superintendents had to be more nimble and quick to move entire systems in a heartbeat.

Also, Dexter said some of the COVID mandates brought politics into the job like never before.

On the positive side, Dexter said the pandemic has resulted in much more collaboration among school districts and school leaders and improved communication with parents and the community. Superintendents did a tremendous amount of advocacy during the pandemic.

We weighed in on a lot of issues  because we felt we needed to, he said.

Still, he believes the main factor for this wave of retirements is that a lot of these superintendents got their jobs at around the same time and have been there awhile.

If you look back, weve been incredibly stable over the last several years, he said.

Dexter, who helped schools with many of those searches, is also retiring. He has been a superintendent for 17 years and has spent 30 years in education. He said it was simply the right time.

Cathy Woodruff, spokeswoman for the New York State School Boards Association, agreed that some of the wave is due to demographics. The baby boomers are reaching retirement age.

However, she said the stress of the pandemic has accelerated that trend. Education is not the only industry that has been affected by what has been called the Great Resignation.

Everyone in all careers probably took some time to think about what they were doing, she said.

Finding new leaders

Now the task is to replace all these veteran administrators.

There is still a large interest in the position overall. Berck, of the New York State Council of School Superintendents, said the there is a full class of candidates taking the organizations future superintendent academy.

The council is trying to increase the diversity of the pool of applicants to include more women and more candidates of color, according to Berck.

Dexter said he believes the pools of candidates in this region have been of high quality  not that they did not have good candidates before.

Over the last year, the number of applicants has been trending downward, so Dexter said he was pleasantly surprised to see the strong number of applicants for this round of vacancies. Perhaps people had waited until the pandemic had receded to take the next step in their career. During the COVID crisis, Dexter said a lot of people took the opportunity for personal growth.

People see themselves as a leader and want to take on that challenge, he said.

In addition, there are seldom this many good openings, so Dexter said people are like, If Im going to go for it, this might be the time.

Fish said his advice for other people pursuing the position is to listen.

I think sometimes listening is a very critical skill to be able to hear from the folks that are running certain areas of your district, and students, he said.

Baker, of Hadley-Luzerne, said he does not see as many people applying for superintendents because the job has a short shelf life. Principals can obtain tenure, but a superintendent is under an employment agreement.

Baker said he enjoyed being a building principal because of the day-to-day contact he had with the kids. Still, becoming a superintendent was the next logical step in a career that he wanted to pursue.

A superintendent is always looking two to thee years down the road. Baker said the job is about making connections.

This job is about relationships and the relationships that you make with your staff, the relationships you make with your school community and your kids, he said.

Superintendents can make an impact. Baker said one initiative he is especially proud of is to add an in-district health center. It was perfect timing with the start of the pandemic. Also, he has added more counselors and social workers.

Cultivating talent

The next generation is already stepping up. Woodruff said at a recent association conference, one of the attendees remarked about how they were seeing younger faces among the superintendents.

Some districts have also indicated that they are interested in cultivating their own talent and encouraging their younger prospective leaders to become superintendents.

Hadley-Luzerne already has Bakers successor lined up. The Board of Education voted earlier this month to appoint Burgess Ovitt, who has been the junior-senior high school principal since 2016, to the position. Baker had also been principal at the school before becoming superintendent in 2015.

Baker said he has come full circle with Ovitt, who was his assistant principal at the Fort Edward when he was principal during the mid-1990s.

Baker said there is an advantage to promoting from within because the board is already familiar with the person and their strengths and weaknesses.

Two other local districts that had superintendents retire in the middle of the school year also promoted from within. Justin Hoskins, who had been Fort Ann Junior-Senior High School principal since 2017, took over for the retiring Kevin Froats in January. The Warrensburg Board of Education picked Amy Langworthy, who had been principal of the junior-senior high school for 15 years, to succeed the retiring John Goralski.

Some districts decide to promote from within, according to BOCES Superintendent Dexter, because they believe perhaps they know the community and will stay longer.

Keeping a hand in

Some superintendents still stay involved in education through serving as an interim superintendent. Former Queensbury Superintendent Doug Huntley is filling in at Lake George, for example.

Fish kept the door open to a return to education.

Im not really great at sitting around. Im sure Ill look for something to do, he said.

Baker also said he would like to stay involved in education and he could see himself get involved as an interim superintendent or possibly as a consultant to school capital projects.

The job is still rewarding.

If you keep your focus on the kids, youll never go wrong, he said.

Baker said the work of education continues  no matter who is in the superintendents position.

The school is going to open in September and the buses are going to go regardless of whether Im here or not.

Michael Goot is night and weekend editor of The Post-Star. Reach him at 518-742-3320 or mgoot@poststar.com.

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FORT ANN  The water supply in the village of Fort Ann will be shut off at 9 a.m. on Monday morning.

The Washington County Department of Public Works will work to investigate the source of a water leak. Water service will be restored as soon as possible.

But there is no definitive time frame that can be provided at this time.

Should a boil water advisory or any other action be needed, a follow-up message will be issued. Village of Fort Ann officials, in a news release, thanked the community for their patience and understanding.

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Ghost-hunting by night and history appreciation by day would be among the activities for a new local tourism attraction at the former Mount McGregor Correctional Facility.

Paranormal expert Steven Brodt of South Glens Falls and investor Mark Erskine of Chicago are in talks with the state and are finalizing an offer to purchase the former correctional facility in Wilton and Moreau, which closed in 2014, and redevelop the site.

A four-story building on the property would be renovated as a museum about the propertys previous uses as a medium-security correctional facility, training center for the developmentally disabled, World War II veterans rehabilitation camp, tuberculosis sanitarium and originally as the site of the luxurious Hotel Balmoral, which burned in 1897.

Paranormal investigation tours and seminars could immediately be held at the property to generate revenue for renovations.

Architectural and photography tours would also be offered, and the grounds could be used for events such as car shows and weddings.

The site could be rented out to television and movie producers to film on location.

Brodt and Erskine have toured the property with Empire State Development Corp. officials and submitted various documents, and the duo is working with Saratoga County Economic Development Corp. to finalize a formal offer to buy the property.

The purchase price would be negotiated with the state.

Were getting close, Erskine said in a telephone interview on Friday. Now its submitting another round of paperwork.

State Sens. Dan Stec, R-Queensbury, and Daphne Jordan, R-Halfmoon, and Assemblyman Matt Simpson, R-Horicon, have written letters endorsing the plan.

I think it is a very unique opportunity that would reverse the deterioration of the buildings since the correctional facility closed, Simpson said in a telephone interview.

After learning the project details, I gladly signed on to their letter of support to Empire State Development. Steve and Mark have more than a decade of experience in heritage tourism and property development and have thoroughly researched the revenue and historic tourism opportunities expected to be generated by this innovative project, Jordan said, in a statement. The Mount McGregor facility has sat dormant since its closure in 2014. Instead of tearing this facility down we should re-think and reimagine smart, new uses for this and other facilities.

The concept is modeled on similar dual-use historical sites, such as Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Kentucky, Moundsville Penitentiary in West Virginia, Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia, and Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, where Brodt has conducted paranormal tours.

Over my decade-plus as a heritage tourism fan and paranormal investigator  and more recently as owner of the Haunted Nights paranormal events company based in Glens Falls  I have had the pleasure of visiting more than two dozen cities around the country where abandoned hospitals and correctional facilities have been reimagined as heritage tourism and paranormal investigation destinations, Brodt said. These facilities are enjoying a second, or third, life and bringing significant numbers of visitors and economic activity to those regions. We see a tremendous opportunity to do the same at Mount McGregor.

Brodt is a nationally known paranormal investigation expert who has appeared on the Travel Channel and on specialized YouTube channels.

Erskine is a longtime real estate and private mortgage investor who met Brodt through their common interest in paranormal investigations.

Brodt said Erskine is not a silent partner, and he will be involved in the operation of the facility and may even move to the area.

Erskine said they have a ballpark estimate of spending more than $1 million on renovations in the first two to three years.

A lot depends on how quickly they can close on purchase of the property.

Theres growing leaks on some of the roofs. So, the rain and the snow are just adding to the damages until we get there, he said.

In a few years, in a second phase of renovation, the duo would like to renovate the chapel and refurbish its historic pipe organ for concerts and other gatherings.

Eventually, they would develop overnight lodging on the property.

Erskine said their project is compatible with and would attract more visitors to the Grant Cottage National Historic Landmark, located just outside the former correctional facility property.

The state-owned historic site, which is now affiliated with the National Park Service system, includes Drexel Cottage, where former Civil War general and U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant spent his final days before dying from throat cancer in 1885.

Grant Cottage recently completed a master plan for improvements envisioned at the site over the next 10 to 15 years.

The Grant Cottage plan, among other projects, includes constructing a gazebo at the eastern overlook of Mount McGregor, where author Mark Twain reportedly once looked out and admired the countryside when he was visiting Grant.

In is not known if Twains ghost comes back to the property, but they have uncovered some reported ghost sightings in their research, Erskine said.

Two different correction officers they interviewed, each of whom worked at the facility in different time periods, reported seeing the same ghost at the same building, he said.

Brodt said the site has broad appeal, not just to ghost hunters, but the public in general, who are curious about the historic property that has been largely off-limits since the mid-1980s.

For a long period of time, no one has been there unless you were a prisoner, he said.

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GLENS FALLS  Aledin Kamel was serving up kielbasa and other Ukrainian delights at the Winter Meltdown Spicy Food Festival on Saturday at The Shirt Factory.

However, Kamel, owner of the My Dacha Slavonian & European Cafe in Troy, was also thinking about his 31-year-old daughter Alina, 15-year-old son Aleks and 6-year-old granddaughter Irena, who have fled from Ukraine with one suitcase to Poland and are trying to get to the United States.

The Russian invasion has turned everything upside down, according to Kamel.

Its very bad. Its crazy, he said.

The family had recently applied for a visa and was denied, according to friend Mary Krasnopolski, of Watervliet, who has been trying to help the family.

Krasnopolski is the daughter of Polish immigrants, so she feels a special kinship with the family.

The paperwork is really overwhelming for them  for both of them. The language barrier doesnt help it. I help out where I can. Were hopeful, he said.

Kamel and his wife Nataliya have had the business for seven years between Albany and now Troy and have been coming to sell their food at events at The Shirt Factory for about four.

Shirt Factory owner Eric Unkauf has also been trying to assist. He said he sent some paperwork to the office of U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, to hopefully expedite the process after the visa was denied on Thursday.

Hopefully, well get some answers and well get it sorted out, Unkauf said.

Alina was a pharmacist but lost her job after the invasion. Alina, Aleks and Irena are currently staying at a home in Poland and it is a six-hour bus ride to the embassy.

A GoFund Me page has been set up to pay for travel expenses and has raised over $10,000 so far, according to Krasnopolski.

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Washington County reported the death of an 85-year-old resident who had been vaccinated and recently hospitalized in its weekly COVID update on Saturday.

The resident had lived in a nursing facility in the county.

Washington County Public Health sent thoughts and prayers to the friends, family and caregivers of the lost community member.

Public Health reported 34 new cases of COVID-19 as of Friday.

There are currently two county residents hospitalized with the virus.

Washington Countys seven-day positivity rate was reported at 2.6% on Saturday.

COVID-19 at-home test kits are available for pickup at the Washington County Municipal Center by the Building B entrance and the Washington County Public Health Department.

If residents need closer pick-up locations, they should check with their Town Hall or look for additional announcements from the county.

Washington County Public Health is continuing to host a testing site for COVID-19 at the Public Health building located at 415 Lower Main St. in Hudson Falls.

The site is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. by appointment only. Appointments can be made by visiting the Public Health website.

Weekly vaccine clinics are also offered at the Public Health building. The clinic offers first, second and booster doses of the vaccine every Wednesday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Residents can register for appointments by calling 518-746-2400. Walk-ins will be accepted based on vaccine availability. Additional information can be found at washingtoncountyny.gov/coronavirus.

Washington County had a vaccination rate of 63.8%, according to New York state vaccine data, while 67.4% of the population has received at least one dose.

Warren County

Warren County Health Services reported 28 additional cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, which is the highest figure in the county since March 4.

Twelve of those cases stemmed from home test kits.

The seven-day positivity rate for the county was 3.3%.

The five-day average of cases was 21.4 as of Saturday afternoon.

Warren County reported three COVID-related hospitalizations, which is the same as Fridays report.

Glens Falls Hospital reported seven total COVID-related hospitalizations, with no one in the ICU.

Health Services operates a testing site at the Warren County Municipal Center weekdays from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. The site is open by appointment only. Those with questions can call Health Services at 518-761-6580 or visit the countys COVID hub.

The New York State mass vaccination site at Aviation Mall continues to offer Pfizer and Johnson and Johnson vaccines, including boosters and pediatric doses. Vaccines are available on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Details can be found at am-i-eligible.covid19vaccine.health.ny.gov.

According to state vaccination data, the countys vaccination rate stood at 75.2%, while 80.1% of the population has received a first dose.

Capital Region/statewide

Warren County Health Services reported that there were 62 individuals hospitalized with COVID-19 in hospitals throughout the Capital Region.

There were 845 hospitalizations throughout the state reported on Saturday, which is 24 fewer than on Friday. There have been fewer than 1,000 hospitalizations reported for more than a week.

The statewide positivity rate was reported at 2.33%.

The seven-day positivity rate for the state stood at 2.2%.

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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PLATTSBURGH  Saratoga Democrat Matt Castelli, a candidate for New Yorks 21st Congressional District, said in a radio interview last week that, if elected, he would not support House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for another term.

But incumbent Rep. Elise Stefaniks, R-Schuylerville, senior adviser, Alex deGrasse, contended this is an attempt to mislead voters.

Pelosi was first elected to Congress nearly 35 years ago, first served as speaker from 2007 to 2011 and regained the role in 2019.

WAMC President/CEO Alan Chartock spoke with Castelli at the WAMC studios in Albany on Tuesday for an upcoming Congressional Corner series.

That afternoon, WAMC News Director Ian Pickus tweeted that, in the interview, Castelli had said he did not believe Pelosi should continue on as speaker, and that it was time for new leadership.

Castelli, a former CIA and counterterrorism official originally from Poughkeepsie, went on to say that many new challenges were facing the country and, its time for new leadership to address them, according to a portion of the interview Pickus provided to the Press-Republican.

Well thats interesting because, on this Congressional Corner, I have asked virtually every congressman that question and you differ from most, Chartock said. Why  is there a political reason you differ or is it just a matter of conscience?

Castelli replied that it was the latter, but also that he was a different kind of Democrat.

Im one that, true to form, country before party means something to me.

When Chartock asked if he was suggesting those he is running against do not put country first, Castelli said that question would have to go to them.

But as someone who has consistently put our country and communitys needs, I think our country and our community would be well served by a different speaker of the House, Castelli said.

Chartock pushed, asking Castelli what about Pelosi he found objectionable.

Its not necessarily that I find something particularly objectionable, other than the fact that its time for fresh leadership as speaker, that we as a nation need to address these new and emerging threats and challenges to our country, whether they be internal or external, and I think that that cuts across the board, Castelli replied.

We talk a lot about Pelosi and the former president, Donald Trump, and I think we need to be forward-looking. I think this nation has a tremendous number of assets and potential future leaders that should be advancing our nations institutions in a way that can cultivate and build trust within our community.

Pickus said Chartocks interview with Castelli will air in three parts on the Congressional Corner series beginning early this week. The segment airs around 10:50 a.m. and will be available online and on the WAMC Roundtable podcast.

Responding to Pickus tweet, deGrasse said in a statement that Castelli was just like every other desperate Democrat who will lie to voters to try and trick them into thinking he is anything but a far-left Pelosi puppet.

Stefaniks campaign has used that alliterative moniker to refer to, not only her Democratic opponents, but also those running against candidates she is supporting in other congressional districts.

As Democrats across the country recognize the Red Wave coming this November, they are trying to run for their political lives and trick voters, deGrasse continued.

But Team Elise knows that voters are smart. In the North Country, voters know very well that every far-left Democrat would vote with Nancy Pelosi 99% of the time, just like every other Democrat in office who previously lied in order to get elected.

November is coming, and if Downstate Democrat Castelli gets through his primary, he will join the long line of far-left Democrats who North Country voters see right through and overwhelmingly reject at the polls.

During prior election cycles, Stefanik has said she would support Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., the current House minority leader, for speaker.

Asked for a response to deGrasses statement, Castelli reiterated on his own that he would not support Pelosi should she seek another term.

I respect Speaker Pelosi and all she has done for our country  especially her historic leadership as the first woman to hold the office  but I believe we need new leadership in the House of Representatives, including new leadership for the people of NY-21, he said.

Let me be clear, the only trickster in this race is Congresswoman Stefanik. North Country voters have grown wise to her Stefanik scam as she pretends to represent our district but consistently serves only herself and her extremist political agenda. NY-21 deserves a representative who will put country before party.

Castellis campaign said he had not yet decided who he will support for speaker and would make that decision after the mid-terms.

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News  Vietnam

Vietnam sees sharp decline in fresh Covid-19 infections
SACRAMENTO, Calif.  Californias economy roared to life in February as employers added a surprising 138,100 new jobs, accounting for more than 20% of all employment gains nationally.

Its a staggering jump, said Michael Bernick, a former director of the state Employment Development Department who is now an attorney with the firm Duane Morris. Virtually all sectors are showing gains.

Ten of the states 11 industry sectors added jobs in February. The leisure and hospitality sector had the biggest jump, adding 30,400 jobs. Most of that happened in Los Angeles County, which is heading into its first somewhat normal tourism season since 2019. The county, which has an outsized number of service industry jobs, accounted for 44% of all job gains in the state.

California  the nations most populous state with nearly 40 million residents  was the first to issue a statewide stay-at-home order at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The state lost just over 2.7 million jobs in March and April of 2020 as its unemployment rate peaked at 16.1%.

The new data made public Friday by the California Employment Development Department showed that the state has now regained 87.2% of the jobs that were lost.

Californias unemployment rate fell to 5.4% from 5.7% in January, giving the state the third highest rate in the country behind New Mexico and the District of Columbia. Nationally, the unemployment rate is 3.8%.

The state has added jobs in 12 out of the last 13 months, averaging about 101,700 new jobs per month. California ranks third in the nation for the fastest job growth, behind Nevada and Hawaii.

These latest numbers show that California is continuing to drive our nations job growth, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom said.
ATLANTIC CITY  Nearly 60 years after the Equal Pay Act granted men and women protection from wage discrimination, women nationwide and locally are still getting paid less.

The Equal Pay Act of 1963, celebrated March 15, highlights gender wage disparities during Womens History Month.

In data from 2020, the U.S. Census Bureau said women earned 83 cents to every dollar men earned.

The wage gap has narrowed slightly from the previous years results, which showed women earning 82 cents for every dollar a man earned.

The wage gap is naturally closing and will continue to close. Thats mostly because there are more women than men available for many upwardly mobile positions, said Michael Busler, professor of finance at Stockton University.

But in New Jersey, data shows the wage gap actually grew by several hundred dollars in 2020 over the previous year, a dismaying outcome in a state that passed the Diane B. Allen Equal Pay Act in 2018 to expand and strengthen equal pay laws.

Crisis pregnancy centers help women during unplanned pregnancies It was May 2019, and Elisha Trulli, now 28, of Sea Isle City, was deep in college classes  

The wage gaps are even worse for minority women. Black women with a minimum of a bachelors degree earn 79 cents to every dollar earned by men, followed by Latina women at 78 cents and American Indian and Alaska Native women at 71 cents, according to data released this month from the website Payscale.

According to the U.S. Census Bureaus 2019 American Community Survey, data for which was released earlier this month, median annual earnings for men were $53,544, while women earned $43,394.

Busler said there are other factors at play in addition to gender.

The more significant factors are differences in work experience both in the number of years and the diversity of prior work, he said.

In New Jersey, over the past year, men were estimated to earn $67,367, which is $13,434 more than women made during that same period.

Women who had to quit their jobs, reduce their hours or find lower paying, part-time jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the current wage gap data, like the amount women earned this year, according to the National Womens Law Center.

Primary favorites for Van Drew seat emerge after conventions Several candidates say they are running for the seat held by U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-2nd,

The pandemic has resulted in a general labor shortage because the opportunities and wage gaps are minimized, said Busler. Whatever gap does exist will be significantly reduced because of the current labor shortage.

Millions of women left the work force due to the pandemic.

Mostly because all grade schools were virtual during the pandemic, many women who are primary caregivers to children were forced to leave their jobs and return home, Busler said.

When it comes to providing childcare, such as arranging for daycare and babysitters, the numbers can add up for female parents.

This meant an immediate loss of income in the present and a reduction in work experience for future jobs. This has a negative impact on both present and future earnings, said Busler about women looking to re-enter the workforce.

Unemployed women looking to get back to work also get penalized through wage inequity, according to data on Payscale. Women unemployed for more than 24 months have an even higher wage gap, earning 70 cents to a mans $1.

Men also tend to work more hours weekly than women, Busler said.

Women leaving the workforce for factors such as motherhood may contribute to this, but women still need to work at least three months longer to make what men make in a year, according to census data.

According to U.S. Census data, the pay gap also widens with age. While women under 35 have a pay gap that ranges from hundreds to a little over $1,000 a month, women 35 and older have a much wider pay gap of anywhere between $2,000-$3,000 a month and up.

That means older women are losing wages close to $36,000 a year, which could equal hundreds of thousands of dollars (even millions) depending on how long older women work for.

The wage gap for women with a college degree is narrower compared to women in lower-paying jobs.

Busler said women getting higher education will be able to help ensure that any wage differential based on gender is eliminated.

Businesses press to avoid worst of unemployment tax hike A coalition of about 100 business and trade groups sent a letter this week to the state Legi

Trying to break through the male-dominated hold on job pay, some organizations are emphasizing education.

Stephanie Koch, CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of Atlantic City, said bringing diversity to the male-dominated STEAM fields  science, technology, engineering, arts and math  was the first step in growing the industrys workforce and closing the wage gap.

We want to focus on bolstering competence and awareness and equality with young girls of all ages at the Boys & Girls Club, said Koch. What we found was the intense confidence building that it offered to the young girls who participated once they were able to build a robot, they were shocked, and the confidence levels increase substantially. If we dont believe in them, its not going to happen.

The Boys & Girls Club has two programs, Smart Girls, where the club offers leadership training and confidence building to girls in the club, and Girls Circle, which is similar to the Smart Girls initiative.

The opportunities before them are prepared for them, but we need to develop strategies to get them ready for those opportunities. And that that gender gap should not exist, Koch said.

Women in STEM make up about 27% of the tech industrys workforce, according to census data.

Vietnam veterans ceremony returns to Sea Isle City SEA ISLE CITY  The city will resume its yearly Vietnam War ceremony Tuesday, after a two-ye

For the younger children at our Chelsea club, we thought it would be more males than females, and actually, it ended up being about I would say about 50% people at the Chelsea club, Koch said about the programs boy-girl ratio. At the teen center, we have more boys than girls involved in the design lab. But for example, we have a pre-apprenticeship program with Apple, and I would say that thats about 65% male, 35% female.

Koch believes using area resources like the FAA William J. Hughes Technical Center at Atlantic City International Airport could be a way to close the wage gap for the next generation.

Those are technology jobs that are ripe and ready for our next generation, and we need to make sure that theyre prepared. So thats having an employer-engaged approach, not only at the club but also in our local schools, Koch said.

Contact Selena Vazquez: 609-272-7225 svazquez@pressofac.com

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Clinton police are investigating a death at an apartment fire that occurred early Saturday.

Police Chief Kevin Gyrion said in a news release that Clinton firefighters were sent to an apartment building at 78 31st Ave. at 6:52 a.m.

The fire was quickly extinguished. Firefighters located a dead person in the apartment.

The incident is being investigated by the Clinton Police Department, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, Clinton County Sheriffs Department, Iowa State Fire Marshal, Clinton County Medical Examiner and Clinton County Attorneys Office.

A check of Clinton County assessment records indicates the structure that makes up the apartment complex was built in 1910.

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CHICAGO - Offended when his roommates kicked him out because he was late on rent, a 33-year-old man set three fires at his South Shore building, including one that erupted when he lit a baby stroller ablaze, prosecutors said.

Cook County Judge Barbara Dawkins denied bail for Lawrence Bostic, charged with residential arson, aggravated arson and failure to register within 10 days as an arsonist, prosecutors said at a hearing audio streamed on YouTube Saturday afternoon.

Bostic, who lived in the building in the 6800 block of South Clyde Avenue, had two roommates who repeatedly asked him to leave because he failed to pay his portion of rent, prosecutors said.

During the most recent blaze, March 5, Bostic was caught on video surveillance standing over a fire with lighter fluid in his hand. That fire destroyed at least 12 units, left several residents displaced and caused about $1 million in damage, prosecutors said.

During another one of the blazes, which never injured anyone, one of his roommates opened his door to see the apartment was on fire and was able to extinguish it before it spread, prosecutors said.

In a third, Bostics roommate heard glass breaking and peered out to a back porch, where he saw Bostic dousing a stroller with lighter fluid, prosecutors said.

Before denying bail, Judge Dawkins said he was a danger to his roommates, other residents of his building and others living on his block.

The embers of the fire could have spread, she said. All because he was told he wasnt welcomed in a place.

Judge Dawkins then addressed the failure to register as a convicted arsonist charge, something put in place to inform the public of a possible threat. Details of that conviction were not immediately available.

A public defender representing Bostic said he has two daughters and volunteers at a food pantry at a South Shore church.

Bostic, of the 6000 block of South Harper Avenue, was due back in court on April 1, court records show.

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When the Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern railroads announced plans to merge last fall, the idea that train traffic would triple through the Quad-Cities was alarming to a lot of people.

Were no less alarmed now.

The two railroads completed their $31 billion merger in December, and the federal Surface Transportation Board is now reviewing the deal. Meanwhile, the railroad has engaged in talks with officials in the Quad-Cities, who have flooded federal regulators with their concerns.

The likelihood of stopping the merger seems small, so officials here hope the railroad will take steps to lessen the impact. But what are the chances? What leverage do our cities have? Railroads are immensely powerful.

Bettendorf Mayor Bob Gallagher Jr. told us last week that overpasses over the tracks and quiet zones that would address many of his concerns would cost $30-35 million.

Canadian Pacific representatives were in the Quad-City area last week, including to meet with Gallagher. And while the mayor wouldnt tell us what the railroad offered, its a safe bet it isnt close to his asking price.

The fact is, the railroad and cities around here dont even come close in the way they describe the potential impact of the additional trains, which would increase from roughly 8 per day to 22.

In an op-ed last month, a Canadian Pacific representative assured our readers the average train length of about 8,000 feet (or 1.5 miles) wouldnt change due to the merger. And, in southeast Iowa, "on average, a typical mainline crossing in any given southeastern Iowa community will have a train moving through less than 4 minutes per hour. Put another way, on average, more than 93 percent of the time, a typical crossing will be open for vehicles."

Put that way, it doesnt sound so bad.

But in a letter to regulators in December, Bettendorf had a decidedly different description. It estimated train traffic through the city would grow from 49 minutes per day to 2.5 hours. "This does not account for the trackage rights granted to other companies on the CP line. This additional rail traffic will directly affect homeowners that live near the tracks, commercial business, industrial businesses, and people living in or traveling to the Quad-Cities to enjoy our riverfront.

Sounds quite a bit different, doesnt it? Especially if youre one of those homeowners or businesses located near the tracks, or even if youre just interested in enjoying a peaceful visit to the riverfront. A letter from Davenport, which has even more crossings than Bettendorf, called the mergers impacts "real and detrimental."

The cities in our area say theyre concerned about the ability of police and fire crews to reach homes and businesses on the river side of the track. They also are worried about noise and vibration and the harm it could do to development near the Mississippi River, which after all, is the Quad-Cities signature attraction and our economic lifeblood. There also are vital facilities, like a water plant, near the railroad tracks.

Meanwhile, as Davenport City Administrator Corri Spiegel pointed out last week, "If you look at the census tracts that surround the downtown and the west end, quite frankly, those most greatly impacted by an increase in train traffic both from a noise and a potential kind of environmental disaster  any of those things  are predominantly families who are living in poverty and where the majority of our community of color lives."

This should interest the Biden administration, which has criticized past transportation decisions that have adversely affected minority communities. What about now?

The Surface Transportation Board, which is an independent agency, estimates a draft of its report on the potential impacts of the merger will be ready by spring and finalized in the fall.

The idea the impact to cities and surrounding areas along hundreds of miles can be fully assessed in just a few months is far-fetched. It took years to produce the draft Environmental Impact Statement for just the Interstate-74 bridge project. And this one will be finished in a matter of months?

Were told the merger probably can't be stopped, and STB prefers railroads deal with communities rather than getting involved itself. But when the two sides seem so far apart in how they even describe the problem, what are the chances of reaching an agreement that satisfies all concerns?

Make no mistake, the mergers impact would be dramatic. A tripling of train traffic cant help but upend the lives of people here and elsewhere.

We implore the Surface Transportation Board to slow down this process. Our elected leaders at the state and federal levels also must join their colleagues in city halls and county courthouses and get more fully involved in this matter.

The railroads laud the mergers benefits. But what about the impact to people in the Quad-Cities and elsewhere who live near these railroad tracks?

Who will speak for them?

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Building a strong community takes effort.

For years, Laura Garber of Cultivating Connections Montana has hosted workshops that brought people from all walks of life in the Bitterroot together to build community.

On Saturday and a half-day Sunday, April 9-10, Garber will team with three other facilitators to take the next step in that process of moving the vision into action at a workshop at Hamilton Bitterroot River Inn and Conference Center.

Its a continuation of the Building a Stronger Bitterroot series that has been an effort to bring people together to share knowledge, visions and learn the tools that can help us make the changes we want to see happen, Garber said.

At a time when the Bitterroot Valley is going through a dramatic change, Garber hopes the event will help people move forward and work with each other on projects that will benefit everyone who lives in the valley between the Bitterroot and Sapphire mountains.

We already have a lot of things in this valley that are really exciting, she said. All of them happened because people had ideas and put them into action.

Three Bitterroot communities have skateparks. Theres the college in Hamilton and libraries in different towns. And communities coming together to serve dinner or stock up on food.

Communities are wonderful because people put effort into them, she said. We are inviting people to invest in their communities with their time, interest and creativity. We will help lead them in moving their vision and into action.

The High Stakes Foundation has granted the event $2,000. The plan calls for providing four or five groups from the workshop a $500 grant and four months of mentoring and support to help them put their ideas into action.

The ideas can be large or small. They could be ideas that someone has been considering for a long time. Or they could come from someone who has just moved to the valley and wants to share something that worked from wherever they came from.

After the past two years of living through the pandemic and all of its craziness, Garber said some of those community connections have been lost.

This is a chance to rekindle those.

Weve forgotten that we can work together, she said. Weve forgotten that we can look each other in the eye. And weve forgotten the connections we have are the most important things.

We should want to know each other, Garber said. We should want to know each others point of view. We should want to see the world through each others lenses because thats how we will build resilience in our community.

A farmer by trade, Garber likens the connections people have to those of plants and soil.

Soil grows the foods we eat but there is also social soil that is a place where our civil society can grow and flourish, she said. If you dont fertilize the social soil, we cant grow together as people.

Its the same with plants, Garber said. If you have poor soil, you have poor plants. If you have poor social soil, its because were not connecting or were assuming things about each other. If were not improving the social soil, we cant grow our community and the ideas we want.

Just as it is totally possible to build soil, we can build social soil so we see each other eye-to-eye, she said. We can see each other as members of the same ecosystem and move out of the ego-system.

Garber hopes that people with deep roots in the valley will join together with those who are new to build a Bitterroot that nourishes everyone socially and beyond.

People can register for the event at: eventbrite.com/e/building-a-stronger-bitterroot-moving-from-vision-into-action-tickets-267809895607.

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A man died Friday night after apparently being struck by two vehicles while walking along Hull Street in Richmond.

The Richmond Police Department said it is investigating the fatality, which occurred in the 2600 block of Hull Street.

Police officers responded at 9:12 p.m. to a report that a pedestrian had been hit by a vehicle. An adult male was found unresponsive in the roadway and was pronounced dead at the scene.

The medical examiner will determine cause and manner of death. Police had not released the identity of the victim as of Saturday afternoon.

Police said an investigation determined that the man was walking the double yellow lines before venturing into the westbound lane of travel, when a vehicle traveling in the westbound lane struck the pedestrian.

Ultimately, the man was struck by another unknown vehicle that was traveling eastbound.

The driver of the first striking vehicle, an adult male, remained on the scene. At this time, no charges have been filed, police said. The driver of the second striking vehicle did not remain on the scene.

Police are asking anyone with information to contact RPD Crash Team Investigator Drago at (804) 646-1369 or call Crime Stoppers at (804) 780-1000.

 John Reid Blackwell
The past couple weeks have been hectic for Couy (pronounced coy) Griffin, the Roanoke-loving elected county commissioner from New Mexico.

You might know him better as the black-hatted founder of Cowboys for Trump. Either way, the 48-year-old Republican has been in the news again.

Tuesday, at the conclusion of his criminal trial in Washington, D.C. a federal judge found Griffin guilty of entering a restricted area during the Jan. 6, 2021, uprising at the U.S. Capitol. The judge found him innocent of disorderly conduct.

Griffin faces a year in prison on the misdemeanor conviction. Sentencing is slated for June 17, which just happens to be the 50th anniversary of the Watergate break-in.

Thursday when we caught up on the telephone, Griffin was in New Mexico. In January, he and other Otero County commissioners voted to spend $50,000 in taxpayers money auditing county results of the 2020 presidential election. (Otero voters gave Donald Trump a 26-point margin.)

Despite the verdict Tuesday, Griffin maintained his innocence. He told me rioting that day was engineered and manipulated by the government, specifically by the CIA and the FBI and all those alphabet-soup agencies.

It was a hoax, he said. Yall are so blinded in the media, you cant see it was a setup.

Though Griffin never entered the Capitol building Jan. 6, hes never denied he was outside it. Somehow that afternoon, he climbed up on a stage erected for the upcoming inauguration, according to testimony at his trial.

As hundreds of insurrectionists busted windows, battled police and forced the evacuations of both chambers of Congress, Griffin addressed the crowd with a megaphone, and prayed. Five people died from that hourslong melee, which ended when the National Guard finally showed up.

That afternoon, Griffin drove south out of the District of Columbia with an associate (who later testified for the government). Soon they were on Interstate 81. That night, they stopped in Roanoke and checked into the Hampton Inn and Suites on Church Avenue downtown.

It was the first visit Griffin had ever made to the Star City (but it wasnt his last). Back then he told me he was impressed.

What a nice community you all have, Griffin said later. I love Roanoke. Its a great place. Great people. (He said he doesnt personally know anyone here.)

On Jan. 7, they recorded a hair-raising video from the hotels balcony. It starred Griffin, and was later posted to (then deleted from) the Cowboys for Trump Facebook page.

In the videos background, traffic glides silently on I-581 as Griffin notes, Its a beautiful day in Roanoke. He also ridiculed any notion that events a day earlier in Washington had been violent.

And he warned of another upcoming protest at the Capitol  one with armed demonstrators.

If we do, then its going to be a sad day, because then theres going to be blood running out of that building, Griffin said in the video. He promised, we will plant a flag on the desks of [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi and [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer and Donald J. Trump, if it boils down to it.

Washington, D.C., police arrested Griffin Jan. 17, 2021, when he attempted to drive back to nations capital in his pickup truck, days before President Joe Bidens inauguration.

Griffin had packed two firearms for that second trip. But he wisely stashed those outside the nations capital before he drove into the city. Police arrested him anyway.

He spent three weeks in jail because he kicked up a fuss about taking a COVID test (Griffin believes the government lied about the pandemic, and the vaccines, too.) After his release, he stopped in Roanoke again.

On that occasion, he dined on prime rib from Billys, a Market Street restaurant. And he endorsed the eatery. As good a meal as Ive ever had, he said.

Thursday, when I reached out to get his thoughts on the split verdict, Griffin was tied up in a meeting of the Otero County Commission. When he called back, he regarded the verdict optimistically.

Anytime you can go up against the U.S. government and come back 50-50  I feel good about it, Griffin said.

He seemed puzzled as to how Trump-appointed Judge Trevor McFadden could ever have found him guilty of trespassing. Griffin said he never intended to violate any unauthorized zone surrounding the Capital. Its line was horribly defined, he added.

It wasnt marked; there were no signs; there was no security, there wasnt barriers anywhere, he told me.

Griffin also claimed that by the time he entered the Capitol property, Vice President Mike Pence had already been whisked away by the U.S. Secret Service.

If [Pence] left the Capitol building, there was no unauthorized zone. As soon as Mike Pence leaves, its not unauthorized, Griffin elaborated. The judge rejected that argument on a factual basis, finding Pence remained inside the building during the uprising.

I think McFadden really missed it, Griffin said. I respect the judges decision, but I dont agree with it.

I dont feel like Im guilty of the charges they charged me with, Griffin added. I did not knowingly cross into an unauthorized zone.

Have you heard that song before? It sounds like Griffin believes ignorance of the law is an excuse.

The trial presented some other hassles for Griffin, but those were more logistical than legal.

Days before last weeks court hearings, Griffin drove from New Mexico to Washington in his pickup, pulling his horse in a trailer. Hed previously vowed to arrive at the courthouse on horseback, but that didnt work out. Someone dropped him off instead.

After the trial, the trucks transmission failed. Griffin had to leave the pickup, horse and trailer in Washington and fly back to New Mexico.

Once the trucks repaired, hell fly back to Washington, he said, then drive his truck (and horse) home. Which means hell likely pass through Western Virginia again soon.

Are you going to stop in Roanoke? I asked.

I might, Griffin replied. If I do, I might hunt you down, so we can meet.

On the telephone, I chuckled.

Thats an interesting choice of words, I said.

Contact metro columnist Dan Casey at 981-3423 or dan.casey@roanoke.com . Follow him on Twitter:@dancaseysblog .

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CHRISTIANSBURG  The Virginia Department of Transportation, in partnership with the town, is seeking public input to address cyclist and pedestrian safety on the two roads that anchor one of the fastest growing parts of the locality.

VDOT announced a transportation study this past week for sections of North Franklin Street and Peppers Ferry Road. The study will analyze operational and safety issues on North Franklin between Farmview Road and Merrimac Road and on Peppers Ferry  Virginia 114  between Stafford and Arbor drives.

Public comments on the study are being accepted through an online survey until April 4. Information on the study and the survey can be found on the VAprojectpipeline.org website.

VDOT further stated that the input received will help further refine and finalize potential improvements.

The study partners may consider the recommendations for possible advancement through future local, regional, state and federal transportation funding programs, reads the announcement.

The work, according to VDOT, is part of the new Project Pipeline, which the agency said was created by the Commonwealth Transportation Board and serves as a performance-based planning program to identify cost-effective solutions to multimodal transportation needs in the state.

Through this planning process, projects and solutions may be considered for funding through programs including Smart Scale, revenue sharing, interstate funding and others, reads the announcement.

Smart Scale, which local governments in the area have turned to over the years, is a program that allows localities to request state funds for certain transportation projects. The proposed projects are graded and eventually submitted to the CTB, but approvals often do not come immediately.

Christiansburg Mayor Mike Barber said during an interview this past week that hes not familiar with all the particulars of the recently launched study, but he said its long been known that the northwest part of town  particularly the specific areas the study is looking at  has long faced infrastructural challenges related to traffic.

I know there are some issues, he said while specifically pointing to the area between Stafford and Arbor drives.

Barber said theres much growth occurring in that area and theres going to be a greater need for traffic control along that part of Peppers Ferry.

Barber also addressed the safety of cyclists, whom he said are given lanes and are in proximity of the Huckleberry Trail.

But is it the safest place in the world to ride a bike or try to cross the street? he said. I dont think so.

The areas being studied are lined by numerous retailers and restaurants, including several big box stores such as Walmart and Target, as well as the Uptown Christiansburg mall.

The towns northwest section is expected to see further growth pressure in the coming years due, in part, to newer projects such as the ongoing redevelopment of the Christiansburg Marketplace and a future multi-purpose park just off Peppers Ferry.

Barber said growth created by those projects will most definitely impact traffic and is among the reasons he and other town officials have generally pushed for a closer look at the needs of that area.

Barber said he recently met with some VDOT staff via an online video call to go over issues in that part of the town.

The mayor said he frequently cringes when he goes to either Walmart or Target and sees people attempting to cross North Franklin. He said there is at least an obvious need for more crosswalks, for example.

Its not a safe environment out there for pedestrians, to be quite honest with you, he said.

Of particular concern to him, Barber said, are the left turn lanes going into Walmart and the Spradlin Farms shopping center, which is where the Target and a number of other retail and restaurant chains are located. He said the traffic lights runtimes at those turn lanes arent sufficient and turn too quickly to the blinking caution, which he said has made that area prone to collisions.

A lot of T-bones have happened out there, Barber said. If you really want to help that thing, make those lights longer on green, then make them turn red.

In addition to the ongoing and upcoming developments around North Franklin and Peppers Ferry, that part of Christiansburg is also being eyed for a future passenger rail station.

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The beloved Merry Oak at Smithfield Plantation  taken by a storm in May 2020  will live on through two art installations using the trees crown, Virginia Tech announced last week.

It is part of a university-wide, multiple-year effort to preserve the presence and legacy of the white oak. Estimated to be more than three centuries old and to have stood long before European colonists arrived, the Merry Tree, as it is commonly called, is thought to have become a sacred gathering place for the people enslaved at the plantation.

The Merry Tree was the place or location in which the enslaved community would gather for meetings, religious ceremonies, and celebrations. And when I say celebrations, I also mean homegoing services and funerals, said Kerri Moseley-Hobbs, in a university news release. Moseley-Hobbs four-times-grandfather Thomas Fraction was once enslaved at Smithfield.

Hobbs is participating in the process to memorialize the tree as a family descendant along with Virginia Tech, Smithfield and the Virginia Department of Forestry.

We look at the tree as an ancestor, Moseley-Hobbs said in the release. Thats why I came down from Maryland to follow the tree, because its the same thing as when you have a family member pass away  you follow them through the funeral process.

A ceremony at the Merry Oak site was being held during 1872 Forward: Celebrating Virginia Tech that started Thursday and ended March 26.

Virginia Tech has grown up as an institution in Blacksburg on land that holds Native American, African American, and European American history and traditions, Menah Pratt-Clarke, vice president for strategic affairs and vice provost for inclusion and diversity, said in the release. The many people of this land, from 1872 forward, have contributed to our growth. ... The events of the 1872 Forward weekend will recognize and honor those who were here before us, who dreamed of what Virginia Tech might become, and whose stories can guide us into our future.

In April 2019, the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors dedicated a building on campus to the families. The three-room building similar to the dwellings enslaved people lived in the 19th century is located at Solitude near the Duck Pond.

Moseley-Hobbs said the Merry Oak resembled many of the trees in West Africa, the region from which her family was taken, so it made sense her relatives would have been drawn to it. She even felt a special connection to the Merry Oak during her earliest trip to Blacksburg.

University Arborist Jamie King said he witnessed that connection firsthand during one of Moseley-Hobbs visits just prior to the storm that toppled the Merry Oak.

About two years later, Moseley-Hobbs still clearly recalls that moment.

The tree looked like it had been trying to hold on [to life], and we just said to the tree, You can go now, Moseley-Hobbs said in the release. And a couple months later, the wind hits it, and it goes.

Once claimed by the storm, discussions began to determine the best way to preserve the tree and its legacy, according to the release.

When I came here in 2019, that tree was a huge priority. It was one of the first trees I went to see, King said in the release. Its likely the longest documented object at Virginia Tech, and Im excited to see how this wood can keep telling this story.

The stakeholders determined storytelling would primarily continue through two art installations, and the first step was the removal of the trees crown.

One art installation will be crafted by Floyd County-based artist Charlie Brouwer in collaboration with University Planning and will built near Solitude, according to the release. The other will be designed by the descendants of the formerly enslaved families with the help of St. Pierre Woodworking and Sawmill in Floyd County  and the company is milling the wood for both projects, according to the release.

Brouwers work was commissioned through a public bidding process by the Council on Virginia Tech History, according to the release.

The artist, in the release, said he drew inspiration from the Apostle Pauls letter to the Philippians in designing the installation titled, Think on These Things. The installation will include a circle of benches with words think on sandblasted into the concrete inside the circle and a sculpture of a tree made from reclaimed Merry Tree wood standing in its center.

Moseley-Hobbs has been working with other family members and the craftspeople at St. Pierre on the second installation. Though not entirely finalized, the current thought is it will include a bench to be placed near the Merry Oak site adorned with art representative of West African culture, according to the release.

King said this project has been one of the great honors of his career, but in some ways also one of the easier tasks because of the strong commitment of every party involved.

Weve all really collaborated, and I think thats the key here, he said in the release. It was a tree and its still a tree, but the real story it represents is what were all trying to continue to tell.

Moseley-Hobbs said she hopes the end of this project is really more of a beginning.

Im hoping all this is a kickoff to a long-term plan, not just for Virginia Tech, but expanding even beyond the Blacksburg community, Moseley-Hobbs said in the release. Im hoping the work were doing here becomes a leader and an example, so work like this takes place in other places.
Hemp legalization was not intended to get people high, said a lawmaker whose proposal to close loopholes in state cannabis code was approved this winter by the legislature, to the dismay of hemp businesses in Southwest Virginia.

In response to a proliferation of Delta 8 THC products for sale in stores across Virginia, Sen. Emmett Hanger, R-Augusta, this year carried a bill alongside Sen. Bill Stanley, R-Franklin County, to redefine legal distinctions between the non-intoxicating hemp plant and its mind-altering sibling, the cannabis plant.

There are lots of uses for hemp Im glad were able to grow it, Hanger said. But it seems like the traditional uses that we were hoping for did not come about as quickly as some would have hoped.

Hemp plant fibers have wide potential for use in a variety of industries, from applications in textiles to development of bioplastics. However, flowers from hemp plants can be processed to synthesize high concentrations of Delta 8 THC and other counterparts the THC chemical, used in consumable products like vape pens and gummies.

Hemp was intended to be something totally different: structural, bedding, clothing, those types of things, Hanger said. Those markets are slow to develop.

Delta 8 THC, thus far unregulated by state or federal law, can cause psychoactive side effects in users, similar to effects of the chief high-inducing ingredient in cannabis, Delta 9 THC. Hangers Senate Bill 591, approved by the Virginia General Assembly and awaiting the governors signature, sets out to tighten regulations by altering the states definition of cannabis.

There are some people who have products out there on the market in Virginia that would be banned under this legislation, unless they sell as a licensed vendor in a more regulated market, Hanger said. Right now, thats not the case.

While demand for hemp rope is slow to emerge, consumers seem keen on Delta 8 THC and other related hemp products. Prevalence of such products in convenience stores and headshops has increased since the 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp and its byproducts nationwide.

There is a lot of money to be made. Im not opposed to people making money, Hanger said. But Im concerned about the safety of people when theres a proliferation of products out there that you can inadvertently get high from.

At least 17 other states have banned such products, as other states continue to contemplate legal adjustments.

For Eric Bissey, owner of Nice Dreams gift shop in Blacksburg, hemp products are a significant source of his revenue. Hangers bill, if signed into law, would severely limit sales at Nice Dreams, Bissey said.

Probably 40% of my business right now is selling CBD products that are protected under the Farm Bill, Bissey said. I have veterans that come in to purchase items people that have sleep issues people with anxiety that come in... Theres just so many different uses.

He said use of hemp-derived THC products have been misrepresented by lawmakers, and proposed changes will only bolster the illicit market that Virginia is trying to convert into a taxable cannabis industry.

All this bill is going to do is cause people to go back to the black market, which is where they got their product before, Bissey said. My product is safe. Its been tested. All you have to do is scan the QR code, and it shows you the independent lab results of exactly what is in the product.

Given that cannabis consumption was legalized in Virginia last year, it seems counterintuitive to further restrict hemp, he said.

Yes, people are doing it recreationally, Bissey said. It shouldnt matter, because the state has made it legal.

Bissey said legislators are regulating Delta 8 THC and other hemp THC derivatives because the state wants control over who makes money from the hemp and cannabis markets. He said its a money-grab.

Right now this is in direct competition with them having their monopoly, so theyre just going to eliminate it, Bissey said. Theyre eliminating their competition which is unregulated, so that they can control everything else through regulation.

For growers of hemp, SB 591 further complicates cultivation, said Jonathan Zinski, founder of Rezin Botanicals in Gladys, south of Lynchburg.

I see the intent, but its really hurting a lot of Virginia business owners, Zinski said of HB 591. We definitely do need more protection. I agree with a lot of the talking points. But I think this is too severe, and its hurting hemp farmers.

The bill specifies that hemp plants can only have a fraction of a percent of any derivative of THC. Problematically, Zinski said, Delta 8 THC and other such derivatives naturally occur during the hemp plants life cycle.

For a hemp farmer trying to be compliant, theyre going to have to start testing for all these other isomers of THC, which do occur naturally in the plant, Zinski said, adding that industrial hemp and marijuana are the exact same plant, except for the methods used to grow them.

In addition to growing hemp, Zinski said he is working to start a nonprofit that focuses on cannabis education, responsible use, and riddance of cultural stigma surrounding the plant.

Some of this is almost like prohibitionist rhetoric, Zinski said of current legislation. We do need more protections, but again, its hurting honest people, and its not helping Virginians.

Given the stigma and novelty surrounding cannabis legalization, it is challenging to educate lawmakers, he said.

The way theyre doing it, we need precision accuracy with this issue, Zinski said of lawmakers. Theyre shooting a shotgun at a target thats got a whole bunch of innocent hemp farmers standing behind it.

Hanger said the hemp and cannabis industry are indeed areas of education for him and others. He said lawmaking sometimes causes unintended impacts, and he encouraged people to reach out with their concerns.

Im discussing with some of the processors that are out there, and the retailers, some potential amendments that we might entertain, Hanger said. If there are amendments that we need then Im all for that.

With the General Assembly set to reconvene its 2022 lawmaking session in late April, there remains opportunity for Hanger to work with the office of Gov. Glenn Youngkin on amending SB 591 before it is signed into law.

Or, if the opponents of the legislation are totally successful, they might convince him to veto the bill, but I would hope we dont go there, Hanger said. We have some time to work on it probably about a month that we can work on this to get it right, if there is a right to it. Im not sure. We kind of stirred a hornets nest.

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Dennis Beaver Practices law in Bakersfield and welcomes comments and questions from readers, which may be faxed to (661) 323-7993, or e-mailed to Lagombeaver1@Gmail.com. Also, visit dennisbeaver.com.
FLORENCE, S.C.  Francis Marion University is dedicating a new scholarship in honor of Frank Elmore, a long-serving board member and alumnus who died in December.

Elmore graduated from FMU in 1973 and was a member of the schools Board of Trustees for 20 years. Beginning in the fall 2022 semester, the Frank Elmore Scholarship will award $2,500 scholarships to 32 students.

Frank Elmore was a champion for Francis Marion University and he truly loved this institution, said Dr. Fred Carter, president of FMU. The entire university community feels his loss deeply, but Franks passion for educating the men and women of South Carolina will endure with every student who benefits from the scholarship bearing his name.

Elmores relationship with FMU has its roots at the institutions start in 1970. An active member of the campus community as a student, Elmore served as president of the student body. Nearly 30 years after graduating, he was appointed to the board of trustees. As a member of the board, Elmore played a key role in Francis Marions growth over the next 20 years.

After graduating from Francis Marion, Elmore went on to the University of South Carolina School of Law where he met his wife, Lee. The couple married in 1976.

This is such a special honor, and we really appreciate it, Lee Elmore said of the scholarship. I just cant tell you how much this means to our family.

A first-generation college graduate, Elmore deeply valued the education he received at FMU and credited the university with creating the foundation for the life and career he dreamed of.

Lee Elmore said her husband never forgot the role Francis Marion played in his life and always sought to give back to the institution.

One of the most admirable things about Frank was that he knew what was important and he showed up for it, she said. He understood the importance of the education he had at Francis Marion and wanted to help in any way he could. He drove down (from Greenville) for every meeting and every graduation. He was just dedicated.

Helping students achieve the same educational foundation that was integral to Elmores life and career is a fitting way to honor his legacy at FMU, she said.

To know how much the university thought of Frank and how important he was to the school is incredible, she said. Hopefully somebody that really had to work hard to get there will have a little extra help because of Franks memory.
When Mitch McConnell, the Senates Republican leader from Kentucky, suggested that Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson had a special empathy for criminals, he was not speaking as though that was a good thing.

He was speaking about the years when the federal judge and Supreme Court nominee worked as a public defender, a job in which a little empathy with ones clients is almost part of the job description.

Yet, in the context of Senate confirmation hearings, McConnells allegation of an unspecified special empathy for suspected lawbreakers sounds like code for soft on crime, which is anything but a magnet for confirmation votes.

Thats why Sen. Josh Hawley, a leading right-wing Missouri Republican, even before hearings began, tweeted that Jackson was soft on child sex crimes.

Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, tried to neutralize that jab with a quote from a conservative National Review column that called the charge meritless to the point of demagoguery.

Indeed, Hawley might feel more empathy for the accused if he recalls the encouraging fist-bump he raised to Jan. 6 Stop the Steal protesters before some of them stormed the Capitol. More than 800 have since been charged in that mob action, and many of them have defense attorneys provided by the federal government they tried to disrupt.

Did Hawley feel any empathy with them? His reelection campaign has been selling ceramic coffee mugs emblazoned with the photo of his Jan. 6 gesture and the words Show Me Strong for $20. Politico, which owns the photo, has since demanded that Hawleys campaign stop the sales.

Yes, empathy often is in the eye of the beholder.

But if Hawley has learned anything from his Yale Law School years, it should be the reality that public defenders dont get to pick their clients, whether they empathize or not.

If anything, it was a backhanded compliment to Judge Jacksons otherwise impeccable qualifications and charmingly agreeable personality that Republican senators turned to such a futile line of attack.

You might even call it performative, a recently fashionable put-down of speech or activism that appears to be aimed more at attention-grabbing or fundraising for a cause than with making a real difference for ones cause.

It was inevitable that Judge Jacksons confirmation hearings would become a stage for performative showboating. Her appointment wont change the courts 6-3 conservative direction, as she will replace another liberal, the retiring Stephen Breyer.

Yet, as much as has been made about her being the first Black woman to be nominated in the high courts history, Jackson brings another type of useful diversity to the current court.

Shes set to be the first justice with a deep background in defense work since Thurgood Marshall, the high courts first African American who stepped down in 1991 for health reasons.

Although legal scholars and political scientists endlessly debate whether gender makes a significant difference in legal interpretation, sound legal principles support the idea that the Supremes will benefit from the inclusion of someone who has a background in defense work.

In a well-worn adage by the great Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., which Judge Jackson cited in an earlier confirmation hearing, The life of the law has not been logic. It has been experience.

Jacksons experiences include her family  on both sides of the law. Her younger brother is a former Baltimore police officer and a distant uncle was sentenced to life under federal drug charges. President Barack Obama commuted his sentence in 2016 at age 78 after more than 25 years in prison.

If confirmed, Jackson will also be the only justice on the new court with experience on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, a bipartisan, independent agency created by Congress in 1984 to reduce disparity and promote transparency and proportionality in sentencing.

I dont expect Jacksons background to calm all of her critics, but you could say that about any Supreme Court justice in these tumultuous times. The job is controversial by nature.

The main quality we should ask of justices is fairness, which is all that judicial nominees should ask of us. Judge Jacksons nomination deserves at least that much.

Email Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.
Seguin, TX (78155)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms in the morning becoming more widespread in the afternoon. High around 85F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

A few clouds from time to time. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 67F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph.
Seguin, TX (78155)

Today

Cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 64F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 64F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph.
 Following up on just some of the sentencing discourse from SCOTUS confirmation hearings | Main | Varying perspectives on Illinois's new prosecutor-initiated resentencing law 

March 27, 2022

"Charging Time"

The title of this post is the title of this new paper now available via SSRN authored by Pamela Metzger and Janet Hoeffel. Here is its abstract:

On the day William Haymon turned 16, it was his 511th day in jail in Mississippi and a prosecutor had yet to formally charge him with a crime. William is one of thousands of people across the country arrested and jailed for weeks, months, and even years without charges. In one year in New Orleans, 275 people each spent an average of 115 days in jail only to have the prosecution decline all charges against them. Together, these men and women spent 31,625 days in one of the nations most dangerous jails, with no compensation for their incarceration, fear, lost wages, shame and distress. Yet this violates no laws; it circumvents no constitutional protections. To date, there has been no study of the necessity of the extended time period between arrest and charging. Until a prosecutor decides to accept or decline charges, the arrestee is in a procedural abyss. In this Article, we explore the equities at stake and the realities at play in this dark period. State statutes give prosecutors extended or indefinite time periods to make the formal charging decision and prosecutors appear to take that time. A recent original study reveals that prosecutors crushing caseloads, shoddy and inadequate investigative work by police officers, and a lack of training or written policies on charging contribute to the delay. From the detained defendants perspective, the consequences of delayed charging are steep. Extended time in jail risks lives, health, jobs and case outcomes. Yet we explain how neither the constitutional protections granted to criminal defendants nor statutory provisions provide any remedy at this uncharged stage. After exposing this disturbing state of affairs, we offer practical, subconstitutional solutions to minimize needless delay in the charging decisions of prosecutors across the country.

March 27, 2022 at 09:41 AM | Permalink

Comments

511 days in jail with no charges? Hmmmm. Where are the bar authorities?

Posted by: Federalist | Mar 27, 2022 12:56:35 PM

While my state is probably a little too strict (as there is no exception for weekends), my state only allows a person to be held for 24 hours without a warrant. If the case is not ready for charging, the defendant is released until the prosecutor decides to file charges.

Posted by: tmm | Mar 28, 2022 1:43:45 PM

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MACY, Neb. -- With money from the American Rescue Plan Act, the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska has been able to help with housing costs for members who live on the reservation in northeastern Nebraska.

When tribal officials announced the plan in late-October, they said about $1 million was budgeted for the "Homeowner Assistance Fund Plan" and eligible households could get as much as $20,000. In the first stage there would be up to $2,000, per household, for utilities. For later rounds, that figure would increase to $6,000 for mortgage assistance and even $10,000 for home improvements.

Melissa Henscheid, housing director with the Omaha Tribe, said about 180 families living on the reservation could benefit from the assistance, though she noted the number was a "guesstimate."

"I think our major part right now is going to be, like, furnaces and keeping people warm for the winter," Henscheid said at the time.

In November, the Omaha Tribal Housing Authority started to process checks for phase one of the Homeowner Assistance Fund Plan. "Watch you mail for the award letter," the Facebook post from Tuesday, November 30 said. A week later, the account gave word that processing of new applications for round one would stop until more funding was released by the U.S. Treasury.

Almost a month afterward, the tribe shared this news: "All Omaha Tribal Housing Authority (OTHA) Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF) applicants are required to submit three quotes for Phase 2 home improvements."

The tribe has just shy of 7,000 members, of which between 2,000 and 3,000 live within the boundaries of the reservation, which lies mostly in Thurston County.

The tribe also has purchased a combination grocery store, gas station and restaurant in Walthill. Mike Grant, planning director with the Omaha Tribe, said the now-tribal-owned store will help to address both the availability of fresh foods on the reservation, and will provide local jobs and spur economic development.

"What we want to do is, we want to start our own brand of grocery stores, and have that be a part of our economic development, he said.

According to Sinai Bass, who manages the roughly 7,500-square-foot store, the community has responded well to the venture.

"We extended the store hours, which the community has enjoyed," Bass said. "With the new vendors and product available at the grocery store, we are now able to stock our shelves at our convenience store in Macy."

Since the Omaha Tribe took over, Bass said they've been renovating as well as purchasing new store equipment such as freezers. "There are still a lot more updates and renovations coming this year that I know our community members will appreciate," she said.

The Omaha Tribe also opened the local Pahe' Cafe for dine-in and extended the hours. With those extended hours, Bass suggested the might get to employ more people.

In the future, Bass said the Omaha Tribe hopes to get new signage, gas pumps and add even more grocery items to "Pahe Mart," which in the Omaha language means "The Hill," so that it can be as modern and pleasing to customers as possible. The way she sees it, the store doesn't just give people in the area another option. It instills a sense of pride.

"I believe our tribal members are proud to own a for-profit business. We need to continue to be self-sufficient and build our economy," she said. "This grocery store is a good start to creating our economic development and accommodating the needs of our people. I am proud that the Omaha Tribe is purchasing more of the reservation land back."

Jared McNett is an online editor and reporter for the Sioux City Journal. You can reach him at 712-293-4234 and follow him on Twitter @TwoHeadedBoy98.

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IOWA CITY, Iowa -- A Rock Valley, Iowa man who was imprisoned for having sexual contact with a minor has died.

Lloyd Harlan Schlumbohm, 75, died at 6:41 p.m. Wednesday of natural causes at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, the Iowa Department of Corrections announced Sunday.

Schlumbohm had been serving a 10-year prison term that began on April 25, 2018. He had pleaded guilty in Sioux County District Court to one count of third-degree sexual abuse, and as part of a plea agreement, two counts of third-degree sexual abuse and one count of indecent exposure were dismissed.

He was arrested following a Sioux County Sheriff's Office investigation into a report that he had unwanted and inappropriate sexual contact with the minor on several occasions at a home east of Rock Valley six years earlier. The abuse reportedly took place over 11 years.

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SIOUX CITY  A total of $271,680 in state funding has been awarded in Northwest Iowa to prepare K-12 teachers to teach computer science.

Gov. Kim Reynolds and the Iowa Department of Education announced more than $500,000 in Computer Science Professional Development Incentive Fund awards on Tuesday.

Five area schools and organizations received funding:

- The Northwest AEA received the largest sum in the area at $218,100;

- Kingsley-Pierson Community School District received $20,500;

- Woodbury Central Community School District received $20,400;

- Newell-Fonda Community School District received $5,100 and;

- Sheldon Community School District received $7,580.

The fund is aimed at paying for teacher professional development, including training to teach specific computer science courses and earning university endorsements.

This year, there were 40 applicants and 21 awards totaling $506,084.

The Northwest AEA has developed a plan to serve the 34 school districts in the area covered by the AEA.

The Kingsley-Pierson schools will start implementing the curriculum at the high school and middle school level next year.

Taylor Kempers, K-P curriculum director, said the computer science learning will be new for the high school students, but the middle school students have already been doing a little coding through an online program.

The following year, the program will be introduced at the elementary level, where computer science learning has already been a strong focus thanks to a prior grant program.

These programs allow students to learn the basics at the elementary and middle school level, and then in high school, they can explore more technical career choices, Kempers said.

On the administration side, Kempers said receiving this grant has taken a huge weight off of their backs to find the funding to implement these types of programs.

It needs to be done because there are so many jobs that revolve around computer science, she said.

For the teachers, she said it is amazing to see how they integrate computer science learning each week.

Through computer science, students build critical thinking, problem-solving and reasoning skills that are transferable across academic disciplines and fields, said Ann Lebo, director of the Iowa Department of Education, in a press release. These are vital skills that students need to innovate and succeed in our interconnected, digital world.

The fund was created in 2017. In 2020, Reynolds proposed and the Legislature passed House File 2629, requiring K-12 schools to offer computer science education to all students, starting with high schools in 2022-23.

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, Reynolds said in the release.

Training that prepares educators to teach computer science in the next six to 12 months is a priority, according to the press release. Recipients will report their progress after the 2021-22 school year.

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SIOUX CITY -- The Sioux City metro area lost 675 residents, or about 0.5% of its population in the 15 months after the 2020 Census, according to new data released last week by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Sioux City Metropolitan Statistical Area, defined as Woodbury County in Iowa, Dakota and Dixon counties in Nebraska and Union County in South Dakota, had an estimated population of 149,265 on July 2021, compared to 149,940 on April 1, 2020.

The decline was driven by people leaving the metro area for elsewhere in the U.S., as the Census Bureaus Vintage 2021 estimates placed the net migration loss at 1,148. Meanwhile, births, which totaled 2,486 during the period, outpaced the 2,032 deaths, according to the census data.

Of the metro counties, only Union County gained residents during the first full year of the pandemic. Union, home to Dakota Dunes and North Sioux City, had an estimated population of 16,872 on July 1, 2021, up 61 from April 1, 2020, the date of the census.

Dakota County, which includes South Sioux City, experienced a population dip of 341 people, or 1.6%. Dixon County, which includes Ponca, lost 61 residents, or 1.1% of its population.

Woodbury County, which includes Sioux City, lost 334 residents, or 0.3%, as the population of Iowa's sixth largest county fell to an estimated 105,607 on July 1, 2021.

"Its an estimate," Woodbury County Board of Supervisors Chairman Keith Radig said Friday when asked about the county's numbers. "They were way off on their other estimates too."

Radig said he wasn't worrying about some slow exodus out of Woodbury because he believes the county has assets that are ideal for recruiting people to come and stay.

"The quality of life is a big reason people are moving here... Theyre also seeing that the housing here is incredibly affordable," he said.

Counties neighboring Woodbury saw mixed results in the time studied.

Sioux County added 21 people. Clay County gained 56 residents. Lyon County netted 77. Dickinson had a gain of 148.

Plymouth County lost around 48. Ida County's total decreased by 49 people in a year. Cherokee's population estimate dipped by 155 people. Monona lost 177 people. Population estimates for: Buena Vista, Crawford, O'Brien, Osceola and Sac all declined as well.

In South Dakota, Clay County picked up 183 people. Yankton County lost 13.

For Nebraska, Cedar County lost 50 people. Thurston lost 153. Wayne County added 87.

Statewide, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota all gained residents between April 1, 2020 and July 1, 2021, according to the census data. Iowa's population went from 3,190,369 to an estimated 3,193,079, an increase of 2,710, while Nebraska added 2,188 residents, to an estimated population of 1,963,692. South Dakota's population increased by 8,709 to stand at an estimated 895,376.

According to the Associated Press, nearly 75% of counties in the U.S. had a natural population decrease from deaths exceeding births, up from 55.5% in 2020 and 45.5% in 2019. "The trend was fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as fewer births and an aging population," the AP reported.

Birth rates and death rates weren't the only things driving population changes though. That AP story also noted that the pandemic "intensified population trends of migration to the South and West."

Jared McNett is an online editor and reporter for the Sioux City Journal. You can reach him at 712-293-4234 and follow him on Twitter @TwoHeadedBoy98.

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ODEBOLT, Iowa -- Siouxland poultry farmers are watching their flocks closely for signs of disease as a highly contagious strain of avian influenza circulates in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and in other states.

"We're just doing everything we can to take care of our birds," said Dan Roeder, a turkey farmer near Odebolt whose nine barns house about 90,000 birds.

An outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI, began in the U.S. in February, when the disease was detected in birds in Indiana. As of this past week, roughly 13 million chickens and turkeys (chickens being the overwhelming majority) have been culled, and the virus has been detected in at least 17 states.

Buena Vista County, north of Roeder's farm, has been the site of three confirmed cases of bird flu this month. That led to the culling of over 100,000 turkeys -- nearly 50,000 and 54,000, respectively, at two turkey farms -- and 5.3 million egg-laying hens at a large-scale operation, to help prevent the spread.

The state Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship has not publicly identified any of the infected operators. Buena Vista County Engineer Bret Wilkinson said this past week that Rembrandt Foods was the commercial egg-laying operation that was struck by the virus March 17. Sheila Hagen, vice president of human resources and legal for Spirit Lake-based Rembrandt, told the Journal she had no information about the matter.

Rembrandt Foods, one the nation's single largest egg-laying operations, lost 5.5 million hens at its Buena Vista County operation in April 2015, during the bird flu outbreak that year.

Iowa, the No. 1 egg producer in the U.S. and one of the nation's largest turkey producers, lost 34 million birds to the virus seven years ago, with the majority occurring in Northwest Iowa.

Nebraska's poultry losses totaled 4.9 million, mostly chickens all on five farms in Dixon County. South Dakota lost 1.75 million birds.

One likely reason Northwest Iowa has been hit so hard by avian influenza is that migratory birds -- a key culprit in spreading the illness -- tend to fly over the area, said Gretta Irwin, executive director and home economist with the Iowa Turkey Federation.

Kelli Berg, a turkey farmer in Sac County, said she's been closely monitoring the migratory patterns of birds online.

"I have been keeping an eye on that, just watching where they're flying and if we're going to have a lot here soon. The fly zone that they're in, that have the bird flu, they will come right through our area, so that is nerve-wracking," said Berg, whose operation has around 60,000 finisher birds and 100,000 brooder birds.

Brooder barns house turkeys in their infancy, called poults. At that stage of life, Berg said, the birds are quite vulnerable to disease.

The present outbreak hasn't yet come anywhere near the severity of the two-months' outbreak in the spring of 2015, which claimed 31.5 million turkeys and chickens in Iowa.

"It was a very stressful and emotional two months," Irwin said in an email in November 2020, regarding the spring 2015 outbreak.

The current outbreak, which reached Iowa at the beginning of March when a non-commercial, backyard flock of ducks and chickens near Council Bluffs tested positive, is thought to be caused by a new subtype of the influenza virus that circulated in 2015, Irwin said.

Since then, HPAI has been detected in six places in Iowa, as well as in South Dakota and in Nebraska. A flock of 570,000 broiler chickens was recently destroyed in eastern Nebraska's Butler County.

State officials are taking precautions to help limit the spread of the disease. The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship on Wednesday announced an order cancelling all live bird exhibitions at fairs and other gatherings of birds. The order also prohibits live birds from being sold or transferred at livestock auction markets, swap meets and exotic sales.

The order will be effective for a minimum of 30 days, and until 30 days has passed without a conformation of a new infection.

BIOSECURITY

The outbreak seven years ago also prompted aggressive, and enduring, biosecurity measures to be introduced on poultry farms. Among the biosecurity practices: using separate boots for inside the poultry barn and for outside, and rigorous cleansing of boots; tight restrictions on visitors and traffic at the farm, and on animals and pets at the farm; rodent control; and avoiding contact with non-commercial birds or wild birds.

HPAI is believed to be carried by the droppings of migratory birds, which is thought to make its way from the ground outside to inside the barns via the boots of humans.

"Biosecurity is always front-of-mind anyway, but yeah when something like this happens and we know it's in our area, or getting closer to our area, we really tighten down the security," said Roeder, who also farms row crops.

"Sometimes there's not a lot you can do to prevent it, other than really good biosecurity practices, and even with that you still run a risk of getting it," said Berg, whose farm has been diligent about everything from boots to disinfecting the tires on vehicles and floors on their property. "Even if you do all the right things, you still might get it. So it's worrisome."

Backyard flocks, Irwin said, are at risk of contracting influenza from migrating wildfowl due to the fact that they often exist in a somewhat less-regimented, more-outdoor setting where they could be exposed to wild birds.

Two of Iowa's six known HPAI outbreaks this month were in backyard, mixed-species flocks.

"The migratory birds may stop and say, 'Oh, there's some feed!'" Irwin said of backyard flocks. "Just that opportunity to co-mingle."

There is no vaccine for birds to protect against HPAI, though inoculations are often used to prevent other communicable diseases in birds.

INCREASED MORTALITY

There is no indication that HPAI is a threat to human health. In birds, symptoms of influenza infection (that are readily evident to human observers) include lethargic behavior, consuming less water and feed, coughing or gasping for air, stumbling, irregularities in egg-laying, diarrhea, and a sort of cyanosis (bluish or purplish discoloration) in the wattle, comb and legs, according to the USDA. Eventually influenza manifests as an elevated number of deaths in the flock.

"The farmers are doing a lot just to watch the behavior of their birds," Irwin said.

Under ordinary conditions, roughly 9 percent of turkeys will die of natural, unknowable, and otherwise unremarkable causes, Roeder said. A mortality rate above the usual 9 percent is cause for alarm.

"We always have a certain amount of dead, it just happens. Heart attacks, whatever. When your mortality goes up in a barn, you start paying attention," Roeder said.

If bird mortality is up two days in a row, Roeder said, a swab is taken and sent to a state laboratory. If influenza is detected, the appropriate government agencies are informed and the flock is culled.

"Your death loss goes up, but in this situation you don't let it cycle through, you just get rid of them. You just put them down. And then bury them on-site," he said.

The USDA can provide "some indemnification" for the loss of birds that are culled, Irwin said. "It's not something that makes them 100 percent whole, but it does help in that cost of depopulating and waiting until they get the next flock."

Culling of larger flocks can easily be a loss in the millions of dollars, depending on the size of the flock.

"It could be devastating," Roeder said.

After euthanasia, it usually takes four to six months for a farmer to repopulate lost turkeys, Irwin said.

Turkey prices haven't been impacted by the flu, Irwin said, and the turkey industry is not anticipating significant moves in price or availability. Egg prices, on the other hand, have been "sharply higher" in recent weeks, according to USDA reports.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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Over the last year or so, I have kept hearing the term critical race theory, but mostly in the context of people who were upset about it being taught in schools. I had a sense of its meaning, but I had to actually Google the term to find out what it meant.

During my research, I realized that I had taken a class in law school called Race and Racism in American Law, by the professor who helped pioneer critical race theory. We obviously talked a lot about how the law and racism were intertwined in many historical contexts, but I honestly dont remember that term ever being used in class.

In short, critical race theory is a theory that racism was a part of the legal construct of America, and it lives on in various policies and laws that may not be overtly racist but have their origins in some form of racism. In total, those policies and laws hurt the current opportunities of some Americans today.

I run the Winnebago Tribes development company. I am very familiar with how the law limits the tribes economic and political opportunities. I didnt have a name for what had happened to tribes, but critical race theory sure sounds like it applies to our situation.

The primary foundations of federal Indian law were laid down in the 1880s: We didnt have any lawyers, but we had lots of land and had very little military power left. This was a bad combination and led to the development of a legal system that was designed to exploit our resources, take our land, and marginalize our rights.

Critical race theory wasnt really developed referring to tribal interests, but the concept isnt a theory in our world. Tribes still live under these racist-era legal precedents. It is real and it explains how it is still so hard for tribes and tribal people to escape the cycle of repression, exploitation and poverty.

Several years ago in a court hearing, I was asked by an opposing lawyer if I had permission from the federal government to leave the reservation for the hearing that day. He was quoting a dormant federal law from the late 19th century the required I get permission from the federal government to travel off reservation. My answer to the question almost got me declared in contempt of court.

There really isnt much hope for overhauling the entire legal system to help tribes or other minority groups. The established power base has too much to lose, and I can tell you from hard experience that we have never been important enough to win the political influence game. I must admit it would be nice if the tribe could gerrymander something for once to help us achieve or maintain some political power.

Banning critical race theory from being taught is silly and seems like the latest in a long line of politically manufactured culture war issues. Call me a skeptic, but I suspect this issue becoming prominent overnight wasnt an accident. It was likely an invention of politics. Some paid political strategist decided to create a social issue that would stimulate their base, create outrage and manipulate people in subtle ways to encourage underlying racial divisions.

Lets at least be honest with ourselves, critical race theory isnt a theory. It is what happened and is still impacting peoples lives. However, there doesnt really need to be a modern day bad guy to teach it. No one was alive in the 19th century when the foundations of these things were being established. Maybe we should call it non-critical race theory and change the focus to understanding our history. Then use that understanding to strive for a truly equal opportunity society for all Americans.

Lance Morgan is a member of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska and the CEO of Ho-Chunk Inc. He is a graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Harvard Law School.
Liam Gallagher paid his respects to Taylor Hawkins, dedicating 'Live Forever' to the late Foo Fighters drummer at his London charity gig.
Taylor Hawkins "had 10 types of substances" in his system when he died.

The Foo Fighters drummer died in his hotel room in Bogota, Colombia on Friday (25.03.22) and authorities investigating his passing have confirmed traces of opioids, THC (marijuana), antidepressants and benzodiazepines showed up in toxicology tests.

The Attorney General's Office of Colombia shared a statement, written in Spanish, on Twitter, which translated to: "Colombias National State Prosecution Service can confirm the following after the initial autopsy on the body of Taylor Hawkins:

"1) That in the toxicology test on Taylor Hawkins urine 10 types of substances were preliminarily found, including marihuana, tricyclic antidepressants, benzodiazepines, and opioids.

"2) The National Institute of Forensic Medicine is continuing its medical studies to be able to completely clarify the facts that led to Taylor Hawkins death.

"3) Colombias National State Prosecution Service will continue with its investigation and reveal the results obtained as part of this investigation as appropriate."

It was previously revealed the 'My Hero' musician had asked for help after suffering chest pains before his death.

A statement from the District Health Secretary in the town of Chapinero read: "With regards to the death of the American musician Taylor Hawkins in the neighbourhood of Chapinero, which happened on Friday night, the City Health Department states the following:

"The citys Emergency Regulation Centre received an alert about a patient with chest pain in a hotel located in the north of the city.

"An ambulance was sent to attend to this case. However when the health department teams arrived, they found a mobile response unit from the company EMI at the scene.

"The health professional that was dealing with the emergency indicated attempts to revive the patient had been carried out but there had been no response and the patient was pronounced dead."

Foo Fighters previously paid tribute to their "beloved" bandmate.

They said in a statement: "The Foo Fighters family is devastated by the tragic and untimely loss of our beloved Taylor Hawkins.

"His musical spirit and infectious laughter will live on with all of us forever.

"Our hearts go out to his wife, children and family, and we ask that their privacy be treated with the utmost respect in this unimaginably difficult time."

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Originally published on celebretainment.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange.
Taylor Hawkins suffered chest pains before he passed away on Friday (03.25.22).

The Foo Fighters drummer died at his hotel in Colombia at the age of 50, and the District Health Secretary in the town of Chapinero has now released more details about the circumstances surrounding his death.

A statement read: "With regards to the death of the American musician Taylor Hawkins in the neighborhood of Chapinero, which happened on Friday night, the City Health Department states the following:

"The citys Emergency Regulation Centre received an alert about a patient with chest pain in a hotel located in the north of the city.

"An ambulance was sent to attend to this case. However when the health department teams arrived, they found a mobile response unit from the company EMI at the scene.

"The health professional that was dealing with the emergency indicated attempts to revive the patient had been carried out but there had been no response and the patient was pronounced dead."

The Foo Fighters previously announced Hawkins' death on social media.

The band said on Twitter: "The Foo Fighters family is devastated by the tragic and untimely loss of our beloved Taylor Hawkins.

"His musical spirit and infectious laughter will live on with all of us forever.

"Our hearts go out to his wife, children and family, and we ask that their privacy be treated with the utmost respect in this unimaginably difficult time."

A host of well-known musicians subsequently took to social media to pay tribute to the late star.

Gene Simmons said: "Shocked and saddened to hear @taylorhawkins has passed away today.! Our prayers and condolences go out to the Hawkins family, @foofighters friends and fans. Sad. (sic)"

Queen guitarist Brian May also expressed his shock and sadness after the news was confirmed.

He said: "No. It cannot be. Heartbroken. Taylor, you were family to us. Our friend, our brother, our beloved child. Bless you. We will miss you so bad."

Meanwhile, Ozzy Osbourne tweeted: "@TaylorHawkins was truly a great person and an amazing musician. My heart, my love and my condolences go out to his wife, his children, his family, his band and his fans. See you on the other side. (sic)"

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Originally published on celebretainment.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange.
SOUTH SIOUX CITY -- As the region emerges from the COVID pandemic, Flatwater Crossing developers anticipate construction picking up again at the unique South Sioux City housing and commercial development.

"We've got a lot of inquiries and demand coming out of COVID. We paused a little bit in 2021. We're anxious to hit the ground running again," said Dennis Johnson, chief investment officer at Ho-Chunk Inc., a development corporation owned by the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska and developer of the 200 acres being developed at 29th Street and Veterans Drive as a walkable urban neighborhood featuring a network of greenways, natural landscaping, plazas and trails.

The pandemic caused construction and material cost increases of 15%-20%, leading to a slowdown that put the development about a year behind, Johnson said.

"You always hope it's faster, but I know where we are now and the interest that's in the pipeline," he said. "I feel like the next several years will be very positive growth for Flatwater Crossing."

That growth is evident as a 43-unit apartment complex nears completion. Construction began in late 2020, and the four-story building should be ready for occupancy in April. Johnson said 10 units already are preleased. The one- and two-bedroom units will lease for $1,195-$1,395. All apartments have balconies and views of the nearby Missouri River. The building also has 67,000 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor, and Johnson said it's expected that a restaurant will locate there, based on discussions with interested parties.

A nearly identical apartment building is in the design phase, and construction is likely to begin in 2023.

Both will stand on either side of a town square that will be surrounded by other multi-use buildings and feature a green space that could host farmers markets and other community gatherings. Johnson said landscaping of the town square will take place this summer at the same time as walkways from the river are installed.

Those walkways will link the development to a floating dock system, also expected to be built this year, in which Missouri River boaters can dock and walk into the development, visiting the SweetWater Cafe, a coffee shop and deli that opened in the ground floor of the development's first multi-use building in 2021. As more dining options locate in Flatwater Crossing, Johnson said the docks could be a popular stop for boaters.

"We're making it interactive with the river system," Johnson said of the development, currently in phase one, which includes a 70-acre parcel containing 67 lots that will have town homes, single-family homes, commercial space and roughly 200 apartment units.

Johnson said he expects to see construction on at least six more single-family homes begin this year, along with a second building containing five town homes. That town home building will be similar to the first one completed in 2020. Of the five units in the first building, four have been sold, Johnson said.

Designers are working on a clubhouse that will be across the street from SweetWater. The clubhouse would have a community room, fitness area and swimming pool. Contractors could break ground yet this fall.

Two commercial spots remain next to SweetWater, located on the ground floor of a three-story building that contains 14 single- and two-bedroom apartments on the upper floors. Johnson said the apartments have had nearly 100% occupancy since opening two years ago.

Planning for Flatwater Crossing began in 2014 and it's expected to have 600 apartments, 400 single-family homes, commercial and retail space and parks when filled. The area is designed to have walkable neighborhoods with housing, dining and shopping in close proximity.

Abutting the Missouri River on the southeast side of South Sioux City, the $80 million development offers scenic views of the river and the Floyd Monument on the bluffs overlooking the opposite riverbank. Johnson said the development is not in the flood zone.

It's not uncommon, he said, to see people driving and walking through the development on nice days. As more buildings take shape, Johnson said he believes interest is increasing in the area and that construction will accelerate in the next couple years.

"It's getting to the point where people can see the vision here and see it's something neat, something cool, and they're taking an interest in being a part of it," he said.

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The White House is set to unveil a new minimum income tax for billionaires on Monday as part of President Joe Bidens budget proposal for the next fiscal year. The measure would mark the first time the 700 richest Americans will be targeted by a specific tax, reports the Washington Post, which was first to report the news. The new Billionaire Minimum Income Tax would spell out that households worth more than $100 million would have to pay a 20 percent minimum tax rate.

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The Billionaire Minimum Income Tax will ensure that the very wealthiest Americans pay a tax rate of at least 20 percent on their full income, including unrealized appreciation, the White House said. This minimum tax would make sure that the wealthiest Americans no longer pay a tax rate lower than teachers and firefighters. Lots of billionaires pay a lower tax rate than the average American because the government doesnt tax the increase in value of stock holdings until theyre sold. Billionaires are able to borrow against their accumulated gains without triggering taxes on capital gains, enabling huge accumulations of wealth to go virtually untaxed by the federal government, the Washington Post explains.

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Although it doesnt just target households more than $1 billion, most of the new revenue that would be raised by the tax that would apply only to the top one-hundredth of 1 percent of American households would come from billionaires. Anyone who is a target for the tax and already pays at least 20 percent in taxes wouldnt owe any more money while those paying below that rate would have to pay enough to reach the 20-percent threshold. Under the plan, the wealthiest people in the country would suddenly owe a lot more tax. Elon Musk, for example, would have to pay an additional $50 billion in taxes while Jeff Bezos would be on the hook for an additional $35 billion, according to calculations by Gabriel Zucman, an economist at the University of California Berkeley.

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The new tax would likely be popular with the Democratic Partys base that has long called for higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans. But its unclear whether it will be able to make it through Congress considering some lawmakers have long balked at efforts to increase taxes on the wealthy. Specifically, its far from certain whether Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona would support the plan. They wouldnt be the lone voices that could greet this new tax with skepticism. Several Biden administration officials have publicly said that implementing any kind of a wealth tax is trickier than it sounds. Plus experts have also said that any kind of wealth tax could also lead to legal challenges on the question of whether its constitutional to tax wealth rather than income.
The White House on Sunday more forcefully walked back President Joe Bidens surprising comments from the previous day in which he appeared to be calling for regime change in Russia. I think the president, the White House made the point last night that, quite simply, President Putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a news conference during a visit to Jerusalem. As you know, and as youve heard us say repeatedly, we do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia or anywhere else, for that matter. In this case, as in any case, its up to the people of the country in question. Its up to the Russian people.

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Blinkens statement illustrates how top administration officials were left scrambling after Bidens nine ad-libbed words at the end of a 27-minute speech in Poland on Saturday: For Gods sake, this man cannot remain in power. Biden was talking about Russian President Vladimir Putin and many immediately interpreted his words as a sign that Washington was seeking regime change in Moscow. The implications would have been huge and would have marked a stark reversal of stated U.S. policy. But administration officials quickly moved to walk back the message. In the end though, the efforts to explain away the presidents words didnt much matter and the nine words became the central message of the speech.

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Bidens words werent planned and appear to have surprised even his closest aides. Officials later acknowledged it was just the latest example of Bidens penchant for stumbling off message, reports the Washington Post. And like many of his unintended comments, they came at the end of his speech as he ad-libbed and veered from the carefully crafted text on the teleprompter. The words amounted to a badly needed gift to Moscow, notes the Guardian, as there is little doubt Bidens statement will now be featured in Russias propaganda. Moscow will also be able to argue that any negotiation with Washington is futile.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit, G7 gathering and the summit of the European Council were held successively in Brussels, during which the Ukraine crisis was the major focus.

U.S. President Joe Biden squeezed his schedule for Thursday and Friday to attend the three intensive summits, but he failed to talk the European partners into more sanctions against Russia.



At the European Council summit on Thursday, EU leaders, after an exchange of views with Biden on transatlantic cooperation in the context of the Ukraine crisis, concluded that the bloc would not impose more sanctions against Russia.



Although the United States and the EU announced a task force on Friday to reduce Europe's reliance on Russian fossil fuels, several European countries, including Germany, remain reluctant to announce drastic measures against Russia's energy for fear of aggravating supply disturbances.

Various politicians and experts have said the expectation that Europe could cut itself off Russian energy entirely looks too sanguine.

Statistics show that currently, over 40 percent of the EU's natural gas and 25 percent of its oil consumption come from Russia -- a reality that makes the EU's following the U.S. ban on Russian energy imports unrealistic, despite mounting pressure from Washington.





Produced by Xinhua Global Service




https://sputniknews.com/20220327/fresh-poll-shows-bidens-approval-rating-decline-as-71-of-americans-think-country-on-wrong-track-1094243635.html

Fresh Poll Shows Biden's Approval Rating Decline as 71% of Americans Think Country on Wrong Track

Fresh Poll Shows Biden's Approval Rating Decline as 71% of Americans Think Country on Wrong Track

Americans generally remain unimpressed with the president's handling of the economy, as well as foreign policy  especially the issue of Ukraine. 27.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-27T19:49+0000

2022-03-27T19:49+0000

2022-03-27T20:15+0000

us

joe biden

economy

approval rating

biden administration

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The approval rating of US President Joe Biden has fallen to 40% as the midterm elections draw closer, the latest NBC News poll conducted between 18 and 22 March has shown. Some 71% of respondents indicated that they believe their country is "on the wrong track".Americans were specifically concerned by issues related to the economy, with 64% disapproving of Biden's handling of it. 62% said that their income has shrunk amid the growing cost of living. A majority of respondents considered this to be the most important issue facing the US.The poll also showed that Americans generally disapprove of the POTUS' handling of foreign policy issues, with 51% believing that he has underperformed in this sphere. The respondents also negatively evaluated Biden's policy on Ukraine, as only 28% assessed it positively.The latest data shows that the Biden administration and the Democratic Party he represents are set for a crushing defeat in the upcoming midterms this year, Republican pollster, Bill McInturff, said in a comment for NBC.The NBC poll generally confirmed McInturff's projections, as the GOP was shown to be leading by two points ahead of the Democrats on the question of which party respondents want to win control of Congress.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, joe biden, economy, approval rating, biden administration
https://sputniknews.com/20220327/how-youtubes-censorship-of-russian-pranksters-contributes-to-msm-push-for-narrative-control-1094238986.html

How YouTubes Censorship of Russian Pranksters Contributes to MSM Push For Narrative Control

How YouTubes Censorship of Russian Pranksters Contributes to MSM Push For Narrative Control

YouTube and other Big Tech social media platforms are frequently accused of suppressing the voices of those who don't agree with particular narratives... 27.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-27T18:08+0000

2022-03-27T18:08+0000

2022-03-27T18:08+0000

opinion

youtube

mainstream media

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Since the beginning of Moscow's military operation in Ukraine, the video hosting platform has targeted Russian state-run media outlets, and even the channels of Soviet television and radio Gosteleradiofond, which broadcast archive materials recorded before 1999.In one of its most recent restrictions against Russian channels, YouTube blocked the account of pranksters Vovan and Lexus after the release of their conversations with UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace and Home Secretary Priti Patel, which provided a glimpse into London's behind-the-scenes position regarding the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.While YouTube cited a "violation of community rules", critics have slammed the video hosting platform for dealing a blow to free speech in yet another act of mass censorship in the wake of the events in Ukraine.What could be behind YouTube's decision to censor the Russian pranksters?Devil in the DetailsThe move could be due to the West's desire to silence an embarrassing story that could highlight things that the UK would prefer not to be made public.Confirmation of Escalation?Hudak goes on to recall how Wallace mentioned that Britain has troops in Estonia, Poland, and Lithuania, and is "happy to be with Ukraine", thus "suggesting the potential for British troops" on Ukrainian territory. This came just ahead of US President Joe Biden's slip-up in Poland, where he spoke to US soldiers in Rzeszow and told them that when they "get there (to Ukraine), they will see "women and young people [...] standing in front of a tank".Hudak criticised the influence that Western government entities appear to have over social media platforms - YouTube in particular. But he also had a straightforward explanation as to why the West wants to shut down any alternative sources of information."The danger in the information is that it is true or at least encourages people to question the agenda and policy of the establishment. When the public begins to disagree with or at least question its governments actions and overall strategy and goal, it becomes far more difficult for that government to continue with its plan. To prevent this from happening, the establishment must concentrate the diversity of information available to the public, which is why we see mass censorship taking place at the moment", he explains.'Monopolising Public Conversation'Joseph Oliver Boyd Barrett, emeritus professor at Bowling Green State University, offered his own look at the decisions by YouTube and other major social media platforms. According to him, the Western media's aim is to "exclude" information it deems unsuitable for the official narrative "in ways that do not immediately attract charges of outright censorship". However, that was easier to do without the Internet, and now that the global web provides access to points of view that may differ from the mainstream, tougher tools become necessary.But why are alternative viewpoints being targeted at all? According to Barrett, it's all about "monopolising the public conversation"."The collusion of mainstream media is assured through their shared political and economic interests, by threats and incentives, and the operations of intelligence agencies that routinely penetrate media with their own people, recruit media operatives, ply media outlets with privileged information or disinformation and so on", he explains.What Can Be Done?In the wake of Big Tech companies tightening the screws and attempting to shape the narrative in their preferred way, it might be useful for media companies and outlets to invest in building "a profile on other platforms that are not part of the Big Tech conglomerate", Taylor Hudak suggests.But this alone would not be enough, he adds.YouTube blocked Vovan and Lexus' channel on Saturday, effectively removing the videos the two pranksters had shared that revealed their conversations with top UK officials. In the phone talks, the two pretended to be Ukrainian PM Denis Shmygal and managed to gain some insight into the British view of the Ukraine crisis.Defence Secretary Ben Wallace happened to share details on British arms supplies to Ukraine and views on Kiev's "plans" regarding its nuclear programme, while Home Secretary Priti Patel pledged to strip Russian tycoons of their assets and ensure the support of the UK's allies for Ukraine.After the videos emerged online, the UK officials immediately asserted that they had been "doctored" and that they are part of "Russian propaganda", calling on YouTube to remove them.YouTube was quick to comply, just as it did when Western countries imposed a slew of anti-Russian sanctions, particularly demanding that online access to Russian media outlets be restricted, while allowing anti-Russian ads on the platform. This move by Big Tech firms was slammed by Russia as censorship, with media watchdog Roskomnadzor condemning the social media platforms' actions as something that "not only violate[s] Russian law but also contradict generally accepted norms of morality".

https://sputniknews.com/20220326/youtube-blocks-channel-of-russian-pranksters-vovan--lexus-after-spoof-calls-with-uk-ministers-1094212385.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220327/inconsistent-with-us-goals-western-analysts-criticise-bidens-call-for-regime-change-in-russia-1094237830.html

'Inconsistent With US Goals': Western Analysts Criticise Biden's Call for Regime Change in Russia

'Inconsistent With US Goals': Western Analysts Criticise Biden's Call for Regime Change in Russia

While the White House was quick to backpedal on the president's perceived call for Putin's ouster on 26 March, foreign policy experts still believe that the... 27.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-27T13:14+0000

2022-03-27T13:14+0000

2022-03-27T13:31+0000

us

joe biden

russia

vladimir putin

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US President Joe Biden's emotional exclamation "for Gods sake, this man cannot remain in power" in reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin might severely escalate tensions between Washington and Moscow, which is now more confident than ever that the West is bent on staging a coup in the country, several foreign policy experts, analysts, columnists, and Western media outlets have warned.The Financial Times (FT) called Biden's line about Putin a "turning point" in America's approach to the conflict in Ukraine. Prior, Washington had tried to balance its rhetoric, while now it's transitioned to a "fierce strategic rivalry" with Russia.The head of the US Council on Foreign Relations, Richard Haass, criticised Biden's closing line about Putin, noting that ousting the Russian president is not something Washington has the tools to accomplish. At the same time, the president's speech created risks that Putin will "reject compromise, escalate, or both", Haass warned.Michael Goodwin, a contributor for the New York Post, condemned the entire Biden speech and specifically targeted his line about Putin. Goodwin argued that it would "dramatically raise the stakes with Russia" as the US administration was seeking to lower them.Joe Biden's entire speech, which was dedicated to the topic of a "long war" and rarely touched upon peace, suggests that a "new Cold War [is] on our hands" with POTUS as its Western leader, David Gergen, a former White House adviser, told the Financial Times. Gergen cautioned that such a speech heavily suggests that the current conflict won't be "settled at the negotiating table".Not Going to WashEven before Biden could depart Poland, where he delivered his speech, the White House was quick to rescind its last line  about Vladimir Putin  and assured that POTUS was not calling for regime change in Russia. Furthermore, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken tried to interpret Biden's words differently the next day, claiming that POTUS meant that "Putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression".Western commentators, however, remained unconvinced, warning that the same is likely to be true for the Kremlin, and harshly criticised  either Biden for making reckless comments off the cuff or his team for allowing such a line in the text of the speech. FT suggested that even a single hint that Washington is contemplating regime change in Moscow might prompt the Kremlin to believe that the US is "losing control of its message about the war".Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, insisted that Biden's message will be strongly believed in Moscow.Haass stated that the line being off-script (something that has not yet been officially confirmed), will only reinforce the Kremlin's fears as it will consider Biden's words "this man cannot remain in power" as his genuine belief.Putin heard a call for regime change "loud and clear" in Biden's speech, former Defence Intelligence Agency officer, Rebekah Koffler, told Fox News. She claimed that Putin has long suspected the US of trying to stage a "colour revolution" or a civil uprising in Russia, and now he's got his confirmation. Koffler lashed out at the controversial line in Biden's script and called the people who prepared it "incompetent", since this phrase failed to "minimise security threats" for the American people.New York Post contributor Michael Goodwin stressed that in the context of Biden's speech in Poland, his phrase about Putin not being allowed to "remain in power" is impossible to be comprehended as anything but a call for regime change. The White House might explain itself in the future, but it will never be "good enough", Goodwin warned.The Biden administration, for example, the national security adviser or the secretary of state, must reach out to Moscow and elaborate on Joe Biden's comment, Richard Haass said. They must explain to the Kremlin that the comment was made in the heat of the moment and that it in no way reflects US foreign policy, the president of the think tank suggested.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, joe biden, russia, vladimir putin
https://sputniknews.com/20220327/indian-pm-narendra-modi-praises-country-achieving-record-400-billion-in-exports-1094232675.html

Indian PM Narendra Modi Praises Country Achieving Record $400 Billion in Exports

Indian PM Narendra Modi Praises Country Achieving Record $400 Billion in Exports

On 23 March, India set a new milestone after achieving the highest-ever goods export of $400 billion nine days ahead of schedule. On average, every hour $46... 27.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-27T10:35+0000

2022-03-27T10:35+0000

2022-03-27T10:35+0000

india

narendra modi

prime minister

radio

export

india

export potential

billions of dollars

supply chain

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India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday addressed the nation during his monthly radio programme "Mann Ki Baat" (From the Heart) and praised the people for contributing to achieving the highest-ever goods exports target of $400 billion."India has achieved the export target of $400 billion. At first instance, this might come across as a matter related to the economy, but it is related to India's capability and potential", PM Narendra Modi said.During his address, PM Modi gave credit to India's farmers, artisans, weavers, engineers, small entrepreneurs, Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME), and individuals from many different professions who have turned out to be the country's strength, making India reach new overseas markets.The 71-year-old prime minister said that with the rising demand for Indian goods in the world and stronger supply-chain model, new products from all corners of India are reaching foreign shores. From leather products from Hailakandi in the state of Assam, handloom products from Osmanabad in the state of Maharashtra to fruits and vegetables from Bijapur in the state of Karnataka, and black rice from Chandauli in Uttar Pradesh, exports are increasing, Modi said.Even new products shipped to new destinations have given a boost to India's exports. "The best part is that our exports are being supplied to new destinations like Denmark, South Korea, London, Kenya among other nations", Modi highlighted. Citing the leading reason behind the transformation of India's export sector, Modi said, "There was a time when only big companies could sell goods to the government. However, the country is changing now; the old systems are also changing. Now even the smallest of shopkeepers can sell one's goods to the government on the GeM Portal  this is the new India".Modi urged people to "make the local 'global' and augment the prestige of Make in India products". "When each and every Indian is vocal for local, it does not take long for the local to become global. Let's make the local 'global' and augment the prestige of our products further", he said.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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india, narendra modi, prime minister, radio, export, india, export potential, billions of dollars, supply chain
https://sputniknews.com/20220327/kim-jong-un-pyongyang-to-continue-developing-offensive-means---reports-1094245492.html

Kim Jong Un: Pyongyang to Continue Developing Offensive Means - Reports

Kim Jong Un: Pyongyang to Continue Developing Offensive Means - Reports

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un says his country will continue to further develop offensive means, the South Korean Yonhap news agency... 27.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-27T21:42+0000

2022-03-27T21:42+0000

2022-03-27T21:47+0000

dprk

icbm

korean peninsula

japan

kim jong-un

missile tests

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Speaking alongside officials and scientists who contributed to Pyongyangs recent successful missile test, the North Korean leader said on Monday that his country "will continue to attain the goal of reinforcing national defense capabilities, develop more of powerful strike means to make our People's Army equip with them," Yonhap said citing the official North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).Pyongyang has confirmed that it tested its Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on March 24. The Thursday launch was North Koreas first ICBM test since 2017. Japan said that if Pyongyang launched the missile along a conventional trajectory, it could have flown 15,000 km (9,320 miles), reaching any point on US soil.This was also the 11th missile launch by North Korea this year. On February 27 and March 5, North Korea test-fired ballistic missiles as part of the reconnaissance satellite project. Seoul and Washington accused Pyongyang of testing a new Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile under the pretext of developing satellite systems.Following the test on March 24, the US State Department said Russia and China should send North Korea a strong message to refrain from additional provocations and engage in sustained diplomacy.

https://sputniknews.com/20220324/north-korea-successfully-tested-hwasong-17-icbm-missile-in-latest-launch-dprk-media-says-1094163558.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220327/limited-hangout-will-western-media-finally-look-into-hunter-biden-biolabs-funding-story-1094234602.html

'Limited Hangout': Will Western Media Finally Look Into Hunter Biden Biolabs-Funding Story?

'Limited Hangout': Will Western Media Finally Look Into Hunter Biden Biolabs-Funding Story?

The stories related to the contents of the US president's son, Hunter Biden's laptop have rarely received anything from the mainstream media but the label of... 27.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-27T13:54+0000

2022-03-27T13:54+0000

2022-03-27T13:54+0000

us

russia

hunter biden

bioweapon

media

opinion

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The Russian Defence Ministry was the first to point the finger at the US president's son, Hunter Biden, as one of those purportedly involved in financing alleged American biowarfare research in Ukrainian laboratories. On Friday, the Daily Mail rolled out a report, citing emails from the younger Biden's infamous laptop, that appeared to back the Russian ministry's assertions, unearthing details about how Hunter Biden allegedly used his leverage as a board member of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma to pour money into research of pandemic-causing pathogens in Ukraine.One might suggest that the move by the UK media outlet indicated the readiness of Western journalists to finally look into the long-dismissed allegations around Hunter Biden. But not everyone is so optimistic.The term "limited hangout" is used to describe the revelation of a portion of previously hidden information, which occurs when it is impossible to stick to the initial "cover-up" story, so that attention is drawn to it and the rest remains clandestine.Dankof pointed out that there have been other reports in Western alternative media that covered the story "far more comprehensively, with a fair reference to specific Russian accusations and accompanying evidence".What the Daily Mail did, he believes, is not about that, as comprehensive reporting from mainstream media outlets would prompt questions about the very core of the Western narrative.The reason for rolling out a "limited hangout", he suggests, was the remarks by Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland on the US-funded biolabs in Ukraine. In her exchange with Senator Marco Rubio on the subject, Nuland confirmed the existence of biolaboratories in Ukraine, but denied the Russian accusations of the labs being used for the creation of biowarfare agents.Independent journalist and writer Daniel Lazare also does not seem to be enthusiastic about the Daily Mail report, deeming it "interesting but [far] from conclusive"."The Hunter Biden angle is fascinating, but sheds no light on the nature of such research", he says. "It's possible that the labs were engaged in biowar research, but such suspicions are still far from proven".But Washington's official assurances that there was no biowarfare research in Ukraine is far from being persuasive as well, Lazare notes."Given all that, and given America's ample record of lying when it comes to WMDs, we can safely conclude that its assurances regarding the labs cannot be taken at face value and that the US should come clean before the appropriate international authorities", he explains. "That means making all relevant records public and submitting to public questioning concerning all aspects of the labs and their activities".Hunter Biden and OthersHunter Biden, however, was not the only one to purportedly funnel money into the alleged bioweapons research in Ukraine. Some of the money for the Ukrainian biolabs was provided by the Pentagon, raising questions regarding how US taxpayer money is being used.Dankof notes that the decision to finance the Ukrainian laboratories instead of, say, channeling the money into important social issues is "a more important policy and budgetary issue for all of the criminals in the Biden administration". He also slams the "supporters of this madness in both the GOP and the Democratic Party in Congress, and a servile mainstream media in the United States owned and staffed by the elite interests involved in this and in Bush's 'War on Terror' in the Middle East".Had the mainstream media paid enough attention to the Hunter Biden laptop story earlier, much more damning details would have emerged, Dankof believes, listing "the criminal enterprises of Hillary Clinton just since 2016 and those of Hunter's own father". Aside from this, he notes, the media's more thorough look inside the contents of the "laptop from hell" would have "guaranteed the re-election of Donald Trump, something the American Deep State and its assets in [the] media and social media would not permit to happen".The Biden administration does not seem to eager to address the issue, even though two-thirds of Americans, according to a recent Rassmussen poll, believe that the story about Hunter Biden's laptop is "important" and warrants further investigation.The reasons behind the White House's reluctance for such an investigation, Dankof says, are similar to those mentioned above."It would begin an unraveling of the real story on Joe and Hunter Biden; the president isn't going to honestly talk about [it] with the American public because he's a crook, as is his son and a whole host of players in the Ukrainian affair since February of 2014 that threatens to engulf all of us in World War III", he says.Moreover, he continues, the White House appears to be prepared to attack anyone not ready to agree with the official narrative - just like Washington shielded its views on other controversial events. Among those who have already been attacked by the Western media over their disagreement with the mainstream view, Dankof referred to Tulsi Gabbard, whom Hillary Clinton once called a "Russian asset". Gabbard, for her part, had branded the then-Democratic candidate "the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party".Since Gabbard weighed in to voice concerns about the American biolabs in Ukraine, she has yet again been labeled a "Russian asset" and a traitor by a handful of US lawmakers, among them GOP Senator Mitt Romney and Congressman Adam Kinzinger.In light of the findings by the Russian Defence Ministry, the Kremlin said it will demand an explanation from the United States regarding Hunter Biden's alleged involvement in the financing of biological research in Ukraine, with China also urging Washington to clarify the story around the alleged bioweapons.According to Russia, the United States has been pouring money into biological research in Ukraine aimed at potentially creating bioweapons or looking into the spread of dangerous pathogens. Aside from Hunter Biden, the Russian Defence Ministry found the US Agency for International Development (USAID), George Soros' Open Society Foundations, and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention also financed the research, which took place in 31 laboratories across 14 settlements in Ukraine.Ukraine is not the only country to have hosted the US-funded biolabs, Russia said, noting that similar research was conducted in Georgia, Indonesia, Germany, Azerbaijan and many other nations across the globe. The United States has vehemently denied the allegations, calling them part of a disinformation campaign, but Under Secretary Victoria Nuland in early March happened to confirm the existence of biolaboratories, saying that the US was "quite concerned" that Russian troops might take over the facilities.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, russia, hunter biden, bioweapon, media, opinion
US Warship Forrest Sherman Arrives in Polands Gdansk

"US Navy destroyer USS Forrest Sherman (DDG 98) arrived in Gdansk, Poland, for a scheduled port visit to enhance US-Polish relations and build NATO Alliance cohesion," the US 6th Fleet said on social media.

Prior to pulling into the port, the warship conducted seamanship and navigation drills with the USS Donald Cook and Poland's guided missile frigate General Kazimierz Pulaski and the Skazak patrol vessel.

"Operating with our NATO Allies on the world stage, prior to pulling into the beautiful country of Poland, is what we are out here to do," commanding officer Greg Page said.

The arrival of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer in the Baltic Sea is a show of force and the USs commitment to NATO collective defense.
https://sputniknews.com/20220327/lpr-head-says-republic-may-hold-referendum-on-joining-russia-soon-1094232866.html

Lugansk People's Republic May Hold Referendum on Joining Russia Soon

Lugansk People's Republic May Hold Referendum on Joining Russia Soon

The LPR militia previously reclaimed most of the territory of the republic, forcing out Ukrainian troops and liberating settlements after an eight-year war... 27.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-27T08:40+0000

2022-03-27T08:40+0000

2022-03-27T11:04+0000

lpr

russia

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The head of the Lugansk People's Republic, Leonid Pasechnik, stated on Sunday that a referendum on joining Russia may be held in the republic.Lugansk, as well as Donetsk, proclaimed its independence in 2014, after a violent coup d'etat in Kiev. Both republics held referendums on independence and expressed plans to join Russia, to which the new government in Kiev responded with a military campaign.As a result of the eight-year-long war in Donbass, over 13,000 people were killed. In February 2022, intensifying shelling by Kiev's troops resulted in mass evacuations from the DPR and LPR. Both republics appealed to Russia, asking for help, and Moscow launched a special operation in Ukraine.President Vladimir Putin stressed it was started to stop the genocide perpetrated by Kiev's troops, and noted that the goal of the op is the demilitarisation and denazification of Ukraine.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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lpr, russia
TEHRAN, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Iran is prepared for bilateral talks with Kuwait on developing the joint Arash/Al-Durra gas field, Iran's deputy oil minister said on Sunday.

"We believe that exploitation from the joint field should be done in an integrated manner, and this will lead to the strengthening of economic relations between the two countries," Deputy Minister of Petroleum for International Affairs and Trading Ahmad Asadzadeh was quoted as saying by Petro Energy Information Network, which is affiliated to the Iranian Ministry of Petroleum.

The reason for Iran to delay the operations in the Arash/Al-Durra gas field was the deferral in delimiting borders of the field with Kuwait, Asadzadeh noted.

The Iranian official stated that even if the borders have not been defined, the field can be developed in an integrated manner using internationally experienced models.

"The (Iranian) Ministry of Petroleum announces its readiness for negotiations in this regard," he pointed out.

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait agreed to develop the Arash/Al-Durra gas field recently, but the Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Saturday that the Saudi-Kuwait agreement is "illegal," since Iran also has a share in the field and must be included in any action to operate and develop the field. 
https://sputniknews.com/20220327/macron-warns-not-to-escalate-either-in-words-or-actions-after-bidens-verbal-assault-on-putin--1094240637.html

Macron Warns Not to 'Escalate Either in Words or Actions' After Biden's Verbal Assault on Putin

Macron Warns Not to 'Escalate Either in Words or Actions' After Biden's Verbal Assault on Putin

Last week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Joe Biden's recent "war criminal" remarks concerning Russian President Vladimir Putin as inadmissible, adding... 27.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-27T14:40+0000

2022-03-27T14:40+0000

2022-03-27T14:46+0000

france

ukraine

russia

emmanuel macron

vladimir putin

joe biden

special operation

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French President Emmanuel Macron has said that he would refrain from uttering such stern language such as was recently used by POTUS regarding Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.Referring to Moscow's ongoing special military operation in Ukraine, the French president also said that he sees his task as "achieving first a ceasefire and then the total withdrawal of [Russian] troops [from Ukraine] by diplomatic means".Peskov Slams Biden's Remarks as Unacceptable He spoke after Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters last week that Biden's statements are already becoming personal insults aimed at Russian President Vladimir Putin.Last Wednesday, when asked whether he would call Putin a "war criminal" Biden first responded in the negative, but after a pause changed his mind. In another development last week, POTUS did not think twice before calling the Russian president a "murderous dictator" and "a pure thug".Peskov described the remarks as unacceptable and unforgivable for the president of a country that had killed hundreds of thousands of people around the world with its bombs.According to him, the Kremlin puts Biden's words about Putin down to the irritability and forgetfulness of the US president due to exhaustion."Given such irritability of Mr Biden, his fatigue, sometimes forgetfulness, which leads to aggressive statements, we will not give sharp assessments so as not to cause more aggression", Peskov said when asked whether the Kremlin regarded it as a prerequisite for breaking off diplomatic relations with the United States.Russia's Special Op in Ukraine The Russian president ordered the start of a special military operation in Ukraine on 24 February following a request from the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR) to protect them from intensifying attacks by Ukrainian forces.Putin stated that Russia was left with no other choice but to intervene to help the newly-recognised Donbass republics. He described the goals of the operation as the demilitarisation and de-Nazification of Ukraine, with Russia's Defence Ministry pledging that the Russian armed forces will only be targeting Ukraine's military infrastructure with high-precision weapons strikes.

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france, ukraine, russia, emmanuel macron, vladimir putin, joe biden, special operation
https://sputniknews.com/20220327/manchester-united-star-tahith-chong-robbed-by-masked-gang-at-his-own-house-report-says-1094236017.html

Manchester United Star Tahith Chong Robbed by Masked Gang at His Own House, Report Says

Manchester United Star Tahith Chong Robbed by Masked Gang at His Own House, Report Says

According to the report, the robbers mocked Chong over his poor security. A source said they "seemed like they had done it before, possibly to other players".

2022-03-27T12:05+0000

2022-03-27T12:05+0000

2022-03-27T12:05+0000

burglary

burglary

manchester united

united kingdom

uk

robbery

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Tahith Chong, a Birmingham City player on loan from Manchester United, was robbed at knifepoint in his own house after a masked gang broke into his home on 16 January, The Sun reported, citing a source.The Dutch player was at his home in Sale, Greater Manchester, when three balaclava-wearing men broke in and put knives to his throat, demanding valuable items - jewellery, watches, and women's designer bags.Police were called after the incident and are said to have warned the player that the criminals might have monitored his social media, looking for valuable items.This became the fifth burglary of a home owned by a Manchester United or Man City player since Christmas, the report suggested. Previously, Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard, Joao Cancelo, and Victor Lindelof also had their homes raided in recent months.

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burglary, burglary, manchester united, united kingdom, uk, robbery
https://sputniknews.com/20220327/russian-ambassador-summoned-by-czech-foreign-ministry-1094228195.html

Russian Ambassador Summoned by Czech Foreign Ministry

Russian Ambassador Summoned by Czech Foreign Ministry

PRAGUE (Sputnik) - The Czech Foreign Ministry says it has summoned Russian Ambassador in Prague Alexander Zmeyevsky. 27.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-27T00:30+0000

2022-03-27T00:30+0000

2022-03-27T00:30+0000

czech republic

russian ambassador

tensions

ukraine

russian diplomats

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"This evening, Deputy [Foreign] Minister Martin Smolek summoned the Russian Ambassador to protest against Russian provocations against diplomatic staff of the Czech Embassy in Moscow. Such unacceptable acts contradict the duties of the Russian Federation under the Vienna Convention," the foreign ministry said on Twitter on Saturday night.Earlier on Saturday, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said that there was already no room for further reduction of the Russian diplomatic mission in the Czech Republic since 14 Russian diplomats had already left the country.The West scaled up its pressure on Moscow after Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine in the early hours of February 24. The move came after the Donetsk and Luhansk Peoples Republics (DPR and LPR) appealed for help in defending themselves against the Kiev 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.

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czech republic, russian ambassador, tensions, ukraine, russian diplomats
https://sputniknews.com/20220327/serbian-president-calls-western-demands-to-support-sanctions-against-russia-unfair-1094237195.html

Serbian President Calls Western Demands to Support Sanctions Against Russia Unfair

Serbian President Calls Western Demands to Support Sanctions Against Russia Unfair

BELGRADE (Sputnik) - Western demands for Serbia to support sanctions against Russia are unfair, since the country is a sovereign state, is not a member of the... 27.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-27T12:21+0000

2022-03-27T12:21+0000

2022-03-27T12:31+0000

serbia

sanctions

russia

natos 1999 military intervention in yugoslavia

bombing of yugoslavia

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The president added that Belgrade behaves in accordance with its national interests even if it runs counter to plans of other countries.At the same time, the president noted that Serbia had experienced being attacked by foreign powers, bearing in mind the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.On 24 March, a rally under the slogan "We are against NATO" took place in Serbia. Demonstrators recalled the beginning of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia 23 years ago.Earlier in March, the Serbian government supported 4 of the 13 points of a UN resolution condemning Russia's special military operation in Ukraine. All of those points did not imply the introduction of sanctions against Moscow.In 1999, an armed confrontation between Albanian separatists from the Kosovo Liberation Army and the Serbian Army led to the bombing of what was then the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, consisting of Serbia and Montenegro, by NATO forces. The operation was undertaken without the approval of the UN Security Council and was based on allegations by Western countries that the Yugoslav authorities were allegedly carrying out ethnic cleansing of Kosovo Albanians. NATO airstrikes continued from 24 March to 10 June 1999 and claimed the lives of over 2,500 people, including 87 children.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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serbia, sanctions, russia, natos 1999 military intervention in yugoslavia, bombing of yugoslavia
https://sputniknews.com/20220327/several-people-reportedly-killed-in-suspected-shooting-in-hadera-israel-1094242896.html

Several People Reportedly Killed in Shooting in Hadera, Israel

Several People Reportedly Killed in Shooting in Hadera, Israel

Israeli police said that there were two gunmen, both of whom have been killed. 27.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-27T18:08+0000

2022-03-27T18:08+0000

2022-03-27T18:40+0000

middle east

israel

attack

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Two Israelis were killed and six others injured in the Israeli city of Hadera following an attack by two gunmen, The Jerusalem Post has reported. Among those injured were two police officers who tried to neutralise the attackers, the media outlet said.The gunmen were ultimately killed in a standoff with law enforcement. A reporter for Haaretz said that the assailants were neutralised by a Border Police unit that happened to be close to the spot where the attack took place.Alleged footage of the attack in Hadera later emerged on social media, depicting two men armed with assault rifles and shooting in various directions.The circumstances of the attack are yet to be investigated. There is no information regarding the identities of the assailants apart from early reports indicating that they were of Arab origin.The assault by the gunmen comes amid a historic summit taking place in the Negev that marks the first time representatives of Israel, the US, and several Arab countries gather on Israeli territory. The summit is attended by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the foreign ministers of Bahrain, Morocco, Egypt, and the UAE.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/20220327/turkish-refusal-to-sanction-wealthy-russians-signals-fractures-in-nato-anti-russia-crusade-1094229050.html

Turkish Refusal to Sanction Wealthy Russians Signals Fractures in NATO Anti-Russia Crusade

Turkish Refusal to Sanction Wealthy Russians Signals Fractures in NATO Anti-Russia Crusade

Turkey, Hungary, and others have angered other NATO nations by pursuing the interest of their own citizens over efforts to break Russians through a series of... 27.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-27T01:56+0000

2022-03-27T01:56+0000

2022-03-27T03:02+0000

turkey

mevlut cavusoglu

recep tayyip erdogan

russia

sanctions

nato

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Western efforts to isolate Russia on the international stage were dealt another blow as Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Saturday that Russians will be free to carry out commercial activities in Turkey.If Russian oligarchs or any Russian citizens want to visit Turkey, of course they can, Cavusoglu declared in response to a question given at Doha Forum international conference.Cavusoglu has given the indication that Russian nationals will not face additional impediments to commercial ventures in Turkey.Turkey, a member of NATO, has declined to sanction Russian citizens or close its airspace to Russian aircraft.Referring to the Russia-Ukraine crisis after this weeks NATO leaders' summit in Brussels, Turkish President Recep Erdogan said, Turkey's main aim is to reconcile the parties.The country has taken a considerably less antagonistic position to the ongoing Russian special military operation aimed at denazifying and demilitarizing Ukraine than most of its European neighbors and is publicly considering implementing a Ruble-Lira exchange for the countries tourism sectors.The Turkish government previously announced it was closing off access to the Black Sea to warships in response to petitions by western nations to invoke a 1936 international agreement that lets Ankara manage war traffic entering the two sea lanes during times of conflict, but it only did so after a lengthy delay.Its unclear whether the action has had any significant impact on the balance of forces in Ukraine. Turkey has also sold a number of Bayraktar TB2 drones to the Ukrainian regime.Turkey is just one of a number of increasingly independent countries drawing the ire of the US and leading European powers for their apparent failure to express sufficient animosity towards Russia.Hungary, another NATO nation and a member of the European Union, has also declined to participate in the Western campaign to alienate Russia. They have been similarly straightforward about the need to prioritize the development of their own economy over getting involved in foreign conflicts.The comments seemed to come in a response to a surprisingly disrespectful video address Friday in which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky openly demanded the Prime Minister decide for yourself who you are with, and addressed Orban by his first name: Listen, Viktor, do you know whats going on in Mariupol?The coastal city of Mariupol has been under the control of the Ukrainian National Guards neo nazi Azov Batalion, but reports indicate Russian forces have made serious advances recently.Survivors whove managed to escape have accused the Azov soldiersmany of whom are open admirers of Adolf Hitlerof numerous potential war crimes, including refusing to allow the civilian population to evacuate via humanitarian corridors organized by Russia. And according to a widely-shared article in independent outlet The Grayzone, testimony by evacuated Mariupol residents and warnings of a false flag attack undermine the Ukrainian governments claims about a Russian bombing of a local theater sheltering civilians.

https://sputniknews.com/20220326/mine-like-object-spotted-at-entrance-to-bosphorus-turkish-media-reports-1094215144.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20220327/un-staff-building-damaged-during-coalition-airstrikes-in-sanaa---dujarric-1094228333.html

UN Staff Building Damaged During Coalition Airstrikes in Sanaa

UN Staff Building Damaged During Coalition Airstrikes in Sanaa

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) - A building housing United Nations employees was damaged during the airstrikes carried out by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemens... 27.03.2022, Sputnik International

2022-03-27T01:09+0000

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"The Secretary-General strongly condemns the recent escalation of the conflict in Yemen including Fridays aerial attacks on civilian and energy facilities in Saudi Arabia by the Houthis and the subsequent Coalition airstrikes in Sanaa, reportedly killing eight civilians, including five children and two women. These airstrikes also resulted in damage to the UN staff residential compound in Sanaa," Dujarric said in a Saturday statement.According to the release, Guterres is calling on all parties to the Yemen conflict to deescalate and negotiate a settlement to end the conflict.On Friday, Yemen's Houthi movement attacked an oil distribution station in Jeddah and civil facilities, including an electric power station, in several other Saudi cities. Later on Friday, the Saudi Arabia-led coalition said it had destroyed two booby-trapped drones launched by the Houthis toward the kingdom.On Saturday, the Houthis said they were ready to establish a ceasefire for a period of three days and could consider making the ceasefire permanent if Saudi Arabia ends the blockade and airstrikes and withdraws all forces from Yemen.Yemen has been gripped by an internal conflict between the government forces and the Houthi movement for over six years. Since 2015, the Saudi-led coalition fighting on the government's side has been conducting air, land and sea operations against the rebels. The Houthis often retaliate by firing projectiles and bomber drones on Saudi territory. Earlier this month, the Houthis stepped up their shelling of Saudi territory after the kingdom executed 82 people, including three Yemeni prisoners of war.

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A local man wanted by the Orange County Sheriffs Office on child sex crime charges was apprehended and arrested two days after authorities issued a public call to locate him.

Eddie Monroe Crawford, 41, was placed under arrest around 5 p.m. on March 25, according to a release Saturday night from OCSO spokesperson Lt. Becky Jones. He is currently being held without bond at Central Virginia Regional Jail in Orange.

OCSO thanked the U.S. Marshal Fugitive Task Force, comprised of officers from surrounding jurisdictions, the citizens and the media for assistance in locating Crawford.

On March 23, OCSO received information regarding a possible sexual assault of a minor child that occurred in Orange County.

A joint investigation was conducted with Greene County Sheriffs Office, which found reported crimes occurred in both jurisdictions.

Crawford was charged with rape, forcible sodomy and other sexually violent crimes, according to Jones. His last known address was in the 28000 block of Bellewood Acres Lane in the Rhoadesville area of Orange County. Crawford has also lived in the Bacon Hollow Rd. area of Greene County.

Additional charges were expected in Orange County and Greene County, Jones said.

Crawford is known to carry a firearm and was said to be considered armed and dangerous, authorities stated in the initial release, advising citizens to not approach him.
March 29th is National Vietnam Veterans Day. For most Nam vets, its not a day of celebration, but rather a day of humble reflection trying to forget the unforgettable.

Its most painful for the gold star families of 58,220 heroes who lost their lives during an incredibly unpopular and controversial conflict that escalated as the result of a claimed second attack by North Vietnamese forces on an American ship during the Gulf of Token incident in 1964.

This report was later proven false, but it spurred Americas involvement leading to approximately 3 million military and civilian personnel serving in Vietnam from 1964-1975. Over 150,000 servicemen and women were wounded.

The Gulf of Token incident was but one of the controversial events of the times.

Utilizing Proclamation 4483, President Jimmy Carter in 1977 pardoned approximately 100,000 Americans who fled to Canada evading the draft and violated the Military Selective Service Act. For many struggling Vietnam veterans, Carters action is still difficult to accept.

The stigma of being a draft-dodger has always bothered many Vietnam veterans. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were both accused of being draft dodgers. President Donald Trump received five draft deferments as did a number of other political officials in their youth, thus escaping service in Vietnam.

And the mendacious statements from Presidents Johnson and Nixon about Vietnam demonstrated blatant arrogance by both Democrats and Republicans as Americans died in battle.

Senior military leaders lacking the moral courage to out the political and tactical misrepresentations that took parents away from children and led to their sons and daughters having their names permanently etched on the black marble structure that is the Vietnam Memorial in Washington remain most culpable to this Nam vet.

Heroes like Corky Ram, a Marine and one of our executive officers with 2n Bn, 5th Marines tripped a booby trap Jan. 10, 1971 and was killed, leaving a wife and six children.

It probably should have been me walking point with Ram then, and I may have been the one that died on that mountain top, but he waved me off the mission at the last moment. It haunts me to this day.

A few years ago, I finally found the courage to visit some of his children and share with them their fathers extraordinary service and my involvement with him.

It was a painful experience that helped quell feelings of survivor guilt as daughter Linda and I embraced in tears and keeled in prayer by Rams graveside in Toms River, Ocean County, NJ. She was a teenager when Ram left for Vietnam in 1970, with the burning love for the father she once knew.

With son Michael who I visited the next day, I shared all I could about his father. I related Rams dry sense of humor that brought us all smiles during heated combat engagements. The look in his eye holding on to every word as I spoke about the lessons his father had taught me about being a man was intense, and how I was sure he would of wanted the father he never knew to share his values. He gave me a tearful big hug upon leaving that I shall never forget and helped me more than I hope I helped him.

National Vietnam Veterans Day, with Putins actions in the Ukraine, no doubt brings back memories combatants would prefer to forget.

Vietnam veterans must force ourselves to remember in spite of great pain. We have an obligation to truly heal and aid younger veterans who suffer from their Middle Eastern involvements and those in the future.

We must continue to learn a hard lesson and involve ourselves politically with officials who ultimately decide when we send troops to battle. We should support veteran candidates and those who truly understand the fog of war and the tragedies that can follow with misleading information for political gain.

We must focus on peace through strength, education and compassion. Above all we must never Vietnam again.

Daniel P. Cortez is a Stafford County resident, presidential appointee, political writer and broadcaster who serves as the volunteer co-chairman of the Latinos for Youngkin coalition.
Growing up in Pennsylvania, Ron Bolze helped his parent's milk cows on the farm. That lifestyle led him into a career working with cattle as an extension specialist for universities and now as an agriculture and rangeland management professor at Chadron State College.

Bolze attended Pennsylvania State University, spending much of his time in the beef cattle teaching center.

I lived at the Beef Barn (built in 1924) as an undergraduate student so thats where I became enamored with beef cattle, Bolze said.

Upon graduation, he returned to the family farm to help his father for the next six years. He decided to further his education, earning a masters degree from Kansas State University. During his time at KSU, Bolze worked with the beef cattle extension program as the beef extension specialist for 13 years.

He then made a transition to industry positions with Certified Angus Beef, the American Shorthorn Association and the Red Angus Association of American.

I worked for 5L Red Angus in Sheridan, Montana, he said. They are this nations largest feed stock breeder.

While working as a secretary and in commercial marketing broadened his horizon in agriculture and beef cattle, he received a call from Chadron State College that piqued his interest. They wanted him to teach a range/livestock production course.

So, I became the cow guy at Chadron State, he said.

Bolze teaches nine different courses at CSC related to agriculture and rangeland management, although CSC does not offer a degree in animal sciences.

I teach it from a beef cattle perspective because thats what weve got in this part of the world, he said.

Becoming a professor afforded him the opportunity to grow his knowledge on the industry and share that knowledge with his students.

If you really want to learn something, teach it, he said.

Still, adjusting from the industry to the classroom came with challenges.

My learning curve was pretty much straight up when I started, Bolze said. I found out two weeks before I was going to start teaching that I was going to start teaching. Every night was trying to get ready for the next days classes.

Throughout his career as an agricultural educator, Bolze said he discovered another passion.

Its exposed me to another passion in life. I did adult education previously, doing beef cattle extension work for Kansas State but thats different than teaching in the classroom. It taught me that I really, really do enjoy teaching young adults.

Students enrolled in Bolzes courses will be exposed to various industry professionals, challenging them to consider multiple perspectives.

In his farm and ranch management course, students learn the skills, techniques, innovations and current procedures for management of farms and ranches through 100% guest lectures.

I want the students to hear from people who do, not just people who can talk about it, Bolze said. They make their living doing that and about 80% of my students have a ranch background; a lot of them have the desire to go home, so I want them to be exposed to different thought processes.

He also teaches a beef production course accompanied by a one-credit lab where students learn about cattle operations from those in the industry.

Well hit 20 different beef cattle enterprises in five days, he said. The true advantage of doing that is they get to hear the owners and managers of those operations on their own place.

While educating his students on agricultural and rangeland processes, Bolze said a challenge is not having resident herds on campus.

If you went to any land grant university that has a college of agriculture and a department of animal science, theyre going to have a resident beef cow herd, probably going to have a sheep flock and maybe a few pigs, Bolze said. We dont have any of that. Its a challenge, but I rectify that by loading students up in vans and we go visit local ranchers.

In addition to his work in the classroom, Bolze serves as the coordinator for the Nebraska Grazing Lands Coalition (NGLD)  a position hes held for the past 13 years.

Ive always been pretty passionate about grasslands and trying to manage them to conserve them over time, Bolze said. A job came open here and I like to work with people who are like minded.

During winter and summer break as well as occasionally through the academic year, Bolze spends time traveling Nebraska to further the NGLDs efforts. The NGLD is a part of a national effort to enrich the resource stewardship and financial prosperity of grazing land-dependent operations, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Currently, Bolze works with a 16-member NGLC board of directors to address two objectives  eradication of eastern Red Cedar trees and support of generational transition.

Eastern red cedars are considered an invasive species on rangeland, so NGLC is working with landowners to conduct brush management where they burn the trees to improve wildlife habitat and prevent damage to the lands nutrients. The issue is across the state and landowners have seen a decrease in carrying capacity on grazing lands with Red Cedar.

With the age of farmers and ranchers averaging in the 60s or older, NGLC is also supporting families through generation transition as projections indicate vast lands will change hands in the next 10 years, Bolze said.

If families dont do adequate estate planning, often times, the next generation has to sell the farm or the ranch to pay the inheritance tax, Bolze said. We work with farm and ranch families to help them to get their estate plan in place so they can reduce the inheritance tax burden.

Conservation practices are more apt to stay in place on farms or ranches if it stays in the family.

Farmers and ranchers can gain knowledge on how to manage their lands at no cost because there is no membership fee for NGLC.

When hes not teaching, Bolze and his wife breed an Angus cow herd. Theyve been ranching for 44 years. He raises 150 head of cattle, calving in the spring without a calving barn.

Most ranchers are starting to calve now, but she doesnt start calving until April 20, he said.

As Bolze wraps up his ninth year of teaching at the college, he said his plan is to retire in the next couple of years. Whenever he decides to step away, he said he hopes his legacy impacted the next generation of farmers and ranchers.

I hope my legacy is creating a greater understanding so the next generation can actually make a living in production ag and the conservation of natural resources.

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Afghan policemen attend their graduation ceremony in Herat, Afghanistan, March 28, 2022. Up to 500 people were commissioned to police forces in Afghanistan's western Herat province on Monday, as the Afghan caretaker government scaled up efforts to develop trained security forces, authorities said. (Photo by Mashal/Xinhua)

KABUL, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Up to 500 people have been commissioned to the police forces in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province after receiving police training, the Afghan caretaker government said on Sunday.

The professional policemen graduated from the Kandahar Police Training Center on Saturday after one month of professional training, the government said in a statement.

The newly trained personnel held a parade during a graduation ceremony, and demonstrated their ability to combat drug trafficking, kidnapping and other crimes, according to the statement. 

An Afghan policeman shows his skills during a graduation ceremony in Herat, Afghanistan, March 28, 2022. Up to 500 people were commissioned to police forces in Afghanistan's western Herat province on Monday, as the Afghan caretaker government scaled up efforts to develop trained security forces, authorities said. (Photo by Mashal/Xinhua)
Allie Watkins sat behind the controls of the four-seater Piper Cherokee 235 airplane alongside pilot Ryan Robinson and fellow Gering student Sierra Robinson, as the three flew from Scottsbluff to Nashville, Tennessee. After an overnight stop in Beatrice, the trio continued the eight-hour flight to Nashville where they attended the 2022 Women in Aviation International (WAI) Conference March 17-19.

Ryan Robinson works in the aviation industry, having piloted aircraft for SkyWest and the Army. He also is a member of Gering Public Schools Aviation Career Pathways advisory committee. With years of experience operating an airplane, he helped Watkins acquire about 16 hours of flight time as she works to obtain a private pilots license.

We were able to do high performance airplane (training) and we were also able to do some instrument training, he said. We had some great weather where we could actually go up into the clouds.

While the weather made the flight enjoyable, Ryan Robinson said the highlight for him was walking into the exhibit hall with the two students, who have the aviation world at their fingertips.

Watkins is a GHS senior who is working through the aviation career pathway.

The trip and the conference was pretty amazing, especially flying through the clouds on the way to Nashville, Watkins said.

Sierra Robinson is a freshman who will begin the aviation career pathway as a sophomore. Her first course is Aviation 1, where students complete a ground school before taking to the air junior and senior years.

Once they arrived in Nashville, they walked into the exhibit hall full of people. Both students are passionate about flying and wanted an opportunity to explore the options within the aviation industry by connecting with various professionals.

We got to walk through all of the booths and talk to people and I learned about the different aviation pathways like mechanics, or building drones or being an airline pilot, Sierra Robinson said.

Several colleges also had representatives at the conference for students to learn about degree programs.

WAI is an annual international conference that provides an opportunity for people and businesses within the aviation industry to connect and expand the workforce. Watkins and Robinson attended the conference in hopes of learning about the multiple aviation careers they could work in as they look ahead to attending college or a pilot program after high school.

I decided that I really want to be a commercial airline pilot, Sierra Robinson said.

She has yet to decide whether she will attend a college or a commercial airline pilot program.

Despite her limited experience operating an airplane, she said her experience with the Young Eagles program got her hooked.

The first time I went flying was during a Young Eagles program about a year and half ago, Sierra Robinson said. We were at the airport and there was this guy, who was a flight instructor and part of the FAA club here. I signed up and he took me up in a plane and I got to fly it for a little bit. Thats when I decided I really want to be a pilot.

Although she experienced nervousness when the pilot turned over the planes controls to her, she also experienced a sense of freedom as she overlooked the valley.

I like the feeling of being in the air and going through the clouds, she said. The freedom you get being above everything and going wherever you want is cool.

Robinson said her father, Ryan, has been supportive of her goals to become a pilot.

Hes really just my role model, she said. I want to be like him and go be a commercial pilot. Since he does have all of those connections, he helps me find people who can help me accomplish my goals.

Throughout his career, Ryan Robinson said women pilots have been under-represented, so offering a program in Gering is vital to the future of the industry.

Women are seriously under-represented in the pilot groups at every level, he said. So with the current shortage, its great to see any new pilots interested in aviation, including more women.

As Ryan supports his daughters dreams, as well as other Gering High School aviation students, he wants them to understand to become a pilot takes time.

Its a journey, he said. Its not something you jump in and do. Like a lot of rewarding things, it truly is a journey to get to where you want to be.

He also noted how everyones path to become a pilot is unique.

There is no one perfect pathway to a career as a pilot, Ryan said. You have to find what works best for your situation, for your learning experiences and capitalize on whats available to you.

With three years of high school in front of her, Robinson said she looks forward to building upon her knowledge of aviation and getting hands-on flight experience.

I just want to be an inspiration for other people  that way if they see more girls in it, theyre like, Yeah, I want to do that. I can do that, she said.

Part of the trip was funded by the $500,000 Federal Aviation Administration grant GPS received to expand the Aviation Career Pathway. The Piper Cherokee 235 is a private plane used, leased and maintained by the Panhandle Flyers Club.

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Visiting students highlighted the culture of India with music, singing, and dancing at the Panhandle Research and Extension Center (PREC) on Thursday, March 24.

Undergraduate students from Assam Agricultural University and Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology are currently based at PREC through a collaborative relationship that allows them the opportunity to study American agriculture and veterinary science.

The 14 students shared their culture and traditions from different states of India in a program with presentations, videos, singing and dancing followed by their traditional Vote of Thanks. Mid-April is the time for the Indian New Year festivals which are celebrated in different fashions across the states of India. Bohag Bihu is the biggest social festival in the state of Assam, where 10 of the current students are from. Pana Sankranti is celebrated in the state of Odisha, where four of the students are from.

We are happy and proud to be part of this program and share our culture with the Americans, one student from Assam said.

Students from both Assam and Odisha were seen in traditional festival attire and performed as a group as well as solo songs and dances. One student, Kuldeep, even performed a rap song.

While in the Panhandle, the group is getting many opportunities to experience American culture, tradition and history. One student said they have had lunch with a rotary club, visited the Scottsbluff National Monument and Lake Minatare.

We came down by walking and we drove up with the van, the student said regarding their experience at the Scottsbluff National Monument.

The group has also been able to try many traditional American meals and they recently cooked Indian cuisine for PREC staff and others.

So we are very lucky that we got the chance to taste something new in this part of the world because we have been tasting our food since our childhood, an Indian student said. So this is something which we have never tried. It is very good to try American things.

Jack Whittier, retired PREC director, is supervising the veterinary science group and he said they have host families who will be taking the students out into the community for more American experiences.

The agricultural exchange program was initiated by Dipak Santra, alternative crops breeding specialist at PREC, who came from India and has connections with universities there. Its purpose is to expose the students over a two-month period to American agriculture, enabling them to take that knowledge back to their Indian universities.

We intend to learn the new technologies and advanced technologies here so that we can bring that back to our country and we will try to implement that, an agriculture student said.

The group has already had many educational experiences while in the Panhandle and a common observation amongst the group was the scale of Nebraska agricultural practices compared to those in India.

We visited a lamb farm where about 75,000 lambs are kept together. In such huge scale, rearing is not done in our place, one of the veterinary exchange students said. So amazing, so many concepts, so many lambs together, so wow.

The veterinary science group has been at PREC for about three weeks and the students were amazed to see the technology and diagnostic techniques.

We have seen some of the technologies which are very new. We have only read about them but we have seen here practically, a student said. So its been a good experience and we hope that we can just explore more in the coming days.

The group of four agriculture exchange students is nearing the end of their two-month stay at PREC.

So, we have worked with both extension education and then some of the research work and we have also visited some of the companies out here like the Kelley Bean Company, Western Sugar Industries, and then we have visited a farmer's place and we have learned about the different farming practices and a cute mix which they use and the government-related policies which they use here, an agriculture student said.

Nicole Heldt is a reporter with the Star-Herald, covering agriculture. She can be reached at 308-632-9044 or by email at nheldt@starherald.com.

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LOS ANGELES  In the end, ignorance is still not a defense. And ignorance still doesnt equal innocence.

Nebraska Congressman Jeff Fortenberry found that out the hard way over the past two weeks in a federal courtroom that, from its rising bank of windows, offers spectacular views of everything from Los Angeles City Hall to the San Gabriel Mountains.

Fortenberry, 61, hit depths never before seen in Nebraska when he became the highest-ranking Nebraska elected official to be convicted of a felony. Three of them.

Ultimately, Fortenberry took far too long to do what other politicians readily did: disgorge dirty money from a campaign, a process in which a politician rids the suspect money from his war chest and donates it to charity.

Fortenberry had a gut feeling that something wasnt right after the February 2016 fundraiser in suburban LA, when he saw that the vast majority of the money came from the same last name: Ayoub. As it turns out, Eli Ayoub, a Creighton University School of Medicine graduate and LA physician, had been funneling a Nigerian billionaires cash to the campaigns of a handful of politicians, including Fortenberry.

Fortenberry asked a friend of Ayoubs if anything was wrong with the fundraiser. The friend lied and said no. But Fortenberry had other warnings  his own campaign consultant had cautioned him about the risk. And Ayoub himself called Fortenberry, with the FBI recording the call, and told him three times that the $30,000 cash probably came from the Nigerian billionaire.

Even after that call, Fortenberry took a year to purge the dirty money.

In all, he ignored it for more than 40 months. Whether that was intentional or, as his defense said, the byproduct of his absent-mindedness, it was the worst thing he could have done.

In sentencing in June, his freedom is on the line. He faces five years in prison on each of the three counts. And his political career may be entering hospice care.

A look ahead, and back, at the spectacle of U.S. v. Jeffrey Fortenberry:

Sentencing

The critical question: Will Fortenberry get prison time?

For another case of deception by an elected official, look to the south and the east of the glass cube that is the U.S. District Courthouse for Californias central district. Rising on the horizon is Los Angeles City Hall, a tower that was built in the 1920s  in the same decade and with a similar design as Nebraskas State Capitol.

That tower produced the last corruption case handled by the lead prosecutor in Fortenberrys case: that of Los Angeles City Council member Mitchell Englander, 51.

In that case, Englander accepted money from a businessman wanting to increase his prospects in LA  about the same amount of money as Fortenberrys campaign received.

The councilmans spoils included access to escorts, trips to Palm Springs and Las Vegas, $1,000 in casino gambling chips and at least $15,000 in cash. He then tried to cover up the grift by back-dating reimbursement checks and asking the businessman to lie.

Englanders attorney noted that the councilman had resigned, reimbursed the money and pleaded guilty to the charge instead of taking it to trial.

In January 2021, a federal judge, from the same courthouse that housed Fortenberrys trial, sentenced Englander to 14 months in prison, saying his conduct undermined the public trust.

No two cases are the same, of course. In Fortenberrys case, the money went to his campaign, not to him personally  and it didnt go for gambling or sexual favors.

Then again, the council member resigned and pleaded to one charge. By contrast, Fortenberry didnt resign, took the case to trial and was convicted of three counts.

Fortenberry finds out his fate June 28. Both prosecutors and his attorneys will submit memos, giving their version of where the federal sentencing guidelines fall in this case.

Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. can order supervised release.

The jury

The voicemail on a reporters phone arrived about as soon as the verdict did. A Nebraska caller grunted something about Fortenberry getting set up and how he should have been tried in Nebraska instead of California, where the left-wing goons could convict him.

The jurors included everyone from a maintenance worker to a college student to white-collar workers to an actress no one had heard of. Five of the 12 jurors were white; the rest were U.S. citizens of either Asian or Native descent.

No left- or right-wing goons were detected by reporters during jury selection.

In fact, Judge Blumenfeld  an appointee of then-President Donald Trump  predicted it: the general public doesnt view everything through the lens of politics, the way political loudmouths do. None of the people who made the jury indicated strong opinions of either party.

Fortenberrys membership in the Republican Party wasnt identified at all until the defense presented its case and called a Democratic congresswoman to talk about Fortenberrys willingness to cross the aisle.

One prospective juror even asked if the judge would define political terms for her because she doesnt understand them, just as she didnt understand legal jargon.

Another prospective juror didnt make the jury. He indicated his bias wasnt against Democrats or Republicans.

Just politicians, said the middle-aged white man, originally from Ohio. They spend their whole careers not telling the truth.

He turned to Fortenberry, sitting to the right of him. No offense, he said.

To testify or not

Its an age-old question in court: If a defendant is innocent, why doesnt he testify?

But in this case, not many observers in Courtroom 6C believed Fortenberry would take the stand. For a simple reason: He talks too much, said his attorney, John Littrell.

More precisely: He already had talked too much.

Fortenberry agreed to not one but two interviews with the FBI. Any defense attorney  any episode of Law & Order  will tell you not to talk to police unless youre a victim or unless you have an attorney present.

Instead of calling a lawyer, Fortenberry called the police. Lincolns then-police chief sent two officers to Fortenberrys home to screen the men who said they were federal agents.

Fortenberry insisted the officers stay for the interview. He would have been better off insisting on an attorney and sending all law enforcement home  Lincoln police and the FBI.

Instead, Fortenberry sat down and said he couldnt place Ayoub, the man who held the LA fundraiser for him. The jury convicted him of lying in that interview.

He then agreed to a second interview  this time with his attorney present. His attorney at the time, Trey Gowdy, said he offered to have Fortenberry sit down with prosecutors because he was told that Fortenberry was trending toward a witness, not a target of the investigation.

During the interview, Fortenberry told prosecutors that he cut off the phone call with Ayoub when told that the $30,000 cash probably came from Chagoury. That also was a lie.

Bottom line: Faced with conflicting statements in the two interviews, Fortenberry couldnt take the stand without prosecutors asking him which one of his statements was the truth and which was the lie.

That doesnt present well to a jury.

The defense

Anyone who has watched criminal cases has no doubt heard some variation of what Fortenberry attorney John Littrell told jurors in closing arguments:

Im not asking you to like Congressman Fortenberry, Littrell said. His flaws were brought to light in this case. He talks too much. He doesnt listen enough.

Perhaps Littrell, who has declined to comment outside court, was worried that Fortenberry had come across as stiff or smug to jurors.

But several longtime legal observers, including a writer covering the case for a legal trade publication, thought the approach strange.

The reason: It wasnt clear that anyone disliked Fortenberry. He appeared pleasant. And, as Littrell noted, every witness vouched for his sterling integrity and character.

Omitted from closings: The defense didnt mention Rep. Anna Eshoos comment that she would have expected the FBI to be transparent and disclose to her that she had received an illegal donation, so that she could take proper steps to correct it. (Prosecutors countered that the FBI did put Fortenberry on notice of an illegal donation, via the phone call from Ayoub.)

The dynamics of the defense team drew the attention of observers, not the least of whom was Judge Blumenfeld. Less than a month before trial, Denver defense attorney Glen Summers, known as a trial specialist, was brought into the case.

He joined Littrell, a longtime Los Angeles federal public defender who had handled the case since its inception. Another three or four attorneys rounded out Fortenberrys defense team.

A stickler, Judge Blumenfeld saved his sternest admonishment for Littrell.

He became incensed that Littrell had tried to suggest to jurors that Fortenberry had testified in the case, through the words on the recordings and through witnesses who had vouched for his integrity. Littrell also started to delve into what prosecutors would have done had Fortenberry taken the stand.

Prosecutors objected. Blumenfeld was livid. Outside the jurys presence, he asked Littrell what he was trying to accomplish and suggested that he was undermining the judges strong instruction that the jurors were not in any way allowed to consider the fact that Fortenberry had not testified.

Summers, meanwhile, suggested that Blumenfelds denial of a line of questioning amounted to reversible error. That phrase is the nuclear bomb of attorney arguments  and Blumenfeld didnt take kindly to it.

At another point, Blumenfeld called Summers argument whiny and disrespectful. At another point, Summers apologized for getting into a subject the judge had declared off limits.

Im sorry, Summers told the judge. I just feel so passionate about this case.

The almost blunder

Fortenberry and his staff made a decision that nearly haunted him at his trial.

Two days before trial, they sent a note to the House of Representatives clerk, saying they would be voting by proxy due to the ongoing public health emergency, i.e. COVID-19. The note made no mention of the fact that Fortenberry was on trial in Los Angeles.

The notes language is routine, and Fortenberrys staff said many Congress members use that standard language, even when there are other reasons for their absence. They also said they got permission from House Speaker Nancy Pelosis office. Her office disputed that.

Prosecutors pounced on that. At one point, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jamari Buxton called on the judge to allow him to introduce Fortenberrys memo as a counter to any defense testimony that Fortenberry is steadfastly honest.

Blumenfeld considered it but ultimately decided it would require too much work to bring jurors up to speed.

Animal kingdom

Team Fortenberry pulled out all the stops to garner sympathy for the nine-term congressman. On March 17, one of Fortenberrys daughters wheeled a stroller into the courtroom. Inside: Fortenberrys first granddaughter, dressed in an adorable green-and-white clover onesie.

Several observers braced themselves for Blumenfeld to kick the baby out of the courtroom. Most judges do not allow infants in court.

Blumenfeld paid the baby no mind.

In openings, Summers introduced the jury to the baby, who didnt make a peep. She also didnt make an appearance the rest of trial.

Nor did Fortenberrys chickens. Thats correct: The defense had wanted to include photos of Fortenberry and his one-time backyard chickens, as well as Fortenberry and his dog.

Prosecutors objected. The defense removed those photos from its opening slide show.

Other animals did make appearances:

Elephants. Celeste Fortenberry testified she traveled with her husband to Africa as part of the congressional conservation caucus, focused on preventing elephant poaching.

Horses. Summers noted that as part of the LA fundraising weekend, the Lebanese Catholic community bestowed an honor that would allow Fortenberry to ride a horse into any Catholic church.

Opossums. They killed the backyard chickens, Celeste Fortenberry testified.

Raccoons. Fortenberry so loathed making fundraising calls, Celeste testified, that he went into autopilot. He would distract himself by cooking breakfast or walking the dog or doing projects. One of those projects: fixing chimney damage caused by raccoons.

The appeal

In a post-verdict gaggle, Fortenberry was asked what his appeal would be based on. The case, he said.

He didnt get much more specific other than to say: We always thought it was going to be hard to get a fair process out here. The appeal starts immediately.

In reality, any appeal would have to start after sentencing. The defense no doubt will bring up Blumenfelds refusal to let them call an expert who would have testified that Fortenberrys memory was fallible. Translated: He wasnt lying; he was simply not remembering.

Another, more obscure issue to watch: Prosecutors were required to establish venue, that elements of Fortenberrys crime took place in central California. Fortenberrys defense argued that the investigative interviews, where he was accused of lying, took place in Nebraska and Washington.

Los Angeles

Much was made about the case being in Los Angeles, where, as one observer said, it feels like the beach, smells like the weed.

The scene was surreal. And Fortenberrys defense had decried it, saying the true jury of his peers was in Nebraska. But the original crime occurred in Los Angeles, at that fundraiser.

And the case wasnt tried on the streets of LA. It was tried the way all federal cases are. Inside a courthouse with white marble walls and white tile floors not all that different from Omahas federal courthouse. Inside a courtroom with a tough judge, dueling attorneys and a jury.

All of the arguments about other factors were noise, designed to distract from the issues at hand, lead prosecutor Mack Jenkins said. The jury was clearly paying attention. You saw them taking a lot of notes. They took their opportunity to deliberate. They worked very hard and ultimately, they saw it as a simple story  of a politician who lost his way.

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Rep. Jeff Fortenberry will resign from Congress on March 31, he said in a letter to constituents and his colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives on Saturday.

Fortenberry, 61, was convicted by a federal jury earlier this week of concealing conduit campaign contributions and two counts of lying to federal agents.

The 17-year representative of Nebraska's 1st Congressional District will face up to five years in prison on each count when he is sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. on June 28.

Following the jury's verdict, which came after about two hours of deliberation, Fortenberry said he plans to appeal.

Meanwhile, he came under fire from other Republicans, including Gov. Pete Ricketts and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, who on Friday called on him to resign.

Fortenberry announced his resignation in an email Saturday afternoon titled "My Last Fort Report," referencing the title of his weekly column.

"Due to the difficulties of my current circumstances, I can no longer serve you effectively," Fortenberry wrote. "I will resign from Congress shortly."

An attached letter from Fortenberry to his colleagues in Congress indicates he will resign on March 31.

Under Nebraska law, a special election will occur within 90 days to fill Fortenberry's seat, even as the May 10 primary will narrow the field for the general election in November.

This is a developing story.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7120 or cdunker@journalstar.com. On Twitter @ChrisDunkerLJS

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If theres one message that the Iredell County Board of Elections wants to get across, Director Susie Jordan made it clear.

I want everyone to feel comfortable about our elections. We want people to know their vote counts, Jordan said. I want people to feel good about the process. Its one vote, and its their vote.

With the beginning of absentee voting on Monday, the subject of election integrity will once again be in the spotlight.

Jordan said they are well aware of the questions people have with elections and how votes are counted, and the Board of Elections in Iredell County as well as at the state level listen to those concerns. She said part of how she hopes to address those concerns is by being transparent with the public.

There are so many misconceptions, so many untruths. If you want the straight of the story, call us, Jordan said. If you see an irregularity, whether its at a one-stop location or on Election Day, call us, and let us deal with it. We encourage that.

And she said if they see something they think is suspicious, to let them know at the Board of Elections.

Jordan said that the controversy around election integrity isnt just an issue that makes the work of the Board of Elections more fraught, but one that can end up discouraging voters from even casting ballots.

It saddens me when people have so much misinformation and they feel like whats the use? Jordan said. North Carolina has it locked down, and you can rest assured Iredell County has it locked down.

She said that throughout many of the processes of preparing for elections, multiple people are involved to check each part to ensure the elections integrity, including public observers. Many of the checks are open to the public and attended by representatives from both major political parties.

She said one of the good things about having representatives from both parties as it also shines a light on the fact that many ballots arent cast for just one political party. Voters are complex in their motivations and it shows on the ballot.

What they assume, and what they see, can be very different, Jordan said. And sometimes, people just vote in one contest. Theyre all over the board.

When counting votes in a close North Carolina Supreme Court chief justice race a few years ago, many noticed that on the same ballots, plenty of voters were split between both parties when it came to voting for the President of the United States and Governor of North Carolina.

That surprised some during the recount, but Jordan said with a growing number of non-affiliated voters, that trend is likely to only increase.

But while voters will continue to be fickle and hard to perfectly predict, the scrutiny over the results remains part of the public discourse.

Increased attention

Questions about election integrity have been brought up more often by conservatives and Republicans after former President Donald Trump claimed it was a rampant issue; first when he won the electoral college vote in 2016, but lost the popular vote, and then again in 2020 when he lost both.

That trend of Republican presidential candidates losing the popular vote has been common. Since the 1992 presidential election, only George W. Bush won the popular vote and electoral college vote in 2004 over Democratic candidate John Kerry.

However, Trumps claims emboldened advocates for more scrutiny in recent years. That includes locally, as Rep. Jeff McNeely made headlines calling for investigations into election integrity in North Carolina, a state won by Trump twice. He and other politicians from the Freedom Caucus held press conferences and demanded to see voting equipment in Durham County, which is one of the states strongest Democratic territories. McNeely and others were denied access and eventually backed down from that request.

McNeely said he did not question the results in Iredell County.

While accusations of voter fraud are common, cases have proven difficult to find for those often accusing election workers and the companies that make the equipment and software of being corrupted by domestic and foreign interests.

One of the last reported cases of voter fraud in Iredell County came in 2011, but the circumstances also prove that elections are secure, Jordan said.

A woman voted through the countys absentee option, and then cast a provisional ballot on Election Day. While they had called a radio station just after voting on Election Day, the vote was flagged and investigated.

A total of eight people have faced investigations stemming from 2011 incidents, though not all were brought up on criminal charges. Most involved issues with addresses used by voters, with the question often being whether they knowingly or unknowingly broke the law. One incident involved criminal charges for a family that moved out of its residence and former Statesville councilman Flake Huggins, who was present and helped transport one of them to their polling place.

Most cases tend to be a small number of people voting illegally due to questions of residence and sometimes noncitizens attempt to vote, but rarely are connected to larger, organized efforts, though those sometimes happen. One case came in 2018 when a race for the Ninth Congressional District was disputed after a Republican candidates campaign was found to have financed an illegal voter-turnout effort.

And while there are a handful of cases where laws are broken, Jordan points out that the system for voting in North Carolina and Iredell County helps ensure fair elections.

Keeping elections secure

Perhaps one of the most important measures that elections in North Carolina take is having paper ballots. While there will always be questions for some whether all votes are legal or counted correctly, Jordan points out the fact that if there is a question about the results, election officials can look at the paper ballots to re-check the results. Jordan said even with the electronic ballot marking devices used by some voters, a paper copy of the ballot is made.

Across the state, we have to have paper ballots, Jordan said. That creates a paper trail We have a paper trail after every election.

Those paper ballots are put into counting machines, which are put through logic and accuracy testing before leaving the building before each election, a process that is open to the public. Jordan said during that process, results are audited as well that making sure the software and hardware produce votes correctly for all candidates.

Jordan said in her time with the Iredell Board of Elections since 2006, theyve never had a machine produce an incorrect count, something they check for after elections by doing hand counts of selected races and precincts to make sure there isnt a mistake.

As far as concerns about double-voting with an absentee ballot and then on Election Day, Jordan notes there are several checks and balances in the process. The Board of Elections tracks voter history and would know on Election Day that someone had been given an absentee ballot. While a person can still ask for a provisional ballot in that case of a mistake as human error is possible, there will be scrutiny to make sure they havent cast two ballots.

Jordan said both at the polling place and after Election Day, there are checks and balances to make sure a person doesnt vote twice.

Its a check, a check, and a re-check. We make sure all the is are dotted and ts are crossed, Jordan said.

The Board of Election also works to make sure deceased voters arent on their rolls. Workers check with the Register of Deeds each day, as well as with the Department of Health and Human Services, and receive tax office notifications, Clerk of Court notifications, near relative notification in regard to deaths.

She also dismissed the idea of hackers changing votes as their voting machines dont have modems or ways to connect to the internet, which would be illegal under state law. The results are taken from the counting machines to a computer not connected to the internet, uploaded, double-checked, then taken to another computer to upload the results online. Tallies on election night arent considered official as canvassing and certification of results on the local and state level dont happen until the next week.

In a fact sheet from the states board of elections, it noted their is no evidence of a successful attack on voting or election systems in North Carolina.

Jordan said while keeping elections secure is always a concern, she doesnt see an area where North Carolina or Iredell County definitively need improvement.

There is nothing I would change because we are locked down secure in that process, Jordan said.

She said like the security cages the Board of Elections recently received, there are small things that will add a layer of security, but it hasnt had concerns with the security of machines before.

We didnt do this feeling like we werent secure, Jordan said. This is just another way, another layer, in the chain of custody that keeps it locked up.

Upcoming elections

Those checks and balances, testing, and security will come in focus once again as North Carolina gears up for its upcoming elections.

Absentee voting starts on Monday for North Carolinas primary and municipal elections. The primary was moved after courts ruled that maps drawn by the Republican-led General Assembly were not lawful. After several lawsuits and redrawn maps, the election was moved from March to May.

Absentee ballots are already being mailed out for the upcoming election, with May 10 set as the last day to request one. One-stop early voting begins on April 28, and ends May 14. Election Day is set for May 17.

One-stop voting sites are as follows: In Statesville at the Iredell Board of Elections, 203 Stockton St.; in Mooresville at the War Memorial, 220 N. Maple St.; and at the Lake Norman Fire Department, 1518 Brawley School Road; in Troutman at the Troutman Town Library, 215 W. Church St.; and in Harmony at the Harmony American Legion, 3085 Harmony Highway.

Follow Ben Gibson on Facebook and Twitter at @BenGibsonSRL

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Three Iredell County high school students, Jaira Pyrant and Aida Saake, both ninth graders at South Iredell and Scarlett Houser, a 10th grader at North Iredell, are among the 10 North Carolina high school finalists in The Cheerwine Festival T-shirt design contest.

In a news release, it was shared that Cheerwine challenged middle and high school students across North Carolina to submit their best original Cheerwine brand-inspired artwork that showcases their Carolina pride.

And now Cheerwine and the City of Salisbury invite fans to vote on the design that will be featured on the 2022 Cheerwine Festival T-shirt that will be worn by attendees to the event.

From now through April 4, these top 10 entries will be available for public voting at cheerwine.com/festival-contest/. The winner and two runner-ups will be announced in mid-April.

In 2022, we evolved The Cheerwine Festival T-shirt design contest to be a celebration of our states up-and-coming artists, said Joy Ritchie Harper, vice-president of marketing for Cheerwine and fifth-generation founding family member. We were ecstatic to receive so many wonderful, unique entries from talented students across North Carolina, and we cant wait to see which design is chosen for this years festival.

The contest winner will receive a $500 gift card, a plaque from the mayor of Salisbury and more, and the winning students teacher will receive a $1,000 check to use toward new art supplies.

Approximately 100 entries were submitted.

The top 10 were selected by a panel of judges including Charlotte-based artist Monique Luck, Salisbury Mayor Karen Alexander, City of Salisbury Events Coordinator Vivian Koontz, City of Salisbury Communications Director Linda McElroy, Rowan Museum Director Aaron Kepley and Harper.

Details about the festival, which is planned for May 21 from noon to 10 p.m. in Salisbury, can be found at https://cheerwinefest.com.
Here is the concluding part of a letter written to The Landmark, by a Mr. C. W. Beam, of Kannapolis, telling about what life was like in Iredell in the 1880s. I have added some comments. Part I ran in the March 20 edition.

***

Law was respected by the people. Not many men were tried for life. I recall a club-footed man named Messemer, killed a woman and put her in a well. He was hanged in Statesville.

(In 1876 William Meisimer was hanged in Statesville for the murder of his mother-in-law, a Mrs. Helig, in Rowan County. A team of horses refused to drink water from a well. Mrs. Heligs body was found in the bottom of the well. She had been missing for six days. Meisimer subsequently confessed to bludgeoning her to steal her money.)

There were not many divorces. Most people married for love; they were poor and worked for riches together. Not much fighting among neighbors; guns were not often used. Sometimes a fellow would bite off a mans nose, ear or finger. The whipping post was brought into play if a man stole your boss sheep, and the county mark was branded on the rascal.

Court was held in Statesville once a year in the summer. The court brought lots of fun when it met.

One morning a covered wagon came up to court. A fellow said to the driver, If you will show me an uglier man than you, Ill give you a gallon of liquor. The driver said, Dad, stick your head out of the wagon. He got his liquor! I could give names, but I wont.

One court, a man came to town with a red monkey and a crank organ. The monkey would dance and take collections. Once, he took a mans cud of tobacco out of his mouth, smelled it, made a face, and put it back in the owners mouth. I dont blame the monkey.

Two trains a day

We had one railroad within six miles of our house. It was rebuilt after the (Civil) war and there were two trains a day. They used to say that folks would get off the train and pick blackberries when the fireman stopped to get wood and recruit his steam. They also said the train had to stop every time the whistle blew.

(The Atlantic, Tennessee & Ohio Railroad covered the 45 miles from Charlotte to Statesville and back. It originally opened in 1860. In 1863, the Confederate government had the A.T.& O. tracks taken up to replace tracks destroyed by Federal troops. The tracks were and also used to complete the track from Danville to Greensboro.

Tracks were again laid and the A.T.& O. resumed service in 1871. Local folks said A.T.& O. in reality stood for Awful, Terrible & Outrageous.)

A lot of coffee, black strap molasses, Baltimore meat and sugar were hauled from Cheraw, Wilmington and Charleston by wagons and horses.

Mills

One old mill was erected by Wilford Turner prior to 1830. It is now Turnersburg Mill. The old mill in Catawba County on the Catawba River, across from East Monbo, was owned and run by the late C. L. Turner, until it was washed away in the flood of 1916. Long Island, one mile above old Monbo, is another old factory.

(Mr. Turner named his mill Beau Mont, French for beautiful mountain. Locals, however, reversed the name to Mont Beau and from there soon corrupted it to Monbo.)

Also, there was the McAdenville Mill started about 1870. The old Statesville Mill was built about 1894; the Mooresville Mill No. 1 about the same time, and the No. 2 mill in Mooresville was built about 1899.

(The old No. 1 Mooresville Cotton Mill building on Broad Street was torn down in 2019. It is said to have been made of bricks from red clay dug on-site. The cotton mill was chartered on Jan. 17, 1893.)

The wool-combing mill on Third Creek was built by Keistler.

Our wheat was ground on the old burr mills on creeks and rivers. The first steam mill I ever saw was at S. B. Cornelius near Doolie, Iredell County. The first roller mill was put up by the late Sid Troutman and run by water from the creek. The White Brothers ran a mill north of Statesville as early as 1860. Sometimes, when the water was low, we would have to grind on the Sabbath to get our daily bread.

Few doctors

There were only a few doctors in the county in those days. There were Dick Mills at Troutman, Tate Powell out on the river near Monbo, old Dr. McLelland in Mooresville, Dr. Houston in Mt. Mourne. The now so-called drug stores were unknown.

Among other doctors were Dr. Wilhelm of Rock Cut, Dr. Byers of near Statesville, James Ward, Dr. Kimball and Dr. Mott of Statesville.

The lawyers I remember were Freeland, Armfield, Turner, Caldwell, Linney, Witherspoon and a few others.

There were very few suicides in those days. Three only I recall up to 1885. When a man or woman died, the neighbors went in, made a coffin, covered it with black cloth, put it in a wagon if a long way to go, if a short distance, carried it, buried the body and the whole community felt the loss and helped the bereaved family if they needed help. There was not much style then, but sympathy and love abounded.

O.C. Stonestreet is the author of Tales From Old Iredell County, They Called Iredell County Home and Once Upon a Time  in Mooresville, NC.
The United Way of Iredell County has a new home.

Dignitaries from the towns of Mooresville and Troutman, the city of Statesville, the Iredell County Board of Commissioners, and many business leaders were on hand Thursday morning to celebrate the opening of the United Ways new home office in the county, located in the heart of Downtown Mooresville.

This has been a long time coming, Brett Eckerman, executive director of the United Way of Iredell County, said. This is going to help us better resource all the nonprofits that serve our community. This is a great day.

The new home office, located at 404 N. Main St, will be the first time that the United Way has had one office that is responsible for all the organizations activities in Iredell County. The office located in Statesville will merge with the new office.

This is the first time that we will have a coordinated effort to support our entire county, Eckerman said. You should expect to see a wider network of local agency partners receiving United Way support.

Over the last two years, the United Way of Iredell County has raised more than $2 million for 45 charitable organizations, both nonprofit and service, in the area.

This office will help us focus on a neighborhood level, Eckerman said. Its going to be more effective to pull all of the nonprofits together, bring new ideas to the table, and help get resources to the community.

For Mooresville, having the United Way office right across the street from the Town Hall is a unique opportunity for developing a stronger relationship with the charitable organization.

I think its great. We have an opportunity for a lot more collaboration, Mayor Miles Atkins said. Having this presence here is really important for Mooresville.
A recent study indicates the sounds of nature may improve mental health and help us relax and recover in these stressful times.

I can report from personal experience the sounds of two dogs barking at chirping invisible robot birds do not.

A March 23, 2022 news release from the University of Exeter in the UK said this: The sounds of nature could help us recover from mental fatigue, but this power may be under threat as ecosystems deteriorate and people disconnect from the natural world

Led by a team from the University of Exeter, the study analysed data from over 7,500 people collected as part of the BBCs multi award-winning series, Forest 404, an eco-thriller podcast that depicted a dystopian world devoid of nature.

Those taking part in the study listened to a variety of nature sounds, some with animals and some without.

Participants reported therapeutic effects from listening to landscape elements such as breaking waves or falling rain, according to the news release. Hearing wildlife in these environments, and birdsong in particular, enhanced their potential to provide recovery from stress and mental fatigue even further.

Around this time, I was an unwitting participant in a similar experiment.

Our household received a bird clock for Christmas, a similar yet higher tech version of the old cuckoo clock.

At the top of every hour during daylight, a different set of chirping birds sound off, cheerfully reminding you that time is slipping into the void and you will never get back those 59 minutes between the Wood Thrush and Common Yellowthroat you spent arguing with a stranger on Facebook.

Before putting ours on the wall, I checked Amazon reviews to see how others liked their bird clocks.

Many did, such as this satisfied customer: I bought this clock for my dad for a Fathers Day gift. He is an avid bird watcher and also happens to love clocks. He put it on the wall next to his cuckoo clock and it fits right in. The sounds are very close to what you would hear from the actual birds. He loves feeling like he has even more birds around than what he gets outside his kitchen window.

Heres who did not have the same reaction. Two dogs who live in a house that got a bird clock for Christmas.

When it chimed the first time  I believe it might have been a Red-winged Blackbird  the dogs exploded into a cacophony of angry barking and frantic tail-chasing, as if the mail carrier had arrived at the same time the phone rang and a teen evangelical team knocked on the door with a handful of tracts.

It took them 15 minutes to settle down, which was just 44 minutes away from the robotic song of the Yellow Warbler, which ignited yet another canine outburst.

The birds are in the house! They are going to peck our eyes out and steal our snacks! The birds are in the house!

Did this provide me with recovery from stress and mental fatigue, as the University of Exeter nature-sound study found?

Uh, no. Here, nature was in conflict. The dogs hated the birds. The birds would not shut the hell up. I could not figure out how to open the battery cover to persuade them to do so.

Thankfully, nature adapts. The dogs eventually learned the invisible chirping robot birds were not going to peck their eyes out and steal their snacks.

Nowadays, the clock sounds off with little to no reaction from the dogs. No barking. No frantic tail-chasing. We all enjoy the soothing sounds of nature, relaxing and recovering in these stressful times  at least until the mail carrier arrives at the same time the phone rings and a teen evangelical team knocks on the door with a handful of tracts.

Scott Hollifield is editor of The McDowell News in Marion and a humor columnist. Contact him at rhollifield@mcdowellnews.com.
Car bombing hit Yemen security checkpoint

by IANS |

Sanaa, March 24 (IANS) A massive explosion caused by a booby-trapped vehicle hit a security checkpoint in Yemen's southern port city of Aden , killing and injuring a number of security members, an official said.



"Unknown assailants detonated the booby-trapped vehicle near a security checkpoint in the northern parts of Aden, causing a massive explosion," the official told Xinhua news agency on Wednesday.



Witnesses confirmed that an exchange of gunfire occurred following the explosion that was heard in various neighbourhoods of Aden.



Security vehicles and ambulances rushed to the bombing site that was surrounded by soldiers.



Local authorities are trying to maintain security and stability in the strategic Yemeni port city.



However, sporadic bombing incidents and drive-by shooting attacks still occur in Aden.



Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014, when the Houthi militias seized control of several northern provinces and forced the Saudi-backed government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of the capital Sanaa.
TAIPEI, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Taiwan reported 203 new COVID-19 cases, comprising 83 locally transmitted infections and 120 imported ones, the island's disease monitoring agency said Sunday.

The number of new local infections was the highest daily total recorded since June 27, 2021 when 88 local cases were confirmed, the agency added.

To date, Taiwan has reported 22,769 confirmed COVID-19 cases, of which 15,654 were local infections. 
Extended fish passages along the Lewis River are back on the table as PacifiCorp announced it will support the proposal after years of resistance.

PacifiCorp and the Cowlitz County Public Utility District submitted the new proposal to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in a letter March 15. The proposed passages will allow adult fish to live in Merwin Reservoir and Yale Reservoir and give juvenile fish a path from the reservoirs into the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean.

The letter said the utilities, which generate power from three hydroelectric dams along the Lewis River, plan to work with other stakeholders in the river to confirm the final terms of this proposal including a schedule. As currently proposed, the two additional passages will be built between June 2026 and June 2028.

In the interest of resolving ongoing discussions regarding the value of this habitat, the utilities developed a fish passage proposal that provides access to this habitat, a PacifiCorp spokesman told the Daily News through email.

A joint statement released Thursday by the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, The Confederated Bands and Tribes of the Yakama Nation, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and Columbia Riverkeeper celebrated the new proposal as an important step in restoring salmon and steelhead trout populations to the river.

Kessina Lee, regional director for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, said in the statement the plan to provide full passage for fish around the dams serves as a beacon of hope and progress for salmon recovery in the Pacic Northwest.

Eli Asher, the interim deputy director of natural resources for the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, has been involved with the Lewis River discussions for eight years. Asher said restoring the ability for salmon and steelhead to travel the river was the centerpiece of the original settlement agreement.

We are really excited about this and hopeful that PacifiCorp will mitigate for that five-year delay in putting fish into Yale Reservoir. Those are years we will never get back, Asher said.

PaficiCorp told the Daily News that at this time, we do not believe further mitigation is needed in view of actions taken to date by the Utilities.

History of the Lewis River fish recovery talks

PacifiCorp and the Cowlitz PUD filed to end parts of the fish passage requirement in 2016. The utilities argued new information indicated salmon and steelhead would benefit more from habitat restoration projects than by building the additional passages.

Full fish passages also were the more expensive option. Estimates at the time said replacing two of the fish passages with other mitigation would save the utilities roughly $85 million. PacifiCorp had already spent $110 million on the fish passage system that goes from below Merwin Dam to above Swift Dam.

The National Marine Fisheries Service sided with the utilities in a 2019 decision but withdrew that support in June 2021. By the end of the year, the final ruling issued by the FERC was fish passages were appropriate for the Yale Reservoir and the Merwin Reservoir and should move forward as the preferred method.

PacifiCorps proposal includes a floating collector below Yale Reservoir and a collection facility with guidance nets below Merwin Reservoir. A level of mitigation will be provided for the kokanee salmon in Merwin Reservoir affected by the incoming other species of fish.

Asher said the proposal will be discussed at the next meeting of the Aquatic Coordination Committee in April. The committee will work with PacifiCorp and Cowlitz PUD to create a more detailed fish passage plan before it gets final federal approval.

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Zambia may be better known for mining copper than crypto, but a group of young entrepreneurs are looking to reinvent the country as an African technology hub -- with support from Ethereum co-creator Vitalik Buterin.

Zambia may be better known for mining copper than crypto, but a group of young entrepreneurs are looking to reinvent the country as an African technology hub -- with support from Ethereum co-creator Vitalik Buterin.

Startup founders from the southern African country and abroad are talking to the government about creating the regulatory and business environment that would attract more tech firms and capital. The group is in the process of organizing a conference in Lusaka, the capital, in May to draft detailed policy proposals that they believe will see Zambia succeed where previous African tech hubs have stuttered.

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Ultimately it comes down to being welcoming, said Mwiya Musokotwane, an early champion of the project and the son of Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane. If the policy doesnt really live up to peoples expectations, noones going to be there.

Buterin, who helped create the worlds second largest cryptocurrency in 2013, expressed his support in a virtual meeting with Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema earlier this year. That followed a 2019 visit to the country as a guest of Mwiya, who wanted him to view a new charter city outside Lusaka that is also positioning itself to attract businesses.

I was impressed by everyone I mets willingness to go and do big things, the crypto pioneer said in an interview.

The talks are a further sign of Africas recent and burgeoning role as a hotbed for startups, particularly in the fintech and e-commerce sectors. Businesses providing financial services to the continents millions of unbanked yet online people are attracting the attention of foreign investors particularly from the U.S., and African firms raised a record $5 billion in 2021.

Companies including Nigerian payments firm Flutterwave Inc., whose latest $250 million fund-raising round valued it at more than $3 billion, are also interested in growing a presence in Zambia, Mwiya Musokotwane said.

Employment Drive

For Hichilema, attracting tech firms could be a means of delivering on one of his key election pledges -- boosting employment. More than one in four Zambians under the age of 24 have no income, according to data from the International Labour Organization, and the ratio has been worsening since 2013. The Presidents commitment to resolving the issue played a major role in his August election victory after five previous failed attempts.

He has since created the Ministry of Technology and Science as part of a drive to support the sector and help ease dependence on copper, which accounts for 75% of export earnings. The government is eager to consult with entrepreneurs on attractive policies for the tech industry, including tax incentives, according to Jito Kayumba, Hichilemas special assistant for economic and development affairs and a former director at Kukula Capital, which invests in young Zambian companies.

We want to have a much more open-minded approach, Kayumba said in an interview from Lusaka. You cant milk a cow that isnt fully developed.

Early Mover

Perseus Mlambo, originally from neighboring Zimbabwe, was one of the early movers. He started payments platform Zazu Africa Ltd. in Zambia five years ago, a firm that now accounts for half of Mastercard Inc. transactions in the country.

He went on to raise $3 million last year from investors led by U.S. fund Tiger Global LP for a new venture called Union54, a firm that allows companies to issue their own debit cards without going through a bank. Tiger, the investor firm of billionaire Chase Coleman, has also backed Flutterwave and been involved in talks on the Zambia hub.

Copper is old and boring, Mlambo said in an interview from Belluno, north of Venice, Italy. Governments risk missing the proverbial boat by over-investing in extractives and under-investing in software. Tech uplifts multitudes of people and the barrier to entry is very, very low.

But ultimately the success of the project will come down to legislation.

Zambia must improve the ease and cost of getting work permits, according to Malawi-born Wiza Jalakasi, vice-president of global developer relations at Chipper Cash, another Africa-focused fintech startup. And Mlambo said hes been waiting for a residence permit to be approved since September.

Still, the nation thats changed the ruling party three times in thirty years already has progressive financial services regulation, making it attractive, Jalakasi said.

Its not the biggest market in the region, but you can test things very easily, he said. Thats only going to get better with time as these policies are implemented.
Microsoft, accused by a former employee of paying bribes in Africa and the Middle East, said Saturday it has already probed the allegations and fired several employees as a result.

A former Microsoft employee accused the tech giant of corruption in The Wall Street Journal, and in an essay posted Friday to the website Lioness, which publishes whistleblower accounts.

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The employee says he was fired after working for Microsoft from 1998 to 2018 in Africa, where he said he saw company employees involved in corrupt practices in several countries in the region.

He said the practices included using local partner companies to help sell Microsoft products.

Asked about the allegations, a Microsoft executive said Saturday, "We believe we've previously investigated these allegations, which are many years old, and addressed them."

"We cooperated with government agencies to resolve any concerns," Becky Lenaburg, vice president and deputy general counsel for compliance and ethics at Microsoft, told AFP.

Employees were fired and partnerships were ended as part of the response to the original allegations, the company said.

"We are committed to doing business in a responsible way," Lenaburg added.

Microsoft "always encourage(s) anyone to report anything they see that may violate the law, our policies, or our ethical standards," she said.

The Journal said the whistleblower employee also warned the US financial watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Commission), of his concerns in 2019.

In deposition documents, the employee claimed Microsoft had "engaged for many years in rampant bribery practices," according to the Journal.

The employee estimates that Microsoft spent more than $200 million per year on bribes and kickbacks in countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, according to news website The Verge.
As students walk, bike and scooter to Spring Creek Elementary School, one man is there at the crosswalk with a stop sign to make sure they arrive at school safely, and a joke to start their day off right.

Bennie Pate, affectionately known as Mr. Bennie, has been the Spring Creek crossing guard for three years. He joked his name should have been Norm from the 1980s sitcom Cheers, because everybody knows his name.

Theres hardly a time that I dont go someplace in town and I see a kid waving at me or come up and say hi, Pate said. Its a great feeling. I didnt seek that, but I definitely accept it and embrace it. Its wonderful.

Every school day, the father of two and grandfather of three is posted at the intersection of W.S. Phillips Parkway and Brewster Drive in College Station. Hes always dressed for the weather  rain gear, warm layers  and also for seasonal celebrations. That can mean a Halloween costume  most recently, as a person who has been abducted by an alien  or one of his many Santa hats.

When the weather gets bad, Pate said, he has the option to take breaks in his vehicle  an El Camino. However, he has never made that choice.

If school is open, Im there, he said. Inevitable theres going to be a kid come across, and as long as theres a kid coming across, Im there for them.

Part of his approach to being a crossing guard, especially at the elementary level, is thinking of himself as being on the same level as the students he sees each day, he said.

Pate, 68, said he was apprehensive at first about moving to the elementary school from College Station High School. He spent 4 1/2 years there before the position was eliminated, and he transitioned to Spring Creek. Now, he sees it as a blessing.

By the end of the school year, he said, he is usually happy to get some time off to bass fish, but by the middle of the summer, hes ready for school to start again and be back at his corner.

He is literally the heart of Spring Creek; he really, really is, said Mindy Chapa, assistant principal at the school. He is amazing in every way.

Chapa said about a third of the students walk or ride their bicycles or scooters to the neighborhood school each day. She called Pate an extension of the family atmosphere they try to create at the school.

He has such a connection with the community that he knows the parents; he knows the families very well. He knows whats going on in their lives, she said. He just has that connection where he just loves these kids inside and out and wants the best for them. He really does. He is just an incredible, incredible human being.

The position was a result of Pates wife suggesting he find something to do after retiring from a career that included being a carpenter at Texas A&M, an employment specialist at MHMR Authority of Brazos Valley and a mechanic with Texas A&M Utility & Energy Services.

When she suggested he find a new job, he jokingly asked if he should be a Walmart greeter or a school crossing guard. Then, a few days later, he came across a job posting for a school crossing guard through the city of College Station.

The new role came naturally, he said, as his tendency to talk and get to know others has helped him form connections with students, parents and the community.

Spring Creek parent Jon Jarvis first saw Pate at College Station High School and witnessed the connection he had with students.

I always saw this crossing guard who was like bumping fists with all the kids, and they all liked him too over there, and I was excited when he came over here just because I was like, Oh, cool, we get this guy, Jarvis said. Hes a really great guy.

Jarvis said Pate even knows his youngest son, who is not old enough to attend school yet, and notices when the toddler is not with them.

Hes like nice to everyone, no matter who they are, Spring Creek fourth grader Karter Morton said.

Mortons classmate Collins Hudiburgh agreed.

Hes like a really nice person, he said after the pair safely crossed the street on their way to school on a frigid January morning after the winter break. He always has like a daily joke for us. He always talks to people very nicely, unlike [any] other crosswalk person that Ive ever known.

Pate said it makes his day when he is able to help students smile on their way to school. He said he has encountered students who were coming to school unhappy or crying because of situations at home.

I cant fix that, he said. But I can try to fix the rest of their day.  And try to give them something to smile about.

That is what led him to start telling a daily age-appropriate joke he finds online or in joke books. The tradition began when he worked at College Station High School. Pate said he saw children of divorced families and students who were arriving at school unhappy, and started using a joke to break the tension.

If they can get across the street from a boo-boo lip to smiling, Ive done a good turn for the day, he said.

That connection Pate has with the students, Chapa said, gives students another safe person they can talk to when they might not feel comfortable talking to a teacher or administrator.

Him being present, I think, is what makes him kind of stand out, because hes not just on a hill with his stop sign, she said, calling him a rock star. He comes in the school  in their setting, in their environment  and he just connects with them and he talks with them.

Pate said he tries to attend as many school events and programs he is invited to by students.

And while he may not be a teacher in the traditional sense, Pate said he uses his time with students and parents to pass along common sense tips and safe practices when crossing an intersection.

He also extends the lessons to drivers, telling them to not stop in the crosswalk, and encouraging people to think if their child was crossing the street.

Id jump in front of a car for a kid, he said. Ill jump on top of a car. Ill jump on their hood. Ill bust a windshield if I have to. I havent had to, but Im prepared to. I take it real serious.

While he appreciates the thanks and gifts people give him for keeping their students safe, he said it is a no brainer for him.

This is what we do, he said.
Blinn Colleges livestock judging team won top honors in the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeos community college division.

Blinn totaled 4,681 points. Connors State College from Oklahoma placed second with 4,622 points, and Butler Community College from Kansas was third with 4,622 points.

Individually, John Reaves led Blinn with 950 points, placing fourth overall. Kase LeRoy was seventh with 941 points, Will Spicer was 11th with 933 points, Kelton Poe placed 12th with 931 points, Quensey Torrez was 16th with 926 points, and Kevin Jendrusch placed 27th with 918 points.

Blinn also finished first in the alternates contest with 949 points. Blinn alternate teams also placed 15th, 34th, 37th and 45th.

Katherin Eastep was top individual in that contest with 949 points. Blinns Fritz Anton was seventh with 917 points, Whitney Watts was ninth with 914 points, and Maddison Brinkman placed 15th with 908 points.
United Way of the Brazos Valley is hosting its first community-wide book drive through the end of March to support the organizations early literacy programs.

Specifically, the books collected during the drive will go toward the Book Bash events the local United Way hosts throughout the year with the next one scheduled for Saturday, April 9 at Post Oak Mall.

Alison Prince, president and CEO of United Way of the Brazos Valley, said she does not know exactly how many books have been collected so far across the 12 drop-off locations throughout the Brazos Valley, but encouraged people to continue donating books.

Whether weve gotten one book or 1,000 books, we can always use more because the size of our program is limited to the resources that we have, and thats primarily from the books that are donated, she said. So the more books we have donated, the more Book Bash events we can do, and the more books we can get back out into the hands of kids.

The two age groups that most need books are early readers that parents would read to their children and touch-and-feel books for children up to the age of 3, and young adult chapter books for middle school and high school students.

The organization has done smaller book drives, Prince said, but this is the first to reach out to the entire area at once. Every business she approached about being a drop-off location did not hesitate to say yes, she said.

Everybody understands the importance of reading, she said. No one really disputes whether or not kids should be reading or should have access to books in their homes. And so everybody gets really excited and really energetic about helping kids get books, so weve always had such a great response to it.

Prince said the community book drive is the latest way to hold an event in honor of National Literacy Month after previously inviting people to read books to children in local schools or recording themselves reading a book during the 2020-2021 school year when the pandemic prevented guest readers.

The organization also makes Baby Bundles to provide families of local newborns with books; however, the book drive is not in support of that project, but instead the Book Bash events.

She said they have never had to end a Book Bash due to a lack of books, but they hope to continue to grow the program and serve more children in the area.

At each Book Bash, Prince said, children get to pick the book they want from the selection, and one of her favorite things is seeing the look on their face when they find the book they want to take home.

Kids get so into the books, and they get excited. They talk about the books that theyre reading, she said. Our Book Bash events allow kids to kind of peruse and find their interests and take the book home with them and keep it. Theres no return date.

It is critical, Prince said, to facilitate kids exploration of their interests, saying it is similar to how adults have an easier time when doing things that interest them.

Thats the same for kids, she said. Let them follow their passions, let them follow their dreams, and who knows where its going to take them. What a book can open up to them.

She said a book can help children understand the world around them.

It takes away any limitations that the child may experience in their life, Prince said. They can be anything they want to be in a book. They can explore anything they want to explore in a book. They can go anywhere they want to go in a book. No matter where they live or what their situation is, they can be whoever they want to dream to be when theyre reading and exploring the world through literature.

The 12 locations to drop off books are the following:

United Way of the Brazos Valley Office at 1716 Briarcrest Dr., Suite 155 in Bryan

First Financial Bank at 1716 Briarcrest Dr., Ste. 400 in Bryan

First Financial Bank at 2900 S. Texas Ave. in Bryan

First Financial Bank at 3400 E. State Hwy. 21 in Bryan

First Financial Bank at 2305 Texas Ave. S. in College Station

First Financial Bank at 4450 State Hwy. 6 S. in College Station

Navasota Grimes County Chamber of Commerce at 117 S. Lasalle St. in Navasota

University Title Company at 1021 University Dr. E. in College Station

Enterprise Rent-A-Car at 1820 Hwy 290 W. in Brenham

Allen Samuels Chevrolet Buick GMC at 4556 Hwy 6 in Hearne

Kawasaki of Caldwell at 185 TX-36 in Caldwell

Brookshire Brothers at 403 E. Main St. in Madisonville

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Editorial cartoonist Ben Sargent once penned a masterful sketch of a newspaperman  a skinny, bug-eyed fellow in a baggy suit with a press card in the band of his porkpie hat.

The unnamed journalist was depicted in the simple act of entering a dark room at city hall and switching on a light. The cartoon had no caption. It didnt need one. In your minds eye you could see cockroaches scurrying for cover.

Sargents message to Austin American-Statesman readers was clear and timeless: Light is the best disinfectant, and nothing shines light on the activities of government like a newspaper.

Thats especially true in this era of real-time news coverage, instantaneous online commentary and partisan electronic echo chambers.

Governments today are larger, more pervasive and more powerful than any time in our history.

Fortunately for those of us who believe in self-governance, newspapers are still around. And theyre the best source for information on how government spends your money and what government plans to do to you.

Thats because newspapers still cover the behind-the-scenes goings-on at city hall and not just the horse-race aspect of political campaigns.

Its also because newspapers are still the home of public notices, and some of the most important journalism in your newspaper arrives in the form of public notices.

Public notices are mandatory announcements of what a governmental body plans to do or what it has already put into motion. They are not universally popular among government officials.

Public notices are printed in newspapers  the civic journals of their communities  because theyre required under scores of laws passed over the past two centuries. The idea behind those public notice laws was to foster transparency to keep government open and accountable.

If youre a parent and you need to know ahead of time that the school district is drawing up new school attendance zones, you should appreciate public notices. The law requires the district to print that plan in a newspaper.

Without even knowing you should look, you can stumble across new information on where Little Johnny may be attending school next year while sipping your latte and reading the morning paper.

You become aware of this important development in your familys existence whether or not you follow the superintendents social media posts. If you dont like what you see, you can take action to oppose it.

If youre a taxpayer and you want to learn about property tax rates planned for next year before theyre passed, you can appreciate public notices. State law requires cities, counties and school districts to notify you of their intentions before tax rates are set in stone. How? In a public notice printed in the newspaper.

And if youre a property owner like the folks of Fayette County, youd appreciate knowing if an out-of-town company is seeking a permit to dump Austin sewage sludge in a field beside the Colorado River. A modest legally required public notice in the Fayette County Record brought that plan to light. It didnt pass the smell test with residents, and they raised a stink with state officials. The permit application quickly was withdrawn.

Public notices in newspapers get noticed. When they do, readers may decide to share a thought or two with the officials involved. Lets face it: Those officials jobs would be ever-so-much less stressful if they didnt have to interact with upset voters who pay the taxes that fund their paychecks.

Some officials are particularly galled that state law requires them to pay newspapers to publish these notices. They complain to legislators that its a waste of money  that the notices could simply be posted on the governmental entitys website without paying newspapers to spread the news.

Their argument doesnt mention the fact that public notice rates are among the lowest charged by newspapers. It also fails to note that creating, operating and maintaining a government-public notice site also would cost taxpayers money.

And it conveniently ignores the immense watchdog value of a newspaper serving as an independent, verifiable and archived third-party source for these important notices.

Today, newspapers are making their notices more visible than ever, and it doesnt cost the taxpayer an extra dime. In addition to printing the notices for a fee, Texas publishers make public notice information available at no extra charge online. People even can sign up at no charge to receive notices electronically by subject matter and by jurisdiction.

A few months ago, the state of Florida updated its public notice laws by requiring newspapers to provide this additional electronic service for public notices at no additional charge. But only eight weeks after the new law went into effect, the Florida Legislature backtracked. It passed another law allowing governmental entities to post notices on their own government websites and bypass newspapers altogether. In doing so, the state of Florida legalized the concept of the fox guarding the henhouse.

If you think that sort of thing cant happen in Texas, think again. Like Texas, Florida is a conservative state with voters who want to hold government accountable. Thats a good thing. But some overeager legislators committed to cutting taxes, supporting local control and promising to work with local officials can be misled by a local officials suggestion to eliminate newspaper notices and put the money into pothole repair.

That, combined with the reckless labeling of all traditional media as fake news, means a toxic environment for newspapers that have faithfully served their communities for a century or longer.

Not only should government not be in the business of disseminating their own public notices; government shouldnt want to.

By handling the publication, verification, distribution and archiving of official notices, newspapers keep government from serving as its own publisher, distributor, certifier of the record and archivist.

By handling public notices, newspapers give government officials legal protection from accusations of releasing incomplete or untimely information  or of surreptitiously changing the record for the officials convenience.

So it comes down to this: if you want to know whats going on in your hometown, tell your local officials and your legislators to keep public notices in newspapers. Its the civically healthy thing to do.

Dont risk waking up one morning to the aroma of something foul being spread in your neighborhood.

Donnis Baggett is executive vice president of the Texas Press Association. TPA represents some 400 Texas newspapers, including this one. TPA campaigns in Austin for open records, open meetings, public notices and government accountability. Baggett may be reached at dbaggett@texaspress.com.
Chaplain Lyanne Kelly gave the opening prayer for Hall County VFWA 1347s March 1 meeting.

Janie Zweifel gave the opening and President Lori Skala presided. With Kathy Maws approval as a new member, 13 were in attendance.

A thank-you note was read from the Veteran Affairs Medical Center for the Valentines Day cupcakes.

The 2022 Day of Service will be May 7, with encouragement to serve throughout the month of May.

Liz Gerberding will be collecting travel-size, personal care items for local shelter residents.

A note from Jean Seely, she had not received any entries for the youth art or singing contest.

Billie Herron will be ordering a sheet cake for residents at the VAMC, where she also found that volunteer groups are still not being allowed to visit. Herron has been contacted about her continuing to be VAMCs representative for another year.

Members discussed past and future activities for veterans and family support and also the Fantasy of Trees Christmas tree.

David Jewett has offered to assist Herron in setting up a website. Herron already posts many activities on Facebook.

Officers for 2022-23 will be elected in April. Members are asked to consider taking on the duties of being an officer or committee chair.

A patriotic collage assembled by Jean Seely was one of four chosen at the state meeting. It will be displayed at Central Nebraska Veterans Home in Kearney.

Fifty Hy-Vee coupon books were ordered as a fundraiser for Wreaths Across America. They will sell for $5 each and be available at the April meeting. A list of items to include in care packages for soldiers was distributed.

Contact your veterans service office for assistance in making arrangements to use the Fisher House available for families of patients at NWIHCS-Omaha.

Upcoming events in Kearney include: State VFW and Auxiliary meeting, June 4-5; and the Nebraska Vietnam Veterans Reunion, Aug. 11-14.

The next meeting will be Tuesday, April 5, at the UVC, with lunch at noon followed by a meeting at 1 p.m. The monthly, volunteer hours report will be discussed to clarify what to include and how to fill in the information.
CENTRAL CITY  For several years, husband and wife Cas and Brianna Bing lived under the Central City radar, operating their online business from home.

The couples business, Bings Pets, had sold handmade custom dog and cat collars on virtually every continent, but the Bings werent well known in their town. Brianna Bing said, People in Australia think Im cool, but nobody here knew us. So I was like, we should get out of the house and do this.

This sprouted from the couples love of dogs and expressing their creativity, Brianna Bing explained. We named (our dog) after a Pokemon (character), and I wanted him to have a Pokemon collar.

Brianna scoured the internet, searching for a Pokemon collar and came up empty  but Cas had an idea. Hes able to just think of things  I have this idea. And I want it to be real.

Cas had sewing experience from when he and Brianna were students at Grand Island Senior High. Why not just make the collar they wanted?

Thats what started us all in, Brianna said. Their creations caught the attention of some Instagram pet lovers, and the Bings realized they had discovered a gap in the market.

We came into it as a hobby, but then it was like, OK, I guess this is our job. This is our life, Brianna said.

Brianna describes the dog and cat collar/harness operation as the Subway of dog collars. Buyers can choose from a variety of fabrics and designs, including collars, harnesses and vests  including service dog vests.

Business boomed following the Bings Pets 2015 founding, but Brianna and Cas longed to have their living room back.

It took over the whole house  everything. It would flow into the living room, Brianna said. She realized it was time to make a decision. I was like, I want a house  and I want to work.

A building on the east edge of Central City became available, once a space occupied by Hilder Implement and still owned by the Hilder family. Brianna said she and Cas decided to take a leap.

I was like, well, just for fun, Ill call.

Bings Pets brick-and-mortar location had been found.

After some simple sprucing up, the shop on 819 16th St. is starting to fill up. Fabric and buckles line the walls behind the front counter, Cass sewing machine placed on a side table, always at the ready.

Soon came the fish.

Following the loss of his beloved dog, Cas became interested in beta fish. Using Facebook groups and other fish community resources, Cas got a handle on breeding betas.

In the pet shop, a cart of plastic containers containing tiny fish show off Cass hard work and research. Brianna is clearly proud of her husband.

Theyre starting to color up. The process of breeding the beta fish was the coolest thing Ive ever got to watch him do. Its not like some fish, where you just throw them in a tank and they do their thing. Absolutely not that way with beta fish.

Other tanks containing fish  and a difficult-to-find shelled creature called an assassin snail  occupy a small area of the store. There are also catnip toys, fish tank accessories and plenty of locally-made consignment items for pets.

Cas and Brianna are training a service dog, too, the pet shop a perfect place for socialization. Milo, still a puppy, is the latest of several service dogs the couple has trained  and there is more service dog training to come, the couple said.

There are plans to make Bings Pets a place for other dogs to socialize  not just the Bings service dogs in training, Brianna said. We are hoping to do Puppy Play Day Saturday. Itll be completely free. People in the morning will bring their puppies and theyll get to socialize in a safe place.

Service dogs have long been a part of the couples lives. Both Cas and Brianna have disabilities that benefit from service dogs. Having their own business allows them to make their own schedule, bring service dogs with them and have more independence than they might have otherwise.

Brianna said she thinks about what she would be doing without Bings Pets: My mom was always in management and I had done managing, but with my disabilities I just I know I wouldnt be able to do it. Im also not the kind of person to fall in line under other peoples rules. (Cas and I) are both very independent. Honestly, if we didnt do this Id be working at a gas station hating my life.

The couples social circle would likely be smaller, too. Brianna said Central City has been a supportive, encouraging community to grow a small business.

Before we felt nobody knew us. Now, I cant go anywhere without people being like, Hey, do you guys have this? Or hey, I heard this, which is great. Its nice to be appreciated. Central City Chamber (of Commerce) is really great. Theyve been extremely supportive. Theyve helped us sponsor events; we made dog paw print clay ornaments last Christmas, and we did a Valentines Day event.

Brianna and Cas said they want to see more visitors and more businesses in their part of town. Brianna said, Our biggest thing is just been getting we need more people to come. People dont always continue this way. They go to the grocery store and thats as far as they go.

The more the merrier  Brianna said Bings Pets would love to have more neighbors, and that there is ample opportunity. Theres the Lincoln Manor that needs to be restored theres several retail spaces. Yes, please come join our community!

The Bings are as welcoming as their community-family has been to them. Brianna said, While Im sure it would be great to be busy constantly, I prefer to have time to talk to people. Having a little slower business allows us to actually talk with people and it builds a better relationship. Plus, were not so lonely.

Jessica Votipka is the education reporter at the Grand Island Independent. She can be reached at 308-381-5420.

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Staff members work at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, March 24, 2022. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

Driven by ideology and pushed by the military-industrial complex, Washington turned a blind eye to the repeated opposition from the domestic strategic community and from Russia. It pushed NATO eastward again and again, and instigated "color revolutions" around Russia repeatedly, forcing Russia into the corner, said the expert.

BEIJING, March 27 (Xinhua) -- The relations between Russia and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the past 30 years have experienced a downward spiral from honeymoon to spat, from detente to bickering, and from new cold war to quasi-hot war, an expert has told Xinhua recently.

The dramatic change in their relations is not just the epitome of the drastic shifts in Russia's identity orientation and foreign policy, but of expanding American clout over former Warsaw Pact countries in the post-Cold War era, said Kang Jie, an associate research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies.

Thirty years ago, a newly independent Russia tried to seek NATO membership, but was met by the George H.W. Bush administration's promise of not one inch eastward of NATO expansion.

Despite no direct engagement, Russia is now in an all but hot war with NATO amid its military conflict with Ukraine, Kang said.

People are seen on the Red Square in Moscow, Russia, July 24, 2020. (Xinhua/Evgeny Sinitsyn)

FANTASIES (1991-1993)

Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, then Russian leader Boris Yeltsin once told the United States and NATO that cooperation with the only Western military alliance was an integral part of Russian security, and called NATO membership a "long-term political aim" of Russia.

Russia followed a liberal internationalism after its independence. Then Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev wrote in NATO Review, the alliance's official magazine, that "we see NATO nations as our natural friends and in future as allies."

Then U.S. President George H.W. Bush made repeated statements that Russia would be granted entry into NATO as long as it undertook reforms.

Croatian soldiers participate in the military exercise "Immediate Response 2019" to mark the 10th anniversary of Croatia's NATO membership in Slunj, Croatia, May 29, 2019. (Xinhua/Kristina Stedul Fabac)

CRACKS (1994-1998)

That NATO started eastward enlargement dented Russia's fantasies about the West, Kang noted. From late 1993, the Clinton administration began to push NATO eastward in order to compete with the Republicans, curry favor with the domestic military-industrial complex, and win over Polish and Czech American voters.

The NATO foreign ministers' meeting announced an expansion roadmap without prior consultations with Russia, a move that infuriated Yeltsin.

In 1995, an expert panel appointed by Yeltsin proposed two options for NATO expansion: either NATO should give Russia membership, or NATO should be placed under the authority of an expanded United Nations-led Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), in which Russia would have the right of veto.

In recent years, the Russian side has repeatedly mentioned that NATO has reneged on its "no eastward expansion commitment." In February 1990, when then U.S. Secretary of State James Baker visited the Soviet Union to negotiate the reunification of Germany, he proposed to then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that the United States and NATO would guarantee that NATO jurisdiction and military presence would not move an inch to the east after the reunification of Germany.

In Russia's view, "no eastward expansion" certainly includes the Eastern European countries east of then East Germany, so it was equivalent to the U.S. commitment of NATO not expanding eastward. But in the United States' view, this commitment was only aimed at the reunification of Germany, and the issue of eastward enlargement was not on the agenda of all parties at that time, so the commitment does not apply to Eastern Europe.

German soldiers take part in the Trident Juncture 2018 exercise at a waterfront site near Trondheim, Norway, Oct. 30, 2018. (Xinhua/Liang Youchang)

CRISIS AND HONEYMOON (1999-2005)

The Balkans is the first wrestling arena between Russia and NATO, said the expert. In March 1999, despite repeated warnings from Russia, NATO flagrantly launched full-scale air strikes against Yugoslavia. In April that year, despite Russia's opposition, NATO issued a new strategic concept with emphasis on "out-of-area operations," marking the expansion of NATO's military operations from collective defense to external power projection, he noted.

In response, Russia immediately froze all relations with NATO and launched the biggest military exercise, Zapad-99, since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In October 1999, Russia released a new version of its military doctrine in advance, stressing for the first time that external military invasion was the main threat.

In fact, the Kosovo crisis did not change Russia's pragmatic attitude in cooperating with NATO. In August 1999, then Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that Russia should and will integrate itself into the civilized world, noting that his country would cooperate with NATO.

The 9/11 attacks in 2001 became an opportunity to warm up the relations between the two sides, said the expert, noting that Putin was the first among major power leaders to call in support of then U.S. President George W. Bush, and after that, the United States and Russia set up a joint working group on counterterrorism.

In December 2004, a NATO-Russia action plan on terrorism was approved by the two sides, and Russia took part in NATO's counter-terrorism Operation Active Endeavour in the Mediterranean.

Meanwhile, then Secretary General of NATO George Robertson and leaders of some NATO member states supported Russia's accession to NATO.

This period is seen as a short honeymoon period between Russia and NATO, said Kang.

Also during this period, he said, three cracks in Russia's relations with the United States and NATO began to emerge.

One is the anti-missile system and strategic stability. In 2002, the United States unilaterally withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty signed by the United States and the Soviet Union.

The second remains the eastward expansion of NATO. Following admitting Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic in 1999, NATO started its second round of eastward expansion. In the year of 2004, the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined NATO.

The third crack between Russia and NATO is the so-called "color revolution" in the "post-Soviet space." From 2003 to 2005, the "color revolutions" took place in countries such as Ukraine and Georgia.

People visit a military equipment exhibition in Prague, the Czech Republic, on March 12, 2019. The exhibition was held here to mark the 20th anniversary of the Czech Republic's accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). (Xinhua/Dana Kesnerova)

CRACK ENLARGEMENT (2006-2013)

After 2006, the deployment of anti-missile system, the eastward expansion of NATO, and the "color revolution," these three cracks not only failed to repair, but continued to expand.

In 2006, the United States formally proposed to deploy anti-missile bases in Eastern Europe, and in January 2007, the United States started negotiations on anti-missile deployment with Poland and the Czech Republic.

One month later, in an address to the Munich Security Conference, Putin fiercely criticized the actions of NATO's eastward expansion and the U.S. deployment of anti-missile systems in Eastern Europe. The speech was seen as a watershed in Russia's relations with the United States and NATO.

After taking office in 2009, then U.S. President Barack Obama proposed to "reset" U.S.-Russia relations, indicating a turn in Russia's relations with the United States and NATO. Since then, Russia and NATO began to working towards improving relations. However, not much progress was made.

At the end of 2009, then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev proposed to set up a new European security architecture to replace organizations including NATO and the OSCE, and end the Cold War once and for all.

Though Russia and NATO resumed military cooperation in the year 2010, the negotiations on the new security architecture between Russia, the United States and the European Union failed to make progress. Meanwhile, the United States and the West continued to instigate "color revolutions" in the Middle East as well as in Russia's close neighbors.

Military vehicles are seen before a rehearsal of the Victory Day parade in Moscow, Russia, on May 4, 2021. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr/Xinhua)

RAPID DETERIORATION (2014-2022)

The Ukrainian crisis that broke out in 2014 became the biggest turning point in relations between Russia and NATO, said the expert, noting that the two sides broke off security cooperation and turned to substantive military confrontation.

NATO began to provide military assistance to Ukraine after the crisis, including sending military advisers and instructors. At the Warsaw Summit in 2016, NATO nations decided to have multinational battalions stationed in the three Baltic states and Poland.

Meanwhile, the dispute between the United States and Russia over the implementation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty has also intensified, as the two sides accused each other of violating the historic arms control deal.

In 2019, the United States officially announced its withdrawal from the INF Treaty.

With Russia and NATO facing full-scale confrontation and the United States encouraging Ukraine to join NATO, Russia proposed three security dialogues with the United States, NATO and the OSCE at the end of last year, all of which were fruitless, Kang said.

Photo taken on March 5, 2022 shows armed personnel in Donetsk. (Photo by Victor/Xinhua)

On Feb. 24, the Russian army launched a special military operation in Ukraine, which, said Kang, marked the beginning of the largest armed conflict in the region since World War II.

In general, Kang said, the Russian elites hoped to integrate the country into the Western security community more than once, while the United States and NATO chose to turn Moscow down.

Driven by ideology and pushed by the military-industrial complex, Washington turned a blind eye to the repeated opposition from the domestic strategic community and from Russia. It pushed NATO eastward again and again, and instigated "color revolutions" around Russia repeatedly, forcing Russia into the corner, Kang said. 
Caped crusaders, galactic bounty hunters, ghost capturers, costume players, knights in shining armor, collectors, enthusiasts and professional artists.

All of these and more gathered Saturday for Grand Island Comic Fest 4 at Pinnacle Bank Expo Center on the Fonner Park campus. The events continues today.

It is the biggest venue for the event yet, said organizer Doug Holmes, and promises to boast its largest attendance to date.

Presales were great and we have a steady flow through the door, Holmes said. We have all demographics. People are bringing their kids in. Its a great family event. Young and old alike are having a great time.

The event kicked off at the Grand Theatre with a free showing of 1984s The Neverending Story.

Star Noah Hathaway is one of the many guests in town for the weekend long event. Larry Houston, producer and artist for 1992s X-Men: The Animated Series was also a special guest of the event.

Houstons credits also include 1986s G.I. Joe, 1990s Captain Planet and 1996s The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest.

Im very proud to be here, very excited, Houston said. We got here early so we could see the city and enjoy ourselves, which we have. Its a little cold for California blood, but Ive enjoyed everything here.

Houstons X-Men series is being renewed by the Disney+ streaming service.

We were No. 1 several times for their ratings, whatever they call it on streaming, he said. Im very happy the people who are working on the next series are all fans of the original show. They want to take it where we stopped and pick it up, and theyre doing their very best. Hopefully everyone will be able to see it next year.

Houston said he enjoys meeting fans who still have a great love for the 1992 series.

I feel honored, and meeting the fans who grew up with the original series I try to thank them every time I see them, because, they dont know it, but there was no guarantee of a Season 2, but because they saw the show, they kept the ratings level high, he said. It was either Power Rangers, Batman or X-Men. We were all fighting for No. 1.

The shows success is vindicating, Houston told The Independent.

Im an old fanboy, he said. I tried to make the show as close to the comic books as possible. It seemed to work and the fans responded, which I feel grateful that they liked what I did.

Critical to the local events success is B&S Comics of Grand Island, which was responsible for inviting many of its attending professional artists.

Brittney Lawson, B&S Comics co-owner, said it is a joy to connect central Nebraska with artists and to help provide opportunities for those artists.

We came in October. We had a little bit of a presence. We had five in person. We have 13 or 14 here in person this time, she said. Were just excited to bring people here and have other people enjoy the art we enjoy. Thats the whole purpose of our business, to help these up-and-coming artists get exposure and get on more covers, get them published.

She added, Were just excited to have these guys here and help them out.

Superheroes Unlimited, a New Jersey custom costume company, brought their astonishing comics-inspired creations to the event.

We make custom cosplays for ourselves and for everyone, said Sapphire Nova, costumed as Lady Loki. Anything you can send us a picture of, we can make.

One of the most interesting costumes theyve made was based on a character from the anime series Overlord.

It was over nine-feet-tall, she said. We had to take pictures with a jeep for reference, just to show how tall this thing was. It was just full stilts and needed a staff for balance. It was pretty awesome.

The Grand Island event is one of 35 shows the artists attend across the country.

Its our favorite thing to do, she said. Its one thing to have your presence online and see your stuff, but its quite another to see it in person. To see fans reactions and get people who just enjoy your characters and craft, and the art you do, theres nothing better.

Master puppeteer and craftsman K. William Smith of Can-Do Creations created for ComicFest a special mascot to show his support for the event.

He unveiled GR Andy at Friday nights movie showing.

I asked, what do you want? I can make a walk-around mascot. They were like, maybe not a walk-around mascot. Why not a puppet? he explained.

A contest was held, with the winning puppet design coming from Grand Islands Sean Cloran.

The completed puppet can be seen at the event, which continues today at the Fonner Park campus.

It took me a couple of months, but there he is, Smith said.

Smith enjoys showing his craft to an always curious public.

Its always nice to see that people still like and appreciate Muppets-style puppets, he said. Im just happy to be here and have something to contribute.

For Holmes, bringing ComicFest to Grand Island is a labor love.

We have a lot of fun and Ive had great help this year, he said. Were all bringing different ideas to the table. Weve really expanded the attractions we have and were bringing in some new things, and people are receptive to it. Im absolutely thrilled.

ComicFest 4 continues today. For more information about guests and activities, visit www.facebook.com/GrandComicFest.

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Concerned about soil conditions surrounding underground fuel storage tanks at a former Shell station, Lamar County Commissioners Court on Monday again stalled on a contract to purchase about 7 acres at 2805 N. Main St. but were in agreement for the need of a roughly $4.5 million facility for a backup emergency operations center/ classroom, office space and storage facility.

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These are the songs that instantly get crowds on the dance floor: Kung Fu Fighting, Macarena, My Sharona. Some of the greatest hits of all time brought momentary fame to artists like The Knack, Los Del Rio and Carl Douglas before they join the long list of recordings dubbed one hit wonders. However, when and wherever these hits crop up, they are always fun to hear and bring back good memories.

The Orangeburg County Fine Arts Center hopes its revival of Showcase, with song and dance performances by amateur and professional talents presenting their take on some of the most popular tunes of all times, will lift spirits and inspire reminiscences of past fun times.

One Hit Wonders, this years Showcase theme, takes will take place at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 28, 2022, at the Martin Luther King Jr. Auditorium on the campus of South Carolina State University. The Arts Centers Board Chair, Brooke Rogers, says putting on this event is an expression of loving the arts through music.

Rogers, whos been involved in previous Showcase performances, is co-chairing with board member Celeste Smith, an experienced Showcase leader and known for teaching and choreographing dance and fitness, including through her company MOVE. Smith is being joined by two other board members both of whom are professional actors: Annette Grevious, who has extensive experience in theater performance and Ursula Robinson, whose recent credits includes appearances in an episode of Hightown, on Starz TV and Lady of the Manor, a new movie from brothers Justin and Christian Long.

According to Rogers, the entire board is energized by this project and excited to resume one of the most anticipated events featured alongside the Rose Festival. Rogers says, from experience, she knows there is a great deal of talent in the Orangeburg area, including among amateurs. The board is inviting groups and individuals to audition for the show from 5 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 31, 2022, in the Lusty Gallery at the Fine Arts Center.

This is the perfect opportunity for amateurs in the region to 'showcase' their talents, Rogers stated. We have a lead team with years of experience in stage presentation Together we have the skills to support every act so that they perform their very best.

One reason past Showcase performances have been so successful is the extraordinary support the Arts Center receives from the community, especially the Orangeburg area businesses. All of the Arts Centers board, which is proud to be known as an active working board, have pledged to make the case for supporting the revival of Showcase, which traditionally has brought communities together and attracts tourists and visitors.

For more information about the auditions and Showcase, contact the Arts Center at 803-536-4074.

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A Florida-based sub restaurant is coming to Orangeburg.

Firehouse Subs is locating on 3291 St Matthews Road between the Tidal Wave Auto Spa and the Orangeburg-Calhoun Baptist Association.

"Orangeburg's rapid growth and potential checks all of the boxes for our next Firehouse Subs restaurant," said restaurant owner Larry Chandler. "As proud South Carolinians and longtime franchisees, Jody and I look forward to bringing our hot and hearty subs to the community, and continuing our mission of supporting local first responders through the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation."

The targeted opening is late August. Larry owns and will operate the restaurant with his nephew Jody Chandler.

The restaurant will be open seven days a week from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The location will feature Firehouse Subs' redesigned restaurant concept, termed "Community Design," which allows the restaurant to provide an improved guest and crew member experience, according to the Chandlers.

These enhancements include updated furnishings/fixtures, an improved ordering flow, and back-of-the-house enhancements, according to the Chandlers.

The restaurant will employ between 40-45. The property is owned by M&P Land LLC. The building is being constructed by Orangeburg-based O'Cain Construction. The building currently has three bays with Firehouse Subs occupying one of the bays. The tenants of the other bays have not been announced.

Firehouse Subs serves a variety of hot specialty subs. In addition to its signature subs, the restaurant offers a variety of catering options from sandwich and dessert platters to salads and snacks.

The menu, which features hot specialty subs, salads, and other seasonal items, takes inspiration from the firehouse with names like Hook & Ladder, Engineer and Firehouse Hero.

The subs are prepared with meats and cheeses, on toasted sub rolls, and served "Fully Involved" with vegetables and condiments.

Chandler said there is one big reason individuals should dine at Firehouse Subs.

"Our subs save lives," he said.

A portion of every purchase at Firehouse Subs restaurants benefits the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation, which has granted over $484,000 to first responder organizations in just the greater Columbia area alone.

Statewide, over $2.5 million in grants have been awarded.

It is the first Firehouse Sub restaurant to locate in The T&D Region. There are 54 Firehouse Sub restaurants statewide, with more than 1,200 restaurants in 45 states, Puerto Rico and Canada. The business has donated over $65 million to public safety organizations through its Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation.

Firehouse Subs was founded in 1994 by former firefighter brothers Chris Sorensen and Robin Sorensen.

To learn more about the restaurant visit: http://www.firehousesubs.com. Job postings will be listed on the Firehouse Subs career page and local job boards.

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GAZA, March 27 (Xinhua) -- The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on Sunday slammed the participation of several Arab countries' foreign ministers in a conference with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken held in southern Israel.

Hazem Qassem, Hamas spokesman in Gaza, told reporters that "Hamas rejects all forms of normalization with the Israel," adding such meeting "serves nothing but perpetuates the continuous aggression against the Palestinians and their land."

Qassem called on Arab countries that signed normalization agreements with Israel to reconsider them in line with the interests of their people, and to keep with their historical responsibilities in protecting Jerusalem and Palestine.

A two-day conference began on Sunday night between Israeli foreign minister and his visiting counterparts of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Morocco and Egypt in southern Israel's Negev desert.

It marks the first time that Israel hosts a meeting with Arab foreign ministers.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will participate in the conference on Monday, according to a statement from Israeli foreign minister's office. 
Coquille, OR (97420)

Today

Cloudy this evening with showers after midnight. Low 53F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Cloudy this evening with showers after midnight. Low 53F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Student enrollment at the University of Wyoming took a small hit over the course of the pandemic.

But longer term trends of lower retention among certain student demographics also remain a point of concern.

Retention rates for first-time, full-time students steadily increased over the five years leading up to the pandemic, according to data from the UW Office of Institutional Analysis. Those retention rates dropped 3.3% between fall 2019 and fall 2020 but rose again slightly over the following year.

Students drop out for a multitude of reasons. Some left when COVID-19 hit because the new modalities of learning werent working for them. But Nycole Courtney, UW associate vice president for student affairs and dean of student success and graduation, said that financial and work burdens in particular seemed to be significant barriers to retention during the pandemic.

During the pandemic, we noticed that a lot of students had to work maybe more than one job and had to drop down to part time, she said at a Wednesday board of trustees meeting. That full-time status was just no longer feasible for them because they were struggling financially but also because they didnt know what was going to happen.

Data comparing retention rates between federal Pell grant recipients and students who hadnt received a Pell grant point to these challenges.

Undergraduate students typically receive federal Pell grants when they have significant financial need. There were 1,907 enrolled UW students receiving Pell grants out of a total 8,700 degree-seeking students as of fall 2021.

The maximum Pell grant award for the 2022-2023 year is $6,495, according to the U.S. Department of Education. UWs current average undergraduate cost of attendance for Wyoming residents is $18,682. That number bumps up to $33,832 for nonresidents.

Pell does not cover, really, all that much in the grand scheme of things, Hunter Swilling, a UW student and ex-official board of trustees member, said. I am a Pell grant student, and it covers about a third of my costs, so I have to find the rest elsewhere. I have the Hathaway (scholarship) and other things as well, but for out-of-state students in particular, costs are higher and they dont have access to as many scholarships.

UW Pell grant recipients had consistently lower retention rates between 2012 and 2020 compared with students who didnt receive the grant. The retention rate for grant recipients was 67.9%. Thats 9.8% lower than non-recipients.

The four-year graduation rate for Pell recipients has also been consistently lower; less than a third of Pell grant students who entered UW in 2017 graduated in four years. Thats 13.2% lower than non-Pell recipients.

If Im a Pell student, I might struggle taking more than 12 credits because Ive got to work too, Ive got to pay my bills, Courtney said.

That can create a damaging cycle where students have to take fewer classes to work part time but then stay in school longer, possibly accumulating more debt.

But the university needs to accommodate those who simply cant make a four-year graduation happen, trustee Brad Bonner said.

If we understand that there are some realities that are going to keep that from occurring, we want to make sure that were using this information to be in the best position to support these students to graduate whether its in four years or five years, but also make sure that kids understand the benefits of a four year graduation.

Other UW student demographics have also had consistently lower retention rates compared to others. Male students have lower rates compared to female students. First-generation students have lower rates compared to those with parents who went to college. Students who identify with a racial or ethnic minority are less likely to finish compared to students who identify as white. These findings are consistent with national trends.

Retention rates decreased and probation rates increased for all these groups over the first year of the pandemic.

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This week marks the 12th anniversary of the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, landmark legislation that Wyomings residents have benefited from in many important ways. Better known by its shorter name, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the law includes concrete programs that help Wyoming citizens and the healthcare system that serves them.

Thanks to the ACA, people in Wyoming and around the country have been able to purchase affordable health insurance and not be blocked by a preexisting condition. Before the ACA, folks suffering from cancer, diabetes, asthma or another debilitating disease could be denied health coverage simply because they needed healthcare.

Imagine a person living with diabetes changing jobs and reapplying for health insurance, only to be denied because of their illness. Before the ACA, this person would be burdened by outrageous costs, or they could try to live without the cost of care and face a disease thats treatable yet deadly. Nearly 40,000 people in Wyoming have diabetes, not including the estimated 12,000 more who do not yet know about their diabetes.

The ACA has been a boon for parents and students. Pre-ACA, when a young person turned 21, they were bounced off their parents insurance. Now students can stay on their folks insurance until 26, giving them time to get through school and into the job market.

Older adults also have benefited, gaining better access to affordable care, free preventative care, and savings on prescription drugs. Senior citizens are better served getting counseling and information to help them make long-term care decisions at Aging and Disability Resource Centers.

A cornerstone of the ACA helps people whose employer doesnt offer a health insurance benefit or those who cant afford it. This year alone, 34,762 Wyomingites and their families have purchased individual plans on the marketplace, many with federal subsidies. Wyoming has some of the highest insurance and healthcare rates in the country. Sometimes, a federal subsidy is all it takes to get them a good insurance plan and the access they need to stay healthy and productive.

While the ACA has accomplished many of its objectives and improved healthcare access for millions nationwide, 24,000 of our Wyoming neighbors are left behind simply because Wyoming has chosen to ignore one critical element of the ACA: the expansion of Medicaid. These folks cannot purchase insurance through their employer and do not have enough income to buy insurance independently. Without insurance, they cant find a doctor for themselves or their family. Then when an untreated illness worsens or injury strikes, they end up in the emergency room.

When people end up in the emergency room for primary care, they increase emergency room wait times and uncompensated care costs, which hospitals bear when people get service but cant afford to pay. Each year Wyoming hospitals incur $100 million in uncompensated care and then pass those costs to every household in Wyoming in higher insurance premiums and increased prices at hospitals. If more people in Wyoming had health insurance, and Medicaid is health insurance, healthcare costs and the longer-term impacts of decreased productivity and longevity would be improved.

It has been ten years since the U.S. Supreme Court removed the requirement that states had to expand Medicaid, leaving it up to state lawmakers. Sadly, advocates working on behalf of our neighbors who lack healthcare access have failed to convince legislators and the current governor that expansion makes sense for Wyoming.

The citizens of the 38 states who have expanded Medicaid reap the benefits of a healthier population, more jobs and a more stable healthcare system. Wyoming residents, on the other hand, continue to send them our tax dollars, getting nothing in return.

The ACA is here to stay. It has been in court, and it has been on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate and statehouses across the land. It would be a gift if all Wyoming residents could enjoy the advantages and peace of mind that access to healthcare brings.

Bruce Palmer and Jan Cartwright are the directors of Healthy Wyoming, a coalition of state and national organizations who support expanding Medicaid.

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Imagine if you learned tomorrow that hunger threatened every single person who lives in Sheridan. Consider the state response if all 18,000 residents there suddenly lacked reliable access to food. There would be public calls to send aid and donations their way. Nonprofit groups would mobilize. Politicians and citizens alike would take to social media to share their outrage.

But according to one study published in 2020, there are roughly 19,370 children in Wyoming who dont have reliable access to enough food. Thats about 14.4% of all kids in the state. The consequences of childhood hunger are myriad and distressing. Studies have found that children who consistently dont get enough to eat are more likely to experience academic difficulties, have higher rates of absenteeism and are at greater risk to develop health issues later in life, from cardiovascular disease to depression.

Intuitively, we know kids do better when their bellies are full. Think about the last time you tried to concentrate on a task while hunger gnawed at you. How easily were you able to concentrate? How long could you stay focused?

Its for that reason that schools in Wyoming and across the country provide free and reduced meals to students who come from families with low incomes. Until the pandemic, eligibility for the program was based on income, with about a third of Wyoming students qualifying for the program. (A family of three would qualify if they earned less than $30,000 annually.)

When the pandemic hit, our economy cratered. The federal government stepped in to offer aid of many types. That included making school breakfast and lunch universally free to all children. But with the pandemic winding down, that expanded eligibility will end this summer.

However, that sort of program doesnt have to end. What if the state of Wyoming stepped in to keep it or something like it going? What if the state, currently flush with revenue thanks to relief aid and higher fossil fuel prices, used some of its windfall to invest in our children?

Thats a bridge too far, you might respond. We cant just give away food. But we already provide an education for all Wyoming students who want it. We provide them with books, materials, teachers and a safe building to learn. We dont call that a giveaway. We call it an investment in the states future. Why would providing the food that allows these students to concentrate and engage in the learning process be any different?

But hold on, you might counter. Thats all well and good, but we dont have the money for it. Youd be correct that such a system would come with a sizable price tag. But remember that the Wyoming Legislature and Gov. Mark Gordon just approved a tax break on the coal industry that will cost the state $10 million annually. If we can invest that kind of money to help the coal industry, we certainly have the money to feed our children.

There is precedent here, too. In 2015, the Nevada Legislature passed a bill that provides school breakfast to all children in that state. That measure prompted a notable increase in the number of kids who participated in the school breakfast program. It also enjoyed a sizable return on its investment. That states $1 million annual investment returned $8 million in federal funds to Nevada, according to No Kid Hungry, a national nonprofit group working to address hunger issues.

Wyoming is home to great programs that address hunger, including First Lady Jennie Gordons Wyoming Hunger Initiative. They deserve our praise and our thanks. But they cant do it all. Why not, when we have the means, invest money in the well-being of an entire generation of Wyoming children? We already pay for their books, teachers and schools. Why not spend the money to increase the likelihood that our investment in their education will pay off?

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Mothers will get extra special treatment on Sundaylavish lunches, concerts and gifts of perfumes and roses.

Meanwhile, mere days before the celebration, Port of Spain businesspeoplevendors and huckstersare reporting slow sales. They are cautiously optimistic that it will pick up today.
LOOK Shorty!

That incredulous shout from a visitor to the Blackman Ranch last Saturday in Piparo drew a chorus of audible gasps from a small touring party.

Led by Isaac and Nehilet Blackman, through the green acres theyve called home for more than three decades, the group was halted in their tracks at the sight of a tall, striking figure. Standing between two trees in long, flowing white garb, he smiled welcomingly. Guitar in hand, the man beckoned them forward, saying: This is the exact spot where I wrote so many of my songs.
Vietnam Airlines and Bamboo Airways have had to adjust their air routes to Europe and the US, due to being impacted by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which has increased costs for them.



According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnams report on the Russia-Ukraine wars impacts on local airlines, EU countries, the US, the UK and Canada have banned Russian planes from their airspace, including flights going through Russia. Russia has reciprocated the move with the same countries.





Vietnam Airlines and Bamboo Airways, which operate flights to Europe and the US with a transit in Russia, have been hurt by the ban.



So, instead of transiting in Russia, the two Vietnamese carriers have had to fly through China, Kazakhstan or North Africa for their flights to Europe. This has prolonged each flight by 60-120 minutes, equal to USD10,600-21,200 in additional operational costs.



With six weekly flights between Vietnam-Europe, Vietnam Airlines has to spend additional USD70,000-130,000 per week. The figure is USD35,000-65,000 for Bamboo Airways which runs three flights to Europe every week.



It costs Vietnam Airlines an extra USD20,000-40,000 per week because of the adjustments in flights to the US.



The Russia-Ukraine tension has caused higher fuel prices, which has also pressured the Vietnamese airlines.



Vietnam Airlines suspended its Hanoi-Moscow service from March 25 until further notice. The national carrier explained that it uses wide-body airplanes Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 for the Moscow flights. However, the airplanes are leased. Under the leasing contracts, the airplanes are not allowed to fly to countries and territories facing sanctions imposed by the US and the EU.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (R) meets with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the West Bank city of Ramallah, on March 27, 2022. Abbas on Sunday told visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories must end through a political solution. (Palestinian President Office/Handout via Xinhua)

RAMALLAH, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday told visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories must end through a political solution.

During a meeting with Blinken in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Abbas stressed the need to resolve all permanent status issues, including the refugee issue, and the release of all prisoners, under the auspices of the International Quartet and under international resolutions, Palestine's official news agency WAFA reported.

Abbas called on the U.S. to implement its commitment to the two-state solution by stopping Israeli settlement and settlers' assaults, preserving the historical situation in al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem, and prohibiting Israel's unilateral actions.

Abbas also demanded that the U.S. consulate in East Jerusalem be reopened, and that U.S. laws designating the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as a "terrorist organization that encourages incitement" be repealed.

Abbas told Blinken that current events in Europe showed "blatant double standards, despite the crimes of the Israeli occupation," according to the report.

"The continuation of the unilateral Israeli measures will soon lead to the implementation of the Palestinian Central Council decisions that called for the termination of commitments to all agreements signed with Israel," Abbas was quoted as saying.

For his part, Blinken reiterated the U.S. commitment to the two-state solution principle and pledged to prevent any party from taking any action to raise the level of tension.

Earlier on the day, Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid in Israel.

Blinken is scheduled to attend a conference in southern Israel with his counterparts from Bahrain, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt. 
Bandits in Morvant assaulted and robbed a 54-year-old woman of everything she had on her on 
When Dr Eric Williams decided to lay down his bucket here in the islands after his release from the Caribbean Commission and his debates with Dom Basil Matthews in the Public Library, he held lectures in Woodford Square, which he called The University of Woodford Square. We who were alive then felt happy.

He attracted people of like mind for the betterment of the islands, so he formed the PNMthe Peoples National Movement.
Technology, philanthropy, collaboration and community will converge through Social Venture Partners seventh annual Fast Pitch Tucson that enables local nonprofits to vie for funding.

The event will be at 5 p.m. Thursday, March 31, at the University of Arizona Health Science Innovation Building, 1670 E. Drachman St.

The hybrid virtual and in-person event will afford 10 local nonprofits the opportunity to get more than $100,000 during 3-minute fast pitches in which a representative from each organization shares its story.

The public can join the high-stakes fun for $75 per person live at the event and $25 per screen virtually. Tickets are available at tucne.ws/1k3d

All proceeds will boost prizes rewarded to participating nonprofits, which include: Clinica Amistad; Cooper Center with the UA Foundation; Edge High School; Felicias Farm; Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project; FosterEd Arizona; Goodwill of Southern Arizona; I Am You 360; Power Over Predators; and Scholarships A-Z.

This is a way for people to be actively involved in directing funding, resources and awareness to nonprofits that are making significant changes in our community. It is a meaningful way for people to make an investment in the community and create broad impact that helps multiple organizations, said Ciara Garcia, chief executive officer of SVP Tucson.

Each nonprofit will receive a minimum of $2,000; SVP will grant over $100,000 to competing nonprofits on stage through selected sponsored awards including the $7,500 Peoples Choice Power to the People Award sponsored by Tucson Electric Power, which includes a BizTucson feature article and KXCI Impact Announcements.

The Connie Hillman Family Foundation has pledged to match donations made during the event up to $40,000.

The public can direct donations to chosen nonprofit recipients in several ways: Via online pledge at www.pledge.to/fast-pitch-2022 and through a text-to-donate campaign by texting FASTPITCH to 707070. Additionally, new this year is the opportunity for Donor Advised Fundholders to donate through the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona at cfsaz.org/FASTPITCH/ and through Jewish Philanthropies of Southern Arizona at jcftucson.org/FASTPITCHDAF/.

The event will be televised at 7 p.m. Saturday, April 23, on KTTU Channel 18.

Contact freelance writer Loni Nannini at ninch2@comcast.net

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PHOENIX  Republican state lawmakers are pushing to reopen a legal issue on which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Arizona nine years ago.

And their own attorneys are telling them theyre likely to lose again.

Legislation that has been approved on a party-line vote by both the House and Senate would require election officials to try to verify the citizenship of anyone seeking to register to vote using a form provided by the federal Election Assistance Commission. And if there is no corroboration, or the person doesnt provide proof, they cannot cast a ballot for president.

At the very least, that would affect more than 31,000 people in Arizona who are registered using the federal form.

The Supreme Court has previously rejected pretty much precisely what lawmakers are trying to do. And even Jennifer Holder, the attorney for the House Rules Committee, told lawmakers the measure is illegal and the state would be courting a new lawsuit.

The staff attorney in the Senate provided the same advice.

But thats only part of the problem.

The wording of the measure says that anyone who wants to vote in any race at all must first provide proof of citizenship. And that could force many Arizonans who have been voting for years without problems to start digging around for a birth certificate or other acceptable documentation.

Thats related to drivers licenses. In general, they are considered proof of citizenship to register to vote.

Only thing is, that citizenship proof to get a license wasnt required until 1996. So any license originally issued before then does not mean the holder is a citizen.

The Motor Vehicle Division says about 192,000 individuals who have one those pre-1996 licenses and havent re-registered since and provided proof of citizenship. They all could have their voter registrations purged.

Rep. Jake Hoffman, R-Queen Creek, the author of HB 2492, told Capitol Media Services that it is legal, even with that 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision  and the opinion of the House and Senate attorneys  to the contrary.

He also said that the issue of those with pre-1996 licenses affects the voting ability only those people who use the federal voter registration form, not everyone else.

But the Citizens Clean Elections Commission says that is far from clear.

In a letter to Gov. Doug Ducey, all five commissioners  Republican, Democratic and independent  pointed out that when voters adopted proof-of-citizenship requirements in 2004 they specifically said that anyone already registered did not have to re-register and provide proof of citizenship, until they moved from one county to another. That precluded disenfranchising everyone who already was on the voter rolls.

But Tom Collins, the commissions executive director, said Hoffman did not include that same kind of provision in HB 2492. That, he said, suggests that lots of Arizonans who are still driving on licenses first issued in 1996, before there was proof of citizenship, will find themselves disenfranchised.

Hoffman, however, disputes that contention.

The legislation is closely linked to the Stop the Steal movement that continues to insist Donald Trump won in Arizona. Its based on various claims, all unproven, that the elections process itself was flawed, with everything from fake ballots being injected into the system to tabulation equipment being reprogrammed by outside sources. And some are unconvinced despite findings this past week that the counting machines in Maricopa County were never connected to the internet.

This legislation, however, stems from the idea that people not in this country legally voted and might have influenced the official election outcome showing Biden won Arizona by 10,457 votes.

The tally from Maricopa County found that 4,484 ballots were cast by people who were entitled to vote only in federal races because they had not proven citizenship. There were another 1,942 ballots from Pima County.

And even assuming none of those actually were citizens who simply chose to register with the federal form, and assuming that all of them had voted for Trump, that would not have been enough to change the outcome.

Hoffman, in pushing the bill through the House, said the measure has merit.

This bill does nothing other than to ensure that noncitizens are not voting in Arizona elections and American elections, which I might say one could classify noncitizens voting as foreign influence in our elections, he said.

But that gets to the question of whether his solution is legal.

In its 2013 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court said Arizona remains free to enforce its 2004 law and demand proof of citizenship from those wanting to vote in state and local elections.

But the justices said that Congress, in enacting the National Voter Registration Act, clearly intended to allow people who use a form created by the Election Assistance Commission to vote in races for federal offices. That form requires only an avowal of citizenship.

The House and Senate attorneys said the legislation absolutely conflicts with that ruling.

That didnt seem to matter to the Republicans who decided to approve it anyway. And Speaker Pro-tem Travis Grantham, R-Gilbert, seems anxious to provoke yet another lawsuit.

We fight for local control of our elections, he said in voting for the measure despite the opinion of the House attorney.

Yet when theres an overreach by the federal government were willing to accept it because theyre allowed to preempt us because this court says this, Grantham said. I think this is a fight worth having. I may lose.

Hoffman said he doesnt think that would be the outcome.

HB 2492 is an incredibly well-crafted piece of legislation that is on sound legal footing and broadly supported by voters of all political parties, he said. Nor is he worried about a litigation.

I am confident that should Democrats challenge HB 2492 in court it will only serve to further reinforce its clear constitutionality, Hoffman said.

And he contends that the 2013 court ruling requires only that those using the federal form be allowed to vote for members of Congress.

But Hoffman said the U.S. Constitution gives the legislature power to decide how presidential electors are chosen. And that, he said, leaves Arizona free to decide that only those people who can prove citizenship can vote in presidential races.

This distinction has yet to be presented to the court, he said. So any assertion that (HB 2492) is prima facie unconstitutional based on this provision is patently false.

The measure is now headed to Ducey. His press aide said the governor does not comment on legislation until he has a chance to review it.

Howard Fischer is a veteran journalist who has been reporting since 1970 and covering state politics and the Legislature since 1982. Follow him on Twitter at @azcapmedia or email azcapmedia@gmail.com .

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Astronomers from the University of Arizona have spotted the telltale signs of a massive crash between planet-sized objects orbiting a nearby star.

Their discovery marks the first time the debris cloud from such a collision has been observed  and measured  as it passed in front of its young host star.

The team led by Kate Su, a research professor in the UA Steward Observatory, used NASAs now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope to collect more than 100 infrared images of the star, called HD 166191, between 2015 and 2019.

They chose the youthful star  just 10 million years old compared to our own 4.6 billion-year-old sun  in hopes of observing the early stages of planetary formation, when gas and dust collects and collides and eventually coalesces into planets and other rocky bodies.

This star is very young. Its like an infant, really, Su said. By looking at dusty debris disks around young stars, we can essentially look back in time and see the processes that may have shaped our own solar system.

The astronomers noticed an abrupt change in HD 166191 in mid-2018.

In infrared images collected by Spitzer, the system 330 light-years from Earth grew suddenly brighter, suggesting an increase in dust and debris best detected in longer infrared wavelengths just beyond what human eyes can see.

The space telescope also captured signs of a debris cloud blocking the star, an observation confirmed by a ground-based survey telescope that saw HD 166191 dim slightly as the massive cloud of dust passed in front of it.

For the first time, we captured both the infrared glow of the dust and the haziness that dust introduces when the cloud passes in front of the star, said Everett Schlawin, assistant research professor at Steward Observatory.

There is no substitute for being an eyewitness to an event, added George Rieke, a Regents professor of astronomy at UA. All the (previous) cases reported to date from Spitzer have been unresolved, with only theoretical hypotheses about what the actual event and debris cloud might have looked like.

Su joked that she cant pinpoint the hour or the day, but the evidence points to a massive smashup of planetary bodies sometime in early 2018.

Later observations by Spitzer show the resulting, star-sized dust cloud almost doubling in size through 2019 and into January of 2020, when NASA shut down the aging telescope for good.

Our last observation is the day before they turned Spitzer off, Su said. Its very sad.

The astronomers used the data they collected before and after the collision to estimate the size of the cloud shortly after impact, the size of the objects involved and the speed at which the cloud dispersed.

The main objects that crashed into each other were at least the size of Vesta, a rock 330 miles wide in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. And thats at a minimum, Su said. In reality they had to be bigger.

The impact created enough heat and energy to vaporize some material, while setting off a chain reaction of other collisions in and around the resulting debris field.

Astronomer Phil Plait wasnt involved in the discovery, but he described it in his popular science blog Bad Astronomy.

Hundreds of light-years away two planetary objects slammed into each other at a speed likely to be tens of thousands of kilometers per hour, and the resulting catastrophic explosion of material expelled 100 quadrillion tons of dust. At least, Plait wrote. Whole planets colliding. I still have to remind myself that things like that are real.

Similar cataclysms are thought to have led to the formation of the Earth and moon and other objects in our solar system.

Su and company published their findings on March 10 in the Astrophysical Journal. Co-authors on the study are Schlawin, Rieke, Grant Kennedy from the University of Warwick and Alan Jackson from Arizona State University.

As far as Su is concerned, their discovery could not have happened without the sort of time-series observation made possible by the unexpected endurance of the Spitzer Space Telescope.

She said she was hired at the UA 20 years ago to support the Spitzer mission, which launched in 2003 and was expected to last no more than five years. The telescopes extra dozen years of life allowed her and fellow astronomers to target HD 166191 and routinely return to it to notice any changes.

Su hopes to check in on the young star and its disk of planet-making debris at least a few more times using NASAs newest gadget, the James Webb Space Telescope, which launched on Christmas Day and is now having its powerful mirror aligned by scientists back on Earth.

As luck would have it, Rieke and his wife, UA Regents astronomy professor Marcia Rieke, helped design Webbs two main infrared cameras. As a result, UA researchers have been allotted 13% of the new space telescopes total observing time, the most of any astronomy center in the world.

Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@tucson.com or 573-4283. On Twitter: @RefriedBrean

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Members of Israeli security forces work at the scene of a shooting attack in Hadera, Israel, on March 27, 2022. Two Israelis were killed and another four wounded on Sunday by two gunmen who were later shot dead by police officers in Hadera, Israeli police spokesman said. (JINI via Xinhua)

JERUSALEM, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Two gunmen killed two Israelis and wounded six others in a shooting spree on Sunday night in northern Israel before being shot dead by Border Police officers, according to Israeli police, medics and local media.

The two gunmen opened fire at a bus stop in Hadera before they were shot dead by police officers at a restaurant near the scene, police spokesman Eli Levy told the press.

The two gunmen were identified as residents of Umm al-Fahm, an Arab city located some 25 km northeast of Hadera city, where the fatal attack was carried out, Israeli state-owned Kan TV news reported.

Two Israelis, a man and a woman, were killed, while six police officers were wounded, Israel's MDA emergency health service confirmed in a statement.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

Israeli Army announced in a statement that it was boosting its forces in the occupied West Bank with four additional battalions.

The attack came as foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Egypt were gathering in southern Israel in a conference with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss regional cooperation.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement that all of the visiting ministers condemned the attack and offered their condolences to the families of the victims. 

Members of Israeli security forces work at the scene of a shooting attack in Hadera, Israel, on March 27, 2022. Two Israelis were killed and another four wounded on Sunday by two gunmen who were later shot dead by police officers in Hadera, Israeli police spokesman said. (JINI via Xinhua)

Members of Israeli security forces work at the scene of a shooting attack in Hadera, Israel, on March 27, 2022. Two Israelis were killed and another four wounded on Sunday by two gunmen who were later shot dead by police officers in Hadera, Israeli police spokesman said. (JINI via Xinhua)

Photo taken on March 27, 2022 shows the scene of a shooting attack in Hadera, Israel. Two Israelis were killed and another four wounded on Sunday by two gunmen who were later shot dead by police officers in Hadera, Israeli police spokesman said. (JINI via Xinhua)
by Xinhua writer Ronald Njoroge

NAIROBI, March 27 (Xinhua -- Kenya's civil servants are keen to leverage the comprehensive information and communication technology (ICT) training received from Huawei to boost public service delivery.

Esther Kamuu is among the hundreds of government employees who have graduated from Huawei's in-person and virtual ICT training programs across the country.

She won a third-place award in the non-technical track of the Huawei program.

Kamuu, a lecturer at the state-owned Kenya Medical Training College, told Xinhua in a recent interview that she gained a lot of insights into the fast-evolving technology sector from her training with Huawei.

"I will use the knowledge gained from the ICT training to champion more e-government solutions that will benefit more citizens," she said.

Kamuu observed that the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the transition of government services to the digital platform, adding that she is now more confident in using advanced applications during teaching.

Joan Machoka, program and standards officer at the ICT Authority who was also trained by Huawei, won the third-place award in the technical track.

The knowledge obtained during her training will be useful as she carries out her day-to-day duties as a public servant, Machoka said.

"My understanding of ICT has been enhanced and this will make me more productive in the digital economy," she added.

Violyne Nguti, human resources officer at the Higher Education Loans Board, is also a graduate from the Huawei training program. She won second place in the non-technical track.

Nguti said her new skills will help her navigate the digital world with much ease, armed with more knowledge on e-commerce, cloud computing and cybersecurity.

Joe Mucheru, cabinet secretary in the Ministry of ICT, Innovation and Youth Affairs, commended Huawei Kenya for its continued efforts to support the government's concerted efforts to upskill public workforce in readiness for the digital economy.

Since 2020, he said, Huawei has provided training to over 1,500 civil servants across various government agencies.

"With the need for public servants to adapt public service delivery to the digital era, the skills acquired through this training will complement their efforts to work across sectors and enhance public service delivery," Mucheru said.

He observed that modernizing service delivery within the public sector using digital tools and upskilling the civil servants is a key part of the transformative agenda to steer Kenya toward a knowledge-based economy.

Will Meng, CEO of Huawei Kenya, said his company is committed to building infrastructure and nurturing local talent in the ICT sector in the country, providing trainees with the latest knowledge and skills in the ICT field. 
PHOENIX  A state senator from Southern Arizona is pushing a last-minute proposal to eliminate the requirement that voters set the salary for legislators.

And if the measure is approved and ratified by voters in November, it guarantees that lawmakers would at least double the $24,000 a year they now get  if not more.

The idea is being pushed by Sen. David Gowan, R-Sierra Vista.

But Gowan did not propose the plan at the beginning of the session when bills were supposed to be introduced. That would have ensured at least two public hearings and plenty of time for input.

Instead, Gowan had Rep. Regina Cobb, R-Kingman, to let him strike the new language onto another, unrelated bill and have it scheduled to be heard at 9:30 a.m. Monday in the House Appropriations Committee which she chairs.

If the proposal is approved there, it goes to the full House and then the Senate with no further hearings.

It also is crafted in a way to pull in Democratic support, and not just because some Democratic lawmakers are likely interested in bringing home bigger paychecks.

The proposal expands the Commission on Salaries for Elective State Offices from five members to seven, giving the House and Senate Democratic leaders each a chance to choose members.

That commission decides how much is paid to other elected state officials, from governor on down.

Members of the legislature, however, are excluded. They get a raise only when approved by voters. And the last one  to $24,000 a year  was approved in 1998.

Gowans measure is set up so lawmakers would no longer have to seek voter approval for a pay raise. Instead, they automatically would earn 60% of whatever the governor gets paid.

So even if the panel does not recommend changing the $95,000 salary of the governor, that immediately would translate to legislative pay of $57,000.

And theres something else in the proposal: It would give senators four-year terms, though House members would be limited to just two. And it would allow both House and Senate members to serve up to 12 years in the same chamber, up from the current eight.

Still, lawmakers wont get the last word on how their salaries are set.

It would be up to voters in November to decide if they want to give up the right to determine how much state lawmakers are paid.

And that might require some convincing, given the results of prior ballot measures to increase legislative pay.

That fact of voter sentiment has not escaped Gowan who was first elected to the legislature in 2008. But he argues that the current salary  the one set by voters in 1998  puts the hourly pay at $11.54, less than the minimum wage of $12.80.

The process for salary increases, even for cost of living, is broken and limits the number of people who can run for office, Gowan said.

But what Gowan does not say is that the framers of the Arizona Constitution set up what was supposed to be a citizen legislature, where people would come to the Capitol, enact laws and the budget and then go home to other jobs.

Gowan himself is a martial-arts instructor. And he has sold fireworks during the days their possession here is legal.

As to the change in term limits, Gowan said in his statement that it allows lawmakers to gain a better depth of knowledge on the increasingly complex policy issues facing the legislature.

But Gowan did not respond to a question of why he chose to wait until late March  more than 70 days into what is supposed to be a 100-day session  to unveil the plan and have it go through the regular hearing process.

Gowan also is seeking to sweeten the deal in a bid to get public support.

The measure, HB 1180, also contains some things designed to promote transparency in the legislative process.

That includes a new requirement for lobbyists to report any expenditure made on behalf of lawmakers within five business days, allowing a real-time look into who is attempting to influence a legislator, he said. Now, such reports are filed only quarterly.

The measure also removes many of the exemptions from what has to be reported as a gift to a public official. Now, that list of what is acceptable includes everything from fees for speaking engagements to food, beverages, travel and lodging.

Only thing is, Gowan is giving this to voters as an all-or-nothing package: If they reject the plan to change legislative pay in November, they dont get the new transparency provisions.

Gowan is no stranger to pushing the idea that lawmakers need more money.

He was behind a 2021 measure to give lawmakers from outside Maricopa County a per diem allowance for every day the legislature is in session of $207 a day  $151 for lodging and $56 for meals. Prior to that they were getting just $60 a day, and only for the first 120 days of the session.

Howard Fischer is a veteran journalist who has been reporting since 1970 and covering state politics and the Legislature since 1982. Follow him on Twitter at @azcapmedia or email azcapmedia@gmail.com .

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The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:

At Pima County Interfaith, we believe that a budget reflects an organizations values. We also believe in honoring the will of the people and the Arizona Constitution. That is why we are appealing to Arizona citizens today.

Our governor and state legislative leaders are trying to thwart the will of Arizonans by calling a special session to repeal and replace SB 1828, the flat tax law that would require everyone to pay state income tax at a rate of 2.5%.

What is the problem with this? First of all, the states richest citizens would benefit greatly from the flat tax, while the less fortunate receive paltry benefits. For example, a taxpayer making $50,000/year would save about $39 annually in taxes, while a taxpayer making $5 million would save more than $46,000. Ask yourself who really benefits from this scheme?

In addition, this flat tax would eliminate $2 billion from revenues to the state. While the state is currently benefiting from federal pandemic stimulus and a strong economy, we know that the economy always slows. The federal money will end. The structural deficit created would harm all state services, including public education, public safety, housing, health care and prisons.

The people of Arizona saw through this tax cut as a benefit to the rich and a threat to children and themselves. In just 90 days last summer, we joined forces with people statewide to gather 215,000 signatures, almost 100,000 more than needed, to get a referendum on Novembers ballot.

The purpose of the referendum is to give voters the chance to approve or disapprove SB 1828. You probably signed the petition. You may have gathered signatures. We deserve to vote on it.

The Arizona Constitution guarantees the right of the people to refer laws passed by the Legislature to a vote by the people. If the Legislature repeals the flat tax law, our referendum will refer to a law that has ceased to exist. Voters cannot approve or disapprove a law that has been repealed. Critical to the point here, the governor wants a similar flat tax passed this year in a special session. For the people to vote on his new flat tax, we would once again have 90 days to gather enough signatures to refer the new bill to the ballot.

What dont the governor and legislative leaders understand about last years referendum? What dont they understand about peoples rights under the Arizona Constitution? We believe they dont like what the people are saying to them.

We made the governor mad, and now he wants to craft an end run and deny our rights!

This insult to Arizonans cannot be allowed to stand. The people have spoken, and they want their say on this immoral tax cut. What can you do? We are not helpless; we can act!

1. Call your state legislators to advocate the peoples right to a referendum on the flat tax. Ask them not to support repeal and replace.

2. Ask 10 friends to do the same. Share this information widely.

Lets flood our representatives with phone calls before the governor calls the special session. Let them know we are tired of the disrespect, and we demand to be heard.

Nancy Smith is a leader in Pima County Interfaith, a faith-based, nonpartisan nonprofit that does community organizing.

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The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:

Two years ago, the COVID pandemic upended life as we knew it, disrupting our usual patterns and causing unimaginable levels of hardship and grief. Yet this health emergency has led to an unexpected silver lining. We now have a new lens that we can choose to use and address community gaps and needs that were exposed in full light during the pandemic.

As damaging as the pandemic has been for the most disadvantaged among us, the great COVID interruption has highlighted the value and urgency of community coalition-building in response to social disruption and inequalities that continue to widen.

Coalitions, as alliances of individuals and organizations, focus on facing a shared challenge or issue to reach a common goal. They often take on problems more complex and systemic than any one coalition partner is likely to address individually. They are dynamic, flexible, and inclusionary, reflecting the diversity of expertise and lived experiences.

As we awaited the availability of effective vaccines, we struggled as a community to cope with measures taken to isolate us from the virus. We could be excused for worrying how we would ever mobilize an effective vaccination campaign quickly enough.

Would the vaccines arrive in time to head off the public health onslaught? Would the disadvantaged in our communities end up facing even greater hardships with limited support? Could we stop the arguing and start the immunizing?

But once vaccination shipments began across Arizona, an amazing transformation unfolded. The unheralded Medical Reserve Corps of Southern Arizona (MRCSA) quickly mobilized in support of hospitals, and clinics, bringing its coalition of community assets to bear on the crisis.

The MRCSA is part of a national network of volunteer units in hundreds of communities. Here in Pima County, the MRCSA stepped up to help with testing, medical surge, community screening, behavioral health, vaccine site mobilization and staffing, and volunteer managemen.

The MRCSA has represented a powerful community coalition during this ongoing emergency. It has drawn from a range of community partners contributing everything from space for vaccination sites, to the recruitment of volunteers, to support from the private sector of meals and drinking water.

By late March, about 80% of eligible Pima County residents have received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine. The job is not over, but we know that this coalition worked!

This time of extended reflection has shown how powerful coordinated community action can and must be to seize the best outcomes in uncertain times. The public health dimensions of climate disruption seem well-matched for a similar effort using the MRCSA coalition template. Weve already been alerted that our climate is changing faster than we can respond to all of the changes. Now we must plan to prevent the worst outcomes for all people.

This new coalition will require everything the MRCSA provided to address COVID, plus much more. When the worst days of climate disruption hit us in the form of extended extreme heat episodes, debilitating drought and deep human suffering, solutions will require more than drive-thru vaccine sites and cautious behaviors. Services such as widespread cooling centers and medical relief centers will all be needed. Climate change, like a pandemic, makes every other social problem that much more difficult.

In reflecting on the pandemic, author Naomi Klein saw that we are in yet another terrifying but highly malleable moment. War is reshaping our world, but so too is the climate emergency. The question is: Will we harness wartime levels of urgency and action to catalyze climate action, making us all safer for decades to come?

Heres where a coalition can offer flexible services to our million-plus residents whose lives will be on the line with climate crisis. It is not too soon to build the strongest coalition we can locally, one informed by climate science, human health vulnerabilities, and the lessons learned during our COVID mobilization.

Michael Peel is a doctoral candidate and Tucson native who works on coalition building, climate action, and climate justice issues.

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INOLA  What used to be a place to pasture cattle and harvest hay has been transformed into an economic field of dreams in Rogers County.

Italy-based tissue maker Sofidel began operations in 2020 on a privately owned tract inside the Port of Inola, about 20 miles east of Tulsa. The 1.8-million-square-foot factory now employs 380 people, with plans to increase that number to 450 by 2023.

It is Sofidels sixth plant in North America and only its second (Las Vegas is the other) west of the Mississippi River.

You need to have people. You have to have water, and you have to have utilities, site manager Jose Zarandona said of the companys choosing Rogers County. And you have to be close to roads, trains. Thats why we are here.

Sofidels presence has benefited the state.

Since starting a small operation in Tulsa in 2014, the company has invested more than $450 million in Oklahoma. The salary for its hourly operations employees in Inola ranges from $45,000 to $65,000, Zarandona said.

Almost 40% of the investment that we have made in the United States has been made in Oklahoma, said Fabio Vitali, Sofidel Americas vice president of marketing.

Sofidel was awarded $1.3 million from Governors Quick Action Closing Fund in 2017. The company also is receiving consecutive, five-year tax abatements locally and from the state, said Andrew Ralston, who heads economic development for Tulsa Ports (Catoosa and Inola).

Those incentives, however, will yield dividends for the area in coming years.

When the local abatement is exhausted in January 2026  Sofidels first full year of operations was 2021  acreage that used to provide Inola Public Schools just more than $1,000 annually in property tax revenue will be churning out $2.3 million per year for IPS, District 3 Rogers County Commissioner Ron Burrows said.

Its just unbelievable, he said. For me, the biggest impact was that right there.

The process

The Sofidel plot has a long history.

The factory sits on 240 acres formerly owned by Public Service Co. of Oklahoma, which nearly 50 years ago targeted the site for a Black Fox nuclear power plant, plans for which ultimately fell through.

In 2019, PSO transferred about 2,000 acres around the Sofidel site to the City of Tulsa-Rogers County Port Authority for future development.

The manufacturing facility in Inola incorporates both a paper mill  where pulp is transformed into paper  and a converting plant, which produces the finished product.

The facility is designed to use a pond, originally built for the proposed nuclear plant, as a water sedimentation basin for making paper. It also has water intake from the Verdigris River, located about 1.5 miles away.

The major thing that we buy are fibers, said Vitali, who, along with Zarandona, recently led the Tulsa World on a tour of the plant.

The fiber is put into the machines. You combine that with water and create big reels, like maybe 10 feet. From these big reels, you transform them. This is a mechanical process.

The sixth-largest paper manufacturer in the United States, Sofidel produces 340,000 metric tons of product annually in America. Among its customers are Amazon, Costco, Aldi, Walmart and Trader Joes, Vitali said.

The strategy overall for a paper company is trying to get close to consumption, he said. Where the demographic is, you want to have a plant. You want to reduce the transportation as much as you can and create scale.

Sofidels production model is designed to foster the transition to an economy with a low-carbon impact and reduced consumption of natural resources.

Since 2013, it has reduced its plastic packaging by 40%, and since 2018, Sofidel has seen a 40% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from its manufacturing process and suppliers pulping process per ton of paper.

For every tree that is cut, there are three trees that are planted, Vitali said.

A look ahead

Future economic development opportunities abound for the Port of Inola and Sofidel, particularly with the introduction of new rail to the area.

The roughly $12 million Inola rail project will connect the Union Pacific main line to Sofidel and the industrial park. Anticipated to start in September and be completed in nine months, it will allow the manufacturer to accept inbound raw materials and potentially transfer intermediary products such as parent, or jumbo, reels to other facilities across the country, Ralston said.

Sofidel really helped define that property as an industrial park and brought a lot of the utility infrastructure in that wasnt there, he said. They are the impetus for us building rail now instead of later.

That keystone tenant really helps bring all of the things that make the park attractive to other industries for location. ... Its a great selling point.

Railroads account for roughly 40% of U.S. long-distance freight volume (measured by ton-miles)  more than any other mode of transportation  but only 1.9% of U.S. transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Association of American Railroads.

We will start to see this growth happen, and it will continue and build momentum over years, Burrows said. Were seeing that now.

Industrial parks are no different than big, retail shopping centers. Once you have an anchor, once you have someone as large as they are established, it just makes it that much easier to expand the infrastructure for the next big enterprise.

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When Jake Dwyer visited the Wagoner Historical Museum for the first time, he came across a 131-year-old, Wagoner Times newspaper. One article in particular was written by Rev. T.H. Tyson, and the headline read, Measures  not men.

That headline, published Oct. 23, 1891, stuck with Dwyer  the new, Market President of the Blue Sky Bank branch in Wagoner; except most people are familiar with it as The American Bank. Blue Sky Bank, established in Pawhuska in 1905, bought the historic, downtown bank building in late-2021 and converted operations.

Dwyer is new to town, coming from RCB Bank in Coweta. Since his new work home is stapled as Wagoners first brick business building, he felt obligated to do some research. While in the midst of knowledge-gathering at the museum, there was something about that particular headline that resonated with him.

I took it as measures being a synonym for mission or goal and men being a synonym for men and women or mankind, Dwyer, 31, explained. There is no one man or woman that is more important than the overall mission or goal for Wagoners community.

Small words, big meaning, he thought. Now its his banking mantra for Wagoner.

The American Bank, on 201 E. Cherokee St. in Wagoner, was built in 1895 by Samuel S. Cobb, a postmaster, to be used for his drug store, according to the National Register of Historic Places. Old-timers may still refer to it as the Cobb Building. Its been home to grocery stores, attorneys, a feed store, and of course, multiple banks. Since the early eighties, it served as the locally owned and operated, The American Bank of Wagoner.

Blue Sky Bank purchased the building in December of 2021, thus making way for a transition. According to Blue Skys website, very little changes are in store for customers until the summer of 2022. Thats when the banks systems will merge. Customers will be issued new ATM cards, and everyone will gain access to Blue Sky Banks digital platform, which includes a mobile banking app and access to all seven of their other locations. Customers will also need to update their auto drafts and be vigilant about making sure their contact information is correct. All checks will continue to work even when the systems merge in the summer.

Despite Blue Sky Bank being slightly bigger than The American Bank, with a total of seven locations in Tulsa, Pawhuska, Cleveland, Cushing, and San Antonio, Texas, the company stresses: We care deeply about these communities and invest in them with resources like philanthropic efforts, small business lending, and volunteer work. Well be doing the same in Wagoner.

Dwyer knows a thing or two about community.

Going on 10 years in the banking profession, he got his feet wet in Gore, Okla. as a full-time college student. He also worked Monday through Thursday at a local gas station, Rainbow Mart, followed by Friday through Sunday at Strayhorn Marina on Lake Tenkiller. Hed also drive up to Braggs, Okla. for a couple hours every day and train police K-9 officers. He did all of that while having full custody of his nine-year-old brother. Despite the grind, his sights on banking were clear.

He met a banker, and soon-to-be mentor, by the name of Barbara Lemon at Armstrong Bank through his gas station gig. Lemon referred Dwyer to Armstrong Bank in Vian, Okla. to be a teller, but he was turned down. Lemon continued pushing for Dwyer, and eventually he landed a job as a teller at Armstrong Bank in Muskogee. His role only grew from there; to vault, ATMS, loans, and checking and savings accounts. He eventually progressed to Firstar Bank in Muskogee as a loan officer.

Most recently, Dwyer become a familiar face in the Coweta community. He was recruited by RCB Bank as a Loan Officer, tasked with opening a new branch. While there, he became president of the Coweta Chamber of Commerce  a position hes still proud to hold while in Wagoner  and has been a member of multiple other organizations.

All of that to say: Most, if not all, of the employees at The American Bank will remain despite the transition. One woman has been there for 42 years. Dwyer is the only new guy on the block.

However, before accepting the position at the end of January 2022, he wanted to make sure one thing was certain: Blue Skys presence will not only create a banking atmosphere for the people of Wagoner, but for everyone in Wagoner County.

To me that was very important  were they willing to drag their circle to Wagoner and Coweta? Ive spent so much time in that Coweta community. I didnt want to leave Coweta. I wanted to add Wagoner, and be involved with both. I want to make a positive impact for both communities.

The building is impressive in itself. Almost unmissable in downtown Wagoner with its castle-like structure, its still equipped with original vaults on the inside, historic teller stands, ballroom-style flooring on the upstairs and immaculate, Victorian offices overlooking Main and Cherokee. It looks almost entirely like it did in the late 20th century. Many agree its historic nature is what keep its elegance alive.

Dwyers vision is to make it a destination place for Wagoner, not just a bank. The opportunities are endless.

My ultimate goal is to not step on anyones toes, but to contribute to this community and the downtown, Dwyer said. Banking is a whole lot of numbers, but its more about people than numbers.

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Whatever your food mood might be, from classic diner fare to haute cuisine, familiar favorites or international delicacies, youre likely to find exactly what you want at Tulsa-area restaurants.

The Tulsa dining scene has taken off in recent years, with local chefs exploring new culinary frontiers that are earning them national recognition.

Earlier this year, the James Beard Foundation, the most prestigious culinary organization in the United States, whose awards are seen as an imprimatur of excellence, recognized eight Tulsa-area establishments as nominees for its 2022 awards.

The restaurants cited hint at the richness and diversity of the Tulsa scene: high-end gourmet dishes created by Lisa Becklund of Living Kitchen Farm & Dairy and Matt Amberg of Oren; restaurants introducing flavors of the Caribbean (Sisserous), Indonesia (Rendang & Co.) and the Basque region of France and Spain (Basque); and one of the citys best places for soul food (Evelyns Soul Food).

But these arent the only chef-led restaurants that are making Tulsa a dining destination. Dozens of restaurants are offering unique menus that combine the best  often locally produced  ingredients with innovative techniques to create memorable meals, including Lowood Modern Woodfire, Stonehorse Cafe, the Palace Cafe, the Boston Deli, Amelias Wood Fire Grill, Biga, the Cardinal Club, Juniper and Bodean Restaurant.

Tulsas The Polo Grill, which has been a fine-dining destination for Tulsans for decades, was also nominated for Outstanding Wine Program, while a relative newcomer, Valkyrie, known for its unique cocktail preparations, is a nominee for Outstanding Drinks Program.

But a restaurant certainly doesnt need a fancy award to be known for turning out excellent food.

Sometimes all one needs to do is look for the lines and the Sold Out signs on places such as Oakhart Barbecue, a recent addition to Tulsas wide-ranging barbecue scene that has brought the authentic tastes of Central Texas barbecue north of the Red River.

Barbecue in Oklahoma is something of an amalgam of influences from meat meccas such as Kansas City and Texas. Many of the citys barbecue joints, such as Stutts House of Bar-B-Q, Leons Smoke Shack and the recently reopened Elmers on Brookside, celebrate that uniquely Oklahoma blend of sweet and heat, smoke and spice. Others, such as Alpha Grill, bring in flavors from around the country into their take on barbecue.

Those looking to experience the world from their seat at the dining room table have a wealth of choices. One can travel to Sand Springs for authentic Italian food at Little Venice, enjoy German and Polish specialties from Margarets German Restaurant, have a true taste of Honduran food at Sin Fronteras, discover the wealth of Thai and Malaysian foods at Zogam Cafe, treat yourself to the buffet at India Palace, or enjoy the family recipes at the heart of Kai Vietnamese Cuisine, just to name a few.

Tulsa is also home to a sizeable population of citizens of Central and South American origins who are following their culinary dreams here, with such restaurants as 918 Maples Cafe & Catering, Madres Mexican Kitchen, Que Gusto, Cancun, El Rio Verde, Calaca and Tacos Don Francisco.

One thing that brings thousands of visitors to Tulsa each year is the Mother Road, also known as Route 66. And for those wanting to make the trek as authentic as possible, Tulsa is home to all sorts of places that offer the sort of meals one might have encountered along the way, like diners with hearty breakfast and lunch dishes, and locally owned burger joints, including Arnolds Old Fashioned Hamburgers, Rons Hamburgers & Chili, Howdy Burger, Bills Jumbo Burger, Fat Guys Burgers, Brownies, Clauds and Webers.

If you prefer your burgers more upscale, its hard to top the burger at The Tavern, though there are places such as the Local Bison, Prhyme Steakhouse, Roka Bar & Asian Flavors, and Goldies that serve up sophisticated burgers.

And one cant truly say they have dined in Tulsa without having sampled the chili dogs at the original Coney Island Hot Weiners.

Its impossible to cover all that Tulsa has to offer in the space we have, so think of this as an amuse bouche, a sampler to begin your own explorations of Tulsas food scene.

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The doorways into the flight room at the Euchee Butterfly Farm in Bixby are hung with lengths of white plastic chain to create a kind of curtain that helps contain whatever species of butterfly may currently be in residence.

Still, escapes are not impossible.

Whoops, said David Bohlken, at the sight of a black and yellow zebra longwing perched on a link of chain curtain separating the flight room full of butterflies from the workroom occupied by a few industrious humans.

Dont worry, said Bohlken, who manages to capture the escapee with a deft swipe of his hand. Hes not trying to get out. Hes trying to get back in.

Once inside the flight room  a large space housed within one of the farms metal buildings  Bohlken opens his hand and the prodigal butterfly flutters off, disappearing among the hundreds of other similar black and yellow creatures that can be seen perched on tree branches, dangling from leaves, hovering around sources of food, or simply flitting about, seemingly at random.

During the spring and summer months, Bohlken said, we can have as many as 20 species in here. But in the winter, we rarely have more than three or four.

Right now in February, the zebra longwing butterflies are the dominant species in the flight room. On one side of the room, new members of the group emerge from their chrysalis to take their first flight, while others hover around a patch of passiflora, passion flower plants, which serve as both a food source and a place to spawn new generations.

Bohlken points to a sprig that appears to be coated in tiny yellow dots. Those are the eggs, he said. Theres probably two, three hundred eggs right here.

Its just one way the Euchee Butterfly Farm is helping to ensure the butterfly population in Oklahoma survives and thrives, so these delicate creatures can go about their vital work of helping to preserve the states natural environment through pollinating all sorts of indigenous plants.

The farm, located southeast of Bixby, sits on the original 160-acre allotment that was presented in 1899 to Neosho Parthenia Brown by her father, Samuel W. Brown, a survivor of the Trail of Tears who later become chief of the Euchee people.

He picked out this piece of land for his daughter, because it reminded him of his homeland in Alabama, said Jane Breckinridge, Neosho Browns great-granddaughter.

One unique aspect of the land is that it is home to one of last remnants of pure prairie in Tulsa County  a 13-acre natural grassland ecosystem that has never been plowed and has been preserved in its original condition.

Within this relatively modest space are more than 400 species of native plants, animals, birds and insects, including several species not found elsewhere in Oklahoma.

The land has been been passed down from daughter to daughter, Breckinridge said, herself a member of the Muscogee Nation. Honoring that legacy was something Breckinridge said was imperative for her.

My great-grandmother faced a lot of very hard times, but she was determined not to sell this land, but to keep it in the family, and to keep it intact, Breckinridge said. She also was the sort of person that, no matter what her own situation in life might have been, was always willing to help anyone who came to her in need.

One thing that was very important to me was to put this land to use in a way that was going to be meaningful, she said. Among Native people, taking care of the land is a sacred obligation. And that obligation was even more important to me, because this land had been bought with blood.

That is why, in 2013, Breckinridge and her husband, Bohlken, a longtime butterfly farmer and past president of the International Butterfly Breeders Association, developed the program Natives Raising Natives, a unique conservation initiative in which Indigenous people are able to learn the process of butterfly farming.

We had three goals, Breckinridge said. One was to provide sustainable employment for Native people. We provide all the supplies and training that people need to begin, and all the butterflies that they raise, we buy back and use here.

Breckinridge said about 90 participants are currently involved in farming butterflies. Although the farm puts an emphasis on serving the Muscogee Nation, Breckinridge said a number of other tribes and nations have also been involved.

Once we describe the program and its purpose, they want to be part of it, she said.

The second goal is provide young people with a unique, hands-on approach to science education.

Ive learned that there are two things that kids really get excited about, she said. One is dinosaurs. The other is butterflies. When we have young people come to us, you can see they get really excited about learning, because were giving them the chance to learn by doing.

The third goal is to use native butterflies to help conserve and protect the regions wild habitat  something that the inexorable growth of modern towns and cities continually threatens.

Its not just the big cities, Breckinridge said. We look around out here, and see the way that a town like Bixby is growing, and you can easily imagine that in 10 years time what we have right here could be gone if things continue unchecked.

Our ecosystem is a very fragile thing, she said. Thats why its important to create and preserve these little islands of natural habitats, so that these species of plants and wildlife can continue.

The farm also established a way station for monarch butterflies in 2014, growing the milkweed on which these pollinators feed to give them the energy to make their epic journey from Canada to Mexico.

In addition, the farm has created a seed bank, primarily for plants necessary for the broad butterfly populations.

Brandon Gibson, a program coordinator at the farm and member of the Navajo tribe, said the bank focuses on collecting seeds for plants native to the northeastern Oklahoma region.

Because of all the clay in our soil, native plants have to be tough, he said. A similar species that was developed elsewhere may not have that same kind of resilience, and probably wouldnt be able to thrive here.

People have offered us a lot of unusual and  speaking as a biologist  very interesting seeds, Gibson said. But because they are not indigenous to Oklahoma, we have to turn them down.

The Euchee Butterfly Farm receives some grants, but a good portion of its funding comes from special events it holds on the property, as well as the live butterfly displays it hosts at places such as state fairs everywhere from Tulsa to Minnesota.

The farm also sells butterfly boxes  examples of some of the most extremely colorful members of the order Lepidoptera artfully preserved under glass. Even these items play a part in the Euchee Butterfly Farms conservation process  the frames for these displays are made from invasive cedar trees that threaten butterflies natural habitats.

It may seem like a small thing, but those who work at Euchee Butterfly Farm know that even the smallest effort is important.

Its really neat to know that Im doing something that matters, Gibson said, and that even the littlest thing  like planting a couple of seeds that can grow into hundreds of plants  can have a profoundly positive effect on this environment.

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And something is happening and you dont know what it is/Do you, Mr. Jones?

 Ballad of a Thin Man, Bob Dylan

Even the enigmatic Mr. Jones would be aware that something is definitely happening near the corner of Reconciliation Way and Cincinnati Avenue, although exactly what it is wont be revealed until May 10.

The Bob Dylan Center, located at 116 E. Reconciliation Way, will be the permanent home to more than 100,000 objects  handwritten lyrics, paintings and drawings, rare audio recordings, never-before-seen footage of live performances, musical instruments, even items of clothing  that span the more than 60 years that the man born Robert Allen Zimmerman has been an undeniable force in American music and culture.

The center, designed by the architectural and exhibit design firm Olson Kundig, led by design principal Alan Maskin, will feature cutting-edge, immersive technology in a multimedia environment that is designed to be as impressive and revealing to visitors new to Dylans work as it will be to longtime fans and aficionados.

Most of the items in the Bob Dylan Archives will be available to be perused only by qualified scholars. The purpose of the center is to provide the public with informative, entertaining and ever-changing glimpses into the unique treasures the Bob Dylan Archives contains.

It was enough to prompt the Smithsonian Magazine to include the Bob Dylan Center in its list of The Most Anticipated Museum Openings of 2022.

Among the planned exhibits for the Bob Dylan Center are:

 Ongoing curated display of items that illuminate the depth and breadth of the Bob Dylan Archives collection.

 A re-creation of the kind of recording studio environment where Dylan would lay down such classic albums as Blonde on Blonde and Bringing it All Back Home.

 The Columbia Records Gallery, which will provide an in-depth look at the creation, performance and production of timeless Dylan songs such as Like a Rolling Stone, Tangled Up in Blue and Chimes of Freedom.

 A screening room that will showcase Dylan-related scripted films, documentaries and concert performances, including never-before-seen material.

 A multimedia timeline of Dylans life from his early years in Minnesota through the present day, written by award-winning historian Sean Wilentz.

The focus of the Bob Dylan Center is on this idea of restless creativity in the creative process, Steve Higgins, managing director of the American Song Archives, which oversees the center, told the Tulsa World. Its really encompassing of all genres and types of artists, with Bob Dylan the thread that runs through the whole thing.

That was the idea behind the first public display of items from the Bob Dylan Archives  a collection of portraits Dylan had painted over the years, that were displayed at the Gilcrease Museum in May 2019, under the title Bob Dylan: Face Value and Beyond.

It might seem like something of a curve ball to have an exhibit built around a series of paintings, Michael Chaiken, curator of the Bob Dylan Archives and the Face Value exhibit, said in the Tulsa World interview. But its really a kind of sneaky way to show what the archive truly is  something that showcases what a truly multifaceted artist Bob Dylan is.

Hes best known for his music, but Dylan is also a writer of prose, a filmmaker, and someone who has been involved in the visual arts for decades, Chaiken said. This show is an opportunity to explore all those different avenues of Dylans creativity.

American Song Archives is an entity of the George Kaiser Family Foundation, which purchased the Bob Dylan Archive in partnership with the University of Tulsa in 2016. It also oversees Tulsas Woody Guthrie Center.

When it was announced that the Kaiser Foundation and TU had purchased Dylans archives  a collection of which few people were aware at the time  one reason Dylan agreed to the deal was that his archive would share space in the same complex that houses the archives of Woody Guthrie, the Oklahoma-born songwriter and troubadour who was one of Dylans earliest influences.

In a statement released at the time, Dylan said: Im glad that my archives, which have been collected all these years, have finally found a home and are to be included with the works of Woody Guthrie and especially alongside all the valuable artifacts from the Native American Nations. To me, it makes a lot of sense, and its a great honor.

The acquisition gained even greater importance when, later that year, Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Since the announcement of Dylans archives finding a permanent home in Tulsa, Dylan has regularly included Tulsa in his tours. Hes scheduled to return to Tulsa on April 13, when his Rough and Rowdy Ways tour comes to the Tulsa Theatre.

As to whether Dylan himself will return to Tulsa for the opening of the Bob Dylan Center... well, that answer, my friend, is blowin in the wind.

Tulsa World Scene: A turn for The Wurst

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The taste of local honey is truly unique and special.

Its the taste of home.

Flavor profiles reflect the landscape and plant life of the area where the bees forage. One region is distinct from another.

It doesnt get more local than that.

And at Roark Acres, which produces honey in the Tulsa area, honey products are created by many members of a local family. Its their art and homage to the bees that they raise.

No doubt about it, its a fulfilling job  and they know it, co-owner Amy Roark said.

My husband, Michael, always says, Now, it does not feel like going to work. I used to wear polos and khakis, and now I wear jeans and cowboy boots, Amy Roark said.

Michael Roark got his first two hives in 2012  it was supposed to be a hobby, but little did the Roarks know then, their new family business was in the making.

We just sort of fell into it and ended up just loving the bees, she said.

Michael worked with a local commercial beekeeper full time for almost a year. He learned everything he possibly could about honey bees and, in less than eight years, turned two honey bee hives into over 1,000.

They began developing products including pure, raw Oklahoma honey, flavored creamed honey, various infused honeys, bee pollen, beeswax, beeswax candles, honey candy, handcrafted soap, lip balm, lotion bars and many skin care products. In the spring, they even sell bees.

In March 2016, they opened a small storefront in Jenks, offering a down-home, country, vintage experience for guests.

Then, in 2019, Reasors grocery stores began selling Roark Acres honey products in all of their stores across northeastern Oklahoma.

Michaels brother Scott is in charge of delivery, and daughter Courtney is in charge of bottling the product. Chloe, the oldest daughter, managed the Tulsa Farmers Market honey sales every Saturday until she went off to college in 2021.

Since we started selling honey to the public, we have been able to purchase acreage out in the Sapulpa/Mounds area (where we bottle now) and open a bigger storefront  still in Jenks  to grow into more of an old-school general store, Amy Roark said.

While Michael leads the production crew and plans growth for the business, Amy, the Queen Bee, runs the store, coordinates more sales avenues and makes the health and beauty products.

Her cousin, Amanda, sells the Roark Acres Honey at several markets in Bartlesville and does local trade shows or festivals in that area.

The family has certainly become experts in the bee business.

Amy Roark explained that honey will taste different depending on the location where the bees are foraging. Honey from bees in the Tulsa area and northeastern Oklahoma will taste similar to the honey in western Arkansas because of similar plant life.

For the spring harvest, the hives are out from the end of April to the first part of July, Amy Roark said. The fall harvest is end of September, first part of October. That honey is very different, almost black, much thicker texture, not as sweet and it tastes like butter pecan.

And in Oklahoma, it is actually harder to produce local honey than other places, Roark said, so yields are smaller here than other places.

We just do not have the amount of forage for the bees to take care of. A lot of the land is used for alfalfa, corn... things that bees do not forage off of as much. People like manicured lawns, they mow down the clover, which the bees like.

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Dreaming of your getaway to one of Oklahomas most beautiful spaces?

The Oklahoma Tourism & Recreation Department has an album that will take you there before you even get in the car.

In July 2020, they released Oklahoma State Parks Soundscapes with Music, a free album featuring ambient sounds from 12 Oklahoma State Parks accompanied by instrumental music.

The album is available for download at TravelOK.com/Soundscapes. It is also streaming on 32 platforms, including Amazon Music, Apple Music, Google Play Music, iHeart Radio, Pandora and Spotify.

This album and the videos are a wonderful way to de-stress and spend a few minutes taking in Oklahomas natural wonders, Oklahoma State Parks Director Kris Marek said. Spending time at the Oklahoma State Parks can be such a calming and fulfilling experience, but if you cant make it out to one, this is a way to get a little bit of that experience wherever you are.

This release also includes a set of YouTube videos that feature each track of the album accompanied by scenic video footage and images from each park. The videos are available on the TravelOK YouTube channel at YouTube.com/TravelOK.

The park sounds were recorded during the fall filming season by Broken Arrow-based Retrospec Films.

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COLOMBO, March 27 (Xinhua) -- The Maldivian Airlines, the national carrier of the Maldives, began operations at Sri Lanka's Ratmalana Airport on Sunday.

Passengers of the first flight, who landed at the Ratmalana Airport in Colombo on Sunday morning, were greeted during a ceremony held at the airport.

Previously, the airline only operated to the Bandaranaike International Airport on the outskirts of Sri Lankan capital Colombo.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka (CAASL) announced that three weekly flights, scheduled for Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, will operate between the Velana International Airport in the Maldives, and the Ratmalana Airport.

Officials from the Maldivian Airlines told local media that around 9,000 Maldivians live close to the Ratmalana Airport, and these flights would make travel easier for them.

The Ratmalana Airport, established in 1935, was Sri Lanka's first international airport. However, regional and international operations were suspended in 1968.

Until the current administration recently authorized the use of the airport for regional operations to South Asian countries, it was used for domestic operations and to accommodate private jets.

CAASL said Sri Lanka has removed aircraft parking charges for one year and suspended the airport tax levied on passengers for one year to promote flights at Ratmalana. 
Over a year after a 14-year-old boy with a troubled juvenile delinquent past was arrested in connection with a double-fatality vehicle crash in east Tulsa, his fate in the justice system is known to few.

While Elias Gabriel Gonzales name and charges became public the moment they were filed in state court, such matters are closed to the public in the federal court system, where his juvenile delinquency proceeding is believed to have landed.

As such, due to the case combining the McGirt U.S. Supreme Court ruling with federal juvenile justice laws, no public information exists for how Gonzales case, if it was ever filed, was resolved.

Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers arrested Gonzales at the scene of a Feb. 25, 2021, deadly vehicular crash following a pursuit by law enforcement that began in Coweta and ended in the 10900 block of East 21st Street.

Lanise Dade, 31, and her daughter, Camyea, died as a result of the collision. Another juvenile male occupant in her vehicle survived after being hospitalized.

On March 4, 2021, prosecutors charged Gonzales as an adult in Tulsa County District Court with kidnapping, armed robbery, possession of a stolen vehicle, possession of a firearm by an adjudicated juvenile and two counts of murder.

Gonzales state charges were public because Oklahoma law considers juveniles age 13 to 14 charged with first-degree murder to be treated as adults for initial prosecution purposes.

A judge later can decide whether such defendants should be treated as youthful offenders or moved to juvenile court.

But the Tulsa County case was dismissed before it went to trial or was otherwise resolved.

The case was closed Aug. 24 after it was determined the state of Oklahoma did not have jurisdiction to prosecute Gonzales, records show.

Gonzales apparent affiliation with a federally recognized South Dakota tribe meant the state did not have jurisdiction to prosecute him as a result of the July 2020 McGirt ruling.

The landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision reaffirmed the continued existence of the Muscogee Nation reservation and the states lack of jurisdiction to prosecute cases when it involves a member of a tribe within Indian Country.

The reservations of the Muscogee, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Seminole and Quapaw nations, together covering nearly the entire eastern half of the state, are now off limits to state prosecutors when either the victim or suspect are American Indian, as a result of the McGirt ruling.

After state charges were dropped, Gonzales case entered a public information black hole.

While state charges involving juveniles and even their past encounters with juvenile court authorities can be public in some instances, no such provision is allowed in federal court.

On Aug. 31 the U.S. Attorneys Office in Tulsa acknowledged, in response to a Tulsa World query, that prosecutors had received the case from state prosecutors and were reviewing it for possible charges.

Although unusual, the admission was understandable given the public nature of the deaths.

But thats where the public information trail ends for Gonzales in federal court. Federal privacy laws prohibit the divulging of court information involving juveniles in most cases. So its publicly unknown if Gonzales ever faced charges in federal court.

Messages left with the federal public defenders office for an update regarding the case were not returned. Gonzales was represented by a public defender when he faced state charges.

Still, federal charges against juveniles are rare.

Nationwide, federal prosecutors filed a collective 61 delinquency proceedings against juveniles in fiscal 2019, the most recent year for such figures kept by the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics.

In the Northern District of Oklahoma, which includes Tulsa, federal prosecutors hadnt launched a delinquency proceeding against a juvenile in at least 10 years prior to the McGirt ruling.

But by the end of 2021, federal prosecutors in Tulsa had received about 19 cases involving juveniles for delinquency consideration with charges filed in all but about six cases, the World has learned.

Information about those federal cases, from whether charges were filed to whether the juvenile was adjudicated a delinquent, are not subject to public disclosure.

One thing is certain: federal prosecutors have not referred any juvenile cases to the tribe since the McGirt ruling, according to a spokesperson for the tribe. The double fatality collision occurred within the Muscogee Nation reservation boundaries.

Tribes may only prosecute American Indians, except in instances of domestic violence, dating violence and violations of civil protection orders.

Prior to his most recent arrest, Gonzales amassed a lengthy juvenile delinquency history in a relatively short time period.

State prosecutors filed 13 delinquency proceedings against Gonzales, beginning when he was 11, according to state juvenile court records obtained following a formal Tulsa World request.

Under Oklahoma law, juvenile criminal records are subject to public disclosure after the juvenile is charged as an adult with murder or another major crime.

In 2017, prosecutors initiated two juvenile delinquency filings against Gonzales, one for petty larceny from a retailer and the other interfering with a motor vehicle.

Prosecutors filed three separate delinquency cases against Gonzales in 2018, alleging robbery, pointing a deadly weapon, threatening a violent act and possession of a stolen vehicle.

In 2019, prosecutors filed four separate cases against Gonzales. Those charges included attempted auto larceny, larceny from a person, possession of a stolen auto and joyriding.

Prosecutors filed three more cases against Gonzales in 2020 for charges ranging from possession of a stolen auto to robbery with a firearm to possession of a stolen vehicle.

Nearly one month after the double-fatality accident in February 2021, prosecutors filed one more charge against Gonzales for a third-degree burglary that occurred three days before the fatal collision, records show.

Video: Stitt on McGirt during State of the State

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Five area high schools and Tulsa Community College are working together to increase the number of students completing a debt-free associate degree program.

About 190 students from across the Tulsa area are currently participating in TCCs EDGE: Earn a Degree, Graduate Early program, which provides an opportunity for students to simultaneously earn an associate degree for free and a high school diploma.

For me, time is the biggest gift you can get, Union junior Daniel Flores said. When youre offered two years (of college) for free, it was a no-brainer.

Union High School is set to graduate its second cohort of EDGE students in May. Memorial and McLains inaugural cohorts started this school year with 15 students at each campus. The first freshmen at Charles Page High School in Sand Springs and KIPP Tulsa University Prep High School will start the program in August.

With the inaugural graduating class completing an average of 63 credit hours per student, the program is showing signs of continuous growth, said Lissa Steadley, director of dual credit programs at Tulsa Community College.

Along with the 120 eighth grade students who have applied to join the program in August, Steadley noted that leaders from another dozen school districts around the Tulsa area have expressed interest in participating.

This is a long-term investment made in collaboration with our high schools, she said. Its not fast work. When we get everybody who wants to participate, at full capacity with what were planning, we will be graduating 180 high school students per year.

Students are selected as eighth graders to participate and complete a college preparatory curriculum as ninth graders before entering EDGE in the 10th grade. While in the program, students take college courses taught by TCC faculty. The courses are introduced gradually, with three for sophomores, then eight for juniors and nine for seniors. Tuition, books, fees and transportation costs are all covered by TCC and the partnering schools.

Memorials Sommer Baker teaches the EDGE programs Introduction to College course to her schools 15 freshman participants. The class was developed by TCC staff and incorporates concepts such as time management, how to speak to professors and college jargon.

Additionally, Bakers students have visited the University of Tulsa and Oklahoma State Universitys Stillwater campus to help get a more tangible idea of their potential futures.

I only have them this one year, so I want to make sure theyre ready for college, she said. A lot of them dont know what a prerequisite is or whats a credit hour or what all is involved with getting a bachelors degree or a masters degree.

On top of the academic component, students get additional support from TCC, including access to its facilities, programs and advisers.

The students are also introduced to other aspects of the community college experience, including meetings with representatives from four-year institutions and figuring out how to transfer to those schools with as much earned credit as possible.

This is a program trying to provide a chance to experience college classes with a support system, Union College and Career Center Director Marla Robinson said. If youre a first-generation college student, you might not have a family member who knows how to approach this. We want to give them the chance to experience college with those supports.

About 60% of the EDGE students at Union are first-generation college students. Additionally, according to data published by the U.S. Census Bureau, less than one-third of adults over age 25 in Tulsa County have a bachelors degree.

Flores and several other EDGE students at Union said having access to the programs support network, not only from TCC, but from their school and one another, has been critical to finish both degrees on time.

Its been a phenomenal experience, senior Keirsten Metcalf said. Ive had a cohort of friends around me who are doing the same thing that I am. Because of that cohort, I can look to them and the advisers for guidance when I need it.

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Commemorative programs and a free film screening are among the activities planned for Tuesday in observance of National Vietnam War Veterans Day.

The Military History Center in Broken Arrow will host its annual commemoration starting at 7 p.m. at First United Methodist Church, 108 E. College St.

Organizers invite all veterans and their families to attend, but especially any veterans who served on active duty any time from Nov. 1, 1955, to May 15, 1975, regardless of location.

Larry Gallo, a Vietnam veteran with the 173rd Airborne, will be the featured guest.

Also on Tuesday, Circle Cinema in Tulsa will offer free screenings of Last Days in Vietnam.

Showings are 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the cinema, 10 S. Lewis Ave., with a prerecorded message from film director Rory Kennedy playing before each.

The award-winning 2014 documentary focuses on the chaotic last days of the war and the effort to evacuate Saigon.

Memorabilia from Oklahoma Vietnam veterans will be on display in the cinema lobby, courtesy of the Keith Myers Traveling Military Museum.

In Oklahoma City on Tuesday, the Oklahoma History Center will hold a pinning ceremony for Vietnam War era servicemen and women.

Its set for 10:30 a.m.-noon at the center, 800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive.

The ceremony will include a welcome by Trait Thompson, executive director of the Oklahoma Historical Society, followed by remarks from John Nash, newly appointed secretary of military affairs; Capt. Bob Ford, a helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War; and Michael Do, representing the South Vietnamese community.

All Vietnam and Vietnam-era veterans are eligible to receive a pin. That includes any U.S. veteran who served on active duty or in the reserves at any time from November 1, 1955, to May 15, 1975, regardless of location. Pins are provided by the Vietnam War Commemoration organization. Family members of any veteran not able to be present may also receive a pin.

National Vietnam War Veterans Day was established in 2008 as part of the National Defense Authorization Act.

It marks the anniversary of the departure of the last American troops from Vietnam  March 29, 1973.

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Taking advantage of high water in the Arkansas River, a steamboat pushed upstream from Little Rock in June 1885 with plans to reach Arkansas City, just north of the Kansas border, in time for July Fourth celebrations.

The trip generated considerable excitement in communities along the way, including the little town of Tulsa, where the first general store had opened only two years earlier. For settlers on the rugged prairie, the sight of a paddle-driven riverboat became quite a sensation, according to newspaper reports from the time.

More importantly, the voyage was supposed to prove that the Arkansas could be used as a trade route, connecting southern Kansas through Indian Territory with the great Mississippi, and from there to the Gulf and the rest of the world.

Flour, meat, hay, etc., will be taken down the river, a Kansas newspaper proclaimed at the time. Coal and lumber brought back.

Designed specifically for the shallow waters of the Arkansas, the steamboat was christened the Kansas Millers and measured 16 feet wide and 75 feet long while drawing only about 2 feet of water.

It could reach speeds up to 18 miles an hour. But when it reached Tulsa, the steamboat couldnt fit under a railroad bridge that had been constructed across the river only a couple of years earlier. The Kansas Millers had to wait several days for the water to go down, which kept it from reaching Arkansas City until mid-July, according to newspaper reports at the time.

Kansas officials asked the federal government to pay for a taller railroad bridge near Tulsa, arguing it was the only significant obstacle in the way of developing an inland port that would prove invaluable to agriculture and industry across the Great Plains.

In mid-August, however, while trying to bring a load of flour downstream, the Kansas Millers became stranded on a sandbar near what is now Ponca City, about 70 miles northwest of Tulsa. It wasnt the last time a steamboat tried to make the trip, but it proved what detractors had been saying all along  the Arkansas simply didnt have enough water for safe navigation.

The dream of an inland port would have to wait until January 1971, when a barge carrying newsprint made the first commercial trip up the McClellan-Kerr Navigation System. The 445-mile waterway had taken 20 years and $1.2 billion to build, with boats passing through 18 locks and dams between the Mississippi River and the Port of Catoosa, the most inland port in the United States.

More than 87 million tons of cargo has passed through the port in the decades since, pumping $300 million a year into the state economy. But of course, the navigation channel doesnt go all the way to Arkansas City.

Tulsa, which had once dashed hopes for creating an inland port, ended up benefiting the most from it.

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OKLAHOMA CITY  Betsy Colton watched her daughter become angry and anxious about deciding what to wear, struggle with outbursts and complain that she didnt feel beautiful.
A state trooper chased a possible stolen vehicle at up to 125 mph into Tulsa on the Broken Arrow Expressway based only on the word of a motorist at a stoplight who had pursued the pickup truck in Coweta.

The trucks driver  a 14-year-old boy  accelerated as Oklahoma Highway Patrol Lt. Mark Warren first approached in his marked Ford Explorer. Some 20 miles away, a Tulsa family was running midday errands in their neighborhood.

The fleeing teen soon clipped a vehicle and later another one, weaving through traffic and speeding recklessly through an occupied construction zone. Still, Warren thought he and others could keep chasing and bring about a safe end to the pursuit despite seeing the hits and near-misses, according to OHPs major case file records.

But the 13-minute pursuit ended when the truck slammed into the Tulsa familys SUV on the citys east side. The fleeing driver exited the wrecked Silverado and collapsed close by, quickly detained by Warren.

The lone survivor in the crumpled Tahoe  a 7-year-old boy in the back  cried as he held up an arm while pinned inside. His aunt and cousin were dead, slumped over in the front seats.

It just seemed like (troopers) were on an adrenaline rush; they just wanted the perp, so they didnt care what happened, said Tredrick Johnson, the father of the young boy in the SUV who survived the crash. I feel like if they cared about the safety of the people on the streets they wouldnt have pursued him like that.

Lanise Dade, 31, and her 12-year-old daughter, Camyea, were the third and fourth uninvolved motorists to die during OHP pursuits in less than five years in Tulsa County. They are part of a broader deadly trend with the states Highway Patrol.

In a five-year span, 15 OHP pursuits have killed 18 people  and at least eight of those killed werent the eluding drivers. Five were uninvolved motorists, at least two were passengers in fleeing vehicles, and one was an OHP lieutenant on foot struck by another troopers cruiser at high speed.

All but one of the deadly pursuits began with stolen property or traffic violations as the basis for the chase, despite agency policy requiring troopers to weigh whether benefits outweigh a pursuits risks and promote the safety of all persons.

OHP Capt. Jerry Reagan gave family members a minimal briefing at the hospital about five hours after Dade and her daughter were killed, according to agency records. Johnson said he and his family didnt actually learn until two days later that the chase began in Coweta on a word-of-mouth report that a truck possibly had been stolen.

It just made me angry. Thats it. I hated the whole world, Johnson said. Literally, I lost my best friend to something that was stupid.

Johnsons family is represented by Smolen Law, which provided the Tulsa World with OHP documentation after the agency failed to respond to an open records request submitted by the newspaper more than a year ago.

Tim Tipton, the third Department of Public Safety commissioner since fall 2017  who oversees OHP  hasnt responded to the Worlds interview requests. He also refused to reply to written questions.

The Tulsa Worlds ongoing investigation of the Highway Patrol has uncovered reckless trooper actions, shoddy record-keeping, failure to address alarming concerns expressed by commanders, and refusal to review a fatal chase that OHP undertook in wintry conditions even though the stolen cars location was being tracked electronically.

Elias Gonzales, now 15, was charged as an adult with two counts of felony first-degree murder, but that case was transferred out of Tulsa County District Court. If federal charges are filed, they would be sealed because of his age, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney Generals Office.

The deadly crash happened at East 21st Street and South 109th East Avenue, less than a half mile from Camyeas grade school.

Its just too hard

Lanise Dade helped raise her younger brother.

She protected Tredrick Johnson from fights, encouraging him to be better and achieve goals outside his comfort zone.

Johnson, 30, is returning his sisters childhood mentorship. He cares for her remaining child, 15-year-old Cornelius, in addition to his young son who survived the wreck, Dedrick.

She shaped the way I am today; she really changed my life, Johnson said. Even though I had my mom and everything, my sister was there more than my mom was because Mom had two jobs.

I always had my big sister to look up to.

Johnson described his sister as a foodie who was always out helping in the community. She sported a tough exterior but harbored a soft heart to help others who are disadvantaged.

Dade talked about starting her own day care or nonprofit.

Camyea, whose 13th birthday was approaching when she was killed, wanted to be a doctor.

Johnson said Camyea drew a doctors coat for a school contest  and then they had it made for her. She loved it and wore it everywhere.

Its still hanging up in the house to this day, Johnson said. We cant get rid of it because its just too hard.

Johnson said his mother doesnt really like to talk about what happened Feb. 25, 2021, and breaks down every time she tries. She shut down and wouldnt come out of her room on the one-year anniversary.

Not having them there, its not the same energy in the house, Johnson said. They were the ones that brought happiness and joy everywhere. Wed be sitting there quietly, and theyd come in the room and bring joy and life to the whole room.

Johnson said troopers didnt seem to express remorse in the aftermath. There was no condolence letter nor a sorry for the deaths of his sister and niece.

They know what they did, and they know they shouldnt have done it that way, he said.

A systemic problem

The Highway Patrol has clammed up in the year after the deadly pursuit.

OHPs response  or lack thereof  is consistent generally with how the agency has obfuscated or denied Tulsa World attempts to peel back the curtains on many of its deadly vehicular chases to learn what happened and why.

The World pursued legal recourse in October 2020 over OHPs refusal to turn over use-of-force records for a year while offering vague and contradictory responses about protocols and practices in sporadic replies. After OHP produced documents and agreed to provide all pertinent records, the World agreed to dismiss the litigation in March 2021.

No troopers have been disciplined by OHP in the 15 fatality pursuits, according to the agency records released so far.

Some policing researchers and strategists say law enforcement shouldnt engage in vehicular pursuits unless a violent crime is involved  fleeing itself doesnt count  because of their inherent dangers to life and limb.

Attorney Donald Smolen II said the case is one of many examples of how troopers and the Highway Patrol are allowed to operate unrestrained.

Smolen said many lives would be saved if OHP were prohibited from pursuing for nonviolent felonies and misdemeanors  not worth the dangers that chases present.

Its a systemic problem that starts at the top, Smolen said. No one with OHP thinks theres a problem with their hot pursuit protocols, and there is. The whole thing needs to be revamped.

No dash camera

Warren was interviewed by OHP investigators 19 days after the deadly pursuit, according to OHP records.

For unspecified or unknown reasons, Warrens patrol SUV wasnt equipped with an in-car camera system to provide a recording of what happened that Thursday afternoon for accountability.

Other troopers who were involved presumably had dash cameras, but those recordings havent been released yet by OHP.

The video cameras absence is even more notable because of what could be a policy violation by Warren noted in documents.

OHP prohibits troopers from chasing a fleeing vehicle the wrong way in opposing lanes of traffic when there are at least four lanes.

An arrest affidavit states that the eluder drove the wrong way on 41st Street  a five-lane roadway.

OHP documents show no indication that Warren stopped his pursuit at that point.

At another point, the fleeing driver exited U.S. 169 via an on-ramp to 41st Street. Warrens interview summary doesnt specify whether Warren himself also used the on-ramp to exit, only that he slowed to safely navigate the exit.

Nowhere in the summary of his interview does it say whether Warren knew he was chasing a young juvenile. Nor was that issue addressed in any other reports from the troopers involved in the pursuit  some who were in front trying to set up for spike strips when the truck passed.

The agencys collision report makes no mention that the crash happened amid an OHP chase.

Anybody that panics does reckless stuff

At one point, the fleeing driver swerved around spike strips thrown in front of the Silverado on the Broken Arrow Expressway.

Warrens interview summary spells out the extreme dangers of the chase: Gonzales cutting off motorists and passing on shoulders to clipping two vehicles and speeding through an occupied construction zone.

The OHP lieutenant said he felt the need for law enforcement to intervene to end the chase, rather than call it off.

(Warren) continued to evaluate the pursuit, according to his interview summary. He thought with TPD and troopers nearby and closing in on the area, they should be able to bring this pursuit to a safe end.

Tredrick Johnson said he feels like the troopers mindlessly pursued the Silverado while on a power trip despite the apparent hazards.

Someone trying to flee law enforcement obviously will engage in reckless behavior, Johnson said, but that shouldnt give troopers permission to continue a chase that is greatly endangering the public.

If youre chasing anybody  you could be going 40 mph  if youre chasing anybody, theyre gonna do reckless stuff, Johnson said. You know that just like I know that. Anybody that panics does reckless stuff.

Gonzales, the alleged eluder, reportedly was recorded by a trooper on scene as the 14-year-old spoke with an emergency medical technician.

He expressed regret and remorse that he panicked, didnt stop and wrecked into the family.

I took (the truck) and then it was a fun time at first, cause, and then I got agitated, Gonzales allegedly said. I was scared, so I took off, and was trying to pull, I was going to pull over and run, but I didnt.

Smolen said OHP chases usually involve stolen cars or traffic infractions in which the drivers arent driving recklessly until a trooper tries to pull them over.

Restraints on pursuits arent minimizing crimes, Smolen said, but are about ensuring more innocent people dont die in unnecessary chases when troopers can use investigative means to apprehend eluders.

OHP instigates the reckless conduct, and then they just (drive) their patrol cruisers as fast as they can, Smolen said.

Motorist pursues to keep eyes on truck

Trooper Warren was stopped at a traffic light on westbound Oklahoma 51 in Coweta when a Dodge pickup truck with its (sic) lights on approached at a high rate of speed.

Warren rolled down his passenger-side window to tell the driver to slow down.

As the driver stopped beside him, the driver began telling Warren there was a stolen pickup ahead of them, according to Warrens interview summary. The driver described the stolen pickup as a silver Chevrolet.

That was all the information noted in OHP records that Warren used in deciding to give chase when the Silverado sped off at the sight of Warrens Explorer.

The motorist who told Warren the truck was stolen provided a statement to Coweta police about what had happened. He had seen a man yelling and slapping the truck as it left the car wash, and that person told the motorist it had just been stolen.

I immediately left out in pursuit to follow and keep eyes on the truck to notify law enforcement of the current location, the motorist wrote.

Security cameras at the car wash recorded the theft.

Four suspects exited a black Hyundai and pretended to dry the car even though they hadnt gone through the wash and the car was visibly dirty. The trucks driver walked off to get a complimentary towel, allowing one of the four suspects to get into the truck and back out.

The four had arrived to the business in a stolen car, too.

That Hyundai had been taken at gunpoint two days earlier in Tulsa by Gonzales and an accomplice, according to allegations in court records. Gonzales and another male allegedly forced the victim to drive at gunpoint until the victim parked and fled.

Troopers later found out that Gonzales in December 2020 had absconded from his home placement that had been approved either by the courts or State Department of Human Services.

Achievement draws tears

Tredrick Johnson was tidying up paperwork during his final class at a career-readiness center when he received a call from the hospital about an accident involving his son.

Johnson had been brushing up on his resume and interview skills at the urging of his sister. He tried repeatedly calling Dade, but she didnt pick up.

Me, personally, I thought my son was dead, Johnson said. I thought it had just happened, and she didnt have the heart to tell me. I got to the hospital, and he was there by himself.

For a month, Johnson struggled to even leave his bed, often lying and crying instead. He quit his second job to have more time to care for his nephew.

He had a goal to become certified to operate a forklift  another effort cheered by his sister. He even promised her.

Two months after Dades and Camyeas deaths, Johnson held his forklift license.

It felt good, but that good feeling didnt last too long, Johnson said. I couldnt experience it with her. I couldnt show them that I was doing better in my life. I couldnt show them that I was achieving goals that I had set, even though she pushed me down that road.

It made me feel good, but I couldnt do nothing but cry afterwards. I got home; I just cried.

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Almost exactly 20 years after my first trip to Oklahoma as a junior diplomat, I will be visiting our partner state this week as the ambassador of Azerbaijan. Then, my mentor, Ambassador Hafiz Pashayev, instructed me to explore the opportunities for cooperation since we were starting a State Partnership Program with the Oklahoma National Guard.

Today, our track record is proudly expansive.

In July 2021, several days after my new appointment, the first U.S. delegation I engaged with in Azerbaijan was from Oklahoma. Gov. Kevin Stitt and his team were the best embodiment of the American culture: open, engaging and patriotic.

During the meeting with Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, our successful cooperation with Oklahoma was hailed. Stitt looked forward to strengthening our partnership and connecting Oklahoma companies with the many economic development opportunities in Azerbaijan.

Indeed, Azerbaijan, encompassing almost the two-thirds of the strategically located South Caucasus economy and demography, awaits more business from Oklahoma.

Renewable energy, information technologies, logistics and agriculture are the key areas to explore. We are also eager to host more students and ordinary citizens to demonstrate the best of our hospitality, ancient culture and vibrant society.

In addition, Azerbaijani companies are very interested to invest, and our youth are filling the ranks of students in Oklahoma. We will seek more opportunities to deepen our engagement during the trip.

Meanwhile, our cooperation with Oklahoma is a serious contribution to the overall Azerbaijan-U.S. partnership, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Involvement of American energy companies in global energy and transportation projects in Azerbaijan has been instrumental in ensuring Europes energy security and protecting key U.S. national interests.

The eighth ministerial meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council was held in February in Baku and reaffirmed the strategic energy partnership between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the European Union based on shared goals of long-term energy security, security of supply and the green energy transition. This corridor delivers Caspian gas from Azerbaijan to Europe through a system of connected pipelines.

Azerbaijans participation in NATO and U.S.-led operations in Iraq and Afghanistan has demonstrated our common vision and joint capabilities.

It is not a surprise that around half of all the flights during the operation in Afghanistan took place over Azerbaijan. Our troops were among the last four nations defending the Kabul Airport with American, British and Turkish friends.

Our partnership with the Oklahoma National Guard is one of 85 U.S. National Guard partnerships around the world and has played a big role for our peacekeepers interoperability. Early this month, members of the Oklahoma National Guard visited the Peacekeeping Brigade of Azerbaijan Armed Forces to assist with strategic planning and unit training and help attain NATO certification.

We took the words of Will Rogers, whose statue Gov. Stitt presented to President Aliyev, seriously. He once said, Even if youre on the right track, youll get run over if you just sit there. So we dont sit.

We do what the students at Oklahoma State University, which I will visit, proudly call for: Ride, ride, ride, ride, Ride em Cowboys, Right down the field!

I know that we will ride to more and greater achievements together with the people of the Sooner State and the United States of America.

Khazar Ibrahim is the ambassador from Azerbaijan to the United States.

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Russias attack on Ukraine has affected flight paths, journey times, and ticket prices of Vietnamese airlines, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam said in a report to the Ministry of Transport on Friday.

The adverse impacts are inevitable as many air routes of the Southeast Asian countrys flag ship carrier Vietnam Airlines and hybrid airline Bamboo Airways include a transit stop in Russia.

As Russia has closed its airspace to airlines from 36 countries in response to Ukraine-related sanctions targeting its aviation sector, the two Vietnamese carriers, like many other airlines that fly over the worlds biggest country to get from Europe to Asia, are forced to find new routes.

The U.S. and its allies imposed the sanctions on Russia after Moscow launched what it called a 'special military campaign' in Ukraine to 'demilitarize' and 'denazify' the neighboring country on February 24.

Flights between Vietnam and Europe have been rerouted to avoid Russian airspace -- through either China, Kazakhstan, or North Africa -- with longer flight times of anywhere from 60 to 120 minutes, leading to a cost increase of about US$10,600-21,200 per flight.

This translates to incurred costs of $70,000-130,000 per week for Vietnam Airlines six flights between Vietnam and Europe and $35,000-65,000 per week for Bamboo Airways in total.

Flying around Russia also costs $20,000-40,000 a week for Vietnam Airlines four flights between Vietnam and the United States, each of which is now 20-30 minutes longer than before.

While the national airline uses wide-body Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 aircraft, 80 percent of which are leased, for the aforementioned routes, all of its aircraft lease contracts stipulate that the lessee is not allowed to operate services to countries and territories that are sanctioned by the U.S. and the European Union.

This has complicated Vietnam Airlines fleet coordination.

In addition, expenses to transport aircraft spare parts to Russia and provide technical support there have spiked as the global supply chain is disturbed.

Those costs, however, are not covered by international insurance companies who are subject to the current embargoes against Russia.

The said drawbacks, combined with the declining demand for transportation to Russia, prompted Vietnam Airlines to temporarily suspend regular flights on the Hanoi - Moscow route, starting from March 25, until further notice.

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Here are todays leading news stories:

COVID-19 Updates

-- Vietnams Ministry of Health reported 103,126 COVID-19 cases on Saturday, raising the national tally to 8,919,557, with 5,166,117 recoveries and 42,258 deaths.

Society

-- Police in Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City confirmed on Saturday that a local man had set his girlfriends house on fire over their conflict before turning himself in. No one was harmed but the house was burned down.

-- Vietnam was able to save 309,000kWh of electricity after people across the country switched off their lights from 8:30 to 9:30 pm on Saturday to mark the 2022 Earth Hour.

-- Officers in north-central Ha Tinh Province have launched an investigation after a 64-year-old woman was found death with multiple slash wounds at her home on Saturday afternoon.

-- Authorities in central Thua Thien-Hue Province initiated on Saturday the construction of a bridge and a coastal road worth a combined VND3.4 trillion (US$148.7 million) in Hai Duong District. The project is aimed at creating a tourist route along the provinces coastline.

-- One person was killed after a fire engulfed a house in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum early on Saturday morning, local authorities confirmed later the same day.

Lifestyle

-- A ceremony was organized in Hoi An City in central Quang Nam Province on Saturday evening to kick-start the National Tourism Year 2022, which is themed Quang Nam  The Green Tourist Destination.

-- Miss Earth 2021 Destiny Wagner was in Ho Chi Minh City on Saturday to attend the ceremony to announce the Miss Ethnic Vietnam 2022 beauty contest, whose final round is scheduled to take place from July 12 to 16.

Sports

-- Vietnam lost 0-1 to Croatia in their second match at the Dubai Cup 2022 friendly tournament in Dubai on Saturday evening.

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Authorities in Thua Thien-Hue Province, central Vietnam initiated on Saturday the construction of a bridge and a coastal road worth a combined VND3.4 trillion (US$148.7 million), aimed at creating a tourist route along the local coastline.

The groundbreaking of the provinces coastal road and bridge crossing Thuan An estuary was held by the provincial Peoples Committee in Hai Duong Commune, Hue City on Saturday.

The objective of the project is to form a tourist route along the coast of Thua Thien-Hue Province.

The cost is more than VND3.4 trillion ($148.7 million), and the project developer is the Thua Thien-Hue management board for investment and construction of traffic works.

The groundbreaking of the project is organized in Thua Thien-Hue Province, Vietnam, March 26, 2022. Photo: Nhat Linh / Tuoi Tre

During the implementation of the project's first phase, expected to last for three years, a 7,785-meter coastal road will be built to connect Tam Giang Bridge and the bridge crossing Thuan An estuary.

The bridge over Thuan An estuary will be 2,360.6 meters long and 20 meters wide.

The bridge is considered a major work aimed at boosting connectivity and creating a beautiful structure in the coastal area and lagoon of Thua Thien-Hue, said Nguyen Van Phuong, chairman of the provincial administration.

Upon completion, the coastal route will help relieve pressure from the national highways and open up opportunities for investment and economic development in the province, Phuong said.

Local residents attend the groundbreaking of the project in Thua Thien-Hue Province, Vietnam, March 26, 2022. Photo: Nhat Linh / Tuoi Tre

This is an important project of the province and the country in general, Phuong stated, adding that provincial authorities will closely supervise the implementation to make sure it is complete on schedule.

Local residents have been longing for the construction of the route, especially the bridge over Thuan An estuary, said Tran Van Phuong, who resides in Hai Duong Commune.

The bridge will make it much easier for people to travel from Hai Duong Commune to Thuan An Ward and the center of Hue City, Phuong elaborated.

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ANKARA, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on Sunday agreed to hold the next round of Russia-Ukraine negotiations in Turkey's Istanbul city, the Turkish presidency said.

The two leaders had a phone conversation on Sunday and discussed the latest situation in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the negotiation process, the Turkish presidency said in a statement.

The two leaders "agreed that the next meeting of the negotiation teams of Russia and Ukraine will be held in Istanbul," the statement said.

During the conversation, Erdogan told Putin that a ceasefire and peace between Russia and Ukraine must be achieved as soon as possible and the humanitarian situation in the region should be improved, adding that Turkey would continue to "contribute in every possible way during this process."

Earlier on Sunday, David Arakhamia, a member of the Ukrainian delegation, said the next round of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia will take place next week in Turkey.

"Today, at the video talks, it was decided to hold the next live round by two delegations in Turkey on March 28-30," Arakhamia wrote on Facebook.

Meanwhile, head of Russia's negotiation team Vladimir Medinsky said the face-to-face talks will take place on March 29-30.

Ukrainian and Russian delegations have held three rounds of peace talks in-person in Belarus since Feb. 28, and the fourth one started on March 14 in a format of video conference.

Previously, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, met in a resort town of Turkey's southern province of Antalya on March 10.

The meeting, held on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomatic Forum, was the first high-level talks between Moscow and Kiev since Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine on Feb. 24.

During the meeting, the two sides failed to make progress on a ceasefire but agreed to continue negotiations over the conflict. 
Vietnams Ministry of Health has asked the central government for permission to receive 13.7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine as Australian aid for vaccination of children aged five to under 12.

Among the donations are 9.7 million shots which will expire in July this year at the latest.

The health ministry made the proposal in a document to Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on Saturday, in which the agency reported the outcome of a recent meeting with the Australian Embassy regarding Australia's vaccine donation.

The Australian side said it could donate Vietnam a total of 13.7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine for children aged five to under 12 and would pay the cost of transporting the donation to Vietnam, the ministry said.

The vaccine aid will be divided into two batches, with the first including 9.7 million doses and the second, four million.

Of the first batch, nine million shots were manufactured by Moderna while the remainder were by Pfizer.

These jabs, the longest expiry of which is July this year, are available in Australia and can be transported to Vietnam early next month.

The second batch of four million doses, with a shelf life of four to six months, will be delivered through UNICEF possibly next month, the ministry said, without elaborating on the expiry date of this batch.

The Australian side said it would soon provide the vaccines records to the health ministry for licensing for use, and would deliver the shots to Vietnam upon the ministrys approval.

If approved by the central government, the vaccines will be used for vaccination next month, the ministry added.

The agency also stated it was coordinating with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to continue mobilizing vaccine aid for children from COVAX, the U.S. government, and a number of countries and international organizations.

On February 5, the government issued a resolution on buying 21.9 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children from five to under 12 years old.

On March 18, PM Chinh asked the health ministry to clarify the tardiness in purchasing vaccines for kids from five to under 12 years old and take disciplinary actions against organizations and individuals responsible for such lateness.

In a dispatch issued one day later, the prime minister directed the ministry to mull over administering fourth COVID-19 vaccine doses to adults and third shots to children aged 12-17, speed up the purchase of vaccines for children aged five to under 12, and prepare plans to inoculate small children from three to under five years old.

Health workers had administered 187,727,790 COVID-19 vaccine doses to the nations adult population, including 71,204,501 first shots, 67,985,890 second jabs, and the rest for additional primary doses and boosters since vaccination was rolled out in March 2020, the ministry reported on Saturday.

The number of Pfizer-BioNTech doses given to children aged 12 to 17 nationwide had reached 17,133,368, including 8,785,986 first shots and 8,347,382 second jabs.

Since the pandemic hit Vietnam in early 2020, the Southeast Asian country has documented 8,919,557 COVID-19 infections, with 5,166,117 recoveries and 42,258 fatalities, the ministrys data shows.

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The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the UNICEF has handed over COVID-19 life-saving equipment and vaccine administration supplies worth US$1 million to Vietnam to support the Southeast Asian country in its pandemic fight.

The donations, including 2.5 million syringes, 125,000 N95 face masks, and 250 portable patient monitors, were formally presented to the Vietnamese Ministry of Health at a ceremony held in Hanoi on Friday, the USAID and UNICEF said in their joint media release issued the same day.

These medical items were funded by the USAID and delivered through the UNICEF to Vietnam between November 2021 and February 2022.

The donations came at a timely moment as Vietnam responds to the current Omicron-fueled wave, the release said.

Speaking at the ceremony, USAID/Vietnam Mission director Ann Marie Yastishock emphasized that the U.S. and Vietnam have built on decades of collaboration and friendship, drawing on each others strengths and capacities, to jointly identify and address the highest priorities when responding to COVID-19.

USAIDs steadfast commitment to supporting Vietnams COVID-19 response, including through partners such as UNICEF, is demonstrated in this ceremony today marking our recent donation of $1 million in life-saving equipment and supplies, the USAID official said.

Despite enormous strides made, the world has yet to be at the end of the pandemic, and the UNICEF continues to work hand-in-hand with the Vietnamese Ministry of Health and its key partners to roll out safe vaccines as well as the medical equipment and medicines that are critical to saving lives from COVID-19, said UNICEF representative Rana Flowers.

USAID has been a long-time partner, providing support whenever emergency or disaster strikes, Flowers stated.

UNICEF acknowledges the foresight, commitment, and compassion of all countries and donors who have supported Vietnam  we will get through this by working together.

During the COVID-19 global pandemic, the USAID and UNICEF have worked closely with the health ministry to boost Vietnams risk communication and community engagement, and to improve infection prevention, control and response efforts, the press release said.

As the primary COVAX partner in-country, the UNICEF has worked to deliver to Vietnam more than 33 million COVID-19 vaccine doses funded by the U.S. government, according to the document.

On behalf of the Vietnamese health sector, Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan expressed his sincere gratitude to the USAID for supplying Vietnam with the medical items, and to the UNICEF for promptly delivering the donations to the country.

The coronavirus pandemic has had severe impacts on life, economy, politics, culture, and society in many countries, including Vietnam, Thuan said.

However, under the leadership of the Party and government, through the efforts and unanimity of the people, and with the timely and effective support of the international community, Vietnam has basically put the COVID-19 epidemic under control and has become one of the countries with the highest COVID-19 vaccination coverage in the world, the official said.

Since 2020, the U.S. government has financed Vietnam with US$32.72 million worth of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, medical equipment and supplies, and technical support for COVID-19 prevention and control, Thuan said.

Of the amount, $24 million has been funded through the USAID, he added.

The official expressed his hope that Vietnam will continue to receive valuable and active support from the American government and people through the USAID, as well as from other international organizations, in the coming time.

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Docklands Studios Melbourne has opened its first super stage.

Stage 6 at 3,700 sqm is one of the largest in the southern hemisphere and enables the city to host bigger productions than ever before. It includes a 900,000 litre, 4.5 metre deep water tank for underwater scenes; full soundproofing; two equipment hoists, each with a load of 500Kg; dressing and audition rooms; a three-storey annex with production offices plus refurbishment of the studios mess halls.

The first production to shoot in Stage 6 will be the Robbie Williams biopic Better Man directed and co-written by Victorian Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman).

Incoming CEO Antony Tulloch who succeeds CEO Rod Allan, said,I am excited to be taking over the running of Docklands Studios Melbourne at a watershed moment for the screen industry in Victoria.

The studio already has a reputation for supporting productions every step along the way, and I look forward to building on its profile in the global market.

CEO of VicScreen Caroline Pitcher said: The global screen industry has grown exponentially in recent years, and the launch of this cutting-edge super stage will allow Melbourne and the state of Victoria to house even more phenomenal productions.

Victorias Minister for Creative Industries Danny Pearson added: With some of the best production staff and talent in the world, epic shooting locations and now the addition of Sound Stage 6, Victoria is a creative beacon for the biggest film and television projects at a global scale.

Productions filmed here are creating thousands of local jobs, boosting local businesses, and injecting millions of dollars into our economy, this new super stage will see a significant increase to those benefits across the state.

International and Australian producers have recently been lining up to film at Docklands Studios Melbourne and the new sound stage will expand total stage capacity by more than 60 per cent.

The AUD$46 million expansion of the Victorian Government-owned facility is a key pillar of the states screen strategy, adding to a generous incentive scheme managed by the states creative and economic screen development agency VicScreen.

Complementing the States strong support of the industry comes a large pool of world-class production crew, creative and technology businesses and a range of film-friendly locations close to Melbourne.

In the last two years, Docklands Studios Melbourne has hosted the homegrown Netflix thriller Clickbait, Paramount Televisions Shantaram and the first instalment of NBCs hit drama La Brea.

The studios 2022 slate includes the second season of La Brea and sci-fi thriller Foe, produced by AC Studios, I Am That and See-Saw Films for Prime Video.

Docklands Studios Melbourne opened in 2004 just five minutes from central Melbourne  the sporting, food and cultural capital of Australia. It has five existing stages ranging from 743 to 2,323sqm (8,000 to 25,000sqft).
Newport create club history by edging thriller with Cardiff to make final

NEWPORT RFC will take on Aberavon in the Premiership Cup final at Principality Stadium after edging a thriller with Cardiff 34-28.

The Black and Ambers made club history by beating their old foes for the fourth time in a season but that was merely an added bonus for Ty Morris' men in a remarkable season.

Newport, who are closing in on the Premiership title, have the chance to go one better than they did in 2018 when hammered by Merthyr in the WRU National Cup final.

They headed to Sardis Road with a lengthy injury list and without fly-half Will Reed, full-back Ioan Davies and flanker Lennon Greggains, who were on Dragons duty in South Africa.

However, Newport have spoken of their strength in depth all season and they had enough quality in their team to dig deep against the Blue and Blacks.

Cardiff went into the lead with through the boot of Dan Fish and stretched further away in Pontypridd when centre Mason Grady put full-back Cameron Winnett over.

Newport responded swiftly when wing Will Talbot-Davies went over down the blindside with captain Matt OBrien, who moved back to fly-half from inside centre in the absence of Reed, converting.

Fish kicked a penalty to make it 11-7 but Talbot-Davies went over again from a cross-kick with the extras added by OBrien.

Back came Cardiff and they went 18-14 up thanks to a close-range try by Alex Everett and two more points from the boot of Fish.

Story continues

OBrien cut the gap with a penalty before half-time and Newport were in front soon after the restart with a seven-pointer.

However, Cardiff got their noses back in front in the tense encounter when scrum-half Ellis Bevan scored a try that Fish converted.

Newport needed to respond and they did with front rower Jamie Jeune going over and OBrien converting.

He turned a 31-25 lead into a more comfortable 34-25 one from the tee only for Fish to respond.

But the Black and Ambers werent to be denied and will head to the capital to face the Wizards on Sunday, April 24.

They will hope that they go into the Principality Stadium clash as Premiership champions with the league leaders having three fixtures left to play.
Photo credit: Getty Images

The Duchess of Cambridge saved perhaps her most stylish look for last as she departed the Bahamas on the final leg of their royal tour of the Caribbean. Kate and Prince William have spent eight days touring Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas, meeting local people, businesses and cultural institutions, in celebration of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.

The duchess arrived at Lynden Pindling International Airport wearing a yellow printed Alessandra Rich dress. The 1980s-inspired style features a flatting hip peplum, exaggerated puff sleeves and a ladylike midi-length pencil skirt, and is cinched in at the waist with a bejewelled belt.

Photo credit: Getty Images

She accessorised her dress - which is still available to buy online - with classic white Gianvito Rossi court shoes, Patrick Mavros quartz and diamond earrings, and a white clutch bag.

Photo credit: Getty Images

Photo credit: Getty Images

Kate has worn London-based designer Alessandra Rich previously - notably during a visit to the V&A Museum in 2021, and during a trip to Ireland in 2020.

The duchess decided to almost exclusively champion London-based or British designers during her tour of the Caribbean, turning to old favourites like Alexander McQueen, Emilia Wickstead, Roksanda, Phillipa Lepley and Jenny Packham, as well as younger brands like Rixo, The Vampire's Wife and Self-Portrait.

But the most striking theme to emerge from Kate's tour wardrobe was her use of colour. The royal well and truly embraced dopamine dressing for the eight-day long trip, stepping out in a wardrobe of bright, mood-boosting shades of every colour of the rainbow - from hot pink to royal blue, canary yellow, mint green and deep emerald.

Appropriately for a trip celebrating the Queen's Jubilee, the move could well have been inspired by Her Majesty, who has used bright block colours as a way to be visible in large crowds for decades.

Retailers and designers have been banking on bright colour and joyful dressing as key trends to watch out for in recent months - but this association between brightly coloured clothing and happiness is not new; in fact, the idea of instilling joy through what we wear - or 'dopamine dressing' - has long been the subject of psychological research. Clothes are a powerful tool for communication and self expression, and this is something that Kate has always been acutely aware of.

Story continues

See more highlights from the royal tour of the Caribbean, below:

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NEW YORK, March 27 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is poised to authorize a second COVID-19 vaccine booster for anyone 50 and older amid concerns that a new Omicron subvariant could hit the United States.

The authorizations for second Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna boosters could be announced as soon as next Tuesday, according to U.S. media reports.

On Saturday, Hawaii became the last U.S. state to remove the indoor masking requirement as the Omicron surge recedes. The state also suspended its Safe Travels program, allowing travelers from the continental United States to enter without submitting proof of vaccination or the results of an approved COVID-19 test.

Idaho went a step further as its State Legislature passed a bill last week to prohibit businesses from requiring a COVID-19 vaccination for employment or service and prevent unvaccinated individuals from being "treated differently or discriminated against."

According to the bill, the decision to receive a vaccine is "a very personal and individual decision" and one that public or private entities should not mandate. The bill was supported by Republican legislators and landed on Governor Brad Little's desk this week. Little, also a Republican, has not stated whether he will veto or sign it.

While COVID-19 restrictions are being lifted or eased in most parts of the country, health officials in Washington are cautiously monitoring the behavior of Omicron BA.2 sub-variant, the more contagious cousin of the Omicron variant that has spread through Europe and other parts of the world, which now represents about 30 percent of new infections in the Mid-Atlantic region that includes the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia.

"Public health experts say BA.2 will likely become the dominant strain in the Washington region over the next several weeks," reported The Washington Post, "driving another uptick in new infections after a steady decline since the peak of the Omicron surge in early January." On Friday, the region's weekly average for new cases was 1,131, the lowest rate since July.

The NYT data analysis has shown that the 7-day average new COVID-19 deaths on Saturday in the United States dropped to 796, a 39 percent change over 14 days. New coronavirus cases were 30,174, falling 12 percent. 
Building One at the Doris Miller VA Medical Center in Waco should have interior renovation completed, according to the secretary of veterans affairs latest report on redesigning and updating medical infrastructure for veterans nationwide.

The recommendation sounds like good news for Waco, Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Waco, said.

The Doris Miller facility was at one point considered a center for excellence, Sessions said Thursday in a written statement. I believe we ought to continue that legacy and build on it.

Of possible concern in the Asset and Infrastructure Review released March 14 by Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough, however, it does not mention post-traumatic stress disorder treatment in connection with Wacos VA facilities. The report does cite a variety of mental health services as well as a Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Program, which a regional VA spokesperson said includes PTSD among its functions.

The secretarys report also specifically calls for Waco to continue its services for blind veterans.

The Asset and Infrastructure Review report contains recommendations only, and no decisions to act on the recommendations have been made, yet, VA regional spokesperson Bill Negron said by email.

McLennan County Veterans Service Officer Steve Hernandez said most veterans in the area are satisfied with many services the VA provides.

About 85% of veterans in our county are satisfied with the health care services the VA provides, and that includes mental health services, Hernandez said.

He said another 12% have issues that he and his team handle with the VA at the lowest level through clinicians, patient care advocates and social workers.

And then theres the 3% that just cant be satisfied, Hernandez said. Those are the ones that get the most attention.

Hernandez said the Doris Miller center and the services it provides remain vital for the veterans he serves.

What's next for the Waco VA? Doris Miller Medical Center provides mental health, blind rehab services to veterans What's next for the Waco VA? The 100-acre facility continues to provide vital mental health treatment, trauma research, elder care and blind rehabilitation services for Central Texas veterans.

Recommendations for Building One

McDonoughs report recommends complete interior renovation of Building One at the Doris Miller facility to relocate primary care, outpatient mental health care, and pharmacy services.

It does not say what services are currently provided there or what a renovation might cost.

The report says current primary care and pharmacy space at the Doris Miller center is inadequate to support the patient-aligned care team model, with insufficient exam capacity and undersized spaces.

Building 1 infrastructure has been modernized and is ready for interior construction, the report states.

Negron said the reports recommendations attempt to address needed modernization as health care technologies have improved over time and patient needs have changed.

Though it is not specifically mentioned, Sessions said PTSD treatment for veterans is important, as is creating a proper environment for them to receive care.

We must work out a way to improve and expand access to meet veterans needs in Central Texas, especially expanding specialty care like PTSD treatment, Sessions said. The significance of tending to mental health and PTSD have been adopted nationwide, and as such the VA needs to prioritize avenues that will provide veterans these types of treatments.

My heart is to see these veterans get well and in a timely matter.

Residential Rehabilitation Treatment

In addition to PTSD treatment, the Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Program in Waco also provides treatment for a variety of concerns including vocational rehabilitation, military sexual trauma, substance use disorders, and mood disorders, Negron said.

The capacity of the program is not slated to change, he wrote.

It will remain as a 22-bed Serious Mental Illness Life Enhancement unit in Waco, providing residential care to Veterans with serious mental illness, with an additional 30-bed RRTP for female Veterans, Negron said.

Inpatient mental health services also will continue in Waco, with a 40-bed unit providing care separately for men and women, he said.

Rehab for blind veterans

Services for blind veterans will continue in Waco as well, according to McDonoughs report.

The Blind Rehab Center in Waco provides inpatient, intensive, interdisciplinary rehabilitation programs for blind veterans and veterans with visual impairment, according to Negron.

The BRC residential setting maximizes the opportunity for peer-to-peer interactions, which help Veterans strive to achieve their best level of independence and envision a positive future, Negron said in his email.

It is the VA workforce, not the infrastructure, that cares for veterans or saves their lives, Negron wrote.

VA is not only looking to invest in physical infrastructure but also actively looking to invest in the VA Workforce, because they are a critical part of VAs future, he said.

Community support for Doris Miller

Wacos mayor, city council and staff support the VAs recommendations for preservation and improvement of existing clinical services here in Waco, City Manager Bradley Ford said.

The Doris Miller VA Medical Center is a critical asset to veterans in Waco and the surrounding region, Ford said. It is top priority for our mayor and city council.

Nearly 20 years ago, a concerted community effort from Waco, its congressman and the veterans who receive services at the Doris Miller center reversed a plan that, at the time, would have closed it.

If the center were closed, dozens of VA employees there would lose their jobs or have to move to a new job in a new city, and all of the veterans served there would have to drive much father to other facilities for their care.

Now, the Doris Miller center continues to provide veterans with much-needed mental health treatment, rehabilitation for those who have lost their sight, as well as a variety of other inpatient and outpatient services.

In November, the facilitys assistant director, Amy Maynard, said her center had a healthy future.

There is a utilization review underway and there has been market assessments done throughout the VA, Maynard said in November.

The results of the review and studies Maynard mentioned led to the Asset and Infrastructure Review released earlier this month.

Maynard said in November that she did not believe her facility faced a danger of closing. Last week, Negron also said there are no plans to close VA facilities in Waco.

The report has raised concerns in other communities that closures or reductions of their VA facilities may be in the works, though no closure decisions have been made.

There have been no announcements or decisions regarding any VA facilities closing, anywhere, Negron wrote.

An examination of a changing and moving veteran populations future health care needs led to the Asset and Infrastructure Review report, which is also a statutory requirement for the VA secretary, Negron said by email.

The secretarys recommendations remain recommendations, he said.

Any potential changes to VAs health care infrastructure may be several years away and are dependent on Commission, Presidential, and Congressional decisions, as well as robust stakeholder engagement and planning, Negron wrote.

Over the coming years, he wrote that Asset and Infrastructure Review recommendations could impact Veterans Administration facilities and staff, but it is too early to know exactly what or where those impacts might happen.

Nothing is changing now for veteran access to care, or VA employees, Negron wrote.

That statement could cut both ways, because if nothing changes, then no facilities close and no one loses jobs and no ones care gets reduced. But the refurbishments may not necessarily happen either. Negron did say that millions of dollars in construction projects are active at Waco VA facilities and more are requested.

The Central Texas Veterans Health Care System has the responsibility, today and tomorrow, to provide the highest quality of care and safety for our Veterans, Negron wrote. Currently, the Waco VA campus has nearly $20 million in active construction projects. Another $30 million has been requested for capital projects for 2023.

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A federal infrastructure bill passed last year designates $537 million to maintain and repair bridges in Texas over five years, which could help fund repair projects the city of Waco has been weighing for years.

Local leaders are eyeing a Speegleville Road bridge over the Middle Bosque River and a few crossing Primrose Creek, but details of how the money will be prioritized have not been finalized.

Under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Federal Highway Administration will allocate more than $27 billion through the Bridge Formula Program, which can pay for projects owned by state departments of transportation and local governments alike. There are more than 55,000 bridges in Texas and about 677 in McLennan County, according to the Texas Department of Transportation.

The city of Waco has seven high-priority bridge projects listed in its 2021-22 capital improvement plan, but cities have not yet received clear guidelines on what projects qualify for funding, said Steven Martin, engineering division manager for the city of Waco.

We havent seen specific rules on the program, Martin said. We havent seen details on how we need to chase funding.

He said the city evaluates its own bridges periodically and the engineering department staff is well positioned to start pursuing funding when they know more. The Texas Department of Transportation evaluates all 71 bridges it is responsible for in Waco every two years, then uses the report to prioritize repairs.

Martin said TxDOT reports make recommendations that are either critical, which should be fixed in 30 days; urgent, which should be fixed within six months; or routine, which can wait up to 24 months. Wacos last bridge report listed 187 recommendations, none of which were critical.

We have a handful of urgent fixes on those 71 bridges, and a bunch of routine, Martin said.

The 660-foot Speegleville Road bridge over the Middle Bosque River was built in 1964 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as part of the Lake Waco Dam project, and is classified as functionally obsolete by TxDOT, according to the city budget.

It is old. It was built to different standards, Martin said.

Widening Speegleville Road and the bridge from two lanes to four has been a city priority for years. The county has completed a road-widening project from Highway 6 to the bridge, but from the bridge to Highway 84 the road remains 24 feet wide with only two lanes.

The federal infrastructure bill at one point included funding specifically for the project after local officials and Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Waco, worked together to shed light on its importance. But the item did not remain in the version passed into law.

The county moved utility lines out of the new lanes path and stopped just before the bridge, where the city of Waco will, in theory, pick up the project and complete the stretch of road, which will widen the bridge by roughly 32 feet.

The city will also have to relocate utilities, including power lines that run parallel to the road, to complete the work.

The road narrows even more suddenly at the bridge now that the county-owned portion of the road has shoulders the bridge still lacks. The city plans to build a new two-lane bridge with shoulders next to the old one with, then use both for four lanes of traffic headed in two directions.

River Valley Intermediate School, which is just south of the bridge, will soon be converted into a middle school, which means more drivers will have to use Speegleville Road to drop off and pick up their children.

Other high-priority bridges in the citys capital improvement plan include one on New Road over a Union Pacific rail line, one on Sanger Avenue between Town Oaks Drive and Westview Drive and one on Herring Avenue across the Brazos River.

Three more high-priority bridges cross Primrose Creek at 18th, 12th and Third streets and might also be suited to the federal bridge program. Martin said the bill emphasizes building resilient infrastructure, and between the bridges ages, conditions and their location in a floodplain designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, those three appear to be good candidates.

In a Walker Partners study of Primrose Creek as part of an overall floodplain study, consultants suggested raising the bridges by several feet, which could keep them from going underwater during a flood and potentially shrink the floodplain.

TxDOT spokesperson Adam Hammons said bridges classified as being in poor condition are still considered safe enough to keep carrying traffic despite whatever repairs or maintenance they need. Each bridge in Texas is inspected regularly as part of the National Bridge Inspection Standards overseen by the Federal Highway Administration.

Its important to note that all bridges that are open in Texas are safe, Hammons said.

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Australia's Christian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said it is "entirely appropriate" that Brian Houston has stepped down from Hillsong over alleged inappropriate behaviour.

Houston co-founded Hillsong nearly 40 years ago and resigned earlier this week as its Senior Global Pastor.

In a statement, the board said he had breached the Pastor's Code of Conduct.

Morrison has been criticised over his connections to Hillsong.

In his 2008 maiden speech, Morrison credited Houston with helping to shape his Christian faith, and in 2019, he addressed the annual Hillsong conference from the stage.

Morrison shared his reaction to Houston's resignation with reporters on Thursday.

"I must admit we were very disappointed and shocked to hear the news," 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."

Hillsong announced Houston's resignation on Wednesday. In a statement, it said Houston had been investigated over allegedly sending "inappropriate" text messages to a Hillsong staffer, and a separate complaint that he had entered the hotel room of a woman who was not his wife.

"As you can appreciate, there is still much to be done and our church leadership continues seeking God for His wisdom as we set the course for the future. We acknowledge that change is needed," the board said.

Phil Dooley is acting senior global pastor of Hillsong in place of Houston.



Reposted with permission from Christian Today
The world oil market has endured some remarkable events over the past 24 months:

A worldwide pandemic caused massive disruptions in demand just as supply increased, and the price of oil fell below zero for the first time ever in April 2020.

Workers idled by the disruption exited the industry.

As demand slowly returned, production struggled to keep up, increasing prices.

Safe and effective vaccines were introduced to fight the coronavirus, and economic recovery exploded in early 2021.

Russia, which produces 8% of the oil consumed in the U.S., and the lions share of natural gas burned in Europe, decided to invade its neighbor Ukraine in February.

In retaliation for the unprovoked invasion, the U.S. leveled economic sanctions against Russia, including a ban on oil and gas imports.

Domestic producers cant find workers, or supplies, to increase production to help offset Russias exodus from the world market. Many of them are content to let todays high prices filter to the bottom line.

Oil closed Friday at $113 a barrel.

What do we do now, other than pay $4 a gallon for gas? We find someone to blame, because it makes us feel better. The last time gas was this expensive was the spring and summer months of 2008, and we all wanted to blame former President George W. Bush. Today, its President Bidens turn in the grinder. Very few things infuriate Americans more than a gas price spike.

Oil peaked at $145 a barrel in July 2008, but had dropped to $31 by that Christmas as the Great Recession began. That recession was the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, and wiped out the overheated housing market as well as the life savings of millions of Americans. (At least gas dropped to $2.)

There are two major differences between 2008 and now. First, labor shortages abound in virtually every sector. In a page 1 story on Saturday, Texas Tribune reporter Mitchell Ferman quoted John Volke, CEO of Crew Support Services  a company that houses oil field workers, who said, Every one of our clients are trying to hire 20 to 40 people  field hands, labor for rigging pipe. I dont know where these people went to work, Amazon?

Not exactly. Wacos billion dollar Amazon fulfillment center was supposed to open six months ago, but cant find enough workers.

The second difference in this supply crunch is the environment. Wall Street investors arent as bullish on the oil field as they used to be, thanks in no small part to the environmental movement. Investors have shed oil company stock over the past 10 years, opting for more environmentally friendly investments in energy. A short-term price spike isnt enough to reverse that trend.

In November, Trib columnist Alan Northcutt wrote on this page about the significant results from COP26, heralded as the last best hope for addressing the climate crisis. Northcutt reported that 11 countries, including France, Costa Rica, Denmark and Ireland, launched a first-ever alliance formed to set an end date for national oil and gas exploration and extraction. This reinforces the scientific mandate to leave approximately 70% of current fossil fuel reserves in the ground.

Energy policy is entering a transformative era. We need to clean up our planet, but we also need to power our economy. That is a tightrope even in a perfect world, one that cannot bear the scourge of volatility.

As Americans struggle to get by under the sometimes crushing weight of higher energy prices, remember to assign blame where it is due: Vladimir Putin, and nobody else.
Will, unity tested

In many ways we are a divided nation. However, the Ukrainian situation calls on our nation to demonstrate unity, resolve and sacrifice. Surely most reasonable and patriotic Americans can agree that the invasion of Ukraine is unjustified and that President Putin is an evil and dangerous man. In the current crisis he has two advantages over the United States and our allies: He is an ex-KGB thug who doesn't hesitate killing innocent civilians to obtain his ends.

While President Biden has had numerous stumbles during the first year of his administration, he has been dealt a weak hand to play in the current crisis  a hand dealt to him by both the Democratic and Republican parties. With the dissolution of the USSR, both parties were so exhausted by the protracted Cold War they incorrectly concluded that the newly reduced Russian nation was no longer a threat to world peace. Mitt Romney tried to warn the nation during his unsuccessful 2012 presidential campaign. Neither party took his warnings seriously as we as a nation failed to appreciate the seriousness of the threat Putin posed.

I pray that strong sanctions will be enough to halt the destruction of lives and property caused by the Russian invasion. However, I fear that in dealing with a thug like Putin, we may have to revert to strategies used during the Cold War. President Reagan should be given major credit for bringing the USSR to its knees. He abandoned a major position of the Republican Party and ignored the deficit to win the arms race. He poured major commitments of money and other resources into making the U.S. the unquestioned strongest military power in the world. Efforts by the USSR to match our military might were an important component in bankrupting the USSR and leading to its its subsequent dissolution.

I strongly recommend returning to Reagans Cold War strategy. We should do whatever is necessary to develop an ironclad missile defense system. At the same time, we should upgrade and expand our own nuclear capabilities. Unless Putin understands that Russia has no chance of survival in a thermonuclear war with the U.S., he will continue to pose an existential threat to the U.S. and our allies.

I am advocating an American mindset that acknowledges the seriousness of the threat and provides for the unity and sacrifice of former generations of Americans that have made us the envy and hope of the world. The sanctions being imposed on Russia and the tax dollars required for us to regain unquestioned military superiority will require major sacrifices by the American people.

I hope and pray that we have the will and unity required to pay higher taxes, higher gas prices and to make whatever other sacrifices are necessary to keep what is happening in Ukraine from ever happening again and to ensure peace and safety for the world.

Michael Field, Hewitt

Pete's oligarch

Tucked away in the March 17 edition of the Trib was a story about a Russian oligarch being indicted. Lo and behold, Pete Sessions was involved in that story. Im sure Rick the coal man Perry had a hand in that along with good, old Pete. Enough said.

Philip Ballmann, Waco
CEDAR BLUFFS  St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Cedar Bluffs will be hosting its 13th annual Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday, April 9, at the church, located at 300 S. Second St., in Cedar Bluffs. The Easter egg hunt will begin at 11 a.m. sharp.

All children  infants through the sixth grade  are welcome to participate. There will be three separate egg hunt areas based on age: preschool (includes infants and toddlers); kindergarten through second grade; and third through sixth grade.

After having drive-through events the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, were looking forward to having our traditional Easter egg hunt back this year, said Tammy Greunke, egg hunt coordinator. We hope families come out and enjoy this fun event.

The ringing of the church bell will signal the start of the egg hunt.

The egg hunt, which will take place rain or shine, will feature thousands of colorful treat-filled eggs and prizes. The Easter Bunny also is expected to make an appearance.
WATERLOO  A federal judge has sent a Waterloo man sought in a May fatal shooting back to prison on unrelated gun charges.

During a hearing in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids on Thursday, Judge Linda Reade sentenced Marcus Robert Sykes, 26, to prison for 11 months for allegedly violating the terms of his supervised release.

He allegedly broke release rules by missing probation appointments, failing to participate in drug testing, changing his address without notifying authorities and traveling without permission.

Authorities said Sykes was on supervised release after serving time for firearms charges when he accused of possessing a gun in connection with the May 15 shooting of Dayton Matlock-Buss in the 1400 block of Grant Avenue.

He disappeared from the Waterloo following the shooting and was detained in Wisconsin in January.

Sykes has yet to appear in state court in the shooting case.

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WATERLOO  West High School is preparing to replace its gym floor this summer.

The Board of Education on Monday will consider approving a $196,527 contract to remove the existing floor and install a new one.

The board meets at 5 p.m. in the Education Service Center, 1516 Washington St.

Waterloo Community Schools received one bid for the project from H2i Group of Adel. InVision Architecture, which did design work on the project, said in a board memo that the companys proposed contract amount is well below the expected costs for the work  71% of the budget estimate. The project would be completed by Aug. 1.

Prior to considering the bid, a public hearing will also be held on the project.

In other business, the board will:

Hold a public hearing on the 2022-23 academic year calendar and approve it later in the meeting. As in recent past years, the district would have a rolling start to the new school year with kindergarten and first, second, sixth, and ninth grades beginning Aug. 23 and all other grades beginning Aug. 24. June 1, 2023, would be the last day of school.

Approve an agreement with Denver Community Schools starting in the fall that would allow juniors and seniors to enroll in Waterloo Career Center classes. Denver Schools would be charged tuition of $450 for every student in a semester long course.

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Republicans senators took advantage of a rare opportunity to showcase whats wrong with their party amid Ketanji Brown Jacksons nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.

On a scale of 1 to 10, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, asked Brown, how faithful would you say you are in terms of religion?

Jackson called her faith very important, adding theres no religious test in the Constitution.

More on point, Id ask Graham, How faithful to democracy are Republican sycophants of Donald Trump, who fomented a failed insurrection, subsequently turning the Big Lie about a stolen election into reduced voting access?

How faithful to democracy are they when Trump extolled strongmen like Russian President Vladimir Putin (savvy, genius); Chinese Communist President Xi Jinping (hes great) and North Korean strongman Kim Jong-Un (great and beautiful vision for his country)?

Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, denounced Brown as the favored choice of far-left dark-money groups that have spent years attacking the legitimacy and structure of the Court itself.

Yet the Senate Hypocrisy Leader is the godfather of anti-democratic dark money. He contested the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act in McConnell v. the Federal Election Commission (2003). He reveled in the U.S. Supreme Courts Citizens United decision (2010) unleashing unlimited dark money for the Grand Oligarchs Party.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, remarked, Ill be looking to see whether Judge Jackson is committed to the Constitution as originally understood.

Although brilliant in most respects, the Constitution wasnt perfect. As originally understood, it upheld slavery and left voting rights to the states, which largely made them predicated on owning property, paying taxes, and being both male and pale  a Trumpian construct.

Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., couldnt find anything in the Constitution allowing interracial marriage, which the U.S. Supreme Court legalized in Loving v. Virginia (1967).

Leave it to the states, he said, meaning an interracial couple wed in one state could be arrested in Bigotia. Perhaps hed revisit the Souths one drop of Black blood rule to define race.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Cancun (when theres a Texas crisis), decried Anti-Racist Baby, a book used at Georgetown Day School, where Jackson is a board member. Cant have kids being taught tolerance.

He damned Stamped (for Kids), which asks, Can we send White people back to Europe?

Cruz disdains context. Stamped cited an Originalist debate: When Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801, there was lots of talk and debate over what to do about the issue of slavery. One idea tossed around by White assimilationists was for Black people to go back to Africa and the Caribbean. But Black people didnt want to go back to a place that many had never known.

Great minds (John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, David Hume, Adam Smith, Rene Descartes and Isaac Newton) influenced the Originalists.

But in the Trump era, too many Republicans recall Alice in Wonderland quotes: Its no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then or, alas, Were all mad here.

Saul Shapiro is the retired editor of The Courier, living in Cedar Falls.

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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 UNTIL 2 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...Until 2 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. &&
Detective with Genesee Co. Sheriff details how GHOST apprehended the Florida man accused of sex crimes in 15 days
The adjournment of the 55th Legislatures second session arrived with a bipartisan failure that risks New Mexicos jumpstart and leadership in the burgeoning multibillion-dollar hydrogen industry.

Lawmakers failed to pass Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishams Hydrogen Hub Act, which hurts our opportunity to earn some of the $8 billion earmarked for hydrogen hubs in the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021.

Countries across the world rightfully see hydrogen as a critical path to a lower-carbon future. The governor demonstrated her economic and environmental leadership by emphasizing New Mexicos inherent strengths as a top dog in U.S. hydrogen development. We have plentiful natural gas, the right geology for carbon and hydrogen storage, growing renewable power, a fuel and electricity delivery infrastructure, and a knowledgeable workforce.

The administrations work to attract key hydrogen businesses through tax incentives and public-private partnerships will undoubtedly gain more support, but without swift, decisive action, our competitive edge may slip away to other states.

It defies logic that the Legislature would stand in the way of racing to the top of this global investment opportunity  all while standing in the way of building a clean energy economy for tomorrows New Mexicans.

But stand in the way it did.

Republicans said no, letting partisanship blind them to the huge economic development opportunities that are so plain to see. Meanwhile, Democrats kowtowed to environmental radicals who stomped their feet and threw a fit without offering any realistic alternative for fueling a carbon-free future.

Hateful attacks on the governor, Cabinet secretaries and supportive legislators is good for fundraising, but ends up denying New Mexicans true economic and environmental opportunities.

President Biden has made hydrogen one of his administrations key tools to address climate change. As the governor of a state where oil and gas is the primary funding for schools, health care and other critical social services, Lujan Grisham is in a challenging position between industry and the environment. Leading on hydrogen is simply the right direction.

The governors bold vision is a bipartisan one, shared by the governors of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. The four states have formed the Western Inter-States Hydrogen Hub to position the Rocky Mountain states as uniquely qualified to become the hydrogen hubs outlined in the federal infrastructure law.

If our greater goals include jobs, a diversified economy and a cleaner energy footprint, then positioning New Mexico as a leading hydrogen producer and technology incubator simply makes sense. This is why tens of thousands of New Mexicans who were represented through their labor unions, tribal nations, educational institutions, economic development advocates and community leaders all supported the Hydrogen Hub Act.

We have demonstrated our seriousness in making New Mexico an international hydrogen hub with our regional partners. Success will unleash a cascade of good: more jobs, more infrastructure and more economic development for our communities.

Lujan Grisham owes no one other than the people of New Mexico the best possible path to a greener future and a brighter economy. She should ignore the critics without solutions. Do what she must to make her vision real. Fight to make New Mexico a world hydrogen leader.

Jason Sandel, a Farmington native, has served on the Farmington City Council. He is chairman-elect of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, and serves on the Methane Advisory Panel. He is currently a co-convener of the N.M. Energy Transition Committee, and chairman of the Western States and Tribal Nations Natural Gas Initiative.
The conflict in Ukraine could mean investors will see increased cyberattack threats and potential investment scams, the state Regulation and Licensing Department is warning.

Difficult times can bring out the best in people, but as regulators, we know from experience that there are bad actors looking to exploit crises to perpetrate scams on unsuspecting investors, Superintendent Linda M. Trujillo said. Investors and firms alike should make sure they are taking the steps necessary to safeguard financial information and are on the lookout for potential investor scams.

Such scams might be linked to the rising costs of energy and fuel, so be wary of extremely risky or bogus investments within the energy sector, including possible oil and gas deals, says the state Securities Division.

Consider it a red flag if you are offered an investment that promises significant or guaranteed returns, even though there is little or no risk. Delete unsolicited offers that might come to you by email or through social media, the division says.

Also, beware the unscrupulous promoter who tries to take advantage of investor fears during volatile financial market fluctuations. This could come in the form of someone trying to convince you to leave the regulated markets in favor of less volatile or stable investment opportunities.

Make sure the promoter is registered with the state to sell investments, and make the same check regarding the investment itself, the Securities Division says.

Talk to your financial professional before taking action to sell any of your investments.

$23.2m in losses: New Mexico did fairly well in a recent annual fraud report that breaks down the per capita number of reports filed last year. We came in at No. 30 and should be grateful we dont live in Georgia, which took the No. 1 spot.

Still, thats probably not much comfort to those whose losses made up the total $23.2 million swindled from New Mexicans. That comes to a median loss of $500, according to the Consumer Sentinel Networks 2021 report.

The frauds that caused the biggest hit in New Mexico were imposter scams and identity theft.

Nationwide, victims lost a total of more than $5.8 billion to fraud last year, a $2.4 billion jump in losses from the year before.

instagram scam: If youre on Instagram, dont be fooled by an email telling you that you have violated copyright laws and must click a button to verify your account.

Its a new type of phishing scam  with a twist, according to the Better Business Bureau.

Clicking takes the user to a website where you are told to enter your Instagram credentials.

Most scams would end there, but not this one the BBB says.

Next, you will get a pop-up that says you must verify your email address. You are given a list of email providers and when you choose yours, youll be told to enter your email address and password.

To make it all seem legit, the scam site redirects to the real Instagram website, which makes the whole thing seem more credible.

Contact Ellen Marks at emarks@abqjournal.com or (505) 823-3842 if you are aware of what sounds like a scam. To report a scam to law enforcement, contact the New Mexico Consumer Protection Division toll-free at 1 (844) 255-9210, prompt 5. Complaints can be filed electronically at nmag.gov/file-a-complaint.aspx.
Pretrial release on house arrest isnt what it used to be  or even what its supposed to be  not if allegations hold true that 18-year-old Immanuel Segura and his brother sold drugs and guns out of a Northeast Albuquerque apartment while Segura was on house arrest.

Albuquerque police say Segura sold hundreds of fentanyl pills to an undercover narcotics officer while awaiting trial on a charge of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon stemming from a December 2021 shooting. After a search warrant of his apartment was served, police say nearly 4,000 more fentanyl pills were found, along with 82 grams of methamphetamine, two shotguns, an AR-15-style rifle, three handguns, thousands of rounds of ammunition, 15 loaded magazines, drug trafficking paraphernalia, more than $2,000 in cash and  wait for it  eight stolen Sandoval County police badges.

Segura and his brother, 21-year-old Santiago Segura-Fresquez, were arrested March 22 on drug trafficking and firearms charges.

Amazingly, state District Judge George P. Eichwald in Sandoval County had released Segura to his brothers third-party custody on Jan. 28. Segura will get another shot at pretrial release Monday before state District Judge Cindy Leos in Bernalillo County.

A public safety assessment known as the Arnold tool recommends Segura be released on his own recognizance for his latest charges; in fact court officials say the tool will always recommend release. Prosecutors say hes dangerous and was directly profiting from harming our community and have petitioned to hold Segura on pretrial detention.

Its something the Albuquerque community has been burned on before.

From a distance it would seem Segura complied with conditions of release. He isnt alleged to have left his apartment. In fact, a pretrial services officer says Segura maintained acceptable communication. Eichwald had ordered him not to possess alcohol or controlled substances or firearms. But it sure doesnt look like home confinement cramped Seguras lifestyle or that his neighbors near Alameda and Jefferson were safe with all the guns and illegal narcotics next door.

APD Chief Harold Medina says Seguras 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 New Mexico District Attorneys Association appears to agree. In a Feb. 17 letter to the governor, the association said New Mexicos courts lack the resources to monitor defendants whereabouts. At any given time, pretrial services employees cannot say whether a particular defendant is complying with the law, the letter signed by 5th Judicial District Attorney Diana Luce states. They can only say where a defendant is located.

And thats with the clampdown on GPS monitoring after it was discovered last fall no one was actively keeping track of 2nd Judicial District Pretrial Services Division defendants on evenings, weekends or holidays.

That stunning revelation of incompetence resulted in the Administrative Office of the Courts committing pretrial services staff to oversee the GPS alert system after business hours and on weekends and holidays, while the 2nd Judicial District Court and Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court monitor the system during business hours Mondays through Fridays.

The day after Seguras latest arrest, Medina blasted District Judge Stanley Whitaker for releasing on an ankle monitor a suspect in two Albuquerque homicides.

Adrian Avila, 18, is accused in an August 2020 case where a teen was killed during a gun robbery and a February 2021 case where a man was killed in front of his home by his brothers kidnappers. Avila is also implicated in a robbery in which the victim wasnt killed.

It is clear that the defendant has no regard for the safety or lives of others, prosecutors said.

But Avilas attorney, Ahmad Assed, said prosecutors failed to show no conditions of release could ensure the publics safety, and Whitaker agreed, placing Avila under a house arrest order that allows him to leave his mothers home to attend school.

Second Judicial District Attorney Raul Torrezs office is appealing Avilas pretrial release. Good. We hope it makes its way to the state Supreme Court, because reforms and judicial clarity are needed.

Medina is correct, releasing a young man who is alleged to have helped plan and execute a fatal robbery in February, and who allegedly pulled the trigger multiple times in an August homicide, is ridiculous.

Assed argued in a motion the prosecutions evidence against Avila in the August 2020 homicide is circumstantial, but prosecutors point out there were witnesses and physical evidence in both homicides.

Avilas release shows how badly the system is broken, while Seguras shows its not just an Albuquerque problem.

Physical evidence, witnesses and the seriousness of the alleged crimes should carry great weight in pretrial detention decisions, but too many judges appear to be continuing to use the Arnold tool as a crutch.

Judges were elected to make tough decisions, not to rely on a flawed public safety assessment that focuses too heavily on a defendants risk of failing to appear or committing a new crime. Eighteen-year-old men such as Segura and Avila often dont have criminal convictions or multiple no-shows in court, but the violence they are accused of points to a risk to the community. Case facts should matter as much as, if not more than, a tool developed by a billionaire hedge fund manager skewed to pretrial release.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
Ranran Fan uses the words found in the Chinese book I Ching  as a point of inspiration.

I use this book a lot on a daily basis as a way to relieve depression, Fan said.

The book was published in the late ninth century and serves as the basis of her exhibit, Walking on Transience, on display at the Sanitary Tortilla Factory through May 13.

There will be a reception from 5-8 p.m. Friday, April 8. The gallery hours are noon to 5 p.m. Thursday and Friday.

Fan, a University of New Mexico graduate student, said the process for Walking on Transience took several months to create.

She started forming ideas and building concepts last summer.

People in the past in China used this book to predict whats gonna happen in the world and in their personal lives, Fan said. It is a book with 64 different situations a person or country could come across any time, so when I read, I Ching, I actually use it as kind of like self-therapy.

For Fan and others, I Ching is still influential to this day.

It is a very abstract book, so a lot of people could interpret it through many different ways, Fan said. This book also discusses living and doing, which has helped with my experience in the United States as a foreigner and woman of color.

Fan was born in China and is based in Albuquerque, as she pursues as masters degree in studio art.

I received most of my college education in the Western world, so I use a lot of scientific methodology in my work, Fan said. I model a lot of my art using both the Western and Chinese cultures.

Fan proceeded to graduate school after earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a Bachelor of Science in Biology in Hong Kong Baptist University.

While she has seen art from the Western hemisphere, Fan has gained an appreciation for both styles.

I think American art is more straightforward and lexical, while Chinese art is more descriptive and insightful, Fan said. I think both are visual languages that are also influenced by linguistic languages as well.

Fan also served as a teaching assistant, and math and science tutor while in Chicago.

This year, Fan received the Sanitary Tortilla Factorys 2022 Exceptional Visual Artist Scholar award. The EVAS series provides professional space for graduate students as their final thesis show.

I think this program at UNM is very amazing because they gave me three to four years to focus on just my own practice, Fan said. That is the main reason that I came here, and also that the people here are so generous and helpful.

Fan specializes in installation, photography and performance. Her work has been featured internationally, including at SITE Santa Fe, OCT Contemporary Art Terminal (China), the Academy Art Museum in Maryland, Santa Fe Art Institute, Tamarind Institute, as well as Incheon Marine Asia Photography and Video Festival in Korea. She was also nominated as a SITE Scholar at SITE Santa Fe in 2020. Fan has won several awards, including the Shiseido Photographer Prize at Three Shadows Photography Art Centre (China, 2018) and Student Award for Innovations in Imaging at the Society for Photographic Education (U.S., 2019).

Xu Bing is a Chinese artist who I really admire and appreciate, Fan said. He wrote a book titled Book From (the) Sky in which he creates a language that nobody can read or understand.

For Fan, making her work accessible is instrumental to her vision.

That approach is really what I am looking for in my work, Fan said. I want it to be something that is equally approachable to all people.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  With the launch of commercial cannabis sales just days away, eastern New Mexico is both bracing for big change and embracing the new industrys potential economic benefits.

In Texico, which abuts the New Mexico-Texas state line, an Albuquerque-based cannabis company has purchased the old Double Play Diner just a stones throw from the state line and is renovating it as a dispensary.

Its one of two already-licensed cannabis retail outlets in Texico, with a third license application still pending, according to state Cannabis Control Division records.

Were looking forward to having a dispensary right there at the edge of town, said Trishelle Kirk, the chief operating officer of Everest Cannabis Co., which bought the diner after it closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brian Rogers, who grew up on a Curry County farm just a mile or so from the Texas state line, left his Wall Street job after New Mexico legalized recreational cannabis and came back home to help set up a cannabis growing facility.

He got his cannabis microproducer license this month and plans to supply the Texico dispensary, and other retailers, with marijuana products.

This represents the best opportunity to date for economic development on this land, said Rogers, who added his family has owned the farm since 1906 and previously cultivated dryland wheat and other crops.

Every spot where Texans can cross the border and enter (New Mexico) is now valuable territory from a cannabis perspective, Rogers added.

New Mexico lawmakers approved a bill legalizing recreational cannabis for adult users during a March 2021 special session called by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

The law made it legal to possess small amounts of marijuana starting last summer, but delayed the start date of commercial weed sales in order to give state officials time to craft the rules that will govern the cannabis industry.

With commercial sales set to start April 1, the green tsunami could bring tax dollars, new commercial activity and law enforcement challenges to traditionally conservative eastern New Mexico, which is sometimes referred to as Little Texas.

Much of the benefits could come from Texas, which unlike Arizona and Colorado has not legalized recreational cannabis, and has large population centers like Amarillo and Lubbock within easy driving distance.

Duke Rodriguez, CEO and president of Ultra Health Inc., the states largest medical cannabis producer, said at least 30%  and possibly more  of New Mexicos legal cannabis sales could end up being made by Texans crossing state lines to participate in the states newest industry.

Theres no question the success of the adult cannabis program will be materially dependent on Texas, Rodriguez said.

A report conducted last year by Massachusetts-based Cannabis Public Policy Consulting projected New Mexicos fledgling cannabis market to hit $782 million in legal sales by 2026, a figure that includes tourist and cross-border purchases.

The report also estimated that New Mexicos regulated cannabis industry will supply 20% of the marijuana products purchased within a 200-mile zone from the states boundaries.

High tourist demand

While theres ample excitement in eastern New Mexico about the start of legal cannabis sales, theres also trepidation.

Sen. Cliff Pirtle, R-Roswell, who served on a 2019 cannabis legalization task force but ended up voting against the 2021 legalization bill that won legislative approval, expressed concern that tourist interest in New Mexico cannabis could overwhelm the states supply  at least initially.

Our shelves are going to be empty and a lot of it is going to be due to people coming over from Texas, Pirtle told the Journal.

He also joked the streets of San Jon, a small town in Quay County thats less than 20 miles from the Texas border, could be paved in gold due to expected profits from the cannabis industry.

Theres a lot of people who want to purchase cannabis, but dont want to buy it from a cartel or a drug dealer, he added.

Marissa Novel, Ultra Healths chief marketing officer, said ensuring adequate cannabis supply will pose more of a challenge than obtaining licenses and staffing new dispensaries.

The real challenge will be supplying the establishments in eastern New Mexico, Novel told the Journal.

Ultra Health already runs 30 medical cannabis dispensaries around New Mexico  it has two locations in Santa Fe and seven in Albuquerque  and plans to open 10 more stores once recreational cannabis sales begin.

That includes new dispensaries in Santa Rosa, Tucumcari and Sunland Park.

Clovis Mayor Mike Morris said its hard to predict exactly how the advent of commercial cannabis sales will impact his city of roughly 38,000 residents.

He said the recreational cannabis industry offers promise from an economic standpoint, while also citing the potential for marijuana processing and manufacturing facilities to be located in Clovis.

But the mayor also expressed concern over challenges like enforcing laws against impaired driving and said local governments have had little guidance from the state when it comes to preparing for the start of cannabis sales.

With the effective date of legalization looming, Morris said he spoke with the mayor of Trinidad, Colorado, who advised him to limit the number of cannabis dispensaries in his town.

We want to be open to this new industry and give it every opportunity to succeed, Morris said. But I would hate for us to earn the reputation as a cannabis town.

Growth opportunity

Unlike in neighboring Colorado, New Mexico cities and counties can not opt out, or bar cannabis dispensaries from opening in their jurisdictions, under the legalization bill signed into law by Lujan Grisham.

I think had there been an opt-out (provision), that would have been a real conversation in Clovis, Morris acknowledged.

Local governments are also prohibited from making it illegal to transport cannabis products on public roadways, provided the individuals in possession are not under the influence and are also complying with other aspects of the law.

However, cities and counties do have the authority to set rules governing the location, density limits and hours of operation for marijuana retailers. And over the last year, many cities and counties around New Mexico have adopted ordinances establishing those local rules.

In Clovis, for instance, cannabis retailers are not allowed to operate within 300 feet of an existing school, preschool or church. They also cannot set up within 500 feet of any other cannabis dispensary and can only operate between the hours of 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. daily.

The adopted rules are similar in nearby Portales, though the minimum buffer between cannabis dispensaries is set at 200 feet there and retailers can open earlier and stay open later.

In large part, those rules are intended to prevent the green mile effect in which cannabis dispensaries proliferate in certain areas.

While some eastern New Mexico civic leaders might be wary, Kirk said the cannabis industry has been warmly welcomed by many farmers in the arid region.

She also said Everest Cannabis Co. has hired local contractors to renovate its Texico dispensary, which could be open to customers by mid-April.

I think theres probably still some skepticism about cannabis in general, but theres a lot of excitement about the economic development opportunity, said Kirk.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

The long-running bankruptcy reorganization filed by the Archdiocese of Santa Fe to deal with clergy abuse claims has reached a pivotal stage, with all parties sides entering what could be a final mediation session this week.

Albuquerque attorney Thomas Walker, who represents the Archdiocese, told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Thuma on Friday that the mediation session beginning Monday involving the archdiocese, Catholic parishes, insurance carriers and attorneys for 374 clergy sex abuse survivors is more important than any before.

The debtor (Archdiocese) remains optimistic that a settlement can be reached. We want to see if we can wrap this up, said Walker during a hearing in the case.

If all parties cant reach a settlement, he added,We might not have another opportunity.

For months, negotiations in the case have hinged on how much the Archdioceses insurance carriers should contribute to the pool of money needed to compensate victims who were sexually abused by priests and other clergy as children.

This case is more than 3 years old and we would like to wrap it up, too, said Jim Stang, a Los Angeles attorney who represents the creditors committee for abuse survivors.

We would like to wrap it up with a plan of reorganization but if this upcoming mediation does not result in a resolution of this case, the (survivors) committee will be looking at alternatives that will include a consideration of whether the Chapter 11 process serves survivors at all, anymore, Stang told the judge.

Attorneys for victims have considered asking Thuma to permit their clients to go back into state district court and pursue individual abuse claims, which would open the door to public hearings and possibly large payouts. About three dozens pending lawsuits were put on hold once the Archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in December 2018. At the time, Archbishop John Wester said he hoped the bankruptcy action would help stem the Archdioceses financial losses and ensure survivors were compensated.

Texas mediator Paul J. Van Osselaer is the third mediator to try to resolve the case.

This next two-day session is very important, and its more important and I think with each few hours that pass it becomes critical to not get closer but to get it done, Walker said.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

Reyaun Francisco grew up exploring the eastern Navajo Nation on road trips from his familys home in Iyanbito.

Now the associate environmental justice director with the Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project, he works to protect cultural sites and communities in the greater Chaco region from harmful oil and gas development.

Its so critical that we protect this land, Francisco said. We all need to be in unison to stand in support of ancestors still living there and their belongings that are scattered across that great landscape.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has extended the public comment period for a proposed 20-year ban of new mineral leasing on 351,000 acres of federal lands surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park.

The comment deadline is now May 6.

Chuck Schmidt, the BLMs acting manager for the Farmington district office, said new leasing is paused for two years in the federal buffer zone as the agency considers the change.

The proposal would not impact existing leases.

This withdrawal only applies to federally managed minerals, Schmidt said. This does not apply to private lands, state lands, Indian allotted lands, Navajo trust lands or any other lands that may be in this area.

Some Navajo Nation Council members have asked for a smaller withdrawal area.

The lawmakers say a 10-mile buffer would indirectly affect oil and gas activity on individual Navajo allotments, although the ban doesnt apply to those minerals.

It is important that the federal government follow the Biden memorandum that directs all federal agencies to honor tribal sovereignty and include the voices of tribes in policy deliberations that affect their communities, said Councilor Rickie Nez, who represents Navajo chapters in far northwest New Mexico.

Other groups counter that allottees and energy corporations have had an outsized voice in determining which lands should be off-limits to drilling.

Archaeologists and pueblo communities had originally advocated for a 20-mile or 30-mile no-drill zone around the park before the 10-mile area was proposed.

A 2020 Navajo Council resolution opposed anything larger than a 5-mile buffer.

Multiple bills by U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico to make a withdrawal area permanent have failed.

The federal government should prioritize the health and safety of these frontline Chaco communities over oil and gas corporations taking profits and then getting a bailout to clean up their abandoned wells that are seeping pollution, Francisco said. Its also important for tribes and pueblo communities to be spoken to in their own languages.

The Interior Department first announced the proposal last fall.

The agency is also working on an Honoring Chaco effort to balance energy development with Indigenous site protections.

What that is trying to do is create a broader vision in the cultural approach to land management decisions in the greater Chaco landscape, Schmidt said.

Public meetings in April will have Navajo language translators and a limit of 45 attendees each.

Theresa Davis is a Report for America corps member covering water and the environment for the Albuquerque Journal.
SANTA FE  A pollution survey using sensors on small airplanes to detect methane emissions across a major U.S. oil and natural gas production zone points to greater releases of the potent climate-warming gas than previously estimated by other methods, according to results published Wednesday.

Underwritten by philanthropists and the fossil fuel industry, the study examined emissions from October 2018 through January 2020 across New Mexicos portion of the Permian Basin, one of the worlds largest sources of oil and natural gas that extends into West Texas.

The study estimated that methane emissions are equivalent to roughly 9% of the overall gas production in the surveyed area. Thats more than double the rate in several previous studies of the Permian Basin and national estimates by the U.S. government of natural gas lost to leaks and releases.

The bad news is that emissions in this time and this region were as high as they are, said Evan Sherwin, co-author of the study and a research fellow at Stanford Universitys department of energy resource engineering. The good news is it was only about 1,000 sites out of 26,000 active wells.  Its just a few percent that were emitting during this extensive study.

The study arrives during a pivotal period for efforts by government regulators and industry to measure and rein in greenhouse gas emissions from oil field infrastructure.

For more than a decade, government auditors have warned that bad data was blinding regulators to the amount of greenhouse gases being pushed into the atmosphere by the oil and gas industrys flaring and venting.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed new regulations to eliminate venting at both new and existing oil wells and require companies to capture and sell gas whenever possible.

New Mexico recently adopted its own rules to limit most venting and flaring in oil fields to reduce methane emissions and environmental regulators are poised to impose new restrictions on oil field equipment that emits smog-causing pollution.

Robert McEntyre, a spokesman for the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, said progress already has been made to address methane emission since surveys were conducted for the study.

This report being 2 years old offers a snapshot in time that may not be reflective of conditions today but certainly underscores the industry priority and the industry commitment to advancing those rules that will help eventually in reducing the emissions over time, he said. We would certainly expect that that primary figure cited would only continue to decline.

Plumes of methane can be detected by signature frequencies of light. Images of methane were collected by a small propeller plane flying 3,000 feet above ground over the course of 115 flight days, in the survey of New Mexico oil fields by Kairos Aerospace.

The main advantage of airplanes is that they strike a balance between sensitivity and rapid coverage, said Sherwin, acknowledging recent advances in satellite surveying technology. This is the largest survey that has been used to estimate total methane emissions from a region.

Sherwin says he and colleagues at Stanford and the University of Michigan quantified significant methane emissions not only at well sites but also pipelines where they merge. Funding came from sources including the Stanford Natural Gas Initiative, an industry consortium.

Climate scientists have warned that without immediate and steep reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide and methane, the world will miss its chance to avert the most destructive and deadliest effects of climate change.
MARICOPA, Ariz.  An armed man who allegedly was making threats was fatally shot by police Sunday in the Phoenix suburb of Maricopa, authorities said.

Police said the incident occurred at a home around 8 a.m.

The name and age of the man killed wasnt immediately released.

Authorities havent said what exactly prompted officers to shoot.

Police said the man was armed with a gun and when officers arrived on the scene, he reportedly engaged with officers and was shot.

The man was taken to a hospital, where he later died.

Police said no Maricopa officers were injured in the incident.

The Arizona Department of Public Safety will be conducting an investigation into the shooting.

Maricopa is located about 33 miles (53 kilometers) southwest of Phoenix.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska  A fierce winter storm in the last stretch of this years Iditarod Trail Sled Dog, which ultimately forced six mushers to scratch the same day, now has cost three other mushers for sheltering their dogs instead of leaving them outside in the harsh conditions.

Mille Porsild of Denmark, Michelle Phillips of Canada and Riley Dyche of Fairbanks were penalized for taking dogs inside shelter cabins to ride out the storm with winds so strong, they whipped up white-out conditions, the Anchorage Daily News reported Friday.

The decision to punish the mushers was made by race marshal Mark Nordman, who said the indoor rest for the dogs amounted to a competitive advantage over teams that trailed them into Nome.

No doubt that Michelle and Mille did the right thing for their dogs, Nordman said. But it also affected the competition for racers going forward.

Porsild was dropped from 14th to 17th position, while Phillips dropped one notch to 18th. Dyche wasnt demoted in the standings, but he was fined $1,000 after officials determined there were no other mushers close to him that would have been affected by the dogs resting inside.

The drop in finishing position equated to $3,450 less for Porsild and $1,000 less for Phillips.

The nearly 1,000-mile (1,609-kilometer) race across Alaska was won March 15 by Brent Sass, who was also affected by the storm just as he was nearing the finish line in Nome. He said he fell off the sled and couldnt see anything, and thought he was going to have to hunker down with his dogs and ride out the storm.

The demotion of the three mushers, which was not widely publicized by the Iditarod, immediately drew a harsh retort from the races biggest critic, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Nothing makes it clearer that this death race must end than the fact that the Iditarod slapped mushers with a fine as punishment for acting to prevent dogs deaths, PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman said in a statement Friday.

She called for cruelty charges to be filed against mushers who did leave their dogs outside while they went inside shelter cabins, Cruelty is baked into this deadly race, and its time for it to stop.

Porsild defended her decision bring the dogs inside.

Stopping and having the dogs in the shelter cabin gave Michelle and I no competition edge; on the contrary we both lost the edge we had  especially me and my team, she wrote to the Daily News from Denmark.

Iditarod rules say dogs cannot be taken inside shelters except for race veterinarians medical examination or treatment. However, the entry immediately after that one in the Iditarod rule book says: There will be no cruel or inhumane treatment of dogs. Cruel or inhumane treatment involves any action or inaction, which causes preventable pain or suffering to a dog.

Four mushers  Matt Hall, three-time champion Mitch Seavey, Lev Shvarts and former champion Joar Leifseth Ulsom  filed complaints against Porsild and Phillips. Hall and Seavey were each moved up a spot when Porsild and Phillips were demoted, and Shvarts moved up two spots.

There was no doubt to me that my dogs sitting unprotected in these conditions could lead to death or deaths of dog(s), Porsild wrote in an email to Nordman after the race, explaining why she did it.

With no natural wind breaks or materials available to shelter them I made what I felt was the best choice for my dogs welfare in that extreme situation, Phillips wrote on Facebook.

Separately, Dyche also took his team inside a different shelter cabin to avoid the storm and was fined for not informing race officials he did so.

Dyche told the newspaper that he knew it was a violation to bring the dogs inside, but he had no choice after failing to improvise a windbreak for them. He said as he sat in the cabin with the dogs for the next 24 hours and heard the winds hammer the cabin, he knew he made the right decision.

Porsild, who returned to Denmark after the race, was not informed by race officials of the demotion. She found out only when Phillips told her days later.

Phillips announced on Facebook that this was her last Iditarod.

___

This story has been updated to correct that Mille Porsild went to Denmark after the race, not Norway.
WENN/Avalon/Adriana M. Barraza Celebrity

Meanwhile, one photo that makes its way on Instagram sees the 'Elvis' actor planting a sweet kiss on his girlfriend's cheek as he wraps his arm around her.

Mar 27, 2022

AceShowbiz - Kaia Gerber and Austin Butler have finally made their first appearance as an official couple. A little over three months after they were linked romantically, the daughter of actress/supermodel Cindy Crawford and "The Carrie Diaries" star were spotted attending a public event together.

The 20-year-old model and the "Elvis" leading man were seen walking hand-in-hand as they arrived at W Magazine's pre-Oscars party in Los Angeles on Thursday, March 24. Meanwhile, in one picture circulating on social media, the actor could be seen planting a sweet kiss on his girlfriend's cheek as he wrapped his arm around her.

Kaia looked stunning in a sparkly two-piece ensemble that featured a gold crop top with fringe and a red shimmering skirt. She completed her look with black strappy heels and a purse. As for the 30-year-old heartthrob, he opted to go with a simple black suit and matching shoes.

Kaia and Austin sparked romance rumors in December 2021. At that time, the twosome was caught on camera attending a yoga class together. The lovebirds later left with the "Once Upon A Time in Hollywood" star driving his girlfriend's car.

On the same day, Kaia's ex-boyfriend Jacob Elordi was spotted having a date with Olivia Jade. Some photos published by Daily Mail showed "The Kissing Booth" actor and the former "Dancing with the Stars" contestant grabbing coffee in Los Angeles' Silver Lake neighborhood.

Kaia and Jacob parted ways less than two months after making their relationship red carpet official. In November, a source confirmed that the catwalk beauty and the Australian native's breakup was "amicable" despite the British Fashion Awards winner appearing to have deleted photos of him from her Instagram page. Recently, the Nate Jacobs depicter on "Euphoria" was caught cozying up to model Bianca Finch during a romantic park date.
Instagram Music

Despite refusing to call the 'Kiss Me More' hitmaker a rapper, the 'Love and Hip Hop: New York' star acknowledges that the 26-year-old artist 'makes dope records.'

Mar 27, 2022

AceShowbiz - Remy Ma has started an online debate with her recent comments about Doja Cat. While some people approved of her statement in which she said Doja is not a rapper, others disagreed.

Remy offered her two cents about Doja when speaking to N.O.R.E. a.k.a. Noreaga and DJ EFN on "Drink Champs". She said, "I don't think shes a rapper... Let's be clear with that. They put her in the rapper category, I don't think she's a rapper. But she makes dope records, and I think she's dope."

A clip of the interview has since gone viral. Opposing the "Love & Hip Hop: New York" star's statement, one Twitter user argued, "Remy Ma is officially the most delusional b***h in the world sorry Doja Cat that you have to see bulls**t like this." Another fumed, "Remy ma losing her mind! Talking bout Doja Cat not a rapper, please she will out rap you ! #dojacat." A third added, "Doja Cat IS a RAPPER peridot!"

Some others, however, came to Remy's defense. "Remy Ma said what she said. Doja Cat is not a rapper. Here come all the colorist anti black gay boys to defend Dojer [Cat]," an individual commented. A different person then chimed in, "Yeah I personally dont think Doja cat is a rapper...rhyming words dont make you a rapper. But still F remy ma."

Earlier this month, Doja expressed her remorse for not giving "a good enough show" following her performance in Brazil. "I don't think I gave Brazil a good enough show tonight at all and I'm sorry for that but thank you guys for coming out I f**king love you and thank god we got another show tomorrow I promise I'll do better," she vowed.

It didn't sit well with many of her Paraguayan fans, who claimed Doja made them feel "empty" at their show. The "Planet Her" artist the fired back, "I'm not sorry," before ranting about everything being "dead" to her and declaring she "quit."

"It's gone and i don't give a f**k anymore i f**kin quit i can't wait to f**king disappear and i don't need you to believe in me anymore," Doja wrote in a now-deleted tweet. "Everything is dead to me, music is dead, and i'm a f**king fool for ever thinking i was made for this this is a f**king nightmare unfollow me."
As more and more universities return to in-person instruction, chemistry educators are sighing with mixed elation and concern. There is a sense of joy at seeing students in front of beakers and pipettes once more and, of course, the lingering ramifications of months or even years away from the lab.

I taught an upper-level lab and was shocked at the deficiencies, says Larryn Peterson, Ph.D., chair of biochemistry and molecular biology at Rhodes College in Memphis. They didn't even know how to hold a pipette, really, or how to measure anything. She and a colleague applied for a grant from the American Chemical Society (ACS), which provided faculty with up to $3,000 as a one-time honorarium to rectify this problem. The funding supported instructors leading a hands-on, general or organic chemistry lab skill boot camp or short-course format. The funding was offered in fall and winter last year, for workshops offered through the end of the current school year.



Arkansas Tech chemistry professor Mariusz Gajewski Ph.D., said his students skills post-lockdown were just terrible. Its like their memory got wiped out and theyd never had contact with chemistry. He designed a one-day workshop after receiving the same ACS grant, realizing it might be impossible to find a three-day span that most students could attend. Yet, even a single day of focused attention on lab skills was invaluable, according to participants Gajewski polled.



One of the first things [they] pointed out was their level of confidence in the lab which had skyrocketed, he says.



ACS launches mini-grant



The grant was borne out of discussions within ACS offices, as leaders weighed supporting students returning to in-person labs after two years of focusing on how to support students in virtual or mixed virtual and in-person formats, says Michelle Brooks, Ph.D., senior manager for the ACS Undergraduate Program Office. The question was pressing. Now we're putting students back in the lab all of a sudden. How are we going to get them up to speed? Brooks says.



Students who participated did so free of charge through grantee institutions. Brooks says the hands-on, short course, mini-grant program was designed as a one-time offering for the 2021-2022 school year, but its popularity has been undeniable, with applications outpacing available funding. Colleges and universities whose students could be best served by the program, Brooks says, were given priority among grant applicants.



What we were after in the long run was being able to get the students who had the most need the skills that they needed, Brooks says. We also wanted to help schools who might not have had the resources available to run this kind of a program.



Different schools, different experiments



ACS developed a suggested curriculum for the workshops, though some instructors, like Peterson, chose to use existing materials, teaching experiments students may have missed during the pandemic, or experiments students had only watched virtually. Others, did use the ACS modules, which were designed to be materially simple and cost-effective.



We tried to stay very green in the choices that we made for the chemicals students would be using, Brooks says. The ACS modules remain available online even to non-grant recipients.



With her award, Peterson organized a mini workshop that 20 students attended on a weekend. Students were simply evaluated on a 1-to-3 scale to judge whether theyd mastered skills, or still needed more work. Professors at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, used the ACS curriculum, following a similar Friday-Saturday-Sunday format as Peterson.



Paul Steinbach Ph.D., a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the college, says Benedictine students mostly signed up for the general chemistry lab, perhaps because this is what they missed during the pandemic. That included, he says, even students who had already taken organic chemistry. In total, more than a dozen students total participated. Steinbach says they were concerned offering extra credit might not be fair. Instead, they offered free food and drinks during the workshop as an incentive.



Lab skills with a smile



Student enthusiasm stood out the most to professors who taught labs skills in short-course formats. Im wondering, should we do this again? Should this be a yearly type of event? Steinbach asks. He says that finding the fun in lab work is a hallmark of a chemistry or biochemistry major, but one that seems to be on the decline.



Often, they really like the lab work, but at the same time, they get caught up worrying about all the grade stuff, he says. Im starting to realize thats probably taking the fun out of it. Rhodes Peterson offered prizes, including free ACS memberships, to similarly motivated students, to help keep things fun.



First of all, they were so excited to be back in the lab, Peterson says of students reactions. They were enthusiastic, they were engaged. Overall, grant recipients were struck by the possibility for freedom and fun in environments where grades werent of primary importance.



They like this informal approach to the lab. It was more like a group of friends talking about chemistry than a professor giving a lecture, Gajewski says, describing his interactive teaching style. He interspersed explanations and theory with hands-on lab skills as his students worked to synthesize an ester that smells like oranges. I also wanted them to synthesize something pleasant, he adds, of his efforts to boost students enthusiasm for lab work. Steinbach echoed those observations.



The one thing we saw that stood out to me was that since there was no grading in this training, the students really jumped in, he says. You could tell they were having a good time doing the lab work and learning at the same time. He says that students being graded in the lab tend to put pressure on themselves. Lab is supposed to be fun, he says.



The experiment, if designed to help students, has left more than one professor wondering if theres a way to make chemistry more engaging, enjoyable, and productive all at once. Steinbach says he sees some students weighed down by formal lab reports: Maybe we're doing way too much of it, he says, citing the need for industry feedback, too. Maybe we can bring back a little bit of fun in the lab by not doing so much.



Peterson says her weekend workshop also left her wondering about course design: It's important to do the experiment, but also, do they come in and just follow some cookbook procedure? What skills are they learning in the end, and taking away from that semester?



For many students, whose professors collected post-workshop feedback, a day or weekend spent in the lab was a welcome break from more formal environments where grades are paramount. For professors, it was a chance to find fun in the lab again, and to encourage student creativity and exploration.



For ACS, offering the grant was a step outside of the norm. Call it a different type of experiment, one that Brooks hopes will be supportive of not only college chemistry majors, but science-minded studentsand future chemistsof all ages. We're here to help the next generation of chemists, Brooks says.

Data and outcomes from the mini-grant program will be shared at the upcoming Biennial Conference on Chemical Education, which is being held at Purdue University July 31 - August 4, 2022. More information regarding the conference can be found on the conference website.
Alton, IL (62002)

Today

Cloudy with rain developing after midnight. Low 53F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Cloudy with rain developing after midnight. Low 53F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
By Cathy Jameson

Mrs. Jameson, a young girl said to me when I approached where she was playing, When I do this (presses her shoulder), it hurts, she shared.

Well, dont do that, silly goose, I replied.

A few minutes later, a sinking feeling fell over me. It wasnt just that her shoulder hurt; it was where she pressed on her shoulder that made me sigh a deep, heavy sigh. I didnt know this little one too well, so I didnt ask her why it hurt when she first mentioned it. I did have that opportunity later, though, to get the rest of the story.

Oh, its because I got my flu shot yesterday, she said.

Flu shot? Now? Why?? I wanted to ask. Since its none of my business, and because she was such a young child, I kept those questions to myself. I know the flu virus doesnt care what time of year it is, but I thought it was rather late in the flu season to get the shot. What changed? She was not the only young person Id recently learned had gotten it, so I tried to recall what Id heard recently in flu shot news.

I gave up listening to the radio for Lent, so Ive missed quite a bit of on-air news these last few weeks. Im in the car a lot, which always provides ample opportunities for me to tune into all sorts of news and music channels. I remembered that right before I turned off the radio for 40 days, I started to hear chatter about the flu shot. Its not too late to talk to your doctor about getting the flu vaccine, one of the talk radio hosts had pushed. I tend to turn the channel when the talking heads start talking about that stuff, so maybe I missed the latest flu shot roll out. Maybe I missed that the pharmaceutical companies were throwing ad dollars to the media hoping to play catch up with lost flu shot revenue. After all, covid had taken center stage and pushed the flu right off its pedestal. The flu all but disappeared last year. With the massive drop in cases being reported last year, maybe the need to promote flu shots also disappeared.









NEW YORK (AP)  February is usually the peak of flu season, with doctors offices and hospitals packed with suffering patients. But not this year. Flu has virtually disappeared from the U.S., with reports coming in at far lower levels than anything seen in decades.

Gone. Completely. Just like that! Too bad it didnt last. It was nice to get a break from the constant advertising that happens each flu shot season. I didnt miss those one-sided ads at all, but I did miss the reporting of how effective the powers that be claimed those shots were earlier this year. Theyd be pretty effective! Youd be like a superhero if you got one, too.

As if orchestrated, the flu - and that money-making flu shot, came right back this year. Apparently, TV personalities and TV doctors joined in to do pharmas bidding early on. It didnt happen in this segment, but that TV doctor encouraged getting a covid and a flu shot at the same time. Im not sure why hed promote that when unbiased, long-term studies on combining those two liability-free products havent even had a chance to be done yet. I guess thats part of the tactic of cheerily rolling out the vaccines hoping the public will roll up those sleeves of theirs. That aligns with the CDCs claim that they work each year to increase the number of people who receive a flu vaccine and eliminate barriers to vaccination. Like previous years, though, the vaccine effectiveness (VE) is questionable.
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 
BLACKWELL, Wis.  Each year folks in the north look forward to early spring when sap rises in the forest trees. The smell of wood smoke wafts 
HUDSON, Ill.  As warmer weather arrives and show season nears, the winner of three big national junior show titles for heifers and a state points program winner is an ideal person to ask for some showmanship tips.

Paige Lemenager, a central Illinois teenager, competes in a class where the heifers are raised by the person showing them.

It adds a certain level of pride, Paige said of both raising and showing the animals.

She says showing cattle is in her blood. According to her dad Luke, before he and Paiges mom Stacy married, he had saved money to buy either a diamond ring or a specific Angus cow to start their herd. His future bride chose the heifer, saying there would always be diamonds.

Which would Paige want?

Id rather have the cow, 100%. Thats how we are, said the 18-year-old Normal West Community High School senior who lives at Hinshaw Farms and Lemenager Cattle family farm near Hudson in central Illinois.

At the Illinois Beef Expo in February, she was named the winner of the 2022 Illinois Junior Beef Association Overall Points Show Program, heifer division. The points program recognizes youth for success in the show ring at sanctioned cattle shows throughout the state.

Among the out-of-state shows, Paige competes in the Cattlemens Congress, a new show developed during the pandemic. In its two years, she showed the junior breed heifer Angus champion in 2021 and Hereford junior heifer champion this year.

Its the most exciting thing to have two wins in two years with two breeds back to back, her mom said proudly.

Of all her achievements, Paige is most proud of winning the trifecta, like in horse racing. She was a champion at the three biggest national shows in the 2021-22 show season. She showed the champion junior champion heifer at the American Royal in Kansas City, won the same title at the 2021 International Livestock Expo in Louisville and again won the champion polled Hereford at the 2022 Cattlemens Congress Junior show in Oklahoma this year.

Paige is quick to recognize the support of her team that includes her grandparents, uncle and parents.

Its a team sport, Stacy agreed.

She gets some excellent advice on the show circuit from her dad, a respected cattle judge. He has judged at so many county fairs in Illinois, he has lost count. He also recently was a judge at the Dixie National in Jackson, Mississippi.

Paige, a sixth-generation farmer, started showing Angus cattle at age 8 and Hereford at 12. As well as showing both breeds successfully, she has a leadership role in the Hereford and Angus junior associations.

After high school, she plans to attend Lakeland College and compete on their judging team. Paige hopes to eventually study ag law and work in the field of succession planning,

She doesnt know today which heifer will be shown where. It depends how they grow and eat, how their hair is and if they are healthy, she said.

Its strategic deciding which animals to take to which show, Stacy said.

Paige has six heifers today in her show string. As the year goes on, she will see their flaws and strengths.

The heifers are sheared in March, which will help them build their heat tolerance. In March or April, they will be bred.

In the summer, Paige gives them a cooling bath every day. In the winter, they get extra oil on their hair as part of their hide care, Luke said.

May, June and July is about raising their heat tolerance.

We change their feed to cooler feed, Luke said, feeding more oats and less corn.

The family buys their feed in Goodfield, where Lukes brother, Chuck, is their feed consultant. Chuck comes with an outside perspective and can tell if a cow is a little too heavy or too light. When you see the cow day in and day out, you might not notice it as much, Paige said.

Chuck also helps with trimming the cows feet. He has a special table that makes the job easier.

It is important how a cow stands. Paige compares it to having the right shoes for a person.

You start from the ground up, she said.

Some of the first few shows and previews start in June, including the Illinois Junior Angus Preview and Illinois Junior Hereford Preview show.

Its like a scrimmage before the big game, Stacy said.

Luke calls the previews a measuring stick, to help the showmen compare their cows, and fine-tune things like feed or hair care to be more competitive.

The Illinois state fairs, in Springfield in mid-August and in DuQuoin starting the last week of August, mark the end of the summer season, Luke said. Two weeks before the state fair, the final decision is made about who will be going. Any imperfections that you may have been able to hide with the hair in the spring are obvious now, Paige said.

At this point the heifers are fully acclimated to noises. Paige works on that every day, providing background noise which may be music in the barn. At the fair, they will hear blowers, generators and children crying. They need to be ready.

She has already developed an understanding and trust with the animal at this point.

In terms of health, it may be working with medicine or a vitamin booster. Its important the cattle are in tip-top shape and have any needed vaccines to keep them safe while they are off the farm.

Some cattle travel better than others, Luke said.

Some are nervous, others are performing animals that like to be in the show, he said.

Paige said having a buddy cow helps a lot. Its like having a friend with you to go on a new adventure. Otherwise a heifer may get separation anxiety.

In 10 years weve shown a lot. We have a long checklist  medicine, feed hay.  We start packing a week ahead, Luke said.

Its important to feed at the same time and keep as much consistency as possible.

Dont do anything different on show day than any other day, Luke said.

Some fairs have pre-assigned stalls. For those that do not, its important to do your research.

There are prime spots, Stacy said. Its like finding the best hotel room or the best camping place.

It may be closer to the ring or the washing area. Or its easier to load or unload. Some spots are cooler in the summer.

In the summer we travel at night, Stacy said. We put their comfort ahead of our sleep.

Before the show, Paige preps herself mentally, following her moms three Cs  cool, calm, collected.

As for her own attire, its on the checklist, near the bottom, but on the list, she said.

Its important that the cow is full but not overfull, that she has the right amount of hair product, and her hair is perfect.

Put yourself in their shoes, Paige said.

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How many kinds of birds do you see in your back yard or around the neighborhood? Five or six
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Phoebe COVID numbers reach record low levels

File Photo Phoebe Putney Health System President CEO Scott Steiner said the health care system remains "cautiously optimistic as COVID numbers in the region continue to drop.

ALBANY  Under normal circumstances  say two years ago  Scott Steiner probably would have called a news conference and trumpeted the latest news.

But these arent normal circumstances.

On Monday of last week, Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital and other local health care facilities conducted a total of 120 COVID tests. The number of people who tested positive? Zero.

And then on Friday, officials with Phoebe Putney Health System announced that in the system there were 10 COVID-positive patients being treated, all at Phoebe in Albany.

Were seeing the lowest numbers since this all started two years ago, Steiner, president and CEO of the Albany-based health system, said. But COVID is not over with. And, frankly, I dont know if it ever will be.

The emergence of a new variant of the pandemic  omicron A2  is starting to spread in this country after impacting other parts of the world. But Steiner said even that typically daunting news is not as bad as it once would have been.

As weve seen, this virus can pivot, shift quickly, Steiner said. And the CDC says about 35% of new COVID cases are of this new variant. But with vaccination numbers and the number of people who got and recovered from the delta and omicron variants, there is quite a bit of immunity.

Steiner said the front line health care workers in the Phoebe health system have let out a collective sigh of relief, but he said they are approaching the virus now with cautious optimism.

Were following CDC guidelines, he said. And mostly what theyre promoting is that its safe outdoors without masks and its OK to go without filtered masks indoors if everyone can maintain a 6-foot distance from each other.

I think a big piece of this right now is mental health; people are ready, after two years, to start doing things. My wife and I have gone out to eat a couple of times in recent days. We all get that. But Id still like to caution everyone to be safe. And I encourage those who havent to get the vaccines: one, two and three with a fourth coming. Those have proven to be effective in the fight against this virus.

Steiner said Phoebe has moved forward with plans to upgrade its facilities with such projects as the ER and NICU expansion at Phoebe-Albany that was recently approved by the health system board. But, he said, the system is licking the financial wounds that came with the pandemic.

The stimulus money has been exhausted, he said. But the travel labor piece hasnt gone away. Weve had to replace employees, and where we were using 70-80 contract employees before the pandemic, were using around 400 now here in Albany and at Phoebe Sumter in Americus. Thats a huge financial burden on the health system.

Were like the rest of the country; we have a shortage of nurses. The state needs 28,000 nurses just to get to the national average, but there actually is a need for 50,000 more nurses. The reality is, the U.S. needs about a million more nurses.

But Steiner said Phoebe is working with colleges and even high schools in the region to attract more students to health care education.

This is a challenge, but Im paid to take on challenges, he said. Im up for this, and we at Phoebe are up for this. We are fully on this.
An Alva woman who gave birth to a premature baby is now being charged with a felony in Woods County.

Latasha Leann Bebee, 37, of Alva, has been charged with child neglect, a felony. This crime is punishable by imprisonment not exceeding life, or by a fine of $500 to $5,000, or both such fine and imprisonment.

Court records show on March 7, an Oklahoma Department of Human Services (DHS) child welfare supervisor told District Attorneys Investigator Steve Tanio that Bebee had given birth to a daughter on Feb. 17. A normal pregnancy is 40 weeks, and the baby was born at 36 weeks, weighing five lb. 14 oz. Bebee tested positive for THC at birth.

Bebee and her husband Derrick Province resided in Alva during the pregnancy. Both Province and Bebee told the DHS worker that Bebee uses marijuana in the mornings to calm her anxiety rather than take prescription drugs. They said high anxiety has triggered a seizure for Bebee in the last year. She also uses medical marijuana at night to help her sleep, according to the affidavit.

Tanio reviewed Bebees Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Adult Patient License. On the back side of the card in bold print is the phrase, Do not use medical marijuana if you are pregnant or breastfeeding. Bebees physician from Enid told Tanio he was aware Bebee had a medical marijuana card and was using marijuana during the pregnancy.

Tanio spoke with OU Childrens Hospital Child Abuse Physician Dr. Ryan Brown who was recent appointed to the State of Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Advisory Council. He stated if an infant or child tested positive for THC, the active ingredient in medical marijuana, he would consider this child abuse and be required to make a report to law enforcement. He also told Tanio about a Sept. 2018 American Academy of Pediatrics Clinical Report regarding the scientific harmful effects of THC use during pregnancy for the woman and on fetal, infant and child development. Brown said there are other medications that are scientifically reliable other than medical marijuana to use for these symptoms during pregnancy.

Tanio reviewed a U.S. Drug Testing Laboratories report indicating Bebees infant tested positive for the presence of Cannabinoids and Carboxy-THC.